AUGUSTUS, CAMS JULIUS CzESAR OCTAVIANUS, the son of Octavius and Atia (daugh ter of Julia, the younger sister of Julius Caesar), was b. 23d Sept., B.C. 63. The Octa vian family came originally from Velitrie, in the country of the Volsci; and the branch from which A. descended was rich and honorable. I lis father had risen to the rank of senator and prictor, but died in the prime of life, when A. was only 4 years old. A. was carefully educated in Rome under the guardianship of his mother and his Lucius 31:trellis Philippi's. At the age of 12, A. delivered a funeral oration over his grandmother: at 16. he received the toga virilis. The talents of the youth recommended him to his grand-unele, Julius Caesar, who adopted A. as his son and heir. At the time of assas.sinal ion (Mar. 15, it c. 44), A. was a student under the celebrated orator Apollodorus, at Apollonia in Illyricum, where, however. he had been sent. chiefly with a view to :rain practical instruction in military affairs. Ile returned to Italy. assuming the name of Julius Caesar Oetavianus, and at his landing at Bruudusium, was welcomed by deputies from the veterans there assembled; but declining their offers, he chose to enter Rome privately. The city was at this time divided between the two parties of the republicans and the friends of Mark Antony; but the hitter had, by adroit maneuvers, pained the ascendency, and enjoyed almost absolute power. A. was at first haughtily treated by the consul. who refused to surrender the property of Csesar. After some fighting, in which Antony was worsted, and had to flee across the Alps, A., who had made himself a favorite with the people and the army, succeeded in getting the will of Julius Ctusar carried out. Ile found an able friend and advocate in Cicero, who had at first regarded itim with contempt. The great orator, while imagining that he was labor ing in behalf of the republic, was in fact only an instrument for raising A. to supreme power. When Antony returned from Gaul with Lepidus, A. joined them in establishing it triumvirate. fie obtained Africa, Sardinia. and Sicily: Antony, Gaul; and Lepidus, Spain. Their power was soon made absolute by the massacre of those unfriendly to them in Italy, and by victories over the republican army iu Macedonia, commanded by Brutus and Cassius. After the battle of Philippi, won by A. and Antony, of which the
former unjustly claimed all the credit, whereas it mainly belonged to the latter, the triumvirs made a new division of the provinces—A. obtaining Italy, and Lepidus, Africa. The Perusiap war, excited by Fulvia, wife of Antony, seemed likely to lead to a contest between A. and his rival; but was ended by the death of Fulvia, and the subsequent marriage of Antony with Octavia, sister of Augustus. Shortly afterwards, the claims of Sextus Pompeius and Lepidus having been settled by force and fraud, the Roman world was divided between A. and Antony; and a contest for supremacy commenced between them. While Antony was lost in luxurious dissipation at the court of Cleopatra, A. was indukriously striving to gain the love and confidence of the Roman people, and to damage his rival in public estimation. At length war was declared against the queen of Egypt, and at the naval battle of Actium (q.v.), B.C. 31, A. was victorious. and became sole ruler of the whole Roman world. Soou afterwards, .Antony and Cleopatra ended their lives by suicide. The son of Antony by Fulvia, and Ctesarion, son of Caesar and Cleopatra, were put to death; and iu B.C. 29, after dispos ing of several affairs in Egypt, Greece, Syria, and Asia Minor, A. returned to Rome in .triumph, and closing the temple of Janus, proclaimed universal pence.
his subsequent measures were mild and prudent. To insure popular favor, he abolished the laws of the triumvirate. adorned the city of Rome, and reformed many 'abuses. At the end of his seventh consulship (me. 27), he proposed to retire from office, in order that the old republican form of government might be re-established, but he was ultimately induced to retain his power. Hitherto, since Cresar's death, the consul had been named Octavian; but now the title of Augustus (meaning " sacred" or " consecrated ") was conferred on him. In the eleventh consulship of A. (n.c. 23), the tribunitian paver was conferred on him for life by the senate. Republican names and formsstill remained, hut they were mere shadows. A. was in all but name absolute monarch. In 12 n.c., on the death of Lepidus, he had the high title of pontifex maximus, or high priest, bestowed on him. The nation surrendered to liim all the power and honor that it had to give.