Sickly, prudish, lucky, politically savvy, militarily inept, a hard worker, a devoted husband, and a genuinely nice guy when he wasn't butchering political opponents (including family members). Also: very rich. This is the portrait Anthony Everitt paints of Augustus in his slim biography. The image called to mind is Don Corleone played by Enid Strict.
Even then there are surprises.
The first surprise is just how many times Augustus almost died and you would be reading a book about somebody else. Yes, occasionally during a military campaign (although these were usually left to the eminently capable Agrippa), but more commonly because of sickness or shipwreck or stupid. His ascent from nephew of Julius Caesar to ruler of the then-known world was not as linear, nor as certain, as HBO would have us believe. A typical episode has Augustus charging across a siege ladder to impress his men, which promptly collapses and dumps him into the fray, creating a Roman Black Hawk Down as his men work to extract him. Another has Augustus wading into an angry crowd expecting his fine oratory will pacify them, who then predictably try to murder him. And Augustus had so many troubles at sea that Everitt includes a chapter "Fighting Neptune."
The other surprise is just how many gaps in the story had to be filled with creative guesswork. One would think if any ancient figure provided ample source material, it would have been Rome's first emperor. Augustus reigned for almost 50 years and he was friends with (or scrutinized by) some of the biggeset Roman writers in history. Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Suetonius, Tacitus. Even Augustus wrote a biography of Augustus. Yet, time and again we find Everitt scrambling for details. This understandably includes small private moments like the Emperor's final moments, but it also involves many events in-the-large. Everitt glosses over entire military campaigns, not because of laziness or a desire to keep the page count manageable, but because the information simply was not preserved.
Footnote: We can thank Charlemagne for most of what we know about antiquity. The majority of ancient texts available today came to us through the efforts of his scriptorium. Imagine that -- the ruling elite concerned with books. These days Congress won't even admit science is real if it threatens a campaign contributor. But I digress.
The net effect is something like a motorcycle ride through Augustus' life. I shan't provide major spoilers, but that life largely consisted of 1) his legions killing other legions who had thrown in their lot with a political opponent, 2) struggles to keep his family in order (and in power), and 3) occasionally fixing a problem by showering money on everybody. Everitt also provides the occasional humanizing anecdote that fleshes out the man behind the marble:
- Saved the Aeneid (Virgil tried to have it destroyed). High school students everywhere thank Augustus!
- Publicly, was kind of a prude (Augustus once imprisoned his daughter on an island for adultery).
- Privately, was kind of a lech (with a particular weakness for Senator's wives).
- Small teeth. Big dipper birthmark.
- Afraid of thunder.
- Liked figs.
What lessons can America take from Augustus which might serve us in months to come? First, Mrs. McConnell should avoid the White House. Second, the princeps would tell us there is no "i" in Roman. He had the legions, his Pretorian guard, a blank check from the Senate, countless clients who owed him favors, and (literally) more money then Jesus. He had unquestioned power of life and death over every citizen in the empire. Yet, one can't help but come away from Everitt thinking Augustus ultimately viewed himself as a civil servant. He may have ruthlessly crushed any who threatened his power, but he used that power in the first place to make Rome better, not to make his rich friends richer. And he did so with dignity. Auctoritas. He didn't slap a Rome First! bumper sticker on his chariot or wear an S.P.Q.R. lapel pin on his toga.
And he didn't provoke people just because he could. The foes he faced didn't have nuclear weapons, and Exploding for Allah wouldn't be invented for another 600 years, but Augustus wasn't afraid to negotiate when negotiation provided a superior outcome to sending in the legions. He recognized empire had limits, and if peoples living north of the Rhine or east of Palestine wanted to be left alone, Rome was not lesser for living with that. An attitude 21st century Rome would be wise to ponder.
Also, if Emperor Trump would like to shower money on LabKitty, that would be okay too.
Read Anthony Everitt's biography of Augustus on Amazon.
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