70 Fun Facts About Augustus

What was Augustus's birth name?

Historians call him Octavian for the years between Caesar's death and 27 BC, though there is no evidence he used the name himself.

Which great-uncle named the young Octavius as his primary heir?

The will required him to take the dead dictator's name, which he did against his stepfather's advice.

On which of Rome's hills was Octavius born in 63 BC?

His official residence as emperor, the Domus Augusti, later stood on the same hill.

Per Suetonius, the infant's cognomen Thurinus marked his father's victory over followers of whom?

Brutus later sneered at him as plain Octavius, rejecting his adoption by Caesar.

Octavius's mother Atia was what relation to Caesar?

When Caesar's sister Julia died, the young Octavius delivered her funeral oration, his first public appearance.

Where was Octavius when Caesar was assassinated in March 44 BC?

He consulted Caesar's officers in Macedonia before sailing to Italy to test his prospects.

What share of Caesar's estate did his will leave to Octavius?

He also demanded 700 million sesterces stored at Brundisium for Caesar's planned Parthian war.

How old was Octavian when he marched on Rome and became consul in August 43 BC?

He was Rome's youngest elected consul; his co-consul Quintus Pedius set up a tribunal that convicted Caesar's assassins in absentia.

With Mark Antony and which third man did Octavian form the Second Triumvirate in 43 BC?

The lex Titia legitimised the three-man regime for five years.

The three triumvirs first met to seal their alliance near which city in October 43 BC?

Octavian sealed the deal by getting engaged to Antony's stepdaughter Claudia.

Roughly how many men did the triumvirs' proscriptions target as outlaws?

They were split about evenly between senators and equestrians, and thousands more lost their property.

At which 42 BC battle did Antony and Octavian defeat Caesar's assassins Brutus and Cassius?

Both assassins died by suicide after two battles in Macedonia.

Antony called Octavian a coward at Philippi because he was where during the first engagement?

He had handed command to Agrippa on his doctor's advice, but did capture Brutus's camp in the second battle.

Who was the mother of Octavian's only surviving child, Julia?

He divorced her on the very day Julia was born, in order to marry Livia.

When Octavian fell for Livia, she was already married and pregnant by which man?

She gave birth to her second son, Drusus, months after divorcing him and marrying Octavian.

After the siege of Perusia in 40 BC, Octavian executed 300 Romans on which symbolic date?

The reprisals, on the anniversary of Caesar's murder, sullied his reputation for years.

The renegade Sextus Pompey used which island as the base for his blockade of Italy?

His blockade caused food riots in Rome, and a starving mob once attacked Octavian and Antony.

At which battle in September 36 BC did Agrippa all but destroy Sextus Pompey's forces?

Octavian himself had been shipwrecked off Sicily earlier in the campaign.

After forcing Lepidus into retirement in 36 BC, Octavian let him keep which office for life?

Octavian only took the high priesthood himself when Lepidus died in 12 BC.

In which year was the Battle of Actium fought?

Octavian later founded a city called Nicopolis, victory city, near the site.

Which naval commander won the Battle of Actium for Octavian?

He later married Octavian's daughter Julia and was granted powers almost equal to the emperor's.

What city did Octavian found near the site of his great naval victory of 31 BC?

The name means victory city.

After its conquest in 30 BC, Egypt was treated as what?

He ran it through an equestrian prefect and its wealth paid off his civil-war debts.

Which group did Augustus forbid to travel to Egypt?

He never visited the country again himself after 30 BC.

What does the honorific title 'Augustus', granted by the Senate in January 27 BC, mean?

It was a title of religious rather than political authority, suggesting he approached divinity.

Which alternative title, after Rome's legendary founder, was rejected in 27 BC as too monarchical?

He preferred to be princeps, first citizen, and Imperator Caesar divi filius.

The golden shield the Senate awarded him in 27 BC listed four virtues: valor, piety, justice and what?

It hung in the Curia; he also won the right to hang the civic crown above his door.

From 26 to 24 BC Augustus governed the Empire from which town in Roman Spain?

He was overseeing the campaigns that completed the conquest of the Iberian peninsula.

Which personal physician nursed Augustus through his near-fatal illness of 23 BC?

Expecting death, Augustus had prepared to hand his signet ring to Agrippa.

Which nephew of Augustus, married to his daughter Julia, died in 23 BC and has a theatre named for him?

He was 19, and Augustus pointedly left him nothing when he thought he was dying.

In the 23 BC settlement, Augustus was granted for life the powers of which office, without holding it?

It let him convene the Senate, veto decisions and speak first at any meeting.

In 20 BC Augustus negotiated the return of the standards lost by Crassus at Carrhae from which empire?

Rome treated the diplomatic coup as a submission and depicted it on the Prima Porta breastplate.

Which temple did Augustus build in his new forum to house the recovered standards?

The name means Mars the Avenger.

Which famous statue of Augustus shows the returned standards on its breastplate?

His official portraits kept him youthful right up to his death at 75.

In which AD 9 battle did Publius Quinctilius Varus lose three entire legions?

Augustus advised Tiberius against further conquest and Rome abandoned expansion beyond the Rhine.

Which leader of the Cherusci destroyed Varus's legions in AD 9?

Germanicus finally beat him at Idistaviso in AD 16, under Tiberius.

Augustus's account of his own deeds, inscribed in bronze at his mausoleum, is known as what?

Copies in Latin and Greek were inscribed on public buildings across the empire after his death.

Historian Theodor Mommsen called Augustus's inscribed memoir the what?

It is his only surviving major work; his 13-book autobiography and poems are lost.

In what year did Augustus establish the Praetorian Guard?

It began as a battlefield bodyguard and became a political force that served emperors into the 4th century.

The vigiles, established in AD 6, were what?

Seven units covered fourteen city sectors under a prefect of the watch.

At how many legions did Augustus fix Rome's new standing army?

That was down from 60 legions at the end of the civil wars in 30 BC.

How much did Augustus donate to found the military treasury, the aerarium militare, in AD 6?

It provided for both serving and retired soldiers.

Under Augustus, what indirect tax was levied on the sale price of slaves?

Goods sold at auction paid 1% and large inheritances outside the family paid 5%.

Which Roman month was renamed in Augustus's honour in 8 BC?

He chose it as the month of his first consulship and several victories; July was already Caesar's.

On his deathbed Augustus boasted that he had converted Rome from a city of bricks into a city of what?

Marble had been used before, but never so extensively as a building material.

What was the Ara Pacis, dedicated on the Campus Martius?

Its reliefs depict praetorians, the Vestals and the citizens of Rome.

The gnomon of Augustus's monumental sundial on the Campus Martius was what?

It stood beside the Ara Pacis.

Who built Rome's first stone amphitheatre, between 34 and 29 BC?

It opened with gladiator games around the time Rome saw its first rhino and hippopotamus killed for entertainment.

Augustus's mock naval battle of 2 BC, on a lake by the Tiber, re-enacted which historic clash?

The lake was fed by a new twenty-mile aqueduct, the Aqua Alsietina, and the combat was lethal.

On which island did Augustus build a palace housing a collection of fossils and possibly dinosaur bones?

His villa on Ventotene, where he exiled his daughter, had hypocaust central heating for its baths.

To which island did Augustus exile his daughter Julia for adultery in 2 BC?

His villa there had a sophisticated hypocaust heating two large bathtubs.

Where did Augustus die in AD 14?

His father had died in the same family villa, probably the one excavated at Somma Vesuviana.

According to the rumour that Livia murdered Augustus, what did she use?

Most historians dismiss the story as a fabrication meant to discredit her son.

Augustus's reported last words compared his life to what?

Have I played the part well? Then applaud as I exit.

Which stepson and adopted son succeeded Augustus as emperor?

He was adopted in AD 4 on condition that he adopt his own nephew Germanicus in turn.

How old was Augustus when he died?

He had ruled as emperor for over forty years.

Which poet did Augustus exile around AD 8, banning his literature?

By contrast his friendships with Virgil and Horace seem to have been genuine.

In whose Aeneid does Jupiter promise Rome imperium sine fine, sovereignty without end?

Octavian had been the poet's patron since the Eclogues.

In 1937–38 Mussolini staged an 'Augustan exhibition' in Rome to mark what?

Mussolini styled himself Il Duce after dux Augustus.

Whose 1939 book The Roman Revolution portrayed Octavian's faction as something like a crime syndicate?

He described the young Octavian as a sickly and sinister youth.

Which queen of Kush invaded Roman Egypt in 24 BC and later made peace with Augustus?

Her forces sacked Aswan and Philae before Rome counter-attacked as far as Napata.

Judea was added to the province of Syria when Augustus deposed which client king?

He had ruled as ethnarch after his father's death.

Augustus received emissaries from as far east as which land?

His court also sheltered British chieftains such as Dubnovellaunus and Tincomarus.

By 38 BC Octavian's coins had replaced his praenomen Gaius with which victory title?

The word later became the root of emperor, though it did not mean that in his lifetime.

Which title, meaning 'father of the country', did the Senate give Augustus in 2 BC?

It was inscribed around Rome, including in the Senate chambers in the Forum.

The Trophy of Augustus, marking the 15 BC Alpine conquest, stands at La Turbie near which principality?

Horace dedicated an ode to the victory, which gave Italy a buffer against Germania.

In 26 BC Augustus sent Egypt's prefect to invade which region in modern Yemen, a campaign that failed for lack of water?

Rome wanted a share of the Sabaeans' lucrative trade with India.

Which son of Cleopatra did Octavian order killed after conquering Egypt?

As Julius Caesar's reputed son, the teenager was a rival claimant to Caesar's legacy that Octavian could not afford to leave alive.

Which kingdom did Augustus hand to Cleopatra's daughter Cleopatra Selene II and her husband Juba II?

The pair married in 25 BC and ruled from Caesarea, modern Cherchell in Algeria; Juba was a Numidian prince raised in Rome.

When Augustus adopted Tiberius in AD 4, whom did he require Tiberius to adopt in turn?

The condition kept the succession in Augustus's bloodline; Germanicus was married to his granddaughter Agrippina the Elder.