The Many Names of Augustus
Born Gaius Octavius Thurinus, he was known as Octavian for much of his life (we know, be grateful you weren’t born in the Roman Empire). Augustus was the great-nephew of Julius Caesar, and when Augustus’ father died, Julius adopted the 4-year-old and raised him as his own.
For some reason, Octavian decided to change his name when he became emperor. Not a crazy move, but his choice was Augustus, chosen purely because he thought it made him sound older and wiser. He was 32 at the time, so not exactly a young boy, but he felt this work in his favor, and you know what? It did.
How Did He Become Heir?
Julius Caesar had a son, Caesarion (literally “little Caesar”), so why didn’t he become the next Roman ruler after Julius’ death? Well, welcome to one of the most complicated families in history. Caesarion’s mother was none other than Cleopatra, and he was also known as Ptolemy XV. He served as pharaoh in Egypt (kind of). While in Rome he was never formally recognized as Caesar’s son, he definitely was, and Augustus kept this in mind. Augustus became Caesar’s heir after he was shipwrecked along the way to meet Caesar in Hispania. He had to make his way through a lot of enemy territory to be reunited with his great-uncle and when he did, Caesar was floored. He was so impressed that Augustus made it that that was enough to name Augustus as his heir. Crazy.
Finally the Emperor
There was so much drama when Julius Caesar was killed that it’s hard to summarize. First Augustus was advised to hide, then he said no, then he was welcomed by some people, then he was not. Then he formed a VERY uneasy truce with Marc Antony. Then that ended in a civil war. Somewhere along the way, Augustus had Caesarion killed. The point is, politics has never been easy. Eventually, Augustus was settled as the Emperor, and he ended up reigning for forty years. His reign began the Pax Romana, a 200-odd year-long period of relative peace in the region (relative being the operative word). To state the impact of his legacy is impossible, but we can start with the literal month of August being named for him, and that’s pretty impressive on its own.