Augustus: The Man Who Became Rome's First Emperor — Without a Crown

After Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE, Rome expected things to go back to normal. Instead came thirteen years of the worst civil war the Roman world had ever seen — and when it was over, one man was left standing: Caesar's 32-year-old adopted heir, Octavian, known to history as Augustus. What he did next was arguably the most skillful act of political engineering in history. He took absolute power over the Roman world, dismantled the 500-year-old Republic, and made everyone not only accept it but celebrate it — all while maintaining, to his last breath, the polite fiction that he was just a citizen. This is the story of Augustus: the patient heir who outlasted Mark Antony, the propaganda war against Cleopatra, the victory at Actium, the genius of "giving it all back" in 27 BCE, the city of marble, and the birth of the Roman Empire and the Pax Romana. Chapters: 0:00 After Caesar 0:26 One Man Left Standing 0:58 The Birth of the Roman Empire 1:05 Caesar's Unexpected Heir 1:29 Antony Underestimates Him 1:49 The Patience of Octavian 2:08 The Second Triumvirate & Philippi 2:28 The Triumvirate Fractures 2:40 Dividing the Roman World 2:59 Antony and Cleopatra 3:05 The Propaganda War 3:49 The Battle of Actium 4:02 The End of Antony & Cleopatra 4:40 "He Gave It Back" 5:05 Becoming Augustus 5:23 An Autocracy in Disguise 6:03 A City of Marble 6:34 The Army & the Praetorian Guard 7:12 Provinces, Administration & the Arts 7:44 Virgil's Aeneid 7:56 Family Trouble & Succession 8:27 The Death of Augustus 8:59 The Pax Romana 9:38 A Template for the Ages 9:56 Next Time: The Pax Romana Drawn from History — ancient history, drawn badly, explained well. New episodes regularly. #history #ancientrome #augustus #romanempire #rome #caesar #ancienthistory #education