Augustus: He Found Rome Brick and Left It Marble

Augustus: He Found Rome Brick and Left It Marble (He gave up the state in order to keep it. He built a marble Rome, but at home he lost his heirs one after another. Who will be left when Augustus closes his eyes?) — lesson 5 of the course: 6 parts, about 28 min of reading.

Romulus sounded too regal, so the Senate will name Octavian Augustus. The man who gives back the state and gets it back again rules for forty-one years: he turns Rome from brick into marble, recovers the standards without a battle, loses his heirs one after another and banishes his own daughter. The episode ends in Nola, in the same room where his father died.

Films

• January, 27 BC: Octavian Gives Up Everything — January of 27 BC: Octavian stands before the Senate and lays down his power. In a few days he will receive the name Augustus.
• The Frontiers of Augustus: A Map Through Time, 31 BC–AD 14 — How the empire of Augustus grew from 31 BC to AD 14: Egypt, Spain, the Alps, Germania and the retreat of the border to the Rhine.
• The Empty Throne: Augustus’s Successors Vanish — Timeline of Augustus’s successors: Marcellus, Agrippa, Lucius and Gaius die one after another, and in AD 4 Tiberius remains.

Articles

• Giving It Back — Augustus: He Found Rome Brick and Left It Marble — Suetonius, who wrote around AD 120, records that Augustus boasted he had found Rome a city of brick and left it a city of marble. But before he built anything, he had to do something harder.
• First Among Equals — Augustus: He Found Rome Brick and Left It Marble — What exactly came into being that January? The Romans have no name for it.
• Rome in Marble — Augustus: He Found Rome Brick and Left It Marble — When Augustus takes power, Rome looks like a city that has not grown into its role as capital of the world. Suetonius writes that it was not adorned as the dignity of the state required, and that it was threatened by floods and fires.
• The Frontiers — Augustus: He Found Rome Brick and Left It Marble — One victory on this map does not look like a victory. For years the Parthians have held standards and prisoners from the defeats of Roman armies.
• The House of Augustus — Augustus: He Found Rome Brick and Left It Marble — The way into Augustus’s house is through marriage. Augustus’s own marriages end quickly, until the third.
• Applaud — Augustus: He Found Rome Brick and Left It Marble — AD 9. Publius Quinctilius Varus governs in Germania.