Augustus - Ending at the Beginning...

In AD14, an old man lay in a room in the town of his birth father, Nola, dying from figs laced with poison by his perfidious wife; if you are ready to believe Cassius Dio anyway. It is always possible that at the ripe old age of seventy five, before the emergence of a national health service, it was merely this old man's time to pass. Cassius Dio does begrudgingly and hastily admit however that perhaps this old man's death might have been due to "some other cause", Cassius Dio Book 56.

Ancient Rome

This old man, whose death was worthy of such biography, was of course Augustus, seen as the first and often the best, Emperor of Rome. The passing of Augustus, saw the end of an era of great men and women, most of whom names and deeds are know around the world. A point of no return is "crossing the Rubicon". The doomed love of Anthony and Cleopatra was immortalised in cinema. Who doesn't picture Elizabeth Taylor when they think of the most famous Egyptian Pharaoh? Cicero, the greatest orator of Rome, and surely the blueprint for every self promoting politician since. The death of Augustus, saw the end of a time filled with characters larger than life.

Something that the greatest player of them, knew all to well. Augustus's final words are recorded as

"Since well I've played my part, all clap your hands

and from the stage dismiss me with applause"

Suetonius - Augustus Book 99

And Augustus had indeed played his part on the stage of Roman history well. Indeed the fact that he dies at the staggering old age (for the ancient world) of seventy-five in a bed relatively peacefully, again depending on your views of Livia as a Machiavellian power who decides to kill her husband after decades of idealised marriage, is a feat that hadn't happened for a major figure of Rome since Sulla in 78BC, nearly a hundred years previous and wouldn't happen for another 100 years hence, with the death of the first Flavian Emperor, Vespasian. 

The Augustus Prima Porta Statue

The peaceful passing of Augustus marked the ending of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire. The ending at the beginning. Theoretically, Augustus was the Princeps of the Senate, a historical title that named him as the First Man. A careful balancing act of smooth talking and overwhelming power. While the Senate and People of Rome perhaps all secretly knew in their heart of hearts that the Republic was gone for good and that power now resided in the hands of a solitary man, it wasn't until the death of Augustus and succession of Tiberius, his step-son, that it saw its long-winded and perhaps inevitable death.

Of course there were indications of this death by succession. Two of Augustus' grandchildren had been adopted and aligned as future heirs, seen through their awarding of titles and powers, none perhaps as shocking as the assigning of consul elect in the year AD 1 to the nineteen year old Gaius Caesar, Suetonius Augustus Book 64 (once the pinnacle of a Romans career and a topic worthy of pages upon pages).

It's possible to dress Augustus up as many things. The despotic ruler who conquered and ended the constitutionally "democratic" Res Publica. The saviour of a system that had suffered through a hundred years of civil war and could of easily imploded, to be conquered by another power. Or as the necessary bridge, a requirement to move the Roman republics now huge empire, into something more manageable.

Whether the quiet passing of Augustus marked an ending or a beginning is entirely a matter of perspective. The fall of a Republic or the rise of an Empire? Completely based on your inclination. But perhaps it is the great man's other recorded final words, from Cassius Dio (and probably confused due to a three century distance from Augustus himself) that says it best.

"I have found Rome of clay, I leave it to you of marble"

Cassius Dio Book 56  

He almost certainly succeed.

Thanks for Reading
James

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