• General Notes

  [SUSANNA KEENE.FTW]
  
  suicide of Antony and Cleopatra.
  receives title "Augustus" (28/27 BC).
  
  
  
  
  
  The Aftermath of Caesar's Death (44 B.C.). Caesar's assassins
  claimed to be striking a blow for freedom in the name of the
  Old Republic; instead of dancing in streets, however, the
  initial reaction to the news of Caesar's murder was intense
  uncertainty, particularly among the ruling elite, as everyone
  waited to see who would make the next move. The conspirators
  themselves went into
  hiding. *M. Aemilius Lepidus (one Caesar's lieutenants, who had
  a legion of recruits ready to take to Gaul) imposed order, but
  Mark Antony (who had long been Caesar's right-hand man and was
  consul along with Caesar in 44) soon took charge of matters,
  leaving Lepidus to depart for Gaul.  Antony was in nominal
  control of state affairs, but virtually everyone was on
  eggshells. Antony wielded a good deal of power as consul and as
  Caesar's second in command, but enjoyed little personal
  authority and dared not assert himself too strongly, lest he
  meet a fate similar to that of Caesar. The Senate, on the other
  hand, was concerned about popular reaction to Caesar's death,
  particularly on the part of Caesar's veterans. Most
  importantly, the official constitutional machinery,  although
  it had continued to operate during the turbulent years 49-44,
  had been a virtual dead letter under Caesar's rule: his death
  created a vacuum in which no one quite knew how to behave. An
  uneasy truce was arrived at. An official amnesty was granted to
  the conspirators, but Antony's speech at Caesar's funeral --
  along with the generous gifts to the plebs included in the
  terms of Caesar's will -- so stirred the urban mob that a riot
  ensued and the conspirators fled Rome in fear for their safety.
  [Caesar's funeral is the occasion for the famous speech in
  Shakespeare's play: "I
  have come to bury Caesar, not to praise him...."] Antony then
  quickly retrieved Caesar's private papers from his widow and
  employed them to govern in Caesar's name, claiming to find
  there Caesar's plans for Rome's future. This charade soon wore
  thin with the Senate, all the more so due to Antony's
  high-handed manner and his wanton extravagance.
  
  Octavian and Antony. When Caesar's will was read, however,
  Antony received a nasty shock. In it Caesar named as his chief
  heir a virtual unknown by the name of *C. Octavius, adopting
  him (posthumously) as his son. Octavius was Caesar's
  grand-nephew on his sister's side, a rather sickly 18-year-old
  with only limited political and military experience. Upon his
  adoption, Octavius became *C. Julius Caesar Octavianus (or, in
  English, simply Octavian). Antony might well have expected
  little trouble in dealing with a youth of so little experience,
  few political connections, and virtually no personal authority.
  Unfortunately, Antony failed to recognize that in Octavian he
  was dealing with a
  natural born politician. Octavian never was an imposing figure
  physically, and he owed his military victories largely to the
  skill of his able lieutenants. In the political realm, however,
  he was without peer, rising from a virtual unknown in 44 B.C.
  to become the first of the Julio-Claudian emperors by 27 AD.
  Tensions immediately arose between Octavian and Antony, as each
  vied for the right to employ Caesar's substantial financial
  resources, to call upon the loyalty of his troops, and, above
  all, to invoke the authority of Caesar's name. On the one hand
  was Antony, Caesar's second in command who had served him so
  ably since the 50s, who had been named magister equitum under
  Caesar, and who had been appointed priest (flamen) in Caesar's
  honor; on the other was Octavian, who could claim to be
  Caesar's son and heir. Tensions between the two soon reached
  the boiling point, only to be checked by senior officers in
  command of Caesar's troops, who were united by their common
  loyalty to the dead Caesar and were unwilling to fight against
  one another in the name of Caesar's bickering heirs. By the
  middle of 44 B.C. an uneasy truce was established between
  Antony, Octavian, the Senate, and those involved in Caesar's
  assassination.
  
  Unfortunately Antony, while an able commander, was no Caesar
  when it came to the delicate art of politics. In 44-43 he soon
  alienated virtually all of the other factions listed above,
  uniting them against him. He began by foolishly attacking the
  orator and statesman Cicero, a leader of the senatorial faction
  (the optimates). These personal attacks led Cicero to denounce
  Antony in a series of damning speeches, known as the
  *Philippics.
  
  Not content with alienating Cicero and the Senate, Antony
  renewed his attacks against Octavian, charging him with plots
  against his (Antony's) life. Octavian saw that his position in
  Rome was far from secure and withdrew to central Italy, where
  he began to raise troops on his authority as Caesar's son and
  heir.
  
  At the end of 44, Antony stepped over the line altogether. As
  consul in 44 he had been assigned the province of Macedonia for
  43. Antony realized, however, that departing from Rome at this
  particular juncture would be political suicide and so passed a
  law that awarded him a five-year command in Cisalpine Gaul and
  Gallia Comata (Gaul proper) instead.
  
  This would allow him to keep tabs on affairs in Rome and had
  the added advantage of providing him with an army camped just
  north of Italy. (Clearly Antony had the precedent of Caesar's
  own career in mind.) The threat now posed by Octavian led
  Antony to speed up his plans: he decided to proceed
  to Cisalpine Gaul and assume command of his new provinces
  early. At this point the Senate was still unwilling to defy
  Antony too openly, but it did direct the current governor of
  Cisalpine Gaul, D. Junius Brutus Albinus (who had been involved
  in the conspiracy against Caesar), to maintain his position.
  When matters reached a crisis the Senate, at Cicero's urging,
  turned to Octavian for help. Octavian had his own forces; more
  importantly, he could invoke the name of Caesar, thus
  undercutting Antony's claims to represent Caesar's legacy.
  Cicero hoped that the young Octavian would be malleable -- a
  tool that the Senate could employ and then discard at its will.
  The plan was to have Octavian support the consuls for 43 (A.
  Hirtius and C. Vibius Pansa) in driving Antony off, then to
  have Octavian surrender his troops to Brutus, the lawful
  governor of the region. The first part of the plan worked:
  Antony was compelled to retire further into Gaul, where he
  joined up with Lepidus (see above). Unfortunately for Cicero
  and the Senate, however, Octavian was neither
  malleable nor stupid. He realized that, were he to surrender
  his troops to Brutus, he would not only lose an important
  bargaining chip but, given Brutus' association with Caesar's
  murder, would fatally undermine his claims to be Caesar's loyal
  son. As it happened, through one of those twists of fate
  that seem to occur so often in Roman history, the two consuls
  Hirtius and Pansa had been killed in the battle against Antony:
  Octavian saw a vacuum and marched south with his forces,
  determined to fill it. Confronted with Octavian's troops, the
  Senate was compelled to allow him to run for the office
  of consul, to which he was duly elected for the year 42. His
  adoption by Caesar was officially ratified and Caesar's
  assassins outlawed: thus Octavian could assume the role of the
  loyal son attempting to avenge his father's murder and continue
  his father's work in "reforming" the state. (The leaders of the
  opposition to Caesar, M. Junius Brutus and C. Cassius Longinus,
  had already fled to the East, planning, like Pompey earlier, to
  raise troops and challenge Antony and Octavian.)
  
  The Second Triumvirate. Suddenly Octavian was no longer a
  youthful outsider but a major force  with which to reckon. He
  realized, however, that his own position vis a vis the Senate
  was far from secure and decided to make common cause with his
  former enemy, Antony. Thus, in 43, Octavian,
  Antony, and Lepidus were officially appointed as a panel of
  three (a triumvirate) to govern Rome with consular authority
  for a period of five years for the purpose of restoring
  constitutional order.  This alliance is known as the *Second
  Triumvirate. Through a curious twist of fate, Caesar -- who
  originally had been viewed as a dangerous, power-seeking
  popularis and a traitor -- now became the beloved leader whose
  legacy was being threatened and in whose name Octavian, Antony,
  and Lepidus must seize control of state affairs.
  
  Despite its official standing, the Second Triumvirate was in
  reality a military junta. Following the precedent of Sulla, its
  first order of business was to pay back its political enemies
  and raise some much-needed cash (necessary if the junta's
  troops were to be kept happy). Proscriptions were held in which
  some 300 senators and 2000 equites were dispatched, as much for
  their property as for their political sympathies. The most
  famous victim was Cicero, whose head and hands were cut off and
  hung from the speaker's platform (the Rostra) in the forum.
  [The Triumvirate also raised taxes, aiming first (as was the
  Romans' wont) at wealthy and "extravagant" women. This policy
  led to a woman named Hortensia presenting a public speech in
  the forum in which, we are told, she sounded the now familiar
  theme of no taxation without representation (i.e., without
  granting women the franchise).]
  
  Julius Caesar was officially deified as well (his deified
  spirit being identified with a comet that appeared in July of
  44): this measure reinforced the Triumvirate's claim to
  represent Caesar's legacy but it strengthened Octavian's hand
  in particular, since he was now officially the son of a god
  (divi
  filius).
  
  The next order of business, once matters had been settled in
  Rome, was to deal with the forces of Brutus and Cassius in the
  East. The official line was that these forces were traitors to
  Rome, led by Caesar's assassins. Viewed objectively, however,
  they represented one of the last hopes of the Roman Republic,
  fighting a cause that was utterly unrealistic -- the days when
  the traditional constitutional machinery could cope with the
  economic, social, and political realities in Rome were long
  past -- but noble nonetheless. The final confrontation occurred
  in 42 at *Philippi in Macedonia (see Map 3 in Dudley), where
  Brutus' and Cassius' forces were quickly defeated in a series
  of
  battles by the combined forces of Antony and Octavian. The
  victory led to an immediate rise in Antony's fortunes: never
  much of a general, Octavian had presented a poor showing at
  Philippi, losing one important battle and spending a good deal
  of the time sick in his tent. For the moment, at least, Antony
  was very much the senior partner among the triumvirs.
  
  With their enemies subdued both at Rome and abroad, the two
  leading members of the Triumvirate soon returned to their old
  personal rivalries. Lepidus was quickly gotten out of the way:
  accused of treason, he was deprived of his provinces and
  allowed to remain a member of the Triumvirate only on
  sufferance. The other two triumvirs divided Rome's holdings
  between them: Octavian got Spain, Antony Gaul. Antony, however,
  had larger ambitions. Encouraged by his success at Philippi, he
  revived Caesar's plans for a grand military campaign in the
  East. His intentions clearly were to follow the precedent set
  by Sulla, Pompey, and Caesar himself: to win power, fame, and
  money through a series of military triumphs abroad and then
  return to Rome and oust his political rivals once and for all.
  In 41, therefore, he set out for the East, where he soon became
  entangled with the Egyptian Cleopatra.
  
  Octavian, by contrast, was given the thankless task of dealing
  with affairs in Italy, particularly the necessity of finding
  land for his and Antony's veterans. Antony clearly hoped that
  Octavian would become embroiled in Italian politics,
  squandering both his time and, more important, his popularity
  with the masses. In the end, this was a poor strategy on
  Antony's part. Not only did his own military ventures not fare
  well, but, by leaving Octavian in Rome, he allowed his rival to
  ply his considerable political skills in waging a propaganda
  war against Antony.
  
  At first, however, Antony's plan appeared to succeed.
  Octavian's problem was to find land for his and Antony's
  veterans; his solution was to confiscate land throughout Italy.
  The Italian cities were outraged, and this sense of outrage was
  encouraged by Antony's wife Fulvia and his brother L. Antonius,
  who incited a civil war. The rebels were suppressed through a
  combination of Antony's delay in supporting them and the
  brutality of Octavian's reprisals (particularly against the
  city of Perusia, in the so-called Perusine War). Antony
  eventually returned to Italy in 40, landing at Brundisium, but
  by then Octavian had not only secured Italy but had seized
  Gaul. War nearly broke out between Antony and Octavian, but
  their troops refused to fight against one another. At last a
  deal was cut: Antony was to pursue his ambitions in the East,
  while Octavian was granted the western half of Rome's empire.
  To cement the deal, Antony married Octavian's sister *Octavia
  (Fulvia having died of natural causes in the meantime).
  
  Antony accordingly returned east, where from 40-35 he was
  engaged in a series of largely unsuccessful campaigns against
  the Parthians. His desperate need for financial and military
  support drove him into the arms of Cleopatra (literally and
  figuratively) and he became her official consort.  Antony had 3
  children by Cleopatra. In 36, despite their age (6, 6, and 2,
  respectively), he granted each of these children, as well as
  Cleopatra herself, territories in the East as their official
  realms; he also lent his support to the claims of Caesarion
  (then 13 years old) to be Caesar's true son and heir. To Roman
  eyes these moves were troubling, suggesting that Antony was
  becoming a champion of
  Egypt and its oriental queen.
  
  Meanwhile, Octavian was busy in the West fighting *Sextus
  Pompeius, a son of Pompey the Great. Sextus had gathered the
  last of the Republican opposition about him in Spain and by 42
  controlled Sicily. With his fleet, Sextus was able to harass
  Roman shipping, nearly cutting off Rome's
  grain supplies. To the degree that Sextus could claim to be
  fighting for the cause of his father, Pompey, he represented
  the last forces of the old Republic; in reality, he was as much
  a military overlord/adventurer as Antony and Octavian. Octavian
  once again showed his lack of military experience, suffering a
  series of humiliating defeats, and, in 38, was forced to meet
  with Antony in order to ask for reinforcements. (At the same
  time the term of the Triumvirate, originally slated to expire
  in 38, was extended for another five years.) In 36 Octavian --
  or, rather, his general *M. Vipsanius Agrippa, working in
  tandem with Lepidus -- finally defeated Sextus at the battle of
  Naulochus. Lepidus made an attempt to seize Sicily for himself,
  but was soon deserted by his supporters and captured. As
  pontifex maximus Lepidus could not be killed (as we shall see,
  Octavian was beginning to develop scruples!), so he was merely
  stripped of his official powers and placed under permanent
  house arrest in Rome.
  
  Actium. The year 36 marks something of a turning point in
  Octavian's career. From this point on he began to doff the role
  of ruthless military warlord and instead present himself as a
  defender of the Republic (such as it was!). This strategy was
  to stand him in good stead in the propaganda war against
  Antony. Antony, Octavian could claim, had become the thrall of
  a depraved eastern
  monarch: he had "gone native" and (Octavian claimed) planned to
  reduce Rome to a mere subject state, transferring the capital
  of the empire to Egypt. The Romans would be slaves to a mongrel
  horde of oriental eunuchs and their lascivious queen, compelled
  to worship Egypt's decadent, bestial gods and to adopt the
  perverse religious practices of a land whose rulers regularly
  married their own siblings.
  
  Tensions between Antony and Octavian began to reach a head in
  35, when Antony formally repudiated Octavia, who had remained
  loyal to him despite the repeated humiliation to which he had
  subjected her. In 33, when the  Triumvirate officially expired,
  Octavian held the consulship: he was then able to present
  Antony as a private Roman citizen acting without the authority
  of the state and to contrast his own position as loyal servant
  of the Republic. There followed, in 32, the public reading of
  Antony's will (which, according to custom, had been deposited
  in Rome for safe keeping):  the provisions it contained were
  not outrageous -- for example, Antony asked to be buried with
  Cleopatra and requested official recognition for his children
  by Cleopatra and for  Caesarion -- but they furthered the
  impression that Antony now regarded himself as an Egyptian.
  
  n the end war was inevitable. The issue was decided in 31 at
  the naval battle of *Actium (in northwest Greece). Antony had
  established camp in the bay of Actium in late 32, hoping to use
  it as a base of operations against Octavian. He became mired
  there, however, his lines of supply cut off and his forces
  steadily shrinking due to disease and desertion. As time wore
  on, his troops became ever more demoralized, in part due to the
  presence of Cleopatra in their camp: Roman soldiers did not
  like the idea of being the servants of a foreign queen (think
  of Livy's portrayal of Tanaquil). Moreover, Antony's Egyptian
  fleet was outnumbered and out-generaled by Octavian's fleet,
  led by Agrippa. By September of 31 Antony had realized that his
  position was
  untenable and attempted to slip away with his fleet to Asia
  Minor. His plans were poorly executed by his demoralized
  troops, however, and only Cleopatra's ships managed to escape,
  followed by Antony with a few Roman stragglers. The remainder
  of Antony's forces surrendered after only token
  resistance. The battle of Actium was, then, something of a
  fiasco: a failed tactical retreat. Octavian and his supporters,
  however, presented it as a glorious triumph, spreading the
  story that Antony, accompanied by Cleopatra, had intended a
  full-scale naval battle but had turned tail and deserted his
  troops when he saw Cleopatra's ship fleeing in fear. In this
  version, Antony is betrayed by his besotted obsession with the
  cowardly and depraved Egyptian queen.
  
  Antony and Cleopatra fled to Egypt, where they committed
  suicide. Octavian, however, hailed his triumph as belonging to
  the Roman Senate and people -- a victory for Rome's political
  and religious traditions over a nefarious threat from the
  decadent East. (Notice that once again Octavian held the
  consulship -- his third -- in this crucial year, allowing him
  once more to present himself as the servant of the Roman people
  fighting in defense of the Republic, rather than as a military
  despot intent on wiping out a hated rival.) He claimed to have
  been supported in this victory by the god *Apollo, who had a
  small temple on a nearby promontory. Apollo, the god of Actium,
  became a prominent figure in Octavian/Augustus' reign. A god of
  poetry, music, and culture, he provided a fitting contrast to
  the "degenerate" Egyptian culture championed by Antony. He also
  embodied two contrary features that Octavian found useful, for
  Apollo was both a powerful god of retribution, smiting those
  who strayed beyond the proper bounds set for mortal ambitions,
  and a gentle god of refinement and
  culture. (These two contrasting features are symbolized by two
  of Apollo's attributes: the bow and the lyre.) As we shall see,
  the poets and artists who celebrated Octavian/Augustus'
  achievements presented his career as displaying these same two
  contrasting features, with Actium as the turning
  point. Before Actium, we find the stern triumvir who employs
  violence to punish his father's murderers, restore "order" to
  Italy, and check the wild ambitions of Antony and Cleopatra;
  after Actium, we find the benign ruler who oversees a
  political, moral, and cultural renaissance at Rome.
  
  Augustus and the Principate. Octavian was now in complete
  control of Rome's affairs. He was 32 years old, with little in
  the way of practical experience in peacetime politics, but a
  brilliant politician by nature. He was particularly skillful in
  his use of symbolism and in his ability to manipulate and
  control the public's mood. As Caesar's rightful heir and the
  man who had quelled the threat of the monstrous Cleopatra, he
  was in a powerful position; more to the point, the
  proscriptions, the wars in Italy, and the defeat of Sextus
  Pompeius and Antony had effectively obliterated opposition to
  Octavian's supremacy.
  
  In the years immediately following Actium, Octavian copied
  Caesar's clemency, sparing most of those who had sided with
  Antony. At the same time he took advantage of people's
  weariness to establish the elaborate fiction that the various
  battles of the years 42-31 had been fought in the name of
  restoring the Roman Republic to its former grandeur. With
  Antony defeated and the "threat" to Rome's constitutional and
  religious traditions now gone, Rome would return to the noble
  ideals and political traditions that had made it great in the
  days of the Early Republic. The old forms (consuls, senate,
  tribunes) were therefore maintained, but it just so happened
  that Octavian/Augustus was
  consul every year from 31 to 23. He also held tribunician
  authority throughout most of these years, thus maintaining the
  important right to veto acts of the Senate and of other
  tribunes. Other magistrates were elected on his
  "recommendation," while all provinces of note (i.e., those
  which entailed significant military forces and/or financial
  resources) were under his control. Thus, like Sulla,
  Octavian/Augustus reduced the threat of other adventurers
  employing either the military or the tribunate to rise against
  him, but he did so by effectively reserving the reins of power
  to himself.  Unlike Caesar, however, he managed to do this
  while (on the surface, at least) strictly observing the
  traditional practices of the Republic, avoiding any hint of an
  attempt to set himself up as a hellenistic style monarch.
  
  Octavian returned to Rome in 29, whereupon he celebrated a
  triple triumph in honor of his victories at Actium and in the
  East. He then set about the delicate task of establishing an
  imperial autocracy while maintaining the facade of being merely
  a servant of the people and the Senate. His first challenge was
  to restore people's confidence, to assure them that the days of
  civil war and military rule were past. On a practical level he
  did this by addressing the economic havoc wrought by years of
  war, adopting (as Caesar had before him) the techniques of the
  old populares. In addition to donations of grain and money to
  the urban mob, he instituted an elaborate building program.
  This not
  only provided an important boost to Rome's economy but
  furnished tangible signs of the return to peace and prosperity:
  the citizens of Rome could see a new, grander city rising out
  of the ashes of the old. [It is in this period that Rome first
  becomes noted for its architecture. Octavian/Augustus himself
  remarked that he had found a Rome built of brick and left one
  of marble.] Particular emphasis was placed on the refurbishing
  of the city's temples, which had fallen into neglect and decay
  during the years of political turmoil. Here was tangible
  evidence of a revival of traditional piety, since many of these
  temples were thought to have been founded in the days of
  Romulus and Numa or in the period of the Punic Wars. Rome could
  be seen to be returning to the ancient moral and religious
  traditions that had made it great in the days before the rise
  of factionalism under the Gracchi et al.
  
  We shall find that Octavian/Augustus frequently associated
  himself with individuals and achievements from Rome's glorious
  past: for example, Aeneas, Romulus, the first two Punic Wars.
  (Like Aeneas and Romulus, Octavian/Augustus is a "founder" of
  Rome, rescuing it from the chaos that threatened to overwhelm
  it and restoring the Republic. In doing so, he returns the
  Romans to the glorious days when they were world conquerors,
  subduing foreign enemies, before greed, personal ambition, and
  corruption embroiled them in constant internal wars.) Here it
  is worth noting the frequency with
  which *Numa is recalled in Augustan propaganda. You will
  remember that Numa was associated with a golden age of peace,
  piety, and prosperity, and with the establishment of many of
  Rome's most important religious traditions. Several measures of
  Octavian/Augustus clearly were designed to suggest that his
  reign represented a return to the days of Numa. One that stands
  out is the closing of the gates of Janus on Octavian's return
  to Rome in 29. Janus is the double-faced god of gateways,
  doorways, transitions, and beginnings. According to ancient
  tradition, the gates dedicated to Janus in the forum were
  opened whenever Rome declared war, thus ensuring good fortune
  for the
  troops as they marched out on campaign. When no wars were being
  fought, the gates would be closed, symbolizing peace. Rome's
  history being what it was, the gates of Janus had been closed
  only two times prior to Octavian's day: first during the reign
  of Numa, then at the conclusion of the First Punic War. In
  reality, this arcane rite had no doubt lost its significance
  over the years and been largely ignored. In 29, however,
  Octavian closed the gates of Janus with a great flourish,
  providing a dramatic and emotionally effective symbol of a Rome
  that had rediscovered its antique virtues of piety and
  political harmony. The closing of the gates of Janus is
  recalled in a number of Augustan texts, with the suggestion
  that the brute forces of violence and chaos that had haunted
  the Republic for so many years finally have been locked away.
  
  In addition to restoring old temples, Octavian/Augustus built
  new ones. The most prominent was the temple complex built in
  honor of *Apollo on the Palatine hill. This provided an
  elaborate and conspicuous tribute to the god of Actium, but it
  also further symbolized the reign of Octavian/Augustus as a
  golden age of peace and culture, since a notable part of the
  temple complex
  consisted of a library of works in both Greek and Latin. The
  symbolism here is multiple. On the one hand, this prominent
  temple on a hill overlooking Rome would recall the Parthenon in
  Athens, suggesting that Augustan Rome, like fifth-century
  Athens, was to be a center of art and learning under the
  guidance of its divine patron, Apollo, and its human patron,
  Octavian/Augustus (a second
  Pericles?). On the other hand, such a library complex could not
  help but recall the famous library at Alexandria. In the
  3rd-1st centuries B.C., Alexandria had been the most glorious
  city in the Mediterranean, both architecturally and as a center
  for learning and the arts. The message implicit in the building
  of such a library on the Palatine, in conjunction with
  Octavian/Augustus' building
  program, could not be missed. (The fact that it housed separate
  collections in Greek and Latin perhaps suggested another
  message: that Latin letters in this new age were to rival the
  achievements of the Greeks in the Classical and Hellenistic
  periods.) Lest anyone miss Octavian/Augustus' connection to
  this new age, his house was right next door to the temple, a
  virtual part of the
  complex.
  
  By 27 Octavian clearly felt that his position as Rome's ruler
  was secure enough that he could establish his authority on a
  different basis. An elaborate bit of political theater was
  staged in which Octavian offered to resign all of his offices
  and give up control of his provinces, arguing that the Republic
  had been successfully restored and that his work was done. The
  Senate, however,
  "compelled" him to retain the consulship as well as control of
  the strategic provinces of Spain, Gaul, and Syria. The Senate
  also awarded him various honors of a less tangible sort. A
  golden shield was set up in the Senate to honor Octavian's
  valor, clemency, justice, and piety. (You will want to
  remember this shield when we read Vergil's Aeneid.) He was
  granted the privilege of decorating the doorposts and lintel of
  his house with laurel and oak, an honor granted those
  responsible for saving citizens' lives (!). Most important, he
  was given the honorific title *Augustus. The significance of
  this
  term is complex. Literally "majestic," "venerable," "worthy of
  honor," it has vaguely religious overtones, suggesting that its
  bearer is greater than mortal and the bestower of a divine
  beneficence.  None of these overtones is overt, however: the
  term need mean no more than "lofty" or "august."  (Octavian
  clearly had learned from Caesar's fate: while quite happy to
  emphasize Caesar's posthumous apotheosis and his own status as
  son of a god, he was careful not to appear to covet divine
  honors for himself.) The term effectively marked its bearer as
  unique. Above all, it allowed Octavian to set aside his past:
  the proscriptions and confiscations, the civil wars in Italy,
  the years of
  military dictatorship -- those all belonged to the young
  Octavian, not to the wise and beneficent Augustus. (We can get
  an idea of the effect for which Octavian was striving from the
  story that he considered adopting the title Romulus and thus
  directly identifying himself as Rome's second "founder." His
  rejectio

Details of Gaius Julius Caesar's family with Scribonia

Details of Gaius Julius Caesar's family with Livia Drusilla