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Person Number Two – OCTAVIUS

The Roman who reinvented himself and invented the Empire

Why Octavius?
I have never heard Octavian called “the father of Europe” yet he has a good claim. He
is the man who invented the Roman empire. By this I mean that he created a
“template of empire” which began in 27 BC when he became emperor and lasted
until the the fall of the Roman empire in the west in 476 AD.

In so doing Octavian created the first 500 years or so of European history. The Roman
empire gave Europe for the first time unity, cohesion and identity. True people called
it “Pax Romana” (“the peace of Rome”) rather than “Europe”. But Rome was surely
the foundation stone of European history. As we shall see, even after the empire fell,
for a long time, maybe even up to our own time, Europe has existed in the “afterglow
of Rome”.

Why did Octavius change his name to Augustus?
Octavius transformed both Rome and himself. He turned Rome from a Republic into
an empire. He also transformed himself from a rather thuggish young politician to
the first Roman emperor. These transformations involved a change of name. Octavius
was granted the title of “Augustus” by the Roman senate, meaning “respected”,
“revered” or “august”. He adopted Augustus as his name and this is how he is known
to history. Appropriately it was an invented name and I will call him Augustus from
now on.

What did Augustus achieve?
Augustus is remembered for 3 great achievements:

1. He beat his enemies, especially Mark Anthony, in the civil war that followed
the murder of Julius Caesar. Aged only 18 at the time, Augustus had a big

advantage: in his will Julius Caesar named him his heir.

2. He transformed his image from that of a rather thuggish young politician to the
greatest man in Rome, who ruled Rome for 44 years.

3. He transformed Rome from a divided Republic to a unified empire. Every
future emperor ruled using the template created by Augustus.