A Tourist in Rome - Augustus

Birth:September 23, 63 BC
Death:August 19, 14 AD (illness)
Emperor:27 BC - death

Caesar Augustus was the founder of the Roman Empire and its first Emperor. As a child, his name was Octavius. When Julius Caesar was assassinated, his will adopted Octavius as his son, posthumously. At that point, Octavius changed his name to Gaius Julius Caesar, but to avoid confusion, historians call him Octavian after this point. A civil war broke out between him (Caesar's son) and Marc Antony (Caesar's best friend) for control of Rome, and Octavian won, thereby becoming Emperor, at which time he changed his name to Augustus, the title confirmed on him by the senate in 27 BC. He brought peace and prosperity to the Empire after decades of civil war and initiated a golden age in Rome, and is considered by many to be the greatest Roman emperor. His many construction projects in Rome include a sundial made with the Solar Obelisk, the Forum of Augustus, the Pantheon, the Ara Pacis, and the Mausoleum of Augustus. He autobiographically listed his accomplishments as the Res Gestae Divi Augusti ("the achievements of the deified Augustus"), which can be read here or here.

    
Augustus, in the Museum of Roman Civilization
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Augustus, in a temporary display in the Curia, 2012
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Augustus, on Via dei Fori Imperaili
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Augustus, in the Capitoline Museum's Hall of Emperors
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Augustus, in the Capitoline Museum
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Augustus, in the Museum of Roman Civilization
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Augustus, in the Museum of Roman Civilization
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Augustus, in the Museum of Roman Civilization
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Augustus, in the Museum of Roman Civilization
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Augustus, in the Central Montemartini Museum
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Augustus, in the National Museum of Rome - Palazzo Massimo
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Augustus, in the museum in Ostia Antica
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Bust of Augustus in the Detroit Institute of Arts
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The enormous posthumous portrait of the Divine Augustus, discovered in the 16th century on the Aventine Hill, now in the Cortile della Pigna, in the Vatican Museum
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Statue of Augustus, in the Greek Cross Hall of the Museo Pio Clementino in the Vatican Museum
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Statue of Augustus, in the Greek Cross Hall of the Museo Pio Clementino in the Vatican Museum
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Augustus of Prima Porta, 1st century AD, in the (unfortunately, closed during my visit) Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican Museum. The statue was found in the ruins of the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta. It is a statue of the emperor himself, wearing a highly decorated cuirass and with his cloak wrapped around his hips, in the act of addressing his troops. The reliefs on the cuirass show a Parthian king in the act of returning to a Roman officer the standards lost by Crassus in 53 BC during the Battle of Carrhae, The whole scene is inserted into a cosmic landscale: at the top one can see the personification of the Heavens in the center, with the chariots of Apollo and Aurora alongside. At the bottom one can recognize Diana riding on the back of a hind, and, in the center, the goddess Earth. At his right leg is the god Eros, to remind us that his family claimed to have descended from the goddess Venus. The dolphin Eros rides refers to Augustus' destruction of Antony and Cleopatra's fleet in the sea battle of Actium.
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Augustus of Prima Porta, 1st century AD, in the (unfortunately, closed during my visit) Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican Museum. The statue was found in the ruins of the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta. It is a statue of the emperor himself, wearing a highly decorated cuirass and with his cloak wrapped around his hips, in the act of addressing his troops. The reliefs on the cuirass show a Parthian king in the act of returning to a Roman officer the standards lost by Crassus in 53 BC during the Battle of Carrhae, The whole scene is inserted into a cosmic landscale: at the top one can see the personification of the Heavens in the center, with the chariots of Apollo and Aurora alongside. At the bottom one can recognize Diana riding on the back of a hind, and, in the center, the goddess Earth. At his right leg is the god Eros, to remind us that his family claimed to have descended from the goddess Venus. The dolphin Eros rides refers to Augustus' destruction of Antony and Cleopatra's fleet in the sea battle of Actium.
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Augustus of Prima Porta, 1st century AD, in the (unfortunately, closed during my visit) Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican Museum. The statue was found in the ruins of the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta. It is a statue of the emperor himself, wearing a highly decorated cuirass and with his cloak wrapped around his hips, in the act of addressing his troops. The reliefs on the cuirass show a Parthian king in the act of returning to a Roman officer the standards lost by Crassus in 53 BC during ght eBattle of Carrhae, The whole scene is inserted into a cosmic landscale: at the top one can see the personification of the Heavens in the center, with the chariots of Apollo and Aurora alongside. At the bottom one can recognize Diana riding on the back of a hind, and, in the center, the goddess Earth.
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Bust of Augustus, on the main stairway landing between the ground floor and the first floor of the Palazzo Nuovo of the Capitoline Museum
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Octavian, in the Hall of the Emperors of the Palazzo Nuovo of the Capitoline Museum
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Octavian, in the Hall of the Emperors of the Palazzo Nuovo of the Capitoline Museum
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Augustus, in the Hall of the Emperors of the Palazzo Nuovo of the Capitoline Museum
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Bust of Augustus, in the Hall of the Emperors of Palazzo Nuovo, in the Capitoline Museum
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Augustus, in the Great Hall of the Palazzo Nuovo of the Capitoline Museum
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Augustus of Via Labicana, from the last decade of the 1st century BC, a portrait of Augustus in his role as Pontifex Maximus, sacred leader of Rome that he assumed in 12 BC and was the right of the Emperor until the 4th century AD, in the National Museum of Rome, Palazzo Massimo
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Augustus of Via Labicana, from the last decade of the 1st century BC, a portrait of Augustus in his role as Pontifex Maximus, sacred leader of Rome that he assumed in 12 BC and was the right of the Emperor until the 4th century AD, in the National Museum of Rome, Palazzo Massimo
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Augustus of Via Labicana, from the last decade of the 1st century BC, a portrait of Augustus in his role as Pontifex Maximus, sacred leader of Rome that he assumed in 12 BC and was the right of the Emperor until the 4th century AD, in the National Museum of Rome, Palazzo Massimo
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Statue of Augustus on Via dei Fori Imperiali in front of the Forum of Augustus. This is a bronze copy of the famous marble Augustus of Prima Porta. His curiass depicts the recovery by Augustus of one of the army's military standards, captured and taken away by the Parthans on the Eastern frontier in 53 BC, thereby is the cancellation of an onbearable disgrace from his record.
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Statue of Augustus on Via dei Fori Imperiali in front of the Forum of Augustus. This is a bronze copy of the famous marble Augustus of Prima Porta. His curiass depicts the recovery by Augustus of one of the army's military standards, captured and taken away by the Parthans on the Eastern frontier in 53 BC, thereby is the cancellation of an onbearable disgrace from his record.
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Places in Rome to see the contributions of Augustus: See also:
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