Augustus: First Emperor of Rome Paperback – 29 Sept. 2015

Most people have an image of Ancient Rome based more on films/TV than history. Andrian Goldworthy, like any worthy historian, gets to the "warts and all" truth about the man Augustus. From the young ruthless Octavian to the old wise Imperator Caesar he clearly charts the rise to prominence of the (possibly) only benevolent dictator who has ever existed. Fascinating history and legacy. A must read for all lovers of factual Roman History.

As was the case with Goldsworthy’s previous biographies of Julius Caesar and Antony & Cleopatra, this is an eminently reasonable and balanced re-telling of the life of Augustus. Goldsworthy knows the sources and their agendas, and so negotiates a position that acknowledges their biases, both positive as well as negative, and accepts that what we know is, sometimes, a function of how we know it.He writes easily and sets Augustus in his context: his birth in 63 BCE, for example, takes place in the year that Cicero is consul and when Catiline is forming his so-called ‘conspiracy’. The book follows Augustus’ life closely from his unspectacular youth through the civil war years and, after Actium, his consolidated position as princeps.Goldsworthy is particularly at home in the battle scenes which he recounts with relish. And the second half of the book which traces the dark and frequently fraught family life of Augustus and Livia (more popularly known via Robert Graves’ I, Claudius and its sequel) cuts through some of the more lurid stories.Augustus, as Goldsworthy points out in the introduction, has had a mixed reception: up until the twentieth century, he was usually seen as the benign imperial ruler who could almost be at home in Victorian England. Since Ronald Syme’s game-changing The Roman Revolution written in the 1930s, though, he has more often been regarded at a military dictator and unscrupulous master of propaganda. Goldsworthy doesn’t – and can’t – deny the latter charge, but there is the sneaking feeling in this book that he has more of a soft spot for Augustus than I, for example, do.Despite this, the book itself is balanced and moderate, and doesn’t play down the contradictions in Augustus’ life story. It does a good job of appealing to both an academic audience who may enjoy comparing Goldsworthy’s Augustus with their own, and a general popular readership. Recommended.(This review is from an ARC courtesy of the publisher)

Bought as a present and well-received.

very interesting DVD over the moon with it

he writes brilliantly

excellent well writen

I much prefer books by Anthony Everitt, and Tom Holland writes a lot juicier.