Augustus - by Adrian Goldsworthy (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"Superb....Augustus is a first-rate popular biography by a skilled and knowing hand." (Washington Post)

Caesar Augustus created the Roman Empire and forever associated the name Caesar with power. Heir to Julius Caesar, he thrust himself into the middle of Roman politics at its most violent period, facing off against Brutus, and eventually Antony and Cleopatra. He was a military dictator who schemed and killed his way to power and then brought the Romans peace and prosperity after all the chaos, laying the foundations of the famous Pax Romana.

In this definitive and critically acclaimed biography, eminent historian Adrian Goldsworthy illuminates the political and private lives of Rome's first emperor in more depth than ever before. Weaving together tales of military victories, political marriages, and senatorial power struggles, Goldsworthy portrays Augustus as he really was--at once noble and manipulative, giving and tyrannical, clever and cruel.

Meticulously researched and approachably written, Augustus is the most detailed extant biography of Caesar Augustus, a man whose legacy continues on today.

Review Quotes

​"A timely biography of Augustus. He was Julius Caesar's adopted son who saw off his rivals and gave to Rome and its colonies a stability and a form of democracy which has a surprising significance to our own weary company of statesmen... 500 pages of solid and often exciting history."--Illtyd Harrington, Camden New Journal (UK)

​"Goldsworthy examines the life of Augustus Caesar, who rose from obscurity to become Rome's first emperor and the most powerful and enduring in the history of the Empire. He killed and manipulated his way to the top, then reinvented himself as 'the father of his country, ' achieving peace and prosperity."--Italia!

​"Patiently, imaginatively but without recourse to flashy surmise, Goldsworthy offers reappraisals that inspire confidence because of their balance and good sense. Such an elusive man is never going to leap off these pages but he does begin to live and breathe."--The Tablet (UK)

​"This is a very fine story, very skillfully told."--Literary Review (UK)

"Augustus is revealing of its subject's character and the time in which he lived, judicious on his shortcomings, and rich in portraits of secondary figures--everything a biography should be... Augustus is the best sort of biography... It deserves wide readership, and, in the best way, demonstrates the truth of Petrarch's famous query: "What else is all history, but the praise of Rome?'"--Washington Free Beacon

"[An] authoritative and always interesting new biography."--New Statesman (UK)

"A fascinating exploration of the life of one of Rome's most stable and yet still mysterious emperors.... This vast accomplished book . . . is a book to read avidly but also dip in to, to enjoy the huge range of characters and events."--Daily Express (UK)

"Adrian Goldsworthy does justice to the many sides of Augustus's character: devoted husband, ruthless politician, masterly tactician. He makes complex Roman politics digestible with generous illustrations; quotations from the emperor's own writings; a glossary to help with technical terms from Roman law and politics; a list of dramatis personae; helpful end-notes, index and bibliography... The biography mixes vivid anecdotes... with narrative detail of military and political developments."--Church Times (UK)

"Adrian Goldsworthy does not hesitate to describe Emperor Augustus as he really was: a mass-murderer and then a military dictator."--The i Paper (UK)

"Augustus splendidly completes the trilogy that started with Caesar and continued with Antony and Cleopatra. It is the best extended treatment in English of Augustus' career and his many contradictions."--Karl Galinsky, University of Texas at Austin

"For all his importance, Augustus is often an enigma behind a classical façade. Goldsworthy's Augustus reveals all the drama and detail surrounding Rome's first emperor. Brimming with energy, scholarship, and wisdom, it is a history book to savor."--Barry Strauss, author of The War That Made the Roman Empire

"Goldsworthy (Caesar: Life of a Colossus, 2008, etc.) obviously has ancient Rome in his bones, and his biography of Augustus is also a solid chronicle of Rome and its development.... Goldsworthy questions why Augustus has slipped off of many historians' lists of great leaders, which include Julius Caesar, Alexander, Hannibal, and Hadrian. He provides plenty of reasons why he should be at the top of those lists."--Kirkus

"Goldsworthy capably guides us over the rapids of 'modern scholarship.' He challenges stories that are repeated often but never questioned."--Daily Telegraph (UK)

"Goldsworthy has fashioned an engrossing account of this extraordinary man, pointing out his many contradictions."--Historical Novel Society

"Goldsworthy has made a name for himself writing biographies of the great and the good of the Roman world. A careful scholar, he wears his knowledge lightly and is a skilled narrator and engaging writer. He brings all these attributes to play in his biography of Augustus... Goldworthy's biography demolishes some of the half-truths and tales that dog any successful ruler, and his book also acts as a brilliant history of Rome under Augustus."--Good Book Guide

"Goldsworthy has produced an elegantly written and well-argued biography of Augustus that pulls no punches. Sifting through the literature of the Augustan Age, he brings together the ancient evidence with the best of modern scholarship, producing a meticulously researched, but highly readable, volume on Rome's first emperor. The result is a study on the nature of leadership, the wielding of power, and the price to be paid by both."--Col. Rose Mary Sheldon, Virginia Military Institute

"Goldsworthy is a master storyteller ... This is the account of the man who remade Rome in his image ... it's a tale that never loses its appeal."--BBC History Magazine (UK)

"Goldsworthy peers like a master jeweler into the strange cold diamond at the heart of Roman history--the emperor Augustus--and reveals the whole Roman world reflected in its facets. But the book itself is warm with human sympathy, elegant writing, and the sheer joy and love of history it evokes in its reader."--J. E. Lendon, author of Soldiers and Ghosts

"Goldsworthy's intended audience can be grateful for having so measured a guide who has also provided them with excellent maps, a glossary of terms and personalities, and an outline of the senatorial career."--S. J. V. Malloch, University of Nottingham

"Goldsworthy's prodigious biography of this first and greatest Roman emperor is thorough and well-researched.... Goldsworthy is a superb historian and talented writer.... Augustus cultivated what passed for the Roman media as assiduously as any American politician today woos Fox News or CNN. One gets the impression that Augustus would have adapted well to 21st-century politics while still ruling wisely."--Washington Times

"Goldsworthy's true expertise is as a military historian, and this is what really gives his biography its strength and bite: his depiction of Augustus's relationship with his legions is masterly."--Sunday Times (UK)

"Historian and biographer Goldsworthy (Caesar) showcases his deep knowledge of Ancient Rome in this masterful document of a life whose themes still resonate in modern times.... A strong narrative emphasis ties the work together and is enriched by evocative details of Roman life.... The overall effect that Goldsworthy generates is of meeting a man whose life seems hardly distant from the modern experience. While ancient cultural practices can often feel foreign, the political motivations and machinations, the familial relations and emotions, ring as true today as at the turn of the Common Era."--Publishers Weekly (starred)

"Impressive.... This is a welcome corrective to traditional presentations."--Wall Street Journal

"In too many of the numerous histories of this period, Augustus as an individual is blurred, if not overlooked, as strange as that may seem. Goldsworthy's goal is to rescue the life of Augustus from the history, limning the passions, cruelty, and wiliness that made up that often-dismissed character....Adrian Goldsworthy's fine new biography tells the founder's story as it deserves to be told."--National Review

"Like Goldsworthy's biography of Julius Caesar, this is essential reading for anyone interested in Ancient Rome."--The Independent (UK)

"Superb.... Augustus is a first-rate popular biography by a skilled and knowing hand, a fine companion to Goldsworthy's Caesar."--Washington Post

"Superb, unputdownable and scholarly."--Simon Sebag Montefiore, London Standard (UK)

"The dramatic rise and long rule of Caesar Augustus is the subject of Adrian Goldsworthy's substantial new biography, Augustus: First Emperor of Rome. The book is a fascinating study of political life in ancient Rome, and the parallels with our own political system are numerous and interesting. But the discontinuities between America and the Roman Empire are just as revealing."--Christian Science Monitor

About the Author

Adrian Goldsworthy received his DPhil in ancient history from Oxford and has taught at Cardiff University, King's College, and the University of Notre Dame in London. The author of numerous books, including Rome and Persia, Philip and Alexander, Pax Romana, and Caesar, he lives in South Wales, UK.