Into the Woods

Augustus: First Emperor of Rome. Adrian Goldsworthy, Yale University Press, 2014. 598 pages.

I’m almost ashamed of my interest in Rome. The more I read about Rome, the more distasteful the Roman story becomes. But Augustus, at least, was in pre-Christian Rome (born 63 BC, died 14 AD), and therefore wasn’t responsible for any of the horrors that the Roman religion brought into the world. Also, by many accounts, he wasn’t that terrible, as Roman emperors go.

It was, strangely enough, the HBO series “Rome” (2005-2007), that made me want to read a biography of Augustus. I had watched this series years ago when it was new, and recently I rewatched some of the episodes. The series is quite good, with an excellent cast. The HBO series is set during the time of Julius Caesar. Young Augustus appears as a teenager. The HBO series presents the teenage Augustus as nerdy, very serious, a touch prudish, and very respectful of Roman traditions. That’s probably accurate.

Our fascination with Roman history seems to be eternal. It’s not hard to see why, since it was in Rome (and Greece) that we find the roots of our culture and our politics. Recent events in Russia are a reminder of that. That is, you’d better have some legions under your command if you want to play Game of Thrones. Without his legions, it seems unlikely that that we’d ever have heard of Yevgeny Prigozhin, and equally unlikely that Prigozhin would be alive today, without his private army.

The era of Augustus’ reign is often called the Pax Romana, because it was an unusually peaceful era in Roman history. But, peaceful or not, I felt vaguely nauseated while reading this book. It would have been a terrible time to live, even if you were a Roman aristocrat who didn’t have to worry about starving to death. If you were a nobody, then disease, starvation, or war might put an end to you. If you were a somebody, then you were vulnerable to all sorts of treachery including murder and assassination. Not to mention that there were many situations in which suicide seemed like the right course.

An episode a day of “Masterpiece Endeavour” helped me keep my sanity while reading about Augustus.