*Great Portrait* Roman Republic – Octavian (Augustus) Silver Denarius (30-29 BC) – Standing on Column

Description Roman Imperatorial (Late Republic). Octavian, as imperator and sole ruler of the Republic AR (Silver) denarius. Uncertain mint in Italy, possibly Rome; struck autumn 30 - summer 29 BC. XF; from a popular series depicting the triumphant Octavian on the eve of his ascension to the role of Augustus. Wonderful anepigraphic portrait. Impressive in hand.   Design: Laureate head of Octavian right / Statue of Octavian, holding spear and parazonium, on top of the rostral column (on the Palatine Hill), which is ornamented with six prows of ships Reference: RIC I 271. Cohen 124. BMC 633. Dimensions: 20 mm / 3.31 gm Condition: XF; a beautiful example of the type. Bright surfaces.   Caesar Augustus The man that would go on to become Rome’s first emperor was born on 23 September 63 BC as Gaius Octavius. A member of a low-ranking aristocratic family, he was raised by his grandmother Julia, the sister of the rising Roman general and governor of Gaul, Julius Caesar. Caesar, who had no sons of his own, adopted the young boy as his stepson. He was studying in Illyria when the young Octavian received word that his stepfather, now dictator in Rome, had been assassinated on 15 March 44 BC. Octavian was designated as Caesar’s primary heir in his will, which gave him access to the vast riches Caesar had accumulated on his Gallic campaigns as well as the loyalty of Caesar’s battle-hardened legions. Demonstrating himself an advanced political maneuverer at only 19, Octavian shrewdly secured the loyalty of the Senate through an alliance with Cicero, before dispensing of the orator in favor of a more military alliance with Mark Antony and Lepidus. This group, known as the Second Triumvirate, pursued Caesar’s assassins with vigor, confiscating their property and eventually defeating them in battle at Philippi in October of 42 BC. The triumvirs then divided the Republic amongst themselves, with Octavian ruling Western Europe, Antony in charge of Rome’s richest possessions in the East, and Lepidus consigned to North Africa. By 32 BC, Antony’s scandalous relationship with the Ptolemaic queen Cleopatra of Egypt gave Octavian a pretext to declare war. His naval victory at Actium in 31 BC, mostly the work of his right-hand-man Marcus Agrippa, secured the conquest of Egypt and Octavian’s dominance of all Roman possessions. By 27 BC, he had returned to Rome in triumph, and though he made a show of renouncing total power, the Senate granted him several extraordinary privileges, both ceremonial and tangible. Among them was the title of Augustus; after 27 BC he would use this name instead of Octavian, and historians use this date as marking the commencement of the Roman Empire. Augustus then proceeded to stabilize a Roman state that had suffered nearly a century of continuous civil war and social conflict, ruling with a steady, if at times strong, hand for forty-one years. Augustus, in his own words, “found Rome a city of brick and left it a city of marble,” embarking on ambitious architectural projects that forever altered the face of Rome, including the Forum of Augustus and the Ara Pacis. His generals made significant conquests in Germany and the Balkans, and he oversaw a change in the balance of power with Rome’s greatest enemy, the Parthians on the eastern border. His Res Gestae, a first-person account where Augustus celebrated his achievements, reads “I compelled the Parthians to restore to me the spoils and standards of three Roman armies and to ask as suppliants for the friendship of the Roman People” (29). The imperial structure that Augustus established, with a network of informal powers but never outright despotism, came to be known as the Principate and survived for another two centuries. He died peacefully in 14 AD at the age of 75 and was succeeded by his stepson Tiberius. Though certain modern historians have come to question certain aspects of Augustus’ reputation, there is no doubt he was widely admired in his own time and remained a model for Roman emperors and later kings for many centuries.