Customer Reviews

The Age of Augustus (Blackwell Ancient Lives)

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Werner Eck's "The Age of Augustus" is a concise historical biography on Augustus. From his birth in 63BC to his death in 14AD, Augustus' accomplishments are all clearly summarized in this book. Eck discusses each transition in Augustus' life and discusses some of the issues that arose and how they were dealt with. He also analyses some of Augustus' decision after becoming Principate such as creating a standing army, continuing the perception of a Roman Republic (even though that had ceased to exist years before) and in establishing and perpetuating his humble image. The downside to this book is that it is short. Too-short when one considers the relative importance of Augustus to Rome. In short an interesting read that covers the basics of the birth of Imperial Rome. What it lacks in details it more then makes up for in providing a clear and condensed biography of the most important man in Roman history.

In this book, Werner Eck tells the story of Augustus's life and rise to power. He demonstrates that the consolidation of Augustus's power took the entirety of his life to complete. Augustus is presented as a political genius whose rise was enabled by the military genius of others. Eck's narration is not a whitewash; he emphasizes the brutality that attended Augustus's ascent. Werner uses Augustus's Res gestae for his organizational structure. He repeatedly refers to it, highlighting the spin that Augustus places on the events.

I suppose the above title could also be ascribed to Augustus himself, especially when compared to the life and career of Julius Caeser. While Augustus never measured up to Caeser's military, rhetorical and literary genius, his achievements, and by extension the fortunes (and borders) of Rome during his four-decades rule, arguably surpassed those of his uncle. Through great savvy and ruthlessness Augustus brought relative peace and stability to Rome and ensured an orderly continuation of his policies through a planned, although at times convoluted, transfer of power to his adopted "son" Tiberius.

The German historian Eck's narrative is rather dry but his book is effective, and efficient in its brevity, in recounting the main events and achievements during Augustus' long reign. The main reason for the book's conciseness is that Eck provides little background information or context to the Roman polity, as well as to the key figures that shaped the world from which Augustus emerged. For this reason, the reader would profit by reading a book about Rome around this period(perhaps a biography of Julius Caeser) to better understand the conflicts between political factions and learn about men like Sulla, Pompey, Antony, Cicero and Caeser himself, who were at the center during this tumultuous time in Rome's history.