The Boy With a Name

Octavian Caesar. He's not my favorite character from Roman history, but he's sure an important one.

"Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Augustus" was his full name at the height of his career. Yet he began as a sickly, large-eared youth who supposedly wore elevator sandals. I wasn't the biggest fan of HBO's ROME, but I did think that the young actor, Max Pirkis did an especially phenomenal job portraying Octavian. "Middling" at swordplay, but possessing nerves of steel. Inconsequential physically, but living into his mid-70's... Octavian had to have been one of history's most shocking surprises!

Octavian and Antony had to have been at odds early on. No two men could ever have been more opposite in their personalities, talents, and interests. At one point, Antony describes Octavian as being "a boy with nothing but a name". But that name was his inherited one from Caesar, and as my Antony discovers along the way, it packs a punch.

Readers of my books won't get many of Octavian's merits, since my work is written from Antony's point of view. However, Octavian was a brilliant strategist, a real prince of propaganda, and surprised everyone at his early age at being an adept ruler. He was a huge risk-taker and was the first living Roman to denote himself as being associated with godhead. After Julius Caesar was proclaimed to be a god, Octavian followed shortly after in proclaiming HIMSELF as "son of the god". This shows up on many coins, the Latin stating "Divi Filius" (Son of the god).

In Second in Command, he steps into the limelight to become a real player, just as Antony was, on the Roman stage of power. Anthony Everitt describes Octavian's eventual politics to be thus: "Rather than insist on a chasm, he built a bridge." He just didn't build it with Antony! Octavian knew his enemy's weaknesses and played on them with surgical precision.

Whenever I go to Rome, Octavian's likenesses are some of my favorites. I took a phenomenal class in Roman Art & Archaeology under Dr. Christina Salowey, PhD of Classical Studies at Hollins University. She taught her students how to recognize different Roman busts and statuary by traits given them by the artists in their day. Octavian's busts and statues all have pincer-like locks in the way his hair rests on his forehead. Now my own husband walks through museums in Rome, pointing out all of his statues to me! This pincer-like trait has always amused me, since Octavian really did  "pinch" his enemies into submission one-by-one. It may have taken time, but he always succeeded. His own words describe his method of advancement: "Festina lente"-- hasten slowly.

My new book, Antonius: Second in Command will portray the beginning tensions between Marc Antony and Octavian. Read on, my friends!

The famous Pious Augustus, showing Octavian Augustus humbly covering his head, possibly for a religious purpose is located at the Palazzo Massimo Museum of Roman Civilization in Rome. Look closely at his hair and you'll see the pincers!

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