Book Review #7

Augustus by Anthony Everitt

If I could go back and meet just one historical person, outside of Jesus, I think I would choose Augustus. This individual sat at the fulcrum of history. If one is a Christian then it must have some relevance that Christ was born during his governance. If one man has ever truly wielded more power and wielded it rather wisely for such a length of time as did Augustus then I remain unaware of him. And that is the fascinating thing. Many have conquered and there have been more than a few empires, but nothing has captured the imagination as much as the one charted by Augustus. As August himself said when speaking of Alexander the Great being at a loss of what to do after his extensive military conquests, "I am surprised the king did not realize that a far harder task than winning an empire is putting it into order once you have won it". And order it he did.

Alfred North Whitehead once said "I know of only two occasions in history when the people in power did what needed to be done about as well as you can imagine its being possible. One was the framing of your American Constitution... The other was in Rome and it undoubtedly saved civilization for, roughly, four hundred years. It was the work of Augusts and the set around him".

Augustus' accomplishments lend themselves to study. Through his life you can see the path to power and more importantly the means to maintain it. Fascinating man, fascinating life... the measuring stick by which all who would rule must be judged.

Specifically to the book, Everitt has accomplished a very readable history. So readable in fact that I will make it a point to acquire other works by him. He fully admits that there are some portions of Augustus' life that are not well recorded. In these sections he attempts to present what he feels is the most likely scenario to have happened. The narrative starts off with a jump to the end of Augusts' life before returning and treating the subject in a more linear chronological manner. The scope of the volume, while complete, does not render it ponderous or overly lengthy. It is well footnoted and indexed. The text also presents a fair and balanced approach to Augustus detailing his failings and triumphs as a man as well as the character and motives of his main adversaries such as Marc Antony.

I wholly recommend without reservation this book.