Overview

Caesar Augustus's story, one of the most riveting in western history, is filled with drama and contradiction, risky gambles and unexpected success. He began as a teenage warlord, whose only claim to power was as the heir of the murdered Julius Caesar. Mark Antony dubbed him ""a boy who owes everything to a name,"" but in the years to come the youth outmaneuvered all the older and more experienced politicians and was the last man standing in 30 BC. Over the next half century, he reinvented himself as a servant of the state who gave Rome peace and stability, and created a new system of government--the Principate, or rule of an emperor. Adrian Goldsworthy pins down the man behind the myths: a consummate manipulator, propagandist, and showman, both generous and ruthless. Under Augustus's rule, the empire prospered, yet his success was never assured, and the events of his life unfolded with exciting unpredictability.

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Reviews

Perkins's narration introduces us to a man who changed his world utterly, ending a generation of civil war and transforming the decaying and corrupt Roman Republic into the greatest empire the world had yet seen.-- ""AudioFile"" ""[Goldsworthy's] insights and inferences are superb throughout...Augustus is a first-rate popular biography by a skilled and knowing hand, a fine companion to Goldsworthy's Caesar volume."" -- ""Washington Post"" ""Adrian Goldsworthy's substantial new biography...is a fascinating study of political life in ancient Rome, and the parallels with our own political system are numerous and interesting. But the discontinuities between America and the Roman Empire are just as revealing."" -- ""Christian Science Monitor"" ""For all his importance, Augustus is often an enigma behind a classical façade. Goldsworthy's Augustus reveals all the drama and detail surrounding Rome's first emperor. Brimming with energy, scholarship, and wisdom, it is a history book to savor."" -- ""Barry Strauss, author of Masters of Command: Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar and the Genius of Leadership"" ""Goldsworthy peers like a master jeweler into the strange cold diamond at the heart of Roman history--the emperor Augustus--and reveals the whole Roman world reflected in its facets. But the book itself is warm with human sympathy, elegant writing, and the sheer joy and love of history it evokes in its reader."" -- ""J. E. Lendon, author of Soldiers and Ghosts: A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity"" ""Goldsworthy questions why Augustus has slipped off of many historians' lists of great leaders, which include Julius Caesar, Alexander, Hannibal, and Hadrian. He provides plenty of reasons why he should be at the top of those lists."" -- ""Kirkus Reviews"" ""Goldsworthy's true expertise is as a military historian, and this is what really gives his biography its strength and bite: his depiction of Augustus' relationship with his legions is masterly."" -- ""London Sunday Times"" ""Historian and biographer Goldsworthy showcases his deep knowledge of ancient Rome in this masterful document of a life whose themes still resonate in modern times...The overall effect that Goldsworthy generates is of meeting a man whose life seems hardly distant from the modern experience. While ancient cultural practices can often feel foreign, the political motivations and machinations, the familial relations and emotions, ring as true today as at the turn of the Common Era."" -- ""Publishers Weekly (starred review)"" ""Impressive...Mr. Goldsworthy...moves nimbly around other important evidence about Augustus' life...The resulting life is, in one sense, deeply unified. This is a welcome corrective to traditional presentations."" -- ""Wall Street Journal"" ""Like Goldsworthy's biography of Julius Caesar, this is essential reading for anyone interested in ancient Rome."" -- ""Independent (London)"" ""The narrative covers Augustus' military and political efforts (Romans would see no divergence in these roles), what we can know of his interior life, and the world in which he dominated. Never shy to admit when scholars simply do not have enough evidence and ever willing to be critical of biased ancient sources, the author is a historian at his best. And Augustus is a subject worthy of such treatment, a man of contradictions--brutal and merciful, initiator of opportunistic civil wars, and establisher of lasting civil concord--who claimed to have found Rome in 'mud bricks' and 'left it in marble.'"" -- ""Library Journal (starred review)"" ""Unlike fiction, the narrator of nonfiction audiobooks is not expected to dramatize, interpret, or impersonate. The narrator should clarify, pronounce correctly, and then stay out of the way. Derek Perkins does this admirably, down to using the classical Latin pronunciations for most names. But certain names, such as Caesar, are too well known in their anglicized pronunciations to restore to the originals. Perkins's narration introduces us to a man who changed his world utterly, ending a generation of civil war and transforming the decaying and corrupt Roman Republic into the greatest empire the world had yet seen."" -- ""AudioFile""

"Perkins's narration introduces us to a man who changed his world utterly, ending a generation of civil war and transforming the decaying and corrupt Roman Republic into the greatest empire the world had yet seen.-- ""AudioFile"" ""[Goldsworthy's] insights and inferences are superb throughout...Augustus is a first-rate popular biography by a skilled and knowing hand, a fine companion to Goldsworthy's Caesar volume."" -- ""Washington Post"" ""Adrian Goldsworthy's substantial new biography...is a fascinating study of political life in ancient Rome, and the parallels with our own political system are numerous and interesting. But the discontinuities between America and the Roman Empire are just as revealing."" -- ""Christian Science Monitor"" ""For all his importance, Augustus is often an enigma behind a classical façade. Goldsworthy's Augustus reveals all the drama and detail surrounding Rome's first emperor. Brimming with energy, scholarship, and wisdom, it is a history book to savor."" -- ""Barry Strauss, author of Masters of Command: Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar and the Genius of Leadership"" ""Goldsworthy peers like a master jeweler into the strange cold diamond at the heart of Roman history--the emperor Augustus--and reveals the whole Roman world reflected in its facets. But the book itself is warm with human sympathy, elegant writing, and the sheer joy and love of history it evokes in its reader."" -- ""J. E. Lendon, author of Soldiers and Ghosts: A History of Battle in Classical Antiquity"" ""Goldsworthy questions why Augustus has slipped off of many historians' lists of great leaders, which include Julius Caesar, Alexander, Hannibal, and Hadrian. He provides plenty of reasons why he should be at the top of those lists."" -- ""Kirkus Reviews"" ""Goldsworthy's true expertise is as a military historian, and this is what really gives his biography its strength and bite: his depiction of Augustus' relationship with his legions is masterly."" -- ""London Sunday Times"" ""Historian and biographer Goldsworthy showcases his deep knowledge of ancient Rome in this masterful document of a life whose themes still resonate in modern times...The overall effect that Goldsworthy generates is of meeting a man whose life seems hardly distant from the modern experience. While ancient cultural practices can often feel foreign, the political motivations and machinations, the familial relations and emotions, ring as true today as at the turn of the Common Era."" -- ""Publishers Weekly (starred review)"" ""Impressive...Mr. Goldsworthy...moves nimbly around other important evidence about Augustus' life...The resulting life is, in one sense, deeply unified. This is a welcome corrective to traditional presentations."" -- ""Wall Street Journal"" ""Like Goldsworthy's biography of Julius Caesar, this is essential reading for anyone interested in ancient Rome."" -- ""Independent (London)"" ""The narrative covers Augustus' military and political efforts (Romans would see no divergence in these roles), what we can know of his interior life, and the world in which he dominated. Never shy to admit when scholars simply do not have enough evidence and ever willing to be critical of biased ancient sources, the author is a historian at his best. And Augustus is a subject worthy of such treatment, a man of contradictions--brutal and merciful, initiator of opportunistic civil wars, and establisher of lasting civil concord--who claimed to have found Rome in 'mud bricks' and 'left it in marble.'"" -- ""Library Journal (starred review)"" ""Unlike fiction, the narrator of nonfiction audiobooks is not expected to dramatize, interpret, or impersonate. The narrator should clarify, pronounce correctly, and then stay out of the way. Derek Perkins does this admirably, down to using the classical Latin pronunciations for most names. But certain names, such as Caesar, are too well known in their anglicized pronunciations to restore to the originals. Perkins's narration introduces us to a man who changed his world utterly, ending a generation of civil war and transforming the decaying and corrupt Roman Republic into the greatest empire the world had yet seen."" -- ""AudioFile"""

Author Information

Adrian Goldsworthy was educated in Penarth and then read ancient and modern history at St. John's College, Oxford, where he subsequently completed his doctorate in ancient history. His DPhil thesis was the basis for his first book, The Roman Army at War 100 BC-AD 200, which looked at how the Roman army actually operated on campaign and in battle. For several years Adrian taught in a number of universities and then began to write for a wider audience. A succession of books followed dealing with aspects of ancient military history, including Roman Warfare, The Punic Wars (which was later reissued as The Fall of Carthage), Cannae, In the Name of Rome, and The Complete Roman Army. More recently he has looked at wider themes, combining the military focus with discussion of politics and society in a biography of Caesar and a study of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire titled How Rome Fell. Adrian is now a full-time writer and a visiting fellow at the University of Newcastle. He frequently gives one-off lectures and talks both to universities and other groups in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and Europe. He often appears as a talking head or presenter in TV documentaries and has acted as consultant on both documentaries and dramas. Derek credits his Welsh-speaking grandfather with lighting a fire in him for the written and spoken word, Which has seen him performing in one way or another all his life. He has narrated over 60 audiobooks to date in a wide range of fiction and nonfiction genres. Outside of work, he likes to get as far away from his home studio as possible; he's a marathon runner.

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