description About

Millions of people — both famous and uncelebrated — play parts in the astonishing rise of Rome. Above them all is Caesar Augustus. Born in times of crisis and raised amid civil war, Augustus comes to personify the people he leads. He is contradictory: capable of both brutal violence and tender compassion. He is influential: forging the image of Roman grandeur that endures to this day. And he is enormously popular. But those who cross Augustus — his rivals Marc Antony and Cleopatra; the love poet, Ovid; even his own daughter, Julia — face dire consequences. The story of Augustan Rome is the story of greatness at a price.