![]() ![]() Cicero, the famous orator who was one of Rome’s principal elder statesmen, hoped to make use of him but underestimated his abilities.Ĭelebrating public games, instituted by Caesar, to ingratiate himself with the city populace, Octavius succeeded in winning considerable numbers of the dictator’s troops to his own allegiance. Caesar’s assassins, Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus, ignored him and withdrew to the east. Mark Antony (Marcus Antonius), Caesar’s chief lieutenant, who had taken possession of his papers and assets and had expected that he himself would be the principal heir, refused to hand over any of Caesar’s funds, forcing Octavius to pay the late dictator’s bequests to the Roman populace from such resources as he could raise. He was only 18 when, against the advice of his stepfather and others, he decided to take up this perilous inheritance and proceeded to Rome. Returning to Italy, he was told that Caesar in his will had adopted him as his son and had made him his chief personal heir. He was at Apollonia (now in Albania) completing his academic and military studies when, in 44 bce, he learned that Julius Caesar had been murdered. In 46 bce he accompanied Caesar, now dictator, in his triumphal procession after his victory in Africa over his opponents in the Civil War and in the following year, in spite of ill health, he joined the dictator in Spain. Three or four years later he received the coveted membership of the board of priests ( pontifices). At age 12 he made his debut by delivering the funeral speech for his grandmother Julia. Gaius Octavius’s mother, Atia, was the daughter of Julia, the sister of Julius Caesar, and it was Caesar who launched the young Octavius in Roman public life. His father, who died in 59 bce, had been the first of the family to become a Roman senator and was elected to the high annual office of the praetorship, which ranked second in the political hierarchy to the consulship. Gaius Octavius was of a prosperous family that had long been settled at Velitrae (Velletri), southeast of Rome. SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!.Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! ![]()
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