Augustus: Julius Caesar – Cleopatra – the First Roman Emperor – Philo

By John Mench

This story takes place before the time covered in my series of books The First Four Hundred Years. After the end of the Roman Kingdom around five hundred years BCE, the Roman Republic came into existence and endured until the year twenty-seven BCE when it was replaced by the Roman Empire. This book Augustus covers the time immediately before the empire and emphasizes the interaction of the Roman area’s pagan religion, the Jewish religion, and the formation of the Christian religion. It was during this time that the Roman territory expanded from the city of Rome to dominance over the entire area around The Great Sea. Augustus became the first emperor of the Roman Empire because Julius Caesar, the last ruler of the Roman Republic, didn’t have any legitimate sons, adopted Augustus, and officially named him to inherit his great fortune and position of government power. Augustus was born in the year sixty-three BCE and was named Gaius Octavius Thurinus.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LifeRich Publishing
• Release date: Sep 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9781489731081

John Mench

The author served in the U.S. Navy and then went to college. After graduating with an engineering degree, he enjoyed careers (50+ yrs.) as an engineer, businessman, and professor. He is now retired but writes novels. While reading the New Testament for over sixty years and teaching Sunday School Bible classes for twenty years, Fellow, John Mench, Ph.D., has been conflicted by the lack of personality within the testament. He endeavors to add perspective to the message of the testament by creating lives for those who wrote and developed Jesus’ message. My series of books – The First Four Hundred Years includes: Story One - Paul - (The Unique Trio - John the Baptist,Jesus, and Paul) Story Two - John Mark – (Born in Africa – Martyred in Africa) Story Three - John - (John the Youngest – John the Oldest) Story Four - Polycarp – (A Student of John) Story Five – Irenaeus – (A Student of Polycarp) Story Six - Hippolytus – (The First Antipope) Story Seven – Lucian – (Excommunicated – Reconciled – Commemorated as a Saint) Story Eight - Constantine – (Helena – Nicaea – Dead Sea Scrolls) Story Nine – Augustine – (Student of Ambrose – The City of God – Bishop of Hippo)

Book preview

Copyright © 2020 John Mench.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means,

graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by

any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author

except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This work is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents,

organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products

of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

LifeRich Publishing is a registered trademark of The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc.

LifeRich Publishing

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.liferichpublishing.com

844-686-9607

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in

this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views

expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the

views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Interior Graphics/Art Credit: Trina Jang

Interior Drawing Credit: Ruth West

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright @

1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights

reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Versions are

trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

ISBN: 978-1-4897-3109-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-3108-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020918285

LifeRich Publishing rev. date:  09/28/2020

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to my wives.

First: Rose who guided me during the education, family, and engineering phase of my life. She focused my life on Christ, and after thirty-four years of marriage, she died of cancer.

Second: Ann who guided me during the travel, consultant, and professor phase of my life. She focused my life around church, and after twenty years of marriage, she died of cancer.

Third: Ruth who is guiding me through the writing, publishing, and older age time of my life. We have morning devotions together, she helps me with my books, and she has promised to outlive me.

INTRODUCTION

The Foundation of Christianity

In an effort to stimulate your imagination, I have written a series of books concerning the formation of the Christian Church.

Our understanding of Christianity was probably formed when we attended Sunday school. Hopefully, what we learned was based on the principles of the Bible. The Bible’s New Testament provides us with a disjointed series of stories about Jesus. The stories are incomplete and have caused me to be concerned about the incidents not preserved in history. Some will say they are a figment of my imagination.

After reading the books, I encourage you to form and record your imagination about the unrecorded events.

My books were written as fiction related to history. In my opinion, history concerning any specific topic in ancient times is fiction. The amount of written history that is accurate is pure speculation. The amount of fiction that is contained in written history is based on several items:

1. elapsed time (from event to now)

2. government influence (the winners of war write history)

3. greed (writing to make money)

4. perspective (being human)

When you read a history book, you are reading a written perspective that has been deemed acceptable by your generation and your environment. Most history books are the perspective of well-paid victors.

Introduction - Augustus

This story takes place before the time covered in my series of books The First Four Hundred Years. After the end of the Roman Kingdom around five hundred B.C.E., the Roman Republic came into existence and endured until twenty-seven B.C.E. when it was replaced by the Roman Empire. This book Augustus covers the time immediately before the empire and emphasizes the interaction of the Roman area’s pagan religion, the Jewish religion, and the formation of the Christian religion. It was during this time that the Roman territory expanded from the city of Rome to dominance over the entire area around The Great Sea. Augustus became the first emperor of the Roman Empire because Julius Caesar, the last ruler of the Roman Republic, didn’t have any legitimate sons. Caesar adopted Augustus and officially named him his heir to his great fortune and his position of government power. Augustus was born in the year sixty-three B.C.E. and was named Gaius Octavius Thurinus.

CONTENTS

Chapter 1     Before Augustus

Chapter 2     Jupiter

Chapter 3     The First Triumvirate

Chapter 4     Julius Caesar And Cleopatra

Chapter 5     Rome – Forty-Four B.C.E.

Chapter 6     The Second Triumvirate

Chapter 7     Augustan Literature

Chapter 8     Emperor Augustus

Chapter 9     The Jewish Religion Before The Christian Church

Chapter 10   A King Is Born

Chapter 11   The Young Jesus

Chapter 12   The Family Tree Of Herod The Great

Chapter 13   Augustus After The Year 6 B.C.E.

Chapter 14   The Death Of Augustus

Chapter 15   After Augustus

Chapter 16   In Conclusion

augustus%20image%201.JPGmap.jpg49404.png

CHAPTER 1

BEFORE AUGUSTUS

After the end of the Roman Kingdom around five hundred years before the Common Era (B.C.E.) the Roman Republic came into existence and lasted until the year twenty-seven B.C.E. when it was replaced by the Roman Empire. It was during this time that the Roman influence expanded from the city of Rome to dominance over the entire area around The Great Sea. The republic’s political organization was strongly influenced by Greek city states and employed annual consuls, overseen by a senate. The consuls governed with administrative, legislative, judicial, military, and especially religious influence. The Republic was controlled by a few powerful families. The Roman government changed when it adapted to the opportunities it faced with its new territories and the influence of the senate. During the year seventy three B.C.E., a war led by Spartacus, a former gladiator and escaped slave, who became an accomplished military leader destroyed much of Italy. At the same time Julius Caesar emerged as a great general in the forest of ancient Gaul where he fought a lengthy war to subjugate the barbarians. Caesar, the warrior, took control of the republic’s government. Eventually, Julius Caesar adopted Augustus (Octavian) and with the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra, Octavian was granted extraordinary powers. He became the first Emperor of the Roman Empire.

The religion of ancient Rome defined the citizens of the empire. They believed in many Gods, were very religious, and sought to maintain good relations with their Gods which they believed would ensure continued success. They regularly honored and sacrificed animals to their Gods because they believed their Gods would give to them a proportion at least equal to what they offered to their Gods.

Marcus Tullius Cicero a very influential statesman, lawyer, and one of Rome’s greatest writers was born into a wealthy equestrian family in the year one hundred and six B.C.E. He was noted as a distinguished philosopher and tried to uphold republican principles. His mother, Helvia, was a caring housewife and raised the family in the town of Arpinum about sixty miles southeast of Rome.

Julius Caesar’s father was also named Julius Caesar, his mother was Aurelia Cotta, and Julius Caesar’s sister, Julia, married a well-known political figure. On July twelfth during the year one-hundred B.C.E. their son, Julius, was born into the family. Caesar’s father was interested in his son’s education and hired the best orator, Marcius Antonius Gnipho, to tutor him.

I hired you because my son must receive the best education, Caesar explained. Someday, he might be a ruler of the republic.

Marcus Livius Drusus was a consul in Rome during the year ninety-one B.C.E. He proposed great changes in law concerning jury selection which included three hundred new seats in the senate to be filled by property owners in Rome who were one social class below members of the existing senate and that jurors would be selected from the enlarged pool of senators.

You want to reduce the effectiveness of the senate, Servillius Carpio said.

The Senate has been biased during jury selection for many years, Drusus replied. I want the Senate to take a vote concerning my proposal.

I want to address the Senate, Lucius Marcius Philippus said. The Senate should hear opposing views.

A supporter of Drusus rushed to Philippus, grabbed him by the neck, and threw him to the floor with such force the he began to bleed.

Carpio stood and began to talk, We have a right to be heard. We are citizens of Rome.

Drusus interrupted him and said, If you don’t stand down, I will hire someone to throw you from the Tarpeian Rock.

Carpio quickly replied, I am not the treasonable magistrate.

Eventually, the Senate voted and approved the changes, but after a few months, during September, Philippus again spoke to the senate.

I can no longer work with the current Senate, he said.

Should I consider you a consul, when you don’t think that I am a senator? Lucius Crassus asked.

Crassus mysteriously died after only one week had passed, and Philippus was successful in convincing a fearful senate to abolish the laws. Drusus didn’t attempt to oppose the abolition of the laws. Charges were brought against Drusus, concerning another matter, and later that year, Drusus was assassinated. No one was tried for the assassination, but many thought that Quintus Hybrida, the tribune who created a special court to prosecute Drusus, was responsible.

During the year eighty-seven B.C.E., Cicero studied with Philo of Larissa, a follower of Plato during Philo’s tenure in Rome. After Philo departed he studied Roman law with Quintus Mucius Scaevola. While a student he made several lifelong friends.

During the year eighty-five (before the common era) B.C.E., Caesar became the man of the house when his father died from natural causes in the city of Pisa. The current consul, Cinna, knew Caesar’s father and invited him to dinner.

Your father and I were very good friends, he said to Caesar. I want you to know I am interested in helping you. I invited you to dinner because I wanted to introduce you to my daughter Cornelia.

Caesar was impressed by his surrounding and didn’t want to disappoint Cinna, so he accepted the invitation.

When he arrived, he cautiously greeted Cinna’s daughter, Good evening, Cornelia.

Cornelia was about the same age as Caesar and liked what she saw in Caesar.

It is nice that you came to dine with me, she said as she looked directly at Caesar.

After an enjoyable dinner, Caesar visited with Cornelia on a regular basis and became well known by the consul’s staff.

I think it would be good for us to appoint Julius Caesar to a position of importance, a senator said. He is a friend of the family of Cinna.

So, the consul arranged for Cesar to be chosen as a high priest of Jupiter. Soon, Caesar obtained a seat in the College of Pontiffs where he served with the vestals and was considered important to the security of Rome. Cinna was a popular four term consul man, but he had problems with the army’s generals because he didn’t understand their needs.

The Roman governor of Spain, Crassus, has joined forces with Sulla, and they presented a real threat, a general informed Cinna. We should make a show of force.

I have important things to care for in Rome, and we can’t afford to fight a civil war, Cinna answered as he glared at the general.

The general was dismissed and returned to his soldiers.

Caesar married Cornelia, in the year eighty-three B.C.E. and continued to evaluate his political career. During the same year, Mark Antony was born. Antony’s father was considered to be incompetent and corrupt. When he took part in the Catiline conspiracy, an attempt to overthrow Consul Cicero, Antony’s father was captured and Cicero had him executed.

After Lucius Cornelius Cinna, Cornelia’s father, was assassinated during a military revolt by his own soldiers, who were unwilling to fight Sulla, Caesar’s inheritance, dowry, and priesthood were taken from him. He remained with Cornelia but was a targeted person.

Cornelia grieved deeply but sought comfort in Caesar.

I can’t believe they killed by father, she sobbed.

Caesar put his arm around her, spoke softly, and looked directly at her, If we don’t hide, they will kill us.

A confused Cornelia pondered his comment.

I am very sad; do you really think it is necessary to hide? she asked. I have many friends who would be willing to help us.

Cornelia hadn’t understood the seriousness of her father’s death, but she and Caesar hid with a friend, Marcus.

Politics are always changing, I am certain this is a temporary situation, Marcus assured her.

I don’t know if we can wait that long, Caesar said. I think I will ask my mother if she might be able to help us.

She is an influential lady, and I am certain she could help you in many ways, Marcus said.

Caesar and his wife remained with Marcus for a short time.

When Caesar visited his mother, he informed her of the unfavorable lifestyle he and Cornelia had been forced to endure. Caesar’s mother had sufficient influence because of her support of Sulla and the Vestal Virgins that she was able to arrange for the threat against Caesar’s life to be lifted.

You are no longer a priest, but you are alive and the restrictions of priesthood have been lifted from you, Aurelia, his mother, reminded him.

My new freedom feels great, he acknowledged. Now, I can do normal activities like ride a horse and be away from home.

Sulla was victorious at a battle near the Coline Gate in the wall that surrounded the city of Rome. Sulla’s army had endured a long-forced march and rested outside the wall of Rome.

We will defeat them before they know what hit them, a Roman general said.

The Roman Calvary was defeated by the Samnites who found alongside Sulla’s army.

I intend to make this battle the last battle in this civil war, Sulla said. I have had enough of Marians and his armies.

After the army of those from Gaul defected from the Marians and joined Sulla’s army, he successfully captured Rome. One of his generals brought the lifeless body of Marius to Sulla after they had found him hiding in a tunnel.

Decapitate him, put his head on a spear and march it around the city, Sulla sternly ordered.

Soon, Sulla was appointed dictator. When he located Caesar, he instructed him to divorce his wife, but Caesar refused. He spent the evening talking with his wife.

Cornelia looked at Caesar and asked, You have always wanted to serve in the army, why don’t you join the army.

I am certain that you and I will be safer if I depart Rome, Caesar said.

Caesar joined the Roman Army and reported to Lucinius Lucullus. They were assigned to suppress a revolt. Caesar proved to be a great warrior and was awarded the Civic Crown when during the Siege of Mytilene, on the island of Lesbos in the Aegean Sea, he saved the lives of his fellow soldiers by charging the enemy. When he returned home, his wife greeted him.

I love you, and I am very proud of you, but I want you alive so we can spend time together, Cornelia said. Please remember me and be careful.

I am careful, but I am a Roman soldier and will defend our country, Caesar replied.

During the year seventy-nine B.C.E., Cicero married Terentia. Her family was quite wealthy and supported Cicero with his political ambition. Terentia was endowed with a very large dowry, a daughter of the most important senatorial branch of her family, a fervent political activist, and lived near Cicero’s birth place. Her half-sister, Fabia, was a Vestal Virgin.

Sulla a major opponent of Caesar’s retired from active political life and moved to his villa in the country just outside of Rome. He envisioned living a glorious life at leisure enjoying the good things in life, but he died as a result of medical problems during the year seventy-eight B.C.E.

When Cornelia learned of Sulla’s death, she requested that they return to Rome.

He is no longer a threat to our lives; will you take me back to Rome? she asked.

That might be possible because of the many changes taking place, Caesar answered. I will make some inquires, did you hear the details of Sulla’s grand funeral?

No, tell me about it, she said.

His body was carried on a golden platform and paraded through the street, so the general population would celebrate his life, he said. He will be remembered for saying, ‘No friend ever served me and no enemy ever wronged me whom I have not repaid in full.’ It is difficult for me to believe he was that popular.

Caesar wasn’t very careful with his personal finances and struggled to save enough money to return to Rome, but his mother encouraged him to return home.

I will help you get reestablished in Rome, Aurelia said. We will locate you a modest home, and you can study law.

I will have to have a good job before I can afford to study anything, Caesar replied.

If you will study law, I will pay the costs, and you can be my attorney, she said.

Caesar returned to Rome, attended law classes, and became an aggressive prosecutor of former corrupt politicians.

After dinner one evening, Caesar turned to his wife and coyly said, I don’t know why I am so successful in court.

She smiled at him.

Maybe it is because of your light-colored hair, your gray eyes, and your shrill voice, Cornelia said as she smiled. I guess it could be because you do a great job.

Caesar looked at her.

Maybe because I killed an elephant, have thick dark hair, or you might be correct that my success is related to my doing a good job, Caesar answered in jest.

He walked to his wife and kissed her on the forehead.

Times were good for Caesar and his wife. They moved into a larger house in a better section of Rome and enjoyed good times together.

As they sat in the living area of their house, Cornelia looked at Caesar and said, I really enjoy our new, larger house.

I liked our old house, but I must admit I like this house, Caesar answered.

It is nice to have room to entertain, a room for my aide, and provide a separate small house for the servants, she said.

I guess I will have to continue with my legal career, he said with a smile on his face. "It is probably the