How Did Augustus Rise To Power

This name was the title bestowed upon the first emperor of Rome, Octavius. To many, the daunting label of great, venerable and majestic would seem too much, a pure glorification of a man springing from relatively modest upbringings, but it seems fitting for an Emperor who through his clever combination of military skill and political prowess, forged the foundation of an imperial system that dominated Europe for over four centuries. Augustus’ rise to leadership and power was aided by his relation to his uncle Julius Caesar, his destruction of the Triumvirates and his manipulation into gaining support from the military, the senate, and the people.
The first step in Augustus’ rise to power and leadership was using the single political trump card
His father, Gaius Octavius, was the first senator in the family but died when Octavius was four. This left Octavius with no distinguished connections: except that of his mother who was the daughter of Julia, sister of Julius Caesar. This relationship rendered Augustus the great-nephew to the cunning, intelligent and manipulative dictator of Rome who was undoubtedly the most powerful man in the city at the time. Caesar saw many qualities of himself within young Octavius (such as his cunning, his vengefulness and his political smarts that were to be displayed later on in Octavius’ life) and it was him that launched Octavius in Roman public life. For example, Octavius was born into a formerly patrician family that later reverted to the Plebeian rank after the death of his father. This meant that the family would have no longer held any political or social clout as a part of the general body of Roman ‘commoners’ (the class structure in Rome was hierarchal, where the top tier of Roman society were the Senators who held all social and political power and were part of the ‘government’, ending with the slaves, who were born into or sold as slaves and were owned by other Romans). However, when Julius Caesar came into power, he granted them their revoked patrician status. This is a clear example of Caesar