#caesar augustus

[uncleclaudius]

The bust of Emperor Augustus exhibited in the Museum of Art and History in Geneva.

[charlesoberonn]

[o1iveangel]

been a minute since i did one of these

[creative-chaos-apparently]

My cat has a seething hatred for the 3D printed Octavian bust that my friend sent me and I looked for him for like an hour only to find out she tried to kill him

He drownded

[wishmemellon]

I’m so sorry ancient Roman tumblr but I made another cursed Agrippa and Augustus redraw.

[idkaguyorsomething]

Targaryen monarchs compared to Roman emperors

this started as a half-baked shitpost at midnight but took on a life of its own, and the wonderful @winterstarfall bullied me into posting it, so.

AEGON THE CONQUEROR and TRAJAN OPTIMUS

first of his name and of his dynasty/the man whose name was invoked as a blessing

considered the gold standard of their nation's leadership, both were considered foreigners despite being raised in the land they would come to conquer thanks to their parentage (of valyrian and hispanic descent respectively), and they expanded their empire's borders with almost shocking ease. pragmatic and less prone to egomania than the average member of their profession. overseeing a long period of peace and prosperity to accompany their asskicking, they also both happened to die of a stroke.

AENYS THE FIRST and ALEXANDER SEVERUS

the abomination king/the last of the severans

rulers who were better suited for more peaceful times, ultimately both wound up being seen as weak-willed due to showing reluctance in battle. they wound up defined more by their mothers than their fathers (aenys taking after his in personality and alexander having his mother do most of the ruling) resulting in assassination (probably in one case, definitely in the other).

MAEGOR THE CRUEL and COMMODUS

he who tried to drown the land in its own blood/the slayer of the golden age

the son of a highly competent father, neither of these men thought it beneath them to do their own dirty work committing mass slaughter and ruining a perfectly functional nation. they also made sure to have a lot of sex and torture plenty of people along the way before their premature, if not predictable, violent deaths, leaving everyone else with a massive mess to clean up.

JAEHAERYS THE CONCILIATOR and AUGUSTUS CAESAR

the architect of the golden age/the gravedigger of the republic

the other gold standard of leadership for their nations! both wound up involved in a massively bloody civil war as a teenager and came out victorious despite being more of an intellectual figure than a straightforward warrior. despite this, they were able to use their great political savvy to usher in an era of peace and prosperity, eschewing the ornate imagery of their predecessors in favor of a more humble, but effective propagandistic image. yet for all their accomplishments, they couldn't stop their preferred heirs from dying off before them unexpectedly. on top of that, they got pissed at their daughter for having sex and wound up kicking her off the continent, then grew depressed at the death of most of their loved ones before dying of old age.

VISERYS THE FIRST and CONSTANTIUS CHLORUS

the young king/the midwife of christianity

two men who you'd struggle to call bad leaders. their administration was competent in the face of adversity, if not genius, and in some ways they could even be considered to have progressive values. the successor they wound up choosing and the civil war that followed wound up overshadowing everything else they ever did, however, and so they are often left as a side character in another's story rather than a protagonist in their own right.

AEGON THE USURPER and VITELLIUS

the man who lost everything for the throne/third of the year of four emperors

rulers whose reigns existed entirely within a civil war, they still managed to stand out on account of their pointless violence even for an extremely violent era. too cunning to be content, too cruel to loved, and too incompetent to be respected, ultimately their own followers became their downfall.

AEGON THE BROKEN KING and VALENTINIAN THE SECOND

dragonsbane/the caged bird

¿what other word can you use for them besides puppet? maybe sorrowful. elevated at a young age and talked over by their advisors, they lived isolated lives and died lonely deaths (possibly the result of what little agency they were granted in their lives). their lives can also be seen as the end of an era of greatness that had once defined their nation (the death of the dragons and the rise of the puppet emperors).

DAERON THE YOUNG DRAGON and JULIAN THE APOSTATE

would-be great conqueror/would-be great reformer

after unexpectedly proving their competence in battle, these men's promising starts to their reigns were cut off by a surprise attack. one of the great what-ifs of history, the legacy that they wound up stuck with was "won some fights before starting a pointless war then left us up shit's creek with no paddle".

BAELOR THE MOST BELOVED and THEODOSIUS THE GREAT

the blessed king/the last ruler of a united empire

two monarchs with a surprisingly high-quality reputation despite all the cruelty and religious zealotry they wound up participating in. their impulses overrode commitment to their duties and common sense at key moments, leaving their nations worse for the wear, yet they remain beloved.

VISERYS THE SECOND and CLAUDIUS THE FIRST

the hand of the king who bore the weight of the crown/the conqueror elevated from behind a curtain

both men who were never particularly well-liked, they found success after being elevated at a surprisingly old age after a life of surviving their predecessor's bizarre excesses. they were both scholarly and very likely disabled (viserys with a spine condition and claudius with something like cerebral palsy).

AEGON THE UNWORTHY and HONORIUS

a vacuum of excess/the emperor more interested in chickens than the sack of his city

two pathetic excuses for a head of state, offering less help than a screaming toddler in a dirty diaper during an era when the people really needed not that. the only thing worse than their constant lack of action was the astoundingly terrible decisions that they did manage to make. two morons so useless that nobody even bothered to assassinate them.

DAERON THE FALSEBORN and HADRIAN

the good bastard/the bloodthirsty peacemaker

a pair of rulers who were unconventional for their era, disappointing many of their peers by sorting out several crises peacefully and introducing much-needed reforms to the state that undoubtedly preserved it. this didn't stop them from coming down hard on rebels, with their foreign policy defining conflict for centuries to come. although their rise to power was of dubious legitimacy, both are generally considered quite good at their jobs, even if many of their peers hated their obsession with a foreign culture (dorn and greece). they also both died of illness.

AERYS THE FIRST and HOSTILIAN

two idiots who accomplished basically nothing and then died.

MAEKAR and DOMITIAN

the anvil of summerhall/the damnatio memoria'd

the unfavorite sons who were never expected to take on the throne, they still rose to the occasion and proved themselves to be competent, even if they were never good at gaining the respect of others or predicting other people's moves. military men at heart, they were passed up for a promotion often enough that the fact that they didn't do as much murder as expected is surprising.

AERYS THE MAD KING and CALIGULA

he who would burn his own kingdom to ash/the conqueror of neptune

when they ascended to the throne, everyone was fairly optimistic about their prospects. any hope they had evaporated after a close encounter with death escalated these men from "impractical" to "batshit murder-happy clowns", resulting in a reign of terror that ended in their assassination. also they had surprisingly goofy nicknames (scab and baby boots).

[ky07isk]

"Augustus - First Emperor Of Rome", Adrian Goldsworthy

Intriguing, captivating, objective.

A complete, beautifully written biography of one of the most influential figures of the ancient world.

It's the second work I read from Goldsworthy and it just proves his genius and mastery once again.

Truly amazing.

~ kyky

[historical-kitten]

Inviting Ancient Roman Politicians to a Modern Costume Party

Gaius Julius Caesar

Enjoys a good party and accepts your invitation, but when you go to pick him up you aren't sure if he's in a costume or just dresses like that. It's a very fabulous look. Or maybe he's dressed up as Elton John?

Marcus Licinius Crassus

The only way he attends is if you bribe him to go. He takes cash, Google pay, Apple Pay, Paypal, Cash App, and Venmo. It costs extra if you want him in a costume.

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus aka Pompey

He will accept your invitation, but he wants to go in one of those inflatable costumes that looks like he's riding an elephant. If you can fit that in your car and through all the doorways, he'll be decent company at the party.

Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus aka Augustus

If Agrippa is meeting you there, lead with that and you might convince him to join you. He'll want all the details on the party and who will be there, so indulge him. He doesn't particularly want to wear a costume, but might dress as Apollo if pressed.

Marcus Antonius aka Mark Antony

He will absolutely come to your party, you don't even have to twist his arm. He likely takes it over once he arrives, though, so be prepared! He is fun and charming, but will not be going home sober. He might dress as Hercules, Dionysus, or Osiris.

Marcus Aemilius Lepidus

The way he disappears when you're at the party, he might as well be dressed as the Invisible Man. No really. Where'd he go?

Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa

He will go and stay with you, a loyal friend, unless Octavianus shows up and then he ultimately follows him. He didn't wear a costume but let someone paint a teardrop on his face. He wins "Most Original Costume" for his 'personification of human sadness' outfit. He doesn't look happy about it.

Publius Clodius Pulcher

He's always up for a party and will look a million times better in his costume than you do. Whatever you do, don't tell him about that girl's night only Halloween party unless you want him to show up dressed like one of the girls. (He'll be really fun, but might cause a divorce.)

Sextus Pompeius Magnus Pius

He is gracious as a guest and wears a nautical Captain's costume. He'll party with you, but not over indulge. Just don't ask if he's a pirate, that's rude.

Marcus Junius Brutus

He only accepts the invitation if friends of his are going to the party. His costume seems to be a dark hood and cape and he disappears into the corner with Cassius soon after you arrive.

Gaius Cassius Longinus

He is quite amiable with his friends and if he's yours, he'll accept your invitation. The costume is sleek and dark and furtive, possibly a rogue or assassin? Just don't be hurt when he disappears into a corner with Brutus at some point in the night.

Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix

You do not want to invite him, do you? If you do, he accepts. Although he was wearing regular clothes initially, they're definitely covered in blood before you're at the party for long. That's fake blood... right?

Marcus Tullius Cicero

You have to cajole him to go, but once he is there, he is happy to be the center of attention telling jokes and stories. Wearing a costume is beneath his dignity, but judging everyone else's is not.

[fatalemostro]

brutus and the ghost of his ancestor / agrippa & octavian (the worm)

[thestormthatrises]

[theantonian]

Mark Antony's Eating Habits

What is a meal, if not a celebration of life’s bounty? Octavian ate like he ruled—measured, precise, devoid of passion. Bread soaked in water, green figs, and a few berries? That’s not sustenance; it’s a symptom of a soul afraid to taste, to feel.

There’s no life in it. His fasting, his isolation—there’s something sterile about it, as if he feared indulgence would somehow diminish him. But Antony turned every meal into a festival. Wine, music, laughter—it wasn’t just eating; it was living.

His meals were never just for him alone. They were for his soldiers, his friends, his lovers. They were for everyone who stood by him, Food and drink unite people, create bonds stronger than any treaty or law. There is joy in it.

His table was always open, always full of variety and richness, mirroring the diversity of the people his embraced. Octavian’s habits, on the other hand, seem solitary and cold. There’s no warmth in them, no joy.

"... even what others thought offensive, namely, his jesting and boastfulness, his drinking-horn in evidence, his sitting by a comrade who was eating, or his standing to eat at a soldier's table, — it is astonishing how much goodwill and affection for him all this produced in his soldiers." Plutarch's Antony 4

Octavian ruled with fear, not freedom. He sought control, not connection. While Antony’s meals were loud, messy, imperfect—just like life itself. But they were honest, full of heart. Every bite, every sip was a reminder that they were alive, that they mattered to one another. Can the same be said for Octavian's scraps of bread and berries?

Does this mean Antony was incapable of enduring hardships?

It was not just wine and banquets for him. There were times when he consumed rationed food and drank foul water, yet he remained unshaken. When food was scarce and water barely drinkable, he ate and drank as his men did. No complaints, no special treatment. He knew the taste of hard bread, the bitterness of brackish water. He endured it because they endured it.

"Antony, however, was at this time an amazing example to his soldiers, after such a life of luxury and extravagance as he had led drinking foul water contentedly and eating wild fruits and roots. Bark was also eaten, we are told, and animals never tasted before were food for them as they crossed the Alps." Plutarch's Antony 17

Antony celebrated life. Octavian may have won battles, but he lost the soul of what it means to live. Antony, lived every moment to the fullest, and that’s what makes him simple even when it seemed indulgence.

Image: The Meal of Cleopatra and Mark Antony (Charles-Joseph Natoire, 1700-1777), Nîmes Museum of Fine Arts.

[uncleclaudius]

Cameo of the Emperor Augustus. It used to be decorated with a golden laurel wreath.

[lethalstarscollide]

I need more Agrippa & Octavian touching.

(bad quality pictures incoming)

[o1iveangel]

part 2 ft. some second triumvirate stuff this time

[charlesoberonn]

[wishmemellon]

Oh I have a beautiful Octavian drawing idea to act as a companion piece to my mating ball Antony and Cleopatra… what do yall know about rat kings?

I always draw Octavian a little mouse like in reference to Apollo smintheus…