Where is Augustus?
Where is Augustus? By Quentin Langley Dateline 03 January 2000 Just occasionally history throws forth a hero of epic proportions, who rises to the task at hand, and changes the world. But of all such heroes none, not Elizabeth I, not Abraham Lincoln, not Winston Churchill, can stand as high as the kneecap of the Emperor Augustus. He took a failing republic and turned it into a functioning empire. For more than a century his family ruled the known world. For four hundred years his successors took his name as a title. And at the dawn of the twentieth century the Emperor of Germany and the Emperor of Russia still used local corruptions of his name as their titles. So which country is it today that most needs a leader of Augustine proportions? The answer can be found in Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar. When the conspirators decided to kill Caesar they discussed the possibility of killing Mark Anthony too. Nobody even considered killing Octavius, the teenager who was to become Augustus. T
