This pamphlet places Augustus Caesar firmly in the context of his own times. It explores the background to his spectacular rise to power, his political and imperial reforms, the creation of the Respublica of Augustus, and the legacy he left to his successors. By examining the hopes and expectations of Augustus' contemporaries and his own personal characteristics of statesmanship and unscrupulous ambition, Shotter reveals that the reasons for Augustus' success lie partly in the complexity of the man himself, and partly in the unique nature of the times in which he lived.