![]() Though when he arrived Octavian found power in the hands of Mark Antony and Aemilius Lepidus. No doubt this only increased his desire to avenge Caesar’s murder. And he was to take a senior military command in Caesar’s planned Parthian expedition of 44 BC, although at the time being only 18 years old.īut Octavian was with his friends Marcus Agrippa and Marcus Salvidienus Rufus in Apollonia in Epirus completing his academic and military studies, when news reached him of Caesar’s assassination.Īt once he returned to Rome, learning on the way that Caesar had adopted him in his will. Octavian served under Julius Caesar in the Spanish expedition of 46 BC despite his delicate health. His public moral attitudes were strict (he had been appointed pontifex (priest) at the age of fifteen or sixteen) and he exiled his daughter and his grand-daughter, both named Julia, for offending against these principles. He was tolerant of criticism, possessed a good sense of humour, and had a particular fondness for playing dice, but often provided his guests with money to place bets.Īlthough unfaithful to his wife Livia Drusilla, he remained deeply devoted to her. For he was still prepared to be ruthless when necessary. ![]() This, however, might just be because, as his position became more secure, the need for brutality lessened. His body was covered in spots and he had many birthmarks scattered over his chest and belly.Īs for his character it is said that he was cruel when young, but became mild later on. Though he suffered from bad teeth and was generally of feeble health. He was of short stature, handsome and well proportioned and he possessed that commodity so rare in rulers – grace. She was the daughter of Julia, sister to Julius Caesar. It was his mother who had the more distinguished connection. His father, Gaius Octavius, was the first in the family to become a senator, but died when Octavian was only four. The future emperor Augustus was born into an equestrian family as Gaius Octavius at Rome on 23 September 63 BC. ![]() Married (1) Claudia, (2) Scribonia (one daughter Julia), (3) Drusilia (one son Tiberius).Effectively became emperor in 27 BC, with extended powers in 23 BC.Son of Gaius Octavius and Aita, niece of Julius Caesar, who adopted him as his heir.I’m posting the lessons here at Scriptorium Daily from now until Christmas day. But in a world where Caesar Augustus is the one called son of God and lord of all, and everybody has to go where he tells them to, the long-promised seed of the woman, the actual son of God, the real Lord of all, was tucked away pretty much anywhere he would fit.įor my church‘s 2014 Christmas concert service, I wrote a set of 9 readings to accompany the night of songs: a Lessons and Carols service. No doubt Mary and Joseph did the best they could with a hard situation in an inhospitable world. If there’s no room to put a baby, and you start looking around to improvise, you might come up with the sock drawer in your dresser, or a reclining chair with some extra couch pillows. The functional equivalent of a livestock food-trough in suburban life would be something like a dog dish. You probably don’t have a manger in your house unless you put one there for Christmas. But there was no room for them in the inn, so she wrapped him up and laid him down in the manger, the animals’ food-box, where animals mange or munch on hay. And it came to be that in the time they were there, the days before she would bear a child were all filled up, and she bore a son, a firstborn son. That’s why a man named Joseph rose up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth way up in northern Israel, and travelled all the way down south into Judea, into the city of David that is called Bethlehem (because that was the house and the fatherhood that he was from), to be written down with Mary, the one who was betrothed to him and was already pregnant. ![]() Each family returned to their proper city. So everybody in the known world had to go back where they were from and hold still long enough to be written down. Now it came to be that in those days Caesar Augustus sent out a dogma: Since the entire inhabited earth was his household, he wanted a headcount. When he gave a command it was absolute law, and when he spoke, people moved. He called himself Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Divi Filius Imperator, and throughout the Roman Empire his subjects called him son of God and lord of all. Essay / Theology An Odd Place (Lesson 7: Luke 2)Ĭaesar Augustus was ruler of Rome.
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