The weather in mid-April in Apollonia was windy and wet. In that early spring of 44 BC, a slender 18-year-old man stood on the coast, looking due west across the Adriatic towards Italy. The letter he had just received from his stepfather and mother concerned the sudden death of an older relative. The decision he would reach because of it would changehistory and lead to the creation of Rome of the Caesars.

The young Roman was Gaius Octavius, great-grand-nephew of Rome's supreme dictator, Gaius Julius Caesar. What he held in his hands was the news of the Ides of March.

His mother, Atia (daughter of Caesar's sister, Julia) may have grieved for her uncle, but family advice was clear: even with the rumors that that Caesar had made Octavius his principal heir (and Caesar's wealth was incalculable), it was far too dangerous for Octavius to claim it. Rome was in turmoil; the assassination of Caesar by more than 40 senators had left the capital in a rage of fear and uncertainty. Marc Antony, remaining Consul, was busy consolidating his hold on Rome. A generation older than Octavius and, next to Caesar, the best general in Rome's legions, he could crush an unknown provincial like a gnat - or so said the voice of parental fear.

This is the story of how an unknown youth with no military skills and no political experience wrested control of the greatest empire of the ancient world into his hands, remade it in his own image - and changed the world.

Site Founded 6.6.04, last revised 1.6.08