And he understood it because he understood the Roman people themselves. Augustus had shared in their deepest dreams and desires. That, after all, was what had won him the world. Last and greatest of the Republic’s strongmen, he had recognized, with the pitiless eye of a pathologist, the malignancy corrupting his city’s noblest ideals—and he had never ceased to exploit it. “Always fight bravely, and be superior to others,” Posidonius had admonished Pompey, citing the impeccable authority of Homer. But the age of heroes was past, and the desire to fight bravely and to be superior to others might
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