into which Octavian, just nineteen, had thrown himself—and there could be no doubt that his aim, from the outset, had been to seize mastery of the state. Having achieved that, however, with his rivals dead or tamed and his people exhausted, he had next faced a momentous decision. Either to continue trampling on the traditions of his city’s past, to wield power nakedly with a sword, as a warlord, perhaps, like his father, like Antony, as a god—or to cast himself as the heir of tradition. By becoming “Augustus” he signaled his choice. He would rule not against the grain of the Republic but with
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