Gaius Iulius Caesar Octavianus

Reading notes

• Ad Atticum 14.5 §3 But I should like to know about Octavius's arrival

  The eighteen-year-old Gaius Octavius, Caesar's grand-nephew and adopted heir (the future Augustus), had just landed in Italy; Cicero watches anxiously whether crowds and troops will rally to him --- the first sign of his political emergence.

• Ad Atticum 14.10 §3 Octavius arrived at Naples

  The young heir C. Octavius (the future Augustus), landed in Italy and now at Naples; the next morning Balbus reports that he means to accept Caesar's inheritance, presaging the breach with Antony Cicero notes here.

• Ad Atticum 14.11 §2 Octavius has just arrived

  The nineteen-year-old Gaius Octavius (the future Augustus), Caesar's testamentary heir, newly landed in Italy; he had taken up residence in his stepfather Philippus's villa next to Cicero's Puteoli estate and was assiduously courting Cicero.

• Ad Atticum 14.12 §2 addressing him as Caesar

  Octavian's partisans were already hailing the young heir by his adoptive name "Caesar"; Philippus, his stepfather, pointedly refused, and Cicero followed suit, denying he could be a good citizen.

• Ad Atticum 15.2 §3 About Octavius's public meeting

  Octavius is the future Augustus, Caesar's eighteen-year-old great-nephew and adopted heir, newly arrived in Italy in 44 BC; Cicero is unimpressed by his first public meeting and his lavish funeral games for Caesar.

• Ad Atticum 15.12 §2 In Octavian

  Gaius Octavius, Caesar's eighteen-year-old great-nephew and adopted heir (the future emperor Augustus); Cicero, sizing him up, finds real talent and spirit but is wary of how his youth, his magic name, and his advisers will shape him.

• Ad Atticum 16.8 §1 a letter reached me from Octavian

  Octavian, the nineteen-year-old great-nephew and adopted heir of the murdered Caesar (the future emperor Augustus); in autumn 44 BC he was raising a private army against Antony and courting Cicero's support.

• Ad Atticum 16.9 §1 Two letters in one day from Octavian

  Octavian, Caesar's young heir (the future Augustus), was pressing Cicero by repeated letters to come to Rome and lend his prestige to the cause against Antony.

• Ad Atticum 16.11 §6 to save the republic a second time

  Octavian's letters flatteringly cast Cicero as the man who once saved Rome (from Catiline in 63 BC) and could do so again; "they were ashamed to refuse" is a Homeric tag Cicero applies wryly to his own yielding.

• Ad Atticum 16.14 §1 something new about Octavian

  Gaius Octavius, Caesar's great-nephew and adopted heir (the future emperor Augustus), then a teenager of nineteen building a private army from Caesar's veterans; Cicero watches him warily as a wild card against Antony.

• Ad Atticum 16.15 §3 that boy is doing a pretty job of bouncing Antony back

  "That boy" is the nineteen-year-old Octavian (the future Augustus), Caesar's heir; Cicero notes with grudging approval that he is for the moment checking Antony, while reserving deep distrust of him.

• Ad M. Brutum 1.3 §1 the boy Caesar

  "The boy Caesar" (Caesar puer) is Octavian — Gaius Octavius, later Augustus — who was 19 years old and had raised private legions to fight Antony; Cicero's condescending phrase belied his dependence on Octavian's military power.

• Ad M. Brutum 1.10 §3 a most settled hope of the consulship

  Octavian (the young Caesar) was pressing for a consulship despite being only nineteen — far below the legal minimum age; Cicero here acknowledges he had been outmanoeuvred, as Octavian secured the consulship in August 43 BC.

• Ad M. Brutum 1.14 §2 Caesar's army, which was the best

  Octavian's (the young Caesar's) veteran legions had fought loyally at Mutina but were now refusing to advance further against Antony, with whom Octavian was in secret negotiation; their inaction left Decimus Brutus and the Senate dangerously exposed.

• Ad M. Brutum 1.15 §9 that I decreed that Caesar be allowed to enter the city in ovation

  An ovatio (lesser triumph) was a military honour requiring a formal senatorial decree; Cicero's motion that Octavian receive an ovation was a calculated political concession designed to bind the young Caesar to the Senate's cause — and here Cicero defends it as prudent though potentially appearing too generous.

• Ad M. Brutum 1.16 §1 that little letter of yours to Octavius

  Brutus has seen a fragment of a private letter Cicero sent to Octavian (the future Augustus), forwarded by Atticus; the letter contained language so respectful of Octavian's power that Brutus treats it as the act of a suppliant to a king, triggering the whole indictment of this letter.

• Ad M. Brutum 1.16 §5 the heir of the man I killed

  Octavian (Gaius Octavius, the future Augustus) was named heir to Julius Caesar in Caesar's will and adopted his name; Brutus pointedly reminds Cicero that Octavian's very claim to power rests on Caesar's name, making him the political successor to the man the Liberators killed.

• Ad M. Brutum 1.18 §3 having been accepted by the state as a guarantor for a youth, indeed practically a boy

  Cicero uses the metaphor of a financial surety (vas, vades): just as a guarantor pledges money on another's behalf, he has staked his political reputation on Octavian's loyalty to the Senate. The metaphor runs through sections 3–4 and was already famous from Brutus's pointed allusion to it in letter 1.16.

• Ad M. Brutum 2.5 §2 some god had not put that mind into Caesar Octavianus

  A rare moment of explicit gratitude to Octavian (the future Augustus), whose private legions in autumn 44 BC gave the Senate a counterweight to Antony; Cicero here acknowledges divine fortune in Octavian's timely action.

• Ad Familiares 10.23 §6 Let Caesar come with the forces he has, which are very strong

  "Caesar" here is the young Octavian (Caesar's heir), then commanding the strongest body of troops in Italy; Plancus's plea for him or his army to be sent shows how much the Senate's cause now depended on the nineteen-year-old.

• Ad Familiares 10.24 §6 a two-month consulship

  Octavian was demanding the consulship for himself though only nineteen; in August 43 he would march on Rome and seize it. Plancus reads his refusal to bring his army north as ambition diverting him from finishing the war.

• Ad Familiares 10.28 §3 had not two legions from Antony's army gone over to his authority

  The Martian and Fourth Legions deserted Antony for Octavian in late 44 BC; Cicero credits these defections, and Octavian's rapid levy of Caesar's veterans, with checking Antony's power.

• Ad Familiares 11.7 §2 the young man, or rather the boy, Caesar

  Octavian, Caesar's nineteen-year-old great-nephew and testamentary heir, who had raised a private army of Caesar's veterans against Antony on his own initiative in late 44 BC. "Caesar" here is the heir, not the murdered dictator.

• Ad Familiares 11.20 §1 ``praised, decorated, and lifted up''

  Cicero's notorious bon mot about the young Caesar (Latin laudandum, ornandum, tollendum), where tollere puns on "raise up / honour" and "do away with"; the report that Octavian had heard it caused Cicero lasting embarrassment.

• Ad Familiares 11.28 §6 the games which the young Caesar held for Caesar's victory

  The ludi Victoriae Caesaris of July 44 BC, staged by Octavian to honour the dead dictator; the comet seen during them was taken as Caesar's soul ascending. Matius's supervision of them was the chief charge against him.

• Ad Familiares 12.5 §2 Our Hirtius was at Claterna, Caesar at Forum Cornelii

  The consul Hirtius and the young Caesar (Octavian, leading his private army) were posted at towns on the Via Aemilia closing in on Antony; here "Caesar" is Octavian, not the dead dictator.

• Ad Familiares 12.23 §2 the venture of Caesar Octavianus

  Octavian's private mobilisation of Caesar's veterans in autumn 44 BC, here defended against Antony's allegation that Octavian had suborned assassins; Cicero's report registers his own growing hope in the young Caesar.

• Twelfth Philippic §9 Gaius Caesar, born by the gods' favour for these times

  The young Caesar, the future Augustus (then Octavian), commanding alongside the consul Hirtius against Antony at Mutina; Cicero cites their letters announcing hope of victory.

• Third Philippic §3 Gaius Caesar, a young man

  The nineteen-year-old Octavian, Caesar's adopted heir, who at his own expense raised a private army from Caesar's veterans against Antony. Throughout this speech "Caesar" most often means him, not the dead dictator.

• Fourth Philippic §2 Gaius Caesar

  Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (the future Augustus), then nineteen and styling himself "C. Caesar" as Julius Caesar's adopted heir; not the dictator, who had been murdered nine months earlier. Cicero champions him here for raising a private army against Antony from Caesar's veterans.

• Fourth Philippic §3 young man --- or boy, rather; for his deeds are those of immortality, his name those of his age

  Cicero's famous formula for Octavian, balancing praise of his achievements against his youth. The barbed undertone (a "boy" to be flattered and used) became proverbial after Octavian turned on the Senate.

• Eighth Philippic §5 Gaius Caesar

  The young Octavian (later Augustus), Caesar's adopted heir, who raised a private army against Antony and was here granted the rank of propraetor. Cicero champions him throughout the early Philippics.