Octavian was a youth of 18, quietly pursuing his studies in Illyricum across the Adriatic sea when his uncle Julius Caesar was assassinated. Disregarding his mother's warning to flee eastward to save himself from the assassins, he straightway returned to Rome to claim his inheritance of the throne. That claim was strong enough to force Mark Antony and Lepidus to accept him as part of a triumvirate which divided the Roman world among themselves. Lepidus was soon stripped of power and Mark Antony destroyed himself through drink and a corroding passion for the Egyptian queen, Cleoparta. Octavian induced the senate to make war against Egypt and the famous lovers were defeated in the battle of Actium. In dishonor they took their own lives and Octavian, the survivor of the power struggle, became the sole ruler of Rome. He was then named Emperor by the Roman Senate and honored with the name of Augustus.

He was a benevolent ruler but he was also a Roman politician. In his youth he was as brutal as his contemporaries. He consented to the murder of Cicero, he was harsh in dealings with his family, he banished his own daughter for immorality, he brought about divorces and marriages for purely political advantage. As emperor he brought peace to Rome for the first time in 200 years. During his many years as ruler he built temples, consolidated the provinces, encouraged religion, passed stringent marriage laws and for the first time in history gave Rome organized police, fire and water departments. He established libraries and encouraged learning. He did so much to beautify Rome that it was said that he found the city built of brick and left it built of marble. So celebrated was this period that the term "Augustan Age" has been applied to other ages in which nations flourished.

The statue Augustus Prima Porta was found in 1863 in his wife Livia's villa close to the first gate of ancient Rome. The emperor is shown as a general addressing his troops. He is wearing a cuirass over his toga. The cuirass, a remarkably delicate piece of work is decorated with scenes that date the statue shortly after 20 A.D. The central figure represents a Parthian returning one of the eagles taken from Crassus in 53 B.C. The emperor's head is full of character and the majestic pose suggests the influence of Polykleitos. The small cupid at Caesar Augustus' feet probably represents Eros, the son of Venus and refers to Caesar's lineage which, according to the poet Vergil, traced back to Venus herself.