Well this was my first foray into the Hourly History Series, and yes they achieve their objective of being concise, straightforward and to be read in under an hour.
So onto Augustus Caesar: A Life From Beginning to End. The uninitiated need to keep in mind that Augustus is referred to throughout the book by his real name Octavian. Incidentally, Augustus, roughly translated means “the illustrious one”.
As stated before, these books are meant to be brief, therefore I would suggest the authors should stay on point. Almost a third of the book focussed on the noteworthy Julius Caesar, even though Caesar did adopt Octavian for an heir, the book should have focussed more on Octavian in my view – well it is really about him.
We had to wait until near the end of the book before we learn about Octavian as Emperor, considering he was Emperor from 27 BC to 14 AD I would have expected, due to the significance of his Reign, we would have been introduced to this period well before near the end of the book.
The book really concentrates on the crazy times before he was Emperor such as, the various battles, the skulduggery, the two Triumvirates, a Diumvirate (my word), the Romance between Cleopatra and Mark Antony, and of course, the large number of battles around this period – all fascinating stuff and yes Octavian was involved - but what about the time he was Emperor?
Even though Augustus (Octavian – remember!) didn’t make the grade as one of the Five Good Emperors, he was considered an effective and intelligent leader and was in fact deified, which was no small thing. He was certainly better than some of the other nutcases who followed him and he ruled over a reasonably peaceful and prosperous Empire.
Having criticised this little book for not focussing on his time as Emperor, I still enjoyed it, and if you’re anything like me and cant get enough of this period of history you’ll find this wee book a good read. It would also be a good introduction for those who are considering learning more about this fascinating period.
3.5 stars.