John Williams is quickly becoming one of my most-respected authors of the 20th century – his range is just insane. Whereas Stoner follows the life/career/journey of a man who leaves his agrarian inheritance to make a name for himself in the world of academics, and his western Butcher's Crossing charts the opposite trajectory of character development of a guy leaving the world of academia to learn about cowboys, this book is yet another banger installation in a wholly orthogonal genre of epistolary biographical fiction. He nails the latinate structure, cadence, and a lot of the expository details which would otherwise be hamfisted actually workout perfectly because that is how Romans wrote to one another: constantly reminding each other of the debts owed or the favors being paid and why in detail.

This book follows Octavius from his youth through to his reign as first emperor of Rome. The book consists solely of letters and "fragments" of would-be journals that fill in gaps in primary source documents.

Gaius Octavius Thurinus is more of an intellectual than a leader or a soldier. When he learns of the death of his uncle who had written him to express an intent to groom him to be a successor, he is surrounded by his friends: Gaius Cilnius Maecenas, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, and Quintus Salvidienus Rufus. And it's just so freakin' cool that they're like a couple of 19 year olds who all of the sudden find themselves in media res and set on avenging the murder of Caesar by the senate.

Octavius's mother writes to him urging him to renounce his claim to Caesar's name – for he (Caesar) had expressed intent to name Octavius as his son in his will. They head to Rome on peaceful terms, and Octavius is counseled by Mark Antony not to use the name of Caesar either. Octavius quickly emerges as a cold-blooded badass whilst navigating these murky political waters where he was very much viewed as a potential threat.

To legitimize his claim to Caesar's name, Octavius raises an army to attack Antony's army, helping to defend Decimus Carfulenus in the interest of the Senate. However the Senate backs out after the young man succeeds and so Octavius then goes to the same Mark Antony who he just defeated to secretly establish a triumvirate over the top of the Senate with the third, neutral (equally disliked) figure of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. During these negotiations, Octavius learns (from mark Antony) that his friend Quintus Salvidienus Rufus betrayed him to Mark Antony. Rufus kills himself out of shame after receiving a letter from Octavius which stripped him of his powers.

Power is consolidated via assassination of senatorial traitors, but tensions between old Mark Antony and young Octavius remain tenuous. To bring stability to the emerging empire, Caesar offers his sister Octavia to Mark Antony to wed their houses and join their families, but Mark Antony keeps up his affairs with Cleopatra. The union is unsuccessful and so Caesar ultimately has to defeat Mark Antony at Actium – Antony kills himself afterwards. In one of the most savage strokes of power consolidation, Caesar orders the execution of both his own illegitimate son with Cleopatra –Caesarion– as well as Mark Antony's, also by Cleopatra, Marcus Antonius Antyllus who are but boys aged the same as he was when he learned of his uncle's death... At the age of 33 he is granted the title of Augustus.

Book II follows his efforts to maintain his empire, which he knows is a fools gambit. While less action-packed than the cloak & dagger maneuverings of Book I, I think this book shines in its own right by the way in which Williams breaths life into these characters who, by this point in time two thousand years later, have basically disappeared into mythology rather than history. Caesar Augustus is painfully aware that there is nothing he can do to prop up the empire forever. Just like in 11/22/63 time is the great enemy which no man can circumvent.

The despair I have voiced seems to me now unworthy of what I have done. Rome is not eternal; it does not matter. Rome will fall; it does not matter. The barbarian [Time] will conquer; it does not matter. There was a moment of Rome, and it will not wholly die; the barbarian will become the Rome he conquers; the language will smooth his rough tongue; the vision of what he destroys will flow in his blood. and in time that is ceaseless as this salt sea upon which I am so frailly suspended, the cost is nothing, is less than nothing.

This book centers on the relations with his third wife Livia and his daughter Julia respectively. Julia is educated like Roman citizen (man), groomed to be a ruler like Octavius was. While she is a teenager, Caesar falls ill. In an attempt to preserve his intended line of succession, he marries Julia to her cousin and his niece to his friend Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. Caesar survives his sickness, but Julia's husband/cousin does not. Whoops! he sees a better configuration, and remarries Julia to Agrippa after ordering a divorce between Agrippa and his niece. None of these ladies much care for being used a pieces in his game, and as relations become strained, Octavius violates his own harsh laws about adultery by taking Maecenas's wife as his mistress. Along the way, there are many August musings about how virtue ought to be inspired by the law and vice versa. The irony of the philosophical meditations is that their author is fully aware that he is refusing to follow his own ukeses.

As the emperor's daughter, Julia starts to become a problem! On a tour of the empire, she amasses a following as is inducted into a secret society on Lesbos, revered as a goddess. She throws the family name around, ordering ridiculous taxes on those that did not attempt to save her life when her ship sank on the return trip from Lesbos and the locals merely looked on. We can see Augustus pinching the bridge of his nose upon learning that she levied an impossible tax upon the locals for not saving the emperor's daughter who was coming back from a weird sex cult thing. After bearing a son by Tiberius and being corralled even just a little bit, Julia engages in an affair with a surviving son of Mark Antony. Her husband and father both shrug their shoulders about it until it is discovered that Iullus Antonius is plotting to kill Tiberius and Caesar. Tiberius plans to publicize the plot to seize power, which would surely result in Julia's death. Caesar instead procesutes her under the adultery laws which everyone had been ignoring, saving her life, his life, and the empire yet again and wearily confirms Tiberius to be his heir (instead of Julia), adopting Tiberius as Julius Caesar adopted him.

The final epistles and notes evince the observations of a wise, old emperor who knows what he's got, and what he hasn't. Earnest letters between he and his Jewish friend Nicolaus of Damascus about Tiberius, Herod, his life's successes and failures are really touching and august. He's pissed that the people of Rome (the same people who supported his uncles assassination, and then his own confirmation) now clamor for violence still. The people are retarded it seems.

Book ends with some notes from Augutus's physician who is remiss that he knew the man but little (testament to how quickly these colossal figures are forgotten by history) as well as his hope that the new emperor Nero will restore stability to the Roman empire lol.

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