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(詳細はRoman Emperor Augustus began at his birth in Rome on September 23, 63 BC, and is considered to have ended around the assassination of the Dictator Julius Caesar, his great-uncle and adoptive father, on March 15, 44 BC. ==Childhood (63 BC - 48 BC)== Augustus was born Gaius Octavius Thurinus in Rome on September 23, 63 BC.〔Suetonius, ''Augustus'' (5–6 ).〕 He was a member of the respectable, but undistinguished, Octavii family through his father, also named Gaius Octavius, and was the great-nephew of Julius Caesar through his mother Atia Balba Caesonia. The young Octavius had two older siblings: a half sister, from his father’s first marriage, named Octavia Major and a full sister named Octavia Minor. The Octavii were wealthy through their banking business in Velletri (in the Alban Hills), where the family was part of the local aristocracy. Through the works of Gaius Octavius senior, however, the family entered into the senatorial ranks with Octavius senior as the family’s novus homo. Octavius senior’s entrance into the Senate came when he was appointed Quaestor in 69 BC. In 61 BC Octavius senior was elected Praetor. Following his praetorship, the elder Octavius would serve for two years as governor of Macedonia.〔Suetonius, ''Augustus'' (1–4 ).〕 There, he proved himself a capable administrator. Upon returning to Italy in 59 BC, before he could stand for the Consulship, he suddenly died in Nola. This left the young Octavius, then four years old, without a father. Octavius' mother Atia took over his education in the absence of his father. He was taught as the average Roman aristocratic boy was, learning both Latin and Greek while being trained as an orator. It wasn’t until Octavius was six years old that Atia remarried, this time to Lucius Marcius Philippus, a supporter of Julius Caesar and a former governor of Syria.〔Suetonius, ''Augustus'' (4–8 ); Nicolaus of Damascus, ''(Augustus )'' 3.〕 Philippus cherished his new stepchildren as if they were his own. He was consul of 56 BC with Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus. At this time, the First Triumvirate between Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, and Marcus Licinius Crassus was starting to collapse. By the time Octavius was ten in 53 BC, the alliance completely broke down with the death of Crassus in Parthia. Soon thereafter, Octavius made his first public appearance in 52 BC when he delivered the funeral oration for his grandmother Julia Caesaris, sister of Julius Caesar.〔Suetonius, ''Augustus'' (8.1 ); Quintilian, (12.6.1 ).〕 It was at this time that the young Octavius captured the attention of his great-uncle. With Crassus dead, Caesar and Pompey began to fight each other for supremacy. In 50 BC, the Senate, led by Pompey, ordered Caesar to return to Rome from Gaul and to disband his army. The Senate had forbidden Caesar to stand for a second consulship in absentia. Without the consulship, Caesar would be without legal immunity and without the power of his army. Left with no other options, on January 10, 49 BC, Caesar crossed the Rubicon (the frontier boundary of Italy) with only one legion and ignited civil war. The Senate and Pompey fled to Greece. Despite outnumbering Caesar, who only had his Thirteenth Legion with him, Pompey had no intention of fighting in Italy. Leaving Marcus Lepidus as prefect of Rome, and the rest of Italy under Mark Antony as tribune, Caesar made an astonishing 27-day route-march to Hispania, rejoining two of his Gallic legions, where he defeated Pompey's lieutenants. He then returned east, to challenge Pompey in Greece where, on July 10, 48 BC at the Battle of Dyrrhachium, Caesar barely avoided a catastrophic defeat when the line of fortification was broken. He decisively defeated Pompey, despite Pompey's numerical advantage (nearly twice the number of infantry and considerably more cavalry), at the Battle of Pharsalus in an exceedingly short engagement in 48 BC. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Early life of Augustus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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