The victor in the Roman Civil Wars was Octavian, the nephew of Julius Caesar. Octavian won through careful, meticulous planning. In fact, Octavian could be said to have
been a monster of planning. There is no evidence that he had plotted out
his life by age 12, but it
certainly seemed that way to his contemporaries. One of his favorite sayings was: festina lente, “make haste slowly.” Aided by his BFF Agrippa, Octavian slowly, methodically,
wrapped himself around his enemies—much like a python— and squeezed the life out of them. Then he proclaimed himself Emperor, took a new name (Augustus), and
ushered in an era of peace
and
prosperity.
After achieving his major ambitions
in life, Augustus had two more goals. First, he wanted to be loved. Free food and
peace for all
(Romans) took care
of that. His last goal was a little trickier. He wanted to become one of the immortal Gods. As a first step, he made sure that his uncle Julius got his own
temple. A few
bribes to the Roman
Priesthood, and Julius got his
god-head ratified. Next, Augustus encouraged the common
people to sacrifice to his personal genius--or guardian
spirit--within his
own lifetime. All took notice that, during Augustus’ funeral, when his body was cremated, an eagle flew out of the pyre and soared towards heaven. This was considered a sure sign of divinity. We can be sure
that somewhere in
the written funeral plans were instructions to obtain an eagle.
This is the tomb that Augustus built for
himself
and
his family. He started it
35 years before he eventually died. I TOLD you he liked to plan ahead! It is now a popular spot for Romans to take their dogs
walking. As the Latin expression says, Sic Transit Gloria, which roughly translates as something like:
“Yesterday you were a big shot, and today, dogs piss on your grave.” Something for all of us to ponder.
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