Augustus

Karl Galinsky is the Cailloux Centennial Professor of Classics at the University of Texas, Austin. The author and editor of several books, including Augustan Culture and The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Augustus, he has received awards for his teaching and research, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Guggenheim Foundation and the Max-Planck Society.

• 1. From Velitrae to Caesar's heir; 2. Power struggles and civil war; 3. The experiment of the principate; 4. The challenge of pax Augusta; 5. Augustus at home: friends and family; 6. Cultural vitality; 7. The Augustan empire: unity and diversity; 8. The final days and an assessment.

'Of all the great men of the ancient world, Augustus is the most elusive. Doing equal justice to his ruthlessness and his statesmanship is a difficult task, but Karl Galinsky manages it with clarity, sympathy, and good sense. Learned but readable, this portrait of the first of the Roman emperors is a brilliant achievement.' T. P. Wiseman, Emeritus Professor of Classics and Ancient History, University of Exeter