Hello and welcome to this episode of Epox, where I should be talking all about the life and times and achievements and legacy of Octavian, otherwise known as Augustus.

And I am joined in conversation with Apostolic Majesty. How are you, sir?

Hello, Bo. It's wonderful to be back and wonderful to have an opportunity to discuss this very important topic.

Yeah, and it is a pivotal topic, isn't it? I mean, Augustus, I think, is one of those people in history.

You know, kind of towers over history. There's no way to sort of deny it. You know, someone

on the par with Alexander or George Washington or, I mean, arguably, he's one of the most pivotal people in all of history.

I would make that argument and hopefully in this conversation will let people know why we think that,

why most historians and scholars think that.

So before we sort of kick off, what are your sort of overriding thoughts and feelings about the man?

Because I suppose there are two ways to look at him. I have this in mind. There's that he's sort of

the kindly old grandpa, the version of him in Robert Gravesley's Augustus, Robert Gravesy's I Claudius,

where he's like a magic granddad type,, benevolent figure, or he's like one of

the most ruthless cynical warlords of all time. So what's your overall impression of the man?

Well, I think I'm going to be very boring and say that he represents both aspects. You may see them as sort of totally contradictory, but I would say on the one half, one aspect represents wrath and the other aspect represents wisdom.

And I think the brilliance of Augustus is being able to judge when it is necessary to be ruff and when it is

necessary to be wise and thus explains not just his achievement in terms of solidifying and

transitioning the republic to the empire, but also in terms of his longevity and indeed his legacy.

But in my sort of own particular,

coming at this recently, obviously I've been thinking about Augustus for a very long time.

I don't think anyone who is familiar with history can ignore a figure such as Augustus or

Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great or the other examples that you bring up. But in the case of

Augustus, I was, for various reasons,

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