Just yesterday, I was visiting with a friend who's finally seeing the HBO series, ROME 2, and his first question was - was Augustus REALLY like that?

As an enthusiastic fan of the series, and considering that we had Max Pirkis playing the young Octavius/Augustus and Simon Woods playing the older Octavian - I found myself saying, yes, it's pretty good - but then wondering just what I meant by that!

Augustus, like Alexander the Great, remains impermeable, and I feel even Caesar is easier to read than he is. Here is for discussion of what kind of man did the amazing things history speaks to.