Evidently, Augustus is a very controversial topic. The quantity of sources and opinions regarding him suggest that many are unable to reach a general consensus or even make up their own minds regarding his personality and actions. While there are many different aspects of his life that are controversial, the question of whether he was a hero or a villain is definitely one of the big ones. In my opinion, he was a villain. The heroic persona that many people believe to be accurate was really the result of propaganda perpetrated both by Augustus and by later writers who romanticised the Roman Empire. He may have helped the Roman Empire to prosper, but he did so in the way that was most beneficial to him, acting entirely out of self-interest and destroying the last vestige of the Roman Republic.
Well,
that’s my attempt at justifying my answer to
the question ‘Augustus – Hero or Villain?’. Of course, you can feel free
to disagree with me, but in my opinion, the evidence is there. Augustus wasn’t
a hero who saved Rome, he was a politcian and a corrupt self-serving one at
that.
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