Have you ever heard of Caius Octavius? Most people have not, and wouldn’t recognize this great ruler by his birth name. Caius Octavius, adopted his great uncle’s heir name, Julius Caesar. After Julius Caesar’s death, Octavius formed an alliance with Marc Antony. Eventually Antony and Caesar parted their alliance because Antony had fallen in love with Cleopatra. A couple years later Octavius defeated Antony and Cleopatra and earned his name Augustus, which means divine. So Augustus Caesar was to known to the people as a great ruler.

Caius Octavius was born in 63 B.C. in Rome. He was adopted by Julius Caesar’s heir and given the name Caesar. When Julius Caesar was killed, he set out for the Roman Empire to get revenge on those who killed Julius. So he wanted to kill in spite of those who killed Julius. He made allies with enemies who would soon turn on him, but his short relations proved helpful to him. He learned of the betrayal of Antony with Cleopatra and in 31 B.C the senate made him General to fight against Antony. After he defeated Antony in battle, the senate honored him with the title Augustus in 27 B.C.

Leuven originated as a settlement of the Roman Empire along the trade route leading from Rome to what is now Trier, Germany. Caesar once covered 800 miles in ten days on one of the Roman roads, and a courier on horseback could cover 360 miles in two and a half days. Horse and mule carts averaged five to six miles per hour. Mail carts and wagons conveyed the post from town to town. This speed of transportation remained unequalled until the 19th century. Some of the roads, for instance, the Appian Way in Italy, are still in use today. Roman mail coaches were often covered so that the officials who traveled in them could sleep inside. The Roman road system comprised some 50,000 miles of first class highways, stretching from Syria in the east to Britain in the west. Rome remained the center of the highway system, and each mile of road had a cylindrical stone milepost, which told the distance between that point and the Forum Romanum in the city of Rome. It took nearly 500 years to complete the Roman road system. The roads were built to exacting specifications: straight, graded, through tunnels, and over bridges. Roman chariots sped military personnel and important civil officials over the vast expanses of the Roman road system. While the trading of Agustus Caesar, Constantinople continued to trade with the coast of Gaul, the Iberian Peninsula, Africa, India and China.

Constantinople remained a prosperous city, populated by Romans, Greeks, Armenians, Syrians, Arabs, Asians and some Germans, all of them united by a common Roman citizenship and belief in Christ and the Trinity. Intermarriage among the different ethnicities was common, and by the 500s most people in Constantinople spoke Greek. A few spoke Latin, but Latin was declining and used chiefly on formal or official occasions. Prejudice was common only against those who could not speak Greek or who were not Catholic -- the essentials, according to some in Constantinople, for civilization. Germans made up the majority of those in Constantinople's army, and some soldiers were Huns. Many Germans labored on lands just outside the city, and some worked in Constantinople at menial jobs or as slaves in rich households.

Augustus Caesar’s beliefs were very liberal considered to most of the Roman emperors. He was determined to get money at all costs, by raising taxes. He was greedy and full of hatred. In Luke 12:15, Jesus warns not to be greedy because it will not bring you abundance. Caesar though in his greed made Rome a better place to live, he beautified it. He gave life to the ever dying city and is remember as the divine ruler.

Sources:
Alacritude, LLC. “Emperor on Encyclopedia.com” Copyright 2003.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/section/Augustus_Emperor.asp

Funk. Wagnalls. Funk and Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. Vol 1. Funk and Wagnalls Inc. Copyright.
Funk. Wagnalls. Funk and Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. Vol 19. Funk and Wagnalls Inc. Copyright.