Death of Augustus

Colin Kirk

Description

Nothing is known of the activities of Augustus from 8 to 14 AD. He issued no coins, built no marble building to further grace Rome, attended no functions or ceremonies, reviewed no armies. Then, during the 100 days before his death he was back being as hyperactive as normal. He attended official functions in Rome, travelled down to his villa on Capri, crossed over to Naples to start and attend the games, even indulged in horseplay with the athletes, went to Beneventum to review troops Tiberius was about to lead into battle across the Adriatic, then he retired to the old family home in Nola. He died there in the room where his father had died 65 years previously; with his five year old son in attendance. Augustus died there the third hour after noon on the 19th Augustus 8 AD. This is six years earlier than received wisdom has us believe. Fake news is not new! Nothing is known of Augustus's activity between 8 and 14 AD because he was dead. Why the alteration? Now read on.....

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• César Augusto
• Religion
• Augustus

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris UK
• Date de parution: 14 février 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664118720
• Langue: English

Extrait

DEATH OF AUGUSTUS
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
COLIN KIRK
 
COPYRIGHT © 2023 BY COLIN KIRK.
 
ISBN:
Softcover
978-1-6641-1873-7

eBook
978-1-6641-1872-0
 
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
Rev. date: 02/13/2023
 
 
 
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CONTENTS
Death and Afterlife of Augustus
Explanation
Death of Augustus
Classical Histories
Ovid’s Letter
Gospel Truth
Evidence from Inscriptions
Legends on Coins
Cremation and Deification
Augustus the God
Augustus Ubiquitous
Pillars of the Church
Metamorphosis and Fasti
Sacred Chronology
 
 
 
Twenty years ago, at the outset of this investigation, Paula Botteri, Department of Classical Studies, University of Trieste sent me remarkable photographs of the Res Gestae inscriptions on the walls of Augustus’ temple at Ankara, which I am pleased to acknowledge publicly.
Other works quoted in the text are acknowledged in situ. Translators are acknowledged in situ where appropriate. Illustrations, other than of coins, are acknowledged in situ where appropriate. All coin illustrations are from the archives of the Classical Numismatic Group.
DEATH AND AFTERLIFE OF AUGUSTUS
 
Biblical c ertainty requires Augustus to have died in AD 14. For centuries, the year has been an important fixed point, from which dates of earlier and later events were calculated. Unfortunately, it’s wrong. Ovid’s poetry, coinage throughout the Roman Empire and ancient inscriptions show that Augustus died in AD 8.
When the Church gained power at the end of the fourth century, it destroyed nearly all written record of Augustus’ reign. Why? What was gained by shift of Augustus’ death six years later? Was it essential to the Church to get rid of Augustus for some reason?
Augustus’ death and afterlife are considered here to the conclusion that the papacy took over the titles and power of Roman emperors, which is fairly obvious. What is less apparent is that many characteristics of Augustus, together with his mythical biography, had been transferred to Jesus Christ.
Some of the fundamentals of Christian belief and much that is taken for granted in European governance and culture are Augustus’ legacy and have nothing to do with Jesus of Nazareth.
Be warned! This account of Augustus’ life, death, and afterlife is a result of detailed analysis of contemporary evidence, as if no interpretation of that evidence had ever been attempted before. Experts in these fields will challenge this account. Their received wisdom is based on sacred chronology.
It’s gospel truth, but it’s wrong.

 
Augustus at age thirty-three, had conquered Rome, the world of Rome and the Egyptian empire. He is about to change from conquering hero to statesman in charge of the Roman peace.
 
At the same age, Julius Caesar set out to achieve greatness and Alexander died of excess. Augustus calculated his every move. He had no intention of making any of the mistakes of either.
DEATH OF AUGUSTUS
 
 
 
 
 
COLIN KIRK
 
When evil is upon the earth, I will take birth in the family of a virtuous man and assume a human body to restore tranquility. This avatar will possess great energy, great intelligence and great powers. He will restore order and peace in the world, he will inaugurate a new era of truth and will be adored by spiritual people.
 
Vishnu speaking in the Mahabharata , the earliest version of a much repeated prophecy that Augustus applied to himself.
 
He is a newborn man who imposes order on the universe for his own ends, but also to facilitate communication with his own kind. This enumeration takes place on an epic scale and, when order is imposed, the result is dramatic. You can argue with a system, an idea, a date, a resemblance, but I do not see how you can argue with the simple act of enumerating.
 
Apollinaire, in full sail, writing in The Cubist Painters about Picasso, a somewhat later but no less immodest realisation.
EXPLANATION
 
TO PRODUCE A CONTEMPORARY biography of Augustus, rather than yet another fictional account, all original sources: classical histories, documents, inscriptions, coins, and other artefacts were studied and places he and Ovid knew were visited. Ovid lived the Augustan peace. His vast poetic output is a commentary on it; invaluable, as most all other written record of the period has been lost, mainly destroyed by Christian zealots.
 
Almost too much material exists from Augustus’ early life and times but practically nothing after he became sole master of the city and world of Rome. Classical historians fail to deliver much after his final victories of the civil war; poets die out one by one until Ovid alone is left to write his later masterpieces. Some interesting technical material exists: Strabo on Geography, Manilius on Astrology amongst them, but with little reference to Augustus.
 
One or two useful documents from his reign exist, inscriptions are few and much more badly damaged than transcriptions suggest, but an extensive imperial coinage was minted at Lugdunum, capital of Gaul, and local coins were struck throughout the city and world of Rome. However, whereas numismatics usually assists clarification of historical record, in this case coinages have been interpreted to fit in with received historical wisdom.
 
For centuries Church authorities managed the western European knowledge base to ensure agreement with Sacred Literature. Sacred Chronology, based exclusively on biblical evidence, required Augustus to die in AD 14; no other date would do. Much effort was put into destruction of records that contradicted this date, or alteration of those deemed fit to survive. The date is wrong.
 
Augustus died at three in the afternoon on 19 August some years earlier than AD 14. Who bothered to change the date and strove to destroy all contradictory record and why can not be ignored. Compulsion to suppress record of Augustus in his prime suggests Sacred Chronologists had much to hide, not simply a date to shift.
 
Augustus lived out the last decade of his life during the first decade of Jesus’s life. For four centuries after his death Augustus massively outshone Jesus. On adoption of Christianity as state religion of the Roman Empire, the pillars of the Church had to reverse that situation.
 
Worship of deceased emperors became anathema. It had not been an especially generalised phenomenon. It applied almost exclusively to Augustus. Other deified emperors were worshipped briefly. Then they were easily forgotten. Not so Augustus. The founding father, who bequeathed his names and honours to his successors, was generally revered: by the population generally as well as the ruling elite.
 
Until they were consecrated as Christian churches, Augustus’ temples throughout the city and world of Rome, were maintained, restored, refurbished; they were in continuous use as shrines to him and Julia Augusta, known also as Livia.
 
Sacred Chronology came into vogue in the third and fourth centuries but is more than an historic curiosity. Indeed, it is still influential, not least in academic let alone ecclesiastical circles. Sacred Chronology, traced from second century origins to twenty-first century acceptance, demonstrates how influential it has been, and is.
 
Demonstration that Augustus died several years earlier than Sacred Chronology dictates has to precede Augustus: A Contemporary Biography in explanation of fundamental differences from previous accounts of his life. Accurate lifespan is not without relevance.
In addition, during examination of processes by which Jesus was made to outshine Augustus, it became apparent that transfer of mythical biography had occurred. Mythical biographies of Augustus and his two deified human predecessors: Romulus worshipped as Quirinus and Julius Caesar worshipped as Divine Julius, contributed extensively to Jesus’s mythical biography. In some cases their mythical biographies reinforced Jewish precedents, in others they are sole source.
 
Paul was naturally influenced by the maelstrom of religious ideas with which Tarsus, a centre of worship of Divine Augustus, was awash in his youth: examples are adoption and citizenship, which are Roman not Jewish concepts. Augustus was Son of God forty years before Jesus was born. Rome contributed mythology and philosophy to Christianity; mythical narrative and alien concepts of which Jesus the Jew was totally unaware.
 
Development of Christian doctrine rightly acknowledges nuances of change over decades, let alone major mutations over centuries, as human response to collective spiritual turmoil. However, expectation of bedrock belief in Jesus teaching as foundation of Christian doctrine is somewhat undermined by appreciation of extent of extraneous material imported from worship of Quirinus, Divine Julius, and especially Divine Augustus