Octavian © Kirk Johnson

Augustus is the first of the Roman emperors. He first came to power as part of the triumvirate that took over in the aftermath of the assassination of Julius Caesar, who had adopted his great-nephew Octavian in his will. On January 16, 27 B.C., in part of the First Constitutional Settlement, Octavian was given the title by which he has been known in history, Augustus.

Read about one of Augustus' Sayings.

On this day in modern history -- 1794 -- one of the most important historians of ancient Rome died. He was Edward Gibbon and is somtimes considered the first modern historian. His 6-volume Roman history was drawn from primary sources instead of relying only on secondary accounts. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is still read today.

Gibbon was born near London in 1737, attended Oxford, and published the first volume of his monumental work in 1776.

Read more about Edward Gibbon.

It has been an unusual day for email. Spam aplenty, but none of the "will you do my work for me" type questions or angry responses when I refer someone to an article. Instead, there were three good questions that I don't have to spend hours researching because I already have answers on this site. I'd say I answered them on this site, but that would be overstatement. One of them is more of a discussion that takes place from time to time on the Ancient/Classical History forum. The second is one I posted in a blog -- I'll quote the relevant part. The last is answered on an FAQ. Would that all questions were so quick and easy to address!

1. Could you please deal with the question of the HISTORICAL JESUS - did he exist? There are so many materials doubting his real existence - why not deal with this question?

   I'm not a Biblical scholar. Putting aside any religious beliefs, and without proper background, I can only say that there is some evidence that may be valid that Jesus existed. Can you see why I defer to the collective knowledge of historians and scholars in the forum? In the forum thread Non-Biblical References to Christ information is provided on references to Jesus that are contemporary and near contemporary. There are also comments on how reliable such information is. There are other threads on the topic, but this looks like the one with the best information. Of course this topic leads to tangents about religion, which, in turn, lead to very long threads.
2. The second question was how to re-learn Latin after a long lapse. Learning Latin in a Hurry addresses the question:

   While this site is not specifically designed to teach Latin, there are some resources that should help. See: Tips For Learning Latin From the Forum. Another suggestion is a newsletter that comes out every day for a week. It introduces:

   • Resources for Latin Students
   • Latin Basics - Pronunciation and the Alphabet
   • Latin Grammar - Particles
   • Latin Grammar - Declension of Nouns
   • Latin - Parts of Speech - Nouns and Adjectives
   • Latin - Conjugations
   • Latin - Parts of Speech - Verbs

   You can sign up for it here: Learning Latin Online

   Another suggestion is based on what I heard was the way students used to learn Latin a couple of centuries ago: they used bilingual editions and compared the Latin with the English. A recent Bolchazy-Carducci publication of Cicero makes this easy to do. See Completely Parsed Cicero.

3. How did Theodosius earn the epithet "The Great"?

   The third question came to me through email, but is actually a comment on a "this day in history". The answer is in the FAQ Why Was Theodosius I Called Theodosius the Great?.

Servius Galba was born December 24, 3 B.C., in Tarracina (a possibly Etruscan, harbor town in Italy), the son of C. Sulpicius Galba and Mummia Achaica. Galba served in civil and military positions throughout the reigns of the Julio-Claudian emperors, but when he became aware that Nero wanted him killed, he rebelled. Galba's agents won over to their side Nero's praetorian prefect. After Nero committed suicide, Galba became emperor, coming to Rome in October 68, in the company of Otho, governor of Lusitania. Galba antagonized many, including Otho, who promised financial rewards to the praetorians in exchange for their support. They declared Otho emperor on January 15, 69, and killed Galba.