Cultural depictions of Augustus

[2] Commonly repeated lore has it that August has thirty-one days because Augustus wanted his month to match the length of Julius Caesar's July, but this is an invention of the thirteenth-century scholar Johannes de Sacrobosco.

[3][4] Augustus was one of the most widely depicted individuals in ancient times,[5] appearing in coins, sculptures, cameos, plaques, and other media (no contemporary paintings of him survive, though many no doubt existed).

Numerous arches and temples were dedicated to Augustus both during his lifetime and after his death, as the Roman imperial cult developed during his reign.

[6] At its best, in Roland R. R. Smith's view, this "type achieves a sort [of] visual paradox that might be described as mature, ageless, and authoritative youthfulness".

These are sometimes called "State Cameos",[11] that presumably originated, and were probably only seen, in the inner court circle of Augustus, as they show him with divine attributes that were still politically sensitive, and in some cases have sexual aspects that would not have been exposed to a wider audience.

Cicero and his contemporaries were replaced by a new generation who spent their formative years under the old constructs and were forced to make their mark under the watchful eye of a new emperor and his quasi-culture minister, Gaius Maecenas, who was a prolific patron of the arts.

Although Virgil has sometimes been considered a "court poet", his Aeneid, the most important of the Latin epics, also permits complex readings on the source and meaning of Rome's power and the responsibilities of a good leader.