[1] He was a member of the respectable, but undistinguished, Octavii family through his father, also named Gaius Octavius, and was the great-nephew of Julius Caesar through his mother Atia.

The Octavii were wealthy through their banking business in Velletri (in the Alban Hills), where the family was part of the local aristocracy.

Shortly after the younger Octavius was born, his father gained a victory at Thurii over a rebellious band of slaves, and thus the son was bestowed the cognomen "Thurinus".

When Octavius was six years old Atia remarried to Lucius Marcius Philippus, a supporter of Julius Caesar and a former governor of Syria.

Soon thereafter, Octavius made his first public appearance in 52 BC when he delivered the funeral oration for his grandmother Julia Minor, sister of Caesar.

Left with no other options, on 10 January 49 BC, Caesar crossed the Rubicon (the frontier boundary of Italy) with only one legion and ignited civil war.

Leaving Marcus Lepidus as prefect of Rome, and the rest of Italy under Mark Antony as tribune, Caesar made an astonishing 27-day route-march to Hispania, rejoining two of his Gallic legions, where he defeated Pompey's lieutenants.

He then returned east, to challenge Pompey in Greece where, on 10 July 48 BC at the Battle of Dyrrhachium, Caesar barely avoided a catastrophic defeat when the line of fortification was broken.

In September 46 BC, when Caesar celebrated his multiple triumphs, Octavius took part in the procession and was accorded military honors despite never having served in combat.

[8] Though she consented for him to join Caesar in Hispania, where he planned to fight the remaining forces under Pompey’s lieutenants, but Octavius again fell ill and was unable to travel.

This alleged homosexual liaison must have taken place in 46 BC during the civil wars when Julius Caesar took Octavian to Spain and Aulus Hirtius was serving there.

Hoping to continue Octavius’ education, at the end of 45 BC Caesar sent him, along with his friends Agrippa, Gaius Maecenas, and Quintus Salvidienus Rufus, to Apollonia in Macedonia.

Though modern scholars to avoid confusion commonly refer to him at this point as Octavian, he called himself "Caesar", which is the name his contemporaries also used.

Rejecting the advice of some army officers to take refuge with his troops in Macedonia, Octavian sailed to Italy to claim his inheritance.