Dahlheim, Werner Augustus

Aufrührer, Herrscher, Heiland. Eine Biographie

On the Ides of March 44 BC, Caesar falls under the knives of his assassins. His heir is Octavian a very young man, inexperienced in politics and war. Fifteen years of civil war await him, in which he must first fight for survival, then for the unity of the empire. With his victory over all his rivals, he begins, as Augustus, to reorganise the world and shape an entire era. When he dies at the age of 76, few from the Atlantic to the Euphrates doubt that he has brought peace and general happiness back to Earth forever. Werner Dahlheim, one of the great storytellers among German historians, paints a picture of an era of splendour and misery: he presents a ruler who fought his way to power with fire and sword and knew leniency only when it suited him. He looks back on decades that still shine today through the works of their poets, sculptors and architects. He points to an imperialist who expanded the empire like no other Roman before him. And he explains why Christians persecuted as criminals by the heirs of Augustus honoured that first Roman emperor to whom God granted absolute power when he sent his son to become man.