An image of a statue of Augustus is projected on the walls of the Forum of Augustus in Rome. The project, held in April, was one of many initiatives to mark this year’s 2,000th anniversary of the death of Augustus. Photos: Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters

There were and still are worldwide discussions, events, exhibitions and publications on the founder of the Roman Empire, Augustus, whose death’s bimillennium anniversary is being commemorated today.

To mention a few, there was an exhibition at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome which closed in February and later opened at the Grand Palais, Paris. In Spain, Tarragona dedicated its annual Viva Festival (May 5-25) to this emperor. The international academic community has organised various conferences about him and his legacy across 2,000 years since his death.

His name was Octavian, born just before sunrise on September 23, 63BC, son of Octavius and Atia, sister of the great general Julius Caesar who conquered Gaul (France, Switzerland etc), thus extending the Roman territory. In fact, the Roman ‘Empire’ was built by the noble Roman Republic under the guidance of the senate and the ability of its generals, i.e. Scipio Africanus, who conquered and defeated the Carthaginian Hannibal, the greatest general of them all.

Although the S.P.Q.R. (Senatus Populusque Romanus), the Senate and People of Rome, controlled the levying and disposal of military forces, the senate was in fact the governing body of the Roman Republic until the generals of this militia began recruiting and paying their soldiers from their own resources. While this situation undermined the powers of the senate, the ambition and pride of generals Marius, Pompey, Julius Caesar, Antony and Octavian himself gave birth to three major civil wars which reduced by more than half the male population of Rome.

I found it [Rome] built of bricks and left it in marble

Before his murder on the Ides of March 44BC, Julius Caesar adopted the young Octavian as his son (in Ancient Rome, legitimate and adopted children had the same rights and duties). On hearing of the death of his uncle, Octavian rushed to Rome and Mark Antony – the general who avenged Caesar’s murder by conquering and killing the leaders of the conspiracy, Brutus and Cassius – at first befriended Octavian, even by marrying his sister Octavia, whom he then divorced after meeting Cleopatra VII in Egypt.

Antony, against the wish and orders of Octavian, in 43BC also ordered the murder of the great orator and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero after the latter published written speeches against him (the Philippics). The animosity between Antony and Octavian created another civil war, which ended with Octavian’s victory at Actium in 31BC.

Octavian returned trumphantly to Rome as the sole leader of the Roman Republic. However, he did not make the same mistakes of his uncle Julius Caesar who showed quite clearly that he was a dictator. Octavian entered the senate considering himself as one of them and shrewdly proclaiming that he wished to revive the Roman republic.

The senate was so pleased with Octavian’s policy that it proclaimed him Princeps (first citizen) and later bestowed on him the name of Augustus (meaning venerable, worthy of honour) which Octavian used as his name during his 45 years of emperorship.

The senate even changed the name of a month – Sextilis became Augustus. From 27BC up to his death in AD14, Augustus was in fact the sole leader of the Roman Empire, after being bestowed with the powers of a ‘tribune’ who had the veto on everything he did not like. He settled his veteran soldiers on arable land and began his policy by enacting social and moral laws.

Though he left his first wife Scribonia, he died in the hands of Livia, his third wife who he loved and esteemed to the end. He encouraged marriage and he did not like divorce, so much so that he exiled his only child Julia who had a vicious life.

He wanted to increase the male population of Rome so he enacted a law against bachelors who were heavily taxed and, after their death, their possessions were inherited by the State.

He introduced children’s allowance for every child of every family, thus encouraging families to have as many children as possible to increase the Roman population.

This was the Golden Age of Ancient Rome, which became the ‘jewel’ of the Mediterranean with the streets, stunning temples, statues and other architecture and art with which Augustus embellished his metropolis.

Suetonius says that on his deathbed Augustus boasted: “I found it built of bricks and left it in marble.” Augustus, with the help of his right-hand man Maecenas, encouraged literary circles in which we find the great poets of Ancient Rome that left their stamp on medieval and modern Europe – Virgil, Propertius, Horace, Tibullus, Ovid and Livy, etc.

The famous mausoleum built by Augustus for himself and his family (with the exception of his daughter Julia) is to be restored. This housed the ashes of Augustus and of his successors Tiberius and Claudius. This magnificent building and others were pillaged by the northern barbarian invasions after the fall of the Roman Empire. These barbaric tribes sacked Rome several times.

With €2 million in fresh funding, archaeologists now plan to clean up, restore and reopen the site, while the city is to spend €12 million on creating a pedestrianised piazza to handle visitors.

Therefore, the city of Rome is getting ready to honour its favourite son by saving his mausoleum from shocking neglect.

Work on this site is to be finished by 2016.

The city did arrange a sneak preview lately and one of the archaeologists said the response showed Romans have not forgotten their first emperor.

“There were 5,000 queuing round the block, under the rain,” she said.

“I was shocked, it was like a rock concert, and when the people got inside, there was an awed silence.”

For more information, visit www.augustus2014.com/conference and/or http://augustus2014.com/2014-events .