Augustus, Roman Emperor
| Name |
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| Birthname | Gaius Octavius Thurinus | ||||
| born on | 23 September 63 BC (-62) Jul.Cal. at 05:40 (= 05:40 AM ) | ||||
| Place | Roma, Italy, 41n54, 12e29 | ||||
| Timezone | LMT m12e29 (is local mean time) | ||||
| Data source |
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| Astrology data |   27°10'   28°11 Asc. 25°16'
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Biography
First emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD. Born Gaius Octavius Thurinus, he was adopted posthumously by his great-uncle Gaius Julius Caesar in 44 BC via his last will and testament, and between then and 27 BC was officially named Gaius Julius Caesar. In 27 BC the Senate awarded him the honorific Augustus ("the revered one"), and thus consequently he was Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus.
Source Notes
From an Astrodienst forum posting 13-apr-2012, by anonymous member:
From Suetonius, Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Augustus, Sec. 5: ‘Born 23 September 63, a little before sunrise, (latin: paulo ante solis exortum) in Rome’. Above is the horoscope commonly accepted for him.
The birth date is the subject of much scrutiny and controversy.
Volk, Katharina. Manilius and His Intellectual Background. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009:
Pg. 147 ‘Suetonius reports it as VIIII Kal. Oct., ‘on the ninth day before the Kalends of October’, which (with typical inclusive reckoning) means 23 September in the Julian Calendar. However, Augustus was born before Caesar’s calendar reform, at a time when September had only twenty-nine days and when the ninth-day before the Kalends of October was thus 22 September. Some scholars therefore believe that the emperor was actually born on 22 September but after the Julian reform changed his birthday to the ‘new’ ninth day before the Kalends, i.e., 23 September.’
Capricorn was his ever-present logo and was generally considered his birth sign in antiquity. For centuries since, its horoscope role is argued.
Pg. 148-49 ‘A number of hypotheses have been mooted. First, it has been suggested that, owing to the confusion of the Roman calendar reform and the resultant divergence between civic and astronomical years, Augustus’ supposed September birth really took place in late December, when the Sun was actually in Capricorn. However, it seems that this theory can be discredited, since in 63 BC the Republican calendar was in fact in sync with the seasonal year and thus virtually identical to the Julian one.
Working on the assumption that Augustus was indeed born in September, scholars have developed two main theories to account for the prominent role of Capricorn. It has been ventured that Capricorn was the sign not of Augustus' birth but of his conception, an idea that has found numerous adherents. Ancient sources occasionally stress importance of the moment of conception (as the true beginning of life) for the shaping of a person’s fate; as for the obvious problem of determining exactly when conception had taken place, this could be surmounted by assuming an idealized gestation period, often put at 273 days. If Augustus was born on 23 September 63 BC, he must thus (at least according to the Julian calendar) have been conceived on 24 December of the previous year, at a time when the Sun stood in Capricorn. And if—as we may assume for the sake of parallelism—conception, like birth, took place in the early morning, Capricorn was in the ascendant as well.
The second theory derives the importance of Capricorn as the Moon sign of Augustus’ birth.
In addition to these two main hypotheses, it has been proposed that at Augustus’ birth, the Lot of Fortune fell in Capricorn and that Capricorn was of special significance to the emperor owing to the fact that if had been ascending simultaneously to the rising of [Julius] Caesar’s comet in 44 BC.’
atr: considering the problems of calendar history and the practice not to regard astrological arguments, only DD rating is assigned. Birth time is speculative, as sunrise is often assigned to ancient celebrities.
Categories
- Vocation : Politics : Heads of state (Roman emperor)
- Notable : Famous : Historic figure
