Tells the story of Octavian, a shy and scholarly youth of nineteen who, on the death of his great-uncle, Julius Caesar, suddenly finds himself heir to the vast power of the Roman Empire. He is destined to rule that world astonishingly well, given the odds and intrigues against him, and would later be known as Augustus Caesar (63 B.C.-14 A.D.), the first Roman emperor.

Through the use of fictional letters, memoranda, and dispatches, we see how Augustus established his essential base of power and how he was continually obliged to put down, by a subtle combination of force and guile, the challenges of such men as Cicerok, Brutus, Cassius, and finally, Mark Antony.