Augustus 2026 Edition – Adrian Goldsworthy

While it is impossible to prove with absolute certainty that Marcellus was not murdered, it is extremely unlikely. At a time of plague there were many premature deaths, and the famous were not immune, while even in ordinary years young people might well fall ill and die in Rome. In a city crammed with almost a million inhabitants and constantly receiving goods and people from all over the world, germs had plenty of opportunity to spread and claim victims.

It is most probable that Marcellus died of natural causes. At that moment his death was not especially convenient for any potential rival. The princeps showed every sign of continued health and his refusal to name Marcellus as successor earlier in the year surely made it unlikely that he would show more open favour to Tiberius or anyone else now that his nephew was removed from the scene.26 Publicly there was great mourning.

After his funeral Marcellus’ ashes were deposited in the great Mausoleum of Augustus out on the Campus Martius, the first to occupy this still not quite complete monument. Octavia constructed a public library as a memorial to her son. Augustus added his own tribute, giving the name ‘Theatre of Marcellus’ to the stone theatre begun – or at least planned – by Julius Caesar and now nearing completion. Propertius devoted a poem to his memory, recalling the festival he had staged and the canopies shading the crowd.

A few years later Virgil depicted his hero Aeneas visiting the underworld and seeing the images of great Romans of the future, men yet to be given bodies and born into the world. Among them he spotted a youth of ‘surpassing beauty’, but sorrowed because the ‘dark shadow of death’ lay over him. His guide explained that it was Marcellus and that: …

only a glimpse of him will fate give the earth nor suffer him to stay too long. Too powerful, O gods above, you deemed the Roman people, had these gifts of yours been lasting. What sobbing of the brave will the famed Field waft to Mars’ mighty city! What cortège will you behold, Father Tiber, as you glide past the new-built tomb!

No youth of Trojan stock will ever raise his Latin ancestry so high in hope nor the land of Romulus ever boast of any son like this. Alas for his goodness, alas for his chivalrous honour and his sword arm unconquerable in fight! In arms none would have faced him unscathed, marched he on foot against his foe or dug with spurs the flank of his foaming steed.27 The natural disasters persisted into 22 bc, but the health of Augustus himself continued to be good.

Copyright © 2026 by Adrian Goldsworthy Cover design by Ann Kirchner Cover images: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Joseph H. Durkee, 1899; © LeeuwenHoek/Shutterstock.com; © My name is boy/Shutterstock.com Cover copyright © 2026 by Hachette Book Group, Inc. Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright.

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Thank you for your support of the author’s rights. Basic Books Hachette Book Group 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104 www.basicbooks.com Originally published in 2014 by Weidenfeld & Nicholson in the UK Second US Hardcover Edition: January 2026 Published by Basic Books, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The Basic Books name and logo is a registered trademark of the Hachette Book Group. The Hachette Speakers Bureau provides a wide range of authors for speaking events.

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• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9781541608184, 9781541608191
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