By the author of Stoner the surprise international bestseller After the brutal murder of his great-uncle Julius Caesar Octavian a shy & scholarly youth of nineteen suddenly finds himself heir to the vast power of Rome He is destined despite vicious power struggles bloody wars & family strife to transform his realm & become the greatest ruler the western world had ever seen Augustus Caesar the first Roman Emperor Building on impeccable research John Williams brings the legendary figure of Augustus vividly to life & invests his characters with such profound humanity that we enter completely into the heat & danger of their lives & times