David Gwynn
speaker
75 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Sep 2026
last heard yesterday
David Gwynn’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Doctor David Gwynn.
He is facing the problem that Julius Caesar faced in 45 BC.
You are now the sole person controlling a Roman world that particularly hates the idea of one person in control.
Julius Caesar had never worked out what exactly you do next.
For Octavian, he's never going to forget the Ides of March.
He's never going to forget Caesar's murder.
That's the consequence if you get this wrong.
It's possibly the most famous sentence in the Re Gestae.
From this point onwards, I excelled everyone in octoritas.
So authority, really, it's moral authority.
I am not ruling by power, potestas.
I am dominating through my moral influence.
he presents himself.
He never took the title dictator, he never took the title emperor or king.
Augustus knew the single most important lesson of trying to hold power, which is how you do something matters at least as much as what you do.
Image is everything.
Probably the most famous single statue of Augustus, the prima porta Augustus, which is Augustus young, handsome, wearing his armor on the breastplate, is depicted the Parthians giving back the standards they'd taken when they beat Crassus, when they beat Antony.
It's very much framed as a great military victory.
Actually, it was a diplomatic negotiation.
He stops being consul.
Showing 1–20 of 75 · page 1 of 4
Next →