ABSTRACT
Suetonius implies that the life and career of Rome's first emperor, Augustus, had always been a performance. In this they differed only in degree from those of Augustus's political and military predecessors. Augustus, through playing his part well as the son of the god, the divine Julius Caesar, and the champion of Italy and the west, he had achieved by 30 bce sole dominion of the Roman world. In the public festival of the Neronia, which was modelled overtly and controversially on the agonistic festivals of Greece, Nero did not compete in 60 ce, but seems to have been awarded the prizes anyway for oratory and poetry, and to have also been offered that for lyre-playing. Clearly being a tragic actor in Caligulan Rome was not for the faint of heart. Indeed the most famous tragic actor of the day, Apelles, was an intimate of Caligulas, but this did not prevent the emperor from having him flogged.
