From Obscure Nephew to Caesar's Heir

In 44 BC, a nineteen-year-old student named Gaius Octavius received staggering news in the Greek town of Apollonia. Julius Caesar, the most powerful man in Rome, had been assassinated — and in his will, he had adopted Octavius as his son and sole heir. Overnight, an obscure young man from a modest Italian family became Caesar's son. Under Roman law, adoption was irrevocable and absolute.…