... was perhaps even more volatile than that of his successors, as it does to the rest of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Augustus was clearly very good at creating a specific style in which his own image was to be represented and controlled the state tightly until the day of his death. But choosing his successor was clearly a more complicated issue. Unluckily for him, his brief union with Scribonia had only spawned one daughter and his long marriage to Livia Drusilla never resulted in any children at all. So in the absence of a son, the emperor had to look elsewhere for an heir. Marcellus, son of Octavia, was married to Julia in 25 and an unusually rapid cursus honorum was decreed for him. This clearly showed Augustus' favour. He tragically died in 23BC, at the age of only 19, before he could fulfil his potential and was promptly buried in ...

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