As the supreme pontiff could not reside in a private house, he declared his abode to be State property.

As the supreme pontiff could not leave the vicinity of the temple of Vesta, he built a temple to that goddess near his own dwelling, leaving the guardianship of the ancient altar below the Palatine to the Vestal virgins.

He spared no effort, for he well realised that human omnipotence, the mastery of mankind and the world, lay in that reunion of sovereignty, in being both king and priest, emperor and pope.
All the sap of a mighty race, all the victories achieved, and all the favours of fortune yet to be garnered, blossomed forth in Augustus, in a unique splendour which was never again to shed such brilliant radiance.
He was really the master of the world, amidst the conquered and pacified nations, encompassed by immortal glory in literature and in art.

In him would seem to have been satisfied the old intense ambition of his people, the ambition which it had pursued through centuries of patient conquest, to become the people-king.

The blood of Rome, the blood of Augustus, at last coruscated in the sunlight, in the purple of empire.