Indeed, Cimon, a fine debate you add intellectual fuel to. The metamorphosis of Octavian, from a blood-thirsty, vengeful political tyrant to a magnanimous Emperor is a feat matched by few. As Cicero stated the Optimates were all but extinct, those that remained had not the traditional Roman courage to sacrifice themselves for the greater good of the Roman people, besides they would fail anyway, Imperial dread had a hold on the populous.

Many attribute the demise of Carthage, the only check to Roman power in the Mediterranean, as being responsible for the collapse of time-honoured Roman values; as vast wealth poured into the eternal city and corrupted its Senators, and fuelled them to further outrages in the name of Rome.

Caesar’s children would never have been Kings in the direct sense of the word, Roman sensibilities forbade it, but in all but name they most probably they would have continued their Father’s legacy. By this juncture Rome was in an irreversible situation; after Marius’ reforms troops owed their allegiance not to the Senate, but to the General who paid their wages and secured their land in retirement. Perhaps if the migration of the Huns had happened a few centuries earlier a common enemy may have united Rome! Yet such hypothesises are mere fancy!