appellation conferred upon Caesar Octavianus, the first Roman emperor. See Octavianus and Rome.

The obscure name of Octavianus, Mr Gibbon observes, he derived from a mean family, in the little town of Aricia. It was stained with the blood of the proscription; and he was desirous, had it been possible, to erase all memory of his former life. The illustrious surname of Caesar he had assumed as the adopted son of the dictator; but he had too much good sense either to hope to be confounded or to wish to be compared with that extraordinary man. It was proposed in the senate, to dignify their minister with a new appellation; and after a very serious discussion, that of Augustus was chosen among several others, as being the most expressive of the character of peace and sanctity, which he uniformly affected. Augustus was therefore a personal, Caesar a family, distinction. The former should naturally have expired with the prince on whom it was bestowed; and however the latter was diffused by adoption and female alliance, Nero was the last prince who could allege any hereditary claim to the honours of the Julian line. But at the time of his death, the practice of a century had inseparably connected those appellations with the imperial dignity, and they have been preserved by a long succession of emperors, Romans, Greeks, Franks, and Germans, from the fall of the republic to the present time. A distinction was, however, soon introduced. The sacred title of Augustus was always referred for the monarch; the name of Caesar was more freely communicated to his relations; and from the reign of Hadrian at least, was appropriated to the second person in the state, who was considered as the presumptive heir of the empire.