It was this date, in 30BCE, that the Roman leader Octavian took control of Alexandria, Egypt, which after that was part of the Roman Republic. Octavian went on to take control of the entire Roman Empire, and for various reasons (Rome was very complicated), was also known as Gaius Julius Caesar (Octavian was adopted by Julius Caesar), Imperator Caesar (Imperator basically meant “commander in chief”), as well as Augustus. He kept the name Augustus, or Augustus Caesar, for longer than the other names and that’s how he’s usually referred to in history books. And it’s also why today is the first day of August, rather than the first day of Sextilis (the old name for the month).
Augustus is generally considered the greatest Roman emperor. He did more than anyone else to expand the Roman Empire, personally commanded the armies that won countless battles, and transformed Rome itself into a better-functioning, more organized city. He created the first police force, the first fire department, and the first cohesive local government in the city. Prior to Augustus, Rome had seen a long series of civil wars and was pretty chaotic. The “Roman Empire” that most people imagine today — the vast entity that lasted for centuries — was in large part a creation of Augustus.
If you visit Europe, and particularly Italy, you’ll see roads built so well by the Romans that they’re still in use today. The majority of those roads were built under the direction of Augustus, whose fundamental innovation was setting up a system to finance large construction projects. When the roads were in place, he organized an official courier system, where relay stations enabled communication across the empire at previously unimaginable speed. Augustus may have been the first tech titan.
Augustus’ life spanned the end of the Roman Republic and the establishment of monarchical rule. Possibly because of that, he retained many of the customs from the Republic era, and the Roman people reportedly loved him. He established a form of pensions for veterans, created a form of what we’d call social security or social insurance, and restored 82 different temples to various Roman gods. He also frowned on being adored too much personally — in 28 BCE he had 80 silver statues of himself melted down and the silver returned to the Roman treasury (or some similar institution).
Historians know — or think they know — a surprising amount about a guy who lived thousands of years ago, and some people spend a whole career studying Augustus and his era in Rome. So there’s a lot more information if you’re interested. Things were almost unthinkably different compared to how we live today, but Augustus is still remembered — not least on the first day of the whole month that’s named for him. He wasn’t born today; this is just the anniversary of one of his most significant victories. He was born in what we would call September, in 63 BCE.
By the way, have you heard the old story that August has 31 days because Augustus insisted that his month be as long as the one named after Julius Caesar? It was made up more than a thousand years after Augustus’ time by Johannes de Sacrobosco, a scholar and astronomer who taught at the University of Paris during the 1200s.
