The “Spin Emperor”: How the Roman Emperor Augustus was the master propagandist of his time

Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart’s podcast The Rest is Politics has recently become a staple of my incredibly dreary journey to and from campus. A fruitful period of Campbell’s stories is his time as Downing Street Communications Director. Listening to these stories Stewart often jokes asking Campbell about the infamous nickname “the spin doctor” that he acquired. This nickname references Campbell’s time as a ruthless propagandist for Tony Blair and the Labour Party. Campbell usually highlights the large degree he dislikes the nickname. However, this doesn’t mean that the nickname was untrue. 

Campbell obsessively defended Blair’s worldview purging any party member that showed the faintest sign of rebellion. His internal grip on government translated to what could be seen as a retrospectively positive image of government – at least before 2003 anyway. Campbell’s doctrine was not perfect though just as New Labour’s image was not perfect. Both time and scandal eroded away the pristine image of “things can only get better.” This has led me to wonder which individuals succeeded where Campbell failed. Who was the greatest propogandist of all time? Who was the greatest individual at keeping a positive image despite the inevitable factors of time and scandal?  

Well, this was the first Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar.  

Forgive my transition from my opinions on podcasts to the political ideology of the first Roman Emperor.  Augustus like New Labour had a positive image through propaganda at the start of both their contemporary periods. However, Augustus’ propaganda cut through notions of rulership and godhood that allowed his propaganda to surpass any others in terms of effectiveness.  

Firstly, Augustus established huge public support through his political and economic actions during his reign. The construction of the Forum of Augustus, the temple of Mars and many other buildings in Rome gave rise to a golden age of the empire termed “pax Romana” that began in 27BCE. This created a positive image of Augustus that lasted throughout centuries. The Roman historian Suetonius would state over one hundred years after Augustus’ death that the first Roman Emperor “found it [Rome] of brick, left it of marble.” Clearly the physical legacy of Augustus helped form the basis of his incredibly positive image.  

However, being a popular ruler within your own Empire does not make you the greatest propagandist in all human history. There are likely hundreds of rulers and politicians that could claim this. Yet, Augustus was unique.  

Augustus was especially adept at controlling the image of others. Mark Antony was a decorated general of the Roman army who served alongside Julius Caesar for years and then brought justice to Caesar’s assassins Brutus and Cassius by defeating them on the battlefield. This is a man that had the right image to become a phenomenally successful Roman leader. However, once Antony left Augustus’ sister for Cleopatra then Augustus focussed his propaganda onto depicting Mark Antony as a fallen Roman. Meanwhile, Augustus was the ideal Roman who had a strong and dedicated family.  

Or at least that was the case until his only daughter and child Julia started to be viewed as infamous adulteress within Roman political circles. Julia features in the Ara Pacis which was a monument that depicted the strength of Augustus’ family. However, once Augustus could no longer politically protect Julia, he cast her aside. And not in a way of just hiding away on one of his estates in Rome. Instead, Julia was exiled to Pandeteria which was a remote island off Italy where she was banned from even being in the presence of men again. Thus, Augustus’ family image was publicly preserved.

Finally, what  solidifies Augustus as the greatest propagandist of all time was his path to godhood. Karl Galinsky suggests that Augustus always had ambitions to be defied. However, this would have been an incredibly tough task to complete. At this point Romans did not even like their rulers to be called kings let alone gods. However, Augustus knew that he could use propaganda to confirm his deification. Firstly, he deified his adoptive father Julius Caesar after his funeral games as a comet was spotted flying across the sky. If Julius Ceasar was a god, then Augustus was logically the son of a god. Secondly, he stressed his connection to the goddess Venus in many of his propaganda pieces such as the Aeneid and Metamorphoses.  

Augustus is thus both the son of a god and related to one of the most important goddesses in the entire Roman Pantheon. Consequently, after Augustus’ death in 14CE it was inevitable that his successor and adopted son Tiberius proclaimed Augustus a god to legitimise his own reign and to fulfil the wishes of his predecessor.   

Augustus is by no means a good person. However, Augustus was the greatest propogandist of all. While Alistair Campbell may have been the “spin doctor” it was Augustus who was the “spin Emperor.”  

Bibliography and General Reading  

Primary Sources:  

Publius Vergilius Maro, The Aeneid ed. and trans. by David West (Penguin: 2003) 

A.D Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans. and ed. by R.J Tarrant (Oxford University Press: 2024)  

C. Suetonius Tranquillus, “The Lives of the Twelve Caesars” trans. by Alexander Thomas (Project Gutenberg: 2006) p.71-191 

Secondary Sources:  

Bauman, Richard, “Women and Politics in Ancient Rome” (Routledge: 1992) 

Campbell, Alastair and Rory Stewart, “The Rest is Politics: 358.”, 2025 [Accessed 2025] 

Galinsky, Karl, “Augustus: Introduction to the Life of an Emperor (Cambridge University Press: 2012) 

Zanker, Paul, “The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus” (University of Michigan Press: 1988).