Too Many Caesars: The Chilling Pragmatism Behind Augustus's First and Most Important Murder

A Rival Heir in the Sands of Egypt

In the high-stakes world of Roman politics, lineage was power. After the assassination of Julius Caesar, two figures emerged with a claim to his monumental legacy. One was Gaius Octavius, Caesar's grand-nephew, whom the dictator had adopted as his son and heir in his will. This adoption gave him the powerful name 'Caesar' and a direct path to influence. The other was a boy in Egypt, Ptolemy XV Philopator Philometor Caesar, known to history simply as Caesarion. He was the biological son of Julius Caesar and the formidable Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra VII. For years, Cleopatra and her Roman ally, Mark Antony, had promoted Caesarion as the true son of Caesar. This positioned him not merely as a foreign prince, but as a direct, living challenge to Octavian's entire identity and claim to power.

The Final War and a Fateful Decision

The simmering rivalry between the two heirs, represented by Octavian in Rome and Caesarion in Alexandria, inevitably exploded into war. Octavian waged a masterful propaganda campaign, painting Mark Antony as a thrall to a foreign queen, and then waged a masterful military campaign that culminated in the decisive naval victory at Actium in 31 BC. The following year, Octavian's legions invaded Egypt. Faced with certain defeat, both Antony and Cleopatra took their own lives, leaving their kingdom and the fate of their children in Octavian’s hands. The 17-year-old Caesarion, who had been sent away for safety, was tragically persuaded by his tutor to return, believing a false promise that Octavian would allow him to rule. Instead, the young pharaoh walked into a trap. Octavian now had to decide what to do with the only other living 'son of Caesar'.

"Too Many Caesars Is Not Good"

For Octavian, this was not a question of morality, but of cold, hard political calculation. Leaving Caesarion alive would create a permanent symbol for any future opposition. Any senator with a grudge or general with ambition could rally around the 'true' blood heir of Caesar to ignite another civil war. As Octavian deliberated, the philosopher Arius Didymus offered him a chillingly practical piece of advice, a clever twist on a line from Homer's Iliad about too many leaders.

οὐκ ἀγαθὸν πολυκαισαρίη (ouk agathon polykaisariē)

"It is not good to have too many Caesars."

The advice sealed the boy's fate. There could only be one son of the deified Julius, one inheritor of his name and power. To secure a lasting peace and his own absolute authority, Octavian understood that his rival had to be permanently removed from the board. Shortly thereafter, his soldiers carried out the order, and Caesarion, the last pharaoh of Egypt, was executed.

The End of a Dynasty, The Beginning of an Empire

The murder of Caesarion was a brutal but essential act in Octavian's rise to power. It was the final, bloody punctuation mark on decades of Roman civil war. With his only legitimate rival eliminated, Octavian's claim was now absolute and undisputed. He systematically erased Caesarion from historical records, chiseling his name from monuments. This ruthless pragmatism paved the way for him to consolidate power, shed his warlord past, and rebrand himself as Augustus, the first Roman Emperor. The celebrated Pax Romana, two centuries of relative peace and stability, was founded on the ghost of a teenage king whose only crime was his parentage.

Sources

• Wikipedia - Caesarion
• Plutarch's The Life of Antony
• Britannica - Augustus, Roman emperor