Augustus Symbolism In The Civil War

. The Laureate or laurel wreath is a symbol of Apollo and victory and its use here is clear in Augustus's use of him in his civil war, having prayed to him for success and the defeat of his enemy, it also refers to Augustus who had adopted him as his new patron God; the reverse with the nude Octavian is quite possibly in reference to the concept of the heroic Greek, or the heroism in nudity that the Greeks sought after in their artworks and seen as a positive and powerful image. One of the most obvious designs that began to circulate in which Augustus recognised his victories at Actium was [see Figure 11. Figure 12.] a set of denarius developed in 29-28 BC which were the famous AEGYPTO CAPTA set . This specific set of victory propaganda

The AEGYPTO CAPTA series holds the distinct image of a crocodile on the reverse which is chained to a palm branch of some sort. The Crocodile is the glorious symbol used to refer to Augustus's conquest of Egypt and the legend 'AEGVPTO CAPTA' directly translates to 'Egypt Captured', and allows the distribution of said message to be delivered to the entire Roman Empire, thus celebrating the event. It is understandable that Augustus would have boasted about this victory as Egypt was so important to Rome as a whole with it being the grain/bread basket of the Empire, thus winning it back would be an exceptional triumph. The palm branch it is chained to refers to Alexandria as it is the emblem of Alexandria, Damascus which was captured in 30 BC by Octavian/Augustus. There are also alternations of this captured Egypt coin set where instead of the exotic crocodile, there are hippopotamuses or a rhinoceros featured in order to flaunt the victory over Egypt . More examples of Augustus's victory coinage [see Figure 13.] with barehead Octavian and reverse Victory with wreath on a globe, Victory personified as a woman stands on a globe which would represent in Augustus' political imagery, complete universal power which is what he would've obtained after