Augustus

Anthony Everitt, already the best-selling author of Cicero, turns to Augustus himself, a figure few biographers had studied as a man rather than through the age he lived in. Augustus enters Roman politics as an inexperienced teenager taken from his studies, with his school friends Agrippa and Maecenas at his side. His rise starts with the assassination of Julius Caesar, his great-uncle and adoptive father, and builds to the great contest with Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Everitt portrays a world run on ambition, ceremony, scandal, sex and violence, and presents familiar names such as Brutus, Cassius and Cleopatra as rounded human beings. Everitt's study of power and political talent appeared in 2006.

It was among a few favorite biographies Robert Greene posted on Instagram while reading for his new book.