In 44 BCE, an eighteen-year old Octavian arrived in Rome without an army and without political alliances, and seventeen years later he became Rome’s first emperor. How did he do it? In this lecture to his Chinese students Jiang Xueqin explores and explains the birth of the Roman Empire. Julius Caesar saw himself as a man of destiny who would save the Roman Republic, a myth that was met with much skepticism in Rome. After he was assassinated, the Roman people felt regret and guilt for having doubted Caesar, and supported his adopted son Octavian’s quest for vengeance. In the ensuing civil war, as his opponents self-destructed, Octavius slowly and inevitably climbed the pinnacle of power.