Many of the ideas in this book have developed over many years. At the end of my fi rst year at Oxford back in 1988, I took a course on Augustan Rome, which was wonderfully taught by my tutor Nicholas Purcell, who fi rst brought me into contact with Platner and Ashby’s hefty A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (1929). In the years that followed there were lectures, seminars and tutorials given by the likes of Alan Bowman, Miriam Griffi n, Fergus Millar, Barbara Levick, Andrew Lintott and David Stockton, all helping to shape my understanding of the ancient world and Augustus and his era in particular. You will fi nd works by all of these in the notes at the end of this book, and I should also acknowledge the great debt to the many other scholars whose books and articles I have consulted.这本书中的许多思想都是多年来形成的。1988年，我在牛津大学的第一年结束时，参加了一门关于奥古斯都罗马的课程，我的导师尼乔·拉斯·珀塞尔（Nicho  las Purcell）教得非常好，他第一次让我接触到普拉特纳和阿什比（Ashby）的《古罗马地形大词典》（1929）。在接下来的几年里，艾伦·鲍曼、米里亚姆·格里芬、弗格斯·米勒、芭芭拉·莱维克、安德鲁·林托特和大卫·斯托克顿等人举办了讲座、研讨会和辅导，这些都有助于我理解古代世界，尤其是奥古斯都和他的时代。你会在本书结尾的笔记中找到所有这些方面的作品，我也应该感谢许多其他学者，他们的书和文章我都参考过。