This story takes place before the time covered in my series of books The First Four Hundred Years. After the end of the Roman Kingdom around five hundred years BCE, the Roman Republic came into existence and endured until the year twenty-seven BCE when it was replaced by the Roman Empire. This book Augustus covers the time immediately before the empire and emphasizes the interaction of the Roman area's pagan religion, the Jewish religion, and the formation of the Christian religion. It was during this time that the Roman territory expanded from the city of Rome to dominance over the entire area around The Great Sea. Augustus became the first emperor of the Roman Empire because Julius Caesar, the last ruler of the Roman Republic, didn't have any legitimate sons, adopted Augustus, and officially named him to inherit his great fortune and position of government power. Augustus was born in the year sixty-three BCE and was named Gaius Octavius Thurinus.