Random Historical Facts on Octavian/Augustus

I've had a long time interest in history, for those of you who don't know, and right now I'm in an class on Ancient Rome. It is a very interesting class and I'm learning quite a bit. I also have always enjoyed doing research in historical subject areas (nerd alert I know!), and Ancient Rome is no different! My latest interest is in Octavian/Augustus: the first emperor of Rome.

During class, our professor told us that during the majority of his battles, Octavian would get sick and spend the entire battle in his tent. His army was actually run by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. Agrippa didn't seem to mind much, he even refused a triumph for what he did in Gaul since it was a time of trouble of Octavian; pretty much, he centered his career around Octavian and ended up marrying his daughter, Julia. He also believed that he had a terminal illness, and for years he was convinced that he would die of this terminal illness. It was so bad that when he did actually die in 14 AD, many people didn't believe that he had in fact died due to this fact that he thought he was going to die for years!

This fact about him getting sick so often was of particular interest to me because I had heard a similar thing concerning a Nazi general during World War II. I'm curious as to whether there is an actual sickness that could be the cause of this, as it was it a coincidence that both of these men were sick during battle, or is this 'battle sickness' a psychological thing that affected them as well as other generals during historical battles.

I will actually be doing some research on this over the next year or so, with the help of a few St Olaf College professors I am super excited for this! :D

Any suggestions, my friends?

Yay for being a history nerd :D

Love,

Sara :)