WI: Augustus has a son?

Particularly in Asia Minor entire cities and communities made oaths, inscriptions, etc, to Augustus, Gaius and Lucius, for their genii and health, and later on to Tiberius etc too.
Ye, sure, the Roman Empire revered Augustus and it also held sacred his children, wife and all his family as well.
But there is a great difference between honoring Augustus' family and taking an oath that only his dynasty, his line, his family will rule the Empire. There was never such a thing like an 'official' crown prince of the Roman Empire. So there would never be a situation like "The king is dead, long live the king!"
That's a great difference between the Roman political system and European medieval monarchies for example.
IIRC there was a Roman emperor about a thousand years later after Augustus and that emperor was so worried about his heir and his family that he made all the Empire to swear solemnly that the next emperor will be his son, and that there would be nothing wrong done to his family.
But that was an exception.

Usually the situation was like this:
if the emperor is dead the Romans would naturally prefer someone from his blood line, his family and relatives as his successor. But there were nothing like 'succession laws' in the Roman Empire so that was never a dogma.
If there was a fool on the throne he might break the magic spell of his dynasty and after his death the Empire would like to look for someone not related to the late emperor as his successor. Preferably an outstanding general who had support of the army.
 
Ye, sure, the Roman Empire revered Augustus and it also held sacred his children, wife and all his family as well.
But there is a great difference between honoring Augustus' family and taking an oath that only his dynasty, his line, his family will rule the Empire. There was never such a thing like an 'official' crown prince of the Roman Empire. So there would never be a situation like "The king is dead, long live the king!"
That's a great difference between the Roman political system and European medieval monarchies for example.
IIRC there was a Roman emperor about a thousand years later after Augustus and that emperor was so worried about his heir and his family that he made all the Empire to swear solemnly that the next emperor will be his son, and that there would be nothing wrong done to his family.
But that was an exception.

Usually the situation was like this:
if the emperor is dead the Romans would naturally prefer someone from his blood line, his family and relatives as his successor. But there were nothing like 'succession laws' in the Roman Empire so that was never a dogma.
If there was a fool on the throne he might break the magic spell of his dynasty and after his death the Empire would like to look for someone not related to the late emperor as his successor. Preferably an outstanding general who had support of the army.

They didn't use the term crown prince, but they did designate them as consuls as soon as they reached "manhood" and called them princeps iuventutis - prince of the youth, with the clear expectation that they would follow Augustus as princeps afterward.

Cf. "The Roman Equites as a body gave them each [Gaius and Lucius] a silver shield and spear and saluted each Princeps Iuventutis."
Cf."Augustus motivated communities empirewide to take oaths of allegiance to himself, his sons Gaius and Lucius, and his grandson Agrippa Postumus at this time (or to devise equivalent forms of homage) with a view to fostering recognition of his sons as heirs apparent."

It was a systematic policy to secure a hereditary succession.
As I've said, once you were someone's client, you were bound to render them service - in this case, assisting them obtain and maintain rule of the Empire.
Once your clientele comprises the entire Empire, and the right to command this clientele being a hereditary affair, you have the basis for a hereditary succession.
 
Augustus did have another son

I've just joined the discussion so hope I'm not too late to add to this thread.
There was a book written wherein Augustus did have an illegitimate son, to a vestal virgin. Its really clever, because his son was - believe it or not - Jesus! I don't know if I can post the website of the book and its author on this forum, but although the book was written about 20 years ago, it really gives an alternative slant. Maybe someone can let me know if its OK to add the website?
 
Defining princeps as prince seems a bit disingenuous.

More so than with Augustus, the use of princeps for Gaius and Lucius was almost tantamount to "crown prince", with the clear intention of them becoming princes as Augustus in due time. If I'm not mistaken Gaius stopped using the title once he became consul, not sure.
 
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