The word "Caesar" is a title?

Question

I am using the following Encyclopedia entry as a source: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04295c.htm

In the article the words "Caesar" and "Augustus" appear to be used as a title. what do these titles mean specifically?

thank you

Answer 1

Augustus means "revered one," or roughly "majestic." We're more familiar with it because Octavian took it as his title, but that was not his actual *name*. I'm not too familiar with the use of the term of Caesar outside of its being meant to describe the intended holder of the throne, but a quick Google search brought lots of interesting results. I liked this one:

http://www.livius.org/caa-can/caesar/caesar.html

Answer 2

Caesar is merely the patronym of Gaius Julius Caesar which was adopted by his successors and became a title*. Augustus - 'great one' His full name was Imperator Caesar Divi Filius Augustus.

*Later - on thinking about it, the Romans did what we sometimes when we attach trade names to the item generic - calling all vacuum cleaners 'hoovers' or all ballpoint pens 'biros'

Answer 3

Caesar is used as a title in this sense. It originally came from Julius Caesar, who used the word as a nickname of sorts. It later became used to mean emperor or imperial.

Augustus was the name of a Roman emperor.