St. Luke was very much a Roman citizen and knew that the ultimate competition for Jesus was the emperor. He had lived through the reigns of several emperors and realized that the first – Augustus – was the most formidable, and so he begins the story of the birth of Jesus with him. We are meant to make comparisons.
The emperor was born Octavian in 63 BC. He came from a solid family but was not of the highest nobility. He was however the adopted son of Julius Caesar and demonstrated such military and political skill after his death that he became the most powerful man in Rome. He also understood how to use symbols and what we would now call public relations.
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