Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa

Born to a plebeian family around 63 BC, Agrippa met the future Augustus at Apollonia and returned with him to Italy after Caesar's assassination in 44 BC. He fought at Philippi, put down the Perusine war against Antony's brother and wife, governed Gaul, and was made consul at 37 BC - years below the legal minimum - to prepare the campaign against Sextus Pompeius. After defeating Pompeius at Mylae and Naulochus in 36 BC, he commanded Augustus' fleet at Actium in 31 BC, the victory that ended the civil wars. He spent his later years remaking Rome in marble: aqueducts, baths, porticoes, the Pantheon. He also supervised the empire's first full geographic survey and held powers nearly equal to the emperor's, including Senate veto and the right to propose laws. He died in 12 BC at fifty; Augustus mourned for over a month and buried him in his own mausoleum.