You wrote:
wasn't Augustus Caesar stabbed in the back by his son, Brutus? (not that I'd do that to Jimbo)
No, that was Julius Caesar. JC was the first military dictator of Rome but he didn't rule for long before he was killed by his illegitimate son Brutus and several Senators (but historians are not certain that Brutus was in fact a son of JC).
Augustus was the first emperor and as such was the person who established the Emperorship of Rome.
-- mav