Historical figures from the late Roman Republic...

[TinCow]

Easily Octavian. I view him as the ultimate (in more ways than one) Republican politician. He played the system better than any of them. Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Crassus, Caeser, Brutus, Lepidus, Marc Antony, etc. all tried to do the same thing he did in their own particular ways, but they all failed. Octavian succeeded, which is all the more remarkable considering his young age, his relative inexperience, and his start as a major underdog. Top it off with the fact that he became (arguably) the best Emperor that Rome ever had, and you have a supremely impressive figure. During his life he was a living God for a very good reason: he dominated the political scene of Rome more completely than any other man in history. Many other men embodied the Republic better than Octavian (I tilt my hat towards Cicero in particular), but in Imperial Rome he has no equal.