It seems to me that histories of late Republican/early Imperial Rome describe, in great detail, the collapse of the Second Triumvirate, the war between Octavian and Marc Antony, and the creation of the Principate. We also always read about the disastrous Battle of Teutoburg Forest. But the histories I've read seem to skim past most of what happened during Augustus's reign. I know that it was a time of unprecedented wealth, and that Augustus bragged of finding Rome in brick and leaving it in marble. And I've read that Augustus tried to promote traditional Roman values. But what about intrigues and scandals? For example, I've also read that Augustus often slept with Senators's wives. I know he was briefly wed to a child-bride. And I seem to remember there was at least one plot to assassinate him. I guess one way of framing my question is this: How alike was Augustus's reign to those that came after? Even apart from Caligula and Nero, there were frequent plots, arrests, executions, etc. Is there evidence of similar intrigue during Augustus's reign? And could you recommend some good sources to read?
Edited for typos.
For Augustus, the conventional sources to look at are:
For a more modern source, Adrian Goldsworthy's Augustus: From Revolutionary to Emperor is an enjoyable read and a good start. You'll get a foundation to answer your questions there, but I'll briefly answer them here. There is also an abundance of archaeological material from Augustus' reign that we can look at.
About sleeping with senators' wives, it's likely to have happened but probably not to the extent that Suetonius wants us to believe. What makes it truly controversial is that a) Augustus wanted to promote true Roman values and b) before he started sleeping around, he had scolded Livia for doing the same. I'm not sure what you mean by "briefly wed to a child-bride" though, he only had two marriages. One to the older Scribonia, whom he disliked for her attitude, and the other to Livia, whom he stayed married to until his death.
As for plots to kill him and such, these are the kinds of questions that don't have a clearcut 1-line answer. Remember that Augustus lived through two civil wars before becoming the sole ruler of Rome, during those years he had a ton of enemies, and made new ones during the proscriptions. What separates Augustus from all emperors who followed him (apart from Vespasian potentially) is that once Mark Anthony had died, he had no realistic opponent. At that point he is the only ruler of Rome, but on more than one occasion (he brags about this in his Res Gestae) he attempts to leave his position and withdraw, but gets pulled back in to restore order. He lived in a time when most people realised that while he was in power, there was almost no risk of a new civil war, and therefore they wanted him to stay where he was.
When you get to the end of Tiberius' reign, over to Caligula, Claudius and Nero, you're looking at generations of Romans who have never experienced a civil war. Even when Augustus himself died in 14 AD, there were two full generations of Romans (assuming 1 generation is 20 years) who didn't know a time when Augustus didn't rule Rome, and for whom the tales of the civil wars were just legends.
Hope this helps you out, feel free to ask follow-ups!