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WIVES OF THE CAESARS. No. III. 



" Paulatim delude ad superos Astrcea recessit 

 Hae comite, atq. duse pariter fugere sorores." Juv. Sat. 6. 



THE unbounded powers confided to Augustus were shared, and to 

 a very great extent directed, by the empress, whose authority in 

 Rome was obviously as strong and active as that of the " Imperial 

 Caesar." The city ratified the cession of its freedom by every extra- 

 vagance of servile flattery; while the judicious prince, who had 

 extinguished the vital spirit of the commonwealth, amused the people 

 by retaining all the immaterial forms and name of the Republic. The 

 provinces followed the example of the capital. They were exhausted 

 by successive wars and the oppression of their irresponsible and ra- 

 pacious governors; disheartened by the cold neglect or the con- 

 nivance of the senate, they naturally lo'oked for an alleviation of their 

 sufferings in the new administration of affairs. Peace, on any terms, 

 appeared desirable to countries invariably the victims of a war ; and, 

 accordingly, the suffrage of the provinces was clamorous in favour of 

 the usurpation. The kings of foreign countries signified their plea- 

 sure at the elevation of Augustus, and rivalled one another in the 

 adulation and priority of their congratulations. Among other de- 

 monstrations of their friendship and respect, they raised triumphal 

 arches to his glory, founded cities in honour of his victories, and ma- 

 nifested by every possible evidence their respectful dependence on the 

 amicable feelings of " the father of his country." In the mass of 

 flattery which foreign potentates bestowed on Caesar, there was that 

 sameness of profession which generally characterizes the homage of 

 temporizing subservience. But the submission of King Herod of 

 Judea was a memorable exception to the general servility. He was 

 accounted wherefore it appears not the ablest politician of his 

 time, and had been the most zealous and faithful partisan of Antony. 

 The ruin of that triumvir, it was expected, would be fatal to King 

 Herod ; for Augustus had expressed, and in some instances evinced, 

 his resentment against the coadjutors of his fallen enemy. The 

 monarch of the Jews, whose affairs were much embarrassed by his 

 constancy to Antony, set sail for Rhodes, where he found the em- 

 peror, and addressed him in the following strain of magnanimity : 

 " I have assisted Mark Antony with money, troops, and counsel, 

 and should willingly have rendered him my services in person, had I 

 not been called elsewhere by the exigence of war. I did not abandon 

 him, even after his defeat ; my affection did not perish with his for- 

 tune ; on the contrary, as I was indissolubly pledged to his concerns, 

 I endeavoured to avert his fall, and gave him such advice as zeal and 

 gratitude suggested advice, which had he followed it, might per- 

 haps have left him happy at the present hour. I strongly urged him 

 to abandon Cleopatra ; I endeavoured to impress on his conviction the 

 fatal evils of that protracted intercourse; I pointed to him, as a sol- 



M. M. No. 104. S 



