138 WIVES OF THE 



orable spirit. Her operations were conducted with impenetrable secrecy ; 

 the greatest strokes of her iniquity were dealt in silence ; and though 

 suspicion might descend upon her crimes, to prove them baffled 

 all the vigilance of curiosity and hatred. Caligula, when young, 

 observed, " she was a new Ulysses* in disguise/' But notwith- 

 standing the precautions of the empress, the successive accidents 

 which fatally removed the kindred of Augustus, and thereby opened 

 the succession to Tiberius, awakened the accusing rumours of the 

 city. The sudden deaths of Caius and Lucius Caesar, the sons of 

 Julia and Agrippa, and whom Augustus had adopted and distin- 

 guished by the highest honours of the state, were commonly consi- 

 dered the result of Livia's remorseless and ambitious policy. Not 

 only consanguinity the resplendent merits of these youths ap- 

 peared to justify the choice of Caesar, and render his selection grate- 

 ful to the Roman people. Lucius died when on his journey to the 

 Spanish armies ; Caius, when returning from Armenia, and suffering 

 though not severely from a wound.f 



Augustus saw the only male remaining member of his family in 

 Posthumus, the son of Julia and Agrippa, and adopted him con- 

 jointly with Tiberius as heir to the imperiaWignity. But Livia, far 

 from being satisfied at this designed partition of the sovereignty, re- 

 curred to her devices. She resolved to vilify the character and con- 

 duct of the guiltless but ungainly Posthumus ; her designs were 

 rendered somewhat easy by the personal and mental nature of the 

 prince, for he was coarse and ignorant ; and such was the effect of 

 her invective, and the strength of her ascendant on the reason or the 

 will of Caesar, that the object of her jealousy was sacrificed and sent 

 into exile on the lonely island of Planasia. This measure of Augus- 

 tus was flagrantly unpopular ; the Romans saw in his despotic treat- 

 ment of his family the acquiescence of a man, whose faculties were 

 obviously enfeebled by old age, and whose imperial power was 

 wielded by the daring genius of a cruel and ambitious female. Nor 

 was the emperor himself insensible to that severity of fate, by which 

 his numerous descendants were cut off from the imperial heritage ; he 

 secretly and bitterly complained of his bereavement to his private 

 friends, and actuated by a deep emotion of returning nature, com- 

 muned with himself upon the banishment of Posthumus Agrippa. 

 He found with equal shame and sorrow, that the exile of that prince 

 was utterly unmerited ; he perceived, too, from the agency by which 

 it had been artfully effected, the immoderate passion and aspiring 

 object of his wife. He was touched with the penitent and affection- 

 ate resolution to repair the injury he had inflicted on Agrippa, and 

 determined on a secret visit to the solitary isle, to which his credulous 

 compliance had consigned him. 



Augustus left the Palatine at dead of night, accompanied by Fa- 



* Or it may be freely rendered " an Ulysses in petticoats." " Liviam Au- 

 gustam proaviam Ulyssem stolatwn identidem appellans." Sueton. in Calig. 

 " Stola apud Homanos pudicarum matronarum insigne." Sabell. in Sueton. 



t " L. Csesarem, euntem ad Hispanienses exercitus, Caium, remeantem 

 Armenia et vulnere invalidum, mors fato propera vel novercce Livia: dolus ab- 

 stuRt." Tacit. Ann. 1. c. 3. 



