421 



AUGUSTULUS. 



AUGUSTUS. 



Bede assures us (c. 25) extended (probably over tributary kingdoms) 

 as far as the river Humber ; and proselytes were now made in remark- 

 able numbers. 



In 597, Augustine, by direction of Pope Gregory, went ovor to 

 Aries in France, where be was consecrated archbishop, and metro- 

 politan of the English nation, by the archbishop of that place ; after 

 which, returning into Britain, he sent Lawrence the presbyter and 

 Peter the monk to Rome, to acquaint the Pope with the success of 

 his rni-sion, and to desire his solution of certain questions respecting 

 church discipline, the maintenance of the clergy, &c., which Bede 

 (1. i. c. 27) has reported at length in the form of interrogatories and 

 answers. Gregory also, at Augustine's request, sent over more 

 missionaries, and directed him to constitute a bishop at York, who 

 might have other subordinate bishops, yet in such a manner that 

 Augustine of Canterbury should be metropolitan of all England. He 

 sent over al-o a valuable present of books, vestment*, sacred utensils, 

 and holy relics. He advised Augustine not to destroy the heathen 

 temples, but only to remove the images of their gods, to wash the 

 walls with holy water, to erect altars, deposit relics in them, and so 

 gradually convert them into Christian churches, not only to save the 

 expense of building new ones, but that the people might be more 

 easily prevailed upon to frequent those places of worship to which 

 they had been accustomed. He directed him further to accommodate 

 the ceremonies of the Christian worship, as much as possible, to those 

 of the heathen, that the people might not be too much startled at the 

 change; and, in particular, advised him to allow the Christian con- 

 verts, on certain festivals, to kill and eat a great number of oxen, to 

 the glory of God, as they had formerly done to the honour of the 

 devil. It is unnecessary to offer any remark on this mixture of pious 

 zeal and worldly policy. 



Augustine having fixed his see at Canterbury, dedicated a church 

 which had been built in earlier times by some Komau Christians to 

 the honour of Our Saviour; and King Ethelbert founded an abbey, 

 dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, but afterwards called St. Augus- 

 tine's. Augustine now made an attempt to establish a uniformity of 

 discipline and customs in the island ; and, as a necessary step, to gain 

 over the British, that is, the \Velsh bishops to his opinion. For this 

 purpose a conference was held in Worcestershire, at a place since 

 nailed Augustine's Oak, where the archbishop endeavoured to persuade 

 the British prelates to make one communion, and assist in preaching 

 to the unconverted Saxons; but neither this nor u second conference, 

 iu which he used much more peremptory language, and threatened 

 divine vengeance in case of non-obedience, was successful. In the 

 year 604, Augustine consecrated two of his companions, Mellitus 

 and Justus, the former to the see of London, the latter to that of 

 Rochester. He died at Canterbury, probably in 607, but the date 

 of his death is variously given from 604 to 614. He was buried in the 

 churchyard of the monastery which goes by his name, the cathedral 

 being not then finished ; but after the consecration of that church bis 

 body was taken up and deposited iu the north porch, where it lay till 

 1091, when it was removed and placed in the church by \Vido, abbot 

 of Canterbury. (Thorn, 'Script.,' x. col. 1793.) The observation of 

 the festival of St. Augustine was first enjoined in a synod held under 

 Cuthbert, archbishop of Canterbury (Gervase, 'Act. Pontif. Cautuar.,' 

 Script, x. coL 1641), and afterwards by the Pope's bull in the reign of 

 Edward III. 



(Bede, H'atoria Eccleiiaitica, lib. i. and ii. ; Gregorius, Epwtolce, 

 L vii. ep. 5, 30, 1. ix. ep. 56 ; Joan Diacon., Vita S. Greg., Vita S. Augus- 

 tini, auctore Gocelino Monacho; Ada Sanctorum, MensU Mail, torn. vL 

 p. 378.) 



AUGU'STULUS, the last emperor of the western portion of the 

 falling empire of Rome, was the son of Orestes, n Pannonian of birth 

 and wealth, who was secretary to Attila, and, on his death, entering 

 the Roman service, rose, step by step, to its highest dignities by favour 

 of the Emperor Julius Nrpos. He returned the kindness of his 

 patron by stirring to mutiny the barbarian troops in the pay of 

 Rome. Nepos fled, and Orestes, instead of seizing on the vacant 

 throne for himself, established his son upon it, A.D. 475, retaining how- 

 ever the substantial power in his own hands. The young emperor, 

 who bore the lofty name of Romulus Augustus, possessed no qualities 

 to distinguish him txcept personal beauty ; and his character is aptly 

 expressed by the diminutive title Augustulus, under which he is 

 universally designated. He did not reign long, for within a year 

 Orestes having offended the licentious barbarians by refusing to dis- 

 tribute among them a third part of the lauds of Italy, the celebrated 

 Odoacer, the first barbarian king of Italy, headed an insurrection, and 

 Orestes was besieged in Pavia, taken, and put to death. The help- 

 less and inexperienced Augustulus yielded at once, and Odoacer not 

 only permitted him to live, but allotted for his abode the celebrated 

 villa of Lucullus, on the promontory of Misenum, near Naples, with 

 a pension of 6000 pieces of gold. Of Ms ultimate fate nothing is 

 known. (Jornandes, Kir. Get. ; Gibbon, c. xxxvi.) 



AUGUSTUS is properly only a title of honour which was conferred 

 upon the first emperor of Rome, and afterwards adopted by his suc- 

 cessors. The meaning of the word seems to have been ' sacred,' as it 

 appears to be derived from ' Augur,' the priest who gave the sanction 

 of the gods to the persons of the Roman magistrates. The Greek 

 writers interpreted the word by ' gebostos ' (adorable), from ' sebas,' 



adoration. But though the title was common to the emperors of 

 Rome, it is in history generally limited to the first who held it, and 

 is almost looked upon as his proper name. For this reason it will 

 be convenient to give an account of that emperor under the present 

 head, rather than under the names Octavius, Julius, or Caesar. 



Gold. British Museum. Diameter doubled. 



Augustus, the first emperor of Rome, was the son of C. Octavius , 

 and Atia, sister of the celebrated C. Julius Caesar, who was conse- 

 quently the great-uncle of Augustus. Augustus, or, to use his real 

 name, Octavius, was born at Velitrae on the 22nd of September, B.C. 

 63, in the consulship of Cicero. In B.C. 60, his father was appointed 

 as praetor to succeed C. Antonius in the government of Macedonia. 

 He died immediately after his return from his province, leaving 

 behind him Octavia the elder by his first wife Aucharia, and Octavia 

 the younger, together with the son of whom we are treating, then only 

 four years of aje, by his second wife Atia, who afterwards married 

 L. Marcius Philippus, the consul of B.C. 56. Philippus treated 

 Octavius as a father, and superintended his education. He was 

 inured to the manly exercises of the Roman youth, and his mind was 

 disciplined in the best studies of the day. He showed from his early 



Obverse. 



Reverse. 

 Gold. British Museum. Diameter doubled. 



years a great capacity, and the prudence and foresight which charac- 

 terised his subsequent career. Young Octavius, at the age of twelve, 

 pronounced a funeral oration on the decease of his grandmother Julia. 

 (Quintii xii. 6.) In his sixteenth year he received the toga virilis, 

 and already in-the year 46, we find him the object of Caesar's regard, 

 who in his African triumph, allowed him to share the military rewards 

 given to his army, though he had not been present in the war. In 

 the following year he was present with his great-uncle at the defeat 

 of the sons of Pompeius near Munda ; and during the remainder of 

 Caesar's life the education of the young Octavius seems to have been 

 watched over by him with parental interest. Octavius was carrying 

 on his studies at Apollonia, on the Adriatic, under Apollodorus of 

 Pergamum, when ho heard of the murder of his benefactor, and this 



