429 



AUGUSTUS. 



AUGUSTUS. 



430 



In B.C. 12, on tbe death of Lepidus, Augustus was made Pontifex 

 Maximus, and probably was elected by the popular assembly, to whom 

 the choice of the Pontifex Maximus had been restored, B.C. 63. The 

 title of Pontifex Maximus, or the head of religion, like that of Tribu- 

 nitiau Power, appears from this time on the medals of Augustus, and 

 on those of his successors. But it was not by names or titles, it was 

 by the accumulation of powers and offices in his own person, and by 

 his prudent management, that Augustus waa in effect the administrator 

 of the Roman state, while all the old forms were maintained. The effect 

 of the union of so much power, military and civil, in one person, was 

 what Tacitus has briefly characterised : he gradually assumed " the 

 functions of the Senate, of the Magistrates, and of the Laws." 



The great events of the period of Augustus can only be briefly 

 mentioned in chronological order. They show his activity in the 

 administration of the state, and enable us to form a better estimate 

 of his character. In B.C. 27 he set out for Gaul, intending or pre- 

 tending that he would visit Britain ; but from Gaul he passed into 

 Spain, in which he established order. Augustus spent the years B.C. 

 2ii and B.C. 25 in Spain, where he was engaged in a war with the 

 Astures and Cantabri, the warlike inhabitants of the Asturias and the 

 north-west of Spain. The successful conclusion of the war was 

 signalised, by the temple of Janus being closed a second time by 

 Augustus, and by the settlement of veterans in the colony of Emerita 

 Augusta (Merida) on the Guadiana. Tbe year B.C. 24 is memorable 

 for the expedition against Arabia Felix of /Elius Gallus, who was then 

 governor of Egypt. The next year (B.C. 23), that in which Augustus 

 received the Tribunitian power for life, aud his eleventh consulship, 

 brought a domestic calamity, the death of youn? Marcellus, the son 

 of his sister Octavia, and the husband of his daughter Julia. His 

 peace was also disturbed by conspiracies : that in which Murena was 

 engaeed, or alleged to be engaged, belongs to the year B.C. 22. In B.C. 

 21 Augustus again left Rome for the purpose of settling the eastern 

 part of the empire. He first visited Sicily, and while he was there 

 great disturbances occurred at Rome during the election of the con- 

 suls, for the old forms of election were still maintained, as they were 

 during the lifetime of Augustus The disturbance required his inter- 

 ference, but he did not return to Rome : he appointed Agrippa to the 

 administration of the city in his absence, and gave him his daughter 

 Julia in marriage. [Aoniri'A, M. V.] From Sicily Augustus passed 

 over into Greece, and thence to the island of Samos, where he spent 

 the winter. The year B.C. 20 is memorable for the restoration by the 

 Parthians of the standards which they had taken from Crassus and 

 M. Antonius, and of the captive soldiers, an event which the flatterers 

 of Augustus have often commemorated ; and also for the birth of 

 Julia's son by Agrippa, Caius Caesar, as he was afterwards called. 

 Augustus spent another winter at Samos, where he received ambassa- 

 dors from the Scythians and the Indians. The Indians brought 

 presents, and among them some tigers, which the Romans had never 

 seen before. From Samos Augustus passed over to Athens, and from 

 thi-nce returned to Rome in the following year, B.C. 19. The Cantabri 

 had revolted in B.C. 22, and were finally subdued in this year (B.C. 19) 

 by Agrippa, who after sustaining ceveral reverses nearly annihilated 

 all the Cantabrian warriors. In the year B.C. IS the ten years had 

 expired for which Augustus had undertaken the administration, but 

 the period was renewed for five years, and Agrippa was associated 

 with Augustus in the Tribunitian power for the same period. With 

 the aid of Agrippa, he made another revision of the senate. In this 

 year Virgil died, on his return from Athens, where he had seen 

 Augustus. The carrying of the Lex Julia De Maritandis Ordinibus, 

 the object of which was to compel people to marry under penalties, 

 belongs to the year B.C. 18. In this year Julia bore another son, 

 Lucius, who, together with his brother Caius, was immediately adopted 

 by Augustus, and these youths are henceforth called Caius Caesar 

 and Lucius Caesar. Agrippa, with his wife Julia, set out for Syria, 

 being intrusted with the general administration of affair* in those 

 parts. In B.C. 16 Augustus left Rome for Gaul, his main object being 

 to superintend warlike operations against the Germans, who had 

 defeated Marcus Lollius. Statilius was the governor of Rome and 

 Italy in his absence. The Rli:cti, an Alpine people, were subdued by 

 Tiberius and Drusus, the stepsons of Augustus : and many colonies 

 were established or restored in Gaul and Spain, the lands being given 

 to satisfy tbe claims of the old soldiers, who were continually asking 

 for grants. Augustus returned from Gaul in the year B.C. 13, and 

 gave to the senate a written account of his proceedings. In this year, 

 according to Dion, Augustus dedicated the theatre of Marcellus, and 

 games were celebrated, in which 600 wild beasts from Africa were 

 slaughtered. The year B.C. 12 is that in which Lepidus died, and 

 Augustus succeeded him as Pontifex Maximus : Agrippa also died in 

 this year, and in the following year his widow Julia was married to 

 Tiberius, the stepson of Augustus. The new bridegroom was sent off 

 to fight against the Pannoninns, whom he defeated, and the marriage 

 was solemnised on his return. 



In B.C. 10 Augustus was again in Gaul with his stepson and son-in-law 

 Tiberirs. Drusus also prosecuted the war against the Germans in 

 this and the following year. He advanced as far as the Elbe, but his 

 career wax cut short by a fall from his horse, which occasioned his 

 death. His body was carried to Rome, and Augustus pronounced 

 his funeral oration in the Circus Flaminius : he also wrote an epitaph 



for his tomb and composed a memoir of his life. In the year B.C. 8 

 Augustus, with a show of unwillingness, accepted the administration 

 again for a period of ten years ; and this year is recorded as that 

 in which the month Sextilis received the name of Augustus, which 

 it retains. In this year also a census was taken. Tiberius now 

 conducted the military operations on the Rhiue. Two more of the 

 friends of Augustus died this year, Maecenas and the poet Horace. 

 Maecenas had for many years been his faithful friend and adviser, and 

 had been intrusted with the important office of Prsefectus Urbi. It 

 was believed in Rome that Augustus, among his other amours, had an 

 adulterous commerce with Terentia, the wife of Maecenas, which 

 caused her husband some vexation, but it never made him break with 

 Augustus, and he left him the bulk of his immense fortune. Tiberius 

 received the title of Imperator for his German victories, and in the 

 year 6 he received the Tribunitian power for five years ; but instead 

 of staying at Rome, he retired to Rhodes, where he resided for seven 

 years. 



In the year commonly reckoned B.C. 4, or, according to perhaps the 

 best authorities, in the year B.C. 3, Jesus Christ was born at Bethlehem 

 in Judaea. Some chronologists place this event in the year B.C. 2. 



The year B.C. 2 was the thirteenth consulship of Augustus, and in 

 this year L. Caesar received the toga virilis : Caius, the elder, had 

 taken it in B.C. 5. Thus Augustus had two grandsons, his sons by 

 adoption, who had attained the age of puberty, and he had a prospect 

 of securing iu his family the succession to a, greater power than any 

 man had ever yet acquired. But his happiness was marred by the 

 conduct of his daughter Julia, the mother of his adopted sous. In 

 the lifetime of Agrippa she hud perhaps not been a faithful wife, but 

 now in the thirty-eighth year of her age she had broken through all 

 the bounds of decency and prudence. Her indignant father could 

 hardly restrain himself when he ascertained the extent of her degra- 

 dation. Many of her lovers were put to death, and among them 

 Antonius lulus, a son of M. Antonius by Fulvia. Julia was, under the 

 Lex Julia, banished to the small island of Pandataria, on the coast of 

 Campania, and afterwards to Rhegium, where she lived a life of 

 misery, and yet survived her father. Her mother Scribonia, the long- 

 divorced wife of Augustus, voluntarily accompanied Julia in her exile. 

 Julia, the grand-daughter of Augustus, his daughter's daughter, who 

 was married to L. ^Emilius Paullus, followed her mother's example, 

 aud suffered a similar punishment (A.D. 8). 



In A.D. 1 Caius Caosar was sent to conduct the war in Armenia, and 

 Tiberius came from his retirement as far as Chios to pay his respects 

 to the adopted son of Augustus. But the time was near when the 

 son of Livia was to become the representative of the Caesars. Lucius 

 Caesar died at Massilia, in A.D. 2, shortly after Tiberius had returned 

 to Rome. Caius died in Lycia, on his return from Armenia, in A.D. 4; 

 and Augustus, who in the year preceding had accepted the administra- 

 tion for another decennial period, now adopted Tiberius as his son, 

 and associated him in the Tribunitian power for ten years. At the 

 same time he compelled Tiberius to adopt Germanicus, the son of his 

 brother Drusus, though Tiberius had a son of his own. Tiberius was 

 sent to conduct the military operations on the German frontier : the 

 details of these events belong to his life. After a successful campaign 

 Tiberius returned to Rome, in A.D. 9, the same year in which Ovid was 

 banished from Rome. The success 6f Tiberius and the laurels won by 

 his adopted son Germanicus in this year and the preceding, were 

 overcast by the news of the defeat of Quintilius Varus and the deelruc- 

 tion of his army. [HERMANN.] This was the greatest reverse which 

 Augustus sustained in the long course of his administration. The war 

 on the German frontier continued, and in A.D. 12 Tiberius enjoyed a 

 triumph for his victories. In A.D. 13 Augustus for the fifth time 

 accepted the administration of the empire for ten years. He had now 

 lived long enough to see all his direct male descendants die, except one 

 grandson, Agrippa Postumus, a youth of unpromising disposition, who 

 was Bant into banishment. But Claudius, the sou, and Caligula, the 

 grandson of his stepson Drusus, were already born, and both of them 

 became in time his unworthy successors. Even Vespasian, the eighth in 

 the series of the Koman Ciesars, was born in the lifetime of Augustus. 



In A.D. 14 Augustus held the third census, with the assistance of 

 Tiberius. He had for some time been in feeble health. In the summer 

 of this year, after superintending the celebration of some games at 

 Naples, he retired to Nola, where he died on the 19th of August, in 

 the seventy-sixth year of his age, aud in the same room in which his 

 father had died. Feeling his end near, he called his friends together, 

 and asked them if they thought he had played his part well in life; 

 and if they did, he added, give me then your applause. He died 

 while he was kissing Livia, and telling her to remember their union. 

 An accomplished actor undoubtedly he was, and he played a great 

 part. A rumour that ho was poisoned by his wife has been preserved 

 by the historians, but not the slightest evidence is alleged in confirma- 

 tion of it. By his will he left Livia and Tiberius his heirs. 



In this imperfect sketch some facts have been stated without any 

 limitations, which in a history would require a careful examination. 

 Of all periods this is one of the most eventful, and of all perhaps the 

 most fruitful in consequences, for it is the period in which was con- 

 solidated that system of government and administration which has 

 determined the character of European civilisation. It is remarkable 

 also for the personal history of the man, which, from the battle of 



