ROMAN E IMP IRK. 



407 



^flv* pates of Alexandria. The troops of Antony made a 

 desperate sally from the city, and gained a temporary 

 .-id vantage over the enemy's cavalry. This partial suc- 

 ce*s re\ r, c.l his hopes, and encouraged him to make 

 one (I lliirt. both by sea and by land ; but be- 



king this step, he challenged Octavianus to single 

 conibat, which WHS <if course contemptuously dec-lined. 

 Having placed his troops on an eminence in the 

 Mm hood of Alexandria, he ordered his fleet to 

 engage that of the enemy. The galleys advance! in 

 good order, but they immediately joined those of Oc- 

 tavianus, and retired peacefully into the harbour. The 

 cavalry at the same time forsook him, and though his 

 infantry remained steady, yet they were soon defeated 

 and driven back into the city. 



I>i-,itl> of Cleopatra having circulated a rumour of her death, 



Antony and Antony stabbed himself with his sword, and Cleopa- 

 ltra - tra, who was soon afterwards taken prisoner, perished 

 by her own hands.* 



After settling the affairs of Egypt, Octavianus left 

 Alexandria in the beginning of September, and passing 

 through Syria and other provinces of Asia Minor, he 

 spent the winter in adjusting their various political 

 concerns. In the beginning of the following spring, 

 he went into Greece, and arrived in Rome in the month 

 Sextilis, afterwards called August, when his victories 

 were celebrated by three triumphs, which lasted for 

 three successive days. 



The undisputed sovereign of the whole Roman em- 

 pire, Octavianus had now attained the summit of his 

 wishes. Great as his ambition undoubtedly was, and 

 numerous as the dangers were through which he 

 reached the pinnacle of earthly greatness, he yet seems 

 to have compared with the wisdom of a philosopher 

 the honours and the dangers of imperial power. He 

 recollected the aversion of the Romans to a kingly go- 

 vernment; he saw before him his illustrious uncle, 

 basely murdered on the seat of almost omnipotent 

 power, and he dreaded that another assassin might at- 

 tack him also upon the throne. On the other hand, 

 he recollected the fate of Sylla. He admired his mo- 

 deration in divesting himself of that supreme power 

 which it had cost him so many lives to usurp ; and he 

 remembered that this monster of cruelty was allowed 

 to die peacefully in his bed in the midst of men whose 

 relatives he had murdered, and in the neighbourhood 

 of a city which he had inundated with blood. In the 

 dilemma in which Oetavianua was thus placed, be- 

 tween his love of power and his dread of treason, 

 he consulted his friends Agrippa and Maecenas, in 

 whose wisdom and honour he placed the firmest reli- 

 ance. 



Agrippa was deeply impressed with the same views 

 which had forced themselves upon the fears of Octa- 

 vianus ; and he earnestly intreated him to restore li- 

 berty to his country, and to leave behind him the re- 

 putation of having taken up arms with no other view 

 than that of revenging the death of Caesar. Maecenas, 

 on the other hand, represented to him the danger of 

 renouncing his authority. He impressed it upon his 

 notice, that the tranquillity of the state depended on 

 the indivisibility of the sovereign power. He urged 

 it upon him as the golden rule in government, to go- 

 vern others as he would wish to be governed had it 

 been his destiny to obey ; and he suggested to him 



that under tin.- title of Caesar or Impcralor, he t night Roman 

 enjoy nil the influence of a king without offending the v ^ 

 prejudices >f his countrymen. v *""" "*-' 



nu supported in hi* natural attachment Conduct of 

 to power, followed the advice of Maecenas. He paid the Ot 

 greatest attention to the people, and amid the cheapness 

 and abundance of provisions, the shows and games with 

 which they were amused, they were not sensible of 

 the authority which was exercised over them. He 

 made a census of the people in his sixth consulship, 

 ami found the number of men fit to bear arms to be 

 46' .'i, 000. He abrogated the iniquitous laws which 

 had been created during the triumvirate. He erect- 

 ed many public edifices ; he repaired those which 

 had gone into decay ; he ornamented the city in va- 

 rious ways, and by attending to the details of business, 

 by reforming abuses, and by appearing in person at 

 the public amusements, he fixed himself deeply in the 

 affections of the people. 



Having entered upon his seventh consulship, he 

 went to the senate house, and by the advice of Agrippa 

 and Maecenas, he offered to resign hi authority into 

 the hands of the people as under the old commonwealth. 

 The senators besought him to take upon himself the 

 sovereign authority ; but though he reluctantly ac- 

 cepted of this request, he refused to hold it for more 

 than ten years. A new name was thought necessary 

 to characterise this new power, and though the name 

 of Romulus was considered by many as the most ap- 

 propriate, yet that of Augustus proposed by Manutius Receives 

 Plancus was preferred and adopted. Thus terminated the title 

 tiie commonwealth of Rome, and thus commenced the of Augu- 

 greatest monarchy that the world had ever seen. The tm< 

 Roman empire now extended over a length of 4000 

 mile*, and a breadth of nearly '2000, and included the 

 greater part of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Its annual 

 revenue amounted to about forty millions of our money. 

 The people were rich and in comfortable circumstances, 

 and the great body of the population were sunk in 

 luxury and effeminacy. 



Having gained completely the affections of the people, Augustus 

 Augustus used every means to render permanent the ubdues the 

 attachment which already existed between him and his Asturian*. 

 soldiers. He maintained a standing army of twenty- 

 three legions, of which seventeen were stationed in 

 Europe, viz. eight on the Rhine, four on the Danube, 

 three in Spain, and two in Dalmatia. The other eight 

 were placed in Asia and Africa, four on the Euphrates, 

 two in Egypt, and two in ancient Carthage. This 

 army amounted in all to 170,650 men. The emperor's 

 guard consisted of twelve cohorts, or about 10,000 

 men, who were stationed in the vicinity of Rome. The 

 navy of Augustus consisted of two powerful fleets, one 

 of which was stationed at Ravenna on the Adriatic, 

 and the other at Misenum in the Mediterranean. The 

 senators of Rome, like the people, soon felt that they 

 were under absolute dominion. They were on all oc- 

 casions consulted by Augustus, and were so highly 

 satisfied with his conduct, that they added to his other 

 titles that of Father of his Country. 



Having thus wisely arranged the public institutions 

 of the empire, Augustus felt himself obliged to attack 

 the Cantabrians and Asturians, two Spanish nations, 

 who had never yet yielded to the Roman power. In 

 that war, the Romans met with a formidable resistance, 



f 



Th particulars of the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra have been already minutely detailed in our lives of these two distinguished 

 persons. 



