AUG 



AUG 



far as the Elbe ; but ;i3 he was returning to the banks of 

 the Rhine, illncls or accident occilioned liis death, B.C. 9. 

 His brother Tiberius alfo reduced the Pannonians and Da- 

 cians, and completed the work wh.ich Drufus had begun. 

 Thele events terminated in a general peace through the 

 \\'hole Roman empire ; and the temple of Janus was (hut, 

 for the third time, in this reign, and remained in this (late 

 about 1 2 years. Before this time Auguftus had loft his 

 beloved filler Oftavia, who never recovered the death of 

 her fon Marcellus ; and this affliftive event was fucceeded 

 by the deceafe of his favourite minifter M^ccnas, between 

 whom and Auguftus a coolnefs had fubfilled, which is faid 

 to have been owing to the emperor's intrigues with hio- wife, 

 Terentia. During this period, however, Auguftus received 

 many unequivocal teftimonics of the attachment and affec- 

 tion of the people (Suet. Aug. 57 — 60.); and after enjoy- 

 ing the imperial authority for 20 years, he was unanimoufiy 

 requcfted to accept it for 10 years more. The year 8 B.C. 

 was rendered memorable by the reformation introduced 

 by Auguftus into t!ie calendar. (See Bissextile, and 

 Calendar.) About the year B.C. 6. the ambition of 

 the young Caefars, Caius and Lucius, the adopted fons of 

 Auguftus, began to give him unealinefs ; and the jealoufy 

 which fubfifted between them and Tiberius induced the lat- 

 ter to requeft the liberty of retiring to Rhodes, which was 

 reluctantly granted, and whence he was not allowed to re- 

 turn for levcn years. On occafion of Caius Casfar's aiTum- 

 ing the toga virilis in the year 5 B. C. ; Auguftus accepted 

 the confulate for the twelfth time ; and this year (four years 

 before the vulgar aera),was rendered fingularly illuftrionSjby 

 the birth of Jesus Christ. When Lucius Cxfar took 

 the toga virilis in the year z B. C. ; Auguftus became con- 

 ful for the thirteenth and laft time. But this year was im- 

 bittered to him by the difcovery of the very licentious and 

 fhameful condudl of his daughter Julia, which had been for 

 fome time known to every one but himfelf. After delibera- 

 ting whether her punifhment fhould be death or exile, he 

 determined to divorce her from Tiberius, and to banifli her 

 to the ifland of Paiidataria on the coaft of Campania, where 

 fhe was allowed merely neceftaries, and whence (he was never 

 recalled. Of thofe with whom (he had criminal intcrcourfe, 

 fome were exiled, and others put to death. 



Auguftus, having loft his two adopted fons ; Caius having 

 died A. D. 3, of a wound which he received in Armenia, 

 and Lucius at Marfeilles, A. D. 2. ; had no hopes of per- 

 petuating any of his own family on the imperial throne. 

 He therefore recalled Tiberius from Rhodes, and adopted 

 him foine months after the death of Caius Csfar. He alfo 

 adopted the laft of his grandchildren Agrippa Pofthumus ; 

 but his untraftabk difpofition and grofs manners induced him 

 afterwards to annul his adoption, and to baniih him to the 

 ifle of Planafia or Pianofa, on the Touth of the ifie of the 

 Elbe. The emperor likewife obhged Tiberius to adopt 

 Germanicus, the fon of Drufus. 



In the year 4, Auguftus, who was a fifth time continued 

 as commanderinchief of the armies, and in the government of 

 the provinces in his department, profecuted his labours for 

 fettling the civil adminiftration of the republic. He again 

 reviewed the fenate, numbered the inhabitants of Italy, 

 and eftabliftied fome other rcgidations for the benefit of the 

 ftate. But of all the occurrences of this year, the moft 

 glorious for Auguftus was the pardon of Cinna, Pom- 

 pey's grandfon ; who was accufed of a confpiracy againft 

 his life. Having admitted the criminal into his clofet, he 

 reminded him of the favours which had been conferred 

 Bpon him, and charged him with the ingratitude of his 

 defign ; and then clofcd an addrefs of two hours with thefe 



worda ; " Again, Cinna, I give you your life : I fpared 

 you, though you were my enemy ; I now forgive you, 

 though to that name you have added thofe of traitor and 

 parricide. Let us from this day begin to be fiiicere friends : 

 let us vie with each other; I, to fupport the good I have 

 done; you, to make a fuitable return: let us try to make 

 it a doubt, whether I am moft generous, or you moft 

 grateful." The emperor named him conlul for the next 

 year ; and from this time, Cinna, overcome by the emperor's 

 goodnefs, became his faithful and zealous friend; and when 

 he died, made Auguftus his fole heir. Tiie clemency of 

 Auguftus on this occafion interefted the people fo much in 

 his favour, that no conipiracy was ever more attempted 

 againft him. 



The conduft of Julia, the grand-daughter of Auguftus, 

 who copied after her mother's example, offended and griev- 

 ed him ; and he baiiiftied her A. D. 9, to the ifle of Trime- 

 tum, now Tremiti, on the gulf of Venice. The poet Ovid, 

 who is fuppofed to have participated her guilt, was baniflied 

 at the fame time, to Tomi in Scythia, on the borders of the 

 Euxine fea. The two Juhas, and Agrippa Pofthumus, fad- 

 ly interrupted the domeftic felicity of Auguftus, fo that he 

 ufed to call them his three canlers, his three abfcejfes ; he 

 never heard their names vnthout a figh, and often applied to 

 them a verfe of Homer, II. iii. 40. 



" Aiv' o"^!^E,- t' uyami r't/jtmci, iyajuo, t' airoX=cr9a»'. 

 i. e. " Would to heaven I had never married, but had 

 died without pofterity." 



In the following year, A.D. 10, the deftruftion of Varug 

 with three entire legions in Germany, in confequence of a 

 confederacy formed by Arminius, the !ofs of the ftandards 

 of the legions, and two of their eagles, and the infolence 

 and cruelty with which the captives were treated by the con- 

 queror, were the occafion of great diftrefs and terror at 

 Rome. Auguftus, accuftomed to glory and profperity, la- 

 mented this humiliating and difaftrous event with the exceft 

 of forrow. He not only put on mourning, and fuffered his 

 beard and hair to grow, but often exclaimed in an agony ; 

 "■ Return me my legions, Varus." As long as he lived, the 

 day of Varus's defeat was obferved by him as a day of an- 

 nual regret and forrow. Tiberius, however, by his military 

 flvill reilrained the ravages of the Germans, re-eftablifhed 

 the reputation of the Roman arms, and relieved Rome 

 amidft its anxiety and fears. Auguftus was highly gratified 

 by his fuccefs, expreffed his approbation in very ftrong and 

 affeftionate terms, and railed him to an equal fliare of the 

 imoerial authority. Upon his return to Rome A.D. 12, he 

 obtained a magnificent triumph. Towards the clofe of his life 

 Auguftus enafted feveral regulations, which under fucceeding 

 emperors became the means of extending and vindicating 

 tyranny and defpotilm. As he was unable to go frequently 

 to the fenate, he caufed his privy council to be invefted with 

 the authority of the whole body ; he alfo weakened the 

 power of the people, which his fuccefTor aftually annihi- 

 lated, by nominating magiltrates, whom they had been ac- 

 cuftomed to cleft, and by authoritatively recommending to 

 the people fuch as he chofe to have employed. He likewife 

 revived and extended an old law, which was levelled againft; 

 aftions detrimental to the ftate, by enafting, that all authors 

 of defamatoiy hbels fliould be guilty of high treafon, and 

 puniflied accordingly. As his health and ftrength declined, 

 he devolved the principal cares of empire upon Tiberius. 

 The accefs of the complaint that terminated in his death 

 has been, without fufficient reafon, attributed to poifen, ad- 

 miniftered by his wife Livia, who was alarmed, on account 

 of her own fon, by his returning affedlion to his grandfon, 

 Agrippa Pofthumus. But the truth is, that his diforder 



was 



