AUG 



was owing to a weaknefs of the flomach and bowels • and 

 hewas fe.fed w,th it, as he was conduding Tiberius towa-ds 

 lllyruim. On his return towards Rome, his complaint in- 

 creafcd, and obliged him to ftop at Noh, wliefe he took to 

 his bed, and patiently waited the approach of death. On 

 the laft day of his life, he caUed for a mirror ; he had his 

 head dreiTed, and fomething to be done which might pre- 

 vent his checks from appearing funk ; and then calling his 

 friends to his bed-fide, alkcd them, whether thev did not 

 thmk he had aded his part pretty well in the comedy of 

 human life >. and then addrefTed them in a Greek vcrfe, with 

 which they generally clofed their plays : 



i. e. " Clap your hands, and let all applaud with joy." 

 After this kind of comic adieu, he ordered every body to 

 retire, and died in Livia's arms ; faying, " Livia, conjugii 

 noftri memor, vive et vale ;" i. e. "Livia, farewell, forget 

 not a huiband who has loved you tenderly." His death 

 happened on the 19th of Auguil, A. D. 14, A. U.C. 767, 

 and in the feventy-fixth year of his age. The duration of 

 his power, if we reckon from the time of th; triumvirate, 

 of which he took poireffion the 27th of November, in the 

 year of Rome 711, B. C. 43, was about ^6 years. If we 

 reckon from the battle of Adium, fought the 2d of Sep- 

 tember, in the year of Rome 723, B. C. 31, when his fole 

 poffeffion of the Roman empire properly commences, Au- 

 guftus will then appear to have enjoyed the fovereign power 

 about forty -four years. Crevier ftatcs the true time of his 

 becoming emperor to have been the 7th of January, in the 

 year of his fevcnth cor.fulfliip, which, according to his rec- 

 koning, was the 725th of Rome, and referring his death to 

 the 765th of Rome, he governed as prince and emperor 

 forty years, feven months, and thirteen days. " All the 

 reft (he fays) was manifeft ufurpation and tyranny." Jofe- 

 phus (Ant. 1. xviii. c. 2. § 2. De Bell. 1. ii. c. 9. ^ i.), and 

 others after him, compute the beginning of the reign of 

 Augullus from the year in which Calar was killed, A. U. C. 

 710. B. C. 44, and make its duration fifty-ieven years, fi,x 

 months, and lome odd days. Ptolemy, in his canon, and 

 St.Clement of Alexandria (Strom. 1. i. t. i. p. 405. ed. Pot- 

 ter.), date the commencement of iiis reign in the yeiir after 

 the battle of Actium, A. U.C. 724, and compute its du- 

 ration to be forty -three years. 



Before the funeral of Auguftus, his will was prefented 

 to the fcnate-houfe by the veital virgins, in whofe cudody 

 it had been depofited, and read aloud by Polybiiis, one of 

 his freedmen. By this will, made fixtcen months before his 

 death, Tiberius and Livia were appointed his firll heirs, his 

 grand-children and their children his fecond, and the great 

 men of Rome his third heirs. Livia was adopted into the 

 Julian family, and honoured with the title of Auguita. He 

 bequeatb.ed, as a legacy, forty millions of ielUrcts (about 

 5,000,000 iivres) to the Roman people; three millions five 

 hundred thoufand (437,500 livres) to the yibes, that is an 

 hundred thoufand (12,500 hvres) to each ; to eacli of his 

 guards a thoufand fefterces (125 Iivres) ; to each of the fol- 

 diers appointed to guard the city 500 fefterces (62 Iivres) ; 

 and to each legionai7 foldier 300 fefterces (37 Iivres). Au- 

 guftus left alio four memorials, writtenby hisown hand, which 

 were produced to the fenate by Drufus. The firft of ihefe 

 contained regulations relating to his obfequies ; the fecond 

 was a journal of the moft memorable adions of his life, 

 which he ordered to be engraved on the pillars of brals 

 •which fupportcd the frontifpiece of his ftattly maufoleum ; 

 part of which has been prefcrved in an ancient marble, found 

 about 200 years ago in the city of Ancyra ; the third con- 

 tained a fummary of the ftrength aud income of the empire ; 



AUG 



and the fourth was a fummary of inftruAions for the ufe of Ti- 

 berius, and the other governors and magillrates of the re- 

 public. 



The funeral of Auguftus was performed with very extra- 

 ordinary magnificence. After a ftiort eulogium by Drufus, 

 and a funeral oration by Tiberius, fire was fct to the pile ia 

 the Campus Martius, on which his body was laid, and at 

 tlii» moment an eagle was let loofe from the top of it, to 

 carry his foul to lica\cn. His aflits were colleded by Livia, 

 and inclofed in an urn of gold, which (he depofited in the 

 maufoleum ereded by Auguftus in a grove between the 

 Tiber and the Flaminian way. After the funeral, divine 

 worihip was decreed to him, with a temple and priefts ; the 

 houfe in which he was boni, that in which he died, and 

 moft of the houfes in whieh he had lived, were converted 

 into faiiduaries. Livia alfumcd the office of chief prieftef* 

 to the new deity; and made aprefent of a million of fefterces 

 to an old praetor, named Numerius Atticus, who fwore that 

 he faw the foul of Auguftus in its flight to heaven. 



The charadcr of Auguftus appears under very different 

 afpects in the various periods of his life and reign. In the 

 outfet of his career of ambition, he was crafty and diflembhng 

 (Gen. Biog.), violent and fanguinary ; but as he advanced 

 in years, and after he had attained the objed of his views, 

 he was, in his general conduct, mild, affable, and concili- 

 ating. Ill the exercife of that fovereign and abfolutc power, 

 which he acquired by means which none can attempt to juf- 

 tify, and which he contrived moft effedually to fvcure by 

 apparent moderation and felf-denial, he feems to have beco 

 folicitous for making the people contented and happy ; and 

 in many rtfpeds he was entitled to the charader of a wife 

 and equitable governor. " As a compcnfation for hbcrty," 

 fays one of his biographers, " he gave his fubjeds fecurity, 

 eafe, profpeAy, and all the advantages of high civilization, 

 with as little as poflible of the feverity of reftraint and coer- 

 cion. He filled Rome and all Italy with improvenitnts of 

 every kind; made highways, conftruded harbours, laifed 

 edifices for ufe and convenience, and could boaft that he re- 

 ceived a capital built of brick, and left one of marble. He 

 fo encouraged letters, that one of the great aj« of excellent 

 human produdions takes its name from him." (See Age. ^ 

 Thofe whom he encouraged by his hberahty, repaid him 

 with an adulation, which was not honourable to thcmfelvcs, 

 and wiiich made no addition to his reputation. The love of 

 flattery, however, is jiot charged upon him as one of his 

 predominant foibles. In private life he had manv cftimabie 

 qualities. Affedionatc to his family and friends, condefcend- 

 ing and indulgent to his domeftics and dependents, frugal 

 and fober with regard to every indulgence, one excepted, 

 which regarded himfclf ; he commanded affedion and re- 

 fpec^. But his difpofition to gallantry and licentioufiiefs in 

 his condud towards the female fex, expofed him to juft cen- 

 furc and reproach ; nor did the counicl of his friends (fee 

 Athenodorus), nor the wifdoni of experience, avail to thi 

 due reftraint of his criminal paffions. Sometimes indeed, it 

 has been faid, his intrigues were the rcfult of that policy 

 which direded his general condud, as they fer\'ed to difco- 

 ver ffcrets of ftate, and to obtain information concemii-g 

 any plot or fedition that might have been formed by the 

 hulbands of thofe wives with whom he was conneded. In 

 other refpeds he paid a high regard to external decorum ; 

 and whatever might have been his fentiments with regard to 

 religion in early hfe, he appears in matu.-er and more ad- 

 vanced age to have been much inclined to fuperllition. He 

 took great pains to eftablilh order in every branch of the ad- 

 miniftration whilft he lived ; and recommended it to hisfuc- 

 ceiF&rs not to ciiiend the limits of au empire that was al- 



read) 



