Chap. 46.] 
THE MISFOETUNES OE AUGUSTUS. 
195 
Capitol, whither he himself, in his triumph, had forborne to 
drag in a similar manner even the very captives whom he had 
taken in his conquests ? This crime, too, must be looked upon 
as all the greater, from its having so nearly deprived Mace- 
donicus of the honours of his funeral, so great and so glorious, 
in which he was borne to the pile by his triumphant children, 
he himself thus triumphing, as it were, in his very obsequies. 
Most assuredly, there is no happiness that can be called un- 
alloyed, when the terror of our life has been interrupted by 
any outrage, and much more by such an outrage as this. As 
for the rest, I really am at a loss whether we ought most to 
commend the manners of the age,^ or to feel an increased degree 
of indignation, that, among so many members of the family of 
the Metelli, such wicked audacity as that of C. Atinius re- 
mained unpunished. 
CHAP. 46. — THE MISEOETUNES OE AUGUSTUS. 
In the life of the now deified emperor Augustus even, whom 
the whole world would certainly agree to place in this class, ^ 
if we carefully examine it in all its features, we shall find 
remarkable vicissitudes of human fate. There was his rejec- 
tion from the post of master of the horse, by his uncle,^ and 
the preference which was given to Lepidus, and that, too, in 
opposition to his own requests ; the hatred produced by the 
proscription; his alliance in the Triumvirate^ with some among 
the very worst of the citizens, and that, too, with an unequal 
for succour, and so save himself from being hurled from the Tarpeian 
rock. 
3 "Which allowed the laws to take their course, even against an individual 
of the first consequence in the state. — B. 
* In the class of those who were considered peculiarly fortunate ; hac 
censura," literally, "in this assessment," in allusion to the classification of 
the citizens of Eome, according to the estimate of their property. — B. 
^ In B.C. 45, when, being but about eighteen years of age, he had the 
presumption to ask his uncle for the office of " magister equitum upon 
which Julius Caesar bestowed it on M. Lepidus, probably being of opinion 
that his nephew was not yet fit for the office. 
6 In his triumvirate with Antony and Lepidus, he showed himself no 
less cruel than his colleague, Antony, notwithstanding the gloss which 
Pliny attempts to throw over his actions. Two thousand equites and 
three hundred senators are said to have been put to death during this 
proscription. 
o 2 
