I. THERE are many indications that the Octavian family was in days of old a
distinguished one at Velitrae; for not only was a street in the most frequented part of
the town long ago called Octavian, but an altar was shown there besides, consecrated by an
Octavius. This man was leader in a war with a neighbouring town, and when news of a sudden
onset of the enemy was brought to him just as he chanced to be sacrificing to Mars, he
snatched the inwards of the victim from the fire and offered them up half raw; and thus he
went forth to battle, and returned victorious. There was, besides, a decree of the people
on record, providing that for the future too the inwards should be offered to Mars in the
same way, and the rest of the victims be handed over to the Octavii.
II. The family was admitted to the senate by king Tarquinius Priscus among the
lesser clans [Plebeian families in the Senate enrolled in addition to the patricians. See:
Geer, American Journal of Philology, 55, 337ff.]; was later enrolled by Servius
Tullius among the patricians; in course of time returned to the ranks of the plebeians;
and after a long interval was restored to patrician rank by the Deified Julius. The first
of the house to be elected by the people to a magistracy was Gaius Rufus, who became
quaestor. He begot Gnaeus and Gaius, from whom two branches of the Octavian fimaily were
derived, of very different standing; for Gnaeus and all his scions in turn held the
highest offices, but Gaius and his progeny, whether from chance or choice, remained in the
equestrian order down to the father of Augustus. Augustus' great-grandfather served in
Sicily in the Second Punic War as tribune of the soldiers under the command of Aemilius
Papus [205 B.C.]. His grandfather, content with the offices of a municipal town and
possessing an abundant income, lived to a peaceful old age. This is the account given by
others; Augustus himself merely writes [in his Memoirs] that he came of an old and wealthy
equestrian family, in which his own father was the first to become a senator. Marcus
Antonius taunts him with his great-grandfather, saying that he was a freedman and a
rope-maker from the country about Thurii, while his grandfather was a money-changer. This
is all that I have been able to learn about the paternal ancestors of Augustus.
III. His father Gaius Octavius was from the beginning of his life a man of
wealth and repute, and I cannot but wonder that some have said that he too was a
money-changer, and was even employed to distribute bribes at the elections and perform
other services in the Campus; for as a matter of fact, being brought up in affluence, he
readily attained to high positions and filled them with distinction. Macedonia fell to his
lot at the end of his praetorship; on his way to the province, executing a special
commission from the senate, he wiped out a band of runaway slaves, refugees from the
armies of Spartacus and Catiline, who held possession of the country about Thurii. In
governing his province he showed equal justice and courage; for besides routing the Bessi
and the other Thracians in a great battle, his treatment of our allies was such, that
Marcus Cicero, in letters which are still in existence [Ad Quint. Frat. 1.1.21],
urges and admonishes his brother Quintus, who at the time was serving as proconsular
governor [Quintus Cicero was really propraetor] of Asia [61/58 B.C.] with no great
credit to himself, to imitate his neighbour Octavius in winning the favour of our allies.
IV. While returning from Macedonia, before he could declare himself a candidate
for the consulship, he died suddenly, survived by three children, an elder Octavia by
Ancharia, and by Atia a younger Octavia and Augustus. Atia was the daughter of Marcus
Atius Balbus and Julia, sister of Gaius Caesar. Balbus, a native of Aricia on his father's
side, and of a family displaying many senatorial portraits [imagines were waxen
masks of ancestors of senatorial rank, kept in the atrium of their descendants], was
closely connected on his mother's side with Pompeius the Great. After holding the office
of praetor, he was one of the commission of twenty appointed by the Julian law to
distribute lands in Campania to the commons. But Antonius again, trying to disparage the
maternal ancestors of Augustus as well, twits him with having a great-grandfather of
African birth, who kept first a perfumery shop and then a bakery at Aricia. Cassius of
Parma also taunts Augustus with being the grandson both of a baker and of a money-changer,
saying in one of his letters: "Your mother's meal came from a vulgar bakeshop of
Aricia; this a money-changer from Nerulum kneaded into shape with hands stained with
filthy lucre."
V. Augustus was born just before sunrise on the ninth day before the Kalends of
October in the consulship of Marcus Tullius Cicero and Gaius Antonius [Sept. 23, 63 B.C.],
at the Ox-Heads in the Palatine quarter, where he now has a shrine, built shortly after
his death. For it is recorded in the proceedings of the Senate, that when Gaius Laetorius,
a young man of patrician family, was pleading for a milder punishment for adultery because
of his youth and position, he further urged upon the Senators that he was the possessor
and as it were the warden of the spot which the deified Augustus first touched at his
birth, and begged that he be pardoned for the sake of what might be called his own special
god. Whereupon it was decreed that that part of his house should be consecrated.
VI. A small room like a pantry is shown to this day as the emperor's nursery in
his grandfather's country-house near Velitrae, and the opinion prevails in the
neighbourhood that he was actually born there. No one ventures to enter this room except
of necessity and after purification, since there is a conviction of long-standing that
those who approach it without ceremony are seized with shuddering and terror; and what is
more, this has recently been shown to be true. For when a new owner, either by chance or
to test the matter, went to bed in that room, it came to pass that, after a very few hours
of the night, he was thrown out by a sudden mysterious force, and was found bedclothes and
all half-dead before the door.
VII. In his infancy he was given the surname Thurinus in memory of the
home of his ancestors, or else because it was near Thurii that his father Octavius,
shortly after the birth of his son, had gained his victory over the runaway slaves. That
he was surnamed Thurinus I may assert on very trustworthy evidence, since I once obtained
a bronze statuette, representing him as a boy and inscribed with that name in letters of
iron almost illegible from age. This I presented to the emperor [i.e., Hadrian],
who cherishes it among the Lares of his bed-chamber. Furthermore, he is often called
Thurinus in Marcus Antonius' letters by way of insult; to which Augustus merely replied
that he was surprised that his former name was thrown in his face as a reproach. Later he
took the name of Gaius Caesar [44 B.C.], and then the surname Augustus [27 B.C.], the
former by the will of his great-uncle [i.e., Julius Caesar], the latter on the
motion of Munatius Plancus. For when some expressed the opinion that he ought to be called
Romulus as a second founder of the city, Plancus carried the proposal that he should
rather be named Augustus, on the ground that this was not merely a new title but a more
honourable one, inasmuch as sacred places too, and those in which anything is consecrated
by augural rites are called "august" [augusta], from the
"increase" [auctus] in dignity, or from the movements or feeding of the
birds [avium gestus gustusve], as Ennius [Annales, 502, Vahlen] also shows
when he writes: "After by augury august illustrious Rome had been founded."
VIII. At the age of four he lost his father [59 B.C.]. In his twelfth year he
delivered a funeral oration to the assembled people in honour of his grandmother Julia.
Four years later, after assuming the gown of manhood, he received military prizes at
Caesar's African triumph, although he had taken no part in the war on account of his
youth. When his uncle presently went to Spain to engage the sons of Pompeius [46 B.C.],
although Augustus had hardly yet recovered his strength after a severe illness, he
followed over roads beset by the enemy with only a very few companions, and that too after
suffering shipwreck, and thereby greatly endeared himself to Caesar, who soon formed a
high opinion of his character over and above the energy with which he had made the
journey. When Caesar, after recovering the Spanish provinces, planned an expedition
against the Dacians and then against the Parthians, Augustus, who had been sent on in
advance to Apollonia, devoted his leisure to study. As soon as he learned that his uncle
had been slain and that he was his heir [44 B.C.], he was in doubt for some time whether
to appeal to the nearest legions, but gave up the idea as hasty and premature. He did,
however, return to the city and enter upon his inheritance, in spite of the doubts of his
mother and the strong opposition of his stepfather, the ex-consul Marcius Philippus. Then
he levied armies and henceforth ruled the State, at first with Marcus Antonius and Marcus
Lepidus, then with Antonius alone for nearly twelve years, and finally by himself for
forty-four.
IX. Having given as it were a summary of his life, I shall now take up its
various phases one by one, not in chronological order, but by classes, to make the account
clearer and more intelligible. The civil wars which he waged were five, called by the
names of Mutina, Philippi, Perusia, Sicily, and Actium; the first and last of these were
against Marcus Antonius, the second against Brutus and Cassius, the third against Lucius
Antonius, brother of the triumvir, and the fourth against Sextus Pompeius, son of Gnaeus.
X. The initial reason for all these wars was this: since he considered nothing
more incumbent on him than to avenge his uncle's death and maintain the validity of his
enactments, immediately on returning from A pollonia he resolved to surprise Brutus and
Cassius by taking up arms against them; and when they foresaw the danger and fled, to
resort to law and prosecute them for murder in their absence. Furthermore, since those who
had been appointed to celebrate Caesar's victory by games did not dare to do so, he gave
them himself. To be able to carry out his other plans with more authority, he announced
his candidature for the position of one of the tribunes of the people, who happened to
die; though he was a patrician, and not yet a senator [Since the time of Sulla only
senators were eligible for the position of tribune]. But when his designs were opposed by
Marcus Antonius, who was then consul, and on whose help he had especially counted, and
Antonius would not allow him even common and ordinary justice without the promise of a
heavy bribe, he went over to the aristocrats, who he knew detested Antonius, especially
because he was besieging Decimus Brutus at Mutina, and trying to drive him by force of
arms from the province given him by Caesar and ratified by the Senate. Accordingly, at the
advice of certain men, he hired assassins to kill Antonius, and when the plot was
discovered, fearing retaliation he mustered veterans, by the use of all the money he could
command, both for his own protection and that of the State. Put in command of the army
which he had raised, with the rank of propraetor, and bidden to join with Hirtius and
Pansa, who had become consuls, in lending aid to Decimus Brutus, he finished the war which
had been entrusted to him within three months in two battles. In the former of these, so
Antonius writes, he took to flight and was not seen again until the next day, when he
returned without his cloak and his horse; but in that which followed all agree that he
played the part not only of a leader, but of a soldier as well, and that, in the thick of
the fight, when the eagle-bearer of his legion was sorely wounded, he shouldered the eagle
and carried it for some time.
XI. As Hirtius lost his life in battle during this war, and Pansa shortly
afterwards from a wound, the rumor spread that he had caused the death of both, in order
that after Antonius had been put to flight and the state bereft of its consuls, he might
gain sole control of the victorious armies. The circumstances of Pansa's death in
particular were so suspicious, that the physician Glyco was imprisoned on the charge of
having applied poison to his wound. Aquilius Niger adds to this that Augustus himself slew
the other consul Hirtius amid the confusion of the battle.
XII. But when he learned that Antonius after his flight had found a protector in
Marcus Lepidus, and that the rest of the leaders and armies were coming to terms with
them, he abandoned the cause of the nobles without hesitation, alleging as a pretext for
his change of allegiance the words and acts of certain of their number, asserting that
some had called him a boy, while others had openly said that he ought to be honoured and
got rid of, to escape the necessity of making suitable recompense to him or to his
veterans. To show more plainly that he regretted his connection with the former party, he
imposed a heavy fine on the people of Nursia and banished them from their city when they
were unable to pay it, because they had at public expense erected a monument to their
citizens who were slain in the battles at Mutina and inscribed upon it: "they fell
for liberty."
XIII. Then, forming a league with Antonius and Lepidus; he finished the war of
Philippi [42 B.C.] also in two battles, although weakened by illness, being driven from
his camp in the first battle and barely making his escape by fleeing to Antonius'
division. He did not use his victory with moderation, but after sending Brutus' head to
Rome, to be cast at the feet of Caesar's statue, he vented his spleen upon the most
distinguished of his captives, not even sparing them insulting language. For instance, to
one man who begged humbly for burial, he is said to have replied: "The birds will
soon settle that question." When two others, father and son, begged for their lives,
he is said to have bidden them cast lots or play mora [a game still common in Italy, in
which the contestants thrust out their fingers, the one naming correctly the number thrust
out by his opponent being the winner], to decide which should be spared, and then to have
looked on while both died, since the father was executed because he offered to die for his
son, and the latter thereupon took his own life. Because of this the rest, including
Marcus Favonius, the well-known imitator of Cato, saluted Antonius respectfully as
Imperator when they were led out in chains, but lashed Augustus to his face with the
foulest abuse. When the duties of administration were divided after the victory, Antonius
undertaking to restore order in the East, and Augustus to lead the veterans back to Italy
and assign them lands in the municipalities, he could neither satisfy the veterans nor the
landowners, since the latter complained that they were driven from their homes, and the
former that they were not being treated as their services had led them to hope.
XIV. When Lucius Antonius at this juncture [41 B.C.] attempted a revolution,
relying on his position as consul and his brother's power, he forced him to take refuge in
Perusia, and starved him into surrender, not, however, without great personal danger both
before and during the war. For at an exhibition of games, when he had given orders that a
common soldier who was sitting in the fourteen rows be put out by an attendant, the report
was spread by his detractors that he had had the man killed later and tortured as well;
whereupon he all but lost his life in a furious mob of soldiers, owing his escape to the
sudden appearance of the missing man safe and sound. Again, when he was sacrificing near
the walls of Perusia, he was well nigh cut off by a band of gladiators, who had made a
sally from the town.
XV. After the capture of Perusia [40 B.C.] he took vengeance on many, meeting
all attempts to beg for pardon or to make excuses with the one reply, "You must
die." Some write that three hundred men of both orders were selected from the
prisoners of war and sacrificed on the Ides of March like so many victims at the altar
raised to the Deified Julius. Some have written that he took up arms of a set purpose, to
unmask his secret opponents and those whom fear rather than good-will kept faithful to
him, by giving them the chance to follow the lead of Lucius Antonius; and then by
vanquishing them and confiscating their estates to pay the rewards promised to his
veterans.
XVI. The Sicilian war [43/35 B.C.] was among the first that he began, but it was
long drawn out by many interruptions, now for the purpose of rebuilding his fleets, which
he twice lost by shipwreck due to storms, and that, too, in the summer; and again by
making peace at the demand of the people, when supplies were cut off and there was a
severe famine. Finally, after new ships had been built and twenty thousand slaves set free
and trained as oarsmen, he made the Julian harbour at Baiae by letting the sea into the
Lucrine lake and Lake Avernus. After drilling his forces there all winter, he defeated
Pompeius between Mylae and Naulochus, though just before the battle he was suddenly held
fast by so deep a sleep that his friends had to awaken him to give the signal. And it was
this, I think, that gave Antonius opportunity for the taunt: "He could not even look
with steady eyes at the fleet when it was ready for battle, but lay in a stupor on his
back, looking up at the sky, and did not rise or appear before the soldiers until the
enemy's ships had been put to flight by Marcus Agrippa." Some censured an act and
saying of his, declaring that when his fleets were lost in the storm, he cried out,
"I will have the victory despite Neptune," and that on the day when games in the
Circus next occurred, he removed the statue of that god from the sacred procession. And it
is safe to say that in none of his wars did he encounter more dangers or greater ones. For
when he had transported an army to Sicily and was on his way back to the rest of his
forces on the mainland, he was surprised by Pompeius's admirals Demochares and
Apollophanes and barely escaped with but a single ship. Again, as he was going on foot to
Regium by way of Locri, he saw some of Pompeius's biremes coasting along the shore, and
taking them for his own ships and going down to the beach, narrowly escaped capture. At
that same time, too, as he was making his escape by narrow bypaths, a slave of his
companion Aemilius Paulus, nursing a grudge because Augustus had proscribed his master's
father some time before, and thinking that he had an opportunity for revenge, attempted to
slay him.
After Pompeius's flight, Augustus' other colleague, Marcus Lepidus, whom he had
summoned from Africa to help him, was puffed up by confidence in his twenty legions and
claimed the first place with terrible threats; but Augustus stripped him of his army; and
though he granted him his life when he sued for it, he banished him for all time to
Circei.
XVII. At last he broke off his alliance with Marcus Antonius, which was always
doubtful and uncertain, and with difficulty kept alive by various reconciliations; and the
better to show that his rival had fallen away from conduct becoming a citizen, he had the
will which Antonius had left in Rome, naming his children by Cleopatra among his heirs,
opened and read before the people. But when Antonius was declared a public enemy, he sent
back to him all his kinsfolk and friends, among others Gaius Sosius and Titus Domitius,
who were still consuls at the time. He also excused the community of Bononia from joining
in the rally of all Italy to his standards, since they had been from ancient days
dependents of the Antonii. Not long afterwards [31 B.C.] he won the sea-fight at Actium,
where the contest continued to so late an hour that the victor passed the night on board.
Having gone into winter quarters at Samos after Actium, he was disturbed by the news of a
mutiny of the troops that he had selected from every division of his army and sent on to
Brundisium after the victory, who demanded their rewards and discharge; and on his way
back to Italy he twice encountered storms at sea, first between the headlands of the
Peloponnesus and Aetolia, and again off the Ceraunian mountains. In both places a part of
his galleys were sunk, while the rigging of the ship in which he was sailing was carried
away and its rudder broken. He delayed at Brundisium only twenty-seven days---just long
enough to satisfy all the demands of the soldiers---and then went to Egypt by a roundabout
way through Asia and Syria, laid siege to Alexandria, where Antonius had taken refuge with
Cleopatra, and soon took the city. Although Antonius tried to make terms at the eleventh
hour, Augustus forced him to commit suicide, and viewed his corpse. He greatly desired to
save Cleopatra alive for his triumph, and even had Psylli brought to her, to suck the
poison from her wound, since it was thought that she died from the bite of an asp. He
allowed them both the honour of burial, and in the same tomb, giving orders that the
mausoleum which they had begun should be finished. The young Antonius, the elder of
Fulvia's two sons, he dragged from the image of the Deified Julius, to which he had fled
after many vain entreaties, and slew him. Caesarion, too, whom Cleopatra fathered on
Caesar, he overtook in his flight, brought back, and put to death. But he spared the rest
of the offspring of Antonius and Cleopatra, and afterwards maintained and reared them
according to their several positions, as carefully as if they were his own kin.
XVIII. About this time he had the sarcophagus and body of Alexander the Great
brought forth from its shrine, and after gazing on it, showed his respect by placing upon
it a golden crown and strewing it with flowers; and being then asked whether he wished to
see the tomb of the Ptolemies as well, he replied, "My wish was to see a king, not
corpses." He reduced Egypt to the form of a province, and then to make it more
fruitful and better adapted to supply the city with grain, he set his soldiers at work
cleaning out all the canals into which the Nile overflows, which in the course of many
years had become choked with mud. To extend the fame of his victory at Actium and
perpetuate its memory, he founded a city called Nicopolis near Actium, and provided for
the celebration of games there every five years; enlarged the ancient temple of Apollo;
and after adorning the site of the camp which he had occupied with naval trophies,
consecrated it to Neptune and Mars.
XIX. After this he nipped in the bud at various times several outbreaks,
attempts at revolution, and conspiracies, which were betrayed before they became
formidable. The ringleaders were, first the young Lepidus, then Varro Murena and Fannius
Caepio, later Marcus Egnatius, next Plautius Rufus and Lucius Paulus, husband of the
emperor's granddaughter, and besides these Lucius Audasius, who had been charged with
forgery, and was moreover old and feeble; alsoAsinius Epicadus, a half-breed of Parthian
descent, and finally Telephus, slave and page [the nomenclator was a slave whose
duty it was to remind his master, or mistress, of the names of persons] of a woman; for
even men of the lowest condition conspired against him and imperilled his safety. Audasius
and Epicadus had planned to take his daughter Julia and his grandson Agrippa by force to
the armies from the islands where they were confined, Telephus to set upon both Augustus
and the Senate, under the delusion that he himself was destined for empire. Even a
soldier's servant from the army in Illyricum, who had escaped the vigilance of the
door-keepers, was caught at night near the emperor's bed-room, armed with a hunting knife;
but whether the fellow was crazy or feigned madness is a question, since nothing could be
wrung from him by torture.
XX. He carried on but two foreign wars in person: in Dalmatia, when he was but a
youth, and with the Cantabrians after the overthrow of Antonius. He was wounded, too, in
the former campaign, being struck on the right knee with a stone in one battle, and in
another having a leg and both arms severely injured by the collapse of a bridge. His other
wars he carried on through his generals, although he was either present at some of those
in Pannonia and Germany, or was not far from the front, since he went from the city as far
as Ravenna, Mediolanum, or Aquileia.
XXI. In part as leader, and in part with armies serving under his auspices, he
subdued Cantabria, Aquitania, Pannonia, Dalmatia, and all Illyricum, as well as Raetia and
the Vindelici and Salassi, which are Alpine tribes. He also put a stop to the inroads of
the Dacians, slaying great numbers of them, together with three of their leaders, and
forced the Germans back to the farther side of the river Albis, with the exception of the
Suebi and Sigambri, who submitted to him and were taken into Gaul and settled in lands
near the Rhine. He reduced to submission other peoples, too, that were in a state of
unrest. But he never made war on any nation without just and due cause, and he was so far
from desiring to increase his dominion or his military glory at any cost, that he forced
the chiefs of certain barbarians to take oath in the temple of Mars the Avenger that they
would faithfully keep the peace for which they asked; in some cases, indeed, he tried
exacting a new kind of hostages, namely women, realizing that the barbarians disregarded
pledges secured by males; but all were given the privilege of reclaiming their hostages
whenever they wished. On those who rebelled often or under circumstances of especial
treachery he never inflicted any severer punishment than that of selling the prisoners,
with the condition that they should not pass their term of slavery in a country near their
own, nor be set free within thirty years. The reputation for prowess and moderation which
he thus gained led even the Indians and the Scythians, nations known to us only by
hearsay, to send envoys of their own free will and sue for his friendship and that of the
Roman people. The Parthians, too, readily yielded to him, when he laid claim to Armenia,
and at his demand surrendered the standards which they had taken from Marcus Crassus and
Marcus Antonius [Crassus lost his standards at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 B.C., and
Antonius through the defeat of his lieutenants in 40 and 36 B.C.]; they offered him
hostages besides, and once when there were several claimants of their throne, they would
accept only the one whom he selected.
XXII. The temple of Janus Quirinus, which had been closed but twice before his
time since the founding of the city [in the reign of Numa, and in 235 B.C. after the First
Punic War], he closed three times in a far shorter period, having won peace on land and
sea. He twice entered the city in an ovation, after the war of Philippi, and again after
that in Sicily, and he celebrated three regular triumphs [the ovation was a lesser
triumph, in which the general entered the city on foot, instead of in a chariot drawn by
four horses] for his victories in Dalmatia, at Actium, and at Alexandria, all on three
successive days.
XXIII. He suffered but two severe and ignominious defeats, those of Lollius [15
B.C.] and Varus [9 A.D.], both of which were in Germany. Of these the former was more
humiliating than serious, but the latter was almost fatal, since three legions were cut to
pieces with their general, his lieutenants, and all the auxiliaries. When the news of this
came, he ordered that watch be kept by night throughout the city, to prevent any outbreak,
and he prolonged the terms of the governors of the provinces, that the allies might be
held to their allegiance by experienced men with whom they were acquainted. He also vowed
great games to Jupiter Optimus Maximus, in case the condition of the commonwealth should
improve, a thing which had been done in the Cimbric and Marsic wars. In fact, they say
that he was so greatly affected that for several months in succession he cut neither his
beard nor his hair, and sometimes he would dash his head against a door, crying:
"Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!" And he observed the day of the
disaster each year as one of sorrow and mourning.
XXIV. He made many changes and innovations in the army, besides reviving some
usages of former times. He exacted the strictest discipline. It was with great reluctance
that he allowed even his generals to visit their wives, and then only in the winter
season. He sold a Roman knight and his property at public auction, because he had cut off
the thumbs of two young sons, to make them unfit for military service; but when he saw
that some tax gatherers were intent upon buying him, he knocked him down to a freeman of
his own, with the understanding that he should be banished to the country districts, but
allowed to live in freedom. He dismissed the entire tenth legion in disgrace, because they
were insubordinate, and others, too, that demanded their discharge in an insolent fashion,
he disbanded without the rewards which would have been due for faithful service. If any
cohorts gave way in battle, he decimated them [i.e., executed every tenth man,
selected by lot], and fed the rest on barley [instead of the usual rations of wheat]. When
centurions left their posts he punished them with death, just as he did the rank and file;
for faults of other kinds he imposed various ignominious penalties, such as ordering them
to stand all day long before the general's tent, sometimes in their tunics without their
sword-belts, or again holding ten-foot poles or even a clod of earth [carrying the pole to
measure off the camp, or clods for building the rampart, was the work of the common
soldiers; hence degrading for officers].
XXV. After the civil wars he never called any of the troops
"comrades," either in the assembly or in an edict, but always
"soldiers"; and he would not allow them to be addressed otherwise, even by those
of his sons or stepsons who held military commands, thinking the former term too
flattering for the requirements of discipline, the peaceful state of the times, and his
own dignity and that of his household. Except as a fire-brigade at Rome, and when there
was fear of riots in times of scarcity, he employed freedmen as soldiers only twice: once
as a guard for the colonies in the vicinity of Illyricum, and again to defend the bank of
the river Rhine; even these he levied, when they were slaves, from men and women of means
and at once gave them freedom; and he kept them under their original standard [i.e.,
he kept them apart from the rest in the companies in which they were first enrolled], not
mingling them with the soldiers of free birth or arming them in the same fashion. As
military prizes he was somewhat more ready to give trappings [the phalerae wre
discs or plates of metal attached to a belt or to the harness of horses] or collars,
valuable for their gold and silver, than crowns for scaling ramparts or walls, which
conferred high honour; the latter he gave as sparingly as possible and without
favouritism, often even to the common soldiers. He presented Marcus Agrippa with a blue
banner in Sicily after his naval victory. Those vho had celebrated triumphs were the only
ones whom he thought ineligible for prizes, even though they had been the companions of
his campaigns and shared in his victories, on the ground that they themselves had the
privilege of bestowing such honours wherever they wished. He thought nothing less becoming
in a well-trained leader than haste and rashness, and, accordingly, favourite sayings of
his were: "More haste, less speed"; "Better a safe commander than a
bold"; and "That is done quickly enough which is done well enough." He used
to say that a war or a battle should not be begun under any circumstances, unless the hope
of gain was clearly greater than the fear of loss; for he likened such as grasped at
slight gains with no slight risk to those who fished with a golden hook, the loss of
which, if it were carried off, could not be made good by any catch.
XXVI. He received offices and honours before the usual age, and some of a new
kind and for life. He usurped the consulship in the twentieth year of his age [43 B.C.],
leading his legions against the city as if it were that of an enemy, and sending
messengers to demand the office for him in the name of his army; and when the Senate
hesitated, his centurion, Cornelius, leader of the deputation, throwing back his cloak and
showing the hilt of his sword, did not hesitate to say in the House, "This will make
him consul, if you do not." He held his second consulship nine years later [33 B.C.],
and a third after a year's interval [31 B.C.]; the rest up to the eleventh were in
successive years [30-23 B.C.], then after declining a number of terms that were offered
him, he asked of his own accord for a twelfth after a long interval, no less than
seventeen years [5 B.C.], and two years later for a thirteenth [2 B.C.], wishing to hold
the highest magistracy at the time when he introduced each of his sons Gaius and Lucius to
public life upon their coming of age. The five consulships from the sixth to the tenth he
held for the full year, the rest for nine, six, four, or three months, except the second,
which lasted only a few hours; for after sitting for a short time on the curule chair in
front of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus in the early morning, he resigned the honour on
the Kalends of January and appointed another in his place. He did not begin all his
consulships in Rome, but the fourth in Asia, the fifth on the Isle of Samos, the eighth
and ninth at Tarraco.
XXVII. He was for ten years a member of the triumvirate for restoring the State
to order, and though he opposed his colleagues for some time and tried to prevent a
proscription, yet when it was begun, he carried it through with greater severity than
either of them. For while they could oftentimes be moved by personal influence and
entreaties, he alone was most insistent that no one should be spared, even adding to the
list his guardian Gaius Toranius, who had also been the colleague of his father Octavius
in the aedileship. Julius Saturninus adds that after the proscription was over Marcus
Lepidus addressed the Senate in justification of the past and held out hope of leniency
thereafter, since enough punishment had been inflicted; but that Augustus on the contrary
declared that he had consented to end the proscription only on condition that he was
allowed a free hand for the future. However, to show his regret for this inflexibility, he
later honoured Titus Vinius Philopoemen witll equestrian rank, because it was said that he
had hidden his patron, who was on the list. While he was triumvir, Augustus incurred
general detestation by many of his acts. For example, when he was addressing the soldiers
and a throng of civilians had been admitted to the assembly, noticing that Pinalius, a
Roman knight, was taking notes, he ordered that he be stabbed on the spot, thinking him an
eavesdropper and a spy. Because Tedius Afer, consul elect, railed at some act of his in
spiteful terms, he uttered such terrible threats that Afer committed suicide. Again, when
Quintus Gallius, a praetor, held some folded tablets under his robe as he was paying his
respects, Augustus, suspecting that he had a sword concealed there, did not dare to make a
search on the spot for fear it should turn out to be something else; but a little later he
had Gallius hustled from the tribunal by some centurions and soldiers, tortured him as if
he were a slave, and though he made no confession, ordered his execution, first tearing
out the man's eyes with his own hand. He himself writes, however, that Gallius made a
treacherous attack on him after asking for an audience, and was haled to prison; and that
after he was dismissed under sentence of banishment, he either lost his life by shipwreck
or was waylaid by brigands. He received the tribunician power for life, and once or twice
chose a colleague in the office for periods of five years each. He was also given the
supervision of morals and of the laws for all time, and by the virtue of this position,
although without the title of censor, he nevertheless took the census thrice, the first
and last time with a colleague, the second time alone.
XXVIII. He twice thought of restoring the republic; first immediately after the
overthrow of Antonius, remembering that his rival had often made the charge that it was
his fault that it was not restored; and again in the weariness of a lingering illness,
when he went so far as to summon the magistrates and the Senate to his house, and submit
an account of the general condition of the empire. Reflecting, however, that as he himself
would not be free from danger if he should retire, so too it would be hazardous to trust
the State to the control of more than one, he continued to keep it in his hands; and it is
not easy to say whether his intentions or their results were the better. His good
intentions he not only expressed from time to time, but put them on record as well in an
edict in the following words: "May it be my privilege to establish the State in a
firm and secure position, and reap from that act the fruit that I desire; but only if I
may be called the author of the best possible government, and bear with me the hope when I
die that the foundations which I have laid for the State will remain unshaken." And
he realized his hope by making every effort to prevent any dissatisfaction with the new
regime. Since the city was not adorned as the dignity of the empire demanded, and was
exposed to flood and fire, he so beautified it that he could justly boast that he had
found it built of brick and left it in marble. He made it safe too for the future, so far
as human foresight could provide for this.
XXIX. He built many public works, in particular the following: his forum with
the temple of Mars the Avenger [24 B.C.], the temple of Apollo on the Palatine [28 B.C.],
and the fane of Jupiter the Thunderer on the Capitol [22 B.C.]. His reason for building
the forum was the increase in the number of the people and of cases at law, which seemed
to call for a third forum, since two were no longer adequate. Therefore it was opened to
the public with some haste, before the temple of Mars was finished, and it was provided
that the public prosecutions be held there apart from the rest, as well as the selection
of jurors by lot. He had made a vow to build the temple of Mars in the war of Philippi,
which he undertook to avenge his father; accordingly he decreed that in it the Senate
should consider wars and claims for triumphs, from it those who were on their way to the
provinces with military commands should be escorted, and to it victors on their return
should bear the tokens of their triumphs. He reared the temple of Apollo in that part of
his house on the Palatine for which the soothsayers declared that the god had shown his
desire by striking it with lightning. He joined to it colonnades with Latin and Greek
libraries, and when he was getting to be an old man he often held meetings of the Senate
there as well, and revised the lists of jurors. He dedicated the shrine to Jupiter the
Thunderer because of a narrow escape; for on his Cantabrian expedition during a march by
night, a flash of lightning grazed his litter and struck the slave dead who was carrying a
torch before him. He constructed some works too in the name of others, his grandsons and
nephew to wit, his wife and his sister, such as the colonnade and basilica of Gaius and
Lucius [12 B.C.], also the colonnades of Livia and Octavia [33 & 15 B.C.], and the
theatre of Marcellus [13 B.C.]. More than that, he often urged other prominent men to
adorn the city with new monuments or to restore and embellish old ones, each according to
his means. And many such works were built at that time by many men; for example, the
temple of Hercules and the Muses by Marcius Philippus, the temple of Diana by Lucius
Cornificius, the Hall of Liberty by Asinius Pollio, the temple of Saturn by Munatius
Plancus, a theatre by Cornelius Balbus, an amphitheatre by Statilius Taurus, and by Marcus
Agrippa in particular many magnificent structures.
XXX. He divided the area of the city into regions and wards, arranging that the
former should be under the charge of magistrates selected each year by lot, and the latter
under magistri elected by the inhabitants of the respective neighbourhoods. To
guard against fires he devised a system of stations of night watchmen, and to control the
floods he widened and cleared out the channel of the Tiber, which had for some time been
filled with rubbish and narrowed by jutting buildings. Further, to make the approach to
the city easier from every direction, he personally undertook to rebuild the Flaminian
Road all the way to Ariminum, and assigned the rest of the high-ways to others who had
been honoured with triumphs, asking them to use their prize-money in paving them. He
restored sacred edifices which had gone to ruin through lapse of time or had been
destroyed by fire, and adorned both these and the other temples with most lavish gifts,
depositing in the shrine of Jupiter Capitolinus as a single offering sixteen thousand
pounds of gold, besides pearls and other precious stones to the value of fifty million
sesterces.
XXXI. After he finally had assumed the office of Pontifex Maximus on the death
of Lepidus (for he could not make up his mind to deprive him of the honour while he lived)
[13 B.C.], he collected whatever prophetic writings of Greek or Latin origin were in
circulation anonymously or under the names of authors of little repute, and burned more
than two thousand of them, retaining only the Sibylline books and making a choice even
among those; and he deposited them in two gilded cases under the pedestal of the Palatine
Apollo. Inasmuch as the calendar, which had been set in order by the Deified Julius, had
later been confused and disordered through negligence, he restored it to its former system
[8 B.C.]; and in making this arrangement he called the month Sextilis by his own surname,
rather than his birthmonth September, because in the former he had won his first
consulship and his most brilliant victories. He increased the number and importance of the
priests, and also their allowances and privileges, in particular those of the Vestal
virgins. Moreover, when there was occasion to choose another vestal in place of one who
had died, and many used all their influence to avoid submitting their daughters to the
hazard of the lot, he solemnly swore that if anyone of his grand-daughters were of
eligible age, he would have proposed her name. He also revived some of the ancient rites
which had gradually fallen into disuse, such as the augury of Safety, the office of Flamen
Dialis, the ceremonies of the Lupercalia, the Secular Games, and the festival of the
Compitalia. At the Lupercalia he forbade beardless youths to join in the running, and at
the Secular Games he would not allow young people of either sex to attend any
entertainment by night except in company with some adult relative. He provided that the
Lares of the Crossroads should be crowned twice a year, with spring and summer flowers.
Next to the immortal Gods he honoured the memory of the leaders who had raised the estate
of the Roman people from obscurity to greatness. Accordingly he restored the works of such
men with their original inscriptions, and in the two colonnades of his forum dedicated
statues of all of them in triumphal garb, declaring besides in a proclamation: "I
have contrived this to lead the citizens to require me, while I live, and the rulers of
later times as well, to attain the standard set by those worthies of old." He also
moved the statue of Pompeius from the hall in which Gaius Caesar had been slain and placed
it on a marble arch opposite the grand door of Pompeius' theater.
XXXII. Many pernicious practices militating against public security had survived
as a result of the lawless habits of the civil wars, or had even arisen in time of peace.
Gangs of footpads openly went about with swords by their sides, ostensibly to protect
themselves, and travellers in the country, freemen and slaves alike, were seized and kept
in confinement in the workhouses [the ergastula were prisons for slaves, who were
made to work in chains in the fields] of the land owners; numerous leagues, too, were
formed for the commission of crimes of every kind, assuming the title of some new guild [collegia,
or guilds, of workmen were allowed and were numerous; not infrequently they were a pretext
for some illegal secret organization]. Therefore to put a stop to brigandage, he stationed
guards of soldiers wherever it seemed advisable, inspected the workhouses, and disbanded
all guilds, except such as were of long standing and formed for legitimate purposes. He
burned the records of old debts to the treasury, which were by far the most frequent
source of blackmail. He made over to their holders places in the city to which the claim
of the state was uncertain. He struck off the lists the names of those who had long been
under accusation, from whose humiliation nothing was to be gained except the gratification
of their enemies, with the stipulation that if anyone was minded to renew the charge, he
should be liable to the same penalty [i.e., if he failed to win his suit, he should
suffer the penalty that would have been inflicted on the defendant, if he had been
convicted]. To prevent any action for damages or on a disputed claim from falling through
or being put off, he added to the term of the courts thirty more days, which had before
been taken up with honorary games. To the three divisions of jurors he added a fourth of a
lower estate, to be called ducenarii, and to sit on cases involving trifling
amounts. He enrolled as jurors men of thirty years or more, that is five years younger
than usual. But when many strove to escape court duty, he reluctantly consented that each
division in turn should have a year's exemption, and that the custom of holding court
during the months of November and December should be given up.
XXXIII. He himself administered justice regularly and sometimes up to nightfall,
having a litter placed upon the tribunal, if he was indisposed, or even lying down at
home. In his administration of justice he was both highly conscientious and very lenient;
for to save a man clearly guilty of parricide from being sewn up in the sack [parricides
were sewn up in a sack with a dog, a cock, a snake, and a monkey, and thrown into the sea
or a river], a punishment which was inflicted only on those who pleaded guilty, he is said
to have put the question to him in this form: "You surely did not kill your father,
did you?" Again, in a case touching a forged will, in which all the signers were
liable to punishment by the Cornelian Law, he distributed to the jury not merely the two
tablets for condemnation or acquittal, but a third as well, for the pardon of those who
were shown to have been induced to sign by misrepresentation or misunderstanding. Each
year he referred appeals of cases involving citizens to the city praetor, but those
between foreigners to ex-consuls, of whom he had put one in charge of the business affairs
of each province.
XXXIV. He revised existing laws and enacted some new ones, for example, on
extravagance, on adultery and chastity, on bribery, and on the encouragement of marriage
among the various classes of citizens. Having made somewhat more stringent changes in the
last of these than in the others, he was unable to carry it out because of an open revolt
against its provisions, until he had abolished or mitigated a part of the penalties,
besides increasing the rewards and allowing a three years' exemption from the obligation
to marry after the death of a husband or wife. When the knights even then persistently
called for its repeal at a public show, he sent for the children of Germanicus and
exhibited them, some in his own lap and some in their father's, intimating by his gestures
and expression that they should not refuse to follow that young man's example. And on
finding that the spirit of the law was being evaded by betrothal with immature girls and
by frequent changes of wives, he shortened the duration of betrothals and set a limit on
divorce.
XXXV. Since the number of the Senators was swelled by a low-born and
ill-assorted rabble (in fact, the Senate numbered more than a thousand, some of whom,
called by the vulgar Orcivi [ "freedmen by the grace of Orcus," were slaves set
free by their master's will. The Orcivi Senatores were those admitted by Marcus
Antonius under pretence that they had been named in the papers left by Caesar] were wholly
unworthy, and had been admitted after Caesar's death through favor or bribery) he restored
it to its former limits and distinction by two enrolments, one according to the choice of
the members themselves, each man naming one other, and a second made by Agrippa and
himself. On the latter occasion it is thought that he wore a coat of mail under his tunic
as he presided, and a sword by his side, while ten of the most robust of his friends among
the Senators stood by his chair. Cremutius Cordus writes that even then the Senators were
not allowed to approach except one by one, and after the folds of their robes had been
carefully searched. Some he shamed into resigning, but he allowed even these to retain
their distinctive dress, as well as the privilege of viewing the games from the orchestra
and taking part in the public banquets of the order. Furthermore, that those who were
chosen and approved might perform their duties more conscientiously, and also with less
inconvenience, he provided that before taking his seat each member should offer incense
and wine at the altar of the god in whose temple the meeting was held; that regular
meetings of the Senate should be held not oftener than twice a month, on the Kalends and
the Ides; and that in the months of September and October only those should be obliged to
attend who were drawn by lot, to a number sufficient for the passing of decrees. He also
adopted the plan of privy councils chosen by lot for terms of six months, with which to
discuss in advance matters which were to come before the entire body. On questions of
special importance he called upon the Senators to give their opinions, not according to
the order established by precedent, but just as he fancied, to induce each man to keep his
mind on the alert, as if he were to initiate action rather than give assent to others.
XXXVI. He introduced other innovations too, among them these: that the
proceedings of the Senate should not be published; that magistrates should not be sent to
the provinces immediately after laying down their office; that a fixed sum should be
allowed the proconsuls for mules and tents, which it was the custom to contract for and
charge to the State; that the management of the public treasury should be transferred from
the city quaestors to ex-praetors or praetors; and that the centumviral court [a very
ancient tribunal, consisting at first of 105 members, three from each tribe, but later of
180; it sat in the Basilica Julia, with a spear, the ancient symbol of Quiritary
ownership, planted before it. It was divided into four chambers, which usually sat
separately, but sometimes altogether, or in two divisions], which it was usual for
ex-quaestors to convoke, should be summoned by the Board of Ten [i.e., the decemviri
stlitibus iudicandis].
XXXVII. To enable more men to take part in the administration of the State, he
devised new offices: the charge of public buildings, of the roads, of the aqueducts, of
the channel of the Tiber, of the distribution of grain to the people, as well as the
prefecture of the city, a board of three for choosing Senators, and another for reviewing
the companies of the knights whenever it should be necessary. He appointed censors, an
office which had long been discontinued. He increased the number of praetors. He also
demanded that whenever the consulship was conferred on him, he should have two colleagues
instead of one; but this was not granted, since all cried out that it was a sufficient
offence to his supreme dignity that he held the office with another and not alone.
XXXVIII. He was not less generous in honouring martial prowess, for he had
regular triumphs voted to above thirty generals, and the triumphal regalia to somewhat
more than that number. To enable Senators' sons to gain an earlier acquaintance with
public business, he allowed them to assume the broad purple stripe immediately after the
gown of manhood and to attend meetings of the Senate; and when they began their military
career, he gave them not merely a tribunate in a legion, but the command of a division of
cavalry as well; and to furnish all of them with experience in camp life, he usually
appointed two Senators' sons to command each division. He reviewed the companies of
knights at frequent intervals, reviving the custom of the procession after long disuse.
But he would not allow an accuser to force anyone to dismount as he rode by, as was often
done in the past; and he permitted those who were conspicuous because of old age or any
bodily infirmity to send on their horses in the review, and come on foot to answer to
their names whenever they were summoned. Later he excused those who were over thirty-five
years of age and did not wish to retain their horses from formally surrendering them.
XXXIX. Having obtained ten assistants from the Senate, he compelled each knight
to render an account of his life, punishing some of those whose conduct was scandalous and
degrading others; but the greater part he reprimanded with varying degrees of severity.
The mildest form of reprimand was to hand them a pair of tablets publicly, which they were
to read in silence on the spot. He censured some because they had borrowed money at low
interest and invested it at a higher rate.
XL. At the elections for tribunes if there were not candidates enough of
senatorial rank, he made appointments from among the knights, with the understanding that
after their term they might remain in whichever order they wished. Morever, since many
knights whose property was diminished during the civil wars did not venture to view the
games from the fourteen rows through fear of the penalty of the law regarding theatres, he
declared that none were liable to its provisions, if they themselves or their parents had
ever possessed a knight's estate. He revised the lists of the people district by district,
and to prevent the commons from being called away from their occupations too often because
of the distributions of grain, he determined to give out tickets for four months' supply
three times a year; but at their urgent request he allowed a return to the old custom of
receiving a share every month. He also revived the old time election privileges, trying to
put a stop to bribery by numerous penalties, and distributing to his fellow members of the
Fabian and Scaptian tribes [Augustus was a member of the latter because of his connection
with the Octavian family; with the former, through his adoption into the Julian gens]
a thousand sesterces a man from his own purse on the day of the elections, to keep them
from looking for anything from any of the candidates. Considering it also of great
importance to keep the people pure and unsullied by any taint of foreign or servile blood,
he was most chary of conferring Roman citizenship and set a limit to manumission. When
Tiberius requested citizenship for a Grecian dependent of his, Augustus wrote in reply
that he would not grant it unless the man appeared in person and convinced him that he had
reasonable grounds for the request; and when Livia asked it for a Gaul from a tributary
province, he refused, offering instead freedom from tribute, and declaring that he would
more willingly suffer a loss to his privy purse than the prostitution of the honour of
Roman citizenship. Not content with making it difficult for slaves to acquire freedom, and
still more so for them to attain full rights, by making careful provision as to the
number, condition, and status of those who were manumitted, he added the proviso that no
one who had ever been put in irons or tortured should acquire citizenship by any grade of
freedom [i.e., even by iusta libertas, which conferred citizenship; slaves
who had been punished for crimes or disgraceful acts became on manumission dediticii,
or "prisoners of war"].
He desired also to revive the ancient fashion of dress, and once when he saw in an
assembly a throng of men in dark cloaks, he cried out indignantly, "Behold them
Romans, lords of the world, the nation clad in the toga," [Verg., Aen. I.282],
and he directed the aediles never again to allow anyone to appear in the Forum or its
neighbourhood except in the toga and without a cloak.
XLI. He often showed generosity to all classes when occasion offered. For
example, by bringing the royal treasures to Rome in his Alexandrian triumph he made ready
money so abundant, that the rate of interest fell, and the value of real estate rose
greatly; and after that, whenever there was an excess of funds from the property of those
who had been condemned, he loaned it without interest for fixed periods to any who could
give security for double the amount. He increased the property qualification for Senators,
requiring one million two hundred thousand sesterces, instead of eight hundred thousand,
and making up the amount for those who did not possess it. He often gave largess [congiarium,
strictly a distribution of oil, came to be used of any largess] to the people, but
usually of different sums: now four hundred, now three hundred, now two hundred and fifty
sesterces a man; and he did not even exclude young boys, though it had been usually for
them to receive a share only after the age of eleven. In times of scarcity too he often
distributed grain to each man at a very low figure, sometimes for nothing, and he doubled
the money tickets [the tesserae nummulariae were small tablets or round hollow
balls of wood, marked with numbers; they were distributed to the people instead of money
and entitled the holder to receive the sum inscribed upon them---grain, oil, and various
commodities were distributed by similar tesserae].
XLII. But to show that he was a prince who desired the public welfare rather
than popularity, when the people complained of the scarcity and high price of wine, he
sharply rebuked them by saying: "My son-in-law Agrippa has taken good care, by
building several aqueducts, that men shall not go thirsty." Again, when the people
demanded largess which he had in fact promised, he replied: "I am a man of my
word"; but when they called for one which had not been promised, he rebuked them in a
proclamation for their shameless impudence, and declared that he would not give it, even
though he was intending to do so. With equal dignity and firmness, when he had announced a
distribution of money and found that many had been manumitted and added to the list of
citizens, he declared that those to whom no promise had been made should receive nothing,
and gave the rest less than he had promised, to make the appointed sum suffice. Once
indeed in a time of great scarcity when it was difficult to find a remedy, he expelled
from the city the slaves that were for sale, as well as the schools of gladiators, all
foreigners with the exception of physicians and teachers, and a part of the household
slaves; and when grain at last became more plentiful, he writes: "I was strongly
inclined to do away forever with distributions of grain, because through dependence on
them agriculture was neglected; but I did not carry out my purpose, feeling sure that they
would one day be renewed through desire for popular favor." But from that time on he
regulated the practice with no less regard for the interests of the farmers and
grain-dealers than for those of the populace.
XLIII. He surpassed all his predecessors in the frequency, variety, and
magnificence of his public shows. He says that he gave games four times in his own name
and twenty-three times for other magistrates, who were either away from Rome or lacked
means. He gave them sometimes in all the wards and on many stages with actors in all
languages,a and combats of gladiators not only in the Forum or the amphitheatre, but in
the Circus and in the Saepta; sometimes, however, he gave nothing except a fight with wild
beasts. He gave athletic contests too in the Campus Martius, erecting wooden seats; also a
seafight, constructing an artificial lake near the Tiber, where the grove of the Caesars
now stands. On such occasions he stationed guards in various parts of the city, to prevent
it from falling a prey to footpads because of the few people who remained at home. In the
Circus he exhibited charioteers, rumlers, and slayers of wild animals, who were sometimes
young men of the highest rank. Besides he gave frequent performances of the game of Troya
by older and younger boys, thinking it a time-honoured and worthy custom for the flower of
the nobility to become known in this way. When Nonius Asprenas was lamed by a fall while
taking part in this game, he presented him with a golden necklace and allowed him and his
descendants to bear the surname Torquatus. But soon afterwards he gave up that form of
entertainment, because Asinius Pollio the orator complained bitterly and angrily in the
Senate of an accident to his grandson Aeserninus, who also had broken his leg. He
sometimes employed even Roman knights in scenic and gladiatorial performances, but only
before it was forbidden by decree of the Senate. After that he exhibited no one of
respectable parentage, with the exception of a young man named Lycius, whom he showed
merely as a curiosity; for he was less than two feet tall, weighed but seventeen pounds,
yet had a stentorian voice. He did however on the day of one of the shows make a display
of the first Parthian hostages that had ever been sent to Rome, by leading them through
the middle of the arena and placing them in the second row above his own seat.
Furthermore, if anything rare and worth seeing was ever brought to the city, it was his
habit to make a special exhibit of it in any convenient place on days when no shows were
appointed. For example a rhinoceros in the Saepta, a tiger on the stage and a snake of
fifty cubits in front of the Comitium. It chanced that at the time of the games which he
had vowed to give in the circus, he was taken ill and headed the sacred procession lying
in a litter; again, at the opening of the games with which he dedicated the theatre of
Marcellus, it happened that the joints of his curule chair gave way and he fell on his
back. At the games for his grandsons, when the people were in a panic for fear the theatre
should fall, and he could not calm them or encourage them in any way, he left his own
place and took his seat in the part which appeared most dangerous.
XLIV. He put a stop by special regulations to the disorderly and indiscriminate
fashion of viewing the games, through exasperation at the insult to a senator, to whom no
one offered a seat in a crowded house at some largely attended games in Puteoli. In
consequence of this the Senate decreed that, whenever any public show was given anywhere,
the first row of seats should be reserved for Senators; and at Rome he would not allow the
envoys of the free and allied nations to sit in the orchestra, since he was informed that
even freedmen were sometimes appointed. He separated the soldiery from the people. He
assigned special seats to the married men of the commons, to boys under age their own
section and the adjoining one to their preceptors; and he decreed that no one wearing a
dark cloak should sit in the middle of the house. He would not allow women to view even
the gladiators except from the upper seats, though it had been the custom for men and
women to sit together at such shows. Only the Vestal virgins were assigned a place to
themselves, opposite the praetor's tribunal. As for the contests of the athletes, he
excluded women from them so strictly, that when a contest between a pair of boxers had
been called for at the games in honour of his appointment as pontifex maximus, he
postponed it until early the following day, making proclamation that it was his desire
that women should not come to the theatre before the fifth hour.
XLV. He himself usually watched the games in the Circus from the upper rooms of
his friends and freedmen, but sometimes from the imperial box, and even in company with
his wife and children. He was sometimes absent for several hours, and now and then for
whole days, making his excuses and appointing presiding officers to take his place. But
whenever he was present, he gave his entire attention to the performance, either to avoid
the censure to which he realized that his father Caesar had been generally exposed,
because he spent his time in reading or answering letters and petitions; or from his
interest and pleasure in the spectacle, which he never denied but often frankly confessed.
Because of this he used to offer special prizes and numerous valuable gifts from his own
purse at games given by others, and he appeared at no contest in the Grecian fashion [i.e.,
those given at Rome in the Greek language and dress, sometimes by Greek actors]
without making a present to each of the participants according to his deserts. He was
especially given to watching boxers, particularly those of Latin birth, not merely such as
were recognized and classed as professionals, whom he was wont to match even with Greeks,
but the common untrained townspeople that fought rough and tumble and without skill in the
narrow streets. In fine, he honoured with his interest all classes of performers who took
part in the public shows; maintained the privileges of the athletes and even increased
them; forbade the matching of gladiators without the right of appeal for quarter; and
deprived the magistrates of the power allowed them by an ancient law of punishing actors
anywhere and everywhere, restricting it to the time of games and to the theatre.
Nevertheless he exacted the severest discipline in the contests in the wrestling halls and
the combats of the gladiators. In particular he was so strict in curbing the lawlessness
of the actors, that when he learned that Stephanio, an actor of Roman plays, was waited on
by a matron with hair cut short to look like a boy, he had him whipped with rods through
the three theatres and then banished him. Hylas, a pantomimic actor, was publicly scourged
in the atrium of his own house, on complaint of a praetor, and Pylades was expelled from
the city and from Italy as well, because by pointing at him with his finger he turned all
eyes upon a spectator who was hissing him.
XLVI. After having thus set the city and its affairs in order, he added to the
population of Italy by personally establishing twenty-eight colonies; furnished many parts
of it with public buildings and revenues; and even gave it, at least to some degree, equal
rights and dignity with the city of Rome, by devising a kind of votes which the members of
the local Senate were to cast in each colony for candidates for the city offices and send
under seal to Rome against the day of the elections. To keep up the supply of men of rank
and induce the commons to increase and multiply, he admitted to the equestrian military
careera those who were recommended by any town, while to those of the commons who could
lay claim to legitimate sons or daughters when he made his rounds of the districts he
distributed a thousand sesterces for each child.
XLVII. The stronger provinces, which could neither easily nor safely be governed
by annual magistrates, he took to himself; the others he assigned to proconsular governors
selected by lot. But he changed some of them at times from one class to the other, and
often visited many of both sorts. Certain of the cities which had treaties with Rome, but
were on the road to ruin through their lawlessness, he deprived of their independence; he
relieved others that were overwhelmed with debt, rebuilt some which had been destroyed by
earthquakes, and gave Latin rights or full citizenship to such as could point to services
rendered the Roman people. I believe there is no province, excepting only Africa and
Sardinia, which he did not visit; and he was planning to cross to these from Sicily after
his defeat of Sextus Pompeius, but was prevented by a series of violent storms, and later
had neither opportunity nor occasion to make the voyage.
XLVIII. Except in a few instances he restored the kingdoms of which he gained
possession by the right of conquest to those from whom he had taken them or joined them
with other foreign nations. He also united the kings with whom he was in alliance by
mutual ties, and was very ready to propose or favour intermarriages or friendships among
them. He never failed to treat them all with consideration as integral parts of the
empire, regularly appointing a guardian for such as were too young to rule or whose minds
were affected, until they grew up or recovered; and he brought up the children of many of
them and educated them with his own.
XLIX. Of his military forces he assigned the legions and auxiliaries to the
various provinces, stationed a fleet at Misenum and another at Ravenna, to defend the
Upper and Lower seas, and employed the remainder partly in the defence of the city and
partly in that of his own person, disbanding a troop of Calagurritani which had formed a
part of his body-guard until the overthrow of Antonius, and also one of Germans, which he
had retained until the defeat of Varus. However, he never allowed more than three cohorts
to remain in thc city and even those were without a permanent camp; the rest he regularly
sent to winter or summer quarters in the towns near Rome. Furthermore, he restricted all
the soldiery everywhere to a fixed scale of pay and allowances, designating the duration
of their service and the rewards on its completion according to each man's rank, in order
to keep them from being tempted to revolution after their discharge either by age or
poverty. To have funds ready at all times without difficulty for maintaining the soldiers
and paying the rewards due to them, he established a military treasury, supported by new
taxes. To enable what was going on in each of the provinces to be reported and known more
speedily and promptly, he at first stationed young men at short intervals along the
military roads, and afterwards post-chaises. The latter has seemed the more convenient
arrangement, since the same men who bring the dispatches from any place can, if occasion
demands, be questioned as well.
L. In passports, dispatches, and private letters he used as his seal at first a
sphinx, later an image of Alexander the Great, and finally his own, carved by the hand of
Dioscurides; and this his successors continued to use as their seal. He always attached to
all letters the exact hour, not only of the day, but even of the night, to indicate
precisely when they were written.
LI. The evidences of his clemency and moderation are numerous and strong. Not to
give the full list of the men of the opposite faction whom he not only pardoned and
spared, but allowed to hold high positions in the state, I may say that he thought it
enough to punish two plebeians, Junius Novatus and Cassius Patavinus, with a fine and with
a mild form of banishment respectively, although the former had circulated a most scathing
letter about him under the name of the young Agrippa, while the latter had openly declared
at a large dinner party that he lacked neither the earnest desire nor the courage to kill
him. Again,when he was hearing a case against AemiliusAelianus of Corduba and it was made
the chief offence, amongst other charges, that he was in the habit of expressing a bad
opinion of Caesar, Augustus turned to the accuser with assumed anger and said: "I
wish you could prove the truth of that. I'll let Aelianus know that I have a tongue as
well as he, for I'll say even more about him;" and he made no further inquiry either
at the time or afterwards. When Tiberius complained to him of the same thing in a letter,
but in more forcible language, he replied as follows: "My dear Tiberius, do not be
carried away by the ardour of youth in this matter, or take it too much to heart that
anyone speak evil of me; we must be content if we can stop anyone from doing evil to
us."
LII. Although well aware that it was usual to vote temples even to proconsuls,
he would not accept one even in a province save jointly in his own name and that of Rome.
In the city itself he refused this honour most emphatically, even melting down the silver
statues which had been set up in his honour in former times and with the money coined from
them dedicating golden tripods to Apollo of the Palatine. When the people did their best
to force the dictatorship upon him, he knelt down, threw off his toga from his shoulders
and with bare breast begged them not to insist.
LIII. He always shrank from the title of Dominus [ "Lord" or
"Master"] as reproachful and insulting. When the words "O just and gracious
Lord!" were uttered in a farce at which he was a spectator and all the people sprang
to their feet and applauded as if they were said of him, he at once checked their unseemly
flattery by look and gesture, and on the following day sharply reproved them in an edict.
After that he would not suffer himself to be called "Sire" even by his children
or his grandchildren either in jest or earnest, and he forbade them to use such flattering
terms even among themselves. He did not if he could help it leave or enter any city or
town except in the evening or at night, to avoid disturbing anyone by the obligations of
ceremony. In his consulship he commonly went through the streets on foot, and when he was
not consul, generally in a closed litter. His morning receptions were open to all,
including even the commons, and he met the requests of those who approached him with great
affability, jocosely reproving one man because he presented a petition to him with as much
hesitation "as he would a penny to an elephant." On the day of a meeting of the
Senate he always greeted the members in the House and in their seats, calling each man by
name without a prompter; and when he left the House, he used to take leave of them in the
same manner, while they remained seated. He exchanged social calls with many, and did not
cease to attend all their anniversaries, until he was well on in years and was once
incommoded by the crowd on the day of a betrothal. When Gallus Cerrinius, a senator with
whom he was not at all intimate, had suddenly become blind and had therefore resolved to
end his life by starvation, Augustus called on him and by his consoling words induced him
to live.
LIV. As he was speaking in the Senate someone said to him: "I did not
understand," and another: "I would contradict you if I had an opportunity."
Several times when he was rushing from the House in anger at the excessive bickering of
the disputants, some shouted after him: "Senators ought to have the right of speaking
their mind on public affairs." At the selection of Senators when each member chose
another, Antistius Labeo named Marcus Lepidus, an old enemy of the emperor's who was at
the time in banishment; and when Augustus asked him whether there were not others more
deserving of the honor, Labeo replied that every man had his own opinion. Yet for all that
no one suffered for his freedom of speech or insolence.
LV. He did not even dread the lampoons against him which were scattered in the
Senate house, but took great pains to refute them; and without trying to discover the
authors, he merely proposed that thereafter such as published notes or verses defamatory
of anyone under a false name should be called to account.
LVI. When he was assailed with scurrilous or spiteful jests by certain men, he
made reply in a public proclamation; yet he vetoed a law to check freedom of speech in
wills [the Romans in their wills often expressed their opinion freely about public men and
affairs]. Whenever he took part in the election of magistrates, he went the round of the
tribes with his candidates and appealed for them in the traditional manner. He also cast
his own vote in his tribe, as one of the people. When he gave testimony in court, he was
most patient in submitting to questions and even to contradiction. He made his forum
narrower than he had planned, because he did not venture to eject the owners of the
neighbouring houses. He never recommended his sons for office without adding "If they
be worthy of it." When they were still under age and the audience at the theatre rose
as one man in their honour, and stood up and applauded them, he expressed strong
disapproval. He wished his friends to be prominent and influential in the state, but to be
bound by the same laws as the rest and equally liable to prosecution. When Nonius
Asprenas, a close friend of his, was meeting a charge of poisoning made by Cassius
Severus, Augustus asked the Senate what they thought he ought to do; for he hesitated, he
said for fear that if he should support him, it might be thought that he was shielding a
guilty man, but if he failed to do so, that he was proving false to a friend and
prejudicing his case. Then, since all approved of his appearing in the case, he sat on the
benches [the moveable seats provided for the advocates, witnesses, etc.] for several
hours, but in silence and without even speaking in praise of the defendant. He did however
defend some of his clients, for instance a certain Scutarius, one of his former officers,
who was accused of slander. But he secured the acquittal of no more than one single man,
and then only by entreaty, making a successful appeal to the accuser in the presence of
the jurors; this was Castricius, through whom he had learned of Murena's conspiracy.
LVII. It may readily be imagined how much he was beloved because of this
admirable conduct. I say nothing of decrees of the Senate, which might seem to have been
dictated by necessity or by awe. The Roman knights celebrated his birthday of their own
accord by common consent, and always for two successive days [September 22 and 23]. All
sorts and conditions of men, in fulfilment of a vow for his welfare, each year threw a
small coin into the Lacus Curtius, and also brought a New Year's gift to the Capitol on
the Kalends of January, even when he was away from Rome. With this sum he bought and
dedicated in each of the city wards costly statues of the gods, such as Apollo
Sandaliarius, Jupiter Tragoedus, and others. To rebuild his house on the Palatine, which
had been destroyed by fire, the veterans, the collegia, the tribes, and even
individuals of other conditions gladly contributed money, each according to his means; but
he merely took a little from each pile as a matter of form, not more than a denarius from
any of them. On his return from a province they received him not only with prayers and
good wishes, but with songs. It was the rule, too, that whenever he entered the city, no
one should suffer punishment.
LVIII. The whole body of citizens with a sudden unanimous impulse proffered him
the title of Pater Patriae ["Father of his Country"]; first the commons,
by a deputation sent to Antium, and then, because he declined it, again at Rome as he
entered the theatre, which they attended in throngs, all wearing laurel wreaths; the
Senate afterwards in the House, not by a decree or by acclamation, but through Valerius
Messala. He, speaking for the whole body, said: "Good fortune and divine favour
attend you and your house, Caesar Augustus; for thus we feel that we are praying for
lasting prosperity for our country and happiness for our city. The Senate in accord with
the people of Rome hails you Father of your Country." Then Augustus with tears
in his eyes replied as follows (and I have given his exact words, as I did those of
Messala): "Having attained my highest hopes, Fathers of the Senate, what more have I
to ask of the immortal gods than that I may retain this same unanimous approval of yours
to the very end of my life."
LIX. In honour of his physician, Antonius Musa, through whose care he had
recovered from a dangerous illness, a sum of money was raised and Musa's statue set up
beside that of Aesculapius. Some householders provided in their wills that their heirs
should drive victims to the Capitol and pay a thank-offering in their behalf, because
Augustus had survived them, and that a placard to this effect should be carried before
them. Some of the Italian cities made the day on which he first visited them the beginning
of their year. Many of the provinces, in addition to temples and altars, established
quinquennial games in his honour in almost every one of their towns.
LX. His friends and allies among the kings each in his own realm founded a city
called Caesarea, and all joined in a plan to contribute the funds for finishing the temple
of Jupiter Olympius, which was begun at Athens in ancient days, and to dedicate it to his
Genius [i.e., one's tutelary divinity, or familiar spirit, closely identified with
the person himself]; and they would often leave their kingdoms and show him the attentions
usual in dependents, clad in the toga and without the emblems of royalty, not only at
Rome, but even when he was travelling through the provinces.
LXI. Now that I have shown how he conducted himself in civil and military
positions, and in ruling the State in all parts of the world in peace and in war, I shall
next give an account of his private and domestic life, describing his character and his
fortune at home and in his household from his youth until the last day of his life. He
lost his mother during his first consulship [43 B.C.]and his sister Octavia in his
fifty-fourth year [9 B.C.]. To both he showed marked devotion during their lifetime, and
also paid them the highest honours after their death.
LXII. ln his youth he was betrothed to the daughter of Publius Servilius
Isauricus, but when he became reconciled with Antonius after their first quarrel, and
their troops begged that the rivals be further united by some tie of kinship, he took to
wife Antonius' stepdaughter Claudia, daughter of Fulvia by Publius Clodius [43 B.C.],
although she was barely of marriageable age; but because of a falling out with his
mother-in-law Fulvia, he divorced her before they had begun to live together. Shortly
after that he married Scribonia [40 B.C.], who had been wedded before to two ex-consuls,
and was a mother by one of them. He divorced her also, "unable to put up with her
shrewish disposition," as he himself writes, and at once [38 B.C.] took Livia
Drusilla from her husband Tiberius Nero, although she was with child at the time; and he
loved and esteemed her to the end without a rival.
LXIII. By Scribonia he had a daughter Julia, by Livia no children at all,
although he earnestly desired issue. One baby was conceived, but was prematurely born. He
gave Julia in marriage first to Marcellus, son of his sister Octavia and hardly more than
a boy, and then after his death to Marcus Agrippa, prevailing upon his sister to yield her
son-in-law to him; for at that time Agrippa had to wife one of the Marcellas and had
children from her. When Agrippa also died, Augustus, after considering various alliances
for a long time, even in the equestrian order, finally chose his stepson Tiberius,
obliging him to divorce his wife, who was with child and by whom he was already a father.
Marcus Antonius writes that Augustus first betrothed his daughter to his son Antonius and
then to Cotiso, king of the Getae, at the same time asking for the hand of the king's
daughter for himself in turn.
LXIV. From Agrippa and Julia he had three grandsons, Gaius, Lucius, and Agrippa,
and two granddaughters, Julia and Agrippina. He married Julia to Lucius Paulus, the
censor's son, and Agrippina to Germanicus, his sister's grandson. Gaius and Lucius he
adopted at home, privately buying them from their father by a symbolic sale [the form of
purchase consisted in thrice touching a balance with a penny in the presence of the
praetor], and initiated them into administrative life when they were still young, sending
them to the provinces and the armies as consuls elect. In bringing up his daughter and his
granddaughters he even had them taught spinning and weaving, and he forbade them to say or
do anything except openly and such as might be recorded in the household diary [a record
of the imperial household, which apparently dated from the time of Augustus]. He was most
strict in keeping them from meeting strangers, once writing to Lucius Vinicius, a young
man of good position and character: "You have acted presumptuously in coming to Baiae
to call on my daughter." He taught his grandsons reading, swimming, and the other
elements of education, for the most part himself, taking special pains to train them to
imitate his own handwriting; and he never dined in their company unless they sat beside
him on the lowest couch, or made a journey unless they preceded his carriage or rode close
by it on either side.
LXV. But at the height of his happiness and his confidence in his family and its
training, Fortune proved fickle. He found the two Julias, his daughter and granddaughter,
guilty of every form of vice, and banished them [in 9 and 2 B.C., respectively]. He lost
Gaius and Lucius within the span of eighteen months, for the former died in Lycia [2 A.D.]
and the latter at Massilia [4 A.D.]. He then publicly adopted [4 A.D.] his third grandson
Agrippa and at the same time his stepson Tiberius by a bill passed in the assembly of the curiae;
but he soon disowned Agrippa because of his low tastes and violent temper, and sent him
off to Surrentum. He bore the death of his kin with far more resignation than their
misconduct. For he was not greatly broken by the fate of Gaius and Lucius, but he informed
the Senate of his daughter's fall through a letter read in his absence by a quaestor, and
for very shame would meet no one for a long time, and even thought of putting her to
death. At all events, when one of her confidantes, a freedwoman called Phoebe, hanged
herself at about that same time, he said: "I would rather have been Phoebe's
father." After Julia was banished, he denied her the use of wine and every form of
luxury, and would not allow any man, bond or free, to come near her without his
permission, and then not without being informed of his stature, complexion, and even of
any marks or scars upon his body. It was not until five years later that he moved her from
the island [of Pandataria] to the mainland and treated her with somewhat less rigour. But
he could not by any means be prevailed on to recall her altogether, and when the Roman
people several times interceded for her and urgently pressed their suit, he in open
assembly called upon the gods to curse them with like daughters and like wives. He would
not allow the child born to his granddaughter Julia after her sentence to be recognized or
reared. As Agrippa grew no more manageable, but on the contrary became madder from day to
day, he transferred him to an island [Planasia] and set a guard of soldiers over him
besides. He also provided by a decree of the Senate that he should be confined there for
all time, and at every mention of him and of the Julias he would sigh deeply and even cry
out: "Would that I ne'er had wedded and would I had died without offspring" [Iliad
III.40, where the line is addressed by Hector to Paris]; and he never alluded to them
except as his three boils and his three ulcers.
LXVI. He did not readily make friends, but he clung to them with the utmost
constancy, not only suitably rewarding their virtues and deserts but even condoning their
faults, provided they were not too great. In fact one cannot readily name any of his
numerous friends who fell into disgrace, except Salvidienus Rufus, whom he had advanced to
a consul's rank, and Cornelius Gallus, whom he had raised to the prefecture of Egypt, both
from the lowest estate. The former he handed over to the Senate that it might condemn him
to death, because he was plotting revolution; the latter he forbade his house and the
privilege of residence in the imperial provinces because of his ungrateful and envious
spirit. But when Gallus too was forced to undergo death through the declarations of his
accusers and the decrees of the Senate, though commending their loyalty and their
indignation on his account, Augustus yet shed tears and bewailed his lot, because he alone
could not set what limits he chose to his anger with his friends [i.e., while a
private citizen could quarrel and make up with his friends, the emperor's position made
his anger fatal]. All the rest continued to enjoy power and wealth to the end of their
lives, each holding a leading place in his own class, although sometimes differences
arose. Not to mention the others, he occasionally found Agrippa lacking in patience and
Maecenas in the gift of silence; for the former because of a slight suspicion of coolness
and of a preference shewn for Marcellus, threw up everything and went off to Mytilene,
while the latter betrayed to his wife Terentia the secret of the discovery of the
conspiracy of Murena. In return he demanded of his friends affection on their part, both
in life and after death. For though he was in no sense a legacy-hunter, and in fact could
never bring himself to accept anything from the will of a stranger, yet he was highly
sensitive in weighing the death-bed utterances of his friends, concealing neither his
chagrin if he was left a niggardly bequest or one unaccompanied with compliments, nor his
satisfaction, if he was praised in terms of gratitude and affection. Whenever legacies or
shares in inheritances were left him by men of any station who had offspring, he either
turned them over to the children at once, or if the latter were in their minority, paid
the money back with interest on the day when they assumed the gown of manhood or married.
LXVII. As patron and master he was no less strict than gracious and merciful,
while he held many of his freedmen in high honour and close intimacy, such as Licinus,
Celadus, and others. His slave Cosmus, who spoke of him most insultingly, he merely put in
irons. When he was walking with his steward Diomedes, and the latter in a panic got behind
him when they were suddenly charged by a wild boar, he preferred to tax the man with
timorousness rather than with anything more serious, and turned a matter of grave danger
into a jest, because after all there was no evil intent. But he forced Polus, a favourite
freedman of his, to take his own life, because he was convicted of adultery with Roman
matrons, and broke the legs of his secretary Thallus for taking five hundred denarii to
betray the contents of a letter. Because the tutor and attendants of his son Gaius took
advantage of their master's illness and death to commit acts of arrogance and greed in his
province, he had them thrown into a river with heavy weights about their necks.
LXVIII. In early youth he incurred the reproach of sundry shameless acts. Sextus
Pompeius taunted him with effeminacy; Marcus Antonius with having earned adoption by his
uncle through unnatural relations; and Lucius, brother of Marcus Antonius, that after
sacrificing his honour to Caesar he had given himself to Aulus Hirtius in Spain for three
hundred thousand sesterces, and that he used to singe his legs with red-hot nutshells, to
make the hair grow softer. What is more, one day when there were plays in the theatre, all
the people took as directed against him and loudly applauded the following line, spoken on
the stage and referring to a priest of the Mother of the Gods, as he beat his timbrel:
"See'st how a wanton's finger sways the world?" [a double word-play on orbem "round drum" and "world," and temperat, "beats" and
"sways"].
LXIX. That he was given to adultery not even his friends deny, although it is
true that they excuse it as committed not from passion but from policy, the more readily
to get track of his adversaries' designs through the women of their households. Marcus
Antonius charged him, besides his hasty marriage with Livia, with taking the wife of an
ex-consul from her husband's dining room before his very eyes into a bed-chamber, and
bringing her back to the table with her hair in disorder and her ears glowing; that
Scribonia was divorced because she expressed her resentment too freely at the excessive
influence of a rival; that his friends acted as his panders, and stripped and inspected
matrons and well-grown girls, as if Toranius the slave-dealer were putting them up for
sale. Antonius also writes to Augustus himself in the following familiar terms, when he
had not yet wholly broken with him privately or publicly: "What has made such a
change in you? Because I lie with the queen? She is my wif e. Am I just beginning this, or
was it nine years ago? What then of you---do you lie only with Drusilla? Good luck to you
if when you read this letter you have not been with Tertulla or Terentilla or Rufilla or
Salvia Titisenia, or all of them. Does it matter where or with whom you take your
pleasure?"
LXX. There was besides a private dinner of his, commonly called that of the
"twelve gods," which was the subject of gossip. At this the guests appeared in
the guise of gods and goddesses, while he himself was made up to represent Apollo, as was
charged not merely in letters of Antonius, who spitefully gives the names of all the
guests, but also in these anonymous lines, which everyone knows: "As soon as that
table of rascals had secured a choragus [the choragus at Athens had charge of the
costuming and stage setting of plays], and Mallia [according to some, the choragus;
others regard it as the name of a place] saw six gods and six goddesses, while Caesar
impiously plays the false role of Apollo and feasts amid novel debaucheries of the gods;
then all the deities turned their faces from the earth and Jupiter himself fled from his
golden throne." The scandal of this banquet was the greater because of dearth and
famine in the land at the time, and on the following day there was an outcry that the gods
had eaten all the grain and that Caesar was in truth Apollo, but Apollo the Tormentor, a
surname under which the god was worshipped in one part of the city. He was criticized too
as over fond of costly furniture and Corinthian bronzes and as given to gaming. Indeed, as
early as the time of the proscriptions there was written on his statue--- "In silver
once my father dealt, now in Corinthians I" [Corinthiarius: coined in jest on
the analogy of argentarius: used in inscriptions of slaves in charge of the vasa
Corinthia], since it was believed that he caused some men to be entered in the list of
the proscribed because of their Corinthian vases. Later, during the Sicilian war, this
epigram was current: "After he has twice been beaten at sea and lost his ships, he
plays at dice all the time, in the hope of winning one victory."
LXXI. Of these charges or slanders (whichever we may call them) he easily
refuted that for unnatural vice by the purity of his life at the time and afterwards; so
too the odium of extravagance by the fact that when he took Alexandria, he kept none of
the furniture of the palace for himself except a single agate cup, and presently melted
down all the golden vessels intended for everyday use. He could not dispose of the charge
of lustfulness and they say that even in his later years he was fond of deflowering
maidens, who were brought together for him from all quarters, even by his own wife. He did
not in the least shrink from a reputation for gaming, and played frankly and openly for
recreation, even when he was well on in years, not only in the month of December [when the
freedom of the Saturnalia allowed it], but on other holidays as well, and on working days
too. There is no question about this, for in a letter in his own handwriting he says:
"I dined, dear Tiberius, with the same company; we had besides as guests Vinicius and
the elder Silius. We gambled like old men during the meal both yesterday and today; for
when the dice were thrown, whoever turned up the 'dog' or the six, put a denarius in the
pool for each one of the dice, and the whole was taken by anyone who threw the 'Venus'
[when only aces appeared, the throw was called 'canis', when all the dice turned up
different numbers, 'Venus']." Again in another letter: "We spent the Quinquatria
[the five day festival of Minerva, March 20-25] very merrily, my dear Tiberius, for we
played all day long and kept the gaming-board warm. Your brother made a great outcry about
his luck, but after all did not come out far behind in the long run; for after losing
heavily, he unexpectedly and little by little got back a good deal. For my part, I lost
twenty thousand sesterces, but because I was extravagantly generous in my play, as usual.
If I had demanded of everyone the stakes which I let go, or had kept all that I gave away,
I should have won fully fifty thousand. But I like that better, for my generosity will
exalt me to immortal glory." To his daughter he writes: "I send you two hundred
and fifty denarii, the sum which I gave each of my guests, in case they wished to play at
dice or at odd and even during the dinner."
LXXII. In the other details of his life it is generally agreed that he was most
temperate and without even the suspicion of any fault. He lived at first near the Forum
Romanum, above the Stairs of the Ringmakers, in a house which had belonged to the orator
Calvus; afterwards, on the Palatine, but in the no less modest dwelling of Hortensius,
which was remarkable neither for size nor elegance, having but short colonnades with
columns of Alban stone, and rooms without any marble decorations or handsome pavements.
For more than forty years too he used the same bedroom in winter and summer; although he
found the city unfavourable to his health in the winter, yet continued to winter there. If
ever he planned to do anything in private or without interruption, he had a retired place
at the top of the house, which he called "Syracusa" [with reference to the study
of Archimedes] and "technyphion" [ "little workshop"]. In this he used
to take refuge, or else in the villa of one of his freedmen in the suburbs; but whenever
he was not well, he slept at Maecenas' house. For retirement he went most frequently to
places by the sea and the islands of Campania, or to the towns near Rome, such as
Lanuvium, Praeneste or Tibur, where he very often held court in the colonnades of the
Temple of Hercules. He disliked large and sumptuous country palaces, actually razing to
the ground one which his granddaughter Julia built on a lavish scale. His own villas,
which were modest enough, he decorated not so much with handsome statues and pictures as
with terraces, groves, and objects noteworthy for their antiquity and rarity; for example,
at Capreae the monstrous bones of huge sea monsters and wild beasts, called the
"bones of the giants," and the weapons of the heroes.
LXXIII. The simplicity of his furniture and household goods may be seen from
couches and tables still in existence, many of which are scarcely fine enough for a
private citizen. They say that he always slept on a low and plainly furnished bed. Except
on special occasions he wore common clothes for the house, made by his sister, wife,
daughter or granddaughters; his togas were neither close nor full, his purple stripe
neither narrow nor broad, and his shoes somewhat high-soled, to make him look taller than
he really was. But he always kept shoes and clothing to wear in public ready in his room
for sudden and unexpected occasions.
LXXIV. He gave dinner parties constantly and always formally, with great regard
to the rank and personality of his guests. Valerius Messala writes that he never invited a
freedman to dinner with the exception of Menas, and then only when he had been enrolled
among the freeborn after betraying the fleet of Sextus Pompeius. Augustus himself writes
that he once entertained a man at whose villa he used to stop, who had been one of his
body-guard. He would sometimes come to table late on these occasions and leave early,
allowing his guests to begin to dine before he took his place and keep their places after
he went out. He served a dinner of three courses or of six when he was most lavish,
without needless extravagance but with the greatest goodfellowship. For he drew into the
general conversation those who were silent or chatted under their breath, and introduced
music and actors, or even strolling players from the circus, and especially story-tellers.
LXXV. Festivals and holidays he celebrated lavishly as a rule, but sometimes
only in a spirit of fun. On the Saturnalia, and at any other time when he took it into his
head, he would now give gifts of clothing or gold and silver; again coins of every device,
including old pieces of the kings and foreign money; another time nothing but hair cloth,
sponges, pokers and tongs, and other such things under misleading names of double meaning.
He used also at a dinner party to put up for auction lottery-tickets for articles of most
unequal value, and paintings of which only the back was shown, thus by the caprice of
fortune disappointing or filling to the full the expectations of the purchasers, requiring
however that all the guests should take part in the bidding and share the loss or gain.
LXXVI. He was a light eater (for I would not omit even this detail) and as a
rule ate of plain food. He particularly liked coarse bread, small fishes, handmade moist
cheese, and green figs of the second crop; and he would eat even before dinner, wherever
and whenever he felt hungry. I quote word for word from some of his letters: "I ate a
little bread and some dates in my carriage." And again: "As I was on my homeward
way from the Regia in my litter, I devoured an ounce of bread and a few berries from a
cluster of hard-fleshed grapes." Once more: "Not even a Jew, my dear Tiberius,
fasts so scrupulously on his sabbaths as I have today; for it was not until after the
first hour of the night that I ate two mouthfuls of bread in the bath before I began to be
anointed." Because of this irregularity he sometimes ate alone either before a dinner
party began or after it was over, touching nothing while it was in progress.
LXXVII. He was by nature most sparing also in his use of wine. Cornelius Nepos
writes that in camp before Mutina it was his habit to drink not more than three times at
dinner. Afterwards, when he indulged most freely he never exceeded a pint; or if he did,
he used to throw it up. He liked Raetian wine best, but rarely drank before dinner.
Instead he would take a bit of bread soaked in cold water, a slice of cucumber, a sprig of
young lettuce, or an apple with a tart flavour, either fresh or dried.
LXXVIII. After his midday meal he used to rest for a while just as he was,
without taking off his clothes or his shoes, with his feet uncovered and his hand to his
eyes. After dinner he went to a couch in his study, where he remained till late at night,
until he had attended to what was left of the day's business, either wholly or in great
part. Then he went to bed and slept not more than seven hours at most, and not even that
length of time without a break, but waking three or four times. If he could not resume his
sleep when it was interrupted, as would happen, he sent for readers or story-tellers, and
when sleep came to him he often prolonged it until after daylight. He would never lie
awake in the dark without having someone sit by his side. He detested early rising and
when he had to get up earlier than usual because of some official or religious duty, to
avoid inconveniencing himself he spent the night in the room of one of his friends near
the appointed place. Even so, he often suffered from want of sleep, and he would drop off
while he was being carried through the streets and when his litter was set down because of
some delay.
LXXIX. He was unusually handsome and exceedingly graceful at all periods of his
life, though he cared nothing for personal adornment. He was so far from being particular
about the dressing of his hair, that he would have several barbers working in a hurry at
the same time, and as for his beard he now had it clipped and now shaved, while at the
very same time he would either be reading or writing something. His expression, whether in
conversation or when he was silent, was so calm and mild, that one of the leading men of
the Gallic provinces admitted to his countrymen that it had softened his heart, and kept
him from carrying out his design of pushing the emperor over a cliff, when he had been
allowed to approach him under the pretence of a conference, as he was crossing the Alps.
He had clear, bright eyes, in which he liked to have it thought that there was a kind of
divine power, and it greatly pleased him, whenever he looked keenly at anyone, if he let
his face fall as if before the radiance of the sun; but in his old age he could not see
very well with his left eye. His teeth were wide apart, small, and ill-kept; his hair was
slightly curly and inclining to golden; his eyebrows met. His ears were of moderate size,
and his nose projected a little at the top and then bent slightly inward. His complexion
was between dark and fair. He was short of stature (although Julius Marathus, his freedman
and keeper of his records, says that he was five feet and nine inches in height [Roman
measure, a little less than five feet seven inches American measure]), but this was
concealed by the fine proportion and symmetry of his figure, and was noticeable only by
comparison with some taller person standing beside him.
LXXX. It is said that his body was covered with spots and that he had birthmarks
scattered over his breast and belly, corresponding in form, order and number with the
stars of the Bear in the heavens [Ursa Major, aka "the Big Dipper"]; also
numerous callous places resembling ringworm, caused by a constant itching of his body and
a vigorous use of the strigil. He was not very strong in his left hip, thigh, and leg, and
even limped slightly at times; but he strengthened them by treatment with sand and reeds.
He sometimes found the forefinger of his right hand so weak, when it was numb and shrunken
with the cold, that he could hardly use it for writing even with the aid of a finger-stall
of horn. He complained of his bladder too, and was relieved of the pain only after passing
stones in his urine.
LXXXI. In the course of his life he suffered from several severe and dangerous
illnesses, especially after the subjugation of Cantabria [23 B.C.], when he was in such a
desperate plight from abscesses of the liver, that he was forced to submit to an
unprecedented and hazardous course of treatment. Since hot fomentations gave him no
relief, he was led by the advice of his physician Antonius Musa to try cold ones. He
experienced also some disorders which recurred every year at definite times; for he was
commonly ailing just before his birthday; and at the beginning of spring he was troubled
with an enlargement of the diaphragm, and when the wind was in the south, with catarrh.
Hence his constitution was so weakened that he could not readily endure either cold or
heat.
LXXXII. In winter he protected himself with four tunics and a heavy toga,
besides an undershirt, a woollen chest-protector, and wraps for his thighs and shins,
while in summer he slept with the doors of his bed-room open, oftentimes in the open court
near a fountain, besides having someone to fan him. Yet he could not endure the sun even
in winter, and never walked in the open air without wearing a broad-brimmed hat, even at
home. He travelled in a litter, usually at night, and by such slow and easy stages that he
took two days to go to Praeneste or Tibur; and if he could reach his destination by sea,
he preferred to sail. Yet in spite of all he made good his weakness by great care,
especially by moderation in bathing; for as a rule he was anointed or took a sweat by a
fire, after which he was doused with water either lukewarm or tepid from long exposure to
the sun. When however he had to use hot salt water and sulphur baths for rheumatism, he
contented himself with sitting on a wooden bath-seat, which he called by the Spanish name dureta,
and plunging his hands and feet in the water one after the other.
LXXXIII. Immediately after the civil war he gave up exercise with horses and
arms in the Campus Martius, at first turning to pass-ball [the pila was a small
hard ball; three players stood at the three points of a triangle (whence the game was
called trigon) and passed the ball one from the other] and balloonball [the folliculus
was a large light ball; the players wore a guard on the right arm, with which they
struck the ball, as in the Italian gioco del pallone], but soon confining himself
to riding or taking a walk, ending the latter by running and leaping, trapped in a mantle
or a blanket. To divert his mind he sometimes angled and sometimes played at dice, marbles
and nuts [many games were played with nuts] with little boys, searching everywhere for
such as were attractive for their pretty faces or their prattle, especially Syrians and
Moors; for he abhorred dwarfs, cripples, and everything of that sort, as freaks of nature
and of ill omen.
LXXXIV. From early youth he devoted himself eagerly and with the utmost
diligence to oratory and liberal studies. During the war at Mutina, amid such a press of
affairs, he is said to have read, written and declaimed every day. In fact he never
afterwards spoke in the Senate, or to the people or the soldiers, except in a studied and
written address, although he did not lack the gift of speaking offhand without
preparation. Moreover, to avoid the danger of forgetting what he was to say, or wasting
time in committing it to memory, he adopted the practice of reading everything from a
manuscript. Even his conversations with individuals and the more important of those with
his own wife Livia, he always wrote out and read from a note-book, for fear of saying too
much or too little if he spoke offhand. He had an agreeable and rather characteristic
enunciation, and he practised constantly with a teacher of elocution; but sometimes
because of weakness of the throat he addressed the people through a herald.
LXXXV. He wrote numerous works of various kinds in prose, some of which he read
to a group of his intimate friends, as others did in a lecture room; for example, his
"Reply to Brutus on Cato." At the reading of these volumes he had all but come
to the end, when he grew tired and handed them to Tiberius to finish, for he was well on
in years. He also wrote "Exhortations to Philosophy" and some volumes of an
Autobiography, giving an account of his life in thirteen books up to the time of the
Cantabrian war, but no farther. His essays in poetry were but slight. One book has come
down to us written in hexameter verse, of which the subject and the title is
"Sicily." There is another, equally brief, of "Epigrams," which he
composed for the most part at the time of the bath. Though he began a tragedy with much
enthusiasm, he destroyed it because his style did not satisfy him, and when some of his
friends asked him what in the world had become of Ajax, he answered that "his Ajax
had fallen on his sponge."
LXXXVI. He cultivated a style of speaking that was chaste and elegant, avoiding
the vanity of attempts at epigram and an artificial order, and as he himself expresses it,
"the noisomeness of far-fetched words," making it his chief aim to express his
thought as clearly as possible. With this end in view, to avoid confusing and checking his
reader or hearer at any point, he did not hesitate to use prepositions with names of
cities, nor to repeat conjunctions several times, the omission of which causes some
obscurity, though it adds grace. He looked on innovators and archaizers with equal
contempt, as faulty in opposite directions, and he sometimes had a fling at them, in
particular his friend Maecenas, whose "unguent-dripping curls," as he calls
them, he loses no opportunity of belabouring and pokes fun at them by parody. He did not
spare even Tiberius, who sometimes hunted up obsolete and pedantic expressions; and as for
Marcus Antonius, he calls him a madman, for writing rather to be admired than to be
understood. Then going on to ridicule his perverse and inconsistent taste in choosing an
oratorical style, he adds the following: "Can you doubt whether you ought to imitate
Annius Cimber or Veranius Flaccus, that you use the words which Sallustius Crispus gleaned
from Cato's Origines ? Or would you rather introduce into our tongue the verbose and
unmeaning fluency of the Asiatic orators?" And in a letter praising the talent of his
granddaughter Agrippina he writes: "But you must take great care not to write and
talk affectedly."
LXXXVII. That in his everyday conversation he used certain favourite and
peculiar expressions appears from letters in his own hand, in which he says every now and
then, when he wishes to indicate that certain men will never pay, that "they will pay
on the Greek Kalends." Urging his correspondent to put up with present circumstances,
such as they are, he says: "Let's be satisfied with the Cato we have; and to express
the speed of a hasty action, "Quicker than you can cook asparagus." He
continually used baceolus (dolt) for stultus (fool), for pullus
(dark) pulleiaceus (darkish), and for cerritus (mad) vacerrosus
(blockhead); also vapide se habere (feel flat) for male se habere (feel
badly), and betizaree (be like a beet) for languere (be weak), for which the
vulgar term is lachanizare. Besides he used simus for sumus and domos
in the genitive singular instead of domuos. The last two forms he wrote invariably,
for fear they should be thought errors rather than a habit. I have also observed this
special peculiarity in his manner of writing: he does not divide words or carry
superfluous letters from the end of one line to the beginning of the next, but writes them
just below the rest of the word and draws a loop around them.
LXXXVIII. He does not strictly comply with orthography, that is to say the
theoretical rules of spelling laid down by the grammarians, seeming to be rather of the
mind of those who believe that we should spell exactly as we pronounce. Of course his
frequent transposition or omission of syllables as well as of letters are slips common to
all mankind. I should not have noted this, did it not seem to me surprising that some have
written that he cashiered a consular governor, as an uncultivated and ignorant fellow,
because he observed that he had written izi for ipsi. Whenever he wrote in
cipher, he wrote B for A, C for B, and the rest of the letters on the same principle,
using AA for X.
LXXXIX. He was equally interested in Greek studies, and in these too he excelled
greatly. His teacher of declamation was Apollodorus of Pergamon, whom he even took with
him in his youthful days from Rome to Apollonia, though Apollodorus was an old man at the
time. Later he became versed in various forms of learning through association with the
philosopher Areus and his sons Dionysius and Nicanor. Yet he never acquired the ability to
speak Greek fluently or to compose anything in it; for if he had occasion to use the
language, he wrote what he had to say in Latin and gave it to someone else to translate.
Still he was far from being ignorant of Greek poetry, even taking great pleasure in the
Old Comedy and frequently staging it at his public entertainments. In reading the writers
of both tongues there was nothing for which he looked so carefully as precepts and
examples instructive to the public or to individuals; these he would often copy word for
word, and send to the members of his household, or to his generals and provincial
governors, whenever any of them required admonition. He even read entire volumes to the
Senate and called the attention of the people to them by proclamations; for example, the
speeches of Quintus Metellus "On Increasing the Family," and of Rutilius
"On the Height of Buildings"; to convince them that he was not the first to give
attention to such matters, but ihat they had aroused the interest even of their
forefathers. He gave every encouragement to the men of talent of his own age, listening
with courtesy and patience to their readings, not only of poetry and history, but of
speeches and dialogues as well. But he took offence at being made the subject of any
composition except in serious earnest and by the most eminent writers, often charging the
praetors not to let his name be cheapened in prize declamations.
XC. This is what we are told of his attitude towards matters of religion. He was
somewhat weak in his fear of thunder and lightning, for he always carried a seal-skin
about with him everywhere as a protection, and at any sign of a violent storm took refuge
in an underground vaulted room; for as I have said, he was once badly frightened by a
narrow escape from lightning during a journey by night.
XCI. He was not indifferent to his own dreams or to those which others dreamed
about him. At the Battle of Philippi, though he had made up his mind not to leave his tent
because of illness, he did so after all when warned by a friend's dream; fortunately, as
it turned out, for his camp was taken and when the enemy rushed in, his litter was stabbed
through and through and torn to pieces, in the belief that he was still lying there ill.
All through the spring his own dreams were very numerous and fearful, but idle and
unfulfilled; during the rest of the year they were less frequent and more reliable. Being
in the habit of making constant visits to the temple of Jupiter the Thunderer, which he
had founded on the Capitol, he dreamed that Jupiter Capitolinus complained that his
worshippers were being taken from him, and that he answered that he had placed the
Thunderer hard by to be his doorkeeper; and accordingly he presently festooned the gable
of the temple with bells, because these commonly hung at house-doors. It was likewise
because of a dream that every year on an appointed day he begged alms of the people,
holding out his open hand to have pennies dropped in it.
XCII. Certain auspices and omens he regarded as infallible. If his shoes were
put on in the wrong way in the morning, the left instead of the right, he considered it a
bad sign. If there chanced to be a drizzle of rain when he was starting on a long journey
by land or sea, he thought it a good omen, betokening a speedy and prosperous return. But
he was especially affected by prodigies. When a palm tree sprang up between the crevices
of the pavement before his house, he transplanted it to the inner court beside his
household gods and took great pains to make it grow. He was so pleased that the branches
of an old oak, which had already drooped to the ground and were withering, became vigorous
again on his arrival in the island of Capreae, that he arranged with the city of Naples to
give him the island in exchange for Aenaria. He also had regard to certain days, refusing
ever to begin a journey on the day after a market day,a or to take up any important
business on the Nones; though in the latter case, as he writes Tiberius, he merely dreaded
the unlucky sound of the name.
XCIII. He treated with great respect such foreign rites as were ancient and well
established, but held the rest in contempt. For example, having been initiated at Athens
and afterwards sitting in judgment of a case at Rome involving the privileges of the
priests of Attic Ceres, in which certain matters of secrecy were brought up, he dismissed
his councillors and the throng of bystanders and heard the disputants in private. But on
the other hand he not only omitted to make a slight detour to visit Apis, when he was
travelling through Egypt, but highly commended his grandson Gaius for not offering prayers
at Jerusalem as he passed by Judaea.
XCIV. Having reached this point, it will not be out of place to add an account
of the omens which occurred before he was born, on the very day of his birth, and
afterwards, from which it was possible to anticipate and perceive his future greatness and
uninterrupted good fortune. In ancient days, when a part of the wall of Velitrae had been
struck by lightning, the prediction was made that a citizen of that town would one day
rule the world. Through their confidence in this the people of Velitrae had at once made
war on the Roman people and fought with them many times after that almost to their utter
destruction; but at last long afterward the event proved that the omen had foretold the
rule of Augustus. According to Julius Marathus, a few months before Augustus was born a
portent was generally observed at Rome, which gave warning that nature was pregnant with a
king for the Roman people; thereupon the Senate in consternation decreed that no male
child born that year should be reared; but those whose wives were with child saw to it
that the decree was not filed in the treasury, since each one appropriated the prediction
to his own family. I have read the following story in the books of Asclepias of Mendes
entitled Theologamena. When Atia had come in the middle of the night to the solemn
service of Apollo, she had her litter set down in the temple and fell asleep, while the
rest of the matrons also slept. On a sudden a serpent glided up to her and shortly went
away. When she awoke, she purified herself, as if after the embraces of her husband, and
at once there appeared on her body a mark in colours like a serpent, and she could never
get rid of it; so that presently she ceased ever to go to the public baths. In the tenth
month after that Augustus was born and was therefore regarded as the son of Apollo. Atia
too, before she gave him birth, dreamed that her vitals were borne up to the stars and
spread over the whole extent of land and sea, while Octavius dreamed that the sun rose
from Atia's womb. The day he was born the conspiracy of Catiline was before the House, and
Octavius came late because of his wife's confinement; then Publius Nigidius, as everyone
knows, learning the reason for his tardiness and being informed also of the hour of the
birth, declared that the ruler of the world had been born. Later, when Octavius was
leading an army through remote parts of Thrace, and in the grove of Father Liber consulted
the priests about his son with barbarian rites, they made the same prediction; since such
a pillar of flame sprang forth from the wine that was poured over the altar, that it rose
above the temple roof and mounted to the very sky, and such an omen had befallen no one
save Alexander the Great when he offered sacrifice at the same altar. Moreover, the very
next night he dreamt that his son appeared to him in a guise more majestic than that of
mortal man, with the thunderbolt, sceptre, and insignia of Jupiter Optimus Maximus,
wearing a crown begirt with rays and mounted upon a laurel-wreathed chariot drawn by
twelve horses of surpassing whiteness. When Augustus was still an infant, as is recorded
by the hand of Gaius Drusus, he was placed by his nurse at evening in his cradle on the
ground floor and the next morning had disappeared; but after long search he was at last
found lying on a lofty tower with his face towards the rising sun. As soon as he began to
talk, it chanced that the frogs were making a great noise at his grandfather's country
place; he bade them be silent, and they say that since then no frog has ever croaked
there. As he was lunching in a grove at the fourth milestone on the Campanian road, an
eagle surprised him by snatching his bread from his hand, and after flying to a great
height, equally to his surprise dropped gently down again and gave it back to him. After
Quintus Catulus had dedicated the Capitol, he had dreams on two nights in succession:
first, that Jupiter Optimus Maximus called aside one of a number of boys of good family,
who were playing around his altar, and put in the fold of his toga an image of Roma, which
he was carrying in his hand; the next night he dreamt that he saw this same boy in the lap
of Jupiter of the Capitol, and that when he had ordered that he be removed, the god warned
him to desist, declaring that the boy was being reared to be the saviour of his country.
When Catulus next day met Augustus, whom he had never seen before, he looked at him in
great surprise and said that he was very like the boy of whom he had dreamed. Some give a
different account of Catulus' first dream: when a large group of well-born children asked
Jupiter for a guardian, he pointed out one of their number, to whom they were to refer all
their wishes, and then, after lightly touching the boy's mouth with his fingers, laid them
on his own lips. As Marcus Cicero was attending Gaius Caesar to the Capitol, he happened
to tell his friends a dream of the night before---that a boy of noble countenance was let
down from heaven on a golden chain and, standing at the door of the temple, was given a
whip by Jupiter. Just then suddenly catching sight of Augustus, who was still unknown to
the greater number of those present and had been brought to the ceremony by his uncle
Caesar, he declared that he was the very one whose form had appeared to him in his dream.
When Augustus was assuming the gown of manhood, his senatorial tunic was ripped apart on
both sides and fell at his feet, which some interpreted as a sure sign that the order of
which the tunic was the badge would one day be brought to his feet. As the Deified Julius
was cutting down a wood at Munda and preparing a place for his camp, coming across a palm
tree, he caused it to be spared as an omen of victory. From this a shoot at once sprang
forth and in a few days grew so great that it not only equalled the parent tree, but even
overshadowed it; moreover many doves built their nests there, although that kind of bird
especially avoids hard and rough foliage. Indeed, it was that omen in particular, they
say, that led Caesar to wish that none other than his sister's grandson should be his
successor. While in retirement at Apollonia, Augustus mounted with Agrippa to the studio
of the astrologer Theogenes. Agrippa was the first to try his fortune, and when a great
and almnst incredible career was predicted for him, Augustus persisted in concealing the
time of his birth and in refusing to disclose it, through diffidence and fear that he
might be found to be less eminent. When he at last gave it unwillingly and hesitatingly,
and only after many urgent requests, Theogenes sprang up and threw himself at his feet.
From that time on Augustus had such faith in his destiny, that he made his horoscope
public and issued a silver coin stamped with the sign of the constellation Capricornus,
under which he was born.
XCV. As he was entering the city on his return from Apollonia after Caesar's
death, though the heaven was clear and cloudless, a circle like a rainbow suddenly formed
around the sun's disc, and straightway the tomb of Caesar's daughter Julia was struck by
lightning. Again, as he was taking the auspices in his first consulship, twelve vultures
appeared to him, as to Romulus, and when he slew the victims; the livers within all of
them were found to be doubled inward at the lower end, which all those who were skilled in
such matters unanimously declared to be an omen of a great and happy future.
XCVI. He even divined beforehand the outcome of all his wars. When the forces of
the triumvirs were assembled at Bononia, an eagle that had perched upon his tent made a
dash at two ravens, which attacked it on either side, and struck them to the ground. From
this the whole army inferred that there would one day be discord among the colleagues, as
actually came to pass, and divined its result. As he was on his way to Philippi, a
Thessalian gave him notice of his coming victory on the authority of the deified Caesar,
whose shade had met him on a lonely road. When he was sacrificing at Perusia without
getting a favourable omen, and so had ordered more victims to be brought, the enemy made a
sudden sally and carried off all the equipment of the sacrifice; whereupon the soothsayers
agreed that all the dangers and disasters with which the sacrificer had been threatened
would recoil on the heads of those who were in possession of the entrails; and so it
turned out. As he was walking on the shore the day before the sea-fight off Sicily, a fish
sprang from the sea and fell at his feet. At Actium, as he was going down to begin the
battle, he met an ass with his driver, the man having the name Eutychus and the beast that
of Nicon; and after the victory he set up bronze images of the two in the sacred enclosure
into which he converted the site of his camp.
XCVII. His death, too, of which I shall speak next, and his deification after
death, were known in advance by unmistakable signs. As he was bringing the lustrum to an
end in the Campus Martius before a great throng of people, an eagle flew several times
about him and then going across to the temple hard by, perched above the first letter of
Agrippa's name. On noticing this, Augustus bade his colleague Tiberius recite the vows
which it is usual to offer for the next five years; for although he had them prepared and
written out on a tablet, he declared that he would not be responsible for vows which he
should never pay. At about the same time the first letter of his name was melted from the
inscription on one of his statues by a flash of lightning; this was interpreted to mean
that he would live only a hundred days from that time, the number indicated by the letter
C, and that he would be numbered with the gods, since aesar (that is, the part of
the name Caesar which was left) is the word for god in the Etruscan tongue. Then,
too, when he was on the point of sending Tiberius to Illyricum and was proposing to escort
him as far as Beneventum, and litigants detained him on the judgment seat by bringing
forward case after case, he cried out that he would stay no longer in Rome, even if
everything conspired to delay him---and this too was afterwards looked upon as one of the
omens of his death. When he had begun the journey, he went on as far as Astura and from
there, contrary to his custom, took ship by night since it chanced that there was a
favourable breeze, and thus contracted an illness beginning with a diarrhea.
XCVIII. Then after skirting the coast of Campania and the neighbouring islands,
he spent four more days at his villa in Capreae, where he gave himself up wholly to rest
and social diversions. As he sailed by the gulf of Puteoli it happened that from an
Alexandrian ship which had just arrived there, the passengers and crew, clad in white,
crowned with garlands, and burning incense, lavished upon him good wishes and the highest
praise, saying that it was through him they lived, through him that they sailed the seas,
and through him that they enjoyed their liberty and their fortunes. Exceedingly pleased at
this, he gave forty gold pieces to each of his companions, exacting from every one of them
a pledge under oath not to spend the sum that had been given them in any other way than in
buying wares from Alexandria. More than that, for the several remaining days of his stay,
among little presents of various kinds, he distributed togas and cloaks as well,
stipulating that the Romans should use the Greek dress and language and the Greeks the
Roman. He continually watched the exercises of the ephebi [Greek youths between the ages
of eighteen and that of full manhood, who had regular gymnastic training as a part of
their education], of whom there was still a goodly number at Capreae according to the
ancient usage. He also gave these youths a banquet at which he himself was present, and
not only allowed, but even required perfect freedom in jesting and in scrambling for
tickets for fruit, dainties and all kinds of things, which he threw to them. In short,
there was no form of gaiety in which he did not indulge. He called the neighbouring part
of the island of Capreae Apragopolis [the "land of the do-nothings"] from
the laziness of some of his company who sojourned there. Besides he used to call one of
his favourites, Masgaba by name, Ktistes [the Greek name for a founder of a city or
colony], as if he were the founder of the island. Noticing from his dining-room that the
tomb of this Masgaba, who had died the year before, was visited by a large crowd with many
torches, he uttered aloud this verse, composed offhand: "I see the founder's tomb
alight with fire"; and turning to Thrasyllus, one of the suite of Tiberius who was reclining opposite him
and knew nothing about the matter, he asked of what poet he thought it was the work. When
Thrasyllus hesitated, he added another verse: "See you with lights Masgaba honoured
now?" and asked his opinion of this one also. When Thrasyllus could say nothing
except that they were very good, whoever made them, he burst into a laugh and fell a
joking about it. Presently he crossed over to Naples, although his bowels were still weak
from intermittent attacks. In spite of this he witnessed and then started with Tiberius
for his destination [Beneventum]. But as he was returning his illness increased and he at
last took to his bed at Nola, calling back Tiberius, who was on his way to Illyricum, and
keeping him for a long time in private conversation, after which he gave attention to no
business of importance.
XCIX. On the last day of his life he asked every now and then whether there was
any disturbance without on his account; then calling for a mirror, he had his hair combed
and his falling jaws set straight. After that, calling in his friends and asking whether
it seemed to them that he had played the comedy of life fitly, he added the tag:
"Since well I've played my part, all clap your hands And from the stage dismiss me
with applause." Then he sent them all off, and while he was asking some newcomers
from the city about the daughter of Drusus, who was ill, he suddenly passed away as he was
kissing Livia, uttering these last words: "Live mindful of our wedlock, Livia, and
farewell," thus blessed with an easy death and such a one as he had always longed
for. For almost always on hearing that anyone had died swiftly and painlessly, he prayed
that he and his might have a like euthanasia, for that was the term he was wont to
use. He gave but one single sign of wandering before he breathed his last, calling out in
sudden terror that forty young men were carrying him off. And even this was rather a
premonition than a delusion, since it was that very number of soldiers of the pretorian
guard that carried him forth to lie in state.
C. He died in the same room as his father Octavius, in the consulship of two
Sextuses, Pompeius and Appuleius, on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of September
[August 19, 14 A.D.] at the ninth hour, just thirty-five days before his seventy-sixth
birthday. His body was carried by the Senators of the municipalities and colonies from
Nola all the way to Bovillae, in the night time because of the season of the year, being
placed by day in the basilica of the town at which they arrived or in its principal
temple. At Bovillae the members of the equestrian order met it and bore it to the city,
where they placed it in the vestibule of his house. In their desire to give him a splendid
funeral and honour his memory the Senators so vied with one another that among many other
suggestions some proposed that his cortege pass through the triumphal gate, preceded by
the statue of Victory which stands in the House, while a dirge was sung by children of
both sexes belonging to the leading families; others, that on the day of the obsequies
golden rings be laid aside and iron ones worn; and some, that his ashes be collected by
the priests of the highest colleges. One man proposed that the name of the month of August
be transferred to September, because Augustus was born in the latter, but died in the
former; another, that all the period from the day of his birth until his demise be called
the Augustan Age, and so entered in the Calendar. But though a limit was set to the
honours paid him, his eulogy was twice delivered: before the temple of the Deified Julius
by Tiberius, and from the old rostra by Drusus, son of Tiberius; and he was carried on the
shoulders of Senators to the Campus Martius and there cremated. There was even an
ex-praetor who took oath that he had seen the form of the Emperor, after he had been
reduced to ashes, on its way to heaven. His remains were gathered up by the leading men of
the equestrian order, bare-footed and in ungirt tunics, and placed in the Mausoleum. This
structure he had built in his sixth consulship [28 B.C.] between the Via Flaminia and the
bank of the Tiber, and at the same time opened to the public the groves and walks by which
it was surrounded.
CI. He had made a will in the consulship of Lucius Plancus and Gaius Silius on
the third day before the Nones of April [April 3, 13 A.D.], a year and four months before
he died, in two note-books,written in part in his own hand and in part in that of his
freedmen Polybius and Hilarion. These the Vestal virgins, with whom they had been
deposited, now produced, together with three rolls, which were sealed in the same way. All
these were opened and read in the Senate. He appointed as his chief heirs Tiberius, to
receive two-thirds of the estate, and Livia, one-third; these he also bade assume his
name. His heirs in the second degree were Drusus, son of Tiberius, for one-third, and for
the rest Germanicus and his three male cbildren. In the third grade he mentioned many of
his relatives and friends. He left to the Roman people forty million sesterces; to the
tribes three million five hundred thousand; to the soldiers of the pretorian guard a
thousand each; to the city cohorts five hundred; and to the legionaries three hundred.
This sum he ordered to be paid at once, for he had always kept the amount at hand and
ready for the purpose. He gave other legacies to various individuals, some amounting to as
much as twenty thousand sesterces, and provided for the payment of these a year later,
giving as his excuse for the delay the small amount of his property, and declaring that
not more than a hundred and fifty millions would come to his heirs; for though he had
received fourteen hundred millions during the last twenty years from the wills of his
friends, he said that he had spent nearly all of it, as well as his two paternal estates
and his other inheritances, for the benefit of the State. He gave orders that his daughter
and his granddaughter Julia should not be put in his Mausoleum, if anything befell them.
In one of the three rolls he included directions for his funeral; in the second, an
account of what he had accomplished, which he desired to have cut upon bronze tablets and set up at the entrance to the Mausoleum; in the third, a summary of the condition of the
whole empire; how many soldiers there were in active service in all parts of it, how much
money there was in the public treasury and in the privy-purse, and what revenues were in
arrears. He added, besides, the names of the freedmen and slaves from whom the details
could be demanded.
Source:
From: Suetonius, De Vita Caesarum, 2 Vols., trans. J. C. Rolfe (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1920), pp. 123-287.
Scanned by: J. S. Arkenberg, Dept. of History, Cal. State Fullerton. Prof. Arkenberg
may have modernized the text.
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