[-9-] "For these reasons, then, I supplicate and beseech all of you both to commend my course and to cooeperate heartily with me, reflecting upon all that I have done for you in war and in government. You will be paying me all the thanks due for it by allowing me now at last to lead a life of quiet. Thus you will come to know that I understand not only how to rule but to be ruled, and that all commands which I have laid upon others I can endure to have laid upon me. I must surely expect to live in security and to suffer no harm from any one by either deed or word, such is the confidence (based upon the consciousness of my own rectitude) that I have in your good-will. I may of course meet with some catastrophe, as happens to many; for it is not possible for a man to please everybody, especially when he has been involved in so great wars, some foreign and some civil, and has had affairs of such magnitude entrusted to him: yet even so, I am quite ready to choose to die as a private citizen before my appointed time rather than to become immortal as a sole ruler. That very circumstance will bring me fame,—that I not only murdered no one in order to hold possession of the sovereignty but even died untimely in order to avoid becoming monarch. The man who has dared to slay me will certainly be punished by Heaven and by you, as took place in the case of my father. He was declared to be equal to a god and obtained eternal honors, whereas those who slew him perished, the evil men, in evil plight. We could not become deathless, yet by living well and by dying well we do in a sense gain this boon. Therefore I, who possess the first requisite and hope to possess the second, return to you the arms and the provinces, the revenues and the laws. I make only this final suggestion, that you be not disheartened through fear of the magnitude of affairs or the difficulty of handling them, nor neglect them in disdain, with the idea that they can be easily managed.

[-10-] "I have, indeed, no objection to suggesting to you in a summary way what ought to be done in each of the leading categories. And what are these suggestions? First, guard vigilantly the established laws and change none of them. What remains fixed, though it be inferior, is more advantageous than what is always subject to innovations, even though it seem to be superior. Next, whatever injunctions these laws lay upon you be careful to perform, and to refrain from whatever they forbid, and do this scrupulously not only in word but also in deed, not only in public but in private, that you may obtain not penalties but honors. The offices both of peace and of war you should entrust to those who are each time the most excellent and sensible, without jealousy of any persons, and entering into rivalry not that this man or that man may reap some advantage but that the city may be preserved and prosperous. Such men you must honor but chastise those who show any different spirit in politics. Make your private means public property of the city, and keep your hands off public money as you would off your neighbors' goods. Keep careful watch over what belongs to you but be not eager for that upon which you can have no claim. Treat the allies and subject nations with neither insolence nor rapacity, and neither wrong nor fear the enemy. Have your arms always in hand, but do not use them against one another nor against a peaceful population. Give the soldiers a sufficient support, so that they may not on account of want desire anything which belongs to others. Keep them together and discipline them, to prevent their doing any damage through audacity.

"But why need I make a long story by going into everything which it is your duty to do? You may easily understand from this how the remaining business must be conducted. I will close with this one remark. If you conduct the government in this way, you will enjoy prosperity yourselves and you will gratify me, who found you in the midst of wretched dishonor and have rendered you such as you are. If you prove impotent to carry out any single branch as you should, you will cause me regret and you will cast the city again into many wars and great dangers."

[-11-] While Caesar was engaged in setting his decision before them, a varied feeling took possession of the senators. A few of them knew his real intention and as a result they kept applauding him enthusiastically. Of the rest some were suspicious of what was said and others believed in it, and therefore both marveled equally, the one class at his great artifice and the other at the determination that he had reached. One side was displeased at his involved scheming and the other at his change of mind. For already there were some who detested the democratic constitution as a breeder of factional difficulties, were pleased at the change of government, and took delight in Caesar. Consequently, though the announcement affected different persons differently, their views in regard to it were in each case the same. As for those who believed his sentiments to be genuine, any who wished it could not rejoice because of fear, nor the others lament because of hopes. And as many as disbelieved it did not venture to accuse him and confute him, some because they were afraid and others because they did not care to do so. Hence they all either were compelled or pretended to believe him. As for praising him, some did not have the courage and others were unwilling. Even in the midst of his reading there were frequent shouts and afterward many more. The senators begged that a monarchy be established, and directed all their remarks to that end until (naturally) they forced him to assume the reins of government. At once they saw to it that twice as much pay was voted to the men who were to compose his body-guard as to the rest of the soldiers, that this might incite the men to keep a careful watch of him. Then he began to show a real interest in setting up a monarchy.

[-12-] In this way he had his headship ratified by the senate and the people. As he wished even so to appear to be democratic in principle, he accepted all the care and superintendence of public business on the ground that it required expert attention, but said that he should not personally govern all the provinces and those that he did govern he should not keep in his charge perpetually. The weaker ones, because (as he said) they were peaceful and free from war, he gave over to the senate. But the more powerful he held in possession because they were slippery and dangerous and either had enemies in adjoining territory or on their own account were able to cause a great uprising. His pretext was that the senate should fearlessly gather the fruits of the finest portion of the empire, while he himself had the labors and dangers: his real purpose was that by this plan the senators be unarmed and unprepared for battle, while he alone had arms and kept soldiers. Africa and Numidia, Asia and Greece with Epirus, the Dalmatian and Macedonian territories, Sicily, Crete, and Libya adjacent to Cyrene, Bithynia with the adjoining Pontus, Sardinia and Baetica, were consequently held to belong to the people and the senate. Caesar's were—the remainder of Spain, the neighborhood of Tarraco and Lusitania, all Gauls (the Narbonensian and the Lugdunensian, the Aquitani and the Belgae), both themselves and the aliens among them. Some of the Celtae whom we call Germani had occupied all the Belgic territory near the Rhine and caused it to be called Germania, the upper part extending to the sources of the river and the lower part reaching to the Ocean of Britain. These provinces, then, and the so-called Hollow Syria, Phoenicia and Cilicia, Cyprus and the Egyptians, fell at that time to Caesar's share. Later he gave Cyprus and Gaul adjacent to Narbo back to the people, and he himself took Dalmatia instead. This was also done subsequently in the case of other provinces, as the progress of my narrative will show. I have enumerated these in such detail because now each one of them is ruled separately, whereas in old times and for a long period the provinces were governed two and three together. The others I have not mentioned because some of them were acquired later, and the rest, even if they had been already subdued, were not being governed by the Romans, but either were left to enjoy their own laws or had been turned over to some kingdom or other. All of them that after this came into the Roman empire were attached to the possessions of the man temporarily in power.—This, then, was the division of the provinces.

[-13-] Wishing to lead the Romans still further away from the idea that he looked upon himself as absolute monarch, Caesar undertook the government of the regions given him for ten years. In the course of this time he promised to reduce them to quiet and he carried his playfulness to the point of saying that if they should be sooner pacified, he would deliver them sooner to the senate. Thereupon he first appointed the senators themselves to govern both classes of provinces except Egypt. This land alone, for the reasons mentioned, he assigned to the knight previously named.[2] Next he ordained that the rulers of senatorial provinces should be annual magistrates, elected by lot, unless any one had the special privilege accorded to a large number of children or marriage. They were to be sent out by the assembly of the senate as a body, with no sword at their side nor wearing the military garb. The name proconsul was to belong not only to the two ex-consuls but also to the rest who had served as praetors or who at least held the rank of ex-praetors. Both classes were to employ as many lictors as were usual in the capital. He ordered further that they were to put on the insignia of their office immediately on leaving the pomerium and were to wear them continually until they should return. The heads of imperial provinces, on the other hand, were to be chosen by himself and be his agents, and they were to be named propraetors even if they were from the ranks of the ex-consuls. Of these two names which had been extremely common under the democracy he gave that of praetor to the class chosen by him because from very early times war had been their care, and he called them also propraetors: the name of consul he gave to the others, because their duties were more peaceful, and called them in addition proconsuls. These particular names of praetor and consul he continued in Italy, and spoke of all officials outside as governing as their representatives. He caused the class of his own choosing to employ the title of propraetor and to hold office for as much longer than a year as should please him, wearing the military costume and having a sword with which they are empowered to punish soldiers. No one else, proconsul or propraetor or procurator, who is not empowered to kill a soldier, has been given the privilege of wearing a sword. It is permitted not only to senators but also to knights who have this function. This is the condition of the case.—All the propraetors alike employ six lictors: as many of them as do not belong to the number of ex-consuls are named from this very number.[3] Both classes alike assume the decorations of their position of authority when they enter their appointed district and lay them aside immediately upon finishing their term.

[-14-] It is thus and on these conditions that governors from among the ex-praetors and ex-consuls have been customarily sent to both kinds of provinces. The emperor would send one of them on his mission whithersoever and whenever he wished. Many while acting as praetors and consuls secured the presidency of provinces, as sometimes happens at the present day. In the case of the senate he privately gave Africa and Asia to the ex-consuls and all the other districts to the ex-praetors. He publicly forbade all the senators to cast lots for anybody until five years after such a candidate had held office in the City. For a short time all persons that fulfilled these requirements, even if they were more numerous than the provinces, drew lots for them. Later, as some of them did not govern well, this I appointment, too, reverted to the emperor. Thus they also in a sense receive their position from him, and he ordains that only a number equal to the number of provinces shall draw lots, and that they shall be whatever men he pleases. Some emperors have sent men of their own choosing there also, and have allowed certain of them to hold office for more than a year: some have assigned certain provinces to knights instead of to senators.

These were the customs thus established at that time in regard to those senators that were authorized to execute the death penalty upon their subjects. Some who have not this authority are sent out to the provinces called "provinces of the senate and the people",—namely, such quaestors as the lot may designate and men who are co-assessors with those who hold the actual authority. This would be the correct way to speak of these associates, with reference not to the ordinary name but to their duties: others call these also presbeutai, using the Greek term; about this title enough has been said in the foregoing narrative. Each separate official chooses his own assessors, the expraetors selecting one from either their peers or their inferiors, and the ex-consuls three from among those of equal rank, subject to the approval of the emperor.

There were certain innovations made also in regard to these men, but since they soon lapsed this is sufficient to say here.

[-15-] This is the method followed in regard to the provinces of the people. To the others, called provinces of the emperor, which have more than one citizenlegion, lieutenants are sent chosen by the ruler himself, generally from the ex-praetors but in some instances already from the ex-quaestors or those who had held some office between the two. Those positions, then, appertain to the senators.

From among the knights the emperor himself despatches, some to the citizen posts alone but others to foreign places (according to the custom then instituted by [the same] Caesar), the military tribunes, the prospective senators and the remainder, concerning whose difference in rank I have previously spoken in the narrative.[4] The procurators (a name that we give to the men who collect the public revenues and spend what is ordered) he sends to all the provinces alike, his own and the people's, and some of these officers belong to the knights, others to the freedmen. By way of exception the proconsuls levy the tribute upon the people they govern. The emperor gives certain injunctions to the procurators, the proconsuls, and the propraetors, in order that they may proceed to their place of office on fixed conditions. Both this practice and the giving of salary to them and to the remaining employees of the government were made the custom at this period. In old times some by contracting for work to be paid for from the public treasury furnished themselves with everything needed for their office. It was only in the days of Caesar that these particular persons began to receive something definite. This salary was not assigned to all of them in equal amounts, but as need demands. The procurators get their very name, a dignified one, from the amount of money given into their charge. The following laws were laid down for all alike,—that they should not make up lists for service or levy money beyond the amount appointed, unless the senate should so vote or the emperor so order: also that when their successors should arrive, they were immediately to leave the province and not to delay on their return, but to be back within three months.

[-16-] These matters were so ordained at that time,—or, at least, one might say so. In reality Caesar himself was destined to hold absolute control of all of them for all time, because he commanded the soldiers and was master of the money; nominally the public funds had been separated from his own, but in fact he spent the former also as he saw fit.

When his decade had come to an end, there was voted him another five years, then five more, after that ten, and again another ten, and a like number the fifth time,[5] so that by a succession of ten-year periods he continued monarch for life. Consequently the subsequent emperors, though no longer appointed for a specified period but for their whole life at once, nevertheless have been wont to hold a festival every ten years as if then renewing their sovereignty once more: this is done even at the present day.

Caesar had received many honors previously, when the matter of declining the sovereignty and that regarding the division of the provinces were under discussion. For the right to fasten the laurel in front of his royal residence and to hang the oak-leaf crown above the doors was then voted him to symbolize the fact that he was always victorious over enemies and preserved the citizens. The royal building is called Palatium, not because it was ever decreed that that should be its name, but because Caesar dwelt on the Palatine and had his headquarters there; and his house secured some renown from the mount as a whole by reason of the former habitation of Romulus there. Hence, even if the emperor resides somewhere else, his dwelling retains the name of Palatium.

When he had really completed the details of administration, the name Augustus was finally applied to him by the senate and by the people. They wanted to call him by some name of their own, and some proposed this, while others chose that. Caesar was exceedingly anxious to be called Romulus, but when he perceived that this caused him to be suspected of desiring the kingship, he no longer insisted on it but took the title of Augustus, signifying that he was more than human. All most precious and sacred objects are termed augusta. Therefore they saluted him also in Greek as sebastos, meaning an august person, from the verb sebazesthai. [-17-] In this way all the power of the people and that of the senate reverted to Augustus, and from his time there was a genuine monarchy. Monarchy would be the truest name for it, no matter how much two and three hold the power together. This name of monarch the Romans so detested that they called their emperors neither dictators nor kings nor anything of the sort. Yet since the management of the government devolves upon them, it can not but be that they are kings. The offices that commonly enjoy some legal sanction are even now maintained, except that of censor. Still, everything is directed and carried out precisely as the emperor at the time may wish. In order that they may appear to hold this power not through force, but according to law, the rulers have taken possession,—names and all,—of every position (save the dictatorship) which under the democracy was of mighty influence among the citizens who bestowed the power. They very frequently become consuls and are always called proconsuls whenever they are outside the pomerium. The title of imperator is invariably given not only to such as win victories but to all the rest, to indicate the complete independence of their authority, instead of the name "king" or "dictator." These particular names they have never assumed since the terms first fell out of use in the Senate, but they are confirmed in the prerogatives of these positions by the appellation of imperator. By virtue of the titles mentioned they get the right to make enrollments, to collect moneys, declare wars make peace, rule foreign and native territory alike everywhere and always, even to the extent of putting to death both knights and senators within the pomerium, and all the other privileges once granted to the consuls and other officials with full powers. By virtue of the office of censor they investigate our lives and characters and take the census. Some they list in the equestrian and senatorial class and others they erase from the roll, as pleases them. By virtue of being consecrated in all the priesthoods and furthermore having the right to give the majority of them to others and from the fact that one of the high priests (if there be two or three holding office at once) is chosen from their number, they are themselves also masters of holy and sacred things. The so-called tribunician authority which the men of very greatest attainment used to hold gives them the right to stop any measure brought up by some one else, in case they do not join in approving it, and to be free from personal abuse. Moreover if they are thought to be wronged in even the slightest degree not merely by action but even by conversation they may destroy the guilty party without a trial as one polluted. They do not think it lawful to be tribune, because they belong altogether to the patrician class, but they assume all the power of the tribuneship undiminished from the period of its greatest extent; and thereby the enumeration of the years they have held the office in question goes forward on the assumption that they receive it year by year along with the others who are successively tribunes. Thus by these names they have secured these privileges in accordance with all the various usages of the democracy, in order that they may appear to possess nothing that has not been given them.

[-18-] They have gained also another prerogative which was given to none of the ancient Romans outright to apply to all cases, and it is through this alone that it would be possible for them to hold the above offices and any others besides. They are freed from the action of the laws, as the very words in Latin indicate. That is, they are liberated from every consideration of compulsion and are subjected to none of the written ordinances. So by virtue of these democratic names they are clothed in all the strength of the government and have all that appertains to kings except the vulgar title. "Caesar" or "Augustus" as a mode of address confers upon them no distinct privilege of its own but shows in the one case the continuance of their family and in the other the brilliance and dignity of their position. The salutation "father" perhaps gives them a certain authority over us which fathers once had over their children. It was not used, however, for this purpose in the beginning, but for their honor, and to admonish them to love their subjects as they would their children, while the subjects were to respect them as they respect their fathers.

Such is the number and quality of the titles to which those in power are accustomed according to the and according to what has now become tradition. At present all of them are, as a rule, bestowed upon the rulers at once, except the title of censor: to the earlier emperors they were voted separately and from time to time. Some of the emperors took the censorship in accordance with ancient custom and Domitian took it for life. This is, however, no longer done at the present day. They possess its powers and are not chosen for it and do not employ its name except in the censuses.

[-19-] Thus was the constitution made over at that time for the better and in a way to provide greater security. It was doubtless absolutely impossible for the people to be preserved under a democracy. Events after this, however, can not be said to be similar to those preceding this period. Formerly everything was referred to the senate and the people even if it occurred at a distance; hence all learned of it and many recorded it. Consequently the truth of happenings, no matter with how much fear and gratitude and friendship and enmity toward any one they were related, has been found at least In the works of those who wrote of them and to a certain extent also in the public records. But after this time business began to be transacted more often with concealment and secrecy. Nowadays, even if anything is made public, it is distrusted because it can not be proved. It is suspected that all speeches and acts are to meet the wishes of the men at the time in power and of their associates. As a result much that never occurs is noised abroad and much that really happens is unknown. Nearly everything is reported in a different form from what really takes place. Yet the magnitude of the empire and the number of events render accuracy in regard to them most difficult. In Rome there are many operations going on, and so in its subject territory, as well as against hostile tribes, always and every day, so to speak, clear information about which no one can easily get except those actively concerned. There are great numbers who do not hear at all of what has taken place. Hence all that follows which will require mention I shall narrate as it has been published, whether it is so in truth or is really somewhat different. In addition, however, my own opinion so far as possible will be stated in matters where I have been able to deduce something else than the common report from the many things I have read or heard or seen.

[-20-] Caesar, as I have said, received the further designation of Augustus, and a sign of no little moment in regard to him occurred that very night. The Tiber overflowed and occupied all of Rome that was built in the plain country so that it was submerged. From this the soothsayers inferred that he would rise to great heights and keep the whole city subservient. While different persons were rivals to show him excessive honors, one Sextus Pacuvius, or, as others say, Apudius[6] surpassed them all. In the open senate he consecrated himself to him after the fashion of the Spaniards and advised the rest to do the same. When Augustus hindered him he rushed out to the crowd standing near by, and (as he was tribune) compelled them and next all the rest who were wandering about through the streets and lanes to consecrate themselves; to Augustus. From this episode we are wont even now to say in appeals to the sovereign "we have consecrated ourselves to you." Pacuvius ordered all to offer sacrifice for this occurrence and before the people he once said he should make Augustus his inheritor on equal terms with his son. This was not because he possessed anything much, but because he wished to get more. And his desire was accomplished.

[-21-] Augustus attended with considerable zeal to all the business of the empire to make it appear that he had received it in accordance with the wishes of all, and he also enacted many laws. (I need not go into each one of them in detail except those which have a bearing upon my history. This same course I shall follow in the case of later events, in order not to become wearisome by introducing all such matters as not even those who specialize on them most narrowly know with accuracy.) Not all of these laws were enacted on his sole responsibility: some of them he brought before the public in advance, in order that, if any featured caused displeasure, he might learn it in time and correct them. He urged that any one at all give him advice, if any one could think of anything better. He accorded them full liberty of speech and some provisions he actually did alter. Most important of all, he took as advisers for six months the consuls or the consul (when he himself also held the office), one of each of the other kinds of officials, and fifteen men chosen by lot from the remainder of the senatorial body. Through them he was accustomed to a certain extent to communicate to all the rest the provisions of his laws. Some features he brought before the entire senate. He deemed it better, however, to consider most of the laws and the greater ones in company with a few persons at leisure, and acted accordingly. Sometimes he tried cases with their assistance. The entire senate by itself sat in judgment as formerly and transacted business with occasional groups of envoys and heralds from both peoples and kings. Furthermore the people and the plebs came together for the elections, but nothing was done that would not please Caesar. Some of those who were to hold office he himself chose out and nominated and others he put, according to ancient custom, in the power of the people and the plebs, yet taking care that no unfit persons should be appointed, nor by factious cliques nor by bribery. In this way he controlled the entire empire.

[-22-] I shall relate also in detail all his acts that need mentioning, together with the names of the consuls under whom they were performed. In the year previously named, seeing that the roads outside the wall had become through neglect hard to traverse, he ordered different senators to repair different ones at their own expense. He himself attended to the Flaminian Way, since he was going to lead an army out by that route. This operation was finished forthwith and images of him were accordingly erected on arches on the bridge over the Tiber and at Ariminum. The other roads were repaired later either at public expense (for none of the senators liked to spend money on it) or by Augustus, as one may wish to state. I can not distinguish their treasures in spite of the fact that Augustus coined into money some silver statues of himself made by his friends and by certain of the tribes, purposing thereby to make it appear that all the expenditures which he said he made were from his own means. Therefore I have no opinion to record as to whether a ruler at any particular time took money from the public treasury or whether he ever gave it himself. For both of these things were often done. Why should any one list such things as either expenditures or donations, when the people and the emperor are constantly making both the one and the other in common?

These were the acts of Augustus at that time. He also set out apparently to make a campaign into Britain, but on coming to the provinces of Gaul lingered there. For the Britons seemed likely to make terms with him and Gallic affairs were still unsettled, as the civil wars had begun immediately after their subjugation. He made a census of the people and set in order their life and government.

[ B.C. 26 (a. u. 728)]

[-23-] From there he came to Spain and reduced that country also to quiet. After this he became consul for the eighth time with Statilius Taurus, and Agrippa dedicated the so-called for he had not promised to repair any road. This edifice in the Campus Martius had been constructed by Lepidus by the addition of porticos all about for the tribal elections, and Agrippa adorned it with stone tablets and paintings, naming it Julian, from Augustus. The builder incurred no jealousy for it but was greatly honored both by Augustus himself and by all the rest of the people. The reason is that he gave his master the most kindly, the most distinguished, the most beneficial advice and cooeperation, yet claimed not even a small share of the consequent glory. He used the honors which Caesar gave not for personal gain or enjoyment but for the benefit of the giver himself and of the public.—On the other hand Cornelius Gallus was led to insolent behavior by honor. He talked a great deal of idle nonsense against Augustus and was guilty of many sly reprehensible actions. Throughout nearly all Egypt he set up images of himself and he inscribed upon the pyramids a list of his achievements. For this he was accused by Valerius Largus, his comrade and intimate, and was disenfranchised by Augustus, so that he was prevented from living in the emperor's provinces. After this took place others attacked him, and brought many indictments against him. The senate unanimously voted that he should be convicted in the courts, be deprived of his property, and be exiled, that his possessions be given to Augustus, and that they should sacrifice oxen. In overwhelming grief at this Gallus committed suicide before the decrees took effect. [-24-] The false behavior of most men was evidenced by this fact, that they now treated the man whom they once used to flatter in such a way that they forced him to die by his own hand. To Largus they showed devotion because his star was beginning to rise,—though they were sure to vote the same measures against him, if anything similar should ever occur in his case. Proculeius, however, felt so toward him that on meeting him once he clapped his hand over his nose and his mouth, thereby signifying to the bystanders that it was not safe even to breathe in the man's presence. Another person, although unknown, approached him with witnesses and asked if Largus recognized him. When the one questioned said "no", he recorded his denial on a tablet, thus making it beyond the power of the rascal to inform against a person at least whom he had not previously known.

Thus we see that most men emulate the exploits of others, though they be evil, instead of guarding against their fate. So also at this time there was Marcus Egnatius Rufus, who had been an aedile: the majority of his deeds had been good, and with his own slaves and with some others that were hired he lent aid to the houses that took fire during his year of office. In return he received from the people the expenses incurred in his position and by a suspension of the law was made praetor. Elated at these marks of favor he despised Augustus so much as to record that he (Rufus) had delivered the City unimpaired and entire to his successor. All the foremost men, and Augustus himself most of all, became indignant at this. He prepared therefore to teach the upstart a lesson in the near future not to exalt his mind above the mass of men. For the time being he issued an edict to the aediles to see to it that no building took fire and, if aught of the kind did happen, to extinguish the blaze.

[-25-] In this same year also Polemon, who was king of Pontus, was enrolled among the friends and allies of the Roman People; front seats for the senators were provided in all the theatres of the emperor's whole domain. Augustus, finding that the Britons would not come to terms, wished to make an expedition into their country, but was detained by the Salassi, who had revolted against him, and by the Cantabri and Astures, who had been made hostile. The former dwell close under the Alps, as has been herein stated,[7] whereas both of the latter tribes hold the strongest region of the Pyrenees on the Spanish side and the plain which is below it. For these reasons Augustus, now in his ninth consulship with Marcus Silanus, sent Terentius Varro against the Salassi.

[B.C. 25 (a. u. 729)]

The latter invaded their territory at many points at once in order that they might not unite and become harder to subdue, and had a very easy time in conquering them because they attacked him only in small groups. Having forced them to capitulate he demanded a fixed sum of money, allowing it to be supposed that he would impose no other punishment. After that he sent soldiers everywhere, apparently to attend to the collection of the indemnity and arrested those of military age, whom he sold under an agreement that none of them should be liberated within twenty years. The best of their land was given to members of the Pretorians and came to include a city called Augusta Praetoria.[8] Augustus himself waged war upon the Astures and upon the Cantabri at the same time. These refused to yield, because of confidence in their position on the heights, and would not come to close quarters owing to their inferior numbers and the fact that most of them were javelin throwers, but they caused him much trouble, whenever he made any movement, by always seizing the higher ground in advance and placing ambuscades in depressions and in wooded spots. He found himself therefore quite unable to cope with the difficulty, and having fallen ill from weariness and worry retired to Tarraco, and there remained sick. Meantime Gaius Antistius fought against them, accomplishing considerable, not because he was a better general than Augustus, but because the barbarians felt contempt for him and thus joined battle with the Romans and were defeated. In this way he captured some points, and afterward Titus[9] Carisius took Lancia, the principal fortress of the Astures, which had been abandoned, and won to his side many towns.

[-26-] At the conclusion of this war Augustus dismissed the more aged of his soldiers and gave them a city to settle in Lusitania,—the so-called Augusta Emerita. For those who were still of the military age he arranged some spectacles right among the legions, through the agency of Tiberius and Marcellus as aediles. To Juba he gave portions of Gaetulia in return for the prince's ancestral domain (for the majority of the inhabitants had been enrolled as members of the Roman polity), and also the possessions of Bocchus and Bogud. On the death of Amyntas he did not entrust the country to the children of the deceased but made it a part of the subject territory. Thus Gaul together with Lycaonia obtained a Roman governor. The regions of Pamphylia formerly assigned to Amyntas were restored to their own district.—About this same time Marcus Vinicius in making reprisals against the Celtae, because they had arrested and destroyed Romans who had entered their country to have friendly dealings with them, himself gave the name of imperator to Augustus. For this and for the other achievements of the time a triumph was voted to Caesar; but as he did not care to celebrate it, an arch bearing a trophy was constructed in the Alps for his glory and authority was given him to wear always on the first day of the year both the crown and the triumphal garb. After these successes in the wars Augustus closed the precinct of Janus, which had been opened because of the strife.

[-27-] Meanwhile Agrippa had been beautifying the city at his own expense. First, in honor of the naval victories he built over the so-called Portico of Neptune and lent it further brilliance by the painting of the Argonauts. Secondly, he repaired the Laconian sudatorium. He gave the name Laconian to the gymnasium because the Lacedaemonians had, in those days, a greater reputation than anybody else for stripping naked and exercising smeared with oil. Also, he completed the so-called Pantheon. It has this name perhaps because it received the images of many gods and among them the statues of Mars and Venus; but my own opinion is that the name is due to its round shape, like the sky. Agrippa desired to place Augustus also there and to take the designation of the structure from his title. But, as his master would not accept either honor, he placed in the temple itself a statue of the former Caesar and in the anteroom representations of Augustus and himself. This was done not from any rivalry and ambition on Agrippa's part to make himself equal to Augustus, but from his superabundant devotion to him and his perpetual affection for the commonwealth; hence Augustus, so far from censuring him for it, honored him the more. For, being unable through sickness to superintend at that time the marriage of his daughter Julia and his nephew Marcellus, he commissioned Agrippa to hold the festival in his absence. And when the house on the Palatine hill, which had formerly been Antony's but was later given to Agrippa and Messala, was burned down, he made a grant of money to Messala and gave Agrippa equal rights of domicile. The latter not unnaturally gained high distinction as a result of this. And one Gaius Toranius also acquired a good reputation because while tribune he brought his father, though some one's freedman, into the theatre and made him sit beside him upon the tribune's bench. Publius Servilius, too, made a name for himself because while praetor he caused to be killed at a festival three hundred bears and other Libyan wild beasts equal in number.

[B.C. 24 (a. u. 730)]

[-28-] Augustus now entered upon office for the tenth time with Gaius Norbanus, and on the first day of the month the senate took oaths, confirming his deeds. When he was announced as drawing near the city (his sickness had delayed him), he promised to give the people a hundred denarii each and issued instructions that the document concerning the money should not be bulletined until the senate also should approve. They had freed him from all compulsion of the laws to the end, as I have stated,[10] that being really independent and possessed of full powers over both himself and the laws he should follow all of them that he wished and not follow any that he did not wish. This right was voted to him while still absent. On his arrival in Rome there were various events in honor of his preservation and return, and Marcellus was accorded the right to be a senator of the class of ex-praetors and to be a candidate for the consulship ten years earlier than was customary. Tiberius was permitted in a similar fashion to be a candidate five years before the age set for each office. The latter was at once appointed quaestor and the former aedile. As the quaestors needed to serve in the provinces were proving insufficient, all drew lots for the places who for ten years previous had been named quaestors without the duties of the office. These, then, were the occurrences in the City worthy of note that year.

[-29-] As soon as Augustus had departed from Spain, leaving behind Lucius AEmilius[11] as governor of it, the Cantabri and Astures made an uprising. They sent to AEmilius before anything about it became known to him and said they wished to give the army grain and some other presents. Then, having secured a number of soldiers, who were presumably to carry the supplies, they led them to suitable places and butchered them. Their pleasure, however, did not last long. When their country had been devastated and some forts burned and, chiefest of all, the hands of every one that was caught were cut off, they were quickly subdued. While this was going on, another new campaign had its beginning and end. It was led by AElius Gallus, governor of Egypt, against the so-called Arabia Felix[12] of which Sabos was king. At first he encountered no one at all, yet did not proceed without effort. The desert, the sun, and the water (which had some peculiar nature), distressed them greatly so that the majority of the army perished. The disease proved to be dissimilar to any ordinary complaint, and fell upon the head, which it caused to wither. This killed most of them at once, but in the case of the survivors it descended to the legs, skipping all the intervening parts of the body, and wrought injury to them. There was no remedy for it except by both drinking and rubbing on olive oil mixed with wine. This was in the power of only a few of them to do, for the country produces neither of these articles and the men had not provided a large supply of them beforehand. In the midst of this trouble the barbarians also fell upon them. For a while the enemy were defeated whenever they joined battle and lost some places: later, however, with the disease as an ally they won back their own possessions and drove the survivors of the expedition out of the country. These were the first of the Romans (and I think the only ones) who traversed so much of this part of Arabia in warfare. They had advanced as far as the so-named Athlula, a famous locality.

[B.C. 23 (a. u. 731)]

[-30-] Augustus was for the eleventh time consul with Calpurnius Piso, when he fell so sick once more as to have no hope of saving his life. He accordingly arranged everything in the idea that he was about to die, and gathering about him the officials and the other foremost senators and knights he appointed no successor, though they were expecting that Marcellus would be preferred before all for the position. After conversing briefly with them about public matters he gave Piso the list of the forces and the public revenues written in a book, and handed his ring to Agrippa. The emperor became unable to do even the very simplest things, yet a certain Antonius Musas managed to restore him to health by means of cold baths and cold drinks. For this he received a great deal of money from both Augustus and the senate, as well as the right to wear gold rings,—he was a freedman,—and secured exemption from taxes for both himself and the members of his profession, not only those then living but also those of coming generations. But he who assumed the powers of Fortune and Fate was destined soon after to be well worsted. Augustus had been saved in this manner: but Marcellus, falling sick not much later, was treated in the same way by Musas and died. Augustus gave him a public burial with the usual eulogies, placed him in the monument which was being built, and honored his memory by calling the theatre, the foundations of which had already been laid by the former Caesar, the Theatre of Marcellus. He ordered also that a gold image of the deceased, a golden crown, and his chair of office be carried into the theatre at the Ludi Romani and be placed in the midst of the officials having charge of the function. This he did later.

[-31-] After being restored to health on this occasion he brought his will into the senate and wished to read it, by way of showing people that he had left no successor to his position. He did not, however, read it, for no one would permit that. Quite every one, however, was astonished at him in that since he loved Marcellus as son-in-law and nephew yet he failed to trust him with the monarchy but preferred Agrippa before him. His regard for Marcellus had been shown by many honors, among them his lending aid in carrying out the festival which the young man gave as aedile; the brilliance of this occasion is shown by the fact that in midsummer he sheltered the Forum by curtains overhead and introduced a knight and a woman of note as dancers in the orchestra. But his final attitude seemed to show that he was not yet confident of the youth's judgment and that he either wanted the people to get back their liberty or Agrippa to receive the leadership from them. He understood well that Agrippa and the people were on the best of terms and he was unwilling to appear to be delivering the supreme power with his own hands. [-32-] When he recovered, therefore, and learned that Marcellus on this account was not friendly toward Agrippa, he immediately despatched the latter to Syria, so that no delay and desultory dispute might arise by their being in the same place. Agrippa forthwith started from the City but did not make his way to Syria, but, proceeding even more moderately than usual, he sent his lieutenants there and himself lingered in Lesbos.

Besides doing this Augustus appointed ten praetors, feeling that he did not require any more. This number remained constant for several years. Some of them were intended to fulfill the same duties as of yore and two of them to have charge of the administration of the finances each year. Having settled these details he resigned the consulship and went to Albanum. He himself ever since the constitution had been arranged had held office for the entire year, as had most of his colleagues, and he wished now to interrupt this custom again, in order that as many as possible might be consuls. His resignation took place outside the city to prevent his being hindered in his purpose.

For this act he received praise, as also because he chose to take his place Lucius Sestius, who had always been an enthusiastic follower of Brutus, had campaigned with the latter in all his wars, and even at this time made mention of him, had his images, and delivered eulogies. So far from disliking the friendly and faithful qualities of the man, the emperor even honored him.

The senate consequently voted that Augustus be tribune for life and that he might bring forward at each meeting of the senate any business he liked concerning any one matter, even if he should not be consul at the time, and allowed him to hold the office of proconsul once for all perpetually, so that he had neither to lay it down on entering the pomerium nor to take it up again outside. The body also granted him more power in subject territory than the several governors possessed. As a result both he and subsequent emperors gained a certain legal right to the use of the tribunican authority, in addition to their other powers. But the actual name of tribune neither Augustus nor any other emperor has held.

[-33-] And it seems to me that he then acquired these rights as described not from flattery but as a mark of real honor. In most ways he behaved toward the Romans as if they were free citizens. For, when Tiridates in person and envoys from Phraates arrived to settle their mutual disputes, he introduced them to the senate. After this, when the decision of the question had been entrusted to him by that body, he refused to surrender Tiridates to Phraates, but sent back to him his son, whom Tiridates had formerly received from the other and was keeping, on condition that the captives and the military standards taken in the disasters of Crassus and of Antony be returned.

In this same year one of the inferior aediles died and Gaius Calpurnius succeeded him, in spite of having served previously as one of the patrician aediles. This is not mentioned as having occurred in the case of any other man. During the Feriae there were two praefecti urbi each day, and one of them, who was not yet admitted to the standing of a youth, nevertheless held office.

Livia, however, was accused of having caused the death of Marcellus because he had been preferred before her sons. This suspicion became a matter of controversy both in that year and in the following, which proved so unhealthful that great numbers perished during its progress. And, as it usually happens that some sign occurs before such events, so on this occasion a wolf had been caught in the city, fire and storm damaged many buildings, and the Tiber, rising, washed away the wooden bridge and rendered the city submerged for three days.

[Footnote 1: Following Dindorf's reading [Greek: hyper heauton].]

[Footnote 2: A reference to Cornelius Gallus (see Book Fifty-one, chapter 17).]

[Footnote 3: The expression to which Dio here refers is doubtless the adjective quinquefascalis, found in inscriptional Latin. All the editions from Xylander to Dindorf gave "six lictors", erroneously, as was pointed out by Mommsen (Romisches Staatsrecht, 12, p. 369, note 4). Boissevain is the first editor to make the correction. (See the latter portion of chapter 17, Book Fifty-seven, which should be compared with Tacitus, Annals, II, 47, 5.)

The Greek language had a phrase [Greek: hae hexapelekus archae], corresponding to the Latin sexfascalis, but no adjective [Greek: pentapelekus], which would be the equivalent of quinquefascalis, is reported in the lexicons.]

[Footnote 4: Cp. Book Fifty-two, chapter 25.]

[Footnote 5: Translating Boissevain's conjecture, [Greek: dela chahi pempton isa], in place of a corruption in the text.]

[Footnote 6: In view of the fact that Sex. Pacuvius Taurus does not come on the scene (as tribune of the plebs) till B.C. 9-7, it seems more likely, as Boissevain remarks, that Apudius is the correct name of the author of this piece of flattery.]

[Footnote 7: Boissevain thinks that the passage indicated was probably in Book Twenty-two (one of the lost portions of the work). Compare Fragment LXXIV (1) in Volume VI of this translation.—Boissee suggested Book Forty-nine, Chapter 34. There, too, the correspondence is not complete.]

[Footnote 8: The modern Aosta.]

[Footnote 9: Possibly this praenomen is an error for Publius.]

[Footnote 10: Chapter 18 of this Book.]

[Footnote 11: Another writer reports his name as Lucius Lamia.]

[Footnote 12: The "prosperous" or fertile part of Arabia, as opposed to Arabia Deserta or Petraea.]



DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY

54

The following is contained in the Fifty-fourth of Dio's Rome:

How road commissioners were appointed from among the ex-praetors (chapter 8).

How grain commissioners were appointed from among the ex-praetors (chapters 1 and 17).

How Noricum was reduced (chapter 20).

How Rhaetia was reduced (chapter 22).

How the Maritime Alps began to yield obedience to the Romans (chapter 24).

How the theatre of Balbus was dedicated (chapter 25).

How the theatre of Marcellus was dedicated (chapter 26).

How Agrippa died and Augustus acquired the Chersonese (chapters 28, 29).

How the Augustalia was instituted (chapter 34).

Duration of time, 13 years, in which there were the following magistrates here enumerated:

M. Claudius M. F. Marcellus AEserninus, L. Arruntius L.F. (B.C. 22 = a. u. 732.)

M. Lollius M. F., Q. AEmilius M. F. Lepidus. (B.C. 21 = a. u. 733.)

M. Apuleius Sex, F., P. Silius P. F. Nerva. (B.C. 20 = a. u. 734.)

C. Sentius C. F. Saturninus, Q. Lucretius Q. F. Vispillo. (B.C. 19 = a. u. 735.)

Cn. Cornelius L. F., P. Cornelius P. F. Lentulus Marcellinus. (B.C. 18 = a. u. 736.)

C. Furnius C. F., C. Iunius C. F. Silanus. (B.C. 17 = a. u. 737.)

L. Domitius Cn. F. Cn. N. Ahenobarbus, P. Cornelius P. F. P. N. Scipio. (B.C. 16 = a. u. 738.)

M. Livius L. F. Drusus Libo, L. Calpurnius L. F. Piso Frugi. (B.C. 15 = a. u. 739.)

M. Licinius M. F. Crassus, Cn. Cornelius Cn. F. Lentulus. (B.C. 14 = a. u. 740.)

Tib. Claudius Tib. F. Nero, P. Quintilius Sex. F. Varus. (B.C. 13 = a. u. 741.)

M. Valerius M. F. Messala Barbatus, P. Sulpicius P. F. Quirinus. (B.C. 12 = a. u. 742.)

Paulus Fabius Q. F. Maximus, Q. AElius Q. F. Tubero. (B.C. 11 = a. u. 743.)

Iullus Antonius M. F., Africanus Q. Fabius Q. F. (B.C. 10 = a. u. 744.)

(BOOK 54, BOISSEVAIN.)

[B.C. 22 (a. u. 732)]

[-1-] The following year, during which Marcus Marcellus and Lucius Arruntius were the consuls, the river caused another flood which submerged the City, and many objects were struck by thunderbolts, among them the statues in the Pantheon; and the spear even fell from the hand of Augustus. The pestilence raged throughout Italy so that no one tilled the land, and I think that the same was the case in foreign parts. The Romans, therefore, reduced to dire straits by disease and by famine, thought that this had happened to them for no other reason than that they did not have Augustus for consul this time also. They accordingly wished to elect him as dictator, and shutting the senate up within its halls they forced it to vote this measure by threatening to burn down the building. Next they took the twenty-four rods and accosted Augustus, begging him both to be named dictator and to become commissioner of grain, as Pompey had once been. He accepted the latter duty under compulsion and ordered two men from among those who had served as praetors five years or more previously, in every instance, to be chosen annually to attend to the distribution of grain. As for the dictatorship, however, he would not hear of it and went so far as to rend his clothing when he found himself unable to restrain them in any other way, either by reasoning or by prayer. As he already had authority and honor even beyond that of dictators he did right to guard against the jealousy and hatred which the title would arouse. [-2-] His course was the same when they wished to elect him censor for life. Without entering upon the office himself he immediately designated others as censors, namely Paulus AEmilius Lepidus and Lucius Munatius Plancus, the latter a brother of that Plancus who had been proscribed and the former a person who at that time had himself been under sentence of death. These were the last private citizens to hold the appointment, as was at once made manifest by the men themselves. The platform on which they were intended to perform the ceremonies pertaining to their position fell to the ground in pieces when they had ascended it on the first day of their office. After that there were no other censors appointed together, as they had been. Even at this time Augustus in spite of their having been chosen took care of many matters which properly belonged to them. Of the Public Messes he abolished some altogether and reformed others so that greater temperance prevailed. He committed the charge of all the festivals to the praetors, commanding that an appropriation be given them from the public treasury. Moreover he forbade them to spend from their own means on these occasions more than they received from the other source, or to have armed combat under any other conditions than if the senate should vote for it, and even then there were to be not more than two such contests in each year and they should consist of not more than one hundred and twenty men. To the curule aediles he entrusted the extinguishment of conflagrations, for which purpose he granted them six hundred slave assistants. And since knights and women of note had thus early appeared in the orchestra, he forbade not only the children of senators, to whom the prohibition had even previously extended, but also their grandchildren, who naturally found a place in the equestrian class, to do anything of the sort again. [-3-] In these ordinances he let both the substance and the name of the lawgiver and emperor be seen. In other matters he was more moderate and even came to the aid of some of his friends when their conduct was subjected to official scrutiny. But a certain Marcus Primus was accused of having made war upon the Odrysae, while he was governor of Macedonia, who said at one time that he had done it with the approval of Augustus, and again with that of Marcellus. The emperor thereupon came of his own accord into the court and, when interrogated by the praetors as to whether he had instructed the man to make war, entered a denial. The advocate of Primus, Licinius Murena, in the course of some rather disrespectful remarks that he made to him enquired: "What are you doing here!" and "Who summoned you!" To this Augustus only replied: "The Public Good." For this he received praise from sensible persons and was even given the right to convene the senate as often as he pleased. Some of the others looked down upon him. Indeed, not a few voted for the acquittal of Primus and others united to form a plot against Caesar. Fannius Caepio was at the head of it, though others had a share. Murena also was said, whether truly or by way of calumny, to have been one of the conspirators, since he was insatiate and unsparing in his outspokenness to all alike. These men did not appear for trial in court but were convicted by default on the supposition that they intended to flee; shortly after, however, they were put to death. Murena found neither his brother Proculeius nor Maecenas his sister's husband of any avail, though they were the recipients of distinguished honors from Augustus. And as some of the jurymen actually voted to acquit these conspirators, the emperor made a law that votes should not be cast secretly in cases by default and that the persons on trial must receive a unanimous conviction. That he authorized these provisions not in anger but as really conducive to the public good he gave overwhelming evidence. Caepio's father liberated one of his slaves who had accompanied his son on his flight, because he had wished to defend the younger man when he met his death; but a second slave who had betrayed him the father led through the middle of the Forum with an inscription making known the reason why he should be killed, and after that crucified him: yet at all this the emperor showed no indignation. He would have allayed all the criticism of those not pleased with the course of events, had he not allowed sacrifices, as for some victory, to be both voted and offered.

[-4-] It was at this period that he restored both Cyprus and Gallia Narbonensis to the people as provinces no longer needing his administration of martial law.

Thus proconsuls began to be sent to these places also. He also dedicated the temple of Jupiter Tonans, concerning which event these two traditions survive,—that at the time thunder occurred during the ritual, and that later Augustus had a dream, which I shall proceed to describe. He thought that the throng had come to do reverence to the deity, partly attracted by the novelty of his name and form and partly because he had been put in place by Augustus, but chiefest of all because they encountered him first when they ascended the Capitol; and he dreamed that Jupiter in the great temple was angry because he was now reduced to second place, and that he himself thereupon said to the offended god (as he reported the story) that he had Tonans as an advance guard. When it became day he attached a bell to the statue by way of confirming the vision. For those who guard apartment houses by night carry a bell, in order to be able to signal the inhabitants whenever they wish.—These events, then, took place at Rome.

[-5-] About this same period the Cantabri and the Astures broke out into war again. The action of the Astures was due to the haughtiness and cruelty of Carisius. The Cantabri, on the other hand, took the field because they learned that the other tribe was in revolt and because they despised their governor, Gaius Furnius, since he had but lately arrived and they conceived him to be unacquainted with conditions in their territory. He did not, however, show himself that sort of man in action, for both tribes were defeated and reduced to slavery by him, Carisius even receiving help from him. Not many of the Cantabri were captured. As they had no hope of freedom they did not choose to live, but some after setting the forts on fire stabbed themselves, and others let themselves be consumed with the works, while still others in the sight of all took poison. Thus the most of them and the fiercest faction perished. As for the Astures, as soon as they had been repulsed in a siege at some point and had subsequently been beaten in battle, they made no further resistance but were straightway subdued.

About this same time the Ethiopians, who dwell beyond Egypt, advanced as far as the city called Elephantine, with Candace as their leader, ravaging the whole region that they traversed. On learning that Gaius[1] Petronius, the governor of Egypt, was approaching and somewhere near, they hastily retreated hoping to make good their escape. Overtaken on the road, however, they suffered defeat and then drew him on into their own country. There, too, he contended nobly and took among other cities Napata, the royal residence of that tribe. This town was razed to the ground and a garrison left at another post. For Petronius, not being able to advance farther on account of the sand and the heat, nor to remain conveniently on the spot with his entire army, withdrew, taking the most of it with him. At that the Ethiopians attacked the garrisons, but he again proceeded against them, rescued his own men, and compelled Candace to make terms with him.

[ B.C. 21 (a. u. 733)]

[-6-] While this was going on Augustus went to Sicily in order to settle the affairs of that island and of other countries as far as Syria. While he was still there, the Roman populace fell to disputing over an election of the consuls. This incident showed clearly that it was impossible for them to be safe under a democracy, for with the little power that they had over elections and in regard to offices, even, they began rioting. The place of one of the consuls was being kept for Augustus and in this way at the beginning of the year Marcus Lollius alone entered upon office. As the emperor would not accept the place, Quintus Lepidus and Lucius Silvanus became rival candidates and threw everything into such turmoil that Augustus was invoked by those who still retained their senses. He would not return, however, and sent them back when they came to him, rebuking them and bidding them cast their votes during the absence of both claimants. This did not promote peace any the more, but they began to quarrel and dispute again vehemently, so that it was long before Lepidus was chosen. Augustus was displeased at this, for he could not spend all his time at Rome alone, and he did not dare to leave the city without a head; seeking, therefore, for some one to set over it he judged Agrippa to be most suitable for the purpose. And as he wished to clothe him in some greater dignity than common, in order that this might help him to govern the people more easily, he summoned him, compelled him to divorce his wife (although she was Caesar's own niece), and to marry Julia, and forthwith sent him to Rome to attend both to the wedding and to the administration of the City. This step is said to have been due partly to the advice of Maecenas, who in conversation with him upon these very matters said: "You have made him so great that he should either become your son-in-law or be killed."—Agrippa healed the sores which he found still festering and repelled the advance of the Egyptian rites, which were returning once more to the City, forbidding any one to perform them even in the suburbs within eight half-stadia. A disturbance arose regarding the election of the praefectus urbi—the one chosen on account of the Feriae—and he did not attempt to quell it, but they lived through that year without that official. This was what he accomplished.

[-7-] Augustus after settling various affairs in Sicily and making Syracuse together with certain other cities Roman colonies crossed over into Greece. The Lacedaemonians he honored by giving them Cythera and attending their Public Mess, because Livia, when she fled from Italy with her husband and son, passed some time there. From the Athenians, as some say, he took away AEgina and Eretria, the produce of which they were enjoying, because they had espoused the cause of Antony. Moreover he forbade them to make any one a citizen for money. It seemed to them that what happened to the statue of Athena had tended to their misfortune. Placed on the Acropolis facing the east it had turned about to the west and spat blood.

[ B.C. 20 (a. u. 734)]

As for Augustus, after setting the Greek world in order, he sailed to Samos, passed the winter there, and in the spring when Marcus Apuleius and Publius Silius became consuls proceeded to Asia and gave his attention to matters there and in Bithynia. Though these and the foregoing provinces were regarded as belonging to the people, he did not make light of them, but accorded them the very best of care, as if they were his own. He instituted all reforms that seemed desirable and made a present of money to some, while others he instructed to collect an amount in excess of the tribute. The people of Cyzicus he reduced to slavery because during an uprising they had flogged and put to death some Romans. And when he reached Syria he took the same action in the case of the people of Tyre and Sidon on account of their uprising.

[-8-] Meanwhile Phraates, fearing that he might lead an expedition against him because as yet none of the agreements had been carried out, sent back to him the standards and all the captives, save a few who in shame had destroyed themselves or by eluding detection had remained in the country. Augustus received them with the appearance of having conquered the Parthian in some war. He took great pride in the event, saying that what had been lost in former battles he had recovered without a struggle. Indeed, in honor of his success he both commanded sacrifices to be voted and performed them, besides constructing a temple of Mars Ultor on the Capitol, in imitation of Jupiter Feretrius, for the offering up of the standards. Moreover he rode into the City on a charger and was with an arch carrying a trophy. That was what was done later in commemoration of the event. At this time he was chosen commissioner of the highways round about Rome, set up the so-called golden milestone, and assigned road-builders from the ranks of the ex-praetors, with two lictors, to take care of the various streets. Julia also gave birth to a child, who received the name Gaius; and a sacrifice of kine was permitted forever upon his birthday. Now this was done, like everything else, in pursuance of a decree: privately the aediles had a horse-race and slaughter of wild beasts on the birthday of Augustus.—These were the occurrences in the City.

[-9-] Augustus ordained that the subject territory should be managed according to the customs of the Romans, but permitted allied countries to be governed according to their own ancestral usage. He did not think it desirable that there should be any additions to the former or that any new regions should be acquired, but deemed it best for the people to be thoroughly satisfied with what they already possessed; and he communicated this opinion to the senate. Therefore he began no war at this time, but gave out certain sovereignties,—to Iamblichus son of Iamblichus his ancestral dominion over the Arabians, and to Tarcondimotus son of Tarcondimotus the kingdom of Cilicia which his father held, except a few coast districts. For these together with Lesser Armenia he granted to Archelaus, because the Median king, who had previously ruled them, was dead. To Herod he entrusted the tetrarchy of a certain Zenodorus and to one Mithridates, though a mere lad, Commagene, since the king of it had killed his father. And as the other Armenians had preferred charges against Artaxes and had summoned his brother Tigranes, who was in Rome, the emperor sent for Tiberius to cast the former out of his kingdom and restore the latter to it once more. Nothing was accomplished, however, worthy of the preparations he had made, for the Armenians slew Artaxes before his arrival. Still, Tiberius assumed a lofty bearing as if he had effected something by his own ability, and all the more when sacrifices were voted in honor of the result. And he now began to have thoughts about obtaining the monarchy when, as he was approaching Philippi, an outcry was heard from the field of battle, as if coming from an army, and fire of its own accord shot up from the altars founded by Antony upon the ramparts. These things contributed to the exalted feelings of Tiberius.

Augustus returned to Samos and once more passed the winter there. As a recompense for his stay he awarded the islanders freedom, and he attended to many kinds of business. Great numbers of embassies came to him, and the Indi, who had previously opened negotiations about friendship, now made terms, sending among other gifts tigers, which were then for the first time seen by the Romans, as also, I think, by the Greeks. They likewise presented to him a boy without shoulders (like the statues of Hermes that we now see). Yet this creature in spite of his anatomy made perfect use of his feet and hands: he would stretch a bow for them, shoot missiles, and sound the trumpet,—how, I do not know; I merely record the story. One of the Indi, Zarmarus, whether he belonged to the class of sophists and was ambitious on this account or because he was old and was following some immemorial custom, or because he wished to make a display for Augustus and the Athenians (for it was there that he had obtained an audience), chose to die; he was therefore initiated into the service of the two goddesses,—although it was not the proper time, it is said, for the ritual,[2]—through the influence of Augustus, and having become an initiate he threw himself alive into the fire.

[B.C. 19 (a. u. 735)]

[-10-] The consul that[2] year was Gaius Sentius. When it was found necessary that a colleague be appointed to hold office with him,—for Augustus again refused to accept the post which was being saved for him,—an uprising once more broke out in Rome and assassinations occurred, so that the senators voted Sentius a guard. When he expressed himself as opposed to using it, they sent envoys to Augustus, each with two lictors. As soon as the emperor learned this and felt assured that nothing but evil would come of it, he did not adopt an attitude like his former one toward them but appointed consul from among the envoys themselves Quintus Lucretius, though this man's name had been posted among the proscribed, and he hastened to Rome himself. For this and his other actions while absent from the city many honors of all sorts were voted none of which he would accept, save the founding of a temple to Fortuna Redux,[3] (this being the name they applied to her), and that the day on which he arrived should be numbered among the thanksgiving days and be called Augustalia. Since even then the magistrates and the rest made preparations to go out to meet him, he entered the city by night; and on the following day he gave Tiberius the rank of the ex-praetors and allowed Drusus to become a candidate for offices five years earlier than custom allowed. The quarrelsome behavior of the people during his absence did not accord at all with their conduct, influenced by fear, when he was present; he was accordingly invited and elected to be commissioner of morals for five years, held the authority of the censors for the same length of time and that of the consuls for life, being allowed to use the twelve rods always and everywhere and to sit in the chair of office in the midst of the consuls of any year. After voting these measures they begged him to set right all these matters and to enact what laws he liked. And whatever ordinances might be composed by him they called from that very moment leges Augustae and desired to take an oath that they would abide by them. He accepted their principal propositions, believing them to be necessary, but absolved them from the requirement of an oath. If they should vote for a measure that suited them, he knew well that they would observe it even if they made no agreement to that effect. Otherwise they would not pay any attention to it, even if they should take ten thousand pledges to secure it.—Augustus did this. Of the aediles one voluntarily resigned his office by reason of poverty.

[-11-] Agrippa on being sent at this time, as described from Sicily to Rome, transacted whatever business was urgent and was later assigned to the Gauls. The inhabitants there were at war among themselves and were being harshly used by the Celtae. After settling those troubles he went over to Spain. For the Cantabri, who had been captured alive in the war and had been sold, severally killed their masters, returned home, and united many for a revolt. With the aid of these accessions they occupied available sites, walled them about and concocted schemes against the Roman garrisons. It was against this tribe that Agrippa led an expedition, but he had some trouble also with the soldiers. Not a few of them were too old, exhausted by the succession of wars, and in fear of the Cantabri, whom they regarded as hard to subdue; and they consequently would not obey him. However, by admonition, exhortation, and the hopes that he held out[4] he soon made them yield obedience: in fighting the Cantabri, on the other hand, he met with many failures. They had the advantage of experience in affairs, since they had been slaves to the Romans, and of despair of ever gaining safety again in case of capture. Agrippa lost numbers of his soldiers and degraded numerous others because they had been defeated; among other actions he prohibited a whole division called the Augustan from being so named any longer; still, after a long time he destroyed nearly all of the enemy who were of age for warfare. He deprived the rest of their arms and made them go down from the heights to the flat lands. Yet he made no communication about them to the senate and did not accept the triumph although voted in accordance with instructions from Augustus. In these matters he showed moderation, as was his wont, and when asked once by the consul for an opinion in a case concerning his brother he would not give it. At his own expense he brought in the so-called Parthenian water-supply and named it the Augustan. In this the emperor took so great delight that once when a great scarcity of wine had arisen and persons were making a terrible to-do about it, he declared that Agrippa had carefully seen to it that they should never perish of thirst.

[-12-]Such was the character of this man. Of the rest many both made a triumph their object and celebrated it, not for rendering these same services, but some for having arrested robbers and others for quieting cities that were in a state of turmoil. For Augustus, at first at least, bestowed these rewards lavishly upon some and honored a very great number with public burials. Those persons, then, gained splendor by these fetes; but Agrippa was advanced by him to a position of comparative independence. Augustus saw that the public business required strict attention and feared that he might, as often happens in such cases, become the victim of plots.

[B.C. 18 (a. u. 736)]

The breastplate which he often wore beneath his dress even on entering the senate itself he expected would be of small and slight assistance to him in that case. Therefore he himself first added five years to his term as supreme ruler when the ten-year period had expired (this took place in the consulship of Publius and Gnaeus Lentulus), and then he gave Agrippa many rights almost equal to his own, together with the tribunician authority for the same length of time. He then said that so many years would suffice them. Not much later he obtained the remaining five belonging to his imperial sovereignty, so that the number of years became ten again.

[-13-] When he had done this he next investigated the senatorial body. The members seemed to him even now to be numerous and he saw danger in so large a throng, while he felt a hatred for not only such as were notorious for some baseness, but also those who were distinguished for their flattery. And when no one, as previously, would resign willingly nor wished alone to incur accusation, he himself selected the thirty best men (a point which he confirmed by oath) and bade them after first taking the same oath to choose and write down groups of five, outside of their relatives, on tablets. After this he subjected the groups of five to a casting of lots, with the arrangement that the one man in each who drew a lot should himself be a senator, and enroll five others on the same conditions.

There would, of course, properly be thirty of those chosen by others and by those who drew a lot. And since some of them were out of town others drew as substitutes and attended to what should have been their duties. At first this went on so for several days; but when some abuses crept in, he no longer put the documents in the charge of the quaestors nor submitted the groups of five to lot, but he himself read whatever remained and he himself chose the members that were lacking: and thus six hundred in all were appointed. [-14-]It had been his plan to make them three hundred as in old times, and he thought he ought to be well satisfied if he found so many of them worthy of the senate. But he finally chose a list of six hundred because of the universal displeasure; for it came out, by reason of the fact that those whose names would be cancelled would be many more than those who remained in the body, that greater fear of becoming private citizens prevailed among its members than expectation of being senators. Not even here did the matter rest, since some unsuitable persons were still enrolled. A certain Licinius Regulus after this, indignant because his name had been erased whereas his son and several others to whom he thought himself superior had been counted in, rent his clothing in the very senate, laid bare his body, enumerated his campaigns, and showed them his scars. And Articuleius Paetus, one of the senators in posse, besought earnestly that he might retire from his seat in the senate in place of his father, who had been rejected. Augustus then made a new organization, getting rid of some and choosing others in their place. Since even so the names of many had been stricken out and some of them, as usually happens in such a case, charged that they had been driven out unjustly, he immediately accorded them the right to behold spectacles and join in festivals in common with the senators, wearing the same garb, and he permitted them for the future to stand for offices. Most of them came back in the course of time into the senate: some few were left in an intermediate position, regarded as belonging neither to the senate nor to the people.

[-15-] After this many at once and many subsequently gained the reputation, whether it was true or false, of plotting against both the emperor and Agrippa. It is not possible for one outside of such matters to have certain knowledge about them. Much of what a sovereign does by way of punishment either personally or through the senate on the ground that plots have been made against him is viewed with suspicion as probably a display of wanton power, no matter how justly he may have acted. For that reason my intention is to record in all matters of this nature simply the regular version of the story, not busying myself with aught beyond the public report, except in perfectly patent cases, nor making any ulterior suggestions as to whether any act was just or unjust or any statement true or false. Let this principle apply to everything which I shall write after this.

At the time Augustus executed a few: Lepidus he hated because his son had been detected in a against him and had been punished, as well as for other reasons; he did not, however, wish to kill him but kept insulting him now in one way, now in another. He ordered Lepidus against his will to come down from the country to the city and always took him to gatherings, in order that the man might be subjected to the greatest amount of jeering and insolence in view of the change from his former power and dignity. He did not treat him in any way as worthy his consideration, and at this time he afforded him, last of all the ex-consuls, the chance of voting. To the rest he was wont to put the question in the order that belonged to them, but of the ex-consuls he used to make one first, another second, and third and fourth and so on as he liked. This the consuls also did. Thus it was that he treated Lepidus. And when Antistius Labeo enrolled the latter among the men who were to be senators at the time the vote on this matter was taken, the emperor first declared that he had perjured himself and threatened to take vengeance. Thereupon the other replied: "Why, what harm have I done by keeping in the senate one whom you even now still permit to be high priest?" This answer quieted Augustus's anger, for though he had often, both privately and publicly, been judged worthy of this priesthood, he did not deem it right to take it while Lepidus lived. The reply of Antistius seemed, indeed, to have been a rather happy one, as was the case once when there was talk in the senate to the effect that they ought to take turns in guarding Augustus; for he had said, not daring to speak in opposition nor willing to agree: "As for me, I snore, and so can not sleep at the door of his chamber."

[-16-] Among the laws that Augustus enacted was one which provided that those who to gain office bribed any person should be debarred from the said office for five years. He laid heavier penalties upon the unmarried men and women without husbands, and on the other hand offered prizes for marriage and the procreation of children. And since among the nobility there were far more males than females he allowed those who pleased, save the senators, to marry freedwomen, and ordered that the offspring of such a man should be deemed legitimate.

At this period a clamor arose in the senate regarding the disorderly conduct of the women and the young men, this being alleged as a reason for the difficulty of persuading them to contract marriage; and when they urged him to remedy this abuse also, meanwhile indulging in sarcasms because he enjoyed the favors of many women, at first he made answer that the most necessary restrictions had been laid down and that anything further could not be defined in a similar fashion. Then, when he was driven into a corner, he said: "You ought to admonish and command your wives what you wish,—just as I myself do." When they heard that, they plied him with questions all the more, wishing to learn the admonitions which he said he gave Livia. Reluctantly thereupon he made a few remarks about dress and about other adornment, about going out and modest behavior on such occasions. He cared not at all that he did not make good his words in fact. Something of the sort he had done also while censor. They brought before him a young man who had married a woman after seducing her, making the most violent accusations against him: Augustus was at a loss what to do, not daring to overlook the affair nor yet to administer any rebuke. After a very long time he heaved a deep sigh and said: "The factional disputes have borne many terrible fruits: let us try to forget them and give our attention to the future, to see that nothing of the sort occurs again."

Inasmuch, too, as certain infants were obtaining by betrothal the honors of married couples, but did not accomplish the object in view, he ordered that no betrothal should be valid where a person did not marry before two years had passed. That is, any one betrothed must be certainly ten years old in order to reap any benefit from it. Twelve full years, as I have said, is required by custom for girls to reach the marriageable age.

[-17-] Besides these separate enactments there was one instructing those from time to time in office each to propose one of those who had been praetors three years previously to attend to the distribution of the grain, and providing that of that number the four who secured the lot should give out grain in turn: and the praefectus urbi, appointed for the Feriae, was always to choose one of them. The Sibylline verses which had become indistinct through lapse of time he ordered the priests to copy out with their own hands in order that no one else should read them. He allowed the offices to be thrown open to all such as had property worth ten myriad denarii and were competent to hold office in accordance with the law. This was the value which he at first set upon the senatorial rank: later he raised it to twenty-five myriads. Upon some of those who lived upright lives but possessed less than ten myriads in the first case or twenty-five in the second he bestowed the amount lacking. Again, he allowed those praetors who so desired to spend on the festivals besides what was given them from the public treasury three times as much again, so that even if some were vexed at the minuteness of his other regulations yet by reason of this one and also because he brought back from exile one Pylades, a dancer, driven out on account of civil quarrels, they remembered them no longer. Hence Pylades is said to have rejoined very cleverly when the emperor rebuked him for having quarreled with Bathyllus, an artist in the same line and a relative of Maecenas: "It is to your advantage, Caesar, that the populace should exhaust its energy over us."—These were the occurrences of that year.

[B.C. 17 (a. u. 737)]

[-18-]In the consulship of Gaius Furnius and Gaius Silanus Agrippa again announced the birth of a son named Lucius, and Augustus immediately adopted him together with his brother Gaius, not waiting for them to become men but appointing them that very moment successors to his office, in order that less plots might be directed against him. The festival of Honor and of Virtus he transferred to the days which are at present theirs. Those that celebrated triumphs he commanded to erect out of the spoils some public work to commemorate their deeds. The Saecularia he brought for the fifth time to a successful conclusion. The orators, he ordered, were to give their services without pay, on pain of a fine of quadruple the amount they might receive. Those whom the lot made jurymen in any season he forbade to enter any person's house during that year. And since members of the senate showed lack of interest in attending meetings of that body, he increased the penalties for such as were late without some good excuse.

[B.C. 16 (a. u. 7386)]

[-19-] Next he started for Gaul, during the consulship of Lucius Domitius and Publius Scipio, making an excuse of the wars that had arisen in that region. For since he had become disliked by many as a result of his long stay in the capital and by inflicting penalties offended many who committed some act contrary to the laws laid down, while he was compelled in sparing many others to transgress his own enactments, he decided to leave the country, somewhat after the manner of Solon. Some suspected that he had gone away on account of Terentia, the wife of Maecenas, and intended, because there was much talk made about them in Rome, to join her without any gossip during his trip abroad. So great was his passion for her that he once had her enter a contest of beauty against Livia.