Since also at this time many parts of the City fell a prey to fire, he formed a company of freedmen in seven divisions to render assistance on such occasions, and appointed a knight as their leader, thinking soon to disband them. He did not do this, however. Having ascertained by experience that the aid they gave was most valuable and necessary, he kept them. The night-watchmen exist to the present day, subject to special regulations, and those in the service are selected not from the freedmen only any longer but from on the rest of the classes as well. They have barracks in the city and draw pay from the public treasury.

[-27-] The multitude, under the burden of the famine and the tax and the losses sustained by fire, were ill at ease. They discussed openly many schemes of insurrection and by night scattered pamphlets more still: this move was said to be traceable to a certain Publius Rufus, but others were suspected of it. Rufus could not have originated or have taken an active part in it; therefore it was thought that others who aimed at a revolution were making an illicit use of his name. An investigation of the affair was resolved upon and rewards for information offered. Information accordingly came in and the city as a result was stirred up. This lasted till the scarcity of grain subsided, when gladiatorial games in honor of Drusus were given by Germanicus Caesar and Tiberius Claudius Nero, his sons. [In the course of them an elephant vanquished a rhinoceros and a knight distinguished for his wealth fought as a gladiator.] The people were encouraged by this honor shown to the memory of Drusus and by Tiberius's dedication of the temple of the Dioscuri, upon which he inscribed not only his name but also that of Drusus. Himself he called Claudianus instead of Claudius, because of his adoption into the family of Augustus. He continued to direct operations against the enemy and visited the City constantly whenever opportunity offered; this was partly on account of various kinds of business but chiefly owing to fear that Augustus might promote somebody else during his absence. These were the events in the City that year.

In Achaea the governor died in the middle of his term and directions were given to his quaestor and to his assessor (whom, as I have said,[16] we call legatus) that the latter should administer the government as far as the isthmus, and the former the rest of it. Herod [17] of Palestine, who was accused by his brothers of some wrongdoing, was banished beyond the Alps and his portion of the Palestinian domain reverted to the State. [Augustus suffered from old age and infirmity, so that he could not transact business for all that needed his aid: some cases he reviewed and tried with his counselors, sitting upon the tribunal on the Palatine; the embassies which came from the various nations and princes he put in charge of three ex-consuls, under the arrangement that any one of them individually might listen to such an embassy and return an answer, except in cases where it was necessary for himself and the senate to render a decision besides.]

[-28-] During this same period also many wars took place. Pirates overran many quarters, so that Sardinia had no senatorial governor for some years, but was in charge of soldiers with knights for commanders. Not a few cities rebelled, with the result that for two years the same persons held office in the same provinces of the People, and were personally appointed instead of being chosen by lot. The provinces of Caesar were in general so arranged that men should govern in the same places for a considerable time. However, I shall not go into all these matters minutely. Many things not worthy of record happened in individual instances, and no one would be benefited by the exact details. I shall mention simply the events worth remembering, and very briefly, save those of greatest importance.

The Isaurians began marauding expeditions and kept on till they faced grim war, but were finally subdued. The Gaetuli, discontented with their king, Juba, and at the same time feeling themselves slighted because not governed by the Romans, rose against him: they ravaged the neighboring territory and killed even many of the Romans who made a campaign against them. In fine, they gained so great an ascendancy that Cornelius Cossus, who reduced them, received triumphal honors and title for it. While these troubles were in progress expeditions against the Celtae were being conducted by various leaders, and notably by Tiberius. He advanced first to the river Visurgis and subsequently as far as the Albis, but nothing of any moment was accomplished then, although not only Augustus but also Tiberius was dubbed imperator for it, and Gaius Sentius, governor of Germany, received triumphal honors. The Celtae were so afraid of their foes that they made a truce with him not merely once but twice. And the reason that peace was again granted them, in spite of their having broken it so soon, was that the affairs of the Dalmatians and Pannonians, who had begun a rebellion on a large scale, needed vigilant attention.

[-29-] The Dalmatians, smarting under the levies of tribute, had for some time previous kept quiet even against their will. But, at the same time that Tiberius made his second campaign against the Celtae, Valerius Messalinus, the governor of Dalmatia and Pannonia, was himself despatched to the front with Tiberius, taking most of his army; they, too, were ordered to send a contingent and on coming together for this purpose had a chance to see the flower of their fighting force. After that there was no more delay, but urged on particularly by one Bato, a Daesidiatian, at first a few revolted and worsted the Romans that came against them, and this success then led others to rebel. Next, the Breuci, a Pannonian tribe, put another leader named Bato at their head and marched against Sirmium and the Romans in the town. This they did not capture: Caecina Severus, the governor of Moesia close by, he heard of their uprising marched rapidly upon them, and joining battle with them near the river Dravus vanquished their army. Hoping to renew the struggle soon, since many of the Romans also had fallen, they turned to summon their allies, and collected as many as they could. Meanwhile the Dalmatian Bato had made a descent upon Salonae, and being himself grievously wounded with a stone accomplished nothing, but sent some others, who wrought havoc along the whole sea-coast as far as Apollonia. There, in spite of his defeat, his representatives won a slight battle against the Romans who encountered them.

[-30-] Tiberius ascertaining this feared they might invade Italy and so returned from Celtica: he sent Messalinus ahead and himself followed with the rest of the army. Bato learned of their approach and though not yet well went to meet Messalinus. He proved the latter's superior in open conflict but was afterward conquered by an ambuscade. Thereupon he went to Bato the Breucan, and making common cause with him in the war occupied a mountain named Alma. Here they were defeated in a slight skirmish by Rhoemetalces the Thracian, despatched in advance against them by Severus, but resisted Severus himself vigorously. Later Severus withdrew to Moesia because the Dacians and the Sauromatae were ravaging it, and while Tiberius and Messalinus were tarrying in Siscia the Dalmatians overran their allied territory and likewise caused many to revolt. Although Tiberius approached them, they would engage in no open battle with him but kept moving from one place to another, devastating a great deal of ground. Owing to their knowledge of the country and the lightness of their equipment they could easily go wherever they pleased. When winter set in, they did much greater damage by invading Macedonia again. Rhoemetalces and his brother Rhascuporis got the better of this force in battle.

[A.D. 7 (a. u. 760)]

The rest did not stay in their territory while it was being ravaged (this was principally later, in the consulship of Caecilius Metellus and Lincinius Silanus), but took refuge on the heights, from which they made descents whenever they saw a chance.

[-31-] When Augustus learned this he began to be suspicious of Tiberius, for he thought the latter might have overcome them soon but was delaying purposely so that he might be under arms as long as possible, with war for an excuse. The emperor therefore sent Germanicus, though he was then quaestor, and gave him soldiers not only from the free born citizens but from the freedmen, some of whom were slaves that he had taken from both men and women, in return for their value, with food for six months, and had set free. This was not the only measure he took in view of the necessities of the war: he also postponed the review of the knights, which was wont to occur in the Forum. And he vowed to conduct the Great Games [18] because a woman had cut some letters on her arm and had practiced some kind of divination. He knew well, to be sure, that she had not been possessed by some divine power, but had done it intentionally. Inasmuch, however, as the populace were terribly wrought up over the wars and the famine (which had now set in once more), he, too, affected to believe what was said and did anything that would lead to the encouragement of the multitude as a matter of course. In view of the stringency in the grain supply he again appointed two grain commissioners from among the ex-consuls, together with lictors. As there was need of further money for operations against the enemy and the support of night-watchmen, he introduced the tax of two per cent. on the sale of slaves, and he ordered that the money delivered from the public treasury to the praetors who gave armed combats should no longer be expended.

[-32-]The reason that he sent Germanicus and not Agrippa to take the field was that the latter possessed a servile nature and spent most of his time fishing, wherefore he also used to call himself Neptune. He used to give way to violent anger and slandered Julia as a stepmother, while upon Augustus he heaped abundant reproaches in the matter of his paternal inheritance. When he could not be made to moderate his conduct he was banished and his property was given to the aerarium militare: he himself was put ashore on Planasia, the island near Corsica.—These were the events in the City.

Germanicus reached Pannonia, where armies from various points were shortly to assemble; the Batos watched for Severus, who was approaching from Moesia, and fell upon him unexpectedly, while he was encamped near the Volcaean marshes. The pickets outside the ramparts they frightened and hurled back within it, but as the men inside stood their ground, the attacking party was defeated. After this the Romans divided, in order that many detachments might overrun the country in separate places at one time. Most of them did nothing worthy of note during this enterprise, but Germanicus conquered in battle and badly demoralized the Maezei, a Dalmatian tribe.—These were the results of that year.

[A.D. 8 (a. u. 761)]

[-33-] In the consulship of Marcus Furius with Sextus Nonius the Dalmatians and Pannonians decided they would like to make peace because they were in distress primarily from famine and then from disease that followed it, due to their using grasses of various sorts and roots for food. They did not attempt, however to open any negotiations, being restrained by those who had no hope of preservation at the hands of the Romans. So even as they were they still resisted. And one Scenobardus, who had feigned a readiness to change sides, and had had dealings on this very business with Manius Ennius, commander of the garrison in Siscia, declaring that he was ready to desert, became afraid that he might be injured ere his project was complete, and [19] ...

The Po, which they call the monarch of rivers that cleave the soil of Italy, known by the name Eridanus, had its waters let into a very broad excavation, on the command of the emperor Augustus. A seventh division of the channel of this river flows through the center of the state, affording at its mouth a most satisfactory harbor, and was formerly believed (my authority is Dio) to be an entirely safe anchorage for a fleet of two hundred and fifty ships. (From the Latin of Jordan.)

When the famine at last had subsided, he conducted a horse-race in the name of Germanicus, who was son of Drusus, and in the name of his brother. On this occasion an elephant fought a rhinoceros, and a knight who had once held a prominent position on account of wealth contended in single combat.

And he found himself sinking under the burden of old age and physical weakness, so that he could not transact business with all the persons that needed his services, he delivered to three ex-consuls the care of the embassies that were constantly arriving from peoples and kings; each one of these officials separately was empowered to give any such delegation a hearing and to transmit an answer to them, save in such cases as he and the senate needed to pass upon finally. Other questions continued to be investigated and decided by the emperor himself with the help of his cabinet.

[-34-] ... however, among the first, but among the last he declared, in order that everybody might be permitted to hold an individual opinion, and no one of them be obliged to abandon his own ideas because he felt it obligatory to agree with his sovereign; and he would often help the magistrates try cases. Also, as often as the consulting judges held different views, his vote was reckoned only as equal to that of any one else. It was at this time that Augustus allowed the senate to try the majority of cases without his being present, and he no longer frequented the assemblies of the people. Instead, he had the previous year personally appointed all who were to hold office, because there were factional outbreaks: this year and those following he merely posted a kind of bulletin and made known to the plebs and to the people what persons he favored. Yet he had so much strength for managing hostile campaigns that he journeyed to Ariminum in order that he might be able to give from close at hand all necessary advice in regard to the Dalmatians and Pannonians. Prayers were offered at his departure and sacrifices upon his return, as if he had come back from some hostile territory. This was what was done in Rome.

Meantime Bato the Breucan, who had betrayed Pinnes and received the governorship of the Breuci as reward for this, was captured by the other Bato, and perished. The Breucan had been a little suspicious of his subject tribes and went around to each of the garrisons to demand hostages: the other, learning of this habit, lay in wait for him, conquered him in battle, and shut him up within the fortifications. Later his defeated rival was given up by those in the place, and he took him and led him before the army, whereupon the man was condemned to death and sentence executed without delay. After this event numbers of the Pannonians rose in revolt. Silvanus led a campaign in person, conquered the Breucans, and won the allegiance of some of the rest without a struggle. Bato seeing this gave up all hope of Pannonia, but stationed garrisons at the passes leading to Dalmatia and ravaged the country. Then the remainder of the Pannonians, especially as their country was suffering harm from Silvanus, made terms. Only certain nests of brigands, who in so great a disturbance could naturally do damage for a long time, held out. Tins practically always happens in the case of all enemies, and is especially characteristic of the tribes in question. These localities were reduced by other persons.

[Footnote 1: Lat. custodes vigilum.]

[Footnote 2: Cp. Ovid, Tristia, IV, 10, vv. 7 and 8.]

[Footnote 3: See Chapter 2.]

[Footnote 4: Compare Reifferscheid's Suetoni Reliquice, page 136.]

[Footnote 5: Or Curatores Viarum.]

[Footnote 6: Between this point and ... "to Mars" two leaves are missing in the codex Marcianus. The gap is filled in the usual makeshift fashion by Xiphilinus and Zonaras.]

[Footnote 7: The ancients seem rather uncertain about this personage's name, for Velleius Paterculus gives Adduus, and Florus Donnes. The modern reader may take his choice of the three, and the layman is as likely to be right as the expert]

[Footnote 8: Between this point and the words "he both adopted Tiberius," etc., in chapter 13, two leaves of the codex Marcianus are lacking. Of the missing portion Xiphilinus and Zonaras supply perhaps three-sevenths.]

[Footnote 9: These are the words of Xiphilinus. Zonaras presents an alternate possibility (X, 36) as follows: "Among the Greeks, Dio says, the coin called aureus has twenty drachmae (denarii) as its regular rate of exchange."]

[Footnote 10: It seems rather likely that Zonaras has become confused, and that he should have said "Livia."]

[Footnote 11: Verb supplied by Xylander.]

[Footnote 12: Possibly a reference to the opening of Book Fifty-four. (Boissee.)]

[Footnote 13: Compare Xenophon, Cyropaedia, VIII, 4, 5.]

[Footnote 14: The three words after "kill" are on the basis of a suggestion made by Boissevain. The MS. has a gap of some fifteen letters.]

[Footnote 15: Emendation by Mommsen.]

[Footnote 16: Compare Book Fifty-three, chapter 14.]

[Footnote 17: His true name was Archelaus.]

[Footnote 18: Cp. Suetonius, Life of Augustus, chapter 23.]

[Footnote 19: At this point in the codex Marcianus four leaves have been lost.]



DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY

56

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

How Augustus addressed those having children and afterward the childless and unmarried, and what rules he laid down to apply to them (chapters 1-10).

How Quintilius Varus was defeated by the Celtae and perished (chapters 18-24).

How the Temple of Concord was consecrated (chapter 25).

How the Portico of Livia was consecrated (chapter 27).

How Augustus passed away (chapters 29-47).

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

Q. Sulpicius Q.F. Camerinus, C. Poppaeus Q.F. Sabinus. (A.D. 9 = a. u. 762.)

P. Cornelius P.F. Dolabella, C. Iunius C.F. Silanus. (A.D. 10 = a. u. 763.)

M. AEmilius Q.F. Lepidus, T. Statilius T.F. Taurus. (A.D. 11 = a. u. 764.)

Germanicus Caesaris F. Caesar, C. Fonteius C.F. Capito. (A.D. 12 = a. u. 765.)

L. Munatius L.F. Plancus, C. Silius C.F. Caecina Largus. (A.D. 13 = a. u. 766.)

Sextus Pompeius Sexti F., Sex. Apuleius Sex. F. (A.D. 14 = a. u. 767.)

( BOOK 56, BOISSEVAIN.)

[A.D. 9 (a. u. 762)]

[-1-] Tiberius returned to Rome after the winter when Quintus Sulpicius and Gaius Sabinus were consuls. Augustus went out into the suburbs to meet him, accompanied him to the Saepta, and there from a platform greeted the people. Next he performed the ceremonies proper on such an occasion and had the consuls give triumphal spectacles. And since the knights on this occasion with great vigor sought for the repeal of the law regarding the unmarried and the childless, he assembled in one place in the Forum the unmarried men of this number and in another those who were married or had children. Seeing that the latter were much fewer in number than the former he was filled with grief and addressed them to the following effect:

[-2-] "Though you are but few all together, in comparison with the great throng that inhabits this city, and are far behind the others, who are unwilling to fulfill their duties at all, yet for this reason I praise you the more and I am heartily grateful that you have shown yourselves obedient and are helping to replenish the fatherland. It is by lives so conducted that the Romans of later days will become a mighty multitude. We were at first a mere handful, but when We had recourse to marriage and begot children we came to surpass all mankind not only in manliness but in populousness. This we must remember and console the mortal element of our being with an endless succession of generations like torches. Thus the one gap which separates us from divine happiness may through relays of men be filled by immortality. It was for this cause most of all that that first and greatest god who fashioned us divided the race of mortals in twain, rendering one half of it male and the other female, and added love and the compulsion of their intercourse together, making their association fruitful, that by the young continually born he might in a way render mortality eternal. Even of the gods themselves some are believed to be male, the rest female: and the tradition prevails that some have begotten others and certain ones have been born of others. So, even among them, who need no such device, marriage and child-begetting have been approved as noble. [-3-] You have done right, then, to imitate the gods and right to emulate your fathers, that, just as they begot you, you may also bring others into the world. Just as you deem them and name them ancestors, others will regard you and address you in similar fashion. The undertakings which they nobly achieved and handed down to you with glory you will hand on to others. The possessions which they acquired and left to you will leave to others sprung from your own loins. Surely the best of all things is a woman who is temperate, domestic, a good house-keeper, a rearer of children; one to gladden you when in health, to tend you when sick; to be your partner in good fortune, to console you in misfortune; to restrain the frenzied nature of the youth and to temper the superannuated severity of the old man. Is it not a delight to acknowledge a child bearing the nature of both, to nurture and educate it, a physical image and a spiritual image, so that in its growth you yourself live again? Is it not most blessed on departing from life to leave behind a successor to and inheritor of one's substance and family, something that is one's own, sprung from one's self? And to have only one's human part waste away, but to live through the child as successor? We need not be in the hands of aliens, as in war, nor perish utterly, as in war. These are the private advantages that accrue to those who marry and beget children: but for the State, for whose sake we ought to do many things that are even distasteful to us, how excellent and how necessary it is, if cities and peoples are to exist, if you are to rule others and others are to obey you, that there should be a multitude of men to till the earth in peace and quiet, to make voyages, practice arts, follow handicrafts, men who in war will protect what we already have with the greater zeal because of family ties and will replace those that fall by others. Therefore, men,—for you alone may properly be called men,—and fathers,—for you are worthy to hold this title like myself,—I love you and I praise you for this, I am glad of the prizes I have already offered and I will glorify you still more besides by honors and offices. Thus you may yourselves reap great benefits and leave them to your children undiminished. I shall now descend to speak to the rest, who have not done like you, and whose lot will therefore be directly the opposite: you will thus learn not only from words but by facts even more how far you excel them."

[-4-] After this speech he made presents to some of them at once and promised to make others: he then went over to the other throng, to whom he addressed these words:

"A strange experience has been mine, O—What shall I call you?—Men? But you do not perform the offices of men.—Citizens? But so far as you are concerned the city is perishing.—Romans? But you are undertaking to do away with this name.—Well, at any rate, whoever you are and by whatever name you delight to be called, mine has been an unexpected experience. For, though I am always doing everything to promote an increase of population among you and am now about to rebuke you, I grieve to see that you are numerous. I could rather wish that those others to whom I have just spoken were so many than to see you as many as you are; or, still better, to see you mustered with them,—or at least not to know how things stand. It is you who without pausing to reflect on the foresight of the gods or the care of your forefathers are bent upon annihilating your whole race and making it in truth mortal, upon destroying and ending the whole Roman nation. What seed of human beings would be left, if all the remainder of mankind should do the same as you? You are their leaders and may rightly bear the responsibility for universal destruction. Or, even if no others emulate you, will you not be justly hated for the very reason that you overlook what no one else would overlook, and neglect what no one else would neglect? You are introducing customs and practices, which, if imitated, would lead to the annihilation of all, and, if hated, would end in your own punishment. We do not spare murderers because all persons do not murder, nor do we let temple-robbers go because not everybody robs temples: but anybody who is convicted of committing any forbidden act is chastised for the very reason that he alone, or as one of a small group, does such things as no one else would do. [-5-] Yet if one should name over the greatest offences, there is none to compare with that which is now being committed by you, and this statement holds true not only if you examine crime for crime but if you compare all of them together with this single one of yours. You have incurred blood guiltiness by not begetting those who ought to be your descendants; you are sacrilegious in putting an end to the names and honors of your ancestors; you are impious in abolishing your families, which were instituted by the gods, and destroying the greatest of offerings to them,—the human being,—and by overthrowing in this way their rites and their temples. Moreover, by causing the downfall of the government you are disobedient to the laws, and you even betray your country by rendering her barren and childless: nay more, you lay her even with the dust by making her destitute of inhabitants. A city consists of human beings, not of houses or porticos or fora empty of men. Think what rage would justly seize the great Romulus, the founder of our race, if he could reflect on the circumstances of his own birth, and then upon your attitude,—refusing to get children even by lawful marriages! How wrathful would the Romans who were his followers be when they considered that they themselves even seized foreign girls, but you are not satisfied with those of your own race. They actually had children even by their enemies: you will not beget them even of women with undisputed standing in the State. How incensed would Curtius be, who endured to die that the married men might not be sundered from their wives: how indignant Hersilia, the attendant of her daughter, who instituted for us all the rites of marriage. Our fathers fought the Sabines to obtain marriages and made peace through the intercession of their wives and children; they administered oaths and made sundry treaties for this very purpose: you are bringing all that labor to naught. Why is it? Do you desire to live forever apart from women, as the vestal virgins live apart from men? Then you should be punished like them if you break out into any act of lewdness.

[-6-] "I know that my words to you appear bitter and harsh. But, first of all, reflect that physicians, too, treat many patients by burning when they can not recover health in any other way. In the second place, it is not my wish or my pleasure to speak them; and hence it is that I have this further reproach to bring against you, that you have provoked me to this discourse. If you dislike what I say, do not continue the conduct for which you are inevitably reprimanded. If my speech wounds any of you, how much more do your acts wound both me and all the rest of the Romans. If you vexed in very truth, make a change, that so I may praise and reward you. You yourselves are aware that I am not irritable by nature and that I have done, subject to human limitations, all the acts proper for a good lawgiver. Never in old times was any one permitted to neglect marriage and the rearing of children, but from the very outset, at the first establishment of the government, strict laws were passed regarding them: since then many decrees have been issued by both the senate and the people, which it would be superfluous to enumerate. I have increased the penalties for the disobedient in order that through fear of becoming liable to them you may be brought to your senses. To those that obey I have offered more numerous and greater prizes than are given for any other display of excellence, that if for no other reason at least by this one you may be persuaded to marry and beget children. Yet you, not striving for any of the recompenses nor fearing any of the penalties, have despised all these measures, have trodden them all under foot, as if you were not even inhabitants of the city. You declare you have taken upon yourselves this free and continent life, without wives and without children. You are no different from robbers or the most savage [-7-] beasts. It is not your delight in a solitary existence that leads you to live without wives. There is not one of you who either eats alone or sleeps alone, but you want to have opportunity for wantonness and licentiousness. Yet I have allowed you to court girls still tender and not yet of age for marriage, in order that having the name of intendant bridegrooms you may lead a domestic life. And those not in the senatorial class I have permitted to wed freedwomen, so that if any one through passion or some inclination should be disposed to such a proceeding he might go about it lawfully. I have not limited you rigidly to this, even, but at first gave you three whole years in which to make preparations, and later two. Yet not even so, by threatening or urging or postponing or entreating, have I accomplished anything. You see for yourselves how much larger a mass you constitute than the married men, when you ought by this time to have furnished us with as many more children, or rather with several times your number. How otherwise shall families continue? How can the commonwealth be preserved if we neither marry nor produce children? Surely you are not expecting some to spring up from the earth to succeed to your goods and to public affairs, as myths describe. It is neither pleasing to Heaven nor creditable that our race should cease and the name of Romans meet extinguishment in us, and the city be given up to foreigners,—Greek or even barbarians. We liberate slaves chiefly for the purpose of making out of them as many citizens as possible; we give our allies a share in the government that our numbers may increase: yet you, Romans of the original stock, including Quintii, Valerii, Iulli, are eager that your families and names at once shall perish with you.

[-8-] "I am thoroughly ashamed that I have been led to speak in such a fashion. Have done with your madness, then, and reflect now if not before that with many dying all the time by disease and many in the wars it is impossible for the city to maintain itself unless the multitude in it is constantly reinforced by those who are ever and anon being born. Let no one of you think that I am ignorant of the many disagreeable and painful features that belong to marriage and child-rearing. But bear in mind that we possess nothing at all good with which some bane is not mingled, and that in our most abundant and greatest blessings there reside the most abundant and greatest woes. If you decline to accept the latter, do not strive to obtain the former. Practically all who possess any real excellence and pleasure are obliged to work before its enjoyment, to work at the time, and to work afterward. Why should I lengthen my speech by going into each one of them in detail? Therefore even if there are some unpleasant features connected with marriage and the begetting of children, set over against them the better elements: you will find them more numerous and more vital. For, in addition to all the other blessings that naturally inhere in this state of life, the prizes offered by law—an infinitesimal portion of which determines many to undergo death—might induce anybody to obey me. And is it not a disgrace that for rewards which influence others to give up their own lives you should be unwilling either to marry wives or to rear children?

[-9-] "Therefore, fellow-citizens (for I believe that I have now persuaded you both to hold fast to the name of citizens and to secure the additional title of men and fathers), I have administered this rebuke reluctantly but of necessity, not as your foe nor as one hating you, but rather loving you and wishing to obtain many others like you,—as one wishing you to guard lawful hearths, with houses full of descendants, that we may approach the gods together with wives and children, and associate with one another standing on an equality in whatever we possess and harvesting equally the hopes to which it gives rise. How could I call myself a good ruler over you if I should endure seeing you becoming constantly fewer? How could I any longer be rightfully named your father, if you rear no children? Therefore, if you really have a regard for me and have given me this title not out of flattery but as an honor, desire yourselves to become men and fathers. Thus you may yourselves share this title and also render me well named."

[-10-] Such were his words to both groups at that time. After this he increased the rewards for those having children and by penalties made a still wider difference between the married and those without wives. He further allowed each of them a year in which persons who obeyed him might render themselves non-liable by yielding obedience. Contrary to the Voconian Law, according to which no woman could inherit any property over two and a half myriads in value, he gave women permission to become inheritors of any amount. He also granted the vestal virgins all the benefits enjoyed by women who had children. Later the Pappian and Poppaean Law was framed by Marcus Pappius Mutilus and by Quintus Poppaeus Secundus, who were then consuls for a portion of the year. It turned out that both of them had not only no children but not even wives. From this very fact the need of the law was discernible.—These were the events in Rome.

[-11-] Germanicus meanwhile had captured among other posts in Dalmatia also Splonum, in spite of the fact that it occupied a naturally strong position, was well protected by walls, and had a huge number of defenders. Consequently he was unable to accomplish aught with engines or by assaults, yet he took it as a result of the following coincidence. Pusio, a Celtic horseman, discharged a stone against the wall which so shook the superstructure that it immediately fell and dragged down the man who was leaning upon it. At this the rest were terrified, and in fear left the wall to ascend the acropolis. Subsequently they surrendered both it and themselves.

The Romans under Germanicus having reached Raetinium, a city of Dalmatia, fared rather badly. Their opponents, forced back by the numbers, could not resist them and therefore placed fire in a circle about themselves and threw it into the buildings near by, devising a way to keep it surely from blazing up at once and to make it go unnoticed for a long time. The enemy after doing this retired to the heights. The Romans, unaware of their action, followed hard after them expecting to find no work at all in pillaging extensively. Thus they got inside of the circle of fire and with their minds directed upon the enemy saw nothing of it until they were encompassed by it on all sides. Then they found themselves in imminent danger, being pelted by men from above and injured by fire from without. They could neither safely stay where they were nor break their way out without danger. If they stood out of range of the missiles they were consumed by the fire, or if they jumped away from the flame they were destroyed by the hurlers of missiles. Some were caught in narrow places and perished by both at once, wounded on one side and burned on the other. The majority of those who entered the circle met their fate in this way. Some few by casting corpses into the very flame and making a passage over them as over bridges managed to escape. The fire gained such headway that not even those on the acropolis could stay there, but abandoned it in the night and hid themselves in subterranean chambers.

[-12-] These were the operations at that point.—Seretium, which Tiberius had once besieged but not captured, was subdued, and after this some other towns were more easily won. But since the remainder even under these conditions offered resistance and the war kept lengthening out and famine came in its train, especially in Italy, Augustus sent Tiberius again into Dalmatia. He saw that the soldiers were not for enduring further delay and were anxious to end the war in some way eyen if it involved danger; therefore, fearing that if they remained in one place together they might revolt, he divided them into three parts. One he assigned to Silvanus and one to Marcus Lepidus; with the remainder he marched with Germanicus against Bato. Without difficulty the two former overcame those arrayed in battle opposite them. Tiberius himself went wandering off through practically the entire country, as Bato appeared first at one point and then at another: finally, Bato took refuge in Fort Andetrium, located close to Salonae, and Tiberius, who besieged him, found himself in sore straits. The garrison had the protection of fortifications built upon a well guarded rock, difficult of access, encircled by deep ravines through which torrents roared, and the men had all necessary provisions, part of which they had previously stored there, while a part they were still bringing from the mountains, which were in their hands. Moreover, by ambuscades they interfered with the Roman provision trains. Hence Tiberius, though supposed to be besieging them, was himself placed in the position of a besieged force.

[-13-] He was in a dilemma and could not find any plan to pursue: the siege was proving fruitless and dangerous and a retreat appeared disgraceful. This led to an uproar on the part of the soldiers, who raised so great an outcry that the enemy, who were encamped in the shelter of the wall, were terrified and retreated. As a consequence, being partly angry and partly pleased, he called them together and administered some rebukes and some admonition. He displayed no rashness nor yet did he withdraw, but remained quietly on the spot until Bato, despairing of victory, sent a herald to ask terms. This act was due to the subjugation of all but a few of the other tribes and the fact that the force which Bato had was inferior to the one then opposing it. He could not persuade the rest to ask a truce and so abandoned them, nor did he again assist one of them, though he received many requests for aid. Tiberius consequently conceived a contempt for those still left in the fortress and thinking that he could conquer them without loss paid no further heed to the nature of the country but proceeded straight up the cliff. Since there was no level ground and the enemy would not come down against them, he himself took his seat on a platform in full view in order to watch the engagement (for this would cause his soldiers to contend more vigorously), and to render opportune assistance, should there be any need of it. He kept a part of the army, inasmuch as he had a great plenty of men, for this very purpose. The rest, drawn up in a dense square, at first proceeded at a walk; later they were separated by the steepness and unevenness of the mountain (which was full of gullies and at many points cut up into ravines), and some ascended more quickly, others more slowly. [-14-] Seeing this, the Dalmatians marshaled outside the wall, at the top of the steep, and hurled down quantities of stones upon them, throwing some from slings, and rolling down others. Others set in motion wheels, others whole wagons full of rocks, others circular chests manufactured in some way peculiar to the country and packed with stones. All these things coming down with great noise kept striking in different quarters, as if discharged from a sling, and separated the Romans from one another even more than before and crushed them. Others by discharging either missiles or spears knocked many of them down. At this juncture much rivalry developed on the part of the warriors, one side endeavoring to ascend and conquer the heights, the other to repulse them and hurl them back. There was great excitement also on the part of the rest, who watched the action from the walls, and on the part of those about Tiberius. Each side as a body and also individually encouraged its own men, trying to lend strength to such as showed zeal and chiding those that anywhere gave way. Those whose voices could be heard above the rest were invoking the gods, both parties praying for the protection of their warriors for the time being, and one side calling for freedom for themselves in the future, and the other for peace. Under these circumstances the Romans would certainly have risked their lives in vain, having to contend against two things at once,—the nature of the country and the lines of their antagonists,—had not Tiberius by sudden reinforcements prevented them from taking to flight and disturbed the enemy from another quarter by means of other soldiers who went about and ascended the incline a considerable distance off. As a result, the enemy were routed and could not even enter the fortifications, but scattered up the mountain sides, first casting off their armor so as to be lightly equipped. Their pursuers followed them at every point, for they were exceedingly anxious to end the war and did not want them to unite again and cause trouble. So they discovered the most of them hiding in the forests and killed them like beasts, after which they took possession of the men in the fort, who capitulated. To these Tiberius assured the rights which had been agreed upon and some others.

[-15-] Germanicus now turned to meet his adversaries, for many deserters who were in their ranks prevented a peaceful settlement. He succeeded in enslaving a place called Arduba, but could not do it with his own force, though the latter was far greater than his opponents' army. The town had been powerfully strengthened and a river with a strong current surrounded its foundations except for a small space. But the deserters had a dispute with the inhabitants, because the latter were anxious for peace, and came to blows with them. The assailants had the cooeperation of the women in the town, for these contrary to the judgment of the men desired liberty, and were ready to suffer any fate whatever sooner than slavery: there was consequently a great battle, the deserters were beaten and surrendered, and some of them made their escape. The women caught up their children, and some threw themselves into the fire, others hurled themselves down into the river. In this way that post was taken and others near it voluntarily came to an understanding with Germanicus. He, after effecting this, went back to Tiberius, and Postumius[1] completed the subjugation of the remaining sections. [-16-] Upon this, Bato sent his son Sceuas to Tiberius, promising to surrender himself and all his followers if he could obtain protection. When he had received a pledge he came by night into his conqueror's camp and was on the following day led before the latter who was seated on a platform. Bato asked nothing for himself, even holding his head forward to await the stroke, but in behalf of the rest he made a long defence. Being again asked by Tiberius: "Why has it pleased you to revolt and to war against us so long a time?" he made the same answer as before: "You are responsible for this; for you send as guardians over your flocks not dogs or shepherds, but wolves."

In this way, then, the war was ended once more, after many men and much money had been consumed. The legions supported for it were very numerous, whereas the spoils taken were exceedingly meagre. [-17-] On this occasion also Germanicus announced the victory, in honor of which Augustus and Tiberius were allowed to bear the name imperator and to celebrate a triumph; and they received still other honors, as well as two arches bearing trophies, in Pannonia. These, at least, were all of many distinctions voted that Augustus would accept. Germanicus received triumphal honors (which belonged likewise to the other commanders) and praetorial honors, the right of casting his vote immediately after the ex-consuls and of obtaining the consulship earlier than custom allowed. Drusus, the son of Tiberius, although he had not participated in the war, was voted permission to attend the sittings of the senate before he became a member of that body, and when he should become quaestor to cast his vote before the expraetors.

[-18-] Scarcely had these resolutions been passed when terrible news that arrived from Germany prevented them from holding any festivals. At that same period the following events had taken place in Celtica. The Romans had a hold on parts of it,—not the whole region, but just places that happened to have been subdued, so that the fact has not received historical notice,—and soldiers of theirs were used to wintering there and cities were being founded. The barbarians were adapting themselves to Roman ways, were taking up the custom of markets, and were holding peaceful meetings. They had not, however, forgotten their ancestral habits, their native manners, the life of independence, or the authority given by arms. Hence, while they were unlearning them gradually and imperceptibly, with careful watching, they were not disturbed by the changed conditions of existence, and they were becoming different without knowing it. Finally, Quintilius Varus received the command of Germany and in the discharge of his office strove, in administering the affairs of the people, to introduce more widespread changes among them. He treated them in general as if they were already slaves, levying money upon them as he had upon subject nations. This they were not inclined to endure, for the prominent men longed for their former ascendency and the masses preferred their accustomed constitution to foreign domination. They did not openly revolt, since they saw there were many Roman soldiers near the Rhine and many in their own territory; but they received Varus, pretending they would execute all his commands, and took him far away from the Rhine into Cheruscis near the Visurgis. There by behaving in a most peaceful and friendly manner they led him to believe that they could be trusted to live submissively without soldiers. [-19-] Consequently he did not keep his legions together as was proper in an enemy's country, and many of the men he distributed to helpless communities who asked it, for the supposed purpose of guarding certain localities, or arresting robbers, or escorting provision trains. Those deepest in the conspiracy and the leaders of the plot and of the war, among others Armenius and Segimerus, were his constant companions and often entertained him. He, accordingly, became confident and expecting no harm not only refused to believe all such as suspected the truth and advised him to be on his guard, but even rebuked them on the ground that they were needlessly disturbed and slandered his friends. Then there came an uprising, first of those dwelling at a distance from him, purposely contrived, that Varus should march against them and be easier overcome while on his journey through what he deemed a friendly country, and that he might not at once know that all were his enemies and guard himself against all of them. It turned out precisely so. They escorted him on his setting out, and begged to be excused from attendance[2] in order to gather auxiliaries (as they said), after which they would quickly come to his assistance. So then they took charge of forces already in waiting, and after killing the different bodies of soldiers for whom they had previously asked they encountered him in the midst of forests by this time hard to traverse. There they showed themselves as enemies instead of subjects and wrought many deeds of fearful injury. [-20-] The mountains had an uneven surface broken by ravines, and the trees, standing close together, were extremely tall. Hence the Romans even before the enemy assaulted them were having hard work in felling, road making, and bridging places that required it. They had with them many wagons and many beasts of burden as in a time of peace. Not a few children and women and a large body of servants were following them,—another reason for their advancing in scattered groups. Meanwhile a great rain and wind came up that separated them still farther, while the ground, being slippery where there were roots and logs, made walking very difficult for them, and the top branches of trees, which kept breaking off and falling down, caused confusion. While the Romans were in such perplexity as this the barbarians suddenly encompassed them from all sides at once, coming through the thickest part of the underbrush, since they were acquainted with the paths. At first they hurled from a distance; then as no one defended himself but many were wounded, they approached closer to them. The Romans were in no order but going along helter-skelter among the wagons and the unarmed, and so, not being able to form readily in a body, and being fewer at every point than their assailants, they suffered greatly and offered no resistance at all. [-21-] Accordingly, they encamped on the spot, after securing a suitable place so far as that was possible on a wooded mountain, and afterward they either burned or abandoned the majority of their wagons and everything else that was not absolutely necessary for them. The next day they advanced in better order, with the aim of reaching open country; but they did not gain it without loss. From there they went forward and plunged into the woods again, defending themselves against the attacks, but endured no inconsiderable reverses in this very operation. For whereas they were marshaled in a narrow place in order that cavalry and heavy-armed men in a mass might run down their foes, they had many collisions with one another and with the trees. Dawn of the fourth day broke as they were advancing and again a violent downpour and mighty wind attacked them, which would not allow them to go forward or even to stand securely, and actually deprived them of the use of their weapons. They could not manage successfully their arrows or their javelins or, indeed, their shields (which were soaked through). The enemy, however, being for the most part lightly equipped and with power to approach and retire freely, suffered less from the effects of the storm. Their numbers, moreover, increased, as numbers of those who had at first wavered joined them particularly for the sake of plunder, and so they could more easily encircle and strike down the Romans, who were already few, many having perished in the previous battles. Varus, therefore, and the most eminent of the other leaders, fearing that they might either be taken alive or be killed by their bitterest foes,—for they had been wounded,—dared do a deed which was frightful but not to be avoided: they killed themselves.

[-22-] When this news was spread, none of the rest, even if he had strength still left, defended himself longer. Some imitated their leader; others, throwing aside their arms, allowed who pleased to slay them. To flee was impossible, however one might wish it. Every man and horse, therefore, was cut down without resistance, and the[3] ...

And the barbarians occupied all the strongholds save one, delay over which prevented them from either crossing the Rhine or invading Gaul. Yet they found themselves unable to reduce this particular fort because they did not understand the conduct of sieges and because the Romans employed numerous archers, who repeatedly repulsed them and from first to last destroyed a large proportion of the attacking party.

Later they learned that the Romans had posted a guard at the Rhine and that Tiberius was approaching with an imposing force of fighters. Therefore most of the barbarians retired from the fortress, and the detachment still left there withdrew some distance away, so as not to be damaged by sudden sallies of the men inside; and they kept watch of the roads, hoping to capture the garrison through scarcity of food supplies. The Romans within, so long as they had abundance of sustenance, remained where they were awaiting relief. But when no one came to their assistance and they were likewise a prey to hunger, they watched for a stormy night and issued forth—the soldiers were but fed, the unarmed many,—and

they passed the first and second guard of their adversaries, but when they reached the third they were detected; for on account of fatigue and fear, and the darkness and cold, the women and children kept calling to the men of fighting age to come back. They would all have perished or been captured, had not the barbarians been so busily occupied with seizing the plunder. This gave an opportunity for many of the most hardy to get some distance off, and the trumpeters with them by sounding the signal for a double quick march caused the enemy to think (for night was coming on and they could not be seen) that they had been sent from Asprenas. Therefore the foe ceased their pursuit, and Asprenas on learning what was taking place rendered them assistance in reality. Some of the captives were later ransomed by their relatives and returned, for this was permitted on condition that the ransoming party should be outside of Italy at the time.—But this was only afterward. [-23-] At the time, when Augustus heard of the disaster to Varus, he rent his clothing (as some assert) and mourned greatly over the lost soldiers as also over the fear inspired by the Germans and the Gauls. His grief was especially keen because he expected that they would march upon Italy and upon Rome itself. There were no citizens of military age worth mentioning that were left and the allied forces that were of any value had been ruined. Nevertheless he made preparations as well as he could in view of the circumstances: and when no one of the proper age for warfare showed a willingness to be enrolled, he instituted a drawing of lots and deprived of his property every fifth man to draw of those not yet thirty-five years old and every tenth man among those who were older, besides disenfranchising them. Finally, as very many paid no heed to him even then, he put some to death. He chose by lot as many as he could of those who had already finished their service and of the freedmen, and having enrolled them sent them at once in haste with Tiberius into Germany. And as there were in Rome a number of Gauls and Celtae, sojourning there for various purposes, and some of them serving in the pretorian guard, he feared that they might commit some act of insurrection: therefore he sent such as were in his guard off to the islands and ordered the unarmed class to leave the city.

[-24-] This was the way be busied himself at that time, and none of the usual business went on nor were the festivals celebrated. After this, when he heard that some of the soldiers had been saved, that the Germanies were garrisoned and the enemy did not dare to come down even to the Rhine, he ceased to be excited and stopped to consider the matter. A catastrophe so great and prostrating as this, it seemed to him, could have been due to nothing else than the wrath of some Divinity: moreover, by reason of the portents which took place both before the defeat and afterward he was greatly inclined to suspect some miraculous working. The temple of Mars in the field of the same name had been struck by lightning and many locusts that flew into the very city were devoured by swallows; the peaks of the Alps seemed to totter toward one another and to send up three fiery columns; the sky in many places appeared ablaze and at the same time numerous comet stars came to view; spears darting from the north seemed to be falling upon the Roman camp; bees formed their combs about Roman altars; a statue of Victory which was in Germany, facing hostile territory, turned about toward Italy; and once an aimless battle and conflict of the soldiers occurred about the eagles in the camps, as if the barbarians had fallen upon them.

For these reasons, then, and also because ... [4]

[A.D. 10 (a. u. 763)]

Tiberius did not see fit to cross the Rhine, but kept quiet, watching to see that the barbarians should not do so. The latter, however, knowing him to be present, did not venture to cross either.

Germanicus was endeared to the populace for many causes, but particularly because he interceded for various persons, and this quite as much in the presence of Augustus himself as before other justices. Now there was a court to try a quaestor who was charged with murder, and, as Germanicus was going to be his advocate, his accuser became alarmed lest he might consequently meet with defeat before those judges in whose presence such cases were wont to be tried, and he desired to have Augustus preside. Yet his efforts were vain, for he did not win his case.

... holding [it] after his praetorship.

[A.D. 11 (a. u. 764)]

[-25-]But in the following season the temple of Concord was dedicated by Tiberius and both his name and that of Drusus, his dead brother, were inscribed upon it. In the consulship of Marcus AEmilius with Statilius Taurus Tiberius and Germanicus acting as proconsul invaded Celtica and overran some parts of it. They did not conquer, however, in any battle (since no one came to close quarters with them), and did not reduce any tribe. For in their fear of falling victims to a new disaster they advanced not far beyond the Rhine, but after remaining there until late autumn and celebrating the birthday of Augustus, on which they held a kind of horse-race under the direction of the centurions, they returned.

At Rome Drusus Caesar, the son of Tiberius, became quaestor, and sixteen praetors held office because that number became candidates for the position and Augustus, mindful of his condition, was unwilling to offend any of them. The same did not hold true, however, of the years immediately following, but the number remained twelve for a long period. Besides these proceedings the seers were forbidden to prophesy in private to any one, or regarding death even if there should be others with them. Yet in this matter Augustus had no personal feeling, so that by a bulletin he even published to all the conjunction of stars under which he had been born. In addition to forbidding the above he proclaimed to subject states that they should grant no honors to any one assigned to govern them either during his term of office or within sixty days after he had departed. For some governors by arranging for testimonials and eulogies from their subjects were doing much harm. Three senators, as before, transacted business with the embassies, and the knights,—a fact which might cause surprise,—were allowed to fight as gladiators. The reason was that some persisted in disregarding the disenfranchisement stated as a penalty for such conduct. And as there proved to be no use in forbidding it and the participants seemed to require a greater punishment before they would be turned aside from this course, they were given permission to do as they liked. In this way they incurred death instead of disenfranchisement, for they fought more than ever, and especially because their contests were centers of attraction, so that even Augustus became a spectator in company with the praetors who superintended games.

[A.D. 12 (a. u. 765)]

[-26-] Germanicus soon after received the office of consul, though he had not even been praetor, and held it actually throughout the whole year, not because of fitness but as a number of others held office at that time. The consul did nothing worthy of note save that at this time, too, he acted as advocate in suits, since his colleague Gaius Capito counted as a mere figurehead. Augustus, because he was growing old, wrote a letter commending Germanicus to the senate and the latter to Tiberius: the manuscript was not read by him in person, for he was unable to make himself heard, but by Germanicus, as usual. After that he asked them, making the Celtic war his excuse, not to come to greet him at home nor to be angry if he did not continue to eat with them. For generally, as often as they had a sitting, in the Forum and sometimes in the senate-house itself, they saluted him when he entered and again when he left; and it had already happened that, when he was sitting and sometimes lying down in the Palatium, not only the senate but the knights and many of the populace greeted him. [-27-] All this time he continued to attend to his business as before. He allowed the knights to become candidates for the tribuneship. And learning that vituperative books concerning certain men were being written, he ordered a search for them. Those that he found in the city he had burned by the aediles and those outside by the officials who might be in charge, and he visited punishment upon some of the composers. As there were many exiles who were either carrying on their occupations outsides of the places to which they had been banished or living too luxuriously in the proper places, he forbade that any one who had been debarred from fire and water should stay either on the mainland or on any of the islands distant less than four hundred stadia from the mainland. Only he made an exception of Cos, Rhodes, Samos[5], and Lesbos, for what reason I know not. He enjoined upon them also that they should not cross the seas to any other point and should not possess more than one ship of burden having a capacity of one thousand amphorae, and two driven by oars; that they should not employ more than twenty slaves or freedmen; that they should not hold property above twelve and a half myriads; and he threatened to take vengeance upon them for any violation as well as upon all others who should in any way assist them in violating these ordinances. These are the laws, as fully as is necessary for our history, that he laid down.

A festival extraordinary was conducted by the dancers and horse-breeders. The Feast of Mars, because the Tiber had previously occupied the hipprodrome, was this time held in the forum of Augustus and honored by a kind of horse-race and by the slaughter of wild beasts. It was celebrated a second time, as custom decreed, and Germanicus on that occasion killed two hundred lions in the hippodrome. The so-called portico of Julia was built in honor of Gaius and Lucius, the Caesars, and was at that time dedicated.

[A.D. 13 (a. u. 766)]

[-28-] When Lucius Munatius and Gaius Silius had been registered as consuls Augustus reluctantly accepted the fifth decennial presidency of the State and gave Tiberius again the tribunician authority. To Drusus, the latter's son, he granted permission to stand for the consulship a third year, still without having held the praetorship; and for himself he asked twenty annual counselors because of his old age, which did not permit him to visit the senate any longer save rarely. Previously fifteen were attached to him for six months. It was further voted that any measure should have authority, as satisfactory to the whole senate, which should after deliberation be resolved upon by him in conjunction with Tiberius and with the consuls of the year, with the men appointed for deliberation and his grandchildren (the adopted ones, of course) and the others that he might on any occasion call upon for advice. Gaining by the decree those powers (which in reality he had in any case) he transacted most of the is necessary business, though sometimes lying down. Now as nearly all felt oppressed by the five per cent tax and a political convulsion seemed likely, he sent document to the senate bidding its members seek some other means of income. This he did not in the intention of abolishing the tax but in order that when no other appeared to them preferable they might though reluctantly ratify it without declaiming against him He also ordered Germanicus and Drusus not to make any official statement about it, for fear that if they expressed an opinion persons would suspect that this had been done by his orders and choose that plan without further investigation. There was much discussion and some schemes were submitted to Augustus in writing. When he found by them that the senators were ready to endure any form of tax rather than that in force, he changed it to a levy upon fields and houses. And without telling how great it would be or in what way imposed, he immediately sent men in different directions to make a list of the possessions both of individuals and of towns. His object was that they should fear losses on a large scale and so be content to pay the five per cent. This actually happened, and so it was that Augustus settled the difficulty.

[-29-] At the spectacle of the Augustalia [6] which occurred on his birthday a madman seated himself in the chair which was dedicated to Julius Caesar, and taking his crown put it on. This happening disturbed everybody, for it seemed to have some bearing upon Augustus, as, indeed, proved true.

[A.D. 14 (a. u. 767)]

For the following year, when Sextus Apuleius and Sextus Pompeius were consuls, Augustus set out for Campania and after superintending the games at Naples soon passed away in Nola. Omens had appeared to him, not few by any means nor difficult to interpret, that pointed to this end. The sun suffered a total eclipse and most of the sky seemed to be on fire. The forms of glowing logs appeared falling from it and bloody comet stars were seen. When a senate-meeting had been announced on account of his sickness in order that they might offer prayers, the senate-house was found closed and an owl sitting upon it hooted. A thunderbolt fell upon his image standing on the Capitol and erased the first letter of the name of Caesar. This led the seers to declare that on the hundredth day after that he should attain to some heavenly condition. They made this deduction from the fact that the letter mentioned signifies "hundred" among the Latins and all the rest of the name means "god" among the Etruscans. These signs appeared while he was still alive. Men of later times called attention to the case of the consuls and of Servius Sulpicius Galba. The former officials were in some way related to Augustus, and Galba, who afterward came to power, was at this time on the very first day of the year enrolled among the iuvenes. Since he was the first of the Romans to become sovereign after the race of Augustus had passed away, it gave occasion to some to say that this coincidence had not been due to mere accident, but had been brought about by some divine counsel.

[-30-] So Augustus fell sick and died. Livia incurred some suspicion regarding the manner of his death, inasmuch as he had secretly sailed over to the island to meet Agrippa and thought to reconcile everything in a way satisfactory to all. She was afraid, some say, that Augustus would bring him back to make him sovereign, and so smeared with poison some figs that were still on trees from which Augustus was wont to gather fruit with his own hands. So she ate the ones that had not been smeared, and pointed out the poisoned ones to him. From this or from some other cause he became ill and sending for his associates he told them all his wishes, finally adding: "Rome was clay when I took it in hand: I leave it to you stone." In this he had reference not entirely to the appearance of its buildings, but also to the strength of the empire. By asking some applause from them as to comic actors at the close of some mime he ridiculed most tellingly the whole life of man.

Thus on the nineteenth day of August, the day on which he first became consul, he passed away, having lived seventy-five years, ten months, and twenty-six days. He had been born on the twenty-third of September. He reigned as monarch, from the time he conquered at Actium, forty-four years lacking thirteen days. [-31-] His death, however, was not immediately made public. Livia, fearing that as Tiberius was still in Dalmatia there might be some uprising, concealed the fact until the latter arrived. This is the statement made in the larger number of histories and the more trustworthy ones. There are some who have affirmed that Tiberius was present during the emperor's illness and received some injunctions from him.—The body of Augustus was carried from Nola by the foremost men of each city in succession. When it came near Rome the knights took it in charge and conveyed it by night into the city. On the following day there was a senate-meeting, and to it the majority came wearing the equestrian costume, but the officials the senatorial, except for the purple-bordered togas. Tiberius and Drusus his son wore dark clothing made in everyday fashion. They, too, offered incense but made no use of a flute player. Most of the members sat in their accustomed places, but the consuls below, one on the praetors' bench and one on the tribunes'. After this Tiberius was absolved for having touched the corpse,—a forbidden act,—and for having escorted it on its way, although the ...

[-32-]

... his will Drusus took from the virgin priestesses of Vesta, with whom it had been deposited, and carried it into the senate. Those who had sealed it viewed the impressions, and then it was read in hearing of the senate.

... one Polybius of Caesar's household read his will, as it was not proper for a senator to read anything of the sort. It showed that two-thirds of the inheritance had been left to Tiberius and the rest to Livia,—at least this is one report. In order that she, too, might have the benefit of his property he had asked permission of the senate to leave her so much, since it was contrary to law. These two were mentioned as inheritors. He ordered many objects and sums of money to be given to many different persons, both relatives of his and those joined by no ties of kindred, not only to senators and knights but also to kings; for the people there were a thousand myriads and for the soldiers two hundred and fifty denarii apiece to the Pretorians, half that amount to the city force, and to the remainder of the native soldiery seventy-five each. Moreover, in the case of children, of whose fathers he had been the heir while they were still small, he enjoined that everything, together with income, should be given back to them when they became men: this was, indeed his custom while in life. Whenever he inherited the estate of any one who had offspring, he never neglected to give it all to the man's children, immediately if they were already adults, and later if it were otherwise. Though he took such an attitude toward other people's children he did not restore his daughter from exile, though he deemed her worthy of gifts; and he forbade her being buried in his own tomb.—So much was learned from the will.

[-33-] Four books were then brought in and Drusus read them. In the first were written details pertaining to his funeral; in the second all the works which he had done, which he commanded to be inscribed aloft upon bronze columns to be set around his heroum; the third contained an account of military matters, of the revenues and of the public expenditures, the amount of money in the treasuries, and everything else of the sort having a bearing upon the administration; and the fourth had injunctions and orders for Tiberius and for the public. Among these last was a command that they should not liberate many slaves and should thus avoid filing the city with a variegated rabble. He also exhorted them not to enroll large numbers as citizens, in order that there might be a distinct difference between themselves and subject nations; to deliver the control of public business to all who had ability both to understand and to act, and never to let it depend on any one person; in this way no one would set his mind on a tyranny nor would the State go to pieces if one fell. He advised them to be satisfied with present possessions and under no conditions to wish to increase the empire to any greater dimensions. It would be hard to guard, he said, and this would lead to danger of their losing what was already theirs. This principle he had himself really always followed not only in speech but also in action. For, whereas he might have made great acquisitions of barbarian territory, he had not wished to do so.—These were his injunctions.

[-34-] Then came his funeral. There was a couch made of ivory and gold and adorned with robes of purple mixed with gold. In it his body was hidden, in a kind of box down below: a wax image of him in triumphal garb was displayed. This one was borne from the Palatium by the officials for the following year, and another of gold from the senate-house, and still another upon a triumphal chariot. Behind these came the images of his ancestors and of his deceased relatives (except of Caesar, because he had been enrolled among the heroes), and those of other Romans who had been prominent in any way, beginning with Romulus himself. An image of Pompey the Great was also seen, and all the nations he had acquired, each represented by a likeness which bore some local characteristic, were carried in procession. After these followed all the remaining objects mentioned above. When the couch had been placed in view upon the orators' platform, Drusus read something from that place: and from the other, the rostra of the Julian shrine, Tiberius delivered the following public oration over the deceased, according to a decree:—

[-35-] "What needed to be said privately by relatives over the divine Augustus Drusus has spoken. But since the senate has wisely deemed him worthy of some kind of public utterance, I know that the speech was fittingly entrusted to me. To whom more justly than to me, his child and successor, could be the task of praising him be confided? It is not my privilege, however, to be gladdened by the thought that my ability must prove no whit inferior to your desires in the matter and to his worth. Indeed, if I were to speak among strangers, I should be greatly alarmed lest in following my speech they should believe his deeds to be no better than I describe them. As it is, I am encouraged by the thought that my words will be directed to you who know all of them thoroughly, have experienced them all, and for that reason have deemed him worthy of these very praises. You will judge of his excellence not from what I may say but from what you yourselves know, and you will assist my discourse, making good what is deficient by your memory of events. So that in this way his eulogy will become a public one, given by all, as I, like the head of some chorus, indicate the chief points and you come in with the remainder of the refrain. I am certainly not afraid that you will hold me guilty of weakness because I am unable to meet your desires nor that you will be jealous to see his excellence going beyond your reach. Who does not understand the fact that not all mankind assembled in one place could worthily sound his praises? And you all voluntarily make way for him to triumph, not envious to think that not one of you could equal him, but rejoicing in his surpassing greatness. The greater he looms up before you, the more greatly will you feel yourselves benefited, so that envy will not be bred in you by your inferiority to him but awe from the advantages you have received at his hands.

[-36-] "I shall begin at the point where he also began to enter politics, that is, from his earliest manhood. This, indeed, is one of the greatest achievements of Augustus,—that when he had just emerged from boyhood and was entering upon the state of youth, he paid attention to education so long as public affairs were well managed by the famous Caesar, the demi-god: when after the conspiracy against the latter the whole commonwealth was thrown into confusion, he at the same time amply avenged his father and rendered a much needed aid to you, not fearing the multitude of his enemies nor dreading the greatness of the business nor hesitating through his own immaturity. Yet what deed like this can be cited of Alexander of Macedon or our Romulus, who have the reputation of having done something brilliant when very young? But these I shall pass over, lest from merely comparing them with him and bringing them up,—and that among you who are acquainted with him no less than I,—I may be thought to be diminishing the greatness of Augustus. If I am to do this sort of thing, I should be justified only if I looked at his deeds beside those of Hercules: yet even then I should fail of my effect, inasmuch as the latter killed only serpents when he was a child, a stag and a boar when he was a man,—oh, yes, and by Jupiter a lion also, though reluctantly and in obedience to a command; whereas our hero voluntarily made wars and enacted laws not among beasts but among men, carefully preserved the commonwealth, and himself gained brilliance. It was for this that you chose him praetor and appointed him consul at that age when some are unwilling even to serve in the army.

[-37-] "This was the beginning of political life for Augustus, and it is the beginning of my speech about him. Soon after, seeing that the largest and best portion both of the people and of the senate was in accord with him, but that Lepidus and Antony, Sextus, Brutus, and Cassius were employing rebels, he feared that the city might become involved in many wars,—civil wars,—at once, and be so torn asunder and exhausted as not to be able to revive in any fashion; and so he manipulated them very cleverly and to the greatest public good. He attached himself to the strong ones, who were menacing the very city, and with them fought the others till he made an end of them: when these were out of the way he in turn freed us from the former. He chose against his will to surrender a few to their wrath so that he might save the majority, and he chose to assume a friendly attitude toward them individually so as not to have to fight with them all at once. From this he derived no individual gain but aided us all most evidently. Why should one speak at length to enumerate his deeds in the wars both at home and abroad? Consider especially that the former ought never to have occurred at all and that the latter by the conquests gained show their advantages better than any words, moreover that they largely depended upon chance, that the successes were obtained with the aid of many citizens and many allies so that these deserve the credit equally with him, and finally that the achievements might possibly be compared with those of some others. These, accordingly, I shall put aside. You can behold and read them inscribed in letters and characters in many places. I shall speak only of the works which belong to Augustus himself, which have never been performed by any other man, and have not only caused our city to survive from many dangers of a sorts but have rendered it more prosperous and powerful. The mention of them will confer upon him a unique glory and will afford the elder among you an innocent pleasure while giving the younger men an exact instruction in the character and constitution of the government.

[-38-] "This Augustus, then, whom you deemed worthy of this title for the very reasons just cited, as soon as he had freed himself from the civil wars after acting and enduring (not in a way that pleased himself) as Heaven approved, first of all preserved the lives of most of his opponents, who were survivors of the army, and thus he in no way imitated Sulla, called the Fortunate. Not to give you a list of all of them, who does not know about Sosius, about Scaurus the brother of Sextus, and particularly about Lepidus, who lived so long a time after his defeat and continued to be high priest his whole life through? Next he honored his companions in conflict with many great gifts, but did not allow them to act in any arrogant way or to be wanton. You know thoroughly among others in this category both Maecenas and Agrippa, so that there is no need of my enumerating the names. Augustus had two qualities, too, which were never united in any one else. Some conquerors, I know, have spared their enemies and others have refused to allow their companions to give way to license. But both sorts of behavior at once, continually without any exception, were never found in the same man. Here is evidence. Sulla and Marius treated as enemies even the children of those who fought against them. Why need I cite the other less important men? Pompey and Caesar were in general guiltless of this conduct, but permitted their friends to do not a few things that were contrary to their own principles. But this man had each of the two virtues so fused and intermingled that to his adversaries he made defeat look like victory and to his comrades he showed a happiness in excellence.

[-39-] "After doing this and quieting by kindness all that remained of factional disputes and imposing temperance by his benefits upon the victorious military, he might as a result of this and the weapons and the money at his command have been indisputably the sole lord of everything, as, indeed, he had been made by the very course of events. Yet he refused, and like a good physician, who takes in hand a disease-ridden body and heals it, he restored everything to you after making it well. And to what this action amounted you can best realize from the fact that our fathers spoke in praise of Pompey and Metellus, who was formerly prominent, because they voluntarily disbanded the forces with which they had been engaged in war. Now if they, who had but a small force and a merely temporary one and besides saw opponents who would not allow them to do otherwise,—if they received praise for doing this,—how could one speak fittingly of the magnanimity of Augustus? He held all your forces, however great, he was master of all your funds, vast in amount, had no one to fear or suspect: but whereas he might have ruled alone with the approval of all, he would not accept such a course, but laid the arms, the provinces, the money at your feet. Wherefore you with wise insistence and proper prudence would not have it nor allow him to retire to private life; you knew well that democracy would never accommodate itself to such tremendous interests, but that the superintendence of a single person would most surely preserve them, and so refused what was nominally independence but really factional discord. And making choice of him, whom you had proved worthy by his very deeds, you compelled him to stand at your head for a time at least. When you had in this way tested him even more than before, you finally forced him a second, a third, a fourth, and a fifth time to remain as manager of public affairs. [-40-] It was only natural. Who would not choose to be safe without trouble, to be prosperous without danger, to enjoy unsparingly the blessings of government and not to be disturbed by cares for its maintenance? Who was there that could rule even his private possessions better than Augustus, to say nothing of the goods of so many human beings? He accepted the trying and hostile provinces for his own portion to guard and preserve, but restored to you all such others as were peaceful and free from danger. Though he supported such a large standing army to fight in your behalf, he let the soldiers be troublesome to none of his own countrymen but rendered them to outsiders most terrifying guardians, to the people at home unarmed and unwarlike. The senators in places of authority were not deprived of appeal to the lot, but prizes for excellence were furnished them in addition. He did not destroy the power of the ballot in their decisions and he guaranteed safety in free speech as well. Cases difficult to decide he transferred from the people to the searching justice of the courts, but preserved to the popular body the dignity of the elections and trained citizens in these to seek a means of honor, not of strife. He even cut away the ambitious greed of office seekers and put a regard for reputation in its place. His own money, which he increased by legitimate methods, he spent for public needs: for the public funds he cared as if they were his own, while he refrained from touching them, as belonging to others. He saw that all public works that were falling to decay were repaired, and deprived no one connected with their renovation of the glory attaching: many structures he built anew (some in his own name, some in that of another), or else gave others charge of erecting them. Consequently, his gaze was directed toward public utility and privately he grudged no one the fame to be derived from public service. Wantonness among his own kin he recompensed relentlessly, but the offences of others he treated with humaneness. Those who had traits of excellence he allowed to come as near as they could to his own standard, and with the conduct of such as lived otherwise he did not concern himself minutely. Among those who conspired against him he invoked justice upon only those whose lives were of no profit even to themselves. The rest he placed in such a position that for a great while they could obtain no excuse either true or false for attacking him. It is nothing surprising that he was occasionally the object of conspiracies, for even the gods do not please all alike. The excellence of good rulers is discernible not in the villainies of others but in their own good behavior.

[-41-] "I have spoken, Quirites, of his greatest and most striking characteristics in a rather summary way. For if one should desire to enumerate all of his great points individually, it would need many days. Furthermore, I know that though you will have heard so few facts from me, they will lead you to remember for yourselves everything else, and it will seem almost as if I had spoken that too. In the rest that I have said about him I have not been speaking in a spirit of vainglory [7], nor has that been your state of mind in listening; but I intended that his many noble achievements might obtain an ever memorable glory in your souls. Who would not feel inclined to make mention of his senators?—how without giving offence he removed the scum that had come to the surface from the factions, how by this very act he exalted the remainder, magnified it by increasing the property requirement, and enriched it by grants of money; how he voted on an equality with the senators and had their help in making changes; how he communicated to them all the greatest and most important matters either in the meeting-place or else at his house, whither he called different members at different times because of his age and bodily infirmity. Who would not like to cite the condition of the rest of the Romans, before whom he set public works, money, games, festivals, amnesty, an abundance of food, safety not only from the enemy and evildoers but even from the acts of Heaven, nor such alone as befall by day, but by night as well? Or, again, the allies?—how he made their freedom free from danger and their alliance to involve no loss. Or the subject nations?—how no one of them was treated with insolence or abuse. How can one forget a man who was in private life poor, in public life rich, saving in his own case but liberal of expenditures for others?—one who even endured all toil and danger for you but would not submit to your escorting him when he went forth on any expedition or to your meeting him when he returned: one who on festivals admitted even the populace to his home, but on other days greeted even the senate only in its chambers? How could one forget the number and precision as well of his laws, which contained for the wronged an all-sufficient consolation and for the wrongdoers a not inhuman punishment? Or his rewards offered to those who married and had children? Or the prizes given to the soldiers without disadvantage to any other person? Then there is the fact of his being satisfied with our possessions once for all acquired by the will of Destiny, and his refusal to subjugate additional territory. For while imagining that we bore a wider sway we might meantime lose all we had. You recall how he always shared the joys and sorrows, the jests and earnestness of his intimate friends, and allowed absolutely all who could make any useful suggestion to feel free to speak; how he praised those who spoke the truth and hated flatterers; how he bestowed upon many large sums from his own means, and how when aught was bequeathed to him by men with children he restored it all to those children. What oblivion is dark enough to bury all this? It was for this, therefore, I say, that you naturally made him your head and a father of the people, that you decked him with many marks of esteem and numerous consulships and finally declared him a hero and published him as immortal. Hence we ought not either to mourn for him, but to give his body back now in due time to Nature, and to glorify his spirit, as that of a god, forever."

[-42-] This was what Tiberius read. Directly after, the same men as before took up the couch and carried it through the triumphal gateway, according to the senate's decree. There were present and took part in carrying him out the senate and the equestrian class, the women of his family, and the pretorian guard; and nearly everybody else in the city was in attendance. When the body had been placed on the pyre in the Campus Martius, all the priests marched about it first; and then the knights, all the magistrates and others, and the heavy-armed force for garrison duty ran around it; and they cast upon it all the triumphal decorations which any of them had ever received from him for any deed of valor. Next the centurions took torches, conformably to a decree of the senate, and kindled the fire from beneath. So it was consumed, and an eagle released from it flew aloft appearing to bear his spirit into heaven. When this had been accomplished most of those present departed; but Livia remained on the spot for five days in company with the most prominent knights, and gathered his bones, which she placed in the monument.

The show of grief required by law was prolonged [-43-] only for a few days by the men, but by the women, according to a decree, for a whole year. Real grief not in the hearts of many at the time, but later felt by all the citizens. Augustus had been accessible to all and was accustomed to aid many persons in the matter of money. He used to bestow honors scrupulously upon his friends and delighted exceedingly to have them speak frankly. One instance, in addition to what has been told, occurred in the case of Athenodorus. The latter was once brought into his room in a covered litter, as if it were some woman, and leaping from it sword in hand asked: "Aren't you afraid that some one may come in this way and kill you?" Instead of being angry Augustus thanked him for his suggestion.

The people consequently were wont to recall these traits of his, and how he did not get blindly enraged at those who injured him as well as how he kept faith with even such as were unworthy of it. There was a robber named Corocotta, who flourished in Spain, and the emperor was in the first place so angry at him that he offered twenty-five myriads to the man that captured him alive. Later the robber came to him of his own accord, and he not only did him no harm but made him richer by the amount of money mentioned. Hence the Romans missed him mightily for these reasons as well as because by mingling monarchy with democracy he preserved their freedom for them and secured orderliness and security, so that their lives, free from the audacities of democracy, free from the wantonness of tyrannies, were cast in a liberty of moderation and under a monarchy without terrors; they were subjects of royalty, yet not slaves, and democratic citizens without discord. [-44-] If any of them remembered his former deeds in the course of the civil wars, they laid them to the pressure of circumstances, and they thought it fair to look for his real disposition, which had given him undisputed authority. This offered, in truth, a mighty contrast. Any one who goes carefully into each of his separate actions will find this true. In regard to the mass of them I must record curtly that he stopped all factional disputes, transformed the government in a way to give it power, and strengthened it greatly. Therefore if any deed of violence is encountered,—as is often bound to happen when the face of a situation shifts unexpectedly,—one might more justly blame the circumstances themselves than him.

Not the smallest factor in his glory was the length of his reign. The majority of those that had lived under a democracy and the more powerful had time to die. Those who were left, knowing nothing of that form of government and having been reared entirely or mostly under existing conditions, were not only not displeased with them,—they had become so familiar,—but took delight in them, for they saw that these were better and more free from terror than others of which they heard.

[-45-] Though the people knew this during his life they nevertheless realized it more fully after his decease. Human nature is so constituted that in good fortune it does not perceive its prosperity so fully as it misses it when evil days arrive. This was the case then in regard to Augustus. When they found his successor Tiberius not the same sort of man they longed for the previous emperor. Persons with their wits about them had some immediate evidence of the change in the constitution. The consul Pompeius, who went out to meet the men bearing the body of Augustus, received a blow in the leg and had to be carried back with the body. An owl sat over the senate-house again at the very first sitting of the senate after his death and uttered many ill-omened cries. The two men differed so from each other that some suspected that Augustus with full knowledge of Tiberius's character had purposely appointed him for successor to the end that he himself might have greater glory. This began to be rumored at a later date.

[-46-] At this time they declared Augustus immortal and assigned to him attendants and sacred rites, making Livia (who was already called Julia and Augusta) his priestess. Permission was granted Livia to employ a lictor during the services. And she bestowed upon a certain Numerius Atticus, a senatorial expraetor, twenty-five myriads because he swore that he had seen Augustus ascending into heaven after the manner described in the cases of Proclus and of Romulus. A herouem voted by the senate and built by Livia and Tiberius was erected to the dead emperor in Rome, and others at many different points, sometimes with the consent of the nations concerned and sometimes without their consent. Also the house at Nola, where he passed away, was dedicated to him as a precinct. While the herouem was being built in Rome, they placed a golden image of him upon a couch in the temple of Mars, and to this they paid all the honors that they were afterward to give to his statue. Other votes in regard to him were that his image should not be borne in procession at any one's funeral and the consuls should celebrate his birthday with games no less than that of Mars[8] the tribunes, as being sacrosanct, were to manage the Augustalia. These officials conducted everything as had been the custom, wearing the triumphal costume at the horse-race; they did not, however, ascend the chariot. Besides this Livia held a private festival in his honor for three days in the Palatium, and this is continued to the present day by whoever is emperor.