Cassius Dio
Roman History
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Book LIV
The following is contained in the Fifty-fourth of Dio's Rome:—
1. How road commissioners were appointed from among the ex-praetors
(chap. 8).
2. How grain commissioners were appointed from among the ex-praetors
(chaps. 1 and 17).
3. How Noricum was captured (chap. 20).
4. How Rhaetia was captured (chap. 22).
5. How the Maritime Alps began to yield obedience to the Romans (chap.
24).
6. How the theatre of Balbus was dedicated (chap. 25).
7. How the theatre of Marcellus was dedicated (chap. 26).
8. How Agrippa died and Augustus acquired the Chersonese (chaps. 28,
29).
9. How the Augustalia were instituted (chap. 34).
Duration of time, thirteen years, in which there were the following
magistrates (consuls) here enumerated:—
B.C.
22
M. Claudius M. F. Marcellus Aeserninus, L. Arruntius
L. F.
21
M. Lollius M. F., Q. Aemilius M. F. Lepidus.
20
M. Apuleius Sex. F., P. Silius P. F. Nerva.
19
C. Sentius C. F. Saturninus, Q. Lucretius Q. F.
Vispillo.
18
Cn. Cornelius L. F., P. Cornelius P. F. Lentulus
Marcellinus.
17
C. Furnius C. F., C. Iunius C. F. Silanus.
16
L. Domitius Cn. F. Cn. N. Ahenobarbus, P. Cornelius
P. F. P. N. Scipio.
15
M. Livius L. F. Drusus Libo, L. Calpurnius L. F.
Piso Frugi.
14
M. Licinius M. F. Crassus, Cn. Cornelius Cn. F.
Lentulus.
13
Tib. Claudius Tib. F. Nero, P. Quintilius Sex. F.
Varus.
12
M. Valerius M. F. Messalla Barbatus, P. Sulpicius P.
F. Quirinus.
11
Paulus Fabius Q. F. Maximus, Q. Aelius Q. F. Tubero.
10
Iullus Antonius M. F., Africanus Q. Fabius Q. F.
The following year, in which Marcus Marcellus and Lucius Arruntius were
consuls, the city was again submerged by the overflowing of the river,
and many objects were struck by thunderbolts, especially the statues in
the Pantheon, so that the spear even fell from the hand of Augustus.
The pestilence raged throughout all Italy so the no one tilled the
land, and I suppose that the same was the case in foreign parts. The
Romans, therefore, reduced to dire straits by the disease and by the
consequent famine, believed that these woes had come upon them for no
other reason than that they did not have Augustus for consul at this
time also. They accordingly wished to elect him dictator, and shutting
the senators up in their meeting-place, they forced them to vote this
measure by threatening to burn down the building over their heads. Next
they took the twenty-four rods and approached Augustus, begging him to
consent both to being named dictator and to becoming commissioner of
the grain supply, as Pompey had once done. He accepted the latter duty
under compulsion, and ordered that two men should be chosen annually,
from among those who had served as praetors not less than five years
previously in every case, to attend to the distribution of the grain.
As for the dictatorship, however, he did not accept the office, but
went so far as to rend his garments when he found himself unable to
restrain the people in any other way, either by argument or by
entreaty; for, since he was superior to the dictators in the power and
honour he already possessed, he properly guarded against the jealousy
and hatred which the title would arouse. He took the same course also
when they wished to elect him censor for life; for, declining to take
the office himself, he immediately appointed others to be censors,
namely Paulus Aemilius Lepidus and Lucius Munatius Plancus, the latter
a brother of that Plancus who had been proscribed, and the former a man
who had himself been condemned to die at that same time. These were the
last two private citizens to hold the censorship together, which was no
doubt the meaning of the sign given to them; for the platform, on which
they were to perform one of the functions devolving upon them,
collapsed as they ascended it on the first day of their holding the
office, and was shattered in pieces, and after that no others of the
same rank as these became censors together. Even at this time, in spite
of their having been chosen to the position, Augustus performed many of
the duties belonging to their office. Of the public banquets, he
abolished some altogether and limited the extravagance of others. He
committed the charge of all the festivals to the praetors, commanding
that an appropriation should be given them from the public treasury,
and also forbidding any one of them to spend more than another from his
own means on these festivals, or to give a gladiatorial combat unless
the senate decreed it, or, in fact, oftener than twice in each year or
with more than one hundred and twenty men. To the curule aediles he
entrusted the putting out of fires, for which purpose he granted them
six hundred slaves as assistants. And since knights and women of rank
had given exhibitions on the stage even then, he forbade not only the
sons of senators, who had even before this been excluded, but also
their grandsons, so far, at least, as these belonged to the equestrian
order, to do anything of the sort again.
Although in these measures he showed himself, in form as well as in
name, both law-giver and arbitrary ruler, in his behaviour generally he
was moderate, to such a degree, in fact, that he even stood by some of
his friends when their official conduct was under investigation. And
when a certain Marcus Primus was accused of having made war upon the
Odrysae while he was governor of Macedonia, and declared at one moment
that he had done it with the approval of Augustus and at another with
that of Marcellus, Augustus came of his own accord to the court-room;
and upon being asked by the praetor whether he had instructed the man
to make war, he denied it. And when the advocate of Primus, Licinius
Murena, in the course of some rather disrespectful remarks that he made
to him, enquired: "What are you doing here, and who summoned you?"
Augustus merely replied: "The public weal." For this he received
praised from the people of good sense and was even given the right to
convene the senate as often as he pleased; but some of the others
despised him. At all events, not a few voted for the acquittal of
Primus, and others formed a plot against Augustus. Fannius Caepio was
the instigator of it, but others also joined with him. Even Murena was
reported to be in the conspiracy, whether truly or by way of calumny,
since he was immoderate and unrestrained in his outspokenness toward
all alike. These men did not stand trial, and so were convicted by
default, on the supposition that they intended to flee; and a little
later they were slain. Murena found neither Proculeius, his brother,
nor Maecenas, his sister's husband, of any avail to save him, though
these men were most highly honoured by Augustus. And inasmuch as some
of the jurymen voted to acquit even these conspirators, the emperor
made a law that in trials at which the defendant was not present the
vote should not be taken secretly and the defendant should be convicted
only by a unanimous vote. Now that he took these measures, not in
anger, but as really conducive to the public good, he gave very strong
proof; at any rate, when Caepio's father freed one of the two slaves
who had accompanied his son in his flight because this slave had wished
to defend his young master when he met with death, but in the case of
the second slave, who had deserted his son, led him through the midst
of the Forum with an inscription making known the reason why he was to
be put to death, and afterwards crucified him, the emperor was not
vexed. Indeed, he would have allayed all the criticism of those who
were not pleased with what had been done, had he not gone further and
permitted sacrifices to be both voted and offered as for a victory.
It was at this time that he restored to the people both Cyprus and
Gallia Narbonensis as districts no longer needing the presence of his
armies; and thus proconsuls began to be sent to those provinces also.
He also dedicated the temple of Jupiter Tonans. Concerning this temple
two stories have been handed down, first, that at that time claps of
thunder occurred when the ritual was being performed, and, second, that
at a later time Augustus had a dream as follows. The people, he
thought, approached Jupiter who is called Tonans and did reverence to
him, partly because of the novelty of his name and of the form of his
statue, and partly because the statue had been set up by Augustus, but
chiefly because it was the first they encountered as they ascended the
Capitol; and thereupon the Jupiter in the great temple was angry
because he was now reduced to second place as compared with the other.
At this, Augustus related, he said to Jupiter Capitolinus, "You have
Tonans as your sentinel"; and when it was day, he attached a bell to
the statue as confirmation of the vision. For those who guard
communities at night carry a bell, in order to be able to signal to the
inhabitants whenever they need to do so.
These were the events that occurred in Rome; and at about this same
period the Cantabri and the Astures broke out into war again, the
Astures on account of the luxurious ways and cruelty of Carisius, and
the Cantabri because they perceived that the others were in revolt and
because they despised their own governor, Gaius Furnius, since he had
but lately arrived and they supposed that he was unacquainted with
conditions among them. Nevertheless, he did not appear to them that
sort of man when it came to action; for they were defeated and reduced
to slavery by him, and the Astures likewise, since he also aided
Carisius. Not many of the Cantabri were captured; for when they had no
hope of freedom, they did not choose to live, either, but some set
their forts on fire and cut their own throats, and others of their own
choice remained with them and were consumed in the flames, while yet
others took poison in the sight of all. Thus the most of them and the
fiercest element perished. As for the Astures, as soon as they had been
repulsed while besieging a certain stronghold and had later been
defeated in battle, they offered no further resistance, but were
promptly subdued.
About this time the Ethiopians, who dwell beyond Egypt, advanced as far
as the city called Elephantine, with Candace as their leader, ravaging
everything they encountered. At Elephantine, however, learning that
Gaius Petronius, the governor of Egypt, was approaching, they hastily
retreated before he arrived, hoping to make good their escape. But
being overtaken on the road, they were defeated and thus drew him after
them into their own country. There, too, he fought successfully with
them, and took Napata, their capital, among other cities. This place
was razed to the ground, and a garrison left at another point; for
Petronius, finding himself unable either to advance farther, on account
of the sand and the heat, or advantageously to remain where he was with
his entire army, withdrew, taking the greater part of it with him.
Thereupon the Ethiopians attacked the garrisons, but he again proceeded
against them, rescued his own men, and compelled Candace to make terms
with him.
While this was going on, Augustus went to Sicily in order to settle
affairs in that island and elsewhere as far as Syria. While he was
still there, the Roman populace fell to quarreling over the election of
the consuls. This incident showed clearly that it was impossible for a
democratic government to be maintained among them; at any rate,
although they had but little authority either in the matter of the
elections or of the offices themselves, they fell to rioting. One of
the consulships, it seems, was being kept for Augustus, and accordingly
at the beginning of the year Marcus Lollius alone entered upon office;
but when the emperor would not accept the position, Quintus Lepidus and
Lucius Silvanus became rival candidates and threw everything into such
turmoil that Augustus was summoned home by those who retained their
senses. He would not return, however, and when the two candidates
themselves came to him, he rebuked them and sent them away, giving
orders that the vote should be taken during the absence of them both;
thereupon the people were no more quiet than before, but fell into
great strife again, until at last Lepidus was chosen. Augustus was
displeased at the incident, for he could not devote all his time to
Rome alone and did not dare leave the city in a state of anarchy;
accordingly, he sought for some one to set over it, and judged Agrippa
to be most suitable for the purpose. And as he wished to invest him
with a dignity above the ordinary, in order that he might govern the
people more easily, he summoned him, compelled him to divorce his wife,
although she was the emperor's own niece, and to marry Julia; and he
sent him to Rome at once to attend both to the wedding and to the
administration of the city. This step is said to have been taken partly
on the advice of Maecenas, who in counselling him upon these very
matters said: "You have made him so great that he must either become
your son-in-law or be slain." Agrippa, then, checked whatever other
ailments he found still festering, and curtailed the Egyptian rites
which were again invading the city, forbidding anyone to perform them
even in the suburbs within one mile of the city. And when a disturbance
arose over the election of the prefect of the city, the official chosen
on account of the Feriae, he did not succeed in quelling it, but they
went through that year without this official.
While Agrippa was thus occupied, Augustus, after arranging various
matters in Sicily and making Roman colonies of Syracuse and certain
other cities, crossed over into Greece. He honoured the Lacedaemonians
by giving them Cythera and attending their public mess, because Livia,
when she fled for Italy with her husband and son, had spent some time
there. But from the Athenians he took away Aegina and Eretria, from
which they received tribute, because, as some say, they had espoused
the cause of Antony; and he furthermore forbade them to make anyone a
citizen for money. And it seemed to them that the thing which had
happened to the statue of Athena was responsible for this misfortune:
for this statue on the Acropolis, which was placed to face the east,
had turned around to the west and spat blood. Augustus, now, after
transacting what business he had in Greece, sailed to Samos, where he
passed the winter; and in the spring of the year when Marcus Apuleius
and Publius Silius were consuls, he went on into Asia, and settled
everything there and in Bithynia. For although these provinces as well
as those previously mentioned were regarded as belonging to the people,
he did not for that reason neglect them, but gave most careful
attention to them all, as if they were his own. Thus he instituted
various reforms, so far as seemed desirable, and made donations of
money to some, at the same time commanding others to contribute an
amount in excess of the tribute. He reduced the people of Cyzicus to
slavery because during a factious quarrel they had flogged and put to
death some Romans. And when he reached Syria, he took the same action
in the case of the people of Tyre and Sidon on account of their
factious quarrelling.
Meanwhile Phraates, fearing that Augustus would lead an expedition
against him because he had not yet performed any of his engagements,
sent back to him the standards and all the captives, with the exception
of a few who in shame had destroyed themselves or, eluding detection,
remained in the country. Augustus received them as if he had conquered
the Parthian in a war; for he took great pride in the achievement,
declaring that he had recovered without a struggle what had formerly
been lost in battle. Indeed, in honour of this success he commanded
that sacrifices be decreed and likewise a temple to Mars Ultor on the
Capitol, in imitation of that of Jupiter Feretrius, in which to
dedicate the standards; and he himself carried out both decrees.
Moreover he rode into the city on horseback and was honoured with a
triumphal arch. Now all this was done later in commemoration of the
event; but at the time of which we are speaking he was chosen
commissioner of all the highways in the neighbourhood of Rome, and in
this capacity set up the golden mile-stone, as it was called, and
appointed men from the number of the ex-praetors, each with two
lictors, to attend to the actual construction of the roads. And Julia
gave birth to a boy, who received the name Gaius; and a permanent
annual sacrifice on his birthday was granted. Now this, like all the
other acts mentioned, would done in pursuance of a decree; on their own
initiative, however, the aediles gave games in the Circus and a
slaughter of wild beasts on Augustus's birthday.
This is what was going on in the city. Augustus administered the
subject territory according to the customs of the Romans, but permitted
the allied nations to be governed in their own traditional manner; and
he did not regard it as desirable either to make any additions to the
former or to extend the latter by any new acquisitions, but thought it
best to be satisfied with precisely what they already possessed, and he
communicated this opinion to the senate. Therefore he undertook no war,
at any rate for the time being, but actually gave away certain
principalities — to Iamblichus, the son of Iamblichus, his ancestral
dominion over the Arabians, and to Tarcondimotus, the son of
Tarcondimotus, the kingdom of Cilicia, which his father had held,
except for a few places on the coast. These latter together with Lesser
Armenia he granted to Archelaus, because the Mede, who previously had
ruled them, was dead. To Herod he entrusted the tetrarchy of a certain
Zenodorus, and to one Mithridates, though still a mere boy, he gave
Commagene, inasmuch as its king had put the boy's father to death. And
since the other Armenians had preferred charges against Artaxes and had
summoned his brother Tigranes, who was in Rome, the emperor sent
Tiberius to drive Artaxes out of the kingdom and to reinstate Tigranes.
And although nothing was accomplished by Tiberius commensurate with his
preparations, since before his arrival the Armenians slew Artaxes, yet
he assumed a lofty bearing, especially after sacrifices had been voted
to commemorate what he had done, as though he had accomplished
something by valour. And his thoughts were already on the monarchy,
inasmuch as, when he was approaching Philippi, a tumult was heard
coming from the field of battle, as if from an army, and fire blazed up
spontaneously from the altars which Antony had built in the fortified
camp. Tiberius, accordingly, was feeling elated over these occurrences.
But Augustus, for his part, returned to Samos and once more passed the
winter there. In recognition of his stay he gave the islanders their
freedom, and he also attended to many matters of business. For a great
many embassies came to him, and the people of India, who had already
made overtures, now made a treaty of friendship, sending among other
gifts tigers, which were then for the first time seen by the Romans, as
also, I think by the Greeks. They also gave him a boy who had no
shoulders or arms, like our statues of Hermes. And yet, defective as he
was, he could use his feet for everything, as if they were hands: with
them he would stretch a bow, shoot missiles, and put a trumpet to his
lips. How he did this I do not know; I merely state what is recorded.
One of the Indians, Zarmarus, for some reason wished to die,— either
because, being of the caste of sages, he was on this account moved by
ambition, or, in accordance with the traditional custom of the Indians,
because of old age, or because he wished to make a display for the
benefit of Augustus and the Athenians (for Augustus had reached
Athens);— he was therefore initiated into the mysteries of the two
goddesses, which were held out of season on account, they say, of
Augustus, who also was an initiate, and he then threw himself alive
into the fire.
The consul that year was Gaius Sentius; and when it became necessary
for a colleague to be elected (for Augustus on this occasion, also, did
not accept the position after it had been kept open for him), factious
quarrelling again took place and murders occurred, so that the senators
voted a guard for Sentinus; and when he was unwilling to use it, they
sent envoys to Augustus, each with two lictors. Now when the emperor
learned of these things, realizing that there would be no end to the
evil, he did not this time deal with the matter as he had before, but
appointed one of the envoys themselves, Quintus Lucretius, to the
consulship, though this man's name had been posted in the list of the
proscribed and he hastened to Rome himself. For this and other things
he had done while absent from the city many honours of all sorts were
voted him, none of which he would accept, save the founding on altar to
Fortuna Redux (for this was the name they gave to her), and the
provision that the day on which have arrived should be numbered among
the holidays and be called Augustalia. Since even then magistrates and
the rest made preparations beforehand to go out to meet him, he entered
the city by night; and on the following day he gave Tiberius the rank
of an ex-praetor and allowed Drusus to stand for various offices five
years earlier than was the practice. And inasmuch as there was no
similarity between the conduct of the people during his absence, when
they quarrelled, and while he was present, when they were afraid, he
accepted an election, on their invitation, to the position of
supervisor of morals for five years, and took the authority of censor
for the same period and that of consul for life, and in consequence had
the right to use the twelve rods always and everywhere and to sit in
the curule chair between the two men who were at the time consuls.
After voting these measures they begged him to set everything to rights
and to enact whatever laws he liked; and the laws which should be
proposed by him they called "leges Augustae" from that very moment, and
desired to take an oath that they would abide by them. He accepted all
the other measures, believing them to be necessary, but did not require
the oaths from them; for he well knew that, if any measure they decreed
should represent their judgment, they would observe it even without
taking an oath, but if it should not, they would pay no heed to it,
even if they should offer ten thousand guarantees.
Augustus, then, was engaged with these matters; and one of the aediles
voluntarily resigned his office by reason of poverty. As for Agrippa,
as soon as he had settled whatever business was urgent in Rome, whither
he had been sent from Sicily on the occasion mentioned, he was then
assigned to the provinces of Gaul; for the people there not only were
quarrelling among themselves, but also were being harassed by the
Germans. After putting a stop to those troubles, too, he went over to
Spain. It seems that the Cantabri who had been captured alive in the
war and sold, had killed their masters in every case, and returning
home, had induced many to join in their rebellion; and with the aid of
these they had seized some positions, walled them in, and were plotting
against the Roman garrisons. It was against these people, then, that
Agrippa led an expedition. But he had some trouble also with his
soldiers; for not a few of them were too old and were exhausted by the
continual wars; and fearing the Cantabri as men hard to subdue, they
would not obey him. Nevertheless, partly by admonishing and exhorting
them, and partly by inspiring them with hopes, he soon made them yield
obedience. In fighting against the Cantabri, however, he met with many
reverses; for they not only had gained practical experience, as a
result of having been slaves to the Romans, but also despaired of
having their lives granted to them again if they were taken captive.
But finally Agrippa was successful; after losing many of his soldiers,
and degrading many others because they kept being defeated (for
example, he gave orders that the entire Augustan legion, as it had been
called, should no longer bear that name), he at length destroyed nearly
all of the enemy who were of military age, deprived the rest of their
arms, and forced them come down from their fortresses and live in the
plains. Yet he sent no communication concerning them to the senate, and
did not accept a triumph, although one was voted at the behest of
Augustus, but showed moderation in these matters as was his wont; and
once, when asked by the consul for his opinion about his brother, he
would not give it. At his own expense he brought into the city the
water-supply known as the Aqua Virgo, and named it the Augusta. The
emperor took such great delight in this that once, when there was a
great scarcity of wine and people were loudly complaining, he declared
that Agrippa had in a most competent manner seen to it that they should
never perish of thirst.
Such was the character of this man; but others both strove for triumphs
and celebrated them, not only for no exploits comparable to this, but
merely for arresting robbers or for restoring harmony to cities that
were torn by factious strife. For Augustus, at least in the beginning,
bestowed these rewards lavishly upon certain men, and those whom he
honoured by public funerals were very many. Accordingly, while these
men gained lustre through such distinctions, Agrippa was promoted to
the supreme power, one might say, by him. For Augustus saw that the
public business required strict attention, and feared that he himself
might, as often happens to men of his position, fall victim to a plot.
(As for the breastplate which he often wore beneath his dress, even
when he entered the senate, he believed that it would be of but scanty
and slight assistance to him.) He therefore first added five years to
his own terms as princeps, since his ten-year period was about to
expire (this was in the consulship of Publius and Gnaeus Lentulus), and
then he granted to Agrippa many privileges almost equal to his own,
especially the tribunician power for the same length of time. For that
number of years, he said at the time, would be enough for them; though
not long afterward he obtained the other five years of his imperial
power in addition, so that the total number became ten again.
When he had done this, he purged the senatorial body. For the members
seemed to him to be too numerous even now, and he saw nothing good in a
large throng; moreover, he hated not only those who were notorious for
some baseness, but also those who were conspicuous for their flattery.
And when, as on the previous occasion, no one would resign of his own
free will, and Augustus, in his turn, did not wish to incur blame
alone, he himself selected the thirty best men (a point which he
afterwards confirmed by oath) and bade them, after first taking the
same oath, choose five at a time, relatives not to be included, by
writing the names on tablets. After this he made the groups of five
cast lots, with the arrangement that the one man in each group who drew
the lot should be a senator himself and should write down five other
names according to the same plan. The original thirty, of course, were
to be included among those who were available for selection by the
second thirty and for the drawing of lots. And since some who were
chosen were out of town, others were drawn in their place and
discharged the duties that belonged to them. At first all this went on
for several days in the way described; but when various abuses crept
in, Augustus no longer trusted the lists to the quaestors and no longer
submitted the groups of five to the lot, but he himself thenceforth
made the selection and himself chose the senators who were still
required in order to make the number of men appointed six hundred in
all. It had, indeed, been his plan to limit the senators to three
hundred, as in the early times, and he thought he ought to be well
content if that number of men were found who were worthy of the senate.
But the number he actually enrolled was six hundred, since all alike
were displeased with the other arrangement; for it turned out that
those whose names would be stricken off the roll would be much more
numerous than those who kept their places, so that the present senators
were more afraid of being reduced to the ranks than hopeful of being in
the new senate. Indeed, he did not stop even when this was done, but
subsequently took other measures. It seems that certain unsuitable
persons were even then found on the lists; and one Licinius Regulus,
indignant because his name had been erased, whereas his son and several
others to whom he thought himself superior had been selected by the
lot, rent his clothing in the very senate, laid bare his body,
enumerated his campaigns, and showed them his scars; and Articuleius
Paetus, one of those who were to remain senators, earnestly begged that
he might retire from his seat in the senate in favour of his father,
who had been rejected. Consequently Augustus purged the senate again,
removing some and choosing others in their places. And since, even so,
the names of many had been stricken out, and some of them, as usually
happens in such a case, found fault with him on the ground that they
had been unjustly expelled, he at that time accorded them the right to
attend spectacles and celebrate festivals along with the senators,
wearing the same garb as they, and for the future he allowed them to
stand for the various offices. The majority of them came back in the
course of time into the senate; but some few were left in an
intermediate position, being regarded as belonging neither to the
senate nor to the people.
After these events, many immediately and many later were accused,
whether truly or falsely, of plotting against both the emperor and
Agrippa. It is not possible, of course, for those on the outside to
have certain knowledge of such matters; for whatever measures a ruler
takes, either personally or through the senate, for the punishment of
men for alleged plots against himself, are generally looked upon with
suspicion as having been done out of spite, no matter how just such
measures may be. For this reason it is my purpose to report in all such
cases simply the recorded version of the affair, without busying myself
with anything beyond the published account, except in perfectly patent
cases, or giving a hint as to the justice or injustice of the act or as
to the truth or falsity of the report. Let this explanation apply also
to everything that I shall write hereafter. As for the time of which we
are speaking, Augustus executed a few men; in the case of Lepidus,
however, although he hated the man, among other reasons, because his
son had been detected in a plot against him and had been punished, yet
he did not wish to put him to death, but kept subjecting him to insult
from time to time in various ways. Thus he would order him to come back
to the city from his estate in the country, whether he wished to do so
or not, and would always take him to the meetings of the senate, in
order that he might be subjected to the utmost to jeering and insults,
so that he might realize his loss of power and dignity. In general he
did not treat him as worthy of any consideration on his part, and on
the occasions referred to called on him for his vote the last of all
the ex-consuls. For while he was wont to put the vote to the other
senators in the regular order, in the case of the ex-consuls he used to
call on one first, another second, and others third and fourth, and so
on, just as he pleased; and the consuls also did the same. thus it was
that he used to treat Lepidus. And when Antistius Labeo wrote down the
name of Lepidus among those who might be senators, at the time when the
process of selection which we have described was being followed, the
emperor first declared that he had perjured himself, and he threatened
to punish him. Thereupon Labeo replied: "Why, what harm have I done by
keeping in the senate one whom you even now permit to be high priest?"
At this Augustus desisted from his anger; for though he had often been
asked, both privately and publicly, to take this priesthood, he did not
feel that it was right to do so while Lepidus lived. This reply of
Antistius was regarded as a happy one, as was also another remark of
his: when it was said in the senate, on one occasion, that the senators
ought to take turns in guarding Augustus, Antistius, not daring to
speak in opposition nor yet willing to assent, remarked, "As for me, I
snore, and so cannot sleep at the door of his chamber."
Among the laws that Augustus enacted was one which provided that those
who had bribed anyone in order to gain office should be debarred from
office for five years. He laid heavier assessment upon the unmarried
men and upon the women without husbands, and on the other hand offered
prizes for marriage and the begetting of children. And since among the
nobility there were far more males than females, he allowed all who
wished, except the senators, to marry freedwomen, and ordered that
their offspring should be held legitimate.
Meanwhile a clamor arose in the senate over the disorderly conduct of
the women and of the young men, this being alleged as a reason for
their reluctance to enter into the marriage relation; and when they
urged him to remedy this abuse also, with ironical allusions to his own
intimacy with many women, he at first replied that the most necessary
restrictions had been laid down and that anything further could not
possibly be regulated by decree in similar fashion. Then, when he was
driven into a corner, he said: "You yourselves ought to admonish and
command your wives as you wish; that is what I do." When they heard
that, they plied him with questions all the more, wishing to learn what
the admonitions were which he professed to give Livia. He accordingly,
though with reluctance, made a few remarks about women's dress and
their other adornment, about their going out and their modest
behaviour, not in the least concerned that his actions did not lend
credence to his words. Another instance of such inconsistency had
occurred while he was censor. Some one brought before him a young man
who had taken as his wife a married woman with whom he had previously
committed adultery, and made ever so many accusations against the man,
and Augustus was at a loss what to do, not daring to overlook the
affair nor yet to administer any rebuke. At length, though with
difficulty, he recovered himself and said: "Our factious quarrels have
borne many terrible fruits; let us, then, forget them and give our
attention to the future, that nothing of the sort may occur again."
Inasmuch, too, as certain men were betrothing themselves to infant
girls and thus enjoying the privileges granted to married men, but
without rendering the service expected of them, he ordered that no
betrothal should be valid if the man did not marry within two years of
such betrothal,— that is, that the girl must in every case be at least
ten years old at her betrothal if the man was to derive any advantages
from it, since, as I have stated, girls are held to have reached the
marriageable age on the completion of twelve full years.
Besides these several enactments, Augustus further provided that, for
the distribution of grain, one candidate, who must have served as
praetor three years previously, should be nominated each year by each
of the officials then serving, and that, from these nominees, four men
should be chosen by lot to serve in succession as distributors of
grain. And he commanded that the office of prefect of the city, who was
chosen for the Feriae, should always be filled by the election of one
man, and that the Sibylline verses, which had become indistinct through
lapse of time, should be copied off by the priests with their own
hands, in order that no one else might read them. He permitted all to
stand for office who possessed property worth four hundred thousand
sesterces and were eligible by the laws to hold office. This was the
senatorial rating which he at first established; but later he raised it
to one million sesterces. Upon some of those who lived upright lives
but possessed less than the four hundred thousand sesterces in the
first instance, or the million in the second, he bestowed the amount
lacking. And because of this he allowed the praetors who so desired to
spend on the public festivals three times the amount granted them from
the treasury. Thus, even if some were vexed at the strictness of his
other regulations, yet by reason of this action and also because he
restored one Pylades, a dancer, who had been exiled on account of
sedition, they remembered them no longer. Hence Pylades is said to have
rejoined very cleverly, when the emperor rebuked him for having
quarrelled with Bathyllus, a fellow-artist, and a favourite of
Maecenas: "It is to your advantage, Caesar, that the people should
devote their spare time to us."
These were the occurrences of that year. In the consulship of Gaius
Furnius and Gaius Silanus, Agrippa again acknowledged the birth of a
son, who was named Lucius; and Augustus immediately adopted him
together with his brother Gaius, not waiting for them to become men,
but appointing them then and there successors to his office, in order
that fewer plots might be formed against him. He transferred the
festival of Honor and Virtus to the days which are at present theirs,
commanded those who celebrated triumphs to erect out of their spoils
some monument to commemorate their deeds, and held the fifth
celebration of the Ludi Saeculares. He ordered the orators to give
their services as advocates without pay, on pain of a fine of four
times the amount they received; and he forbade those who were drawn as
jurymen from time to time to enter any person's house during their year
of service. And since the members of the senate showed a lack of
interest in attending its sessions, he increased the fines for those
who were late without a good excuse.
Next he set out for Gaul, during the consulship of Lucius Domitius and
Publius Scipio, making the wars that had arisen in that region his
excuse. For since he had become disliked by many as a result of his
long stay in the capital, and now was offending many who committed some
act contrary to his decrees by the punishments he was inflicting, and
at the same time, by sparing many others, was being compelled to
transgress his own enactments, he decided to leave the country,
somewhat after the manner of Solon. Some even suspected that he had
gone away on account of Terentia, the wife of Maecenas, and intended,
inasmuch as there was much talk about them in Rome, to live with her
abroad free from all gossip. So great, indeed, was his passion for her
that he once made her enter a contest of beauty against Livia. Before
setting out he dedicated the temple of Quirinus, which he had rebuilt.
I mention this for the reason that he adorned it with seventy-six
columns, which was the exact number of the years he lived, and thus
caused some to declare that he had chosen this number deliberately and
not by mere chance. So he dedicated this temple at this time, and also
exhibited gladiatorial combats, Tiberius and Drusus representing him in
the matter after the senate had granted them permission. Then he
committed to Taurus the management of the city together with the rest
of Italy (for he had sent Agrippa again to Syria and no longer looked
with equal favour upon Maecenas because of the latter's wife), and
taking Tiberius, though praetor at the time, along with him, he set out
on his journey. Tiberius, it appears, had become praetor in spite of
his already holding the rank of a praetor; and Drusus now performed all
the duties of his office in pursuance of a decree. The night following
their departure the temple of Iuventus was burned to the ground. Other
portents also had occurred: a wolf had rushed into the Forum by the
Sacred Way and had killed people, and not far from the Forum ants were
conspicuously swarming together; moreover, a flame like a torch had
shot from the south towards the north all night long. Because of all
these signs prayers were offered for the return of Augustus. Meanwhile
they held the quadrennial celebration of his sovereignty, Agrippa,
represented by his fellow-priests, bearing the expense; for he had been
consecrated as one of the quindecemviri, upon whom the management of
the festival devolved in regular succession.
There were many other disturbances, too, during that period. The
Camunni and Vennii, Alpine tribes, took up arms against the Romans, but
were conquered and subdued by Publius Silius. The Pannonians in company
with the Norici overran Istria; but the former, upon being discomfited
by Silius and his lieutenants, both came to terms again themselves and
caused the Norici to be subjected to the same slavery. The uprising in
Dalmatia and in Spain were quelled in a short time. Macedonia was
ravaged by the Dentheleti and the Scordisci. In Thrace somewhat earlier
Marcus Lollius, while aiding Rhoemetalces, the uncle and guardian of
the sons of Cotys, had subjugated the Bessi. Later Lucius Gallus
conquered the Sarmatians for the same reason and drove them back across
the Ister. The greatest, however, of the wars which at that time fell
to the lot of the Romans, and the one presumably which drew Augustus
away from the city, was that against the Germans. It seems that the
Sugambri, Usipetes, and Tencteri had first seized in their own
territory some of the Romans and had crucified them, after which they
had crossed the Rhine and plundered Germania and Gaul. When the Roman
cavalry approached, they surprised them from ambush; then, pursuing
them as they fled, they fell in unexpectedly with Lollius, the governor
of the province, and conquered him also. On learning of all this,
Augustus hastened against them, but found no warfare to carry on; for
the barbarians, learning that Lollius was making preparations and that
the emperor was also taking the field, retired into their own territory
and made peace, giving hostages.
For this reason Augustus had no need of arms, but in arranging other
matters he consumed the whole of this year, as well as the next, in
which Marcus Libo and Calpurnius Piso were consuls. For not only had
the Gauls suffered much at the hands of the Germans, but much also at
the hands of a certain Licinus. And of this, I think, the sea-monster
had given them full warning beforehand; twenty feet broad and three
times as long, and resembling a woman except for its head, it had come
in from the ocean and become stranded on the shore. Now Licinus was
originally a Gaul, but after being captured by the Romans and becoming
a slave of Caesar's, he had been set free by him, and by Augustus had
been made procurator of Gaul. This man, then, with his combination of
barbarian avarice and Roman dignity, tried to overthrow every one who
was ever counted superior to him and to destroy every one who was
strong for the time being. He not only supplied himself with plenty of
funds for the requirements of the office to which he had been assigned,
but also incidentally collected plenty for himself and for his friends.
His knavery went so far that in some cases where the people paid their
tribute by the month he made the months fourteen in number, declaring
that the month called December was really the tenth, and for that
reason they must reckon two more (which he called the eleventh and the
twelfth respectively) as the last, and contribute the money that was
due for these months. It was these quibbles that brought him into
danger; for the Gauls secured the ear of Augustus and protested
indignantly, so that the emperor in some matters shared their vexation
and in others tried to excuse Licinus. He claimed to be unaware of some
of his extortions and affected not to believe others, while some
matters he actually concealed, feeling ashamed to have employed such a
procurator. Licinus, however, devised another scheme as follows, and
laughed them all to scorn. When he perceived that Augustus was
displeased with him and that he was likely to be punished, he brought
the emperor into his house, and showing him many treasures of silver
and gold and many other valuables piled up in heaps, he said: "I have
gathered all this purposely, master, for you and for the rest of the
Romans, lest the natives, by having control of so much money, should
revolt. At any rate, I have kept it all for you and now give it to you."
Thus Licinus was saved, by pretending that he had sapped the strength
of the barbarians in order to serve Augustus. Drusus and Tiberius in
the meantime were engaged in the following exploits. The Rhaetians, who
dwell between Noricum and Gaul, near the Tridentine Alps which adjoin
Italy, were overrunning a large part of the neighbouring territory of
Gaul and carrying off plunder even from Italy; and they were harassing
such of the Romans or their allies as travelled through their country.
Now these acts of theirs seemed to be about what was to be expected of
nations which had not accepted terms of peace; but they went further
and destroyed all the males among their captives, not only those who
had already come into the world, but also those who were still in the
women's wombs, the sex of whom they discovered by some means of
divination. For these reasons, then, Augustus first sent against them
Drusus, who speedily routed a detachment of them which came to meet him
near the Tridentine mountains, and in consequence received the rank of
praetor. Later, when the Rhaetians had been repulsed from Italy, but
were still harassing Gaul, Augustus sent out Tiberius also. Both
leaders then invaded Rhaetia at many points at the same time, either in
person or through their lieutenants, and Tiberius even crossed the lake
with ships. In this way, by encountering them separately, they
terrified them and not only easily overwhelmed those with whom they
came into close quarters at any time, inasmuch as the barbarians had
their forces scattered, but also captured the remainder, who in
consequence had become weaker and less spirited. And because the land
had a large population of males and seemed likely to revolt, they
deported most of the strongest men of military age, leaving behind only
enough to give the country a population, but too few to begin a
revolution.
This same year Vedius Pollio died, a man who in general had done
nothing deserving of remembrance, as he was sprung from freedmen,
belonged to the knights, and had performed no brilliant deeds; but he
had become very famous for his wealth and for his cruelty, so that he
has even gained a place in history. Most of the things he did it would
be wearisome to relate, but I may mention that he kept in reservoirs
huge lampreys that had been trained to eat men, and he was accustomed
to throw to them such of his slaves as he desired to put to death.
Once, when he was entertaining Augustus, his cup-bearer broke a crystal
goblet, and without regard for his guest, Pollio ordered the fellow to
be thrown to the lampreys. Hereupon the slave fell on his knees before
Augustus and supplicated him, and Augustus at first tried to persuade
Pollio not to commit so monstrous a deed. Then, when Pollio paid no
heed to him, the emperor said, "Bring all the rest of the drinking
vessels which are of like sort or any others of value that you possess,
in order that I may use them," and when they were brought, he ordered
them to be broken. When Pollio saw this, he was vexed, of course; but
since he was no longer angry over the one goblet, considering the great
number of the others that were ruined, and, on the other hand, could
not punish his servant for what Augustus also had done, he held his
peace, though much against his will. This is the sort of person Pollio
was, who died at this time. Among his many bequests to many persons he
left to Augustus a good share of his estate together with Pausilypon,
the place between Neapolis and Puteoli, with instructions that some
public work of great beauty should be erected there. Augustus razed
Pollio's house to the ground, on the pretext of preparing for the
erection of the other structure, but really with the purpose that
Pollio should have no monument in the city; and he built a colonnade,
inscribing on it the name, not of Pollio, but of Livia.
However, he did this later. At the time we are considering he colonized
numerous cities in Gaul and in Spain, restored to the people of Cyzicus
their freedom, and gave money to the Paphians, who had suffered from an
earthquake, besides allowing them, by a decree, to call their city
Augusta. I record this, not that Augustus and the senators, too, did
not aid many other cities both before and after this occasion, in case
of similar misfortunes,— indeed, if one should mention them all, the
work involved in making the record would be endless,— but my purpose is
to show that the senate even assigned names to cities as a mark of
honour and that the inhabitants did not, as is usually done now, make
out for themselves in each instance lists of names according to their
own pleasure.
The next year Marcus Crassus and Gnaeus Cornelius were consuls; and the
curule aediles, after resigning their office because they had been
elected under unfavourable auspices, received it again, contrary to
precedent, at another meeting of the assembly. The Basilica of Paulus
was burned and the flames spread from it to the temple of Vesta, so
that the sacred objects there were carried up to the Palatine by the
Vestal Virgins,— except the eldest, who had become blind,— and were
placed in the house of the priest of Jupiter. The basilica was
afterwards rebuilt, nominally by Aemilius, who was the descendant of
the family of the man who had formerly erected it, but really by
Augustus and the friends of Paulus. At this time the Pannonians
revolted again and were subdued, and the Maritime Alps, inhabited by
the Ligurians who were called Comati, and were still free even then,
were reduced to slavery. And the revolt among the tribes of the
Cimmerian Bosporus was quelled. It seems that one Scribonius, who
claimed to be a grandson of Mithridates and to have received the
kingdom from Augustus after the death of Asander, married Asander's
wife, named Dynamis, who was really the daughter of Pharnaces and the
granddaughter of Mithridates and had been entrusted with the regency by
her husband, and thus he was holding Bosporus under his control.
Agrippa, upon learning of this, sent against him Polemon through fear
that he might be allowed to reign over them, he engaged them in battle.
But although he conquered them, he was unable to reduce them to
submission until Agrippa came to Sinope with the purpose of conducting
a campaign against them. Then they laid down their arms and were
delivered up to Polemon; and the woman Dynamis became his wife,
naturally not without the sanction of Augustus. For these successes
sacrifices were offered in the name of Agrippa, but the triumph which
was voted him was not celebrated. Indeed, he did not so much as notify
the senate of what had been accomplished, and in consequence subsequent
conquerors, treating his course as a precedent, also gave up the
practice of sending reports to the public; and he would not accept the
celebration of the triumph. For this reason,— at least, such is my
opinion,— no one else of his peers was permitted to do so any longer,
either, but they enjoyed merely the distinction of triumphal honours.
Now when Augustus had finished all the business which occupied him in
the several provinces of Gaul, of Germany and of Spain, having spent
large sums from others, having bestowed freedom and citizenship upon
some and taken them away from others, he left Drusus in Germany and
returned to Rome himself in the consulship of Tiberius and Quintilius
Varus. Now it chanced that the news of his coming reached the city
during those days when Cornelius Balbus was celebrating with spectacles
the dedication of theatre which is even to-day called by his name; and
Balbus accordingly began to put on airs, as if it were he himself that
was going to bring Augustus back,— although he was unable even to enter
his theatre, except by boat, on account of the flood of water caused by
the Tiber, which had overflowed its banks,— and Tiberius put the vote
to him first, in honour of his building the theatre. For the senate
convened, and among its other decrees voted to place an altar in the
senate-chamber itself, to commemorate the return of Augustus, and also
voted that those who approached him as suppliants while he was inside
the pomerium should not be punished. Nevertheless, he accepted neither
of these honours, and even avoided encountering the people on this
occasion also; for he entered the city at night. This he did nearly
always when he went out to the suburbs or anywhere else, both on his
way out and on his return, so that he might trouble none of the
citizens. The next day he welcomed the people in the palace, and then,
ascending the Capitol, took the laurel from around his fasces and
placed it upon the knees of Jupiter; and he also placed baths and
barbers at the service of the people free of charge on that day. After
this he convened the senate, and though he made no address himself by
reason of hoarseness, he gave his manuscript to the quaestor to read
and thus enumerated his achievements and promulgated rules as to the
number of years the citizens should serve in the army and as to the
amount of money they should receive when discharged from service, in
lieu of the land which they were always demanding. His object was that
the soldiers, by being enlisted henceforth on certain definite terms,
should find no excuse for revolt on this score. The number of years was
twelve for the Pretorians and sixteen for the rest; and the money to be
distributed was less in some cases and more in others. These measures
caused the soldiers neither pleasure nor anger for the time being,
because they neither obtained all they desired nor yet failed of all;
but in the rest of the population the measures aroused confident hopes
that they would not in future be robbed of their possessions.
He next dedicated the theatre named after Marcellus. In the course of
the festival held for this purpose the patrician boys, including his
grandson Gaius, performed the equestrian exercise called "Troy," and
six hundred wild beasts from Africa were slain. And to celebrate the
birthday of Augustus, Iullus, the son of Antony, who was praetor, gave
games in the Circus and a slaughter of wild beasts, and entertained
both the emperor and the senate, in pursuance of a decree of that body,
upon the Capitol.
After this there was another purging of the lists of the senate. At
first, as we have seen, the rating of senators had been fixed at four
hundred thousand sesterces, because many of them had been stripped of
their ancestral estates by the wars, and then, as time went on and men
acquired wealth, it had been raised to one million sesterces.
Consequently no one was any longer found who would of his own choice
become a senator; on the contrary, sons and grandsons of senators, some
of them really poor and others reduced to humble station by the
misfortunes of their ancestors, not only would not lay claim to the
senatorial dignity, but also, when already entered on the lists, swore
that they were ineligible. Therefore, previous to that time, while
Augustus was still absent from the city, a decree had been passed that
the Vigintiviri, as they were called, should be appointed from the
knights; and thus none of these men eligible to be senators was any
longer enrolled in the senate without having also held one of the other
offices that led to it. These Vigintiviri are what is left of the
Vigintisexviri, of whom three are in charge of criminal trials, another
three attend to the coinage of the money, four look after the streets
in the city, and ten are assigned to the courts which are allotted to
the Centumviri; for the two who were once entrusted with the roads
outside the walls and the four who used to be sent to Campania had been
abolished. This was one decree that was passed during the absence of
Augustus; there was also another providing that, since no one was any
longer ready to seek the tribuneship, some of the ex-quaestors who were
not yet forty years old should be appointed to the office by lot. But
on the present occasion Augustus himself made an investigation of the
whole senatorial class. With those who were over thirty-five years of
age he did not concern himself, but in the case of those who were under
that age and possessed the requisite rating he compelled them to become
senators, unless one of them was physically disabled. He examined their
persons himself, but in regard to their property he accepted sworn
statements, the men themselves and others as witnesses taking an oath
and rendering an account of their poverty as well as of their manner of
life.
Nor did he, while showing such strictness in the public business,
neglect his private affairs; indeed, he rebuked both Tiberius, because
at the festival, given under Tiberius' management, in fulfilment of a
vow for the emperor's return, he had seated Gaius at the emperor's
side, and the people for honouring Gaius with applause and eulogies. On
the death of Lepidus he was appointed high priest and the senate
accordingly wished to vote him other honours (?); but he declared that
he would not accept any of them, and when the senators urged him, he
rose and left the meeting. That measure, therefore, now failed of
passage, and he also received no official residence; but, inasmuch as
it was absolutely necessary that the high priest should live in a
public residence, he made a part of his own house public property. The
house or rex sacrificulus, however, he gave to the Vestal Virgins,
because it was separated merely by a wall from their apartments.
When Cornelius Sisenna was censured for the conduct of his wife, and
stated in the senate that he had married her with the knowledge and on
the advice of the emperor, Augustus became exceedingly angry. He did
not, to be sure, say or do anything violent, but rushed out of the
senate-house, and then returned a little later, choosing to take this
course, though it was not the correct thing to do, as he said to his
friends afterward, rather than to remain where he was and be compelled
to do something harsh.
Meanwhile he increased the power of Agrippa, who had returned from
Syria, by giving him the tribunician power again for another five
years, and he sent him out to Pannonia, which was eager for war,
entrusting him with greater authority than the officials outside Italy
ordinarily possessed. And Agrippa set out on the campaign in spite of
the fact that the winter had already begun (this was the year in which
Marcus Valerius and Publius Sulpicius were the consuls); but when the
Pannonians became terrified at his approach and gave up their plans for
rebellion, he returned, and upon reaching Campania, fell ill. Augustus
happened to be exhibiting, in the name of his sons, contests of armed
warriors at the Panethenaic festival, and when he learned of Agrippa's
illness, he set out for Italy; and finding him dead, he conveyed his
body to the capital and caused it to lie in state in the Forum. He also
delivered the eulogy over the dead, after first hanging a curtain in
front of the corpse. Why he did this, I do not know. Some, however,
have stated that it was because he was high priest, others that it was
because he was performing the duties of censor. But both are mistaken,
since neither the high priest is forbidden to look at a corpse, nor the
censor, either, except when he is about to complete the census; but if
he looks upon a corpse then, before his purification, all his work has
to be done over again. Now Augustus not only did what I have recorded,
but also had the funeral procession of Agrippa conducted in the manner
in which his own was afterward conducted, and he buried him in his own
sepulchre, though Agrippa had taken one for himself in the Campus
Martius.
Such was the end of Agrippa, who had in every way clearly shown himself
the noblest of the men of his day and had used the friendship of
Augustus with a view to the greatest advantage both of the emperor
himself and of the commonwealth. For the more he surpassed others in
excellence, the more inferior he kept himself of his own free will to
the emperor; and while he devoted all the wisdom and valour he himself
possessed to the highest interests of Augustus, he lavished all the
honour and influence he received from him upon benefactions to others.
It was because of this in particular that he never became obnoxious to
Augustus himself nor invidious to his fellow-citizens; on the contrary,
he helped Augustus to establish the monarchy, as if he were really a
devoted adherent of the principle of autocratic rule, and he won over
the people by his benefactions, as if he were in the highest degree a
friend of popular government. At any rate, even at his death he left
them gardens and the baths named after him, so that they might bathe
free of cost, and for this purpose gave Augustus certain estates. And
the emperor not only turned these over to the state, but also
distributed to the people four hundred sesterces apiece, giving it to
be understood that Agrippa had so ordered. And, indeed, he had
inherited most of Agrippa's property, including the Chersonese on the
Hellespont, which had come in some way or other into Agrippa's hands.
Augustus felt his loss for a long time and hence caused him to be
honoured in the eyes of the people; and he named the posthumous son
born to him Agrippa. Nevertheless, he did not allow the citizens at
large, although none of the prominent men wished to attend the
festivals, to omit any of the time-honoured observances, and he in
person superintended the gladiatorial combats, though they were often
held without his presence. The death of Agrippa, far from being merely
a private loss to his own household, was at any rate such a public loss
to all the Romans that portents occurred on this occasion in such
numbers as are wont to happen to them before the greatest calamities.
Owls kept flitting about the city, and lightning struck the house on
the Alban Mount where the consuls lodge during the sacred rites. The
star called the comet hung for several days over the city and was
finally dissolved into flashes resembling torches. Many buildings in
the city were destroyed by fire, among them the hut of Romulus, which
was set ablaze by crows which dropped upon it burning meat from some
altar.
These were the events connected with Agrippa's death. After this
Augustus was chosen supervisor and corrector of morals for another five
years; for he received this office also for limited periods, as he did
the monarchy. He ordered the senators to burn incense in their assembly
hall whenever they held a session, and not to pay their usual visit to
him, his purpose being, in the first instance, that they should show
reverence to the gods, and, in the second, that they should not be
hindered in convening. And inasmuch as extremely few candidates sought
the tribuneship, because its power had been abolished, he made a law
that the magistrates in office should each nominate one of the knights
who possessed not less than one million sesterces, and that the plebs
should then fill the vacancies in the tribuneship from this list, with
the understanding that, if the men desired to be senators later, they
might do so, or otherwise they should return again to the equestrian
order.
When the province of Asia was in dire need of assistance on account of
earthquakes, he paid into the public treasury from his private funds
the amount of its annual tribute and assigned to it for two years a
governor chosen by lot and not appointed.
On one occasion, when Apuleius and Maecenas were subjected to abuse in
court when a case of adultery was being tried, not because they had
behaved wantonly themselves, but because they were actively aiding the
man on trial, Augustus entered the court-room and sat in the praetor's
chair; he took no harsh measures, but simply forbade the accuser to
insult either his relatives or his friends, and then rose and left the
room. For this action and others the senators honoured him with
statues, paid for by private subscription, and also by giving bachelors
and spinsters the right to behold spectacles and to attend banquets
along with other people on his birthday; for neither of these things
had been permitted previously.
When now Agrippa, whom he loved because of his excellence and not
because of any kinship, was dead, Augustus felt the need of an
assistant in the public business, one who would far surpass all the
others in both rank and influence, so that he might transact all
business promptly and without being the object of envy and intrigue.
Therefore he reluctantly chose Tiberius; for his own grandsons were
still boys at this time. He first made him, as he had made Agrippa,
divorce his wife, though she was the daughter of Agrippa by a former
marriage and was bringing up one child and was about to give birth to
another; and having betrothed Julia to him, he sent him out against the
Pannonians. This people had for a time been quiet through fear of
Agrippa, but now after his death they had revolted. Tiberius subdued
them after ravaging much of their country and doing much injury to the
inhabitants, making as much use as possible of his allies the
Scordisci, who were neighbours of the Pannonians and were similarly
equipped. He took away the enemy's arms and sold most of the men of
military age into slavery, to be deported from the country. For these
achievements the senate voted him a triumph, but Augustus did not
permit him to celebrate it, though he granted him the triumphal honours
instead.
Drusus had this same experience. The Sugambri and their allies had
resorted to war, owing to the absence of Augustus and the fact that
Gauls were restive under their slavery, and Drusus therefore seized the
subject territory ahead of them, sending for the foremost men in it on
the pretext of the festival which they celebrate even now around the
altar of Augustus at Lugdunum. He also waited for the Germans to cross
the Rhine, and then repulsed them. Next he crossed over to the country
of the Usipetes, passing along the very island of the Batavians, and
from there marched along the river to the Sugambrian territory, where
he devastated much country. He sailed down the Rhine to the ocean, won
over the Frisians, and crossing the lake, invaded the country of the
Chauci, where he ran into danger, as his ships were left high and dry
by the ebb of the ocean. He was saved on this occasion by the Frisians,
who had joined his expedition with their infantry, and withdrew, since
it was now winter. Upon arriving in Rome he was appointed praetor
urbanus, in the consulship of Quintus Aelius and Paulus Fabius,
although he already had the rank of praetor. At the beginning of spring
he sent out again for the war, crossed the Rhine, and subjugated the
Usipetes. He bridged the Lupia, invaded the country of the Sugambri,
and advanced through it into the country of the Cherusci, as far as the
Visurgis. He was able to do this because the Sugambri, in anger at the
Chatti, the only tribe among their neighbours that had refused to join
their alliance, had made a campaign against them with all their
population; and seizing this opportunity, he traversed their country
unnoticed. He would have crossed the Visurgis also, had he not run
short of provisions, and had not the winter set in and, besides, a
swarm of bees been seen in his camp. Consequently he proceeded no
farther, but retired to friendly, encountering great dangers on the
way. For the enemy harassed him everywhere by ambuscades, and once they
shut him up in a narrow pass and all but destroyed his army; indeed,
they would have annihilated them, had they not conceived a contempt for
them, as if they were already captured and needed only the finishing
stroke, and so come to close quarters with them in disorder. This led
to their being worsted, after which they were no longer so bold, but
kept up a petty annoyance of his troops from a distance, while refusing
to come nearer. Drusus accordingly conceived a scorn of them in his
turn and fortified a stronghold against them at the point where the
Lupia and the Eliso unite, and also another among the Chatti on the
bank of the Rhine. For these successes he received the triumphal
honours, the right to ride into the city on horseback, and to exercise
the powers of a proconsul when he should finish his term as praetor.
Indeed, the title of imperator was given him by the soldiers by
acclamation as it had been given to Tiberius earlier; but it was not
granted to him by Augustus, although the number of times the emperor
himself gained this appellation was increased as the result of the
exploits of these two men.
While Drusus was thus occupied, the festival belonging to his
praetorship was celebrated in the most costly manner; and the birthday
of Augustus was honoured by the slaughter of wild beasts both in the
Circus and in many other parts of the city. This was done almost every
year by one of the praetors then in office, even if not authorised by a
decree; but the Augustalia, which are still observed, were then for the
first time celebrated in pursuance of a decree.
Tiberius subdued the Dalmatians, who began a rebellion, and later the
Pannonians, who likewise revolted, taking advantage of the absence of
himself and the larger part of his army. He made war upon both of them
at once, shifting now to one front and now to the other. As a result of
this Dalmatia was given over into the keeping of Augustus, because of
the feeling that it would always require armed forces both on its own
account and because of the neighbouring Pannonians.
These men, then, were thus engaged. At this same period Vologaesus, a
Bessian from Thrace and a priest of the Dionysus worshipped by that
people, gained a following by practising many divinations, and with
these adherents revolted. He conquered and killed Rhascyporis, the son
of Cotys, and afterwards, thanks to his reputation for supernatural
power, he stripped Rhoemetalces, the victim's uncle, of his forces
without a battle and compelled him to take flight. In pursuit of him he
invaded the Chersonese, where he wrought great havoc. Because of these
deeds of his and because of the injuries the Sialetae were causing to
Macedonia, Lucius Piso was ordered to proceed against them from
Pamphylia, where he was governor. The Bessi, now, when they heard that
he was drawing near, retired homeward ahead of him. So he came into
their country, and though defeated at first, vanquished them in turn
and ravaged both their land and that of the neighbouring tribes which
had taken part in the uprising. At this time he reduced all of them to
submission, winning over some with their consent, terrifying others
into reluctant surrender, and coming to terms with others as the result
of battles; and later, when some of them rebelled, he again enslaved
them. For these successes thanksgivings and triumphal honours were
granted him.
While these events were occurring, Augustus took a census, making a
list of all his own property like any private citizen; and he also made
a roster of the senate. As he saw that sometimes there were not many
present at the meetings of that body, he ordered that its decrees
should be passed even when less than four hundred were present; for
hitherto no decree if passed by a smaller number. When the senate and
the people once more contributed money for statues of Augustus, he
would set up no statue of himself, but instead set up statues of Salus
Publica, Concordia, and Pax. The citizens, it seems, were nearly always
and on every pretext collecting money for this same object, and at last
they ceased paying it privately, as one might call it, but would come
to him on the very first day of the year and give, some more, some
less, into his own hands; and he, after adding as much or more again,
would return it, not only to the senators but to all the rest. I have
also heard the story that on one day of the year, following some oracle
or dream, he would assume the guise of a beggar and would accept money
from those who came up to him.
This is the tradition, whether credible to any one or not. That year he
gave Julia in marriage to Tiberius, and when his sister died, he caused
her body to lie in state in the shrine of Julius; and on this occasion
also he has a curtain over the corpse. He himself delivered the funeral
oration there, and Drusus delivered one from the rostra; for the
mourning was publicly observed and the senators had changed their
dress. Her body was carried in the procession by her sons-in-law; but
not all the honours voted for her were accepted by Augustus.
At this same period the priest of Jupiter was appointed for the first
time since Merula, and the quaestors were ordered to preserve the
decrees passed at various times, inasmuch as the tribunes and aediles,
who had previously been entrusted with this duty, were performing it
through their assistants, and in consequence some mistakes and
confusion occurred.
It was voted that temple of Janus Geminus, which had been opened,
should be closed, on the ground that the wars had ceased. It was not
closed, however, for the Dacians, crossing the Ister on the ice,
carried off booty from Pannonia, and the Dalmatians rebelled against
the exactions of tribute. Against these people Tiberius was sent from
Gaul, whither he had gone in company with Augustus; and he reduced them
again to submission. The Germans, particularly the Chatti, were either
harassed or subjugated by Drusus. The Chatti, it seems, had gone to
join the Sugambri, having abandoned their own country, which the Romans
had given them to dwell in. Afterwards Tiberius and Drusus returned to
Rome with Augustus, who had been tarrying in Lugdunensis much of the
time, keeping watch on the Germans from near at hand; and they carried
out whatever decrees had been passed in honour of their victories or
did whatever else devolved upon them.
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