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Augustus has been much less attractive to biographers than Iulius; perhaps because the soldier is more interesting than the statesman; perhaps because the note of genius conspicuous in the Uncle was wanting in the Nephew. Yet Augustus was the most successful ruler known to us. He found his world, as it seemed, on the verge of complete collapse. He evoked order out of chaos; got rid one after the other of every element of opposition; established what was practically a new form of government witho

In a house at the eastern corner of the Palatine, called “At the Oxheads,” [1] on the 23rd of September, B.C. 63—some nine weeks before the execution of the Catilinarian conspirators by Cicero’s order—a child was born destined to close the era of civil wars thus inaugurated, to organise the Roman Empire, and to be its master for forty-four years. The father of the child was Gaius Octavius, of the plebeian gens Octavia , and of a family that had long occupied a high position in the old Volscian t

At the death of Cæsar the Roman Empire had been for the most part won. Egypt was indeed annexed by Augustus, though on a peculiar tenure, but subsequent additions were in a manner consequential, the inevitable rectifications of a long frontier. Such were the provinces of the Rhine, the Alps, and the Danube as far east as Mœsia; and to a certain extent the province of Galatia and Lycaonia ( B.C. 25). The Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates seemed already the natural boundaries of the Empire on t

The news of his great-uncle’s death reached Octavius at Apollonia in the afternoon, just as he and his suite were going to dinner. A vague rumour of some great misfortune quickly spread through the town, and many of the leading inhabitants hastened to the house with zealous friendliness to ascertain its truth. After a hasty consultation with his friends, Octavius decided to get rid of most of them while inviting a few of the highest rank to discuss with him what should be done. This being effect

The campaign of Mutina, in which Octavian had now embarked, was ended by two battles—one at Forum Gallorum on the 15th, and another at Antony’s camp on the 21st of April. After the latter date there were military movements of some interest and importance, but no actual conflict. Before these battles Octavian’s position had been difficult and delicate; and though it was much improved after them, it was not in the way expected by the Senate. The change was due to his own prudence and energy. Since

The first task of the Triumvirs, after securing their power at Rome, was the restoration of unity and peace to the Empire, which was threatened at two points: Brutus and Cassius were in arms in the East, Sext. Pompeius in the West. The opposition of Brutus and Cassius seemed the more formidable of the two. Brutus, indeed, after holding Macedonia throughout B.C. 43, after capturing and eventually putting to death Gaius Antonius, and after winning some laurels in contests with surrounding barbaria

The campaign which ended with the second battle at Philippi and the death of Brutus had been won at the cost of much physical suffering to Cæsar, who only completed his twenty-first year some days after it. He had been in bad health throughout, barely able to endure the journey across Macedonia, and only performing his military duties with the utmost difficulty and with frequent interruptions. On his return journey he had to halt so often from the same cause that reports of his death reached Rom

When Sextus fled from Sicily Cæsar was about to complete his 27th year. It was nearly nine years since, while little more than a boy, he had first boldly asserted himself in opposition to men more than twice his own age, and had forced those who had been statesmen before he was born to regard him as their champion or respect him as their master. Since that time he had had little rest from grave anxieties or war. At Mutina, Philippi, Perusia, and in Sicily, he had tasted danger and disaster as we

The seven years which followed the death of Antony and Cleopatra witnessed the settlement of the new constitution in its most important points. It has been called a dyarchy , the two parties to it being the Emperor and the Senate. They were not, however, at any time of equal power. As far as it was possible Augustus rested his various functions on the same foundation as those of the Republican magistrates, and treated the Senate with studious respect. But in spite of all professions, in spite ev

The settlement of his official status at Rome left Augustus free to turn to other parts of the Empire. He had spent the greater part of two years after the victory at Actium in organising the East. His face was now turned northward and westward. In the spring of B.C. 27, he set out for Gaul to reorganise the provinces won by Iulius in B.C. 58-49, and farther secured by the operations of Agrippa in B.C. 37 and Messalla in B.C. 29. It was understood that he meant also to cross to Britain, and the

At the end of his life Augustus left, among other memoirs, a roll containing certain maxims of state which he thought important for his successors to observe. Among them was an injunction not to seek to increase the Empire, for it would be difficult to guard an extended frontier. His own policy had been directed generally on this principle. Such additions as were made in his time were mainly those rendered inevitable by the necessity of securing the already existing frontiers. When his generals

After the settlement of the constitution in B.C. 23 Augustus was only absent from Italy three times, from B.C. 22 to B.C. 19 in Sicily and the East, from B.C. 16 to B.C. 13 in Gaul and Spain, and B.C. 9-10 in Gaul. At the outbreak of the Pannonian and Dalmatian wars A.D. 6-9 he stayed for some time at Ariminum. For the rest of the time he lived at Rome, with the usual visits to his country houses, made by land or yacht. His return to the city after any prolonged absence was celebrated with every

The activity of Augustus as reformer in the city and Italy, and to a great extent in the provinces also, was subsequent to the settlement of his constitutional position in B.C. 23, after which date changes in it were generally consequential, and in matters of detail. But it began long before. In B.C. 36 he had taken effective measures to suppress the brigandage which had pushed its audacity nearly up to the very gates of Rome. In B.C. 34-3 Agrippa, under his influence, had started the improvemen

After the restoration of the standards and prisoners from the Parthians in B.C. 20, and when the peaceful settlement of the Eastern provinces and subordinate kingdoms had been carried through or fairly started, Augustus appears to have thought that the greater part of his life’s work had been accomplished. The frontiers of the Empire had been settled and secured. The Eastern provinces had been visited, necessary reforms introduced, and great works of public utility set on foot. He wrote word to

The public and private troubles mentioned in the last chapter did not break the spirit or paralyse the energies of the aged Emperor, or prevent him from taking a strenuous part in the administration of the Empire. The last eight years of his life were full of stir and movement, though our meagre authorities give us few details. He actively supported the campaigns of Tiberius and Germanicus; he was introducing reforms in Gaul; [311] he was pushing on improvements in the East, and founding a serie

When a great piece of work has been done in the world it is not difficult to find fault with it. A man seldom if ever sees the bearing and ultimate results of his own actions, or carries out all that he intended to do. Even when he seems to have done so, time reveals faults, miscalculations, failures. At an age when among us a boy is just leaving school, Augustus found himself the heir of a great policy and a great name amidst the ruins of a constitution and the disjecta membra of a great Empire

1. When I was nineteen I collected an army on my own account and at my own expense, by the help of which I restored the republic to liberty, which had been enslaved by the tyranny of a faction; for which services the Senate, in complimentary decrees, added my name to the roll of their House in the consulship of Gaius Pansa and Aulus Hirtius [ B.C. 43], giving me at the same time consular precedence in voting; and gave me imperium. It ordered me as proprætor “to see along with the consuls that th