The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete
duty under the circumstances: “For,” said he, “I am afraid, lest, if I
should stand by him in the cause, I may be supposed to screen a guilty
man; and if I do not, to desert and prejudge a friend.” With the
unanimous concurrence, therefore, of the senate, he took his seat amongst
his advocates for several hours, but without giving him the benefit of
speaking to character, as was usual. He likewise appeared for his
clients; as on behalf of Scutarius, an old soldier of his, who brought an
action for slander. He never relieved any one from prosecution but in a
single instance, in the case of a man who had given information of the
conspiracy of Muraena; and that he did only by prevailing upon the
accuser, in open court, to drop his prosecution.
LVII. How much he was beloved for his worthy conduct in all these
respects, it is easy to imagine. I say nothing of the decrees of the
senate in his honour, which may seem to have resulted from compulsion or
deference. The Roman knights voluntarily, and with one accord, always
celebrated his birth for two days together; and all ranks of the people,
yearly, in performance of a vow they had made, threw a piece of money
into the Curtian lake [192], as an offering for his welfare. They
likewise, on the calends [first] of January, presented for his acceptance
new-year’s gifts in the Capitol, though he was not present with which
donations he purchased some costly images of the Gods, which he erected
in several streets of the city; as that of Apollo Sandaliarius, Jupiter
Tragoedus [193], and others. When his house on the Palatine hill was
accidentally destroyed by fire, the veteran soldiers, the judges, the
tribes, and even the people, individually, contributed, according to the
ability of each, for rebuilding it; but he would (115) accept only of
some small portion out of the several sums collected, and refused to take
from any one person more than a single denarius [194]. Upon his return
home from any of the provinces, they attended him not only with joyful
acclamations, but with songs. It is also remarked, that as often as he
entered the city, the infliction of punishment was suspended for the
time.
LVIII. The whole body of the people, upon a sudden impulse, and with
unanimous consent, offered him the title of FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY. It
was announced to him first at Antium, by a deputation from the people,
and upon his declining the honour, they repeated their offer on his
return to Rome, in a full theatre, when they were crowned with laurel.
The senate soon afterwards adopted the proposal, not in the way of
acclamation or decree, but by commissioning M. Messala, in an unanimous
vote, to compliment him with it in the following terms: “With hearty
wishes for the happiness and prosperity of yourself and your family,
Caesar Augustus, (for we think we thus most effectually pray for the
lasting welfare of the state), the senate, in agreement with the Roman
people, salute you by the title of FATHER OF YOUR COUNTRY.” To this
compliment Augustus replied, with tears in his eyes, in these words (for
I give them exactly as I have done those of Messala): “Having now arrived
at the summit of my wishes, O Conscript Fathers [195], what else have I
to beg of the Immortal (116) Gods, but the continuance of this your
affection for me to the last moments of my life?”
LIX. To the physician Antonius Musa [196], who had cured him of a
dangerous illness, they erected a statue near that of Aesculapius, by a
general subscription. Some heads of families ordered in their wills,
that their heirs should lead victims to the Capitol, with a tablet
carried before them, and pay their vows, “Because Augustus still
survived.” Some Italian cities appointed the day upon which he first
visited them, to be thenceforth the beginning of their year. And most of
the provinces, besides erecting temples and altars, instituted games, to
be celebrated to his honour, in most towns, every five years.
LX. The kings, his friends and allies, built cities in their respective
kingdoms, to which they gave the name of Caesarea; and all with one
consent resolved to finish, at their common expense, the temple of
Jupiter Olympius, at Athens, which had been begun long before, and
consecrate it to his Genius. They frequently also left their kingdoms,
laid aside the badges of royalty, and assuming the toga, attended and
paid their respects to him daily, in the manner of clients to their
patrons; not only at Rome, but when he was travelling through the
provinces.
LXI. Having thus given an account of the manner in which he filled his
public offices both civil and military, and his conduct in the government
of the empire, both in peace and war; I shall now describe his private
and domestic life, his habits at home and among his friends and
dependents, and the fortune attending him in those scenes of retirement,
from his youth to the day of his death. He lost his mother in his first
consulship, and his sister Octavia, when he was in the fifty-fourth year
of his age [197]. He behaved towards them both with the utmost kindness
whilst living, and after their decease paid the highest honours to their
memory.
(117) LXII. He was contracted when very young to the daughter of Publius
Servilius Isauricus; but upon his reconciliation with Antony after their
first rupture [198], the armies on both sides insisting on a family
alliance between them, he married Antony’s step-daughter Claudia, the
daughter of Fulvia by Publius Claudius, although at that time she was
scarcely marriageable; and upon a difference arising with his
mother-in-law Fulvia, he divorced her untouched, and a pure virgin. Soon
afterwards he took to wife Scribonia, who had before been twice married
to men of consular rank [199], and was a mother by one of them. With her
likewise he parted [200], being quite tired out, as he himself writes,
with the perverseness of her temper; and immediately took Livia Drusilla,
though then pregnant, from her husband Tiberius Nero; and she had never
any rival in his love and esteem.
LXIII. By Scribonia he had a daughter named Julia, but no children by
Livia, although extremely desirous of issue. She, indeed, conceived
once, but miscarried. He gave his daughter Julia in the first instance
to Marcellus, his sister’s son, who had just completed his minority; and,
after his death, to Marcus Agrippa, having prevailed with his sister to
yield her son-in-law to his wishes; for at that time Agrippa was married
to one of the Marcellas, and had children by her. Agrippa dying also, he
for a long time thought of several matches for Julia in even the
equestrian order, and at last resolved upon selecting Tiberius for his
step-son; and he obliged him to part with his wife at that time pregnant,
and who had already brought him a child. Mark Antony writes, “That he
first contracted Julia to his son, and afterwards to Cotiso, king of the
Getae [201], demanding at the same time the king’s daughter in marriage
for himself.”
(118) LXIV. He had three grandsons by Agrippa and Julia, namely, Caius,
Lucius, and Agrippa; and two grand-daughters, Julia and Agrippina. Julia
he married to Lucius Paulus, the censor’s son, and Agrippina to
Germanicus, his sister’s grandson. Caius and Lucius he adopted at home,
by the ceremony of purchase [202] from their father, advanced them, while
yet very young, to offices in the state, and when they were
consuls-elect, sent them to visit the provinces and armies. In bringing
up his daughter and grand-daughters, he accustomed them to domestic
employments, and even spinning, and obliged them to speak and act every
thing openly before the family, that it might be put down in the diary.
He so strictly prohibited them from all converse with strangers, that he
once wrote a letter to Lucius Vinicius, a handsome young man of a good
family, in which he told him, “You have not behaved very modestly, in
making a visit to my daughter at Baiae.” He usually instructed his
grandsons himself in reading, swimming, and other rudiments of knowledge;
and he laboured nothing more than to perfect them in the imitation of his
hand-writing. He never supped but he had them sitting at the foot of his
couch; nor ever travelled but with them in a chariot before him, or riding
beside him.
LXV. But in the midst of all his joy and hopes in his numerous and
well-regulated family, his fortune failed him. The two Julias, his
daughter and grand-daughter, abandoned themselves to such courses of
lewdness and debauchery, that he banished them both. Caius and Lucius he
lost within the space of eighteen months; the former dying in Lycia, and
the latter at Marseilles. His third grandson Agrippa, with his step-son
Tiberius, he adopted in the forum, by a law passed for the purpose by the
Sections [203]; but he soon afterwards discarded Agrippa for his coarse
and unruly temper, and confined him at Surrentum. He bore the death of
his relations with more patience than he did their disgrace; for he was
not overwhelmed by the loss of Caius and Lucius; but in the case of his
daughter, he stated the facts to the senate in a message read to them by
(119) the quaestor, not having the heart to be present himself; indeed, he
was so much ashamed of her infamous conduct, that for some time he avoided
all company, and had thoughts of putting her to death. It is certain that
when one Phoebe, a freed-woman and confidant of hers, hanged herself about
the same time, he said, “I had rather be the father of Phoebe than of
Julia.” In her banishment he would not allow her the use of wine, nor any
luxury in dress; nor would he suffer her to be waited upon by any male
servant, either freeman or slave, without his permission, and having
received an exact account of his age, stature, complexion, and what marks
or scars he had about him. At the end of five years he removed her from
the island [where she was confined] to the continent [204], and treated
her with less severity, but could never be prevailed upon to recall her.
When the Roman people interposed on her behalf several times with much
importunity, all the reply he gave was: “I wish you had all such daughters
and wives as she is.” He likewise forbad a child, of which his
grand-daughter Julia was delivered after sentence had passed against her,
to be either owned as a relation, or brought up. Agrippa, who was equally
intractable, and whose folly increased every day, he transported to an
island [205], and placed a guard of soldiers about him; procuring at the
same time an act of the senate for his confinement there during life.
Upon any mention of him and the two Julias, he would say, with a heavy
sigh,
Aith’ ophelon agamos t’ emenai, agonos t’ apoletai.
Would I were wifeless, or had childless died! [206]
nor did he usually call them by any other name than that of his “three
imposthumes or cancers.”
LXVI. He was cautious in forming friendships, but clung to them with
great constancy; not only rewarding the virtues and merits of his friends
according to their deserts, but bearing likewise with their faults and
vices, provided that they were (120) of a venial kind. For amongst all
his friends, we scarcely find any who fell into disgrace with him, except
Salvidienus Rufus, whom he raised to the consulship, and Cornelius
Gallus, whom he made prefect of Egypt; both of them men of the lowest
extraction. One of these, being engaged in plotting a rebellion, he
delivered over to the senate, for condemnation; and the other, on account
of his ungrateful and malicious temper, he forbad his house, and his
living in any of the provinces. When, however, Gallus, being denounced
by his accusers, and sentenced by the senate, was driven to the desperate