 Julius Caesar, Part IV of the Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Graham Redman. The Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, translated by Alexander Thompson and edited by T. Forrester. Julius Caesar, Part IV, paragraphs 56-79. He has likewise left commentaries of his own actions both in the war in Gaul and in the Civil War with Pompey, for the author of the Alexandrian, African, and Spanish Wars is not known with any certainty. Some think they are the production of Opius, and some of Herschus, the latter of whom composed the last book, which is imperfect, of the Gallic War. Of Caesar's commentaries, Cicero in his Brutus speaks thus. He wrote his commentaries in a manner deserving of great approbation. They are plain, precise, and elegant without any affectation of rhetorical ornament. In having thus prepared materials for others who might be inclined to write his history, he may perhaps have encouraged some silly creatures to enter upon such a work, who will needs be dressing up his actions in all the extravagance of bombast. But he has discouraged wise men from ever attempting the subject. Herschus delivers his opinion of these commentaries in the following terms. So great is the approbation with which they are universally perused that, instead of rousing, he seems to have precluded the efforts of any future historian. Yet with respect to this work, we have more reason to admire him than others, for they only know how well and correctly he has written, but we know likewise how easily and quickly he did it. Polio Asinius thinks that they were not drawn up with much care or with a due regard to truth, for he insinuates that Caesar was too hasty of belief in regard to what was performed by others under his orders, and that he has not given a very faithful account of his own acts, either by design or through defective memory, expressing at the same time an opinion that Caesar intended a new and more correct addition. He has left behind him likewise two books on analogy, with the same number under the title of anti-Cato, and a poem entitled The Itinerary. Of these books he composed the first two in his passage over the Alps as he was returning to the army after making his circuit in Hither Gaul, the second work about the time of the Battle of Munda, and the last during the four and twenty days he employed in his journey from Rome to Father Spain. There are extant some letters of his to the Senate written in a manner never practised by any before him, for they are distinguished into pages in the form of a memorandum book, whereas the consuls and commanders till then used constantly in their letters to continue the line quite across the sheet without any folding or distinction of pages. There are extant likewise some letters from him to Cicero and others to his friends concerning his domestic affairs, in which if there was occasion for secrecy he wrote in ciphers, that is, he used the alphabet in such a manner that not a single word could be made out. The way to decipher those epistles was to substitute the fourth for the first letter as D for A, and so for the other letters, respectively. Some things likewise pass under his name said to have been written by him when a boy or a very young man, as the Encomium of Hercules, a tragedy entitled Edipus, and a collection of Apathems, all of which Augustus forbade to be published in a short and plain letter to Pompeius Mesa who was employed by him in the arrangement of his libraries. He was perfect in the use of arms, an accomplished rider, and able to endure fatigue beyond all belief. On a march he used to go at the head of his troops, sometimes on horseback, but oftener on foot, with his head bare in all kinds of weather. He would travel post in a light carriage without baggage at the rate of a hundred miles a day, and if he was stopped by floods in the rivers he swam across or floated on skins inflated with wind so that he often anticipated intelligence of his movements. In his expeditions it is difficult to say whether his caution or his daring was most conspicuous. He never marched his army by roads which were exposed to amber skates without having previously examined the nature of the ground by his scouts, nor did he cross over to Britain before he had carefully examined in person the navigation, the harbours, and the most convenient point of landing in the island. When intelligence was brought to him of the siege of his camp in Germany he made his way to his troops through the enemy's stations in a gallish dress. He crossed the sea from Brandisium and Diracium in the winter through the midst of the enemy's fleets, and the troops under orders to join him being slow in their movements, not withstanding repeated messages to hurry them, but to no purpose, he at last went privately and alone aboard a small vessel in the night-time with his head muffled up. Nor did he make himself known or suffer the master to put about, although the wind blew strong against them until they were ready to sink. He was never deterred from any enterprise, nor retarded in the prosecution of it by superstition. When a victim which he was about to offer in sacrifice made its escape he did not therefore defer his expedition against Cypio and Duba, and happening to fall upon stepping out of the ship, he gave a lucky turn to the omen by exclaiming, I hold thee fast, Africa. To chide the prophecies which were spread abroad that the name of the Cypios was by the decrees of fate fortunate and invincible in that province, he retained in the camp a profligate wretch of the family of the Corneliae, who on account of his scandalous life was so named Saluito. He not only fought pitched battles, but made sudden attacks when an opportunity offered, often at the end of a march, and sometimes during the most violent storms when nobody could imagine he would stir, nor was he ever backward in fighting until towards the end of his life. He then was of opinion that the orphaner he had been crowned with success the less he ought to expose himself to new hazards, and that nothing he could gain by a victory would compensate for what he might lose by a miscarriage. He never defeated the enemy without driving them from their camp and giving them no time to rally their forces. When the issue of a battle was doubtful he sent away all the horses and his own first, that having no means of flight they might be under the greater necessity of standing their ground. He rode a very remarkable horse, with feet almost like those of a man the hoofs being divided in such a manner as to have some resemblance to toes. This horse he had bred himself, and the soothsayers having interpreted these circumstances into an omen that its owner would be master of the world, he brought him up with particular care and broke him in himself as the horse would suffer no one else to mount him. A statue of this horse was afterwards erected by Caesar's order before the temple of Venus Genetrix. He often rallied his troops when they were giving way by his personal efforts, stopping those who fled, keeping others in their ranks, and seizing them by their throat turned them towards the enemy, although numbers were so terrified that an eagle-bearer, thus stopped, made a thrust at him with the spearhead, and another, upon a similar occasion, left the standard in his hand. The following instances of his resolution are equally and even more remarkable. After the battle of Pharsalia, having sent his troops before him into Asia, as he was passing the straits of the helispont in a ferry-boat, he met with Lucius Cassius, one of the opposite party, with ten ships of war, and so far from endeavouring to escape he went alongside his ship, and calling upon him to surrender, Cassius humbly gave him his submission. At Alexandria, in the attack of a bridge, being forced by a sudden sally of the enemy into a boat, and several others hurrying in with him, he leapt into the sea and saved himself by swimming to the next ship, which lay at the distance of two hundred paces, holding up his left hand out of the water for fear of wetting some papers which he held in it, and pulling his generals cloak after him with his teeth, lest it should fall into the hands of the enemy. He never valued a soldier for his moral conduct or his means, but for his courage only, and treated his troops with a mixture of severity and indulgence, for he did not always keep a strict hand over them, but only when the enemy was near. Then indeed he was so strict a disciplinarium that he would give no notice of a march or a battle until the moment of action, in order that the troops might hold themselves in readiness for any sudden movement, and he would frequently draw them out of the camp without any necessity for it, especially in rainy weather, and upon holy days. Sometimes giving them orders not to lose sight of him, he would suddenly depart by day or by night, and lengthen the marches in order to tire them out, as they followed him at a distance. When at any time his troops were dispirited by reports of the great force of the enemy, he rallied their courage, not by denying the truth of what was said or by diminishing the facts, but on the contrary by exaggerating every particular. Accordingly, when his troops were in great alarm at the expected arrival of King Juba, he called them together and said, I have to inform you that in a very few days the king will be here, with ten legions, thirty thousand horse, a hundred thousand light-armed foot, and three hundred elephants. Let none of you therefore presume to make further inquiry or indulge in conjectures, but take my word for what I tell you, which I have from undoubted intelligence. Otherwise I shall put them aboard an old crazy vessel and leave them exposed to the mercy of the winds, to be transported to some other country. He neither noticed all their transgressions, nor punished them according to strict rule, but for deserters and mutineers he made the most diligent inquiry, and their punishment was most severe. Other delinquencies he would connive at. Sometimes after a great battle ending in victory he would grant them a relaxation from all kinds of duty, and leave them to revel at pleasure, being used to boast that his soldiers fought nothing the worse for being well oiled. In his speeches he never addressed them by the title of soldiers, but by the kinder phrase of fellow soldiers, and kept them in such splendid order that their arms were ornamented with silver and gold, not merely for parade, but to render the soldiers more resolute to save them in battle and fearful of losing them. He loved his troops to such a degree that when he heard of the defeat of those under Titurius he neither cut his hair nor shaved his beard until he had revenged it upon the enemy, by which means he engaged their devoted affection and raised their valor to the highest pitch. On his entering on the Civil War the centurions of every legion offered each of them to maintain a horseman at his own expense, and the whole army agreed to serve gratis without either corn or pay, those amongst them who were rich charging themselves with the maintenance of the poor. No one of them during the whole course of the war deserted to the enemy, and many of those who were made prisoners, though they were offered their lives upon condition of bearing arms against him, refused to accept the terms. They endured want and other hardships not only when they were besieged themselves, but when they besieged others. To such a degree that Pompey, when blocked up in the neighbourhood of Dirachium, upon seeing a sort of bread made of an herb which they lived upon, said, I have to do with wild beasts, and ordered it immediately to be taken away, because if his troops should see it their spirit might be broken by perceiving the endurance and determined resolution of the enemy. With what bravery they fought one instance affords sufficient proof, which is that after an unsuccessful engagement at Dirachium they called for punishment, in so much that their general found it more necessary to comfort than to punish them. In other battles in different quarters they defeated with ease immense armies of the enemy, although they were much inferior to them in number. In short, one cohort of the sixth legion held out a fort against four legions belonging to Pompey during several hours, being almost every one of them wounded by the vast number of arrows discharged against them, and of which there were found within the ramparts a hundred and thirty thousand. This is no way surprising when we consider the conduct of some individuals amongst them, such as that of Cassius Seva, a centurion, or Gaius Acelius, a common soldier, not to speak of others. Seva, after having an eye struck out, being run through the thigh and the shoulder and having his shield pierced in an hundred and twenty places, maintained obstinately the guard of the gate of a fort with the command of which he was entrusted. Acelius, in the sea-fight at Marseilles, having seized a ship of the enemies with his right hand and that being cut off, in imitation of that memorable instance of resolution in Sinigyrus amongst the Greeks, boarded the enemy's ship, bearing down all before him with the boss of his shield. They never once mutinied during all the ten years of the Gallic War, but were sometimes refractory in the course of the Civil War. However, they always returned quickly to their duty, and that not through the indulgence, but in submission to the authority of their general, for he never yielded to them when they were insubordinate, but constantly resisted their demands. He disbanded the whole Ninth Legion with ignominy at Placentia, although Pompey was still in arms, and would not receive them again into his service until they had not only made repeated and humble entreaties, but until the ring-leaders in the mutiny were punished. When the soldiers of the Tenth Legion at Rome demanded their discharge and rewards for their service, with violent threats and no small danger to the city, although the war was then raging in Africa, he did not hesitate, contrary to the advice of his friends, to meet the Legion and disband it. But addressing them by the title of Quirites, instead of Soldiers, he by this single word so thoroughly brought them round and changed their determination that they immediately cried out they were his soldiers, and followed him to Africa, although he had refused their service. He nevertheless punished the most mutinous among them with the loss of a third of their share in the plunder, and the land destined for them. In the service of his clients, while yet a young man, he evinced great zeal and fidelity. He defended the cause of a noble youth, Massintha, against King Hiemsal, so strenuously that in a scuffle which took place upon the occasion he seized by the beard the son of King Juba, and upon Massintha's being declared tributary to Hiemsal, while the friends of the adverse party were violently carrying him off, he immediately rescued him by force, kept him concealed in his house a long time, and when, at the expiration of his pretership he went to Spain, he took him away in his litter, in the midst of his lictors bearing the fassies and others who had come to attend and take leave of him. He always treated his friends with such kindness and good nature that when Gaius Obius, in travelling with him through a forest, was suddenly taken ill, he resigned to him the only place there was to shelter them at night and lay upon the ground in the open air. When he had placed himself at the head of affairs he advanced some of his faithful adherents, though of mean extraction, to the highest offices, and when he was censured for this partiality he openly said, had I been assisted by robbers and cut-throats in the defence of my honour, I should have made them the same recompense. The resentment he entertained against any one was never so implacable that he did not very willingly renounce it when opportunity offered. Although Gaius Memius had published some extremely virulent speeches against him and he had answered him with equal acrimony, yet he afterwards assisted him with his vote and interest when he stood candidate for the consulship. When Gaius Calvus, after publishing some scandalous epigrams upon him, endeavoured to effect a reconciliation by the intercession of friends, he wrote to him of his own accord the first letter, and when Valerius Catullus, who had, as he himself observed, fixed such a stain upon his character in his verses upon Mamara as never could be obliterated, begged his pardon, he invited him to supper the same day and continued to take up his lodging with his father occasionally as he had been accustomed to do. His temper was also naturally averse to severity in retaliation. After he had captured the pirates by whom he had been taken, having sworn that he would crucify them, he did so, indeed, but he first ordered their throats to be cut. He could never bear the thought of doing any harm to Cornelius Fajitas, who had dogged him in the night when he was sick and of fugitive, with the design of carrying him to Silla, and from whose hands he had escaped with some difficulty by giving him a bribe. Philemon, his eminuences, who had promised his enemies to poison him, he put to death without torture. When he was summoned as a witness against Publius Clodius, his wife Pompey's gallant, who was prosecuted for the profanation of religious ceremonies, he declared he knew nothing of the affair, although his mother Aurelia and his sister Julia gave the court an exact and full account of the circumstances, and being asked why then he had divorced his wife, because, he said, my family should not only be free from guilt, but even from the suspicion of it. Both in his administration and his conduct towards the vanquished party in the Civil War, he showed a wonderful moderation and clemency. For while Pompey declared that he would consider those as enemies who did not take arms in defense of the Republic, he desired it to be understood that he should regard those who remained neuter as his friends. With regard to all those to whom he had on Pompey's recommendation given any command in the army, he left them at perfect liberty to go over to him if they pleased. When some proposals were made at Aileria for a surrender, which gave rise to a free communication between the two camps, and Aphranius and Patreus, upon a sudden change of resolution, had put to the sword all Caesar's men who were found in the camp, he scorned to imitate the base treachery which they had practised against himself. On the field of Farsalia he called out to the soldiers to spare their fellow citizens, and afterwards gave permission to every man in his army to save an enemy. None of them so far as appears lost their lives but in battle, accepting only Aphranius, Faustus and young Lucius Caesar, and it is thought that even they were put to death without his consent. Aphranius and Faustus had borne arms against him after obtaining their pardon, and Lucius Caesar had not only in the most cruel manner destroyed with fire and sword his freedmen and slaves, but cut to pieces the wild beasts which he had prepared for the entertainment of the people. And finally, a little before his death, he permitted all whom he had not before pardoned to return into Italy and to bear offices both civil and military. He even replaced the statues of Silla and Pompey which had been thrown down by the populace, and after this whatever was devised or uttered he chose rather to check than to punish it. Accordingly, having detected certain conspiracies and nocturnal assemblies, he went no farther than to intimate by a proclamation that he knew of them, and as to those who indulged themselves in the liberty of reflecting severely upon him, he only warned them in a public speech not to persist in their offence. He bore with great moderation a virulent libel written against him by Orla Cicina and the abusive lampoons of Pythalaus most highly reflecting on his reputation. His other words and actions, however, so far outweigh all his good qualities, that it is thought he abused his power and was justly cut off. For he not only obtained excessive honours, such as the consulship every year, the dictatorship for life and the censorship, but also the title of emperor and the surname of father of his country, besides having his statue amongst the kings and a lofty couch in the theatre. He even suffered some honours to be decreed to him which were unbefitting the most exalted of mankind, such as a gilded chair of state in the Senate House and on his tribunal, a consecrated chariot, and banners in the Cersensian procession, temples, altars, statues among the gods, a bed of state in the temples, a priest and a college of priests dedicated to himself like those of Pan, and that one of the months should be called by his name. There were indeed no honours which he did not either assume himself or grant to others at his will and pleasure. In his third and fourth consulship he used only the title of the office, being content with the power of dictator which was conferred upon him with the consulship, and in both years he substituted other consuls in his room during the three last months, so that in the intervals he held no assemblies of the people for the election of magistrates, accepting only tribunes and ediles of the people, and appointed officers under the name of prefects instead of the preters to administer the affairs of the city during his absence. The office of consul having become vacant by the sudden death of one of the consuls the day before the calends of January, the first of January, he conferred it on a person who requested it of him for a few hours. Assuming the same licence and regardless of the customs of his country, he appointed magistrates to hold their offices for terms of years. He granted the insignia of the consular dignity to ten persons of Praetorian rank. He admitted into the senate some men who had been made free of the city and even natives of Gaul who were semi-barbarians. He likewise appointed to the management of the mint and the public revenue of the state some servants of his own household, and entrusted the command of three legions which he left at Alexandria to an old catamite of his, the son of his freedman Rufinus. He was guilty of the same extravagance in the language he publicly used as Titus Ampius informs us, according to whom he said, the republic is nothing but a name without substance or reality. Silla was an ignorant fellow to abdicate the dictatorship. Men ought to consider what is becoming when they talk with me, and look upon what I say as a law. To such a pitch of arrogance did he proceed that when a soothsayer announced to him the unfavourable omen that the entrails of a victim offered for sacrifice were without a heart, he said, the entrails will be more favourable when I please, and it ought not to be regarded as a prodigy that a beast should be found wanting a heart. But what brought upon him the greatest odium, and was thought an unpardonable insult, was his receiving the whole body of the conscript father's sitting before the temple of Venus Genetrix when they waited upon him with a number of decrees conferring on him the highest dignities. Some say that on his attempting to rise he was held down by Cornelius Bulbas, others that he did not attempt to rise at all, but frowned on Gaius Tribatius who suggested to him that he should stand up to receive the senate. This behaviour appeared the more intolerable in him because when one of the tribunes of the people Pontius Aquila would not rise up to him as he passed by the tribunes seat during his triumph he was so much offended that he cried out, well then you Tribune Aquila oust me from the government, and for some days afterwards he never promised a favour to any person without this proviso if Pontus Aquila will give me leave. To this extraordinary mark of contempt for the senate he added another affront still more outrageous. For when after the sacred rites of the Latin festival he was returning home amidst the immoderate and unusual acclamations of the people a man in the crowd put a laurel crown encircled with a white fillet on one of his statues upon which the tribunes of the people Epidius Morullus and Cesaceous Flavus ordered the fillet to be removed from the crown and the man to be taken to prison. Caesar being much concerned either that the idea of royalty had been suggested to so little purpose or as was said that he was thus deprived of the merit of refusing it reprimanded the tribunes very severely and dismissed them from their office. From that day forward he was never able to wipe off the scandal of affecting the name of king although he replied to the populace when they saluted him by that title I am Caesar and no king and at the feast of the Lupa Calia when the consul Antony placed a crown upon his head in the rostra several times he as often put it away and sent it to the capital for Jupiter the best and the greatest. A report was very current that he had a design of withdrawing to Alexandria or Ilium whether he proposed to transfer the imperial power to drain Italy by new levies and to leave the government of the city to be administered by his friends. To this report it was added that in the next meeting of the senate Lucius Cotter one of the fifteen would make a motion that as there was in the Sibyline books a prophecy that the Parthians would never be subdued but by a king Caesar should have that title conferred upon him. End of Julius Caesar part four. Recording by Graham Redmond. Julius Caesar part five of the lives of the twelve Caesars by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Graham Redmond. The lives of the twelve Caesars by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. Translated by Alexander Thompson and edited by T. Forrester. Julius Caesar part five paragraphs eighty to eighty-nine. For this reason the conspirators precipitated the execution of their design that they might not be obliged to give their assent to the proposal. Instead therefore of cabaling any longer separately in small parties they now united their councils the people themselves being dissatisfied with the present state of affairs both privately and publicly condemning the tyranny under which they lived and calling on patriots to assert their cause against the usurper. Upon the admission of foreigners into the Senate a hand-bill was posted up in these words, a good deed, let no one show a new senator the way to the house. These verses were likewise currently repeated. The galls he dragged in triumph through the town Caesar has brought into the Senate House and changed their plans for the patrician gown. Gallos Caesar in triumfum duket, E. Idem in curiam, Galli brachas deposuerant, Lartum clavum sumserant. When Quintus Maximus, who had been his deputy in the consulship for the last three months, entered the theatre and the lictor, according to custom, bid the people take notice who was coming they all cried out, he is no consul. After the removal of Caesaceus and Morales from their office they were found to have a great many votes at the next election of consuls. Someone wrote under the statue of Lucius Brutus, would you were now alive? And under the statue of Caesar himself these lines. Because he drove from Rome the royal race Brutus was first made consul in their place. This man, because he put the consuls down, has been rewarded with a royal crown. Brutus, Queer Reges, a yekitt, consul Primus, factus est. Heek, Queer Consul, a yekitt, Rex, postremo factus est. About sixty persons were engaged in the conspiracy against him, of whom Caesaceus and Marcus and Decimus Brutus were the chief. It was at first debated amongst them whether they should attack him in the campus marshes when he was taking the votes of the tribes, and some of them should throw him off the bridge whilst others should be ready to stab him upon his fall, or else in the via sacra or at the entrance of the theatre. But after public notice had been given by proclamation for the senate to assemble upon the aides of March, the fifteenth of March, in the senate house built by Pompey, they approved both of the time and place as most fitting for their purpose. Caesar had warning given him of his fate by indubitable omens. A few months before, when the colonists settled at Capua by virtue of the Julian law, were demolishing some old sepulchres in building country houses, and were the more eager at the work because they discovered certain vessels of antique workmanship, a tablet of brass was found in a tomb in which Capus, the founder of Capua, was said to have been buried, with an inscription in the Greek language to this effect. Whenever the bones of Capus come to be discovered, a descendant of Iulus will be slain by the hands of his kinsmen, and his death revenged by fearful disasters throughout Italy. Lest any person should regard this anecdote as a fabulous or silly invention, it was circulated upon the authority of Gaius Balbus, an intimate friend of Caesar's. A few days likewise before his death, he was informed that the horses, which upon his crossing the Rubicon he had consecrated and turned loose to graze without a keeper, abstained entirely from eating, and shed floods of tears. The soothsayer, Spurina, observing certain ominous appearances in a sacrifice which he was offering, advised him to beware of some danger which threatened to befall him before the Ides of March were passed. The day before the Ides, birds of various kinds from a neighbouring grove, pursuing a wren which flew into Pompey's Senate house with a sprig of laurel in its beak, tore it in pieces. Also in the night on which the day of his murder dawned, he dreamt at one time that he was soaring above the clouds, and at another that he had joined hands with Jupiter. His wife, Calpurnia, fancied in her sleep that the pediment of the house was falling down, and her husband stabbed on her bosom, immediately upon which the chamber doors flew open. On account of these omens, as well as his infirm health, he was in some doubt whether he should not remain at home, and defer to some other opportunity the business which he intended to propose to the Senate. But Decimus Brutus advising him not to disappoint the Senators, who were numerously assembled and waited his coming, he was prevailed upon to go, and accordingly set forward about the fifth hour. In his way, some person having thrust into his hand a paper warning him against the plot, he mixed it with some other documents which he held in his left hand, intending to read it at leisure. Victim after victim was slain without any favourable appearances in the entrails. But still, disregarding all omens, he entered the Senate House, laughing at Spurina as a false prophet, because the aides of March were come without any mischief having befallen him, to which the soothsayer replied, They are come indeed, but not past. When he had taken his seat, the conspirators stood round him under colour of paying their compliments, and immediately Tullius Simba, who had engaged to commence the assault, advancing nearer than the rest, as if he had some favour to request, Caesar made signs that he should defer his petition to some other time. Tullius immediately seized him by the toga on both shoulders, at which Caesar crying out, Violence is meant, one of the Cassi'i wounded him a little below the throat. Caesar seized him by the arm and ran it through with his styly, and, endeavouring to rush forward, was stopped by another wound. Finding himself now attacked on all hands with naked eyes, Caesar began to pull hands with naked poignards, he wrapped the toga about his head, and at the same moment drew the skirt round his legs with his left hand, that he might fall more decently with the lower part of his body covered. He was stabbed with three and twenty wounds, uttering a groan only but no cry at the first wound, although some authors relate that when Marcus Brutus fell upon him he exclaimed, Prot, art thou to one of them, thou my son. The whole assembly instantly dispersing, he lay for some time after he expired until three of his slaves laid the body on a litter and carried it home with one arm hanging down over the side. Among so many wounds there was none that was mortal, in the opinion of the surgeon Antistias, except the second which he received in the breast. The conspirators meant to drag his body into the tiber as soon as they had killed him to confiscate his estate and rescind all his enactments, but they were deterred by fear of Mark Antony and Lepidus Caesar's master of the horse, and abandoned their intentions. At the instance of Lucius Piso, his father-in-law, his will was opened and read in Mark Antony's house. He had made it on the ides, the thirteenth, of the preceding September, at his Lavican villa, and committed it to the custody of the chief of the Vestal Virgins. Quintus Tubero informs us that in all the wills he had signed from the time of his first consulship to the breaking out of the Civil War, Cnius Pompey was appointed his heir, and that this had been publicly notified to the army. But in his last will he named three heirs, the sons of his sisters, namely Gaius Octavius for three fourths of his estate, and Lucius Pinarius and Quintus Pedius for the remaining fourth. Other heirs in remainder were named at the close of the will, in which he also adopted Gaius Octavius, who was to assume his name into his family, and nominated most of those who were concerned in his death among the guardians of his son if he should have any, as well as Decimus Brutus amongst his heirs of the second order. He bequeathed to the Roman people his gardens near the Tiber and three hundred sistercies each man. Notice of his funeral having been solemnly proclaimed, a pile was erected in the campus marshes near the tomb of his daughter Julia, and before the rostro was placed a gilded tabernacle on the model of the temple of Venus Genetrix, within which was an ivory bed covered with purple and cloth of gold. At the head was a trophy with the blood-stained robe in which he was slain. It being considered that the whole day would not suffice for carrying funeral oblations in solemn procession before the corpse, directions were given for every one, without regard to order, to carry them from the city into the campus marshes by what way they pleased. To raise pity and indignation for his murder, in the place acted at the funeral, a passage was sung from Percuvius' tragedy entitled The Trial for Arms. That ever I, unhappy man, should save wretches, who thus have brought me to the grave. And some lines also from Attilius' tragedy of Electra to the same effect. Instead of a funeral panigeric, the Consul Antony ordered a herald to proclaim to the people the decree of the Senate in which they had bestowed upon him all honors, divine and human, with the oath by which they had engaged themselves for the defense of his person, and to these he added only a few words of his own. The magistrates and others who had formerly filled the highest offices carried the beer from the rostra into the forum. While some proposed that the body should be burnt in the sanctuary of the temple of Captain Linus, and others in Pompey's Senate House, on a sudden two men with swords by their sides and spears in their hands set fire to the beer with lighted torches. The throng around immediately heaped upon it dry faggots, the tribunals and benches of the adjoining courts, and whatever else came to hand. Then the musicians and players stripped off the dresses they wore on the present occasion, taken from the wardrobe of his triumph at spectacles, rent them and threw them into the flames. The legionaries also of his veteran bands cast in their armor which they had put on in honour of his funeral. Most of the ladies did the same by their ornaments, with the bully and mantles of their children. In this public morning there joined a multitude of foreigners, expressing their sorrow according to the fashion of their respective countries, but especially the Jews, who for several nights together frequented the spot where the body was burnt. The populace ran from the funeral with torches in their hands to the houses of Brutus and Cassius, and were repelled with difficulty. Going in quest of Cornelius' sinner, who had in a speech the day before reflected severely upon Caesar, and mistaking for him hellvious sinner, who happened to fall into their hands, they murdered the latter and carried his head about the city on the point of a spear. They afterwards erected in the forum a column of Numidian marble formed of one stone nearly twenty feet high, and inscribed upon it these words, to the father of his country. At this column they continued for a long time to offer sacrifices, make vows, and decide controversies in which they swore by Caesar. Some of Caesar's friends entertained a suspicion that he neither desired nor cared to live any longer on account of his declining health, and for that reason slighted all the omens of religion and the warnings of his friends. Others out of opinion that thinking himself secure in the late degree of the Senate and their oaths, he dismissed his Spanish guards who attended him with drawn swords. Others again supposed that he chose rather to face at once the dangers which threatened him on all sides than to be forever on the watch against them. Some tell us that he used to say the Commonwealth was more interested in the safety of his person than himself, for that he had for some time been satiated with power and glory, but that the Commonwealth, if anything should befall him, would have no rest and, involved in another civil war, would be in a worse state than before. This, however, was generally admitted that his death was in many respects such as he would have chosen. For upon reading the account delivered by Xenophon, how Cyrus in his last illness gave instructions respecting his funeral, Caesar deprecated a lingering death and wished that his own might be sudden and speedy. And the day before he died, the conversation at supper in the house of Marcus Lepidus, turning upon what was the most eligible way of dying, he gave his opinion in favour of a death that is sudden and unexpected. He died in the 56th year of his age and was ranked amongst the gods, not only by a formal decree, but in the belief of the vulgar. For during the first games which Augustus his heir consecrated to his memory, a comet blazed for seven days together, rising always about eleven o'clock, and it was supposed to be the soul of Caesar now received into heaven, for which reason likewise he is represented on his statue with a star on his brow. The Senate house in which he was slain was ordered to be shut up, and a decree made that the Ides of March should be called parisidal, and the Senate should never more assemble on that day. Scarcely any of those who were accessory to his murder survived him more than three years, or died a natural death. They were all condemned by the Senate. Some were taken off by one accident, some by another. Part of them perished at sea, others fell in battle, and some slew themselves with the same pognard with which they had stabbed Caesar. End of Julius Caesar Recording by Graham Redmond Caesar Augustus, part one, paragraph one through seventeen, that the family of the Octavii, was of the first distinction in Velotri, is rendered evident by many circumstances. For in the most frequented part of the town there was, not long since, a street named the Octavian, and an altar was to be seen consecrated to one Octavius, who being appointed general in a war with some neighboring people. The enemy making a sudden attack while he was sacrificing to Mars, he immediately snatched the entrails of the victim from off the fire, and offered them half-raw upon the altar, after which, marching off to battle, he returned victorious. This incident gave rise to a law, by which it was enacted, that in all future times the entrails should be offered to Mars in the same manner, and the rest of the victim should be carried to the Octavii. This family, as well as several in Rome, was admitted to the senate by Tarquinius Priscus, and afterwards placed by Cervius Tullius among the patricians, but in process of time it transferred itself to the plebeian order, and, after the lapse of a long interval, was restored by Julius Caesar to the rank of patricians. The first person of the family raised by the suffrages of the people to the magistracy was Gaius Rufus. He obtained the quister ship, and had two sons, Neus and Gaius, from whom are descended the two branches of the Octavian family, which have had very different fortunes. For Neus and his descendants, and uninterrupted secession, held all the highest offices of the state. Willst, Gaius, and his posterity, whether from their circumstances or their choice, remained in the equestrian order until the father of Augustus. The great grandfather of Augustus served as a military tribune in the Second Punic War in Sicily under the command of Amelius Papus. His grandfather contented himself with bearing the public offices of his own municipality, and grew old in the tranquil enjoyment of an ample patrimony, such as the account given by different authors. Augustus himself, however, tells us nothing more than he was descended of an equestrian family, both ancient and rich, of which his father was the first to obtain the rank of a senator. Mark Antony operatingly tells him that his great-grandfather was a freedman of the territory of Thermium, and a rope-maker, and his grandfather a usurer. This is all the information I have anywhere met with, respecting the ancestors of Augustus by his father's side. His father, Gaius Octavius, was, from his earliest years, a person both of opulence and distinction, for which reason I am surprised at those who say he was a money-dealer, and was employed in scattering bribes and canvassing for the candidates at elections in the campus marshes. For being bred up in all the affluence of a great estate, he obtained with ease to honorable posts, and discharged the duties of them with much distinction. After his pritorship, he obtained by lot the province of Macedonia, in his way to which he cut off some of the Banditi, the relics of the armies of Spartacus and Catalan, who had possessed themselves of the territory of Thurium, having received from the Senate an extraordinary commission for that purpose. In his government of the province, he conducted himself with equal justice and resolution, for he defeated the Bessians and Thracians in a great battle, and treated the allies of the Republic in such a manner that there are extant letters from Marcus Tullius Cicero, in which he advises and exhorts his brother Quintus, who then held the proconsulship of Asia with no great reputation, to imitate the example of his neighbor Octavius in gaining the affections of the allies of Rome. After quitting Macedonia before he could declare himself a candidate for the consulship, he died suddenly, leaving behind him a daughter, the elder Octavia, by Ancarea, and another daughter, Octavia the Younger, as well as Augustus by Atia, who was the daughter of Marcus Atius Balbus and Julia, sister to Gaius Julius Caesar. Balbus was by the father's side of a family who were natives of Arichia, and many of whom had been in the Senate. By the mother's side, he was nearly related to Pompey the Great, and after he had born the office of Praetor was one of the twenty commissioners appointed by the Julian Law to divide the land in Campania among the people. But Mark Antony, treating with contempt, Augustus' descent, even by his mother's side, says that his great grandfather was of African descent, and had one time kept a perfumer's shop, and had another a bakehouse in Arichia. In Cassius, a parma, and a letter, taxes Augustus with being the son not only of a baker, but a usurer. These are his words. Thou art a lump of thy mother's meal, which a money changer of narrowlum taking from the newest bakehouse of Arichia needed into some shape with his hands all discolored by the fingering of money. Augustus was born in the consulship of Marcus Tullius Cicero in Gaius Antonius. Upon the ninth of the Callens of October, 23rd September, a little before sunrise, in the quarter of the Palatine Hill and the street called the Oxheads, where now stands a chapel dedicated to him, and built a little after his death. For, as it is recorded in the proceedings of the Senate, when Gaius Lytorius, a young man of patrician family, impleding before the Senators for a Lytor sentence, upon being convicted of adultery, alleged, besides his youth and quality, that he was the possessor, and as it were the guardian of the ground which the divine Augustus first touched upon coming into the world, and entreated that he might find favor for the sake of that deity, who was in a peculiar manner his, an act of the Senate was passed for the consecration of that part of his house in which Augustus was born. His nursery is shown to this day, in a villa belonging to the family, in the suburbs of Evelitry, being a very small place and much like a pantry. An opinion prevails in the neighborhood that he was also born there. Into this place no person presumes to enter, unless upon necessity, and with great devotion, from a belief for a long time prevalent, that such as rashly enter it are seized with great horror and consternation, which a short time since was confirmed by a remarkable incident. For when a new inhabitant of the house had, either by mere chance, or to try the truth of the report, taken up his lodging in that apartment, in the course of the night, a few hours afterwards, he was thrown out by some sudden violence. He knew not how, and was found in a state of stupefaction with a cover lid for his bed before the door of the chamber. While he was yet an infant, the surname of Thuronus was given him, in memory of the birthplace of his family, or because soon after he was born, his father Octavius had been successful against the fugitive slaves in the country near Thurium. That he was surname Thuronus, I can affirm upon good foundation, for when a boy, I had a small bronze statue of him, with that name upon it in iron letters, nearly effaced by age, which I presented to the emperor, by whom it is now revered amongst the other tutular deities in his chamber. He is also often called Thuronus contemptuously by Mark Antony in his letters, to which he makes only this reply. I am surprised that my former name should be made a subject of reproach. He afterwards assumed the name of Gaius Caesar, and then of Augustus, the former in compliance with the will of his great-uncle, and the latter upon the motion of Munatius Plancus in the senate, for when some proposed to confer upon him the Thuronus as being, in a manner, a second founder of the city, it was resolved that he should rather be called Augustus, a surname not only new, but of more dignity, because places devoted to religion, and those in which anything is consecrated by augury, are denominated August, either from the word octus, signifying augmentation, or ab avium gestu, gestuve, from the flight and feeding of birds, as appears from this verse of Enius, when glorious Rome, by August augury, was built. He lost his father when he was only four years of age, and, in his twelfth year, pronounced a funeral oration in praise of his grandmother, Julia. Four years afterwards, having assumed the robe of manhood, he was honored with several military rewards by Caesar and his African triumph, although he took no part in the war on account of his youth. Upon his uncle's expedition to Spain, against the sons of Pompey, he was followed by his nephew, although he was scarcely recovered from a dangerous sickness, and after being shipwrecked at sea, and traveling with very few attendants through roads that were infested with the enemy, he at last came up with him. This activity gave great satisfaction to his uncle, who soon conceived an increasing affection for him on account of such indications of character. After the subjugation of Spain, while Caesar was meditating an expedition against the Dacians and Parthians, he was sent before him to Apollonia, where he applied himself to his studies, until receiving intelligence that his uncle was murdered, and that he was appointed his heir. He hesitated from some time whether he should call to his aid the legions stationed in the neighborhood, but he abandoned the design as rash and premature. However, returning to Rome, he took possession of his inheritance, although his mother was apprehensive, that such a measure might be attended with danger, and his stepfather, Marcius Philippus, a man of consular rank, very earnestly dissuaded him from it. From this time, collecting together a strong military force, he first held the government in conjunction with Mark Antony and Marcus Lepidus, then with Antony only for nearly twelve years, and at last in his own hands during a period of four and forty. Having thus given a very short summary of his life, I shall prosecute the several parts of it, not in order of time, but arranging his acts into distinct classes for the sake of purposequity. He was engaged in five civil wars, namely those of Modena, Philippi, Perugia, Sicily, and Actium, the first and last of which were against Antony, the second against Brutus and Cassius, the third against Lucius Antonius, the Triamvir's brother, and the fourth against Sextus Pompeius, the son of Nias Pompeius. The motive which gave rise to all these wars was the opinion he entertained that both his honor and interest were concerned in revenging the murder of his uncle, and maintaining the state of affairs he had established. Immediately after his return from Apollonia, he formed the design of taking forcible and unexpected measures against Brutus and Cassius. But they, having foreseen the danger and made their escape, he resolved to proceed against them by an appeal to the laws in their absence and impeach them for the murder. In the meantime, those whose province it was to prepare the sports in honor of Caesar's last victory in the civil war, not daring to do it, he undertook it himself, and that he might carry into effect his other designs with greater authority. He declared himself a candidate in the room of the people, who happened to die at that time, although he was of a patrician family and had not yet been in the senate. But the consul Mark Antony, from whom he had expected the greatest assistance, opposing him in his suit and even refusing to do him so much as common justice, unless gratified with a large bribe. He went over to the party of the nobles, to whom he perceived Silla to be odious, chiefly for endeavoring to drive Diceus Brutus, whom he had besieged in the town of Modena, out of the province, which had been given him by Caesar and confirmed to him by the senate. At the instigation of persons about him, and he engaged some ruffians to murder his antagonist, but the plot being discovered, and dreading a similar attempt upon himself, he gained over Caesar's veteran soldiers, by distributing among them all the money he could collect. Being now commissioned by the senate to command the troops of Rytor and in conjunction with Horsius and Ponsa, who had accepted the consulship, to carry the assistance to Diceus Brutus, he put an end to the war by two battles in three months. Antony writes that in the former of these he ran away, and two days afterwards made his appearance without his general's cloak in his horse. In the last battle, however, it is certain that he performed the part not only of a general, but a soldier, for in the heat of terror bearer of his legion was severely wounded, he took the eagle upon his shoulders and carried it a long time. In this war, Horsius being slain in battle, and Ponsa dying a short time afterwards of a wound, a report was circulated that they both were killed through his means. In order that, when Antony fled, the Republic having lost its consuls, he might have the victorious armies entirely at his own command. The death of Ponsa was so fully proved to have been caused by undue means that Glyco, his surgeon, was placed in custody on a suspicion of having poisoned his wound, and to this, Aquilius Niger adds that he killed Horsius, the other consul, in the confusion of the battle with his own hands. But upon intelligence that Antony, after his defeat, had been received by Marcus Lepidus, and the rest of the generals and armies had all declared for the senate, he, without any hesitation, deserted the nobles, alleging as an excuse for his conduct the actions and sayings of several amongst them, for some said he was a mere boy, others, throughout, that he ought to be promoted to honors and cut off, to avoid making any suitable acknowledgement either to him or to the veteran legions. And the more to testify his regret for having before attached himself to the other faction, he fined the nursinge in a large sum which they were unable to pay, and then expelled them from the town for having inscribed upon a monument erected at the public charge to their countrymen who were slain in the battle of Modena, that they all fell in the cause of liberty. Having entered into a conference with Antony and Lepidus, he brought the war at Philippi to an end in two battles, although he was at that time weak and suffering from sickness. In the first battle he was driven by some difficulty made his escape to the wing of the army commanded by Antony. And now, intoxicated with success, he sent the head of Brutus to be cast at the floor of Caesar's statue, and treated the most illustrious of the prisoners not only with cruelty, but with abusive language, in so much as he is said to have answered one of them who humbly entreated that at least he might not remain unburied. That will be in the power of the birds. Two others, father and son, who begged for their lives, he ordered to cast lots, which of them should live, or to settle it between themselves by the sword, and was the spectator of both their deaths. For the father, offering his life to save his son, and being accordingly executed, the son likewise killed himself upon the spot. On this account, the rest of the prisoners, and among them Marcus Favonius, Cato's rival, being led up in fetters after they had saluted Antony, the general, with much respect, reviled Octavius in the foulest language. After this victory, dividing between them the offices of the state, Mark Antony undertook to restore the order in the east, while Caesar conducted the veteran soldiers back to Italy, and settled them in colonies on the lands belonging to the municipalities. But he had the misfortune to please neither the soldiers nor the owners of the lands, one party complaining of the injustice done and being violently ejected from their possessions, and the other that they were not rewarded according to their merit. At this time he obliged Lucius Antony, who, presuming upon his own authority as consul, and his brother's power was raising new commotions to fly to Perugia and forced him by famine to surrender at last, although not without having been exposed to great hazards both before the war and during its continuance. For a common soldier having got into the seats of the equestrian order and the theater at the public spectacles, Caesar ordered him to be removed by an officer and a rumor being thus spread by his enemies that he had put the man to death by torture. The soldiers flocked together so much enraged that he narrowly escaped with his life. The only thing that saved him was the sudden appearance of the man, safe and sound, no violence having been offered him. And whilst he was sacrificing under the walls of Perugia he nearly fell into the hands of a body of gladiators who sallied out of the town. After taking Perugia, he sentenced a great number of prisoners to death, making only one reply to all who employed pardon or endeavored to excuse themselves, you must die. Some authors write that 300 of the two orders selected from the rest were slaughtered like victims before an altar raised to Julius Caesar upon the Ides of March. Nay, there are some who relate that he entered upon the war with no other view than that his secret enemies and those whom fear more than affection kept quiet might be detected by declaring themselves now that they had an opportunity with Lucius Antony at their head and that having defeated them and confiscated their estates he might be enabled to fulfill his promises to the veteran soldiers. He soon commenced the Sicilian war, but it was protracted by various delays during a long period, at one time for the purpose of repairing his fleets, which he twice lost by storm, even in the summer, and another while patching up a piece to which he was forced by the clamors of the people in consequence of a famine occasioned by pompays cutting off the supply of corn by sea. But at last, having built the new fleet and obtained 20,000 manumitted slaves who were given him for the oar, he formed the Julian Harbour at Ba'i'i by letting the sea into the Lucrine and Avernian Lakes, and having exercised his forces there during the whole winter, he defeated Pompey, Betwixt, Myli, and Nautilus. Although, just as the engagement commenced he suddenly fell into such a profound sleep that his friends were obliged to wake him to give the signal. This, I suppose, gave occasion for Antony's reproach. You were not better able to take a clear look at the fleet when drawn up in a line of battle but lay stupidly upon your back, gazing up at the sky, nor did you get up and let your men see you until Marcus Agrippa had forced the enemy's ships to shear off. Others imputed to him both a saying and an action, which were indefensible, for upon the loss of his fleets by storm he is reported to have said I will conquer in spite of Neptune. And at the next Circassian games he did not suffer the statue of that god to be carried in procession as usual. Indeed, he scarcely ever ran more or greater risks in any of his wars than in this. Having transported part of his army to Sicily and being on his return for the rest he was unexpectedly attacked by Demarcus and Apollophonus, Pompey's admirals from whom he escaped with great difficulty and with one ship only. Likewise, as he was traveling on foot through the Locrian territory to Regium seeing two of Pompey's vessels passing by that coast and supposing them to be on his own he went down to the shore and was very nearly taken prisoner. On this occasion, as he was making his escape by some byways a slave belonging to Aemilius Paulus who accompanying him owing him a grudge for the prescription of Paulus the father of Aemilius and thinking he had now the opportunity of revenging it, attempted to assassinate him. After the defeat of Pompey one of his colleagues, Marcus Lepidus whom he had summoned to his aid from Africa affecting great superiority because he was at the head of twenty legions and claiming for himself the principal management of affairs in a threatening manner he divested him of his command but upon his humble submission granted him his life but banished him for life to Circayi. The alliance between him and Antony which had always been precarious often interrupted and ill cemented by repeated reconciliations he at last entirely dissolved and to make it known to the world how far Antony had degenerated from patriotic feelings he caused a will of his which had been left at Rome in which he had nominated Cleopatra's children amongst others as his heirs to be opened and read in an assembly of the people yet upon his being declared an enemy he sent to him all his relations and friends among whom were Gaius Socius and Titus Domitius at that time consuls he likewise spoke favorably in public of the people of Bologna for joining in the association with the rest of Italy to support his cause because they had in formal times been under the protection of the family of the Antony E and not long afterwards he defeated him in a naval engagement near Actium which was prolonged to so late that after the victory he was obliged to sleep on board his ship from Actium he went to the Isle of Samoa to winter but being alarmed with the accounts of a mutiny amongst the soldiers he had selected from the main body of his army sent to Brundizium after the victory who insisted on their being rewarded for their service and discharged he returned to Italy in his passage Thither he encountered two violent storms the first being between the armies of Peloponnesius and Itolea and the other about their Corralian mountains in both of which a part of his Lepurian squadron was sunk the spars and riggings of his own ships carried away and the rudder broken in pieces he remained only 27 days at Brundizium until the demands of the soldiers were settled and then went by way of Asia and Syria to Egypt where laying siege to Alexandria wither Antony had fled with Cleopatra he made himself master of it in a short time he drove Antony to kill himself after he had used every effort to obtain conditions of peace and he saw his corpse Cleopatra he anxiously wished to save for his triumph and when she was supposed to have been bit to death by an asp he sent for the Sile to endeavor to suck out the poison he allowed them to be buried together and ordered a mausoleum begun by themselves to be completed the eldest of Antony's two sons by fovea he commanded to be taken from the statue of Julius Caesar to which he had fled after many fruitless supplications for his life and put him to death the same fate attended Cisario Cleopatra's son by Caesar as he pretended who had fled for his life what was retaken the children which Antony had by Cleopatra he saved and brought up and cherished in a matter suitable to their rank just as if they had been his own relations end of Caesar Augustus part 1 Caesar Augustus part 2 of the lives of the 12 Caesars by Gaius Suetonius Tranquilus this is the Librivox recording all Librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Librivox.org the lives of the 12 Caesars by Gaius Suetonius Tranquilus translated by Alexander Thompson and edited by T. Forester Caesar Augustus part 2 paragraphs 18 through 32 at this time he had a desire to see the sarcophagus and body of Alexander the Great which for that purpose were taken out of the cell in which they rested and after viewing them for some time he paid honors to the memory of that prince by offering a golden crown and scattering flowers upon the body being asked if he wished to see the tombs of the Ptolemies also he replied, I wish to see a king not dead men he reduced Egypt into the form of a province and to render it more fertile and more capable of supplying Rome with corn he employed his army to scour the canals into which the Nile upon its rise discharges itself but which during a long series of years had become nearly choked up with mud to perpetuate the glory of his victory at Actium he built the city of Neucopolis on that part of the coast and established games to be celebrated there every five years enlarging likewise an old temple of Apollo he ornamented with naval trophies the spot on which he pitched his camp and consecrated it to Neptune and Mars he afterwards quashed several tumults and insurrections as well as several conspiracies which were discovered by the Confession of Accomplices before they were ripe for execution and others subsequently such were those of the younger Lepidus Avaro Morina and Fanius Capio that of Marcus Ignatius and afterwards of Plautius Rufus and of Lucius Paulus his granddaughter's husband and besides these another of Lucius Alsadius an old feeble man under prosecution for forgery and also of Asinius Epicatus a Parthenian mongrel and at last that of Telfus a ladies prompter for he was in danger of his life from the plots and conspiracies of some of the lowest of the people against him Alsadius and Epicatus had formed the design of carrying off to the armies his daughter Julia and his grandson Agrippa from the islands in which they were confined Telfus wildly dreaming that the government was destined to him by the fates proposed to fall both upon Octavius and the Senate Ney once a soldier's servant belonging to the army in Illyricum having passed the porters unobserved was found in the night time standing before his chamber door armed with a hunting dagger whether the person was really disordered in the head or only counterfeited madness is uncertain for no confession was obtained from him by torture he conducted in person only two foreign wars the Dalmatian whilst he was but a youth and after Antony's final defeat the Cantabrian he was wounded in the former of these wars in one battle he received a contusion in the right knee from a stone in another he was much hurt in one leg in both arms by the fall of the fridge his other wars he carried on by his lieutenants but occasionally visited the army Panonia in Germany or remained no great distance proceeding from Rome as far as Revena Milan or Aquialia he conquered however partly in person and partly by his lieutenants Cantabria Aquitania and Panonia Dalmatia with all Illyricum and Racia besides the two Alpine nations the Vendaliki and the Salisi he also checked the incursions of the Dacians by cutting off the generals with vast armies and drove the Germans beyond the river Elba removing two other tribes who submitted the Ubi'i and Sikambri into Gaul and settling them into the country bordering on the Rhine other nations also which broke into revolt he reduced to submission but he never made war upon any nation without just and necessary cause and so far from being ambitious either to extend the empire or advance his own military glory and that he obliged the chiefs of some barbarous tribes to swear in the temple of Mars the Avenger that they would faithfully observe their engagements and not violate the peace which they had implored if some he demanded a new description of hostages their women having found from experience that they cared little for their men when given as hostages but he always afforded them the means of getting back their hostages whenever they wished it even those who engaged most frequently in the greatest perfidy in their rebellion he never punished more severely than by selling their captives on the terms of their not serving in any neighboring country nor being released from their slavery before the expiration of 30 years by the character which he thus acquired for virtue and moderation he induced even the Indians and Scythians nations before known to the Romans by report only to solicit his friendship the Parthians readily allowed his claim to Armenia restoring at his demand the standards which had been taken from Marcus Crassus and Mark Antony and offering him hostages besides afterwards when a contest arose between several pretenders to the crown of that kingdom they refused to acknowledge anyone who was not chosen by him the temple of Janus Quirinus which had been shut twice only from the era of the building of the city to his own time he closed thrice in a much shorter period having established universal peace both by sea and land he twice entered the city with the honors of innovation namely after the war of Philippi and again after that of Sicily he also had three curile triumphs for his several victories in Dalmatia and Actium and Alexandria each of which lasted three days in all his wars he never received any signal or ignominious defeat except twice in Germany under his lieutenants under his lieutenants Lolius and Varus the former indeed had it more of dishonor than disaster but that of Varus threatened the security of the empire itself three legions with the commander his lieutenants and all the exhilaries being cut off upon receiving intelligence of this disaster he made a vow for keeping a strict watch over the city to prevent any public disturbance and prolong the appointments of the prefects in the provinces that the allies might be kept in order by experience of persons to whom they were used he made a vow to celebrate the great games in honor of Jupiter Optimus Maximus if he would be pleased to restore the state to more prosperous circumstances this had formerly been resorted to in the Cochimbrian and Marcian Wars in short we are informed that he was in such consternation at this event that he let the hair of his head and beard grow for several months and sometimes knocked his head against the doorpost crying out oh Quintilius Varus give me back my legions and ever after he observed the anniversary of this calamity as a day of sorrow and mourning in military affairs he made many alterations introducing some practices entirely new and driving others which had become obsolete he maintained the strictest discipline among the troops and would not allow even his lieutenants the liberty to visit their wives except reluctantly and in the winter season only a Roman knight having cut off the thumbs of his two young sons to render them incapable of serving in the wars he exposed both him and his estate to public sale but upon observing the farmers of the revenue very greedy for the purchase of the free men of his own that he might send him into the country and suffer him to retain his freedom the 10th legion becoming mutinous he disbanded it with ignominy and did the same by some others which petulantly demanded their discharge withholding from them rewards usually bestowed on those who had served their stated time in the wars the cohorts which yielded their ground in time of action he decimated and fed with barley centurions as well as common sentinels who deserted their posts when on guard he punished with death for other misdemeanors he inflicted upon them various kinds of disgrace such as obliging them to stand all day before the praetorium sometimes in their tunics only and without their belts and sometimes to carry poles 10 feet long or sods of turf after the conclusion of the civil wars he never in any of his military harangues or proclamations addressed him by the title of fellow soldiers but as soldiers only nor would he suffer them to be otherwise called by his sons or steppesons when they were in command judging the former epithet to convey the idea of a degree of condescension inconsistent with military discipline the maintenance of order and his own majesty and that of his house unless at Rome in case of incendiary fires or under the apprehension of public disturbances during a scarcity of provisions he never employed in his army slaves who had been made freedmen except on two occasions on one for the security of the colonies bordering upon a lyricum and on the other to guard the banks of the Rhine although he obliged persons of fortune both male and female to give up their slaves and they received their manumission at once yet he kept them together under their own standard unmixed with soldiers who were better born likewise after different fashion military rewards such as trappings, collars and other decorations of gold and silver he distributed more readily than camp or mural crowns which were reckoned more honorable than the former these he bestowed sparingly without partiality and frequently even on common soldiers he presented Marcus Agrippa after the naval engagement in the Sicilian war with a sea green banner those who shared in the honors of a triumph although they had attended him in his expeditions and had taken part in his victories he judged it improper to distinguish by the usual rewards for service because they had to write themselves to grant such rewards to whom they pleased he thought nothing more derogatory to the character of an accomplished general than precipitancy and rashness on which account he had frequently in his mouth these proverbs speud ebladios he ascended slowly and and the cautious captains better than the bold and that is done fast enough which is done well enough he was want to say also that a battle or a war ought never to be undertaken unless the prospect of gain over balance the fear of loss for said he men who pursue small advantages with no small hazard resemble those who fish with a golden hook the loss of which, if the line should happen to break, can never be compensated by all the fish they might take he was advanced to public offices before the age at which he was legally qualified for them and to some also of a new kind and for life he seized the consulship in the 20th year of his age, quartering his legions in a manner near the city and sending deputies to demand it for him in the name of the army when the senate demurred a centurion named Cornelius who was at the head of the chief deputation throwing back his cloak and showing the hilt of his sword had the presumption to say in the senate house this will make him consul if you will not his second consulship he filled nine years afterwards his third after the interval of his office every year successively until the 11th from this period although the consulship was frequently offered him he always declined it until after a long interval not less than 17 years he voluntarily stood for the 12th in two years after that for a 13th that he might successively introduce into the forum on their entering public life his two sons Gaius and Lucius while he was invested with the highest office in the state in his five consulships from the 6th to the 11th he continued in office throughout the year but in the rest during only nine, six, four or three months and in his second no more than a few hours for having sat for a short time in the morning upon the callons of January in his curile chair before the temple of Jupiter capitalinus he abdicated his office and substituted another in his room nor did he enter upon them all at Rome but upon the 4th in Asia the 5th in the Isle of Samos in the 8th and 9th in Terragona during ten years he acted as one of the triumvirate for settling the commonwealth in which office he for some time opposed his colleagues in their design of a prescription but after it was begun he prosecuted it with more determined rigor than either of them for whilst they were often prevailed upon by the interest and intercession of friends to show mercy he alone strongly insisted that no one should be spared and even proscribed Gaius Teranius his guardian who had been formally the colleague of his father Octavius in the Edileship Junius Saturninus adds this further account of him that when after the prescription was over Marcus Lepidus made an apology in the senate for their past proceedings and gave them hopes of a more mild administration he on the other hand declared that the only limit he had fixed the prescription was that he should be free to act as he pleased afterwards however repenting of his severity he advanced Titus Vinius Philippo Aemon to the equestrian rank for having concealed his patron at the time when he was prescribed in the same office he incurred great odium upon many accounts for as he was one day making an harang observing among the soldiers Panarius a Roman knight admit some private citizens and engaged in taking notes he ordered him to be stabbed before his eyes as a busy body and a spy upon him he was so terrified in his menaces Titus offer the consul elect for having reflected upon some actions of his that he threw himself from a great height and died on the spot and when Quintus Galeus the praetor came to compliment him and not yet venturing to make a search came to compliment him with a double tablet under his cloak suspecting that it was a sword he had concealed and not yet venturing to make a search lest it should be found to be something else he caused him to be dragged from his tribunal by centurions and soldiers and tortured like a slave and although he made no confession ordered him to be put to death after he had with his own hands plucked out his eyes his own account of the matter however it is that Quintus Galeus sought a private conference with him for the purpose of assassinating him that he therefore put him in prison but afterwards released him and banished him from the city when he had perished either in a storm at sea or by falling into the hands of robbers he twice entertained thoughts of restoring the republic first immediately after he had crushed Antony remembering that he had often charged him with being an obstacle to its restoration the second time was a consequence of a long illness when he sent for the magistrates in the senate to his own house and delivered them a particular account of the state of the empire but reflecting at the same time that it would be both hazardous to himself to return to the condition of a private person and might be dangerous to the public to have the government placed again under the control of the people he resolved to keep it in his own hands whether with the better event is hard to say his good intentions he often affirmed in private discourse and also published an edict in which it was declared in the following terms may it be permitted me to have the happiness of establishing the commonwealth on a safe and sound basis and thus enjoy the reward of which I am ambitious that of being celebrated from molding it into the form best adapted to present circumstances so that on my leaving the world I may carry with me the hope that the foundations which I have laid for its future government will stand firm and stable the city which was not built in a manner suitable to the grandeur of the empire and was liable to inundations of the tiber as well as to fires was so much improved under his administration that he boasted not without reason that he found it of brick but left it of marble he also rendered it secure for the time to come against such disasters as far as could be affected by human foresight a great number of public buildings were erected by him the most considerable of which were a forum containing the temple of Mars the Avenger the temple of Apollo on the Palatine Hill and the temple of Jupiter Tonans in the capital the reason of his building a new forum was the vast increase in the population and the number of causes to be tried in the courts for which the two already existing not affording sufficient space it was thought necessary to have a third it was therefore open for public use before the temple of Mars was completely finished and a law was passed that causes should be tried the judges chosen by lot in that place the temple of Mars was built in fulfillment of a vow made during the war of Philippi undertaken by him to avenge his father's murder he ordained that the senate should always assemble there when they meet to deliberate respecting wars and triumphs that thence should be dispatched all those who were sent into the provinces in command of armies and that in it those who returned victorious from the wars should lodge the trophies of their triumphs he erected the temple of Apollo in that part of his house on the Palatine Hill which had been struck with lightning in which on that account the soothsayers declared the god to have chosen he added porticoes to it with the library of Greek and Latin authors and when advanced in years used frequently there to hold the senate and examine the roles of the judges he dedicated the temple to Apollo Tonans in acknowledgement of his escape from a great danger in his cantabrian expedition when as he was traveling in the night his litter was struck by lightning which killed the slave who carried a torch before him he likewise constructed some public buildings in the name of others for instance his grandsons his wife and sister thus he built the porticoe in Basilica of Lucius and Gaius in the porticoes of Livia and Actavia in the theater of Marcellus he also often exhorted other persons of rank to embellish the city by new buildings or repairing and improving old according to their means in consequence of this recommendation many were raised such as the temple of Hercules and the Muses by Marcius Philippus a temple of Diana by Lucius Coneficius the temple of freedom by Acinius Polio a temple of Santern by Munatius Plancus a theater and other noble edifices by Marcus Agrippa he divided the city into regions and districts ordaining that the annual magistrates should take by lot the charge of the former and that the latter should be super intended by wardens chosen of the people of each neighborhood he appointed a nightly watch to be on their guard against accidents from fire and to prevent the frequent inundations he widened and cleansed the bed of the typer which had in the course of years been almost dammed up with rubbish and the channel narrowed by the ruins of houses to render the approaches to the city more commodious he took upon himself the charge of repairing the flaminian way as far as a riminum and distributed the repairs of the other roads amongst several persons who had obtained the honor of a triumph to be defrayed out of the money arising from the spoils of war temples decayed by time or destroyed by fire he either repaired or rebuilt and enriched them as well as many others with splendid offerings on a single occasion he deposited in the cell of the temple of Jupiter capitalinus sixteen thousand pounds of gold with jewels and pearls to the amount of fifty millions of cisterces the office of Pontifix Maximus of which he could not decently deprive Lepidus as long as he lived he assumed as soon as he was dead he then caused all prophetical books both in Latin and Greek the authors of which were either unknown or of no great authority to be brought in and the whole collection amounting to upwards of two thousand volumes he committed to the flames preserving only the Sybiline oracles and not even those without a strict examination to a certain which were genuine this being done he deposited them in two guilt coffers under the pedestal of the statue of the Palatine Apollo he restored the calendar which had been corrected by Julius Caesar but through negligence was again fallen into confusion to its former regularity and upon that occasion called the month Sixtillus by his own name August rather than September in which he was born because in it he had obtained his first all his most considerable victories he increased the number dignity and revenues of the priests and especially those of the Vestal Virgins and when upon the death of one of them a new one was to be taken and many persons made interest that their daughters names might be omitted in the list of elections he replied with an oath if either of my own granddaughters were old enough I would have proposed her he likewise revived some old religious customs which had become complete as the augury of public health the office of high priest of Jupiter the religious solemnity of the Lupercalia with the secular and comapolitan games he prohibited young boys from running in the Lupercalia and in respect of the secular games issued an order that no young persons of either sex should appear at any public diversions in the night time unless in the company of some elderly relation he ordered the household gods to be decked twice a year with spring and summer flowers in the Compatallian festival next to the immortal gods he placed the highest honors to the memory of those generals who had raised the Roman state from its low origin to the highest pitch of grandeur he accordingly repaired or rebuilt the public edifices erected by them preserving the former inscriptions and placing statues of them all with triumphal emblems in both the porticoes of his forum and edict on the occasion in which he made the following declaration my design in doing so is that the Roman people may require from me and all succeeding princes a conformity to those illustrious examples he likewise removed the statue of Pompeii from the senate house in which Gaius Caesar had been killed and placed it under a marble arch fronting the palace attached to Pompeii's theater he corrected many ill practices which to the detriment of the public had either survived the licentious habits of the late civil wars or else originated in the long piece bands of robbers showed themselves openly completely armed under the color of self-defense and in different parts of the country travelers, freedmen and slaves without distinction were forcibly carried off and kept to work in the houses of correction several associations were formed under the specious name of a new college which banded together under the perpetration of all kinds of villainy the banditie equalled by establishing posts of soldiers in suitable stations for the purpose the houses of correction were subjected to strict superintendents all associations those only accepted which were of ancient standing and recognized by the laws were dissolved he burnt all the notes of those who had been a long time in a rear with the treasury as being the principal source of vexatious suits and prosecutions places in the city claimed by the public where the right was doubtful he abjudged to the actual possessors he struck out the list of criminals the names of those over whom prosecutions had been long impending where nothing further was intended by the informers than to gratify their own malice by seeing their enemies humiliated laying it down as a rule that if anyone chose to renew a prosecution he would incur the risk of the punishment which he sought to inflict and that crimes might not escape punishment nor business be neglected by delay he ordered the courts to sit during the 30 days which were spent in celebrating honorary games to the three classes of judges then existing he added a fourth consisting of persons of inferior order who were called dukenari and decided all litigation about trifling sums he chose judges from the age of 30 years and upwards that is 5 years younger than had been usual before and a great many declining the office he was with much difficulty prevailed upon to allow each class of judges a 12 month vacation in turn and the courts to be shut during the months of November and December end of Cesar Augustus part 2