Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/446

Rh 428 AUGUSTUS. to the last, and, after a long hesitation, the land forces surrendered. The danger which had threatened to bring Rome under the dominion of an eastern queen was thus removed, the ambition of Augustus was satisfied, and his generosity met with general admiration. After the battle of Actium, he proceeded slowly through Greece and a part of western Asia, where he entered on his fourth consulship for the 3'ear B. c. 30, and passed the winter at Samos. The confidence of his army in him grew with his suc- cess, but the veterans again shewed symptoms of discontent, and demanded the fulfilment of the promises made to them. Soon after, they broke out into open rebellion, and Augustus hastened from Samos to remedy the evil in person. It was with great difficulty that he escaped the storms and arrived at Brundusium. Here he was met by the Roman senators, equites, and a great number of the people, which emboldened him to ask for their assistance to pay his soldiers. His requests were readily complied with, and he was enabled to fulfil his engagements .towards the veterans, and assigned lands to them in various parts of the em- pire. Without going to Rome, he soon after sailed to Corinth, Rhodes, Syria, and Egypt. Cleopatra negotiated with Augustus to betray Antony ; but when she found that Augustus only wanted to spare her that she might adorn his triumph, she put an end to her life. [Antonhs, No. 12.] Egypt was made a Roman province, and the booty which Augustus obtained was so immense, that he could easily satisfy the demands of his anny. At Rome the senate and people rivalled each other in devising new lionours and distinctions for Augustus, who was now alone at the head of the Roman world. In Samos he entered upon his fifth consulship for the year b. c. 29. The senate sanctioned all his acts, and conferred upon him many extraordinary rights and privileges. The temple of Janus was closed, as peace was restored throughout the em- pire. In August of the same year, Augustus re- turned to Rome, and celebrated his threefold triumph over the Pannonians and Dalmatians, Antony and Egypt ; and he obtained the title of imperator for ever. After these solemnities were over, Augustus un- dertook the consulship for the year -28 together with his friend Agrippa. He was determined from the first not to lay down the power which his own successes and the circumstances of the times had placed in his hands, although he occasionally pre- tended that he would resign it. He first directed his attention to the restoration of order in all parts of the government ; and, as he was invested with the censorship, he began by clearing the senate of all unworthy members; he ejected two hundred senators, and also raised the senatorial census ; but where a worthy senator's property did not come up to the new standard, he very libemll}^ made it up out of his own means. He raised many ple- beian families to the rank of patricians ; and as he had a predilection for ancient, especially religious, institutions, he restored several temples which had fallen into decay, and also built new ones. The keeping of the aerariura was transferred from the quaestors to the praetors and ex-praetors. After having introduced these and many other useful changes, he proposed in the senate to lay down his powers, but allowed himself to be prevailed upon to remain at the head of atFairs for ten years AUGUSTUS. longer. This plan was afterwards repeated several times, and he apparently allowed himself to be al- ways persuaded to retain his power either for ten or five years longer. He next made a division of the provinces, leaving the quiet and peaceful ones to the senate, and retaining for himself those which required the presence of an anny. The adminis- tration of the former was given ever}' year by the senate to proconsuls, while Augustus placed the others under legati Caesaris, sometimes also called propraetores, whom he appointed at any time he pleased. He declined all honours and distinctions which were calculated to remind the Romans of kingly power ; he preferred allowing the republican forms to continue, in order that he might imper- ceptibly concentrate in his own person all the powers which had hitherto been separated. He accepted, however, the name of Augustus, which was offered to him on the proposal of L. Munatiua Plancus. In B. c. 23 he entered upon his eleventh consulship, but laid it down immediately after- wards ; and, after having also declined the dicta- torship, which was offered him by the senate, he accepted the imperium proconsulare and the tribu- nitia potestas for life, by which his inviolability was legally established, while by the imperium proconsulare he became the highest authority in all the Roman provinces. When in B. c. 12 Lepidus, the pontifex maximus, died, Augustus, on whom the title of chief pontiff had been conferred on a former occasion, entered upon the office itself. Thus he became the high priest of the state, and obtained the highest influence over all the other colleges of priests. Although he had thus united in his own person all the great offices of state, yot he was too prudent to assume exclusively the titles of all of them, or to shew to the Romans that he was the sole master. Otlier persons were accord- ingly allowed to hold the consulship, praetorship, and other public offices ; but these offices were in reality mere fonns and titles, like the new offices which he created to reward his friends and parti- sans. Augustus assumed nothing of the outward appearance of a monarch : he retained the simple mode of living of an ordinary citizen, continued his familiar intimacy with his friends, and appeared in public without any pomp or pageantry ; a kingly court, in our sense of the word, did not exist at all in the reign of Augustus. His relation to the senate was at first rather un- defined : in B. c. 28 he had been made princeps senatus, but in the beginning of the year 24 he was exempted by the senate from all the laws of the state. During the latter years of his life, Au- gustus seldom attended the meetings of the senate, but formed a sort of privy council, consisting of twenty senators, with whom he discussed the most important political matters. Augustus had no mi- nisters, in our sense of the word ; but on state matters, which he did not choose to be discussed in public, he consulted his personal friends, C. Cil- nius Maecenas, M. Vipsanius Agrippa, M. Vaienua IMessalla Corvinus, and Asinius PoUio, all of whom contributed, each in his wa', to increase the splen- dour of the capitcil and the welfare of the empire. The people retained their republican privileges, though they were mere forms : they still met in their assemblies, and elected consuls and other magistrates ; but only such persons were elected as had been proposed or recommended by the emperor. The almost uninterrupted festivities, games, and