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AUG it well in studying the history of his period. The tables prepared by Lipsius show the relationship of all the members of the Octavian, Antonian, Julian, and other Gentes who were connected with the family of Augustus. There are some difficulties about a few names; but they are of no importance.—(Nicolaus of Damascus, Life of Augustus, ed. Orelli; Suetonius, Augustus; Dion Cassius, lib. xlv.—lvi.; Appian, Civil Wars, ii.—v., and Illyrica; Cicero, Letters and Philippics; Velleius Paterculus, ii. 59-124; Tacitus, Annul, i.; Monumentum Ancyranum, in Oberlin's Tacitus or the editions of Suetonius; Plutarch, Antonius; Clinton, Fasti Hellenici; Rasche, Lexicon Rei Numariæ; Eckhel, Doctrina Num. Vet. vols. vi. viii.)—T. S. B.  AUGUSTUS I., succeeded to the electorate in the year 1553, through the influence of the Emperor Charles V., who had procured the deposition of his cousin, John Frederick, because the latter was a zealous protestant. His reign over the country was, on the whole, beneficial. A knight named Grumbach having plundered Wurzburg and assassinated its prince-bishop, took refuge with John Frederick, who had acquired the duchy of Gotha. Grumbach persuaded his host to attack Augustus, to claim his crown, and to raise all Germany against the emperor, Maximilian II. The emperor demanded Grumbach's head, and John Frederick having refused to surrender him, was put under the ban of the empire. Augustus, upon this, seized Gotha, made Frederick prisoner for life, partitioned his territories between his two sons, and slew Grumbach. Considering the state of opinion in the time of Augustus, he was in advance of most of his contemporaries, in point of constitutional sovereignty. He governed according to law. He consulted his parliament on all matters of moment, and especially the raising of money by taxation. He seems to have cordially detested the theology of Geneva, for he drove all Calvinists from Saxony, and set forth a system of belief, which was called Formula concordiæ, and which embodied the views of Luther. His edicts were so just, that he has sometimes been termed the Saxon Justinian. He built the palace of Augustenberg, near the town Oederan, and village of Flöhe, and prepared the way for the architectural improvement of Dresden, which was afterwards carried into effect by Augustus II. The tilting suit said to have been worn by him, and now preserved in the Dresden museum, is so heavy, that the wearer must have been a man of extraordinary strength. He managed the finances of his country with prudence and economy. He died In 1586, sincerely regretted by his subjects, and was succeeded by his son. Christian I.—T. J.  AUGUSTUS II. , a prince whose affairs exercised, perhaps, a greater influence on the states of Europe than those of any other monarch, during the eighteenth century, was the second son of John George III., elector of Saxony, and was born at Dresden in 1670. On account of his enormous strength, he was surnamed the iron-handed and the strong. It would be difficult to find a man at present who could walk in his armour, and his cap enclosed an iron hat heavier than a caldron. He is said to have lifted a trumpeter in full armour, and to have held him aloft on the palm of his hand; to have twisted the iron balustrade of a stair into a rope, and broken a horseshoe with one grasp. Handsome in his person, he studied in his youth the art of war, by taking part in several campaigns, while he learned the duties of statesmanship by visiting the various courts of Europe. The popish princes of Europe, and especially of Austria, gained much influence over him, and, perhaps, to this circumstance, was partly owing his desertion of the protestant faith. His elder brother succeeded his father in the electorate in 1691, but three years afterwards he died, and Augustus received the government. He soon showed his leaning for Austria by allying himself to her interests, and raising forces against France. With these he should have marched to the Rhine; but as he refused to serve as a subaltern under the imperial general. Prince Lewis of Baden, the court of Vienna gave him the command of an expedition against the Turks, who threatened Hungary, and had lately attacked Vienna itself. In this campaign he showed more strength than wisdom, and it did not lead to any decisive results.

John Sobieski, the illustrious king of Poland, died in 1696, and left the crown of Poland vacant. Augustus, probably at the instigation of the court of Vienna, announced his pretensions to the succession. His chief competitor was the prince of Conti. His ambassador expended ten millions of florins at Warsaw, in the interests of his master. The Lutheranism of Augustus being an obstacle to his success, he abjured the religion of which his forefathers had been the most consistent and faithful supporters. He publicly made a profession of Romanism at Baden, near Vienna, on Whitsunday, 1697. After a series of intrigues he acquired the Polish crown, although his rival had been elected by the diet. His first efforts were to regain the southern possessions of Poland, which had been lost to the Turks; and by the aid of Peter of Russia, afterwards the Great, he succeeded. He next attacked Sweden, but with ill consequences; for he aroused the dormant energies of its youthful monarch, Charles XII. The rapid movements of Charles forced him to abandon his plans, and in July, 1701, his army was defeated by the Swedes at the river Duna, who marched on Poland, and demanded that the Poles should elect another king. Augustus in vain resisted; and after a sanguinary battle at Pultusk, Charles penetrated to Warsaw, and at his instigation, Stanislaus Leczinski was elected monarch, July 12, 1704. A long war followed, as t he result of which Augustus acknowledged the title of his successor, and his dominions were confined to Saxony. The overthrow of Charles at Pultowa recalled him to the throne. The pope absolved him from his oath of abdication. The Poles regarded him as a foreigner and a usurper, and he only maintained his ground in the country as the vassal of Russia. Civil troubles followed, of which Russia took advantage, and the Polish army was reduced. Augustus died in 1733. His royal splendour painfully contrasted with the misery to which, during a large part of his reign, his Saxon subjects were reduced. His character has been justly drawn, as consisting of contradictions. His vices and virtues were equally strange. Politeness and good sense, enormous strength and brilliant courage, were counterbalanced by incontinence, shameful ambition, and a disregard of the most solemn engagements; while as a friend he was amiable, as a lover he was capricious, and as a husband unfaithful. His life was marked by the most extraordinary turns of fortune; at one time he stood at the height of power, at another he was plunged into the lowest depths of distress. His death gave rise to a bloody war between the houses of Bourbon and Austria. It is due to him to say that he encouraged art-manufactures, and the celebrated porcelain of Dresden owes its origin to his patronage. Though the rudiments of a collection were made in the reign of Duke George, the friend of Lucas Cranach, Augustus was the true founder of the great picture gallery of Dresden. The worst political result of his chequered reign was the aggrandizement of Russia, and eventually added the fair plains of Poland to the dominions of that growing, formidable, and ambitious empire.—T. J.  AUGUSTUS III., the son of the preceding, was born at Dresden in 1696. He succeeded his father as elector of Saxony, and sought to obtain the crown of Poland. Russia and Austria supported his pretensions, and he was eventually acknowledged the undisputed monarch of that country, although his competitor was Stanislaus, whose daughter had become the queen-consort of Lewis XV. His reign over Poland was marked by utter weakness, of which Russia to this day reaps the advantage. His daughter married the dauphin of France, and was the mother of Lewis XVI., Lewis XVIII., and Charles X. He died at Dresden in October, 1763. From his reign dates the fall of Saxony.—T. J.  AUGUSTUS I.,, first king of Saxony, and son of the Elector Frederick Christian, was born at Dresden, 23rd December, 1750, and died 5th May, 1827. He succeeded his brother, 17th December, 1763, under the guardianship of his uncle. Prince Xavier, who governed in his name until 15th September, 1768, when the young prince attained his majority. He married in 1769 the princess Marie-Amilie, who was born in 1751, and died 15th November, 1828. During the whole of his reign, Augustus manifested a sincere desire to promote the happiness of his subjects, and he has never been accused of any abuse of his power, of encroaching on the rights of others, or of engaging in any enterprise solely from a love of vain-glory. He laboured to reduce the public debt, and alleviate the public burdens. He encouraged agriculture and the rearing of cattle, and bestowed especial favour on improving the breeds of sheep,—a branch of industry which made important progress under his reign. He regulated by wise laws the labours of the mines, the salt-pits, and the forests; and promoted the establishment of manufactures; while commerce, which had suffered so much during the seven years' war, attained under his wise and paternal rule to a degree of prosperity previously unknown. He placed 