AUGUSTUS
Works on Roman History, etc.
ROMAN LIFE UNDER THE CÆSARS.
By ÉMILE THOMAS. With Numerous Illustrations. Small demy 8vo,
cloth, 7s. 6d.
ROME AND POMPEII.
By GASTON BOISSIER. Translated by D. HAVELOCK FISHER. With Maps
and Plans. Large crown 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d.
THE COUNTRY OF HORACE AND VIRGIL.
By GASTON BOISSIER. Translated by D. HAVELOCK FISHER. Large
crown 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d.
ROME: FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE END OF THE REPUBLIC.
By ARTHUR GILMAN, M.A. 3rd Edition. With a Map and Numerous
Illustrations. Large crown 8vo, cloth, 5s. (“The Story of the
Nations.”)
LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN.
[Illustration: AUGUSTUS
With _Corona Civica_
Photographed from the Bust in the Vatican Museum
Edⁿᵉ Alinari]
AUGUSTUS
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE
FOUNDER OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
(B.C. 63-A.D. 14)
BY
E. S. SHUCKBURGH, LITT.D.
LATE FELLOW OF EMMANUEL COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
ILLUSTRATED
[Illustration]
LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN
PATERNOSTER SQUARE · 1903
(_All rights reserved._)
Preface
Augustus has been much less attractive to biographers than Iulius;
perhaps because the soldier is more interesting than the statesman;
perhaps because the note of genius conspicuous in the Uncle was wanting
in the Nephew. Yet Augustus was the most successful ruler known to us.
He found his world, as it seemed, on the verge of complete collapse. He
evoked order out of chaos; got rid one after the other of every element
of opposition; established what was practically a new form of government
without too violent a breach with the past; breathed fresh meaning into
old names and institutions, and could stand forth as a reformer rather
than an innovator, while even those who lost most by the change were
soothed into submission without glaring loss of self-respect. He worked
ceaselessly to maintain the order thus established, and nearly every part
of his great empire had reason to be grateful for increased security,
expanding prosperity, and added amenity of life. Nor can it be said
that he reaped the credit due in truth to ministers. He had excellent
ministers and agents, with abilities in this or that direction superior
to his own; but none who could take his place as a whole. He was the
centre from which their activities radiated: he was the inspirer, the
careful organiser, the unwearied manipulator of details, to whom all
looked, and seldom in vain, for support and guidance. We may add this to
a dignity never forgotten, enhanced by a physical beauty and grace which
helped to secure reverence for his person and office, and established
a sentiment which the unworthiness of some of his successors could not
wholly destroy. He and not Iulius was the founder of the Empire, and it
was to him that succeeding emperors looked back as the origin of their
power.
Yet his achievements have interested men less than the conquest of
Gaul and the victories in the civil war won by the marvellous rapidity
and splendid boldness of Iulius. Consequently modern estimates of the
character and aims of Augustus have been comparatively few. An exhaustive
treatise is now appearing in Germany by V. Gardthausen, which will
be a most complete storehouse of facts. Without any pretence to such
elaboration of detail, I have tried in these pages to do something to
correct the balance, and to give a picture of the man as I have formed
it in my own mind. The only modest merit which I would claim for my
book is that it is founded on a study as complete as I could make it of
the ancient authorities and sources of information without conscious
imitation of any modern writer. These authorities are better for the
earlier period to about B.C. 24, while they had the Emperor’s own Memoirs
on which to rely. The multiform activities of his later life are chiefly
to be gathered from inscriptions and monuments, which record the care
which neglected no part however remote of the Empire. In these later
years such histories as we have are more concerned with wars and military
movements than with administration. Suetonius is full of good things,
but is without chronological or systematic order, and is wanting in
the critical spirit to discriminate between irresponsible rumours and
historical facts. Dio Cassius, plain and honest always, grows less and
less full as the reign goes on. Velleius, who might at least have given
us full details of the later German wars, is seldom definite or precise,
and is tiresome from devotion to a single hero in Tiberius, and by an
irritating style.
It has been my object to illustrate the policy of Augustus by constant
reference to the Court view as represented by the poets. But in his
later years Ovid is a poor substitute for Horace in this point of view.
The Emperor’s own catalogue of his achievements, preserved on the walls
of the temple at Ancyra, is the best possible summary; but a summary
it is after all, and requires to be made to live by careful study and
comparison.
The constitutional history of the reign is that which has generally
engaged most attention. I have striven to state the facts clearly. Of
their exact significance opinions will differ. I have given my own for
what it is worth, and can only say that it has been formed independently
by study of our authorities.
I have not tried to represent my hero as faultless or to make black
white. Nothing can clear Augustus of the charge of cruelty up to B.C.
31. But in judging him regard must be had to his age and circumstances.
We must not, at any rate, allow our judgment of his later statesmanship
to be controlled by the memory of his conduct in a time of civil war
and confusion. He succeeded in re-constituting a society shaken to its
centre. We must acknowledge that and accept the bad with the good. But it
is false criticism to deny or blink the one from admiration of the other.
I have to thank the authorities of the British Museum for casts of coins
reproduced in this book: also the Syndics of the Pitt Press, Cambridge,
for the loan of certain other casts.
Contents
PAGE
PREFACE v
CHAPTER I.
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH, B.C. 63-44 1
CHAPTER II.
THE ROMAN EMPIRE AT THE DEATH OF IULIUS CÆSAR 17
CHAPTER III.
THE INHERITANCE 34
CHAPTER IV.
THE CONSULSHIP AND TRIUMVIRATE 53
CHAPTER V.
PHILIPPI 79
CHAPTER VI.
PERUSIA AND SICILY 89
CHAPTER VII.
ACTIUM 109
CHAPTER VIII.
THE NEW CONSTITUTION, B.C. 30-23 131
CHAPTER IX.
THE FIRST PRINCIPATUS, B.C. 27-23 151
CHAPTER X.
THE IMPERIAL AND MILITARY POLICY OF AUGUSTUS 171
CHAPTER XI.
AUGUSTUS AND HIS WORSHIPPERS 194
CHAPTER XII.
THE REFORMER AND LEGISLATOR 212
CHAPTER XIII.
LATER LIFE AND FAMILY TROUBLES 233
CHAPTER XIV.
THE LAST DAYS 247
CHAPTER XV.
THE EMPEROR AUGUSTUS, HIS CHARACTER AND AIMS, HIS WORK AND
FRIENDS 265
AUGUSTUS’S ACCOUNT OF HIS REIGN 293
(_From the Inscription in the Temple of Rome and Augustus
at Angora_)
INDEX 303
List of Illustrations
AUGUSTUS WITH _CORONA CIVICA_. (From the Bust in the
Vatican Museum) _Frontispiece_
THE YOUNG OCTAVIUS. (From the Bust in the Vatican
Museum) _Facing p._ 10
COIN.—_Obv._ M. Brutus. _Rev._ Two Daggers and Cap
of Liberty ” 16
” _Obv._ Head of Augustus bearded as sign of
Mourning. _Rev._ Divus Iulius ” 16
” _Obv._ Head of Agrippa. Cos. III. _i.e._ B.C.
27. _Rev._ Emblematical Figure ” 16
” _Obv._ Head of Augustus with Official Titles.
_Rev._ Head of same with Radiated Crown and
the Iulian Star ” 16
” _Obv._ Head of Sext. Pompeius. _Rev._ The same
with titles, _Præfectus Classis et oræ.
Maritimæ_ ” 16
AUGUSTUS ADDRESSING TROOPS. (From the Statue in
the Vatican) ” 108
COIN.—_Obv._ Head of Augustus. _Rev._ The Sphinx ” 130
” _Obv._ Heads of Augustus and Agrippa. _Rev._
Crocodile and Palm—_Colonia Nemausi_ (Nismes) ” 130
” _Obv._ Head of Augustus. _Rev._ Triumphal Arch
celebrating the Reconstruction of the Roads ” 130
” _Obv._ Head of Drusus. _Rev._ Trophy of Arms
taken from the Germans ” 130
” _Obv._ Head of Livia. _Rev._ Head of Iulia ” 130
ALTAR DEDICATED TO LARES OF AUGUSTUS IN B.C. 2 BY
A _MAGISTER VICI_. (Uffizi Gallery, Florence) ” 196
AUGUSTUS AS SENATOR. (From the Statue in the Uffizi
Gallery, Florence) ” 212
IULIA, DAUGHTER OF AUGUSTUS. (From the Bust in the
Uffizi Gallery, Florence) ” 234
LIVIA, WIFE OF AUGUSTUS. (From the Bust in the Uffizi
Gallery, Florence) (Page 274) ” 234
MÆCENAS. (From the Head in the Palazzo dei
Conservatori, Rome) ” 279
P. VERGILIUS MARO. (From the Bust in the Capitoline
Museum, Rome) (Page 284) ” 279
CHAPTER I
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH, B.C. 63-44
_Iam nova progenies_
_cœlo demittitur alto._
[Sidenote: Birth of Augustus, Sept. 23, B.C. 63.]
In a house at the eastern corner of the Palatine, called “At the
Oxheads,”[1] on the 23rd of September, B.C. 63—some nine weeks before
the execution of the Catilinarian conspirators by Cicero’s order—a child
was born destined to close the era of civil wars thus inaugurated, to
organise the Roman Empire, and to be its master for forty-four years.
The father of the child was Gaius Octavius, of the plebeian _gens
Octavia_, and of a family that had long occupied a high position in the
old Volscian town of Velitræ. Two branches of the Octavii were descended
from C. Octavius Rufus, quæstor in B.C. 230. The elder branch had
produced five consuls and other Roman magistrates, but of the younger
branch Gaius Octavius, the father of Augustus, was the first to hold
curule office. According to the inscription, afterwards placed by his
son in the _sacrarium_ of the palace,[2] he had twice served as military
tribune, had been quæstor, plebeian ædile, iudex quæstionum, and prætor.
After the prætorship (B.C. 61) he governed Macedonia with conspicuous
ability and justice. He is quoted by Cicero as a model administrator
of a province; and he was sufficiently successful against the Bessi
and other Thracian tribes—constant scourges of Macedonia—to be hailed
as “imperator” by his soldiers. He returned to Italy late in B.C. 59,
intending next year to be a candidate for the consulship, but early in
B.C. 58 he died suddenly in his villa at Nola, in the same chamber as
that in which his son, seventy-two years later, breathed his last.[3]
[Sidenote: The mother of Augustus.]
The mother of the young Gaius Octavius was Atia, daughter of M. Atius
Balbus,[4] of Velitræ, and Iulia, sister of Gaius Iulius Cæsar. This
connection with Cæsar—already rising in political importance—may have
made his birth of some social interest, but the ominous circumstances
said to have accompanied it are doubtless due to the curiosity or
credulity of the next generation. The people of Velitræ, it is reported,
had been told by an oracle that a master of the Empire was to be born
there. Rumours, it is said, were current in Rome shortly before his
birth that a “king of the Roman people” was about to be born. His mother
dreamed strange dreams, and the learned Publius Nigidius prophesied the
birth of a lord of the world; while Catullus and Cicero had visions.[5]
But there was, in fact, nothing mysterious or unusual in his infancy,
which was passed with his foster-nurse at Velitræ. When he was two years
old his father, on his way to his province, carried out successfully an
order of the Senate to destroy a band of brigands near Thurii, survivors,
it is said, of the followers of Spartacus and Catiline. In memory of this
success his parents gave the boy the cognomen Thurinus. He never seems
to have used the name, though Suetonius says that he once possessed a
bust of the child with this name inscribed on it in letters that had
become almost illegible. He presented it to Hadrian, who placed it in his
private _sacrarium_.[6]
[Sidenote: The stepfather of Augustus.]
[Sidenote: The great-uncle of Augustus.]
[Sidenote: The first Triumvirate and its results.]
About B.C. 57 or 56[7] his mother Atia re-married. Her husband was L.
Marcius Philippus (prætor B.C. 60, governor of Syria B.C. 59-7, Consul
B.C. 56); and when in his ninth year Octavius lost his foster-mother he
became a regular member of his stepfather’s household. Philippus was
not a man of much force, but he belonged to the highest society, and
though opposed to Cæsar in politics, appears to have managed to keep
on good terms with him.[8] But during his great-nephew’s boyhood Cæsar
was little at Rome. Prætor in B.C. 62, he had gone the following year
to Spain. He returned in B.C. 60 to stand for the consulship, and soon
after the consulship, early in B.C. 58, he started for Gaul, from which
he did not return to Rome till he came in arms in B.C. 49. But though
occupied during the summers in his famous campaigns beyond the Alps, he
spent most of his winters in Northern Italy—at Ravenna or Lucca—where he
received his partisans and was kept in touch with home politics, and was
probably visited by his relatives. Just before entering on his consulship
he had formed with Pompey and Crassus the agreement for mutual support
known as the First Triumvirate. The series of events which broke up this
combination and made civil war inevitable must have been well known to
the boy. He must have been aware that the laurelled despatches of his
great-uncle announcing victory after victory were viewed with secret
alarm by many of the nobles who visited Philippus; and that these men
were seeking to secure in Pompey a leader capable of outshining Cæsar in
the popular imagination by victories and triumphs of his own. He was old
enough to understand the meaning of the riots of the rival law-breakers,
Milo and Clodius, which drenched Rome in blood. Election after election
was interrupted, and, finally, after the murder of Clodius (January,
B.C. 52), all eyes were fixed on Pompey as the sole hope of peace and
order. There was much talk of naming him dictator, but finally he was
created sole consul (apparently by a decree of the Senate) and remained
sole consul till August, when he held an election and returned his
father-in-law, Metellus Scipio, as his colleague.
[Sidenote: Pompey’s position after B.C. 52.]
The upshot of these disorders, therefore, was to give Pompey a very
strong position. He was, in fact, dictator (_seditionis sedandæ causa_)
under another name; and the Optimates hastened to secure him as their
champion. A law had been passed in B.C. 56, by agreement with Cæsar,
giving Pompey the whole of Spain as a province for five years after his
consulship of B.C. 55. As Cæsar’s government of Gaul terminated at the
end of B.C. 49, Pompey would have imperium and an army when Cæsar left
his province. He would naturally indeed be in Spain; but the Senate now
passed a resolution that it was for the good of the State that Pompey
should remain near Rome. He accordingly governed Spain by three legati,
and remained outside the walls of the city with imperium. The great
object of the Optimates was that Cæsar should return to Rome a _privatus_
while Pompey was still there in this unprecedented position. Cæsar wished
to be consul for B.C. 48. The Optimates did not openly oppose that wish,
but contended that he should lay down his provincial government and
military command first, and come to Rome to make his _professio_, or
formal announcement of his being a candidate, in the usual way.[9]
But Cæsar declined to walk into this trap. He knew that if he came home
as a _privatus_ there were many ready to prosecute him for his actions
in Gaul, and with Pompey there in command of legions he felt certain
that a verdict inflicting political ruin on him could be obtained. He
therefore stood by the right—secured by a law of B.C. 55, and reinforced
by Pompey’s own law in B.C. 52—of standing for the consulship without
coming to Rome, and without giving up his province and army before the
time originally fixed by the law. He would thus not be without imperium
for a single day, but would come to Rome as consul.
Here was a direct issue. Pompey professed to believe that it could be
settled by a decree of the Senate, either forbidding the holder of the
election to receive votes for Cæsar in his absence, or appointing a
successor in his province. Cæsar, he argued, would of course obey a
_Senatus-consultum_. But Cæsar was on firm ground in refusing to admit
a successor till the term fixed by the law had expired, and also in
claiming that his candidature should be admitted in his absence—for that
too had been granted by a law. If neither side would yield the only
possible solution was war.[10]
[Sidenote: Provocation to Cæsar.]
Cæsar hesitated for some time. He saw no hope of mollifying his enemies
or separating Pompey from them. His daughter Iulia’s death in B.C. 54
after a few years’ marriage to Pompey had severed a strong tie between
them. The death of Crassus in B.C. 53 had removed, not indeed a man of
much strength of character, but one whose enormous wealth had given him
such a hold on the senators that any strong act on their part, against
his wishes, was difficult. After his death the actual provocations to
Cæsar had certainly increased. The depriving him, under the pretext of
an impending Parthian war, of two legions which were being kept under
arms in Italy; the insult inflicted upon him by Marcellus (Consul B.C.
51) in flogging a magistrate of his new colony at Comum, who if the
colony were regarded as legally established would be exempt from such
punishment;—these and similar things shewed Cæsar what he had to expect
if he gave up office and army. He elected therefore to stand on his legal
rights.
[Sidenote: Civil war.]
Legality was on his side, but long prescription was in favour of the
Senate’s claim to the obedience of a magistrate, especially of the
governor of a province. There was therefore a deadlock. Cæsar made one
attempt—not perhaps a very sincere one—to remove it. He had won over
Gaius Curio, tribune in B.C. 50, by helping him to discharge his immense
debts. Curio therefore, instead of opposing Cæsar, as had been expected,
vetoed every proposal for his recall. His tribuneship ended on the 9th of
December, B.C. 50, and he immediately started to visit Cæsar at Ravenna.
He told him of the inveteracy of his opponents, and urged him to march
at once upon Rome. But Cæsar determined to justify himself by offering a
peaceful solution—“he was willing to hand over his province and army to
a successor, if Pompey would also give up Spain and dismiss his armies.”
Curio returned to Rome in time for the meeting of the Senate on the 1st
of January, B.C. 49, bringing this despatch from Cæsar.
The majority of the Senate affected to regard it as an act of rebellion.
After a debate, lasting five days, a decree was passed on January
the 7th, ordering Cæsar to give up his province and army on a fixed
day, on pain of being declared guilty of treason. This was vetoed by
two tribunes, M. Antonius and Q. Cassius. Refusing, after the usual
“remonstrance,” to withdraw their veto, they were finally expelled and
fled to Ariminum, on their way to join Cæsar at Ravenna. The Senate
then passed the _Senatus-consultum ultimum_, ordering the magistrates
and pro-magistrates “to see that the state took no harm,” and a levy of
soldiers—already begun by Pompey—was ordered to be held in all parts of
Italy.
[Sidenote: Cæsar crosses the Rubicon.]
Cæsar, informed of this, addressed the single legion which was with him
at Ravenna, urging it to support the violated tribunes. Satisfied with
the response to his appeal, he took the final step of passing the Rubicon
and marching to Ariminum, outside his province.
Both sides were now in the wrong, the Senate by forcibly interfering
with the action of the tribunes, Cæsar by entering Italy. An attempt,
therefore, was made to effect a compromise. Lucius Cæsar—a distant
connection of Iulius—visited him at Ariminum, bringing some general
professions of moderation from Pompey, though it seems without any
definite suggestion. Cæsar, however, so far modified his former offer
as to propose a conference, with the understanding that the levy of
troops in Italy was to be stopped and Pompey was to go to his Spanish
province. On receiving this communication at Capua Pompey and the consuls
declined all terms until Cæsar had withdrawn from Ariminum into Gaul;
though they intimated, without mentioning any date, that Pompey would
in that case go to Spain. But the levy of troops was not interrupted;
and Cæsar’s answer to this was the triumphant march through Picenum and
to Brundisium. Town after town surrendered, and the garrisons placed in
them by Pompey generally joined the advancing army, till finally a large
force, embracing many men of high rank, surrendered at Corfinium. Cæsar
had entered Italy with only one legion, but others were summoned from
winter quarters in Cisalpine Gaul, and by the time he reached Brundisium
Pompey had given up all idea of resisting him in Italy, and within
the walls of that town was preparing to cross to Epirus, whither the
consuls with the main body of his troops had already gone. Cæsar had no
ships with which to follow him. He was content to hasten his flight by
threatening to block up the harbour. Pompey safely out of Italy, he went
to Rome to arrange for his regular election into the consulship. Meeting
with opposition there[11]—one of the tribunes, L. Cæcilius Metellus,
vetoing all proposals in the Senate—he hastened to Spain to attack the
legates of Pompey, stopping on his way to arrange the siege of Marseilles
(which had admitted Ahenobarbus, named successor of Cæsar in Gaul),
and sending legati to secure Sicily, Sardinia, and Africa. Of these the
only failure was in Africa, where Curio was defeated and killed. This
province therefore remained in the hands of the Pompeians; but Cæsar’s
own successes in Spain, the fall of Marseilles, and the hold gained upon
the corn supplies of Sicily and Sardinia placed him in a strong position.
The constitutional difficulty was surmounted; he was named Dictator to
hold the elections, returned himself as consul, and, after eleven days in
Rome for the Latin games, embarked at Brundisium on January 3, B.C. 48,
to attack Pompey in Epirus.
[Sidenote: Iulius Cæsar master of the Roman world, B.C. 47.]
It is not necessary to follow the events of the next six months. Cæsar
had to struggle with great difficulties, for Pompey as master of the
sea had a secure base of supplies; and therefore, though Cæsar drew
vast lines round his camp, he could not starve him out. Pompey, in
fact, actually pierced Cæsar’s lines and defeated him in more than one
engagement. Eventually, however, Cæsar drew him into Thessaly; and the
great victory of Pharsalia (August 9th) made up for everything. Pompey
fled to Egypt, to meet his death on the beach by order of the treacherous
young king; and though Cæsar still had weary work to do before Egypt
was reduced to obedience, and then had to traverse Asia Minor to crush
Pharnaces of Pontus at Zela, when he set foot once more in Italy in
September, B.C. 47, he had already been created Dictator, and was
practically master of the Roman world.
[Sidenote: Octavius takes the _toga virilis_ and is made a pontifex, B.C.
48.]
In these momentous events the young Octavius had taken no part. At the
beginning of B.C. 49 he had been sent away to one of his ancestral
estates in the country. But we cannot suppose him incapable of
understanding their importance or being an uninterested spectator. His
stepfather Philippus was Pompeian in sympathy, but his close connection
with Cæsar kept him from taking an active part in the war, and he was
allowed to remain in Italy, probably for the most part in his Campanian
villa. From time to time, however, he came to Rome; and Octavius, who now
lived entirely with him, began to be treated with a distinction natural
to the near relative of the victorious dictator. Soon after the news of
Pharsalia he took the _toga virilis_, and about the same time was elected
into the college of pontifices in the place of L. Domitius Ahenobarbus,
who had fallen in the battle. This was an office desired by the highest
in the land, and the election of so young a boy, just entering upon his
sixteenth year, put him in a position something like that of a prince of
the blood; just as afterwards Augustus caused his two grandsons to be
designated to the consulship, and declared capable of official employment
as soon as they had taken the _toga virilis_.[12]
[Sidenote: Octavius’s relations with his parents and his great-uncle.]
The boy, who three years before had made a great impression by his
delivery of the _laudatio_ at his grandmother Iulia’s funeral, again
attracted much attention by his good looks and modesty. He became the
fashion; and when (as was customary for the pontifices) he presided
in a prætorian court during the _feriæ Latinæ_, it was observed to be
more crowded by suitors and their friends than any of the others. It
seems that the rarity of his appearance at Rome added to the interest
roused by his great-uncle’s successes. For his mother did not relax
her watchfulness. Though legally a man he was still carefully guarded.
He was required to sleep in the same simple chamber, to visit the same
houses, and to follow the same way of life as before. Even his religious
duties were performed before daylight, to escape the languishing looks of
intriguing beauties. These precautions were seconded by his own cool and
cautious temperament, and the result seems to have been that he passed
through the dangerous stage of adolescence—doubly dangerous to one now
practically a prince—uncontaminated by the grosser vices of Rome. Stories
to the contrary, afterwards spread abroad by his enemies, are of the most
unsubstantial and untrustworthy kind.
[Illustration: THE YOUNG OCTAVIUS.
_Photographed from the Bust in the Vatican by Edne. Alinari._
_To face page 10._]
[Sidenote: Wishes to go to Africa with Cæsar.]
But though he seems to have quietly submitted to this tutelage, he soon
conceived an ardent desire to share in the activities of his great-uncle.
Cæsar had been very little at Rome since the beginning of the civil war.
A few days in March, B.C. 49, thirteen days in December of the same
year, were all that he had spent in the city. He was absent during the
whole of his consulship (B.C. 48) till September, B.C. 47. On his return
from Alexandria in that month, he stayed barely three months at Rome. On
the 19th of December he was at Lilybæum, on his way to Africa to attack
the surviving Pompeians. Octavius longed to go with him, and Cæsar was
willing to take him. But his health was not good, and his mother set
herself against it. The Dictator might no doubt have insisted, but he saw
that the boy was not fit to face the fatigues of a campaign. Octavius
submitted, quietly biding his time. He was rewarded by finding himself
high in his great-uncle’s favour when he returned in B.C. 46 after
the victory of Thapsus. He was admitted to share his triple triumph,
riding in a chariot immediately behind that of the imperator, dressed
in military uniform as though he had actually been engaged. He found,
moreover, that he had sufficient interest with Cæsar to obtain pardon for
the brother of his friend Agrippa, taken prisoner in the Pompeian army in
Africa. This first use of his influence made a good impression, without
weakening his great-uncle’s affection for him. Though Cæsar did not
formally adopt him,[13] he treated him openly as his nearest relation
and heir. Octavius rode near him in his triumph, stood by his side at the
sacrifice, took precedence of all the staff or court that surrounded him,
and accompanied him to theatres and banquets. He was soon besieged by
petitions to be laid before Cæsar, and shewed both tact and good nature
in dealing with them. This close connection with the wise and magnanimous
Dictator, inspired him with warm admiration and affection, which help
to explain and excuse the severity with which he afterwards pursued his
murderers.
[Sidenote: Octavius employed in civil duties, B.C. 46.]
In order to give him experience of civic duties, one of the theatres was
now put under his charge. But his assiduous attention to this duty in
the hot season brought on a dangerous illness, one of the many which he
encountered during his long life. There was a general feeling of regret
at the prospect of a career of such promise being cut short. Cæsar
visited him daily or sent friends to him, insisted on the physicians
remaining constantly at his side, and being informed while at dinner
that the boy had fainted and was in imminent danger, he sprang up from
his couch, and without waiting to change his dining slippers, hurried to
his chamber, besought the physicians in moving terms to do their utmost,
and sitting down by the bed shewed the liveliest joy when the patient
recovered from his swoon.
[Sidenote: Octavius follows Cæsar to Spain, B.C. 45.]
Octavius was too weak to accompany the Dictator when starting for
Spain against Pompey’s sons in December B.C. 46. But as soon as he was
sufficiently recovered he determined to follow him. He refused all
company except that of a few select friends and the most active of his
slaves. He would not admit his mother’s wish to go with him. He had
yielded to her before, but he was now resolved to take part in a man’s
work alone. His voyage, early in B.C. 45, proved long and dangerous;
and when at length he landed at Tarraco he found his uncle already at
the extreme south of Spain, somewhere between Cadiz and Gibraltar. The
roads were rendered dangerous by scattered parties of hostile natives, or
outposts of the enemy, and his escort was small. Still, he pushed on with
energy and reached Cæsar’s quarters near Calpe, to which he had advanced
after the victory at Munda (March 17th). Gnæus Pompeius had fled on board
a ship, but was killed when landing for water on the 11th of April, and
it was apparently just about that time that Octavius reached the camp.
Warmly received and highly praised for his energy by the Dictator, he
was at once admitted to his table and close intimacy, during which Cæsar
learned still more to appreciate the quickness of his intelligence and
the careful control which he kept over his tongue.
[Sidenote: Octavius accompanies his great-uncle to Carthage.]
Affairs in Southern Spain having been apparently settled (though as it
proved the danger was by no means over), Octavius accompanied Cæsar to
Carthage, to settle questions which had arisen as to the assignment of
land in his new colony. The Dictator was visited there by deputations
from various Greek states, alleging grievances or asking favours.
Octavius was applied to by more than one of them to plead their cause,
and had therefore again an opportunity of acquiring practical experience
in the business of imperial government, and in the very best school.
He preceded Cæsar on his return to Rome, and on his arrival had once more
occasion to shew his caution and prudence. Among those who met him in the
usual complimentary procession was a young man who had somehow managed to
make himself a popular hero by pretending to be a grandson of the great
Marius. His real name was Amatius or Herophilus, a veterinary surgeon
according to some, but certainly of humble origin. As Marius had married
Cæsar’s aunt Iulia, this man was anxious to be recognised as a cousin by
the Dictator. He had in vain applied to Cicero to undertake his cause,
and to Atia and her half-sister to recognise him. The difficulty for
Octavius was that the man was a favourite of the populace, of whose cause
Cæsar was the professed champion; yet his recognition would be offensive
to the nobles and a mere concession to clamour. Octavius avoided the
snare by referring the case to Cæsar as head of the state and family, and
refusing to receive the would-be Marius till he had decided.[14]
[Sidenote: Octavius at Apollonia, B.C. 45-44.]
He did not remain long at Rome however. Cæsar returned in September,
and was assassinated in the following March. And during that interval,
though he found time for many schemes of legislation, and of restoration
or improvement in the city, he was much employed in preparing for two
expeditions—calculated to last three years—first against the Daci or Getæ
on the Danube, and secondly against the Parthians in Mesopotamia. These
were the two points of active danger in the Empire, and Cæsar desired
to crown his public services by securing their peace and safety. For
this purpose six legions were quartered in Macedonia for the winter, in
readiness to march along the Via Egnatia to the eastern coast of Greece.
Returning from Spain Dictator for life, Cæsar was to have two “Masters
of the Horse.” One was to be Octavius, who had meanwhile been created
a patrician by the Senate.[15] But for the present he was sent to pass
the winter at Apollonia, the Greek colony at the beginning of the Via
Egnatia, where he might continue his studies in quiet with the rhetors
and other teachers whom he took with him or found there,[16] and at the
same time might get some military training with the legions that were
not far off. He was accompanied by some of the young men with whom he
habitually associated. Among them were Agrippa and Mæcenas, who remained
his friends and ministers to the end of their lives, and Salvidienus
Rufus, who almost alone of his early friends proved unfaithful.[17]
He seems to have led a quiet life at Apollonia, winning golden opinions
in the town and from his teachers for his studious and regular habits.
The admiration and loyalty of his friends were confirmed; and many of the
officers of the legions seem to have made up their minds to regard him as
the best possible successor to the Dictator.
[Sidenote: News of Cæsar’s assassination brought to Apollonia.]
In the sixth month of his residence at Apollonia, in the afternoon of
a March day, a freedman of his mother arrived with every sign of rapid
travel and agitation. He delivered a letter from Atia, dated the 15th of
March. It briefly stated that the Dictator had just been assassinated
in the Senate House. She added that she “did not know what would happen
next; but it was time now for him to play the man, and to think and act
for the best at this terrible crisis.”[18] The bearer of the letter could
tell him nothing else, for he had been despatched immediately after
the murder, and had loitered nowhere on the way; only he felt sure that
as the conspirators were numerous and powerful, all the kinsfolk of the
Dictator would be in danger.
This was the last day of Octavius’s youth. From that hour he had to play
a dangerous game with desperate players. He did not yet know that by
the Dictator’s will he had been adopted as his son, and was heir to the
greater part of his vast wealth; but a passionate desire to avenge him
sprang up in his breast, a desire strengthened with increasing knowledge,
and of which he never lost sight in all the political complications of
the next ten years.
[Illustration: Obv.: M. Brutus. Rev.: Two daggers and cap of liberty.
Obv.: Head of Augustus bearded as sign of mourning. Rev.: Divus Julius.
Obv.: Head of Agrippa. Cos III., _i.e._, B.C. 27. Rev.: Emblematical
figure and S. C. (_Senatus Consulto_).
Obv.: Head of Augustus with official titles. Rev.: Head of same with
radiated crown and the Julian star.
Obv.: Head of Sext. Pompeius. Rev.: The same with titles, Præfectus
classis et oræ maritime.
_To face page 16._]