(14 A.D.)
His death, of which I shall now speak, and his subsequent deification,
were intimated by divers manifest prodigies. As he was finishing the
census amidst a great crowd of people in the Campus Martius, an eagle
hovered round him several times, and then directed its course to a
neighboring temple, where it settled upon the name of Agrippa, and at
the first letter. Upon observing this, he ordered his colleague
Tiberius to put up the vows, which it is usual to make on such
occasions, for the succeeding Lustrum. For he declared he would not
meddle with what it was probable he should never accomplish, tho the
tables were ready drawn for it. About the same time, the first letter
of his name, in an inscription upon one of his statues, was struck out
by lightning; which was interpreted as a presage that he would live
only a hundred days longer, the letter C denoting that number; and
that he would be placed among the gods as AEsar, which in the remaining
part of the word Caesar, signifies, in the Tuscan language, a god.
Being, therefore, about dispatching Tiberius to Illyricum, and
designing to go with him as far as Beneventum, but being detained by
several persons who applied to him respecting causes they had
depending, he cried out (and it was afterward regarded as an omen of
his death), "Not all the business in the world shall detain me at Rome
one moment longer"; and setting out upon his journey, he went as far
as Astura, whence, contrary to his custom, he put to sea in the
night-time, as there was a favorable wind.
His malady proceeded from diarrhea; notwithstanding which, he went
round the coast of Campania, and the adjacent islands, and spent four
days in that of Capri; where he gave himself up entirely to repose and
relaxation. Happening to sail by the bay of Puteoli,[147] the
passengers and mariners aboard a ship of Alexandria, just then
arrived, clad all in white, with chaplets upon their heads, and
offering incense, loaded him with praises and joyful acclamations,
crying out, "By you we live, by you we sail securely, by you enjoy our
liberty and our fortunes." At which being greatly pleased, he
distributed to each of those who attended him, forty gold pieces,
requiring from them an assurance on oath, not to employ the sum given
them in any other way than the purchase of Alexandrian merchandise.
And during several days afterward, he distributed Togae and Pallia,
among other gifts, on condition that the Romans should use the Greek
and the Greeks the Roman dress and language. He likewise constantly
attended to see the boys perform their exercises, according to an
ancient custom still continued at Capri. He gave them likewise an
entertainment in his presence, and not only permitted, but required
from them the utmost freedom in jesting, and scrambling for fruit,
victuals, and other things which he threw among them. In a word, he
indulged himself in all the ways of amusement he could contrive....
Upon the day of his death, he now and then inquired if there was any
disturbance in the town on his account; and calling for a mirror, he
ordered his hair to be combed, and his shrunk cheeks to be adjusted.
Then asking his friends who were admitted into the room, "Do ye think
that I have acted my part on the stage of life well?" he immediately
subjoined,
"If all be right, with joy your voices raise,
In loud applauses to the actor's praise."
After which, having dismissed them all, whilst he was inquiring of
some persons who were just arrived from Rome, concerning Drusus's
daughter, who was in a bad state of health, he expired suddenly,
amidst the kisses of Livia, and with these words: "Livia! live mindful
of our union; and now, farewell!" dying a very easy death, and such as
he himself had always wished for. For as often as he heard that any
person had died quickly and without pain, he wished for himself and
his friends the like _euthanasia_ (an easy death), for that was the
word he made use of. He betrayed but one symptom, before he breathed
his last, of being delirious, which was this: he was all on a sudden
much frightened, and complained that he was carried away by forty men.
But this was rather a presage, than any delirium: for precisely that
number of soldiers, belonging to the praetorian cohort, carried out his
corpse.
He expired in the same room in which his father Octavius had died,
when the two Sextus's, Pompey and Apuleius, were Consuls, upon the
fourteenth of the calends of September [the 19th August], at the ninth
hour of the day, being seventy-six years of age, wanting only
thirty-five days. His remains were carried by the magistrates of the
municipal towns and colonies, from Nola to Bovillae,[148] and in the
night-time because of the season of the year. During the intervals,
the body lay in some basilica, or great temple, of each town. At
Bovillae it was met by the Equestrian Order, who carried it to the
city, and deposited it in the vestibule of his own house. The senate
proceeded with so much zeal in the arrangement of his funeral, and
paying honor to his memory, that, among several other proposals, some
were for having the funeral procession made through the triumphal
gate, preceded by the image of Victory which is in the senate-house,
and the children of highest rank and of both sexes singing the funeral
dirge. Others proposed, that on the day of the funeral, they should
lay aside their gold rings, and wear rings of iron; and others, that
his bones should be collected by the priests of the principal
colleges. One likewise proposed to transfer the name of August to
September, because he was born in the latter, but died in the former.
Another moved, that the whole period of time, from his birth to his
death, should be called the Augustan age, and be inserted in the
calendar under that title. But at last it was judged proper to be
moderate in the honors paid to his memory. Two funeral orations were
pronounced in his praise, one before the temple of Julius, by
Tiberius; and the other before the rostra, under the old shops, by
Drusus, Tiberius's son. The body was then carried upon the shoulders
of senators into the Campus Martius, and there burned. A man of
praetorian rank affirmed upon oath, that he saw his spirit ascend from
the funeral pile to heaven. The most distinguished persons of the
equestrian order, barefooted, and with their tunics loose, gathered up
his relics, and deposited them in the mausoleum[149] which had been
built in his sixth consulship between the Flaminian Way and the bank
of the Tiber; at which time likewise he gave the groves and walks
about it for the use of the people.