Dio's Rome Volume IV Part 3

In the year previously named, seeing that the roads outside the wall had become through neglect hard to traverse, he ordered different senators to repair different ones at their own expense. He himself attended to the Flaminian Way, since he was going to lead an army out by that route.

This operation was finished forthwith and images of him were accordingly erected on arches on the bridge over the Tiber and at Ariminum. The other roads were repaired later either at public expense (for none of the senators liked to spend money on it) or by Augustus, as one may wish to state. I can not distinguish their treasures in spite of the fact that Augustus coined into money some silver statues of himself made by his friends and by certain of the tribes, purposing thereby to make it appear that all the expenditures which he said he made were from his own means.

Therefore I have no opinion to record as to whether a ruler at any particular time took money from the public treasury or whether he ever gave it himself. For both of these things were often done. Why should any one list such things as either expenditures or donations, when the people and the emperor are constantly making both the one and the other in common?

These were the acts of Augustus at that time. He also set out apparently to make a campaign into Britain, but on coming to the provinces of Gaul lingered there. For the Britons seemed likely to make terms with him and Gallic affairs were still unsettled, as the civil wars had begun immediately after their subjugation. He made a census of the people and set in order their life and government.

[ B.C. 26 (_a. u. 728_)]

[-23-] From there he came to Spain and reduced that country also to quiet. After this he became consul for the eighth time with Statilius Taurus, and Agrippa dedicated the so-called for he had not promised to repair any road. This edifice in the Campus Martius had been constructed by Lepidus by the addition of porticos all about for the tribal elections, and Agrippa adorned it with stone tablets and paintings, naming it Julian, from Augustus. The builder incurred no jealousy for it but was greatly honored both by Augustus himself and by all the rest of the people. The reason is that he gave his master the most kindly, the most distinguished, the most beneficial advice and cooperation, yet claimed not even a small share of the consequent glory. He used the honors which Caesar gave not for personal gain or enjoyment but for the benefit of the giver himself and of the public.--On the other hand Cornelius Gallus was led to insolent behavior by honor. He talked a great deal of idle nonsense against Augustus and was guilty of many sly reprehensible actions. Throughout nearly all Egypt he set up images of himself and he inscribed upon the pyramids a list of his achievements. For this he was accused by Valerius Largus, his comrade and intimate, and was disenfranchised by Augustus, so that he was prevented from living in the emperor's provinces. After this took place others attacked him, and brought many indictments against him. The senate unanimously voted that he should be convicted in the courts, be deprived of his property, and be exiled, that his possessions be given to Augustus, and that they should sacrifice oxen. In overwhelming grief at this Gallus committed suicide before the decrees took effect. [-24-] The false behavior of most men was evidenced by this fact, that they now treated the man whom they once used to flatter in such a way that they forced him to die by his own hand.

To Largus they showed devotion because his star was beginning to rise,--though they were sure to vote the same measures against him, if anything similar should ever occur in his case. Proculeius, however, felt so toward him that on meeting him once he clapped his hand over his nose and his mouth, thereby signifying to the bystanders that it was not safe even to breathe in the man's presence. Another person, although unknown, approached him with witnesses and asked if Largus recognized him. When the one questioned said "no", he recorded his denial on a tablet, thus making it beyond the power of the rascal to inform against a person at least whom he had not previously known.

Thus we see that most men emulate the exploits of others, though they be evil, instead of guarding against their fate. So also at this time there was Marcus Egnatius Rufus, who had been an aedile: the majority of his deeds had been good, and with his own slaves and with some others that were hired he lent aid to the houses that took fire during his year of office. In return he received from the people the expenses incurred in his position and by a suspension of the law was made praetor. Elated at these marks of favor he despised Augustus so much as to record that he (Rufus) had delivered the City unimpaired and entire to his successor.

All the foremost men, and Augustus himself most of all, became indignant at this. He prepared therefore to teach the upstart a lesson in the near future not to exalt his mind above the ma.s.s of men. For the time being he issued an edict to the aediles to see to it that no building took fire and, if aught of the kind did happen, to extinguish the blaze.

[-25-] In this same year also Polemon, who was king of Pontus, was enrolled among the friends and allies of the Roman People; front seats for the senators were provided in all the theatres of the emperor's whole domain. Augustus, finding that the Britons would not come to terms, wished to make an expedition into their country, but was detained by the Sala.s.si, who had revolted against him, and by the Cantabri and Astures, who had been made hostile. The former dwell close under the Alps, as has been herein stated,[7] whereas both of the latter tribes hold the strongest region of the Pyrenees on the Spanish side and the plain which is below it. For these reasons Augustus, now in his ninth consuls.h.i.+p with Marcus Sila.n.u.s, sent Terentius Varro against the Sala.s.si.

[B.C. 25 (_a. u._ 729)]

The latter invaded their territory at many points at once in order that they might not unite and become harder to subdue, and had a very easy time in conquering them because they attacked him only in small groups.

Having forced them to capitulate he demanded a fixed sum of money, allowing it to be supposed that he would impose no other punishment.

After that he sent soldiers everywhere, apparently to attend to the collection of the indemnity and arrested those of military age, whom he sold under an agreement that none of them should be liberated within twenty years. The best of their land was given to members of the Pretorians and came to include a city called Augusta Praetoria.[8]

Augustus himself waged war upon the Astures and upon the Cantabri at the same time. These refused to yield, because of confidence in their position on the heights, and would not come to close quarters owing to their inferior numbers and the fact that most of them were javelin throwers, but they caused him much trouble, whenever he made any movement, by always seizing the higher ground in advance and placing ambuscades in depressions and in wooded spots. He found himself therefore quite unable to cope with the difficulty, and having fallen ill from weariness and worry retired to Tarraco, and there remained sick. Meantime Gaius Antistius fought against them, accomplis.h.i.+ng considerable, not because he was a better general than Augustus, but because the barbarians felt contempt for him and thus joined battle with the Romans and were defeated. In this way he captured some points, and afterward t.i.tus[9]

Carisius took Lancia, the princ.i.p.al fortress of the Astures, which had been abandoned, and won to his side many towns.

[-26-] At the conclusion of this war Augustus dismissed the more aged of his soldiers and gave them a city to settle in Lusitania,--the so-called Augusta Emerita. For those who were still of the military age he arranged some spectacles right among the legions, through the agency of Tiberius and Marcellus as aediles. To Juba he gave portions of Gaetulia in return for the prince's ancestral domain (for the majority of the inhabitants had been enrolled as members of the Roman polity), and also the possessions of Bocchus and Bogud. On the death of Amyntas he did not entrust the country to the children of the deceased but made it a part of the subject territory. Thus Gaul together with Lycaonia obtained a Roman governor. The regions of Pamphylia formerly a.s.signed to Amyntas were restored to their own district.--About this same time Marcus Vinicius in making reprisals against the Celtae, because they had arrested and destroyed Romans who had entered their country to have friendly dealings with them, himself gave the name of imperator to Augustus. For this and for the other achievements of the time a triumph was voted to Caesar; but as he did not care to celebrate it, an arch bearing a trophy was constructed in the Alps for his glory and authority was given him to wear always on the first day of the year both the crown and the triumphal garb. After these successes in the wars Augustus closed the precinct of Ja.n.u.s, which had been opened because of the strife.

[-27-] Meanwhile Agrippa had been beautifying the city at his own expense. First, in honor of the naval victories he built over the so-called _Portico of Neptune_ and lent it further brilliance by the painting of the Argonauts. Secondly, he repaired the Laconian sudatorium.

He gave the name Laconian to the gymnasium because the Lacedaemonians had, in those days, a greater reputation than anybody else for stripping naked and exercising smeared with oil. Also, he completed the so-called _Pantheon_. It has this name perhaps because it received the images of many G.o.ds and among them the statues of Mars and Venus; but my own opinion is that the name is due to its round shape, like the sky. Agrippa desired to place Augustus also there and to take the designation of the structure from his t.i.tle. But, as his master would not accept either honor, he placed in the temple itself a statue of the former Caesar and in the anteroom representations of Augustus and himself. This was done not from any rivalry and ambition on Agrippa's part to make himself equal to Augustus, but from his superabundant devotion to him and his perpetual affection for the commonwealth; hence Augustus, so far from censuring him for it, honored him the more. For, being unable through sickness to superintend at that time the marriage of his daughter Julia and his nephew Marcellus, he commissioned Agrippa to hold the festival in his absence. And when the house on the Palatine hill, which had formerly been Antony's but was later given to Agrippa and Messala, was burned down, he made a grant of money to Messala and gave Agrippa equal rights of domicile. The latter not unnaturally gained high distinction as a result of this. And one Gaius Toranius also acquired a good reputation because while tribune he brought his father, though some one's freedman, into the theatre and made him sit beside him upon the tribune's bench. Publius Servilius, too, made a name for himself because while praetor he caused to be killed at a festival three hundred bears and other Libyan wild beasts equal in number.

[B.C. 24 (_a. u._ 730)]

[-28-] Augustus now entered upon office for the tenth time with Gaius Norba.n.u.s, and on the first day of the month the senate took oaths, confirming his deeds. When he was announced as drawing near the city (his sickness had delayed him), he promised to give the people a hundred denarii each and issued instructions that the doc.u.ment concerning the money should not be bulletined until the senate also should approve.

They had freed him from all compulsion of the laws to the end, as I have stated,[10] that being really independent and possessed of full powers over both himself and the laws he should follow all of them that he wished and not follow any that he did not wish. This right was voted to him while still absent. On his arrival in Rome there were various events in honor of his preservation and return, and Marcellus was accorded the right to be a senator of the cla.s.s of ex-praetors and to be a candidate for the consuls.h.i.+p ten years earlier than was customary. Tiberius was permitted in a similar fas.h.i.+on to be a candidate five years before the age set for each office. The latter was at once appointed quaestor and the former aedile. As the quaestors needed to serve in the provinces were proving insufficient, all drew lots for the places who for ten years previous had been named quaestors without the duties of the office. These, then, were the occurrences in the City worthy of note that year.

[-29-] As soon as Augustus had departed from Spain, leaving behind Lucius aemilius[11] as governor of it, the Cantabri and Astures made an uprising.

They sent to aemilius before anything about it became known to him and said they wished to give the army grain and some other presents. Then, having secured a number of soldiers, who were presumably to carry the supplies, they led them to suitable places and butchered them. Their pleasure, however, did not last long. When their country had been devastated and some forts burned and, chiefest of all, the hands of every one that was caught were cut off, they were quickly subdued. While this was going on, another new campaign had its beginning and end. It was led by aelius Gallus, governor of Egypt, against the so-called _Arabia Felix_[12] of which Sabos was king. At first he encountered no one at all, yet did not proceed without effort. The desert, the sun, and the water (which had some peculiar nature), distressed them greatly so that the majority of the army perished. The disease proved to be dissimilar to any ordinary complaint, and fell upon the head, which it caused to wither. This killed most of them at once, but in the case of the survivors it descended to the legs, skipping all the intervening parts of the body, and wrought injury to them. There was no remedy for it except by both drinking and rubbing on olive oil mixed with wine. This was in the power of only a few of them to do, for the country produces neither of these articles and the men had not provided a large supply of them beforehand. In the midst of this trouble the barbarians also fell upon them. For a while the enemy were defeated whenever they joined battle and lost some places: later, however, with the disease as an ally they won back their own possessions and drove the survivors of the expedition out of the country. These were the first of the Romans (and I think the only ones) who traversed so much of this part of Arabia in warfare. They had advanced as far as the so-named Athlula, a famous locality.

[B.C. 23 (_a. u._ 731)]

[-30-] Augustus was for the eleventh time consul with Calpurnius Piso, when he fell so sick once more as to have no hope of saving his life. He accordingly arranged everything in the idea that he was about to die, and gathering about him the officials and the other foremost senators and knights he appointed no successor, though they were expecting that Marcellus would be preferred before all for the position. After conversing briefly with them about public matters he gave Piso the list of the forces and the public revenues written in a book, and handed his ring to Agrippa. The emperor became unable to do even the very simplest things, yet a certain Antonius Musas managed to restore him to health by means of cold baths and cold drinks. For this he received a great deal of money from both Augustus and the senate, as well as the right to wear gold rings,--he was a freedman,--and secured exemption from taxes for both himself and the members of his profession, not only those then living but also those of coming generations. But he who a.s.sumed the powers of Fortune and Fate was destined soon after to be well worsted.

Augustus had been saved in this manner: but Marcellus, falling sick not much later, was treated in the same way by Musas and died. Augustus gave him a public burial with the usual eulogies, placed him in the monument which was being built, and honored his memory by calling the theatre, the foundations of which had already been laid by the former Caesar, the Theatre of Marcellus. He ordered also that a gold image of the deceased, a golden crown, and his chair of office be carried into the theatre at the Ludi Romani and be placed in the midst of the officials having charge of the function. This he did later.

[-31-] After being restored to health on this occasion he brought his will into the senate and wished to read it, by way of showing people that he had left no successor to his position. He did not, however, read it, for no one would permit that. Quite every one, however, was astonished at him in that since he loved Marcellus as son-in-law and nephew yet he failed to trust him with the monarchy but preferred Agrippa before him.

His regard for Marcellus had been shown by many honors, among them his lending aid in carrying out the festival which the young man gave as aedile; the brilliance of this occasion is shown by the fact that in midsummer he sheltered the Forum by curtains overhead and introduced a knight and a woman of note as dancers in the orchestra. But his final att.i.tude seemed to show that he was not yet confident of the youth's judgment and that he either wanted the people to get back their liberty or Agrippa to receive the leaders.h.i.+p from them. He understood well that Agrippa and the people were on the best of terms and he was unwilling to appear to be delivering the supreme power with his own hands. [-32-] When he recovered, therefore, and learned that Marcellus on this account was not friendly toward Agrippa, he immediately despatched the latter to Syria, so that no delay and desultory dispute might arise by their being in the same place. Agrippa forthwith started from the City but did not make his way to Syria, but, proceeding even more moderately than usual, he sent his lieutenants there and himself lingered in Lesbos.

Besides doing this Augustus appointed ten praetors, feeling that he did not require any more. This number remained constant for several years.

Some of them were intended to fulfill the same duties as of yore and two of them to have charge of the administration of the finances each year.

Having settled these details he resigned the consuls.h.i.+p and went to Albanum. He himself ever since the const.i.tution had been arranged had held office for the entire year, as had most of his colleagues, and he wished now to interrupt this custom again, in order that as many as possible might be consuls. His resignation took place outside the city to prevent his being hindered in his purpose.

For this act he received praise, as also because he chose to take his place Lucius Sestius, who had always been an enthusiastic follower of Brutus, had campaigned with the latter in all his wars, and even at this time made mention of him, had his images, and delivered eulogies. So far from disliking the friendly and faithful qualities of the man, the emperor even honored him.

The senate consequently voted that Augustus be tribune for life and that he might bring forward at each meeting of the senate any business he liked concerning any one matter, even if he should not be consul at the time, and allowed him to hold the office of proconsul once for all perpetually, so that he had neither to lay it down on entering the pomerium nor to take it up again outside. The body also granted him more power in subject territory than the several governors possessed. As a result both he and subsequent emperors gained a certain legal right to the use of the tribunican authority, in addition to their other powers.

But the actual name of tribune neither Augustus nor any other emperor has held.

[-33-] And it seems to me that he then acquired these rights as described not from flattery but as a mark of real honor. In most ways he behaved toward the Romans as if they were free citizens. For, when Tiridates in person and envoys from Phraates arrived to settle their mutual disputes, he introduced them to the senate. After this, when the decision of the question had been entrusted to him by that body, he refused to surrender Tiridates to Phraates, but sent back to him his son, whom Tiridates had formerly received from the other and was keeping, on condition that the captives and the military standards taken in the disasters of Cra.s.sus and of Antony be returned.

In this same year one of the inferior aediles died and Gaius Calpurnius succeeded him, in spite of having served previously as one of the patrician aediles. This is not mentioned as having occurred in the case of any other man. During the Feriae there were two praefecti urbi each day, and one of them, who was not yet admitted to the standing of a youth, nevertheless held office.

Livia, however, was accused of having caused the death of Marcellus because he had been preferred before her sons. This suspicion became a matter of controversy both in that year and in the following, which proved so unhealthful that great numbers perished during its progress.

And, as it usually happens that some sign occurs before such events, so on this occasion a wolf had been caught in the city, fire and storm damaged many buildings, and the Tiber, rising, washed away the wooden bridge and rendered the city submerged for three days.

[Footnote 1: Following Dindorf's reading [Greek: hyper heauton].]

[Footnote 2: A reference to Cornelius Gallus (see Book Fifty-one, chapter 17).]

[Footnote 3: The expression to which Dio here refers is doubtless the adjective _quinquefascalis_, found in inscriptional Latin. All the editions from Xylander to Dindorf gave "six lictors", erroneously, as was pointed out by Mommsen (_Romisches Staatsrecht_, 12, p. 369, note 4).

Boissevain is the first editor to make the correction. (See the latter portion of chapter 17, Book Fifty-seven, which should be compared with Tacitus, Annals, II, 47, 5.)

The Greek language had a phrase [Greek: hae hexapelekus archae], corresponding to the Latin _s.e.xfascalis_, but no adjective [Greek: pentapelekus], which would be the equivalent of _quinquefascalis_, is reported in the lexicons.]

[Footnote 4: Cp. Book Fifty-two, chapter 25.]

[Footnote 5: Translating Boissevain's conjecture, [Greek: dela chahi pempton isa], in place of a corruption in the text.]

[Footnote 6: In view of the fact that _s.e.x. Pacuvius Taurus_ does not come on the scene (as tribune of the plebs) till B.C. 9-7, it seems more likely, as Boissevain remarks, that Apudius is the correct name of the author of this piece of flattery.]

[Footnote 7: Boissevain thinks that the pa.s.sage indicated was probably in Book Twenty-two (one of the lost portions of the work). Compare Fragment LXXIV (1) in Volume VI of this translation.--Boissee suggested Book Forty-nine, Chapter 34. There, too, the correspondence is not complete.]

[Footnote 8: The modern _Aosta_.]

[Footnote 9: Possibly this praenomen is an error for _Publius_.]

[Footnote 10: Chapter 18 of this Book.]

[Footnote 11: Another writer reports his name as _Lucius Lamia_.]

[Footnote 12: The "prosperous" or fertile part of Arabia, as opposed to _Arabia Deserta_ or _Petraea_.]

DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY

54

The following is contained in the Fifty-fourth of Dio's Rome:

How road commissioners were appointed from among the ex-praetors (chapter 8).

How grain commissioners were appointed from among the ex-praetors (chapters 1 and 17).