Ancient States and Empires Part 32

At this juncture Octavius was at the head of the Caesarian party. He had won the respect and friends.h.i.+p of the Romans by his clemency and munificence. He was not a great general, but he was served by a great general, Agrippa, and by another minister of equal talents, Mecrenas. He controlled even more forces than Antonius, no less than forty-five legions of infantry, and twenty-five thousand cavalry, and thirty-seven thousand light-armed auxiliaries. Antonius, on the other hand, had forfeited the esteem of the Romans by his prodigalities, by his Oriental affectations, and by his slavery to Cleopatra.

This artful and accomplished woman again met Antonius in Asia, and resumed her sway. The general of one hundred battles became effeminated by his voluptuous dalliance, so that his Parthian campaign was a failure, even though he led an army of one hundred thousand men. He was obliged to retreat, and his retreat was disastrous. It was while he was planning another campaign that Octavia, his wife, and the sister of his rival,-a woman who held the most dignified situation in the world,-brought to his camp both money and troops, and hoped to allay the jealousies of her husband, and secure peace between him and her brother. But Antonius heartlessly refused to see this n.o.ble-minded woman, while he gave provinces to Cleopatra. At Alexandria this abandoned profligate plunged, with his paramour, into every excess of extravagant debauchery, while she who enslaved him only dreamed of empire and domination. She may have loved him, but she loved power more than she did debauchery. Her intellectual accomplishments were equal to her personal fascinations, and while she beguiled the sensual Roman with costly banquets, her eye was steadily directed to the establishment of her Egyptian throne.

The rupture which Octavia sought to prevent between her brother and her husband-for, with the rarest magnanimity she still adhered to him in spite of his infatuated love for Cleopatra-at last took place, when Octavius was triumphant over s.e.xtus, and Antonius was unsuccessful in the distant East.

Octavius declared war against the queen of Egypt, and Antonius divorced Octavia. Throughout the winter of B.C. 31, both parties prepared for the inevitable conflict, for Rome now could have but one master. The fate of the empire was to be settled, not by land forces, but a naval battle, and that was fought at Actium, not now with equal forces, for those of Antonius had been weakened by desertions. Moreover, he rejected the advice of his ablest generals, and put himself under the guidance of his mistress, while Octavius listened to the counsels of Agrippa.

The battle had scarcely begun before Cleopatra fled, followed by Antonius.

The destruction of the Antonian fleet was the consequence. This battle, B.C. 31, gave the empire of the world to Octavius, and Antonius fled to Alexandria with the woman who had ruined him. And it was well that the empire fell into the hands of a politic and profound statesman, who sought to consolidate it and preserve its peace, rather than into those of a debauched general, with insatiable pa.s.sions and blood-thirsty vengeance.

The victor landed in Egypt, while the lovers abandoned themselves to despair. Antonius, on the rumor of Cleopatra's death, gave himself a mortal wound, but died in the arms of her for whom he had sacrificed fame, fortune, and life. Cleopatra, in the interview which Octavius sought at Alexandria, attempted to fascinate him by those arts by which she had led astray both Caesar and Antonius, but the cold and politic conqueror was unmoved, and coldly demanded the justification of her political career, and reserved her to grace his future triumph. She eluded his vigilance, and destroyed herself, as is supposed, by the bite of asps, since her dead body showed none of the ordinary spots of poison. She died, B.C. 30, in the fortieth year of her age, and was buried as a queen by the side of her lover. Her son Caesarion, by Julius Caesar, was also put to death, and then the master of the world "wiped his blood-stained sword, and thrust it into the scabbard." No more victims were needed. No rivals.h.i.+p was henceforth to be dreaded, and all opposition to his will had ceased.

Octavius reduced Egypt to the form of a Roman province, and after adjusting the affairs of the East, among which was the confirmation of Herod as sovereign of Judea, he returned to Rome to receive his new honors, and secure his undivided sovereignty. Peace was given to the world at last. The imperator dedicated temples to the G.o.ds, and gave games and spectacles to the people. The riches of all previous conquests were his to dispose and enjoy-the extent of which may be conjectured from the fact that Caesar alone had seized an amount equal to one hundred and seventy million pounds, not reckoning the relative value to gold in these times.

Divine honors were rendered to Octavius as the heir of Caesar. He a.s.sumed the praenomen of imperator, but combined in himself all the great offices of the republic which had been overturned. As censor, he purged and controlled the Senate, of which he was appointed _princeps_, or chief. As consul he had the control of the armies of the State; as perpetual proconsul over all the provinces of the empire, he controlled their revenues, their laws, their internal reforms, and all foreign relations.

As tribune for life, he initiated legal measures before the Comitia of the tribes; as Pontifex Maximus, he had the regulation of all religious ceremonials. All these great offices were voted him by a subservient people. The only prerogative which remained to them was the making of laws, but even this great and supreme power he controlled, by a.s.suming the initiation of all laws and measures,-that which Louis Napoleon has claimed in the Corps Legislatif. He had also resorted to edicts, which had the force of laws, and ultimately composed no small part of the Roman jurisprudence. Finally, he a.s.sumed the name of Caesar, as he had of Augustus, and consummated the reality of despotism by the imposing t.i.tle of imperator, or emperor.

CHAPTER XLII.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE ON THE ACCESSION OF AUGUSTUS.

Octavius, now master of the world, is generally called Augustus Caesar-the name he a.s.sumed. He was the first of that great line of potentates whom we call emperors. Let us, before tracing the history of the empire, take a brief survey of its extent, resources, population, inst.i.tutions, state of society, and that development of Art, science, and literature, which we call civilization, in the period which immediately preceded the birth of Christ, when the nations were subdued, submissive to the one central power, and at peace with each other.

(M1034) The empire was not so large as it subsequently became, nor was it at that height of power and prosperity which followed a century of peace, when uninterrupted dominion had reconciled the world to the rule of the Caesars. But it was the golden age of imperial domination, when arts, science, and literature flourished, and when the world rested from incessant wars. It was not an age of highest glory to man, since all struggles for liberty had ceased; but it was an age of good government, when its machinery was perfected, and the great ma.s.s of mankind felt secure, and all cla.s.ses abandoned themselves to pleasure, or gain, or uninterrupted toils. It was the first time in the history of the world, when there was only _one_ central authority, and when the experiment was to be tried, not of liberty and self-government, but of universal empire, growing up from universal rivalries and wars-wielded by one central and irresistible will. The spectacle of the civilized world obedient to _one_ master has sublimity, and moral grandeur, and suggests principles of grave interest. The last of the great monarchies which revelation had foretold, and the greatest of all-the iron monarchy which Daniel saw in prophetic vision, reveals lessons of profound significance.

(M1035) The empire then embraced all the countries bordering on the Mediterranean-that great inland sea upon whose sh.o.r.es the most famous cities of antiquity flourished, and toward which the tide of a.s.syrian and Persian conquests had rolled, and then retreated for ever. The boundaries of this mighty empire were great mountains, and deserts, and oceans, and impenetrable forests. On the east lay the Parthian empire, separated from the Roman by the Tigris and Euphrates, and the Armenian Mountains, beyond which were other great empires not known to the Greeks, like the Indian and the Chinese monarchies, with a different civilization. On the south were the African deserts, not penetrated even by travelers. On the west was the ocean; and on the north were barbaric tribes of different names and races-Slavonic, Germanic, and Celtic. The empire extended over a territory of one million six hundred thousand square miles, and among its provinces were Spain, Gaul, Sicily, Africa, Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, Achaia, Macedonia, and Illyric.u.m-all tributary to Italy, whose capital was Rome. The central province numbered four millions who were free, and could furnish, if need be, seven hundred thousand foot, and seventy thousand horse for the armies of the republic. It was dotted with cities, and villages, and villas, and filled with statues, temples, and works of art, brought from remotest provinces-the spoil of three hundred years of conquest. In all the provinces were great cities, once famous and independent-centres of luxury and wealth-Corinth, Athens, Syracuse, Carthage, Alexandria, Antioch, Ephesus, Damascus, and Jerusalem, with their dependent cities, all connected with each other and the capital by granite roads, all favored by commerce, all rejoicing in a uniform government. Rome, the great mistress who ruled over one hundred and twenty millions, contained an immense population, variously estimated, in which were centred whatever wealth or power had craved. This capital had become rapidly ornamented with palaces, and temples, and works of art, with the subjugation of Greece and Asia Minor, although it did not reach the climax of magnificence until the time of Hadrian. In the time of Augustus, the most imposing buildings were the capitol, restored by Sulla and Caesar, whose gilded roof alone cost $15,000,000. The theatre of Pompey could accommodate eighty thousand spectators, behind which was a portico of one hundred pillars. Caesar built the Forum Julium, three hundred and forty feet long, and two hundred wide, and commenced the still greater structures known as the Basilica Julia and Curia Julia. The Forum Romanum was seven hundred feet by four hundred and seventy, surrounded with basilica, halls, porticoes, temples, and shops-the centre of architectural splendor, as well as of life and business and pleasure. Augustus restored the Capitoline Temple, finished the Forum and Basilica Julia, built the Curia Julia, and founded the imperial palace on the Palatine, and erected many temples, the most beautiful of which was that of Apollo, with columns of African marble, and gates of ivory finely sculptured. He also erected the Forum Augusti, the theatre of Marcellus, capable of holding twenty thousand spectators, and that mausoleum which contained the ashes of the imperial family to the time of Hadrian, at the entrance of which were two Egyptian obelisks. It was the boast of this emperor, that he found the city of brick and left her of marble. But great and beautiful as Rome was in the Augustan era, enriched not only by his own munificence, but by the palaces and baths which were erected by his ministers and courtiers,-the Pantheon, the Baths of Agrippa, the Gardens of Maecenas,-it was not until other emperors erected the Imperial Palace, the Flavian Amphitheatre, the Forum Trajanum, the Basilica Ulpia, the Temple of Venus and Rome, the Baths of Caracalla, the Arches of Septimius Severus and Trajan, and other wonders, that the city became so astonis.h.i.+ng a wonder, with its palaces, theatres, amphitheatres, baths, fountains, bronze statues of emperors and generals, so numerous and so grand, that we are warranted in believing its glories, like its population, surpa.s.sed those of both Paris and London combined.

(M1036) And this capital and this empire seemed to be the domain of one man, so vast his power, so august his dignity, absolute master of the lives and property of one hundred and twenty millions, for the people were now deprived of the election of magistrates and the creation of laws. How could the greatest n.o.bles otherwise than cringe to the supreme captain of the armies, the prince of the Senate, and the high-priest of the national divinities-himself, the recipient of honors only paid to G.o.ds! But Augustus kept up the forms of the old republic-all the old offices, the old dignities, the old festivals, the old a.s.sociations. The Senate, prostrate and powerless, still had external dignity, like the British House of Peers. There were six hundred senators, each of whom possessed more than one million two hundred thousand sesterces-about $50,000, when that sum must have represented an amount equal to a million of dollars in gold, at the present time, and some of whom had an income of one thousand pounds a day, the spoil of the provinces they had administered.

(M1037) The Roman Senate, so august under the republic, still continued, with crippled legislative powers, to wield important functions, since the ordinary official business was performed by them. The provinces were governed by men selected from senatorial ranks. They wore the badges of distinction; they had the best places in the circus and theatre; they banqueted in the capitol at the public charge; they claimed the right to elect emperors.

(M1038) The equestrian order also continued to farm the revenues of the provinces, and to furnish judges. The knights retained external decorations, were required to possess property equal to one-third of the senators, and formed an aristocratic cla.s.s.

(M1039) The consuls, too, ruled, but with delegated powers from the emperor. They were his eyes, and ears, and voice, and hands; but neither political experience nor military services were required as qualifications of the office. They wore the wreath of laurel on their brow, the striped robe of white and purple, and were attended with lictors. All citizens made way for them, and dismounted when they pa.s.sed, and rose in their presence. The praetors, too, continued to be the supreme judges, and the quaestors regulated the treasury. The tribunes existed also, but without their former independence. The prefect of the city was a new office, and overshadowed all other offices-appointed by the emperor as his lieutenant, his most efficient executive minister, his deputy in his absence from the city.

(M1040) A standing army, ever the mark of despotism, became an imperial inst.i.tution. At the head of this army were the praetorian guards, who protected the person of the emperor, and had double pay over that of the ordinary legionaries. They had a regular camp outside the city, and were always on hand to suppress tumults. Twenty-five legions were regarded as sufficient to defend the empire, and each legion was composed of six thousand one hundred foot and seven hundred and twenty-six horse. They were recruited with soldiers from the countries beyond Italy. Auxiliary troops were equal to the legions, and all together numbered three hundred and forty thousand-the standing army of the empire, stationed in the different provinces. Naval armaments were also established in the different seas and in great frontier rivers.

The revenue for this great force, and the general expenses of the government, were derived from the public domains, from direct taxes, from mines and quarries, from salt works, fisheries and forests, from customs and excise, from the succession to property, from enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of slaves.

(M1041) The monarchy inst.i.tuted by Augustus, in all but the name, was a political necessity. Pompey would have ruled as the instrument of the aristocracy, but he would only have been _primus inter pares_; Caesar recognized the people as the basis of sovereignty; Augustus based his power on an organized military establishment, of which he was the permanent head. All the soldiers swore personal fealty to him-all the officers were appointed by him, directly or indirectly. But he paid respect to ancient traditions, forms, and magistracies, especially to the dignity of the Senate, and thus vested his military power, which was his true power, under the forms of an aristocracy, which was the governing power before the const.i.tution was subverted.

It need scarcely be said that the great ma.s.s of the people were indifferent to these political changes. The horrors of the Marian and Sullan revolutions, the struggles of Caesar and Pompey, and the awful ma.s.sacres of the triumvirs had alarmed and disgusted all cla.s.ses, and they sought repose, security, and peace. Any government which would repress anarchy was, to them, the best. They wished to be spared from executions and confiscations. The great enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of foreign slaves, also, degraded the people, and made them indifferent to the masters who should rule over them. All races were mingled with Roman citizens. The spoliation of estates in the civil wars cast a blight on agriculture, and the population had declined from war and misery.

(M1042) Augustus, intrenched by military power, sought to revive not merely patrician caste, but religious customs, which had declined. Temples were erected, and the shrines of G.o.ds were restored. Marriage was encouraged, and the morals of the people were regulated by sumptuary laws.

Severe penalties were enacted against celibacy, to which the people had been led by the increasing profligacy of the times, and the expenses of living. Restrictions were placed on the manumission of slaves. The personal habits of the imperator were simple, but dignified. His mansion on the Palatine was moderate in size. His dress was that of a senator, and woven by the hands of Livia and her maidens. He was courteous, sober, decorous, and abstemious. His guests were chosen for their social qualities. Virgil and Horace, plebeian poets, were received at his table, as well as Pollio and Messala. He sought to guard morals, and revive ancient traditions. He was jealous only of those who would not flatter him. He freely spent money for games and festivals, and secured peace and plenty within the capital, where he reigned supreme. The people felicitated themselves on the appearance of unbounded prosperity, and servile poets sung the praises of the emperor as if he were a G.o.d.

(M1043) And, to all appearance, Rome was the most favored spot upon the globe. Vast fleets brought corn from Gaul, Spain, Sicily, Sardinia, Africa, and Egypt, to feed the four millions of people who possessed the world. The capital was the emporium of all the luxuries of distant provinces. Spices from the East, ivory, cotton, silk, pearls, diamonds, gums thither flowed, as well as corn, oil, and wine. A vast commerce gave unity to the empire, and brought all the great cities into communication with each other and with Rome-the mighty mistress of lands and continents, the directress of armies, the builder of roads, the civilizer and conservator of all the countries which she ruled with her iron hand. There was general security to commerce, as well as property. There were order and law, wherever proconsular power extended. The great highways, built originally for military purposes, extending to every part of the empire, and crossing mountains and deserts, and forests and marshes, and studded with pillars and post-houses, contributed vastly to the civilization of the world.

(M1044) At this time, Rome herself, though not so large and splendid as in subsequent periods, was the most attractive place on earth. Seven aqueducts already brought water to the city, some over stone arches, and some by subterranean pipes. The sepulchres of twenty generations lined the great roads which extended from the capital to the provinces. As these roads approached the city, they became streets, and the houses were dense and continuous. The seven original hills were covered with palaces and temples, while the valleys were centres of a great population, in which were the forums, the suburra, the quarter of the shops, the circus, and the velabrum. The Palatine, especially, was occupied by the higher n.o.bility. Here were the famous mansions of Drusus, of Cra.s.sus, of Cicero, of Clodius, of Scaurus, and of Augustus, together with the temples of Cybele, of Juno Sospita, of Luna, of Febris, of Fortune, of Mars, and Vesta. On the Capitoline were the Arx, or citadel, and the temple of Jupiter. On the Pincian Hill were villas and gardens, including those of Lucullus and Sall.u.s.t. Every available inch of ground in the suburra and velabrum was filled with dwellings, rising to great alt.i.tudes, even to the level of the Capitoline summit. The temples were all constructed after the Grecian models. The houses of the great were of immense size. The suburbs were of extraordinary extent. The population exceeded that of all modern cities, although it has been, perhaps, exaggerated. It was computed by Lipsius to reach the enormous number of four millions. Nothing could be more crowded than the streets, whose incessant din was intolerable to those who sought repose. And they were filled with idlers, as well as trades-people, and artisans and slaves. All cla.s.ses sought the excitement of the theater and circus-all repaired to the public baths. The amphitheatres collected, also, unnumbered thousands within their walls to witness the combats of beasts with man, and man with man. The gladiatorial sports were the most exciting exhibitions ever known in ancient or modern times, and were the most striking features of Roman society. The baths, too, resounded with shouts and laughter, with the music of singers and of instruments, and even by the recitations of poets and lecturers. The luxurious Roman rose with the light of day, and received, at his levee, a crowd of clients and retainers. He then repaired to the forum, or was carried through the crowds on a litter. Here he presided as a judge, or appeared as a witness or advocate, or transacted his business affairs. At twelve, the work of the day ceased, and he retired for his midday siesta.

When this had ended, he recreated himself with the sports of the Field of Mars, and then repaired to the baths, after which was the supper, or princ.i.p.al meal, in which he indulged in the coa.r.s.est luxuries, valued more for the cost than the elegance. He reclined at table, on a luxurious couch, and was served by slaves, who carved for him, and filled his cup, and poured water into his hand after every remove. He ate without knives or forks, with his fingers only. The feast was beguiled by lively conversation, or music and dancing.

(M1045) At this period, the literature of Rome reached its highest purity and terseness. Livy, the historian, secured the friends.h.i.+p of Augustus, and his reputation was so high that an enthusiastic Spaniard traveled from Cadiz on purpose to see him, and having gratified his curiosity, immediately returned home. He took the dry chronicles of his country, drew forth from them the poetry of the old traditions, and incited a patriotic spirit. A friend of the old oligarchy, an aristocrat in all his prejudices and habits, he heaped scorn on tribunes and demagogues, and veiled the despotism of his imperial master. Virgil also inflamed the patriotism of his countrymen, while he flattered the tyrant in whose suns.h.i.+ne he basked.

Patronized by Maecenas, countenanced by Octavius, he sung the praises of law, of order, and of tradition, and attempted to revive an age of faith, a love of agricultural life, a taste for the simplicities of better days, and a veneration of the martial virtues of heroic times. Horace ridiculed and rebuked the vices of his age, and yet obtained both riches and honors.

His matchless wit and transcendent elegance of style have been admired by every scholar for nearly two thousand years. Propertius and Tibullus, and Ovid, also adorned this age, never afterward equaled by the labors of men of genius. Literature and morals went hand in hand as corruption accomplished its work. The age of Augustus saw the highest triumph in literature that Rome was destined to behold. Imperial tyranny was fatal to that independence of spirit without which all literature languishes and dies. But the limit of this work will not permit an extended notice of Roman civilization. This has been attempted by the author in another work.

CHAPTER XLIII.

THE SIX CaeSARS OF THE JULIAN LINE.

We have alluded to the centralization of political power in the person of Octavius. He simply retained all the great offices of State, and ruled, not so much by a new t.i.tle, as he did as consul, tribune, censor, pontifex maximus, and chief of the Senate. But these offices were not at once bestowed.

His reign may be said to have commenced on the final defeat of his rivals, B.C. 29. Two years later, he received the t.i.tle of Augustus, by which he is best known in history, although he was ordinarily called Caesar. That proud name never lost its pre-eminence.

(M1046) The first part of the reign was memorable for the organization of the State, and especially of the army; and also for the means he used to consolidate his empire. Augustus had no son, and but one daughter, although married three times. His first wife was Clodia, daughter of Clodius; his second was Scribonia, sister-in-law of s.e.xtus Pompey; and the third was Livia Drusilla. The second wife was the mother of his daughter, Julia. This daughter was married to M. Claudius Marcellus, son of Marcellus and Octavia, the divorced wife of Antonius, and sister of Octavius. M. Claudius Marcellus thus married his cousin, but died two years afterward. It was to his honor that Augustus built the theatre of Marcellus.

(M1047) On the death of Marcellus, Augustus married his daughter Julia to Agrippa, his prime minister and princ.i.p.al lieutenant. The issue of this marriage were three sons and two daughters. The sons died early. The youngest daughter, Agrippina, married Germanicus, and was the mother of the emperor Caligula. The marriage of Agrippina with Germanicus united the lines of Julia and Livia, the two last wives of Augustus, for Germanicus was the son of Drusus, the younger son of Livia by her first husband, Tiberius Claudius Nero. The eldest son of Livia, by Tiberius Claudius Nero, was the emperor Tiberius Nero, adopted by Augustus. Drusus married Antonia, the daughter of Antonius the triumvir, and was the father, not only of Germanicus, but of Claudius Drusus Caesar, the fifth emperor.

Another daughter of Antonius, also called Antonia, married L. Domitius Ahen.o.bardus, whose son married Agrippina, the mother of Nero. Thus the descendants of Octavia and Antony became emperors, and were intertwined with the lines of Julia and Livia. The four successors of Augustus were all, in the male line, sprung from Livia's first husband, and all, except Tiberius, traced their descent from the defeated triumvir. Only the first six of the twelve Caesars had relations.h.i.+p with the Julian house.

I mention this genealogy to show the descent of the first six emperors from Julia, the sister of Julius Caesar, and grandmother of Augustus.

Although the first six emperors were elected, they all belonged to the Julian house, and were the heirs of the great Caesar.

(M1048) When the government was organized, Augustus left the care of his capital to Maecenas, his minister of civil affairs and departed for Gaul, to restore order in that province, and build a series of fortifications to the Danube, to check the encroachments of barbarians. The region between the Danube and the Alps was peopled by various tribes, of different names, who gave perpetual trouble to the Romans; but they were now apparently subdued, and the waves of barbaric conquest were stayed for three hundred years. Vindelicea and Rhaetia were added to the empire, in a single campaign, by Tiberius and Drusus, the sons of Livia-the emperor's beloved wife. Agrippa returned shortly after from a successful war in the East, but sickened and died B.C. 12. By his death Julia was again a widow, and was given in marriage to Tiberius, whom Augustus afterward adopted as his successor. Drusus, his brother, remained in Gaul, to complete the subjugation of the Celtic tribes, and to check the incursions of the Germans, who, from that time, were the most formidable enemies of Rome.

(M1049) What interest is attached to those Teutonic races who ultimately became the conquerors of the empire! They were more warlike, persevering, and hardy, than the Celts, who had been incorporated with the empire.

Tacitus has painted their simple manners, their pa.s.sionate love of independence, and their religious tendency of mind. They occupied those vast plains and forests which lay between the Rhine, the Danube, the Vistula, and the German Ocean. Under different names they invaded the Roman world-the Suevi, the Franks, the Alemanni, the Burgundians, the Lombards, the Goths, the Vandals; but had not, at the time of Augustus, made those vast combinations which threatened immediate danger. They were a pastoral people, with blue eyes, ruddy hair, and large stature, trained to cold, to heat, to exposure, and to fatigue. Their strength lay in their infantry, which was well armed, and their usual order of battle was in the form of a wedge. They were accompanied even in war with their wives and children, and their women had peculiar virtue and influence. They inspired that reverence which never pa.s.sed away from the Germanic nations, producing in the Middle Ages the graces of chivalry. All these various tribes had the same peculiarities, among which reverence was one of the most marked. They were not idol wors.h.i.+pers, but wors.h.i.+ped G.o.d in the form of the sun, moon, and stars, and in the silence of their majestic groves.

Odin was their great traditional hero, whom they made an object of idolatry. War was their great occupation, and the chase was their princ.i.p.al recreation and pleasure. Tacitus enumerates as many as fifty tribes of these brave warriors, who feared not death, and even gloried in their losses. The most powerful of these tribes, in the time of Augustus, was the confederation of the Suevi, occupying half of Germany, from the Danube to the Baltic. Of this confederation the Cauci were the most powerful, living on the banks of the Elbe, and obtaining a precarious living. In close connection with them were the Saxons and Longobardi (Long-beards). On the sh.o.r.es of the Baltic, between the Oder and the Vistula, were the Goths.

(M1050) The arms of Caesar and Augustus had as yet been only felt by the smaller tribes on the right bank of the Rhine, and these were a.s.sailed by Drusus, but only to secure his flank during the greater enterprise of sailing down the Rhine, to attack the people of the maritime plains. Great feats were performed by this able step-son of Augustus, who advanced as far as the Elbe, but was mortally injured by a fall from his horse. He lingered a month, and died, to the universal regret of the Romans, for he was the ablest general sent against the barbarians since Julius Caesar, B.C. 9. The effect of his various campaigns was to check the inroads of the Germans for a century. It was at this time that the banks of the Rhine were studded by the forts which subsequently became those picturesque towns which now command the admiration of travelers.

(M1051) After the death of Drusus, to whose memory a beautiful triumphal arch was erected, Tiberius was sent against the Germans, and after successful warfare, at the age of forty, obtained the permission of Augustus to retire to Rhodes, in order to improve his mind by the study of philosophy, or, as it is supposed by many historians, from jealousy of Caius and Lucius Caesar, the children of Julia and Agrippa-those young princes to whom the throne of the world was apparently destined. At Rhodes, Tiberius, now the ablest man in the empire, for both Agrippa and Maecenas were dead, lived in simple retirement for seven years. But the levities of Julia, to which Augustus could not be blind, compelled him to banish her-his only daughter-to the Campanian coast, where she died neglected and impoverished. The emperor was so indignant in view of her disgraceful conduct, that he excluded her from any inheritance. The premature death of her sons nearly broke the heart of their grandfather, bereft of the wise councils and pleasant society of his great ministers, and bending under the weight of the vast empire which he, as the heir of Caesar, had received. The loss of his grandsons compelled the emperor to provide for his succession, and he turned his eyes to Tiberius, his step-son, who was then at Rhodes. He adopted him as his successor, and invested him with the tribunitian power. But, while he selected him as his heir, he also required him to adopt Germanicus, the son of his brother Drusus.

(M1052) Another great man now appeared upon the stage, L. Domitius Ahen.o.bardus, the son-in-law of Octavia and Antony, who was intrusted with the war against the Germanic tribes, and who was the first Roman general to cross the Elbe. He was the grandfather of Nero. But Tiberius was sent to supersede him, and following the plan of his brother Drusus, he sent a flotilla down the Rhine, with orders to ascend the Elbe, and meet his army at an appointed rendezvous, which was then regarded as a great military feat, in the face of such foes as the future conquerors of Rome. After this Tiberius was occupied in reconquering the wide region between the Adriatic and the Danube, known as Illyric.u.m, which occupied him three years, A.D. 7-9. In this war he was a.s.sisted by his nephew and adopted son, Germanicus, whose brilliant career revived the hope which had centred in Drusus.

(M1053) Meanwhile Augustus, wearied with the cares of State, provoked by the scandals which his daughter occasioned, and irritated by plots against his life, began to relax his attention to business, and to grow morose. It was then that he banished Ovid, whose _Tristia_ made a greater sensation than his immortal _Metamorphoses_. The disaster which befell Varus with a Roman army, in the forest of Teutoburg, near the river Lippe, when thirty thousand men were cut to pieces by the Germans under Arminius (Hermann), completed the humiliation of Augustus, for, in this defeat, he must have foreseen the future victories of the barbarians. All ideas of extending the empire beyond the Rhine were now visionary, and that river was henceforth to remain its boundary on the north. New levies were indeed dispatched to the Rhine, and Tiberius and Germanicus led the forces. But the princes returned to Rome without effecting important results.

(M1054) Soon after, in the year A.D. 14, Augustus died in his seventy-seventh year, after a reign of forty-four years from the battle of Actium, and fifty from the triumvirate-one of the longest reigns in history, and one of the most successful. From his nineteenth year he was prominent on the stage of Roman public life. Under his auspices the empire reached the Elbe, and Egypt was added to its provinces. He planted colonies in every province, and received from the Parthians the captured standards of Cra.s.sus. His fleets navigated the Northern Ocean; his armies reduced the Pannonians and Illyrians. He added to the material glories of his capital, and sought to secure peace throughout the world. He was both munificent and magnificent, and held the reins of government with a firm hand. He was cultivated, unostentatious, and genial; but ambitious, and versed in all the arts of dissimulation and kingcraft. But he was a great monarch, and ruled with signal ability. After the battle of Actium, his wars were chiefly with the barbarians, and his greatest generals were members of the imperial family. That he could have reigned so long, in such an age, with so many enemies, is a proof of his wisdom and moderation, as well as of his good fortune. That he should have triumphed over such generals as Brutus, and Antonius, and s.e.xtus-representing the old parties of the republic, is unquestionable evidence of transcendent ability. But his great merit was his capacity to rule, to organize, and to civilize. He is one of the best types of a sovereign ruler that the world has seen. It is nothing against him, that, in his latter years, there were popular discontents. Such generally happen at the close of all long reigns, as in the case of Solomon and Louis XIV. And yet, the closing years of his reign were melancholy, like those of the French monarch, in view of the extinction of literary glories, and the pa.s.sing away of the great lights of the age, without the appearance of new stars to take their place. But this was not the fault of Augustus, whose intellect expanded with his fortunes, and whose magnanimity grew with his intellect-a man who comprehended his awful mission, and who discharged his trusts with dignity and self-reliance.

Tiberius Caesar, the third of the Roman emperors, found no opposition to his elevation on the death of Augustus. He ascended the throne of the Roman world at the mature age of fifty-six, after having won great reputation both as a statesman and a general. He was probably the most capable man in the empire, and in spite of all his faults, the empire was never better administered than by him. His great misfortune and fault was the suspicion of his nature, which made him the saddest of mankind, and finally, a monster of cruelty.

(M1055) Like Augustus, he veiled his power as emperor by a.s.suming the old offices of the republic. A subservient Senate and people favored the consolidation of the new despotism to which the world was now accustomed, and with power, which it cheerfully acquiesced as the best government for the times. The last remnant of popular elections was abolished, and the Comitia was transferred from the Campus Martius to the Senate, who elected the candidate proposed by the emperor.

(M1056) The first year of the accession of Tiberius was marked by mutinies in the legions, which were quelled by his nephew Germanicus, whose popularity was boundless, even as his feats had been heroic. This young prince, on whom the hopes of the empire rested, had married Agrippina, the daughter of Julia and Agrippa, and traced through his mother Antonia, and grandmother Octavia, a direct descent from Julia, the sister of the dictator. The blood of Antony also ran in his veins, as well as that of Livia. His wife was worthy of him, and was devotedly attached to him. By this marriage the lines of Julia and Livia were united; and by his descent from Antony the great parties of the revolution were silenced. He was equally the heir of Augustus and of Antonius, of Julia and of Livia; and of all the chiefs of Roman history no one has been painted in fairer colors. In natural ability, in military heroism, in the virtues of the heart, in exalted rank, he had no equal. As consul, general, and governor, he called forth universal admiration. His mind was also highly cultivated, and he excelled in Greek and Latin verse, while his condescending and courteous manners won both soldiers and citizens.