Augustus Caesar
E.S. Shuckburgh
Number of quotes: 26
Book ID: 33 Page: 72/73
Section: 3B
But they did not wait till their arrival in the city to begin the vengeance. They had agreed to follow the precedent of Sulla by publishing lists of men declared to be out of the pale of the law. The larger list was reserved for farther consideration; but a preliminary list of seventeen names was drawn up at once, and soldiers were sent with orders to put the men to death wherever found. (The Proscription.). . . .
On the day after the installation of the triumvirs (November 28th) the citizens were horrified to see an edict fixed up in the Forum, detailing the causes of the executions which were to follow, and offering a reward for the head of any one of those named below—25,000 sesterces to a freeman, 10,000 and freedom to a slave. All who aided or concealed a proscribed man were to suffer death themselves. Below were two tablets, one for Senators and one for equites. They contained 130 names, besides the original seventeen, to which were shortly added 150 more. Additions were continually being made during the following days, either from private malice or covetousness. In some cases men were first killed and then their names inserted in the lists.
. . . .
Quote ID: 546
Time Periods: 01
Book ID: 33 Page: 76
Section: 3B
For a just view of the character of Augustus, it is important to decide how far he acquiesced in the cruelties of the proscription. With the general policy he seems to have been in full accord; and as far as a complete vengeance on those implicated in the murder of Iulius was concerned, he was no doubt inexorable.
Quote ID: 548
Time Periods: 01
Book ID: 33 Page: 77
Section: 3B
He affirms that Antony and Lepidus were chiefly responsible for the proscriptions, pointing out that Octavian by his own nature, as well as his association with Iulius, was inclined to clemency; and moreover, that he had not been long enough engaged in politics to have conceived many enmities, while his chief wish was to be esteemed and popular; and lastly, that when he got rid of these associates, and was in sole power, he was never guilty of such crimes. The strongest of these arguments is that which claims for Caesar’s youth immunity from widespread animosities; and it does seem probable that outside the actual assassins and their immediate supporters, Augustus would not personally have cared to extend the use of the executioner’s sword.
Quote ID: 549
Time Periods: 01
Book ID: 33 Page: 129
Section: 3B
It would be pleasanter if the death of Cleopatra and the confiscation of her treasury were the end of the story. But the executions of the two poor boys, Caesarion and Antyllus, were acts of cold-blooded cruelty.
Quote ID: 551
Time Periods: 01
Book ID: 33 Page: 131
Section: 3B
It has been called a dyarchy, the two parties to it being the Emperor and the Senate. (The new constitution.)
Quote ID: 552
Time Periods: 01
Book ID: 33 Page: 149
Section: 3B
To mark his exceptional position without offending the prejudice against royalty, it was desired to give him a special title of honour. His own wish was for “Romulus,” as second founder of the state. But objection was raised to it as recalling the odious position of rex, and he eventually accepted the title of AUGUSTUS, a word connected with religion and the science of augury, and thereby suggesting the kind of sentiment which he desired to be attached to his person and genius. This was voted by the Senate on the Ides (13th) of January, B.C. 27, and confirmed by a plebiscitum on the 16th.
Quote ID: 553
Time Periods: 01
Book ID: 33 Page: 157/158
Section: 3B
But soon after entering on his eleventh consulship in B.C. 23, he became so much worse that he believed himself to be dying. It became necessary, therefore, to make provision for the continuance of the government. Augustus had no hereditary office, and no power of transmitting authority. Still, it was supposed that he was training his nephew and son-in-law Marcellus, or his stepson Tiberius, to be his successor.. . . .
But when he thought death approaching, Augustus did not designate either of these young men. He handed his seal to Agrippa, and the official records of the army and revenue to Cn. Calpurnius Piso, his colleague in the consulship.
. . . .
When he met the Senate once more, he offered to read his will to prove that he had been true to his constitutional obligations, and had named no successor, but had left the decision in the hands of the Senate and people. (The new constitutional settlement, B.C. 23.)
Quote ID: 554
Time Periods: 0
Book ID: 33 Page: 159/160
Section: 3B
The second—potestas tribunicia— was superior to the ordinary powers of the tribunes, because by it, he could veto their proceedings, while they could not veto his. “It gave him”—to use Dio’s words—“the means of absolutely putting a stop to any proceeding of which he disapproved; it rendered his person inviolable, so that the least violence offered him by word or deed made a man liable to death without trial as being under a curse.”. . . .
It was now unnecessary any longer to hold the consulship, for the imperium given him in other ways covered all, and more than all, which the consulship could give.
Quote ID: 555
Time Periods: 01
Book ID: 33 Page: 161
Section: 3B
But Marcellus, who had been adopted by Augustus on his marriage to Iulia, betrayed his hopes by protesting against the preference shewn by the apparently dying Emperor to Agrippa; and Augustus yielded so far as to send Agrippa from Rome as governor of Syria. A sudden disaster, however, put an end to any intention that may have been formed in regard to Marcellus. In the summer of B.C. 23, he was attacked by fever, and Antonius Musa, who had successfully treated Augustus by a regime of cold baths, tried a similar treatment on the young man with fatal effect.
Quote ID: 556
Time Periods: 01
Book ID: 33 Page: 165/166
Section: 3B
Accordingly, Augustus seems to have meditated putting Tiberius in much the same position as Agrippa had held. In B.C. 11 he compelled him to divorce his wife Vipsania (a daughter of Agrippa) and marry Agrippa’s widow Iulia, the Emperor’s only daughter.. . . .
But he made the mistake of neglecting sentiment. Tiberius was devotedly attached to Vipsania, by whom he had a son, and could feel neither affection nor respect for Iulia, who fancied that she lowered herself in marrying him.
. . . .
His only son by Iulia died, and before long her frivolity and debaucheries disgusted him, and therefore, though associated in the tribunician power for five years in B.C. 7, he sought and obtained permission in the next year to retire to Rhodes, where he stayed seven years in seclusion.
Quote ID: 557
Time Periods: 01
Book ID: 33 Page: 168
Section: 3B
In the same year (A.D. 4) Tiberius was once more associated with Augustus in the tribunician power for ten years.{2} There could be no longer any doubt who would succeed.
Quote ID: 558
Time Periods: 1
Book ID: 33 Page: 169
Section: 3B
Hardly any emperor left behind him such an evil reputation as Tiberius. His funeral procession was greeted with shouts of “Tiberius to the Tiber,” the Senate did not vote him the usual divine honours, and Tacitus has exerted all his skill to make his name infamous.
Quote ID: 559
Time Periods: 1
Book ID: 33 Page: 188
Section: 3B
The loss of three legions and a large body of auxiliaries greatly affected the Emperor, now a man of over seventy. For many months he wore signs of mourning, and we are told that at times in his restless anxiety he beat his head upon the door, crying, “Varus, give me back my legions!”
Quote ID: 560
Time Periods: 01
Book ID: 33 Page: 191
Section: 3B
In the time of the republic there was in theory no one standing army. There were many armies, all of which took the military oath to their respective commanders. Now the military oath was taken by all to one man—the Emperor. The commanders of legions were his legati.
Quote ID: 561
Time Periods: 01
Book ID: 33 Page: 201
Section: 3B
He specially objected to be called dominus, a word properly applying to a master of slaves, and forbade the word to be used even in jest in his own family.
Quote ID: 562
Time Periods: 01
Book ID: 33 Page: 203
Section: 3B
There are other anecdotes which still farther illustrate this human side of Augustus. A veteran begged him to appear for him in court, and Augustus named one of his friends to undertake the case. The veteran cried out, “But when you were in danger at Actium, Caesar, I did not get a substitute; I fought for you myself!” With a blush Augustus consented to appear. The troubles and tragedies of life interested him.
Quote ID: 563
Time Periods: 01
Book ID: 33 Page: 203/204
Section: 3B
Another is of a similar kind. A poor Greek poet was in the habit of waylaying him as he left his house for the forum with complimentary epigrams to thrust into his hand. Augustus took no notice for sometime, but one day seeing the inevitable tablet held out he took it and hastily scribbled a Greek epigram of his own upon it. The poet by voice and look affected to be overpowered with admiration, and running up to the Emperor’s sedan handed him a few pence, crying, “By heaven above you, Augustus, if I had had more I would have given it you!” Everybody laughed and Augustus ordered his steward to give him a substantial sum of money.
Quote ID: 564
Time Periods: 01
Book ID: 33 Page: 211
Section: 3B
These anecdotes of Augustus do not suggest a very heroic figure, very quick wit, or great warmth of heart. They rather indicate what I conceive to be the truer picture, a cool and cautious character, not unkindly and not without a sense of humour; but at the same time as inevitable and unmoved by pity or remorse as nature herself.
Quote ID: 565
Time Periods: 01
Book ID: 33 Page: 221
Section: 2C,3B
Augustus in B.C. 18 ordered them to be re-copied and edited, and the authorised edition was then deposited in his new temple of Apollo on the Palatine, and continued to be consulted till late in the third century.. . . .
As one of the quindecemviris, Augustus had charge of these books, but he formally took the official headship of Roman religion by becoming Pontifex Maximus.
Quote ID: 566
Time Periods: 01
Book ID: 33 Page: 223
Section: 3B,4B
The sixth ode of the first book (written about B.C. 25) joins to the necessity of a restoration of the temples and a return to religion a warning as to the relaxation of morals, tracing the progress in vice of the young girl and wife, with the shameful connivance of the interested husband, and exclaims: “Not from such parents as these sprang the youth that dyed the sea with Punic blood, and brake the might of Pyrrhus and great Antiochus and Hannibal, scourge of God.” Again in the twenty-fourth ode of the same book, also written about B.C. 25, he warmly urges a return to the old morality, and promises immortality to the statesman who shall secure it: “If there be one who would stay unnatural bloodshed and civic fury, if there be one who seeks to have inscribed on his statue the title of ‘Father of the Cities,’ let him pluck up heart to curb licentiousness. (The reformation of morals.)
Quote ID: 567
Time Periods: 0
Book ID: 33 Page: 231
Section: 3B
Livia is said elsewhere by Dio to have explained her lasting influence over Augustus by the fact that she was always careful not to interfere in his affairs, and, while remaining strictly chaste herself, always pretended not to know anything of his armours.
Quote ID: 568
Time Periods: 1
Book ID: 33 Page: 232
Section: 3B
If, however, all that Suetonius and Dio allege against his middle life is true, we must still remember that in the eyes of his contemporaries, and indeed in Roman society generally, from Cato downwards, such indulgence in itself was not reprehensible. It entirely depended on circumstances, and whether other obligations—such as friendship, public duty, family honour—were or were not violated.
Quote ID: 569
Time Periods: 01
Book ID: 33 Page: 237
Section: 3B
At the beginning of B.C. 2, he was again consul, in order to introduce the second grandson to the forum; and to show their appreciation of his achievements, and their affection for his person, the Senate at length voted to give him the title of “pater patriae.”. . . .
He made some difficulty about accepting it; but the next time he appeared at the theatre or circus, he was met by loud shouts, the whole people addressing him by that title, and at the following meeting of the Senate on the 5th of February Valerius Messala was put up to address him formally: “With prayers for your person and your house, Caesar Augustus—for in offering them we deem ourselves to be praying for the perpetual felicity of the Republic and the prosperity of this city—we, the Senate, in full accord with the Roman people, unanimously salute you as Father of your country.” Augustus, rising with tears in his eyes and voice, could just answer briefly, “My dearest wishes have been fulfilled, Fathers of the Senate, and what is there left for me to ask of the immortal gods except that I may retain this unanimous feeling of yours to the last day of my life?”
Quote ID: 570
Time Periods: 01
Book ID: 33 Page: 239
Section: 3B
But however guilty Iulia may have been, she did not forfeit the popular affections. Again and again Augustus was assailed by petitions to recall her. He passionately refused, exclaiming at last to a more than usually persistent meeting, that he “would wish them all daughters and wives like her.”. . . .
Her mother, Scribonia, accompanied her into exile, and though Tiberius, acting under the authority of Augustus, sent from Rhodes a message of divorce, he made a formal request that she might be allowed to retain whatever he had given her. The sincerity of such an intercession was illustrated by the fact that on the death of Augustus he immediately deprived her of all allowances.
Quote ID: 571
Time Periods: 01
Book ID: 33 Page: 252
Section: 3B
On the present occasion, however, in regard to the point on which you consult me, I do no object to his having charge of the triclinium of the priests at the games of Mars if he will submit to receive instructions from his relative, the son of Silanus, to prevent his doing anything to make people stare or laugh.Pastor John’s Note: Claudius
Quote ID: 575
Time Periods: 1
Book ID: 33 Page: 285
Section: 4B
Vergil’s epic is Roman history on the highest plane, and has crystallised for ever a view of that history which has done more than arms and laws to commend it to the imagination of mankind.
Quote ID: 576
Time Periods: 01
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