Chapter VIII: Signs and Abbreviations (2)

By a decree of the senate at the same time a part of the prætors and tribunes of the people with the consul Quintus Lucretius and leading citizens were sent into Campania to meet me, an honor which up to this time has been decreed to no one but me.[60] When I returned from Spain and Gaul after successfully arranging the affairs of those provinces, in the consulship of Tiberius Nero and Publius Quintilius, the senate voted that in honor of my return an altar of the Augustan Peace should be consecrated in the Campus Martius, and upon this altar it ordered the magistrates and priests and vestal virgins to offer sacrifices on each anniversary.[61]

c. 13.

Janus Quirinus, which it was the purpose of our fathers to close when there was peace won by victory[62] throughout the whole empire of the Roman people on land and sea, and which, before I was born, from the foundation of the city, was reported to have been closed twice in all,[63] the senate three times ordered to be closed while I was _princeps_.[64]

c. 14.

My sons, the Cæsars Gaius and Lucius, whom fortune snatched from me in their youth,[65] the senate and Roman people, in order to do me honor, designated as consuls in the fifteenth year of each, with the intention that they should enter upon that magistracy after five years.[66] And the senate decreed that from the day in which they were introduced into the forum they should share in the public counsels.[67] Moreover the whole body of the Roman knights gave them the title, _principes_ of the youth, and gave to each a silver buckler and spear.[68]

c. 15.

To each man of the Roman _plebs_ I paid three hundred sesterces in accordance with the last will of my father;[69] and in my own name, when consul for the fifth time, I gave four hundred sesterces from the spoils of the wars;[70] again, moreover, in my tenth consulship I gave from my own estate four hundred sesterces to each man by way of _congiarium_;[71] and in my eleventh consulship I twelve times made distributions of food, buying grain at my own expense;[72] and in the twelfth year of my tribunitial power I three times gave four hundred sesterces to each man.[73] These my donations have never been made to less than two hundred and fifty thousand men.[74] In my twelfth consulship and the eighteenth year of my tribunitial power I gave to three hundred and twenty thousand of the city _plebs_ sixty _denarii_ apiece.[75] In the colonies of my soldiers, when consul for the fifth time, I gave to each man a thousand sesterces from the spoils; about a hundred and twenty thousand men in the colonies received that triumphal donation.[76] When consul for the thirteenth time I gave sixty _denarii_ to the _plebs_ who were at that time receiving public grain; these men were a little more than two hundred thousand in number.[77][78]

c. 16.

For the lands which in my fourth consulship, and afterwards in the consulship of Marcus Crassus and Cnæus Lentulus, the augur, I assigned to soldiers, I paid money to the _municipia_. The sum which I paid for Italian farms was about six hundred million sesterces, and that for lands in the provinces was about two hundred and sixty millions.[79] Of all those who have established colonies of soldiers in Italy or in the provinces I am the first and only one within the memory of my age, to do this. And afterward in the consulship of Tiberius Nero and Cnæus Piso, and also in that of Gaius Antistius and Decimus Lælius, and in that of Gaius Calvisius and Lucius Pasienus, and in that of Lucius Lentulus and Marcus Messala, and in that of Lucius Caninius and Quintus Fabricius, I gave gratuities in money to the soldiers whom I sent back to their _municipia_ at the expiration of their terms of service, and for this purpose I freely spent four hundred million sesterces.[80]

c. 17.

Four times I have aided the public treasury from my own means, to such extent that I have furnished to those in charge of the treasury one hundred and fifty million sesterces.[81] And in the consulship of Marcus Lepidus and Lucius Arruntius I paid into the military treasury which was established by my advice that from it gratuities might be given to soldiers who had served a term of twenty or more years, one hundred and seventy million sesterces from my own estate.[82]

c. 18.

Beginning with that year in which Cnæus and Publius Lentulus were consuls, when the imposts failed, I furnished aid sometimes to a hundred thousand men, and sometimes to more, by supplying grain or money for the tribute from my own land and property.[83]

c. 19.

I constructed[84] the Curia,[85] and the Chalcidicum adjacent thereto,[86] the temple of Apollo on the Palatine, with its porticoes,[87] the temple of the divine Julius,[88] the Lupercal,[89] the portico to the Circus of Flaminius, which I allowed to bear the name, Portico Octavia, from his name who constructed the earlier one in the same place;[90] the Pulvinar at the Circus Maximus,[91] the temples of Jupiter the Vanquisher[92] and Jupiter the Thunderer, on the Capitol,[93] the temple of Quirinus,[94] the temples of Minerva and Juno Regina and of Jupiter Libertas, on the Aventine,[95] the temple of the Lares on the highest point of the Via Sacra,[96] the temple of the divine Penates on the Velian hill,[97] the temple of Youth,[98] and the temple of the Great Mother on the Palatine.[99]

c. 20.

The Capitol and the Pompeian theatre have been restored by me at enormous expense for each work, without any inscription of my name.[100] Aqueducts which were crumbling in many places by reason of age I have restored, and I have doubled the water which bears the name Marcian by turning a new spring into its course.[101] The Forum Julium and the basilica which was between the temple of Castor and the temple of Saturn, works begun and almost completed by my father, I have finished; and when that same basilica was consumed by fire, I began its reconstruction on an enlarged site, inscribing it with the names of my sons; and if I do not live to complete it, I have given orders that it be completed by my heirs.[102] In accordance with a decree of the senate, while consul for the sixth time, I have restored eighty-two temples of the gods, passing over none which was at that time in need of repair.[103] In my seventh consulship I constructed the Flaminian way from the city to Ariminum, and all the bridges except the Mulvian and Minucian.[104]

c. 21.

Upon private ground I have built with the spoils of war the temple of Mars the Avenger, and the Augustan Forum.[105] Beside the temple of Apollo, I built upon ground, bought for the most part at my own expense, a theatre, to bear the name of Marcellus, my son-in-law.[106] From the spoils of war I have consecrated gifts in the Capitol, and in the temple of the divine Julius, and in the temple of Apollo, and in the temple of Vesta, and in the temple of Mars the Avenger; these gifts have cost me about a hundred million sesterces.[107] In my fifth consulship I remitted to the _municipia_ and Italian colonies the thirty-five thousand pounds given me as coronary gold on the occasion of my triumphs, and thereafter, as often as I was proclaimed imperator, I did not accept the coronary gold which the _municipia_ and colonies voted to me as kindly as before.[108]

c. 22.

Three times in my own name, and five times in that of my sons or grandsons, I have given gladiatorial exhibitions; in these exhibitions about ten thousand men have fought.[109] Twice in my own name, and three times in that of my grandson, I have offered the people the spectacle of athletes gathered from all quarters.[110] I have celebrated games four times in my own name, and twenty-three times in the turns of other magistrates.[111] In behalf of the college of quindecemvirs, I, as master of the college, with my colleague Agrippa, celebrated the Secular Games in the consulship of Gaius Furnius and Gaius Silanus.[112] When consul for the thirteenth time, I first celebrated the Martial games, which since that time the consuls have given in successive years.[113] Twenty-six times in my own name, or in that of my sons and grandsons, I have given hunts of African wild beasts in the circus, the forum, the amphitheatres, and about thirty-five hundred beasts have been killed.[114]

c. 23.

I gave the people the spectacle of a naval battle beyond the Tiber, where now is the grove of the Cæsars.[115] For this purpose an excavation was made eighteen hundred feet long and twelve hundred wide. In this contest thirty beaked ships, triremes or biremes, were engaged, besides more of smaller size. About three thousand men fought in these vessels in addition to the rowers.

c. 24.

In the temples of all the cities of the province of Asia, I, as victor, replaced the ornaments of which he with whom I was at war had taken private possession when he despoiled the temples.[116] Silver statues of me, on foot, on horseback and in quadrigas, which stood in the city to the number of about eighty, I removed, and out of their money value, I placed golden gifts in the temple of Apollo in my own name, and in the names of those who had offered me the honor of the statues.[117]

c. 25.

I have freed the sea from pirates. In that war with the slaves I delivered to their masters for punishment about thirty thousand slaves who had fled from their masters and taken up arms against the state.[118] The whole of Italy voluntarily took the oath of allegiance to me, and demanded me as leader in that war in which I conquered at Actium. The provinces of Gaul, Spain, Africa, Sicily and Sardinia swore the same allegiance to me.[119] There were more than seven hundred senators who at that time fought under my standards, and among these, up to the day on which these words are written, eighty-three have either before or since been made consuls, and about one hundred and seventy have been made priests.[120]

c. 26.

I have extended the boundaries of all the provinces of the Roman people which were bordered by nations not yet subjected to our sway.[121] I have reduced to a state of peace the Gallic and Spanish provinces, and Germany, the lands enclosed by the ocean from Gades to the mouth of the Elbe.[122] The Alps from the region nearest the Adriatic as far as the Tuscan Sea I have brought into a state of peace, without waging an unjust war upon any people.[123] My fleet has navigated the ocean from the mouth of the Rhine as far as the boundaries of the Cimbri, where before that time no Roman had ever penetrated by land or sea;[124] and the Cimbri and Charydes and Semnones and other German peoples of that section, by means of legates, sought my friendship and that of the Roman people.[125] By my command and under my auspices two armies at almost the same time have been led into Ethiopia and into Arabia, which is called “the Happy,” and very many of the enemy of both peoples have fallen in battle, and many towns have been captured. Into Ethiopia the advance was as far as Nabata, which is next to Meroe.[126] In Arabia the army penetrated as far as the confines of the Sabaei, to the town Mariba.[127]

c. 27.

I have added Egypt to the empire of the Roman people.[128] Of greater Armenia, when its king Artaxes was killed I could have made a province, but I preferred, after the example of our fathers, to deliver that kingdom to Tigranes, the son of king Artavasdes, and grandson of king Tigranes; and this I did through Tiberius Nero, who was then my son-in-law.[129] And afterwards, when the same people became turbulent and rebellious, they were subdued by Gaius, my son, and I gave the sovereignty over them to king Ariobarzanes, the son of Artabazes, king of the Medes, and after his death to his son Artavasdes. When he was killed I sent into that kingdom Tigranes, who was sprung from the royal house of the Armenians.[130] I recovered all the provinces across the Adriatic Sea, which extend toward the east, and Cyrenaica, at that time for the most part in the possession of kings, together with Sicily and Sardinia, which had been engaged in a servile war.[131]

c. 28.

I have established colonies of soldiers[132] in Africa, Sicily, Macedonia, the two Spains, Achaia, Asia, Syria, Gallia Narbonensis and Pisidia.[133] Italy also has twenty-eight colonies established under my auspices, which within my lifetime have become very famous and populous.[134]

c. 29.

I have recovered from Spain and Gaul, and from the Dalmatians, after conquering the enemy, many military standards which had been lost by other leaders.[135] I have compelled the Parthians to give up to me the spoils and standards of three Roman armies, and as suppliants to seek the friendship of the Roman people. Those standards, moreover, I have deposited in the sanctuary which is in the temple of Mars the Avenger.[136]

c. 30.

The Pannonian peoples, whom before I became _princeps_, no army of the Roman people had ever attacked, were defeated by Tiberius Nero, at that time my son-in-law and legate; and I brought them under subjection to the empire of the Roman people,[137] and extended the boundaries of Illyricum to the bank of the river Danube.[138] When an army of the Dacians crossed this river, it was defeated and destroyed, and afterwards my army, led across the Danube, compelled the Dacian people to submit to the sway of the Roman people.[139]

c. 31.

Embassies have been many times sent to me from the kings of India, a thing never before seen in the case of any ruler of the Romans.[140] Our friendship has been sought by means of ambassadors by the Bastarnae and the Scythians, and by the kings of the Sarmatae, who are on either side of the Tanais, and by the kings of the Albani, the Hiberi, and the Medes.[141]

c. 32.

To me have betaken themselves as suppliants the kings of the Parthians, Tiridates, and later, Phraates, the son of king Phraates;[142] of the Medes, Artavasdes;[143] of the Adiabeni, Artaxares;[144] of the Britons, Dumnobellaunus and Tim_____;[145] of the Sicambri, Maelo;[146] and of the Marcomanian Suevi, __________rus.[147] Phraates, king of the Parthians, son of Orodes, sent all his children and grandchildren into Italy to me, not because he had been conquered in war, but rather seeking our friendship by means of his children as pledges.[148] Since I have been _princeps_ very many other races have made proof of the good faith of the Roman people, who never before had had any interchange of embassies and friendship with the Roman people.

c. 33.

From me the peoples of the Parthians and of the Medes have received the kings they asked for through ambassadors, the chief men of those peoples: the Parthians, Vonones, the son of king Phraates, and grandson of king Orodes;[149] the Medes, Ariobarzanes, the son of king Artavasdes, and grandson of king Ariobarzanes.[150]

c. 34.

In my sixth and seventh consulships, when I had put an end to the civil wars, after having obtained complete control of affairs by universal consent, I transferred the commonwealth from my own dominion to the authority of the senate and Roman people.[151] In return for this favor on my part I received by decree of the senate the title Augustus,[152] the door-posts of my house were publicly decked with laurels, a civic crown was fixed above my door,[153] and in the Julian Curia was placed a golden shield, which, by its inscription, bore witness that it was given to me by the senate and Roman people on account of my valor, clemency, justice and piety.[154] After that time I excelled all others in dignity, but of power I held no more than those also held who were my colleagues in any magistracy.[155]

c. 35.

While I was consul for the thirteenth time the senate and the equestrian order and the entire Roman people gave me the title of father of the fatherland, and decreed that it should be inscribed upon the vestibule of my house and in the Curia, and in the Augustan Forum beneath the quadriga which had been, by decree of the senate, set up in my honor.[156] When I wrote these words I was in my seventy-sixth year.[157]

SUPPLEMENT.

c. 1.

The sum of the money which he gave in to the treasury or to the Roman people, or to discharged soldiers, was six hundred million denarii.[158]

c. 2.

He constructed new works as follows: the temples of Mars, of Jupiter the Thunderer and the Vanquisher, of Apollo, of the divine Julius, of Quirinus, of Minerva, of Juno Regina, of Jupiter Libertas, of the Lares, of the divine Penates, of Youth, and of the Mother of the gods, the Lupercal, the Pulvinar in the Circus, the Curia with the Chalcidicum, the Augustan Forum, the Basilica Julia, the Theatre of Marcellus, the Portico on the Palatine, the Portico in the Flaminian Circus, the grove of the Cæsars beyond the Tiber.[159]

c. 3.

He restored the Capitol, and sacred structures to the number of eighty-two, the Theatre of Pompey, the aqueducts, the Flaminian Way.[160]

c. 4.

His expenses for theatrical representations, for gladiatorial and athletic exhibitions, for chases and the naval combat,[161] also for gifts in money to the colonies and cities of Italy,[162] to provincial cities suffering from earthquake or conflagrations,[163] and to individual friends and to senators, whose property he raised to the standard,[164] were innumerable.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.

(_Roman numerals refer to chapters._)

A. U. C.

706. Made _pontifex_, VI.

710. Raises army at his own cost, I; gives to each citizen 300
sesterces, according to will of Julius Cæsar, XV.

711. Enters senate, receives consular rank, and the _imperium_,
becomes _propraetor_, _imperator_, consul, I; triumvir, I
and VII; exiles murderers of Julius Cæsar, II.

712. War of Philippi, II; builds the curia, XIX, app. II.

714. _Imperator_ second and third times; ovation, IV.

716. Recovers Sardinia, XXVII.

718. The Sicilian war, III and XIX; fourth time _imperator_, IV;
punishes revolted slaves, XXV; recovers Sicily, XXVII; ovation, IV;
receives tribunitial power, X, cf. VI; builds temple of Apollo on the
Palatine, XIX, app. II.

721. Fifth time _imperator_? IV; recovers standards from
Dalmatians, XXIX.

722. Becomes leader against Antony, XXV.

723. Victory of Actium; clemency as victor, III; sixth time
_imperator_, IV.

724. Fourth consulship; veterans colonized, XVI; provinces east of
the Adriatic, and Cyrenae recovered; Egypt annexed, XXVII; Artavasdes
the Mede and Tiridates the Parthian flee to Augustus, XXXII;
ornaments replaced in temples of Asia, XXIV.

725. Fifth consulship, VIII, XV, XXI; seventh time _imperator_;
triple triumph, IV; declines coronary gold, XXI; gives to 120,000
colonized soldiers 1,000 sesterces apiece; gives the people 400
sesterces each, XV; gives gladiatorial show, XXII; consecrates gifts
in various temples, XXI; closes temple of Janus, XIII; name placed in
Salian hymn, X; increases number of patricians, VIII.

726. Sixth consulship, VIII, XX, XXXIV. Takes census; revises list
of senators, VIII; made _princeps senatus_, VII; restores city
temples, XX, app. III; gives money to the treasury, XVII; gives
gladiatorial and athletic shows, XXII; games vowed and celebrated for
health of Augustus, IX; restores the commonwealth to the senate and
people, XXXIV.

727. Seventh consulship, XX, XXXIV. Continuation of transfer of
power to senate and people; is called Augustus; door-posts decked
with laurel; civic crown and golden shield accorded, XXXIV; repairs
Flaminian Way, XX, app. III; melts down silver statues for offerings,
XXIV.

729. Eighth time _imperator_; refuses triumph, IV; closes temple
of Janus the second time, XIII; Arabian expedition, XXVI.

730. Tenth consulship; gives the people 400 sesterces each.

731. Eleventh consulship; twelve times supplies food for citizens,
XV, cf. V; Ethiopian expedition, XXVI.

732. Consulship of Marcus Marcellus and Lucius Arruntius; refuses
annual and perpetual consulship; also the dictatorship; accepts
the administration of grain supply, V; dedicates temple of Jupiter
Tonans, XIX.

733. Refuses consulship? V.

734. Receives embassy from India, XXXI; ninth time _imperator_?
refuses a triumph, IV; recovers standards from Parthia, XXIX; gives
Armenia Major to Tigranes, XXVII.

735. Quintus Lucretius and Marcus Vinucius consuls; altar of Fortuna
Redux consecrated; Augustalia established, XI; deputation of leading
men meet Augustus in Campania, XII; declines the custody of laws and
morals, VI.

736. Cnaeus and Publius Lentulus consuls, VI, XVIII; remits tribute,
XVIII; again declines custody of laws and morals; associates Agrippa
in tribunitial power, VI.

737. Gaius Furnius and Gaius Silanus consuls; secular games, XXII.

738. Augustus supplies money to the treasury, XVII; gives
gladiatorial show, XXII; dedicates temple of Quirinus, XIX, app. II.

739. Tenth time _imperator_, IV.

740. Marcus Crassus and Cnaeus Lentulus consuls; pays provincials for
lands taken for veterans.

741. Tiberius Nero and Publius Quintilius consuls, XII; deposits
laurel in the Capitol, IV; altar of the Augustan Peace dedicated,
XII; again associates Agrippa in tribunitial power, VI.

742. Gaius Sulpicius and Gaius Valgius consuls, X; twelfth year of
tribunitial power, XV; eleventh time _imperator_, IV; made
_pontifex maximus_, X; gives gladiatorial show, XXII; gives the
people 400 sesterces each, XV.

743. Paullus Fabius Maximus and Quintus Tubero consuls, VI; twelfth
time _imperator_, IV; for the third time refuses the custody of
laws and morals, VI; dedicates theater of Marcellus, XXI, app. II.

745. Thirteenth time _imperator_; deposits the laurel in temple
of Jupiter Feretrius, IV; Tiberius Nero subdues the Pannonians, XXX.

746. Gaius Censorinus and Gaius Asinius consuls; second census taken;
list of senate revised, VIII; children of Phraates sent to Rome;
Maelo, King of the Sicambri, surrenders himself, XXXII; fourteenth
time _imperator_; refuses a triumph, IV.

747. Tiberius Nero and Cnaeus Piso consuls; veterans discharged, with
gratuities, XVI; Alpine peoples added to the empire, XXVI; gives
gladiatorial show, XXII.

748. Gaius Antistius and Decimus Laelius consuls; veterans
discharged, with gratuities, XVI; associates Tiberius in tribunitial
power, VI.

749. Eighteenth year of tribunitial power; twelfth consulship; gives
sixty denarii each to 320,000 citizens; Gaius Cæsar consul designate,
made prince of the youth, received into senate, XIV; aqueducts
repaired, XX, app. III.

750. Gaius Calvisius and Lucius Passienus consuls; veterans
discharged, with gratuities, XVI.

751. Lucius Lentulus and Marcus Messala consuls; veterans discharged,
with gratuities, XVI.

752. Thirteenth consulship, XV, XXII, XXXV; Lucius Caninius and
Quintus Fabricius consuls; veterans discharged, with gratuities,
XVI; gives the citizens sixty denarii each, XV; Lucius Cæsar
consul designate, prince of the youth, and admitted to senate,
XIV; dedicates temple of Mars Ultor, XXI, app. II; martial games
instituted, XXII; naval contest exhibited, XXIII; title _pater
patriae_ conferred, XXXV.

755. Lucius Cæsar dies, XIV, cf. XX; fifteenth time _imperator_,
IV; Armenia subdued by Gaius Cæsar and given to Ariobarzanes, XXVII.

757. Gaius Cæsar dies, XIV, cf. XX; again associates Tiberius in
tribunitial power, VI.

758. Fleet penetrates to limits of the Cimbri; the Cimbri, Charudes
and Semnones send ambassadors, XXVI; King Vonones given to the
Parthians, XXXIII.

759. Marcus Lepidus and Lucius Arruntius consuls, XVII; seventeenth
time _imperator_, IV; Dacians subdued, XXX; gives gladiatorial
show, XXII; military treasury established, XVII.

762. Nineteenth time _imperator_, IV.

766. Associates Tiberius the third time in tribunitial power, VI.

767. Sextus Pompeius and Sextus Appuleius consuls, VIII;
thirty-seventh year of tribunitial power, IV; seventy-sixth year of
Augustus, XXXV; third census taken; list of senate revised, VIII.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Abbreviations as used in the Notes are put in parentheses.