Evelyn S. Shuckburgh

“ It might be argued that tyrants always appeal to their right use of power however irregularly obtained, but that the plea is beside the question. Freedom is the only guarantee of the continuance of good government. The beneficent tyrant may any day be succeeded by a bad one. The policy of Augustus had led the people on step by step to forfeit this freedom, and lose even the taste for it, lulled to sleep by the charms of safety and luxury. ”

“ Cornelius Gallus, the first prefectus of Egypt, committed suicide rather than confront the accusations brought against him and the evident animus of the Senate; but Augustus did not wish it, and exclaimed with tears in his eyes that it was hard that he should be the only man who might not be angry with his friends without the matter going farther than he intended. The coldness that arose between him and his ministers Agrippa and Mæcenas was only temporary and never very grave. ”

“ He by no means intends to draw a pleasing portrait. He seldom does. But what we may take for true is that she was beautiful, loyal to her husband, open-handed and generous to the distressed, merciful and kind to the unfortunate. To those who think such qualities likely to belong to a poisoner and murderess, her condemnation must be left. It is curious that neither Vergil, Horace, nor Propertius mention or allude to Livia; nor does Ovid do so until after the death of Augustus—for the consolatio ad Liviam on the death of Drusus is not his. ”

“ Perhaps the pretensions of Cæsarion to the paternity of Cæsar, and his acknowledgment as heir to the throne of Egypt, made his death inevitable; but the extreme youth of Antyllus and his helplessness might have pleaded for him. The rest of Antony’s children were protected by Octavia, and brought up as became their rank.
It is impossible not to feel some sympathy for Antony, who had thus flung away fame and life for a woman’s love. But it was doubtless a happy thing for the world that the direction of affairs fell to the cautious Augustus rather than to him. ”

“ Thus Antony’s career as an administrator and defender of the Empire was rightly or wrongly looked upon as comparing unfavourably with that of Cæsar. But still more shocking to Roman feeling was his position in Cleopatra’s court. Though the moral standard at Rome was far from high, it was rigid in regard to certain details. Just as a valid marriage could only be contracted with a woman who was a civis, so for a man in high position to live openly with a foreign mistress, however high her rank, was peculiarly scandalous. ”

“ If we lay aside some expressions of overstrained compliment, which favoured the growing fashion of paying the Emperor divine honours, it cannot be said that the language is fulsome or degrading to the poet. The “parasitic table” of Mæcenas may, as M. Beulé asserts, have been a misfortune to the poets, and attenuated their vein of inspiration: but a man must have something in practical life on which to pin his faith; and Horace might have done worse than devote his genius to promote loyalty to the great statesman who had saved Roman society and given peace and prosperity to an empire. ”

“ And lastly such opposition as still existed was no longer of irreconcilables who had known “liberty”; a new generation had grown up which on the whole acquiesced in the peace and security of a benevolent despotism. It was a new era, and Augustus became a new man. Full of honours and possessed with irresistible powers, feeling the responsibility heavily, and often in vain desiring rest, he had no farther personal object to gain beyond the credit of having served his country and saved the Empire. ”

“ When he mildly remonstrated with Antistius Labeo for nominating Lepidus (whom he particularly disliked and treated with great contumely) to the Senate, Antistius retorted rudely, “Every one is entitled to his own opinion.” He was tolerant of such language and wrote a soothing note to Tiberius, who expressed himself vehemently about some occurrence of the sort: “My dear Tiberius, don’t give way to youthful excitement, or be so very indignant at some one being found to speak harm of me. It is quite enough if we can prevent their doing us any harm.” ”

“ Horace exactly represents this feeling when he addresses Augustus in his absence in Gaul: “Oh scion of the gracious gods, oh best guardian of the race of Romulus ... return! Your country calls for you with vows and prayer ... for when you are here the ox plods up and down the fields in safety; Ceres and bounteous blessing cheer our farms; our sailors speed o’er seas that know no fear of pirates; credit is unimpaired; no foul adulteries stain the home; punishment follows hard on crime.... Who fears Parthian, Scythian, German, or Spaniard with Cæsar safe? ”

“ For eighteen years—just half his life—he had been ceaselessly engaged in fatiguing duties, in wars for which he had no genius, and in civil administration which, though much better suited to his taste and abilities, had been carried out amidst constant opposition and difficulty. One side of his mind may well have been eager for rest. But, on the other hand, no man who has tasted power and feels that he can wield it quits it without pain. ”

“ But it was, and still remains, uncertain whether this was done by Antony’s order.
He was just forty, and had led a strange life since he witnessed his father’s death from the ship off the coast of Egypt. He seems to have had some generous qualities which attached men to him. But the times were out of joint, and he was compelled to live the life of a pirate and freebooter, having a grievance against every successive party that gained power at Rome, trusting none, and feeling no obligation to treat them as fellow citizens or even as noble enemies. ”

“ With the exception of one visit to Brundisium of seven days, to suppress the mutiny of some discontented veterans, Cæsar spent the winter at Samos and Athens, collecting an army and navy destined to deprive Egypt permanently of its independence. Cleopatra had indeed tried to brave it out. She returned to Alexandria with her prows decked with flowers and her pipers playing a triumphant tune. The people are not likely to have been deceived, but there was no sign of revolt. ”

“ In every department of political and social life we trace his hand. Working day and night, he was scheming to alter what he [269] thought bad, and to introduce what he thought good. The reconstruction and embellishment of the city, the restoration of religion, the rehabilitation of marriage, measures necessary for the security of Rome and Italy, for the better government and material prosperity of the provinces, for the solvency of the exchequer, and for the protection of commerce—all these continually occupied his time and his thoughts. ”

“ The provinces too as they became more Romanised were certain to claim to be put on a more equal status with Italy: they could only be held together by a man who had equal authority everywhere, never by a local town council. Augustus, indeed, did not realise this development, or rather he feared its advent. In his eyes Rome ought still to rule, but could only do so by all its powers being centred in one man, who could consult the interest and attract the reverence of all parts of the Empire alike. ”

“ One was a breviarium totius imperii, an exact account of the state of the Empire, the number of soldiers under colours, the amount of money in the treasury or the fiscus, the arrears due, and the names of those freedmen who were to be held responsible. As a kind of appendix to this were some maxims of state which he wished to impress upon his successor: such as, not to extend the citizenship too widely, but to maintain the distinction between Roman and subject; to select able men for administrative duties, but not to allow them to become too powerful or think themselves indispensable ”

“ Though Augustus returned to Rome amidst loud congratulations, the Western part of the Empire was not yet at peace, and in fact there were many threatening signs of future trouble. Agrippa, indeed, in the very year of the Emperor’s return from the East, crushed the rebellious Cantabri and Astures, not without severe fighting; but though Augustus was able now to remain at home, passing laws, holding the secular games, and strengthening his family by adopting Agrippa’s children, the Empire was not at peace, the Ianus Quirinus still stood open. ”

“ In Rome itself, when Augustus reorganised the vici, the old worship of the Lares Compitales at some consecrated spot in each vicus or “parish” was restored, but they were commonly spoken of as Lares Augusti, and the Genius Augusti was associated with them. It is this fact that, to a certain extent, explains and renders less irrational an attitude of mind which we are apt to dismiss as merely absurd. Each man had a Genius—a deity to whom he was a particular care. ”

“ Brought as prisoner from Gaul by Iulius Cæsar, and apparently emancipated by Octavian in accordance with his uncle’s will, he had by some means amassed an immense fortune, and retained the favour of Augustus by large contributions to the public works from time to time promoted by the Emperor. A millionaire disposed to such liberality is always welcome to a sovereign with a taste for expensive reforms. ”

“ A man could not control the provinces without command of the army. But he could not control the army if another man controlled the exchequer. He could not keep order in Rome and Italy, if another had command of all the legions and fleets abroad, and could at any moment invade the country or starve it out by stopping the corn-ships. And if a man had the full control of the purse and the sword, the rest followed. ”

“ In material matters the extension of the citizenship meant the gradual shifting of the centre of power, and when early in the third century Caracalla, for purposes of taxation, extended the citizenship to the whole Empire, though the Roman name and its historical prestige remained, Rome itself became only one of a number of cities in a widely spread empire, and politically by no means the most important. Such a conception was far from the mind of Augustus. It would have seemed to him to be more worthy of his rival Antony, who was for setting up a new Rome in Alexandria. ”

“ The higher classes turned away from a political career, and gave themselves up more and more to luxurious idleness. The rise of the freedman—practically the rule of favourites—was clearly foreshadowed, though owing to the industry of Augustus, and his genius for detail, it did not become prominent in his time. As the upper classes were thus to a certain extent demoralised by the Principate, so the city proletariat was pampered and made still more effete. The city was made only too attractive to them, and they were to be kept in good humour by an endless series of games and shows. ”

“ But in spite of the manifestly party spirit of the packed Senate that voted the divine honours to Iulius, he gave no sign of revulsion or incredulity. On the contrary, he professed himself the heir not only of his wealth and honours, but also of his religious obligations and political purposes. It is clear, again, that Augustus believed in the gods, that is, in some immortal being or beings who governed and controlled the world. ”

“ From that point of view the only crime of Augustus would be in the case of Terentia, wife of Mæcenas, if the tale is true. As among the other emperors whose life Suetonius wrote, with the exception of Vespasian, the character of Augustus stands out clear. One age cannot judge fairly of another, and it is not seldom that we find ourselves at as great a loss to reconcile theory and practice, as to account for lives such as those of Augustus and Horace in conjunction with the legislation of the former and the moral sentiments occasionally expressed by the latter. ”