CHAP. LII. EVENTS IN THE REIGN OF AUGUSTUS. 425 fairs; and to him the Romans ascribed the first outline of the principles of government which grew at last into the imperial system. A popular tradition, founded perhaps on the known character of the two men respectively, affirmed that when Augustus deliberated about resigning his powers he took counsel with Agrippa and Mæcenas; the one advised the restoration of the republic, the other the retention of the empire. The private habits of the minister were not less serviceable to his master's position than his political counsels. Mæcenas contrived to attach to the new system many of the best and ablest statesmen of the day, while he secured in its favor the voice of the literary class. The table at which Virgil and Horace, Varius and Pollio conversed genially together, under the patronage of Mæcenas, and in the presence of Augustus himself, was the field on which all the adverse theories of politics and philosophy were brought to an amicable settlement. Never was a state revolution so gilded with the flattery of poets and historians as the seasonable usurpation of Augustus. The principal events of a reign which extended over more than forty years are for the most part of little mark or interest, and may be enumerated succinctly. The victor's return to Rome from u.o. 725. the East in 29 was immediately followed by his triple tri- B.. 29. umph-" over the Illyrians, over the Egyptians at Actium, and over Cleopatra herself at Alexandria." The last of the civil wars was thus brought to a close. After a struggle of twenty-one years peace was restored to the Roman world, and the temple of Janus was shut. This happy event, of which the citizens could recall only two previous instances, was celebrated with the loudest acclamations. Nevertheless Augustus, however peaceably he was himself inclined, was compelled to employ arms to repress the rebellious spirit of the Iberian mountaineers, and even took himself the command against them. Stricken with sickness, as more than once before, he quitted the camp, and left to his generals the reduction of the Cantabri, which was reckoned one of the most notable exploits of his imperium. On the accomplishment of this conquest, B. c. 25, he closed Janus a second time. He had the fortune to perform this B.O. 25. auspicious rite on a third occasion, but the exact date is not recorded in Roman history. Nor, indeed, did the "Pax Romana," as it was proudly designated, continue long at any time without more or less vexatious interruptions. The frontiers of the empire, and some of its interior districts also, were frequently disturbed by foreign or domestic enemies. Neither was the old spirit of Roman aggression yet wholly pacified. For a moment, indeed, it was expected that the emperor would conduct an armament in person across the Channel for the conquest of Britain. The poets v.o. 729. U. c. 730. already announced their visions of the captive islanders descending the Sacred Way towards the Capitol. But from such an adventure, if ever contemplated, he prudently abstained, nor did he cause any attempt to be made to retrieve the ill-success of Cæsar, or recover the tribute which had never been received. He sanctioned an expedition, however, into the southern regions of Arabia, with no apparent object but to satisfy the national greed of conquest and of plunder. Ælius Gallus, in the year 24, conducted a naval armament along the coast of the Red Sea, and landed a force of 10,000 men at a place called Leuce Come, supposed to be the modern Haura, from whence it marched towards the spice country by a circuitous route in quest of allies who failed to give the assistance required. The army suffered grievously, as might be expected, from the soil and the climate; its farthest point of advance, which is called Marsyaba, may have lain a little to the south of Mecca. The expedition returned with much loss and no advantages acquired. The mortification of Augustus at this first disappointment was but slightly relieved by the successes of Petronius on the southern border of Egypt, and the tribute he exacted from the Ethiopian queen Candace. In the year 21 Augustus, who had just put down the abortive and frivolous conspiracy of Murena, found himself so strong and secure at Rome that he did not hesitate to make a prolonged visit to the eastern regions of his empire. On his way he stopped in Sicily to plant colonies in Syracuse and other declining cities; from thence he passed into Greece, and bestowed special favors on Sparta, while he withdrew from Athens her lucrative privilege of selling her franchise. At Samos he passed the winter, and proceeded the next spring into Asia, where he settled the prerogatives of various communities and potentates. It would seem that he extended his progress as far as Syria, where he inflicted chastisement on the turbulent populations of Tyre and Sidon, and possibly advanced into Palestine, and made some favorable disposition of territory to Herod, the king of Judea, in person. But the last and greatest object of this proconsular tour was to recover the standards of Crassus from the Parthians. Tiberius Claudius was sent in advance with an army to make the demand more imposing, and when he had reached Armenia, Phraates, the Parthian sovereign, felt that the conjuncture was serious, and offered no resistance. The standards, or rather, perhaps, the brazen eagles which surmounted them, were the cherished objects of the soldier's affections, and sometimes of his worship, which he was bound by the military sacrament never to abandon. After an interval, however, of more than thirty years few of the captives survived, and of these not many would care to relinquish their CHAP. LII. THE SECULAR GAMES. 427 new ties and occupations. Phraates himself, if we may trust the testimony of the imperial medals, did homage at the feet of the emperor's representative, and received the crown from his hands. The long-lost trophies were brought by Tiberius to his father, and by him transmitted to Rome, where they were greeted .c. 734. with acclamations, and deposited in the temple of Mars 1.0.20. the Avenger; and the pæans which the poets raised on the occasion have surrounded them with more than common lustre in the eyes of posterity. Augustus had accepted a renewal of his imperial functions for a second term of five years in 18. The empire might be regarded as definitively established. Such an event might be not unfitly marked by the celebration of the Secular games, which were supposed to be held, though with no great regularity, every hundredth or hundred and tenth year of the republic. Augustus determined to inaugurate his restoration of the state by this solemn ceremony. The Sibylline books, examined by his obsequious ministers, readily presented the sanction he required. The forms of the ceremonial were investigated by the most learned antiquaries. They u.o. 737. were to occupy three days and nights, and heralds trav- B.O. 17. ersed the streets inviting every citizen to attend upon a spectacle "which none of them had ever yet seen, and none could ever see again!" The ceremonies themselves were of the simplest kind, consisting of the distribution of sulphur, pitch, wheat, and barley to the citizens. The Aventine, the Palatine, and the Capitoline were paraded by the multitude. Sacrifices, of course, were offered, the "game of Troy" was enacted, and the festival ended with the performance of a choral ode of praise and thanksgiving; probably the actual hymn which Horace inserted among his poems, and entitled the "Carmen Sæculare." In the following year Agrippa was sent again into Asia, and in 15 Augustus quitted Rome himself to examine the state of affairs in the North, from the capital of Transalpine Gaul. Not only had many of the mountain tribes rushed to arms, but beyond u.o. 739. the Alps the Pannonians and Noricans had invaded the B.c. 15. Istrian peninsula, which now claimed to be a portion of Italy. The Dalmatians were in open revolt, Macedonia was ravaged by the Mosians, the Sarmatians had inundated Thrace. An irruption of the Germans on the lower Rhine had been attended with the de feat of the imperial legate Lollius, and the loss of an eagle. This disaster had, indeed, been retrieved before the emperor's arrival ; but his vigilance was awakened to the cause of the weakness of his government. His procurator, Licinus, himself a Gaul by extraction, had shaken the fidelity of the people by his monstrous extortions. On reaching Lugdunum the emperor required an ac count of his transactions. But Licinus, we are told, invited his master to visit him, and when he had exhibited the treasures he had amassed, Augustus acknowledged the good policy he had pursued towards rich and faithless dependencies, and accepted the splendid bribe. Whatever be the truth of this discreditable story, it seems certain that the procurator retained his wealth, and became a by-name for unhonored magnificence. The state, however, of the North hardly admitted of being so trifled with. The position of Gaul especially, lying between the hostile zones of Germany and Vindelicia, demanded more than ordinary vigilance. There were no ready means or routes of communication between Gaul and Pannonia. The passes of the eastern Alps were still in the hands of the barbarians. The rich plains of the Cisalpine offered them a tempting prey, and the honor as well as the security of Italy herself demanded their complete subjugation. The Salassi and other western tribes had been U.O. 739. reduced already; but in 15 Drusus Claudius Nero, the B.C. 15. emperor's younger step-son, now in his twenty-third year, overthrew the Rhætians in the Tridentine Alps, and defeated the Breuni and Genauni in the valley of the Inn. At the same time Tiberius, ascending the valley of the Rhine from Gaul, had reached the lake of Constance, and, by the use of a flotilla rapidly constructed, surprised the enemy in various quarters. The Eastern Alps were pacified once for all. The Vindelici and the Rhæti disappear from the history on which they figured only for a moment. It became the policy of the Romans to push forward their colonists into the region between the lake of Constance and the upper Danube, and cut off the Helvetians from contact with German liberty. CHAP. LIII. THE IMPERIAL FAMILY. 429 CHAPTER LIII. The imperial family.-Drusus Nero on the Rhine.-His surname Germanicus. His premature death. -Tiberius Nero in Pannonia. - Death of Agrippa.-Caius and Lucius, his sons by Julia.-Tiberius marries Julia; parts from her. She is banished to an island; he retires to Rhodes.-He is received again into favor; associated in the tribunician power. —His expedition to the Elbe, A.D. 4.-His expedition against the Marcomanni, A.D. 6.-Revolt in Pannonia.-Troubles in the imperial family.-Seclusion of the younger Julia and of Agrippa Postumus.-Banishment of the poet Ovid. Disaster of Várus in Germany.-Consternation in the city.Tiberius resumes the command on the Rhine and earns a triumph.-The young Germanicus left in command.-Augustus causes a census to be held; compiles his "Breviarium," and dies A.D. 14. WE are entering on the career of an imperial dynasty. The history of Rome becomes now closely connected with the names and characters of the members of a single family. We shall seldom have occasion henceforth to notice the consuls and tribunes of the Roman commonwealth, whose titles, indeed, will yet remain -that of consul, indeed, for many ages-but whose functions will have fallen into abeyance, or become circumscribed within narrow limits. The emperors, from Augustus onwards, will commonly assume the title of consuls, and will associate with themselves sometimes the real chiefs of the aristocracy, sometimes mere upstart favorites of their own creation, and to these the dignity will be generally conceded for a few months or weeks or for days only. The emperors will continue to hold the tribunician power unintermittingly, and will even date the years of their reign by it, but the actual tribunes of the plebs will henceforth be no longer recognized. On the other hand, the kindred and connections of the emperor will occupy a prominent place in the government of the state, and their figures must appear on the canvas of our history. They will constitute the slender aggregate of human beings from whom the rulers of the world are to be chosen. Octavia, the sister of Augustus, who has been mentioned as the wife of M. Antonius, had been previously united in marriage to one of the old nobility named C. Marcellus, and had by him a son, M. Marcellus, who became and for a brief space continued to be the hope of the house, in default of sons to his uncle. At the time when Augustus had obtained full possession of power, and might |