Augustus (63 page)

“stink of far-fetched phrases”
Suet Aug 86 1.

Letters of his seen by Suetonius
Ibid., 87 1.

“What in the world has become of Ajax?”
Ibid., 86 5.

the last letter
“X” was the last letter for Latin words. “Y” was employed for foreign words; “Z” appeared in the earliest Roman alphabet, but ceased to be written. From the first century
B.C.
it returned into use when transliterating the letter ? in a Greek word.

“I take it, of course”
Ibid., 33 1.

When appearing in public
Ibid., 53 1–2.

“I had some bread”
Ibid., 76 1.

“On the way back”
Ibid., 76 2.

“He who has been engaged”
Celsus 125–7.

“Don’t suppose you’ll ever catch her”
Ovid Pont 31142.

a certain standard
See Barrett, pp. 105–6. Livia’s personal servants are recorded late in her life, but there is little reason to suppose that her household was much different at an earlier date.

“simplex munditiis” Hor Odes 155.

the wine she habitually drank
Pliny 14 60.

recipes for various ailments
Barrett, pp. 110–12.

“noble and undaunted spirit”
Plut T & C Grac 19 1.

“Among their number”
Sall Bell Cat 23 3.

a feminine bully
Tac Ann 14.

“to enjoy the fun”
Suet Aug 45 1.

“modest enough”
Ibid., 72 3.

the unappetizing Publius Vedius Pollio
Dio 54 23.

“though refulgent with portraits”
Ovid Trist 2 521–24.

dragging a former consul’s wife
For this paragraph, see Suet Aug 69 1–2, 71 1.

“still to have harboured a passion”
Ibid., 71 1.

when Cato vowed
Plut Cat Min 56 4.

advisory inscription
The inscription is at the “House of the Moralist.”

XXI. GROWING THE EMPIRE

Dio and Suetonius are the main sources, albeit somewhat thin.

“the existing number”
Dio 54 9 1.

“I enlarged the territory”
Res Gest 26.

“whose empire”
Virg Aen 186–89.

“guard our young swarm”
Hor Odes 13529–32.

This three-part plan of action
This strategic analysis is indebted to J.F.C. Fuller’s classic study,
The Decisive Battles of the Western World
. See vol. 1 of the abridged edition (1970), pp. 167ff. For a more ad hoc–ist interpretation, see Erich S. Gruen, “The Expansion of the Empire Under Augustus,” CAH, pp. 147–97.

“Your brother Drusus”
Suet Aug 71 3.

“My state of health”
Suet Tib 21 6.

a plot against the
princeps This is one of those tiresome incidents that bedevil the literary sources for the second part of Augustus’ life. It is reported twice, in Sen Clem 19 and in Dio 55 14–22 (where Livia delivers a long curtain-lecture). Cinna’s first names are given differently; Seneca probably dates the episode to 16–13
B.C.
and Dio to
A.D.
4. The whole affair sounds as if it could simply be a rhetorical exercise mistaken for a historical event. The truth? We shall never know.

The length of a legionary’s service
Decided in 13
B.C.
on Augustus’ return to Rome.

“state of tranquillity”
Strabo 469.

unendurable pain from gout
Pliny 23 27.

he strongly disapproved of Julia
Suet Tib 72–3.

A sharp-eyed great-grandson
This was Gaius, nicknamed Caligula, Drusus’ youngest son, and later emperor (
A.D.
37–41).

A great altar to Augustus
Strabo 432.

he used to chase German chieftains
Suet Clau 14.

Drusus had a riding accident
Livy Per 142.

Tiberius heard the news
Val Max 553 and Pliny 784.

“old Republican constitution”
Suet Clau 14.

“In point of fact”
Ibid., 15.

some truth in the claim
See Levick, pp. 32–35.

“Cripple my hand”
Sen Ep 101 10ff.

“The same day”
Hor Odes 2178–12.

“my purest of pricks”
All the anecdotes in this section about Augustus and Horace come from the life of Horace in Suet De Vir Ill.

XXII. A FAMILY AT WAR

The often mysterious events of these years are inadequately covered by Dio, some of whose text is missing; Suetonius (in the lives of both Augustus and Tiberius) makes a contribution. Tacitus offers a few barbed insights.

Their adoptive father devoted time and energy
Suet Aug 64 3.

“They not only lived”
Dio 55 9 1–2.

“provided they deserve”
Suet Aug 56 2.

imperium maius This is not explicitly stated in the sources; I follow Levick, pp. 35–36 and endnote 24, p. 237.

a warning to the unruly Gaius and Lucius
Dio 55 9 4.

“he was weary”
Suet Tib 10 2.

“he greeted and chatted”
Ibid., 11 1.

Many governors had friendly connections
See Levick, pp. 42–44.

“his retirement was more worthy”
Vell Pat 2994.

The eldest, Germanicus
For this account of Germanicus, see Suet Gaius 31–1.

“a monster, not finished”
Suet Clau 32.

“He’s as big a fool”
Ibid.

“I have always chosen”
Plut Brut 53 3.

“Caesar Augustus, the Senate agrees”
Suet Aug 58 2.

“Fathers of the Senate”
Ibid.

a naval battle
Dio 55 10 7–8 and Res Gest 423.

Once when his father
See Green, Erot, p. 19.

“All we need is your consent”
Ovid Am 2265–66.

“not to say or do anything”
Suet Aug 64 2.

“You have acted presumptuously”
Ibid.

“This dress”
Macr 255. Macrobius is a late source, but there is no reason to distrust his stories about Julia.

“Passengers are never allowed”
Ibid., 259.

“I should have preferred”
Suet Aug 65 2.

“should anything happen to her”
Ibid., 101 3.

“solemn names”
Tac Ann 324.

“unique depravity disguised”
Vell Pat 2 100 5.

“This shrewd”
Tac Ann 153.

an emblem of liberty
Serv Ad Aen 320.

It may be no coincidence
Dio 55 9 10, and 10 1.

“his daughter’s adultery”
Pliny 7149.

Livia also seems
See Barrett, p. 51.

“Fire will sooner”
Dio 55 13 1.

“If you ever”
Suet Aug 65 3.

XXIII. THE UNHAPPPY RETURN

Information on important events is scanty. Dio’s and Suetonius’ lives of Augustus and Tiberius are the main sources. The poet Ovid casts enigmatic light on the exile of the younger Julia and his own banishment.

He received a letter from his stepson
For this paragraph and the next, see Suet Tib 11 and 12.

“companion and guide”
Ibid., 12 2.

“fired by the fame of Arabia”
Pliny 12 31.

“Dis aliter visum” Virgil Aen 258.

“Greetings, my Gaius”
Aul Gell 1573.

Lollius had been taking bribes
Vell Pat 2 102 1, Pliny 958.

“fetch back the exile’s head”
Suet Tib 13 1.

While laying siege
Florus 23244–45.

“defects”
Vell Pat 2 102 3.

“through old age and sickness”
Dio 55 13 1a.

“atrox fortuna” Suet Tib 23.

“secret diplomacy”
Tac Ann 13.

“for reasons of state”
Suet Tib 21 3.

“animal-like confidence”
Tac Ann 13.

“because he was afraid”
Dio 55 27 5.

“because [his] conduct”
Suet Aug 65 4.

accused of plotting
Ibid., 19 1, and Scholiast on Juvenal 6 158; see Green, Erot, p. 57.

“Ah, never to have married”
Hom Il 340. Hector is speaking to Paris.

“my three boils”
Suet Aug 65 4.

Augustus exiled Ovid
See Green, Erot, pp. 44–58, for an excellent and full account, which I follow.

“Why did I see what I saw?”
Ovid Trist 2103–6.

In Rome there was a severe famine
For this section about discontent at Rome, see Dio 55 27.

“I never sought to procure”
Ovid Trist 3545–48.

XXIV. THE BITTER END

For the last part of Augustus’ life, we depend on Dio (despite lacunae), on the overenthusiastic Velleius, and on Suetonius’ lives of Augustus and Tiberius. The site of the main ambush of Varus’ legions has been discovered at Kalkriese in Germany (see
The Quest for the Lost Roman Legions: Discovering the Varus Battlefield,
by Tony Clunn [New York and Spellmount, Staplehurst, UK: Savas Beatie, 2005]).

“The Pannonians possessed”
Vell Pat 2 110 5.

“Your summer campaigns”
Suet Tib 21 5.

his Romanized name of Arminius
It was wrongly thought by Martin Luther and others that the German for “Arminius” is Hermann. It may have been Armin.

location for the ambush
The site was identified in the 1990s near the modern German town of Bramsche between the Ems and Weser rivers.

“dreaded but unavoidable act”
Dio 56 21 5.

“Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions!”
Suet Aug 23 2.

A record survives
Pliny 748.

“blackened the characters”
Tac Ann 172.

“republicanist”
Sen Contr 10 Praef 4–8.

“You must not”
Suet Aug 51 3.

stay within the empire’s current boundaries
Tacitus (Ann 111) places this advice in the
breviarium
.

In the late spring
Augustus’ remorse over Agrippa Postumus is told with varying levels of detail by Pliny 7150, Plutarch in his essay on talkativeness (although referring to a Fulvius rather than a Fabius), Dio 56 30, and Tac Ann 15.

“There [on Planasia]”
Tac Ann 15.

Augustus’ last days
Suet Aug 97–100.

During the ritual
Suetonius says only “the nearby temple”; the main temple built and dedicated by Agrippa was the Pantheon, to which the historian was very probably referring.

“Augustus’ illness”
Tac Ann 15.

“Livia was afraid”
Dio 56 30 2.

According to Dio
Ibid., 56 30 5.

But Suetonius claims
Suet Aug 98 5.

commander of the island guard
According to Suetonius (Tib 22 1), Tiberius did not announce Augustus’ death until he received the news of Postumus’ execution. This seems unlikely, for it would have entailed four or five days’ silence. It would also be unnecessary, for no uprising could have been organized in such a short space of time.

“repository of imperial secrets”
Tac Ann 330.

“palace secrets”
Ibid., 16.

recovery came too late
When rulers or heads of state die in office,
raison d’état
has been known to stimulate ruthless behavior: one recalls that the death of England’s King George V in 1935 was hastened by his doctor so that it met the deadline for the London
Times
newspaper of the following morning!