Her death, however, retarded hostilities; the two rivals were reconciled; their united forces were successfully directed against the younger Pompey; and, to strengthen their friendship, Antony agreed to marry Octavia the sister of Augustus. But as this step was political, and not dictated by affection, Octavia was slighted, and Antony resigned himself to the pleasures and company of the beautiful Cleopatra. Augustus was incensed, and immediately took up arms to avenge the wrongs of his sister, and perhaps more eagerly to remove a man whose power and existence kept him in continual alarms, and made him dependent. Both parties met at Actium, B.C. 31, to decide the fate of Rome. Antony was supported by all the power of the east, and Augustus by Italy. Cleopatra fled from the battle with 60 ships, and her flight ruined the interest of Antony, who followed her into Egypt. The conqueror soon after passed into Egypt, besieged Alexandria, and honoured, with a magnificent funeral, the unfortunate Roman and the celebrated queen, whom the fear of being led in the victor’s triumph at Rome had driven to commit suicide. After he had established peace all over the world, Augustus shut up the gates of the temple of Janus, the year our Saviour was born. It is said he twice resolved to lay down the supreme power, immediately after the victory obtained over Antony, and afterwards on account of his ill-health; but his friend Mecænas dissuaded him, and observed that he would leave it to be the prey of the most powerful, and expose himself to ingratitude and to danger. He died at Nola, in the 76th year of his age, A.D. 14, after he had held the sovereign power during 44 years. Augustus was an active emperor, and consulted the good of the Romans with the most anxious care. He visited all the provinces except Africa and Sardinia, and his consummate prudence and experience gave rise to many salutary laws, but it may be said, that be finished with a good grace what he began with cruelty. While making himself absolute, he took care to leave his countrymen the shadow of liberty; and if, under the character and office ♦of perpetual tribune, of priest and imperator, he was invested with all the power of sovereignty, he guarded against offending the jealous Romans, by not assuming the regal title. His refusal to read the letters he found after Pompey’s defeat arose more from fear than honour, and he dreaded the discovery of names which would have perhaps united to sacrifice his ambition. His good qualities, and many virtues he perhaps never possessed, have been transmitted to posterity by the pen of adulation or gratitude, in the poems of Virgil, Horace, and Ovid. To distinguish himself from the obscurity of the Octavii, and, if possible, to suppress the remembrance of his uncle’s violent fate, he aspired after a new title; and the submissive senate yielded to his ambition, by giving him