Nicolaus of Damascus' life of Augustus : $b Translated with a commentaryNicolaus, of Damascus
History
Nicolaus of Damascus' life of Augustus : $b Translated with a commentary
Nicolaus, of Damascus
Augustus, Emperor of Rome, 63 B.C.-14 A.D.; Emperors -- Rome -- Biography -- Early works to 1800; Thesis (Ph. D.)
[3] Drusus’ expedition of 11 B.C. is probably alluded to (Vell.,
2, 97, 2-3; Suet., Aug., 21; Dio 35, 2, 4; Tac., Ann., 2, 26,
12, 39). There is a noteworthy consonance between the phrase
of Nicolaus, ‘nor had they been subject within the memory of
any one’ and Mon. Anc., 5, 44, ‘Pannoniorum gentes quas ante me
principem populi Romani exercitus nunquam adiit.’ This may be due
to the use by Nicolaus of Augustus’ memoirs.
[4] Adriatic.
[5] Tiberius succeeded Agrippa as leader of expeditions against
the Pannonians (Mon. Anc., 30; Dio 54, 36, 2-3).
[6] A remark of the excerptor is enclosed within the parentheses.
2. [7] Nicolaus employs the method of a Peripatetic in presenting
the order of events in the life of an individual. (Leo, die
Griech. Röm. Biogr., p. 190).
[8] His family was from Velitrae (Suet., Aug., 1, 94; Dio 45, 1,
1). C. Octavius the father was praetor (Cic., Q. frat. 1, 1, 7)
and proconsul for Macedonia (Suet., Aug., 3; CIL 6, 1311) and was
only prevented by death from attaining the consulship. (Cic.,
Phil., 3, 6, 15).
[9] C. Octavius is characterized as rich by Velleius (2, 59).
[10] C. Octavius died in 58 B.C. when his son was 4 years old
(Suet., Aug., 8).
[11] One of those involved was C. Toranius, who had been an
aedile with the elder C. Octavius (CIL 6, 1311). He was in due
time proscribed by Augustus, (App., 4, 12; Suet., Aug., 27) so
that Octavius’ remission of his claims and apparent satisfaction
with his remainder as expressed by Nicolaus did not prevent a
subsequent day of reckoning.
3. [12] Nicolaus’ statement of Octavius’ age is not corroborated
by Suetonius (Aug. 8) nor by Quintilian (12, 6, 1) who give
Octavius’ age as 12 years when the oration was given. Perhaps
separate occasions are referred to by Nicolaus and the other
writers. If a closer agreement is to be desired, ἐννέα could be
altered to ἕνδεκα (Müller). Suetonius identifies this occasion
with the death of Octavius’ grandmother Julia, while Nicolaus
does not expressly do so. His mention of Julia’s death in the
following sentence, however, admits of the inference that the one
occurrence suggested the other to his mind, and that there was
therefore some connection between them.
[13] With a single exception the name Atia is written Antia
throughout the excerpt. She was C. Octavius’ second wife (Plut.,
Ant. 31) and was from Aricia (Cic., Phil., 3, 6, 16; Suet., Aug.,
4).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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