The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Volume 02: Augustus — John Shaqi
The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Volume 02: AugustusSuetonius
History
The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Volume 02: Augustus
Suetonius
Emperors -- Rome -- Biography -- Early works to 1800; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-284 A.D.
LIX. To the physician Antonius Musa [196], who had cured him of a
dangerous illness, they erected a statue near that of Aesculapius, by a
general subscription. Some heads of families ordered in their wills,
that their heirs should lead victims to the Capitol, with a tablet
carried before them, and pay their vows, "Because Augustus still
survived." Some Italian cities appointed the day upon which he first
visited them, to be thenceforth the beginning of their year. And most of
the provinces, besides erecting temples and altars, instituted games, to
be celebrated to his honour, in most towns, every five years.
LX. The kings, his friends and allies, built cities in their respective
kingdoms, to which they gave the name of Caesarea; and all with one
consent resolved to finish, at their common expense, the temple of
Jupiter Olympius, at Athens, which had been begun long before, and
consecrate it to his Genius. They frequently also left their kingdoms,
laid aside the badges of royalty, and assuming the toga, attended and
paid their respects to him daily, in the manner of clients to their
patrons; not only at Rome, but when he was travelling through the
provinces.
LXI. Having thus given an account of the manner in which he filled his
public offices both civil and military, and his conduct in the government
of the empire, both in peace and war; I shall now describe his private
and domestic life, his habits at home and among his friends and
dependents, and the fortune attending him in those scenes of retirement,
from his youth to the day of his death. He lost his mother in his first
consulship, and his sister Octavia, when he was in the fifty-fourth year
of his age [197]. He behaved towards them both with the utmost kindness
whilst living, and after their decease paid the highest honours to their
memory.
(117) LXII. He was contracted when very young to the daughter of Publius
Servilius Isauricus; but upon his reconciliation with Antony after their
first rupture [198], the armies on both sides insisting on a family
alliance between them, he married Antony's step-daughter Claudia, the
daughter of Fulvia by Publius Claudius, although at that time she was
scarcely marriageable; and upon a difference arising with his
mother-in-law Fulvia, he divorced her untouched, and a pure virgin. Soon
afterwards he took to wife Scribonia, who had before been twice married
to men of consular rank [199], and was a mother by one of them. With her
likewise he parted [200], being quite tired out, as he himself writes,
with the perverseness of her temper; and immediately took Livia Drusilla,
though then pregnant, from her husband Tiberius Nero; and she had never
any rival in his love and esteem.
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