CHAP. 46.—THE MISFORTUNES OF AUGUSTUS.
In the life of the now deified emperor Augustus even, whom the whole world would certainly agree to place in this class,[1226] if we carefully examine it in all its features, we shall find remarkable vicissitudes of human fate. There was his rejection from the post of master of the horse, by his uncle,[1227] and the preference which was given to Lepidus, and that, too, in opposition to his own requests; the hatred produced by the proscription; his alliance in the Triumvirate[1228] with some among the very worst of the citizens, and that, too, with an unequal share of influence, he himself being entirely borne down by the power of Antony; his illness[1229] at the battle of Philippi; his flight, and his having to remain three days concealed in a marsh,[1230] though suffering from sickness, and, according to the account of Agrippa and Mecænas, labouring under a dropsy; his shipwreck[1231] on the coast of Sicily, where he was again under the necessity of concealing himself in a cave; his desperation, which caused him even to beg Proculeius[1232] to put him to death, when he was hard-pressed by the enemy in a naval engagement;[1233] his alarm about the rising at Perusia;[1234] his anxiety at the battle of Actium;[1235] the extreme danger he was in from the falling of a tower during the Pannonian war;[1236] seditions so numerous among his soldiers; so many attacks by dangerous diseases;[1237] the suspicions which he entertained respecting the intentions of Marcellus;[1238] the disgraceful banishment, as it were, of Agrippa;[1239] the many plots against his life;[1240] the deaths of his own children,[1241] of which he was accused, and his heavy sorrows, caused not merely by their loss;[1242] the adultery[1243] of his daughter, and the discovery of her parricidal designs; the insulting retreat of his son-in-law, Nero;[1244] another adultery, that of his grand-daughter;[1245] to which there were added numerous other evils, such as the want of money to pay his soldiers; the revolt of Illyria;[1246] the necessity of levying the slaves; the sad deficiency of young men;[1247] the pestilence that raged in the City;[1248] the famine in Italy; the design which he had formed of putting an end to his life, and the fast of four days, which brought him within a hair’s breadth of death. And then, added to all this, the slaughter of Varus;[1249] the base slanders[1250] whispered against his authority; the rejection of Posthumius Agrippa, after his adoption,[1251] and the regret to which Augustus was a prey after his banishment;[1252] the suspicions too respecting Fabius, to the effect that he had betrayed his secrets; and then, last of all, the machinations of his wife and of Tiberius, the thoughts of which occupied his last moments. In fine, this same god,[1253] who was raised to heaven, I am at a loss to say whether deservedly or not, died, leaving the son of his own enemy his heir.[1254]