[B.C. 15 (a. u. 739)]
[-21-] On this account Augustus had no need of arms, but the demands of various other business consumed the entire time of this year, as well as of the next, in which Marcus Libo and Calpurnius Piso were consuls. For much injury had been wrought by the Celtæ and much by a certain Licinnius.[5] And of this, I think, the sea-monster had very plainly given them warning beforehand. This creature, twenty feet broad and three times as long and resembling a woman except for its head, had been washed up on the land from the ocean. Now Licinnius was originally a Gaul but was captured, brought among Romans, and made a slave to Cæsar, by whom he was set free, and then by Augustus he had been made procurator of Gaul. He had barbarian avarice and Roman haughtiness, and tried to overthrow every person and thing deemed superior to himself and to annihilate any power which temporarily appeared strong. It was his care to supply himself with plenty of funds for the requirements of his ministry as well as to secure a plenty for himself and for members of his family. His abuses went so far that in some cases where the population paid tribute by the month he made the months fourteen in number. He declared that this month called December was really the tenth, and for that reason it was necessary to count in also the two last months (of which he called one Undecimber and the other Duodecimber), and to contribute the money that was due for them. These quibbles brought him into danger. The Gauls secured the ear of Augustus and made a terrible protest, so that the emperor first shared their indignation and next begged them to be patient. Of some of the extortions he said he was unaware and others he affected not to believe. Some things he concealed, being ashamed of having employed such a procurator. Licinnius however, by devising another scheme was enabled to laugh to scorn absolutely all their efforts. When found that Augustus was displeased with him and that he was likely to be punished, he took the emperor into his house, and showing him many treasures of silver and gold and many other valuables piled up in heaps, he said: "I have gathered these purposely, master, for you and for the rest of the Romans, to prevent the inhabitants from getting control of so much money and therefore revolting. You see I have kept it all for you and herewith give it to you." Thus the sophist was saved, by pretending that he had sapped the strength of the barbarians to serve Augustus.
[-22-] Drusus and Tiberius meanwhile were concerned with the following undertakings. The Rhæti, who dwell between Noricum and Gaul, near the Tridentine Alps close to Italy, overran a good part of the adjacent territory of Gaul and carried plunder even out of Italy. Such of the Romans or their allies as used the road going through their country met with depredations. These actions of theirs were of course more or less like those of any nation which has not accepted terms of peace, but further they destroyed all the males among their captives, not only those who were apparent but also the embryo ones in the wombs of women, the sex of which they discovered by some divination. For these reasons Augustus first sent Drusus against them: he joined battle with a detachment of theirs that met him near the Tridentine mountains, and speedily had them routed; for this exploit he received the honors belonging to prætors. Later, when the tribe had been repulsed from Italy but still harassed Gaul, the emperor despatched Tiberius in addition. Both of the leaders then invaded the Rhætian country at many points at once,—the lieutenants leading such divisions as they did not command personally,—and Tiberius even crossed the lake[6] in boats. In this way, by encountering them separately, the Roman commanders spread alarm and had no difficulty in overcoming those who came near enough for fighting at any time, because they had only to deal with scattered forces; the remainder, who had become weaker and more despondent through such tactics, they captured. And because the land had a large population of males and seemed ripe for revolt, they deported most of those of military age, especially the strongest, leaving behind only so many as would be sufficient to inhabit the country but unable to make any uprising.
[-23-] This same year Vedius Pollio died, a man who in general had done nothing deserving notice, being the son of liberti, ranking as a knight, without any achievement of consequence in his record; but he had become exceedingly renowned for his wealth and his cruelty, so that he has even won a place in history. Most of the things that he did it would be wearisome to relate, but I may mention that he kept in tanks huge eels trained to eat men, and was accustomed to throw to them the slaves that he desired to put to death. Once, when he was entertaining Augustus, the cupbearer shattered a crystal goblet, and without respect to the guest he ordered that the fellow be thrown to the eels. Hereupon the boy fell on his knees supplicating Augustus who at first tried to persuade Pollio not to carry out his intentions. As his host would not yield the point the emperor said: "Bring all the rest of the drinking vessels which are of the same sort or any others of value that you may possess, for I want to use them," and when they were brought he ordered them to be broken. The master seeing this was of course vexed but could no longer be angry over one cup, considering the great number of others that were ruined, and could not punish his servant for what Augustus had done; therefore reluctantly he took no action. That was the sort of person this Pollio was, who died. He left various bequests to many different persons and to Augustus a good share of his inheritance together with Pausilypum[7], a place between Neapolis and Puteoli, with instructions that some public work of great beauty should be erected. Augustus razed his house to the foundation, on the pretext that it was necessary for the preparation of the other structure, but really with the purpose that he should have no monument in the city, and built a colonnade, inscribing on it the name not of Pollio but of Livia.
This he did later. At the time mentioned he founded a number of cities as colonies in Gaul and in Spain and restored to the people of Cyzicus their freedom. To the Paphians, who had suffered from an earthquake, he gave money and allowed them, by a decree, to call their city Augusta. I have recorded this, not because Augustus himself and the senators failed to aid many other cities both before and after this, in case of similar misfortunes,—if any one should attempt to mention them all, the task of such a historian would be endless,—but my aim is to show that the senate assigned names to cities as an honor and the latter did not, as is the usual procedure now, compile for themselves (each separately) such lists of names as they might choose.
[B.C. 14 (a. u. 740)]
[-24-] The next year Marcus Crassus and Gnæus Cornelius became consuls; and the curule ædiles after resigning their office because they had entered upon it under unfavorable auguries took it back again, contrary to precedent, at another meeting of the assembly. The Portico of Paulus was burned and the fire from it reached the temple of Vesta, so that the sacred objects that this shrine contained were carried up to the Palatine by all of the vestal virgins except the eldest (who had gone blind) and were placed in the house of the priest of Jupiter. The portico was afterward rebuilt, nominally by Æmilius, who was the representative of the family that had formerly erected it, but really by Augustus and the friends of Paulus. At this time the Pannonians revolted and were again subdued, and the maritime Alps, inhabited by Ligurians called Cometæ and still free even then, were reduced to a slave district. The revolt in the Cimmerian Bosporus was also quelled. One Seribonius, who maintained that he was a grandson of Mithridates and had received the kingdom from Augustus after the death of Asander, married the latter's wife, named Dynamis, who was the daughter of Pharnaces and a grandchild of Mithridates, and obtaining the power committed to her by her husband got control of Bosporus. Agrippa on being informed of this sent against him Polemon, king of the Pontus near Cappadocia. He found Seribonius no longer alive, for the people of Bosporus, learning of his ambitions, had killed him beforehand, but when these resisted Polemon out of fear that he might be allowed to reign over them, he engaged them in a set battle. The victory was his, but he was unable to reduce them to order until Agrippa came to Sinope, apparently with the intention of conducting a campaign against them. At that they laid down their arms and were delivered to Polemon. The woman Dynamis became his spouse,—of course with the sanction of Augustus. For this outcome sacrifices were made in the name of Agrippa, but he did not celebrate the triumph, though voted to him. Nay, he did not so much as write the senate anything about what had been accomplished. As a result subsequent conquerors, taking his method as a law, no longer sent any word themselves to the legislative body and did not accept the celebration of a triumph. For this reason no one else among his peers (so I am inclined to think) was permitted to do this, but they enjoyed merely the ornament of triumphal honors.
[-25-] Augustus finally finished ordering everything in the Gauls, the Germanias, and the Hispaniæ: upon special districts he spent a great deal, and levied a great deal upon others, and to some he gave freedom and citizenship, whereas from others he took them away.
[B.C. 13 (a. u. 741)]
He then left Drusus in Germania and himself returned to Rome in the consulship of Tiberius and of Quintilius Varus. It chanced that the news of his coming reached the city during those days when Cornelius Balbus after dedicating the theatre now called by his name was giving spectacles. At this he assumed great importance as if it were he that was to bring Augustus back, though because of a flooding of the Tiber there was so great a quantity of water in the theatre that no one could enter it save in a boat; and Tiberius put the vote to Balbus first, as an honor for his building the theatre. The senate convened and among other decisions resolved to place an altar in the senate-chamber itself, to commemorate the return of Augustus, and that criminals who approached him as suppliants within the pomerium should be exempt from punishment. However, he accepted neither of these honors and even escaped a reception by the people on this occasion by being brought into the city under the cover of night. This he did almost always whenever he had to go out to the suburbs or anywhere else, both on his way out and on his way back, so that nobody should annoy him. The following day he greeted the people on the Palatine, ascended the Capitol, and taking off the laurel from around his rods he placed it upon the knees of Jupiter. For that day he furnished the people with baths and barbers free of charge. After this he convened the senate and made no address himself by reason of hoarseness, but gave the book to the quaestor to read which enumerated his achievements and promulgated rules as to how many years the citizens should serve in the army and how much money they should receive at the end of their services in place of the land for which they were always wont to ask. The object was that by being enlisted on certain specified terms from the very start they should find in their treatment no excuse for revolt. The number of years was for the Pretorians twelve and for the rest sixteen; and the money to be distributed was less for some and more for others. These measures caused the soldiers neither pleasure nor anger for the time being, because they had neither obtained all they were desiring nor yet lost everything. In the remainder of the population it aroused confident hopes of not being deprived of their possessions in the future.