[A.D. 14 (a. u. 767)]
For the following year, when Sextus Apuleius and Sextus Pompeius were consuls, Augustus set out for Campania and after superintending the games at Naples soon passed away in Nola. Omens had appeared to him, not few by any means nor difficult to interpret, that pointed to this end. The sun suffered a total eclipse and most of the sky seemed to be on fire. The forms of glowing logs appeared falling from it and bloody comet stars were seen. When a senate-meeting had been announced on account of his sickness in order that they might offer prayers, the senate-house was found closed and an owl sitting upon it hooted. A thunderbolt fell upon his image standing on the Capitol and erased the first letter of the name of Cæsar. This led the seers to declare that on the hundredth day after that he should attain to some heavenly condition. They made this deduction from the fact that the letter mentioned signifies "hundred" among the Latins and all the rest of the name means "god" among the Etruscans. These signs appeared while he was still alive. Men of later times called attention to the case of the consuls and of Servius Sulpicius Galba. The former officials were in some way related to Augustus, and Galba, who afterward came to power, was at this time on the very first day of the year enrolled among the iuvenes. Since he was the first of the Romans to become sovereign after the race of Augustus had passed away, it gave occasion to some to say that this coincidence had not been due to mere accident, but had been brought about by some divine counsel.
[-30-] So Augustus fell sick and died. Livia incurred some suspicion regarding the manner of his death, inasmuch as he had secretly sailed over to the island to meet Agrippa and thought to reconcile everything in a way satisfactory to all. She was afraid, some say, that Augustus would bring him back to make him sovereign, and so smeared with poison some figs that were still on trees from which Augustus was wont to gather fruit with his own hands. So she ate the ones that had not been smeared, and pointed out the poisoned ones to him. From this or from some other cause he became ill and sending for his associates he told them all his wishes, finally adding: "Rome was clay when I took it in hand: I leave it to you stone." In this he had reference not entirely to the appearance of its buildings, but also to the strength of the empire. By asking some applause from them as to comic actors at the close of some mime he ridiculed most tellingly the whole life of man.
Thus on the nineteenth day of August, the day on which he first became consul, he passed away, having lived seventy-five years, ten months, and twenty-six days. He had been born on the twenty-third of September. He reigned as monarch, from the time he conquered at Actium, forty-four years lacking thirteen days. [-31-] His death, however, was not immediately made public. Livia, fearing that as Tiberius was still in Dalmatia there might be some uprising, concealed the fact until the latter arrived. This is the statement made in the larger number of histories and the more trustworthy ones. There are some who have affirmed that Tiberius was present during the emperor's illness and received some injunctions from him.—The body of Augustus was carried from Nola by the foremost men of each city in succession. When it came near Rome the knights took it in charge and conveyed it by night into the city. On the following day there was a senate-meeting, and to it the majority came wearing the equestrian costume, but the officials the senatorial, except for the purple-bordered togas. Tiberius and Drusus his son wore dark clothing made in everyday fashion. They, too, offered incense but made no use of a flute player. Most of the members sat in their accustomed places, but the consuls below, one on the prætors' bench and one on the tribunes'. After this Tiberius was absolved for having touched the corpse,—a forbidden act,—and for having escorted it on its way, although the …
[-32-]
… his will Drusus took from the virgin priestesses of Vesta, with whom it had been deposited, and carried it into the senate. Those who had sealed it viewed the impressions, and then it was read in hearing of the senate.
… one Polybius of Cæsar's household read his will, as it was not proper for a senator to read anything of the sort. It showed that two-thirds of the inheritance had been left to Tiberius and the rest to Livia,—at least this is one report. In order that she, too, might have the benefit of his property he had asked permission of the senate to leave her so much, since it was contrary to law. These two were mentioned as inheritors. He ordered many objects and sums of money to be given to many different persons, both relatives of his and those joined by no ties of kindred, not only to senators and knights but also to kings; for the people there were a thousand myriads and for the soldiers two hundred and fifty denarii apiece to the Pretorians, half that amount to the city force, and to the remainder of the native soldiery seventy-five each. Moreover, in the case of children, of whose fathers he had been the heir while they were still small, he enjoined that everything, together with income, should be given back to them when they became men: this was, indeed his custom while in life. Whenever he inherited the estate of any one who had offspring, he never neglected to give it all to the man's children, immediately if they were already adults, and later if it were otherwise. Though he took such an attitude toward other people's children he did not restore his daughter from exile, though he deemed her worthy of gifts; and he forbade her being buried in his own tomb.—So much was learned from the will.
[-33-] Four books were then brought in and Drusus read them. In the first were written details pertaining to his funeral; in the second all the works which he had done, which he commanded to be inscribed aloft upon bronze columns to be set around his heroum; the third contained an account of military matters, of the revenues and of the public expenditures, the amount of money in the treasuries, and everything else of the sort having a bearing upon the administration; and the fourth had injunctions and orders for Tiberius and for the public. Among these last was a command that they should not liberate many slaves and should thus avoid filing the city with a variegated rabble. He also exhorted them not to enroll large numbers as citizens, in order that there might be a distinct difference between themselves and subject nations; to deliver the control of public business to all who had ability both to understand and to act, and never to let it depend on any one person; in this way no one would set his mind on a tyranny nor would the State go to pieces if one fell. He advised them to be satisfied with present possessions and under no conditions to wish to increase the empire to any greater dimensions. It would be hard to guard, he said, and this would lead to danger of their losing what was already theirs. This principle he had himself really always followed not only in speech but also in action. For, whereas he might have made great acquisitions of barbarian territory, he had not wished to do so.—These were his injunctions.
[-34-] Then came his funeral. There was a couch made of ivory and gold and adorned with robes of purple mixed with gold. In it his body was hidden, in a kind of box down below: a wax image of him in triumphal garb was displayed. This one was borne from the Palatium by the officials for the following year, and another of gold from the senate-house, and still another upon a triumphal chariot. Behind these came the images of his ancestors and of his deceased relatives (except of Cæsar, because he had been enrolled among the heroes), and those of other Romans who had been prominent in any way, beginning with Romulus himself. An image of Pompey the Great was also seen, and all the nations he had acquired, each represented by a likeness which bore some local characteristic, were carried in procession. After these followed all the remaining objects mentioned above. When the couch had been placed in view upon the orators' platform, Drusus read something from that place: and from the other, the rostra of the Julian shrine, Tiberius delivered the following public oration over the deceased, according to a decree:—
[-35-] "What needed to be said privately by relatives over the divine Augustus Drusus has spoken. But since the senate has wisely deemed him worthy of some kind of public utterance, I know that the speech was fittingly entrusted to me. To whom more justly than to me, his child and successor, could be the task of praising him be confided? It is not my privilege, however, to be gladdened by the thought that my ability must prove no whit inferior to your desires in the matter and to his worth. Indeed, if I were to speak among strangers, I should be greatly alarmed lest in following my speech they should believe his deeds to be no better than I describe them. As it is, I am encouraged by the thought that my words will be directed to you who know all of them thoroughly, have experienced them all, and for that reason have deemed him worthy of these very praises. You will judge of his excellence not from what I may say but from what you yourselves know, and you will assist my discourse, making good what is deficient by your memory of events. So that in this way his eulogy will become a public one, given by all, as I, like the head of some chorus, indicate the chief points and you come in with the remainder of the refrain. I am certainly not afraid that you will hold me guilty of weakness because I am unable to meet your desires nor that you will be jealous to see his excellence going beyond your reach. Who does not understand the fact that not all mankind assembled in one place could worthily sound his praises? And you all voluntarily make way for him to triumph, not envious to think that not one of you could equal him, but rejoicing in his surpassing greatness. The greater he looms up before you, the more greatly will you feel yourselves benefited, so that envy will not be bred in you by your inferiority to him but awe from the advantages you have received at his hands.