Serves iturum Cæsarem in ultimos
orbis Britannos et invenum recens
examen Eois timendum
partibus Oceanoque rubro.
Gaul and Britain.
The settlement of his official status at Rome left Augustus free to turn to other parts of the Empire. He had spent the greater part of two years after the victory at Actium in organising the East. His face was now turned northward and westward. In the spring of B.C. 27, he set out for Gaul to reorganise the provinces won by Iulius in B.C. 58-49, and farther secured by the operations of Agrippa in B.C. 37 and Messalla in B.C. 29. It was understood that he meant also to cross to Britain, and the court poets are dutifully anxious as to the dangers he will incur, and prophetically certain of the victories he will win. A British expedition had been for some years floating in Roman minds. It is true that Iulius Cæsar had invaded the island and imposed a tribute on some of the tribes. But the tribute does not seem to have been paid. The Briton was still intactus, and was classed with the Parthian as a danger to the frontier of the Empire.[240] He was chiefly known at Rome by the presence of certain stalwart slaves, and by the determination he displayed not to admit adventurous Roman merchants.[241] But, after all, Augustus found enough to do in Gaul, and saw good reason for abstaining from such a dangerous adventure. The Britons, though they neglected the tributum, yet paid a duty on exports and imports to and from Gaul, principally ivory ornaments, and the better sorts of glass and pottery; and it was pointed out that the danger of a British invasion of Gallia was small, that a military occupation of the island would cost more than the tribute would bring in, and that the portoria would be rather diminished than increased by it.[242] Augustus, at any rate, professed to be satisfied by certain envoys sent to him from Britain. They dedicated some offerings on the Capitol, and received for their countrymen the title of “Friends of Rome!”[243]
Augustus in Gaul, B.C. 27-6.
Augustus spent the summer and winter of B.C. 27-6 in Narbo, finding enough to do in holding a census of the rest of Gaul for purposes of taxation, and regularly organising the country annexed by Iulius to that ancient province, which had been Roman long before his time. Four provinces were created with separate legati. The original “province” was now called Gallia Narbonensis; the south-western district, extending from the Pyrennees to the Loire, retained its old name of Aquitania; the central or “Celtic” Gaul was called Lugdunensis, from its capital Lugdunum, made a colonia in B.C. 43; the northern country up to the Rhine was Belgica, including the districts on the left bank of the Rhine, in which Agrippa had settled certain German tribes who had crossed the river. Augustus was not content with a merely political organisation. He established schools to spread the use of the Latin language, and everywhere introduced the principles of Roman law. He took especial pains to adorn and promote the towns in Narbonensis, where traces of his buildings are still to be seen. The effect of his work now and ten years later was that Gaul became rapidly Romanised both in speech and manners, and that in learning and civilisation it soon rivalled Italy itself.
This was a work thoroughly congenial to Augustus, and in which his ability was conspicuous. But he now had to engage again in war, for which his genius was by no means so well suited. Ianus Quirinus was again open. The surrounding barbarians were again threatening Macedonia; the Salassi of the Val d’Aosta were again making raids, and there was imminent danger in Northern Spain. The governor of Macedonia, M. Crassus (grandson of the triumvir) had been so successful over the Thracians and Getæ, that he was allowed a triumph in July, B.C. 27, but it appears that their incursions did not cease in spite of these victories.[244] The war with the Salassi was entrusted to Terentius Varro Muræna, who, after winning some victories in the field, sold many thousands of their men of military age into slavery, and established a colony of 3,000 veterans to overawe them, called Augusta Prætoria, the modern Aosta.[245]
Augustus in Spain, B.C. 26-25.