The writer here wishes to express his obligation to Professor T. Frank, under whose direction this work was undertaken, to Professor W. P. Mustard, who has kindly read the entire manuscript of the translation, and to Professors C. W. E. Miller and D. M. Robinson.
TRANSLATION
The Life of Augustus
1.Men gave him this name[1] in view of his claim to honor; and, scattered over islands and continents, through city and tribe, they revere him by building temples and by sacrificing to him,[2] thus requiting him for his great virtue and acts of kindness toward themselves. For this man, having attained preeminent power and discretion, ruled over the greatest number of people within the memory of man, established the furthest boundaries for the Roman Empire, and settled securely not only the tribes of Greeks and barbarians, but also their dispositions; at first with arms but afterward even without arms, by attracting them of their own free will. By making himself known through kindness he persuaded them to obey him. The names of some of them men had never heard before, nor had they been subject within the memory of anyone, but he subdued them: all those that live as far as the Rhine[3] and beyond the Ionian[4] Sea and the Illyrian peoples. These are called Pannonians and Dacians.[5] (See the work: ‘Concerning Brave Honest Deeds.’)[6]
2.To set forth the full power of this man’s intelligence and virtue, both in the administration which he exercised at Rome and in the conduct of great wars both domestic and foreign, is a subject for competition in speech and essay, that men may win renown by treating it well. I myself shall relate his achievements, so that all can know the truth. First I shall speak of his birth and breeding, his parents, his nurture and education from infancy, by means of which he came to such an estate.[7]
His father was Caius Octavius, a man of senatorial rank.[8] His forebears, renowned for both wealth[9] and justice, left their estates to him, an orphan, at their death.[10] His guardians[11] spent his money, but he remitting his just claims was satisfied with the remainder.
3.Octavius at the age of about nine years was an object of no little admiration to the Romans, exhibiting as he did great excellence of nature, young though he was; for he gave an oration[12] before a large crowd and received much applause from grown men. After his grandmother’s death he was brought up by his mother Atia[13] and her husband Lucius Philippus, who was a descendant of the conquerors of Philip of Macedonia.[14] At Philippus’ house, as if at his father’s, Octavius was reared and showed great promise, already seeming to be treated with respect by his comrades, the children of highest birth. Many of them associated with him, and even not a few of the youths who had hopes to undertake affairs of state. Daily many lads, men, and boys of his own age attended him whether he rode on horseback outside of the town or went to the house of his relations or of any other person; for he exercised his mind with the finest practices and his body with both genteel and warlike pursuits; and more quickly than his teachers he himself applied his lesson to the facts in hand, so that for this reason also much praise redounded to him in the city.[15] Both his mother and her husband Philippus took care of him, inquiring each day from the instructors[16] and curators whom they had placed in charge of the boy what he had accomplished, how far he had advanced, or how he had spent the day and with whom he had associated.
4.At the time when the Civil War had laid hold on the city,[17] his mother Atia and Philippus quietly sent Octavius off to one of his father’s country places.[18]
He entered the forum, aged about fourteen, to put off the toga praetextata and assume the toga virilis, this being a token of his becoming registered as a man.[19] Then while all the citizens looked upon him, because of his comeliness and very evidently noble descent, he sacrificed to the gods and was registered in the sacred college in the place of Lucius Domitius, who had died.[20] The people indeed had very eagerly elected[21] him to this position. Accordingly, he performed the sacrifice, adorned with the toga virilis and at the same time the honors of a very high priestly office.[22] Nevertheless, though he was registered as of age according to law, his mother would not let him leave the house other than as he did before, when he was a child, and she made him keep to the same mode of life and sleep in the same apartment as before. For he was of age only by law and in other respects was taken care of as a child. He did not change the fashion of his clothes, but continued to use the Roman garb.[23]
5.He went to the temples on the regular days, but after dark on account of his youthful charm, seeing that he attracted many women by his comeliness and high lineage; though often tempted by them he seems never to have been enticed. Not only did the watchful care of his mother, who guarded him and forbade his wandering, protect him but he too was prudent now that he was advancing in age. During the Latin festival when the consuls had to ascend the Alban Mount to perform the customary sacrifices,[24] the priests meanwhile succeeding to the jurisdiction of the consuls, Octavius sat on the tribunal in the centre of the forum.[25] And there came many people on legal business[26] and many on no business at all except for a sight of the boy; for he was well worth beholding especially when he assumed the dignity and honorable aspect of office.