It was in the year 5 or 7 B.C., for the true date is unknown, that Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, was born at Bethlehem, in Judea.
In A.D. 14, Augustus, aided by Tiberius, took a census—the third during his reign. His health, which had always been delicate, now rapidly declined. He had long borne with patience the infirmities of old age, and he now retired to Nola, where he died, August 19, A.D. 14, in the same room where his father had died before him. It is said that as he was dying he exclaimed to those around him, "Have I not acted my part well? It is time for the applause."
He was seventy-six years old. His subjects lamented his death with sincere grief, since they had felt the happy effects of his care. His funeral rites were performed in great solemnity; his body was burned on the Campus Martius, and his ashes were placed in the splendid mausoleum which he had built for himself and his family. The Senate ordered him to be numbered among the gods of Rome.
In appearance Augustus was of middle stature, his features regular, and his eyes of uncommon brilliancy. He was a tolerable writer, and capable of distinguishing literary merit; his chosen friends were all men of letters; and his fame with posterity rests, in a great degree, upon that circle of poets, historians, and eminent scholars by whom he was surrounded. The Augustan Age, indeed, forms one of the most remarkable periods in the history of the human intellect.
