Book 20

arg. The following is contained in the fifty-fifth book of Dio's Roman History. 1. How Drusus died. 2. How the precinct of Livia was dedicated. 3. How the field of Agrippa was dedicated. 4. How the Diribitorium was dedicated. 5. How Tiberius withdrew to Rhodes. 6. How the Forum of Augustus was dedicated. 7. How the temple of Mars in it was dedicated. 8. How Lucius Caesar and Gaius Caesar died. 9. How Augustus adopted Tiberius. 10. How Livia advised Augustus to rule more humanely. 11. Concerning the legions, and how those who were to administer the military funds were appointed. 12. How the night-watchmen were established. 13. How Tiberius made war on the Dalmatians and Pannonians. Length of time: seventeen years, in which the magistrates here counted held office: Nero Claudius Drusus, son of Tiberius, and Titus Quinctius Crispinus, son of Titus, consuls; Gaius Marcius Censorinus, son of Lucius, and Gaius Asinius Gallus, son of Gaius, consuls; Tiberius Claudius Nero, son of Tiberius (2nd), and Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, son of Gnaeus, consuls; Decimus Laelius Balbus, son of Decimus, and Gaius Antistius Vetus, son of Gaius, consuls; Augustus (12th), and Lucius Cornelius Sulla, son of Publius, consuls; Gaius Calvisius Sabinus, son of Gaius, and Lucius Passienus Rufus, son of . . ., consuls; Lucius Cornelius Lentulus, son of Lucius, and Marcus Valerius Messalla Messallinus, son of Marcus, consuls; Augustus (13th), and Marcus Plautius Silvanus, son of Marcus, consuls; Cossus Cornelius Lentulus, son of Gnaeus, and Lucius Calpurnius Piso, son of Gnaeus, consuls; Gaius Caesar, son of Augustus, and Lucius Aemilius Paulus, son of Lucius, consuls; Publius Vinicius, son of Marcus, and Publius Alfenus Varus, son of Publius, consuls; Lucius Aelius Lamia, son of Lucius, and Marcus Servilius, son of Marcus, consuls; Sextus Aelius Catus, son of Quintus, and Gaius Sentius Saturninus, son of Gaius, consuls; Lucius Valerius Messalla Volesus, son of Potitus, and Gnaeus Cornelius Cinna Magnus, son of Lucius, consuls; Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, son of Lucius, and Lucius Arruntius, son of Lucius, consuls; Aulus Licinius Nerva Silianus, son of Aulus, and Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus, son of Quintus, consuls; Marcus Furius Camillus, son of Marcus, and Sextus Nonius Quintilianus, son of Gaius, consuls.

1.1. These things took place in the consulship of Iullus Antonius and Fabius Maximus; but in the following year Drusus was consul with Titus Crispinus, and to him there came signs that were not good; for many things, among others, were destroyed both by storm and by thunderbolts, and many temples too, so that even that of Capitoline Jupiter and those associated with him were damaged.

1.2. Yet he took no heed of these things, but invaded the land of the Chatti and advanced as far as Suebia, subduing not without toil the country in his path and mastering not without bloodshed those who came to grips with him. And thence he passed over to the land of the Cherusci, and, crossing the Visurgis, advanced

1.3. as far as the Albis, ravaging everything. For that river (it flows from the Vandalic mountains and empties with a great volume into the northern ocean) he attempted to cross, but was unable, and, having set up trophies, withdrew; for a woman greater than human nature, meeting him, said: 'Whither, pray, do you hasten, insatiable Drusus? It is not fated for you to see all these lands. But depart; for the end both of your deeds and of your life is already

1.4. at hand.' Now it is marvellous that such a voice should come to anyone from the divine power, yet I cannot disbelieve it; for it came to pass at once, since he turned back in haste and died on the road of a certain disease before reaching the Rhine.

1.5. And what was said is confirmed for me by this, that wolves prowled about the camp howling at the time of his death, and two young men were seen riding through the midst of the entrenchment, and a sort of wailing of women was heard, and shootings of stars occurred.

2.1. These things were so. And Augustus, learning beforehand that he was sick (for he was not far off), quickly sent Tiberius; and he found him still breathing, and on his death conveyed him to Rome, at first carrying him, as far as the winter quarters of the army, through the centurions and the tribunes, and from there through the foremost men of each city.

2.2. And when he had been laid out in the Forum, a double funeral oration was spoken; for Tiberius praised him there, and Augustus in the Flaminian Circus; for he had been on campaign, and it was not lawful for him not to perform the customary rites for his achievements at the very entrance within the

2.3. pomerium. And he was borne to the Campus Martius by the knights, both those strictly reckoned in the equestrian order and those of the senatorial class, and there, given to the fire, was laid in the tomb of Augustus, having been surnamed Germanicus together with his children, and having received honours both of statues and of an arch and of a cenotaph by the very Rhine.

2.4. And Tiberius, having overcome the Dalmatians and Pannonians, who had stirred up something again while Drusus was still alive, celebrated the triumph on horseback, and feasted the people, some on the Capitol and others in many other places. And in the meantime Livia too, with Julia, feasted the women.

2.5. And these same things were being prepared for Drusus also; and indeed the festal recess was to be held a second time for his sake, that he might celebrate the triumph during it. But he perished beforehand, and Livia received statues by way of consolation, and was enrolled

2.6. among the mothers who had borne three children. For to those whom the divine power, whether men or women, does not grant to bear so many children, the law — formerly through the senate, now through the emperor — bestows the privileges of those who have borne three children, so that they neither are liable to the penalties of childlessness and enjoy the rewards of

2.7. many children, save a few. And these things are obtained not only by men but by gods too, in order that, if anyone at his death leave them anything, they may receive it.

3.1. This, then, is of such a kind; but Augustus ordered that the sessions of the senate should take place on fixed days (for since nothing had previously been exactly arranged about them, and some on this account were often late, he appointed two regular meetings each month, so that they at least whom the law

3.2. called should of necessity attend them; and that they might have no other excuse for absence, he ordered that no court or anything else pertaining to them should take place at that time), and he prescribed by law the number necessary for the ratification of decrees of each kind of them, so to speak in sum, and increased the penalties for those who absented themselves from the council without some good

3.3. reason. And since many such matters were wont to go unpunished because of the multitude of the liable, he ordered that they should draw lots, if many should do this, and that each fifth man on whom the lot fell should incur the penalties. And the names of all the senators he wrote on a tablet and posted up; and from that time this is done even now

3.4. yearly. These things he did to compel their attendance; but if ever by some chance there were not gathered as many as the need from time to time called for (for, save that whenever the emperor himself was present, on the other days the number of those assembled was for nearly everything carefully scrutinized both then and afterwards), they deliberated and the opinion was indeed recorded, yet it received no completion as ratified, but became an auctoritas, that their will might be

3.5. made manifest. For some such thing the force of this name signifies; for to render it into Greek once for all is impossible. And this same thing was held to be the case if ever they assembled hastily in some place not customary or on a day not fitting, or even outside the lawful summons, or if, certain tribunes opposing, the decree could not be made, but they would not endure that their opinion be hidden; and to it afterwards the ratification according to ancestral usage was added and the appellation

3.6. of decree was applied. This, then, having been very strictly observed for the most part by the men of old, has now in a manner become extinct, as has the privilege of the praetors; for they too, indignant that they brought no opinion before the senate, although they had been honoured above the tribunes, received from Augustus the right to do this, but by time were deprived of it.

4.1. These laws, then, and the others that he made at that time, he set forth in the senate, written on tablets, before transacting anything about them, and permitted the senators to enter two at a time and read them, in order that they might say if anything did not please them or if they could give any better counsel.

4.2. For he thought it right to be so democratic that, when one of those who had once campaigned with him asked his advocacy, he at first bade one of his friends, as being busy, plead for him, but then, when that man said in anger, 'I, however, as often as you had need of aid, sent no one else in my place to you, but everywhere myself faced danger before you,' he entered the court and pleaded

4.3. for him. And he was associated in the defence of a certain friend on trial, having first communicated this very thing to the senate; and he both saved him, and was so far from being angry with his accuser, though he used very great frankness, that, when the accuser was himself on trial for his conduct, he acquitted him, saying outright that the man's frankness was necessary to them because of the wickedness of the many. Others, however, who were reported to be plotting against him,

4.4. he punished. And he made quaestors govern both in the coastland near the city and in certain other places of Italy; and this continued for several years. At that time, then, he would not enter the city because of the death of

5.1. Drusus, as I have said; but in the following year, in which Asinius Gallus and Gaius Marcius were consuls, he made his entry and brought the laurel into the temple of Jupiter Feretrius, contrary to

5.2. custom. And he himself held no festival for these things, thinking that he had been far more harmed by the death of Drusus than benefited by the victories; but the consuls did all the other things that are done on such occasions, and matched some of the captives against one

5.3. another. And after this Augustus, when both they and the other magistrates were charged with having been appointed by some bribery, neither investigated this nor pretended to know it at all; for he wished neither to punish anyone nor again to pardon those convicted; but he demanded from the office-seekers money before the elections, as a kind of pledge, on condition that they do no such thing or be deprived of what they had

5.4. given. And this all approved; but because, though it was not permitted for a slave to be tortured against his master, he ordered that, whenever there should be need of such a thing, the slave be sold either to the state or to himself, that he might be examined as belonging to another than the man on trial, some blamed him, because the law was to be dissolved by the change of master, while others said it was necessary, because many on this account banded together both against the master himself and against the magistrates.

6.1. And after this he again undertook the leadership, against his will, forsooth — though, as he said, he had laid it down — since the second ten years had run out, and he made a campaign against the Celts. And he himself remained in his own territory, but Tiberius crossed the

6.2. Rhine. Fearing them, then, the barbarians, save the Sygambri, sent heralds, and neither then obtained anything (for Augustus said he would not make a treaty with them without those others) nor afterwards. For the Sygambri too sent

6.3. envoys, but so far were they from accomplishing anything that all of them, being many and of note, perished besides; for Augustus seized them and placed them in certain cities, and they, unable to endure it, made away with themselves. And thereupon they were quiet for a time, but afterwards repaid the Romans for their suffering at a great price.

6.4. Augustus, then, did this thus, and gave the soldiers money, not as having conquered — although he himself took the title of Imperator and gave it to Tiberius — but because they then for the first time had Gaius reviewed together with them in the exercises.

6.5. And having advanced Tiberius to the imperial office in place of Drusus, he both exalted him with that appellation and appointed him consul again, and made him publish a letter, according to ancient custom, even before entering office, to the people, and moreover honoured him with

6.6. triumphal rites; for Augustus himself would not celebrate them, but received a perpetual horse-race for his birthday. He also enlarged the bounds of the pomerium, and renamed the month called Sextilis

6.7. Augustus; for when others wished thus to name September, since he had been born in it, he preferred the former to it, because in it he had first been appointed consul and had won many great battles.

7.1. For these things, then, he prided himself, but on the death of Maecenas he grieved. For he had derived many other benefits from him, whence, though he was but a knight, he entrusted the city to him for a long time, but most of all whenever he gave way to too unmixed anger; for Maecenas always relaxed his wrath

7.2. and turned him to the gentler course. There is a proof of this: once, when Augustus was sitting in judgment, and Maecenas, standing by and seeing that he was about to put many to death, attempted to push through the bystanders and come near him, and, being unable, wrote on a tablet, 'Rise up at last, executioner,' and threw it into his lap as though it had something else in it, so that Augustus put no one to death and

7.3. rose up at once. For so far was he from being indignant at such things that he even rejoiced, because whatever he himself, through his own nature and through the necessity of affairs, raged at beyond what was fitting, was set right

7.4. by the frankness of his friends. And the greatest proof of the virtue of Maecenas was this, that, though he withstood Augustus's impulses, he was dear to him and pleasing to all the rest, and, though he had very great power with him, so as to give many both honours and offices, he did not lose his senses but lived out his life in the rank of the knights.

7.5. For these reasons, then, Augustus longed for him strongly, and because he left him his heir — though he had been vexed with him on account of his wife — and gave him leave, save in a very few things, both to give anything to any of his friends, if he should wish, and not. Such, then, was Maecenas, and

7.6. thus did he deal with Augustus; and he was the first to construct a swimming-pool of warm water in the city, and the first to devise certain signs of letters for speed, and through Aquila his freedman taught them to many.

8.1. Tiberius, on the first day of the month in which he began to be consul with Gnaeus Piso, gathered the senate in the Octavian building because it was outside the

8.2. pomerium, and, having charged himself with repairing the temple of Concord, in order that he might inscribe on it both his own name and that of Drusus, celebrated the triumph and dedicated the precinct named Livia together with his mother; and he himself feasted the senate on the Capitol, while she feasted the women

8.3. somewhere privately. And not long afterwards, when certain disturbances arose in Germany, he set out; and the festival held for the return of Augustus Gaius arranged in his place together with Piso. And the field of Agrippa, save the portico, and the Diribitorium Augustus himself

8.4. made public. For this (it was the largest building of those that ever had a single roof; for now, since its whole roof has been taken down, because it could not be reconstructed, it is open to the sky) Agrippa left in building, and it was then completed; but the portico in the field, which Polla his sister, who also adorned the

8.5. race-courses, was making, was not yet finished. And in the meantime the funeral gladiatorial combats in honour of Agrippa took place — the others, save Augustus and his own sons, having put on dark clothing — both one against one and several against an equal number, in the Saepta, both because of the honour to Agrippa and because many of the buildings about the Forum had been

8.6. burned. And the cause of the fire was referred to the debtors, as having purposely contrived it in order to cut off some of their debts, since they were thought to have suffered great loss; yet they obtained nothing, but the lanes obtained certain curators from the people, whom we call masters of the lanes;

8.7. and to these was granted the use both of the magisterial dress and of two lictors, in the very districts which they should govern, on certain days, and the body of slaves attending the aediles for the sake of fires was entrusted to them — although both these and the tribunes and the praetors had been assigned the whole city, divided into fourteen parts, by lot; which is done even now.

9.1. So much was done in that year; for in Germany nothing worthy of memory occurred. But in the next, in which Gaius Antistius and Laelius Balbus were consuls, Augustus, seeing that Gaius and Lucius themselves did not, as being reared in sovereignty, much emulate his own character (for not only did they live more luxuriously, but they were also overbold; at any rate Lucius once entered the theatre by

9.2. himself), and that they were flattered by all in the city, partly from genuine opinion and partly from servility, and from this grew still more spoiled (for among other things they appointed Gaius consul before he was even reckoned among the youths), was indignant, and prayed besides that no such necessity of times as had once befallen him might arise, so that anyone younger than twenty should be consul.

9.3. And since even so they pressed him, he then said that a man ought to receive this office whenever he was able both to commit no error himself and to withstand the zeal of the

9.4. people. And after this he gave him a certain priesthood and the right to attend the senate and to view the games and feast together with the council; and wishing in a manner . . .