He was advanced to public offices before the age at which he was legally
					qualified for them; and to some, also, of a new kind, and for life. He seized
					the consulship in the twentieth year of his age, quartering his legions in a
					threatening manner near the city, and sending deputies to demand it for him in
					the name of the army. When the senate demurred, a centurion, named Cornelius,
					who was at the head of the chief deputation, throwing back his cloak, and
					showing the hilt of his sword, had the presumption to say in the senate-house,
					"This will make him consul, if ye will not." His second consulship he filled
					nine years afterwards; his third, after the interval of only one year, and held
					the same office every year successively until the eleventh. From this period,
					although the consulship was frequently offered him, he always declined it,
					until, after a long interval, not less than seventeen years, he voluntarily
					stood for the twelfth, and two years after that for a thirteenth; that he might
					successively introduce into the forum, on their entering public life, his two
					sons, Caius and Lucius, while he was invested with the highest office in the
					state. In his five consulships from the sixth to the eleventh, he continued in
					office throughout the year; but in the rest, during only nine, six, four, or
					three months, and in his second no more than a few hours. For having sat for a
					short time in the morning, upon the calends of January [1st January], in his
					curule chair. "The Sella
							Curulis was a chair on which the principal magistrates sat in
						the tribunal upon solemn occasions. It had no back, but stood on four
						crooked feet, fixed to the extremities of cross pieces of wood, joined by a
						common axis, somewhat in the form of the letter X; was covered with leather,
						and inlaid with ivory. From its construction, it might be occasionally
						folded together for the convenience of carriage, and set down where the
						magistrate chose to use it."—Thomson. before the temple of Jupiter
					Capitolinus, he abdicated the office, and substituted another in his room. Nor
					did he enter upon them all at Rome ,
					but upon the fourth in Asia , the fifth
					in the Isle of Samos , and the eighth
					and ninth at Tarragona . Now Saragossa .
					 During ten years he acted as one of the triumvirate for settling the
					commonwealth, in which office he for some time opposed his colleagues in their
					design of a proscription; but after it was begun, he prosecuted it with more
					determined rigour than either of them. For whilst they were often prevailed
					upon, by the interest and intercession of friends, to show mercy, he alone
					strongly insisted that no one should be spared, and even proscribed Caius
					Toranius, A great and wise man, if he is the same person
						to whom Cicero's letters on the calamities of the times were addressed. —
						Fam. Epist. c. vi. 20, 21. his guardian, who had been formerly the
					colleague of his father Octavius in the edileship. Junius Saturnius adds this
					farther account of him: that when, after the proscription was over, Marcus
					Lepidus made an apology in the senate for their past proceedings, and gave them
					hopes of a more mild administration for the future, because they had now
					sufficiently crushed their enemies; he, on the other hand, declared that the
					only limit he had fixed to the proscription was, that he should be free to act
					as he pleased. Afterwards, however, repenting of his severity, he advanced T.
					Vinius Philopoemen to the equestrian rank, for having concealed his patron at
					the time he was proscribed. In this same office he incurred great odium upon
					many accounts. For as he was one day making an harangue, observing among the
					soldiers Pinarius, a Roman knight, admit some private citizens, and engaged in
					taking notes, he ordered him to be stabbed before his eyes, as a busy-body and a
					spy upon him. He so terrified with his menaces Tedius Afer, the consul elect,
						 A.U.C. 731. for having reflected upon some
					action of his, that he threw himself from a great height, and died on the spot.
					And when Quintus Gallius, the praetor, came to compliment him with a double
					tablet under his cloak, suspecting that it was a sword he had concealed, and yet
					not venturing to make a search, lest it should be found to be something else, he
					caused him to be dragged from his tribunal by centurions and soldiers, and
					tortured like a slave: and although he made no confession, ordered him to be put
					to death, after he had, with his own hands, plucked out his eyes. His own
					account of the matter, however, is, that Quintus Gallius sought a private
					conference with him, for the purpose of assassinating him; that he therefore put
					him in prison, but afterwards released him, and banished him the city; when he
					perished either in a storm at sea, or by falling into the hands of robbers. He accepted of the tribunitian power for life, but more than once chose a
					colleague in that office for two lustra The Lustrum was a period of five years, at the end
						of which the census of the people was taken. It was first made by the Roman
						kings, then by the consuls, but after the year 310 from the building of the
						city, by the censors, who were magistrates created for that purpose. It
						appears, however, that the census was not always held at stated periods, and
						sometimes long intervals intervened. successively. He also had the
					supervision of morality and observance of the laws, for life, but without the
					title of censor; yet he thrice took a census of the people, the first and third
					time with a colleague, but the second by himself. He twice entertained thoughts of restoring the republic; Augustus appears to have been in earnest on these occasions, at least, in
						his desire to retire into private life and release himself from the cares of
						government, if we may believe Seneca .-De Brev. Vit. c. 5. Of his two intimate advisers,
						Agrippa gave this counsel, while Mecaenas was for continuing his career of
						ambition—Eutrop. 1. 53. first, immediately after he had crushed
					Antony, remembering that he had often charged him with being the obstacle to its
					restoration. The second time was in consequence of a long illness, when he sent
					for the magistrates and the senate to his own house, and delivered them a
					particular account of the state of the empire. But reflecting at the same time
					that it would be both hazardous to himself to return to the condition of a
					private person, and might be dangerous to the public to have the government
					placed again under the control of the people, he resolved to keep it in his own
					hands, whether with the better event or intention, is hard to say. His good
					intentions he often affirmed in private discourse, and also published an edict,
					in which it was declared in the following terms: "May it be permitted me to have
					the happiness of establishing the commonwealth on a safe and sound basis, and
					thus enjoy the reward of which I am ambitious, that of being celebrated for
					moulding it into the form best adapted to present circumstances; so that, on my
					leaving the world, I may carry with me the hope that the foundations which I
					have laid for its future government, will stand firm and stable." The city, which was not built in a manner suitable to the grandeur of the empire,
					and was liable to inundations of the Tiber , The Tiber has been always remarkable for the frequency of its
						inundations and the ravages they occasioned, as remarked by Pliny, iii. 5.
						Livy mentions several such occurrences, as well as one extensive fire, which
						destroyed great part of the city. as well as to fires, was so much
					improved under his administration, that he boasted, not without reason, that he
					"found it of brick, but left it of marble." The well-known
						saying of Augustus, recorded by Suetonius, that he found a city of bricks,
						but left it of marble, has another version given it by Dio, who applies it
						to his consolidation of the government, to the following effect: "That Rome,
						which I found built of mud, I shall leave you firm as a rock."-Dio. lvi. p.
						589. He also rendered it secure for the time to come against such
					disasters, as far as could be effected by human foresight. A great number of
					public buildings were erected by him, the most considerable of which were a
					forum, The same motive which engaged Julius Caesar to
						build a new forum, induced Augustus to erect another. See his life c. x. It
						stood behind the present churches of St. Adrian and St. Luke, and was almost
						parallel with the public forum, but there are no traces of it remaining. The
						temple of Mars Ultor, adjoining. has been mentioned before, p. 90. 
					containing the temple of Mars the Avenger, the temple of Apollo on the
						 Palatine hill, and the temple of
					Jupiter Tonans in the capitol. The reason of his building a new forum was the
					vast increase in the population, and the number of causes to be tried in the
					courts, for which, the two already existing not affording sufficient space, it
					was thought necessary to have a third. It was therefore opened for public use
					before the temple of Mars was completely finished; and a law was passed, that
					causes should be tried, and judges chosen by lot, in that place. The temple of
					Mars was built in fulfilment of a vow made during the war of Philippi , undertaken by him to avenge his
					father's murder. He ordained that the senate should always assemble there when
					they met to deliberate respecting wars and triumphs; that thence should be
					despatched all those who were sent into the provinces in the command of armies;
					and that in it those who returned victorious from the wars, should lodge the
					trophies of their triumphs. He erected the temple of Apollo The temple of the Palatine Apollo stood, according to Bianchini, a little
						beyond the triumphal arch of Titus. It appears, from the reverse of a medal
						of Augustus, to have been a rotondo, with an open portico, something like
						the temple of Vesta . The statues of
						the fifty daughters of Danae surrounded the portico; and opposite to them
						were their husbands on horseback. In this temple were preserved some of the
						finest works of the Greek artists, both in sculpture and painting. Here, in
						the presence of Augustus, Horace's Carmen Seculare was sung by twenty-seven
						noble youths, and as many virgins. And here, as our author informs us,
						Augustus, towards the end of his reign, often assembled the senate. 
					in that part of his house on the Palatine hill which had been struck with lightning, and which,
					on that account, the soothsayers declared the God to have chosen. He added
					porticos to it, with a library of Latin and Greek authors; The library adjoined the temple, and was under the protection of Apollo.
						Caius Julius Hegenus, a freedman of Augustus, and an eminent grammarian, was
						the librarian. and when advanced in years, used frequently there to
					hold the senate, and examine the rolls of the judges. He dedicated the temple to Jupiter Tonans [or. Apollo Tonans], The three fluted Corinthian columns of white marble, which
						stand on the declivity of the Capitoline hill, are commonly supposed to be
						the remains of the temple of Jupiter Tonans, erected by Augustus. Part of the frieze and
						cornice are attached to them, which with the capitals of the columns are
						finely wrought. Suetonius tells us on what occasion this temple was erected.
						Of all the epithets given to Jupiter, none conveyed more terror to
						superstitious minds than that of the Thunderer- Caelo tonantem credidimus Jovem Regnare. Hor. l. iii. Ode 5. We shall find this temple mentioned again in c. lxxxix. of the life
						of Au- gustus. in acknowledgment of his escape from a great danger
					in his Cantabrian expedition; when, as he was travelling in the night, his
					litter was struck by lightning, which killed the slave who carried a torch
					before him. He likewise constructed some public buildings in the name of others;
					for instance, his grandsons, his wife, and sister. Thus he built the portico and
					basilica of Lucius and Caius, and the
					porticos of Livia and Octavia . The Portico of
							 Octavia stood between the
						Flaminian circus and the theatre of Marcellus , enclosing the temples of Jupiter and Juno, said to have been built
						in the time of the republic. Several remains of them exist in the Pescheria
						or fish-market; they were of the Corinthian order, and have been traced and
						engraved by Piranesi. and the theatre of Marcellus . The magnificent theatre of
							 Marcellus was built on the site
						where Suetonius has before informed us that Julius Caesar intended to erect
						one (p. 37). It stood between the portico of Octavia and the hill of the capitol. Augustus gave it the
						name of his nephew Marcelhis, though he was then dead. Its ruins are still
						to be seen in the Piazza Montanara, where the Orsini family have a palace
						erected on the site. He also often exhorted other persons of rank to
					embellish the city by new buildings, or repairing and improving the old,
					according to their means. In consequence of this recommendation, many were
					raised; such as the temple of Hercules 
					and the Muses, by Marcius Philippus; a temple of Diana by Lucius Cornificius; the Court of Freedom by Asinius
					Pollio; a temple of Saturn by Munatius
					Plancus; a theatre by Cornelius Balbus The theatre of
						Balbus was the third of the three permanent theatres of Rome . Those of Pompey and Marcellus have been already
						mentioned. ; an amphitheatre by Statilius Taurus, and several other
					noble edifices by Marcus Agrippa. Among these were, at
						least, the noble portico, if not the whole, of the Pantheon, still the pride
						of Rome , under the name of the
						Rotondo, on the frieze of which may be seen the inscription, M. Marcus AGRIPPA. L. Lucii 
							 F. filius 
							 COS. consul TERTIUM. FECIT. Agrippa also
						built the temple of Neptune , and
						the portico of the Argonauts. He divided the city into regions and districts, ordaining that the annual
					magistrates should take by lot the charge of the former; and that the latter
					should be superintended by wardens chosen out of the people of each
					neighbourhood. He appointed a nightly watch to be on their guard against
					accidents from fire; and, to prevent the frequent inundations, he widened and
					cleansed the bed of the Tiber , which
					had in the course of years been almost dammed up with rubbish, and the channel
					narrowed by the ruins of houses. To whatever extent
						Augustus may have cleared out the bed of the Tiber , the process of its being encumbered with an alluvium
						of ruins and mud has been constantly going on. Not many years ago, a scheme
						was set on foot for clearing it by private enterprise, principally for the
						sake of the valuable remains of art which it is supposed to contain. 
					To render the approaches to the city more commodious, he took upon himself the
					charge of repairing the Flaminian way as far as Ariminum , The
							 Via Flaminia was probably
						undertaken by the censor Caius Flaminius, and finished by his son of the
						same name, who was consul A.U.C. 566, and employed his soldiers in forming
						it after subduing the Ligurians. It led from the Flumentan gate, now the
						Porta del Popolo, through Etruria and Umbria into the Cisalpine Gaul, ending at Ariminum , the frontier town of the
						territories of the republic, now Rimini , on the Adriatic; and is travelled by every tourist
						who takes the route, north of the Appenines, through the States of the
						Church, to Rome . Every one knows
						that the great highways, not only in Italy but in the provinces, were among the most magnificent
						and enduring works of the Roman people. and distributed the repairs
					of the other roads amongst several persons who had obtained the honour of a
					triumph; to be defrayed out of the money arising from the spoils of war. Temples
					decayed by time, or destroyed by fire, he either repaired or rebuilt; and
					enriched them, as well as many others, with splendid offerings. On a single
					occasion, he deposited in the cell of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, sixteen
					thousand pounds of gold, with jewels and pearls to the amount of fifty millions
					of sesterces.