Augustus (66-70)

In his early youth various aspersions of an infamous character were heaped upon him. Sextus Pompey reproached him with being an effeminate fellow; and M. Antony, with earning his adoption from his uncle by improper means. Lucius Antony, likewise Mark's brother, charges him with the same.

That he was guilty of various acts of adultery, is not denied even by his friends; but they allege in excuse for it, that he engaged in those intrigues not from lewdness, but from policy, in order to discover more easily the designs of his enemies, through their wives. Mark Antony, besides the precipitate marriage of Livia, charges him with taking the wife of a man of consular rank from table, in the presence of her husband, into a bed-chamber, and bringing her again to the entertainment, with her ears very red, and her hair in great disorder: that he had divorced Scribonia, for resenting too freely the excessive influence which one of his mistresses had gained over him: that his friends were employed to pimp for him, and accordingly obliged both matrons and ripe virgins to strip, for a complete examination of their persons, in the same manner as if Thoranius, the dealer in slaves, had them under sale. And before they came to an open rupture, he writes to him in a familiar manner, thus: "Why are you changed towards me? Because I lie with a queen? She is my wife. Is this a new thing with me, or have I not done so for these nine years? And do you take freedoms with Drusilla only? May health and happiness so attend you, and when you read this letter, you are not in dalliance with Tertulla, Terentilla, Rufilla,[*] or Salvia Titiscenia, or all of them. What matters it to you where, or upon whom, you spend your manly vigour?"

A private entertainment which he gave, commonly called the Supper of the Twelve Gods, [*] and at which the guests were dressed in the habit of gods and goddesses, while he personated Apollo himself, afforded subject of much conversation, and was imputed to him not only by Antony in his letters, who likewise names all the parties concerned, but in the following well-known anonymous verses:

Cum primum istorum conduxit mensa choragum,

Sexque deos vidit Mallia, sexque deas

Impia dum Phoebi Caesar mendacia ludit,

Dum nova divorum coenat adulteria:

Omnia se a terris tunc numina declinarunt:

Fugit et auratos Jupiter ipse thronos.

When Mallia late beheld, in mingled train,

Twelve mortals ape twelve deities in vain,

Caesar assumed what was Apollo's due,

And wine and lust inflamed the motley crew.

At the foul sight the gods avert their eyes,

And from his throne great Jove indignant flies.

Pater argentarius, ego Corinthiarius;

My father was a silversmith, [*] my dealings are in brass;

Postquam bis classe victus naves perdidit,

Aliquando ut vincat, ludit assidue aleam.

Twice having lost a fleet in luckless fight,

To win at last, he games both day and night.

With respect to the charge or imputation of loathsome impurity before-mentioned, he very easily refuted it by the chastity of his life, at the very time when it was made, as well as ever afterwards. His conduct likewise gave the lie to that of luxurious extravagance in his furniture, when, upon the taking of Alexandria, he reserved for himself nothing of the royal treasures but a porcelain cup, and soon afterwards melted down all the vessels of gold, even such as were intended for common use. But his amorous propensities never left him, and, as he grew older, as is reported, he was in the habit of debauching young girls, who were procured for him, from all quarters, even by his own wife. To the observations on his gaming, he paid not the smallest regard; but played in public, but purely for his diversion, even when he was advanced in years; and not only in the month of December, [*] but at other times, and upon all days, whether festivals or not. This evidently appears from a letter under his own hand, in which he says, "I supped, my dear Tiberius, with the same company. We had, besides, Vinicius, and Silvius the father. We gamed at supper like old fellows, both yesterday and to-day. And as any one threw upon the tali[*] aces or sixes, he put down for every talus a denarius; all which was gained by him who threw a Venus."[*] In another letter, he says: "We had, my dear Tiberius, a pleasant time of it during the festival of Minerva: for we played every day, and kept the gaming-board warm. Your brother uttered many exclamations at a desperate run of ill-fortune; but recovering by degrees, and unexpectedly, he in the end lost not much. I lost twenty thousand sesterces for my part; but then I was profusely generous in my play, as I commonly am; for had I insisted upon the stakes which I declined, or kept what I gave away, I should have won about fifty thousand. But this I like better: for it will raise my character for generosity to the skies." In a letter to his daughter, he writes thus . "I have sent you two hundred and fifty denarii, which I gave to every one of my guests; in case they were inclined at supper to divert themselves with the Tali, or at the game of Even-or-Odd."

In other matters, it appears that he was moderate in his habits, and free from suspicion of any kind of vice. He lived at first near the Roman Forum, above the Ring-maker's Stairs, in a house which had once been occupied by Calvus the orator. He afterwards moved to the Palatine Hill, where he resided in a small house[*] belonging to Hortensius, no way remarkable either for size or ornament; the piazzas being but small, the pillars of Alban stone, [*] and the rooms without any thing of marble, or fine paving. He continued to use the same bed-chamber, both winter and summer, during forty years:[*] for though he was sensible that the city did not agree with his health in the winter, he nevertheless resided constantly in it during that season. If at any time he wished to be perfectly retired, and secure from interruption, he shut himself up in an apartment at the top of his house, which he called his Syracuse or Τεχνόφυον[*] or he went to some villa belonging to his freedmen near the city. But when he was indisposed, he commonly took up his residence in the house of Maecenas. [*] Of all the places of retirement from the city, he chiefly frequented those upon the seacoast, and the islands of Campania,[*] or the towns nearest the city, such as Lanuvium, Praeneste, and Tibur,[*] where he often used to sit for the administration of justice, in the porticos of the temple of Hercules. He had a particular aversion to large and sumptuous palaces; and some which had been raised at a vast expense by his grand-daughter, Julia, he leveled to the ground. Those of his own, which were far from being spacious, he adorned, not so much with statues and pictures, as with walks and groves, and things which were curious either for their antiquity or rarity; such as, at Capri, the huge limbs of sea-monsters and wild beasts, which some affect to call the bones of giants; and also the arms of ancient heroes.