As soon as the civil wars were ended, he gave up riding and other military
					exercises in the Campus Martius , and
					took to playing at ball, or foot-ball; but soon afterwards used no other
					exercise than that of going abroad in his litter, or walking. Towards the end of
					his walk, he would run leaping, wrapped up in a short cloak or cape. For
					amusement, he would sometimes angle, or play with dice, pebbles, or nuts, with
					little boys, collected from various countries, and particularly Moors and
					Syrians, for their beauty or amusing talk. But dwarfs, and such as were in any
					way deformed, he held in abhorrence, as lusus natura (nature's abortions), and
					of evil omen. From early youth he devoted himself with great diligence and application to the
					study of eloquence, and the other liberal arts. In the war of Modena , notwithstanding the weighty affairs in
					which he was engaged, he is said to have read, written, and declaimed every day.
					He never addressed the senate, the people, or the army, but in a premeditated
					speech, though he did not want the talent of speaking extempore on the spur of
					the occasion. And lest his memory should fail him, as well as to prevent the
					loss of time in getting up his speeches, it was his general practice to recite
					them. In his intercourse with individuals, and even with his wife Livia, upon
					subjects of importance he wrote on his tablets all he wished to express, lest,
					if he spoke extempore, he should say more or less than was proper. He delivered
					himself in a sweet and peculiar tone, in which he was diligently instructed by a
					master of elocution. But when he had a cold, he sometimes employed a herald to
					deliver his speeches to the people. He composed many tracts in prose on various subjects, some of which he read
					occasionally in the circle of his friends, as to an auditory. Among these was
					his "Rescript to Brutus respecting Cato ." Most of the pages he read himself, although he was advanced
					in years, but becoming fatigued, he gave the rest to Tiberius to finish. He
					likewise read over to his friends his "Exhortations to Philosophy," and the
					"History of his own Life," which he continued in thirteen books, as far as the
					Cantabrian war, but no farther. He likewise made some attempts at poetry. There
					is extant one book written by him in hexameter verse, of which both the subject
					and title is " Sicily ." There is also a
					book of Epigrams, no larger than the last, which he composed almost entirely
					while he was in the bath. These are all his poetical compositions: for though he
					begun a tragedy with great zest, becoming dissatisfied with the style, he
					obliterated the whole; and his friends saying to him, "What is your Ajax doing?"
					he answered, "My Ajax met with a sponge." In spongam incubuisse , literally has fallen
						upon a sponge, as Ajax is said to have perished by falling on his own sword.
					 He cultivated a style which was neat and chaste, avoiding frivolous or harsh
					language, as well as obsolete words, which he calls disgusting. His chief object
					was to deliver his thoughts with all possible perspicuity. To attain this end,
					and that he might nowhere perplex, or retard the reader or hearer, he made no
					scruple to add prepositions to his verbs, or to repeat the same conjunction
					several times; which, when omitted, occasion some little obscurity, but give a
					grace to the style. Those who used affected language, or adopted obsolete words,
					he despised, as equally faulty, though in different ways. He sometimes indulged
					himself in jesting, particularly with his friend Maecenas, whom he rallied upon
					all occasions for his fine phrases, μυροβρεχεῖσ . Suetonius often preserves
						expressive Greek phrases which Augustus was in the habit of using. This
						compound word means, literally, myrrh-scented, perfumed. and
					bantered by imitating his way of talking. Nor did he spare Tiberius, who was
					fond of obsolete and far-fetched expressions. He charges Mark Antony with
					insanity, writing rather to make men stare, than to be understood; and by way of
					sarcasm upon his depraved and fickle taste in the choice of words, he writes to
					him thus: "And are you yet in doubt, whether Cimber Annius or Veranius Flaccus
					be more proper for your imitation ? Whether you will adopt words which
					Sallustius Crispus has borrowed from the Origines' of Cato? Or do you think that
					the verbose empty bombast of Asiatic orators is fit to be transfused into our
					language ?" And in a letter where he commends the talent of his grand-daughter,
					Agrippina, he says, "But you must be particularly careful, both in writing and
					speaking, to avoid affectation." In ordinary conversation, he made use of several peculiar expressions, as appears
					from letters in his own hand-writing; in which, now and then, when he means to
					intimate that some persons would never pay their debts, he says, "They will pay
					at the Greek Calends." And when he advised patience in the present posture of
					affairs, he would say, "Let us be content with our Cato." To describe anything
					in haste, he said, "It was sooner done than asparagus is cooked." He constantly
					puts baceolus for stultus , pullejaceus for
						 pullus , vacerrosus for cerritus ,
						 vapide se habere for male , and betizare for languere , which is commonly called lachanizare. Likewise simus for sumus , domos for domus in
					the genitive singular. These are variations of language of
						small importance, which cam only be understood in the original language.
					 With respect to the last two peculiarities, lest any person should
					imagine that they were only slips of his pen, and not customary with him, he
					never varies. I have likewise remarked this singularity in his hand-writing: he
					never divides his words, so as to carry the letters which cannot be inserted at
					the end of a line to the next, but puts them below the other, enclosed by a
					bracket.