His malady proceeded from diarrhoea; notwithstanding which, he went round the
					coast of Campania , and the adjacent
					islands, and spent four days in that of Capri ; where he gave himself up entirely to repose and
					relaxation. Happening to sail by the bay of Puteoli , the passengers and mariners aboard a ship of
						 Alexandria , " Puteoli "-" a
						ship of Alexandria ." Words
						which bring to our recollection a passage in the voyage of St. Paul , Acts xxvili. 11-13. Alexandria was at that time the
						seat of an extensive commerce. and not only exported to Rome and other cities of Italy , vast quantities of corn and other
						products of Egypt , but was the mart
						for spices and other commodities, the fruits of the traffic with the east.
					 just then arrived, clad all in white, with chaplets upon their heads,
					and offering incense, loaded him with praises and joyful acclamations, crying
					out, " By you we live, by you we sail securely, by you enjoy our liberty and our
					fortunes." At which being greatly pleased, he distributed to each of those who
					attended him, forty gold pieces, requiring from them an assurance on oath, not
					to employ the sum given them in any other way, than the purchase of Alexandrian
					merchandize. And during several days afterwards, he distributed Togae The Toga has been already described in a note to c. lxxi.
						The Pallium was a cloak, generally worn by the Greeks, both men and women,
						freemen and slaves, but particularly by philosophers. and Pallia,
					among other gifts, on condition that the Romans should use the Greek, and the
					Greeks the Roman dress and language. He likewise constantly attended to see the
					boys perform their exercises, according to an ancient custom still continued at
						 Capri . He gave them likewise an
					entertainment in his presence, and not only permitted, but required from them
					the utmost freedom in jesting, and scrambling for fruit, victuals, and other
					things which he threw amongst them. In a word, he indulged himself in all the
					ways of amusement he could contrive. He called an island near Capri , Ἀπραγόπολισ , "The City of the Do-littles," from the indolent
					life which several of his party led there. A favourite of his, one
						Masgabas, Masgabas seems, by his name, to have been of
						African origin. he used to call κτιστήσ , as if he had been the planter of the island. And
					observing from his room a great company of people with torches, assembled at the
					tomb of this Masgabas, who died the year before, he uttered very distinctly this
					verse, which he made extempore: κτιστοῦ δὲ τύμβον 
					 Blazing with lights I see the founder's
						tomb. Then turning to Thrasyllus, a companion of Tiberius, who
					reclined on the other side of the table, he asked him, who knew nothing about
					the matter, what poet he thought was the author of that verse; and on his
					hesitating to reply, he added another: ὁρᾷς 
					 Honor'd with torches, Masgabas you see; and
					put the same question to him concerning that likewise. The latter replying,
					that, whoever might be the author, they were excellent verses, A courtly answer from the Professor of Science, in which
						character he attended Tiberius. We shall hear more of him in the reign of
						that emperor. he set up a great laugh, and fell into an extraordinary
					vein of jesting upon it. Soon afterwards, passing over to Naples , although at that time greatly
					disordered in his bowels by the frequent returns of his disease, he sat out the
					exhibition of the gymnastic games which were performed in his honour every five
					years, and proceeded with Tiberius to the place intended. But on his return, his
					disorder increasing, he stopped at Nola , sent for Tiberius back again, and had a long discourse with
					him in private; after which, he gave no further attention to business of any
					importance. Upon the day of his death, he now and then enquired, if there was any disturbance
					in the town on his account; and calling for a mirror, he ordered his hair to be
					combed, and his shrunk cheeks to be adjusted. Then asking his friends who were
					admitted into the room, "Do you think that I have acted my part on the stage of
					life well?" he immediately subjoined, εἰ δὲ πᾶν δότε κρότον, καὶ πάντεσ ὑμεῖσ μετὰ χαρᾶσ κτυπήσατε. 
					 If all be right, with joy your voices raise, In loud applauses to the actor's praise. After which, having
					dismissed them all, whilst he was inquiring of some persons who were just
					arrived from Rome , concerning Drusus's
					daughter, who was in a bad state of health, he expired suddenly, amidst the
					kisses of Livia , and with these words:
						" Livia ! live mindful of our union;
					and now, farewell!" dying a very easy death, and such as he himself had always
					wished for. For as often as he heard that any person had died quickly and
					without pain, he wished for himself and his friends the like εὐθανασίαν (an easy death), for that was the
					word he made use of. He betrayed but one symptom, before he breathed his last,
					of being delirious, which was this: he was all on a sudden much frightened, and
					complained that he was carried away by forty men. But this was rather a presage,
					than any delirium: for precisely that number of soldiers belonging to the
					praetorian cohort, carried out his corpse. He expired in the same room in which his father Octavius had died, when the two
					Sextus's, Pompey and Apuleius, were consuls, upon the fourteenth of the calends
					of September [the 19th August], at the ninth hour of the day, being seventy-six
					years of age, wanting only thirty-five days. Augustus was
						born A. U. C. 691, and died A. U. C. 766. His remains were carried by
					the magistrates of the municipal Municipia were towns which had obtained the rights of Roman
						citizens. Some of them had all which could be enjoyed without residing at
							 Rome . Others had the right of
						serving in the Roman legions, but not that of voting, nor of holding civil
						offices. The municipia retained their own
						laws and customs; nor were they obliged to receive the Roman laws unless
						they chose it. towns and colonies, from Nola to Bovillae, Bovillae, a small place
						on the Appian Way , about nineteen
						miles from Rome , now called
						Frattochio. and in the night-time, because of the season of the year.
					During the intervals, the body lay in some basilica, or great temple, of each
					town. At Bovillae it was met by the Equestrian Order, who carried it to the
					city, and deposited it in the vestibule of his own house. The senate proceeded
					with so much zeal in the arrangement of his funeral, and paying honour to his
					memory, that amongst several other proposals, some were for having the funeral
					procession made through the triumphal gate, preceded by the image of Victory
					which is in the senate-house, and the children of highest rank of both sexes
					singing the funeral dirge. Others proposed, that on the day of the funeral, they
					should lay aside their gold rings, and wear rings of iron; and others, that his
					bones should be collected by the priests of the principal colleges. One likewise
					proposed to transfer the name of August to September, because he was born in the
					latter, but died in the former. Another moved, that the whole period of time,
					from his birth to his death, should be called the Augustan age, and be inserted
					in the calendar under that title. But at last it was judged proper to be
					moderate in the honours paid to his memory. Two funeral orations were pronounced
					in his praise, one before the temple of Julius , by Tiberius ;
					and the other before the rostra, under the old shops, by Drusus, Tiberius's son.
					The body was then carried upon the shoulders of senators into the Campus Martius , and there burnt. A man of
					pretorian rank affirmed upon oath, that he saw his spirit ascend from the
					funeral pile to heaven. The most distinguished persons of the equestrian order,
					bare-footed, and with their tunics loose, gathered up his relics, Dio tells us that the devoted Livia joined with the knights
						in this pious office, which occupied them during five days. and
					deposited them in the mausoleum, which had been built in the sixth consulship
					between the Flaminian Way and the bank
					of the Tiber ; For
						the Flaminian Way , see before, p.
						102, note. The superb monument erected by Augustus over the sepulchre of the
						imperial family was of white marble, rising in stages to a great height, and
						crowned by a dome, on which stood a statue of Augustus. Marcellus was the first who was buried in
						the sepulchre beneath. It stood near the present Porta del Popolo; and the
						Bustum, where the bodies of the emperor and his family were burnt, is
						supposed to have stood on the site of the church of the Madonna of that name. at which time
					likewise he gave the groves and walks about it for the use of the people. He made a will a year and four months before his death, upon the third of the
					nones of April [the 11th of April], in the consulship of Lucius Plancus, and
					Caius Silius. It consisted of two skins of parchment, written partly in his own
					hand, and partly by his freedmen Polybius and Hilarian; and had been committed
					to the custody of the Vestal Virgins, by whom it was now produced, with three
					codicils under seal, as well as the will: all these were opened and read in the
					senate. He appointed as his direct heirs, Tiberius for two-thirds of his estate, and Livia for the other third, both of whom he
					desired to assume his name. The heirs in remainder were Drusus, Tiberius's son, for one third, and Germanicus
					with his three sons for the residue. In the third place, failing them, were his
					relations, and several of his friends. He. left in legacies to the Roman people
					forty millions of sesterces; to the tribes The distinction
						between the Roman people and the tribes, is also observed by Tacitus, who
						substitutes the word plebs, meaning, the lowest class of the
						populace. three millions five hundred thousand; to the praetorian
					troops a thousand each man; to the city cohorts five hundred; and to the legions
					and soldiers three hundred each; which several sums he ordered to be paid
					immediately after his death, having taken due care that the money should be
					ready in his exchequer. For the rest he ordered different times of payment. In
					some of his bequests he went as far as twenty thousand sesterces, for the
					payment of which he allowed a twelvemonth; alleging for this procrastination the
					scantiness of his estate; and declaring that not more than a hundred and fifty
					millions of sesterces would come to his heirs: notwithstanding that during the
					twenty preceding years, he had received, in legacies from his friends, the sum
					of fourteen hundred millions; almost the whole of which, with his two paternal
						estates, Those of his father Octavius, and his father
						by adoption, Julius Caesar. and others which had been left him, he
					had spent in the service of the state. He left orders that the two Julias, his
					daughter and granddaughter, if any thing happened to them, should not be buried
					in his tomb. See before c. Ixiii. But he bequeathed a
						legacy to his daughter, Livia . With regard to the three codicils before
					mentioned, in one of them he gave orders about his funeral; another contained a
					summary of his acts, which he intended should be inscribed on brazen plates, and
					placed in front of his mausoleum; in the third he had drawn up a concise account
					of the state of the empire; the number of troops enrolled, what money there was
					in the treasury, the revenue, and arrears of taxes; to which were added the
					names of the freedmen and slaves from whom the several accounts might be taken.
				 Remarks on Augustus OCTAVIUS Caesar, afterwards Augustus, had now attained to the same position in
					the state which had formerly been occupied by Julius Caesar; and though he entered upon it by violence, he
					continued to enjoy it through life with almost uninterrupted tranquillity. By
					the long duration of the late civil war, with its concomitant train of public
					calami- ties, the minds of men were become less averse to the prospect of an
					absolute government; at the same time that the new emperor, naturally prudent
					and politic, had learned from the fate of Julius the art of preserving supreme
					power, without arrogating to himself any invidious mark of distinction. He
					affected to decline public honours, disclaimed every idea of personal
					superiority, and in all his behaviour displayed a degree of moderation which
					prognosticated the most happy effects, in restoring peace and prosperity to the
					harassed empire. The tenor of his future conduct was suitable to this auspicious
					commencement. While he endeavoured to conciliate the affections of the people by
					lending money to those who stood in need of it, at low interest, or without any
					at all, and by the exhibition of public shows, of which the Romans were
					remarkably fond; he was attentive to the preservation of a becoming dignity in
					the government, and to the correction of morals. The senate, which, in the time
					of Sylla, had increased to upwards of four hundred, and, during the civil war,
					to a thousand, members, by the admission of improper persons, he reduced to six
					hundred; and being invested with the ancient office of censor, which had for
					some time been disused, he exercised an arbitrary but legal authority over the
					conduct of every rank in the state; by which he could degrade senators and
					knights, and inflict upon all citizens an ignominious sentence for any immoral
					or indecent behaviour. But nothing contributed more to render the new form of
					government acceptable to the people, than the frequent distribution of corn, and
					sometimes largesses, amongst the commonalty: for an occasional scarcity of
					provisions had always been the chief cause of discontents and tumults in the
					capital. To the interests of the army he likewise paid particular attention. It
					was by the assistance of the legions that he had risen to power; and they were
					the men who, in the last resort, if such an emergency should ever occur, could
					alone enable him to preserve it. History relates, that after the overthrow of Antony, Augustus held a consultation
					with Agrippa and Maecenas about restoring the republican form of government;
					when Agrippa gave his opinion in favour of that measure, and Maecenas opposed
					it. The object of this consultation, in respect to its future consequences on
					society, is perhaps the most important ever agitated in any cabinet, and
					required, for the mature discussion of it, the whole collective wisdom of the
					ablest men in the empire. But this was a resource which could scarcely be
					adopted, either with security to the public quiet, or with unbiassed judgment in
					the determination of the question. The bare agitation of such a point would have
					excited immediate and strong anxiety for its final result; while the friends of
					a republican government, who were still far more numerous than those of the
					other party, would have strained every nerve to procure a determination in their
					own favour; and the pretorian guards, the surest protection of Augustus, finding
					their situation rendered precarious by such an unexpected occurrence, would have
					readily listened to the secret propositions and intrigues of the republi cans
					for securing their acquiescence to the decision on the popular side. If, when
					the subject came into debate, Augustus should be sincere in the declaration to
					abide by the resolution of the council, it is beyond all doubt, that the
					restoration of a republican governmeni would have been voted by a great majority
					of the assembly. If, on the contrary, he should not be sincere, which is the
					more probable supposition, and should incur the suspicion of practising secretly
					with members for a decision according to his wish, he would have rendered
					himself obnoxious to the public odium, and given rise to discontents which might
					have endangered his future security. But to submit this important question to the free and unbiassed docision of a
					numerous assembly, it is probable, neither suited the inclination of Augustus,
					nor perhaps, in his opinion, consisted with his personal safety. With a view to
					the attainment of unconstitutional power, he had formerly deserted the cause of
					the republic when its affairs were in a prosperous situation; and now, when his
					end was accomplished, there could be little ground to expect, that he should
					voluntarily relinquish the prize for which he had spilt the best blood of
						 Rome , and contended for so many
					years. Ever since the final defeat of Antony in the battle of Actium , he had governed the Roman state with
					uncontrolled authority; and though there is in the nature of unlimited power an
					intoxicating quality, injurious both to public and private virtue, yet all
					history contradicts the supposition of its being endued with any which is
					unpalatable to the general taste of mankind. There were two chief motives by which Augustus would naturally be influenced in a
					deliberation on this important subject; namely, the love of power, and the
					personal danger which he might incur from relinquishing it. Either of these
					motives might have been a sufficient in ducement for retaining his authority;
					but when they both concurred, as they seem to have done upon this occasion,
					their united force was irresistible. The argument, so far as relates to the love
					of power, rests upon a ground, concerning the solidity of which, little doubt
					can be entertained: but it may be proper to inquire, in a few words, into the
					foundation of that personal danger which he dreaded to incur, on returning to
					the station of a private citizen. Augustus, as has been already observed, had formerly sided with the party which
					had attempted to restore public liberty after the death of Julius Caesar: but he
					afterwards abandoned the popular cause, and joined in the ambitious plans of
					Antony and Lepidus to usurp amongst themselves the entire dominion of the state.
					By this change of conduct, he turned his arms against the supporters of a form
					of government which he had virtually recognized as the legal constitution of
						 Rome ; and it involved a direct
					implication of treason against the sacred representatives of that government,
					the consuls, formally and duly elected. Upon such a charge he might be amenable
					to the capital laws of his country. This, however, was a danger which might be
					fully obviated, by procuring from the senate and people an act of oblivion,
					previously to his abdication of the supreme power; and this was a preliminary
					which doubtless they would have admitted and ratified with unanimous
					approbation. It therefore appears that he could be exposed to no inevitable
					danger on this account: but there was another quarter where his person was
					vulnerable, and where even the laws might not be sufficient to protect him
					against the efforts of private resentment. The bloody proscription of the
					Triumvirate no act of amnesty could ever erase from the minds of those who had
					been deprived by it of their nearest and dearest relations; and amidst the
					numerous connections of the illustrious men sacrificed on that horrible
					occasion, there might arise some desperate avenger, whose indelible resentment
					nothing less would satisfy than the blood of the surviving delinquent. Though
					Augustus, therefore, might not, like his great predecessor, be stabbed in the
					senate-house, he nmight perish by the sword or the poniard in a less conspicuous
					situation. After all, there seems to have been little danger from this quarter
					likewise; for Sylla, who in the preceding age had been guilty of equal
					enormities, was permitted, on relinquishing the place of perpetual dictator, to
					end his days in quiet retirement; and the undisturbed security which Augustus
					ever afterwards enjoyed, affords sufficient proof, that all apprehension of
					danger to his person was merely chimerical. We have hitherto considered this grand consultation as it might be influenced by
					the passions or prejudices of the emperor: we shall now take a short view of the
					subject in the light in which it is connected with considerations of a political
					nature, and with public utility. The arguments handed down by history respecting
					this consultation are few, and imperfectly delivered; but they may be extended
					upon the general principles maintained on each side of the question. For the restoration of the republican government, it might be contended, that
					from the expulsion of the kings to the dictatorship of Julius Caesar, through a
					period of upwards of four hundred and sixty years, the Roman state, with the
					exception only of a short interval, had flourished and increased with a degree
					of prosperity unexampled in the annals of human kind: that the republican form
					of government was not only best adapted to the improvement of national grandeur,
					but to the security of general freedom, the great object of all political
					association: that public virtue, by which alone nations could subsist in vigour,
					was cherished and protected by no mode of administration so much as by that
					which connected, in the strongest bonds of union, the private interest of
					individuals with those of the community: that the habits and prejudices of the
					Roman people were unalterably attached to the form of government established by
					so long a prescription, and they would never submit, for any length of time, to
					the rule of one person, without making every possible effort to recover their
					liberty: that though despotism, under a mild and wise prince, might in some
					respects be regarded as preferable to a constitution which was occasionally
					exposed to the inconvenience of faction and popular tumults, yet it was a
					dangerous experiment to abandon the government of the nation to the contingency
					of such a variety of characters as usually occurs in the succession of princes;
					and, upon the whole, that the interests of the people were more safely entrusted
					in the hands of annual magistrates elected by themselves, than in those of any
					individual whose power was permanent, and subject to no legal control. In favour of despotic government it might be urged, that though Rome had subsisted long and gloriously under a
					republican form of government, yet she had often experienced such violent shocks
					from popular tumults or the factions of the great, as had threatened her with
					imminent destruction: that a republican government was only accommodated to a
					people amongst whom the division of property gave to no class of citizens such a
					degree of preeminence as might prove dangerous to public freedom: that there was
					required in that form of political constitution, a simplicity of life and
					strictness of manners which are never observed to accompany a high degree of
					public prosperity: that in respect of all these considerations, such a form of
					government was utterly incompatible with the present circumstances of the
					Romans: that by the conquest of so many foreign nations, by the lucrative
					governments of provinces, the spoils of the enemy in war, and the rapine too
					often practised in time of peace, so great had been the aggrandizement of
					particular families in the preceding age, that though the form of the ancient
					constitution should still remain inviolate, the people would no longer live
					under a free republic, but an aristocratical usurpation, which was always
					productive of tyranny: that nothing could preserve the commonwealth from
					becoming a prey to some daring confederacy, but the firm and vigorous
					administration of one person, invested with the whole executive power of the
					state, unlimited and uncontrolled: in fine, that as Rome had been nursed to maturity by the government of six
					princes successively, so it was only by a similar form of political constitution
					that she could now be saved from aristocratical tyranny on one hand, or, on the
					other, from absolute anarchy. On whichever side of the question the force of argument may be thought to
					preponderate, there is reason to believe that Augustus was guided in his
					resolution more by inclination and prejudice than by reason. It is related,
					however, that hesitating between the opposite opinions of his two counsellors,
					he had recourse to that of Virgil, who joined with Maecenas in advising him to
					retain the imperial power, as being the form of government most suitable to the
					circumstances of the times.