From Ostia , journeying along the coast
					of Campania , he halted awhile on
					receiving intelligence of Augustus's being taken ill, but this giving rise to a
					rumour that he stayed with a view to something extraordinary, he sailed with the
					wind almost full against him, and arrived at Rhodes , having been struck with the pleasantness and
					healthiness of the island at the time of his landing there in his return from
						 Armenia . Here contenting himself
					with a small house, and a villa not much larger, near the town, he led entirely
					a private life, taking his walks sometimes about the Gymnasia, The Gymnasia were places of exercise, and received their
						name from the Greek word signifying naked, because the contending parties
						wore nothing but drawers. without any lictor or other attendant, and
					returning the civilities of the Greeks with almost as much complaisance as if he
					had been upon a level with them. One morning, in settling the course of his
					daily excursion, he happened to say, that he should visit all the sick people in
					the town. This being not rightly understood by those about him, the sick were
					brought into a public portico, and ranged in order, according to their several
					distempers. Being extremely embarrassed by this unexpected occurrence, he was
					for some time irresolute how he should act; but at last he determined to go
					round them all, and make an apology for the mistake, even to the meanest amongst
					them, and such as were entirely unknown to him. One instance only is mentioned,
					in which he appeared to exercise his tribunitian authority. Being a constant
					attendant upon the schools and lecture-rooms of the professors of the liberal
					arts, on occasion of a quarrel amongst the wrangling sophists, in which he
					interposed to reconcile them, some person took the liberty to abuse him as an
					intruder, and partial in the affair. Upon this, withdrawing privately home, he
					suddenly returned attended by his officers, and summoning his accuser before his
					tribunal, by a public crier, ordered him to be taken to prison. Afterwards he
					received tidings that his wife Julia had been condemned for her lewdness and
					adultery, and that a bill of divorce had been sent to her in his name, by the
					authority of Augustus. Though he secretly rejoiced at this intelligence, he
					thought it incumbent upon him, in point of decency, to interpose in her behalf
					by frequent letters to Augustus, and to allow her to retain the presents which
					he had made her, notwithstanding the little regard she merited from him. When
					the period of his tribunitian authority expired, A.U.C.
						752 declaring at last that he had no other object in his retirement
					than to avoid all suspicion of rivalship with Caius and Lucius, he petitioned
					that, since he was now secure in that respect, as they were come to the age of
					manhood, and would easily maintain themselves in possession of the second place
					in the state, he might be permitted to visit his friends, whom he was very
					desirous of seeing. But his request was denied; and he was advised to lay aside
					all concern for his friends, whom he had been so eager to quit. He therefore continued at Rhodes much
					against his will, obtaining, with difficulty, thrqugh his mother, the title of
					Augustus's lieutenant, to cover his disgrace. He thenceforth lived, however, not
					only as a private person, but as one suspected and under apprehension, retiring
					into the interior of the country, and avoiding the visits of those who sailed
					that way, which were very frequent; for no one passed to take command of an
					army, or the government of a province, without touching at Rhodes . But there were fresh reasons for
					increased anxiety. For crossing over to Samos , on a visit to his step-son Caius, who had been appointed
					governor of the East, ihe found him prepossessed against him, by the
					insinuations of Marcus Lollius, his companion and director. He likewise fell
					under suspicion of sending by some centurions who had been promoted by himself,
					upon their return to the camp after a furlough, mysterious messages to several
					persons there, intended, apparently, to tamper with them for a revolt. This
					jealousy respecting his designs being intimated to him by Augustus, he begged
					repeatedly that some person of any of the three Orders might be placed as a spy
					upon him in every thing he either said or did. He laid aside likewise his usual exercises of riding and arms; and quitting the
					Roman habit, made use of the Pallium and Crepida. The cloak
						and slippers, as distinguished from the Roman toga and shoes. In this
					condition he continued almost two years, becoming daily an object of increasing
					contempt and odium; insomuch that the people of Nismes pulled down all the images and statues of him in their
					town; and upon mention being made of him at table, one of the company said to
					Caius, "I will sail over to Rhodes 
					immediately, if you desire me, and bring you the head of the exile;" for that
					was the appellation now given him. Thus alarmed not only by apprehensions, but
					real danger, he renewed his solicitations for leave to return; and, seconded by
					the most urgent supplications of his mother, he at last obtained his request; to
					which an accident somewhat contributed. Augustus had resolved to determine
					nothing in the affair, but with the consent of his eldest son. The latter was at
					that time out of humour with Marcus Lollius, and -therefore easily disposed to
					be favourable to his father-in-law. Caius thus acquiescing, he was recalled, but
					upon condition that he should take no concern whatever in the administration of
					affairs. He returned to Rome after an absence of
					nearly eight years, A.U.C. 755 with great and
					confident hopes of his future elevation, which he had entertained from his,
					youth, in consequence of various prodigies and predictions. For Livia, when
					pregnant with him, being anxious to discover, by different modes of divination,
					whether her offspring would be a son, amongst others, took an egg from a hen
					that was sitting, and kept it warm with her own hands, and those of her maids,
					by turns, until a fine cock-chicken, with a large comb, was hatched. Scribonius,
					the astrologer, predicted great things of him when he was a mere child. " He
					will come in time," said the prophet, "to be even a king, but without the usual
					badge of royal dignity;" the rule of the Caesars being as yet unknown. When he
					was making his first expedition, and leading his army through Macedonia into Syria , the altars which had been formerly consecrated at
						 Philippi by the victorious
					legions, blazed suddenly with spontaneous fires. Soon after, as he was marching
					to Illyricum , he stopped to consult the
					oracle of Geryon, near Padua ; and
					having drawn a lot by which he was desired to throw golden tali into the
					fountain of Aponus, This fountain, in the Euganian hills,
						near Padua , famous for its mineral
						waters, is celebrated by Claudian in one of his elegies. for an
					answer to his inquiries, he did so, and the highest numbers came up. And those
					very tali are still to be seen at the bottom of the fountain. A few days before
					his leaving Rhodes , an eagle, a bird
					never before seen in that island, perched on the top of his house. And the day
					before he received the intelligence of the permission granted him to return, as
					he was changing his dress, his tunic appeared to be all on fire. He then
					likewise had a remarkable proof of the skill of Thrasyllus, the astrologer,
					whom, for his proficiency in philosophical researches, he had taken into his
					family. For, upon sight of the ship which brought the intelligence, he said good
					news was coming: whereas every thing going wrong before, and quite contrary to
					his predictions, Tiberius had intended that very moment, when they were walking
					together, to throw him into the sea, as an impostor, and one to whom he had too
					hastily entrusted his secrets. Upon his return to Rome , having
					introduced his son Drusus into the forum, he immediately removed from Pompey's
					house, in the Carinae, to the gardens of Maecenas, on the Esquiline , The street
						called Carinae, at Rome , has been
						mentioned before; AUGUSTUS, c. v.; and also Maecenas's house on the
							 Esquiline , ib. c. lxx. The
						gardens were formed on ground without the walls, and before used as a
						cemetery for malefactors, and the lower classes. Horace says Nunc licet Esquiliis habitare salubribus,
									atque Aggere in aprico spatiari. Sat. i. viii. 13. 
					 and resigned himself entirely to his ease, performing only the common
					offices of civility in private life, without any preferment in the government.
					But Caius and Lucius being both carried off in the space of three years, he was
					adopted by Augustus, along with their brother Agrippa; being obliged in the
					first place to adopt Germanicus, his brother's son. After his adoption, he never
					more acted as master of a family, nor exercised, in the smallest degree, the
					rights which he had lost by it. For he neither disposed of anything in the way
					of gift, nor manumitted a slave; nor so much as received any estate left him by
					will, nor any legacy, without reckoning it as a part of his peculium or property
					held under his father. From that day forward, nothing was omitted that might
					contribute to the advancement of his grandeur, and much more, when, upon Agrippa
					being discarded and banished, it was evident that the hope of succession rested
					upon him alone.