the circumstances in which he was placed. But he was an excellent man of business and as a general he was trusted by the soldiers, and always led them to victory. He became consul in 13 B.C., at the age of twenty-nine. Augustus raised him to the same position to which he had raised Agrippa. He granted him the proconsular imperium first (about 9 B.C.), and three years later the tribunician power. In this policy he was doubtless influenced not only by the merits of Tiberius, but by the influence of Livia, to whom he granted the ius trium liberorum in 9 B.C.. On receiving the tribunician power, Tiberius was charged with a special commission to the East, to suppress a revolt which had broken out in Armenia. He had doubtless hoped that his step-father would adopt him. But he saw that he was destined by Augustus to be the guardian of the future Emperors, rather than a future Emperor himself, that he was consort indeed of the Princeps, but was not intended to be the successor. He was too proud to relish this postponement to his step-children, and instead of undertaking the commission, he retired into exile at Rhodes. In the following year C. Caesar assumed the toga virilis. He also became a consul designate. Four years later he received the proconsular imperium and a special commission to Armenia. 1 A.D.. was the year of his consulship.
The succession now seemed safe. L. Caesar had assumed the gown of manhood in 2 B.C. so that the Julian dynasty had two pillars. The Roman knights had proclaimed Gaius and Lucius principes iuventutis, an honour which seemed to mark them out as destined to become principes in a higher sense. From this time forward the title princeps iuventutis came to be formally equivalent to a designation of a successor to the Principate, who was still too young to enter the senate. But fortune was adverse to the plans of Augustus. Lucius died at Massilia in 2 A.D.. and two years later Gaius received a wound at the siege of Artagira and died in Lycia (4 A.D.). Thus the hopes which Augustus had cherished during the past twenty years fell to the ground.
But the death of his grandchildren was not the only misfortune which befell Augustus. The depravity of his daughter was even a more grievous blow. The licentious excesses of Julia were the talk of the city, and were known to all before they reached the ears of her father. She had long been unfaithful to her husband Tiberius, and his retirement to Rhodes—though mainly a manifestation of antagonism between the step-son and the grandsons of the Emperor—may have been partly due to his estrangement from her. But at length her profligacy became so open that it could no longer be hidden from the Emperor. She is even said to have traversed the streets by night in riotous company, and her orgies were performed in the forum or on the rostra. In short, to quote the words of a contemporary, "in lust and luxury she omitted no deed of shame that a woman could do or suffer, and she measured the greatness of her fortune by the licence it afforded for sin". The wrath of Augustus, when he learned the conduct of his daughter, knew no bounds. He formally communicated to the senate an account of her acts. He banished her to the barren island of Pandateria off the coast of Campania (2 B.C.) whither her mother Scribonia voluntarily attended her, and no intercession on the part of the people induced him to forgive her. Her lovers—Claudii, Scipiones, Sempronii, and Quinctii—were exiled; but one of them Julius Antonius (son of M. Antonius and Fulvia), whom Augustus had spared after Actium and always treated with kindness, was put to death, on the charge that he had corrupted the daughter in order to conspire against the father. Rumor said that Livia, scheming in the interests of herself and Tiberius, had a hand in bringing about the misfortunes which fell upon the family of Augustus; but there is no evidence whatever that such was the case.
The other children of Julia and Agrippa could not replace Gaius and Lucius. Agrippa Postumus showed such a bad and forward disposition that Augustus could build few hopes on him. The younger Julia proved a profligate, like her mother. There remained Agrippina, who had married within the imperial family, and did not disgrace it. Drusus, the brother of Tiberius, had wedded the younger Antonia, daughter of Octavia and M. Antonius. Of this marriage Germanicus was born, and Augustus selected him as a husband for Agrippina. The Emperor thus united his grandnephew with his granddaughter, as he had before united his nephew with his daughter.
In deciding the question of the succession Augustus was obliged to have recourse to Tiberius, yet not so as to exclude Germanicus, or even to deprive the young Agrippa of all hopes. After the banishment of Julia, Tiberius had wished, but had not been permitted, to return to Rome. He is said to have spent his time at Rhodes in the study of astrology. In 2 A.D. he was at length permitted to leave his place of exile, and during the two following years he lived at Rome in retirement, until, in consequence of the death of Gaius he was called upon to take part again in public life. On June 27, 4 A.D., Augustus adopted both Tiberius and Agrippa Postumus, and caused the tribunician power to be conferred for ten years on Tiberius, who was sent forthwith to conduct a campaign in Germany. At the same time Tiberius was required to adopt his nephew Germanicus. As for Agrippa, he soon ceased to be a possible rival. His conduct was such that Augustus was obliged to banish him to the island of Planasia.
Thus, after the frustration of many plans, Augustus was in the end compelled to recognise as his son and heir the aspirant whom he liked least, but who was perhaps fitter than any of the others to wield the power. When he adopted Tiberius, he expressed his feelings in the words: "I do this for the sake of the republic."
Nine years later (13 A.D.) Tiberius was raised higher than any previous consort. It was enacted by a special law, introduced by the consuls, that he should have proconsular power in all the provinces and over all the armies, coordinate with the proconsular power of his "father", and that he should hold a census in conjunction with Augustus. It is significant that the proconsular power was conferred by a law. In all previous cases, Augustus had bestowed it by virtue of his own proconsular imperium. But now the power of Tiberius in the provinces is no longer secondary, but is coordinate with, and limits, that of Augustus himself, and does not expire with the death of Augustus. It is therefore conferred by a lex. At the same time Tiberius received a renewal of the tribunician power, no longer for a limited period, but for life; and the senate selected him to hold the foremost place in the senatorial committee, which at the request of Augustus had been appointed to represent the whole senate.
Chapter V.
Administration of Augustus in Rome and Italy — Organisation of the Army
SECT. I. — RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL REFORMS OF AUGUSTUS.
Augustus sought to secure his government by conciliating the higher classes and keeping the populace amused. In these aims he may be said to have succeeded. His government on the whole was popular, and people were content. His policy, constantly guided by Maecenas, was liberal and humane, and that minister found means to secure the safety of his master without the help of informers or spies. The Romans regarded Maecenas as an ideal minister, and by his death in 8 B.C. the Emperor lost a councillor whose tact and insight could not easily be replaced. He is reported to have cried that if either Agrippa or Maecenas had lived, the domestic troubles which darkened the later years of his life would never have befallen him.
It was harder to conciliate the aristocracy than to satisfy the lower classes; and notwithstanding his personal popularity, notwithstanding the promptness of the senate to fall in with his wishes and accept his guidance, Augustus could not fail to perceive a feeling of regret for the Republic prevailing among the higher classes, and he probably felt that, if his own personal influence were removed by death, the survival of the Principate would be very uncertain. He could not mistake obsequiousness, or even personal friendship to himself, for cheerful acquiescence in the new system. His safety was occasionally threatened by conspiracies, of which we have very little information; but they do not seem to have been really serious. We need only mention that of Fannius Caepio (23 B.C.) and that of Cn. Cornelius Cinna (4 A.D.). Caepio's conspiracy is remarkable from the fact that A. Terentius Varro Murena, who was colleague of the Emperor in the consulate, was concerned in it. Murena was the brother of Proculeius, an intimate friend of Augustus, and of Terentia, wife of Maecenas and reputed to be the Emperor's mistress. Augustus took the matter very seriously, but it seems that the people were not convinced of Murena's guilt. Both Murena and Caepio were executed. In the other case, Cinna and his associates were pardoned by the advice