year

ing divided among the soldiers, the city of Augusta Prætoria, now Aosta in Savoy, was founded as the head of the colony. In the B. C. 25, Augustus married his daughter Julia to his nephew and destined successor, Marcellus, the son of Octavia. The success of his arms was somewhat interrupted by the failure of an expedition into Arabia under Ælius Gallus, who lost the greater part of his army by disease. To balance this misfortune, Candace, queen of Ethiopia, who had made an incursion into Upper Egypt, was defeated by Petronius, pursued into her own country, and compelled to sue for peace.

The year B. C. 23 was distinguished by a very dangerous illness of the emperor, who was at length cured by his physician Antonius Musa, who deviated from common practice in employing cold baths and cold drinks. After this attack the constitution of Augustus, which had been long delicate, became stronger than ever. During the most dangerous period of his disease, Augustus, without naming a successor, gave his ring to Agrippa; a preference which was the source of much displeasure to Marcellus, and afterwards occasioned the temporary secession of Agrippa from court; but this young prince died the same year, to the great regret of the emperor and people, and Agrippa returned to court, and ever after continued the most confidential friend of Augustus. Moderation and equity now appeared to be the confirmed principles of his government; and he proved how much he had risen superior to a party spirit, by substituting to himself, for the latter part of his eleventh consulate, L. Sestius, who had been quæstor to Brutus at Philippi, and openly declared the highest veneration for his memory. And, observing at Milan the statue of Brutus, which the people had erected as a testimony of gratitude to him for his conduct as their governor, he commended them for their attachment to a friend though unfortunate, and suffered the statue to subsist. Numerous anecdotes are related of his lenity, and the familiar manner in which he lived with his acquaintance and the people at large; and in the respect he paid to the senate and the courts of justice, he affected to appear no more than a private citizen. He also nobly disregarded libels or disrespectful expressions against himself; and he rejected with a kind of horror the titles of lord and master, conceiving that they implied slave as their counterpart. A new and usurped government, however, could not be supposed to give universal content; and a conspiracy was formed against Augustus, B. C. 22, at the head of which were

Fannius Cæpio, and Licinius Muræna. It was detected, and the principals were punished; and no more severity was shown on the occasion than the case might fairly justify. Yet it gave rise to two new laws of additional rigour in criminal justice-that accused persons on non-appearance might be tried and condemned as if present-and that the judges in criminal cases should vote by word of mouth instead of ballot. Agrippa was about this time raised to a still nearer connexion with the emperor, by a marriage with Julia, the widow of Marcellus, and daughter of Augustus.

In the two ensuing years the emperor visited his eastern provinces; received back from Phrahates, king of Parthia, the Roman eagles and captives taken from Crassus-a great and just subject of glory to Augustus! placed Tigranes on the throne of Armenia; and gave audience to embassadors from the furthest Indies, and other remote nations. His renown abroad, as well as his authority at home, were so firmly established, that the majesty of the empire never shone more conspicuously. After his return, he employed himself in various regulations for the perfection of the government and correction of abuses; most of them manifestly good and useful. He reduced the number of senators from one thousand to six hundred, and fixed at a higher rate the fortune requisite for entering that body. A very essential point at which he aimed was the reformation of manners, particularly with respect to the nuptial state; though it must be owned that rigour in this point ill became him, who was known to intrigue with the wives of several men of rank, and had taken great licence in the privilege of divorce. Sumptuary laws and regulations respecting the public spectacles, and the suppression of riots and disorders among the spectators, also occupied his attention. In the year of Rome 735, B. C. 17, he celebrated with great splendour the secular games, on which occasion Horace wrote an ode, preserved in his works. He also adopted his two grandsons Caius and Lucius, the children of Agrippa and Julia. The Germans causing disturbances on the frontiers of Gaul, Augustus visited that country, where he heard great complaints of the oppressions and exactions of his collector of the tribute, Licinius; but the crafty minister diverted his anger by presenting him with a large share of his ill-gotten spoils. Drusus, the son of Livia, B. Č. 15, made an expedition against the Rhætians, (now the Grisons) and, in conjunction with Tiberius, he subdued them and their neighbours the Vindelicians. Augustus remained in Gaul during

this war, and did not return till B. C. 13. The death of Lepidus the triumvir this year, who had never been deprived of his office of supreme pontiff, gave Augustus the opportunity of assuming it; and his first act in that character was to collect all the pretended books of divination current among the people and burn them, reserving the Sibylline books only, which he committed to the custody of the priests. During the same year he met with a loss which affected him nearly-that of his faithful and excellent friend and minister Agrippa, with whom he had so long lived in the closest connexion. He treated his memory with the highest honours, and himself pronounced the funeral eulogy. He caused Tiberius to marry the widowed Juliaan act of tyranny! since Tiberius was obliged to divorce a wife whom he loved, to espouse one with whose irregularities he was well acquainted.

The war with Germany now began to be pursued with ardour. That martial people had some time before defeated Lollius, proconsul of Gaul; but Drusus marching into their country with a powerful army, obtained great successes against some of their confederate tribes in four campaigns, in the last of which he carried his arms as far as the Elbe. His brother, Tiberius, likewise subdued the Pannonians and Dacians. But the joy occasioned by these victories was damped by the death of Drusus, as he was returning to the banks of the Rhine. A peace soon after ensued; and the temple of Janus was again shut for the third time in this reign, in which state it continued twelve years. Before this event Augustus had lost his beloved sister Octavia, who never recovered the death of her son Marcellus; and soon after it his favourite minister Mæcenas died, who had, indeed, for some time been less in his confidence than formerly. The emperor's intrigues with Terentia the wife of the minister are alleged as the cause of their coolness. During these years Augustus received many warm and unequivocal demonstrations of the affection of the people; and after enjoying the imperial authority for twenty years, he was unanimously requested to accept it for ten years more.

The young Cæsars, grandsons to the emperor, now began to come forwards on the scene; and their early ambition gave him some disquiet. The jealousies that arose between them and Tiberius so disgusted the latter, that he desired the liberty of retiring to Rhodes, which Augustus reluctantly granted; but he would not permit him, when tired of his situation, to return to Rome, till seven years after

wards. In order to grace the solemnity of the assumption of the manly robe by his elder grandson, Caius, Augustus accepted the consulate a twelfth time; and the year, before its close, was rendered memorable by the birth of Christ, which event the best critics date four years before the vulgar æra. Three years afterwards he was consul the thirteenth time, when Lucius Cæsar took the manly gown. In this year his domestic peace received a severe wound by the discovery of the scandalous disorders of his daughter Julia, of which he alone seems to have been long before ignorant. The indignation he conceived at this disgrace, induced him to treat with great severity all her gallants and confidents, some of whom he put to death, and banished others. Among the former was Julius Antonius, the son of the triumvir, whom he had distinguished by many favours, and had married to his niece. As to Julia, after solemnly divorcing her from Tiberius, he banished her to the isle of Pandataria, reduced her to mere necessaries, and would never consent to her recall. Some troubles in Armenia which succeeded, caused Caius Cæsar to be sent into the east, where he remained some years. At length, A. D. 3, he received a wound, the consequences of which proved fatal. His brother Lucius had died some time before at Marseilles. Thus vanished the principal hopes of Augustus of perpetuating his own blood on the imperial throne. He recalled, though with reluctance, Tiberius from his unhonoured residence at Rhodes, and adopted him some months after the death of Caius. He also adopted his remaining grandson, Agrippa Posthumus; but the intractable disposition and gross understanding of this youth caused him afterwards to annul the adoption, and send him into exile. A truly hopeful support of the imperial family was Germanicus son of Drusus, whom he obliged Tiberius, his uncle, to adopt. A daughter of Julia, of the same name, followed her mother's example, and some years afterwards was similarly punished. The poet Ovid was (as some suppose) in an unknown manner involved in her crime, and was on that account exiled to the mouth of the Danube, whence all his adulation could not procure his recall. These unworthy descendants were the source of bitter affliction to Augustus, who never named them without a sigh, and often repeated a verse from Homer, expressing a wish that he had lived in celibacy and died childless.

The year four was distinguished by an act of clemency which confers great honour on the

character of Augustus. Cinna, grandson of Pompey, a man of rank and great opulence, but of little merit, formed a conspiracy against the emperor's life. Every thing was prepared for its execution, when the whole was disclosed by one of the persons engaged in it. Augustus, by the advice of Livia, sent for Cinna to his closet, and after enumerating to him all the favours he had conferred upon him, charged him with the ingratitude of his design, at the same time repeating so many circumstances of the plot, that Cinna could not doubt of its discovery. He proceeded to say, that being still more desirous of having him for a friend, than punishing him as an enemy, he freely forgave him for all that was past, and should rely upon his future fidelity. Cinna, penetrated with compunction, and overcome by the emperor's goodness, was converted into one of his most zealous friends. Augustus named him consul for the next year; and Cinna, at his death, appointed the emperor his sole heir. Such was the effect of this truly noble conduct, that this was the last conspiracy formed against Augustus.

Various domestic regulations, and war renewed in Germany and Pannonia, which exercised the military talents of Tiberius, and Germanicus, are the principal events of some succeeding years. The encouragement of matrimony and suppression of celibacy was a point much laboured by the emperor; and a famous law called the Papian-Poppaan (from the consuls of the year) was passed for this purpose, appointing great privileges and exemptions for the married, and penalties and disabilities for the single. The year nine was rendered black in the Roman annals by the destruction of Varus and three entire legions in Germany, where Arminius had formed a powerful confederacy against the power of Rome. The standards and two of the eagles fell into the hands of the enemy, who took a pride in tram pling upon the majesty of the empire, and aggravating the loss by every species of insult and indignity. This disaster nearly overcame all the fortitude of Augustus, accustomed to glory and prosperity. He put on mourning, suffered his hair and beard to grow, and frequently exclaimed, in a paroxysm of grief and despair, “Varus, restore me my legions!" The sense of danger from a martial and inveterate foe was added to that of disgrace. Tiberius, however, by his military skill repressed the ravages of the Germans, and in great measure wiped off the ignominy. By his conduct he obtained the fayour and confidence of Augustus to such a de

VOL. I.

gree, that he was elevated to an equal share of the imperial authority. One of the most remarkable of the remaining acts of Augustus was a law rendering all libels and defamatory writings criminal, and subjecting the authors to the penalties of high-treason a law appa. rently well intended, but which in the reigns of succeeding emperors was made a terrible engine of tyranny and destruction, He also laid a foundation for future despotism by giving his privy-council the same authority that the senate possessed, and by diminishing the rights of the people in the election of magistrates.

His advanced age and declining health now rendered him studious of nothing so much as repose, and he devolved the principal cares of empire upon Tiberius. It is said, however, that he manifested a returning affection to his grandson Agrippa Posthumus, which alarmed Livia and her son; and Livia has been suspected of hastening the death of the emperor, on this account, by poison. But the progress of his malady is a sufficient refutation of this mere suspicion. A weakness of his stomach and bowels, of long standing, returned with increased violence, from which he sought relief by a tour to Naples, Beneventum and the delicious coast of Campania and its neighbouring islands. On his return towards Rome he was obliged to stop at Nola, where he took to his bed, and patiently waited the approach of death. On the last day of his life, he called for a mirror, and caused his attendants to adjust his hair and raise his sunken cheeks; then ordering his friends to be summoned round his bed, he asked them "if he had tolerably acted in the pantomime of life?" When they had signified their assent, "Then," added be, (using the form with which players left the stage) "farewel and clap your hands." After they had retired, he breathed his last with a tender adieu in the arms of Livia. His death happened on August 19th A. D. 14, in the year of Rome 765, and the seventy-sixth of his age.

To the preceding recital of his actions, not much needs be added in order to complete his portraiture. He was a remarkable instance of melioration of character in the progress through life; and the features of the bloody Octavianus are scarcely to be recognised in the mild Augustus. Yet the cool prudence which always adapts means to ends, and acts rather from general views of expedience, than the influence of temporary feeling, may be discerned as his guiding principle through all changes of circumstances. As a candidate for power, and the head of a party, he was crafty, dissembling, 32

and unrelenting; as the unresisted sovereign of a mighty empire, whose interest, and, doubt less, his pleasure, too, consisted in making a people happy and contented, he was affable, generous, humane, forgiving, and in many respects a model of a wise and equitable governor. He healed the wounds of civil war by showing, in his own conduct, a superiority to party-differences. As a compensation for liberty, he gave his subjects security, ease, prosperity, and all the advantages of high civilisation, with as little as possible of the severity of restraint and coercion. He filled Rome and all Italy with improvements of every kind; made highways, constructed harbours, raised edifices for use and convenience, and could boast that he received a capital built of brick, and left one of marble. He so encouraged letters, that one of the great ages of excellent human productions takes its name from him. Yet in this, his good sense rather than his genius was displayed; for most of the illustrious writers in his age were formed in the school of the republic, and he had only the easy task of distinguishing and rewarding them. They repaid his liberality by strains of adulation which perhaps have rather injured their reputation than served his; yet it does not appear that love of flattery was particularly his foible. In private life he had many estimable qualities; and his affectionate attachment to his family and friends, his indulgence without weakness to his dependents and domestics, his simple taste in expense, his sobriety and frugality, may atone for some early licentiousness, and for a disposition to gallantry which continued to a period of life when it had lost the excuse of constitutional warmth. In most of his actions he had a high regard to decorum; and though some instances of irreligion are related of his early years, the propensity of his mature and advanced age was rather to superstition than impiety. He bequeathed to his successors the important advice not to extend the limits of an empire already too large; an advice which it is uncandid to attribute to envy. He left every branch of the administration in perfect order, capable of going on regularly in the system he had established. On the whole, if not entitled to rank among the greatest and best of mankind, he will be ever respected as one of those sovereigns whose personal qualities had a great influence in promoting the happiness of the people he governed.

The high reputation of Augustus, and his long and eventful reign, have rendered him the theme of many writers, of whom the principal are Suetonius, Dio Cassius, Velleius Pater

culus, and Tacitus. Various circumstances respecting hin are finely recorded in the poems of Horace, whose panegyric frequently does not pass the bounds of truth. In particular, his introduction to the first epistle of the second book is a sober and judicious summary of the emperor's characteristic merits:

Cum tot sustineas et tanta negotia solus,
Res Italas armis tuteris, moribus ornes,
Legibus emendes; in publica commoda peccem,
Si longo sermone morer tua tempora, Cæsar.

See, also, Odes v. and xiv. Book iv.-A. AUGUSTUS, king of Poland. See FREDERIC AUGUSTUS.

AVICENNA, or EBN-SINA, an Arabian philosopher and physician, was born at Assena near Bochara, in the year of the Hegira 370, or of Christ 980. He possessed a ready genius, and a wonderful memory. At the age of ten, he had made a great progress in languages, and could repeat the whole Koran by heart. He was put under the care of a celebrated gardener who had the reputation of understanding perfectly the arithmetic of the Indians, astronomy, geometry, and the other branches of the mathematics, and soon exhausted the whole stock of this preceptor's knowledge. His next master was Al-Abdallah, a philosopher, whom Avicenna's father engaged to instruct him in his own house. Under this preceptor he studied logic and philosophy; but soon discovered, that though master of the terms of logic, Abdallah was unacquainted with the principles of the art. In order to render himself a more perfect master of the sublime doctrines of philosophy, and the subtle questions of logic, Avicenna became a student in the school of Bagdat. Here he prosecuted his studies with indefatigable industry, but not without a considerable portion of a fanatical spirit. When he was perplexed with any logical question, it is said to have been his practice, to repair to the mosque, and pray for divine illumination, after which he fancied that he received the knowledge he had sought by supernatural communication. When he entered upon the study of theology, he began with reading the Metaphysics of Aristotle, which he read, he says, forty times without understanding it.

Avicenna united with the study of philosophy that of medicine, and at the early age of eighteen, having completed his studies, began to practise as a physician. He soon acquired such a degree of reputation, that the caliph consulted him with respect to his son in a case which perplexed the physicians of the court.

His prescription succeeded; his fame increased; and he was not only employed as a physician, but consulted in affairs of state. During this tide of prosperity, Avicenna had no small degree of influence in the court of the caliph, and was rapidly increasing his possessions; when an unfortunate occurrence suddenly removed him from the court to a prison. The sultan Jasoch-bagh proposing to send his nephew as his representative into the native country of Avicenna, the young prince obtained permission to take Avicenna with him as his companion and physician. The sultan was not long afterwards informed, that the young prince and his brother were meditating a rebellion. Upon this, he immediately sent secret orders to Avicenna, to take off the leader of the conspiracy by poison. The philosopher was too faithful to his master, to fulfil the commission; but, at the same time, thought it expedient to conceal from him the order which he had received. The young prince, however, by some unknown means became acquainted with the sultan's design against his life, and was so highly displeased with Avicenna for concealing from him so important a circumstance, that he ordered him to be imprisoned. Avicenna fairly pleaded in his justification, that the concealment was necessary for the prevention of great mischief: but the prince remained inexorable, and had the ingratitude to suffer his protector and friend to remain in prison till his death. Avicenna is said to have hastened his end by debauchery he died in the year 1036, at the age of fifty-six years.

Avicenna left behind him many writings, but, notwithstanding all that has been said of his genius and learning, contributed little to the improvement of philosophy. His metaphysical, logical, and physical writings are imperfect and obscure representations of the doctrines of Aristotle. Though formerly much read, not only in the Saracen but the Christian schools, they are now forgotten. They consist of "Twenty books on the Utility of the Sciences;" "The Heads of Logic;" and pieces in metaphysics and morals. Of his medical works the principal is entitled "Canon Medicinæ," a vast compilation of all that was known in that age of anatomy, botany, pathology, therapeutics, and surgery. It is chiefly borrowed from Galen and other Greek and some Arabian writers, and contains very little from the author's own sources. Haller speaks of it as most intolerably loquacious and diffuse; and Freind wonders that it should have acquired so much esteem even in the schools of Europe, as to be the

only system taught in them till the revival of letters. The number of epitomes of it and commentaries upon it has been very great; and it has gone through a variety of editions, as well in the original Arabic as in Latin translations. Several smaller works of Avicenna have also been made public; as, "A Treatise on the Heart and its Faculties ;""Canticum, or a Compendium of the Medical Art" in verse; a book on Regimen ;" another "on Acetous Syrups;" another "on Animals," &c. Pope Sixtus IV. ordered the works of this physician and philosopher to be printed, in the original Arabic, at Rome, in 1489. A Latin translation of them, by Gerard of Cremona and others, was published in folio, at Venice, in 1595, and 1658; and Vopiscus Fortunatus published a new translation, with notes by va rious authors, in folio, at Louvain, in 1658. Massa Vit. Avicen. apud op. Venet. 1658. Leo African. c. 7. Pococke, Specim. Hist. Arab. p. 362. Herbelot, p. 812. N. Anton. Bib. Vet. Hisp. t. ii. p. 6. D'Herbelot, Bibl. Orient. Fabricii Bib. Græc. lib. xiii. c. 9. Brucker. Moreri. Freind's Hist. of Phys. Haller, Bibl. Med. Pract.-E.

AVIENUS, RUFUS FESTUS, a Latin poet, lived towards the close of the fourth century, under the emperors Gratian and Theodosius. The works attributed to him are translations in Latin verse of the "Phænomena of Aratus,' and the "Periegesis of Dionysius;" a description in iambic verse" of the Maritime Coasts; Esop's Fables" in elegiac verse; "the Allegory of the Sirens;" the "History of Livy" in iambics (a strange task, mentioned by Servius on the Æneid); and the "Fables of Virgil,” in the same kind of verse; besides a few other short pieces. Some of the former of these performances are remaining, and show him to have been a tolerable versifier. His fables have not the elegant simplicity of Phædrus, nor are very fit for the perusal of youth. His works were edited in a corrected form by Pithæus in Paris, 12mo. 1590. The best edition is that of Cannegetier, 8vo. 1731. Scarcely any thing is known of the author's history, and even his name is disputed, some MSS. calling him Anianus and Abidnus. Vossius de Poët. Lat. Lilius Gyrald. Harwood, Class.-A.

AVILA, GILLES GONZALES, a Spanish ecclesiastic and historian, flourished the beginning of the 17th century. He was a native of the city of Avila, from which he derived his

name.

He studied at Rome, and acquired a great knowledge of sacred and civil history. On his return to Spain, he was appointed to an