HE IS DESERTED BY PLANCUS AND TITIUS. 287 X. husband, in order to gratify the jealousy of his bar- CHAP. barian paramour. From to 722, to 32. L. Plancus and M. This feeling, indeed, was not confined to the U.C. 709 Romans of the capital; even the officers of Antonius A.C. 45 were disgusted at the evident influence which Cleo- He is depatra exercised over him, and against which their serted by wisest counsels were sure to be offered ineffectually. Titius. They might conjecture, too, from the infatuation of their general, the probable result of the war; and thus L. Plancus 340, who had formerly made so many professions of fidelity to the old constitution, and had afterwards joined the Triumvirs, and procured from them the murder of his own brother as one of the rewards of his treason, now deserted the cause of Antonius. Accompanied by his nephew, M. Titius, the author of the death of Sex. Pompeius 41, he hastened to Rome to transfer his services to Augustus. Plancus and Titius had been deeply trusted by Antonius, and they now betrayed to his enemy every secret of which they were in possession. Amongst They bethe rest they intimated to him the contents of the contents of will of Antonius, which they had themselves attested, Augustus, and informed him in whose care it was deposited. lishes them Augustus immediately got this document into his senate and power 342 and with shameless baseness broke open the seals, and read the contents of it publicly, first to the senate, and afterwards to the assembly of the people. The clause in it which especially induced 340 Dion Cassius, I. 420. Plutarch, in Antonio, 58. 341 Velleius Paterculus, II. 83. Plu Suetonius, 342 Dion Cassius, 420. tray the his will to who pub before the people. 288 HIS WILL PUBLISHED TO THE SENATE. From X. U.C. 709 to 722, A.C. 45 to 32. CHAP. Augustus to commit this act, was one in which Antonius desired that his body might, after his death, be carried to Alexandria, and there buried by the side of Cleopatra. This proof of his romantic passion for a foreigner, seemed in the eyes of the Romans to attest his utter degeneracy, and induced the populace at least to credit the inventions of his enemies, who asserted that it was his intention, if victorious in the approaching contest, to give up Rome to the dominion of Cleopatra, and to transfer the seat of empire from the banks of the Tiber to those of the Nile. It is clear, from the language of those poets who wrote under the patronage of Augustus 343, that this was the light in which the war was industriously represented; that every effort was made to give it the character of a contest with a foreign enemy, and to array on the side of Augustus the national pride and jealousy of the people of Rome. Nor were these arts unsuccessful; insomuch, that the infamy of stealing and divulging the contents of a will was forgotten in the indignation felt by the Romans at 313" Antehac nefas depromere Cæcubum Funus et imperio parabat, Morbo virorum."-Horace, Carm. I. ode 37. “Hinc Augustus agens Italos in prælia Cæsar, * * * * * * Omnigenumque Deûm monstra, et latrator Anubis WAR DECLARED AGAINST CLEOPATRA. 289 X. to 722, to 32. the preference shown by Antonius to Egypt, rather CHAP. than to his own country; and it is said that the From senate, as soon as they had heard the will read, de- U.C. 709 creed that Antonius should be deprived of the con- A.C. 45 sulship to which he was to have succeeded in the following year 344, and of all his other authority as an officer of the Roman Commonwealth. His adherents moreover were encouraged to desert him by promises of indemnity and honours. of war Cleopatra. At the same time war was declared against Cleo- Declaration patra, and Augustus discharged the office of fecialis against or herald, in going through all the usual ceremonies in denouncing it. But for a contest of this magnitude, immense resources were requisite; and accordingly Augustus imposed an income tax of twentyfive per cent. on all the free citizens who possessed any land in Italy 345, and a tax upon capital at the rate of 127. 10s. per cent. on all freedmen who were worth fifty thousand denarii, or about 16147. The inequality of these burdens was greatly resented by the freedmen, and numerous disturbances were the consequence, insomuch that it was supposed that the appearance of Antonius in Italy at that moment would have ensured him a complete victory over his rival. But whether Antonius was not sufficiently advanced in his preparations to risk such an attempt, or whether there was any failure of enterprise on his part, it is certain that Augustus was suffered to crush the discontents of Italy without any interrup 344 Dion Cassius, I. 421. 3.45 Dion Cassius, I. 424. Plutarch, in Antonio, 58. VOL. II. U From X. U.C. 709 to 722, A.C. 45 to 32. 290 WAR DECLARED AGAINST CLEOPATRA. CHAP. tion. His fleet was assembled in the neighbourhood of Brundusium 316, and threatened the opposite coast of Epirus, about the autumn of the year 722; and Antonius judging it too late in the season to commence any active operations, fell back from Corcyra, to which place he had advanced in the hope of carrying the war into Italy before his adversary was ready to meet him, and passed the winter at Patræ, on the north-western coast of Peloponnesus. And thus having brought the two parties to the eve of the decisive struggle, we shall here pause in our narrative; and referring our readers to the history of Egypt 347 for the details of the Actian war, we shall hereafter resume the story of Augustus at the period when his ambition was fully gratified, and he was become the sole sovereign of the Roman empire. CHAPTER XI. CAIUS OCTAVIUS CÆSAR AUGUSTUS.-A VIEW OF THE HISTORY OF ROME. A.C. 32 TO A.D. 13. FROM U.C. 722 TO U.c. 766, From XI. A.D. 13. If we were to judge of God's moral government CHAP. exclusively from the various earthly fortune of good and bad men, there are few instances of successful U.C. 722 to 766, wickedness which would more disturb our faith than A.C. 32 to that of the long and peaceful reign of Augustus Cæsar. Other usurpers have enjoyed till their death their ill-gotten power, but it has been beset by fears and anxieties; and the severity of their government has betrayed their consciousness of the real feelings with which they were regarded, and has proved that they could truly anticipate the sentence which afterages would pass upon their memory. But Augustus reigned amidst the grateful obedience of his people; and the flattery with which his own court resounded, has been echoed by successive generations, till he has been habitually ranked amongst the best and greatest of sovereigns; and the period of his dominion has been considered synonymous with the highest state of civilization and public prosperity. Yet the man thus eulogized had shown himself |