Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 3, Athens-BOI

AUG
AUGUSTOVO, a city in Russian Poland, in the govern¬
ment of Snvalki, situated on.the river Netta, near a lake,
which abounds in fish. It was founded in 1557 by
Sigismund II. (Augustus), and is laid out in a very regular
manner, with a large market-place. It carries on a large
trade in cattle and horses, and manufactures linen and
huckaback. Population, 9383.
AUGUSTUS and the Augustan Age. The name of
Augustus was the title of honour given by the Romans
to the emperor Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus, or, as he
was originally designated, Caius Octavius. This title
was intended to be hereditary in his family, but all the
succeeding Caesars or emperors of Rome continued to adopt
it, long after they had ceased to be connected with the
first Augustus by blood. The era of Augustus formed an
illustrious epoch in Roman history, and was distinguished
for its splendid attainments in arts and arms, and more
especially in literature. The Romans in later times looked
back to the age of Augustus with great complacency, as
the most prosperous and the most distinguished in their
annals. The name of the “Augustan Age” has been
specially applied to it in modern times, and the same title
has been given, with more or less justice, to certain epochs
in modern history as the highest compliment to their glory.
The reign of Louis XIV. is called the Augustan age of
Prance; the reign of Anne, the Augustan age of England,
il Caius Octavius was the son of a noble Roman of the same
of name, of the plebeian order. The father had married
us' Atia, the daughter of Julia, sister to the great C. Julius
Caesar, who was accordingly great-uncle to the young
Octavius. Caesar, the dictator, having no son of his own,
took an interest in this youth, caused him to be enrolled
among the Patricians, and bred him with a view to the
highest honours of the republic. Already, in his eighteenth
year, he had chosen him for his “ master of the horse,” but
this was a merely nominal distinction. The young man
was sent to carry on his education at the camp at Apollonia
in Illyricum, and there, at the age of nineteen, he heard of
his great kinsman’s assassination (44 B.c.) He had already
become a favourite with the soldiers, who offered to escort
him to Rome, and follow his fortunes. But this he declined,
and crossed over alone to Italy. On landing he learnt that
Caesar had made him his heir and adopted him into the
Julian gens, whereby he acquired the designation of C.
Julius Caesar Octavianus. The inheritance was a perilous
one; his mother and others would have dissuaded him from
accepting it, but he, confident in his abilities, declared at
once that he would undertake its obligations, and discharge
the sums bequeathed by the dictator to the Roman people.
M. Antonius had possessed himself of Caesar’s papers and
effects, and made light of his young nephew’s pretensions.
The liberators paid him little regard, and dispersed to their
respective provinces. Cicero, much charmed at the attitude
of Antonius, hoped to make use of him, and flattered him
to the utmost, with the expectation, however, of getting rid
of him as soon as he had served his purpose. Octavianus
conducted himself with consummate adroitness, making
use of all competitors for power, but assisting none. Con¬
siderable forces attached themselves to him. The senate,
when it armed the consuls against Antonius, called upon
him for assistance ; and he took part in the campaign in
which Antonius was defeated at Mutina, but both the con¬
suls, Hirtius and Pansa, slain. The soldiers of Octavianus
demanded the consulship for him, and the senate, though
now much alarmed, could not prevent his election. He
now effected a junction with Antonius, who quickly over¬
threw the power of the republican party in their stronghold,
the Cisalpine provinces, with the death of Decimus Brutus,
the ablest of the liberators. Thereupon Octavianus and
Antonius, taking Lepidns into union with them, met on
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the river Rhenus near Bononia, and proclaimed themselves
a triumvirate for the reconstitution of the commonwealth.
They divided the western provinces among them, the east
being held for the republic by M. Brutus and Cassius.
They drew up a list of proscribed citizens, entered Rome
together, and caused the assassination of three hundred
senators and two thousand knights. They further con¬
fiscated the territories of many cities throughout Italy, and
divided them among their soldiers. Cicero was murdered
at the demand of Antonius. The remnant of the republican
party took refuge either with Brutus and Cassius in the
East, or with Sextus Pompeius, who had made himself
master of the seas.
Octavianus and Antonius crossed the Adriatic in 42
B.c. to reduce the last defenders of the republic. Brutus
and Cassius were defeated, and fell at the battle of Philippi.
War soon broke out between the victors, the chief incident
of which was the siege and capture by famine of Perusia,
and the alleged sacrifice of three hundred of its defenders
by the young Caesar at the altar of his uncle. But peace
was again made between them. Antonius married Octavia,
his rival’s sister, and took for himself the eastern half of
the empire, leaving the west to Caesar. Lepidus was
reduced to the single province of Africa. Meanwhile Sextus
Pompeius made himself formidable by cutting off the
supplies of grain from Rome. The triumvirs were obliged
to concede to him the islands in the western Mediterranean.
But Octavianus could not allow the capital to be kept in
alarm for its daily sustenance. He picked a quarrel with
Sextus, and when his colleagues failed to support him,
undertook to attack him alone. Antonius, indeed, came
at last to his aid, in return for military assistance in the
campaign he meditated in the East. But Octavianus was
well served by the commander of his fleet, M. Yipsanius
Agrippa. Sextus was completely routed, and driven into
Asia, where he perished soon afterwards. Lepidus was an
object of contempt to all parties, and Octavianus and
Antonius remained to fight for supreme power.
The alliance of Antonius with Cleopatra, queen of Egypt,
alienated the Romans from him. They now gladly
accepted the heir of Caesar as the true successor of the
most illustrious of their heroes. It was felt almost uni¬
versally that the empire required a single head, and that
repose could only be assured by the sovereignty of the chief
of its armies. The battle of Actium, followed by the
death of Antonius, 31 B.c., raised the victor to universal
empire. Nevertheless, Octavianus did not hasten to assume
his position. He first regulated the affairs of Egypt, which
he annexed to the Roman dominions, then lingered for a
time in Greece, and entered upon a fifth consulship at
Samos, 29 b.c. On his return to Rome he distributed the
vast sums he had accumulated among the people and the
soldiers, while he soothed the pride of the nobles by
maintaining unchanged the outward show of republican
government. Of his personal history from this period
there remains little to be said. He continued to reside
almost constantly at Rome and in the neighbourhood,
making one expedition into Spain, 27 b.c., and a journey
through Greece in 21, on which occasion he advanced into
Syria, and received back the standards taken by the
Parthians from Crassus. In 16 B.c. he went to Gaul to
regulate the affairs of that province, an expedition which
he repeated, 9 b.c. But from thenceforth he intrusted the
defence of the position to his lieutenants, and more
especially to the young princes of his own family. The
empire continued to enjoy profound internal tranquillity.
More than one plot was formed against the head of the
state by some of the discontented nobility, but these were
discovered and disconcerted; and when it was evident that
they met with no favour from the people generally, he