154
BUILDINGS OF AUGUSTUS.
The Forum formerly called forum Nervae has been recognised
even by Palladio, and among the moderns, by Hirt as the Forum
Augustum ; although the wall around it is constructed in so
ancient a style that some persons have foolishly imagined that
it was executed in the time of the kings. This grand and
antique style continued down to the reign of the emperor Clau-
dius, after which the only example of it is the Colosseum. Augus-
tus himself built the Mausoleum, the innermost part of which
still exists and is in fact indestructible. Agrippa built the gate
of S. Lorenzo, the Pantheon, and, in the ancient grand Graeco-
Etruscan style which had long since disappeared in Greece,
the theatre of Marcellus, on the site of which stands the Palazzo
Savelli in which I lived for many years.1 All the buildings
that are called Augustan on the Palatine are very doubtful,
and at least cannot be proved to be works of the Augustan
age. The temple of Apollo has completely disappeared. Au-
gustus was the first who used the marble of Carrara in building.
In his reign a great many roads also were made both in Italy
and in the provinces, as well as aqueducts, among which that
in the neighbourhood of Narni is still to be seen ; it is built
upon arches, and of very excellent bricks, of a different kind
from those which we use. All these architectural works were
carried on and all this splendour displayed without oppressing
the people; for the Romans, as I have already remarked, paid
only some indirect taxes, and thus their city was embellished
without any cost to them. We cannot therefore wonder at the
extraordinary popularity of Augustus during the last years of
his reign, especially if we further consider that the people
looked forward with dark apprehensions to the time when
Tiberius was to have the reins of government. Horace’s words
Divis orte bonis came from the heart, and the people sincerely
prayed that Augustus might be spared.
All that now remains to be related about the reign of Au-
gustus is the history of the wars which were carried on against
foreign enemies. The first, which occurred during the interval
between the peace of Brundusium and the battle of Actium,
was the war against the Dalmatians. In this campaign, Au-
gustus displayed more activity than in any other of his military
undertakings. He himself was wounded,—for the first time in
1 See the description of it in Niebuhr’s Letters in the Lebensnachrichten, vol.
ii. p. 284, foil., and p. 311, foil.
WAK AGAINST THE CANTABRI AND ASTURES. 155
his life. Tlie Dalmatians, whose country offers great difficulties
to an invader, had their power on the coast severely shaken in
this war.
Not long after the battle of Actium, the war against the
Cantabri and Astures began. The country which these nations
inhabited nearly corresponds to the district in the north of
Spain which maintained its independence against the Moors,
that is, Biscay, Asturias, the northern part of Gallicia, and the
country about Leon. The inhabitants of those parts did not
yet recognise the supremacy of Rome, and Augustus had set
himself the task of extending the empire as far as the ocean,
the Rhine, and the Danube, which he considered to be its
natural boundaries. In the first year of the war he was de-
tained in Gaul, partly by illness and partly by his engagements
in regulating the affairs of the province. In Tarragona he was
again taken ill, and the campaign was thereby delayed. The
particulars of the war are not known3, but in the third year the
Cantabri and Astures were subdued, and were obliged to give
hostages.’ It is asserted by the Biscayans, that there still
exist in Biscay ancient poems upon this war of Augustus, and
William von Hurnboldt possesses a copy of them. I can, of
course, judge of it only from his translation4; but I cannot
adopt his opinion as to the genuineness of those poems; my
conviction is that they are not more genuine than the poems
of Ossian. In the earliest poetry of the Germans we find no
allusions to the Romans; and how should traditions about such
a war, which was by no means important to them, have been
preserved among the Cantabri ? The wars with the Moors
were of far more importance to the inhabitants of those
countries, and yet no poetical traditions about them have been
preserved. At the time when AVittekind of Corvey wrote, the
remembrance of the wars with the Romans had become
2 Appian seems to have grown tired at the end of his book on the affairs of
Spain. Heinentions this war of Augustus only in general terms; but the real
cause of his hurrying thus over these events seems to have been that he did not
find any Greek authorities. Augustus himself must have given an account of
the war in his Memoirs, for he too dabbled in literature ; but his Memoirs must
have been of little value, for they are scarcely ever referred to. He also tried
his hand at poetry, but so far as we can judge from his letters, we may believe
that he was a very bad author, and that all bis productions were worthless and
tasteless.—N.
' Dion Cassius, liii. 25, Iiv. 11; Sueton. Aug. 20, foil.
4 Adelung’s Mithridates, vol.iv. p.351, foil.