166
DEATH OE AUGUSTUS.
Beneventum. He had latterly been in the habit of spending
the summer in Capreae, in the bay of Naples, the most mag-
nificent country in the world, in order to recover from his
troubles and cares; and in that mild climate he preserved his
life. Here he was taken ill, and died soon after at Nola, whi-
ther he had been carried, on the 19th of August, 765, fourteen
years after the birth of our Saviour. Tacitus5 says that many
thought it a wonderful coincidence that he died on the same
day of the year on which he had forced himself into his first
consulship; and many speculations were made about his having
obtained as many consulships as Marius and Valerius Corvus;
but it is foolish to dwell upon such things. He died as secure
in the possession of his dominion, as if he had been born on the
throne, and gave the succession and his ring to Tiberius, who
was already invested with tribunician power. No sensible man
could doubt that he would take the reigns of government into
his hands. I shall hereafter have occasion to mention the farce
which Tiberius played on that occasion.
The body of Augustus was buried with the most extraor-
dinary honours. The decuriones of the municipium of Nola
carried it on their shoulders as far as Bovillae, where it was
taken up by the Roman équités, and conveyed to the city.
The funeral orations upon him were delivered in the rostra
vetera and nova near the curia Julia by Tiberius and his son
Drusus; whence afterwards all Suchspeechesandproclamations
of emperors were made from the rostra nova.
Augustus had at one time formed the plan of subduing
Britain ; but he afterwards gave it up. The extent of the
Roman empire at the death of Augustus was as follows:—the
frontier of the empire was in some parts beyond the Rhine, for
Holland and a great portion of the country of the Frisians were
under the dominion of Rome. With these exceptions, however,
the Rhine up to the lake of Constance formed the boundary.
The frontier then ran along the Danube as far as lower Moesia,
in which the Romans were not yet masters of the banks of that
river, which was often passed and re-passed by the Sarmatians ;
the frontier was further south, so that Tomi (Kustenji), where
Ovid lived in exile, was not, properly speaking, within the
boundaries of the empire. I believe that the Vallum Trajanum
6 Annal, i. 9 ; multus hinc ipso de Augusto sermot plerisque vana mirantibus,
quod idem dies quondam accepti imperii princeps, et vitae supremus.
EXTENT AND FORCES OF THE EMPIRE.
167
(along the ancient branch of the Danube, the salt water near
Рейсе), which bears a name for which there is not the least
authority, was probably made in the time of Augustus, that is,
during the last campaign in those regions. The Sarmatians
traversed the country to the north of it, without encountering
any resistance. In the time of Trajan, even Moldavia and
Wallachia, nay, the country as far as the Dniester, were under
the dominion of Home. The kingdom of Cappadocia in Asia
Minor was a dependency of Pome. Armenia was in a sort of
alliance, but likewise recognised the majesty of the Eoman
people. The Parthians had put off a great deal of their ancient
pride; a number of Parthians lived at Eome as hostages, and
Phraates had returned the Eoman standards of the legions,
which had been taken in the war with Crassus — an event men-
tioned by Virgil and Horace. It is not a very great exaggera-
tion, therefore, to say that the Eoman dominion extended as
far as India, though in reality the Euphrates formed the eastern
boundary of the empire. Syria, Egypt, Cyrene, Libya, Africa,
and Numidia, with its capital Cirta, were Eoman provinces.
The kingdom of Numidia had been overthrown by Caesar; the
learned Juba had received from Augustus, as a compensation,
the western part of Algiers and Morocco, and the kingdom of
Bocchus. The dominion of Eome extended as far as Fezzan. It
would have been easy to extend it even into the countries about
the Niger; and it is not impossible that, at times, those coun-
tries may have recognised the supremacy of Eome, at least by
embassies and tribute, though we know nothing about the
matter, except that there was a road for caravans leading to
Fezzan and Cydamus. Garama in Fezzan7 was inhabited by
the Garamantes; and Eoman ruins and inscriptions have lately
been found there by the learned traveller, Ouscley. In the
time of Augustus, we also find mention of a successful expe-
dition against the Blemmyes in Dongola, and of another to
Yemen, on the coast of Arabia, under Aelius Gallus,which how-
ever was a complete failure. The number of Eoman citizens
had been very much increased in the western provinces, and it
was from these countries that the legions were raised.
The forces of the empire consisted of forty-seven legions, and
a proportionate number of cohorts. The legions were not levied
in Italy, except in cases of great necessity, the army being more
7 In D’Anville’s map there is a Inistakchere.—Ni