Augustus | Page 9

public life, his two sons, Caius and Lucius, while he was
invested with the highest office in the state. In his five consulships
from the sixth to the eleventh, he continued in office throughout the
year; but in the rest, during only nine, six, four, or three months, and in
his second no more than a few hours. For having sat for a short time in
the morning, upon the calends of January [1st January], in his curule
chair [143], before the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, he abdicated the
office, and substituted another in his room. Nor did he enter upon them
all at Rome, but upon the fourth in Asia, the fifth in the Isle of Samos,
and the eighth and ninth at Tarragona. [144]
XXVII. During ten years he acted as one of the triumvirate for settling
the commonwealth, in which office he for some time opposed his

colleagues in their design of a proscription; but after it was begun, he
prosecuted it with more determined rigour than either of them. For
whilst they were often prevailed upon, by the interest and intercession
of friends, to shew mercy, he alone strongly insisted that no one should
be spared, and even proscribed Caius Toranius [145], his guardian; who
had (90) been formerly the colleague of his father Octavius in the
aedileship. Junius Saturnius adds this farther account of him: that when,
after the proscription was over, Marcus Lepidus made an apology in the
senate for their past proceedings, and gave them hopes of a more mild
administration for the future, because they had now sufficiently crushed
their enemies; he, on the other hand, declared that the only limit he had
fixed to the proscription was, that he should be free to act as he pleased.
Afterwards, however, repenting of his severity, he advanced T. Vinius
Philopoemen to the equestrian rank, for having concealed his patron at
the time he was proscribed. In this same office he incurred great odium
upon many accounts. For as he was one day making an harangue,
observing among the soldiers Pinarius, a Roman knight, admit some
private citizens, and engaged in taking notes, he ordered him to be
stabbed before his eyes, as a busy-body and a spy upon him. He so
terrified with his menaces Tedius Afer, the consul elect [146], for
having reflected upon some action of his, that he threw himself from a
great height, and died on the spot. And when Quintus Gallius, the
praetor, came to compliment him with a double tablet under his cloak,
suspecting that it was a sword he had concealed, and yet not venturing
to make a search, lest it should be found to be something else, he
caused him to be dragged from his tribunal by centurions and soldiers,
and tortured like a slave: and although he made no confession, ordered
him to be put to death, after he had, with his own hands, plucked out
his eyes. His own account of the matter, however, is, that Quintus
Gallius sought a private conference with him, for the purpose of
assassinating him; that he therefore put him in prison, but afterwards
released him, and banished him the city; when he perished either in a
storm at sea, or by falling into the hands of robbers.
He accepted of the tribunitian power for life, but more than once chose
a colleague in that office for two lustra [147] successively. He also had
the supervision of morality and observance of the laws, for life, but
without the title of censor; yet he thrice (91) took a census of the people,

the first and third time with a colleague, but the second by himself.
XXVIII. He twice entertained thoughts of restoring the republic [148];
first, immediately after he had crushed Antony, remembering that he
had often charged him with being the obstacle to its restoration. The
second time was in consequence of a long illness, when he sent for the
magistrates and the senate to his own house, and delivered them a
particular account of the state of the empire. But reflecting at the same
time that it would be both hazardous to himself to return to the
condition of a private person, and might be dangerous to the public to
have the government placed again under the control of the people, he
resolved to keep it in his own hands, whether with the better event or
intention, is hard to say. His good intentions he often affirmed in
private discourse, and also published an edict, in which it was declared
in the following terms: "May it be permitted me to have the happiness
of establishing the commonwealth on a safe and sound basis, and thus
enjoy the reward of which I am ambitious, that of being celebrated for
moulding