torious, and became sole ruler of
the whole Roman world. Antony soon afterward ended his life by suicide;
and Cleopatra, learning of his death and believing that Augustus
intended carrying her in chains to Rome, also killed herself, so that
Augustus triumphed only over her dead body, which he found awaiting him.
Antony's son by Fulvia, and Caesarion, son of Caesar and Cleopatra, were
put to death; and in 29 B.C., after regulating affairs in Egypt, Greece,
Syria, and Asia Minor, Augustus returned to Rome in triumph, and,
closing the temple of Janus, proclaimed universal peace.

[Illustration: Augustus Caesar and Cleopatra.]

His subsequent measures were mild and prudent. To insure popular favor,
he abolished the laws of the triumvirate, and reformed many abuses.
Hitherto, since Caesar's death, he had been named Octavian; but now the
title of Augustus ("sacred" or "consecrated") was conferred on him. In
his eleventh consulship (23 B.C.), the tribunician power was granted him
for life by the senate. Republican names and forms still remained, but
they were mere shadows; and Augustus, in all but name, was absolute
monarch. In 21 B.C., on the death of Lepidus, he had the high title of
Pontifex Maximus bestowed on him. The nation surrendered to him all the
power and honor that it had to give.

After a course of victories in Asia, Spain, Pannonia, Dalmatia, Gaul,
etc., Augustus (9 B.C.) suffered the one crushing defeat of his long
rule, in the person of Quintilius Varus, whose army was annihilated by
the Germans under Hermann. The loss so afflicted Augustus that for some
time he allowed his beard and hair to grow, as a sign of deep mourning,
and often exclaimed, "O Varus, Varus, give me back my legions!"
Thenceforth he confined himself to plans of domestic improvements and
reform, and so beautified Rome that it was said, "Augustus found the
city built of brick, and left it built of marble." He also built cities
in several parts of the empire; and altars were raised by the grateful
people to commemorate his beneficence; while by a decree of the senate
the name Augustus was given to the month Sextilis.

Though thus surrounded with honor and prosperity, Augustus was not free
from domestic trouble. The abandoned conduct of his daughter Julia was
the cause of sore vexation to him. He had no son, and his nephew
Marcellus, and Caius and Lucius, his daughter's sons, whom he had
appointed as his successors and heirs, as well as his f