few incidents respecting Augustus, and those toward the
latter part of his life; and, after that, of giving a history of the
reign of Tiberius and the rest; uninfluenced by resentment and
partiality, as I stand aloof from the causes of them.

When, after the fall of Brutus and Cassius, there remained none to
fight for the commonwealth; when Sextus Pompeius was utterly defeated
at Sicily; and Lepidus being deprived of his command, and Mark Antony
slain, there remained no leader even to the Julian party but Octavius;
having put off the name of triumvir, styling himself Consul, and
pretending that all he aimed at was the jurisdiction attached to the
tribuneship for the protection of the commons; when he had cajoled the
soldiery by donations, the people by distribution of corn, and men in
general by the charms of peace, he (Octavius) began by gradations to
exalt himself over them; to draw to himself the functions of the
senate and of the magistrate, and the framing of the laws; in which
he was thwarted by no man: the boldest spirits having fallen in some
or other of the regular battles, or by proscription; and the surviving
nobility being distinguished by wealth and public honors, according to
the measure of their promptness to bondage; and as these innovations
had been the cause of aggrandizement to them, preferring the present
state of things with safety to the revival of ancient liberty with
personal peril. Neither were the provinces averse to that condition of
affairs; since they mistrusted the government of the senate and
people, on account of the contentions among the great and the avarice
of the magistrates: while the protection of the laws was enfeebled and
borne down by violence, intrigue, and bribery.

Moreover, Augustus, as supports to his domination, raised his sister's
son, Claudius Marcellus,[103] a mere youth, to the dignity of pontiff
and curule aedile; aggrandized by two successive consulships Marcus
Agrippa,[104] a man meanly born, but an accomplished soldier, and the
companion of his victories; and soon, on the death of Marcellus, chose
him for his son-in-law. The sons of his wife, Tiberius Nero and
Claudius Drusus, he dignified with the title of Imperator, tho there
had been no diminution in the members of his house. For into the
family of the Caesars he had already adopted Lucius and Caius, the sons
of Agrippa; and tho they had not yet laid aside the puerile garment,
vehement had been his ambition to s