Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng3
92.1
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Caesar, who was the first to bear the title of Augustus, was only a youth when he made formal demand upon Antony for the million pounds
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which
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had belonged to the first Caesar, who had been assassinated, and which Antony had transferred from Caesar’s house to his own keeping; for Augustus wished to pay to the citizens of Rome the sum which had been left to them by Caesar, three pounds
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to each man. But when Antony held fast to the money, and also suggested to Augustus that, if he had any sense, he had better forget about his demand, Augustus announced an auction of his ancestral property and sold it; and by paying the bequest he fostered popularity for himself and hatred for Antony on the part of the citizens.
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Rhoemetalces, king of the Thracians, who had changed his alliance from Antony to Augustus, could not practise moderation when there was any drinking going on, and gave much offence by his disparaging remarks about his new alliance, whereat Augustus, as he drank to one of the other kings, said,
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I like treachery, but I cannot say anything good of traitors.
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After the capture of Alexandria, the people of the city were expecting to be treated with the most frightful severity, but when he had mounted the tribune and had directed Areius of Alexandria to take a place beside him, he declared that he spared the city, first because of its greatness and beauty, secondly because of its founder, Alexander, and thirdly because of Areius his own friend.
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When it was told him that Eros, procurator in Egypt, had bought a quail which had defeated all others in fighting and was the undisputed champion, and that Eros had roasted this quail and eaten it, the emperor sent for him and examined him regarding the charge; and when the man admitted the fact, the emperor ordered him to be nailed to a ship’s mast.
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In Sicily he appointed Areius procurator in place of Theodorus; and when someone handed him a paper on which was written, Theodorus of Tarsus is a bald-pate or a thief; what opinion have you ? Caesar, having read it, wrote underneath, It is my opinion.
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From Maecenas, his bosom-friend, he used to receive each year on his birthday a drinking-cup as a birthday present.
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Athenodorus,
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the philosopher, because of his advanced years begged to be dismissed and allowed to go home, and Augustus granted his request. But when Athenodorus, as he was taking leave of him, said,
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Whenever you get angry, Caesar, do not say or do anything before repeating to yourself the twenty-four letters of the alphabet,
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Augustus seized his hand and said,
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I still have need of your presence here,
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and detained him a whole year, saying,
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—ldquo;No risk attends the meed that silence brings. Cf. Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Graec. iii. p. 417, Simonides, no. 66; or Edmonds, Lyra Graeca (in L.C.L.), ii. p. 322. —rdquo;
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He learned that Alexander, having completed nearly all his conquests by the time he was thirtytwo years old, was at an utter loss to know what he should do during the rest of his life, whereat Augustus expressed his surprise that Alexander did not regard it as a greater task to set in order the empire which he had won than to win it.
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After promulgating the law about adulterers,
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in which it was specified how the accused were to be tried, and how the convicted were to be punished, he later, under stress of anger, fell upon a young man whose name had been linked in gossip with his daughter Julia, and struck him with his fists; but when the young man cried out,
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You have made a law, Caesar,
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such a revulsion of feeling came over him that he refused food the rest of the day.
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When he dispatched Gaius his daughter’s son
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into Armenia, he besought the gods that the popularity of Pompey, the daring of Alexander, and his own good luck might attend the young man.
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He said that he would leave to the Romans as his successor on the throne a man who never had deliberated twice about the same thing, meaning Tiberius.
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When he was trying to quiet the young men in high station who were in an uproar, and they paid no heed, but continued with their uproar, he said,
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Do you young men listen to an old man, to whom old men listened when he was young.
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When, as it appeared, the Athenian people had committed some offence, he wrote from Aegina that he supposed they could not be unaware that he was angry; otherwise he would not have spent the whole winter in Aegina. But he neither said nor did anything else to them.
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92.14
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One of the accusers of Eurycles
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was unsparing
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and tiresome with his frank utterances, and went so far as to say,
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If these things, Caesar, do not seem to you to be of high importance, order him to repeat for me the seventh The fourth book (which tells of Brasidas), as the books are now numbered, would be in point: but we know that anciently the history of Thucydides was divided into thirteen books (and into nine books) as well as into eight books. book of Thucydides
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; and Augustus, much incensed, ordered the man away to prison, but, on learning that he was the sole survivor of Brasidas’s descendants, he sent for him, and, after reproving him moderately, ordered that he be released.
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When Piso
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built his house with great care from the foundation to the roof-tree, Augustus said,
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You make my heart glad by building thus, as if Rome is to be eternal.