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CESSAR AUGUSTUS. 167say more or lest than was proper. He delivered himselfin a sweet and peculiar tono, in which he was diligently instruetid by a master. But when he had a colit, he so me- times made use of a crier sor the delivery of his speechesto the peOple. LXXXV. Ηe composed a great many pieces, an dupon vario us su edis, in prose, some of which he read Occasionalty at a meeting of friends as to an auditory ; ashis se Answers to Brutus in regales to Cato.' ' Those volumes he read almosi quite through himself; but beingthen advanced in years, and fatigued with the exercise, he gave the rest to Tiberius to rcad for him. He like-wise read over to his friends his Exhortations to Philo
continued in thirteen books, as far as the war of Cantabria, but no farther. He lihewise made s me attempis at poe-
try. There is extant one book written by him in hexameter verse, of which both the subject and titte is Sicily. There is enother book of Epigrams likewise, as sinali as the preceding, which he composed almost entirely in thetime of bathing. These are ali his compositions in the poetical depariment: for though he had begun with great ea gernest a Tragedy, yci the style of it not pleasing him, he cancelled ille whole ; and his friends saying to hina,M What is your Rax a doing λV he answered, My Maae has fallen upon a spunge. LXXXVI. He had a neat chaste style, uia talia ted with
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casion some litile obscvl ty, but give a grace to the style. The aukward imitators of others, and such as affected obsolete words, he equalty despised, as saulty in a disserent manner. He spmetimes indulged hims is in jesting, particularly with his friend Mec senas, whom he rallied uponali occasions for his M persu med locks,' ' and bantered by imitating the manner of his expression. Nor did he sparo Tiberius, who was land of obsolete and antiquated words. Ite attachs Μ. Antony as a madman, writing rather tomahe men stare, ilian to be understo od : and by way of sarcasm upon his depraved and fickle tas e in the choice of words, he writes to him thus : And arc you yet indoubi, whether Cimber Annius or Veranius Flaccus bemore proper sor your imitation λ as to mahe use of words whicli Sallustius Crispus has borrowed from thos Origines' of Cato ξ or do you thinh ibat the verboso empty bombast of Asiatic orators is fit to be transfused
the ingenuity us his grand-daughter Agrippina, he says, But you must be particularly caresul, bqth in writingand speakire, to avoid assectation.' 'LXXXVII. In ordinary conversation, he mpde use of
expressions peculiar to himself, as appears from severat letters in his own hand-writing: in whicli, now and then, when he means to intimate that me persons would
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C MSAR AUGUSTUS. 169He constantly puis baceolus for stultus, pullellaceus for pul- Ius, vacerrosis for ceritur, vapide se habere for male, andriti sare for languere, whicli is commonly called lachani sare. Lihewise smus sor fumus, rimos for domus in thegenitive singular. With respect to the last two peculiarities, test any person should imagine that they mere onlysips of his pen, and not customary with him, he nevervaries. Ι have likewisse rem rhed this singularity in has
hand-writing: he never divides his words, as to Carrythe letters whicli cannot be inserted at the end of a line to the nexi, hut puis them below the other, enclosed with a semicircle.
LXXXVIII. He did not adhere stri Etly to orthographyas la id down by the grammarians, but stems to have been of the opinion of those, who thinh that we ought to writens we speah : for as to his changing and omitting not oesyletters but whole syllabies, it is a vulgar mistahe. Norinould I have taken notice of it, but that it appears strangeto me, any person mould have told us, that he sent a succes r to a Consular lieuienant of a province, as an ignorant illiterate fellom, upon his observing that he had written ixi for ipsi. When he had a mind to write in the way of cypher, he' put b for ti, o for b, and se fortit; and instead of Σ, aa. LXXXIX. He was no lese fond of Grecian literature,in which he made considerable proficiency; having forthis purposse had the assistance of Apollodorus of Perga
instructed in philology bu Sphaeriis, he took into his familJ Areus the philosoplier, and his sons Dionysius and
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Nicanor; but he never could speah the Greela longue readily, nor ever ventu red to compose in it. For is there was occasion sor him to deli ver his sentiments in that language, he always expressed what he had to say in Latin, and gave it another to transiate. He was evident- 'ly not unacquainted with the poetry of the Greelis, and had a great lasse ser ancient comedy, which he ostenbrought upon the stage, in his public enteria inments of the people. In reading the Greek and Latin authors, hepaid particular attention to precepis and examples, whichmight be usesul in public or private lise. Those he usedio transcribe verbatim, and send either to his domestics, or to lacti as had the command of his armies, or the go- verninent of his provinces, or to the magistrates of thecity ; as any of them seemed to stand in need os admonition. He likewise read whole books to the Senate, and made them known to the peopte by proclamation; as theorations of Metellus for the Encouragement of Μatrimony,V and those of Rutilius about a Method ofBhailding to fhew the peopte that he was not the first: who had prosecuted those objects, but that the ancients likewise had thought them m orthy their attention. Hev as a great encourager of me of paris and learning. Hewould hear them read their works with a great deal of patience and good nature; and not only pieces of poetryand history, but speeches and dialogues likewise. Howas displeased however that any thing should be written apon himself, excepi in a grave manner, and by men of the most eminent abilities: and he erioined the Praetorsnot to suffer his naine to he made too common in the conte sis amongst orators and poets for victory. XC. With respect to his observation os omens or thelike, me have the folloming account of him. He had so
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Camp was tahen, and his Couch, upon a supposition ofhis being in ii, was pierced in severat paris, and Cut topi es. He had many frivolous silly dreams during thespring ; but in the other paris of the year, his dreams were lesi frequent, and more significative. Upon his frequently
visiting a temple in the Capitol, which he had dedicatedio Thundering Jove, he dreanat that Iupiter Capitolinus
complained that his wormippers were talien stom him. and that upon this he replied, he had only given him the Thunderer sor his porter. He theres ore immediatelyhung the celling of the temple round with litile belis; be cause lacti commonly hung at the gales of great hous es.
Upon occasion os a di eam too, he alwayS, On a certa in
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XCIII. With regare to the religious ceremontes offoreign nations, he was a strict observer of such as hadbeen estabili hed by ancient custom; but others he held in no esleem. For having been initiated at Athens, and be-ing aster ards to hear a cause at Rome, relative to tho
hand, he not only declined, in his progress through Egypti calling to visit Apis, but he likewise commended his grandson Caius for not paying his devotions at Jerusalem in his passage by Judea. XCIV. Since we are upon this subiecto, it may not beimproper to subjoin an account of the omens, before andat his birth, as weli as afterwards, that gave liopes of his future grande ur, and the good fortune that constantly attended hi m. A part of the town-wali at Velitrae havingin former times been struch with thunder, the othsayers gave their opinion upon it, that a native of that placuwould me time or other be master of the Roman stater in confidence of whicli prediction, the Velitrini, both ii mediately, and at severat times aster, made war with the Roman people, untii they brought them lues iapon thebrink of destruction. At last it appeared by the event, that that omen had portended the rise of Augus us. Julius Marathus informs us, that a few monilis besore his
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mere pregnant, to secure to thenaseives a prospect of that dignity, took care that the resolution of the Senate smould not be registered in the treasury. Ι find in the theological books of Asclepiades the Mendesian, that Atia, uponattending at naidnight a religious solemnity in honor of Apollo, when the rest of the matrons retired home, tooka nap in her chair in the temple, and that a serpent immedia tely crept to her, and soon after Withdrew. Sheawaking upon it, purified herself, as usual aster the em-braces of her liusta nil ; and instantly there appeared uponher hody a marh in the forin os a serpent, whicli stene ver aster could efface, and whicli obliged her, duxingste subsequent part of her lise, to decline the use of the public ballis. Augustus, it is added, was born in thetentii monili aster, and for that rea n was thought to bethe son of Apollo. The fame Atia, be re her deli very, dreami that her boweis stretched to the stars, and eX- panded through the whole circuit of heaven and earth. His fallier Octavius likewise dreami that a sun-beamissiled froni his vii se's womb. Upon the day he Wasborn, the Senate being employed upon the conssiderationos Catiline's conspiracy, and Octavius, tapon aCcount of his wis 's condition, coming late into the liouse, it is ameli known sedi, that Publius Nigidius, upon hearing the occasion of his coming so late, and the liour of hismi 's delivery, declared that the world had got a master. Asterwards, when Octavius, upon marching with his ar-my through the wilds of Thrace, according to the usage of the country, consulted the oracle of sather Bacchusabo ut his son, he received froin the priests an answer totbe fame purpola ; because When vaey poured wine uponthe altar, there burst out so prodigious a flame, that itastended above the roof of the temple, and reached up to the heavens, a circumstance which had never happenedio
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CAESAR AUGUSTU s. 77sto any one but Alexander the Great, upon his sacrificingat the fame altars. And neYt night he dreanat he la
his son under a more than human appearance, With thunder and a sceptre, and the other habili metits of Jupiter, having on his head a crown ornamented With rayS, m Ount- .
dered the frogs that happened to make a trouble me nolse, upon an estate belonging to the family near thelown, to be silent; and there goes a lepori that frogs never croahed there since that time. As he vetas dining in a grove about Mur miles stom Rome on the ro ad toCampania, an eagle suddenly snalched a plece of bi eadout of his hand, and Bying to a prodigious height withit, came unexpectedly down again by an easse motion, and returned it to him. Catulus, for two nighis sit cessively aster his dedication of the Capitol, had a dream. The first night he dreami that Jupiter, out os severat boysthat were playing about his altar, selected one into whose bolam he put the public stat of the commonwealth, whieli he had in his hand; but in his vision the neglnight, he saw in the bo in os Iupiter Capitolinus, thes ameloy, whom he ordered to be taken down, but uvas sorbid by the God, on account of his being educated for the preservation of the commonwealth. And the Xt day, meeting with Augustus, whom illi that bour he had not the least knowledge os, looking athim With admiration, he Aid he was extremely liketbe boy that he had dreami of Some give a diia
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serent account of Catulus's first dream, as is Iupiter, tiponseverat boys requesting of hi in that they might have a
gustus, who had been sent sor by his uncte Caesar to thesacrifice, and was as yet persed ly unknown to the rest of the company, he assirmed that was the very boy he hadseen in his di eam. When he assumed the manly habit, his Senatori an tunic becoming loose in the seam On eachside, fell at his feet. Some would have this to forebode, that the Order, of whicli that was a mark of distinction, would sonae time or other be subject to him. Iulius
nests of wild pigeons whicli bulli in it, though that species of bird particularly avolds a hard and rough leas. It is likemisse reported, that Caesar was chiefly influenced by this prodigy, to preser his sister's grand n before ali otherssor his successor. In his retirement at Apollonia, he went With his friend Agrippa, to wait upon Theogenes theastrologer. Anil Agrippa, who first des1red to know his fortune, heing assured that it would be almost incredibiygreat, he did not chuse to discover his nativity, and per-