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Antony also writes that Scribonia was divorced sor having said alitile too much when 'a rival' got her claws into Augustus; and thathis friends used to bellave like Toranius, the flav dealer, in arrangi ghis pleasures sor him - they would strip mothers offamilies, or gro giris, of their clothes and inspect them a s though they were up sorsale. A racy letter of Antony's furvives, written besore he ind
. Augustus had quarressed privately or publicly:
7o. Then there Was Augustus's private banquet, known as 'TheFeast of the Divine Twelve', whicli caused a public scandal. Theguesis came dressed as gods or goddesses, Augustus himself represent-ing Apollo: and our authori ty for this is not only a spite i letter of Antony's, whicli names ali the twelve, but the following well-known
anonymous lampoon: Those rogues engaged the services of a stage manager
What made the scandal even worse was that the banquet took placeat a time of Od shortage: and on the nexi day people were stio uting 'The Gods have gobbled ali the gratat' or 'Caesar is Apollo, true - btit
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statue :Ι do not take my sether's line: His trade was silver cola, but mine . Corinthi an vaSOS
uae belles being that he enlarged the proscription lisis with names of
7Ι. Augustus eastly disproved the accusation sor stander, is you ille) of prostituting his body to men, by the decent normality of his se lise, then and later: and that os haVing over-luxurious iastes by th his conduci at the capture of AleXandria, where the oesy loot he tooksrom the Palace of the Ptolemies Was a single agate Cup - he mel teddown ali the goiden dinner services. However, the charge of being awomaniger stuck, and as an elderly man he is sald to have stili ha boured a passion for deflowering giris - who were collected for him stom eVery quarter, even by his wis et Augustus did not miud beingcalled a gambier: he diced openly, in his old age, too, simply becauselle ei oyed the game - not oesy in December, When the licence of the Saturnalia justified ii, but on other holidays, too, and actualla onworking days. That this is quite true a letter in his own hand writing
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And another letter runs My dear Tiberius, me spent the sive-day festival of Minerva very pleasantly keeping the gaining table warm by playing ali day long Your brother Drusus made
Enclosed please find two and a halfgold pieces in silver coin: whicli is the sum I give cach of my dinner guesis in case they feel like dicing or playing 'odd and even' at table. 72. Augustus's other personat habits are generalty agreed to have been ineXceptionable. His first Eouse, once the properin os Calvus the orator, stood close to the Roman Forum at the top of the Ring- mahers' Stairs: thcnce he moved to what had been Hortensius's houseon the Palatine Hili. Oddly enough, his new palace was neither largernor more elegant than the first; the couris being supported by squalcolumns os peperino stone, and the livi roonas innocent of marbleor elaborately tessellated floors. There he siept in the fame bedroom allthe year round for over forty years; although the winter climate os Rome did not fuit his health. Whenever he wanted to be alone and free of interruptions, he could retreat to a study at the top of the liouse, which he called 'Syracuse' - perhaps because Archimedes of Syracuse had a similar one - or 'my littie workshop'. He would hide himselfaway either here or else in a suburban villa owned by one of his fleedmen: but, is he feli ili, always took refuge in Maecenas's mansion. He spent his holidays at seaside resoris, or on sonae istand offitie Cam
Palestrina, or Tivoli - where he osten administered justice in thecolor ades of Hercules's Temple. Such was his distike of ali large pretentious country houses that he went so far as to demolisti one
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buiti by his grand-daughter Julia on too lavisti a scale. His own were modest enough and less remarkable for their statuary and pictures than for their landscape gardening and the rare antiques on display: for example, at Capri he had collected the liuge sheletons os extinctsea and land monsters popularly known as 'Gianis' Bones'; and the
strict attention to sociat precedence and personat character. Valerius Messala writes that the sole occasion on whicli Augustus ever inviteda secedman to dine was when he honoured Menas for delisering Sextus Pompey's fleet into his power: and even then Menas was firstenroped on the Est os fre born citigens. However, Augustus himselfrecords that he once invited an ex-member of his bodyguard, theseeedman whose villa he used as a retreat. At such dinner parties hewould somelimes arrive late and leave early, letting his guesis stariand finish without him. The meat usualla consisted of three courses,
the value of his gi sis. They might consist of ricli clothing and gold orsilver plate; or every fori os coci, including specimens Dom the days
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of the early monarchy, and foret gii pieces: or meret y lengilis of goa hair cloth, or sponges, or pokers, or longs - all gi ven in retum fortokens inscribed with misi eading descriptions of the objecis
and again: My dear Tiberius, Not even a Jew fasis so scrupulousty on his sabbatiis,' as I have doneto day. Not untd dush had fallen did I touch a thing: and that was atthe ballis. bessire I had my oil rub, when I swallowed two mouthfulsos bread. This fassure to observe regular mealtimes osten resulted in his dining alone, either besere or after his guesis: but he came to the diuing halliaeverthel ess and walched them eat. 77. Augustus was also a habitualty abstemious drinher. During the siege of Mutina, according to Cornelius Nepos, he never took
I. EXamples are given in Petronius's Satyricon 37. Cenatoria et forensia things for di ing: things for the Forum'-were not, as might have been su posed, evening dress and formal city wear; but a joint of meat and a set ofwriting tableis. a. Augustus is confusing the sabbaths, when the Jews ate particularly well, with the annual Day of Aionement.
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delayed his progress and the bearers set the litter do . 79. Augustus Was remarhably handsome and of very gracestes gait even as an old man; but negligent of his personat appearance. He cared so hille about his bair that, to save time, he would have two or three barbers working hurri edly on it together, and meanwhile read orwrite something, whether they mere gruing iam a baircui or a shave.
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sons - a constellation os seven birthmarri on his chest and stomach,
and a too vigorous use of the scraper at the ballis. He had a wea essin his test hip, thigh, and leg, whicli occasionalty gave laim the suspicion of a limp: but this was improved by the sand-anGreed trea ment. Sometimes the fore inger of his right hand would be sonumbed by cold that it hardly served to guide a pen, even whenstrengthened with a long horn finge stati. He also suffered Dombi adder palas whicli, however, ceased to troubie him once he had passed gravet in his urine.
8 I. Augustus furvived severat darigerous illaesses at disserent periods. The worst was aster his Cantabrian conquest, when abscesseson the liver reduced his to such despair that he consented to try a remedy whicli ran comter to si medicat practice: because bot fomentations afforded him no relies his physician Antonius Musa success-fusy prescribed cold ones. He was also subject to certain Seasonaldisorders: in early spring a tightness of the diaphragna: and when thesilaocco blew, catarrh. These so weahened his constitution that eitherhoi or cold weather caused him great distress. 82. In winter he wore no sewer than four tunics and a heavywoollen gown above his understitit: and below that a woollen chestprotector: also underpanis and woollen gesters. In summer he si epiwith the bedroom door open, or in the cour ard beside a fountari. having sonaeone to fan him: and could not bear the rays even of the winter sura, but always wore a broad-brimmed hat to protect himselfagainst glare, whether in the Palam grounds or essewhere. He pre
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and bringers of bad luch. 84. Even in his boyhood Augustus had studi ed rhetoric with greateagemess and industry, and during the Mutina campaigia, busythough he was, is sald to have read, written, and declaimed daily. Hehept up his interest by caresulla drasting every address intended fordei ivery to the Senate, tiae popular Asse ly, or the troops; thoughgisted with quite a talent for extempore speeta. What is more, he 'avoided the embarrassment of forgetting his mords, or the drudge of memoriging them, by gways reading from a manuscript. Allimportant statemenis made to individuals, and even to his wise Livia, were first committed to nolebooks and then repeated aloud; he was lia ted by a fear of saying et ster too much or too litile is he spokeoE-hand. His articulation of wores, constantly practised under an
8S. Augustus wrote numerous prose moris on a variety of subjecta,
story oesy up to the time of the Cantabrian War. He made occasiones attempis at Verse composition; including Sici*, a stiori poem in
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hexameters, and an equassy shori collection ofEpigrauis, most of them composed at the Baths. Both these books furvive; but growing dis-
sitions as m or in be re the names of cities, where common usageomits them, and why he osten repeated the fame conjunction severat times where a single appearance would have been less awkward, i more confusing. He expressed contempt for both innovators and archaigers, as equat ly miscLievous, and would attach them with great
violence: especialty his dear friend Maecenas, whose 'myrrh-disti singringleis' he parodied mercilessty. Even Tiberius, who had a habit os introducing obsolete and difficuli phrases into his speeches, did not escape Augustus's ridicule, and Antony was for his a madman whowrote fas though he wanted to be wondered at rather than undem stood'. He made fun of Antony's bad laste and inconsistent literarystyle: 'Your use of antique diction borrowed by Sallust from Cato's Origins suggesis that you are in two minds about imitating Annius Cimber or Veranius Flaccus. But at ollier times it looks as though youwere trying to acclimatige in Latin the nonsensicalities of those ga rutous Asiatic orators.' And to a letter praising the intelligeiace of his grand-daughter Agrippina, he adds: 'But please take great care toavoid affectation in writing or ta ing. '87. Augustus's everyday language must have contained many whimsical expressions of his own coinage, to judge froni autographletters. Thus, he osten wrote 'they will pay on the Greek Kalends': whicli meant 'never' - because the rechoning by Kalends is a purely Roman conVention. Another of his favourite remarks was: 'Let us besatisfied with this Cato l' - meaning that one should mahe the mostos contemporary circumstances, however poorly they might compare with the past. He also had a favourite metaphor for swift and suddenactions: 'Quicher than boiled asparagus.' Here is a list os unusual synonyms whicli constantly applar in Augustus's letters
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the colloquial forni lachanizare. Among his grammatical peculiarities occur the forms simus for sumus we are), and domos for domus homes , to which he invariably clungas a sign that they were his considered choice. I have noticed oneparticular habit of his: rather than breah a long word at the end of aline and carry forward to the neXt whatever letters were test over, he would write these underneath the first part of the word and drawa loop to connect them with it. 88. Instead of pay g a strict regard to orthography, as formulated by the grammarians, he inclined towards phonetic spei ling. Os course, most writers make suci, stips as transposing or omitting wholesyllabies, as weli as single letters; so I should not have mentioned that Augustus osten did the fame but for surprise on finding, in morethan one book of memoirs, the story that he once retired a proconsulargovernor for being il educated enough to write ixi for ipsi the samemen). When Augustus wrote in cypher he simply substituted thenexi letter of the alphabet for the one required, excepi that he wrote AA for X. 89. He had ambitions to be as proficient in Greek as in Latin, and did very weli under the tutoriuψ of Apollodorus os Pergamum, Who accompanted his to Apollonia, though a very old man, and taughthim elocution. Asterwards Augustus spent some time milli Areus thephilosopher, and his sons Dionysus and Nicanor, who broadmed his generat education; but never learned to speah Greek with reat suency, and never Ventured on any Greia literary composition. Indeed, is heever had occasion to Use the language he would write down whateverit might be in Latii1 and get someone to make a translation. Yet ΠΟ-body could describe him as ignorant of Grea poetry, because hegreatly enjoyed the so-cassed 'Old Comedy', and osten put plays of that period on the stage. His clites interest in the literature of both languages Was the discovery of morat precepis, with sultable anec- dotes attached, capable os public or private application: and he would transcribe passages of this sori for the attention of his generals or lprovincial governors, whenever he thought it necessary. He even read