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Title: Dio's Rome, Vol. III An Historical Narrative Originally Composed In Greek During The Reigns Of Septimius Severus, Geta And Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus And Alexander Severus

Author: Cassius Dio

Release Date: November 21, 2003 [EBook #10162]

Language: English

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DIO'S ROME

AN HISTORICAL NARRATIVE ORIGINALLY COMPOSED IN GREEK DURING THE REIGNS OF SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS, GETA AND CARACALLA, MACRINUS, ELAGABALUS AND ALEXANDER SEVERUS:

AND

NOW PRESENTED IN ENGLISH FORM

BY

  HERBERT BALDWIN FOSTER, A.B. (Harvard), Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins), Acting
  Professor of Greek in Lehigh University

THIRD VOLUME Extant Books 45-51 (B.C. 44-29).

1906

VOLUME CONTENTS

Book Forty-five

Book Forty-six

Book Forty-seven

Book Forty-eight

Book Forty-nine

Book Fifty

Book Fifty-one

DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY

45

VOL. 3.—1

The following is contained in the Forty-fifth of Dio's Rome:

About Gaius Octavius, who afterward was named Augustus (chapters 1-9).

About Sextus, the son of Pompey (chapter 10).

How Caesar and Antony entered upon a period of hostility (chapters 11-17).

How Cicero delivered a public harangue against Antony (chapters 18-47).

Duration of time, the remainder of the year of the 5th dictatorship of C. Iulius Caesar with M. Aemilius Lepidus, Master of the Horse, and of his 5th consulship with Marcus Antonius. (B.C. 44 = a. u. 710.)[1]

(BOOK 45, BOSSEVAIN.)

[B.C. 44 (a. u.710)]

[-1-] This was Antony's course of procedure.—Gaius Octavius Copia,—this was the name of the son of Caesar's niece, Attia,—came from Velitrae in the Volscian country, and having been left without a protector by the death of his father Octavius he was brought up in the house of his mother and her husband, Lucius Philippus, but on attaining maturity spent his time with Caesar. The latter, who was childless, based great hopes upon him and was devoted to him, intending to leave him as successor to his name, authority, and supremacy. He was influenced largely by Attia's explicit affirmation that the youth had been engendered by Apollo. While sleeping once in his temple, she said, she thought she had intercourse with a serpent, and through this circumstance at the end of the allotted time bore a son. Before he came to the light of day she saw in a dream her womb lifted to the heavens and spreading out over all the earth; and the same night Octavius thought the sun rose from her vagina. Hardly had the child been born when Nigidius Figulus, a senator, straightway prophesied for him sole command of the realm. [2]

He could distinguish most accurately of his contemporaries the order of the firmament and the mutations of the stars, what they accomplished by separation and what by conjunctions, in their associations and retirements, and for this reason had incurred the charge of practicing some kind of forbidden pursuits. He accordingly met on that occasion Octavius, who was somewhat tardy in reaching the senate on account of the birth of the child,—there happened to be a meeting of the senate that day,—and asked him why he was late. On learning the cause he cried out: "You have begotten a master over us." [3] At that Octavius was alarmed and wished to destroy the infant, but Nigidius restrained him, saying that it was impossible for it to suffer any such fate. [-2-] This was the conversation at that time. While the boy was growing up in the country an eagle snatched from his hands a loaf of bread, and after soaring aloft flew down and gave it back to him.[4] When he was a lad and staying in Rome Cicero dreamed that the boy was let down by golden chains to the summit of the Capitol and received a whip from Jupiter.[5] He did not know who the youth was, but meeting him the next day on the Capitol itself he recognized him, and told the vision to the bystanders. Catulus, who had likewise never seen Octavius, beheld in a vision all the noble children on the Capitol at the termination of a solemn procession to Jupiter, and in the course of the ceremony the god cast what looked like an image of Rome into that child's lap. Startled at this he went up into the Capitol to offer prayers to the god, and finding there Octavius, who had ascended the hill for some other reason, he compared his appearance with the dream and was satisfied of the truth of the vision. When later he had become a young man and was about to reach maturity, he was putting on the dress of an adult when his tunic was rent on both sides from his shoulders and fell to his feet. This event of itself not only had no significance as forecasting any good fortune, but displeased the spectators considerably because it had happened in his first putting on the garb of a man: it occurred to Octavius to say: "I shall put the whole senatorial dignity beneath my feet"; and the outcome proved in accordance with his words. Caesar founded great hopes upon him as a result of this, introduced him into the class of patricians and trained him for rulership. In everything that is proper to come to the notice of one destined to control so great a power well and worthily he educated him with care. The youth was trained in oratorical speeches, not only in the Latin but in this language [Greek], labored persistently in military campaigns, and received minute instruction in politics and the science of government.

[-3-] Now this Octavius chanced at the time that Caesar was murdered to be in Apollonia near the Ionic Gulf, pursuing his education. He had been sent thither in advance to look after his patron's intended campaign against the Parthians. When he learned of the event he was naturally grieved, but did not dare at once to take any radical measures. He had not yet heard that he had been made Caesar's son or heir, and moreover the first news he received was to the effect that the people were of one mind in the affair. When, however, he had crossed to Brundusium and had been informed about the will and the people's second thought, he made no delay, particularly because he had considerable money and numerous soldiers who had been sent on under his charge, but he immediately assumed the name of Caesar, succeeded to his estate, and began to busy himself with the situation. [-4-] At the time he seemed to some to have acted recklessly and daringly in this, but later as a result of his good fortune and the successes he achieved he acquired a reputation for bravery. In many instances in history men who were wrong in undertaking some project have been famed for wisdom because they proved fortunate in it: others who used