Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

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 [*](Plutarch in his Life of Antony, chap. xv. (922 C), says 4000 talents, which would be the same as 24,000,000 drachmae (or denarii), a little less than the amount given here. Velleius Paterculus, ii. 60, says sestertium septiens miliens (= 700,000,000 sesterces), or about 6,000,000 pounds!) which

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, I like treachery, but I cannot say anything good of traitors. [*](Plutarch repeats this aphorism in his Life of Romulus, chap. xvii. (28 A). Stobaeus, liv. 63, quotes Philip of Macedon as the author of a similar remark.)

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.[*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Antony, chap. lxxx. (953 A); Dio Cassius, li. 16; Julian, Letters, No. 51 (ad Alexandrinos); Suetonius, Augustus, 89.)

When it was told him that Eros, procurator in Egypt, had bought a quail which had defeated all

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.

From Maecenas, his bosom-friend, he used to receive each year on his birthday a drinking-cup as a birthday present.

Athenodorus, [*](A Stoic philosopher from Tarsus. Dio Cassius, lvi. 43, relates a story about his practical instruction. He was later allowed to return home (Strabo, xiv. 5. 14. p. 674).) 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, Whenever you get angry, Caesar, do not say or do anything before repeating to yourself the twenty-four letters of the alphabet, Augustus seized his hand and said, I still have need of your presence here, and detained him a whole year, saying,

—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;

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.

After promulgating the law about adulterers, [*](Lex Iulia de adulteriis et de pudicitia. Cf. Horace, Odes, iv. 5. 21; Dio Cassius, liv. 16.) 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, You have made a law, Caesar, such a revulsion of feeling came over him that he refused food the rest of the day.

When he dispatched Gaius his daughter’s son [*](C. Caesar, son of M. Agrippa and Julia.) 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. [*](Cf. Moralia, 319 D.)

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.

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, Do you young men listen to an old man, to whom old men listened when he was young. [*](Cf. Moralia, 785 D.)

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.[*](Cf. Dio Cassius, liv. 7, who says, however, that Augustus spent the winter (21 B.C.) in Samos.)

One of the accusers of Eurycles [*](Presumably the Eurycles who pursued Cleopatra’s ship (on board which was the Antony) at Actium; Cf. Plutarch. Life of Antony, chap. lxvii. (947 A).) was unsparing

When Piso [*](Probably Cn. Calpurnius Piso, consul 7 B.C., but it may have been his father, of the same name, or L. Calpurnius Piso.) built his house with great care from the foundation to the roof-tree, Augustus said, You make my heart glad by building thus, as if Rome is to be eternal.