BOOK VII

1. In about the seven hundred and ninth year of the city, after Caesar had been slain, the civil wars resumed; for the Senate favored the assassins of Caesar, while Antony, the consul and a member of Caesar’s faction, was attempting to crush them in a civil war. Therefore, since the republic was now in turmoil, Antony, who was committing many offenses, was judged an enemy by the Senate. The two consuls, Pansa and Hirtius, and Octavian (a young man of eighteen, the nephew of Caesar whom he had left as heir in his will and ordered to bear his name) were sent to pursue him. This is the man who, afterwards, was called Augustus and took over the government. These three generals set out and defeated Antony. However, it came about that both victorious consuls died; therefore, the three armies came under the authority of Caesar Augustus alone.

2. After being defeated and losing his army, Antony fled and was given refuge by Lepidus, who had been Caesar's master of horse and was in possession of strong forces at this time. Soon, through the efforts of Lepidus, Caesar made peace with Antony and set out with the army for Rome as though he was going to avenge the death of his father (who had adopted him in his will). He forcibly obtained the consulship at twenty years of age. He proscribed the Senate, and with Antony and Lepidus, began to rule the republic by arms. Through the agency of these men, Cicero the orator was slain, as well as many other nobles.

3. Meanwhile, Brutus and Cassius, the assassins of Caesar, started a great war, for there were many armies throughout Macedonia and the East that they had seized. Therefore, Caesar Octavian Augustus and Mark Antony set out against them while Lepidus remained to defend Italy. They fought against them near Philippi, a city of Macedonia. In the first battle, Antony and Caesar were defeated, however, Cassius, the leader of the nobility, perished. In the second battle, they defeated and killed Brutus and a vast number of the nobility who had waged war with him. Thus, the republic was divided between them, with Augustus taking Spain, Gaul, and Italy, and Antony taking Asia, Pontus, and the East; but in Italy, Lucius Antony, the consul and brother of Antony who fought with Caesar against Brutus and Cassius, sparked a civil war. He was defeated and captured near Perusia, a city of Tuscia, but was not slain.

4. In the meantime, Sextus Pompey, the son of Cnaeus Pompey the Great, incited a serious war in Sicily after the survivors from the faction of Brutus and Cassius joined him. Caesar Augustus Octavian and Mark Antony waged war against him. At last, peace was agreed upon.

5. During this time, Marcus Agrippa managed affairs successfully in Lusitania, and Lucius Ventidius Bassus defeated the Persians in three battles while they were invading Syria. He killed Pacorus, son of King Orodes of Persia, on the very same day on which Orodes had once killed Crassus through the agency of his general Surena. He was the first to celebrate a legitimate triumph over the Parthians in Rome.

6. Meanwhile, Pompey disrupted the peace and was defeated in a naval battle. He was slain while fleeing to Asia. Antony, who possessed Asia and the East, divorced the sister of Caesar Augustus Octavian and married Queen Cleopatra of Egypt. He also fought against the Persians. He defeated them in the first few battles, however, as he was returning, he struggled with hunger and pestilence, and since the Parthians were pressing him as he retreated, he fled as though he had been defeated.

7. Antony also started a major civil war, compelled by his wife Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt who longed with womanly desire to reign in the city as well. He was defeated in a famous and renowned naval battle near Actium, located in Epirus. He fled from there to Egypt, and perceiving his situation as hopeless since all his men were switching allegiance to Augustus, he took his own life. Cleopatra held an asp to herself and perished from its venom. Through Augustus, Egypt was added to the Roman Empire, and Caius Cornelius Gallus was placed in charge of it. This man was the first Roman judge Egypt had.

8. Thus, with all the civil wars completed throughout the world, Octavian Augustus returned to Rome in the twelfth year after he had been made consul. From this time on, he ruled the state alone for forty-four years. Earlier, he had ruled for twelve years with Antony and Lepidus. Thus, his reign spanned fifty-six years from beginning to end. He died of natural causes in his seventy-sixth year at Atella, a town of Campania. He was buried in Rome in the Campus Martius. He was a man who, for the most part, and not undeservedly, was considered to be similar to a god; for hardly anyone was more fortunate than him in war or more moderate in peace. In the forty-four years in which he alone held power, he was very affable, extremely generous to everyone, and most faithful to his friends, whom he elevated with such high honors that they almost equaled his lofty station.

9. At no time before him did the Roman state flourish more. With the exception of the civil wars, in which he was unconquered, he added to the Roman Empire: Egypt, Cantabria, Dalmatia (which had often been defeated but was completely subjugated at this time), Pannonia, Aquitania, Illyricum, Raetia, the Vindelici and Salassi in the Alps, and all the maritime cities of Pontus, the most noble of which were Bosporus and Panticapaeum. He defeated the Dacians in battle as well. He slaughtered large numbers of Germans and drove them beyond the river Elbe, which is in barbarian territory far beyond the Rhine. He conducted this war through his step-son Drusus and employed his other step-son, Tiberius, in the Pannonian war, in which he relocated forty thousand captives from Germany to Gaul above the bank of the Rhine. He recovered Armenia from the Parthians. The Persians gave him hostages, which they had given to no one before. The Persians also returned the Roman standards that they had taken from Crassus after they had defeated him.

10. The Scythians and Indians, to whom the name of the Romans was unknown before, sent gifts and ambassadors to him. Galatia was made a province under him as well, when earlier it had been a kingdom, and Marcus Lollius, as propraetor, was the first to govern it. Augustus was so highly regarded, even among the barbarians, that kings friendly to the Roman people founded cities in his honor, naming them “Caesarea,” as was done by King Juba in Mauritania, and also in Palestine, which is now a very famous city. Moreover, many kings came from their kingdoms in order to submit to him, and in Roman dress, toga clad of course, they would run beside his wagon or horse. He was proclaimed divine while dying. He left a most prosperous state to his successor, Tiberius, who was first his step-son, then his son-in-law, and finally his son through adoption.

11. Tiberius managed the empire with great indolence, severe cruelty, wicked greed, and disgraceful lust. He himself never fought but managed wars through delegates. After summoning certain kings through flattery, he never allowed them to return home; among the number of whom was Archelaus, the Cappadocian, whose kingdom he reduced to a province. He ordered its greatest city, which is now called Caesarea but formerly was Mazaca, to be named after himself. To the great joy of everyone, he died in Campania in the twenty-third year of his reign, at the age of seventy-eight.

12. Caius Caesar, surnamed Caligula, the grandson of Augustus’ stepson Drusus and of Tiberius himself, succeeded him. A most vile and murderous man, he eclipsed even the memory of Tiberius’ crimes. He undertook a war against the Germans and then did little after entering Suebia. He committed incest with his sisters and even acknowledged a daughter born from one of them. While he was terrorizing everyone with extreme avarice, lust, and cruelty, he was slain in the palace at twenty-nine years of age, in the third year, tenth month, and eighth day of his reign.

13. After him followed Claudius, the paternal uncle of Caligula and the son of Drusus (who has a monument at Mogontiacum and who was also Caligula’s grandfather). This man ruled unexceptionally, doing many things in a calm and self-controlled manner while acting cruelly and absurdly at other times. He invaded Britain, where no Roman had gone to after Caius Julius Caesar, and after conquering it through the efforts of Cnaeus Sentius and Aulus Plautius, illustrious and noble men, he celebrated a famous triumph. He also added certain islands, located in the ocean beyond Britain and called the Orcades, to the Roman Empire, and gave his son the name “Britannicus.” Moreover, he acted so courteously around certain friends that he even accompanied the noble man Plautius, who had excellent accomplishments in the British expedition, during his triumph and walked on his left as he ascended the Capitol. He lived for sixty-four years and ruled for fourteen. After his death, he was consecrated and deified.

14. Nero, of similar character to his maternal uncle Caligula, succeeded Claudius and dishonored and diminished the Roman Empire. He lived in extraordinary luxury and extravagance, and following the example of Caius Caligula, he would bathe in hot and cold perfumes and fish with golden nets woven from purple strings. He had a large part of the Senate put to death and was an enemy to all good men. Until the end, he engaged in such disgraceful conduct that he would dance about and sing on stage in the dress of one who sings to the cithara or of a tragic actor. He murdered many of his relatives, putting to death his brother, wife, and mother. He burned the city of Rome in order that he might behold a similar spectacle to captured Troy burning long ago. He dared nothing in warfare and almost lost Britain, for two of its noblest towns were captured and demolished under him. The Parthians took Armenia and sent the Roman legions there under the yoke. Nevertheless, two provinces were formed under him: Pontus Polemoniacus, after King Polemon conceded it to him, and the Cottian Alps, upon the death of King Cottius.

15. Through these acts, he became utterly detested by the Roman world. He was abandoned by everyone simultaneously and declared an enemy by the Senate. When he was sought for punishment (which was that he would be beaten to death by rods while being dragged naked through the streets with a fork shaped prop placed under his head and thrown headfirst off of the Tarpeian rock), he fled from the palace to the suburban villa of one of his freedmen, located between the Via Salaria and Via Nomentana at the fourth milestone from the city, and took his own life. He built the baths in Rome that were formerly called the Neronian but are now the Alexandrian. He died at thirty-two years of age, in the fourteenth year of his reign, and with him, the family of Augustus died out.

16. Servius Galba, a senator from an ancient noble family, succeeded him at seventy-three years of age. He was chosen emperor by the Spaniards and Gauls, and soon after, was accepted by the entire army, for his private life was distinguished by military and civil accomplishments. He was often consul, and proconsul, and frequently a general in major wars. His reign was brief and had a good beginning, except that he seemed too prone towards severity. He was slain by the treachery of Otho in the seventh month of his reign, in the forum in Rome, and was buried in his gardens along the Via Aurelia, not far from the city of Rome.

17. After Galba was murdered, Otho seized power. The maternal side of his family was nobler than the paternal, however, neither was obscure. He was of mild disposition in private life and close to Nero. No example of his reign can be shown, for around the same time Otho killed Galba, Vitellius was selected emperor by the armies in Germany. After undertaking a war against him, Otho lost a minor battle near Betriacum in Italy, and although he still had powerful forces for war, he committed suicide. When his soldiers pleaded that he not despair so quickly concerning the outcome of the war, he stated that he himself was not so important that a civil war should be started over him. He took his own life at thirty-eight years of age, in the ninety-fifth day of his reign.

18. Vitellius took over the government next. He was from a family more honored than noble, for his father was not of very distinguished birth but had nevertheless served three regular consulships. He ruled quite disgracefully. He was known for great savagery, and especially, gluttony and voraciousness, as he is reported to have often feasted four or five times a day. Indeed, the memory of a famous dinner that his brother served for him has been passed down, where in addition to other delicacies, two thousand fish and seven thousand birds were reported to have been served. When he began attempting to emulate Nero, and thus did it so openly that he even honored Nero’s humbly interred remains, he was slain by the generals of Vespasian, whose brother, Sabinus, Vitellius had previously killed in the city and burned with the Capitol. Vitellius was slain in utter disgrace. He was dragged nude in public through the streets with his head raised by the hair and a sword placed under his chin, then pelted with dung in the face and chest by everyone along the way, and finally, his throat was cut and he was thrown into the Tiber, lacking even a common burial. He died at the age of fifty-seven, on the eighth month and first day of his reign.

19. Vespasian succeeded him after being declared emperor in Palestine. He was a leader of obscure birth, but one that is to be compared with the best. He was illustrious in private life, having been sent by Claudius into Germany and then Britain, fighting thirty-two times with the enemy and adding two powerful nations, twenty towns, and the Isle of Wight, off the coast of Britain, to the Roman Empire. He ruled at Rome with great temperance. Only of money was he a bit too eager, which he took from no one unjustly and which he collected with foresight and diligence. Moreover, he gave most eagerly, especially to the indigent. It is not easy to find another chief before him whose generosity was greater or more just. He was so lenient that even those who plotted against him were rarely punished beyond the punishment of exile. Under him, Judea and Jerusalem, the noblest city of Palestine, were added to the Roman Empire. He reduced to the status of a province Achaia, Lycia, Rhodes, Byzantium, and Samos, all of which had been free before this time, and likewise, Thrace, Cilicia, and Commagene, which had been governed under friendly kings.

20. He was forgetful of affronts and enmities. He bore lightly invectives hurled against him by lawyers and philosophers, however, he was a diligent enforcer of military discipline. He celebrated a triumph with his son Titus over Jerusalem. When, because of these actions, he became beloved and delightful to the Senate, people, and eventually everyone, he died of diarrhea at his villa in the Sabine country, at sixty-nine years of age, in the ninth year and seventh day of his reign, and was enrolled among the gods. He had so much faith in the horoscope of his sons that, although many conspiracies were made against him, which he showed his contempt for by ignoring, he said in the Senate that either his sons would succeed him or nobody would.

21. His son Titus, who was also called Vespasian, succeeded him. He was a man so admirable in every type of virtue that he was said to be the darling and delight of the human race. He was highly eloquent, fond of war, and self-controlled. He pleaded cases in Latin and composed poems and tragedies in Greek. In the assault on Jerusalem, serving under his father, he pierced twelve defenders of the city with the blows of twelve arrows. He ruled at Rome with such great civility that he punished no one at all and released those convicted of conspiracies against him while retaining the same level of friendship with them as before. He was so affable and generous that he would not refuse anything to anyone, and when he was reproached for this by his friends, he replied that nobody should leave the emperor disappointed. It has been recorded as well that once, when he had not offered anything to anyone on a certain day, he said at dinner, “My friends, I have wasted this day.” He built an amphitheater [the Colosseum] in Rome and had five thousand wild beasts killed in its dedication.

22. Esteemed to an extraordinary degree for these reasons, he died from sickness at forty-two years of age, in the same villa as his father, two years, eight months, and twenty days after he had been made emperor. There was such great public sorrow that everyone grieved as if he was their own. Upon the announcement of his passing around evening, the Senate rushed into the house of the Senate that night and heaped upon him even greater praise and regards than it had given him while he was alive and with them. He was enrolled among the gods.

23. Soon, his younger brother Domitian took over the empire. He was more similar to Nero, Caligula, or Tiberius than to his father or brother. In the early years of his reign, however, he was moderate. Soon though, he degenerated to great excesses of lust, anger, cruelty, and greed. He incited so much hatred against himself that he made people forget the honorable service of his father and brother. He had the most noble of the Senate put to death. He was the first to demand that he be called Lord and God. He allowed no statues of himself to be placed on the Capitol unless they were of gold or silver. He had his own cousins killed. He was disgustingly arrogant. He made four expeditions; one against the Sarmatians, another against the Chatti, and two against the Dacians. He celebrated a double triumph on account of the Dacians and Chatti and assumed only the laurel for the Sarmatians. He suffered many calamities in these wars as well; for one of his legions was annihilated with its general in Sarmatia, and Oppius Sabinus, a man of consular rank, and Cornelius Fuscus, the praetorian prefect, were slain with large armies by the Dacians. He undertook many works in Rome. Among these were the Capitol, the Forum Transitorium, the Portico of the Gods, the temples of Isis and Serapis, and the Stadium. When he had become detested by all on account of his offenses, he was slain by a conspiracy of those close to him at forty-five years of age, in the fifteenth year of his reign. His corpse was carried out in total disgrace by the corpse bearers of the poor and was ignobly buried.

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