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I have said before that from this he would have the whole city in his power. And he, as ruler of willing subjects, more eagerly did the other things befitting his rule, and he enacted laws. However, he did not enact all laws on his own authority, but there were some which he also proposed to the public, so that, if anything did not please them, he might correct it; and he urged everyone to give him counsel if anyone knew something better than he. And he took on the consuls, and from the other magistrates one from each, and from the body of senators fifteen men as councillors for a six-month period, so that through them the measures deliberated might be communicated to all. And sometimes he also judged with them. For the senate also held trials by itself, and it dealt with embassies and proclamations. And the people assembled for the elections, but nothing was done that did not please him. And some of the magistrates he nominated himself, and others he left to the public, taking care that they were not proven unsuitable or appointed by solicitation or by bribery. And some nations he subjugated to the Roman dominion by himself, and others through others. And Aelius Gallus, the governor of Egypt, then campaigned against Arabia Felix, as it is called, of which Sabos was king. And none of the enemy stood before him, yet he did not advance without hardship. For the desert and the sun and the waters 2.440 having a strange nature greatly afflicted them, so that the greater part of the army was destroyed. The disease, attacking the head, withered it, and it killed many immediately, but for those who survived it went down to the legs, passing over the whole intervening part of the body, and it ravaged them. And there was no cure except if someone anointed himself with oil mixed with wine; but very few had these; for the land produces neither of them, and these had not been prepared in abundance for them. And in this hardship, the barbarians also, attacking them, recovered the places that had been taken from them before, and they drove the survivors out of the country. But Augustus, during his eleventh consulship, fell ill so as not even to have hope of recovery, and made his will as if he were about to die, and he designated no successor, but he gave to Piso a book in which he had written down the forces and the public revenues, and he handed his signet-ring to Agrippa. But a certain Antonius Musa cured him, being so ill, with cold baths and cold drinks. For this reason he received money from both him and from the senate, and though a freedman, he was permitted to use gold rings, and they granted exemption from taxes to him and to his fellow practitioners, both present and future. And having been saved in this way, he brought his will into the senate-house and permitted it to be read, showing that he had left no successor to his rule; however, no one read it. But when in the following year a famine and a plague occurred throughout all of Italy, the Romans, thinking that these things had happened for no other reason than that they did not have Augustus as consul at that time, wished to appoint him dictator 2.441, and shutting the senate up in the senate-house they forced it to vote for this. And they came to him, begging that he be named dictator and superintendent of the grain supply. And he accepted the care of the grain supply, but he did not accept the dictatorship, but since he could not persuade them either by reasoning with them or by begging, he tore his robe; for rightly and wisely he guarded against the hated and invidious title, since he possessed the power and the honor beyond that of the dictators. And when some men formed a plot against him, both they and their fellow-conspirators were convicted in their absence as if they were going to flee, and not long after they were slain. After this he came to Sicily. And while he was there, the people of the Romans fell into sedition while electing the consuls, so that from this it was shown that it was impossible for them to be saved while living under a democracy. For they made such a disturbance and threw everything into confusion that Augustus was recalled by the sensible citizens. And Augustus, indignant at this, and being able neither always to be at leisure in Rome nor to leave it without a ruler

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πᾶσαν τὴν πόλιν ὑποχειρίαν εξει ἐκ τούτου προεῖπον. ὁ δὲ τά τε αλλα τὰ τῇ ἀρχῇ προσήκοντα προθυμότερον επραττεν, ὡς ἐθελόντων αρχων, καὶ ἐνομοθέτει. οὐ μέντοι πάντα ἐθελογνωμονῶν ἐνομοθέτει, ἀλλ' εστιν α καὶ ἐς τὸ δημόσιον προετίθει, οπως, αν τι μὴ ἀρέσῃ, ἐπανορθώσῃ· καὶ προετρέπετο πάντα συμβουλεύειν αὐτῷ ει τίς τι αμεινον γνοίη αὐτοῦ. καὶ τοὺς ὑπάτους, καὶ ἐκ τῶν αλλων ἀρχόντων ενα παρ' ἑκάστων, καὶ ἐκ τοῦ τῶν βουλευτῶν πλήθους πεντεκαίδεκα συμβούλους ἐς ἑξάμηνον παρελάμβανεν, ωστε δι' αὐτῶν καὶ πᾶσι κοινοῦσθαι τὰ βουλευόμενα. εστι δ' οτε καὶ ἐδίκαζε μετ' αὐτῶν. εκρινε μὲν γὰρ καὶ καθ' ἑαυτὴν ἡ βουλή, καὶ πρεσβείαις καὶ κηρυκείαις ἐχρημάτιζεν. ο τε δῆμος εἰς τὰς ἀρχαιρεσίας συνελέγετο, οὐ μέντοι ἐπράττετό τι ο μὴ ἐκείνῳ ηρεσκε. καὶ τοὺς αρξοντας τοὺς μὲν αὐτὸς προεβάλλετο, τοὺς δὲ ἐς τὸ κοινὸν ἐποιεῖτο, ἐπιμελούμενος ωστε μήτ' ἀνεπιτήδειοι μήτ' ἐκ παρακελεύσεως η καὶ ἐκ δεκασμοῦ ἀποδείκνυνται. καὶ εθνη τὰ μὲν δι' ἑαυτοῦ, τὰ δὲ δι' ἑτέρων τῇ ̔Ρωμαίων ἡγεμονίᾳ ὑπέταξεν. ̔Ο δὲ τῆς Αἰγύπτου αρχων Αιλιος Γάλλος ἐπὶ ̓Αραβίαν τὴν εὐδαίμονα καλουμένην, ης Σάβος ἐβασίλευεν, ἐστράτευσε τότε. καὶ οὐδεὶς μὲν αὐτοῦ ἐνώπιον εστη τῶν πολεμίων, οὐ μὴν ἀπόνως προυχώρει. η τε γὰρ ἐρημία καὶ ὁ ηλιος τά τε υδατα 2.440 φύσιν ατοπον εχοντα σφόδρα αὐτοὺς ἐταλαιπώρησεν, ωστε τὸ πλεῖον φθαρῆναι τῆς στρατιᾶς. τὸ δὲ νόσημα τῇ κεφαλῇ ἐνσκῆπτον ἐξήραινεν αὐτήν, καὶ πολλοὺς μὲν αὐτίκα ἀπώλλυε, τῶν δὲ περιγενομένων ἐς τὰ σκέλη κατῄει, απαν τὸ μεταξὺ τοῦ σώματος ὑπερβαῖνον, καὶ αὐτοῖς ἐλυμαίνετο. ιαμά τε οὐδὲν ην η ει τις ελαιον οινῳ μεμιγμένον ἠλείψατο· τὰ δὲ πάνυ ὀλίγοις ην· η τε γὰρ χώρα οὐδέτερον αὐτῶν φέρει, κἀκείνοις οὐκ αφθονα ταῦτα προπαρεσκεύαστο. κἀν τῷ πόνῳ τούτῳ καὶ οἱ βάρβαροι σφίσιν ἐπιτιθέμενοι τά τε χωρία α πρὶν ἀφῄρηντο ἐκομίσαντο, καὶ τοὺς περιλειφθέντας ἐκ τῆς χώρας ἐξήλασαν. ̔Ο δ' Αυγουστος ἑνδέκατον ὑπατεύσας ἐνόσησεν ωστε μηδ' ἐλπίδα σχεῖν σωτηρίας, καὶ ὡς τελευτήσων διέθετο, καὶ διάδοχον μὲν οὐδένα ἀπέδειξε, τῷ Πείσωνι δὲ τάς τε δυνάμεις καὶ τὰς κοινὰς προσόδους εἰς βιβλίον ἐγγράψας εδωκε, τῷ δ' ̓Αγρίππᾳ τὸν δακτύλιον ἐνεχείρισεν. ̓Αντώνιος δέ τις Μούσας ουτω κακῶς αὐτὸν διακείμενον ψυχρολουσίαις καὶ ψυχροποσίαις ἀνέρρωσε. διὸ καὶ χρήματα παρ' αὐτοῦ τε καὶ παρὰ τῆς βουλῆς ελαβε, καὶ δακτυλίοις χρυσοῖς, ἀπελεύθερος ων, ἐπετράπη κεχρῆσθαι, ἀτέλειάν τε αὐτῷ καὶ τοῖς ὁμοτέχνοις τοῖς ουσί τε καὶ τοῖς ἐσομένοις παρέσχοντο. ουτω δὲ σωθεὶς εἰς τὸ συνέδριον τὰς διαθήκας εἰσήνεγκε, καὶ ἀναγνωσθῆναι ἐπέτρεπεν, ἐνδεικνύμενος οτι οὐδένα τῆς ἀρχῆς διάδοχον καταλέλοιπεν· οὐ μέντοι καὶ ἀνέγνω αὐτάς τις. Λιμοῦ δὲ τῷ ἑξῆς ετει καὶ λοιμοῦ γενομένου ἐν πάσῃ τῇ ̓Ιταλίᾳ, νομίσαντες οἱ ̔Ρωμαῖοι οὐκ αλλως ταῦτα συμβεβηκέναι η οτι μὴ καὶ τότε ὑπατεύοντα τὸν Αυγουστον εσχον, δικτάτωρα αὐτὸν ἠθέλησαν 2.441 προχειρίσασθαι, καὶ τὴν βουλὴν εἰς τὸ συνέδριον κατακλείσαντες ἠνάγκασαν τοῦτο ψηφίσασθαι. καὶ αὐτῷ προσῆλθον δεόμενοι λεχθῆναι δικτάτωρα καὶ τῆς τοῦ σίτου συναγωγῆς ἐπιμελητήν. καὶ ος τὴν μὲν τοῦ σίτου φροντίδα ἐδέξατο, τὴν δικτατωρείαν δὲ οὐ προσήκατο, ἀλλ' ἐπεὶ μήτε διαλεγόμενος αὐτοῖς μήτε δεόμενος επειθε, τὴν ἐσθῆτα διέρρηξεν· ὀρθῶς γὰρ καὶ συνετῶς τὸ μισητὸν τῆς ἐπικλήσεως ἐφυλάξατο καὶ ἐπίφθονον, ὑπὲρ τοὺς δικτάτωρας εχων τὴν ἐξουσίαν καὶ τὴν τιμήν. ἐπιβουλὴν δὲ κατ' αὐτοῦ συστησαμένων τινῶν, αὐτοί τε καὶ οἱ συνωμόται ἐρήμην ηλωσαν ὡς φευξόμενοι, οὐ πολλῷ δ' υστερον ἀπεσφάγησαν. Μετὰ ταῦτα δ' εἰς Σικελίαν ηλθε. κἀκεῖ οντος ὁ δῆμος τῶν ̔Ρωμαίων τοὺς ὑπάτους χειροτονῶν ἐστασίασεν, ὡς κἀντεῦθεν δειχθῆναι οτι ἀδύνατον ην δημοκρατουμένους αὐτοὺς σωθῆναι. ουτω γὰρ ἐθορύβησαν καὶ απαντα συνετάραξαν ωστε καὶ τὸν Αυγουστον ὑπὸ τῶν ἐμφρόνων ἀνακληθῆναι. καὶ ἀγανακτήσας ἐπὶ τούτῳ ὁ Αυγουστος, καὶ μήτε ἀεὶ τῇ ̔Ρώμῃ σχολάζειν δυνάμενος μήτ' αυ αναρχον αὐτὴν καταλείπειν