Augustus. Buchan John

conscience. The one man of genius, Tacitus, also wrote long after the event, and, as was said of Carlyle, he “preferred seriousness to truth.”

      Happily the imperfect literary sources can be supplemented by important archaeological and epigraphical matter. Since the envoys of the Emperor Ferdinand II first copied the Monumentum Ancyranum in 1555, every century has brought new discoveries. Papyri have made clear many points in the administration of Egypt, and inscriptions containing laws, edicts and senatusconsults have extended our knowledge of provincial government. The brilliant work of the excavators has shed new light upon Augustan sculpture and architecture. But, when all has been said, we have still scanty materials to estimate the man and his work. A principal guide must still be tradition; we know that succeeding ages believed certain things about him, and a long-continued belief cannot be without warrant.

      A great scholar has written of the fallibility of all historical reconstruction: “The tradition yields us only ruins. The more closely we test and examine them, the more clearly we see how ruinous they are, and out of ruins no whole can be built. Tradition is dead; our task is to revivify life that has passed away. We know that ghosts cannot speak until they have drunk blood, and the spirits which we evoke demand the blood of our hearts. We give it to them gladly, and if they then abide our question something from us has entered into them.”¹ I am conscious that my interpretation of Augustus is a personal thing, coloured insensibly by my own beliefs. But, since the historian is most at home in an age which resembles his own, I hope that the convulsions of our time may give an insight into the problems of the early Roman empire which was perhaps unattainable by scholars who lived in easier days.

      I have been compelled to make large drafts on the kindness of my friends in Europe, and would especially thank for their generous assistance Professor Hugh Last of Oxford and Count Roberto Weiss.

      J. B.

      GOVERNMENT HOUSE, OTTAWA.

      ¹ Wilamowitz, Greek Historical Writing and Apollo, 26.

      CONTENTS

       BOOK I. OCTAVIUS

       I. WINTER AT APOLLONIA

       II. THE DISPUTED INHERITANCE

       BOOK II. CAESAR OCTAVIANUS

       I. THE TRIUMVIRATE: PHILIPPI

       II. EAST AND WEST

       III. THE BREACH WITH ANTONY: ACTIUM

       BOOK III. FIRST CITIZEN

       I. FOUNDATIONS

       II. RESPUBLICA CONSERVATA

       III. CREATIVE EVOLUTION

       BOOK IV. PATER PATRIAE

       I. THE COMPLETE PRINCIPATE

       II. CAESAR’S HOUSEHOLD

       III. ANIMA ROMAE

       IV. THE AUGUSTAN PEACE

       V. THE SHADOW IN THE NORTH

       VI. THE CLOSE

       INDEX

       AUGUSTUS

       HOUSEHOLD CHART

       THE EMPIRE UNDER AUGUSTUS

      SOME BLACK JACKET BOOKS

      LIBYAN SANDS

      SERVICE OF OUR LIVES

      ON ENGLAND

      OUR INHERITANCE

      SHALL WE JOIN THE LADIES?

      THE ADMIRABLE CRICHTON

      MARY ROSE

      QUALITY STREET

      DEAR BRUTUS

      A WINDOW IN THRUMS

      MARGARET OGILVY

      AUGUSTUS

      HOMILIES AND RECREATIONS

      THE KING’S GRACE

      MONTROSE

      MY MYSTERY SHIPS

      THE LEISURE OF AN EGYPTIAN OFFICIAL

      LADY ROSE AND MRS. MEMMARY

      GREAT MOTHER FOREST

      ADVENTURES IN FRIENDSHIP

      THE CHARM OF BIRDS

      THE HUNDRED YEARS

      THE HUNDRED DAYS

      THE VANISHED POMPS OF YESTERDAY

      THE DAYS BEFORE YESTERDAY

      HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE

      GOOD-BYE, MR. CHIPS

      TO YOU, MR. CHIPS

      THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST

      ENGLAND

      SO SHALL YE REAP

      SIXTY POEMS

      SAILING ALL SEAS IN THE ‘IDLE HOUR’

      THE HOME OF THE BLIZZARD

      DAILY READINGS FROM THE MOFFATT TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE

      A SHORTER VERSION OF THE MOFFATT TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE

      FEAR AND BE SLAIN

      HENRIETTA MARIA

      GONE RUSTIC

      EVEREST 1933

      BORZOI

      GINO WATKINS

      THE VOYAGE OF THE ‘CAP PILAR’

      WILD ANIMALS AT HOME

      NANDA DEVI

      THE GOSPEL OF THE HEREAFTER

      A BOYS’ AND GIRLS’ LIFE OF CHRIST

      MOUNTAINEERING HOLIDAY

      AN ALPINE JOURNEY

      CAMP SIX

      KAMET CONQUERED

      THE SPIRIT OF THE HILLS

      OVER TYROLESE HILLS

      AFTER EVEREST

      ENDLESS