powerful obstacle to the ambition of Octavianus, and he resolved to get rid of the rest of his associates. An offence was soon committed by Lepidus, that served as a pretext for depriving him of his share in the triumvirate. Being at the head of twenty-two legions, with a strong body of cavalry, he supposed that his power was more than equivalent to the popularity of Octavianus. He therefore resolved to add Sicily to his province; pretending a right, as having first invaded it. His colleague having previously expostulated without success, and knowing that his secret intrigues and largesses had entirely attached the army to himself, went alone to the camp of Lepidus, deprived him of all his authority, and banished him to Cir cæum. The Roman world was now governed by a duumvirate; a partnership of authority which, it was evident, could not last long. While Antony, advancing to old age, acted the part of a heedless dissipated youth, enslaved to love and pleasure, the youthful Octavianus was the cool and prudent statesman, making his advantage of every false step of his colleague, and playing the game of ambition with the skill of a master. He took pains to ingratiate himself with the people of Rome, whose gratitude he in some measure deserved by the restoration of peace and plenty to all Italy. His prudent and generous action of throwing into the fire unopened a number of letters from senators, found among Pompey's papers, seemed an earnest of a milder spirit of government. He likewise solemnly declared his intention of resigning his unconstitutional power as soon as Antony should return from his Parthian war. In the mean time he accepted of the important dignity of perpetual tribune of the people, which rendered his person sacred and inviolable. He now only waited a pretext to declare open war against Antony, and this was soon afforded him by his treatment of his wife Octavia, the sister of Octavianus. But he deferred it for a while, being then employed in quelling an insurrection of the Illyrians. The following year was taken up in preparations against Antony. Antony ordered Canidius with his army to march into Europe; while he and Cleopatra followed to Samos, to prepare for carrying on the war with vigor. The kings who attended him endeavoured to gain his favor more by their entertainments than their warlike preparations; the provinces strove rather to please him by sacrificing to his divinity, than by their alacrity in his defence. In short, his best friends now began to forsake him. His delay at Samos, and afterwards at Athens, where he carried Cleopatra to receive new honors, was extremely favorable to the arms of Octavianus; who was at first scarcely in a disposition to oppose him, had he gone into Italy; but he soon found time to put himself in a condition for carrying on the war, and shortly after declared it against him in form. All Antony's followers were invited over to join him, with great promises of rewards. Their armies were suitable to the empire they contended for. The one was followed by all the forces of the east; the other by all the strength of the west. Antony's forces composed a body of 100,000 foot and 12,000 horse; his fleet amounted to 500 ships of war. The army of Octavianus mustered only 80,000 foot, but equalled his adversary's in number of cavalry: his fleet was but half as numerous as Antony's, however, his ships were better built, and manned with better soldiers. The great decisive engagement, which was a naval one, was fought near Actium, a city of Epirus, at the entrance of the gulf of Ambracia. Antony ranged his ships before the mouth of the gulf; and Octavianus drew up his fleet in opposition. The two land armies, on opposite sides of the gulf, were drawn up only as spectators. The battle began on both sides with great ardor; nor was there any advantage on either side, till of a sudden Cleopatra fled from the engagement attended by sixty sail; what increased the general amazement was to behold Antony himself following soon after. Yet the engagement continued with great obstinacy till five P. M. when Antony's forces submitted. The land forces soon after followed the example of the navy; and all yielded without striking a blow the fourth day after the battle. See ROME, ANTONIUS, and CLEOPATRA. After the death of Antony, and after having settled the affairs of Egypt, Octavianus left Alexandria in the beginning of September, in the year of Rome 720, with a design to return through Syria, Asia Minor, and Greece, to Italy. On his arrival at Antioch he found there Tiridates, who had been raised to the throne of Parthia, in opposition to Phrahates, and ambassadors from Phrahates, who were come to solicit the assistance of the Romans against each other. Octavianus gave a friendly answer both to Tiridates and the ambassadors of Phrahates, without intending to help either; but with a design to animate the one against the other, and thus to weaken both. After this, having appointed Messala Corvinus governor of Syria, he marched into Asia, and took up his winter quarters. He spent the winter in settling the several provinces of Asia Minor and the adjacent islands; and early in spring passed into Greece, whence he set out for Rome, which he entered in the month Sextilis, afterwards called August, in three triumphs, which were celebrated for three days together. And now Octavianus was at the height of his wishes, sole master of the whole Roman empire. But, to persuade the people that they still enjoyed their ancient government, he continued the old 'magistrates, with the same name, pomp, and ornaments; but they were to have only subordinate military power, and their old jurisdiction of deciding finally all causes, except such as were capital; and, though some of these last were left to the governor of Rome, yet the chief he decided himself. He likewise won the hearts of the populace by the continued cheapness of provisions and plentiful markets; and he frequently entertained them with shows and sports. Having settled all affairs in the capital he passed into Gaul, towards the close of the year B. C. 27, with a design of proceeding to the reduction of the British islands; but, on his arrival at Narbonne, he received information that the Salassians, at the foot of the Alps, and the Cantabrians and Austrians in Spain, had shaken off the Roman yoke: he therefore discontinued his progress, and marched in person into Spain, for the purpose of subduing those nations that had revolted. The conquest of the Salassians he committed to his generals. In the year B.C. 23 Octavianus married his daughter Julia to his nephew Marcellus ; and in the course of the year he was seized with a dangerous disorder, which threatened his life, of which he was cured by his physician Antonius Musa. When his life was thought to be in danger he had delivered his ring to Agrippa, thus intimating that he deemed him to be a proper successor. Marcellus, who was generally regarded as his intended successor, was disgusted by this preference; but the death of this prince, who was greatly regretted by the Roman people, made way for the introduction of Agrippa to court, and from this time he continued the most confidential friend of Octavianus. At this time the administration of the empire was conducted with great equity and moderation; and many instances are recorded in which he exercised great lenity and self-denial. In the year B. C. 22 he declined the office of dictator and of censor, which were offered him by the senate, and in his general conduct he affected to appear no otherwise than as a private citizen. Rome being now at peace, Augustus determined to visit the eastern part of the empire; but, as it was necessary to invest some person with authority in Rome during his absence, he appointed Agrippa for this purpose; and, in order to annex additional dignity to his character, he gave him in marriage his daughter Julia, the widow of Marcellus. In his progress through the eastern provinces, during the years B. C. 21 and 20, the emperor recovered from Phrahates, king of Parthia, the Roman standards and captives that had been taken from Crassus; he placed Tigranes on the throne of Armenia; and at Samos, to the inhabitants of which he granted the liberty and use of their own laws, he received ambassadors from the remotest part of India. Augustus, after his return, directed his attention to various abuses which needed reform, and to the enactment of regulations that contributed to the perfection of government. He reduced the number of senators from 1000 to 600, and fixed at a higher rate the fortune that was requisite for qualifying a person to be elected of that body; and, that no persons who were eminently fit for the office, might be excluded, he made up their deficiencies of fortune by his own liberality. In the year of Rome 747, B. C. 17, he celebrated the secular games with extraordinary splendor. About this time he also adopted his two grandsons Caius and Lucius; the children of Agrippa and Julia. Having received from Gaul many complaints against the attendants whom he had appointed to levy the tribunes and imposts, and particularly against Licinius, he visited that country; but the principal aggressor, Licinius, contrived to soothe his displeasure by giving him a large portion of the treasures which he had amasse. Upon his return from Gaul, B. C. 13, the death of Lepidus afforded him an opportunity of assuming the office of supreme pontiff; and, in the first exercise of this authority, he collected all books of divination, of which more than 2000 were committed to the flames. The books of the Sibyls, however, were preserved and entrusted to the custody of the priests. The death of Agrippa was, at this time, a very distressing event to Augustus; but it served to advance Tiberius in the family of the emperor, who by an unwarrantable act of tyranny caused him to be divorced from a wife to whom he was affectionately attached, and to marry the widowed Julia. The war with Germany now began to be pursued with ardor. That martial people had some time before defeated Lollius, proconsul of Gaul; but Drusus marching into their country with a powerful army obtained great successes in four campaigns against their confederate tribes, and carried his arms as far as the Elbe. His brother, Tiberius, likewise subdued the Pannonians and Dacians. But the joy occasioned by these victories was damped by the death of Drusus, as he was returning to the banks of the Rhine. A peace soon after ensued; and the temple of Janus was again shut for the third time in this reign, in which state it continued twelve years. Before this event Augustus had lost his beloved sister Octavia; and soon after his favorite minister Mæcenas died, who had, indeed, for some time been less in his confidence than formerly. The emperor's intrigues with Terentia, the wife of the minister, are alleged as the cause of their coolness. During these years Augustus received many warm and unequivocal demonstrations of the affection of the people; and, after enjoying the imperial authority for twenty years, he was unanimously requested to accept it for ten years more. The young Cæsars, grandsons to the emperor, now began to come forwards on the scene; and their early ambition gave him much disquiet. The jealousies that arose between them and Tiberius so disgusted the latter that he retired to Rhodes. In order to grace the solemnity of the assumption of the toga by his elder grandson, Caius Augustus accepted the consulate a twelfth time; and the year before its close, was rendered memorable by the birth of Christ, which event the best critics date four years before the vulgar era. Three years afterwards he was consul the thirteenth time, when Lucius Cæsar took the toga. In this year his domestic peace received a severe wound by the discovery of the scandalous disorders of his daughter Julia, of which he alone seems to have been long before ignorant. The indignation he conceived at this disgrace induced him to treat with great severity herself, and all her gallants and confidants, some of whom he put to death, and banished others. Some troubles in Armenia, which succeeded, caused Caius Cæsar to be sent into the east, where he remained some years; but at length, A. D. 3, he received a wound which proved fatal His brother Lucius had died some time before at Marseilles. Octavianus therefore recalled Tiberius from his unhonored residence at Rhodes, and adopted him, some months after the death of Caius. He also adopted his remaining grandson, Agrippa Posthumus; but the intractable disposition and gross understanding of this youth caused him afterwards to annul the adoption and send him into exile. A daughter of Julia, of the same name, followed her mother's example, and some years afterwards was similarly punished. The poet Ovid was, it is said, in an unknown manner involved in her crime, and was on that account exiled to the mouth of the Danube, whence all his adulation could not procure his recall. These unworthy descendants were the source of bitter affliction to Augustus, who never named them without a sigh, and often repeated a verse from Homer, expressing a wish that he had lived in celibacy and died childless. The year 4 was distinguished by an act of clemency which confers great honor on the character of Augustus :-Cinna, grandson of Pompey, a man of rank and great opulence, but of lule merit, had formed a conspiracy against the emperor's life. Every thing was prepared for its execution, when the whole was disclosed by one of the persons engaged in it. Octavianus, by the advice of Livia, sent for Cinna to his closet, and after enumerating all the favors he had conferred upon him, charged him with the ingratitude of his design, at the same time repeating so many circumstances of the plot that Cinna could not doubt of its discovery. He proceeded to say that, being still more desirous of having him for a friend than punishing him as an enemy, he freely forgave him for all that was past, and should rely upon his future fidelity. Cinna, penetrated with compunction, and overcome by the emperor's goodness, was converted into one of his most zealous friends. Augustus named him Consul for the next year; and Cinna, at his death, appointed the emperor his sole heir. Such was the effect of this conduct that this was the last conspiracy formed against him. Various domestic regulations, and war renewed in Germany and Pannonia, which exercised the military talents of Tiberius and Germanicus, are the principal events of some succeeding years. The encouragement of matrimony, and suppression of celibacy, was a point much labored by the emperor; and a famous law, called the Papian-Poppaan (from the consuls of the year) was passed for this purpose, appointing great privileges and exemptions for the married, and penalties and disabilities for the single. The year 9 was rendered black in the Roman annals by the destruction of Varus and three entire legions in Germany, where Arminius had formed a powerful confederacy against the power of Rome. The standards and two of the eagles fell into the hands of the enemy, who took a pride in aggravating the loss by every species of insult and indignity. This disaster nearly overCame all the fortitude of Augustus, accustomed to glory and prosperity. He put on mourning, suffered his hair and beard to grow, and frequently exclaimed, in a paroxysm of grief and despair, Varus, restore me my legions!' The sense of danger from a martial and inveterate foe was added to that of disgrace. Tiberius, however, by his military skill, repressed the ravages of the Germans, and in a great measure wiped off the ignominy. By his conduct he obtained the favor and confidence of Octavianus to such a degree that he was elevated to an equal share of the imperial authority. One of the most remarkable of the remaining acts of Augustus was a tyrannical law rendering all libels and defamatory writings criminal, and subjecting the authors to the penalties of high treason. His advanced age and declining health now rendered him studious of repose, and he devolved the principal cares of empire upon Tiberius. It is said, however, that he manifested a returning affection to his grandson Agrippa Posthumus, which alarmed Livia and her son; and Livia has been suspected of hastening the death of the emperor, on this account, by poison. But the progress of his malady is a sufficient refutation of this mere suspicion. It was a weakness of the stomach and bowels; and he was seized with it as he was conducting Tiberius towards Illyrium. On his return towards Rome his complaint increased, and obliged him to stop at Nola, where he took to his bed and patiently waited the approach of death. On the last day of his life he called for a mirror; he had his head dressed; and then calling his friends to his bed-side, asked them whether they did not think he had acted his part pretty well in the comedy of human life? and then addressed them in a Greek verse, with which they generally closed their plays: Δοτε κρότον, και παντες υμεις μετα χαρας κτύπησα. Clap your hands, and let all applaud with joy. After this kind of comic adieu, he ordered every body to retire, and died in Livia's arms, saying, Livia, conjugii nostri memor, vive et vale. His death took place on the 10th of August A. D. 14, A. U. C. 767, and in the seventy-sixth year of his age. The duration of his power, if we reckon from the time of the triumvirate, of which he took possession the 27th of November, in the year of Rome 711, B. C. 43, was about fifty-six years. If we reckon from the battle of Actiuni, fought the 2d of September, in the year of Rome 721, B. C. 31, when his sole possession of the Roman empire properly commences, Augustus will then appear to have enjoyed the sovereign power about forty-four years. Crevier states the true time of his becoming emperor to have been the 7th of January, in the year of his seventh consulship, which, according to his reckoning, was the 725th of Rome, and, referring his death to the 765th of Rome, he governed as prince and emperor forty years, seven months, and thirteen days. All the rest,' he says, was manifest usurpation and tyranny.' Josephus, and others after him, compute the beginning of the reign of Augustus from the year in which Cæsar was killed, A. U. C. 710, B. C, 44, and make its duration fifty-seven years, six months, and some odd days. Ptolemy in his canon, and St. Clement of Alexandria, date the commencement of his reign in the year after the battle of Actium, A. U. Č. 724, and compute its duration to be forty-three years. Before the funeral of Augustus his will was presented to the senate-house by the vestal virgins, in whose custody it had been deposited, and read aloud by Polybius, one of his freedmen. By this will, made sixteen months before his death, Tiberius and Livia were appointed his first heirs, his grand-children and their children his second, and the great men of Rome his third heirs. Livia was adopted into the Julian family, and honored with the title of Augusta. He bequeathed as a legacy 40,000,000 of sesterces (about 5,000,000 of livres) to the Roman people; 3,500,000 (437,500 livres) to the tribes, that is 100,000 (12,500 livres) to each; to each of his guards 1000 sesterces (125 livres); to each of the soldiers appointed to guard the city 500 sesterces (sixty-two livres); and to each legionary soldier 300 sesterces (thirty-seven livres). Gibbon has given the following sketch of the character and history of Augustus:- The tender respect of Augustus for a free constitution, which he had destroyed, can only be explained by an attentive consideration of the character of that subtle tyrant. A cool head, an unfeeling heart, and a cowardly disposition, prompted him, at the age of nineteen, to assume the mask of hypocrisy, which he never afterwards laid aside. With the same hand, and probably with the same temper, he signed the proscription of Cicero and the pardon of Cinna. His virtues, and even his vices, were artificial, and according to the various dictates of his interest, he was at first the enemy, and at last the father of the Roman world. When he framed the artful system of the imperial authority his moderation was inspired by his fears. He wished to deceive the people by an image of civil liberty, and the armies by an image of civil government. "In the exercise of that sovereign and absolute power which he acquired, by means which none can attempt to justify, and which he contrived most effectually to secure by apparent moderation and self-denial, he seems to have been solicitous for making the people contented and happy; and in many respects he was entitled to the character of a wise and equitable governor. 'As a compensation for liberty, he gave his subjects security, ease, prosperity, and all the advantages of high civilisation, with as little as possible of the severity of restraint and coercion. He filled Rome and all Italy with improvements of every kind: made highways, constructed harbours, raised edifices for use and convenience, and could boast that he received a capital of brick, and left one of marble. He so encouraged letters that one of the great ages of excellent human productions takes its name from him.' Those whom he encouraged by his liberality repaid him with an adulation which was not honorable to themselves, and which made no addition to his reputation. The love of flattery, however, is not charged upon him as one of his predominant foibles. In private life he had many estimable qualities. Affectionate to his family and friends, condescending and indulgent to his domestics and dependents, frugal and sober with regard to every indulgence, one excepted, which regarded himself, he commanded affection and respect. But his disposition to gallantry and licentiousness in his conduct towards the female sex exposed him to just censure and reproach; nor did the counsel of his friends, nor the wisdom of experience, avail to the due restraint of his cri minal passions. Sometimes indeed, it has been said, his intrigues were the result of that policy which directed his general conduct, as they served to discover secrets of state, and to obtain information concerning any plot or sedition that might have been formed by the husbands of those wives with whom he was connected. In other respects he paid a high regard to external decorum; and, whatever might have been his sentiments with regard to religion in early life, he appears in maturer and more advanced age to have been much inclined to superstition. OCTA'VO, adj. & n. s. Lat. octavo. Applied to a page or leaf constituting the eighth part octavo. of a sheet. They accompany the second edition of the original experiments, which were printed first in English in Boyle. Lord C-'s works most resplendently bound in octavo, form a conspicuous ornament to his book shelves. The rest is all but leather and prunella. Byron. OCTEN'NIAL, adj. Į Lat. octennium, octogeni. Happening every eighth year; lasting eight years: octogenary is, of eighty years of age. OCTOG ENARY. OCTOBER, n. s. Lat. october. The eighth month in the year; also a name given to ale brewed in that month. October is drawn in a garment of yellow and carnation; upon his head a garland of oak leaves, in his right hand the sign scorpio, in his left a basket of services. Peachum. Nor wanting is the brown October drawn Mature and perfect, from his dark retreat Of thirty years, and now his honest front Flames in the light refulgent, not afraid Even with the vineyard's best produce to vie. Thomson. of Romulus's year, which the name implies; OCTOBER, in chronology, was the eighth month but the tenth in the kalendar of Numa, Julius Casar, &c. The senate gave this month the wife of the emperor Antoninus; Commodus name Faustinus, in compliment to Faustina, the would have it called Invictus; and Domitian named it Domitianus. This month was sacred to Mars, and under his protection. OCTOBRIS EQUUS, a horse annually sacrificed to Mars in October, because the horse is a warlike animal. A race was run with chariots drawn by two horses, previous to the sacrifices, and he that ran quickest was adjudged to be the victim. He that would not believe the menace of God at Austin. Id. first, it may be doubted whether before an ocular example he believed the curse at first. Browne. The same is ocularly confirmed by Vives upon The oculus beli of jewellers, probably of Pliny, is an accidental variety c the agate kind; having a grey horny ground, circular delineations, and a spot in the middle, resembling the eye; whence its name. Woodward. OCULUS BELI, in li.hology, one of the semipellucid gems, of a grayish-white color, variegated with yellow and with a black central nu-` cleus it is of a roundish form, and its variegations very beautifully represent the pupil and iris of the eye: whence the name. It seems to be a species of opal. OCUMARA, à bay of Venezuela, Colombia, five leagues east of Porto Cabello, and about twenty-eight miles S.S. E. of the city of Caraccas. Its port is good and is defended on the east by a battery mounting eight pieces of cannon. The town, at the distance of one league from the port, is watered by a river of the same name, which discharges itself into the bay. OCYMUM, basil, a genus of the gymnospermia order, and didynamia class of plants; natural order forty-second, verticillata: CAL. upper lip orbiculated, inferior one quadrifid: COR. resupinated, with one lip quadrifid, the other undivided; the exterior filament sends out a reflected process at the base. There are eight species, all natives of warm climates, rising from six inches to two feet in height, and having a strong aromatic smell, resembling that of cloves. One species is used in the kitchen in soups and sauces. It rises about ten inches high, sending out branches by pairs opposite, from the bottom; the stalks and branches are four-cornered; the leaves are oval, spear-shaped, ending in acute points, and are indented on their edges; the whole plant is hairy, and has a strong scent of cloves, too powerful for most persons, but to some it is very agreeable. These plants are propagated by seeds, will thrive in this country in the open air, and will even ripen their seeds if placed in a stove or airy glass-case. OCZAKOV, a town of the government of Cherson, European Russia, near the mouth of the river Dnieper. This place was never of great size; and, since the building of Odessa, its trade and population have greatly dwindled; but the Russians and Turks have often disputed its possession. In 1737 it was attacked by the former under count Munich, and carried by assault. Being afterwards abandoned, it was fortified by the Turks; and in 1788 attacked again by a Russian army under prince Potemkin, who did not take it till after a delay of six months, and a place to Turkey by Russia, formed the alleged motive for the interference of the British government against the latter power in 1790. It is fifty-four miles west by south of Cherson. ODA-BACHI, or ODDABASSI, an officer in the Turkish soldiery, equivalent to a serjeant or corporal among us. The common soldiers and janissaries, called oldachis, after having served a certain term of years, are always preferred and made biquelairs; and of biquelairs in time bechiefs of certain divisions, whose number is not come odabachis, i. e. corporals of companies, or twenty. Their pay is six doubles per month; fixed being sometimes ten and sometimes and they are distinguished by a large felt, a foot broad and above a foot long, hanging on the back, with two long ostrich feathers. ODD, adj. Arab. uhud; Swed. udda; ODD'LY, adv. Goth. eitt (one). Sole; single; ODD'NESS, n. s. not divisible by two; not even Odds, n. s. or twofold; hence singular; particular; unusual; uncouth; unnoticed; strange; unlucky (see the instance from Shakspeare); but some learned gossips in luck' consider the odd a lucky number: oddly and oddness follow all the above senses: odds is used to express inequality; excess on either side of a comparison; more than even in a wager; more likely than otherwise; hence advantage; superiority; also, from the notion of strangeness, uncouthness, it signifies difference amounting to dispute; debate; quarrel. The odd man to perform all three perfectly is, Joannes Sturmius. Ascham's Schoolmaster. This is the third time; I hope Id. Othello. How oddly will it sound, that I I will lay the odds that ere this year expire, Id. Id. Henry IV. Shakspeare. The fox, the ape, and the humble bee, Shakspeare. Measure for Measure. fifth year of Edward III. until the eighth, do amount The account of the profits of Ulster, from the but to nine hundred and odd pounds. Davies on Ireland. Shall I give him to partake Full happiness with me? or rather not, But keep the odds of knowledge in my power Without co-par.ner? Milton's Paradise Lost. |