i. AchicYements. — This bare enumeration marks the steps by which the poAver of Augustus was gradually consolidated, and with it the Empire itself. The achievements of Augustus which led to this result can only be briefly enumerated. Amongst the most important, because without them nothing further could have been attained, are his military achievements. His military career, with few excei)tions, was continuously successful. It began by the driving of Antonius into Gallia Transalpina (43 B.C.), and was followed up by the defeat of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi (42), the defeat of Sextus Pompeius (36), and the defeat of Cleopatra and Antonius at Actium (31). At this point civil war ends, all his Roman enemies and rivals are removed, and he can give attention to frontier problems. A succession of frontier wars ends in victory for the Romans : in 19 the Cantabri were exterminated, in 15 the Raeti and Vindelici were conquered. The German wars gave great trouble throughout the later part of his reign, in which most valuable help was rendered bj- his step-sons Tiberius and Drusus. In the earlier period Augustus was most fortunate in possess- ing such an able lieutenant as M. Vipsanius Agrippa.
In other respects also Augustus was extremely active — in the spheres of law, religion, architecture, and building. He did all he could to restore the sapped virtue of the Italians by his encouragement of family life and his attempts to recover the simplicity of the ancient Italian religion. He was a patron of literature, and was greatly helped in his aims by the writings of Virgil and Horace. In all his schemes for the betterment of Rome, Maecenas, an Etruscan knight, himself a patron of literature, was his right-hand man. Among the important statutes passed were the Lex hdia de adulteriis (18 B.C.), the Lex de maritandis ordinibus, and the Lex Papia Poppcea — all in the interests of a worthy family life, which Augustus recognized to be the indispensable foundation of a truly great State. The Lex ^lia Sentia (4 B.C.) regulated the status of manumitted slaves, a large class of growing influence in the State (see Claudius). Augustus' interest in religion was shown by his acceptance of several sacred offices, as well as by the restoration of many decayed temples and rituals. His boast that he had found Rome made of brick and left it made of marble probably means no more than that he faced the (regular) brick core of buildings with marble slabs, but he certainly spent vast sums on building. Among the most important monuments of his reign are the Portus lulius (37 B.C.), the Templum Diui luli (29), the temple of Apollo on the Palatine
Hill, equipped with public libraries of Greek and Latin literature (28), and the theatre of Marcellus (11). The personal ability of Augustus is some- times unjustly depreciated. It maj' be questioned if he owed more than inspiration to his grand- uncle.
5. Administration. — The Emperor's administra- tion covered not only the whole of Italy, but the imperial (or frontier) provinces, where an army was required. He had financial agents also in the senatorial provinces. The great achievement of Augustus was that he ruled the Roman Empire as a citizen (though the chief citizen, princeps), under constitutional forms. In theory the Empire ceased with the death of the Emperor, but under these constitutional forms he laid the foundations of a lasting despotism. Luke refers in 2^ to a census of the w^iole Empire ordered by him. This was one of his administrative reforms, and the census recurred every 14 years. A census of Roman citizens, as distinguished from subjects of the Empire, was taken twice in his reign, in 28 and 8 B.C. Cf. art. C^SAR.
LiTEEATURB. — There are many vexed questions connected with the career of Augustus, which wili make one always regret that T. Mommsen did not write the fourth volume of his Rornische Geschichte, which was to cover Aug-ustus' reign ; cf., however, the second edition of the lies Gestce Divi Augnsti (Berlin, 1883), edited by him; V. Gardthausen's Aiigustvs und seine Zeit, Leipzig, 1891 ff. (2 parts, each in three volumes, first part text, second part notes), has not filled the gap. Chronology of chief events is best given by J. S. Reid in A Companion to Latin Studien (ed. J. E. Sandys, Canibr. 1910), 129 S. The theory of the Empire is best expounded in the same writer's chapter in the Cambridge iledioival History, i., Cambr. 1911 ; a splendid account is found also in H. F. Pelham, Out- lines of Roman History, London, lS;i3 ; A. v. Domaszewski's Ge^ch. der rom. Kaiser, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1909, vol. i. pp. 11-250, by a master of Roman history and antiquities ; etc. The chief ancien t authorities are the J/o?m7«e7)fM7n .4 Jicj/ranuTO, Suetonius' Life of Augustus, Velleius Paterculus, Appian, Dio Cassius, and the early chapters of Tacitus. A. SOUTER.
AUTHOR AND FINISHER.— In He 12^ Jesus is
called the ' author ( A V and RV ; AVm ' beginner,' RVm ' captain ') and finisher ( AV ; RV * perfecter ') of (our) faith.' The Gr. word rendered 'author' (dpxi77<5s) occurs in three other passages, viz. Ac 3'* 53i and He 2'". It is translated ' captain ' in He 2'" (AV; but RV 'author'); in Ac 3^5 'prince' (AV and RV ; AVm and RVm ' author ') ; in Ac 5^^ ' prince.' In classical Greek it is used for a ' leader,' one who precedes others by his example, and so for an ' originator.'