OCTAVIANUS, or Octavius Caesar, was the nephew of Julius Caesar the dictator, being the son of Accia, his sister, by Octavius, a senator; and he afterwards became emperor of Rome. He was born in the year of the city 691, during the consulship of Cicero. His uncle Julius Caesar adopted him, and left him the greater part of his fortune. When he was about twenty years of age he was raised to the consulship. His youth and inexperience were ridiculed by his enemies; but notwithstanding this obstacle, his prudence and valour soon silenced all objections. He made war against his opponents on pretence of avenging the assassination of his uncle, and engaged in five civil contests with success, namely, the wars of Mutina, Perusia, Philippi, Sicily, and Actium; the first and last of which were against Μ. Antony; the second against L. Antony, brother of the triumvir; the third against Brutus and Cassius; and the fourth against Sextus Pompey, son of Pompey the Great. He united his forces with those of Antony at the battle of Philippi; and had he not been supported by the activity and bravery of his colleague, he would doubtless have been totally ruined in that engagement. In his triumvirate with Antony and Lepidus, he obtained the western parts of the Roman empire; and, like his other colleagues, the more firmly to establish his power, he proscribed his enemies and cut them off. The triumvirate lasted for ten years. He had given his sister Octavia in marriage to Antony, to render their alliance more lasting; but when Cleopatra had charmed this unfortunate man,Octavia was repudiated. Augustus immediately took up arms to avenge the wrongs of his sister, but perhaps more from a desire to remove a man whose power and consequence kept him in continual fear and constant dependence. Both parties met at Actium to decide the fate of Rome. Antony was supported by all* the power of the East, and Augustus by that of Italy. Cleopatra fled from the battle with sixty ships; and her flight ruined the interest of Antony, who followed her into Egypt. The conqueror soon afterwards proceeded to Egypt, where he besieged Alexandria, and honoured with a magnificent funeral his unfortunate colleague and the celebrated queen, whom the fear of being led in the victor’s triumph at Rome had driven to commit suicide. After he had established peace all over the world, he shut the gates of the temple of Janus in the year of the city 753. He twice determined to lay down the supreme power, first immediately after the victory obtained over Antony, and again on account of his ill health; but his two faithful friends Mecaenas and Agrippa dissuaded him, and contended that if he did he would leave it a prey to the most powerful, and besides expose himself to the greatest dangers. He died at Nola in the seventy-sixth year of his age, after he had held the sovereign power [7:16:321]during fifty-seven years. He married four times, but he was unhappy in all these connexions; and his only daughter Julia disgraced herself and her father by the debauchery and licentiousness of her manners. At his death he recommended his adopted son Tiberius as his successor. He left his fortune partly to him and to Drusus, and made donations to the army and Roman people. The title of Augus- “tus was conferred upon him by the senate after the battle of Actium and the final destruction of the Roman republic. The title continued afterwards, being given to his successors in the empire. Virgil is said to have written his Aeneid at the desire of Augustus, whom he represents under the amiable and perfect character of Aeneas.