After a course of victories in Asia, Spain, Pannonia, Dalmatia, Gaul, etc., A. (9 n.c.) suffered the greatest defeat he had sustained in the course of his long rule, in the person of Quintilius Valais, whose army was totally destroyed by the Germans.
This loss so afflicted A. that for some time he allowed his beard and hair to grow, as a sign of deep mourning, and often exclaimed: "0 Yarns, restore me my legions!" From this time A. confined himself to plans of domestic improvement and reform, and so beautified Rome, that it was said, " A. found the city built of bricks, and left it built of marble." He also founded cities in several parts of the empire: and altars were raised by time grateful people to commemorate his beneficence; while by a decree of the Knate, the name Augustus was given to the month Sextilis.
Though surrounded thus with honor and prosperity, A. was not free from domestic trouble. The abandoned conduct of his daughter Julia was the cause of sore vexation to him. He had no son, and Marcellus, the son of his sister, and Caiusand Lucius, the sons of his daughter, whom he had appointed as his successors and heirs, as well as his favorite step-son Drusus, all died early; while his step-son Tiberius was an unamiable character whom he could not love. Age, domestic sorrows• and failing health warned
hum to seek rest; and to recruit his strength, he undertook a journey to Campania; lint his infirmity increased, and he died at Nola (Aug. 19, A.D. 14), in the 77th year of his age. According to tradition, shortly before his death, he called for a mirror, arranged his hair neatly, and said to his attendants: "Have I played my part well? If so, applaud me!" A. had consummate tact and address as a ruler and politician, and could keep his plans in secrecy while he made use of the passions and talents of others to forward his own designs. The good and great measures which marked his reign were originated mostly by A. himself He encouraged agriculture. patronized the arts and literature, and was himself an author; but only a few fragments of his writings have been preserved. Horace, Virgil, and all the most celebrated Latin poets and scholars, were his friends. His was the _Augustan age of literature. His death threw a shade of sorrow over the whole Roman world; the bereaved people erected temples and altars to his memory, and num bered him among the gods.