the privileges which in all monarchies are accorded the sovereign's
house, will never arrive at a complete understanding of the story of
the first empire. His family did, to be sure, always enjoy a
privileged status, if not at law, at least in fact, and through the
very force of circumstances; but it was not for naught that Rome had
been for many centuries an aristocratic republic in which all the
families of the nobility had considered themselves equal, and had been
subject to the same laws. The aristocracy avenged itself upon the
imperial family for the privileges which the lofty dignity of its head
assured it by giving it hatred instead of respect. They suspected and
calumniated all of its members, and with a malicious joy subjected
them, whenever possible, to the common laws and even maltreated with
particular ferocity those who by chance fell under the provisions of
any statute. As a compensation for the privileges which the royal
family enjoyed, they had to assume the risk of receiving the harshest
penalties of the laws. If any of them, therefore, fell under the rigor
of these laws, the senatorial aristocracy especially was ever eager to
enjoy the atrocious satisfaction of seeing one of the favored tortured
as much as or more than the ordinary man. There is no doubt, for
example, that the two Julias were more severely punished and disgraced
than other ladies of the aristocracy guilty of the same crime. And
Augustus was forced to waive his affection for them in order that it
might not be said, particularly in the senate, that his relatives
enjoyed special favors and that Augustus made laws only for others.

[Illustration: Statue of a young Roman woman.]

Yet as long as Augustus lived, he was a sufficient protection for his
relatives. He was, especially in the last twenty years of his life,
the object of an almost religious veneration. The great and stormy