times of payment. In some of his bequests he went as far as twenty
thousand sesterces, for the payment of which he allowed a twelvemonth;
alleging for this procrastination the scantiness of his estate; and
declaring that not more than a hundred and fifty millions of sesterces
would come to his heirs: notwithstanding that during the twenty preceding
years, he had received, in legacies from his friends, the sum of fourteen
hundred millions; almost the whole of which, with his two paternal
estates [264], and others which had been left him, he had spent in the
service of the state. He left orders that the two Julias, his daughter
and grand-daughter, if anything happened to them, should not be buried in
his tomb [265]. With regard to the three codicils before-mentioned, in
one of them he gave orders about his funeral; another contained a summary
of his acts, which he intended should be inscribed on brazen plates, and
placed in front of his mausoleum; in the third he had drawn up a concise
account of the state of the empire; the number of troops enrolled, what
money there was in the treasury, the revenue, and arrears of taxes; to
which were added the names of the freedmen and slaves from whom the
several accounts might be taken.

* * * * * *

(148) OCTAVIUS CAESAR, afterwards Augustus, had now attained to the same
position in the state which had formerly been occupied by Julius Caesar;
and though he entered upon it by violence, he continued to enjoy it
through life with almost uninterrupted tranquillity. By the long
duration of the late civil war, with its concomitant train of public
calamities, the minds of men were become less averse to the prospect of
an absolute government; at the same time that the new emperor, naturally
prudent and politic, had learned from the fate of Julius the art of
preserving supreme power, without arrogating to himself any invidious