will. His success depended on the temper of the people and the
peculiar circumstances of the time. His clearest title to greatness is
found in the fact that he compelled eighty millions of people to live
in peace for more than forty years, He made the world to centre on one
will, and the horrors which mark the reigns of his successors were the
legitimate result of the irresponsible sovereignty he established. He
formed his empire for the present, to the utter ignoring of the
future. Thus it would seem that the part he played was that of a
shrewd politician, rather than that of a wise statesman.




CHAPTER XXXVII.

THE AUGUSTAN AGE.


In speaking of Augustus, we must take into account the writers whose
names have given to his its brightest lustre, and have made the
AUGUSTAN AGE a synonym for excellence in culture, art, and government.
Virgil, Ovid, Horace, Livy, and a host of others, have given his reign
a brilliancy unmatched in time, which is rather enhanced than
diminished by the fame of Cicero, Caesar, and Sallust, who preceded,
and that of Tacitus, Seneca, and others, who followed; for they belong
to an epoch in which Augustus stands the central figure in all which
pertains to the arts of peace.

In literature the name of VIRGIL stands first in the Augustan age.
Born at Andes, near Mantua, 15 October, 70, he was educated at Cremona