the reign of Augustus, chiefly towards his latter end, and of entering
afterwards more fully into that of Tiberius and the other three; unbiassed
as I am in this undertaking by any resentment, or any affection; all the
influences of these personal passions being far from me.

When, after the fall of Brutus and Cassius, there remained none to fight
for the Commonwealth, and her arms were no longer in her own hands; when
Sextus Pompeius was utterly defeated in Sicily, Lepidus bereft of his
command. Marc Anthony slain; and of all the chiefs of the late Dictator's
party, only Octavius his nephew was left; he put off the invidious name of
Triumvir, and styling himself Consul, pretended that the jurisdiction
attached to the Tribuneship was his highest aim, as in it the protection
of the populace was his only view: but when once he had laid his
foundations wider, secured the soldiery by liberality and donations,
gained the people by store of provisions, and charmed all by the blessings
and sweetness of public peace, he began by politic gradations to exalt
himself, to extend his domination, and with his own power to consolidate
the authority of the Senate, jurisdiction of the Magistrate, and weight
and force of the Laws; usurpations in which he was thwarted by no man: all
the bravest Republicans and his most daring foes were slain in battle, or
gleaned up by the late sanguinary proscriptions; and for the surviving
Nobility, they were covered with wealth, and distinguished with public
honours, according to the measure of their debasement, and promptness to
bondage. Add, that all the creatures of this new Power, who in the loss of
public freedom had gained private fortunes, preferred a servile condition,
safe and possessed, to the revival of ancient liberty with personal peril.
Neither were the Provinces averse to the present Revolution, and
Sovereignty of one; since under that of the people and Senate they had
lived in constant fear and mistrust, sorely rent and harassed as they were
by the raging competition amongst our Grandees, as well as by the grievous