to Augustus in writing.  When he found by them that the senators were ready to endure any form of tax rather than that in force, he changed it to a levy upon fields and houses.  And without telling how great it would be or in what way imposed, he immediately sent men in different directions to make a list of the possessions both of individuals and of towns.  His object was that they should fear losses on a large scale and so be content to pay the five per cent.  This actually happened, and so it was that Augustus settled the difficulty.

[-29-] At the spectacle of the Augustalia [6] which occurred on his birthday a madman seated himself in the chair which was dedicated to Julius Caesar, and taking his crown put it on.  This happening disturbed everybody, for it seemed to have some bearing upon Augustus, as, indeed, proved true.

[A.D. 14 (a. u. 767)]

For the following year, when Sextus Apuleius and Sextus Pompeius were consuls, Augustus set out for Campania and after superintending the games at Naples soon passed away in Nola.  Omens had appeared to him, not few by any means nor difficult to interpret, that pointed to this end.  The sun suffered a total eclipse and most of the sky seemed to be on fire.  The forms of glowing logs appeared falling from it and bloody comet stars were seen.  When a senate-meeting had been announced on account of his sickness in order that they might offer prayers, the senate-house was found closed and an owl sitting upon it hooted.  A thunderbolt fell upon his image standing on the Capitol and erased the first letter of the name of Caesar.  This led the seers to declare that on the hundredth day after that he should attain to some heavenly condition.  They made this deduction from the fact that the letter mentioned signifies “hundred” among the Latins and all the rest of the name means “god” among the Etruscans.  These signs appeared while he was still alive.  Men of later times called attention to the case of the consuls and of Servius Sulpicius Galba.  The former officials were in some way related to Augustus, and Galba, who afterward came to power, was at this time on the very first day of the year enrolled among the iuvenes.  Since he was the first of the Romans to become sovereign after the race of Augustus had passed away, it gave occasion to some to say that this coincidence had not been due to mere accident, but had been brought about by some divine counsel.

[-30-] So Augustus fell sick and died.  Livia incurred some suspicion regarding the manner of his death, inasmuch as he had secretly sailed over to the island to meet Agrippa and thought to reconcile everything in a way satisfactory to all.  She was afraid, some say, that Augustus would bring him back to make him sovereign, and so smeared with poison some figs that were still on trees from which Augustus was wont to gather fruit with his own hands.  So she ate the ones that had not been smeared, and pointed out the poisoned ones to him.  From this