Augustus himself waged war upon the Astures and upon the Cantabri at the same time.  These refused to yield, because of confidence in their position on the heights, and would not come to close quarters owing to their inferior numbers and the fact that most of them were javelin throwers, but they caused him much trouble, whenever he made any movement, by always seizing the higher ground in advance and placing ambuscades in depressions and in wooded spots.  He found himself therefore quite unable to cope with the difficulty, and having fallen ill from weariness and worry retired to Tarraco, and there remained sick.  Meantime Gaius Antistius fought against them, accomplishing considerable, not because he was a better general than Augustus, but because the barbarians felt contempt for him and thus joined battle with the Romans and were defeated.  In this way he captured some points, and afterward Titus[9] Carisius took Lancia, the principal fortress of the Astures, which had been abandoned, and won to his side many towns.

[-26-] At the conclusion of this war Augustus dismissed the more aged of his soldiers and gave them a city to settle in Lusitania,—­the so-called Augusta Emerita.  For those who were still of the military age he arranged some spectacles right among the legions, through the agency of Tiberius and Marcellus as aediles.  To Juba he gave portions of Gaetulia in return for the prince’s ancestral domain (for the majority of the inhabitants had been enrolled as members of the Roman polity), and also the possessions of Bocchus and Bogud.  On the death of Amyntas he did not entrust the country to the children of the deceased but made it a part of the subject territory.  Thus Gaul together with Lycaonia obtained a Roman governor.  The regions of Pamphylia formerly assigned to Amyntas were restored to their own district.—­About this same time Marcus Vinicius in making reprisals against the Celtae, because they had arrested and destroyed Romans who had entered their country to have friendly dealings with them, himself gave the name of imperator to Augustus.  For this and for the other achievements of the time a triumph was voted to Caesar; but as he did not care to celebrate it, an arch bearing a trophy was constructed in the Alps for his glory and authority was given him to wear always on the first day of the year both the crown and the triumphal garb.  After these successes in the wars Augustus closed the precinct of Janus, which had been opened because of the strife.

[-27-] Meanwhile Agrippa had been beautifying the city at his own expense.  First, in honor of the naval victories he built over the so-called Portico of Neptune and lent it further brilliance by the painting of the Argonauts.  Secondly, he repaired the Laconian sudatorium.  He gave the name Laconian to the gymnasium because the Lacedaemonians had, in those days, a greater reputation than anybody else for stripping naked and exercising smeared with oil.