After the fall of the second Julia up to the time of his death, which occurred August 23, in the year 14 A.D., Augustus had no further serious griefs over the ladies of his family.  The great misfortune of the last years of his government was a public misfortune—­the defeat of Varus and the loss of Germany.  But with what sadness must he have looked back in the last weeks of his long life upon the history of his family!  All those whom he had loved were torn from him before their time by a cruel destiny:  Drusus, Caius, and Lucius Caesar by death; the Julias by the cruelty of the law and by an infamy worse than death.  The unique grandeur to which he had attained had not brought fortune to his family.  He was old, almost alone, a weary survivor among the tombs of those dear to him who had been untimely lost through fate, and with the still sadder memories of those who had been buried in a living grave of infamy.  His only associates were Tiberius, with whom he had become reconciled; Antonia, his sweet and highly respected daughter-in-law; and Livia, the woman whom destiny had placed at his side in one of the most critical moments of his life, the faithful companion through fifty-two years of his varied and wonderful fortune.  We can therefore understand why it was that, as the historians tell us, the last words of the old emperor should have been a tender expression of gratitude to his faithful wife.  “Farewell, farewell, Livia!  Remember our long union!” With these words, rendering homage to the wife whom custom and the law had made the faithful and loving companion, and not the docile slave, of her husband, he ended his life like a true Roman.

If the family of Augustus had undergone grievous vicissitudes during his life, its situation became even more dangerous after his death.  The historian who sets out with the preconceived notion that Augustus founded a monarchy, and imagines that his family was destined to enjoy the privileges which in all monarchies are accorded the sovereign’s house, will never arrive at a complete understanding of the story of the first empire.  His family did, to be sure, always enjoy a privileged status, if not at law, at least in fact, and through the very force of circumstances; but it was not for naught that Rome had been for many centuries an aristocratic republic in which all the families of the nobility had considered themselves equal, and had been subject to the same laws.  The aristocracy avenged itself upon the imperial family for the privileges which the lofty dignity of its head assured it by giving it hatred instead of respect.  They suspected and calumniated all of its members, and with a malicious joy subjected them, whenever possible, to the common laws and even maltreated with particular ferocity those who by chance fell under the provisions of any statute.  As a compensation for the privileges which the royal family enjoyed, they had to assume the risk of receiving the harshest penalties of the