OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

113

In the consideration of the imperial govern- chap.

ment, we have frequently mentioned the artful-

founder, under his well-known title of Augustus , Titles ofwhich was not, however, conferred upon him till ^adCaJarthe edifice was almost completed. The obscurename of Octavianus he derived from a mean fa-mily in the little town of Aricia. It was stainedwith the blood of the proscriptions; and he wasdesirous, had it been possible, to erase all me-mory of his former life. The illustrious sur-name of Caesar, he had assumed, as the adoptedson of the dictator; but he had too much goodsense, either to hope to be confounded, or towish to be compared, with that extraordinaryman. It was proposed in the senate, to dignifytheir minister with a new appellation; and aftera very serious discussion, that of Augustus waschosen, among several others, as being the mostexpressive of the character of peace and sancti-ty, which he uniformly affected. b Augustus wastherefore a personal, C<sesar a family distinction.

The former should naturally have expired withthe prince on whom it was bestowed; and how-ever the latter was diffused by adoption and fe-male alliance, Nero was the last prince who couldallege any hereditary claim to the honours of theJulian line. But, at the time of his death, thepractice of a century had inseparably connectedthose appellations with the imperial dignity, andthey have been preserved by a long succession of

b Dion Cassius , 1. liii, p, 710, with the curious annotations ofReymar.

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