in Italy and important egos were gathered
in Rome. Some half dozen strong souls, under the Gods' special
agent Octavian, had gone in there to do the work; but the
Crest-Wave had flowed into Rome when Rome was already vice-rotten;
and how could she expect to run her whole thirteen decades a great
and ruling people? None of those strong souls could last out the
whole time. Octavian himself, should he live to be eighty, would
die and not see the cycle finished: twenty years of it would
remain--to be filled by one worthy to succeed him, or how
should his work escape being undone? The world must be made
homogensous, and Rome not its conqueror and cruel mistress, but
its well-respected heart and agreed-on center; and all this must
be accomplished, and established firmly, before her cyclic
greatness had gone elsewhere:--that is, before 37 A.D.

The Republic, as we have seen, had had its method of ruling the
provinces: it was to send out young profligates to fleece and
exploit them, and make them hate Rome. This must be changed, and
a habit formed of ruling for the benefit of the subject peoples.
Two or three generations of provincials must have grown up in
love with Rome before the end of the cycle, or the Empire would
then inevitably break. By 37 A.D., the Crest-Wave would have
left Italy, and would be centering in Spain. Spain, hating Rome,
would shake off the Roman yoke; she would have the men to do
it;--and the rest of the world would follow suit. Even if Spain
should set herself to the Gods' work of union-making, what path
should she take towards it? Only that of conquest would be open;
and how should she hope to conquer, and then wipe out the evil
traces of her conquering, and create a homogeneity, all within
her possible cycle of thirteen decades? Rome's great opportunity
came, simply because Rome had done the conquering before ever the
Crest-Wave struck her; in days when the Crest-Wave was hardly in
Europe at all. Even so, it would be a wonder if all could be
finished in the few years that remained.

By Rome it never could have been done at all: it was the office
of a Man, not of a state or nation. The Man who should do it,
must do it from Rome: and Rome had first to be put into such
condition as to be capable of being used. It devolved upon
Augustus to do that first, or his greater work would be
impossible. He had to win Rome to acquiescence in himself as
Princeps. So his primary need was a pe