ut this must be said: the great
Augustus could never have done his great work so greatly had he
not had at his side the gracious figure of the empress Livia,--
during the fifty-two years that remained to him his serenest
counselor and closest friend.

And then--there was the boy: I believe the most important
element in the transaction.

His father died soon afterwards, and he came to live in the
palace, under the care of his mother,--and of Augustus; who had
now within his own family circle the two egos with whom he was
most nearly concerned, and without whom his work would have been
impossible. So I think we may put aside the idea that the
marriage with Livia was an 'affair of the heart,' as they call
it:--a matter of personal and passional atraction. He was guided
to it, as always, by his _Genius,_ and followed the promptings of
the Gods.

But,--Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. The divorced
Scribonia never forgave Augustus. She became the center of a
faction in society that hated him, hated Livia, loathed and
detested the whole Claudian line. There must have been bad blood
in Scribonia. Her daughter Julia became profligate. Of Julia's
five children, Agrippa Postumus went mad through his vices;
Julia inherited her mother's tendencies, and came to a like end.
Agrippina, a bitter and violent woman, became the evil genius of
the next reign. Of this Agrippina's children, Drusus and
Caligula went mad and her daughter was the mother of the madman
Nero. To me the record suggest this: that the marriage with,
not the divorce of, Scribonia was a grave mistake on the part of
Octavian; bringing down four generations of terible karma. He
was afloat in dangerous seas at that time, and a mere boy to take
arms against them: did he, trusting in material alliances and
the aid of Sextus Pirate, forget for once to trust in his
_Genius_ within? We have seen how the lines of pain became
deeply graven on his face during the years that followed Caesar's
death. A high soul, incarnating, must take many risks; and
before it has found itself and tamed the new personality, may
have sown griefs for itself to be reaped through many lives. The
descendants of Augustus and Scribonia were the bane of Augustus
and of Rome. But Livia was his good star, and always added to
his peace.

But now, back to the household on the Palatine, in the thirties B.C.

Julia (Scribonia's daughter), pert, witty, bold, and daring, was
the