rvive one another, and Antony stabbed himself. He was drawn up
into the mausoleum, and died in her arms. She was apprehended by the
officers of Octavian, and a few days afterward had an interview with the
conqueror. Her charms, however, failed in softening the colder heart of
Octavian. He only "bade her be of good cheer and fear no violence." Soon
afterward she learned that she was to be sent to Rome in three days'
time. This news decided her. On the following day she was found lying
dead on a golden couch in royal attire, with her two women lifeless at
her feet. The manner of her death was unknown. It was generally believed
that she had died by the bite of an asp, which a peasant had brought to
her in a basket full of figs. She was 39 years of age at the time of her
death. Egypt was made a Roman province. Octavian did not return to Rome
till B.C. 29, when he celebrated a threefold triumph over the
Pannonians, Dalmatians, and Egypt. The Temple of Janus was closed for
the third time in Roman history. The exhausted Roman world, longing for
repose, gladly acquiesced in the sole rule of Octavian. The Senate
conferred upon him numerous honors and distinctions, with the title of
Imperator for life.

Thus ended the Roman Republic, an end to which it had been tending for
the last hundred years. The corruption and demoralization of all classes
had rendered a Republic almost an impossibility; and the civil
dissensions of the state had again and again invested one or more
persons with despotic authority. The means which Augustus employed to
strengthen and maintain his power belong to a history of the Empire. He
proceeded with the caution which was his greatest characteristic. He
refused the names of King and Dictator, and was contented with the
simple appellation of _Princeps_, which had always been given to one of
the most distinguished members of the Senate. He received, however, in
B.C. 27, the novel title of _Augustus_, that is, "the sacred," or "the
venerable," which was afterward assumed by all the Roman emperors as a
surname. As Imperator he had the command of the Roman armies; and the
tribunitian and proconsular powers which the Senate conferred upon him
made him absolute master of the state. He made a new division of the
provinces, allowing the Senate to appoint the governors of those which
were quiet and long-settled, like Sicily, Achaia, and Asia, but
retaining for himself such as required the presence of an army, which