people, a free distribution of corn relieved the
indigent, literature was encouraged, the arts flourished with new vigor,
and the people and the Senate, pleased with present tranquillity,
bestowed upon Augustus the title of the Father of his Country.

Several conspiracies, however, alarmed the emperor. In B.C. 30, Lepidus,
a son of the former triumvir, had formed a plot for his destruction,
which was detected by Maecenas, and its author put to death. Another, in
B.C. 22, was also unsuccessful. In A.D. 4, Cinna, a grandson of Pompey,
was discovered in a similar attempt, and was pardoned at the request of
Livia; he was afterward even raised to the consulship. But so
intimidated was Augustus by the fear of assassination, that, toward the
close of his life, he never went to a meeting of the Senate without
wearing a breastplate under his robe.

The military enterprises of Augustus were in general successful. He led
an army into Spain, and subdued the Cantabri and Astures, returning to
Rome B.C. 24. While in Spain he founded several cities, among others
Augusta Emerita (Merida), and Caesar Augusta (Saragossa). Phraates, king
of the Parthians, fearful of the Roman arms, gave up the Roman standards
taken from Crassus and Antony, B.C. 20, and this event was celebrated by
striking medals and by the verses of the Augustan poets. The emperor
hung up the standards in a temple which he had built at Rome to Mars,
the Avenger.

Tiberius and Drusus, the two sons of Livia by her former husband, were
distinguished commanders, and gained many victories over the Germans;
but, in B.C. 9, Drusus died from a fall from his horse. Tiberius then
took the command of the army, and gained a great victory over the
Sigambri. He returned to Rome B.C. 6, and triumphed; was saluted
Imperator, and received the tribunitian power for five years.

Soon after, indignant at the dissolute conduct of his wife Julia, and
the honors bestowed upon her sons by Agrippa, he withdrew to Rhodes,
where he remained for seven years, a discontented exile. He returned to
Rome in A.D. 2, and, two years after, was adopted by Augustus as his
son. He next conquered a large part of Germany, and defeated several
large bodies of the Marcomanni in what is now the territory of Bohemia.

But, while he was employed upon this expedition, Arminius, the German
hero, excited an insurrection of his countrymen against the cruel
Romans, cut off Varus, their leader, with his army, and fill