Life of Augustus
capillum sibi comi ac malas labantes corrigi praecepit, et admissos amicos percontatus, ecquid
iis videretur mimum vitae commode transegisse, adiecit et clausulam:
ei de ti
echoi kalos to paignion, kroton dote
kai pantes hemas meta charas propempsate
Omnibus deinde dimissis, dum advenientes ab urbe de Drusi filia aegra interrogat, repente in
osculis Liviae et in hac voce defecit: Livia, nostri coniugii memor vive, ac vale! sortitus exitum
facilem et qualem semper optaverat. Nam fere quotiens audisset cito ac nullo cruciatu defunctum
quempiam, sibi et suis euthanasian similem (hoc enim et verbo uti solebat) precabatur. Unum
omnino ante efflatam animam signum alienatae mentis ostendit, quod subito pavefactus a
quadraginta se iuvenibus abripi questus est. Id quoque magis praesagium quam mentis deminutio
fuit, siquidem totidem milites praetoriani extulerunt eum in publicum.
town on his account; and calling for a mirror, he ordered his hair to be combed, and his shrunk
cheeks to be adjusted. Then asking his friends who were admitted into the room, Do you think
that I have acted my part on the stage of life well? he immediately subjoined,
If all be right, with joy your voices raise,
In loud applauses to the actor's praise.
After which, having dismissed them all, whilst he was inquiring of some persons who were just
arrived from Rome, concerning Drusus's daughter, who was in a bad state of health, he expired
suddenly, amidst the kisses of Livia, and with these words: Livia ! live mindful of our union;
and now, farewell! dying a very easy death, and such as he himself had always wished for. For
as often as he heard that any person had died quickly and without pain, he wished for himself
and his friends the like euthanasia (an easy death), for that was the word he made use of. He
betrayed but one symptom, before he breathed his last, of being delirious, which was this: he
was all on a sudden much frightened, and complained that he was carried away by forty men.
But this was rather a presage, than any delirium: for precisely that number of soldiers belonging
to the praetorian cohort, carried out his corpse.