Augustus was impartial in his harsh judgments. When his daughter, Julia, his child by Scribonia, was caught in adultery, she suffered the same fate as any other daughter -- exile [See Dio 55.10.12-16; Suet. Aug. 65.1, Tib. 11.4; Tac. Ann. 1.53.1; Vell. Pat. 2.100.2-5.].
Literature
Augustus was restrained in his personal use of power. He tried not to force people to do his will and left at least the appearance of choice: Augustus wanted an epic poem written about his life. While it's true that he eventually got one, he didn't punish those in his literary circle who turned him down. Augustus and his colleague, the wealthy Etruscan Maecenas (70 B.C.- A.D. 8), encouraged and supported members of the circle, including Propertius, Horace, and Vergil. Propertius didn't need the financial input, but more than that, he wasn't interested in writing epic. His shallow apology to Augustus was on the order of "I would if I could." Horace, son of a freedman, needed the patronage. Maecenas gave him a Sabine farm so he could work at leisure. At last, as unencumbered by poverty as he was now burdened by obligations, Horace wrote the Carmen Saeculare and Epodes Book 4 to glorify the emperor. The Carmen Saeculare was a festival hymn composed to be performed at the ludi saeculares ('secular games'). Vergil, who likewise received remuneration, kept promising to write the epic. He died, however, before finishing The Aeneid, which is considered an ambitious attempt to join the legendary history of Rome with the glorious and noble present embodied in the Emperor Augustus.[See "Horace and Augustus," by Chester G. Starr. The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 90, No. 1 (Jan., 1969), pp. 58-64.]
Tibullus and Ovid, two later writers in Augustus' literary circle, were under the patronage of Messalla, rather than Maecenas. Independently wealthy, highly successful Ovid, who was considered the embodiment of Augustan poetry, mocked everything. He was irreverent towards the new morality, even going so far as to write what could be viewed as guidebooks to adultery. Eventually he went too far and was exiled by Augustus to Tomi where Ovid spent the rest of his life pleading for recall. [See DIR Augustus.]
A Hard Act To Follow
Augustus, living under the shadow of his adoptive father's assassination, was aware that the appearance of dictatorship could spell his doom. As he amassed power, Augustus took care to make it look constitutional, but all the while, power was accruing in the hands of one man -- rich, popular, smart, and long-lived. His was a hard act to follow and with the reduction of power in the Senate and people, the time was ripe for autocracy.The two passages quoted on the preceding page, the Asian Decree, which calls Augustus the "bringer of overwhelming benefaction" and Tacitus' evaluation of him as a man who used bribes, judicial murder, and "absorbed the functions of the senate, the officials, and even the law," could hardly be more different, yet they equally reflect near contemporary attitudes towards Augustus.
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