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Notes Do not display Latin text | Augustus, Chapter 18: In Egypt. | Next chapter Return to index Previous chapter |
At this time he [Note 1] had a desire to see the sarcophagus and body of Alexander the Great, which, for that purpose, were taken out of the cell in which they rested; and after viewing them for some time, he paid honours to the memory of that prince, by offering a golden crown and scattering flowers upon the body. Being asked if he wished to see the tombs of the Ptolemies also; he replied, I wished to see a king, not dead men. He reduced Egypt into the form of a province; and to render it more fertile, and more capable of supplying Rome with grain, he employed his army to scour the canals, into which the Nile, upon its rise, discharges itself; but which during a long series of years had become nearly choked up with mud. To perpetuate the glory of his victory at Actium, he built the city of Nicopolis on that part of the coast, and established games to be celebrated there every five years; enlarging likewise an old temple of Apollo, he ornamented with naval trophies the spot on which he had pitched his camp, and consecrated it to Neptune and Mars. Note 1: he = Augustus | Per idem tempus conditorium et corpus Magni Alexandria, cum prolatum et penetrali subiecisset oculis, corona aurea imposita ac floribus aspersis veneratus est, consultusque, num et Ptolemaeum inspicere vellet, regem se voluisse ait videre, non mortuos. Aegyptum in provinciae formam redactam ut feraciorem habilioremque annonae urbicae redderet, fossas omnis, in quas Nilus exaestuat, oblimatas longa vetustate militari opere detersit. Quoque Actiacae victoria memoria celebratior et in posterum esset, urbem Nicopolim apud Actium condidit ludosque illic quinquennales constituit et ampliato vetere Apollinis templo locum castrorum, quibus fuerat usus, exornatum navalibus spoliis Neptuno ac Marti consecravit. |