A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

454 The Revolution
faith those reports of the census which shall be given by
those delegates, and he shall see that their contents are
copied in the public records and that these records are
stored in the same place as the other public records in
which the census of the people shall have been registered.
VI.
Octavius
His birth.
Suetonius,
Augustus, 5.
(Augustus is
a title given
Octavius by
the senate.)
A ncient
World, 442 ff.
Ib.b.
His early
life.
Suetonius,
Augustus, 8.
(Octavius, afterward named) Augustus, was born in
the consulship of Marcus Tullius Cicero and Gaius Antonius,
a little before sunrise on the ninth day before the
Calends of October, on Oxhead Street, Palatine Hill, in
the place where now stands a chapel built a little after his
death and dedicated to him.
To this day his nursery may be seen in a villa belonging
to the family, in the suburbs of Velitras.
room, much like a pantry.
It is a very small
Into this place no person dares
intrude unless necessary, and then one enters with great
devotion, for a belief has long prevailed that those who
rashly intrude are seized with great horror and fear.
This
belief has recently been confirmed by a remarkable incident.
A new inhabitant of the house took up his lodging
in that apartment, either by chance or to try the truth
of the report.
hours after retiring,
In the course of the night, however, a few
he was thrown out by some sudden
violence, he knew not what, and was found stupefied,
lying in his coverlet in front of the chamber door.
When only four years old, Octavius lost his father; and
in his twelfth year he pronounced a funeral oration in
praise of his grandmother Julia. Four years later, when
Octavius put on the dress of manhood, Caesar in his triumph
over Africa honored him with several military rewards,
though on account of his youth he had taken no
part in the war.