Status Updates From Εγώ, ο Κλαύδιος

“Augustus was over seventy years of age. Until recently nobody had thought of him as an old man. But these new public and private calamities made a great change in him. His temper grew uncertain and he found it increasingly difficult to welcome chance visitors with his usual affability or to keep his patience at public banquets. He was even inclined to be short-tempered with Livia.”

“The real reason for her banishment was that she was just about to bear another child, which if it were a boy would be a great-grandson of Augustus, and unrelated to Livia; Livia was taking no risks now. Julilla had one son already, but he was a delicate, timorous, slack-twisted fellow and could be disregarded.“

“…famine brought rioting, and rioting brought arson: whole streets of shops were set on fire at night by half-starved looters…Augustus organized a brigade of night-watchmen, in seven divisions, to prevent this sort of thing…A new tax was imposed about this time to provide money for the German wars, and what with the famine, the fires, and the taxes, the commons began to get restless and openly discuss revolution.”