Note 134 — LETTER I. (continued 2)

A full account of the inscription is to be found in Merivale’s History of the Romans, chap. xxxviii. ‘Augustus employed the next few months in compiling a succinct memorial of his public acts to be preserved in the archives of the state, a truly imperial work, and probably unique of its kind. The archives of Rome have long mouldered in the dust, but a ruined wall in a remote corner of her empire, engraved with this precious document, has been faithful to its trust for eighteen hundred years, and still presents us with one of the most curious records of antiquity. The inscription, which may still be read in the portico of a temple at Ancyra, attests the energy, sagacity, and fortune of the second Cæsar in a detailed register of all his public undertakings through a period of fifty-eight years,’ &c. In a note Dr. Merivale states that it was first copied by Busbecq in 1544. This is incorrect; Busbecq had it copied by his servants, and the date should be 1555.