August is so called from Augustus, who was Caesar II. Augustus means properly sacred, and somehow comes from Augur, the great Roman priest and prophet who was often, like most prophets, at once auger and bore. The Greek sebastos means the same, whence Sebastopol, a place recently taken by the French, according to their own account. Augustus’s name was really Octavius, so that his having the eight month of the year is all right enough (supposing that he had a right to have any month at all) a piece of exquisitely subtle classical criticism, which has hitherto escaped all the scholiasts. On the 19th of August the Imperial party called his friends together, and asked them if he had played his part well, to which they responded “Yes.” Then, demanding their applause he departed. The same inquiry is usually made by an august and imperial body here, at about the same date, but the reply is invariably the reverse.
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