The expedition to Arabia Felix, of which an account is given by his friend Strabo, as well as by Cassius Dio and Pliny the Elder, has turned out to be a complete failure.

The burning heat of the sun, the bad water, and the want of every thing necessary to support life, has produced a disease among the soldiers that is altogether unknown to the Romans, and destroys the greater part of the army; so that the Arabs are not only not subdued, but succeed in driving the Romans even from those parts of the country which they had possessed before.

Aelius Gallus has spent six months on his march into the country, on account of his treacherous guide, while he effects his retreat in sixty days, obliged to return to Alexandria, having lost the greater part of his force.

Aelius Gallus is recalled by Augustus for failure to pacify the Kushites and is succeeded as prefect by Gaius Petronius, a military genius and close friend of Augustus.

Emerita Augusta (Mérida), in southern Hispania, is settled with the emeriti of the Legio V Alaudae and Legio X Gemina legions).

Between 28 and 24 BCE, Augustus' military campaigns successfully pacify all of Hispania, bringing the entire Iberian Peninsula under Roman rule. To solidify control in the north, the Romans establish key cities, including Asturica Augusta (modern Astorga) and ...

...Bracara Augusta (modern Braga), further integrating the region into the Roman administrative and urban network.

A year after his arrival in Hispania, Augustus is forced to retire to Tarraco (modern Tarragona), presumably due to illness. However, the Cantabrian Wars continue for more than a decade, despite Rome having conquered all of Gallaecia in under seven years.

This war is one of only two military campaigns personally led by Augustus against non-Roman peoples, the other being his campaign against the Illyrians (35–33 BCE).

A Brutal War and Cantabrian Defiance

In an unusual strategy, the Romans refuse to take prisoners, intensifying the brutality of the conflict. The Cantabrians, unwilling to accept slavery, uphold a tradition of mass suicide—choosing to die by the sword, by fire, or through poisoning.

According to Silius Italicus, they prepare a potent poison from yew tree seeds, a plant deeply rooted in Celtic mythology.

The Roman geographer Strabo describes their extraordinary disregard for death and suffering. He notes that Cantabrians sang hymns of victory even as they were crucified, viewing death in battle as the ultimate triumph of a free warrior.

Herod in 23 BCE takes as his his third wife the daughter of the priest Simon Boethus, Mariamne II, esteemed (according to Josephus) as the most beautiful woman of the time.

Herod immediately deprives Jesus the son of Phabet of the high priesthood, and confers that dignity on Simon.

He builds a palace in Jerusalem and …

…constructs the fortress Herodion (Herodium) atop a volcano-like hill with a truncated cone located twelve kilometers (seven and a half miles) south of Jerusalem, near the city of Bethlehem in the present West Bank.

Agrippa's friendship with Augustus seems to have been clouded by the jealousy of Augustus' nephew Marcus Claudius Marcellus, which was probably fomented by the intrigues of Livia, the third wife of Augustus, who fears his influence over her husband.

Roman historians after Augustus' death will claim that Agrippa's sojourn at Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, from which he administers affairs in the East as deputy princeps, was the result of such jealousy.

Agrippa sends only his legate to Syria, while he himself remains at Lesbos and governs by proxy, though he may have been on a secret mission to negotiate with the Parthians about the return of the Roman legions standards that they hold.

On the death of Marcellus, which takes place within a year of his exile, Agrippa is recalled to Rome by Augustus, who finds he cannot dispense with his services.

In the context of the crisis in 23 BCE it seems unlikely that, when facing significant opposition and about to make a major political climb down, Augustus would place a man in exile in charge of the largest body of Roman troops.

It is more probable that Agrippa's 'exile' is the careful political positioning of a loyal lieutenant in command of a significant army as a backup plan in case the settlement plans of 23 BCE fail and Augustus needs military support. (The nature of Agrippa's constitutional power at this time is controversial. It will be argued whether the Senate had in 23 given him an imperium greater than that of any other proconsul, or provincial governor, in the East.)

Horace completes three books of eighty-eight Odes, his most admired work, in 23 BCE.

Admitting frequently to his forty years, he views his and others' enthusiasms, whether amorous or political, with ironic tolerance.

In his call for temperate pleasures, he rejects both unbridled passion and totally dispassionate, impersonal preoccupation with monetary matters.

Speaking with an utterly controlled voice of reason, Horace captures the complex problems of the middle-aged and champions an ideal of rational contentment.

Following Antony's rejection of Octavia, their divorce, and his eventual suicide in 30 BCE, Octavia had become sole caretaker of her five children—two by her marriage to Antony and three by an earlier marriage to Gaius Claudius Marcellus.

Some of the implications of the settlement of 27 BCE are becoming apparent by 23 BCE.

Augustus' holding of an annual consulate makes his dominance over the Roman political system too obvious, while at the same time halving the opportunities for others to achieve what is still purported to be the head of the Roman state.

Further, his desire to have his nephew Marcus Claudius Marcellus follow in his footsteps and eventually assume the Principate in his turn is causing political problems and alienating his three biggest supporters—Agrippa, Maecenas and Livia.

Feeling pressure from his own core group of adherents, Augustus turns to the Senate in an attempt to bolster his support there, especially with the Republicans; after his choice for co-consul in 23 BCE, Aulus Terentius Varro Murena, dies before taking office, he appoints the noted Republican Calpurnius Piso, who had fought against Julius Caesar and supported Cassius and Brutus.