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He revised the lists of the people district by district, and to prevent the commons
from being called away from their occupations too often because of the distributions of
grain, he determined to give out tickets for four months' supply three times a year; but
at their urgent request he allowed a return to the old custom of receiving a share every
month. He also revived the old time election privileges, trying to put a stop to bribery
by numerous penalties, and distributing to his fellow members of the Fabian and Scaptian
tribes [Augustus was a member of the latter because of his connection with the Octavian
family; with the former, through his adoption into the Julian gens] a thousand
sesterces a man from his own purse on the day of the elections, to keep them from looking
for anything from any of the candidates. Considering it also of great importance to keep
the people pure and unsullied by any taint of foreign or servile blood, he was most chary
of conferring Roman citizenship and set a limit to manumission. When Tiberius requested
citizenship for a Grecian dependent of his, Augustus wrote in reply that he would not
grant it unless the man appeared in person and convinced him that he had reasonable
grounds for the request; and when Livia asked it for a Gaul from a tributary province, he
refused, offering instead freedom from tribute, and declaring that he would more willingly
suffer a loss to his privy purse than the prostitution of the honour of Roman citizenship.
Not content with making it difficult for slaves to acquire freedom, and still more so for
them to attain full rights, by making careful provision as to the number, condition, and
status of those who were manumitted, he added the proviso that no one who had ever been
put in irons or tortured should acquire citizenship by any grade of freedom [i.e.,
even by iusta libertas, which conferred citizenship; slaves who had been punished
for crimes or disgraceful acts became on manumission dediticii, or "prisoners
of war"]. He desired also to revive the ancient fashion of dress, and once when he
saw in an assembly a throng of men in dark cloaks, he cried out indignantly, "Behold
them Romans, lords of the world, the nation clad in the toga," [Verg., Aen.
I.282], and he directed the aediles never again to allow anyone to appear in the Forum or
its neighbourhood except in the toga and without a cloak.
XLI. He often showed generosity to all classes when occasion offered. For example, by
bringing the royal treasures to Rome in his Alexandrian triumph he made ready money so
abundant, that the rate of interest fell, and the value of real estate rose greatly; and
after that, whenever there was an excess of funds from the property of those who had been
condemned, he loaned it without interest for fixed periods to any who could give security
for double the amount. He increased the property qualification for Senators, requiring one
million two hundred thousand sesterces, instead of eight hundred thousand, and making up
the amount for those who did not possess it. He often gave largess [congiarium, strictly
a distribution of oil, came to be used of any largess] to the people, but usually of
different sums: now four hundred, now three hundred, now two hundred and fifty sesterces a
man; and he did not even exclude young boys, though it had been usually for them to
receive a share only after the age of eleven. In times of scarcity too he often
distributed grain to each man at a very low figure, sometimes for nothing, and he doubled
the money tickets [the tesserae nummulariae were small tablets or round hollow
balls of wood, marked with numbers; they were distributed to the people instead of money
and entitled the holder to receive the sum inscribed upon them---grain, oil, and various
commodities were distributed by similar tesserae].
XLII. But to show that he was a prince who desired the public welfare rather than
popularity, when the people complained of the scarcity and high price of wine, he sharply
rebuked them by saying: "My son-in-law Agrippa has taken good care, by building
several aqueducts, that men shall not go thirsty." Again, when the people demanded
largess which he had in fact promised, he replied: "I am a man of my word"; but
when they called for one which had not been promised, he rebuked them in a proclamation
for their shameless impudence, and declared that he would not give it, even though he was
intending to do so. With equal dignity and firmness, when he had announced a distribution
of money and found that many had been manumitted and added to the list of citizens, he
declared that those to whom no promise had been made should receive nothing, and gave the
rest less than he had promised, to make the appointed sum suffice. Once indeed in a time
of great scarcity when it was difficult to find a remedy, he expelled from the city the
slaves that were for sale, as well as the schools of gladiators, all foreigners with the
exception of physicians and teachers, and a part of the household slaves; and when grain
at last became more plentiful, he writes: "I was strongly inclined to do away forever
with distributions of grain, because through dependence on them agriculture was neglected;
but I did not carry out my purpose, feeling sure that they would one day be renewed
through desire for popular favor." But from that time on he regulated the practice
with no less regard for the interests of the farmers and grain-dealers than for those of
the populace.
XLIII. He surpassed all his predecessors in the frequency, variety, and magnificence of
his public shows. He says that he gave games four times in his own name and twenty-three
times for other magistrates, who were either away from Rome or lacked means. He gave them
sometimes in all the wards and on many stages with actors in all languages and combats of
gladiators not only in the Forum or the amphitheatre, but in the Circus and in the Saepta;
sometimes, however, he gave nothing except a fight with wild beasts. He gave athletic
contests too in the Campus Martius, erecting wooden seats; also a seafight, constructing
an artificial lake near the Tiber, where the grove of the Caesars now stands. On such
occasions he stationed guards in various parts of the city, to prevent it from falling a
prey to footpads because of the few people who remained at home. In the Circus he
exhibited charioteers, rumlers, and slayers of wild animals, who were sometimes young men
of the highest rank. Besides he gave frequent performances of the game of Troya by older
and younger boys, thinking it a time-honoured and worthy custom for the flower of the
nobility to become known in this way. When Nonius Asprenas was lamed by a fall while
taking part in this game, he presented him with a golden necklace and allowed him and his
descendants to bear the surname Torquatus. But soon afterwards he gave up that form of
entertainment, because Asinius Pollio the orator complained bitterly and angrily in the
Senate of an accident to his grandson Aeserninus, who also had broken his leg. He
sometimes employed even Roman knights in scenic and gladiatorial performances, but only
before it was forbidden by decree of the Senate. After that he exhibited no one of
respectable parentage, with the exception of a young man named Lycius, whom he showed
merely as a curiosity; for he was less than two feet tall, weighed but seventeen pounds,
yet had a stentorian voice. He did however on the day of one of the shows make a display
of the first Parthian hostages that had ever been sent to Rome, by leading them through
the middle of the arena and placing them in the second row above his own seat.
Furthermore, if anything rare and worth seeing was ever brought to the city, it was his
habit to make a special exhibit of it in any convenient place on days when no shows were
appointed. For example a rhinoceros in the Saepta, a tiger on the stage and a snake of
fifty cubits in front of the Comitium. It chanced that at the time of the games which he
had vowed to give in the circus, he was taken ill and headed the sacred procession lying
in a litter; again, at the opening of the games with which he dedicated the theatre of
Marcellus, it happened that the joints of his curule chair gave way and he fell on his
back. At the games for his grandsons, when the people were in a panic for fear the theatre
should fall, and he could not calm them or encourage them in any way, he left his own
place and took his seat in the part which appeared most dangerous.
XLIV. He put a stop by special regulations to the disorderly and indiscriminate fashion
of viewing the games, through exasperation at the insult to a senator, to whom no one
offered a seat in a crowded house at some largely attended games in Puteoli. In
consequence of this the Senate decreed that, whenever any public show was given anywhere,
the first row of seats should be reserved for Senators; and at Rome he would not allow the
envoys of the free and allied nations to sit in the orchestra, since he was informed that
even freedmen were sometimes appointed. He separated the soldiery from the people. He
assigned special seats to the married men of the commons, to boys under age their own
section and the adjoining one to their preceptors; and he decreed that no one wearing a
dark cloak should sit in the middle of the house. He would not allow women to view even
the gladiators except from the upper seats, though it had been the custom for men and
women to sit together at such shows. Only the Vestal virgins were assigned a place to
themselves, opposite the praetor's tribunal. As for the contests of the athletes, he
excluded women from them so strictly, that when a contest between a pair of boxers had
been called for at the games in honour of his appointment as pontifex maximus, he
postponed it until early the following day, making proclamation that it was his desire
that women should not come to the theatre before the fifth hour.
XLV. He himself usually watched the games in the Circus from the upper rooms of his
friends and freedmen, but sometimes from the imperial box, and even in company with his
wife and children. He was sometimes absent for several hours, and now and then for whole
days, making his excuses and appointing presiding officers to take his place. But whenever
he was present, he gave his entire attention to the performance, either to avoid the
censure to which he realized that his father Caesar had been generally exposed, because he
spent his time in reading or answering letters and petitions; or from his interest and
pleasure in the spectacle, which he never denied but often frankly confessed. Because of
this he used to offer special prizes and numerous valuable gifts from his own purse at
games given by others, and he appeared at no contest in the Grecian fashion [i.e., those
given at Rome in the Greek language and dress, sometimes by Greek actors] without making a
present to each of the participants according to his deserts. He was especially given to
watching boxers, particularly those of Latin birth, not merely such as were recognized and
classed as professionals, whom he was wont to match even with Greeks, but the common
untrained townspeople that fought rough and tumble and without skill in the narrow
streets. In fine, he honoured with his interest all classes of performers who took part in
the public shows; maintained the privileges of the athletes and even increased them;
forbade the matching of gladiators without the right of appeal for quarter; and deprived
the magistrates of the power allowed them by an ancient law of punishing actors anywhere
and everywhere, restricting it to the time of games and to the theatre. Nevertheless he
exacted the severest discipline in the contests in the wrestling halls and the combats of
the gladiators. In particular he was so strict in curbing the lawlessness of the actors,
that when he learned that Stephanio, an actor of Roman plays, was waited on by a matron
with hair cut short to look like a boy, he had him whipped with rods through the three
theatres and then banished him. Hylas, a pantomimic actor, was publicly scourged in the
atrium of his own house, on complaint of a praetor, and Pylades was expelled from the city
and from Italy as well, because by pointing at him with his finger he turned all eyes upon
a spectator who was hissing him.
XLVI. After having thus set the city and its affairs in order, he added to the
population of Italy by personally establishing twenty-eight colonies; furnished many parts
of it with public buildings and revenues; and even gave it, at least to some degree, equal
rights and dignity with the city of Rome, by devising a kind of votes which the members of
the local Senate were to cast in each colony for candidates for the city offices and send
under seal to Rome against the day of the elections. To keep up the supply of men of rank
and induce the commons to increase and multiply, he admitted to the equestrian military
careera those who were recommended by any town, while to those of the commons who could
lay claim to legitimate sons or daughters when he made his rounds of the districts he
distributed a thousand sesterces for each child.
XLVII. The stronger provinces, which could neither easily nor safely be governed by
annual magistrates, he took to himself; the others he assigned to proconsular governors
selected by lot. But he changed some of them at times from one class to the other, and
often visited many of both sorts. Certain of the cities which had treaties with Rome, but
were on the road to ruin through their lawlessness, he deprived of their independence; he
relieved others that were overwhelmed with debt, rebuilt some which had been destroyed by
earthquakes, and gave Latin rights or full citizenship to such as could point to services
rendered the Roman people. I believe there is no province, excepting only Africa and
Sardinia, which he did not visit; and he was planning to cross to these from Sicily after
his defeat of Sextus Pompeius, but was prevented by a series of violent storms, and later
had neither opportunity nor occasion to make the voyage.
XLVIII. Except in a few instances he restored the kingdoms of which he gained
possession by the right of conquest to those from whom he had taken them or joined them
with other foreign nations. He also united the kings with whom he was in alliance by
mutual ties, and was very ready to propose or favour intermarriages or friendships among
them. He never failed to treat them all with consideration as integral parts of the
empire, regularly appointing a guardian for such as were too young to rule or whose minds
were affected, until they grew up or recovered; and he brought up the children of many of
them and educated them with his own.
XLIX. Of his military forces he assigned the legions and auxiliaries to the various
provinces, stationed a fleet at Misenum and another at Ravenna, to defend the Upper and
Lower seas, and employed the remainder partly in the defence of the city and partly in
that of his own person, disbanding a troop of Calagurritani which had formed a part of his
body-guard until the overthrow of Antonius, and also one of Germans, which he had retained
until the defeat of Varus. However, he never allowed more than three cohorts to remain in
thc city and even those were without a permanent camp; the rest he regularly sent to
winter or summer quarters in the towns near Rome. Furthermore, he restricted all the
soldiery everywhere to a fixed scale of pay and allowances, designating the duration of
their service and the rewards on its completion according to each man's rank, in order to
keep them from being tempted to revolution after their discharge either by age or poverty.
To have funds ready at all times without difficulty for maintaining the soldiers and
paying the rewards due to them, he established a military treasury, supported by new
taxes. To enable what was going on in each of the provinces to be reported and known more
speedily and promptly, he at first stationed young men at short intervals along the
military roads, and afterwards post-chaises. The latter has seemed the more convenient
arrangement, since the same men who bring the dispatches from any place can, if occasion
demands, be questioned as well.
L. In passports, dispatches, and private letters he used as his seal at first a sphinx,
later an image of Alexander the Great, and finally his own, carved by the hand of
Dioscurides; and this his successors continued to use as their seal. He always attached to
all letters the exact hour, not only of the day, but even of the night, to indicate
precisely when they were written.
LI. The evidences of his clemency and moderation are numerous and strong. Not to give
the full list of the men of the opposite faction whom he not only pardoned and spared, but
allowed to hold high positions in the state, I may say that he thought it enough to punish
two plebeians, Junius Novatus and Cassius Patavinus, with a fine and with a mild form of
banishment respectively, although the former had circulated a most scathing letter about
him under the name of the young Agrippa, while the latter had openly declared at a large
dinner party that he lacked neither the earnest desire nor the courage to kill him.
Again,when he was hearing a case against AemiliusAelianus of Corduba and it was made the
chief offence, amongst other charges, that he was in the habit of expressing a bad opinion
of Caesar, Augustus turned to the accuser with assumed anger and said: "I wish you
could prove the truth of that. I'll let Aelianus know that I have a tongue as well as he,
for I'll say even more about him;" and he made no further inquiry either at the time
or afterwards. When Tiberius complained to him of the same thing in a letter, but in more
forcible language, he replied as follows: "My dear Tiberius, do not be carried away
by the ardour of youth in this matter, or take it too much to heart that anyone speak evil
of me; we must be content if we can stop anyone from doing evil to us."
LII. Although well aware that it was usual to vote temples even to proconsuls, he would
not accept one even in a province save jointly in his own name and that of Rome. In the
city itself he refused this honour most emphatically, even melting down the silver statues
which had been set up in his honour in former times and with the money coined from them
dedicating golden tripods to Apollo of the Palatine. When the people did their best to
force the dictatorship upon him, he knelt down, threw off his toga from his shoulders and
with bare breast begged them not to insist.
LIII. He always shrank from the title of Dominus [ "Lord" or
"Master"] as reproachful and insulting. When the words "O just and gracious
Lord!" were uttered in a farce at which he was a spectator and all the people sprang
to their feet and applauded as if they were said of him, he at once checked their unseemly
flattery by look and gesture, and on the following day sharply reproved them in an edict.
After that he would not suffer himself to be called "Sire" even by his children
or his grandchildren either in jest or earnest, and he forbade them to use such flattering
terms even among themselves. He did not if he could help it leave or enter any city or
town except in the evening or at night, to avoid disturbing anyone by the obligations of
ceremony. In his consulship he commonly went through the streets on foot, and when he was
not consul, generally in a closed litter. His morning receptions were open to all,
including even the commons, and he met the requests of those who approached him with great
affability, jocosely reproving one man because he presented a petition to him with as much
hesitation "as he would a penny to an elephant." On the day of a meeting of the
Senate he always greeted the members in the House and in their seats, calling each man by
name without a prompter; and when he left the House, he used to take leave of them in the
same manner, while they remained seated. He exchanged social calls with many, and did not
cease to attend all their anniversaries, until he was well on in years and was once
incommoded by the crowd on the day of a betrothal. When Gallus Cerrinius, a senator with
whom he was not at all intimate, had suddenly become blind and had therefore resolved to
end his life by starvation, Augustus called on him and by his consoling words induced him
to live.
LIV. As he was speaking in the Senate someone said to him: "I did not
understand," and another: "I would contradict you if I had an opportunity."
Several times when he was rushing from the House in anger at the excessive bickering of
the disputants, some shouted after him: "Senators ought to have the right of speaking
their mind on public affairs." At the selection of Senators when each member chose
another, Antistius Labeo named Marcus Lepidus, an old enemy of the emperor's who was at
the time in banishment; and when Augustus asked him whether there were not others more
deserving of the honor, Labeo replied that every man had his own opinion. Yet for all that
no one suffered for his freedom of speech or insolence.
LV. He did not even dread the lampoons against him which were scattered in the Senate
house, but took great pains to refute them; and without trying to discover the authors, he
merely proposed that thereafter such as published notes or verses defamatory of anyone
under a false name should be called to account.
LVI. When he was assailed with scurrilous or spiteful jests by certain men, he made
reply in a public proclamation; yet he vetoed a law to check freedom of speech in wills
[the Romans in their wills often expressed their opinion freely about public men and
affairs]. Whenever he took part in the election of magistrates, he went the round of the
tribes with his candidates and appealed for them in the traditional manner. He also cast
his own vote in his tribe, as one of the people. When he gave testimony in court, he was
most patient in submitting to questions and even to contradiction. He made his forum
narrower than he had planned, because he did not venture to eject the owners of the
neighbouring houses. He never recommended his sons for office without adding "If they
be worthy of it." When they were still under age and the audience at the theatre rose
as one man in their honour, and stood up and applauded them, he expressed strong
disapproval. He wished his friends to be prominent and influential in the state, but to be
bound by the same laws as the rest and equally liable to prosecution. When Nonius
Asprenas, a close friend of his, was meeting a charge of poisoning made by Cassius
Severus, Augustus asked the Senate what they thought he ought to do; for he hesitated, he
said for fear that if he should support him, it might be thought that he was shielding a
guilty man, but if he failed to do so, that he was proving false to a friend and
prejudicing his case. Then, since all approved of his appearing in the case, he sat on the
benches [the moveable seats provided for the advocates, witnesses, etc.] for several
hours, but in silence and without even speaking in praise of the defendant. He did however
defend some of his clients, for instance a certain Scutarius, one of his former officers,
who was accused of slander. But he secured the acquittal of no more than one single man,
and then only by entreaty, making a successful appeal to the accuser in the presence of
the jurors; this was Castricius, through whom he had learned of Murena's conspiracy.
LVII. It may readily be imagined how much he was beloved because of this admirable
conduct. I say nothing of decrees of the Senate, which might seem to have been dictated by
necessity or by awe. The Roman knights celebrated his birthday of their own accord by
common consent, and always for two successive days [September 22 and 23]. All sorts and
conditions of men, in fulfilment of a vow for his welfare, each year threw a small coin
into the Lacus Curtius, and also brought a New Year's gift to the Capitol on the Kalends
of January, even when he was away from Rome. With this sum he bought and dedicated in each
of the city wards costly statues of the gods, such as Apollo Sandaliarius, Jupiter
Tragoedus, and others. To rebuild his house on the Palatine, which had been destroyed by
fire, the veterans, the collegia, the tribes, and even individuals of other
conditions gladly contributed money, each according to his means; but he merely took a
little from each pile as a matter of form, not more than a denarius from any of them. On
his return from a province they received him not only with prayers and good wishes, but
with songs. It was the rule, too, that whenever he entered the city, no one should suffer
punishment.
LVIII. The whole body of citizens with a sudden unanimous impulse proffered him the
title of Pater Patriae ["Father of his Country"]; first the commons, by a
deputation sent to Antium, and then, because he declined it, again at Rome as he entered
the theatre, which they attended in throngs, all wearing laurel wreaths; the Senate
afterwards in the House, not by a decree or by acclamation, but through Valerius Messala.
He, speaking for the whole body, said: "Good fortune and divine favour attend you and
your house, Caesar Augustus; for thus we feel that we are praying for lasting prosperity
for our country and happiness for our city. The Senate in accord with the people of Rome
hails you Father of your Country." Then Augustus with tears in his eyes
replied as follows (and I have given his exact words, as I did those of Messala):
"Having attained my highest hopes, Fathers of the Senate, what more have I to ask of
the immortal gods than that I may retain this same unanimous approval of yours to the very
end of my life."
LIX. In honour of his physician, Antonius Musa, through whose care he had recovered
from a dangerous illness, a sum of money was raised and Musa's statue set up beside that
of Aesculapius. Some householders provided in their wills that their heirs should drive
victims to the Capitol and pay a thank-offering in their behalf, because Augustus had
survived them, and that a placard to this effect should be carried before them. Some of
the Italian cities made the day on which he first visited them the beginning of their
year. Many of the provinces, in addition to temples and altars, established quinquennial
games in his honour in almost every one of their towns.
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