Dio's Rome, Volume 4: An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek During the Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus: and Now Presented in English FormCassius Dio Cocceianus
History
Dio's Rome, Volume 4: An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek During the Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus: and Now Presented in English Form
Cassius Dio Cocceianus
Rome -- History
[-30-] After this Augustus was chosen supervisor and corrector of morals
for another five years,--this also he received for a limited period as he
had the monarchy,--and he ordered the senators to burn incense as often
as they had a sitting, and not to come to his residence: the first, that
they might show reverence to the gods, and the second, that they might
have no difficulty in convening. Inasmuch as very few became candidates
for the tribuneship on account of its power having been abolished, he
made a law that magistrates should each nominate one of the knights who
possessed not less than twenty-five myriads; the people should then
choose from these the number lacking, and if the men desired to be
senators afterward, well and good; otherwise they should return again to
the rank of knights.
The province of Asia also stood very greatly in need of some assistance
on account of earthquakes, and he therefore paid into the public treasury
from his own resources their annual tribute and assigned them a governor
for two years chosen by lot and not arbitrarily selected.
Apuleius and Mæcenas were at one time bitterly reviled in some court of
adultery, not because they had themselves behaved wantonly but because
they had actively aided the man on trial; thereupon Augustus entered the
courtroom and sat in the prætor's chair: he did nothing violent, but
simply forbade the accuser to insult his relatives or friends, and then
rose and left the place. For this action and others the senators honored
him with statues, paid for by private subscription, and by giving
bachelors and spinsters the right to behold spectacles with other people
and to attend banquets on his birthday. Neither of these privileges was
previously permitted them.
[-31-] When now Agrippa, whom he loved for his excellence and not
through any compulsion, had died, the emperor found that he needed an
assistant in the public business, one who would far surpass the rest in
both honor and power, who might manage everything opportunely and be free
from envy and plots. Therefore he reluctantly chose Tiberius, for his own
grandsons were at this time still minors. He caused him also to divorce
his wife, though she was a daughter of Agrippa by another marriage and
had one child an infant and was soon to give birth to another; and having
betrothed Julia to him he sent him out against the Pannonians. This
people had for a time been quiet, fearing Agrippa, but now after his
death they revolted. Tiberius subdued them, having ravaged considerable
of their territory and done much injury to its inhabitants; he had as
enthusiastic allies the Scordisci, who were neighbors of theirs and
similarly equipped. He took away their arms and sold for export most of
the male population that was of age. For these achievements the senate
voted him a triumph, but Augustus did not allow him to hold it, granting
him instead the triumphal honors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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