[16] The only instance in the Res Gestae of a palpable distortion of fact. The battles at Philippi, in November, 712, are referred to. For the date see Gardthausen, _Aug._ 2er Th. 1er Halbband, p. 80. In the first fight, Suetonius says (_Aug._ 13), that Cæsar hardly escaped, ill and naked, from his camp to the wing of Antony’s army. He was ill, and had to be carried in a litter, according to Plutarch, _Brut._ p. 41. In _Antony_, 22, Plutarch says: “In the first battle, Cæsar was completely routed by Brutus, his camp taken, he himself very narrowly escaping by flight.” The decisive defeat of the Republicans was twenty days later. [17] The text here is conjectural. Mommsen is almost alone in holding to “surviving,” Zumpt, in his edition of 1869, had read “suppliant” (_supplicibus_), Bergk, in 1873, “asking pardon” (_deprecantibus_). Hirschfeld, the same sense, (_veniam petentibus_). Seeck insists on the latter reading, in spite of Mommsen’s arguments for his own choice. Augustus did not spare all surviving citizens either after Philippi or Actium, cf. Dio LI, 2: After Actium “of the senators and knights, and other leading men, who in any way had helped Antony, he fined some, many he killed, some he spared.” For his conduct after Philippi, cf. Suet. _Aug._ 13. But a coin of 727 (Eckhel VI, 88, Cohen I, p. 66, No. 30), has CÆSAR COS VII CIVIBUS SERVATEIS, “Cæsar for the seventh time consul, the citizens having been preserved.” It commemorates the civic crown given to Augustus, cf. c. XXXIV. There are other coins with OB CIVES SERVATOS, “On account of the preservation of the citizens.” [18] This fact is one of the few which the latest text, based on Humann’s work, alone establishes. Merivale’s comment on the relation of Augustus to the army is noteworthy: “Their hero (Julius Cæsar) discarded the defence of the legions, and a few months witnessed his assassination. Augustus learned circumspection from the failure of his predecessor’s enterprise. He organized a military establishment of which he made himself the permanent head; to him every legionary swore personal fidelity; every officer depended upon his direct appointment.” (C. XXXII.) [19] C. 15 states the number colonized at 120,000. The 200,000 over and above the 300,000 here named, are accounted for in the twenty-five legions, 150,000 men in service at his death, leaving only 50,000 as the number who died in service or were dishonorably discharged during the long rule of Augustus. For a study of the strength and disposition of the Roman army at the death of Augustus, cf. Mommsen’s R. G., pp. 67-76. [20] The term of service in 741, was twelve years for praetorian soldiers and sixteen for legionaries, raised in 758 to sixteen and twenty years respectively. Cf. c. 17, N. 2.