[50] Suetonius evidently depends on this inscription when he says, _Aug._ 27: “Three times he took the census of the Roman people, the first and third times with a colleague, the second time alone.” This first census was in 725-6. Cf. Dio, LII, 42; LIII, 1; C. I. L. IX, 422, _imp. Cæsar VI, M. Agrippa II cos.; idem censoria potestate lustrum fecerunt_. The lustrum was strictly the expiatory offering made at the close of the census. The census had not been taken for forty-one years. The number of Roman citizens of military age in 684 had been given as but 450,000. This census of 726 reported 4,063,000. Probably the vast apparent increase rose from the fact of the earlier enumeration counting only such as presented themselves before the censors in the city, while at the later time the citizens throughout the empire were counted. Clinton, _Fasti Hellenici_, III, 461, estimates a total free citizenship of more than 17,000,000. The total population of the empire at this time, including citizens, allies, slaves and freedmen, has been estimated at 85,000,000. Cf. Merivale, _Rom._ cc. XXX, XXXIX. The Greek of the inscription here reads erroneously 4,603,000. [51] In 746. The result, 4,233,000, shows a gain of 170,000. [52] In 767. Just before the death of Augustus. Result, 4,937,000; gain since 746, 704,000. [53] Suetonius, _Aug._ 34, relates his endeavors to compel matrimony. In Chap. 89, Suetonius writes: “In reading Greek or Latin authors he paid particular attention to precepts and examples which might be useful in public or private life. These he used to extract verbatim, and give to his domestics, or send to the commanders of the armies, the governors of the provinces, or the magistrates of the city, when any of them seemed to stand in need of admonition. He likewise read whole books to the senate, and frequently made them known to the people by his edicts; such as the orations of Quintus Metellus ‘For the Encouragement of Marriage,’ and those of Rutilius ‘On the Style of Building;’ to show the people that he was not the first who had promoted those objects, but that the ancients likewise had thought them worthy of their attention.” Cf. Livy, _Ep._ LIX; Gell., I, 6.