The extraordinary powers which Augustus had, he caused to be given him, after the battle of Actium, first for ten years; then, for five; then, once more, for five; then, three times, for ten years: in the very beginning of the third decennium, he died. The tribunician authority he had given him for life. The senate had formerly been, for their Roman subjects, the supreme court to judge political crimes; and this privilege Augustus left to it, so as to shift the odium thereof from himself upon the senators: it afterwards became their chief business. With the taxation, the senate had nothing whatever to do, as Augustus had the control over the finances of the whole empire, and could raise or lower the taxes. In Italy itself there was no land-tax, even as with us there is none on the seignorial estates; but indirect taxes were paid, and of these there was a variety, as, for instance, on legacies and bequests, and when slaves were made free. Even as the hereditary Stadtholder of Holland was Captain General and high Admiral, so was Augustus master of the whole army, that is of the forty-three or forty-seven legions, and of the innumerable _auxilia_, about 400,000 men in all: over these, the senate had not the slightest power, not even over the enlistment of them. The provinces in which no troops were regularly stationed, and which therefore did not belong to the military department, (Italy, as the country of the sovereign people, was excepted from all these regulations,) came under the care of the senate: these were Asia, Africa (so far as it was not subject to Juba), Gallia Narbonensis, Hispania Bætica, Achaia, Macedon, Bithynia, Cyprus, Crete, and Cyrene.[28] For himself, Augustus kept by far the larger and richer share, namely, Spain, all but Bætica; Gallia Lugdunensis and Aquitaine; the countries north of the Alps, Rhætia, and Vindelicia; Dalmatia, Pannonia, (Thrace had a king,) Mœsia; Pontus, (Cappadocia had a king,) Cilicia, Syria, and Egypt: the revenues of these provinces may have hardly been sufficient to keep the armies which lay there in fortified camps. The senate had two proconsular and ten pro-prætorian provinces; but it was not until five years after a man had been consul or prætor, that he could be admitted to cast lots with those who were to preside over the provinces. Augustus made some wholesome changes with regard to the arbitrary rule which was exercised in the provinces; certainly in his own provinces, yet very likely also in those of the senate. Until then, all governors had unchecked power to take whatever they pleased: he was the first to assign fixed appointments to these functionaries. His governors, whom he chose indiscriminately from the senators, _viri consulares_, _prætorii_, and knights, were called _legati Augusti_: as we learn from coins and inscriptions, their official title was _legati pro Consule_, _Prætore_, and so forth. The senatorial governors were as