he chose, from a εὐπρόσωτος αἰτία, _equites Romani_, not senators: these last, cringing and fawning as they were, still had a mighty opinion of their own dignity. By a _lex Julia_, the courts of justice had been entirely restored into the hands of the knights. This law he maintained; but he prodigiously increased the lists of the jury (the decuries), inasmuch as for petty cases he admitted persons of less fortune than the _census equester_ required. Italy had accidentally grown into one mass. At first, it had not reached beyond the south; but by little and little it had been stretched further to Cisalpine Gaul: Etruria and Umbria thus belonged to it, whilst the Rubicon was the boundary between it and the provinces. Augustus now extended it, as was right, to the Alps, and this Italy he divided into a number of regions. What was the meaning of these regions, cannot be made out; but one would almost believe that they must have had some reference to the quæstors, of whom, at that time, there were forty to collect the revenue, and also ten prætors. Whether presidents besides were given to such districts, like the consulars appointed by Hadrian, and the _correctores_ under Severus; is a thing of which there is no trace to be met with in the reigns of Augustus and his immediate successors. By this I do not, however, mean to say, that they had not some sort of authorities over them; for the supposition that the region must have had a corresponding office is so very natural. At a later period, we find in inscriptions and in books very many notices, which bear upon the subject; but at this time, none whatever.