At this period a clamor arose in the senate regarding the disorderly conduct of the women and the young men, this being alleged as a reason for the difficulty of persuading them to contract marriage; and when they urged him to remedy this abuse also, meanwhile indulging in sarcasms because he enjoyed the favors of many women, at first he made answer that the most necessary restrictions had been laid down and that anything further could not be defined in a similar fashion. Then, when he was driven into a corner, he said: "You ought to admonish and command your wives what you wish,—just as I myself do." When they heard that, they plied him with questions all the more, wishing to learn the admonitions which he said he gave Livia. Reluctantly thereupon he made a few remarks about dress and about other adornment, about going out and modest behavior on such occasions. He cared not at all that he did not make good his words in fact. Something of the sort he had done also while censor. They brought before him a young man who had married a woman after seducing her, making the most violent accusations against him: Augustus was at a loss what to do, not daring to overlook the affair nor yet to administer any rebuke. After a very long time he heaved a deep sigh and said: "The factional disputes have borne many terrible fruits: let us try to forget them and give our attention to the future, to see that nothing of the sort occurs again."
Inasmuch, too, as certain infants were obtaining by betrothal the honors of married couples, but did not accomplish the object in view, he ordered that no betrothal should be valid where a person did not marry before two years had passed. That is, any one betrothed must be certainly ten years old in order to reap any benefit from it. Twelve full years, as I have said, is required by custom for girls to reach the marriageable age.
[-17-] Besides these separate enactments there was one instructing those from time to time in office each to propose one of those who had been prætors three years previously to attend to the distribution of the grain, and providing that of that number the four who secured the lot should give out grain in turn: and the præfectus urbi, appointed for the Feriæ, was always to choose one of them. The Sibylline verses which had become indistinct through lapse of time he ordered the priests to copy out with their own hands in order that no one else should read them. He allowed the offices to be thrown open to all such as had property worth ten myriad denarii and were competent to hold office in accordance with the law. This was the value which he at first set upon the senatorial rank: later he raised it to twenty-five myriads. Upon some of those who lived upright lives but possessed less than ten myriads in the first case or twenty-five in the second he bestowed the amount lacking. Again, he allowed those prætors who so desired to spend on the festivals besides what was given them from the public treasury three times as much again, so that even if some were vexed at the minuteness of his other regulations yet by reason of this one and also because he brought back from exile one Pylades, a dancer, driven out on account of civil quarrels, they remembered them no longer. Hence Pylades is said to have rejoined very cleverly when the emperor rebuked him for having quarreled with Bathyllus, an artist in the same line and a relative of Mæcenas: "It is to your advantage, Cæsar, that the populace should exhaust its energy over us."—These were the occurrences of that year.
[B.C. 17 (a. u. 737)]
[-18-]In the consulship of Gaius Furnius and Gaius Silanus Agrippa again announced the birth of a son named Lucius, and Augustus immediately adopted him together with his brother Gaius, not waiting for them to become men but appointing them that very moment successors to his office, in order that less plots might be directed against him. The festival of Honor and of Virtus he transferred to the days which are at present theirs. Those that celebrated triumphs he commanded to erect out of the spoils some public work to commemorate their deeds. The Sæcularia he brought for the fifth time to a successful conclusion. The orators, he ordered, were to give their services without pay, on pain of a fine of quadruple the amount they might receive. Those whom the lot made jurymen in any season he forbade to enter any person's house during that year. And since members of the senate showed lack of interest in attending meetings of that body, he increased the penalties for such as were late without some good excuse.
[B.C. 16 (a. u. 7386)]
[-19-] Next he started for Gaul, during the consulship of Lucius Domitius and Publius Scipio, making an excuse of the wars that had arisen in that region. For since he had become disliked by many as a result of his long stay in the capital and by inflicting penalties offended many who committed some act contrary to the laws laid down, while he was compelled in sparing many others to transgress his own enactments, he decided to leave the country, somewhat after the manner of Solon. Some suspected that he had gone away on account of Terentia, the wife of Mæcenas, and intended, because there was much talk made about them in Rome, to join her without any gossip during his trip abroad. So great was his passion for her that he once had her enter a contest of beauty against Livia.
Before starting he dedicated the temple of Quirinus, which he had built up anew. By this I mean he had adorned it with seventy-six columns, equal to the total number of years he had lived. This consequently caused some to say that he had chosen the number purposely and not by mere chance. After the consecration of this edifice he arranged through Tiberius and Drusus for gladiatorial combats, permission having been granted them by the senate. Then he committed to Taurus the management of the City together with the rest of Italy,—for Agrippa had been despatched again to Syria and he no longer looked with equal favor on Mæcenas because of the latter's wife,—and taking Tiberius, though he was prætor, along, he set out on his journey. Tiberius had become prætor in spite of holding the honors of an ex-prætor, and his entire office by a decree was placed in the hands of Drusus. The night following their departure the Hall of Youth burned to the ground. This was not the only portent that had occurred, for a wolf had rushed along the Sacred Way into the Forum, tearing men to pieces, and at a distance from the Forum ants were very plainly seen together in swarms; likewise a gleam all night long kept shooting from the south toward the north. Prayers were therefore offered for the safe return of Augustus. Meantime they celebrated the quinquennial festival of his sovereignty, the expense being borne by Agrippa; for the latter had been consecrated by his fellow priests to be one of the quindecimviri to whom the oversight of the event fell in regular succession.
[-20-] There was much other confusion, too, during that period. The Camunni and Vennones, Alpine tribes, flew to arms but were conquered and subdued by Publius Silius. The Pannonians in company with the Norici overran Istria, and after suffering damage at the hands of Silius and his lieutenants the former came to terms again and were the cause of the Norici falling into the same slavery. The uprisings in Dalmatia and in Spain were in a short time quelled. Macedonia was ravaged by the Dentheleti and the Scordisci. In Thrace somewhat earlier Marcus Lollius while aiding Rhoemetalces, the uncle and guardian of the children of Cotys, had subjugated the Bessi. Later Lucius Gallus conquered the Sarmatæ in the same dispute and drove them back across the Ister. The greatest, however, of the wars which at that time fell to the lot of the Romans, which also had something to do, probably, with Augustus's leaving the city, was against the Celtæ.
The Sugambri, Usipetes, and Tencteri had first seized in their own territory some of the Romans and had crucified them, after which they crossed the Rhine and plundered Germania and Gaul. When the Roman cavalry approached they laid an ambush and by taking to flight drew their assailants to follow them; and though they fell in unexpectedly with the Roman leader Lollius, they conquered even him. On ascertaining this Augustus hastened against them but found no warfare to carry on. For the barbarians, learning that Lollius was getting ready and that the emperor was also heading an expedition, retired into their own territory and made peace, giving hostages.