[-21-] "With these premises, therefore, let us give the idea a trial. The discontented will soon themselves change their ways and bring about an improvement in others. You notice that Cornelius is both of good birth and renowned. This matter has to be reasoned out in a human fashion. The sword can not effect everything for you; it would be a great blessing if it could bring some men to their senses and persuade them or even compel them to love any one with genuine affection: but, instead, it will destroy the body of one man and alienate the minds of the rest. People do not become more attached to any one because of the vengeance they see meted out to others, but they become more hostile through the influence of their own fears. That is one side of the picture. On the other hand, those who obtain pardon for any crime and repent are ashamed to wrong their benefactors again, but render them much service in return, hoping to receive much more again for it. When a man is saved by some one who has been wronged, he thinks that his rescuer, if fairly treated, will go to any lengths to aid him. Heed me, therefore, dearest, and make a change. Then all your other acts that have caused displeasure will appear to have been due to necessity. In conducting so great a city from democracy into monarchy it is impossible to make the transfer without bloodshed. But if you follow your old policy, you will be thought to have done these unpleasant things intentionally."
[-22-] Augustus heeded these suggestions of Livia and released all those against whom charges were pending, admonishing some of them orally; Cornelius he even appointed consul. Later he so conciliated both him and the other men that no one else again really plotted against him or had the reputation of so doing. Livia had had most to do with saving the life of Cornelius, yet she was destined to be held responsible for the death of Augustus.
[A.D. 5 (a. u. 758)]
At this time, in the consulship of Cornelius and Valerius Messala, earthquakes of ill omen occurred and the Tiber tore away the bridge so that the City was under water for seven days. There was an eclipse of the sun, and famine set in. This same year Agrippa was enrolled among the iuvenes, but obtained none of the same privileges as his brother. The senators attended the horse-races separately and the knights also separately from the remainder of the populace, as is done nowadays. And since the noblest families did not show themselves inclined to give their daughters for the service of Vesta, a law was passed that the daughters of freedmen might likewise be consecrated. Many contended for the honor, and so they drew lots in the senate in the presence of their fathers; no priestess, however, was appointed from this class.
[-23-] The soldiers were displeased at the small size of the prizes for the wars that had taken place at this period and no one was willing to carry arms for longer than the specified term of his service. It was therefore voted that five thousand denarii be given to members of the pretorian guard when they had ended sixteen, and three thousand to the other soldiers when they had completed twenty years' service. Twenty-three legions were being supported at that time, or, as others say, twenty-five, of citizen soldiers. Only nineteen of them now remain. The Second (Augusta) is the one that winters in Upper Britain. Of the Third there are three divisions,—the Gallic, in Phoenicia; the Cyrenaic, in Arabia; the Augustan, in Numidia. The Fourth. (Scythian) is in Syria, the Fifth (Macedonian), in Dacia. The Sixth is divided into two parts, of which the one (Victrix) is in Lower Britain, and the other (Ferrata) is in Judæa. The soldiers of the Seventh, generally called Claudians, are in Upper Moesia. Those of the Eighth, Augustans, are in Upper Germany. Those of the Tenth are both in Upper Pannonia (Legio Gemina) and in Judaea. The Eleventh, in Lower Moesia, is the Claudian. This name two legions received from Claudius because they had not fought against him in the insurrection of Camillus. The Twelfth (Fulminata) is in Cappadocia: the Thirteenth (Gemina) in Dacia: the Fourteenth (Gemina) in Upper Pannonia: the Fifteenth (Apollinaris) in Cappadocia. The Twentieth, called both Valeria and Victrix, is also in Upper Britain. These, I believe, together with those that have the title of the Twenty second[15] and winter in Upper Germany Augustus took in charge and kept; and this I say in spite of the fact that they are by no means called Valerians by all and do not themselves use the title any longer. These are preserved from the Augustan legions. Of the rest some have been scattered altogether and others were mixed in with different legions by Augustus himself and by the other emperors, from which circumstance they are thought to have been called Gemina.
[-24-] Now that I have once been brought into a discussion of the legions, I shall speak of the forces as they are at present according to the disposition made by subsequent emperors: in this way any one who desires to learn anything about them may do so easily, finding all his information written in one place. Nero organized the First legion, called the Italian, and now wintering in Lower Moesia; Galba, the First legion, called Adiutrix, in Lower Pannonia, and the Seventh (Gemina), which is in Spain; Vespasian, the Second, Adiutrix, in Lower Pannonia, and the Fourth (the Flavian) in Syria; Domitian, the First (Minervia), in Lower Germany; Trajan, the Second (the Egyptian), and the Thirtieth (Germanic), which he also named after himself. Marcus Antoninus organized the Second, which is in Noricum, and the Third, in Rhætia; these are also called Italian: Severus the Parthian legions, i. e., the First and the Third in Mesopotamia and between them the Second, the one in Italy.
This is at present the number of legions which are enrolled in the service, exclusive of the cohortes urbanæ and the pretorian guard. At that time, in the days of Augustus, those I mentioned were being supported, whether twenty-three or twenty-five altogether; and then there was some allied force, whatever the size, of infantry and cavalry and sailors. I can not state the exact figures. The body-guards, ten thousand in all, were divided into ten portions, and the six thousand warders of the city into four portions, and there were picked foreign horsemen to whom the name Batavians is applied (from the island Batavia in the Rhine), because the Batavians are noted for superiority in horsemanship. I can not, however, state their exact number any more than that of the evocati. He began to reckon in the latter from the time that he called the warriors who had previously supported his father to arms again against Antony; and he retained control of them. They constitute even now a special corps and carry rods, like the centurions.
For the distribution mentioned he needed money and therefore introduced a motion into the senate to the effect that a definite permanent fund be created, in order that without troubling any private citizen they might obtain abundant support and rewards from the proposed appropriation. The means for such a fund was accordingly sought.—As no one showed a willingness to become ædile, some from the ranks of ex-quæstors and ex-tribunes were compelled by lot to take the office. This happened frequently at other times.
[A.D. 6 (a. u. 759)]
[-25-] After this, in the consulship of Æmilius Lepidus and Lucius Arruntius, when no source for the fund was found that suited anybody, but quite everybody felt dejected because such an attempt was being made, Augustus in the name of himself and of Tiberius put money into the treasury, which he called the ærarium militare. Some of the ex-prætors—such as drew the lots—he instructed to administer it for three years, employing two lictors apiece and such further assistance as was fitting. This was done by successive officials for a number of years. At present they are chosen by whoever is emperor and they go about without lictors. Augustus himself made some further contributions and promised to do this annually, and he accepted offers from kings and certain peoples. From private individuals, though a number were ready and glad to give (as they said), he would take nothing. But as all this proved very slight in comparison with the large amount spent, and there was need of some inexhaustible supply, he ordered each one of the senators to devise means by himself, to write his plan in a book, and give it to him to look over. This was not because he had no plan of his own, but because he was most anxious to persuade them to choose the one that he wished. Various men proposed various courses, but he would approve none of them: instead, he arranged for five per cent. of the inheritances and bequests which should be left by deceased persons (except in the case of very near relations or poor families); he pretended that he had found this tax suggestion in Cæsar's memoirs. It was a method that had been introduced once before, but had been later abolished and was now introduced anew. In this way he increased the revenues. The expenditures made by three men of consular rank, whom the lot designated, he partly made smaller and partly did away with altogether.