… holding [it] after his prætorship.
[A.D. 11 (a. u. 764)]
[-25-]But in the following season the temple of Concord was dedicated by Tiberius and both his name and that of Drusus, his dead brother, were inscribed upon it. In the consulship of Marcus Æmilius with Statilius Taurus Tiberius and Germanicus acting as proconsul invaded Celtica and overran some parts of it. They did not conquer, however, in any battle (since no one came to close quarters with them), and did not reduce any tribe. For in their fear of falling victims to a new disaster they advanced not far beyond the Rhine, but after remaining there until late autumn and celebrating the birthday of Augustus, on which they held a kind of horse-race under the direction of the centurions, they returned.
At Rome Drusus Cæsar, the son of Tiberius, became quæstor, and sixteen prætors held office because that number became candidates for the position and Augustus, mindful of his condition, was unwilling to offend any of them. The same did not hold true, however, of the years immediately following, but the number remained twelve for a long period. Besides these proceedings the seers were forbidden to prophesy in private to any one, or regarding death even if there should be others with them. Yet in this matter Augustus had no personal feeling, so that by a bulletin he even published to all the conjunction of stars under which he had been born. In addition to forbidding the above he proclaimed to subject states that they should grant no honors to any one assigned to govern them either during his term of office or within sixty days after he had departed. For some governors by arranging for testimonials and eulogies from their subjects were doing much harm. Three senators, as before, transacted business with the embassies, and the knights,—a fact which might cause surprise,—were allowed to fight as gladiators. The reason was that some persisted in disregarding the disenfranchisement stated as a penalty for such conduct. And as there proved to be no use in forbidding it and the participants seemed to require a greater punishment before they would be turned aside from this course, they were given permission to do as they liked. In this way they incurred death instead of disenfranchisement, for they fought more than ever, and especially because their contests were centers of attraction, so that even Augustus became a spectator in company with the prætors who superintended games.
[A.D. 12 (a. u. 765)]
[-26-] Germanicus soon after received the office of consul, though he had not even been prætor, and held it actually throughout the whole year, not because of fitness but as a number of others held office at that time. The consul did nothing worthy of note save that at this time, too, he acted as advocate in suits, since his colleague Gaius Capito counted as a mere figurehead. Augustus, because he was growing old, wrote a letter commending Germanicus to the senate and the latter to Tiberius: the manuscript was not read by him in person, for he was unable to make himself heard, but by Germanicus, as usual. After that he asked them, making the Celtic war his excuse, not to come to greet him at home nor to be angry if he did not continue to eat with them. For generally, as often as they had a sitting, in the Forum and sometimes in the senate-house itself, they saluted him when he entered and again when he left; and it had already happened that, when he was sitting and sometimes lying down in the Palatium, not only the senate but the knights and many of the populace greeted him. [-27-] All this time he continued to attend to his business as before. He allowed the knights to become candidates for the tribuneship. And learning that vituperative books concerning certain men were being written, he ordered a search for them. Those that he found in the city he had burned by the ædiles and those outside by the officials who might be in charge, and he visited punishment upon some of the composers. As there were many exiles who were either carrying on their occupations outsides of the places to which they had been banished or living too luxuriously in the proper places, he forbade that any one who had been debarred from fire and water should stay either on the mainland or on any of the islands distant less than four hundred stadia from the mainland. Only he made an exception of Cos, Rhodes, Samos[5], and Lesbos, for what reason I know not. He enjoined upon them also that they should not cross the seas to any other point and should not possess more than one ship of burden having a capacity of one thousand amphoræ, and two driven by oars; that they should not employ more than twenty slaves or freedmen; that they should not hold property above twelve and a half myriads; and he threatened to take vengeance upon them for any violation as well as upon all others who should in any way assist them in violating these ordinances. These are the laws, as fully as is necessary for our history, that he laid down.
A festival extraordinary was conducted by the dancers and horse-breeders. The Feast of Mars, because the Tiber had previously occupied the hipprodrome, was this time held in the forum of Augustus and honored by a kind of horse-race and by the slaughter of wild beasts. It was celebrated a second time, as custom decreed, and Germanicus on that occasion killed two hundred lions in the hippodrome. The so-called portico of Julia was built in honor of Gaius and Lucius, the Cæsars, and was at that time dedicated.
[A.D. 13 (a. u. 766)]
[-28-] When Lucius Munatius and Gaius Silius had been registered as consuls Augustus reluctantly accepted the fifth decennial presidency of the State and gave Tiberius again the tribunician authority. To Drusus, the latter's son, he granted permission to stand for the consulship a third year, still without having held the prætorship; and for himself he asked twenty annual counselors because of his old age, which did not permit him to visit the senate any longer save rarely. Previously fifteen were attached to him for six months. It was further voted that any measure should have authority, as satisfactory to the whole senate, which should after deliberation be resolved upon by him in conjunction with Tiberius and with the consuls of the year, with the men appointed for deliberation and his grandchildren (the adopted ones, of course) and the others that he might on any occasion call upon for advice. Gaining by the decree those powers (which in reality he had in any case) he transacted most of the is necessary business, though sometimes lying down. Now as nearly all felt oppressed by the five per cent tax and a political convulsion seemed likely, he sent document to the senate bidding its members seek some other means of income. This he did not in the intention of abolishing the tax but in order that when no other appeared to them preferable they might though reluctantly ratify it without declaiming against him He also ordered Germanicus and Drusus not to make any official statement about it, for fear that if they expressed an opinion persons would suspect that this had been done by his orders and choose that plan without further investigation. There was much discussion and some schemes were submitted to Augustus in writing. When he found by them that the senators were ready to endure any form of tax rather than that in force, he changed it to a levy upon fields and houses. And without telling how great it would be or in what way imposed, he immediately sent men in different directions to make a list of the possessions both of individuals and of towns. His object was that they should fear losses on a large scale and so be content to pay the five per cent. This actually happened, and so it was that Augustus settled the difficulty.
[-29-] At the spectacle of the Augustalia [6] which occurred on his birthday a madman seated himself in the chair which was dedicated to Julius Cæsar, and taking his crown put it on. This happening disturbed everybody, for it seemed to have some bearing upon Augustus, as, indeed, proved true.