ᶜ in 748 Tiberius for five years. Cf. Dio, LV, 9; Vell. II, 99; Suet. Tib. 9, 10, 11.
ᵈ in 757 Tiberius for ten years. Cf. Dio, LV, 13; Vell. II, 103; Tac. Ann., I, 3, 10.
ᵉ in 766 Tiberius for an indefinite time. Cf. Dio, LVI, 28.
[39] Suet. Aug. 27: “He administered the triumvirate for organizing the commonwealth through ten years.” Cf. C. I. L. I, p. 461 and p. 466. The first triumvirate lasted from Nov. 27, 711, to Dec. 31, 716; the second from Jan. 1, 717, to Dec. 31, 721. But cf. c. 34, N. 1.
[40] Cf. Dio, LIII, 1. This title had been conferred upon the senior senator who had served as censor. Its only privilege was the right of speaking first in debate. The honor had fallen into abeyance with the death of Catulus in 694. It is readily seen how the revival of such a title and of the right to express his views before any other senator, gave Augustus a quasi-constitutional initiative in the senate. Gradually the title dropped its second part, and “prince” began to have something of its modern significance. Cf. Tacitus, Ann. III, 53, for Tiberius’ view of its meaning.
Augustus’ notation of time here, “through forty years,” is similar to the “thirty-seventh year of the tribunitial power” in Chap. IV, or “the seventy-sixth year” of Chap. 36.
[41] He was made pontifex in 706 by Julius Cæsar. Cf. Cic. Phil. V, 17, 46; Vell. II, 59. For his taking the office of pontifex maximus cf. c. 10, N. 3.
[42] The date of Augustus’ assumption of the augurate is discussed by Drumann, IV, 250. Coins are the chief witnesses, and their testimony is confused. The date probably was 713 or 714.
[43] A coin of Augustus (Cohen, Jul. 60; Aug. 88) has imp. Cæsar divi f. III vir iter. r. p. c. cos. iter. et tert desig., which fixes the time as between 717 and 720; it has also the tripod, the symbol of the quindecemvirate.
[44] We can say only that Augustus received this dignity before 738; for there is a coin of that year showing the simpulum, the lituus and the tripod, the symbols respectively of the three foregoing offices, and the patera, or bowl, that of the septemviral office. The four colleges thus associated are the chief ones. Cf. Chap. 9.