[74] As c. 8 furnishes a basis for estimating the total population of the empire, so here we have a guide to the number of people in the city. Merivale, History of the Romans, c. XL, gives 700,000 as the limit; Bunsen, 1,300,000; Gibbon, c. XXXI, 1,200,000.
[75] Sixty denarii is about twelve dollars. This donation of 749, and the last one mentioned in this chapter, of 752, have been connected with the introduction in those years of Gaius and Lucius Cæsar, into the forum. Cf. c. 14. The amounts are the same in the two cases, and they vary from the sum given at other times.
[76] Up to this point the donations have been enumerated in order of time. But here, between the largesses to citizens in 749 and 752 is introduced one given to veterans in 725. Why this break in the order? Mommsen, R. G. p. 2 and 59, thinks that a first draft of this inscription was prepared about 750. In this draft Augustus first mentioned all his gifts to the city people; and at the end placed the one gift to the soldiers. Then, when in 767, the document was brought down to date, this later gift to the people was placed last, instead of being interpolated after the civil donation of 749 and before the military one of 725. But his reasoning has not convinced other scholars.
[77] Cf. Dio, LV, 10.
[78] Augustus omits any mention of his bounty to discharged soldiers. Cf. Dio, XLVI, 46; XLIX, 14; LV, 6; Appian, V, 129. The total of the donations in this list is 619,800,000 sesterces = about $30,990,000.
[79] Cf. c. 3; Dio, LI, 3, 4; Suet. Aug. 17. The last writer says that there was a mutiny at Brundisium in a detachment sent there immediately after Actium, and that they demanded reward and discharge. Augustus was forced to come from Samos to settle the trouble. This was in 724. There were 120,000 veterans to be provided for. Cf. c. 15. 600,000,000 sesterces was the compensation for the lands given to these men, an average of 5000 sesterces ($250) for each holding. But not all Italian proprietors were reimbursed. The Italians who had favored Antony were simply dispossessed. To some other Italians were given lands at Dyracchium and Philippi. His expenditure for land in Italy was $30,000,000. As to colonies outside of Italy, Dio, LIV, 23, tells of many settlements in Gallia (Narbonensis) and Iberia in 739. Eusebius notes colonies at Berytus in Syria, and Patræ in Achaia, as founded in 739. Cf. Chron. ad. a. Abr. 2001; C. I. L. III, p. 95.
[80] The dates are 747, 748, 750, 751 and 752. The amount is $20,000,000. It was in 741 (Dio, LIV, 25) that Augustus determined upon a gift in money as a substitute for the assignments of land customary up to that time. Why such payments began only in 747 is a matter of conjecture; also why they ceased after 752. Probably because the years 742-746 were occupied with the German and Pannonian wars of Tiberius and Drusus, and either there were no discharges, or else no money to spare from the expenses of war. Again in 753 troubles began in the East.
[81] Only two of these occasions can be traced. Dio, LIII, 2, mentions one. He says that in 726, when it was determined to exhibit games in honor of Actium, Augustus replenished the empty treasury for that purpose. And there is a coin of c. 738 with the inscription: Senatus populusque Romanus imperatori Cæsari quod viæ munitæ sunt ex ea pecunia quam is ad ærarium detulit. Eckhel VI, 105.
Up to 726 the treasury was in charge of the quæstors. Thence to 731 two exprætors, after that year two prætors presided over it, up to the time of Claudius. Cf. Tac. Ann. XIII, 29; Dio, LIII, 2 and 32; Suet. Aug. 36. The sum mentioned here is $7,500,000. In the Greek τρίς has evidently been omitted before χειλίας.
[82] This was in 759. In 741 (Dio, LIV, 25) Augustus had fixed the term of service at twelve years for the prætorians and sixteen for the legionaries. The gift to the former upon discharge was also larger. In 758 the terms of service were lengthened to sixteen and twenty years. Cf. Dio, LV, 23. In LV, 25, Dio writes of this year 759: “Augustus contributed, in his own name and in that of Tiberius, money for that treasury which is called the military.” The sum so given was $8,500,000. Tributary states and kings also assisted. But income could not keep pace with expenses. The old tax of a twentieth on bequests, except when the heir was a very near relative, or very poor, was revived, much to the discontent of the Roman people. Cf. Dio, LV, 25. Other taxes were devised, such as that of one per cent on sales. Cf. Tac. Ann. I, 78. On sales of slaves two per cent was exacted. Cf. Dio, LV, 31.