The facts in the case are these: In 711 the Titian law gave the triumvirs a five years’ lease of power. In 716 this was renewed not by formal legislation, but “by universal consent.” Cf. App., B. C. V, 95. This triumviral power Augustus wielded till his sixth consulship, 726, though there was a pretence of its cessation in 721. Cf. c. 7, N, 1, and Mommsen, Röm. St., II, 698. In this and the following years he divested himself gradually of one extraordinary power after another. He could not at once fall back to the position of an ordinary magistrate. The armies, the laws, the provinces, the revenues had all been in his control. These he must gradually restore Cf. Dio, LII, 13; LIII, 4, 9, 10. In 726 he began his return to older customs by alternating with Agrippa, his colleague, in the consulship, in having the fasces borne before him by the lictors for a month. Cf. Dio, LIII, 1. The restoration of the censorship was part of the same programme. Dio, LIII, 2, says that by an edict he declared all the revolutionary and extraordinary acts of the triumviral period should cease to be effective with the expiration of his sixth consulship (726). The inscription of Jan. 13, 727, above alluded to, C. I. L. I, p. 384, marks that date as that on which the business of restoring the provinces was finally given over to the senate.
From this time on the senate divided the control of the provinces with him. Augustus took the troublesome provinces and the frontier ones, leaving to the senate the older and more peaceable. Over these provinces he received a proconsular imperium for ten years, which was renewed at the expiration of that term. In c. 7 he says that he found the tribunitial power a sufficient basis for all the measures which he wished to put through. Now the proconsulship and tribuneship were both ordinary and constitutional offices. Augustus’ occupancy of each affords an illustration of the way in which he held ordinary offices in an extraordinary way. For by the old customs a proconsul must exercise his imperium in his province, and never at Rome. Augustus could not be in ten provinces at once, and must be at Rome most of the time. Hence a violation of the constitution was necessary. The tribuneship, instituted for the protection of plebeians could be held only by a plebeian. But Augustus was a patrician. For this reason he did not take the tribuneship in the ordinary way, nor by the ordinary title, but designated himself as tribunicia potestate, “of tribunitial authority.”
The title princeps, “prince” is never used by Augustus as an official designation in laws and inscriptions, but indicates simply his primacy of rank and is so used throughout the Res Gestæ. Cf. cc. 13, 30, 32.
[152] Cf. C. I. L. 1, p. 384; X. 8375; Livy, Ep., 134; Cass. ad. an. 727; Oros. VI, 20, 8; Vell. II, 91; Suet. Aug. 7; Dio, LIII, 16.
[153] Cf. coins in Eckhel, VI, 88; Cohen, Aug. nos. 43-48, 50, 207-212, 301, 341, 356, 385, 426, 476-8, 482. All these show either the crown or the laurels and many of them have both. With the crown is generally ob civis servatos, “for preserving the citizens.” The civic crown being the reward of any soldier who saved a citizen’s life, Augustus was pre-eminently deemed worthy of it, because he had saved so many by putting an end to the civil wars, and by his clemency. Cf. Dio, LIII, 16; Suet. Claud. 17; Sen. De Clem. I, 26, 5; Ovid, Tr. III, 1, 39, 41, 47; Fasti IV, 953; III, 137; Val. Max. II, 8, 7; Juv. VI, 52, 79; X, 65; XII, 91; Tac. Ann. XV, 71.
[154] No ancient writer mentions this shield, but a number of coins and inscriptions portray it. Cf. C. I. L. IX, 5811, wherein two Victories carry a shield inscribed: “The senate and Roman people have given to Augustus a shield on account of his valor, clemency, justice and piety;” the very words of the Res Gestæ. For coins, cf. Eckhel, VI, 95, 103, 121; Cohen, Aug. nos. 50-53, 213-216, 253, 264-267, 283, 286-297, 332. The Victory, which is frequently associated with the shield, probably indicates that the latter was placed by Augustus near the altar of Victory erected by him in the Curia Julia.
[156] This title was given Feb. 5, 752. Cf. C. I. L. I, p. 386; II, No. 2107. As in the case of the title, prince of the youth, conferred upon Gaius and Lucius, and of the continuance of his supreme power by universal consent (cf. cc. 14 and 34), the appellation, father of the fatherland, was given by general acclamation, leaving to the senate only the formal ratification of the popular will. Suet. Aug. 58, expressly states this. Cf. also Ovid, Fasti, II, 128.
The Augustan Forum was dedicated this same year, 752. Cf. c. 21, Note. In all probability the quadriga had been in existence some time before this, inasmuch as it appears on a coin of uncertain date with the inscription: “the senate and Roman people to Cæsar Augustus, parent and presever.” If the quadriga had been made at the time this inscription was ordered, the coin would surely have borne the formal title, “father of the fatherland,” not the designation, “parent.” Cf. Eckhel, VI, 113.
[157] The seventy-sixth year of Augustus began Sept. 23, 766. Chapter 8 mentions his third census, which was completed one hundred days before his death, hence May 11, 767. The Res Gestæ must have been written, then, in the interval between this date and his start for Campania, on his last journey, as we know he left this document in the hands of the Vestal Virgins. Cf. Suet. Aug. 97.