The lives of the first twelve Cæsars

발행: 1796년

분량: 639페이지

출처: archive.org

분류: 미분류

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CAESAR AUGUSTU s.

monilis of September and October, a certain numberonly, chosen by tot, lach as the law required to give a resolution of the house the force of a decree, should be oh-liged to give their attendance. He resolved ut pia the

he pleased ; that every one might give the same attention to the busnest be re them, as is he was to deli ver his sentiments at large upon it, to influence the rest, ratherthan assent to what had been adu anced by others. XXXVI. He lihewi se introduced severat other altera tions in the mana gement of public assairs ; as that the a 'sof the Senate 1hould not be publi aed, nor the magi seratessent into the provinces immediately after the expiration oftheir ossice : that the Proconsuis mould have a certain sum assigned them out of the treasury for mutes and lenis, which used before to be contracted for by the govertament With private persons: that the management of the trea-sury should be transferred from the City- hi aestors tothe Praetors, or those who had at ready served in thela iter ossice: and that ten commissioners should calltogether the Centumvirat couri, which had formet lybeen used to assemble at the summons os persons wholi ad boriae the office of Quaestors.

XXXVIII. That a greater number of persens might be employed in the administration of the State, he de- vi sed severat ne N ossices ; as for the superintendency of the Public bulldings, roads, waters, the channel of the Tiber; sor the distribution of eorn to the people ; the Praefecturo Of

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ΤΗE LIFE OFεf the city ; a Triumvirate sor the election of the Senators ; and another for tahing an account of the severat troops of the Equestrian Order, as osten as their duty in war rendered suci, an inspection necessary. He revived the ossice of Censors v, which had been a long time di Lused, and encrea sed the number of Praetors. He likewi delired, that as Often as the Consul sh ip was conferred

other.

XXXVIIL He was no tesse attentive to the reward os military merit, Upon ali occasions. He granted to abovethirty generals me honor of the great triumph; and toohcare to have triumphal ornaments voted by the Senate formore than that numher. That the fons of Senatorsmight hec me oner acquainted with assairs of state, hepermitted them, at the time when they took upon themille manly habit l, to assume the Senatorian tunic like-wise, In the year 3ra, Dom the bullding of the city, two

Inagistrates Were Created, under the name of Censors, Whosecssice, at frit, was to tahe an account of the number of the

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CAESAR AUGUSTUS.

wise, and to be present at the debates of the liouse. Whenthey entered the service of their country in the wars, he invested them not only with the commiss1on os Tribune, butlikewise the command of the auxiliary horse of a legion. And that none might want an opportunity of acquiringsussicient experience in military affairs, he common lyjoincd two fons of Senators in commission for the lalter appotiatinent. He frequently revie ed the troops of horse belonging to the State, reviving the ancient Custorri

of Transvection which had been long laid asside. But he

When they had completed this period, laid as1de the dress os minority, and assumed the Toga Virilis, or Μanly Habit. The cerem ony of changing the Toga was performed with

great solemnity be fore the images of the Lares, to whom the Bulla was Consecrate i. On this occasion, they went eitherto the Capitol, or to seme temple, to pay their devotions tothe GodS. The Transectio was a procession of the Equestrian Or-der, whicli they made with great splendor through the city,eVery year, on the fifteerith day of Iuly. They rode onhorsebach Dom the Temple of Honor, or of Μars, Without the city, to the Capitol, with ivreatlis os olive on their heads, dressed in robes of scarlet, and bearing in their hands themilitary ornaments whicli they had received hom their generat, as a re vard of their valor. The Κnighis rode up to the Censor, seated on his curule chair in the front of the Capitol, and dismounting ted along their horses in theirhanda be re him. Is any of the knights was corrupi in his morais, had dimini siled his fortune below the legat standard, Or even ii ad not taken proper care of his horse, the Censorordered bim to seli his horse, by which he was consideredas degraded frona the Equestrian Order.

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keep their horse any longer, to have the privilege of resigning him. νXXXIX. Having obtained ten assistants stom the Senate, he obliged every one of the horsemen to give an account of his life : in regard to those of whom he dilap- proved, upon mehe set a mark of infamy, and omers hepunished in different ways. The mos part he only reprimanded, but not in the fame terms. The most gentie mode of reproof was by deli vering them mata tablets.', whicli they were obliged to read to themselves upon thespot. Some he dilaraced for borro ing money at loWinterest, and letting it out again upon usurious profit. XL. In the election of Tribunes, is there mas not alassicient number of Senatorian candidates, he nominated Others stom the Equestrian rank; granting them the liberty, after the eκpiration of their ossice, to continue in Whiclis oeuer of the two Orders they pleased. Becausemost of the knights had been much reduced in theirestates by the late civit wars, and there re durst not sitio see the public diversions in the theatre, in the seais al-l Pugillares, or Pugillaria, ruere a hind of pocket-book,

used for the purpo se of taking down memorandiunis. Theyappear to have been os very ancient origin; for Ne read of them in the Iliad under the name of Πινακες.

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CAESAR AUGUSTUS.

ibited to their Order, for fear of the punishment provided by the law in that case ; he publicly declared, that notae

ruere liable to the penalty of that law, who had, et therthenaseives, or their parenis, ever had a linight's estate.

and that the commonalty might Dot be too osten talienseo in their bus esse, to attend the distribution os coria. he intended to desiver out lici eis for four monilis, thatthey might receive a greater quantity at once; but at ille rrequest, he continued the former regulation. He revivised the ancient usage in electioris, and endeavored, buvarious penalties, to suppress the praetice of bribery.

Upon the da y of election, he distributed to the Deemenos the Fabian and Scaptian tribeq; in which he himself was

suifer the reveniae of my excitequer to be diminissaed, man the honor of the se dom os Rome to be renderedtoo Common. V Not content with debarring saves froni the benefit os complete emancipation, by vario us legaldissiculties, relative to the number, condition, and di

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73 a

sembly of the peopte in blach togas he exclaimed mitti indignation, See there l

Romanos rerum dominos, gentemque togatam. Rome's fons whose lavis the subject worid repress ros whom the toga is the civic dresa.

He gave order to the AEdiles not to permit, in future,any Roman to fland in the Forum or Circus Mith

lare belonging to the hings of Egypt into the city, in his AleXandrian triumph, he made money so plentilat, that

interest fell, and the price of land rose considerably. . Anda sterwards, as osten as large sumsos money came into his possession by means os confiscations, he would lend it gratis to lacti as could give security for the doubie of inhat, Was borrowed. The estate necessary to qualisy a personfor being elected into the Senate, instead os eight hundred thousand sesterces, the former standarit, he ordered, forthe future, to be twel te hundred thousand; and to those in the liouse who had not so much, he made good the deficiency. Me osten made donations to the people, but generalty of different lanis; semetimes four hundred, me itines three hundred, or two hundred and fisty sesterces :Dpon whicli occasions, he extended his bounty even tollitie boys ; who be re were not used to receive any thing, untii they arrived at cleven years of age. In ascarcity os coria, he would frequently let them have it at 8 a ver

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CAESAR AUGUSTUS. 133 a very low price, or none at ali; and doubled the number

XLII. But to flacw that he was a prince who regariled more the good of his peopte than their savor, he reprimanded them, upora their complaining of the scarcity and dearnes s of wine, very severely, in the sollowing teritas:

him for one which he had not promised, he isiued a proclamation upbra id ing them with their scandalous impudence ; at the same time telling them, I should giveycu nothing, though I had be fore intended it. V With thelthe firmnesse of authori ty, when, upon a promise he had made them os a donative, he found many saves had been manumised, and enrolled amongst the citigens, he declared that none mould receive any thingto whom the promiseliad not been made, and he gave the rest lesse than he had Promised them, that the sum he designed them might hold

tremely dissiculi to supply the public exigeiace, he Orderedo ut of the city ali the companies of saves brought thithersor sale, the gladiators belonging to the masters of defenCe, and ali foret gners, excepting physicians, and the teachers of the liberat sciences . A part of the faves in every family were likewi se ordei ed to be disinissed. When, at lati, plenty was restored, he writes thus : I mas muchinclined to abolisti for ever the practice of allo ing the Peopte corn at the public expence, because they truit so

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XLIII. In the number, variety, and magnificence of his public diversioris, he surpassed ali former cXample . Fourand twenty times, he says, hepresented the people with gam esupon his own account; and three and twenty times soli such magistrates as were ei ther ahsent, or not able to afforti

the expence: and this he did somelimes in the streeis qfthe city, and upon severat stages, by players in ali languages. The sanie he did not only in the Forum, and Amphi 'theatre, but in the Circus likewise, and in the Septa' ; and so metimes he presented only a hunting of wild bea sis. Heentertained the people with wrestiers in the Field os Mars,

where Wooden seats were erected for the pui posse; asalso with a navat figlit; sor accommodation to Whicli helowered the ground about the Tiber, where now lies thegrove of the Caesars. During these two enteria in mentqhe placed guards in thu city, leti robbers, by reason of thesmali number of peopte ibat was test in it, might seiZe theopportunity os committing depredations. In the Circus he brought into action charioteers, scot-racers, and killer of wild beasts, and those osten youilis of the first quali ty. He frequently eXhibited the Trojan game, with a selectnumber os boys disterent in stature : thinhing it both graccisi in iiself, and conformabie to the practice of the ancients, that the genius of the young nobili ty shquid be' Septa were inclo irres made with boards, commonly forthe purpost os distributing the peopte into distinet classies, and erected occasio ually.

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CAEsAR AUGUSTUS.

displayed in lach eκercisses. C. Nonius Asprenas, whowas lamed in this diversion, he presented with a gol lenchain, and allowed hi in and his posteri ty to bear the sur

made in the Senate by Asinius Pollio the orator, in Whichhe complained bitterly of the missortune of AEserninus his grandson, who lihewise brohe his leg in the samo diversion. He so metimes made use of Roman knighis toaet upon the stage, or to figlit as gladiators : but only be- fore the practicu was prohibited by a decree of the Senate. Afier that period he went no farther than to present to the vie of the peopte a young man namod Lucius, of a good fami ly, Gio was not quite two fout in height, and weighed only seventeen pounds, but had a prodigio usvoice. In one of his public entertainmenis, he brought the hostages of the Ρarthians, the first ever sent to Romes rom that nation, through the mi lille of the theatre, and

placed them in the second gallery above hi m. Fle used

likewise, at times when no public enteria inments Wς re in agitation, is any thing was brought to town uncommon,

and whicli might gratis' curiosi ty, to eYposse it to publicvie , in any place Whate ver ; as he did a rhinoceros in the Septa, a tiger Upon a stage, and a snahe fifty cubiis longin the Comitium. It happened in the Circensi an games, which he performed in consequente os a vow, that he was ta ken ill, and obliged to attend the Thensae lyingup On a Couch. Ano her time, in the games celebra ted sor- The The a Was a splendid carriage with four wheeis, and Dur horses, adorned with ivory and silver, in is hicii theimages of the Gods Were dramn in solemn procession Domtheir iurines, at the Circensi an games, to a place in the Circus, called Pulvinar, where covches Were prepared for their receP

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for the opening of Marcelliis 's Heatre, the JOints of his ivory seat happening to give way, he feti upon his bach. And in the public diversion exhibited by his grandsons,

when the people were so terrified with the apprehensionos the theatre's falling, that he could not, by repeated en

treaties not to Tun away, o verCome their trepidation, hemoved stom his place, and sat down in the part whichwas most suspected. XLIV. The confused disorderly manner of sitiing at

public diversions, he rectified, upon occasion os an affrontput Upon a Senator at Ρuteoli, whom, in a suli assemblyat the public games, no person would mal e ro om s r. Ηe theres ore procured a decree of the Senate, that in ali public diversions, in any place whatever, the fit si row of seais sa ould be lest empty for the accommodation of Senators. He would not permit even the arrabassadorsos free nations, and lachias were allies of Rome, to sit in that part of the theatre assigned to the Senators :having discovered that s me manumised flaves had beensent under that character. He separated the soldiery stomthe rest of the people, and assigned to mari ted men among stille Commonalty their proper seats. To the bpys heassigned his own Cuneus η, and to their masters the statation. It received iis name Dom thongs flora ten stretchedbefore it; and was attended in the procession by pessens of the first rank, in their most magnificent apparet. The attendanis took delight in touching the thongs by whicli thechariot was drawn : and is a boy happened to let go thethong which he held, it was an in dispensabie rule that the

procession siiould be rene ed. M The cineus was a bench in the theatre, or other places of public entertain ment. One rose ab ove another Dom the

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