The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete
[168]. Several associations were formed under the specious (97) name of
a new college, which banded together for the perpetration of all kinds of
villany. The banditti he quelled by establishing posts of soldiers in
suitable stations for the purpose; the houses of correction were
subjected to a strict superintendence; all associations, those only
excepted which were of ancient standing, and recognised by the laws, were
dissolved. He burnt all the notes of those who had been a long time in
arrear with the treasury, as being the principal source of vexatious
suits and prosecutions. Places in the city claimed by the public, where
the right was doubtful, he adjudged to the actual possessors. He struck
out of the list of criminals the names of those over whom prosecutions
had been long impending, where nothing further was intended by the
informers than to gratify their own malice, by seeing their enemies
humiliated; laying it down as a rule, that if any one chose to renew a
prosecution, he should incur the risk of the punishment which he sought
to inflict. And that crimes might not escape punishment, nor business be
neglected by delay, he ordered the courts to sit during the thirty days
which were spent in celebrating honorary games. To the three classes of
judges then existing, he added a fourth, consisting of persons of
inferior order, who were called Ducenarii, and decided all litigations
about trifling sums. He chose judges from the age of thirty years and
upwards; that is five years younger than had been usual before. And a
great many declining the office, he was with much difficulty prevailed
upon to allow each class of judges a twelve-month’s vacation in turn; and
the courts to be shut during the months of November and December. [169]
XXXIII. He was himself assiduous in his functions as a judge, and would
sometimes prolong his sittings even into the night [170]: if he were
indisposed, his litter was placed before (98) the tribunal, or he
administered justice reclining on his couch at home; displaying always
not only the greatest attention, but extreme lenity. To save a culprit,
who evidently appeared guilty of parricide, from the extreme penalty of
being sewn up in a sack, because none were punished in that manner but
such as confessed the fact, he is said to have interrogated him thus:
“Surely you did not kill your father, did you?” And when, in a trial of
a cause about a forged will, all those who had signed it were liable to
the penalty of the Cornelian law, he ordered that his colleagues on the
tribunal should not only be furnished with the two tablets by which they
decided, “guilty or not guilty,” but with a third likewise, ignoring the
offence of those who should appear to have given their signatures through
any deception or mistake. All appeals in causes between inhabitants of
Rome, he assigned every year to the praetor of the city; and where
provincials were concerned, to men of consular rank, to one of whom the
business of each province was referred.
XXXIV. Some laws he abrogated, and he made some new ones; such as the
sumptuary law, that relating to adultery and the violation of chastity,
the law against bribery in elections, and likewise that for the
encouragement of marriage. Having been more severe in his reform of this
law than the rest, he found the people utterly averse to submit to it,
unless the penalties were abolished or mitigated, besides allowing an
interval of three years after a wife’s death, and increasing the premiums
on marriage. The equestrian order clamoured loudly, at a spectacle in
the theatre, for its total repeal; whereupon he sent for the children of
Germanicus, and shewed them partly sitting upon his own lap, and partly
on their father’s; intimating by his looks and gestures, that they ought
not to think it a grievance to follow the example of that young man. But
finding that the force of the law was eluded, by marrying girls under the
age of puberty, and by frequent change of wives, he limited the time for
consummation after espousals, and imposed restrictions on divorce.
XXXV. By two separate scrutinies he reduced to their former number and
splendour the senate, which had been swamped by a disorderly crowd; for
they were now more than a (99) thousand, and some of them very mean
persons, who, after Caesar’s death, had been chosen by dint of interest
and bribery, so that they had the nickname of Orcini among the people
[171]. The first of these scrutinies was left to themselves, each
senator naming another; but the last was conducted by himself and
Agrippa. On this occasion he is believed to have taken his seat as he
presided, with a coat of mail under his tunic, and a sword by his side,
and with ten of the stoutest men of senatorial rank, who were his
friends, standing round his chair. Cordus Cremutius [172] relates that
no senator was suffered to approach him, except singly, and after having
his bosom searched [for secreted daggers]. Some he obliged to have the
grace of declining the office; these he allowed to retain the privileges
of wearing the distinguishing dress, occupying the seats at the solemn
spectacles, and of feasting publicly, reserved to the senatorial order
[173]. That those who were chosen and approved of, might perform their
functions under more solemn obligations, and with less inconvenience, he
ordered that every senator, before he took his seat in the house, should
pay his devotions, with an offering of frankincense and wine, at the
altar of that God in whose temple the senate then assembled [174], and
that their stated meetings should be only twice in the month, namely, on
the calends and ides; and that in the months of September and October
[175], a certain number only, chosen by lot, such as the law required to
give validity to a decree, should be required to attend. For himself, he
resolved to choose every six (100) months a new council, with whom he
might consult previously upon such affairs as he judged proper at any
time to lay before the full senate. He also took the votes of the
senators upon any subject of importance, not according to custom, nor in
regular order, but as he pleased; that every one might hold himself ready
to give his opinion, rather than a mere vote of assent.
XXXVI. He also made several other alterations in the management of
public affairs, among which were these following: that the acts of the
senate should not be published [176]; that the magistrates should not be
sent into the provinces immediately after the expiration of their office;
that the proconsuls should have a certain sum assigned them out of the
treasury for mules and tents, which used before to be contracted for by
the government with private persons; that the management of the treasury
should be transferred from the city-quaestors to the praetors, or those
who had already served in the latter office; and that the decemviri
should call together the court of One hundred, which had been formerly
summoned by those who had filled the office of quaestor.
XXXVII. To augment the number of persons employed in the administration
of the state, he devised several new offices; such as surveyors of the
public buildings, of the roads, the aqueducts, and the bed of the Tiber;
for the distribution of corn to the people; the praefecture of the city;
a triumvirate for the election of the senators; and another for
inspecting the several troops of the equestrian order, as often as it was
necessary. He revived the office of censor [177], which had been long
disused, and increased the number of praetors. He likewise required that
whenever the consulship was conferred on him, he should have two
colleagues instead of one; but his proposal (101) was rejected, all the
senators declaring by acclamation that he abated his high majesty quite
enough in not filling the office alone, and consenting to share it with
another.
XXXVIII. He was unsparing in the reward of military merit, having
granted to above thirty generals the honour of the greater triumph;
besides which, he took care to have triamphal decorations voted by the
senate for more than that number. That the sons of senators might become
early acquainted with the administration of affairs, he permitted them,
at the age when they took the garb of manhood [178], to assume also the
distinction of the senatorian robe, with its broad border, and to be
present at the debates in the senate-house. When they entered the
military service, he not only gave them the rank of military tribunes in
the legions, but likewise the command of the auxiliary horse. And that
all might have an opportunity of acquiring military experience, he
commonly joined two sons of senators in command of each troop of horse.
He frequently reviewed the troops of the equestrian order, reviving the
ancient custom of a cavalcade [179], which had been long laid aside. But
he did not suffer any one to be obliged by an accuser to dismount while
he passed in review, as had formerly been the practice. As for such as
were infirm with age, or (102) any way deformed, he allowed them to send
their horses before them, coming on foot to answer to their names, when
the muster roll was called over soon afterwards. He permitted those who
had attained the age of thirty-five years, and desired not to keep their
horse any longer, to have the privilege of giving it up.
XXXIX. With the assistance of ten senators, he obliged each of the Roman
knights to give an account of his life: in regard to those who fell under
his displeasure, some were punished; others had a mark of infamy set
against their names. The most part he only reprimanded, but not in the
same terms. The mildest mode of reproof was by delivering them tablets
[180], the contents of which, confined to themselves, they were to read
on the spot. Some he disgraced for borrowing money at low interest, and
letting it out again upon usurious profit.
XL. In the election of tribunes of the people, if there was not a
sufficient number of senatorian candidates, he nominated others from the
equestrian order; granting them the liberty, after the expiration of
their office, to continue in whichsoever of the two orders they pleased.
As most of the knights had been much reduced in their estates by the
civil wars, and therefore durst not sit to see the public games in the
theatre in the seats allotted to their order, for fear of the penalty
provided by the law in that case, he enacted, that none were liable to
it, who had themselves, or whose parents had ever, possessed a knight’s
estate. He took the census of the Roman people street by street: and
that the people might not be too often taken from their business to
receive the distribution of corn, it was his intention to deliver tickets
three times a year for four months respectively; but at their request, he
continued the former regulation, that they should receive their (103)
share monthly. He revived the former law of elections, endeavouring, by
various penalties, to suppress the practice of bribery. Upon the day of
election, he distributed to the freemen of the Fabian and Scaptian
tribes, in which he himself was enrolled, a thousand sesterces each, that
they might look for nothing from any of the candidates. Considering it
of extreme importance to preserve the Roman people pure, and untainted
with a mixture of foreign or servile blood, he not only bestowed the
freedom of the city with a sparing hand, but laid some restriction upon
the practice of manumitting slaves. When Tiberius interceded with him
for the freedom of Rome in behalf of a Greek client of his, he wrote to
him for answer, “I shall not grant it, unless he comes himself, and
satisfies me that he has just grounds for the application.” And when