120
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MONABCHT.
soldiers no citizen was in arms. Even if it had been possible,
no sensible man could have wished him to lay down his power;
for as it had been impossible to maintain the free constitution
under far more favourable circumstances, and at a time which
was far richer in eminent men, how could it have been pos-
sible now, if Octavian had resigned his power? Nothing is
more probable than that some more unworthy person would
have usurped it; new civil wars would then have been the
consequence, and things would again have come to the point
at which they now were. It was further evident that the
present ruler was anxious to make the people forget his former
actions; and nothing therefore was more natural for the senate
than to request Octavian to keep possession of his power. To
give you a chronological account of the succession in which
the several powers of the state were transferred to Octavian,
is, if not impossible, at least very difficult. The title of Impe-
rator had already been given to him as a praenomen,—a pecu-
liar and characteristic flattery. He was accordingly called
Imperator Julius Caesar Octavianus instead of C. Julius Caesar
Octavianus, and from that time Imperator remained a praeno-
men with the Roman monarchs, as we see on their coins. In
the history of the later emperors, and even as early as the
second century, this circumstance seems to have been forgotten,
as the whole system of names underwent a change. In official
documents, it is true, we usually read, for example, Imperator
Antoninus Augustus, but otherwise we also find Imperator
Marcus Antoninus Augustus. The senate seems to have posi-
tively tortured itself in devising flatteries for Octavian. He
himself wished to assume Romulus as an agnomen, but this
was thought ominous by some persons; and on the proposal of
L. Munatius Plancus, who was as great a flatterer as the Greeks
had been in the time of the Macedonian rulers, it was decreed
that he should be honoured by the surname of Augustus instead,
which the Greeks immediately translated into 2,e∕3αστoς, but
which it is difficult to translate into any modern language.
With regard to his powers, the senate offered him the dicta-
torship, which, however, he declined; for he Wassuperstitious,
and may have dreaded the fate of the dictator Caesar, or the
wretched death of Sulla; perhaps, however, his intention was
only to temporise, and the acceptance of the dictatorship may
have appeared to him too straightforward a mode of acting.
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MONABCHT,
121
He was elected to the consulship every year, as long as he
pleased. It was at first proposed to make him sole consul, but
he not only declined this honour, but wanted to have two
colleagues. The senate, however, refused this request, on the
plea that one man standing by his side was already too much.
He obtained the proconsular power over the whole of the
Eoman empire, with the exception of Eome itself; and he was
empowered to give the administration of the provinces to
whomsoever he pleased to appoint as his vicegerents. The
censorship was likewise transferred to him, and with it the
power of excluding persons fιom the senate and of calling
others into it. The tribunicia potestas had been given to him
before, and was afterwards prolonged for life. By virtue of it
he had the power of annulling any decree of the senate, and
of interfering in all the acts of all the magistrates ; an appeal
to him, moreover, was open from all the courts of justice; he
had the right to convoke the senate, and to put any subject under
consideration to the vote of the senators. This latter part of
the tribunician power had arisen in the seventh century, and
nobody ventured to doubt its legitimacy.8 As long as Lepidus
lived, Augustus left him the title of Pontifex Maximus, but
after his death Augustus caused the pontificate to be transferred
to himself. This office put at once into his hands all the
ecclesiastical courts, and the whole superintendence of the
ecclesiastical law. In the capacity of tribune and censor he
also had the supreme control over the aerarium, so that, by an
artificial accumulation, all the powers of the state, including
the administrative powers of the consuls and praetors, were
concentrated in his person.
LECTURE CV.
It was only for the sake of appearance that Augustus in making
his new arrangements went back in everything to the ancient
forms. Caesar had reserved to himself half the elections, and
in the end he took all of them into his own hands ; but Augustus
8 Gellius, xιv. 7, 8.