122
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MONARCHY.
restored to the comitia the right of electing the magistrates;
though it was always a matter of course, that the Candidati Cae-
saris could not be rejected. Horace and other poets of the time
speak of the uncertainty of the popular elections, and of the
ambitio Campi, in a manner which would be perfectly applicable
to the republican times ; and there is unquestionably some truth
in those expressions, for Augustus did not probably take the
trouble or exercise his power to dispose of all the offices of the
state, and we have instances of the people carrying out its will in
spite of that of the sovereign. Thus we read of the tumult of
Egnatius Rufus, who claimed the praetorship immediately after
the aedileship, in defiance of the person who acted in the name
of Augustus in the comitia, and in defiance of the leges annales.
In the same manner Egnatius Rufus obtained the consulship
immediately after his praetorship, through the people’s favour.1
So far the appearance of liberty remained. The assemblies of
the people were however on the whole confined to the elections
of magistrates, and a plcbiscitum cannot be seriously spoken of
in the reign of Augustus. The decree of Sextus Pacuvius
respecting the name of the month of Sextilis, in the form of a
plebiscitum, is quite a different thing.® Leges were still passed
in the time of Augustus; and in the Roman law-books we meet
with several that were carried in the ancient form : that is, a
resolution of the senate was brought before the centuries by
the consuls, and was there passed as a lex. The lox Junia
Norbana3 might almost lead one to believe that this mode of
making leges continued till the time of Tiberius ; but afterwards
leges, in the strict sense of the word, no longer occur.
Caesar had introduced into the senate a number of adven-
turers ; and it had been still more disgraced in the time of the
triumvirate, especially by Antony, when seats in it might be
purchased for money. After Augustus had received the cen-
sorial power, he announced that those men, who were conscious
that they would be better out of the senate, should withdraw
from it, that they might not be expelled; adding that those
who would withdraw, should be dealt with most leniently.
About fifty senators took the hint; but as there were still some
unworthy men left in the senate, Augustus excluded several
more; but in order not to hurt their vanity too much, he left
, Veil. Paterc. ii. 91, foil. 2 Macrobius, Saturn, i. 12.
3 Gaius, i. 3, 16, 17, 22; iii. 56.
THE SENATE.
123
them their outward distinctions, such as the Iatus clavus, and
their honorary seats in the theatres : a great consolation for the
wretched men ! Augustus fancied that they intended to make
an attempt upon his life ; and this probably induced him to
treat them considerately.4 He raised the census senatorus
which for some time, we know not how long, had been double
the equestrian census, to a million sesterces5, but behaved very
generously in this respect—which however did not cost him
much—for he provided from the public treasury the means to
enable many a one whom he liked to retain his seat in the
senate. The ordinary meetings of the senate had hitherto been
regularly three times in every month, which is a surprisingly
small number, but Augustus reduced it even to two meetings
a month.0 Extraordinary meetings, which the emperor might
convoke at any time, do not occur in the reign of Augustus.
During the months of September and October the senate had
vacations.7 No subjects could be discussed in the senate, ex-
cept those which were brought before it by the consuls, who
had the jus relationis which Augustus himself also possessed, and
which subsequently became of such importance. He, himself,
was princeps senatusβ, an honour in which the jus relationis had
been implied in the early times of the republic, but afterwards
it had disappeared, until it was restored by Augustus. From
among the senate he chose by lot a sort of state-council or
committee, which had to deliberate upon all subjects which
were to be brought before the senate. Debates upon such
subjects hardly ever took place; Whateverwasproposedappears
to have been passed forthwith, the speeches being only phrases
and compliments.
Augustus received the extraordinary powers with which he
was thus invested, at first for ten, then for five, and then again
for five, and lastly three times for ten years. At the beginning
1 Sueton. August. 35.
5 Dion Cassius, Iiv 17, 2G; lv. 13; Sueton. August. 41.
6 Dion Cassius, lv. 3. Sueton. August. 35.
7 It is very interesting and amusing to trace tlɪe actual customs of modern
Rome to ancient institutions. As an instance, I will mention here that the va-
cations in all the public offices at Rome still take place in October, which is con-
sidered to be a continuation of the regulation made by Augustus. Under the
emperors all the courts had vacations in the autumn, a thing unknown in the
time of the republic. The Roman Carnival too is an ancient institution,
though it has no connexion with the Bacchanalia, as some have supposed.—N.
“ Dion Cassius1Iiii. 1.