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47Now Caesar not only gave the soldiers the money but also expressed to them his most hearty and sincere thanks; indeed, he did not even venture to enter the senate-chamber without a guard of them. To the senate he showed gratitude, but it was all fictitious and assumed; for he was accepting as if it were a favour received from their willing hands what he had attained by applying force to them. 2And so they plumed themselves on their behaviour, as if they had given him these privileges voluntarily; and, moreover, they granted to him, whom previously they had not even wished to elect to the consulship, the right, after his term should expire, of taking precedence, as often as he should be in camp, over any consul for the time being. 3To him on whom they had threatened to inflict penalties, because he had gathered forces on his own account without anyone’s voting for it, they assigned the duty of collecting other forces; and to the man for whose disgrace and overthrow they had ordered Decimus to fight against Antony they added the legions of Decimus. 4And,finally, he obtained the guardianship of the city, so that he was able to do everything he wished in accordance with the laws, and he was adopted into Caesar’s family in the regular way and changed his name in consequence. 5To be sure, even before this he had been accustomed, as some believe, to call himself Caesar, from the time this name had been bequeathed to him along with the inheritance, but he did not use this appellation with any strictness or in his dealings with everybody until at this time he got it confirmed in accordance with established custom, and was thus named, after his adoptive father, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus. 6For it is the custom for a person, when he is adopted, to take most of his name from his adopter but to keep one of his previous names somewhat altered in form. 7This is the way of the matter, but I shall call him, not Octavianus, but Caesar, inasmuch as the latter name has prevailed among all who have held sway over the Romans. 8For although he acquired another name also,—that of Augustus,—and the emperors who succeeded him consequently assumed it also, that one will be described when it comes up in the history, and until then the title Caesar will be sufficient to show that Octavianus is indicated.
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