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41Maecenas thus brought his speech to an end. And Caesar heartily commended both him and Agrippa for the wealth of their ideas and of their arguments and also for their frankness in expressing them; but he preferred to adopt the advice of Maecenas. He did not, however, immediately put into effect all his suggestions, fearing to meet with failure at some point if he purposed to change the ways of all mankind at a stroke; 2but he introduced some reforms at the moment and some at a later time, leaving still others for those to effect who should subsequently hold the principate, in the belief that as time passed a better opportunity would be found to put these last into operation. And Agrippa, also, although he had advised against these policies, coöperated with Caesar most zealously in respect to all of them, just as if he had himself proposed them.
3These and all the rest that I have recorded earlier in this narrative were the acts of Caesar in the year in which he was consul for the fifth time; and he assumed the title of imperator. I do not here refer to the title which had occasionally been bestowed, in accordance with the ancient custom, upon generals in recognition of their victories,—for he had received that many times before this and received it many times afterwards in honour merely of his achievements, 4so that he won the name of imperator twenty-one times,—but rather the title in its other use, which signifies the possession of the supreme power, in which sense it had been voted to his father Caesar and to the children and descendants of Caesar.
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