Roman History, 53.1

Cassius Dio  translated by Earnest Cary

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1These were the occurrences at that time. The following year Caesar held office for the sixth time and conformed in all other respects to the usages handed down from the earliest times, and, in particular, he delivered to Agrippa, his colleague, the bundles of rods as it was incumbent upon him to do, while he himself used the other set, and on completing his term of office he took the oath according to ancestral custom. 2Whether he ever did this again, I do not know, for he always paid exceptional honour to Agrippa; thus he gave him his niece in marriage, and provided him with a tent similar to his own whenever they were campaigning together, and the watchword was given out by both of them. 3At this particular time, now, besides attending to his other duties as usual, he completed the taking of the census, in connection with which his title was princeps senatus, as had been the practice when Rome was truly a republic. Moreover, he completed and dedicated the temple of Apollo on the Palatine, the precinct surrounding it, and the libraries. 4He also celebrated in company with Agrippa the festival which had been voted in honour of the victory won at Actium; and during this celebration he caused the boys and men of the nobility to take part in the Circensian games. 5This festival was held for a time every four years and was in charge of the four priesthoods in succession—I mean the pontifices, the augurs, and the septemviri and quindecimviri, as they were called. On the present occasion, moreover, a gymnastic contest was held, a wooden stadium having been constructed in the Campus Martius, and there was a gladiatorial combat between captives. 6These events continued for several days and were not interrupted even when Caesar fell ill; but Agrippa went on with them even so, discharging Caesar’s duties as well as his own.

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