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32When he recovered, therefore, and learned that Marcellus because of this was not friendly toward Agrippa, he immediately sent the latter to Syria, so that no occasion for scoffing or for skirmishing might arise between them by their being together. And Agrippa straightway set out from the city, but did not reach Syria; instead, acting with even more than his usual moderation, he sent his lieutenants thither, and tarried himself in Lesbos.
2Besides doing all these things in the manner related, Augustus appointed ten praetors, feeling that he no longer required a larger number; and this happened for several years. Most of them were to perform the same duties as formerly, but two were to be in charge of the financial administration each year. 3Having arranged these matters in detail, he went to the Alban Mount and resigned the consulship. For ever since conditions had become settled, both he himself and most of his colleagues had held the office for the whole year, and he now wished to end this practice, in order that as many as possible might become consuls; and he resigned outside the city, to prevent being hindered from his purpose. 4For this act he received praise, as also because he chose in his stead Lucius Sestius, who had always been an enthusiastic follower of Brutus, had fought with him in all his wars, and even at this time kept alive his memory, had images of him, and delivered eulogies upon him. Augustus, it would appear, so far from disliking the man’s devotion and loyalty, actually honoured these qualities in him. 5And because of this the senate voted that Augustus should be tribune for life and gave him the privilege of bringing before the senate at each meeting any one matter at whatever time he liked, even if he were not consul at the time; they also permitted him to hold once and for all and for life the office of proconsul, so that he had neither to lay it down upon entering the pomerium nor to have it renewed again, and they gave him in the subject territory authority superior to that of the governor in each instance. 6As a result both he and the emperors after him gained a certain legal right to use the tribunician power as well as their other powers; for the title of tribune itself was taken neither by Augustus nor by any other emperor.
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