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14It had, indeed, been his plan to limit the senators to three hundred, as in the early times, and he thought he ought to be well content if that number of men were found who were worthy of the senate. But the number he actually enrolled was six hundred, since all alike were displeased with the other arrangement; for it turned out that those whose names would be stricken off the roll would be much more numerous than those who kept their places, so that the present senators were more afraid of being reduced to the ranks than hopeful of being in the new senate. 2Indeed, he did not stop even when this was done, but subsequently took other measures. It seems that certain unsuitable persons were even then found on the lists; and one Licinius Regulus, indignant because his name had been erased, whereas his son and several others to whom he thought himself superior had been selected by the lot, rent his clothing in the very senate, 3laid bare his body, enumerated his campaigns, and showed them his scars; and Articuleius Paetus, one of those who were to remain senators, earnestly begged that he might retire from his seat in the senate in favour of his father, who had been rejected. Consequently Augustus purged the senate again, removing some and choosing others in their places. 4And since, even so, the names of many had been stricken out, and some of them, as usually happens in such a case, found fault with him on the ground that they had been unjustly expelled, he at that time accorded them the right to attend spectacles and celebrate festivals along with the senators, wearing the same garb as they, and for the future he allowed them to stand for the various offices. 5The majority of them came back in the course of time into the senate; but some few were left in an intermediate position, being regarded as belonging neither to the senate nor to the people.
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