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25Now when Augustus had finished all the business which occupied him in the several provinces of Gaul, of Germany and of Spain, having spent large sums upon special districts and received large sums from others, having bestowed freedom and citizenship upon some and taken them away from others, he left Drusus in Germany and returned to Rome himself in the consulship of Tiberius and Quintilius Varus. 2Now it chanced that the news of his coming reached the city during those days when Cornelius Balbus was celebrating with spectacles the dedication of the theatre which is even to -day called by his name; and Balbus accordingly began to put on airs, as if it were he himself that was going to bring Augustus back,—although he was unable even to enter his theatre, except by boat, on account of the flood of water caused by the Tiber, which had overflowed its banks,—and Tiberius put the vote to him first, in honour of his building the theatre. 3For the senate convened, and among its other decrees voted to place an altar in the senate-chamber itself, to commemorate the return of Augustus, and also voted that those who approached him as suppliants while he was inside the pomerium should not be punished. Nevertheless, he accepted neither of these honours, and even avoided encountering the people on this occasion also; 4for he entered the city at night. This he did nearly always whenever he went out to the suburbs or anywhere else, both on his way out and on his return, so that he might trouble none of the citizens. The next day he welcomed the people in the palace, and then, ascending the Capitol, took the laurel from around his fasces and placed it upon the knees of Jupiter; and he also placed baths and barbers at the service of the people free of charge on that day. 5After this he convened the senate, and though he made no address himself by reason of hoarseness, he gave his manuscript to the quaestor to read and thus enumerated his achievements and promulgated rules as to the number of years the citizens should serve in the army and as to the amount of money they should receive when discharged from service, in lieu of the land which they were always demanding. 6His object was that the soldiers, by being enlisted henceforth on certain definite terms, should find no excuse for revolt on this score. The number of years was twelve for the Pretorians and sixteen for the rest; and the money to be distributed was less in some cases and more in others. These measures caused the soldiers neither pleasure nor anger for the time being, because they neither obtained all they desired nor yet failed of all; but in the rest of the population the measures aroused confident hopes that they would not in future be robbed of their possessions.
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