« Dio 55.3 | Dio 55.4 | Dio 55.5 | About This Work »
4These and the other laws which Augustus enacted at this time he had inscribed on tablets and posted in the senate before bringing them up for consideration, and he allowed the senators to enter the chamber in groups of two and read them, so that if any provision did not please them, or if they could advise anything better, they might speak. 2He was very desirous indeed of being democratic, as one or two incidents will illustrate. Once, when one of those who had campaigned with him asked him for his assistance as advocate, though he at first pretended to be busy and bade one of his friends speak in the man’s behalf, yet when the petitioner became angry and said, “But I, whenever you had need of my assistance, did not send some one else to you in place of myself, but personally encountered dangers everywhere in your behalf,” the emperor then entered the court-room and pleaded his friend’s cause. 3He also stood by a friend who was defendant in a suit, after having first communicated his purpose to the senate; and he saved his friend, but was so far from being angry with the friend’s accuser, though this man had indulged in the utmost frankness in his speech, that later on, when the same man appeared before him, as censor, for a scrutiny of his morals, the emperor acquitted him, saying openly that the other’s frankness was necessary for the Romans on account of the baseness of the majority of them. 4However, he punished others who were reported to be conspiring against him. He also caused quaestors to serve along the coast near the city and in certain other parts of Italy; and this practice was followed for many years.
At the time in question he was unwilling, as I have stated, to enter the city because of Drusus’ death;
« Dio 55.3 | Dio 55.4 | Dio 55.5 | About This Work »