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10Not only did he magnify Augustus in the manner stated, but also when completing the buildings which Augustus had begun without finishing them he inscribed upon them the other’s name; and in the case of the statues and the shrines which were being erected to Augustus, whether by communities or by private individuals, he either dedicated them himself or instructed one of the pontifices to do so. 2This principle of inscribing the original builder’s name he carried out not only in the case of the buildings erected by Augustus, but in the case of all alike that needed any repairs; for, although he restored all the buildings that had suffered injury (he erected no new ones whatsoever himself except the temple of Augustus), yet he claimed none of them as his own, but restored to all of them the names of the original builders. 3While expending extremely little for himself, he laid out very large sums for the common good, either rebuilding or adorning practically all the public works and also generously assisting both cities and private individuals. He enriched numerous senators who were poor and on that account no longer wished to be members of the senate; 4yet he did not do this indiscriminately, but actually expunged the names of some for licentiousness and of others even for poverty when they could give no satisfactory reason for it. All the money that he bestowed upon people was counted out at once in his sight; for since under Augustus the officials who paid over the money had been wont to deduct large sums for themselves from such donatives, he took good care that this should not happen in his reign. 5All these expenditures, moreover, he made from the regular revenues; for he neither put anybody to death for his money nor confiscated, at this time, anybody’s property, nor did he even resort to tricky methods of obtaining funds. In fact, when Aemilius Rectus once sent him from Egypt, which he was governing, more money than was stipulated, he sent back to him the message: “I want my sheep shorn, not shaven.”
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