§42octoginta autem ciuium milibus in transmarinas colonias distributis, ut exhaustae quoque urbis frequentia suppeteret, sanxit, ne quis ciuis maior annis uiginti minorue †decem, qui sacramento non teneretur, plus triennio continuo Italia abesset, neu qui senatoris filius nisi contubernalis aut comes magistratus peregre proficisceretur; neue ii, qui pecuariam facerent, minus tertia parte puberum ingenuorum inter pastores haberent.
However, eighty thousand citizens having been distributed into overseas colonies, in order that the population of the depleted city might also be sufficient, he decreed that no citizen older than twenty or younger than [ten] (corrupt for fifty), who was not bound by a military oath, should be absent from Italy for more than three consecutive years; nor should any son of a senator go abroad except as a tent-companion or staff-member of a magistrate; nor should those who engaged in cattle-breeding have among their shepherds less than a third part of freeborn adults.
omnisque medicinam Romae professos et liberalium artium doctores, quo libentius et ipsi urbem incolerent et ceteri adpeterent, ciuitate donauit.
And he gifted with citizenship all who practiced medicine in Rome and the teachers of liberal arts, so that they themselves might inhabit the city more willingly and others might desire to do so.
de pecuniis mutuis disiecta nouarum tabularum expectatione, quae crebro mouebatur, decreuit tandem, ut debitores creditoribus satis facerent per aestimationem possessionum, quanti quasque ante ciuile bellum comparassent, deducto summae aeris alieni, si quid usurae nomine numeratum aut perscriptum fuisset; qua condicione quarta pars fere crediti deperibat.
With regard to borrowed money, having dashed the expectation of new account books, which was frequently raised, he finally decreed that debtors should satisfy their creditors through an appraisal of their possessions at the price they had purchased each of them before the civil war, deducting from the total of the debt whatever had been paid or entered in the ledger under the name of interest; by which condition about a fourth part of the loan was lost.
cuncta collegia praeter antiquitus constituta distraxit.
He dissolved all associations except those established of old.
poenas facinorum auxit; et cum locupletes eo facilius scelere se obligarent, quod integris patrimoniis exulabant, parricidas, ut Cicero scribit, bonis omnibus, reliquos dimidia parte multauit.
He increased the penalties for crimes; and since the rich bound themselves to crime all the more easily because they went into exile with their patrimonies intact, he punished parricides, as Cicero writes, with the confiscation of all their goods, and others with the half.
§43ius laboriosissime ac seuerissime dixit.
He administered justice most industriously and severely.
repetundarum conuictos etiam ordine senatorio mouit.
He removed those convicted of extortion even from the senatorial order.
diremit nuptias praetorii uiri, qui digressam a marito post biduum statim duxerat, quamuis sine probri suspicione.
He dissolved the marriage of a man of praetorian rank, who had married a woman immediately two days after she separated from her husband, although without suspicion of misconduct.
peregrinarum mercium portoria instituit.
He established customs duties on foreign goods.
lecticarum usum, item conchyliatae uestis et margaritarum nisi certis personis et aetatibus perque certos dies ademit.
He took away the use of litters, and also of purple-dyed garments and pearls, except for certain persons and ages, and on certain days.
legem praecipue sumptuariam exercuit dispositis circa macellum custodibus, qui obsonia contra uetitum retinerent deportarentque ad se, submissis nonnumquam lictoribus atque militibus, qui, si qua custodes fefellissent, iam adposita e triclinio auferrent.
He enforced the sumptuary law especially, having stationed guards around the provisions market to seize food items contrary to the prohibition and bring them to him, sometimes sending lictors and soldiers to carry away from the dining room what had already been served, if any had escaped the guards.
§44Nam de ornanda instruendaque urbe, item de tuendo ampliandoque imperio plura ac maiora in dies destinabat: in primis Martis templum, quantum nusquam esset, extruere repleto et conplanato lacu, in quo naumachiae spectaculum ediderat, theatrumque summae magnitudinis Tarpeio monti accubans; ius ciuile ad certum modum redigere atque ex immensa diffusaque legum copia optima quaeque et necessaria in paucissimos conferre libros; bibliothecas Graecas Latinasque quas maximas posset publicare data Marco Varroni cura comparandarum ac digerendarum; siccare Pomptinas paludes; emittere Fucinum lacum; uiam munire a mari Supero per Appennini dorsum ad Tiberim usque; perfodere Isthmum; Dacos, qui se in Pontum et Thraciam effuderant, coercere; mox Parthis inferre bellum per Armeniam minorem nec nisi ante expertos adgredi proelio.
For with regard to adorning and equipping the city, and likewise to protecting and expanding the empire, he designed more and greater things day by day: especially to build a temple of Mars, of such size as was nowhere else, after filling up and leveling the lake in which he had exhibited the spectacle of the mock sea-fight, and a theater of the greatest magnitude leaning against the Tarpeian rock; to reduce the civil law to a fixed limit, and to collect into a very few books the best and necessary parts from the immense and scattered mass of laws; to make public Greek and Latin libraries as large as possible, the duty of collecting and organizing them having been given to Marcus Varro; to drain the Pomptine marshes; to let out the water of Lake Fucinus; to construct a road from the Upper Sea along the ridge of the Apennines all the way to the Tiber; to cut through the Isthmus; to check the Daci, who had poured themselves into Pontus and Thrace; soon to bring war against the Parthians through Lesser Armenia, and not to attack them in battle until they had first been tested.
Talia agentem atque meditantem mors praeuenit.
Death anticipated him while he was doing and contemplating such things.
de qua prius quam dicam, ea quae ad formam et habitum et cultum et mores, nec minus quae ad ciuilia et bellica eius studia pertineant, non alienum erit summatim exponere.
Before I speak of this, it will not be out of place to set forth briefly those things which pertain to his appearance, bearing, dress, and manners, and no less those which pertain to his civil and military pursuits.
§45Fuisse traditur excelsa statura, colore candido, teretibus membris, ore paulo pleniore, nigris uegetisque oculis, ualitudine prospera, nisi quod tempore extremo repente animo linqui atque etiam per somnum exterreri solebat.
He is reported to have been of tall stature, with a fair complexion, shapely limbs, a face somewhat full, black and lively eyes, and in prosperous health, except that in his last days he was accustomed suddenly to faint and also to be frightened in his sleep.
comitiali quoque morbo bis inter res agendas correptus est.
He was also seized twice by epilepsy while engaged in business.
circa corporis curam morosior, ut non solum tonderetur diligenter ac raderetur, sed uelleretur etiam, ut quidam exprobrauerunt, caluitii uero deformitatem iniquissime ferret saepe obtrectatorum iocis obnoxiam expertus.
He was rather fastidious about the care of his body, so that he was not only carefully shorn and shaved, but even plucked, as some reproached him; and indeed he bore the deformity of baldness very impatiently, having experienced that it was often subject to the jokes of his detractors.
ideoque et deficientem capillum reuocare a uertice adsueuerat et ex omnibus decretis sibi a senatu populoque honoribus non aliud aut recepit aut usurpauit libentius quam ius laureae coronae perpetuo gestandae.
And for that reason he had been accustomed to bring back his thinning hair from the crown of his head, and of all the honors decreed to him by the senate and people, he neither accepted nor used any more willingly than the right of constantly wearing a laurel wreath.
Etiam cultu notabilem ferunt: usum enim lato clauo ad manus fimbriato nec umquam aliter quam ut super eum cingeretur, et quidem fluxiore cinctura; unde emanasse Sullae dictum optimates saepius admonentis, ut male praecinctum puerum cauerent.
They say also that he was remarkable in his dress: for he used a broad stripe fringed at the hands, and never otherwise than so that it was girded over it, and indeed with a rather loose girdle; whence arose the saying of Sulla, who often warned the nobles to beware of the ill-girdled boy.