§7Multa etiam in communi rerum usu nouauit: sportulas publicas sustulit reuocata rectarum cenarum consuetudine; duas circensibus gregum factiones aurati purpureique panni ad quattuor pristinas addidit; interdixit histrionibus scaenam, intra domum quidem exercendi artem iure concesso; castrari mares uetuit; spadonum, qui residui apud mangones erant, pretia moderatus est.
He also introduced many innovations in common customs: he abolished the public distributions of food-baskets and restored the custom of formal dinners; he added two new factions of chariot-teams to the four ancient ones in the circus, namely the gold and the purple; he forbade actors the stage, though allowing them the right to practice their art within private houses; he prohibited the castration of males, and regulated the prices of the eunuchs who remained in the hands of the slave-dealers.
ad summam quondam ubertatem uini, frumenti uero inopiam existimans nimio uinearum studio neglegi arua, edixit, ne quis in Italia nouellaret utque in prouinciis uineta succiderentur, relicta ubi plurimum dimidia parte; nec exequi rem perseuerauit.
On the occasion of a great abundance of wine but a scarcity of grain, thinking that the arable lands were neglected through too much devotion to vineyards, he issued an edict that no one in Italy should plant new vines, and that in the provinces the vineyards should be cut down, leaving at most one-half; however, he did not persist in carrying out the measure.
quaedam ex maximis officiis inter libertinos equitesque R. communicauit.
Some of the most important offices he shared between freedmen and Roman knights.
geminari legionum castra prohibuit nec plus quam mille nummos a quoquam ad signa deponi, quod L. Antonius apud duarum legionum hiberna res nouas moliens fiduciam cepisse etiam ex depositorum summa uidebatur.
He forbade the doubling of legionary camps, and prohibited anyone from depositing more than a thousand sesterces with the standards, because Lucius Antonius, when planning his rebellion in the winter quarters of two legions, was believed to have derived confidence also from the large amount of these deposits.
addidit et quartum stipendium militi aureos ternos.
He also added a fourth installment of three gold pieces to the soldiers' yearly pay.
§8Ius diligenter et industrie dixit, plerumque et in foro pro tribunali extra ordinem; ambitiosas centumuirorum sententias rescidit; reciperatores, ne se perfusoriis assertionibus accommodarent, identidem admonuit; nummarios iudices cum suo quemque consilio notauit.
He administered justice with diligence and industry, often even in the forum on the tribunal out of the regular order; he rescinded the biased decisions of the centumviral court; he repeatedly warned the recovery commissioners not to lend themselves to superficial claims; he branded corrupt judges along with their respective advisory councils.
auctor et tr. pl. fuit aedilem sordidum repetundarum accusandi iudicesque in eum a senatu petendi.
He induced the tribunes of the plebs to accuse a corrupt aedile of extortion and to ask the senate for judges in his case.
magistratibus quoque urbicis prouinciarumque praesidibus coercendis tantum curae adhibuit, ut neque modestiores umquam neque iustiores extiterint; e quibus plerosque post illum reos omnium criminum uidimus.
He also took such great care in restraining the magistrates of the city and the governors of the provinces, that they were never more moderate or more just; whereas after his time we have seen most of them accused of every kind of crime.
suscepta correctione morum licentiam theatralem promiscue in equite spectandi inhibuit; scripta famosa uulgoque edita, quibus primores uiri ac feminae notabantur, aboleuit non sine auctorum ignominia; quaestorium uirum, quod gesticulandi saltandique studio teneretur, mouit senatu; probrosis feminis lecticae usum ademit iusque capiendi legata hereditatesque; equitem R. ob reductam in matrimonium uxorem, cui dimissae adulterii crimen intenderat, erasit iudicum albo; quosdam ex utroque ordine lege Scantinia condemnauit; incesta Vestalium uirginum, a patre quoque suo et fratre neglecta, uarie ac seuere coercuit, priora capitali supplicio, posteriora more ueteri.
Having undertaken the correction of public morals, he suppressed the license of the theatre, where the equestrian seats were occupied indiscriminately; he abolished defamatory writings published broadcast, which branded prominent men and women, not without ignominy for their authors; he removed from the senate a man of quaestorian rank because he was addicted to gesturing and dancing; he deprived infamous women of the use of litters and of the right to receive legacies and inheritances; he erased from the roll of judges a Roman knight who had taken back in marriage a wife whom he had divorced and prosecuted for adultery; he condemned several of both orders under the Scantinian law; the unchastity of the Vestal virgins, which had been overlooked even by his father and brother, he punished in various ways and with severity, the earlier offenses with capital punishment, and the later in the ancient manner.
nam cum Oculatis sororibus, item Varronillae liberum mortis permisisset arbitrium corruptoresque earum relegasset, mox Corneliam maximam uirginem absolutam olim, dein longo interuallo repetitam atque conuictam defodi imperauit stupratoresque uirgis in comitio ad necem caedi, excepto praetorio uiro, cui, dubia etiam tum causa et incertis quaestionibus atque tormentis de semet professo, exilium indulsit.
For whereas he had allowed the sisters Oculatae and also Varronilla free choice as to the manner of their death, and had banished their seducers, he soon after ordered Cornelia, a Chief Vestal, who had once been acquitted but after a long interval was again accused and convicted, to be buried alive, and her lovers to be beaten to death with rods in the Comitium; except for a man of praetorian rank, to whom he granted exile, because even then the case was doubtful and he had confessed against himself under inconclusive examinations and tortures.
ac ne qua religio deum impune contaminaretur, monimentum, quod libertus eius e lapidibus templo Capitolini Iouis destinatis filio extruxerat, diruit per milites ossaque et reliquias quae inerant mari mersit.
And to prevent any sacrilege against the gods from passing unpunished, he sent soldiers to demolish a tomb which one of his freedmen had built for his son with stones intended for the temple of Capitoline Jupiter, and cast the bones and relics that were in it into the sea.
§9Inter initia usque adeo ab omni caede abhorrebat, ut absente adhuc patre recordatus Vergili uersum:
impia quam caesis gens est epulata iuuencis edicere destinarit, ne boues immolarentur.
At the beginning of his reign he shrank so much from all bloodshed, that while his father was still absent, remembering the verse of Virgil: 'Before an impious race feasted on slaughtered bullocks,' he resolved to publish an edict forbidding the sacrifice of oxen.
cupiditatis quoque atque auaritiae uix suspicionem ullam aut priuatus umquam aut princeps aliquamdiu dedit, immo e diuerso magna saepe non abstinentiae modo sed etiam liberalitatis experimenta.
Also, he scarcely ever gave any suspicion of covetousness or avarice, either as a private citizen or for some time as emperor; on the contrary, he often gave great proofs not only of self-restraint but even of liberality.
omnis circa se largissime prosecutus nihil prius aut acrius monuit quam ne quid sordide facerent.
Benefiting all those around him most generously, he warned them of nothing sooner or more sharply than not to do anything in a mean spirit.
relictas sibi hereditates ab iis, quibus liberi erant, non recepit.
He did not accept inheritances left to him by those who had children.
legatum etiam ex testamento Rusti Caepionis, qui cauerat ut quotannis ingredientibus curiam senatoribus certam summam uiritim praestaret heres suus, irritum fecit.
He also annulled a legacy under the will of Rustus Caepio, who had provided that his heir should pay a certain sum annually to each senator as they entered the senate-house.
reos, qui ante quinquennium proximum apud aerarium pependissent, uniuersos discrimine liberauit nec repeti nisi intra annum eaque condicione permisit, ut accusatori qui causam non teneret exilium poena esset.
He freed all defendants who had been under accusation by the treasury for more than five years, and allowed them to be prosecuted again only within a year, and under the condition that if an accuser did not win his case, the penalty should be exile.
scribas quaestorios negotiantis ex consuetudine sed contra Clodiam legem uenia in praeteritum donauit.
He pardoned for the past the quaestorian clerks who engaged in trade, which was customary but contrary to the Clodian law.
subsiciua, quae diuisis per ueteranos agris carptim superfuerunt, ueteribus possessoribus ut usu capta concessit.
The surplus lands which remained here and there after the distribution of fields to veterans, he granted to the former possessors as having been acquired by prescription.
fiscales calumnias magna calumniantium poena repressit, ferebaturque uox eius: 'princeps qui delatores non castigat, irritat. '
He suppressed fiscal false accusations by inflicting severe punishment on the false accusers, and a saying of his was often quoted: 'An emperor who does not punish informers, encourages them.'