[-21-] Augustus attended with considerable zeal to all the business of the empire to make it appear that he had received it in accordance with the wishes of all, and he also enacted many laws. (I need not go into each one of them in detail except those which have a bearing upon my history.  This same course I shall follow in the case of later events, in order not to become wearisome by introducing all such matters as not even those who specialize on them most narrowly know with accuracy.) Not all of these laws were enacted on his sole responsibility:  some of them he brought before the public in advance, in order that, if any featured caused displeasure, he might learn it in time and correct them.  He urged that any one at all give him advice, if any one could think of anything better.  He accorded them full liberty of speech and some provisions he actually did alter.  Most important of all, he took as advisers for six months the consuls or the consul (when he himself also held the office), one of each of the other kinds of officials, and fifteen men chosen by lot from the remainder of the senatorial body.  Through them he was accustomed to a certain extent to communicate to all the rest the provisions of his laws.  Some features he brought before the entire senate.  He deemed it better, however, to consider most of the laws and the greater ones in company with a few persons at leisure, and acted accordingly.  Sometimes he tried cases with their assistance.  The entire senate by itself sat in judgment as formerly and transacted business with occasional groups of envoys and heralds from both peoples and kings.  Furthermore the people and the plebs came together for the elections, but nothing was done that would not please Caesar.  Some of those who were to hold office he himself chose out and nominated and others he put, according to ancient custom, in the power of the people and the plebs, yet taking care that no unfit persons should be appointed, nor by factious cliques nor by bribery.  In this way he controlled the entire empire.

[-22-] I shall relate also in detail all his acts that need mentioning, together with the names of the consuls under whom they were performed.  In the year previously named, seeing that the roads outside the wall had become through neglect hard to traverse, he ordered different senators to repair different ones at their own expense.  He himself attended to the Flaminian Way, since he was going to lead an army out by that route.  This operation was finished forthwith and images of him were accordingly erected on arches on the bridge over the Tiber and at Ariminum.  The other roads were repaired later either at public expense (for none of the senators liked to spend money on it) or by Augustus, as one may wish to state.  I can not distinguish their treasures in spite of the fact that Augustus coined into money some silver statues of himself made by his friends and by certain of the tribes, purposing thereby to make it appear that all