so that greater temperance prevailed.  He committed the charge of all the festivals to the praetors, commanding that an appropriation be given them from the public treasury.  Moreover he forbade them to spend from their own means on these occasions more than they received from the other source, or to have armed combat under any other conditions than if the senate should vote for it, and even then there were to be not more than two such contests in each year and they should consist of not more than one hundred and twenty men.  To the curule aediles he entrusted the extinguishment of conflagrations, for which purpose he granted them six hundred slave assistants.  And since knights and women of note had thus early appeared in the orchestra, he forbade not only the children of senators, to whom the prohibition had even previously extended, but also their grandchildren, who naturally found a place in the equestrian class, to do anything of the sort again. [-3-] In these ordinances he let both the substance and the name of the lawgiver and emperor be seen.  In other matters he was more moderate and even came to the aid of some of his friends when their conduct was subjected to official scrutiny.  But a certain Marcus Primus was accused of having made war upon the Odrysae, while he was governor of Macedonia, who said at one time that he had done it with the approval of Augustus, and again with that of Marcellus.  The emperor thereupon came of his own accord into the court and, when interrogated by the praetors as to whether he had instructed the man to make war, entered a denial.  The advocate of Primus, Licinius Murena, in the course of some rather disrespectful remarks that he made to him enquired:  “What are you doing here!” and “Who summoned you!” To this Augustus only replied:  “The Public Good.”  For this he received praise from sensible persons and was even given the right to convene the senate as often as he pleased.  Some of the others looked down upon him.  Indeed, not a few voted for the acquittal of Primus and others united to form a plot against Caesar.  Fannius Caepio was at the head of it, though others had a share.  Murena also was said, whether truly or by way of calumny, to have been one of the conspirators, since he was insatiate and unsparing in his outspokenness to all alike.  These men did not appear for trial in court but were convicted by default on the supposition that they intended to flee; shortly after, however, they were put to death.  Murena found neither his brother Proculeius nor Maecenas his sister’s husband of any avail, though they were the recipients of distinguished honors from Augustus.  And as some of the jurymen actually voted to acquit these conspirators, the emperor made a law that votes should not be cast secretly in cases by default and that the persons on trial must receive a unanimous conviction.  That he authorized these provisions not in anger but as really conducive to the public good he gave overwhelming