[-15-] After this many at once and many subsequently gained the reputation, whether it was true or false, of plotting against both the emperor and Agrippa.  It is not possible for one outside of such matters to have certain knowledge about them.  Much of what a sovereign does by way of punishment either personally or through the senate on the ground that plots have been made against him is viewed with suspicion as probably a display of wanton power, no matter how justly he may have acted.  For that reason my intention is to record in all matters of this nature simply the regular version of the story, not busying myself with aught beyond the public report, except in perfectly patent cases, nor making any ulterior suggestions as to whether any act was just or unjust or any statement true or false.  Let this principle apply to everything which I shall write after this.

At the time Augustus executed a few:  Lepidus he hated because his son had been detected in a against him and had been punished, as well as for other reasons; he did not, however, wish to kill him but kept insulting him now in one way, now in another.  He ordered Lepidus against his will to come down from the country to the city and always took him to gatherings, in order that the man might be subjected to the greatest amount of jeering and insolence in view of the change from his former power and dignity.  He did not treat him in any way as worthy his consideration, and at this time he afforded him, last of all the ex-consuls, the chance of voting.  To the rest he was wont to put the question in the order that belonged to them, but of the ex-consuls he used to make one first, another second, and third and fourth and so on as he liked.  This the consuls also did.  Thus it was that he treated Lepidus.  And when Antistius Labeo enrolled the latter among the men who were to be senators at the time the vote on this matter was taken, the emperor first declared that he had perjured himself and threatened to take vengeance.  Thereupon the other replied:  “Why, what harm have I done by keeping in the senate one whom you even now still permit to be high priest?” This answer quieted Augustus’s anger, for though he had often, both privately and publicly, been judged worthy of this priesthood, he did not deem it right to take it while Lepidus lived.  The reply of Antistius seemed, indeed, to have been a rather happy one, as was the case once when there was talk in the senate to the effect that they ought to take turns in guarding Augustus; for he had said, not daring to speak in opposition nor willing to agree:  “As for me, I snore, and so can not sleep at the door of his chamber.”

[-16-] Among the laws that Augustus enacted was one which provided that those who to gain office bribed any person should be debarred from the said office for five years.  He laid heavier penalties upon the unmarried men and women without husbands, and on the other hand offered prizes for marriage and the procreation of children.  And since among the nobility there were far more males than females he allowed those who pleased, save the senators, to marry freedwomen, and ordered that the offspring of such a man should be deemed legitimate.