names of all the senators he had recorded on a white tablet and conspicuously posted.  From the beginning made by him this is now annually done. His intention in doing it was to make it absolutely necessary for them to come together.  Sometimes, by some accident, not so many might assemble as a special case demanded.  This would be known, because except on such days as the emperor himself might be present the number of those in attendance was both at this time and later carefully ascertained, and with a great degree of accuracy.  Under these circumstances they would deliberate and their decision would be recorded, but it was not final, was not ratified:  instead, auctoritas was declared, in order that their will might be evident,—­for such is the force of this word.  To translate the term into Greek by a single expression is not possible.  This same custom prevailed in case they ever assembled through haste in an irregular place, or on a day that was not fitting, or without a legal summons, or if because of the opposition of tribunes a decree could not be passed, but their opinion was not to be concealed.  Later, ratification was granted according to ancestral precedent to the resolution in question, and the latter obtained the name of senatus consultum.  This method, strictly observed for an extremely long period by the men of old time, has in a already become null and void,—­as also the prerogative of the praetors.  For the latter were indignant that they might bring no proposition before the senate although they ranked above the tribunes in dignity and they received from Augustus the right of doing so, but in the course of time it was taken away from them again.

[-4-] These and other laws which he at this time enacted he inscribed on white tablets and submitted to the senate before taking any final action with regard to them; and he allowed the senators to read, each one, the articles separately, his object being that if any provision did not please them, or if they could suggest anything better, they might speak.  He was very desirous of being democratic, and once, when one of the companions of his campaigns asked him to aid him in the capacity of advocate, at first he pretended to be busy and bade one of his friends serve as advocate; when, however, the petitioner grew angry and said:  “but as often as you needed my assistance, I did not send somebody else to you in place of myself, but in person I encountered dangers everywhere in your behalf,” the emperor then entered the courtroom and pled his cause.  He also stood by a friend of his who was defendant in a suit, having first communicated this very purpose to the senate:  he saved the friend but was so far from being angry at his accuser, although the latter spoke most bluntly, that when he had to undergo a scrutiny regarding his morals the emperor acquitted him, saying that his bluntness was a necessary thing on account of the out-and-out baseness of the mass of mankind.  Augustus, indeed, punished others who were reported to be conspiring against their sovereign.  He had quaestors hold office in the coast districts near the City and in certain other parts of Italy; and this he did for several years.  Yet at this time he was unwilling, as I have remarked, [3] to enter the city on account of Drusus’s death.