Mars their sceptre and their crown; that such victors and all others who might obtain triumphal honors should have their likenesses in bronze erected in the Forum; that in case military standards captured by the enemy were ever recovered, they should be placed in the temple; that a festival of the god should be celebrated near the Scalae by the persons successively occupying the office of praefectus alae; that a nail should be driven for his glory by those acting as censors; that senators have the right to undertake the work of furnishing the horses that were to compete in the equestrian contest, as well as the general care of the temple, precisely as had been provided by law in the case of Apollo and in the case of Jupiter Capitolinus.

These matters settled, Augustus dedicated that spacious hall:  yet to Gaius and to Lucius he gave once and for all powers to officiate at all similar consecrations, on the strength of a kind of consular authority (founded on precedent) that they were to use.  They, too, directed the horse-race on this occasion, and their brother Agrippa took part with the children of the leading families in the so-called “Troy” equestrian games.  Two hundred and sixty lions were slaughtered in the hippodrome.  There was a gladiatorial combat in the Saepta, and a naval battle of “Persians” and “Athenians” was given on the spot, where even at the present day some relics of it are still exhibited.  The above were the names applied to the parties engaged, and the Athenians, as of old, came out victorious.

In the course of the spectacle he let water into the Flaminian Hippodrome and thirty-six crocodiles were there cut in pieces.  However, Augustus did not serve as consul every day continuously, but after holding office a little while he gave the title of the consulship to another.

These were the exercises in honor of Mars.  To Augustus himself a sacred contest was offered in Neapolis, the Campanian city, nominally because he had helped it rise when it was prostrated by earthquake and by fire, but in reality because the inhabitants, alone of their neighbors, were enthusiastic over Greek customs; and he also received the title of Father, with, binding force (for previously he was merely spoken of by that name and no decree had been passed).  Moreover, it was now that for the first time he appointed two pretorian prefects, Quintus Ostorius Scapula and Publius Salvius Aper.  This term “prefect” is the word which I, too, shall use solely to designate the commanders of any body, since it has won its way into general currency.  Likewise Pylades the dancer conducted certain games, not performing any manual labor in connection with them (since he was now a man of advanced age) but employing the insignia of office and authorizing the necessary expenditures.  Similarly the praetor Quintus Crispinus conducted games (though I need lay no emphasis on that point) and under his management knights and women of families