In the year 17 B.C.—ten years after the foundation of the Principate—Augustus celebrated Ludi Saeculares, which were supposed to be celebrated every hundred (or hundred and ten) years. It was thus a ceremony which no citizen had ever beheld before and which none—according to rule—should ever behold again. As a matter of fact, however, many of those who saw the secular games of Augustus were destined to see the same ceremony repeated by one of his successors. Augustus probably intended the feast to have a certain political significance, both as lending a sort of consecration to the religious and social legislation of the preceding year, and as celebrating in an impressive manner the introduction of a new epoch, whose continuance now seemed assured by the adoption of the Emperor's grandsons, which took place at the same time. The conduct of the ceremony devolved upon the Quindecimviri, who elected two of their members, Augustus and Agrippa, to preside over the celebration. It lasted three days. The ceremonies consisted of the distribution of lustral torches, brimstone and pitch, and of wheat, barley, and beans, at certain stations in the city. The usual invocations of Dis Pater and Proserpine were replaced by those of Apollo and Diana. On the third day, a carmen saeculare—an ode of thanksgiving—was performed in the atrium of Apollo's Palatine temple by a choir ol youths and maidens of noble birth, both of whose parents were alive. The carmen saeculare was written by Horace, and is still preserved.
Augustus also endeavored to restrain luxury by sumptuary laws, and to suppress the immorality which prevailed at the public games. He excluded women altogether from the exhibitions of athletic contests, and assigned them a special place, apart from the men, at the gladiatorial shows. At these public spectacles he separated the classes as well as the sexes. Senators, knights,soldiers, freedmen were all assigned their special places. Precedence was given to married men over bachelors.
In connection with the social reforms of Augustus may be mentioned his policy in dealing with the libertini, who formed a very large portion of the population of Rome. He endeavored to reduce their number in three ways. (1) He facilitated the marriage of freed folk with free folk (except senators), with a view to drawing them into the number of the free population. (2) The institution of theAugustales was an inducement to freedmen to remain in the Italian towns, instead of flocking to the capital. (3) Laws were passed limiting the manumission of slaves. The lex Aelia Sentia (4 A.D.) decreed that a slave under thirty years of age or of bad character must not be manumitted except by the process ofvindicta. Four years later, the lex Fufia Caninia ordained that only a certain percentage of the slaves then existing could be set free by testament.
SECT. II. — ADMINISTRATION OF ROME AND ITALY
No part, perhaps, of the government of Augustus is more characteristic of his political method and of the general spirit of the Principate than the administration of Rome and Italy. At first he left this department entirely in the hands of the senate, and he never overtly robbed the senate of its rights. But he brought it about that a large number of important branches were by degrees transferred from the control of the senate to that of the Princeps. The senate and consuls repeatedly declared themselves helpless, and called upon the Princeps to intervene; and so it came about that some offices were definitely taken in hand by him, and in other matters, which were still left to the care of the senate. and the republican magistrates, it became the habit, in case of a difficulty, to look to the Princeps for counsel and guidance. Thus the way in which the encroachments of monarchy were made was by keeping the republican institutions on trial and convicting them of incompetence. This was one of the "secrets of empire", which were discovered and deftly manipulated by Augustus. It was chiefly in the later part of his principate, when he had arranged the affairs of the provinces, that Augustus began to intervene seriously in administration and organization in Italy and Rome. In this connection, it is important to observe that while the institution of the Empire inaugurated a new epoch of good government and prosperity for the provinces, so that they gradually rose to the same level politically as Italy herself, Augustus was deeply concerned to preserve intact the dignity of Rome as the sovran city, and Italy as the dominant country; and the distinction between Italy and the provinces was not entirely effaced for three centuries.
The supply of Rome with corn required a new organization; and the Emperor's possession of Egypt enabled him to meet the need. In 22 B.C. there was a great scarcity in Rome, and the people demanded that the senate should appoint Augustus dictator and censor for life. Augustus rejected this proposal, but accepted the cura annonae, or "administration of the corn-market", and soon relieved the distress. This was the first department in Rome that he took into his own hands. In 6 A.D.., there was a still more pressing scarcity of food, and, some years later the Emperor was driven to take measures for the permanent provision of the city with corn. He instituted a praefectus annonae, of equestrian rank, and receiving his appointment from the Emperor. His duty was to superintend the transport of corn from Egypt, and see that the Roman market was kept supplied at a cheap rate. The expenses were defeated, chiefly at least, by the fiscus, though properly they should have devolved, as before, upon the aerarium, as Rome was within the sphere of the senate's administration. The Emperor had also to provide for the support of the poor. The number of those who were entitled to profit by the free distribution of corn was finally fixed at 200,000. This included freedmen. Immense sums were also expended by Augustus in public donations to the plebs.
Agrippa, whom the Emperor during his absence in the East (21 B.C., and following years) left in charge of Rome, set zealously to work to reform the water-supply. He restored the old and laid down new aqueducts, the chief among them being the Aqua Virgo (19 B.C.); and he instituted a body of public servants, whose duty was to keep the water-pipes in repair. The administration of the aqueducts (cura aquarum) seems to have been regularly organized, after Agrippa’s death, in 11 B.C.
While Augustus adorned Rome with edifices, he had also to guard against their destruction. Conflagrations frequently broke out in the capital, and there were no proper arrangements for quenching them. Finding that the aediles, to whom he assigned this care, were unequal to performing it, he was compelled (6 A.D.) to organize seven military cohorts of watchmen (vigiles), each cohort composed of 1000 to 1200 men, under the command of a Prefect of equestrian rank, who was entitled praefectus vigilum, and was appointed by the Emperor. These cohorts consisted chiefly of freedmen. They were quartered in seven stations in the city, so that each cohort did service for two of the fourteen regions into which Rome was divided.
Other new charges were also instituted by Augustus for the wellbeing of Rome. The curatores operum publicorum (chosen from praetorian senators) watched over public ground, and public buildings.
Praefectus urbi. Originally Roman consuls had the right of appointing a representative, called praefectus urbi, to take their place at Rome when they were obliged to be absent from the city. This right was taken from them by the institution of the praetorship. But immediately after the foundation of the Principate, while his position still rested on a combination of the consular with the proconsular power, Augustus during his absence from Rome (27-24 B.C.) revived this old office, and appointed a praefectus urbi to take his place. Messalla Corvinus, a man who was much respected and had rendered great services to the Emperor, was appointed to the post (25 B.C.), but laid it down within six days, on the ground that he was unequal to fulfilling its duties; but he seems to have really regarded it as an unconstitutional innovation. During his visit to the East in 21 B.C., and following years, Rome was administered by his consort Agrippa, and therefore no other representative was required. But during his absence in Gaul in 16-13 B.C., when Agrippa was also absent in the East, Statilius Taurus was left as praefectus urbi, and performed the duties well. It is to