moderation. For upon one occasion, when the whole audience in the Roman
theatre had risen upon the entrance of his two adopted sons, at that time
not seventeen years old, he was highly displeased, and even thought it
necessary to publish his displeasure in a separate edict. It is another,
and a striking illustration of his humility, that he willingly accepted of
public appointments, and sedulously discharged the duties attached to
them, in conjunction with colleagues who had been chosen with little
regard to his personal partialities. In the debates of the senate, he
showed the same equanimity; suffering himself patiently to be
contradicted, and even with circumstances of studied incivility. In the
public elections, he gave his vote like any private citizen; and, when he
happened to be a candidate himself, he canvassed the electors with the
same earnestness of personal application, as any other candidate with the
least possible title to public favor from present power or past services.
But, perhaps by no expressions of his civic spirit did Augustus so much
conciliate men's minds, as by the readiness with which he participated in
their social pleasures, and by the uniform severity with which he refused
to apply his influence in any way which could disturb the pure
administration of justice. The Roman juries (_judices_ they were called),
were very corrupt; and easily swayed to an unconscientious verdict, by the
appearance in court of any great man on behalf of one of the parties
interested: nor was such an interference with the course of private
justice any ways injurious to the great man's character. The wrong which
he promoted did but the more forcibly proclaim the warmth and fidelity of
his friendships. So much the more generally was the uprightness of the
emperor appreciated, who would neither tamper with justice himself, nor
countenance any motion in that direction, though it were to serve his very
dearest friend, either by his personal presence, or by the use of his
name. And, as if it had been a trifle merely to forbear, and to show his
regard to justice in this negative way, he even allowed himself to be