"Augustus was not afraid of libels," says that author, "yet he took
all care imaginable to have them answered, and then decreed that for
the time to come the authors of them should be punished." But
Aurelius makes it yet more clear, according to my sense, that this
emperor for his own sake durst not permit them:- Fecit id Augustus
in speciem, et quasi gratificaretur populo Romano, et primoribus
urbis; sed revera ut sibi consuleret: nam habuit in animo
comprimere nimiam quorundam procacitatem in loquendo, a qua nec ipse
exemptus fuit. Nam suo nomine compescere erat invidiosum, sub
alieno facile et utile. Ergo specie legis tractavit, quasi populi
Romani majestas infamaretur. This, I think, is a sufficient comment
on that passage of Tacitus. I will add only by the way that the
whole family of the Caesars and all their relations were included in
the law, because the majesty of the Romans in the time of the Empire
was wholly in that house: Omnia Caesar erat; they were all
accounted sacred who belonged to him.
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