A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

Moderation and Generosity 477
to myself, and as it were, break open the exchequer, which
if we exhaust it by improper favoritism, will have to be
replenished by crimes. Money was given you, Hortalus,
by Augustus, but without solicitation, and not on the
condition of its being always given. Otherwise industry
will languish and idleness be encouraged, if a man has
nothing to fear, nothing to hope from himself, and every
one in utter recklessness will expect relief from others,
thus becoming useless to himself and a burden to me."
Next the emperor brought forward a motion for the ^ y^g"^" °*
election of a Vestal Virgin in the room of Occia, who for
fifty-seven years had presided with the most immaculate Annals! H.
virtue over the Vestal worship. He formally thanked ^^•
Fonteius Agrippa and Domitius Pollio for offering their
daughters and so vying with one another in
zeal for the
commonwealth. PoUio's daughter was preferred, only
because her mother had lived with one and the sam^e husband,
while Agrippa had impaired the honor of his house
by a divorce. The emperor consoled his daughter, passed
over though she was, with a dowry of a million sesterces.
As the city populace complained of the cruel dearness
of corn, he fixed a price for grain, to be paid by the pur-
_
The price of
regulated,
chaser, promising himself to add two sesterces on every /j. 87.
peck for the traders. But he would not therefore accept
the title of "Father of the Country," which once before,
The idea that
Xiberiiis
too, had been offered him, and he sharply rebuked those
who called his work "divine" and himself "lord." Con- feared freesequently
speech was restricted and perilous under a ^gUsus""
prince who feared freedom while he hated sycophancy. tamed.
A furious conflagration damaged the capital to an un- Fire on the
f; ,. ,
,,^ Caehanhjll.
usual extent, reducing Mount Caelms to ashes. It was
an ill-starred year, "people began to say, "and the prince's
purpose of leaving Rome must have been formed under
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