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 be observed that on this occasion Augustus was not consul, and the Principate no longer depended on the consular power; so that the appointment of Taurus aspraefectus urbi was a constitutional novelty. But, under Augustus, the post was never anything but temporary, during the Emperor's absence from Italy. It was not until the reign of his successor Tiberius that the praefectura urbis became a permanent institution.
In Italy as well as in Rome the senate proved itself unequal to discharging the duties of a government, and the Emperor was obliged to step in. The cum viarum was instituted for the repair of the public roads (20 B.C.). A curator was set over each road. For the main roads leading from Rome to the frontiers of Italy, these officers were selected from the praetorian senators; for the lesser roads, from the knights. Italy, like Rome, was divided into regions, eleven in number, Rome itself making the twelfth. The object of this division is uncertain; but may have been made for purposes of taxation. In any case, the regions were not administrative districts, for the independence of the political communities in managing their own affairs was not infringed on by Augustus or any of his successors till the time of Trajan.
The imperial post, an institution which applied to the whole Empire, may be mentioned here. It was a creation of Augustus, who established relays of vehicles at certain stations along the military roads, to convey himself or his messengers without and secure rapid official communication between the capital and the various provinces. The use of these arrangements was strictly limited to imperial officers and messengers, or those to whom he gave a special passport, calleddiploma. The costs of the vehicles and horses, and other expenses, fell upon the communities in which the stations were established. This requisition led to abuses, and in later times the expenses were defrayed by the fiscus. It is to be observed that this institution had not assumed under Augustus anything like the proportions which it assumed a century or so later, as the cursus publicus.
The Augustales. Freedmen were strictly excluded from holding magistracies and priestly offices, and from sitting in the municipal councils, or senates throughout the Empire. Caesar the Dictator had indeed sometimes relaxed this rule in their favour beyond Italy, but Augustus strictly enforced and excludedlibertini from government. Their exclusion was economically a public loss. For one of the chief sources from which the town treasuries were supplied was the contributions levied on new magistrates and priests, whether in the form of direct payments or of undertaking the exhibition of public games. As the freedmen could not become magistrates or priests, they were not liable to these burdens, which they would have been glad to undertake. In order to open a field to their ambition, and at the same time to make their wealth available for the public service, Augustus created a new institution, entitled the Augustales, probably in the early years of his principate. (1) This organisation was first established in Italy, and the Latin provinces of the west. In Africa it was not common, and it is not found at all in the eastern part of the Empire. (2) It was not called into being by a law of Augustus, but at his suggestion the several communities decreed an institution, which was in every way profitable to them. (3) The institution consisted in the creation every year of six men, Sexviri Augustales, who were nominated by the decurions (the chief municipal magistrates). (4) These sexviri were magistrates, not priests; but their magistracy was only formal, as they had no magisterial functions to perform. (5) But like true magistrates they had public burdens to sustain; they had to make a payment to the public treasury when they entered upon their office, and they had to defray the cost of games. (6) The sexviri were almost always chosen from the class of the libertini. This rule held good without exception in southern Italy. (7) After their year of office the sexviri Augustales, were called Augustales, just as consuls after their year of office were called consulares. Thus the Augustalesformed a distinct rank, to which it was the ambition of every freedman to belong. (8) One of the most interesting points about the institution is that it seems to have been partly modelled upon the organization of the Roman knights. The designation of the sexviri of the order of the Augustales seems to have been borrowed from the order of the Equites, and perhaps was introduced about the same time. Moreover the Augustales occupied the same position in Italy