masters of holy and sacred things. The so-called
tribunician authority which the men of very greatest attainment used to
hold gives them the right to stop any measure brought up by some one
else, in case they do not join in approving it, and to be free from
personal abuse. Moreover if they are thought to be wronged in even the
slightest degree not merely by action but even by conversation they may
destroy the guilty party without a trial as one polluted. They do not
think it lawful to be tribune, because they belong altogether to the
patrician class, but they assume all the power of the tribuneship
undiminished from the period of its greatest extent; and thereby the
enumeration of the years they have held the office in question goes
forward on the assumption that they receive it year by year along with
the others who are successively tribunes. Thus by these names they have
secured these privileges in accordance with all the various usages of the
democracy, in order that they may appear to possess nothing that has not
been given them.

[-18-] They have gained also another prerogative which was given to none
of the ancient Romans outright to apply to all cases, and it is through
this alone that it would be possible for them to hold the above offices
and any others besides. They are freed from the action of the laws, as
the very words in Latin indicate. That is, they are liberated from every
consideration of compulsion and are subjected to none of the written
ordinances. So by virtue of these democratic names they are clothed in
all the strength of the government and have all that appertains to kings
except the vulgar title. "Caesar" or "Augustus" as a mode of address
confers upon them no distinct privilege of its own but shows in the one
case the continuance of their family and in the other the brilliance and
dignity of their position. The salutation "father" perhaps gives them a
certain authority over us which fathers once had over their children. It
was not used, however, for this purpose in the beginning, but for their
honor, and to admonish them to love their subjects as they would their
children, while the subjects were to respect them as they respect their
fathers.

Such is the number and quality of the titles to which those in power
are accustomed according to the and according to what has now become
tradition. At present all of them are, as a rule, bestowed upon the
rulers at once, except the title of censor: to