endeavoured to conciliate the affections of the people by lending money
to those who stood in need of it, at low interest, or without any at all,
and by the exhibition of public shows, of which the Romans were
remarkably fond; he was attentive to the preservation of a becoming
dignity in the government, and to the correction of morals. The senate,
which, in the time of Sylla, had increased to upwards of four hundred,
and, during the civil war, to a thousand, members, by the admission of
improper persons, he reduced to six hundred; and being invested with
the ancient office of censor, which had for some time been disused, he
exercised an arbitrary but legal authority over the conduct of every rank
in the state; by which he could degrade senators and knights, and inflict
upon all citizens an ignominious sentence for any immoral or indecent
behaviour. But nothing contributed more to render the new form of
government acceptable to the people, than the frequent distribution of
corn, and sometimes largesses, amongst the commonalty: for an occasional
scarcity of provisions had always been the chief cause of discontents
and tumults in the capital. To the interests of the army he likewise
paid particular attention. It was by the assistance of the legions that
he had risen to power; and they were the men who, in the last resort,
if such an emergency should ever occur, could alone enable him to
preserve it.

History relates, that after the overthrow of Antony, Augustus held a
consultation with Agrippa and Mecaenas about restoring the republican
form of government; when Agrippa gave his opinion in favour of that
measure, and Mecaenas opposed it. (149) The object of this consultation,
in respect to its future consequences on society, is perhaps the most
important ever agitated in any cabinet, and required, for the mature
discussion of it, the whole collective wisdom of the ablest men in the
empire. But this was a resource which could scarcely be adopted, either
with security to the public quiet, or with unbiassed judgment in the
determination of the question. The bare agitation of such a point would
have excited immediate and strong anxiety for its final result; while the
friends of a republican government, who were still far more numerous than
those of the other party, would have strained every nerve to procure a
determination in their own favour; and the pretorian guards, the surest
protection of Augustus, finding their situ