gladiators; and relieving them of the provinces of
Ostia and [Cisalpine] Gaul, he reinstated them in the charge of the
treasury, which, since it was taken from them, had been managed by the
praetors, or those who had formerly filled that office. He gave the
triumphal ornaments to Silanus, who was betrothed to his daughter, though
he was under age; and in other cases, he bestowed them on so many, and
with so little reserve, that there is extant a letter unanimously
addressed to him by all the legions, begging him "to grant his consular
lieutenants the triumphal ornaments at the time of their appointment to
commands, in order to prevent their seeking occasion to engage in
unnecessary wars." He decreed to Aulus Plautius the honour of an ovation
[522], going to meet him at his entering the city, and walking with him in
the procession to the Capitol, and back, in which he took the left side,
giving him the post of honour. He allowed Gabinius Secundus, upon his
conquest of the Chauci, a German tribe, to assume the cognomen of
Chaucius. [523]

XXV. His military organization of the equestrian order was this. After
having the command of a cohort, they were promoted to a wing of auxiliary
horse, and subsequently received the commission of tribune of a legion.
He raised a body of militia, who were called Supernumeraries, who, though
they were a sort of soldiers, and kept in reserve, yet received pay. He
procured an act of the senate to prohibit all soldiers from attending
senators at their houses, in the way of respect and compliment. He
confiscated the estates of all freedmen who presumed to take upon
themselves the equestrian rank. Such of them as were ungrateful to their
patrons, and were complained of by them, he reduced to their former
condition of (317) slavery; and declared to their advocates, that he
would always give judgment against the freedmen, in any suit at law which
the masters might happen to have with them. Some persons having exposed
their sick slaves, in a languishing condition, on the island of
Aesculapius [524], because of the tediousness of their cure; he declared
all who were so exposed perfectly free, never more to return, if they
should recover, to their former servitude; and that if any one chose to
kill at once, rather than expose, a slave, he should be liable for
murder. He published a proclamation, forbidding all travellers to pass
through the towns of Italy any otherwise than on foot, or in a