legions in Cappadocia on account of the frequent
inroads of the barbarians, and, instead of a Roman knight, appointed as
governor of it a man of consular rank. The ruins of houses which had
been burnt down long before, being a great desight to the city, he gave
leave to any one who would, to take possession of the void ground and
build upon it, if the proprietors should hesitate to perform the work
themselves. He resolved upon rebuilding the Capitol, and was the
foremost to put his hand to clearing the ground of the rubbish, and
removed some of it upon his own shoulder. And he undertook, likewise, to
restore the three thousand tables of brass which had been destroyed in
the fire which consumed the Capitol; searching in all quarters for copies
of those curious and ancient records, in which were contained the decrees
of the senate, almost from the building of the city, as well as the acts
of the people, relative to alliances, treaties, and privileges granted to
any person.

IX. He likewise erected several new public buildings, namely, the temple
of Peace [750] near the Forum, that of Claudius on the (453) Coelian
mount, which had been begun by Agrippina, but almost entirely demolished
by Nero [751]; and an amphitheatre [752] in the middle of the city, upon
finding that Augustus had projected such a work. He purified the
senatorian and equestrian orders, which had been much reduced by the
havoc made amongst them at several times, and was fallen into disrepute
by neglect. Having expelled the most unworthy, he chose in their room
the most honourable persons in Italy and the provinces. And to let it be
known that those two orders differed not so much in privileges as in
dignity, he declared publicly, when some altercation passed between a
senator and a Roman knight, "that senators ought not to be treated with
scurrilous language, unless they were the aggressors, and then it was
fair and lawful to return it."

X. The business of the courts had prodigiously accumulated, partly from
old law-suits which, on account of the interruption that had been given
to the course of justice, still remained undecided, and partly from the
accession of new suits arising out of the disorder of the times. He,
therefore, chose commissioners by lot to provide for the restitution of
what had been seized by violence during the war, and others with
extraordinary jurisdiction to decide causes belonging to the centumviri,
and reduce them to a