ds, there were established religious colleges
of _Augustales_, or priestly officers called _Seviri Augustales_, in many
Italian municipalities for the celebration of the cult of Augustus either
alone or in conjunction with some other divinity such as Mercury or
Hercules. As these Augustales were almost exclusively drawn from the class
of freedmen who were no longer admitted to full Roman citizenship,
Augustus avoided receiving worship from the latter, while assuring himself
of the loyalty of the _liberti_ and gratifying their pride by encouraging
a municipal office to which they were eligible.

*The leges Juliae and the lex Papia Poppaea.* However, Augustus was not
content to trust solely to the moral effects of religious exercises and
resorted to legislative action to check the degenerate tendencies of his
age. The Julian laws of 19 and 18 B. C. aimed at the restoration of the
soundness of family life, the encouragement of marriage, and the
discouragement of childlessness, by placing disabilities upon unmarried
and childless persons. These measures provoked great opposition, but
Augustus was in earnest and supplemented his earlier laws by the _lex
Papia Poppaea_ of 9 A. D. which gave precedence to fathers over less
fortunate persons among the candidates for public office. A commentary on
the effectiveness of his earlier laws was the fact that both the consuls
who sponsored this later one were themselves unmarried. To prevent the
Italian element among the citizens from being swamped by a continuous
influx of liberated slaves, Augustus placed restrictions upon the right of
manumission and refused freedmen the public rights of Roman citizens,
although granting these to their sons. By example as well as by precept he
sought to hold in check the luxurious tendencies of the age, and in his
own household to furnish a model of ancient Roman simplicity.

*The Secular Games, 17 B. C.* To publicly inaugurate the new era in the
life of the state begun under his auspices, Augustus celebrated the
festival of the Secular Games in the year 17 B. C., for which Horace wrote
the inaugural ode, his _Carmen Saeculare_.

V. THE PROVINCES AND THE FRONTIERS

*The Dyarchy.* The division of the provinces between Augustus and the
Senate in 27 B. C. had the effect of creating an administrative dyarchy,
or joint rule of two independent authorities, for the empire. However, the
original allotment of the provinces underwe