signatures through
any deception or mistake. All appeals in causes between inhabitants of
Rome, he assigned every year to the praetor of the city; and where
provincials were concerned, to men of consular rank, to one of whom the
business of each province was referred.

XXXIV. Some laws he abrogated, and he made some new ones; such as the
sumptuary law, that relating to adultery and the violation of chastity,
the law against bribery in elections, and likewise that for the
encouragement of marriage. Having been more severe in his reform of this
law than the rest, he found the people utterly averse to submit to it,
unless the penalties were abolished or mitigated, besides allowing an
interval of three years after a wife's death, and increasing the premiums
on marriage. The equestrian order clamoured loudly, at a spectacle in
the theatre, for its total repeal; whereupon he sent for the children of
Germanicus, and shewed them partly sitting upon his own lap, and partly
on their father's; intimating by his looks and gestures, that they ought
not to think it a grievance to follow the example of that young man. But
finding that the force of the law was eluded, by marrying girls under the
age of puberty, and by frequent change of wives, he limited the time for
consummation after espousals, and imposed restrictions on divorce.

XXXV. By two separate scrutinies he reduced to their former number and
splendour the senate, which had been swamped by a disorderly crowd; for
they were now more than a (99) thousand, and some of them very mean
persons, who, after Caesar's death, had been chosen by dint of interest
and bribery, so that they had the nickname of Orcini among the people
[171]. The first of these scrutinies was left to themselves, each
senator naming another; but the last was conducted by himself and
Agrippa. On this occasion he is believed to have taken his seat as he
presided, with a coat of mail under his tunic, and a sword by his side,
and with ten of the stoutest men of senatorial rank, who were his
friends, standing round his chair. Cordus Cremutius [172] relates that
no senator was suffered to approach him, except singly, and after having
his bosom searched [for secreted daggers]. Some he obliged to have the
grace of declining the office; these he allowed to retain the privileges
of wearing the distinguishing dress, occupying the seats at the solemn
spectacles, and of feasting publicly, reserved to the senator