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 on which he would divest himself of his extraordinary power. On this day "he gave back the commonwealth to the discretionary power of Senate and people." A return was expected, and had doubtless been arranged, but the gift made by the grateful Senate seemed small in comparison with what had been surrendered. It was enough, however, to make the abdicating monarch a very powerful head of the executive of the state. Augustus, as he was now for the first time designated, was given imperium for ten years with the government of certain specified provinces, while at the same time he was made commander-in-chief for life of all the forces of the state, with the sole right of raising levies and of making war and of declaring peace. Yearly consulships were still the chief basis of his dignity, if not of his authority, in the capital, while the tribunician power still continued but was as yet sparingly employed.

Such was the settlement that was greeted, officially and unofficially, as a restoration of the Republic, but which later writers held, with equal reason, to be the commencement of the legitimate monarchy. The weak point in the arrangement was the authority of the prince within the capital. The consulship had admirable Republican associations, but was hemmed in by awkward limitations. Its jurisdiction had become almost extinct, its initiative was fettered by colleagueship, it was technically not the highest power in the state, and the constant usurpation by the Princeps of one of the two offices of highest titular rank was a bar to the legitimate ambition of aspiring nobles. Hence the need for the new settlement which was attained in 23 The details of the change, which gave the Principate its final form,]. In the Cenotaphia Pisana ( 2) ii. l. 12 Augustus is called "custos imperi Romani totiusque orbis terrarum praeses" (Wilmanns n. 883).]