than Ventidius) and sent them to be governors of the provinces, while
they installed others in their places. Some laws were abolished and
others introduced instead.

And, in brief, they ordered everything else
just as seemed good to them. They did not, to be sure, lay claim to
titles which were offensive and had been therefore done away with, but
they managed matters according to their own wish and desire, so that
Caesar's sovereignty by comparison appeared all gold.

[B.C. 42 (_a. u_. 712)]

In addition to transacting that year the business mentioned, they voted a
temple to Serapis and Isis. [-16-] When Marcus Lepidus and Lucius Plancus
became consuls tablets were again exposed, not bringing death to any
one any longer, but defrauding the living of their property. They were
collecting funds because they were in need of more money, due to the fact
that they owed large sums to large numbers of soldiers, were expending
considerable on works undertaken by the latter, and thought they should
lay out far more still on wars in prospect. The fact that those taxes
which had been formerly abrogated were now again put in force or
established on a new basis, and the institution of joint contributions,
many of which kept being levied on the land and on the servants,
displeased people moderately, it can not be denied. But to have those who
were in the slightest degree still prosperous, not only of the senators
or knights but even among the freedmen, and men and women alike,
bulletined on the tablets and another tenth of their wealth confiscated
disturbed all beyond measure. For it was only nominally that a tenth of
his property was exacted from each one: in reality not so much as a tenth
was left. They were not ordered to contribute a stated amount according