much inclined to abolish for ever the practice of
allowing the people corn at the public expense, because they trust so
much to it, that they are too lazy to till their lands; but I did not
persevere in my design, as I felt sure that the practice would some time
or other be revived by some one ambitious of popular favour." However,
he so managed the affair ever afterwards, that as much account was taken
of husbandmen and traders, as of the idle populace. [183]

XLIII. In the number, variety, and magnificence of his public
spectacles, he surpassed all former example. Four-and-twenty times, he
says, he treated the people with games upon his own account, and
three-and-twenty times for such magistrates as were either absent, or not
able to afford the expense. The performances took place sometimes in the
different streets of the city, and upon several stages, by players in all
languages. The same he did not only in the forum and amphitheatre, but
in the circus likewise, and in the septa [184]: and sometimes he
exhibited only the hunting of wild beasts. He entertained the people
with wrestlers in the Campus Martius, where wooden seats were erected for
the purpose; and also with a naval fight, for which he excavated the
ground near the Tiber, where there is now the grove of the Caesars.
During these two entertainments he stationed guards in the city, lest, by
robbers taking advantage of the small number of people left at home, it
might be exposed to depredations. In the circus he exhibited chariot and
foot races, and combats with wild beasts, in which the performers were
often youths of the highest rank. His favourite spectacle was the Trojan
game, acted by a select number of boys, in parties differing in age and
station; thinking (106) that it was a practice both excellent in itself,
and sanctioned by ancient usage, that the spirit of the young nobles
should be displayed in such exercises. Caius Nonius Asprenas, who was
lamed by a fall in this diversion, he presented with a gold collar, and
allowed him and his posterity to bear the surname of Torquati. But soon
afterwards he gave up the exhibition of this game, in consequence of a
severe and bitter speech made in the senate by Asinius Pollio, the
orator, in which he complained bitterly of the misfortune of Aeserninus,
his grandson, who likewise broke his leg in the same diversion.

Sometimes he engaged Roman knights to act upon the stage, or to fight as
gladiators;