ationed at moderate
distances along the military roads, and afterwards of regular couriers
with fast vehicles; which appeared to him the most commodious, because
the persons who were the bearers of dispatches, written on the spot,
might then be questioned about the business, as occasion occurred.

L. In sealing letters-patent, rescripts, or epistles, he at first used
the figure of a sphinx, afterwards the head of Alexander (111) the Great,
and at last his own, engraved by the hand of Dioscorides; which practice
was retained by the succeeding emperors. He was extremely precise in
dating his letters, putting down exactly the time of the day or night at
which they were dispatched.

LI. Of his clemency and moderation there are abundant and signal
instances. For, not to enumerate how many and what persons of the
adverse party he pardoned, received into favour, and suffered to rise to
the highest eminence in the state; he thought it sufficient to punish
Junius Novatus and Cassius Patavinus, who were both plebeians, one of
them with a fine, and the other with an easy banishment; although the
former had published, in the name of young Agrippa, a very scurrilous
letter against him, and the other declared openly, at an entertainment
where there was a great deal of company, "that he neither wanted
inclination nor courage to stab him." In the trial of Aemilius Aelianus,
of Cordova, when, among other charges exhibited against him, it was
particularly insisted upon, that he used to calumniate Caesar, he turned
round to the accuser, and said, with an air and tone of passion, "I wish
you could make that appear; I shall let Aelianus know that I have a
tongue too, and shall speak sharper of him than he ever did of me." Nor
did he, either then or afterwards, make any farther inquiry into the
affair. And when Tiberius, in a letter, complained of the affront with
great earnestness, he returned him an answer in the following terms: "Do
not, my dear Tiberius, give way to the ardour of youth in this affair;
nor be so indignant that any person should speak ill of me. It is
enough, for us, if we can prevent any one from really doing us mischief."

LII. Although he knew that it had been customary to decree temples in
honour of the proconsuls, yet he would not permit them to be erected in
any of the provinces, unless in the joint names of himself and Rome.
Within the limits of the city, he positively refused any honour of that
kind. He