ollio; a temple of Saturn by Munatius Plancus; a theatre by
Cornelius Balbus [157]; an amphitheatre by Statilius Taurus; and several
other noble edifices by Marcus Agrippa. [158]

(94) XXX. He divided the city into regions and districts, ordaining that
the annual magistrates should take by lot the charge of the former; and
that the latter should be superintended by wardens chosen out of the
people of each neighbourhood. He appointed a nightly watch to be on
their guard against accidents from fire; and, to prevent the frequent
inundations, he widened and cleansed the bed of the Tiber, which had in
the course of years been almost dammed up with rubbish, and the channel
narrowed by the ruins of houses [159]. To render the approaches to the
city more commodious, he took upon himself the charge of repairing the
Flaminian way as far as Ariminum [160], and distributed the repairs of
the other roads amongst several persons who had obtained the honour of a
triumph; to be defrayed out of the money arising from the spoils of war.
Temples decayed by time, or destroyed by fire, he either repaired or
rebuilt; and enriched them, as well as many others, with splendid
offerings. On a single occasion, he deposited in the cell of the temple
of Jupiter Capitolinus, sixteen thousand pounds of gold, with jewels and
pearls to the amount of fifty millions of sesterces.

XXXI. The office of Pontifex Maximus, of which he could (95) not
decently deprive Lepidus as long as he lived [161], he assumed as soon as
he was dead. He then caused all prophetical books, both in Latin and
Greek, the authors of which were either unknown, or of no great
authority, to be brought in; and the whole collection, amounting to
upwards of two thousand volumes, he committed to the flames, preserving
only the Sibylline oracles; but not even those without a strict
examination, to ascertain which were genuine. This being done, he
deposited them in two gilt coffers, under the pedestal of the statue of
the Palatine Apollo. He restored the calendar, which had been corrected
by Julius Caesar, but through negligence was again fallen into confusion
[162], to its former regularity; and upon that occasion, called the month
Sextilis [163], by his own name, August, rather than September, in which
he was born; because in it he had obtained his first consulship, and all
his most considerable victories [164]. He increased the number, dignity,
and revenues of the priests, and