Note 195 — Chapter VII · ACTIUM

Appian (b. c. v. 132) says that they elected him perpetual tribune (αὐτὸν ... εἕλοντο δήμαρχον ἐς ἀεί). Dio (49, 15) only says that they gave him the personal sacredness of the tribunes and the right of sitting on their bench. Orosius (6, 18, 34) says that the Senate voted ut in perpetuum tribuniciæ potestatis esset. We shall have to discuss this later on, but it must be said at once that Augustus was never tribune, and that it seems doubtful whether the tribunicia potestas was given in its full sense at this time.