Note 239 — Chapter VIII · THE NEW CONSTITUTION, B.C. 30-23

Augustus himself uses it in the Monumentum (chs. 30, 32), “me principe,” “ante me principem.” Horace (Od. 1, 21, 13; 2, 30; Ep. 2, 1, 256), Propertius (v. 6, 46), both employ it when speaking of Augustus. It occurs in inscriptions referring to Tiberius, and is the common term used by Tacitus. If, therefore, it was not formally bestowed (as seems probable), it soon grew into use as a title in ordinary language. Nor was it altogether a new idea; Cicero had used it as a possible title of honour, with which Pompey or Cæsar, had they been moderate, might have been content. (Cic., ad Fam. vi. 6). Again, though it is not a mere extension of princeps senatus, yet it is clearly connected with it. As the Senatus is the first ordo in the state, the princeps senatus is also princeps civitatis. The two titles were soon confounded. Thus Pliny (N.H. xxxvi. § 116) speaks of M. Æmilius Scaurus as totius princeps civitatis, when he means that he had been several times entered by the Censors on the roll as princeps senatus. But a new connotation became attached to the word from the political powers of the princeps.