Note 69 — Below is a copy of the deeds of the divine Augustus, by which he subjected the whole world to the dominion of the Roman people, and of the amounts which he expended upon the commonwealth and the Roman people, as engraved upon two brazen columns which are set up at Rome.1

Cf. Suet. Cæs. LXXXIII: “He (Cæsar) bequeathed to the Roman people his gardens near the Tiber, and three hundred sesterces to each man.” Dio, XLIV, 35, is peculiar, saying: “Cæsar left to the people his gardens on the Tiber, and to each man one hundred and twenty sesterces, as Augustus himself says, or as others say, three hundred sesterces apiece.” May it be that Dio has reversed the facts here, and that it was “others” who reported the smaller sum and Augustus the larger? Augustus is substantiated, or followed, by Plut.; Ant., XVI, Brut., XX; App. B. C., II, 143.

Three hundred sesterces equals about fifteen dollars. The date of this disbursement is 710: its amount, supposing the minimum number of receivers, 250,000, comes to $3,750,000.