Note 34 — LIFE OF TIBERIUS GRACCHUS.

The rank of Princeps Senatus was given at one time by the censors to the oldest of those who had filled the office of censor (Liv. 27, c. 11), but after the election of Q. Fabius Maximus mentioned in the passage of Livius, it was given to any person whom the censors thought most fit; and it was for the same person to be reappointed at each successive lustrum, that is, every five years. It was now merely an honorary distinction, though it had once been a substantive office. The title was retained under the Empire by the Emperors; and Princeps is the title by which Tacitus designates Augustus and his successor Tiberius. The title has come down to us through the French language in the form of Prince.

Plutarch sometimes gives the Roman words in a Greek form, but he more usually translates them as well as he can, which he has done in this instance. The titles consular, censorian, prætorian, were the Roman names for designating a man who had been consul, censor, or prætor.