There was this year an admission of new rites, by the establishment of
another College of Priests, one sacred to the deity of Augustus; as
formerly Titus Tatius, to preserve the religious rites of the Sabines, had
founded the fraternity of Titian Priests. To fill the society, one-and-
twenty, the most considerable Romans were drawn by lot, and to them added
Tiberius, Drusus, Claudius, and Germanicus. The games in honour of
Augustus began then first to be embroiled by emulation among the players,
and the strife of parties in their behalf. Augustus had countenanced these
players and their art, in complaisance to Maecenas, who was mad in love
with Bathyllus the comedian; nor to such favourite amusements of the
populace had he any aversion himself; he rather judged it an acceptable
courtesy to mingle with the multitude in these their popular pleasures.
Different was the temper of Tiberius, different his politics: to severer
manners, however, he durst not yet reduce the people, so many years
indulged in licentious gaieties.
In the consulship of Drusus Caesar and Caius Norbanus, a triumph was
decreed to Germanicus, while the war still subsisted.
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