It is another,
and a striking illustration of his humility, that he willingly accepted of
public appointments, and sedulously discharged the duties attached to
them, in conjunction with colleagues who had been chosen with little
regard to his personal partialities. In the debates of the senate, he
showed the same equanimity; suffering himself patiently to be
contradicted, and even with circumstances of studied incivility. In the
public elections, he gave his vote like any private citizen; and, when he
happened to be a candidate himself, he canvassed the electors with the
same earnestness of personal application, as any other candidate with the
least possible title to public favor from present power or past services.
But, perhaps by no expressions of his civic spirit did Augustus so much
conciliate men's minds, as by the readiness with which he participated in
their social pleasures, and by the uniform severity with which he refused
to apply his influence in any way which could disturb the pure
administration of justice. The Roman juries (_judices_ they were called),
were very corrupt; and easily swayed to an unconscientious verdict, by the
appearance in court of any great man on behalf of one of the parties
interested: nor was such an interference with the course of private
justice any ways injurious to the great man's character.
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