He represented to them, that they had enlarged his powers, even beyond that degree which might be required by the melancholy condition of the times.

They had not permitted him to refuse the laborious command of the armies and the frontiers; but he must insist on being allowed to restore the more peaceful and secure provinces to the mild administration of the civil magistrate.

In the division of the provinces, Augustus provided for his own power and for the dignity of the republic.

The proconsuls of the senate, particularly those of Asia, Greece, and Africa, enjoyed a more honorable character than the lieutenants of the emperor, who commanded in Gaul or Syria.
The former were attended by lictors, the latter by soldiers.

* A law was passed, that wherever the emperor was present, his extraordinary commission should supersede the ordinary jurisdiction of the governor; a custom was introduced, that the new conquests belonged to the imperial portion; and it was soon discovered that the authority of the Prince, the favorite epithet of Augustus, was the same in every part of the empire.
In return for this imaginary concession, Augustus obtained an important privilege, which rendered him master of Rome and Italy.