C. Suetonius Tranquillus, Domitianus
Alexander Thomson, Ed.

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He made many innovations in common practices. He abolished the Sportula,¹ and revived the old practice of regular suppers. To the four former parties in the Circensian games, he added two new, who wore gold and scarlet. He prohibited the players from acting in the theatre, but permitted them the practice of their art in private houses. He forbad the castration of males; and reduced the price of the eunuchs who were still left in the hands of the dealers in slaves. On the occasion of a great abundance of wine, accompanied by a scarcity of corn, supposing that the tillage of the ground was neglected for the sake of attending too much to the cultivation of vineyards, he published a proclamation forbidding the planting of any new vines in Italy, and ordered the vines in the provinces to be cut down, nowhere permitting more than one half of them to remain.² But he did not persist in the execution of this project. Some of the greatest offices he conferred upon his freedmen and soldiers. He forbad two legions to be quartered in the same camp, and more than a thousand sesterces to be deposited by any soldier with the standards; because it was thought that Lucius Antonius had been encouraged in his late project by the large sum deposited in the military chest by the two legions which he had in the same winterquarters. He made an addition to the soldiers' pay, of three gold pieces a year.