During the whole time of his government, he never erected any noble edifice; for the only things he did undertake, namely, building the temple of Augustus, and restoring Pompey's Theatre, he left at last, after many years, unfinished. Nor did he ever entertain the people with public spectacles; and he was seldom present at those which were given by others, lest any thing of that kind should be requested of him; especially after he was obliged to give freedom to the comedian Actius. Having relieved the poverty of a few senators, to avoid further demands, he declared that he should for the future assist none, but those who gave the senate full satisfaction as to the cause of their necessity. Upon this, most of the needy senators, from modesty and shame, declined troubling him. Amongst these was Hortalus, grandson to the celebrated orator Quintus Hortensius, who [marrying], by the persuasion of Augustus, had brought up four children upon a very small estate.
He displayed only two instances of public munificence. One was an offer to lend
gratis, for three years, a hundred millions of sesterces to those who wanted to
borrow; and the other, when, some large houses being burnt down upon Mount
Coelius, he indemnified the owners. To the former of these he was compelled by
the clamours of the people, in a great scarcity of money, when he had ratified a
decree of the senate obliging all money-lenders to advance two-thirds of their
capital on land, and the debtors to pay off at once the same proportion of their
debts, and it was found insufficient to remedy the grievance. The other he did
to alleviate in some degree the pressure of the times. But his benefaction to
the sufferers by fire, he estimated at so high a rate, that he ordered the
Coelian Hill to be called, in future, the Augustan. To the soldiery, after
doubling the legacy left them by Augustus, he never gave any thing, except a
thousand denarii a man to the pretorian guards, for not joining the party of
Sejanus; and some presents to the legions in