Iam primum publica negotia et privatorum maxima apud patres tractabantur, dabaturque primoribus disserere, et in adulationem lapsos cohibebat ipse; mandabatque honores, nobilitatem maiorum, claritudinem militiae, inlustris domi artis spectando, ut satis constaret non alios potiores fuisse.
First, then, public affairs'together with private affairs of exceptional moment'were treated in the senate, and discussion was free to the leading members, their lapses into subserviency being checked by the sovereign himself. In conferring offices, he took into view the nobility of a candidates ancestry, the distinction of his military service, or the brilliance of his civil attainments, and left it sufficiently clear that no better choice had been available.
final_alignments\Tacitus_Annals_Book4.json