40.51
M.
Aemilius Lepidus, Pontifex Maximus and Censor, was himself chosen as
leader of the House. Lepidus kept some on the roll whom his colleague had
left out. The sums which had been granted to them for constructive works
were employed as follows. Lepidus constructed a breakwater at Terracina,
an unpopular proceeding because he had estates there and was charging to
the public account what should have been his private expenditure. He
contracted for the building of an auditorium and stage at the temple of
Apollo, and the polishing with chalk of the temple of Jupiter on the Capitol
and the columns round it. He also removed the statues from the front of the
columns which blocked the view and took away all the shields and military
standards which had been fastened to them. M. Fulvius undertook more
numerous and more useful works. He constructed a wharf on the Tiber and
piles for a bridge on which some years later the censors P. Scipio Africanus
and L. Mummius erected arches. He built a court-house behind the new
bankers' establishments, a fish-market surrounded by shops, a market-square
and colonnade outside the Porta Trigemina, and other colonnades behind the
docks, at the fane of Hercules, behind the temple of Hope by the Tiber, and
one at the temple of Apollo Medicus. Besides the sums allotted to each they
had a certain amount to use in common, and this they devoted to the
construction of an aqueduct on arches. M. Licinius Crassus threw difficulties
in the way of this work, as he would not allow it to be carried through his
land. Various tolls were also initiated by them, and they fixed rents for the
use of the State lands. Many chapels and public buildings had been taken
possession of by private individuals; the censors made it their care that these
should preserve their sacred character and be accessible to the public. The
method of voting was revised by them, and through all the "regions" they
classified the tribes according to their status, their circumstances, and their
sources of income.
