Octavian and Agrippa hold a census (the first of three during the reign) of the civil population in 28.

They also reduce the Senate from about one thousand to eight hundred (later six hundred) compliant members; and Octavian is appointed its president.

Octavian realizes that the governing class will welcome him as the terminator of civil war only if he conceals his autocracy beneath provisions avowedly harking back to republican traditions.