by philosophers: this may be a reference to the works of Seneca, who reported that Augustus did not take action against the slaves of a person who had been killed by his slaves on the grounds, see Sen. Natural Questions 1.16: There was a man named Hosius Quadra, whose obscene behavior was even the subject of a stage routine. The Divine Augustus judged that this old man, a slave to his millions, was not worth avenging through a judicial proceedure when he was murdered by his slaves, and almost declared that he had been killed for just cause.