he very first act of Julius Caesar, when he became Consul, was to order that the discussions of the Senate, hitherto secret, would now be published in a public place where all interested citizens could follow the actions of its government. The acts of the Senate and assembly would thus be publicly proclaimed; interestingly, although Augustus later agreed that minutes of meetings should be kept, he eventually forbade their publication. (Of course, by then, the Republic was dead as a doornail