 Following Caesar's assassination and the Roman Civil War, Augustus assumed Imperial authority over the games, including "munera", and formalised their provision as a civic and religious duty.His revision of sumptuary law capped private and public expenditure on "munera", claiming to save the Roman elite from the bankruptcies they would otherwise suffer, and restricted their performance to the festivals of Saturnalia and Quinquatria.Henceforth, the ceiling cost for a praetor's "economical" official "munus" employing a maximum 120 gladiators was to be 25,000 denarii; a "generous" Imperial "ludi" might cost no less than 180,000 denarii.