Augustus appeared to claim nothing for himself, and innovate nothing: even the cult to the "divus" Julius had a respectable antecedent in the traditional cult to "di parentes". His unique – and still traditional – position within the Senate as "princeps" or "primus inter pares" (first among equals) offered a curb to the ambitions and rivalries that had led to the recent civil wars. As censor and "pontifex maximus" he was morally obliged to renew the "mos maiores" by the will of the gods and the "Senate and People of Rome" ("senatus populusque romanus"). As tribune he encouraged generous public spending, and as "princeps" of the Senate he discouraged ambitious extravagance. He disbanded the remnants of the civil war armies to form new legions and a personal imperial guard (the Praetorian Guard): the patricians who still clung to the upper echelons of political, military and priestly power were gradually replaced from a vast, Empire-wide reserve of ambitious and talented equestrians. For the first time, senatorial status became heritable.