The Pannonian peoples, whom before I became princeps, no army of the Roman people had ever attacked, were defeated by Tiberius Nero, at that time my son-in-law and legate; and I brought them under subjection to the empire of the Roman people,[137] and extended the boundaries of Illyricum to the bank of the river Danube.[138] When an army of the Dacians crossed this river, it was defeated and destroyed, and afterwards my army, led across the Danube, compelled the Dacian people to submit to the sway of the Roman people.[139]
c. 31.
Embassies have been many times sent to me from the kings of India, a thing never before seen in the case of any ruler of the Romans.[140] Our friendship has been sought by means of ambassadors by the Bastarnae and the Scythians, and by the kings of the Sarmatae, who are on either side of the Tanais, and by the kings of the Albani, the Hiberi, and the Medes.[141]
c. 32.
To me have betaken themselves as suppliants the kings of the Parthians, Tiridates, and later, Phraates, the son of king Phraates;[142] of the Medes, Artavasdes;[143] of the Adiabeni, Artaxares;[144] of the Britons, Dumnobellaunus and Tim_____;[145] of the Sicambri, Maelo;[146] and of the Marcomanian Suevi, __________rus.[147] Phraates, king of the Parthians, son of Orodes, sent all his children and grandchildren into Italy to me, not because he had been conquered in war, but rather seeking our friendship by means of his children as pledges.[148] Since I have been princeps very many other races have made proof of the good faith of the Roman people, who never before had had any interchange of embassies and friendship with the Roman people.
c. 33.
From me the peoples of the Parthians and of the Medes have received the kings they asked for through ambassadors, the chief men of those peoples: the Parthians, Vonones, the son of king Phraates, and grandson of king Orodes;[149] the Medes, Ariobarzanes, the son of king Artavasdes, and grandson of king Ariobarzanes.[150]
c. 34.
In my sixth and seventh consulships, when I had put an end to the civil wars, after having obtained complete control of affairs by universal consent, I transferred the commonwealth from my own dominion to the authority of the senate and Roman people.[151] In return for this favor on my part I received by decree of the senate the title Augustus,[152] the door-posts of my house were publicly decked with laurels, a civic crown was fixed above my door,[153] and in the Julian Curia was placed a golden shield, which, by its inscription, bore witness that it was given to me by the senate and Roman people on account of my valor, clemency, justice and piety.[154] After that time I excelled all others in dignity, but of power I held no more than those also held who were my colleagues in any magistracy.[155]