About the same time, the furthermost Spain besought the Senate by their
ambassadors, "that after the example of Asia, they might erect a temple to
Tiberius and his mother." Upon this occasion, the Emperor, always resolute
in contemning honours, and now judging it proper to confute those, who
exposed him to the popular censure, of having deviated into ambition;
spoke in this manner: "I know, Conscript Fathers, that it is generally
blamed, and ascribed to a defect of firmness in me, that when the cities
of Asia petitioned for this very thing, I withstood them not. I shall
therefore now unfold at once the motives of my silence then, and the rules
which for the future I am determined to observe. Since the deified
Augustus bad not opposed the founding at Pergamus a temple to himself and
the city of Rome; I, with whom all his actions and sayings have the force
of laws, followed an example already approved; and followed it the more
cheerfully, because to the worship bestowed upon me, that of the Senate
was annexed. But as the indulging of this, in one instance, will find
pardon; so a general latitude of being adored through every province,
under the sacred representations of the Deities, would denote a vain
spirit; a heart swelled with ambition.
Pages:
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308