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25. . . holding [it] after his praetorship. But the next year, in addition to the events already described, the temple of Concord was dedicated by Tiberius, and both his name and that of Drusus, his dead brother, were inscribed upon it. 2In the consulship of Marcus Aemilius and Statilius Taurus, Tiberius and Germanicus, the latter acting as proconsul, invaded Germany and overran portions of it. They did not win any battle, however, since no one came to close quarters with them, nor did they reduce any tribe; 3for in their fear of falling victims to a fresh disaster they did not advance very far beyond the Rhine, but after remaining in that region until late autumn and celebrating the birthday of Augustus, on which they held a horse-race under the direction of the centurions, they returned.
4At Rome Drusus Caesar, the son of Tiberius, became quaestor, and sixteen praetors held office because that number were candidates for the position and Augustus, in view of the difficulties in which he found himself, was unwilling to offend any of them. The same did not hold true, however, of the years immediately following, but the number remained at twelve for a considerable period. 5Besides these events at that time, the seers were forbidden to prophesy to any person alone or to prophesy regarding death even if others should be present. Yet so far was Augustus from caring about such matters in his own case that he set forth to all in an edict the aspect of the stars at the time of his own birth. 6Nevertheless, he forbade this practice. He also issued a proclamation to the subject nations forbidding them to bestow any honours upon a person assigned to govern them either during his term of office or within sixty days after his departure; this was because some governors by arranging beforehand for testimonials and eulogies from their subjects were causing much mischief. 7Three senators, as before, transacted business with embassies, and the knights—a fact which may cause surprise—were allowed to fight as gladiators. The reason for this was that some were making light of the disfranchisement imposed as the penalty for such conduct. For inasmuch as there proved to be no use in forbidding it, and the guilty seemed to require a greater punishment, or else because it seemed possible that they might even be turned aside from this course, they were granted permission to take part in such contests. 8In this way they incurred death instead of disfranchisement; for they fought just as much as ever, especially since their contests were eagerly witnessed, so that even Augustus used to watch them in company with the praetors who superintended the contests.
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