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33Four books were then brought in and Drusus read them. In the first were written detailed instructions regarding his funeral; in the second were recorded all the acts which he had performed, which he commanded also to be inscribed upon bronze columns to be set up around his shrine; 2the third contained an account of military matters, of the revenues, and of the public expenditures, the amount of money in the treasuries, and everything else of the sort that had a bearing upon the administration of the empire; 3and the fourth had injunctions and commands for Tiberius and for the public. Among these injunctions was one to the effect that they should not free many slaves, lest they should fill the city with a promiscuous rabble; also that they should not enrol large numbers as citizens, in order that there should be a marked difference between themselves and the subject nations. 4He exhorted them to entrust the public business to all who had ability both to understand and to act, and never to let it depend on any one person; in this way no one would set his mind on a tyranny, nor would the State, on the other hand, go to ruin if one man fell. 5He advised them to be satisfied with their present possessions and under no conditions to wish to increase the empire to any greater dimensions. It would be hard to guard, he said, and this would lead to danger of their losing what was already theirs. 6This principle he had really always followed himself not only in speech but also in action; at any rate he might have made great acquisitions from the barbarian world, but he had not wished to do so. These, then, were his injunctions.
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