In the consulship of Caius Caecilius and Lucius Pomponius, Germanicus
Caesar, on the 26th day of May, celebrated his triumph over the Cherusci,
Chatti, and Angrivarii, and the other tribes which extend as far as
the Elbe. There were borne in procession spoils, prisoners, representations
of the mountains, the rivers and battles; and the war, seeing that
he had been forbidden to finish it, was taken as finished. The admiration
of the beholders was heightened by the striking comeliness of the
general and the chariot which bore his five children. Still, there
was a latent dread when they remembered how unfortunate in the case
of Drusus, his father, had been the favour of the crowd; how his uncle
Marcellus, regarded by the city populace with passionate enthusiasm,
had been snatched from them while yet a youth, and how short-lived
and ill-starred were the attachments of the Roman people.

Tiberius meanwhile in the name of Germanicus gave every one of the
city populace three hundred sesterces, and nominated himself his colleague
in the consulship. Still, failing to obtain credit for sincere affection,
he resolved to get the young prince out of the way, under pretence
of conferring distinction, and for this he invented reasons, or eagerly
fastened on such as chance presented.

King Archelaus had been in possession of Cappadocia for fifty years,
and Tiberius hated him because he had not shown him any mark of respect
while he was at Rhodes. This neglect of Archelaus was not due to pride,
but was suggested by the intimate friends of Augustus, because, when
Caius Caesar was in his prime and had charge of the affairs of the
East, Tiberius’s friendship was thought to be dangerous. When, after
the extinction of the family of the Caesars, Tiberius acquired the
empire, he enticed Archelaus by a letter from his mother, who without
concealing her son’s displeasure promised mercy if he would come to
beg for it. Archelaus, either quite unsuspicious of treachery, or
dreading compulsion, should it be thought that he saw through it,
hastened to Rome. There he was received by a pitiless emperor, and
soon afterwards was arraigned before the Senate. In his anguish and
in the weariness of old age, and from being unused, as a king, to
equality, much less to degradation, not, certainly, from fear of the
charges fabricated against him, he ended his life, by his own act
or by a natural death. His kingdom was reduced into a province, and
Caesar declared that, with its revenues, the one per cent. tax could
be lightened, which, for the future, he fixed at one-half per cent.

During the same time, on the deaths of Antiochus and Philopator, kings
respectively of the Commageni and Cilicians, these nations became
excited, a majority desiring the Roman rule, some, that of their kings.
The provinces too of Syria and Judaea, exhausted by their burdens,
implored a reduction of tribute.

Tiberius accordingly discussed these matters and the affairs of Armenia,
which I have already related, before the Senate. “The commotions in
the East,” he said, “could be quieted only by the wisdom, of Germanicus;
own life was on the decline, and Drusus had not yet reached his maturity.”
Thereupon, by a decree of the Senate, the provinces beyond sea were
entrusted to Germanicus, with greater powers wherever he went than
were given to those who obtained their provinces by lot or by the
emperor’s appointment.
The Annals by Tacitus