Next the people of Segesta petitioned for the restoration of the temple
of Venus at Mount Eryx, which had fallen to ruin from its antiquity.
They repeated the well-known story of its origin, which delighted
Tiberius. He undertook the work willingly, as being a kinsman of the
goddess. After this was discussed a petition from the city of Massilia,
and sanction given to the precedent of Publius Rutilius, who having
been legally banished from Rome, had been adopted as a citizen by
the people of Smyrna. Volcatius Moschus, also an exile, had been received
with a similar privilege by the inhabitants of Massilia, and had left
his property to their community, as being now his own country.

Two men of noble rank died in that year, Cneius Lentulus and Lucius
Domitius. It had been the glory of Lentulus, to say nothing of his
consulship and his triumphal distinctions over the Gaetuli, to have
borne poverty with a good grace, then to have attained great wealth,
which had been blamelessly acquired and was modestly enjoyed. Domitius
derived lustre from a father who during the civil war had been master
of the sea, till he united himself to the party of Antonius and afterwards
to that of Caesar. His grandfather had fallen in the battle of Pharsalia,
fighting for the aristocracy. He had himself been chosen to be the
husband of the younger Antonia, daughter of Octavia, and subsequently
led an army across the Elbe, penetrating further into Germany than
any Roman before him. For this achievement he gained triumphal honours.

Lucius Antonius too then died, of a most illustrious but unfortunate
family. His father, Julius Antonius, was capitally punished for adultery
with Julia, and the son, when a mere youth, was banished by Augustus,
whose sister’s grandson he was, to the city of Massilia, where the
name of exile might be masked under that of student. Yet honour was
paid him in death, and his bones, by the Senate’s decree, were consigned
to the sepulchre of the Octavii.

While the same consuls were in office, an atrocious crime was committed
in Nearer Spain by a peasant of the Termestine tribe. Suddenly attacking
the praetor of the province, Lucius Piso, as he was travelling in
all the carelessness of peace, he killed him with a single wound.
He then fled on a swift horse, and reached a wooded country, where
he parted with his steed and eluded pursuit amid rocky and pathless
wilds. But he was soon discovered. The horse was caught and led through
the neighbouring villages, and its owner ascertained. Being found
and put to the torture that he might be forced to reveal his accomplices,
he exclaimed in a loud voice, in the language of his country, that
it was in vain to question him; his comrades might stand by and look
on, but that the most intense agony would not wring the truth from
him. Next day, when he was dragged back to torture, he broke loose
from his guards and dashed his head against a stone with such violence
that he instantly fell dead. It was however believed that Piso was
treacherously murdered by the Termestini. Some public money had been
embezzled, and he was pressing for its payment too rigorously for
the patience of barbarians.

In the consulship of Lentulus Gaetulicus and Caius Calvisius, triumphal
distinctions were decreed to Poppaeus Sabinus, for a crushing defeat
of some Thracian tribes, whose wild life in the highlands of a mountainous
country made them unusually fierce. Besides their natural ferocity,
the rebellion had its origin in their scornful refusal to endure levies
and to supply our armies with their bravest men. Even native princes
they would obey only according to their caprice, and if they sent
aid, they used to appoint their own leaders and fight only against
their neighbours. A rumour had then spread itself among them that,
dispersed and mingled with other tribes, they were to be dragged away
to distant countries. Before however they took up arms, they sent
envoys with assurances of their friendship and loyalty, which, they
said, would continue, if they were not tried by any fresh burden.
But if they were doomed to slavery as a conquered people, they had
swords and young warriors and a spirit bent on freedom or resigned
to death. As they spoke, they pointed to fortresses amid rocks whither
they had conveyed their parents and their wives, and threatened us
with a difficult, dangerous and sanguinary war.

Sabinus meantime, while he was concentrating his troops, returned
gentle answers; but on the arrival of Pomponius Labeo with a legion
from Moesia and of king Rhoemetalces with some reinforcements from
his subjects, who had not thrown off their allegiance, with these
and the force he had on the spot, he advanced on the enemy, who were
drawn up in some wooded defiles. Some ventured to show themselves
on the open hills; these the Roman general approached in fighting
order and easily dislodged them, with only a small slaughter of the
barbarians, who had not far to flee. In this position he soon established
a camp, and held with a strong detachment a narrow and unbroken mountain
ridge, stretching as far as the next fortress, which was garrisoned
by a large force of armed soldiers along with some irregulars. Against
the boldest of these, who after the manner of their country were disporting
themselves with songs and dances in front of the rampart, he sent
some picked archers, who, discharging distant volleys, inflicted many
wounds without loss to themselves. As they advanced, a sudden sortie
put them to the rout, and they fell back on the support of a Sugambrian
cohort, drawn up at no great distance by the Roman general, ready
for any emergency and as terrible as the foe, with the noise of their
war songs and the clashing of their arms.
The Annals by Tacitus