arthians the
standards which they had taken from Crassus. He next governed, for
nearly a year, the province of Gallia Comata, which was then in great
disorder, on account of the incursions of the barbarians, and the feuds
of the chiefs. He afterwards commanded in the several wars against the
Rhaetians, Vindelicians, Pannonians, and Germans. In the Rhaetian and
Vindelician wars, he subdued the nations in the Alps; and in the
Pannonian wars the Bruci, and (199) the Dalmatians. In the German war,
he transplanted into Gaul forty thousand of the enemy who had submitted,
and assigned them lands near the banks of the Rhine. For these actions,
he entered the city with an ovation, but riding in a chariot, and is said
by some to have been the first that ever was honoured with this
distinction. He filled early the principal offices of state; and passed
through the quaestorship [307], praetorship [308], and consulate [309]
almost successively. After some interval, he was chosen consul a second
time, and held the tribunitian authority during five years.

X. Surrounded by all this prosperity, in the prime of life and in
excellent health, he suddenly formed the resolution of withdrawing to a
greater distance from Rome [310]. It is uncertain whether this was the
result of disgust for his wife, whom he neither durst accuse nor divorce,
and the connection with whom became every day more intolerable; or to
prevent that indifference towards him, which his constant residence in
the city might produce; or in the hope of supporting and improving by
absence his authority in the state, if the public should have occasion
for his service. Some are of opinion, that as Augustus's sons were now
grown up to years of maturity, he voluntarily relinquished the possession
he had long enjoyed of the second place in the government, as Agrippa had
done before him; who, when M. Marcellus was advanced to public offices,
retired to Mitylene, that he might not seem to stand in the way of his
promotion, or in any respect lessen him by his presence. The same reason
likewise Tiberius gave afterwards for his retirement; but his pretext at
this time was, that he was satiated with honours, and desirous of being
relieved from the fatigue of business; requesting therefore that he might
have leave to withdraw. And neither the earnest entreaties of his
mother, nor the complaint of his father-in-law made even in the senate,
that he was deserted by him, could pr