AE 1999, 0031 (Q9689)

[--- for the purpose of preserving the memory of Germanicus Caes]ar who ought never to die away, [the senate has decided that a decree of the senate shall be passed concerning the honors] owed to Germanicus Caesar [---, and therefore it has pleased (the senate) that there shall be a discussion about] this matter together with the advice of Tiberius Caesar Augustus, [our] Leader, [and that a document] shall be prepared for him with the total amount of (senatorial) opinions (about such honors), and that he (the emperor), with his customary [indulgence,] shall select [from all the] honors, which the senate decided should be granted [those which Tiberius Caesar Augustus and] Augusta his mother and Drusus Caesar and the mother of Germanicus Ca[esar and Agrippina his wife,] invited by them also (to take part) in the deliberation, will have judged appropriate enough to be granted (to Germanicus). [Concerning this matter it has been decided as follows:] It has pleased (the senate) that a marble archway shall be constructed in the Circus Flaminius at [public expense, set up] in the place where statues [have already been dedicated] to the deified Augustus and to the Augustan House by Gaius Norbanus Flaccus, together with gilded reliefs of the defeated nations [and with an inscription] on the front of the archway (stating) that the senate and Roman People had dedicated this [marble] monument to the memory of Germanicus Caesar after he had defeated the Germans in war [and then] had cleared them out of Gaul, recovered our military standards, avendged the perfidious [defeat] of the army of the Roman People, established the status of the Gauls, and has been sent as proconsul to the overseas provinces [of Asia]to give shape to them and to the kingdoms of the same area in accordance with the orders of Tiberius Caesar Au[gustus, and had placed] a king on [the throne of] Armenia, not sparing his labour until by decree of the senate [an ovation was granted to him] and he had died for the sake of the Rebublic; (it has also pleased the senate) that above this archway a statue of Ger[manicus Caesar] shall be erected, (with him) in a triumphal chariot and at his sides shall be statues of D[rusus Germanicus his father,] the natural brother of Tiberius Caesar Augustus, and of Antonia his mother, [and of Agrippina his wife, and of Li]via his sister, and of Tiberius Germanicus his brother, and of his sons and daughters. (It has also pleased the senate that) a second archway shall be constructed in the grove of mount Amanus which is in [the province of Syria, or in any other place which may seem] more suitable to Tiberius Caesar Augustus, our Leader, [in the regions which had come under] the care and protection of Germanicus Caesar in accordance with the authority of [Tiberius Caesar Augustus;] likewise, his statue shall be erected (there) and an inscription engraved on it that is consistent [with the accomplishments of Germanicus Caesar;] a third archway or [monument shall be constructed at the banks of the Rhine round about the tomb] which [the army of the Roman people had speedily raised up] for Drusus the brother of Tiberius Caesar Augustus, [our Leader,] and then later had been finished with the permission of the deified Augustus, [and, likewise, a honorary tomb of Germanicus Cae]sar shall be raised up (which will show him) receiving [supplications from Germans and especially from the Gaul]s and the Germans who [live] on this side of the Rhine [and whose states had been ordered by the deified] Augustus to [perform] a divine ceremony at the tomb [of Drusus, and likewise they shall give to his memory a solemn and ritual sacrifice], performing the rites at his tomb [each year on the day when Germanicus Caesar passed away;] and since there was in the region (...) of Germanicus Caesar (...). Likewise, it has pleased the senate that a [marble sepulchre shall be erected to the memory of Germanicus Caesar at Antioch] in the forum [where the body of Germanicus Caesar had been cremated (...),] and that [at Epidaphna, where Germanicus Caesar had breathed his last, a platform shall be constructed (...),] (...). [(...) (And it has pleased the senate) that on the sixth day before the Ides of October (October 10) each year in front of the altar] which is [in front of the tomb of Germanicus Caesar,] ceremonies to his spirit shall be performed [publicly to his memory by the masters of the sodales] Augustales clothed in the [dark] togas of mourning, whose [legal and divine right it is to wear] the toga of that color on that day, with the same ritual of sacrifice as [is performed publicly in the ceremonies] to the spirits of Gaius and Lucius Caesar; and that a bronze tombstone next to the [tomb of Germanicus Caesar] likewise shall be engraved, so that these decrees of the senate may be inscribed on it which [pertain to his honours,] and that on that day no permission to conduct publicly any serious business [shall be given to the magistrates in charge of the administration of justice in a] municipality or a colony of Roman or Latin citizens, [and that on that day no public banquets hereafter] or weddings of Roman citizens or betrothals shall take place, [and that nobody] shall take [from anyone money that is owed (to him)] or shall give it to anyone, and that no public games shall be presented or [looked at, and that nothing at all connected with the games] shall be done. And (it has pleased the senate) that the Scenic Games of Augustus [which] customarily [take place on the fourth day before the Ides of October (October 12) in memory of the deified Augus]tus, shall be presented on the fifth day before the Kalends of November (October 28) with a [postponement of two nundinae, beginning with] that day on which Germanicus Caesar died, [in order that his funerary ceremonies may not be marred] by a day of scenic games. [(...) Tiberius Caesar Augustus, our] Leader, (...) day (...) and an address (...) to approve (...) urban tribes and (...) promised; therefore it has pleased [the senate that the urban plebs shall erect at public expense statues of Germa]nicus Caesar with triumphal cloak [in those temples and in] those pulic places in which the deified Augus[tus and Augusta] had erected (statues) [for Drusus Germanicus, his ( i.e. Germanicus Caesar’s) father,] together with an inscription of the urban plebs’ [thirty-five tribes; and that likewise] the verse, which Tiberius Caesar Augustus set forth before this (senatorial) order on the 17th day before the Kalends of January (December 16) [to praise the dead Germanicus,] shall be engraved on bronze and set up in whatever public place might please [his father;] and the senate thought it would be even more just, because the most intimate [document of Tiberius] Caesar Augustus and of Germanicus Caesar, his son, contained not so much a praise as a methodical ordering of his whole life and a true testimony of his excellence, that it should be passed on to eternal memory, and (because) he himself had testified in that same document that he did not wish to dissimulate and (because) he had judged that it would be useful for the youth of our children and descendants.Likewise, in order that the piety of Drusus Caesar might be even better attested, it has pleased (the senate), that the document which he had read aloud at the last meeting of the senate shall be inscribed on bronze and fixed in poisition in whatever place might be pleasing to his father and himself. And, likewise (it has pleased the senate) that this decree of the senate shall be inscribed on bronze together with that decree of the senate which was passed on the 17th day before the Kalends of January (December 16), and that the bronze (tablet) shall be fixed in position on the Palatine in the portico which is next to the temple of Apollo, where the senate held its meeting. Likewise, the senate wished and decided it was just, in order that the piety of all the orders toward the Augustan House and the consent of all citizens for honoring Germanicus Caesar might appear more easily, that the consuls shall publish this decree of the senate with an edict of their own and shall order the magistrates and legates of municipalities and colonies to send out a copy of it to the municipalities and colonies of Italy and to those colonie which are in the provinces, and that also those men who are in charge in the provinces would act rightly and in proper form if they would see to it that this decree of the senate is fixed in position in the most frequented place. And (it has pleased the senate) that Marcus Messalla (and) Marcus Aurelius Cotta Maximus, consuls designate (for AD 20), as soon as they enter the magistracy and when by the auspices it is permitted them, without delay of two or three nundinae, shall see to the passage of a law before the People about honors for Germanicus Caesar. Decreed. In the senate 285 (senators) were present. This decree of the senate, by a second session, was made into one (with the decree of December 16). (...) And (it has pleased the senate) that on the Palatine [in the portico by the temple of Apollo, in which the senate] is accustomed to meet, [amid the images of men of illustrious character shall be placed those of Germanicus Caesar] and Drusus Ger[manicus, his natural father and brother of Tiberius Caesar Augustus,] who was also himself (i.e. Drusus Germanicus) [of creative ability, (the images to be placed) on the capitals] of the columns [of that pediment by which the statue of Apollo is protected.] And (it has pleased the senate) that the Salii [shall place] in their hymns [the name of Germanicus Caesar to honor] his memory [which honor was also granted to Gaius and Lucius Caesar, brothers of Tiberius] Caesar Augu[stus, and that to the ten centuries of the Caesars, which are accustomed to cast their vote for the destinatio] of consuls and praetors, [there shall be added five centuries.]