CIL, Vol. XIII, No. 1,668, col. z (= Abbott-Johnson, No. 50 = FlRA, Vol. I, No. 43)

(from Naphtali Lewis and Meyer Reinhold, Roman Civilization Volume II, The Empire, 1^st  Edition, 1955, New York, Columbia University Press, pp.131-132)

 . . . Surely both my great-uncle, the deified Augustus, and my uncle, Tiberius Caesar, were following a new practice when they de- sired that all the flower of the colonies and the municipalities everywhere -that is, the better class and the wealthy men-should sit in this senate house. You ask me: Is not an Italian senator preferable to a provincial? I shall reveal to you in detail my views on this matter when I come to obtain approval for this part of my censorship. But I think that not even provincials ought to be excluded, provided that they can add distinction to this senate house.

Look at that most distinguished and most flourishing colony of Vienna,¹ how long a time already it is that it has furnished senators to this house! From that colony comes that ornament of the equestrian order-and there are few to equal him-Lucius Vestinus, whom I cherish most intimately and whom at this very time I employ in my affairs. And it is my desire that his children may envoy the first step in the priesthoods, so as to advance afterwards, as they grow older, to further honors in their rank. . . . I can say the same of his brother, who because of this wretched and most shameful circumstance cannot be a useful senator for you.

The time has now come, Tiberius Caesar Germanicus,² now that you have reached the farthest boundaries of Narbonese Gaul, for you to unveil to the members of the senate the import of your address. All these distinguished youths whom I gaze upon will no more give us cause for regret if they become senators than does my friend Persicus, a man of most noble ancestry, have cause for regret when he reads among the portraits of his ancestors the name Allobrogicus.³ But if you agree that these things are so, what more do you want, when I point out to you this single fact, that the territory beyond the boundaries of Narbonese Gaul already sends you senators, since we have men of our order from Lyons and have no cause for regret. It is indeed with hesitation, members of the senate, that I have gone outside the borders of the prov- inces with which you are accustomed and familiar, but I must now plead openly the cause of Gallia Comata. And if anyone, in this connection, has in mind that these people engaged the deified Julius in war for ten years, let him set against that the unshakable loyalty and obedience of a hundred years, tested to the full in many of our crises. When my father Drusus was subduing Germany, it was they who by treir tranquillity afforded him a safe and securely peaceful rear, even at a time when he had been summoned away to the war from the task of organizing the census which was still new and unaccustomed to the Gauls. How diff cult such an operation is for us at this precise moment we are learning all too well from experience, even though the survey is aimed at nothing more than an official record of our resources. [The rest is lost.]  

1 Modern Vienne, Dauphine, France.

2 Claudius here addresses himself.

3 An honorary name derived from the Allobroges, a Gallic tribe over whom one of Persicus' ancestors probably won a military victory.