Honours for Pallas

Translation

Amid these events, he referred to the Senate a proposal concerning the punishment of women who formed unions with slaves; and it was decreed that those who had slipped into such relationships without the knowledge of the master should be held in slavery, but if he had consented, they should be regarded as freedwomen. To Pallas, whom the emperor had declared to be the author of this proposal, the consul-designate Barea Soranus proposed praetorian insignia and fifteen million sesterces. Scipio Cornelius added that public thanks should be given to him, because, though descended from the kings of Arcadia, he set aside his most ancient nobility for the public good and allowed himself to be counted among the emperor's servants. Claudius asserted that Pallas was content with the honour alone and would remain within his former poverty. And the Senate's decree, in which a freedman possessing three hundred million sesterces was heaped with praises for his old-fashioned thrift, was fixed up in public bronze.