Philon von Alexandria, Die Gesandtschaft an Gaius 8-11:

Philons Bericht bezieht sich auf eine Gesandtschaft im Jahre 39 u.Z. an den Kaiser Gaius (Caligula), die dem Zweck diente, die Interessen seiner Mitbürger zu vertreten.

For who that saw Gaius when after der death of Tiberius he succeeded to the sovereignty of the whole earth and sea, gained by no faction but established by law, with all parts, east, west, south, north, harmoniously adjusted, the Greek in full agreement with the barbarian, the civil with the military, to enjoy and participate in peace – who I say was not filled with admiration and astonishment at his prodigious and indescribable prosperity?

He found in hand a mass of accumulated goods, gold and silver, which he had inherited, some in bullion, some in specie, some as ornaments in the form of drinking-cups and other things which craftmanship produces for display; vast forces of infantry, cavalry, ships, revenues supplied like a perennial stream flowing from a fountain; a dominion not confined to the really vital parts which make up a most of the inhabited world, and indeed may properly bear that name, the world [ἃ δὴ καὶ κυρίως ἄν τις οἰκουμένην εἴποι], that is, which is bounded by the two rivers, the Euphrates and the Rhine, the one dissevering us from the Germans and all the more brutish nations, the Euphrates from the Parthians and from the Sarmatians und Scythians, races which are no less savage than the Germans, but a dominion extending, as I said above, from the rising to the setting sun both within the ocean and beyond it.

All these things were a joy to the Roman people and all Italy and the nations of Europe and Asia; not so much had they all exulted over any of his imperial predecessors. [...]

(Philo: The Embassy to Gaius. Ed. by F. H. Colson & J. W. Earp. Cambridge (Mass.)/London 1962, pp. 6-9)