The Emperor Augustus is praised in an inscription from Priene (c. 9 BC)
providence…created…the most perfect good for our lives…filling him [Augustus] with virtue for the benefit of mankind, sending us and those after us a saviour who put an end to war and established all things…and whereas the birthday of the god [i.e. Augustus] marked for the world the beginning of good tidings through his coming…
Translation from N. Lewis & M. Reinhold, eds, Roman Civilization II. New York: Harper & Row, 1955, 64.