After that, when the senate decreed me many triumphs,[26] I declined them. Likewise I often deposited the laurels in the Capitol[27] in fulfilment of vows which I had also made in battle. On account of enterprises brought to a successful issue on land and sea by me, or by my lieutenants under my auspices, the senate fifty-five times decreed that there should be a thanksgiving to the immortal gods.[28] The number of days, moreover, on which thanksgiving was rendered in accordance with the decree of the senate was eight hundred and ninety.[29] In my triumphs there have been led before my chariot nine kings, or children of kings.[30] When I wrote these words I had been thirteen times consul, and was in the thirty-seventh year of the tribunitial power.[31] c. 5. The dictatorship which was offered to me by the people and the senate, both when I was absent and when I was present, in the consulship of Marcus Marcellus and Lucius Arruntius, I did not accept.[32] At a time of the greatest dearth of grain I did not refuse the charge of the food supply, which I so administered that in a few days, at my own expense, I freed the whole people from the anxiety and danger in which they then were.[33] The annual and perpetual consulship offered to me at that time I did not accept.[34] c. 6. During the consulship of Marcus Vinucius and Quintus Lucretius, and afterwards in that of Publius and Cnaeus Lentulus, and a third time in that of Paullus Fabius Maximus and Quintus Tubero, by the consent of the senate and the Roman people I was voted the sole charge of the laws and of morals, with the fullest power;[35] but I accepted the proffer of no office which was contrary to the customs of the country.[36] The measures of which the senate at that time wished me to take charge, I accomplished in virtue of my possession of the tribunitial power.[37] In this office I five times associated with myself a colleague, with the consent of the senate.[38] c. 7. For ten years in succession I was one of the triumvirs for organizing the commonwealth.[39] Up to that day on which I write these words I have been _princeps_ of the senate through forty years.[40] I have been _pontifex maximus_,[41] augur,[42] a member of the quindecemviral college of the sacred rites,[43] of the septemviral college of the banquets,[44] an Arval Brother,[45] a member of the Titian sodality,[46] and a fetial.[47] c. 8.