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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Reign of Tiberius, Out of the First Six
+Annals of Tacitus, by Tacitus
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Reign of Tiberius, Out of the First Six Annals of Tacitus
+
+Author: Tacitus
+
+Editor: Arthur Galton
+
+Translator: Thomas Gordon
+
+
+Release Date: April, 2005  [EBook #7959]
+This file was first posted on June 5, 2003
+Last Updated: May 30, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REIGN OF TIBERIUS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Anne Soulard, Tiffany Vergon, Charles Aldarondo,
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE REIGN OF TIBERIUS, OUT OF THE FIRST SIX ANNALS OF TACITUS
+
+WITH HIS ACCOUNT OF GERMANY, AND LIFE OF AGRICOLA
+
+By Tacitus
+
+Translated By Thomas Gordon
+
+And Edited By Arthur Galton
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  "Alme Sol, curru nitido diem qui
+  Promis et celas, aliusque et idem
+  Nasceris, possis nihil urbe Roma
+                Visere maius."
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+THE ANNALS, BOOK I
+
+THE ANNALS, BOOK II
+
+THE ANNALS, BOOK III
+
+THE ANNALS, BOOK IV
+
+THE ANNALS, BOOK V
+
+THE ANNALS, BOOK VI
+
+A TREATISE OF THE SITUATION, CUSTOMS, AND PEOPLE OF GERMANY
+
+THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA; WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE SITUATION, CLIMATE, AND
+PEOPLE OF BRITAIN
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+"I am going to offer to the publick the Translation of a work, which,
+for wisdom and force, is in higher fame and consideration, than almost
+any other that has yet appeared amongst men:" it is in this way, that
+Thomas Gordon begins The Discourses, which he has inserted into his
+rendering of Tacitus; and I can find none better to introduce this
+volume, which my readers owe to Gordon's affectionate and laborious
+devotion. Caius Cornelius Tacitus, the Historian, was living under those
+Emperors, who reigned from the year 54 to the year 117, of the Christian
+era; but the place and the date of his birth are alike uncertain, and
+the time of his death is not accurately known. He was a friend of the
+younger Pliny, who was born in the year 61; and, it is possible,
+they were about the same age. Some of Pliny's letters were written to
+Tacitus: the most famous, describes that eruption of Mount Vesuvius,
+which caused the death of old Pliny, and overwhelmed the cities of
+Pompeii and of Herculaneum. The public life of Tacitus began under
+Vespasian; and, therefore, he must have witnessed some part of the reign
+of Nero: and we read in him, too, that he was alive after the accession
+of the Emperor Trajan. In the year 77, Julius Agricola, then Consul,
+betrothed his daughter to Tacitus; and they were married in the
+following year. In 88, Tacitus was Praetor; and at the Secular Games of
+Domitian, he was one of the _Quindecimviri_: these were sad and solemn
+officers, guardians of the Sibylline Verse; and intercessors for the
+Roman People, during their grave centenaries of praise and worship.
+
+  _Quaeque Aventinum tenet Algidumque,
+  Quindecim Diana preces virorum
+  Curet; et vobis pueorum amicas
+            Applicet aures._
+
+From a passage in "The Life of Agricola," we may believe that Tacitus
+attended in the Senate; for he accuses himself as one of that frightened
+assembly, which was an unwilling participator in the cruelties of
+Domitian. In the year 97, when the Consul Virginius Rufus died, Tacitus'
+was made _Consul Suffectus_; and he delivered the funeral oration of his
+predecessor: Pliny says, that "it completed the good fortune of Rufus,
+to have his panegyric spoken by so eloquent a man." From this, and from
+other sayings, we learn that Tacitus was a famous advocate; and his
+"Dialogue about Illustrious Orators" bears witness to his admirable
+taste, and to his practical knowledge of Roman eloquence: of his own
+orations, however, not a single fragment has been left. We know not,
+whether Tacitus had children; but the Emperor Tacitus, who reigned in
+275, traced his genealogy to the Historian. "If we can prefer personal
+merit to accidental greatness," Gibbon here observes, "we shall esteem
+the birth of Tacitus more truly noble than that of Kings. He claimed his
+descent from the philosophic historian, whose writings will instruct the
+last generations of mankind. From the assiduous study of his immortal
+ancestor, he derived his knowledge of the Roman Constitution and of
+human nature." This Emperor gave orders, that the writings of Tacitus
+should be placed in all the public libraries; and that ten copies should
+be taken annually, at the public charge. Notwithstanding the Imperial
+anxiety, a valuable part of Tacitus is lost: indeed we might argue, from
+the solicitude of the Emperor, as well as from his own "distinction,"
+that Tacitus could not be generally popular; and, in the sixteenth
+century, a great portion of him was reduced to the single manuscript,
+which lay hidden within a German monastery. Of his literary works, five
+remain; some fairly complete, the rest in fragments. Complete, are "The
+Life of Julius Agricola," "The Dialogue on Orators," and "The Account
+of Germany": these are, unfortunately, the minor works of Tacitus. His
+larger works are "The History," and "The Annals." "The History" extended
+from the second Consulship of Galba, in the year 69, to the murder of
+Domitian, in the year 96; and Tacitus desired to write the happy times
+of Nerva, and of Trajan: we are ignorant, whether infirmity or death
+prevented his design. Of "The History," only four books have been
+preserved; and they contain the events of a single year: a year, it is
+true, which, saw three civil wars, and four Emperors destroyed; a year
+of crime, and accidents, and prodigies: there are few sentences more
+powerful, than Tacitus' enumeration of these calamities, in the opening
+chapters. The fifth book is imperfect; it is of more than common
+interest to some people, because Tacitus mentions the siege of Jerusalem
+by Titus; though what he says about the Chosen People, here and
+elsewhere, cannot be satisfactory to them nor gratifying to their
+admirers. With this fragment, about revolts in the provinces of Gaul
+and Syria, "The History" ends. "The Annals" begin with the death of
+Augustus, in the year 14; and they were continued until the death of
+Nero, in 68. The reign of Tiberius is nearly perfect, though the fall
+of Sejanus is missing out of it. The whole of Caligula, the beginning of
+Claudius, and the end of Nero, have been destroyed: to those, who know
+the style of Tacitus and the lives and genius of Caligula and Nero, the
+loss is irreparable; and the admirers of Juvenal must always regret,
+that from the hand of Tacitus we have only the closing scene, and not
+the golden prime, of Messalina.
+
+The works of Tacitus are too great for a Camelot volume; and, therefore,
+I have undertaken a selection of them. I give entire, "The Account of
+Germany" and "The Life of Agricola": these works are entertaining, and
+should have a particular interest for English readers. I have added to
+them, the greater portion of the first six books of "The Annals"; and
+I have endeavoured so to guide my choice, that it shall present the
+history of Tiberius. In this my volume, the chapters are not numbered:
+for the omission, I am not responsible; and I can only lament, what I
+may not control. But scholars, who know their Tacitus, will perceive
+what I have left out; and to those others, who are not familiar with
+him, the omission can be no affront. I would say briefly, that I
+have omitted some chapters, which describe criminal events and legal
+tragedies in Rome: but of these, I have retained every chapter, which
+preserves an action or a saying of Tiberius; and what I have inserted
+is a sufficient specimen of the remainder. I have omitted many chapters,
+which are occupied with wearisome disputes between the Royal Houses
+of Parthia and Armenia: and I have spared my readers the history of
+Tacfarinas, an obscure and tedious rebel among the Moors; upon whose
+intricate proceedings Tacitus appears to have relied, when he was at a
+loss for better material. To reject any part of Tacitus, is a painful
+duty; because the whole of him is good and valuable: but I trust, that I
+have maintained the unity of my selection, by remembering that it is to
+be an history of Tiberius.
+
+Tiberius Claudius Nero Caesar, the third master of the Roman world,
+derived his origin, by either parent, from the Claudian race; the
+proudest family, and one of the most noble and illustrious, in the
+ancient Commonwealth: the pages of Livy exhibit the generosity, the
+heroism, and the disasters, of the Claudii; who were of unequal fortune
+indeed, but always magnificent, in the various events of peace and
+war. Suetonius enumerates, among their ancestral honours, twenty-eight
+Consulships, five Dictators, seven Censorial commissions, and seven
+triumphs: their _cognomen_ of Nero, he says, means in the Sabine tongue
+"vigorous and bold," _fortis et strenuus_; and the long history of the
+Claudian House does not belie their gallant name. Immediately after the
+birth of Tiberius, or perhaps before it, his mother Livia was divorced
+from Claudius, and married by Augustus: the Empress is revealed
+mysteriously and almost as a divine being, in the progress of "The
+Annals." The Emperor adopted the offspring of Claudius: among the
+Romans, these legal adoptions were as valid as descent by blood; and
+Tiberius was brought up to be the son of Caesar. His natural parts were
+improved and strengthened, by the training of the Forum and the camp.
+Tiberius became a good orator; and he gained victory and reputation, in
+his wars against the savages of Germany and Dalmatia: but his peculiar
+talent was for literature; in this, "he was a great purist, and affected
+a wonderful precision about his words." He composed some Greek poems,
+and a Latin Elegy upon Lucius Caesar: he also wrote an account of his
+own life, an _Apologia_; a volume, which the Emperor Domitian was
+never tired of reading. But the favourite pursuit of Tiberius was Greek
+divinity; like some of the mediaeval Doctors, he frequented the by-ways
+of religion, and amused his leisure with the more difficult problems in
+theology: "Who was Hecuba's mother?" "What poetry the Sirens chaunted?"
+"What was Achilles' name, when he lay hid among the women?" The writings
+of Tiberius have all perished; and in these days, we have only too much
+cause to regret, that nothing of his "precision" has come down to us.
+The battles of Tiberius are celebrated in the Odes of Horace: one of the
+Epistles is addressed to him; and in another, written to Julius Florus,
+an officer with Tiberius, Horace enquires about the learned occupations
+of the Imperial cohort.
+
+  _Quid studiosa Cohors operum struit?  Hoc quoque curo._
+
+It was from his commerce with the Ancients, as I always think, that
+George Buchanan derived his opinion, strange to modern ears, that "a
+great commander must of necessity have all the talents of an author."
+Velleius Paterculus, who served with Tiberius in his campaigns, tells us
+of his firm discipline, and of his kindness to the soldiers.
+
+The Caesars Caius and Lucius, grandsons of Augustus, Marcellus his
+nephew, and Drusus the brother of Tiberius, all died: they died young,
+rich in promise, the darlings of the Roman People; "Breves et infaustos
+Populi Romani amores;" and thus, in the procession of events, Tiberius
+became the heir. "The Annals" open with his accession, and Tacitus has
+narrated the vicissitudes of his reign. Velleius Paterculus has written
+its happier aspects: he describes how the "Pax Augusta," the "Roman
+Peace," delivered every quarter of the world from violence. He
+celebrates the return of Justice and prosperity, of order, of mild and
+equable taxation, of military discipline and magisterial authority. It
+is like the Saturnian Reign, which Virgil sings in the Eclogue "Pollio."
+The first action of Tiberius was to canonise his father, and Augustus
+was translated to the banquet of the Gods:
+
+  _Quos inter Augustus recumbens,
+  Purpureo bibit ore nectar._
+
+Augustus was his great example; "he not only called him, but considered
+him, divine;" "non appelavit eum, sed facit Deum." The Latin of
+Paterculus is here so elegant and happy, that, for the pleasure of the
+learned, I transcribe it: for others, I have already given something
+of the sense. "Revocata in forum fides; submota e foro seditio, ambitio
+campo, discordia curia: sepultaeque ac situ obsitae, justitia, aequitas,
+industria, civitati, redditae; accessit magistratibus auctoritas,
+senatui majestas, judiciis gravitas; compressa theatralis seditio;
+recte faciendi, omnibus aut incussa voluntas aut imposita necessitas.
+Honorantur recta, prava puniuntur. Suspicit potentem humilis, non timet.
+Antecedit, non contemnit, humiliorem potens. Quando annona moderatior?
+Quando pax laetior? Diffusa in Orientis Occidentisque tractus, quidquid
+meridiano aut septentrione finitur, Pax Augusta, per omnes terrarum
+orbis angulos metu servat immunes. Fortuita non civium tantummodo, sed
+Urbium damna, Principis munificentia vindicat. Restitutae urbes
+Asiae: vindictae ab injuriis magistratuum provinciae. Honor dignis
+paratissimus: poena in malos sera, sed aliqua. Superatur aequitate
+gratia, ambitio virtute: nam facere recte cives suos, Princeps optimus
+faciendo docet; cumque sit imperio maximus, exemplo major est."
+
+Tiberius reigned from the year 14, to the year 37. He died in the villa
+of Lucullus, and he was buried in the mausoleum of the Caesars. The
+manner of his death is variously related: Tacitus gives one account;
+Suetonius, another. According to the last writer, he died like George
+II., alone, having just risen from his bed; and he was thus found by
+his attendants: "Seneca cum scribit subito vocatis ministris, ac nemine
+respondente, consurrexisse; nec procul a lectulo, deficientibus viribus,
+concidisse." Tiberius was tall, and beautiful. Suetonius tells us of
+his great eyes, which could see in the dark; of his broad shoulders,
+his martial bearing, and the fine proportion of his limbs: he describes,
+too, the unusual strength of his hands and fingers, especially of the
+left hand. His health was good; because, from his thirtieth year, he
+was his own physician. "Valetudine prosperrima usus est, tempore quidem
+principatus paene toto prope illesa; quamvis a trigesimo aetatis anno
+arbitratu eam suo rexerit, sine adjutamento consiliove medicorum." The
+Emperor Julian describes him "severe and grim; with a statesman's care,
+and a soldier's frankness, curiously mingled:" this was in his old age.
+
+  _Down the pale cheek, long lines of shadow slope;
+  Which years, and curious thought, and suffering give._
+
+At Rome, is a sculpture of Tiberius; he is represented young, seated,
+crowned with rays, exceedingly handsome and majestic: if the figure were
+not known to be a Caesar, the beholder would say it was a God.
+
+There is another personage in "The Annals," whose history there is
+mutilated, and perhaps dissembled; of whose character my readers may
+like to know something more, than Tacitus has told them: I mean Sejanus,
+a man always to be remembered; because whatever judgment we may form
+about his political career, and on this question the authorities are
+divided, yet it is admitted by them all, that he introduced those
+reforms among the Praetorian Cohorts, which made them for a long time,
+proprietors of the throne, and the disposers of the Imperial office. To
+this minister, Paterculus attributes as many virtues as he has bestowed
+upon Tiberius: "a man grave and courteous," he says, "with 'a fine
+old-fashioned grace'; leisurely in his ways, retiring, modest; appearing
+to be careless, and therefore gaining all his ends; outwardly polite and
+quiet, but an eager soul, wary, inscrutable, and vigilant." Whatever he
+may have been in reality, he was at one time valued by Tiberius. "The
+whole Senate," Bacon says, "dedicated an altar to Friendship as to a
+Goddess, in respect of the great Dearness of Friendship between them
+two:" and in the Essay "Of Friendship," Bacon has many deep sentences
+about the favourites of Kings, their "Participes Curarum." I would
+summon out of "The Annals," that episode of Tiberius imprisoned within
+the falling cave, and shielded by Sejanus from the descending roof.
+"Coelo Musa beat:" Sejanus has propitiated no Muse; and although
+something more, than the "invida taciturnitas" of the poet, lies heavy
+upon his reputation, he shall find no apologist in me. But over against
+the hard words of Tacitus, it is only fair to place the commendations
+of Paterculus, and even Tacitus remarks, that after the fall of Sejanus,
+Tiberius became worse; like Henry VIII., after the fall of Wolsey. Livia
+and Sejanus are said by Tacitus, to have restrained the worst passions
+of the Emperor. The two best authorities contradict one another; they
+differ, as much as our political organs differ, about the characters of
+living statesmen: and who are we, to decide absolutely, from a distance
+of two thousand years, at our mere caprice, and generally without
+sufficient evidence, that one ancient writer is correct; and another,
+dishonest or mistaken? This is only less absurd, than to prefer the
+groping style and thoughts of a modern pedant, usually a German as
+well, to the clear words of an old writer, who may be the sole remaining
+authority for the statements we presume to question; or for those
+very facts, upon which our reasonings depend. And how easy it is to
+misunderstand what we read in ancient histories, to be deceived by the
+plainest records, or to put a sinister interpretation upon events, which
+in their own time were passed over in silence or officially explained
+as harmless! Let me take an illustration, of what I mean, from something
+recent. Every one must remember the last hours of the Emperor Frederick:
+the avenues to his palace infested by armed men; the gloom and secrecy
+within; without, an impatient heir, and the posting to and fro of
+messengers. We must own, that the ceremonials of the Prussian Court
+departed in a certain measure from the ordinary mild usage of humanity;
+but we attributed this to nothing more, than the excitement of a
+youthful Emperor, or the irrepressible agitation of German officials.
+But if these events should find a place in history, or if the annals of
+the Kings of Prussia should be judged worth reading by a distant Age;
+who could blame an historian for saying, that these precautions were not
+required for the peaceful and innocent devolution of the crown from a
+father to his son. Would not our historian be justified, if he referred
+to the tumults and intrigues of a Praetorian election; if he compared
+these events to the darkest pages in Suetonius, or reminded his
+readers of the most criminal narratives in the authors of the "Augustan
+History"? From Sejanus and the Emperor William, I return once more to
+Tiberius; from the present _Kaiser_, to a genuine Caesar.
+
+It is not my purpose here to abridge Tacitus, to mangle his translator,
+nor to try and say what is better said in the body of the volume: but
+when my readers have made themselves acquainted with Tiberius, they may
+be glad to find some discussion about him, as he is presented to us in
+"The Annals"; and among all the personages of history, I doubt if there
+be a more various or more debated character. Mr. Matthew Arnold thus
+describes him:
+
+  _Cruel, but composed and bland,
+  Dumb, inscrutable and grand;
+  So Tiberius might have sat,
+  Had Tiberius been a cat._
+
+And these verses express the popular belief, with great felicity: I
+must leave my readers, to make their own final judgment for themselves.
+Whether Tacitus will have helped them to a decision, I cannot guess: he
+seems to me, to deepen the mystery of Tiberius. At a first reading, and
+upon the surface, he is hostile to the Emperor; there is no doubt, that
+he himself remained hostile, and that he wished his readers to take away
+a very bad impression: but, as we become familiar with his pages, as
+we ponder his words and compare his utterances, we begin to suspect our
+previous judgment; another impression steals upon us, and a second, and
+a third, until there grows imperceptibly within us a vision of something
+different. Out of these dim and floating visions, a clearer image is
+gradually formed, with lineaments and features; and, at length, a
+new Tiberius is created within our minds: just as we may have seen
+a portrait emerge under the artist's hand, from the intricate and
+scattered lines upon an easel. Then it dawns upon us, that, after all,
+Tacitus was not really an intimate at Capri; that he never received the
+secret confidences of Tiberius, nor attended upon his diversions. And at
+last it is borne in upon us, as we read, that, if we put aside rumours
+and uncertain gossip, whatever Tiberius does and says is unusually fine:
+but that Tacitus is not satisfied with recording words and actions;
+that he supplies motives to them, and then passes judgment upon his
+own assumptions: that the evidence for the murder of Germanicus, for
+instance, would hardly be accepted in a court of law; and that if Piso
+were there found guilty, the Emperor could not be touched. At any rate,
+we find it stated in "The Annals," that "Tiberius by the temptations of
+money was incorruptible;" and he refused the legacies of strangers,
+or of those who had natural heirs. "He wished to restore the people to
+severer manners," like many sovereigns; unlike the most of them, "in his
+own household, he observed the ancient parsimony." Besides the "severa
+paupertas" of Camillus and Fabricius, he had something of their
+primitive integrity; and he declined, with scorn, to be an accomplice in
+the proposed assassination of Arminius: "non fraude neque occultis, sed
+palam et armatum, Populum Romanum hostes suos ulcisci." He protected
+magistrates and poor suitors, against the nobles. He refused to add to
+the public burdens, by pensioning needy Senators: but he was
+charitable to poor debtors; and lavish to the people, whether Romans or
+Provincials, in times of calamity and want. Not least admirable was his
+quiet dignity, in periods of disturbance and of panic: he refused to
+hurry to the mutinous legions, or to a mean rebellion in Gaul; and he
+condescended to reason excellently about his behaviour, when his
+people were sane enough to listen. He was both sensible and modest: he
+restrained the worship of Augustus, "lest through being too common
+it should be turned into an idle ceremony;" he refused the worship of
+himself, except in one temple dedicated equally to the Senate and to
+the Emperor. Tiberius could be pathetic, too: "I bewail my son, and ever
+shall bewail him," he says of Germanicus; and again, "Eloquence is not
+measured by fortune, and it is a sufficient honour, if he be ranked
+among the ancient orators." "Princes are mortal;" he says again, "the
+Commonwealth, eternal." Then his wit, how fine it was; how quick his
+humour: when he answered the tardy condolences from Troy, by lamenting
+the death of Hector: when he advised an eager candidate, "not to
+embarrass his eloquence by impetuosity;" when he said of another, a
+low, conceited person, "he gives himself the airs of a dozen ancestors,"
+"videtur mihi ex se natus:" when he muttered in the Senate, "O homines
+ad servitutem paratos:" when he refused to become a persecutor; "It
+would be much better, if the Gods were allowed to manage their own
+affairs," "Deorum injurias Dis curae." In all this; in his leisured
+ways, in his dislike of parade and ceremonial, in his mockery of
+flatterers and venal "patriots"; how like to Charles II., "the last
+King of England who was a man of parts." And no one will deny "parts"
+to Tiberius; he was equal to the burden of Imperial cares: the latest
+researches have discovered, that his provincial administration was
+most excellent; and even Tacitus admits, that his choice of magistrates
+"could not have been better." He says, in another passage, "The
+Emperor's domains throughout Italy, were thin; the behaviour of his
+slaves modest; the freed-men, who managed his house, few; and, in his
+disputes with particulars, the courts were open and the law equal." This
+resembles the account of Antoninus Pius, by Marcus Aurelius; and it is
+for this modesty, this careful separation between private and public
+affairs, that Tacitus has praised Agricola. I am well contented, with
+the virtues of the Antonines; but there are those, who go beyond. I have
+seen a book entitled "The History of that Inimitable Monarch Tiberius,
+who in the xiv year of his Reign requested the Senate to permit the
+worship of Jesus Christ; and who suppressed all Opposition to it." In
+this learned volume, it is proved out of the Ancients, that Tiberius was
+the most perfect of all sovereigns; and he is shown to be nothing
+less than the forerunner of Saint Peter, the first Apostle and the
+nursing-father of the Christian Church. The author was a Cambridge
+divine, and one of their Professors of mathematics: "a science,"
+Goldsmith says, "to which the meanest intellects are equal."
+
+Upon the other hand, we have to consider that view of Tiberius, which is
+thus shown by Milton;
+
+  _This Emperor hath no son, and now is old;
+  Old and lascivious: and from Rome retired
+  To Capreae, an island small but strong,
+  On the Campanian shore; with purpose there,
+  His horrid lusts in private to enjoy._
+
+This theme is enlarged by Suetonius, and evidently enjoyed: he
+represents Tiberius, as addicted to every established form of vice;
+and as the inventor of new names, new modes, and a new convenience, for
+unheard-of immoralities. These propensities of the Emperor are handled
+by Tacitus with more discretion, though he does not conceal them. I wish
+neither to condemn nor to condone Tiberius: I desire, if it be
+possible, to see him as he is; and whether he be good or bad, he is very
+interesting. I have drawn attention to what is good in "The Annals,"
+because Tacitus leans with all his weight upon the bad; and either
+explains away what is favourable, or passes over it with too light a
+stroke. At the end, I must conclude, as I began, that the character of
+Tiberius is a mystery. It is a commonplace, that no man is entirely good
+nor entirely evil; but the histories of Tiberius are too contradictory,
+to be thus dismissed by a platitude. It is not easy to harmonise
+Paterculus with Suetonius: it is impossible to reconcile Tacitus with
+himself; or to combine the strong, benevolent ruler with the Minotaur of
+Capri. The admirers of an almost perfect prose, must be familiar with a
+story, which is not the highest effort of that prose: they will remember
+a certain man with a double nature, like all of us; but, unlike us,
+able to separate his natures, and to personate at will his good or evil
+genius. Tiberius was fond of magic, and of the curious arts: it may be,
+that he commanded the secrets of which Mr. Stevenson has dreamed!
+
+The readers of "The Annals" have seen enough of blood, of crime, and of
+Tiberius; and I would now engage their attention upon a more pleasing
+aspect of Imperial affairs: I wish to speak about the Empire itself;
+about its origin, its form, its history: and, if my powers were equal to
+the task, I would sketch a model Emperor; Marcus Aurelius, or the elder
+Antonine. Gibbon has described the limits of the Roman Empire; which
+"comprised the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilised portion
+of mankind." Its boundaries were "the Rhine and Danube, on the north;
+the Euphrates, on the east; towards the south, the sandy deserts of
+Arabia and Africa;" and upon the west, the Atlantic ocean. It was over
+this extensive monarchy, that Caesar reigned; by the providence of
+Caesar, was the whole defended and administered.
+
+  _Quis Parthum paveat? Quis gelidum Scythen
+  Quis, Germania quos horrida parturit
+  Fetus, incolumi Caesare?_
+
+The frontiers of the Empire, and its richest provinces, had been
+obtained for the most part in the long wars of the Republic. The
+conquest of Gaul, and the establishment of the Empire, was achieved
+by Julius Caesar; and to him, the civilised world is indebted for that
+majestic "Roman Peace," under which it lived and prospered for nearly
+nineteen centuries: the Eastern Empire was maintained in Constantinople,
+until 1453; and the Empire of the West continued, though in waning
+splendour, until the last Caesar abdicated his throne at the order of
+Napoleon. The nations of modern Europe were developed out of the ruin
+of Caesar's Empire; and from that, the more civilised among them have
+obtained the politer share of their laws, their institutions, and their
+language: and to Caesar, we are indebted for those inestimable treasures
+of antiquity, which the Roman Empire and the Roman Church have preserved
+from the barbarians, and have handed on for the delight and the
+instruction of modern times. There are those, who can perceive in Caesar
+nothing but a demagogue, and a tyrant; and in the regeneration of the
+Commonwealth, nothing but a vulgar crime: among these, I am sorry to
+inscribe the name of Thomas Gordon. The supporters of this view are
+generally misled, by the specious allurements of the term "Republic."
+Tiberius, it may be, was not a perfect ruler, and other sovereigns were
+even more ferocious; but the excesses of the most reckless Emperor are
+hardly to be compared to the wholesale massacres and spoliations,
+which attended the last agonies of the expiring Commonwealth. After
+the Macedonian and Asiatic wars, we find a turbulent and servile crowd,
+instead of the old families and tribes of Roman citizens; instead of
+allies, oppressed and plundered provinces; instead of the heroes of the
+young Republic, a set of worn-out, lewd, and greedy nobles. By these,
+the spoils of the world were appropriated, and its government abused:
+Caesar gave the helpless peoples a legal sovereign, and preserved them
+from the lawless tyranny of a thousand masters. He narrates himself,
+that "he found the Romans enslaved by a faction, and he restored their
+liberty:" "Caesar interpellat; ut Populum Romanum, paucorum factione
+oppressum, in libertatem vindicat." The march of Caesar into Italy was
+a triumphal progress; and there can be no doubt, that the common
+people received him gladly. Again he says, "Nihil esse Rempublicam;
+appellationem modo, sine corpore et specie;" "The Republic is nothing
+but an empty name, a phantom and a shadow." That Caesar should have seen
+this, is the highest evidence of his genius: that Cicero did not see it,
+is to himself, and to his country, the great misfortune of his career;
+and to his admirers, one of the most melancholy events in Roman history.
+The opinions of Tacitus were not far removed from the opinions of
+Cicero, but they were modified by what he saw of Nerva and of Trajan:
+he tells us, how Agricola looked forward to the blessings of a virtuous
+Prince; and his own thoughts and writings would have been other, than
+they are, had he witnessed the blameless monarchy of Hadrian and the
+Antonines. The victims of a bad Emperor were taken usually from among
+the nobles; many of them were little better, than their destroyer; and
+his murders were confined, almost invariably, within the walls of Rome:
+but the benefits of the Imperial system were extended into all the
+provinces; and the judgment-seat of Caesar was the protection of
+innumerable citizens. Many were the mistakes, many the misfortunes,
+deplorable the mischiefs, of the Imperial administration; I wish neither
+to deny, nor to conceal them: but here I must content myself with
+speaking broadly, with presenting a superficial view of things; and,
+upon the whole, the system of the Emperors was less bad than the decayed
+and inadequate government, out of which it was developed. For the
+change from the Republic to the Empire was hardly a revolution; and
+the venerable names and forms of the old organisation were religiously
+preserved. Still, the Consuls were elected, the Senate met and
+legislated, Praetors and Legates went forth into the provinces, the
+Legions watched upon the frontiers, the lesser Magistrates performed
+their office; but above them was Caesar, directing all things,
+controlling all things; the _Imperator_ and Universal Tribune, in whose
+name all was done; the "Praesens Divus," on whom the whole depended; at
+once the master of the Imperial Commonwealth, and the minister of the
+Roman People.
+
+"The Annals," and the history of Tiberius, have detained us, for the
+most part, within the capital: "The Agricola" brings us into a province
+of the Empire; and "The Account of Germany" will take us among the
+savages beyond the frontier. I need scarcely mention, that our country
+was brought within the Roman influence by Julius Caesar; but that
+Caesar's enterprise was not continued by Augustus, nor by Tiberius;
+though Caligula celebrated a fictitious triumph over the unconquered
+Britons: that a war of about forty years was undertaken by Claudius,
+maintained by Nero, and terminated by Domitian; who were respectively
+"the most stupid, the most dissolute, and the most timid of all the
+Emperors." It was in the British wars, that Vespasian began his great
+career, "monstratus fatis"; but the island was not really added to the
+Empire, until Agricola subdued it for Domitian. "The Life of Agricola"
+is of general interest, because it preserves the memory of a good and
+noble Roman: to us, it is of special interest, because it records the
+state of Britain when it was a dependency of the Caesars; "adjectis
+Britannis imperio." Our present fashions in history will not allow us
+to think, that we have much in common with those natives, whom Tacitus
+describes: but fashions change, in history as in other things; and in
+a wiser time we may come to know, and be proud to acknowledge, that
+we have derived a part of our origin, and perhaps our fairest
+accomplishments, from the Celtic Britons. The narrative of Tacitus
+requires no explanation; and I will only bring to the memory of my
+readers, Cowper's good poem on Boadicea. We have been dwelling upon the
+glories of the Roman Empire: it may be pardonable in us, and it is not
+unpleasing, to turn for a moment, I will not say to "the too vast orb"
+of our fate, but rather to that Empire which is more extensive than the
+Roman; and destined to be, I hope, more enduring, more united, and more
+prosperous. Horace will hardly speak of the Britons, as humane beings,
+and he was right; in his time, they were not a portion of the Roman
+World, they had no part in the benefits of the Roman government: he
+talks of them, as beyond the confines of civility, "in ultimos orbis
+Britannos;" as cut off by "the estranging sea," and there jubilant in
+their native practices, "Visum Britannos hospitibus feros." But Cowper
+says, no less truly, of a despised and rebel Queen;
+
+  _Regions Caesar never knew,
+  Thy posterity shall sway;
+  Where his Eagles never flew,
+  None invincible as they._
+
+The last battles of Agricola were fought in Scotland; and, in the pages
+of Tacitus, he achieved a splendid victory among the Grampian hills.
+Gibbon remarks, however, "The native Caledonians preserved in the
+northern extremity of the island their wild independence, for which
+they were not less indebted to their poverty than to their valour. Their
+incursions were frequently repelled and chastised; but their country was
+never subdued. The masters of the fairest and most wealthy climates of
+the globe turned with contempt from gloomy hills assailed by the winter
+tempest, from lakes concealed in a blue mist, and from cold and lonely
+heaths, over which the deer of the forest were chased by a troop of
+naked barbarians." The Scotch themselves are never tired of asserting,
+and of celebrating, their "independence"; Scotland imposed a limit to
+the victories of the Roman People, Scaliger says in his compliments to
+Buchanan:
+
+  _Imperii fuerat Romani Scotia lines._
+
+But it may be questioned, whether it were an unmixed blessing, to
+be excluded from the Empire; and to offer a sullen resistance to its
+inestimable gifts of humane life, of manners, and of civility.
+
+To these things, the Germans also have manifested a strong dislike; and
+they are more censurable than the Scotch, because all their knowledge of
+the Romans was not derived from the intercourse of war. "The Germany"
+of Tacitus is a document, that has been much discussed; and these
+discussions may be numbered among the most flagrant examples of literary
+intemperance: but this will not surprise us, when we allow for the
+structure of mind, the language, and the usual productions of those,
+to whom the treatise is naturally of the greatest importance. In the
+description of the Germans, Tacitus goes out of his way to laugh at the
+"licentia vetustatis," "the debauches of pedants and antiquarians;"
+as though he suspected the fortunes of his volume, and the future
+distinctions of the Teutonic genius. For sane readers, it will be enough
+to remark, that the Germany of Tacitus was limited, upon the west, by
+the natural and proper boundary of the Rhine; that it embraced a portion
+of the Low Countries; and that, although he says it was confined within
+the Danube, yet the separation is not clear between the true Germans and
+those obscurer tribes, whose descendants furnish a long enumeration
+of titles to the present melancholy sovereign of the House of Austria.
+Gibbon remarks, with his usual sense, "In their primitive state of
+simplicity and independence, the Germans were surveyed by the discerning
+eye, and delineated by the masterly pencil of Tacitus, the first
+historian who supplied the science of philosophy to the study of facts.
+The expressive conciseness of his descriptions has deserved to exercise
+the diligence of innumerable antiquarians, and to excite the genius and
+penetration of the philosophic historians of our own time." Upon a
+few sentences out of the "Germania"; which relate to the kings, to the
+holding of land, to the public assemblies, and to the army; an imposing
+structure of English constitutional history has been erected: our modern
+historians look upon this treatise with singular approval; because
+it shows them, they say, the habits of their own forefathers in their
+native settlements. They profess to be enchanted with all they read;
+and, in their works, they betray their descent from the ancestors they
+admire. Gibbon says, prettily, "Whenever Tacitus indulges himself in
+those beautiful episodes, in which he relates some domestic transaction
+of the Germans or of the Parthians, his principal object is to relieve
+the attention of the reader from an uniform scene of vice and misery."
+Whether he succeeds, I must leave my readers to decide. Tacitus
+describes the quarrels of the Germans; fought, then with weapons; now,
+with words: their gambling, their sloth, their drunkenness. "Strong
+beer, a liquor extracted with very little art from wheat or barley,
+and _corrupted_ (as it is strongly expressed by Tacitus) into a certain
+semblance of wine, was sufficient for the gross purposes of German
+debauchery." Tacitus informs us, too, "that they sleep far into the day;
+that on rising they take a bath, usually of warm water; then they eat."
+To pass an entire day and night in drinking, disgraces no one: "Dediti
+somno ciboque," he says; a people handed over to sloth and gluttony.
+Some of these customs are now almost obsolete; the baths, for instance.
+In others, there has been little alteration since the Age of Tacitus;
+and the Germans have adhered, with obstinate fidelity, to their
+primitive habits. Tacitus thought less of their capacity, upon the
+whole, than it is usual to think now: "The Chatti," he says, "for
+Germans, have much intelligence;" "Leur intelligence et leur finesse
+etonnent, dans des Germains." But let us forget these "Tedeschi lurchi,
+non ragionam di lor;" and pass on to those manly virtues, which Tacitus
+records: To abandon your shield, is the basest of crimes, "relicta non
+bene parmula;" nor may a man thus disgraced be present at their sacred
+rites, nor enter their council; many, indeed, after escaping from
+battle, have ended their infamy with the halter. And to more shameful
+crimes, they awarded a sterner punishment:
+
+  _Behind flock'd wrangling up a piteous crew
+  Greeted of none, disfeatured and forlorn:
+  Cowards, who were in sloughs interr'd alive;
+  And round them still the wattled hurdles hung
+  Wherewith they stamp'd them down, and trod them deep,
+  To hide their shameful memory from men._
+
+Having now surveyed the compositions in this volume, it is proper that
+we should at length devote some of our notice to Gordon himself, and to
+his manner of presenting Tacitus. Thomas Gordon was born in Scotland;
+the date has not yet been ascertained. He is thought to have been
+educated at a northern university, and to have become an Advocate.
+Later, he went to London; and taught languages. Two pamphlets on
+the Bangorian controversy brought him into notice; and he wrote
+many religious and political dissertations. "A Defence of Primitive
+Christianity, against the Exhorbitant Claims of Fanatical and
+Dissaffected Clergymen;" "Tracts on Religion, and on the Jacobite
+Rebellion of '45;" "The Pillars of Priestcraft and Orthodoxy Shaken;" "A
+Cordial for Low Spirits;" are the titles of some of his compositions.
+In politics, and in theology, he was a republican and free-thinker: he
+translated and edited "The Spirit of Ecclesiastics in All Ages;" he
+was a contributor to "The Independent Whig;" and in a series of "Cato's
+Letters," he discoursed at ease upon his usual topics. The Tacitus was
+published in 1728, in two volumes folio: long dissertations are inserted
+in either volume; the literature in them excellent, the politics not so
+good: the volumes, as well as the several parts of them, are dedicated
+to some Royal and many Noble Patrons. Gordon has also turned Sallust
+into English: the book was published in 1744, in one handsome quarto;
+"with Political Discourses upon that Author and Translations of
+Cicero's Four Orations against Cataline." Walpole made Gordon the first
+commissioner of wine licences. It is handed down, that Gordon was a
+burly person, "large and corpulent." It is believed, that he found his
+way into "The Dunciad," and that he is immortalised there among the
+"Canaille Ecrivante;" the line
+
+  _Where Tindal dictates and Silenus snores_,
+
+is taken to be Pope's description of him. Gordon died in 1750; at the
+same time as Dr. Middleton, the elegant biographer of Cicero: Lord
+Bolingbroke is said to have observed, when the news was told him, "Then
+is the best writer in England gone, and the worst." That Bolingbroke
+should have disliked Gordon and his politics, does not surprise me; but
+I cannot understand for what reason he, and other good judges, despised
+his writings. "The chief glory of every people arises from its authors,"
+Dr. Johnson says; and happy the people, I would assert, who have no
+worse writers than Thomas Gordon. I wish to draw attention to Gordon's
+correct vocabulary, to his bold and pregnant language, and to his
+scholarly punctuation. Among our present writers, the art of punctuation
+is a lost accomplishment; and it is usual now to find writings with
+hardly anything but full stops; colons and semicolons are almost
+obsolete; commas are neglected, or misused; and our slovenly pages are
+strewn with dashes, the last resources of an untidy thinker, the certain
+witnesses to a careless and unfinished sentence. How different, and
+how superior, is the way of Gordon; who, though he can be homely and
+familiar, never lays aside the well-bred and courteous manners of a
+polished Age. In his writings, the leading clauses of a sentence are
+distinguished by their colons: the minor clauses, by their semicolons;
+the nice meaning of the details is expressed, the pleasure and the
+convenience of his readers are alike increased, by his right and elegant
+use of commas. The comma, with us, is used as a loop or bracket, and
+for little else: by the more accurate scholars of the last Age, it
+was employed to indicate a finer meaning; to mark an emphasis, or an
+elision; to introduce a relative clause; to bring out the value of an
+happy phrase, or the nice precision of an epithet. And thus the authors
+of the great century of prose, that orderly and spacious time, assembled
+their words, arranged their sentences, and marshalled them into careful
+periods: without any loss to the subtile meaning of their thought,
+or any sacrifice of vigour, they exposed their subject in a dignified
+procession of stately paragraphs; and when the end is reached we look
+back upon a perfect specimen of the writer's art. We have grown careless
+about form, we have little sense for balance and proportion, and we
+have sacrificed the good manners of literature to an ill-bred liking
+for haste and noise: it has been decided, that the old way of writing
+is cumbersome and slow; as well might some guerilla chieftain have
+announced to his fellow-barbarians, that Caesar's legions were not swift
+and beautiful in their manoeuvres, nor irresistible in their advance. I
+have spoken of our long sentences, with nothing but full stops: they
+are variegated, here and there, with shorter sentences, sometimes of two
+words; this way of writing is common in Macaulay or in the histories of
+Mr. Green, and I have seen it recommended in Primers of Literature and
+Manuals of Composition. With the jolting and unconnected fragments of
+these authorities, I would contrast the musical and flowing periods of
+Dr. Johnson's "Lives of the Poets": to study these works in solitude,
+will probably be sufficient to justify my preference; but to hear them
+read aloud, should convert the most unwilling listener into an advocate
+of my opinion.
+
+Dr. Birkbeck Hill, in the delightful Preface to his Boswell, explains
+how he was turned by a happy chance to the study of the literature of
+the eighteenth century; and how he read on and on in the enchanting
+pages of "The Spectator." "From Addison in the course of time I passed
+on," he continues, "to the other great writers of his and the succeeding
+age, finding in their exquisitely clear style, their admirable
+common-sense, and their freedom from all the tricks of affectation, a
+delightful contrast to so many of the eminent authors of our own time."
+These words might be used of Gordon: I do not claim for him the style of
+Addison, nor the accomplished negligence of Goldsmith; these are graces
+beyond the reach of art; but he exhibits the common-sense, and the clear
+style, of the eighteenth century. Like all the good writers of his time,
+he is unaffected and "simplex munditiis"; he has the better qualities
+of Pyrrha, and is "plain in his neatness." In Mr. Ward's edition of the
+English Poets, there may be read side by side a notice of Collins and of
+Gray; the one by Mr. Swinburne, the other by Mr. Matthew Arnold: I
+make no allusion here to the greatness of either poet, to the merits of
+either style, nor to the value of either criticism. But the essay upon
+Gray is quiet in tone; it has an unity of treatment, and never deserts
+the principal subject; it is suffused with light, and full of the
+most delicate allusions: the essay on Collins, by being written in
+superlatives and vague similes, deafens and perplexes the reader; and
+the author, by squandering his resources, has no power to make fine
+distinctions, nor to exalt one part of his thesis above another. These
+two performances illustrate the last quality in Gordon, and in the old
+writers, to which I shall draw attention: they were always restrained
+in their utterances, and therefore they could be discriminating in
+their judgments; they could be emphatic without noise, and deep without
+obscurity, ornamental but not vulgar, carefully arranged but not stiff
+or artificial. They exhibit the three indispensable gifts of the
+finest authorship: "simplicitas munditiis," "lucidus ordo," "curiosa
+felicitas."
+
+In this volume, Gordon's punctuation has been generally followed: his
+orthography has been modernised a little, though not by my hands,
+nor with my consent; and I have observed without regret, that some of
+Gordon's original spellings have eluded the vigilance of the printer:
+that stern official would by no means listen to my entreaties for the
+long "SS," the turn-over words, or the bounteous capitals, which add so
+much to the seductive and sober dignity of an eighteenth-century page;
+but, on the whole, we have given a tolerable reproduction of Gordon's
+folio. In the second edition, he himself made more changes than
+improvements. I will not say, that Gordon has always conveyed the exact
+meaning of the sentences of Tacitus: but he has done what is better,
+and more difficult; he has grasped the broad meaning of his author, and
+caught something of his lofty spirit. "A translation," he says, "ought
+to read like an original;" and Gordon has not failed, I think, to reach
+this perfection. It is not commonly attained among translators: Gordon
+says, of one rendering of Tacitus, "'Tis not the fire of Tacitus, but
+his embers; quenched with English words, cold and Gothick." Of
+the author of another version, he says "Learning is his chief
+accomplishment, and thence his translation is a very poor one." This
+judgment is true of most modern translations from the Ancients; they
+may be correct versions, but are miserable English: the authors, while
+studying the most perfect models of the art of writing, have produced
+copies which are not literature at all. From this low company, I would
+rescue Sir Charles Bowen's "Virgil": a delightful poem, to those who are
+ignorant of Latin; an exquisite production, and an amazing triumph,
+to those who converse with the original. There are many English
+translations of Tacitus: the first, by Sir Henry Savile and "one
+Greenway"; the former, says Gordon, "has performed like a schoolmaster,
+the latter like a school-boy." Anthony a Wood writes in another strain,
+in the "Athenae Oxonienis": "A rare Translation it is, and the Work of
+a very Great Master indeed, both in our Tongue and that Story. For if
+we consider the difficulty of the Original, and the Age wherein the
+Translation lived, it is both for the exactness of the version, and
+the chastity of the Language, one of the most accurate and perfect
+translations that ever were made into English." There is a rendering
+by Murphy, diffuse and poor; a dilution of Gordon, worthy neither of
+Tacitus nor of the English tongue. There are translations, too, into
+almost every modern language: I would give the highest praise to
+Davanzati; a scholar of Tuscany, who lived in the sixteenth century.
+In French, I cannot but admire the labours of M. Burnouf: although the
+austere rules, the precise constructions, and the easy comportment of
+the French prose are not suited to the style of Tacitus, and something
+of his weight and brevity are lost; yet the translator never loses the
+depth and subtilty of his author's meaning; his work is agreeable to
+read, and very useful to consult. The maps and the genealogical tables
+in the three volumes of Messrs. Church and Brodribb's translation are
+also of the greatest service, and the notes are sometimes most amusing.
+
+Of Tacitus himself, there is little for me to say: those, who know him,
+can judge for themselves; to those who do not, no words are able to
+convey an adequate impression. "Who is able to infuse into me," Cardinal
+Newman asks, "or how shall I imbibe, a sense of the peculiarities of
+the style of Cicero or Virgil, if I have not read their writings? No
+description, however complete, could convey to my mind an exact likeness
+of a tune, or an harmony, which I have never heard; and still less of a
+scent, which I have never smelled: and if I said that Mozart's melodies
+were as a summer sky, or as the breath of Zephyr, I shall be better
+understood by those who knew Mozart, than by those who did not." These
+truths are little remembered by modern critics: though, indeed, it is
+not possible to convey to a reader adequate notions about the style
+of an author, whom that reader has not pondered for himself; about
+his thoughts or his subjects, it may be different. Still, I may write
+something about the manner of Tacitus, which will not violate Cardinal
+Newman's laws, nor be an outrage to taste and common-sense. "It is the
+great excellence of a writer," says Dr. Johnson, "to put into his book
+as much as it will hold:" and if this judgment be sound, then is Tacitus
+the greatest of all writers in prose. Gordon says of him, "He explains
+events with a redundancy of images, and a frugality of words: his
+images are many, but close and thick; his words are few, but pointed and
+glowing; and even his silence is instructive and affecting. Whatever he
+says, you see; and all, that you see, affects you. Let his words be ever
+so few, his thought and matter are always abundant. His imagination is
+boundless, yet never outruns his judgment; his wisdom is solid and vast,
+yet always enlivened by his imagination. He starts the idea, and lets
+the imagination pursue it; the sample he gives you is so fine, that you
+are presently curious to see the whole piece, and then you have your
+share in the merit of the discovery; a compliment, which some able
+writers have forgot to pay to their readers." I would remark here, that
+many of the old writers give me the sense of handling things, they are
+definite and solid; while some of the moderns appear to play with words
+only, and never to come up with the objects of their pursuit: "we are
+too often ravished with a sonorous sentence," as Dr. Johnson says, "of
+which, when the noise is past, the meaning does not long remain." But
+of Tacitus, Gordon says, "His words and phrases are admirably adapted
+to his matter and conceptions, and make impressions sudden and wonderful
+upon the mind of man. Stile is a part of genius, and Tacitus had one
+peculiar to himself; a sort of language of his own, one fit to express
+the amazing vigour of his spirit, and that redundancy of reflections
+which for force and frequency are to be equalled by no writer before nor
+since."
+
+Dr. Johnson, however, says in another place, "Tacitus, Sir, seems to me
+rather to have made notes for an historical work, than to have written
+a history:" I must own, that upon the subject of Tacitus, I prefer the
+sentiments of Gordon; and Montaigne would agree with me, for he says, "I
+do not know any author, who, in a work of history, has taken so broad
+a view of human events, or given a more just analysis of particular
+characters." The impressions of Tacitus are indeed wonderful: I doubt,
+whether volumes could bring us nearer to the mutinous legions, than the
+few chapters in which he records their history. I am always delighted
+by Gordon's way of telling the battle, in which the iron men of Sacrovir
+were overthrown; the account begins on page 139. Then how satisfying is
+the narrative of the wars in Germany, of the shipwreck, of the funeral
+of Varus and the slaughtered legions; how pleasing the description of
+Germanicus' antiquarian travels in Egypt, and in Greece. Though Tacitus
+is not a maker of "descriptions," in our modern sense: there is but one
+"description" in "The Annals," so far as I remember, it is of Capri; and
+it is not the sort, that would be quoted by a reviewer, as a "beautiful
+cameo of description." With Tacitus, a field of battle is not an
+occasion for "word-painting," as we call it; the battle is always first,
+the scenery of less importance. He tells, what it is necessary to know;
+but he is too wise to think, that we can realise from words, a place
+which we have never seen; and too sound in his taste, to forget the
+wholesome boundaries between poetry and prose. This is the way of all
+the ancient writers. In a work on "Landscape," I remember that Mr.
+Hamerton mourns over the Commentaries of Caesar; because they do not
+resemble the letters of a modern war-correspondent; Ascham, on the other
+hand, a man of real taste and learning, says of the Commentaries, "All
+things be most perfectly done by him; in Caesar only, could never yet
+fault be found." I agree with Ascham: I think I prefer the Commentaries
+as they are, chaste and quiet; I really prefer them to Mr. Kinglake's
+"Crimean War," or to Mr. Forbes' Despatches, or even to the most
+effusive pages of Mr. Stanley's book on Africa.
+
+In "The Life of Agricola," I would mention the simplicity of the
+treatment and the excellence of the taste. Tacitus does not recite the
+whole of Roman history, nor assemble all the worthies out of Plutarch.
+Agricola is not compared to the pyramids, to the Flavian circus, nor to
+any works of art and literature: these flights of imagination were
+not known to the Ancients; but in a learned modern, I have seen Dante
+compared to Wagner's operas, to the Parthenon and St. Peter's, and to
+Justinian's code. The sanctities of private life are not violated; yet
+we know everything, that it is decent to know, about Agricola. Lord
+Coleridge has given a beautiful rendering of the closing passages of
+"The Agricola," in his account of Mr. Matthew Arnold: these elegant
+papers are not only models of good English; but are conspicuous,
+among recent obituary notices, for their fine taste and their becoming
+reticence. From the excesses of modern biographers, Tacitus was in
+little danger; thanks to his Roman sense, and to the qualities of the
+Roman Language. "Economy," says Mr. Symonds, "is exhibited in every
+element of this athletic tongue. Like a naked gladiator all bone and
+muscle, it relies upon bare sinewy strength." That author speaks of "the
+austere and masculine virtues of Latin, the sincerity and brevity of
+Roman speech;" and Tacitus is, beyond any doubt, the strongest, the
+austerest, the most pregnant of all the Romans. "Sanity," says Mr.
+Matthew Arnold, in conclusion, "that is the great virtue of the ancient
+literature; the want of that is the great defect of the modern, in
+spite of all its variety and power." "It is impossible to read the great
+ancients, without losing something of our caprice and eccentricity. I
+know not how it is, but their commerce with the ancients appears to
+me to produce, in those who constantly practise it, a steadying and
+composing effect upon the judgment, not of literary works only, but of
+men and events in general. They are like persons who have had a very
+weighty and impressive experience; they are more truly than others under
+the empire of facts, and more independent of the language current among
+those with whom they live."
+
+It has been told of Cardinal Newman, that he never liked to pass
+a single day, without rendering an English sentence into Latin. To
+converse with the Roman authors, to handle their precise and sparing
+language, is, I can well believe it, a most wholesome discipline;
+and the most efficient remedy against those faults of diffuseness, of
+obscurity, and of excess, which are only too common among the writers
+of our day. It may have been to this practice, that Cardinal Newman owed
+something of his clearness, and of his exquisite simplicity: and for
+his style, he should be idolised by every one who has a taste for
+literature. I have said many things in praise of the ancient authors: it
+pleases me, as I finish, to offer my humble tribute to an author who is
+quite our own; to one, who in all his writings has bequeathed us perfect
+models of chaste, of lucid, and of melodious prose.
+
+NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD: _September_ 15, 1890.
+
+
+
+
+THE FIRST SIX BOOKS OF THE ANNALS OF TACITUS:
+
+BEING AN HISTORY OF THE EMPEROR TIBERIUS
+
+
+
+
+THE ANNALS OF TACITUS
+
+
+
+
+BOOK I
+
+A.D. 14 AND 15.
+
+
+Kings were the original Magistrates of Rome: Lucius Brutus founded
+Liberty and the Consulship: Dictators were chosen occasionally, and used
+only in pressing exigencies. Little more than two years prevailed the
+supreme power of the Decemvirate, and the consular jurisdiction of the
+military Tribunes not very many. The domination of Cinna was but short,
+that of Sylla not long. The authority of Pompey and Crassus was quickly
+swallowed up in Caesar; that of Lepidus and Anthony in Augustus. The
+Commonwealth, then long distressed and exhausted by the rage of her
+civil dissensions, fell easily into his hands, and over her he assumed
+a sovereign dominion; yet softened with a venerable name, that of Prince
+or Chief of the Senate. But the several revolutions in the ancient
+free state of Rome, and all her happy or disastrous events, are already
+recorded by writers of signal renown. Nor even in the reign of Augustus
+were there wanting authors of distinction and genius to have composed
+his story; till by the prevailing spirit of fear, flattery, and
+abasement they were checked. As to the succeeding Princes, Tiberius,
+Caligula, Claudius, and Nero; the dread of their tyranny, whilst they
+yet reigned, falsified their history; and after their fall, the fresh
+detestation of their cruelties inflamed their Historians. Hence my own
+design of recounting briefly certain incidents in the reign of Augustus,
+chiefly towards his latter end, and of entering afterwards more fully
+into that of Tiberius and the other three; unbiassed as I am in this
+undertaking by any resentment, or any affection; all the influences of
+these personal passions being far from me.
+
+When, after the fall of Brutus and Cassius, there remained none to fight
+for the Commonwealth, and her arms were no longer in her own hands; when
+Sextus Pompeius was utterly defeated in Sicily, Lepidus bereft of
+his command. Marc Anthony slain; and of all the chiefs of the late
+Dictator's party, only Octavius his nephew was left; he put off the
+invidious name of Triumvir, and styling himself Consul, pretended that
+the jurisdiction attached to the Tribuneship was his highest aim, as in
+it the protection of the populace was his only view: but when once he
+had laid his foundations wider, secured the soldiery by liberality and
+donations, gained the people by store of provisions, and charmed all
+by the blessings and sweetness of public peace, he began by politic
+gradations to exalt himself, to extend his domination, and with his own
+power to consolidate the authority of the Senate, jurisdiction of the
+Magistrate, and weight and force of the Laws; usurpations in which he
+was thwarted by no man: all the bravest Republicans and his most
+daring foes were slain in battle, or gleaned up by the late sanguinary
+proscriptions; and for the surviving Nobility, they were covered with
+wealth, and distinguished with public honours, according to the measure
+of their debasement, and promptness to bondage. Add, that all the
+creatures of this new Power, who in the loss of public freedom had
+gained private fortunes, preferred a servile condition, safe and
+possessed, to the revival of ancient liberty with personal peril.
+Neither were the Provinces averse to the present Revolution, and
+Sovereignty of one; since under that of the people and Senate they had
+lived in constant fear and mistrust, sorely rent and harassed as they
+were by the raging competition amongst our Grandees, as well as by the
+grievous rapine and exactions of our Magistrates; in vain too, under
+these their oppressions, had been their appeal to the protection of the
+laws, which were utterly enfeebled and borne down by might and violence,
+by faction and parties; nay, even by subornation and money.
+
+Moreover, Augustus, in order to fortify his domination with collateral
+bulwarks, raised his sister's son Claudius Marcellus, a perfect youth,
+to the dignity of Pontiff and that of Aedile; preferred Marcus Agrippa
+to two successive Consulships, a man in truth meanly born but an
+accomplished soldier, and the companion of his victories; and Marcellus,
+the husband of Julia, soon after dying, chose him for his son-in-law.
+Even the sons of his wife, Tiberius Nero, and Claudius Drusus, he
+dignified with high military titles and commands; though his house
+was yet supported by descendants of his own blood. For into the Julian
+family and name of the Caesars he had already adopted Lucius and Caius,
+the sons of Agrippa; and though they were but children, neither of them
+seventeen years old, vehement had been his ambition to see them declared
+Princes of the Roman Youth and even designed to the Consulship; while
+openly, he was protesting against admitting these early honours.
+Presently, upon the decease of Agrippa, were these his children snatched
+away, either by their own natural but hasty fate, or by the deadly fraud
+of their step-mother Livia; Lucius on his journey to command the armies
+in Spain; Caius in his return from Armenia, ill of a wound: and as
+Drusus, one of her own sons, had been long since dead, Tiberius remained
+sole candidate for the succession. Upon this object, centred all
+princely honours; he was by Augustus adopted for his son, assumed
+Colleague in the Empire, partner in the jurisdiction tribunitial, and
+presented under all these dignities to the several armies: instances
+of grandeur which were no longer derived from the secret schemes
+and plottings of his mother, as in times past, while her husband had
+unexceptionable heirs of his own, but thenceforth bestowed at her open
+suit. For as Augustus was now very aged, she had over him obtained
+such absolute sway, that for her pleasure he banished into the Isle of
+Planasia his only surviving grandson, Agrippa Postumus; one, in truth,
+destitute of laudable accomplishments, in his temper untractable,
+and stupidly conceited of his mighty strength, but branded with no
+misdemeanour or transgression. The Emperor had withal set Germanicus,
+the son of Drusus, over eight legions quartered upon the Rhine, and
+obliged Tiberius to adopt him, though Tiberius had then a son of his
+own, one of competent years; but it was the study of Augustus, to secure
+himself and the succession by variety of stays and engraftments. War at
+that time there was none, except that in Germany, kept on foot rather
+to abolish the disgrace sustained by Quinctilius Varus, there slain with
+his army, than from any ambition to enlarge the Empire, or for any other
+valuable advantage. In profound tranquillity were affairs at Rome. To
+the Magistrates remained their wonted names; of the Romans the younger
+sort had been born since the battle of Actium, and even most of the old
+during the civil wars: how few were then living who had seen the ancient
+free State!
+
+The frame and economy of Rome being thus totally overturned, amongst
+the Romans were no longer found any traces of their primitive spirit,
+or attachment to the virtuous institutions of antiquity. But as the
+equality of the whole was extinguished by the sovereignty of one, all
+men regarded the orders of the Prince as the only rule of conduct and
+obedience; nor felt they any anxiety, while Augustus yet retained vigour
+of life, and upheld the credit of his administration with public peace,
+and the imperial fortune of his house. But when he became broken with
+the pressure of age and infirmities; when his end was at hand, and
+thence a new source of hopes and views was presented, some few there
+were who began to reason idly about the blessings and recovery of
+Liberty; many dreaded a civil war, others longed for one; while far the
+greater part were uttering their several apprehensions of their future
+masters; "that naturally stern and savage was the temper of Agrippa,
+and by his public contumely enraged into fury; and neither in age nor
+experience was he equal to the weight of Empire. Tiberius indeed had
+arrived at fulness of years, and was a distinguished captain, but
+possessed the inveterate pride entailed upon the Claudian race; and many
+indications of a cruel nature escaped him, in spite of all his arts to
+disguise it; besides that from his early infancy he was trained up in a
+reigning house, and even in his youth inured to an accumulation of power
+and honours, consulships and triumphs: nor during the several years of
+his abode at Rhodes, where, under the plausible name of retirement, a
+real banishment was covered, did he exercise other occupation than that
+of meditating future vengeance, studying the arts of treachery, and
+practising secret, abominable sensualities: add to these considerations,
+that of his mother, a woman inspired with all the tyranny of her
+sex; yes, the Romans must be under bondage to a woman, and moreover
+enthralled by two youths, who would first combine to oppress the State,
+and then falling into dissension, rend it piecemeal."
+
+While the public was engaged in these and the like debates, the illness
+of Augustus waxed daily more grievous; and some strongly suspected the
+pestilent practices of his wife. For there had been, some months before,
+a rumour abroad, that Augustus having singled out a few of his most
+faithful servants, and taken Fabius Maximus for his only companion, had,
+with no other retinue, sailed secretly over to the Island of Planasia,
+there to visit his Grandson Agrippa; that many tears were shed on both
+sides, many tokens of mutual tenderness shown, and hopes from thence
+conceived, that the unhappy youth would be restored to his own place in
+his Grandfather's family. That Maximus had disclosed it to Martia, she
+to Livia; and thence the Emperor knew that the secret was betrayed: that
+Maximus being soon after dead (dead, as it was doubted, through fear, by
+his own hands), Martia was observed, in her lamentations and groans
+at his funeral, to accuse herself as the sad cause of her husband's
+destruction. Whatever truth was in all this, Tiberius was scarce entered
+Illyrium, but he was hastily recalled by his mother's letters: nor is
+it fully known whether at his return to Nola, he found Augustus yet
+breathing, or already breathless. For Livia had carefully beset the
+palace, and all the avenues to it, with detachments of the guards; and
+good news of his recovery were from time to time given out. When she had
+taken all measures necessary in so great a conjuncture, in one and the
+same moment was published the departure of Augustus, and the accession
+of Tiberius.
+
+The first feat of this new reign was the murder of young Agrippa: the
+assassin, a bold and determined Centurion, found him destitute of arms,
+and little apprehending such a destiny, yet was scarce able to despatch
+him. Of this transaction Tiberius avoided any mention in the Senate: he
+would have it pass for done by the commands of Augustus; as if he had
+transmitted written orders to the Tribune, who guarded Agrippa, "to slay
+him the instant he heard of his grandfather's decease." It is very true
+that Augustus had made many and vehement complaints of the young man's
+obstinate and unruly demeanour, and even solicited from the Senate
+a decree to authorise his banishment: but he never hardened himself
+against the sentiments of nature, nor in any instance dipped his hands
+in his own blood; neither is it credible that he would barbarously
+sacrifice the life of his grandson for the security and establishment of
+his step-son. More probable it is, that this hasty murder was purely the
+work of Tiberius and Livia; that the young Prince, hated and dreaded
+by both, fell thus untimely, to rid the one of his apprehensions and
+a rival, and to satiate in the other the rancorous spirit of a
+step-mother. When the Centurion, according to the custom of the army,
+acquainted Tiberius, "that his commands were executed;" he answered, "he
+had commanded no such execution, and the Centurion must appear before
+the Senate, and for it be answerable to them." This alarmed Sallustius
+Crispus, who shared in all his secret counsels, and had sent the
+Centurion the warrant: he dreaded that he should be arraigned for the
+assassination, and knew it equally perilous either to confess the truth,
+and charge the Emperor; or falsely to clear the Emperor, and accuse
+himself. Hence he had recourse to Livia, and warned her, "never to
+divulge the secrets of the palace, never to expose to public examination
+the ministers who advised, nor the soldiers who executed: Tiberius
+should beware of relaxing the authority of the Prince, by referring all
+things to that of the Senate; since it was the indispensable prerogative
+of sovereignty for all men to be accountable only to one."
+
+Now at Rome, Consuls, Senators, and Roman Knights, were all rushing
+with emulation into bondage, and the higher the quality of each the more
+false and forward the men; all careful so to frame their faces, as to
+reconcile false joy for the accession of Tiberius, with feigned sadness
+for the loss of Augustus: hence they intermingled fears with gladness,
+wailings with gratulations, and all with servile flattery. Sextus
+Pompeius and Sextus Apuleius, at that time Consuls, took first the oath
+of fidelity to Tiberius; then administered it to Seius Strabo and
+Caius Turranius; the former Captain of the Praetorian Guards, the other
+Intendant of the Public Stores. The oath was next given to the Senate,
+to the people, and to the soldiery: all by the same Consuls; for
+Tiberius affected to derive all public transactions from the legal
+ministry of the Consuls, as if the ancient Republic still subsisted, and
+he were yet unresolved about embracing the sovereign rule: he even owned
+in his edict for summoning the Senate, that he issued it by virtue of
+the Tribunitial power, granted him under Augustus. The edict, too,
+was short and unexceptionably modest. It imported that, "they were to
+consider of the funeral honours proper to be paid his deceased Father:
+for himself he would not depart from the corpse; and further than this
+edict implied, he claimed no share in the public administration." Yet
+from the moment Augustus was dead, he usurped all the prerogatives of
+imperial state, gave the word to the Praetorian Cohorts; had soldiers
+about the palace, guards about his person, went guarded in the street,
+guarded to the Senate, and bore all the marks of Majesty: nay, he writ
+letters to the several armies in the undisguised style of one already
+their Prince: nor did he ever hesitate in expression, or speak with
+perplexity, but when he spoke to the Senate. The chief cause of his
+obscurity there proceeded from his fear of Germanicus: he dreaded that
+he, who was master of so many legions, of numberless auxiliaries, and
+of all the allies of Rome; he, who was the darling of the people, might
+wish rather to possess the Empire, than to wait for it; he likewise, in
+this mysterious way of dealing with the Senate, sought false glory, and
+would rather seem by the Commonwealth chosen and called to the Empire,
+than to have crept darkly into it by the intrigues of a woman, or by
+adoption from a superannuated Prince. It was also afterwards found, that
+by this abstruseness and counterfeit irresolution he meant to penetrate
+into the designs and inclinations of the great men: for his jealous
+spirit construed all their words, all their looks, into crimes; and
+stored them up in his heart against a day of vengeance.
+
+When he first met the Senate, he would bear no other business to be
+transacted but that about the funeral of Augustus. His last will
+was brought in by the Vestal Virgins: in it Tiberius and Livia were
+appointed his heirs, Livia adopted into the Julian family, and dignified
+with the name of Augusta: into the next and second degree of heirship he
+adopted his grandchildren and their children; and in the third degree
+he named the great men of Rome, most of them hated by him, but out of
+vainglory he named them, and for future renown. His legacies were not
+beyond the usual bounds; only he left to the Roman people four hundred
+thousand great sesterces, [Footnote: L362,500.] to the populace or
+common sort, thirty-five thousand; to every common soldier of the
+Praetorian Guards, a thousand small sesterces, [Footnote: L8, 6s. 8d.]
+and to every soldier of the Roman legions three hundred. [Footnote: L2,
+10s.] The funeral honours were next considered. The chief proposed were
+these: Asinius Gallus moved that "the funeral should pass through the
+Triumphal Gate:" Lucius Arruntius, "that the titles of all the laws
+which he had made, and the names of all the nations which he had
+conquered, should be carried before the corpse:" Valerius Messala added,
+that "the oath of allegiance to Tiberius should be renewed every year;"
+and being asked by Tiberius, "whether at his instigation he had made
+that motion?" "I spoke it as my opinion," says Messala; "nor will I ever
+be determined by any but my own, in things which concern the commonweal;
+let who will be provoked by my freedom." Only this new turn was wanting
+to complete the prevailing flattery of the time. The Senators then
+concurred in a loud cry, "that upon their own shoulders they must bear
+the body to the pile." But Tiberius declined the offer from an arrogant
+show of moderation. Moreover, he cautioned the people by an edict, "not
+to disturb the funeral functions with a zeal over-passionate, as they
+had those of Julius Caesar; nor to insist that the corpse of Augustus
+should be burnt rather in the Forum, than in the field of Mars, which
+was the place appointed." On the funeral day the soldiers under arms
+kept guard; a mighty mockery this to those who had either seen, or heard
+their fathers describe, the day when Caesar the Dictator was slain:
+servitude was then new, its sorrows yet fresh and bitter; and liberty
+unsuccessfully retrieved by a deed which, while it seemed impious to
+some, was thought altogether glorious by others, and hence tore Rome
+into tumults and the violence of parties: they who knew that turbulent
+day, and compared it with the quiet exit of Augustus, ridiculed the
+foppery of "calling an aid of soldiers to secure a peaceable burial to a
+Prince who had grown old in peace and power, and even provided against a
+relapse into liberty, by a long train of successors."
+
+Hence much and various matter of observation concerning Augustus: the
+superstitious multitude admired the fortuitous events of his fortune;
+"that the last day of his life, and the first of his reign, was the
+same; that he died at Nola, in the same village, and in the same house,
+and in the same chamber, where his father Octavius died. They observed
+to his glory, his many Consulships, equal in number to those of Valerius
+Corvinus and of Caius Marius, joined together; that he had exercised the
+power of the Tribuneship seven-and-thirty continued years: that he was
+one-and-twenty times proclaimed Imperator; with many other numerous
+honours repeated to him, or created for him." Men of deeper discernment
+entered further into his life, but differed about it. His admirers said,
+"that his filial piety to his father Caesar, and the distractions of the
+Republic, where the laws no longer governed, had driven him into a civil
+war; which, whatever be the first cause, can never be begun or carried,
+on by just and gentle means." Indeed, to be revenged on the murderers of
+his father, he had made many great sacrifices to the violent genius
+of Anthony; many to Lepidus: but when Lepidus was become sunk and
+superannuated in sloth; when Anthony was lost headlong in sensuality,
+there was then no other remedy for the distracted State, rent piecemeal
+by its Chiefs, but the sovereignty of one: Augustus, however, never
+had assumed to be over his country King, or Dictator; but settled the
+government under the legal name of Prince, or Chief of the Senate: he
+had extended the Empire, and set for its bounds the distant ocean
+and rivers far remote; the several parts and forces of the State, the
+legions, the provinces, and the navy, were all properly balanced and
+connected; the citizens lived dutifully under the protection of the
+law, the Allies in terms of respect, and Rome itself was adorned with
+magnificent structures: indeed, in a few instances he had exerted the
+arbitrary violence of power; and in but a few, only to secure the peace
+of the whole.
+
+In answer to all this, it was urged, that "his filial piety, and the
+unhappy situation of the Republic, were pure pretences; but the ardent
+lust of reigning, his true and only motive: with this spirit he had
+solicited into his service, by bribery, a body of veteran soldiers: and
+though a private youth, without post or magistracy, but, in defiance of
+law, levied an army: with this spirit he had debauched and bought
+the Roman legions under the Consuls, while he was falsely feigning a
+coalition with Pompey's republican party: that soon after, when he had
+procured from the Senate, or rather usurped the honours and authority
+of the Praetorship; and when Hirtius and Pansa, the two Consuls, were
+slain, he seized both their armies: that it was doubted whether the
+Consuls fell by the enemy, or whether Pansa was not killed by pouring
+poison into his wounds; and Hirtius slain by his own soldiers; and
+whether the young Caesar was not the black contriver of this bloody
+treason: that by terror he had extorted the Consulship in spite of the
+Senate; and turned against the Commonwealth the very arms with which the
+Commonwealth had trusted him for her defence against Anthony. Add to all
+this his cruel proscriptions, and the massacre of so many citizens, his
+seizing from the public and distributing to his own creatures so many
+lands and possessions; a violation of property not justified even by
+those who gained by it. But, allowing him to dedicate to the Manes of
+the Dictator the lives of Brutus and Cassius (though more to his honour
+had it been to have postponed his own personal hate to public good), did
+he not betray the young Pompey by an insidious peace, betray Lepidus by
+a deceitful show of friendship? Did he not next ensnare Marc Anthony,
+first by treaties, those of Tarentum and Brundusium; then by a marriage,
+that of his sister Octavia? And did not Anthony at last pay with his
+life the penalty of that subdolous alliance? After this, no doubt there
+was peace, but a bloody peace; bloody in the tragical defeat of Lollius,
+and that of Varus, in Germany; and at Rome, the Varrones, the Egnatii,
+the Julii (those illustrious names) were put to death." Nor was his
+domestic life spared upon this occasion. "He had arbitrarily robbed
+Nero of his wife big with child by her husband; and mocked the Gods
+by consulting the Priests; whether religion permitted him to marry her
+before her delivery, or obliged him to stay till after. His minions,
+Tedius and Vedius Pollio, had lived in scandalous and excessive luxury:
+his wife Livia, who wholly controlled him, had proved a cruel governess
+to the Commonwealth; and to the Julian house, a more cruel step-mother:
+he had even invaded the incommunicable honours of the Gods, and setting
+up for himself temples like theirs, would like them be adored in
+the image of a Deity, with all the sacred solemnity of Priests and
+sacrifices: nor had he adopted Tiberius for his successor, either out
+of affection for him, or from concern for the public welfare; but having
+discovered in him a spirit proud and cruel, he sought future glory from
+the blackest opposition and comparison." For, Augustus, when, a few
+years before, he solicited the Senate to grant to Tiberius another
+term of the authority of the Tribuneship, though he mentioned him with
+honour, yet taking notice of his odd humour, behaviour, and manners,
+dropped some expressions, which, while they seemed to excuse him,
+exposed and upbraided him.
+
+As soon as the funeral of Augustus was over, a temple and divine
+worship were forthwith decreed him. The Senate then turned their instant
+supplications to Tiberius, to fill his vacant place; but received
+an abstruse answer, touching the greatness of the Empire and his own
+distrust of himself; he said that "nothing but the divine genius of
+Augustus was equal to the mighty task: that for himself, who had been
+called by him into a participation of his cares, he had learnt
+by feeling them, what a daring, what a difficult toil was that of
+government, and how perpetually subject to the caprices of fortune: that
+in a State supported by so many illustrious patriots they ought not to
+cast the whole administration upon one; and more easy to be administered
+were the several offices of the Government by the united pains and
+sufficiency of many." A pompous and plausible speech, but in it little
+faith and sincerity. Tiberius, even upon subjects which needed no
+disguises, used words dark and cautious; perhaps from his diffident
+nature, perhaps from a habit of dissembling: at this juncture indeed,
+as he laboured wholly to hide his heart, his language was the more
+carefully wrapped up in equivoques and obscurity: but the Senators, who
+dreaded nothing so much as to seem to understand him, burst into tears,
+plaints, and vows; with extended arms they supplicated the Gods, invoked
+the image of Augustus, and embraced the knees of Tiberius. He then
+commanded the imperial register to be produced and recited. It contained
+a summary of the strength and income of the Empire, the number of
+Romans and auxiliaries in pay, the condition of the navy, of the
+several kingdoms paying tribute, and of the various provinces and
+their revenues, with the state of the public expense, the issues of the
+exchequer, and all the demands upon the public. This register was all
+writ by the hand of Augustus; and in it he had subjoined his counsel to
+posterity, that the present boundaries of the Empire should stand fixed
+without further enlargement; but whether this counsel was dictated by
+fear for the public, or by envy towards his successors, is uncertain.
+
+Now when the Senate was stooping to the vilest importunity and
+prostrations, Tiberius happened to say, that, "as he was unequal to
+the weight of the whole government; so if they entrusted him with any
+particular part, whatever it were, he would undertake it." Here Asinius
+Gallus interposed: "I beg to know, Caesar," says he, "what part of
+the government you desire for your share?" He was astonished with
+the unexpected question, and, for a short space, mute; but recovering
+himself, answered, that "it ill became his modesty to choose or reject
+any particular branch of the administration, when he desired rather to
+be excused from the whole." Gallus, who in his face conjectured sullen
+signs of displeasure, again accosted him, and said, "by this question I
+did not mean that you should do an impracticable thing, and share
+that power which cannot be separated; but I meant to reason you into a
+confession that the Commonwealth is but one body, and can be governed
+only by one soul." He added an encomium upon Augustus, and reminded
+Tiberius himself of his many victories, of the many civil employments
+which he had long and nobly sustained: nor even thus could he mollify
+the wrath of Tiberius, who had long hated him, for that Gallus had
+married Vipsania, daughter of Marcus Agrippa, and formerly wife to
+Tiberius, who thence suspected that by this match he meant to soar above
+the rank of a subject, and possessed too the bold and haughty spirit of
+Asinius Pollio his father.
+
+Lucius Arruntius incurred his displeasure next, by a speech not much
+unlike that of Gallus: it is true, that towards him Tiberius bore no
+old rancour; but Arruntius had mighty opulence, prompt parts, noble
+accomplishments, with equal popularity, and hence was marked by him with
+a fell eye of suspicion. For, as Augustus, shortly before his decease,
+was mentioning those among the great men, who were capable of the
+supreme power, but would not accept it; or unequal to it, yet wished
+for it; or such, as had both ambition and sufficiency; he had said, that
+"Marcus Lepidus was qualified, but would reject it; Asinius would be
+aspiring, but had inferior talents; and that Lucius Arruntius wanted no
+sufficiency, and upon a proper occasion would attempt it." That he spoke
+thus of Lepidus and Asinius, is agreed; but, instead of Arruntius, some
+writers have transmitted the name of Cneius Piso: and every one of these
+great men, except Lepidus, were afterwards cut off, under the imputation
+of various crimes, all darkly framed by Tiberius. Quintus Haterius and
+Mamercus Scaurus did thereafter incense his distrustful spirit;
+the first by asking him, "How long, Caesar, wilt thou suffer the
+Commonwealth to remain destitute of a head?" Scaurus, because he had
+said "there was room to hope that the prayers of the Senate would
+not prove abortive, since he had not opposed as Tribune, nor rendered
+invalid, as he might, the motion of the Consuls in his behalf." With
+Haterius he fell into instant rage; towards Scaurus his resentment was
+more deep and implacable, and in profound silence he hid it. Wearied
+at last with public importunity and clamour, and with particular
+expostulations, he began to unbend a little; not that he would own his
+undertaking the Empire, but only avoid the uneasiness of perpetually
+rejecting endless solicitations. It is known how Haterius, when he went
+next day to the palace to implore pardon, and throwing himself at the
+feet of Tiberius embraced his knees, narrowly escaped being slain by the
+soldiers; because Tiberius, who was walking, tumbled down, whether by
+chance, or whether his legs were entangled in the arms of Haterius:
+neither was he a jot mollified by the danger which threatened so great a
+man, who was at length forced to supplicate Augusta for protection; nor
+could even she obtain it, but after the most laboured entreaties.
+
+Towards Livia, too, exorbitant was the flattering court of the Senate.
+Some were for decreeing her the general title of Mother; others the more
+particular one of Mother Of Her Country; and almost all moved, that to
+the name of Tiberius should be added, The Son Of Julia: Tiberius urged
+in answer, that "public honours to women ought to be warily adjudged,
+and with a sparing hand; and that with the same measure of moderation he
+would receive such as were presented to himself." In truth, full of envy
+as he was, and anxious lest his own grandeur should sink as that of his
+mother rose, he would not suffer so much as a Lictor to be decreed her,
+and even forbade the raising her an altar upon her late adoption,
+or paying her any such solemnities. But for Germanicus he asked the
+Proconsular power; and to carry him that dignity, honourable deputies
+were sent, as also to mollify his sorrow for the death of Augustus. If
+for Drusus he demanded not the same honour, it was because Drusus was
+present and already Consul designed. He then named twelve candidates
+for the Praetorship; the same number settled by Augustus; and though the
+Senate requested him to increase it, by an oath he bound himself never
+to exceed.
+
+The privilege of creating Magistrates was now first translated from
+the assemblies of the people to the Senate; for though the Emperor had
+before conducted all affairs of moment at his pleasure; yet till that
+day some were still transacted by the Tribes, and carried by their bent
+and suffrages. Neither did the regret of the people for the seizure of
+these their ancient rights rise higher than some impotent grumbling. The
+Senate too liked the change; as by it they were released from the charge
+of buying votes, and from the shame of begging them: and so moderate was
+Tiberius, that of the twelve candidates he only reserved to himself the
+recommendation of four, to be accepted without opposition or caballing.
+At the same time, the Tribunes of the people asked leave to celebrate at
+their own expense certain plays in honour of Augustus, such as were
+to be called after his name, and inserted in the calendar. But it was
+decreed, that out of the Exchequer the charge should be defrayed, and
+the Tribunes should in the circus wear the triumphal robe; but to be
+carried in chariots was denied them. The annual celebration of these
+plays was, for the future, transferred to one of the Praetors, him
+in particular to whom should fall the jurisdiction of deciding suits
+between citizens and strangers.
+
+Thus stood affairs at Rome when a sedition seized the legions in
+Pannonia; without any fresh grounds, save that from a change of Princes,
+they meant to assume a warrant for licentiousness and tumult, and from a
+civil war hoped great earnings and acquisitions: they were three legions
+encamped together, all commanded by Junius Blesus, who, upon notice of
+the death of Augustus and the accession of Tiberius, had granted the
+soldiers a recess from their wonted duties for some days, as a time
+either of public mourning or festivity. From being idle they waxed
+wanton, quarrelsome, and turbulent; greedily listened to mutinous
+discourses; the most profligate amongst them had most credit with them,
+and at last they became passionate for a life of sloth and riot, utterly
+averse to all military discipline and every fatigue of the camp. In the
+camp was one Percennius; formerly a busy leader in the embroilments
+of the theatre, and now a common soldier; a fellow of a petulant,
+declaiming tongue, and by inflaming parties in the playhouse, well
+qualified to excite and infatuate a crowd. This incendiary practised
+upon the ignorant and unwary, such as were solicitous what might prove
+their future usage, now Augustus was dead. He engaged them in nightly
+confabulations, and by little and little incited them to violence and
+disorders; and towards the evening, when the soberest and best affected
+were withdrawn, he assembled the worst and most turbulent. When he
+had thus ripened them for sedition, and other ready incendiaries were
+combined with him, he personated the character of a lawful Commander,
+and thus questioned and harangued them:
+
+"Why did they obey, like slaves, a few Centurions and a fewer Tribunes?
+When would they be bold enough to demand redress of their heavy
+grievances, unless they snatched the present occasion, while the Emperor
+was yet new and his authority wavering, to prevail with him by petition,
+or by arms to force him? They had already by the misery of many years
+paid dear for their patient sloth and stupid silence, since decrepit
+with age and maimed with wounds, after a course of service for thirty or
+forty years, they were still doomed to carry arms: nor even to those who
+were discharged was there any end of the misery of warfare; they were
+still kept tied to the colours, and under the creditable title of
+Veterans endured the same hardships, and underwent the same labours.
+But suppose any of them escaped so many dangers, and survived so many
+calamities, where was their reward at last? Why, a long and weary march
+remained yet to be taken into countries far remote and strange; where,
+under the name of lands given them to cultivate, they had unhospitable
+bogs to drain, and the wild wastes of mountains to manure. Severe and
+ungainful of itself was the occupation of war: ten Asses [Footnote:
+About 5d.] a day the poor price of their persons and lives; out of this,
+they must buy clothes, and tents, and arms; out of this, bribe the cruel
+Centurions for a forbearance of blows, and occasional exemption from
+hard duty: but stripes from their officers, and wounds from their
+enemies, hard winters and laborious summers, bloody wars and barren
+peace, were miseries without end: nor remained there other cure or
+relief than to refuse to enlist but upon conditions certain, and fixed
+by themselves; particularly, that their pay be a denarius or sixteen
+Asses a day, [Footnote: About 8-1/2d.] sixteen years be the utmost
+term of serving; when discharged, to be no longer obliged to follow the
+colours, but have their reward in ready money, paid them in the camp
+where they earned it. Did the Praetorian Guards, they who had double
+pay, they who after sixteen years' service were paid off and sent home,
+bear severer difficulties, undergo superior dangers? He did not mean to
+detract from the merit of their brethren the City guards; their own lot
+however it was, to be placed amongst horrid and barbarous nations, nor
+could they look from their tents, but they saw the foe."
+
+The whole crowd received this harangue with shouts of applause; but
+from various instigations. Some displayed upon their bodies the obvious
+impressions of stripes, others their hoary heads, many their vestments
+ragged and curtailed, with backs utterly bare; as did all, their various
+griefs, in the bitterness of reproach. At length to such excessive fury
+they grew, that they proposed to incorporate the three legions into
+one; nor by aught but emulation was the project defeated: for to his own
+legion every man claimed the prerogative of swallowing and denominating
+the other two. They took another method, and placed the three Eagles
+of the legions, with the standards of the several cohorts, altogether
+without rank or priority; then forthwith digged turf and were rearing
+a tribunal, one high enough to be seen at a distance. In this
+hurry arrived Blesus, who, falling into sore rebukes, and by force
+interrupting particulars, called with vehemence to all: "Dip your hands
+rather in my blood: to murder your General will be a crime less shameful
+and heinous than to revolt from your Prince; for determined I am, either
+to preserve the legions in their faith and obedience, if you kill me not
+for my intended good office; or my death, if I fall by your hands, shall
+hasten your remorse."
+
+For all this, turfs were accumulated, and the work was already breast
+high, when, at last, overcome by his spirit and perseverance, they
+forbore. Blesus was an able speaker: he told them "that sedition and
+mutiny were not the methods of conveying to the Emperor the pretensions
+of the soldiers; their demands too were new and singular; such as
+neither the soldiers of old had ever made to the ancient Generals, nor
+they themselves to the deified Augustus: besides, their claims were
+ill-timed, when the Prince, just upon his accession, was already
+embarrassed with the weight and variety of other cares. If, however,
+they meant to try to gain in full peace those concessions, which, even
+after a civil war, the conquerors never claimed; yet why trample upon
+duty and obedience, why reject the laws of the army, and rules of
+discipline? And if they meant to petition, why meditate violence? They
+might at least appoint deputies; and in his presence trust them with
+their pretensions." Here they all cried out, "that the son of Blesus,
+one of their Tribunes, should execute that deputation; and demand in
+their name that, after sixteen years' service they should be discharged:
+they said they would give him new orders, when he had succeeded in
+these." After the departure of the young officer, a moderate recess
+ensued; the soldiers however exulted to have carried such a point:
+the sending the son of their General, as the public advocate for their
+cause, was to them full proof that they had gained by force and terror
+that which by modesty and gentle means they would never have gained.
+
+In the meantime those companies which, before the sedition began, were
+sent to Nauportum [Footnote: Over-Laybach, in Carniola.] to mend roads
+and bridges, and upon other duties, no sooner heard of the uproar in
+the camp, but they cast off all obedience, tore away the ensigns, and
+plundered the neighbouring villages; even Nauportum itself, which for
+greatness resembled a municipal town, was plundered. The endeavours
+of the Centurions to restrain this violence, were first returned with
+mockery and contempt, then with invectives and contumelies, at last
+with outrage and blows. Their vengeance was chiefly bent against the
+Camp-Marshal, Aufidienus Rufus: him they dragged from his chariot, and,
+loading him with baggage, drove him before the first ranks; they then
+insulted him, and asked in scorn, "whether he would gladly bear such
+enormous burdens, whether endure such immense marches?" Rufus had
+been long a common soldier, then became a Centurion, and afterwards
+Camp-Marshal; a severe restorer of primitive strictness and discipline;
+an indefatigable observer of every military duty, which he exacted from
+others with the more rigour, as he had himself undergone them all with
+patience.
+
+By the arrival of this tumultuous band the sedition was again awakened
+to its former outrage, and the seditious, roving abroad without control,
+ravaged the country on every side. Blesus, for an example of terror
+to the rest, commanded those who were most laden with plunder, to be
+punished with stripes and cast into prison: for the General was still
+dutifully obeyed by the Centurions, and by all the soldiers of any
+merit; but the criminals refused to submit, and even struggled with
+the guard who were carrying them off; they clasped the knees of the
+bystanders, implored help from their fellows, now calling upon every
+individual, and conjuring them by their particular names; then appealed
+to them in a body, and supplicated the company, the cohort, the legion
+to which they belonged; warning and proclaiming that the same ignominy
+and chastisement hung over them all. With the same breath they heaped
+invectives without measure upon their General, and called upon heaven
+and all the Gods to be their witnesses and avengers; nor left they aught
+unattempted to raise effectual hatred, compassion, terror, and every
+species of fury. Hence the whole body rushed to their relief, burst open
+the prison, unbound and rescued the prisoners: thus they owned for their
+brethren, and incorporated with themselves, infamous revolters, and
+traitors convict and condemned.
+
+Hence the violence became more raging, and hence more sedition from more
+leaders. There was particularly one Vibulenus, a common soldier, who,
+exalted on the shoulders of his comrades, before the tribunal of Blesus,
+thus declaimed in the ears of a multitude already outrageous, and eager
+to hear what he had to say. "To these innocents," says he, "to these
+miserable sufferers, our fellow-soldiers, you have indeed restored
+breath and liberty: but who will restore life to my poor brother; who
+my poor brother to me? He was sent hither by the German armies, with
+propositions for our common good; and for this, was last night butchered
+by that same Blesus, who in the murder employed his gladiators, bloody
+men, whom he purposely entertains and arms for our common execution.
+Where, oh where, Blesus, hast thou thrown his unoffending and mangled
+corpse? Even open enemies do not inhumanly deny burial to the slain:
+when I have satiated my sorrow with a thousand kisses, and a flood
+of tears; command me also to be murdered, that these our brethren may
+together bury my poor brother and me, slaughtered both as victims, yet
+both guiltless of any crime but that of studying the common interest of
+the legions."
+
+He inflamed those his complaints and expostulations with affecting sighs
+and lamentations, beat his breast, tore his face, and showed all the
+symptoms of anguish. Then those who carried him giving way, he threw
+himself headlong at the feet of his companions; and thus prostrate and
+supplicating, in them raised such a spirit of commiseration and such a
+storm of vengeance, that one party of them instantly seized and bound
+the General's gladiators; another, the rest of his family; while many
+ran and dispersed themselves to search for the corpse: and had it not
+been quickly manifest that there was no corpse to be found, that
+the slaves of Blesus had upon the rack cleared themselves, and that
+Vibulenus never had any brother; they had gone nigh to have sacrificed
+the General. As it was, they expulsed the Camp-Marshal and Tribunes;
+and as they fled, plundered their baggage: they likewise put to
+death Lucilius the Centurion, whom they had sarcastically named _Cedo
+Alteram_, because when upon the back of a soldier he had broken one
+wand, he was wont to call for another, and then a third. The other
+Centurions lurked in concealment, all but Julius Clemens, who for his
+prompt capacity was saved, in order to manage the negotiations of the
+soldiers: even two of the legions, the eighth and the fifteenth, were
+ready to turn their swords upon each other; and had, but for the ninth:
+one Sirpicus, a centurion, was the subject of the quarrel; him the
+eighth required to be put to death, and the fifteenth protected him; but
+the ninth interposed with entreaties to both, and with threats to those
+who would not listen to prayers.
+
+Tiberius, however, close and impenetrable, and ever labouring to smother
+all melancholy tidings, was yet driven by those from Pannonia, to
+despatch his son Drusus thither, accompanied by the principal nobility
+and guarded by two Praetorian cohorts; but charged with no precise
+instructions, only to adapt his measures to the present exigency: the
+cohorts were strengthened with an extraordinary addition of chosen men,
+with the greatest part of the Praetorian horse, and main body of the
+German, then the Emperor's guards. Aelius Sejanus, lately joined with
+his father Strabo in the command of the Praetorian bands, was also sent,
+not only as Governor to the young Prince, but as his credit with the
+Emperor was known to be mighty, to deal with the revolters by promises
+and terrors. When Drusus approached, the legions, for show of respect,
+marched out to meet him; not with the usual symptoms and shouts of
+joy, nor with gay ensigns and arms glittering, but in a dress and
+accoutrements hideous and squalid: in their countenances too, though
+composed to sadness, were seen greater marks of sullenness and
+contumacy.
+
+As soon as he was within the camp, they secured the entrances with
+guards, and in several quarters of it placed parties upon duty: the rest
+crowded about the tribunal of Drusus, who stood beckoning with his hand
+for silence. Here as often as they surveyed their own numbers and met
+one another's resentful looks, they uttered their rage in horrible
+cries: again, when upon the tribunal they beheld Caesar, awe and
+trembling seized them: now, there prevailed an hollow and inarticulate
+murmur; next, a furious clamour; then suddenly a dead silence: so that,
+by a hasty succession of opposite passions, they were at once dismayed
+and dreadful. When at last the uproar was stayed, he read his father's
+letters, who in them declared, "that he would take an affectionate
+care of the brave and invincible legions by whom he had sustained
+successfully so many wars; and, as soon as his grief was a little
+abated, deal with the Senate about their demands; in the meantime he
+had sent them his son, on purpose to make them forthwith all the
+concessions, which could instantly be made them: the rest were to
+be reserved for the Senate, the proper distributers of rewards and
+punishments by a right altogether unalienable."
+
+The assembly answered, that to Julius Clemens they had intrusted what
+to speak in their name: he began with their demands, "to be discharged
+after sixteen years' service, to have the reward which, for past
+services upon that discharge, they claimed; their pay to be increased
+to a Roman denarius; the veterans to be no longer detained under their
+ensigns." When Drusus urged, that wholly in the judgment of the Senate
+and his father, these matters rested he was interrupted by their
+clamours: "To what purpose came he; since he could neither augment their
+pay, nor alleviate their grievances? and while upon them every officer
+was allowed to inflict blows and death, the son of their Emperor wanted
+power to relieve them by one beneficent action. The policy this of the
+late reign, when Tiberius frustrated every request of the soldiers, by
+referring all to Augustus; now Drusus was come with the same artifices
+to delude them: were they never to have a higher visit than from the
+children of their Prince? It was, indeed, unaccountable, that to the
+Senate the Emperor should leave no part in the direction of the army,
+only the rewarding of the soldiery: ought not the same Senate to be
+consulted as often as a battle was to be fought, or a private man to be
+punished? or, were their recompenses to be adjudged by many masters,
+but their punishments to remain without any restraint or moderator
+whatsoever?"
+
+At last they abandoned the tribunal, and with menaces and insults fell
+upon all they met belonging to Drusus, either as guards or friends;
+meditating thus to provoke a quarrel, and an introduction to blood.
+Chiefly enraged they were against Cneius Lentulus, as one for years and
+warlike renown superior to any about the person of Drusus, and thence
+suspected to have hardened the Prince, and been himself the foremost to
+despise these outrages in the soldiery: nor was it long after, that as
+he was leaving Drusus, and from the foresight of danger returning to the
+winter quarters, they surrounded him and demanded "whither he went? to
+the Emperor or Senate? there also to exercise his enmity to the legions,
+and oppose their interest?" and instantly assaulted him with stones.
+He was already covered with wounds and blood, and awaiting certain
+assassination, when the troops attending Drusus flew to his assistance
+and saved him.
+
+The following night had a formidable aspect, and threatened the speedy
+eruption of some tragical vengeance; when a phenomenon intervened and
+assuaged all. The Moon, in the midst of a clear sky, seemed to the
+soldiers suddenly to sicken; and they, who were ignorant of the natural
+cause, took this for an omen foreboding the issue of their present
+adventures: to their own labours, they compared the eclipse of the
+planet; and prophesied, "that if to the distressed Goddess should be
+restored her wonted brightness and vigour, equally successful would
+be the issue of these their struggles." Hence they strove to charm and
+revive her with sounds, and by ringing upon brazen metal, and an uproar
+of trumpets and cornets, made a vehement bellowing. As she appeared
+brighter or darker, they exulted or lamented; but when gathering clouds
+had utterly bereft them of her sight, and they believed her now buried
+in everlasting darkness; then, as minds once thoroughly dismayed are
+pliant to superstition, they bewailed "their own eternal sufferings
+thus portended, and that against their misdeeds the angry Deities
+were contending." Drusus, who thought it behoved him to improve this
+disposition of theirs, and to reap the fruits of wisdom from the
+operations of chance; ordered certain persons to go round, and apply
+to them from tent to tent. For this purpose, he called and employed
+the Centurion Julius Clemens, and whoever else were by honest methods
+acceptable to the multitude. These insinuated themselves everywhere,
+with those who kept watch, or were upon patrol, or guarded the gates;
+soothing all with hopes, and by terrors rousing them. "How long," said
+they, "shall we hold the son of our Emperor thus besieged? Where will
+our broils and wild contentions end? Shall we swear allegiance to
+Percennius and Vibulenus? Will Vibulenus and Percennius support us with
+pay during our service, and reward us with lands when dismissed? In
+short, shall two common men dispossess the Neros and the Drusi, and to
+themselves assume the Empire of the Roman People? Let us be wiser; and
+as we were the last to revolt, be the first to relent. Such demands, as
+comprise terms for all, are ever slowly accorded; but particulars may,
+when they please, merit instant favour, and instantly receive it."
+These reasonings alarmed them, and filled them with mutual jealousies.
+Presently the fresh soldiers forsook the veterans, and one legion
+separated from another; then by degrees returned the love of duty and
+obedience. They relinquished the guard of the gates: and the Eagles
+and other ensigns, which in the beginning of the tumult they had thrown
+together, were now restored each to its distinct station.
+
+Drusus, as soon as it was day, summoned an assembly, and though
+unskilled in speaking, yet with a haughtiness inherent in his blood,
+rebuked their past and commended their present behaviour. "With threats
+and terrors," he said, "it was impossible to subdue him; but if he saw
+them reclaimed to submission, if from them he heard the language of
+supplicants, he would send to his father to accept with a reconciled
+spirit the petitions of the legions," Hence, at their entreaty, for
+their deputy to Tiberius the same Blesus was again despatched, and with
+him Lucius Apronius, a Roman Knight of the cohort of Drusus; and Justus
+Catonius, a Centurion of the first order. There followed great debates
+in the council of Drusus, while some advised "to suspend all proceeding
+till the return of the deputies, and by a course of courtesy the while
+to soothe the soldiers; others maintained, that remedies more potent
+must needs be applied: in a multitude, was to be found nothing on this
+side extremes; always imperious where they are not awed, and to be
+without danger despised when frightened: to their present terror from
+superstition was to be added the dread of their General, by his dooming
+to death the authors of the sedition." Rather prompt to rigorous
+counsels was the genius of Drusus: Vibulenus and Percennius were
+produced, and by his command executed; it is by many recounted, that in
+his own tent they were secretly despatched and buried; by others, that
+their bodies were ignominiously thrown over the entrenchments, for a
+public spectacle of terror.
+
+Search was then made for other remarkable incendiaries. Some were caught
+skulking without the camp, and there by the Centurions or Praetorian
+soldiers slain; others were by their several companies delivered up, as
+a proof of their own sincere faith. The consternation of the soldiers
+was heightened by the precipitate accession of winter, with rains
+incessant and so violent, that they were unable to stir from their
+tents, or maintain common intercourse, nay, scarce to preserve their
+standards, assaulted continually by tempestuous winds and raging floods.
+Dread besides of the angry Gods still possessed them; nor was it at
+random, they thought, that such profane traitors were thus visited
+with black eclipses and roaring tempests; neither against these their
+calamities was there other relief than the relinquishing of a camp by
+impiety contaminated and accursed, and after expiation of their guilt
+returning to their several garrisons. The eighth legion departed first;
+and then the fifteenth: the ninth, with earnest clamours, pressed
+for continuing there till the letters from Tiberius arrived; but when
+deserted by the other two, their courage failed, and by following of
+their own accord, they prevented the shame of being forced. Drusus
+seeing order and tranquillity restored, without staying for the return
+of the deputies, returned himself to Rome.
+
+Almost at the same time, and from the same causes, the legions in
+Germany raised an insurrection, with greater numbers, and thence with
+more fury. Passionate too were their hopes that Germanicus would never
+brook the rule of another, but yield to the spirit of the legions, who
+had force sufficient to bring the whole Empire under his sway. Upon
+the Rhine were two armies; that called the higher, commanded by Caius
+Silius, Lieutenant-General; the lower, by Aulus Caecina: the command in
+chief rested in Germanicus, then busy collecting the tribute in Gaul.
+The forces however under Silius, with cautious ambiguity, watched the
+success of the revolt which others began: for the soldiers of the lower
+army had broken out into open outrages, which took its rise from the
+fifth legion, and the one-and-twentieth; who after them drew the first,
+and twentieth. These were altogether upon the frontiers of the Ubians,
+passing the campaign in utter idleness or light duty: so that upon the
+news that Augustus was dead, the whole swarm of new soldiers lately
+levied in the city, men accustomed to the effeminacies of Rome, and
+impatient of every military hardship, began to possess the ignorant
+minds of the rest with many turbulent expectations, "that now was
+presented the lucky juncture for veterans to demand entire dismission;
+the fresh soldiers, larger pay; and all, some mitigation of their
+miseries; as also to return due vengeance for the cruelties of the
+Centurions." These were not the harangues of a single incendiary, like
+Percennius amongst the Pannonian legions; nor uttered, as there, in the
+ears of men who, while they saw before their eyes armies greater than
+their own, mutinied with awe and trembling: but here was a sedition of
+many mouths, filled with many boasts, "that in their hands lay the power
+and fate of Rome; by their victories the empire was enlarged, and from
+them the Caesars took, as a compliment, the surname of Germanicus."
+
+Neither did Caecina strive to restrain them. A madness so extensive had
+bereft him of all his bravery and firmness. In this precipitate frenzy
+they rushed at once, with swords drawn, upon the Centurions, the eternal
+objects of their resentment, and always the first victims to their
+vengeance. Them they dragged to the earth, and upon each bestowed
+a terrible portion of sixty blows; a number proportioned to that of
+Centurions in a legion. Then bruised, mangled, and half expiring, as
+they were, they cast them all out of the camp, some into the stream
+of the Rhine. Septimius, who had for refuge fled to the tribunal of
+Caecina, and lay clasping his feet, was demanded with such imperious
+vehemence, that he was forced to be surrendered to destruction. Cassius
+Cherea (afterwards famous to posterity for killing Caligula), then a
+young man of undaunted spirit, and one of the Centurions, boldly opened
+himself a passage with his sword through a crowd of armed foes striving
+to seize him. After this no further authority remained to the Tribunes,
+none to the Camp-Marshals. The seditious soldiers were their own
+officers; set the watch, appointed the guard, and gave all orders proper
+in the present exigency; hence those who dived deepest into the spirit
+of the soldiery, gathered a special indication how powerful and obdurate
+the present insurrection was like to prove; for in their conduct were no
+marks of a rabble, where every man's will guides him, or the instigation
+of a few controls the whole. Here, all at once they raged, and all at
+once kept silence; with so much concert and steadiness, that you would
+have believed them under the sovereign direction of one.
+
+To Germanicus the while, then receiving, as I have said, the tribute in
+Gaul, news were brought of the decease of Augustus; whose grand-daughter
+Agrippina he had to wife, and by her many children: he was himself the
+grandson of Livia, by her son Drusus, the brother of Tiberius; but ever
+under heavy anxiety from the secret hate which his uncle and grandmother
+bore him: hate the more virulent as its grounds were altogether
+unrighteous; for, dear and adored was the memory of his father Drusus
+amongst the Roman People, and from him was firmly expected that had he
+succeeded to the Empire, he would have restored public liberty: hence
+their zeal for Germanicus, and of him the same hopes conceived; as
+from his youth he possessed a popular spirit, and marvellous affability
+utterly remote from the comportment and address of Tiberius, ever
+haughty and mysterious. The animosities too between the ladies
+administered fresh fuel; while towards Agrippina, Livia was actuated
+by the despite natural to step-mothers: and over-tempestuous was the
+indignation of Agrippina; only that her known chastity and love for her
+husband, always gave her mind, however vehement, a virtuous turn.
+
+But Germanicus, the nearer he stood to supreme rule, the more vigour he
+exerted to secure it to Tiberius: to him he obliged the Sequanians, a
+neighbouring people, as also the several Belgic cities, to swear present
+allegiance; and the moment he learnt the uproar of the legions, posted
+thither: he found them advanced without the camp to receive him, with
+eyes cast down, in feigned token of remorse. After he entered the
+entrenchments, instantly his ears were filled with plaints and
+grievances, uttered in hideous and mixed clamours: nay, some catching
+his hand, as if they meant to kiss it, thrust his fingers into their
+mouths, to feel their gums destitute of teeth; others showed their limbs
+enfeebled, and bodies stooping under old age. As he saw the assembly
+mixed at random, he commanded them "to range themselves into companies,
+thence more distinctly to hear his answers; as also to place before
+them their several ensigns, that the cohorts at least might be
+distinguished."
+
+With slowness and reluctance it was, that they obeyed him; then
+beginning with an encomium upon the "venerable memory of Augustus," he
+proceeded to the "many victories and many triumphs of Tiberius," and
+with peculiar praises celebrated the "glorious and immortal deeds, which
+with these very legions in Germany he had accomplished;" he next boasted
+the quiet state of things, the consent of all Italy, the loyal faith
+of both the Gauls: and every quarter of the Roman State exempt from
+disaffection and turbulence.
+
+Thus far they listened with silence, at least with moderate murmuring;
+but the moment he touched their sedition and questioned, "where now was
+the wonted modesty of soldiers? where the glory of ancient discipline?
+whither had they chased their Tribunes, whither their Centurions?" to a
+man, they stripped themselves to the skin, and there exposed the seams
+of their wounds and bruises of their chastisements, in the rage of
+reproach. Then in the undistinguished voice of uproar, they urged
+"the exactions for occasional exemptions, their scanty pay, and their
+rigorous labours;" which they represented in a long detail: "ramparts to
+be reared, entrenchments digged, trees felled and drawn, forage cut and
+carried, fuel prepared and fetched," with every other article of
+toil required by the exigencies of war, or to prevent idleness in the
+soldiery. Above all, from the veterans arose a cry most horrible:
+they enumerated thirty years or upwards undergone in the service; "and
+besought that to men utterly spent he would administer respite, nor
+suffer them to be beholden to death for the last relief from their
+toils; but discharge them from a warfare so lasting and severe, and
+grant them the means of a comfortable recess." Nay, some there were
+who of him required the money bequeathed them by Augustus; and towards
+Germanicus uttering zealous vows, with omens of happy fortune, declared
+their cordial attachment to his cause if he would himself assume the
+Empire. Here, as if already stained with their treason, he leaped
+headlong from the Tribunal; but with swords drawn they opposed his
+departure, and threatened his life, if he refused to return: yet, with
+passionate protestations that "he would rather die than be a traitor,"
+he snatched his sword from his side, and aiming full at his breast,
+would have buried it there, had not those who were next him seized his
+hand and by force restrained him. A cluster of soldiers in the extremity
+of the assembly exhorted him, nay, what is incredible to hear, some
+particulars advancing nearer, exhorted him _to strike home_: in truth
+one Calusidius, a common soldier, presented him his naked sword, and
+added, "it is sharper than your own;" a behaviour which to the rest,
+outrageous as they were, seemed savage, and of horrid example: hence the
+friends of Germanicus had time to snatch him away to his tent.
+
+It was here consulted what remedy to apply: for it was advised, that
+"ministers of sedition were preparing to be despatched to the other
+army, to draw them too into a confederacy in the revolt; that the
+capital of the Ubians was destined to be sacked; and if their hands were
+once inured to plunder, they would break in, and ravage all Gaul." This
+dread was augmented by another: the enemy knew of the sedition in the
+Roman army, and were ready to invade the Empire, if its barrier the
+Rhine were left unguarded. Now, to arm the allies and the auxiliaries of
+Rome, and lead them against the departing legions, was to rouse a civil
+war: severity was dangerous: the way of largesses infamous; and alike
+threatening it was to the State to grant the turbulent soldiers nothing,
+or yield them everything. After revolving every reason and objection,
+the result was, to feign letters and directions from Tiberius, "that
+those who had served twenty years should be finally discharged; such as
+served sixteen be under the ensign and privileges of veterans, released
+from every duty but that of repulsing the enemy; and the legacy, which
+they demanded, should be paid and doubled."
+
+The soldiers, who perceived that, purely to evade present difficulty,
+the concessions were forged, insisted to have them forthwith executed;
+and instantly the Tribunes despatched the discharge of the veterans:
+that of the money was adjourned to their several winter quarters; but
+the fifth legion, and the one-and-twentieth, refused to stir, till in
+that very camp they were paid; so that out of the money reserved by
+himself and his friends for travailing expenses, Germanicus was obliged
+to raise the sum. Caecina, Lieutenant-General, led the first legion and
+twentieth back to the capital of the Ubians: an infamous march, when the
+plunder of their General's coffers was carried amidst the ensigns and
+Roman Eagles. Germanicus, the while, proceeding to the army in higher
+Germany, brought the second, thirteenth, and sixteenth legions to swear
+allegiance without hesitation: to the fourteenth, who manifested some
+short suspense, he made unasked a tender of their money, and a present
+discharge.
+
+But a party of veterans which belonged to the disorderly legions, and
+then in garrison among the Chaucians, as they began a sedition there,
+were somewhat quelled by the instant execution of two of their body: an
+execution this, commanded by Maenius, Camp-Marshal, and rather of good
+example, than done by competent authority. The tumult, however, swelling
+again with fresh rage, he fled, but was discovered; so that, finding
+no safety in lurking, from his own bravery he drew his defence, and
+declared "that to himself, who was only their Camp-Marshal, these their
+outrages were not done, but done to the authority of Germanicus, their
+General, to the majesty of Tiberius their Emperor." At the same time,
+braving and dismaying all that would have stopped him, he fiercely
+snatched the colours, faced about towards the Rhine, and pronouncing
+the doom of traitors and deserters to every man who forsook his ranks,
+brought them back to their winter quarters, mutinous, in truth, but not
+daring to mutiny.
+
+In the meantime the deputies from the Senate met Germanicus at the
+altar of the Ubians [Footnote: Cologne.], whither in his return he was
+arrived. Two legions wintered there, the first and twentieth, with the
+soldiers lately placed under the standard of veterans; men already under
+the distractions of guilt and fear: and now a new terror possessed them,
+that these Senators were come armed with injunctions to cancel every
+concession which they had by sedition extorted; and, as it is the custom
+of the crowd to be ever charging somebody with the crimes suggested by
+their own false alarms, the guilt of this imaginary decree they laid
+upon Minutius Plancus, a Senator of consular dignity, and at the head of
+this deputation. In the dead of night, they began to clamour aloud for
+the purple standard placed in the quarters of Germanicus, and, rushing
+tumultuously to his gate, burst the doors, dragged the Prince out of his
+bed, and, with menaces of present death, compelled him to deliver the
+standard. Then, as they roved about the camp, they met the deputies,
+who, having learnt the outrage, were hastening to Germanicus: upon
+them they poured a deluge of contumelies, and to present slaughter were
+devoting them, Plancus chiefly, whom the dignity of his character had
+restrained from flight; nor in this mortal danger had he other refuge
+than the quarters of the first legion, where, embracing the Eagle and
+other ensigns, he sought sanctuary from the religious veneration
+ever paid them. But, in spite of religion, had not Calpurnius, the
+Eagle-bearer, by force defeated the last violence of the assault, in the
+Roman camp had been slain an ambassador of the Roman People, and
+with his blood had been stained the inviolable altars of the Gods; a
+barbarity rare even in the camp of an enemy. At last, day returning,
+when the General, and the soldiers, and their actions could be
+distinguished, Germanicus entered the camp, and commanding Plancus to
+be brought, seated him by himself upon the tribunal: he then inveighed
+against the late "pernicious frenzy, which in it, he said, had fatality,
+and was rekindled by no despite in the soldiers, but by that of the
+angry Gods." He explained the genuine purposes of that embassy, and
+lamented with affecting eloquence "the outrage committed upon Plancus,
+altogether brutal and unprovoked; the foul violence done to the sacred
+person of an Ambassador, and the mighty disgrace from thence derived
+upon the legion." Yet as the assembly showed more stupefaction than
+calmness, he dismissed the deputies under a guard of auxiliary horse.
+
+During this affright, Germanicus was by all men censured, "that he
+retired not to the higher army, whence he had been sure of ready
+obedience, and even of succour against the revolters: already he had
+taken wrong measures more than enow, by discharging some, rewarding all,
+and other tender counsels; if he despised his own safety, yet why expose
+his infant son, why his wife big with child, to the fury of outrageous
+traitors, wantonly violating all the most sacred rights amongst men? It
+became him at least to restore his wife and son safe to Tiberius and
+to the State." He was long unresolved; besides Agrippina was averse to
+leave him, and urged, that "she was the grand-daughter of Augustus, and
+it was below her spirit to shrink in a time of danger." But embracing
+her and their little son, with great tenderness and many tears, he
+prevailed with her to depart. Thus there marched miserably along a band
+of helpless women: the wife of a great commander fled like a fugitive,
+and upon her bosom bore her infant son: about her a troop of other
+ladies, dragged from their husbands, and drowned in tears, uttering
+their heavy lamentations; nor weaker than theirs was the grief felt by
+all who remained.
+
+These groans and tears, and this spectacle of woe, the appearances
+rather of a city stormed and sacked, than of a Roman camp, that of
+Germanicus Caesar, victorious and flourishing, awakened attention and
+inquiry in the soldiers: leaving their tents, they cried, "Whence these
+doleful wailings? what so lamentable! so many ladies of illustrious
+quality, travelling thus forlorn; not a Centurion to attend them; not
+a soldier to guard them; their General's wife amongst them,
+undistinguished by any mark of her princely dignity; destitute of her
+ordinary train; frightened from the Roman legions, and repairing, like
+an exile, for shelter to Treves, there to commit herself to the faith
+of foreigners." Hence shame and commiseration seized them, and the
+remembrance of her illustrious family, with that of her own virtues;
+the brave Agrippa her father; the mighty Augustus her grandfather; the
+amiable Drusus her father-in-law, herself celebrated for a fruitful bed,
+and of signal chastity: add the consideration of her little son, born
+in the camp, nursed in the arms of the legions, and by themselves named
+Caligula, a military name from the boots which of the same fashion
+with their own, in compliment to them, and to win their affections, he
+frequently wore. But nothing so effectually subdued them as their own
+envy towards the inhabitants of Treves: hence they all besought, all
+adjured, that she would return to themselves, and with themselves
+remain: thus some stopped Agrippina; but the main body returned with
+their entreaties to Germanicus, who, as he was yet in the transports
+of grief and anger, addressed himself on this wise to the surrounding
+crowd.
+
+"To me neither is my wife or son dearer than my father and the
+Commonwealth. But him doubtless the majesty of his name will defend; and
+there are other armies, loyal armies, to defend the Roman State. As to
+my wife and children, whom for your glory I could freely sacrifice, I
+now remove them from your rage; that by my blood alone may be expiated
+whatever further mischief your fury meditates; and that the murder of
+the great grandson of Augustus, the murder of the daughter-in-law of
+Tiberius, may not be added to mine, nor to the blackness of your past
+guilt. For, during these days of frenzy what has been too horrid for you
+to commit? What so sacred that you have not violated? To this audience
+what name shall I give? Can I call you _soldiers_? you who have beset
+with arms the son of your Emperor, confined him in your trenches, and
+held him in a siege? _Roman citizens_ can I call you? you who
+have trampled upon the supreme authority of the Roman Senate? Laws
+religiously observed by common enemies, you have profaned; violated
+the sacred privileges, and persons of Ambassadors; broken the laws of
+nations. The deified Julius Caesar quelled a sedition in his army by a
+single word: he called all who refused to follow him, _townsmen_. The
+deified Augustus, when, after the battle of Actium, the legions who won
+it lapsed into mutiny, terrified them into submission by the dignity
+of his presence and an awful look. These, it is true, are mighty and
+immortal names, whom I dare not emulate; but, as I am their descendant,
+and inherit their blood, should the armies in Syria and Spain reject my
+orders, and contemn my authority, I should think their behaviour strange
+and base: are not the present legions under stronger ties than those in
+Syria and Spain? You are the first and the twentieth legions; the former
+enrolled by Tiberius himself; the other his constant companions in so
+many battles, his partners in so many victories, and by him enriched
+with so many bounties! Is this the worthy return you make your Emperor,
+and late Commander, for the distinction he has shown you, for the favour
+he has done you, and for his liberalities towards you? And shall I be
+the author of such tidings to him; such heavy tidings in the midst of
+congratulations and happy accounts from every province in the Empire?
+Must it be my sad task to acquaint him that his own new levies, as well
+as his own veterans who long fought under him; these not appeased by
+their discharge, and neither of them satiated with the money given them,
+are both still combined in a furious mutiny? must I tell him that here
+and only here the Centurions are butchered, the Tribunes driven away,
+the Ambassadors imprisoned; that with blood the camp is stained, and
+the rivers flow with blood; and that for me his son, I hold a precarious
+life at the mercy of men, who owe me duty, and practise enmity?
+
+"Why did you the other day, oh unseasonable and too officious friends!
+why did you leave me at their mercy by snatching from me my sword, when
+with it I would have put myself out of their power? He who offered me
+his own sword showed greater kindness, and was more my friend. I would
+then have fallen happy; happy that my death would have hid from mine
+eyes so many horrible crimes since committed by my own army; and for
+you, you would have chosen another general, such a general, no doubt, as
+would have left my death unpunished, but still one who would have sought
+vengeance for that of Varus and the three legions; for the Gods are too
+just to permit that ever the Belgians, however generously they offer
+their service, shall reap the credit and renown of retrieving the glory
+of the Roman name, and of reducing in behalf of Rome the German nations
+her foes. Filled with this passion for the glory of Rome, I here
+invoke thy spirit now with the Gods, oh deified Augustus; and thy image
+interwoven in the ensigns, and thy memory, oh deceased father. Let thy
+revered spirit, oh Augustus, let thy loved image and memory, oh Drusus,
+still dear to these legions, vindicate them from this guilty stain,
+this foul infamy of leaving to foreigners the honour of defending
+and avenging the Roman State. They are Romans; they already feel the
+remorses of shame; they are already stimulated with a sense of honour:
+improve, oh improve this generous disposition in them; that thus
+inspired they may turn the whole tide of their civil rage to the
+destruction of their common enemy. And for you, my fellow-soldiers,
+in whom I behold all the marks of compunction, other countenances,
+and minds happily changed; if you mean to restore to the Senate its
+ambassadors; to your Emperor your sworn obedience; to me, your general,
+my wife and son; be it the first instance of your duty, to fly the
+contagious company of incendiaries, to separate the sober from the
+seditious: this will be a faithful sign of remorse, this a firm pledge
+of fidelity."
+
+These words softened them into supplicants: they confessed that all
+his reproaches were true; they besought him to punish the guilty and
+malicious, to pardon the weak and misled, and to lead them against the
+enemy; to recall his wife, to bring back his son, nor to suffer the
+fosterling of the legions to be given in hostage to the Gauls. Against
+the recalling of Agrippina he alleged the advance of winter, and her
+approaching delivery; but said, that his son should return, and that
+to themselves he left to execute what remained further to be executed.
+Instantly, with changed resentments, they ran, and seizing the most
+seditious, dragged them in bonds to Caius Cretonius, commander of the
+first legion, who judged and punished them in this manner. The legions,
+with their swords drawn, surrounded the tribunal; from thence the
+prisoner was by a Tribune exposed to their view, and if they
+proclaimed him guilty, cast headlong down, and executed even by his
+fellow-soldiers, who rejoiced in the execution, because by it they
+thought their own guilt to be expiated: nor did Germanicus restrain
+them, since on themselves remained the cruelty and reproach of the
+slaughter committed without any order of his. The veterans followed the
+same example of vengeance, and were soon after ordered into Rhetia, in
+appearance to defend that province against the invading Suevians; in
+reality, to remove them from a camp still horrible to their sight, as
+well in the remedy and punishment, as from the memory of their crime.
+Germanicus next passed a scrutiny upon the conduct and characters of the
+Centurions: before him they were cited singly; and each gave an account
+of his name, his company, country, the length of his service, exploits
+in war, and military presents, if with any he had been distinguished:
+if the Tribunes or his legion bore testimony of his diligence and
+integrity, he kept his post; upon concurring complaint of his avarice or
+cruelty, he was degraded.
+
+Thus were the present commotions appeased; but others as great still
+subsisted, from the rage and obstinacy of the fifth and twenty-first
+legions. They were in winter quarters sixty miles off, in a place called
+the Old Camp, [Footnote: Xanten.] and had first began the sedition: nor
+was there any wickedness so horrid, that they had not perpetrated; nay,
+at this time, neither terrified by the punishment, nor reclaimed by the
+reformation of their fellow-soldiers, they persevered in their fury.
+Germanicus therefore determined to give them battle, if they persisted
+in their revolt; and prepared vessels, arms, and troops to be sent down
+the Rhine.
+
+Before the issue of the sedition in Illyricum was known at Rome, tidings
+of the uproar in the German legions arrived; hence the city was filled
+with much terror; and hence against Tiberius many complaints, "that
+while with feigned consultations and delays he mocked the Senate and
+people, once the great bodies of the estate, but now bereft of power and
+armies, the soldiery were in open rebellion, one too mighty and stubborn
+to be quelled by two princes so young in years and authority: he
+ought at first to have gone himself, and awed them with the majesty of
+imperial power, as doubtless they would have returned to duty upon the
+sight of their Emperor, a Prince of consummate experience, the sovereign
+disposer of rewards and severity. Did Augustus, even under the pressure
+of old age and infirmities, take so many journeys into Germany? and
+should Tiberius, in the vigour of his life, when the same or greater
+occasions called him thither, sit lazily in the Senate to watch senators
+and cavil at words? He had fully provided for the domestic servitude
+of Rome; he ought next to cure the licentiousness of the soldiers,
+to restrain their turbulent spirits, and reconcile them to a life of
+peace."
+
+But all these reasonings and reproaches moved not Tiberius: he was
+determined not to depart from the capital, the centre of power and
+affairs; nor to chance or peril expose his person and empire. In truth,
+many and contrary difficulties pressed and perplexed him: "the German
+army was the stronger; that of Pannonia nearer; the power of both the
+Gauls supported the former; the latter was at the gates of Italy. Now to
+which should he repair first? and would not the last visited be inflamed
+by being postponed? But by sending one of his sons to each, the equal
+treatment of both was maintained; as also the majesty of the supreme
+power, which from distance ever derived most reverence. Besides, the
+young princes would be excused, if to their father they referred such
+demands as were for them improper to grant; and if they disobeyed
+Germanicus and Drusus, his own authority remained to appease or punish
+them: but if once they had contemned their Emperor himself, what other
+resource was behind?" However, as if he had been upon the point of
+marching, he chose his attendance, provided his equipage, and prepared
+a fleet: but by various delays and pretences, sometimes that of the
+winter, sometimes business, he deceived for a time even the wisest men;
+much longer the common people, and the provinces for a great while.
+
+Germanicus had already drawn together his army, and was prepared to take
+vengeance on the seditious: but judging it proper to allow space for
+trial, whether they would follow the late example, and consulting their
+own safety do justice upon one another, he sent letters to Caecina,
+"that he himself approached, with a powerful force; and if they
+prevented him not, by executing the guilty, he would put all
+indifferently to the slaughter." These letters Caecina privately read
+to the principal officers, and such of the camp as the sedition had not
+tainted; besought them "to redeem themselves from death, and all
+from infamy; urged that in peace alone reason was heard and merit
+distinguished; but in the rage of war the blind steel spared the
+innocent no more than the guilty." The officers, having tried those they
+believed for their purpose, and found the majority still to persevere
+in their duty, did, in concurrence with the General, settle the time for
+falling with the sword upon the most notoriously guilty and turbulent.
+Upon a particular signal given they rushed into their tents and
+butchered them, void as they were of all apprehension; nor did any but
+the centurions and executioners know whence the massacre began, or where
+it would end.
+
+This had a different face from all the civil slaughters that ever
+happened: it was a slaughter not of enemies upon enemies, nor from
+different and opposite camps, nor in a day of battle; but of comrades
+upon comrades, in the same tents where they ate together by day, where
+they slept together by night. From this state of intimacy they flew
+into mortal enmity, and friends launched their darts at friends: wounds,
+outcries, and blood were open to view; but the cause remained hid: wild
+chance governed the rest, and several innocents were slain. For the
+criminals, when they found against whom all this fury was bent, had also
+betaken themselves to their arms; neither did Caecina, nor any of the
+Tribunes, intervene to stay the rage; so that the soldiers had full
+permission to vengeance, and a licentious satiety of killing. Germanicus
+soon after entered the camp now full of blood and carcasses, and
+lamenting with many tears that "this was not a remedy, but cruelty
+and desolation," commanded the bodies to be burnt. Their minds, still
+tempestuous and bloody, were transported with sudden eagerness to attack
+the foe, as the best expiation of their tragical fury: nor otherwise,
+they thought, could the ghosts of their butchered brethren be appeased,
+than by receiving in their own profane breasts a chastisement of
+honourable wounds. Germanicus fell in with the ardour of the soldiers,
+and laying a bridge upon the Rhine, marched over twelve thousand
+legionary soldiers, twenty-six cohorts of the allies, and eight
+regiments of horse; men all untainted in the late sedition.
+
+The Germans rejoiced, not far off, at this vacation of war, occasioned
+first by the death of Augustus, and afterwards by intestine tumults in
+the camp; but the Romans by a hasty march passed through the Caesian
+woods, and levelling the barrier formerly begun by Tiberius, upon
+it pitched their camp. In the front and rear they were defended by a
+palisade; on each side by a barricade of the trunks of trees felled.
+From thence, beginning to traverse gloomy forests, they stopped to
+consult which of two ways they should choose, the short and frequented,
+or the longest and least known, and therefore unsuspected by the
+foe: the longest way was chosen; but in everything else despatch was
+observed; for by the scouts intelligence was brought that the Germans
+did, that night, celebrate a festival with great mirth and revelling.
+Hence Caecina was commanded to advance with the cohorts without their
+baggage, and to clear a passage through the forest: at a moderate
+distance followed the legions; the clearness of the night facilitated
+the march, and they arrived at the villages of the Marsians, which with
+guards they presently invested. The Germans were even yet under the
+effects of their debauch, scattered here and there, some in bed, some
+lying by their tables; no watch placed, no apprehension of an enemy. So
+utterly had their false security banished all order and care; and they
+were under no dread of war, without enjoying peace, other than the
+deceitful and lethargic peace of drunkards.
+
+The legions were eager for revenge; and Germanicus, to extend their
+ravage, divided them into four battalions. The country was wasted by
+fire and sword fifty miles round; nor sex nor age found mercy; places
+sacred and profane had the equal lot of destruction, all razed to the
+ground, and with them the temple of Tanfana, of all others the most
+celebrated amongst these nations: nor did all this execution cost the
+soldiers a wound, while they only slew men half asleep, disarmed, or
+dispersed. This slaughter roused the Bructerans, the Tubantes, and the
+Usipetes; and they beset the passes of the forest, through which the
+army was to return: an event known to Germanicus, and he marched in
+order of battle. The auxiliary cohorts and part of the horse led the
+van, followed close by the first legion; the baggage was in the middle;
+the twenty-first legion closed the left wing, and the fifth the right;
+the twentieth defended the rear; and after them marched the rest of the
+allies. But the enemy stirred not, till the body of the army entered
+the wood: they then began lightly to insult the front and wings; and at
+last, with their whole force, fell upon the rear. The light cohorts were
+already disordered by the close German bands, when Germanicus riding up
+to the twentieth legion, and exalting his voice, "This was the season,"
+he cried, "to obliterate the scandal of sedition: hence they should
+fall resolutely on, and into sudden praise convert their late shame and
+offence." These words inflamed them: at one charge they broke the enemy,
+drove them out of the wood, and slaughtered them in the plain. In the
+meanwhile, the front passed the forest, and fortified the camp: the rest
+of the march was uninterrupted; and the soldiers, trusting to the merit
+of their late exploits, and forgetting at once past faults and terrors,
+were placed in winter quarters.
+
+The tidings of these exploits affected Tiberius with gladness and
+anguish: he rejoiced that the sedition was suppressed; but that
+Germanicus had, by discharging the veterans, by shortening the term of
+service to the rest, and by largesses to all, gained the hearts of the
+army, as well as earned high glory in war, proved to the Emperor matter
+of torture. To the Senate, however, he reported the detail of his feats,
+and upon his valour bestowed copious praises, but in words too pompous
+and ornamental to be believed dictated by his heart. It was with more
+brevity that he commended Drusus, and his address in quelling the
+sedition of Illyricum, but more cordially withal, and in language
+altogether sincere; and even to the Pannonian legions he extended all
+the concessions made by Germanicus to his own.
+
+There was this year an admission of new rites, by the establishment
+of another College of Priests, one sacred to the deity of Augustus; as
+formerly Titus Tatius, to preserve the religious rites of the Sabines,
+had founded the fraternity of Titian Priests. To fill the society,
+one-and-twenty, the most considerable Romans were drawn by lot, and
+to them added Tiberius, Drusus, Claudius, and Germanicus. The games in
+honour of Augustus began then first to be embroiled by emulation among
+the players, and the strife of parties in their behalf. Augustus had
+countenanced these players and their art, in complaisance to Maecenas,
+who was mad in love with Bathyllus the comedian; nor to such favourite
+amusements of the populace had he any aversion himself; he rather judged
+it an acceptable courtesy to mingle with the multitude in these their
+popular pleasures. Different was the temper of Tiberius, different
+his politics: to severer manners, however, he durst not yet reduce the
+people, so many years indulged in licentious gaieties.
+
+In the consulship of Drusus Caesar and Caius Norbanus, a triumph was
+decreed to Germanicus, while the war still subsisted. He was preparing
+with all diligence to prosecute it the following summer; but began much
+sooner by a sudden irruption early in the spring into the territories of
+the Cattans: an anticipation of the campaign, which proceeded from the
+hopes given him of dissension amongst the enemy, caused by the opposite
+parties of Arminius and Segestes; two men signally known to the Romans
+upon different accounts; the last for his firm faith, the first for
+faith violated. Arminius was the incendiary of Germany; but by Segestes
+had been given repeated warnings of an intended revolt, particularly
+during the festival immediately preceding the insurrection: he had even
+advised Varus "to secure himself and Arminius, and all the other chiefs;
+for that the multitude, thus bereft of their leaders, would dare to
+attempt nothing; and Varus have time to distinguish crimes and such
+as committed none." But by his own fate, and the sudden violence of
+Arminius, Varus fell. Segestes, though by the weight and unanimity of
+his nation he was forced into the war, yet remained at constant variance
+with Arminius: a domestic quarrel too heightened their hate, as Arminius
+had carried away the daughter of Segestes, already betrothed to another;
+and the same relations, which amongst friends prove bonds of tenderness,
+were fresh stimulations of wrath to an obnoxious son and an offended
+father.
+
+Upon these encouragements, Germanicus to the command of Caecina
+committed four legions, five thousand auxiliaries, and some bands of
+Germans, dwellers on this side the Rhine, drawn suddenly together;
+he led himself as many legions with double the number of allies, and
+erecting a fort in Mount Taunus, [Footnote: Near Homburg.] upon the old
+foundations of one raised by his father, rushed full march against the
+Cattans; having behind him left Lucius Apronius, to secure the ways from
+the fury of inundations: for as the roads were then dry and the rivers
+low, events in that climate exceeding rare, he had without check
+expedited his march; but against his return apprehended the violence of
+rains and floods. Upon the Cattans he fell with such surprise, that all
+the weak through sex or age were instantly taken or slaughtered: their
+youth, by swimming over the Adrana, [Footnote: Eder.] escaped, and
+attempted to force the Romans from building a bridge to follow them, but
+by dint of arrows and engines were repulsed; and then, having in vain
+tried to gain terms of peace, some submitted to Germanicus; the rest
+abandoned their villages and dwellings, and dispersed themselves in the
+woods. Mattium, [Footnote: Maden.] the capital of the nation, he burnt,
+ravaged all the open country, and bent his march to the Rhine; nor durst
+the enemy harass his rear, an usual practice of theirs, when sometimes
+they fly more through craft than affright. The Cheruscans indeed were
+addicted to assist the Cattans, but terrified from attempting it by
+Caecina, who moved about with his forces from place to place; and by
+routing the Marsians who had dared to engage him, restrained all their
+efforts.
+
+Soon after arrived deputies from Segestes, praying relief against
+the combination and violence of his countrymen, by whom he was held
+besieged; as more powerful amongst them than his was the credit of
+Arminius, since it was he who had advised the war. The genius this of
+barbarians, to judge that men are to be trusted in proportion as they
+are fierce, and in public commotions ever to prefer the most resolute.
+To the other deputies Segestes had added Segimundus, his son; but the
+young man faltered a while, as his own heart accused him; for that
+the year when Germany revolted, he, who had been by the Romans created
+Priest of the altar of the Ubians, rent the sacerdotal tiara and fled to
+the revolters: yet, encouraged by the Roman clemency, he undertook the
+execution of his father's orders, was himself graciously received, and
+then conducted with a guard to the frontiers of Gaul. Germanicus led
+back his army to the relief of Segestes, and was rewarded with success.
+He fought the besiegers, and rescued him with a great train of his
+relations and followers; amongst them too were ladies of illustrious
+rank, particularly the wife of Arminius, the same who was the daughter
+of Segestes: a lady more of the spirit of her husband than that of her
+father; a spirit so unsubdued, that from her eyes captivity forced not
+a tear, nor from her lips a breath in the style of a supplicant: not a
+motion of her hands, nor a look escaped her; but, fast across her breast
+she held her arms, and upon her heavy womb her eyes were immovably
+fixed. There were likewise carried Roman spoils taken at the slaughter
+of Varus and his army, and then divided as prey amongst many of those
+who were now prisoners: at the same time appeared Segestes, of superior
+stature; and from a confidence in his good understanding with the
+Romans, undaunted. In this manner he spoke:
+
+"It is not the first day this, that to the Roman People I have approved
+my faith and adherence: from the moment I was by the deified Augustus
+presented with the freedom of the city, I have continued by your
+interest to choose my friends, by your interest to denominate my
+enemies; from no hate of mine to my native country (for odious are
+traitors even to the party they embrace), but because the same measures
+were equally conducing to the benefit of the Romans and of the Germans;
+and I was rather for peace than war. For this reason to Varus, the then
+General, I applied, with an accusation against Arminius, who from me had
+ravished my daughter, and with you violated the faith of leagues: but
+growing impatient with the slowness and inactivity of Varus, and well
+apprised how little security was to be hoped from the laws, I pressed
+him to seize myself, and Arminius, and his accomplices: witness that
+fatal night, to me I wish it had been the last! more to be lamented than
+defended are the sad events which followed. I moreover cast Arminius
+into irons, and was myself cast into irons by his faction; and as soon
+as to you, Caesar, I could apply, you see I prefer old engagements to
+present violence, and tranquillity to combustions, with no view of
+my own to interest or reward, but to banish from me the imputation
+of perfidiousness. For the German nation, too, I would thus become a
+mediator, if peradventure they will choose rather to repent than be
+destroyed: for my son, I intreat you, have mercy upon his youth, and
+pardon his error; that my daughter is your prisoner by force I own: in
+your breast it wholly lies under which character you will treat her,
+whether as one by Arminius impregnated, or by me begotten." The answer
+of Germanicus was gracious: he promised indemnity to his children and
+kindred, and to himself a safe retreat in one of the old provinces; then
+returned with his army, and by the direction of Tiberius, received the
+title of _Imperator_. The wife of Arminius brought forth a male child,
+and the boy was brought up at Ravenna; his unhappy conflicts afterwards,
+with the contumelious insults of fortune, will be remembered in their
+place.
+
+The desertion of Segestes being divulged, with his gracious reception
+from Germanicus, affected his countrymen variously; with hope or
+anguish, as they were prone or averse to the war. Naturally violent was
+the spirit of Arminius, and now, by the captivity of his wife, by the
+fate of his child doomed to bondage though yet unborn, enraged even to
+distraction: he flew about amongst the Cheruscans, calling them to arms;
+to arm against Segestes, to arm against Germanicus. Invectives followed
+his fury; "A blessed father this Segestes," he cried! "a mighty general
+this Germanicus! invincible warriors these Romans! so many troops have
+made prisoner of a woman. It is not thus that I conquer; before me three
+legions fell, and three lieutenant-generals. Open and honourable is my
+method of war, nor waged with big-bellied women, but against men and
+arms; and treason is none of my weapons. Still to be seen are the Roman
+standards in the German groves, there by me hung up and devoted to our
+country Gods. Let Segestes live a slave in a conquered province; let him
+to his son recover a foreign priesthood: with the German nations he can
+never obliterate his reproach, that through him they have seen between
+the Elbe and Rhine rods and axes, and the Roman toga. To other nations
+who know not the Roman domination, executions and tributes are also
+unknown; evils which we too have cast off, in spite of that Augustus now
+dead and enrolled with the Deities; in spite too of Tiberius, his
+chosen successor: let us not after this dread a mutinous army, and a boy
+without experience, their commander; but if you love your country, your
+kindred, your ancient liberty and laws, better than tyrants and new
+colonies, let Arminius rather lead you to liberty and glory, than the
+wicked Segestes to the infamy of bondage."
+
+By these stimulations, not the Cheruscans only were roused, but all the
+neighbouring nations; and into the confederacy was drawn Inguiomerus,
+paternal uncle to Arminius, a man long since in high credit with the
+Romans: hence a new source of fear to Germanicus, who, to avoid the
+shock of their whole forces, and to divert the enemy, sent Caecina with
+forty Roman cohorts to the river Amisia, [Footnote: Ems.] through the
+territories of the Bructerans. Pedo the Prefect led the cavalry by the
+confines of the Frisians: he himself, on the lake, [Footnote: The Zuyder
+Zee.] embarked four legions; and upon the bank of the said river the
+whole body met, foot, horse, and fleet. The Chaucians, upon offering
+their assistance, were taken into the service; but the Bructerans,
+setting fire to their effects and dwellings, were routed by Stertinius,
+by Germanicus despatched against them with a band lightly armed. As this
+party were engaged between slaughter and plunder, he found the Eagle of
+the nineteenth legion lost in the overthrow of Varus. The army marched
+next to the farthest borders of the Bructerans, and the whole country
+between the rivers Amisia and Luppia [Footnote: Lippe.] was laid waste.
+Not far hence lay the forest of Teutoburgium, and in it the bones of
+Varus and the legions, by report still unburied.
+
+Hence Germanicus became inspired with a tender passion to pay the
+last offices to the legions and their leader; the like tenderness also
+affected the whole army. They were moved with compassion, some for
+the fate of their friends, others for that of their relations here
+tragically slain; they were struck with the doleful casualties of war,
+and the sad lot of humanity. Caecina was sent before to examine the
+gloomy recesses of the forest; to lay bridges over the pools; and upon
+the deceitful marshes, causeways. The army entered the doleful solitude,
+hideous to sight, hideous to memory. First they saw the camp of Varus,
+wide in circumference; and the three distinct spaces, allotted to the
+different Eagles, showed the number of the legions. Further, they
+beheld the ruinous entrenchment, and the ditch nigh choked up: in it the
+remains of the army were supposed to have made their last effort, and
+in it to have found their graves. In the open fields lay their bones
+all bleached and bare, some separate, some on heaps; just as they had
+happened to fall, flying for their lives, or resisting unto death. Here
+were scattered the limbs of horses, there pieces of broken javelins; and
+the trunks of trees bore the skulls of men. In the adjacent groves were
+the savage altars; where, of the tribunes and principal centurions,
+the barbarians had made a horrible immolation. Those who survived the
+slaughter, having escaped from captivity and the sword, related the sad
+particulars to the rest: "Here the commanders of the legions were slain;
+there we lost the Eagles; here Varus had his first wound; there he gave
+himself another, and perished by his own unhappy hand. In that place,
+too, stood the tribunal whence Arminius harangued; in this quarter, for
+the execution of his captives, he erected so many gibbets; in that such
+a number of funeral trenches were digged; and with these circumstances
+of pride and despite he insulted the ensigns and Eagles."
+
+Thus the Roman army buried the bones of the three legions, six years
+after the slaughter: nor could any one distinguish whether he gathered
+the particular remains of a stranger, or those of a kinsman; but all
+considered the whole as their friends, the whole as their relations;
+with heightened resentments against the foe, at once sad and revengeful.
+In this pious office, so acceptable to the dead, Germanicus was a
+partner in the woe of the living; and upon the common tomb laid the
+first sod: a proceeding not liked by Tiberius; whether it were that upon
+every action of Germanicus he put a perverse meaning, or believed that
+the affecting spectacle of the unburied slain would sink the spirit
+of the army, and heighten their terror of the enemy; as also that "a
+general vested, as Augur, with the intendency of religious rites, became
+defiled by touching the solemnities of the dead."
+
+Arminius, retiring into desert and pathless places, was pursued by
+Germanicus; who, as soon as he reached him, commanded the horse to
+advance, and dislodge the enemy from the post they had possessed.
+Arminius, having directed his men to keep close together, and draw near
+to the woods, wheeled suddenly about, and to those whom he had hid in
+the forest gave the signal to rush out: the Roman horse, now engaged
+by a new army, became disordered, and to their relief some cohorts were
+sent, but likewise broken by the press of those that fled; and great
+was the consternation so many ways increased. The enemy too were already
+pushing them into the morass, a place well known to the pursuers, as to
+the unapprised Romans it had proved pernicious, had not Germanicus drawn
+out the legions in order of battle. Hence the enemy became terrified,
+our men reassured, and both retired with equal loss and advantage.
+Germanicus presently after returning with the army to the river Amisia,
+reconducted the legions, as he had brought them, in the fleet: part
+of the horse were ordered to march along the sea-shore to the Rhine.
+Caecina, who led his own men, was warned, that though he was to return
+through unknown roads, yet he should with all speed pass the causeway
+called the long bridges: it is a narrow track this, between vast
+marshes, and formerly raised by Lucius Domitius. The marshes themselves
+are of an uncertain soil, here full of mud, there of heavy sticking
+clay, or traversed with various currents. Round about are woods which
+rise gently from the plain, and were already filled with soldiers by
+Arminius; who, by shorter ways and a running march, had arrived there
+before our men, who were loaded with arms and baggage. Caecina, who was
+perplexed how at once to repair the causeway decayed by time, and to
+repulse the foe, resolved at last to encamp in the place, that whilst
+some were employed in the work, others might maintain the fight.
+
+The Barbarians strove violently to break our station, and to fall upon
+the entrenchers: they harassed our men, assaulted the works, changed
+their attacks, and pushed everywhere. With the shouts of the assailants,
+the cries of the workmen were confusedly mixed; and all things equally
+combined to distress the Romans: the place deep with ooze sinking under
+those who stood, slippery to such as advanced; their armour heavy;
+the waters deep, nor could they in them launch their javelins. The
+Cheruscans, on the contrary, were inured to encounters in the bogs;
+their persons tall, their spears long, such as could wound at a
+distance. At last the legions, already yielding, were by night redeemed
+from an unequal combat; but night interrupted not the activity of the
+Germans, become by success indefatigable. Without refreshing themselves
+with sleep, they diverted all the courses of the springs which rise in
+the neighbouring mountains, and turned them into the plains: thus
+the Roman camp was flooded, the work, as far as they had carried it,
+overturned, and the labour of the poor soldiers renewed and doubled. To
+Caecina this year proved the fortieth of his sustaining as officer or
+soldier the functions of arms; a man in all the vicissitudes of war,
+prosperous or disastrous, well experienced and thence undaunted.
+Weighing, therefore, with himself all probable events and expedients, he
+could devise no other than that of restraining the enemy to the woods,
+till he had sent forward the wounded men and baggage; for, from the
+mountains to the marshes there stretched a plain fit only to hold a
+little army: to this purpose the legions were thus appointed; the fifth
+had the right wing, and the one-and-twentieth the left; the first led
+the van; the twentieth defended the rear.
+
+A restless night it was to both armies, but in different ways; the
+Barbarians feasted and caroused, and with songs of triumph, or with
+horrid and threatening cries, filled all the plain and echoing woods.
+Amongst the Romans were feeble fires, sad silence, or broken words;
+they leaned drooping here and there against the pales, or wandered
+disconsolately about the tents, like men without sleep, but not quite
+awake. A frightful dream too terrified the General; he thought he heard
+and saw Quinctilius Varus, rising out of the marsh all besmeared with
+blood, stretching forth his hand, and calling upon him; but that he
+rejected the call and pushed him away. At break of day, the legions
+posted on the wings, through contumacy or affright, deserted their
+stations, and took sudden possession of a field beyond the bogs. Neither
+did Arminius fall straight upon them, however open they lay to his
+assault; but, when he perceived the baggage set fast in mire and
+ditches, the soldiers above it disorderly and embarrassed, the ranks and
+ensigns in confusion, and, as usual in a time of distress, every one in
+haste to save himself, but slow to obey his officer, he then commanded
+his Germans to break in, "Behold," he vehemently cried; "behold again
+Varus and his legions subdued by the same fate." Thus he cried, and
+instantly with a select body broke quite through our forces, and chiefly
+against the horse directed his havoc; so that the ground becoming
+slippery by their blood and the slime of the marsh, their feet flew from
+them, and they cast their riders; then galloping and stumbling amongst
+the ranks, they overthrew all they met, and trod to death all they
+overthrew. The greatest difficulty was to maintain the Eagles; a storm
+of darts made it impossible to advance them, and the rotten ground
+impossible to fix them. Caecina, while he sustained the fight, had his
+horse shot, and having fallen was nigh taken; but the first legion
+saved him. Our relief came from the greediness of the enemy, who ceased
+slaying to seize the spoil: hence the legions had respite to struggle
+into the fair field and firm ground. Nor was here an end of their
+miseries: a palisade was to be raised, an entrenchment digged; their
+instruments too for throwing up and carrying earth, and their tools
+for cutting turf, were almost all lost; no tents for the soldiers; no
+remedies for the wounded; and their food all defiled with mire or blood.
+As they shared it in sadness amongst them, they lamented that mournful
+night, they lamented the approaching day, to so many thousand men the
+last.
+
+It happened that a horse, which had broke his collar as he strayed
+about, became frightened with noise, and ran over some that were in his
+way: this raised such a consternation in the camp, from a persuasion
+that the Germans in a body had forced an entrance, that all rushed to
+the gates, especially to the postern, as the farthest from the foe, and
+safer for flight. Caecina having found the vanity of their dread, but
+unable to stop them, either by his authority, or by his prayers, or
+indeed by force, flung himself at last across the gate. This prevailed;
+their awe and tenderness of their General restrained them from running
+over his body; and the Tribunes and Centurions satisfied them the while,
+that it was a false alarm.
+
+Then calling them together, and desiring them to hear him with silence,
+he reminded them of their difficulties, and how to conquer them: "That
+for their lives they must be indebted to their arms, but force was to
+be tempered with art; they must therefore keep close within their camp,
+till the enemy, in hopes of taking it by storm, advanced; then make a
+sudden sally on every side, and by this push they should break through
+the enemy, and reach the Rhine. But if they fled, more forests remained
+to be traversed, deeper marshes to be passed, and the cruelty of a
+pursuing foe to be sustained." He laid before them the motives and
+fruits of victory, public rewards and glory, with every tender domestic
+consideration, as well as those of military exploits and praise. Of
+their dangers and sufferings he said nothing. He next distributed
+horses, first his own, then those of the Tribunes and leaders of the
+legions, to the bravest soldiers impartially; that thus mounted they
+might begin the charge, followed by the foot.
+
+Amongst the Germans there was not less agitation, from hopes of victory,
+greediness of spoil, and the opposite counsels of their leaders.
+Arminius proposed "to let the Romans march off, and to beset them
+in their march, when engaged in bogs and fastnesses." The advice of
+Inguiomerus was fiercer, and thence by the Barbarians more applauded:
+he declared "for forcing the camp, for that the victory would be quick,
+there would be more captives, and entire plunder." As soon, therefore,
+as it was light, they rushed out upon the camp, cast hurdles into
+the ditch, attacked and grappled the palisade. Upon it few soldiers
+appeared, and these seemed frozen with fear; but as the enemy was in
+swarms, climbing the ramparts, the signal was given to the cohorts;
+the cornets and trumpets sounded, and instantly, with shouts and
+impetuosity, they issued out and begirt the assailants. "Here are no
+thickets," they scornfully cried; "no bogs; but an equal field and
+impartial Gods." The enemy, who imagined few Romans remaining, fewer
+arms, and an easy conquest, were struck with the sounding trumpets, with
+the glittering armour; and every object of terror appeared double to
+them who expected none. They fell like men who, as they are void of
+moderation in prosperity, are also destitute of conduct in distress.
+Arminius forsook the fight unhurt; Inguiomerus grievously wounded; their
+men were slaughtered as long as day and rage lasted. In the evening the
+legions returned, in the same want of provisions, and with more wounds;
+but in victory they found all things, health, vigour, and abundance.
+
+In the meantime a report had flown, that the Roman forces were routed,
+and an army of Germans upon full march to invade Gaul; so that under
+the terror of this news there were those whose cowardice would have
+emboldened them to have demolished the bridge upon the Rhine, had not
+Agrippina restrained them from that infamous attempt. In truth, such was
+the undaunted spirit of the woman, that at this time she performed all
+the duties of a general, relieved the necessitous soldiers, upon the
+wounded bestowed medicines, and upon others clothes. Caius Plinius,
+the writer of the German wars, relates that she stood at the end of
+the bridge, as the legions returned, and accosted them with thanks and
+praises; a behaviour which sunk deep into the spirit of Tiberius: "For
+that all this officiousness of hers," he thought, "could not be upright;
+nor that it was against foreigners only she engaged the army. To the
+direction of the generals nothing was now left, when a woman reviewed
+the companies, attended the Eagles, and to the men distributed
+largesses: as if before she had shown but small tokens of ambitious
+designs, in carrying her child (the son of the General) in a soldier's
+coat about the camp, with the title of Caesar Caligula: already in
+greater credit with the army was Agrippina than the leaders of the
+legions, in greater than their generals; and a woman had suppressed
+sedition, which the authority of the Emperor was not able to restrain."
+These jealousies were inflamed, and more were added, by Sejanus; one who
+was well skilled in the temper of Tiberius, and purposely furnished him
+with sources of hatred, to lie hid in his heart, and be discharged with
+increase hereafter. Germanicus, in order to lighten the ships in which
+he had embarked his men, and fit their burden to the ebbs and shallows,
+delivered the second and fourteenth legions to Publius Vitellius, to
+lead them by land. Vitellius at first had an easy march on dry ground,
+or ground moderately overflowed by the tide, when suddenly the fury of
+the north wind swelling the ocean (a constant effect of the equinox) the
+legions were surrounded and tossed with the tide, and the land was all
+on flood; the sea, the shore, the fields, had the same tempestuous face;
+no distinction of depths from shallows; none of firm, from deceitful,
+footing. They were overturned by the billows, swallowed down by the
+eddies; and horses, baggage, and drowned men encountered each other,
+and floated together. The several companies were mixed at random by
+the waves; they waded, now breast high, now up to the chin, and as the
+ground failed them, they fell, some never more to rise. Their cries and
+mutual encouragements availed them nothing against the prevailing and
+inexorable waves; no difference between the coward and the brave, the
+wise and the foolish; none between circumspection and chance; but
+all were equally involved in the invincible violence of the flood.
+Vitellius, at length struggling on to an eminence, drew the legions
+thither, where they passed the cold night without fire, and destitute of
+every convenience; most of them naked or lamed; not less miserable than
+men enclosed by an enemy; for even to such remained the consolation of
+an honourable death; but here was destruction every way void of glory.
+The land returned with the day, and they marched to the river Vidrus,
+[Footnote: Weser.] whither Germanicus had gone with the fleet. There the
+two legions were again embarked, when fame had given them for drowned;
+nor was their escape believed till Germanicus and the army were seen to
+return.
+
+Stertinius, who in the meanwhile had been sent before to receive
+Sigimerus, the brother of Segestes (a prince willing to surrender
+himself) brought him and his son to the city of the Ubians. Both were
+pardoned; the father freely, the son with more difficulty, because he
+was said to have insulted the corpse of Varus. For the rest, Spain,
+Italy, and both the Gauls strove with emulation to supply the losses of
+the army; and offered arms, horses, money, according as each abounded.
+Germanicus applauded their zeal; but accepted only the horses and
+arms for the service of the war. With his own money he relieved the
+necessities of the soldiers: and to soften also by his kindness the
+memory of the late havoc, he visited the wounded, extolled the exploits
+of particulars, viewed their wounds, with hopes encouraged some, with
+a sense of glory animated others; and by affability and tenderness
+confirmed them all in devotion to himself and to his fortune in war.
+
+The ornaments of triumph were this year decreed to Aulus Caecina, Lucius
+Apronius, and Caius Silius, for their services under Germanicus. The
+title of Father of his Country, so often offered by the people to
+Tiberius, was rejected by him; nor would he permit swearing upon his
+acts, though the same was voted by the Senate. Against it he urged "the
+instability of all mortal things, and that the higher he was raised
+the more slippery he stood." But for all this ostentation of a popular
+spirit, he acquired not the reputation of possessing it, for he had
+revived the law concerning violated majesty; a law which, in the days
+of our ancestors, had indeed the same name, but implied different
+arraignments and crimes, namely, those against the State; as when an
+army was betrayed abroad, when seditions were raised at home; in short,
+when the public was faithlessly administered and the majesty of the
+Roman People was debased: these were actions, and actions were punished,
+but words were free. Augustus was the first who brought libels under the
+penalties of this wrested law, incensed as he was by the insolence of
+Cassius Severus, who had in his writings wantonly defamed men and ladies
+of illustrious quality. Tiberius too afterwards, when Pompeius Macer,
+the Praetor, consulted him "whether process should be granted upon
+this law?" answered, "That the laws must be executed." He also
+was exasperated by satirical verses written by unknown authors and
+dispersed; exposing his cruelty, his pride, and his mind naturally
+alienated from his mother.
+
+It will be worth while to relate here the pretended crimes charged upon
+Falanius and Rubrius, two Roman knights of small fortunes; that hence
+may be seen from what beginnings, and by how much dark art of Tiberius,
+this grievous mischief crept in; how it was again restrained; how at
+last it blazed out and consumed all things. To Falanius was objected
+by his accusers, that "amongst the adorers of Augustus, who went in
+fraternities from house to house, he had admitted one Cassius, a mimic
+and prostitute; and having sold his gardens, had likewise with them sold
+the statue of Augustus." The crime imputed to Rubrius was, "That he had
+sworn falsely by the divinity of Augustus." When these accusations
+were known to Tiberius, he wrote to the consuls, "That Heaven was not
+therefore decreed to his father, that the worship of him might be a
+snare to the citizens of Rome; that Cassius, the player, was wont to
+assist with others of his profession at the interludes consecrated by
+his mother to the memory of Augustus: neither did it affect religion,
+that his effigies, like other images of the Gods, were comprehended in
+the sale of houses and gardens. As to the false swearing by his name,
+it was to be deemed the same as if Rubrius had profaned the name of
+Jupiter; but to the Gods belonged the avenging of injuries done to the
+Gods."
+
+Not long after, Granius Marcellus, Praetor of Bithynia, was charged with
+high treason by his own Quaestor, Cepio Crispinus; Romanus Hispo, the
+pleader, supporting the charge. This Cepio began a course of life which,
+through the miseries of the times and the bold wickedness of men, became
+afterwards famous: at first needy and obscure, but of a busy spirit,
+he made court to the cruelty of the Prince by occult informations; and
+presently, as an open accuser, grew terrible to every distinguished
+Roman. This procured him credit with one, hatred from all, and made a
+precedent to be followed by others, who from poverty became rich; from
+being contemned, dreadful; and in the destruction which they brought
+upon others, found at last their own. He accused Marcellus of "malignant
+words concerning Tiberius," an inevitable crime! when the accuser,
+collecting all the most detestable parts of the Prince's character,
+alleged them as the expressions of the accused; for, because they were
+true, they were believed to have been spoken. To this, Hispo added,
+"That the statue of Marcellus was by him placed higher than those of the
+Caesars; and that, having cut off the head of Augustus, he had in the
+room of it set the head of Tiberius." This enraged him so, that breaking
+silence, he cried, "He would himself, in this cause, give his vote
+explicitly and under the tie of an oath." By this he meant to force the
+assent of the rest of the Senate. There remained even then some faint
+traces of expiring liberty. Hence Cneius Piso asked him, "In what place,
+Caesar, will you choose to give your opinion? If first, I shall have
+your example to follow; if last, I fear I may ignorantly dissent from
+you." The words pierced him, but he bore them, the rather as he was
+ashamed of his unwary transport; and he suffered the accused to be
+acquitted of high treason. To try him for the public money was referred
+to the proper judges.
+
+Nor sufficed it Tiberius to assist in the deliberations of the Senate
+only: he likewise sat in the seats of justice; but always on one side,
+because he would not dispossess the Praetor of his chair; and by his
+presence there, many ordinances were established against the intrigues
+and solicitations of the Grandees. But while private justice was thus
+promoted, public liberty was overthrown. About this time, Pius Aurelius,
+the Senator, whose house, yielding to the pressure of the public road
+and aqueducts, had fallen, complained to the Senate and prayed relief:
+a suit opposed by the Praetors who managed the treasury; but he was
+relieved by Tiberius, who ordered him the price of his house; for he
+was fond of being liberal upon honest occasions: a virtue which he long
+retained, even after he had utterly abandoned all other virtues. Upon
+Propertius Celer, once Praetor, but now desiring leave to resign the
+dignity of Senator, as a burden to his poverty, he bestowed a thousand
+great sesterces; [Footnote: L8333.] upon ample information, that Celer's
+necessities were derived from his father. Others, who attempted the same
+thing, he ordered to lay their condition before the Senate; and from
+an affectation of severity was thus austere even where he acted with
+uprightness. Hence the rest preferred poverty and silence to begging and
+relief.
+
+The same year the Tiber, being swelled with continual rains, overflowed
+the level parts of the city; and the common destruction of men and
+houses followed the returning flood. Hence Asinius Callus moved "that
+the Sibylline books might be consulted." Tiberius opposed it, equally
+smothering all inquiries whatsoever, whether into matters human or
+divine. To Ateius Capito, however, and Lucius Arruntius, was committed
+the care of restraining the river within its banks. The provinces of
+Achaia and Macedon, praying relief from their public burdens, were for
+the present discharged of their Proconsular government, and subjected to
+the Emperor's lieutenants. In the entertainment of gladiators at Rome,
+Drusus presided: it was exhibited in the name of Germanicus, and his
+own; and at it he manifested too much lust of blood, even of the blood
+of slaves: a quality terrible to the populace; and hence his father
+was said to have reproved him. His own absence from these shows was
+variously construed: by some it was ascribed to his impatience of a
+crowd; by others to his reserved and solitary genius, and his fear of
+an unequal comparison with Augustus, who was wont to be a cheerful
+spectator. But, that he thus purposely furnished matter for exposing the
+cruelty of his son there, and for raising him popular hate, is what I
+would not believe; though this too was asserted.
+
+The dissensions of the theatre, begun last year, broke out now more
+violently, with the slaughter of several, not of the people only, but of
+the soldiers, with that of a Centurion. Nay, a Tribune of a Praetorian
+cohort was wounded, whilst they were securing the magistrates from
+insults, and quelling the licentiousness of the rabble. This riot was
+canvassed in the Senate, and votes were passing for empowering the
+Praetors to whip the players. Haterius Agrippa, Tribune of the People,
+opposed it; and was sharply reprimanded by a speech of Asinius Gallus.
+Tiberius was silent, and to the Senate allowed these empty apparitions
+of liberty. The opposition, however, prevailed, in reverence to the
+authority of Augustus; who, upon a certain occasion, had given his
+judgment, "that players were exempt from stripes:" nor would Tiberius
+assume to violate any words of his. To limit the wages of players, and
+restrain the licentiousness of their partisans, many decrees were made:
+the most remarkable were, "That no Senator should enter the house of a
+pantomime; no Roman Knight attend them abroad; they should show nowhere
+but in the theatre; and the Praetors should have power to punish any
+insolence in the spectators with exile."
+
+The Spaniards were, upon their petition, permitted to build a temple
+to Augustus in the colony of Tarragon; an example this for all the
+provinces to follow. In answer to the people, who prayed to be relieved
+from the _centesima_, a tax of one in the hundred, established at the
+end of the civil wars, upon all vendible commodities; Tiberius by an
+edict declared, "That upon this tax depended the fund for maintaining
+the army; nor even thus was the Commonwealth equal to the expense, if
+before their twentieth year the veterans were dismissed." So that
+the concessions made them during the late sedition, to discharge
+them finally at the end of sixteen years, as they were made through
+necessity, were for the future abolished.
+
+It was next proposed to the Senate, by Arruntius and Ateius, whether,
+in order to restrain the overflowing of the Tiber, the channels of the
+several rivers and lakes by which it was swelled, must not be diverted.
+Upon this question the deputies of several cities and colonies were
+heard. The Florentines besought, "that the bed of the Clanis [Footnote:
+Chiana.] might not be turned into their river Arnus; [Footnote: Arno.]
+for that the same would prove their utter ruin." The like plea was urged
+by the Interamnates; [Footnote: Terni.] "since the most fruitful plains
+in Italy would be lost, if, according to the project, the Nar, branched
+out into rivulets, overflowed them." Nor were the Reatinians less
+earnest against stopping the outlets of the Lake Velinus into the Nar;
+"otherwise," they said, "it would break over its banks, and stagnate all
+the adjacent country; the direction of nature was best in all natural
+things: it was she that to rivers had appointed their courses and
+discharges, and set them their limits as well as their sources. Regard
+too was to be paid to the religion of our Latin allies, who, esteeming
+the rivers of their country sacred, had to them dedicated Priests, and
+altars, and groves; nay, the Tiber himself, when bereft of his auxiliary
+streams, would flow with diminished grandeur." Now, whether it were
+that the prayers of the colonies, or the difficulty of the work, or the
+influence of superstition prevailed, it is certain the opinion of Piso
+was followed; namely, that nothing should be altered,
+
+To Poppeus Sabinus was continued his province of Mesia; and to it was
+added that of Achaia and Macedon. This too was part of the politics of
+Tiberius, to prolong governments, and maintain the same men in the same
+armies, or civil employments, for the most part, to the end of
+their lives; with what view, is not agreed. Some think "that from an
+impatience of returning cares, he was for making whatever he once liked
+perpetual." Others, "that from the malignity of his invidious nature, he
+regretted the preferring of many." There are some who believe, "that
+as he had a crafty penetrating spirit, so he had an understanding ever
+irresolute and perplexed." So much is certain, that he never courted any
+eminent virtue, yet hated vice; from the best men he dreaded danger
+to himself, and disgrace to the public from the worst. This hesitation
+mastered him so much at last that he committed foreign governments to
+some, whom he meant never to suffer to leave Rome.
+
+Concerning the management of consular elections, either then or
+afterwards under Tiberius, I can affirm scarce anything: such is the
+variance about it, not only amongst historians, but even in his own
+speeches. Sometimes, not naming the candidates, he described them by
+their family, by their life and manners, and by the number of their
+campaigns; so as it might be apparent whom he meant. Again, avoiding
+even to describe them, he exhorted the candidates not to disturb the
+election by their intrigues, and promised himself to take care of
+their interests. But chiefly he used to declare, "that to him none had
+signified their pretensions, but such whose names he had delivered to
+the Consuls; others too were at liberty to offer the like pretensions,
+if they trusted to the favour of the Senate or their own merits."
+Specious words! but entirely empty, or full of fraud; and by how
+much they were covered with the greater guise of liberty, by so much
+threatening a more hasty and devouring bondage.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II
+
+A.D. 16-19.
+
+
+The commotions in the East happened not ungratefully to Tiberius, since
+then he had a colour for separating Germanicus from his old and faithful
+legions; for setting him over strange provinces, and exposing him at
+once to casual perils and the efforts of fraud. But he, the more ardent
+he found the affections of the soldiers, and the greater the hatred of
+his uncle, so much the more intent upon a decisive victory, weighed
+with himself all the methods of that war, with all the disasters and
+successes which had befallen him in it to this his third year. He
+remembered "that the Germans were ever routed in a fair battle, and upon
+equal ground; that woods and bogs, short summers, and early winters,
+were their chief resources; that his own men suffered not so much from
+their wounds, as from tedious marches, and the loss of their arms. The
+Gauls were weary of furnishing horses; long and cumbersome was his train
+of baggage, easily surprised, and with difficulty defended; but, if we
+entered the country by sea, the invasion would be easy, and the enemy
+unapprised. Besides, the war would be earlier begun; the legions and
+provisions would be carried together; and the cavalry brought with
+safety, through the mouths and channels of the rivers, into the heart of
+Germany."
+
+On that method therefore he fixed: whilst Publius Vitellius and Publius
+Cantius were sent to collect the tribute of the Gauls; Silius, Anteius,
+and Caecina had the direction of building the fleet. A thousand vessels
+were thought sufficient, and with despatch finished: some were short,
+sharp at both ends, and wide in the middle, the easier to endure the
+agitations of the waves; some had flat bottoms, that without damage
+they might bear to run aground; several had helms at each end, that by
+suddenly turning the oars only they might work either way. Many were
+arched over, for carrying the engines of war. They were fitted for
+holding horses and provisions, to fly with sails, to run with oars, and
+the spirit and alacrity of the soldiers heightened the show and terror
+of the fleet. They were to meet at the Isle of Batavia, which was chosen
+for its easy landing, for its convenience to receive the forces, and
+thence to transport them to the war. For the Rhine, flowing in one
+continual channel, or only broken by small islands, is, at the extremity
+of Batavia, divided as it were into two rivers; one running still
+through Germany, and retaining the same name and violent current, till
+it mixes with the ocean; the other, washing the Gallic shore, with a
+broader and more gentle stream, is by the inhabitants called by another
+name, the Wahal, which it soon after changes for that of the river
+Meuse, by whose immense mouth it is discharged into the same ocean.
+
+While the fleet sailed, Germanicus commanded Silius, his lieutenant,
+with a flying band, to invade the Cattans; and he himself, upon hearing
+that the fort upon the river Luppia [Footnote: Lippe.] was besieged, led
+six legions thither: but the sudden rains prevented Silius from doing
+more than taking some small plunder, with the wife and daughter of
+Arpus, Prince of the Cattans; nor did the besiegers stay to fight
+Germanicus, but upon the report of his approach stole off and dispersed.
+As they had, however, thrown down the common tomb lately raised over
+the Varian legions, and the old altar erected to Drusus, he restored the
+altar; and performed in person with the legions the funeral ceremony of
+running courses to the honour of his father. To replace the tomb was
+not thought fit; but all the space between Fort Aliso and the Rhine, he
+fortified with a new barrier.
+
+The fleet was now arrived, the provisions were sent forward; ships were
+assigned to the legions and the allies; and he entered the canal cut
+by Drusus, and called by his name. Here he invoked his father "to be
+propitious to his son attempting the same enterprises; to inspire him
+with the same counsels, and animate him by his example." Hence he
+sailed fortunately through the lakes and the ocean to the river Amisia,
+[Footnote: Ems.] and at the town of Amisia the fleet was left upon the
+left shore; and it was a fault that it sailed no higher, for he landed
+the army on the right shore, so that in making bridges many days were
+consumed. The horse and the legions passed over without danger, as it
+was yet ebb; but the returning tide disordered the rear, especially the
+Batavians, while they played with the waves, and showed their dexterity
+in swimming; and some were drowned. Whilst Germanicus was encamping, he
+was told of the revolt of the Angrivarians behind him, and thither he
+despatched a body of horse and light foot, under Stertinius, who with
+fire and slaughter took vengeance on the perfidious revolters.
+
+Between the Romans and the Cheruscans flowed the river Visurgis,
+[Footnote: Weser.] and on the banks of it stood Arminius, with the other
+chiefs: he inquired whether Germanicus was come; and being answered that
+he was there, he prayed leave to speak with his brother. This brother
+of his was in the army, his name Flavius; one remarkable for his lasting
+faith towards the Romans, and for the loss of an eye in the war under
+Tiberius. This request was granted: Flavius stepped forward, and was
+saluted by Arminius, who, having removed his own attendance, desired
+that our archers ranged upon the opposite banks might retire. When
+they were withdrawn, "How came you," says he to his brother, "by that
+deformity in your face?" The brother having informed him where, and
+in what fight, was next asked, "what reward he had received?" Flavius
+answered, "Increase of pay, the chain, the crown, and other military
+gifts;" all which Arminius treated with derision, as the vile wages of
+servitude.
+
+Here began a warm contest: Flavius pleaded "the grandeur of the Roman
+Empire, the power of the Emperor, the Roman clemency to submitting
+nations, the heavy yoke of the vanquished; and that neither the wife nor
+son of Arminius was used like a captive." Arminius to all this opposed
+"the natural rights of their country, their ancient liberty, the
+domestic Gods of Germany; he urged the prayers of their common mother
+joined to his own, that he would not prefer the character of a deserter,
+that of a betrayer of his family, his countrymen, and kindred, to the
+glory of being their commander." By degrees they fell into reproaches;
+nor would the interposition of the river have restrained them from
+blows, had not Stertinius hasted to lay hold on Flavius, full of rage,
+and calling for his arms and his horse. On the opposite side was seen
+Arminius, swelling with ferocity and threats, and denouncing battle.
+For, of what he said, much was said in Latin, having as the General of
+his countrymen served in the Roman armies.
+
+Next day, the German army stood embattled beyond the Visurgis.
+Germanicus, who thought it became not a General to endanger the legions,
+till for their passage and security he had placed bridges and guards,
+made the horse ford over. They were led by Stertinius, and Aemilius,
+Lieutenant-Colonel of a legion; and these two officers crossed the
+river in distant places, to divide the foe. Cariovalda, Captain of the
+Batavians, passed it where most rapid, and was by the Cheruscans, who
+feigned flight, drawn into a plain surrounded with woods, whence they
+rushed out upon him and assaulted him on every side; overthrew those who
+resisted, and pressed vehemently upon those who gave way. The distressed
+Batavians formed themselves into a ring, but were again broken, partly
+by a close assault, partly by distant showers of darts. Cariovalda,
+having long sustained the fury of the enemy, exhorted his men to draw up
+into platoons, and break through the prevailing host; he himself forced
+his way into their centre, and fell with his horse under a shower of
+darts, and many of the principal Batavians round him; the rest were
+saved by their own bravery, or rescued by the cavalry under Stertinius
+and Aemilius.
+
+Germanicus, having passed the Visurgis, learned from a deserter, that
+Arminius had marked out the place of battle; that more nations had also
+joined him; that they rendezvoused in a wood sacred to Hercules, and
+would attempt to storm our camp by night. The deserter was believed;
+the enemy's fires were discerned; and the scouts having advanced towards
+them, reported that they had heard the neighing of horses, and the
+hollow murmur of a mighty and tumultuous host. In this important
+conjuncture, upon the approach of a decisive battle, Germanicus thought
+it behoved him to learn the inclinations and spirit of the soldiers
+and deliberated with himself how to be informed without fraud: "for the
+reports of the Tribunes and Centurions used to be oftener pleasing than
+true; his Freedmen had still slavish souls, incapable of free speech;
+friends were apt to flatter; there was the same uncertainty in an
+assemble, where the counsel proposed by a few was wont to be echoed by
+all; in truth, the minds of the soldiery were then best known, when
+they were least watched; when free and over their meals, they frankly
+disclosed their hopes and fears."
+
+In the beginning of night, he went out at the augural gate, with a
+single attendant; himself disguised with the skin of a wild beast
+hanging over his shoulders; and choosing secret ways, he escaped the
+notice of the watch, entered the lanes of the camp, listened from tent
+to tent, and enjoyed the pleasing display of his own popularity and
+fame; as one was magnifying the imperial birth of his general; another,
+his graceful person; and all, his patience, condescension, and the
+equality of his soul in every temper, pleasant or grave: they confessed
+the gratitude due to so much merit, and that in battle they ought to
+express it, and to sacrifice at the same time to glory and revenge these
+perfidious Germans, who for ever violated stipulations and peace. In the
+meantime one of the enemy who understood Latin rode up to the palisades,
+and with a loud voice offered, in the name of Arminius, to every
+deserter a wife and land, and as long as the war lasted an hundred
+sesterces a day. [Footnote: 16s. 8d.] This contumely kindled the wrath
+of the legions: "Let day come," they cried, "let battle be given: the
+soldiers would seize and not accept the lands of the Germans; take and
+not receive German wives; they, however, received the offer as an omen
+of victory, and considered the money and women as their destined prey."
+Near the third watch of the night, they approached and insulted the
+camp; but without striking a blow, when they found the ramparts covered
+thick with cohorts, and no advantage given.
+
+Germanicus had the same night a joyful dream: he thought he sacrificed,
+and, in place of his own robe besmeared with the sacred blood, received
+one fairer from the hands of his grandmother Augusta; so that elevated
+by the omen, and by equal encouragement from the auspices, he called an
+assembly, where he opened his deliberations concerning the approaching
+battle with all the advantages contributing to victory: "That to the
+Roman soldiers not only plains and dales, but, with due circumspection,
+even woods and forests were commodious for an engagement. The huge
+targets, the enormous spears, of the Barbarians could never be wielded
+amongst thickets and trunks of trees like Roman swords and javelins,
+and armour adjusted to the shape and size of their bodies, so that with
+these tractable arms they might thicken their blows, and strike with
+certainty at the naked faces of the enemy, since the Germans were
+neither furnished with headpiece nor coat of mail, nor were their
+bucklers bound with leather or fortified with iron, but all bare
+basket-work or painted boards; and though their first ranks were armed
+with pikes, the rest had only stakes burnt at the end, or short and
+contemptible darts; for their persons, as they were terrible to sight
+and violent in the onset, so they were utterly impatient of wounds,
+unaffected with their own disgrace, unconcerned for the honour of their
+general, whom they ever deserted and fled; in distress cowards, in
+prosperity despisers of all divine, of all human laws. In fine, if the
+army, after their fatigues at sea and their tedious marches by land,
+longed for an utter end of their labour, by this battle they might gain
+it. The Elbe was now nearer than the Rhine; and if they would make him
+a conqueror in those countries where his father and his uncle had
+conquered, the war was concluded." The ardour of the soldiers followed
+the speech of the general, and the signal for the onset was given.
+
+Neither did Arminius or the other chiefs neglect to declare to their
+several bands that "these Romans were the cowardly fugitives of the
+Varian army, who, because they could not endure to fight, had afterwards
+chosen to rebel. That some with backs deformed by wounds, some with
+limbs maimed by tempests, forsaken of hope, and the Gods against them,
+were once more presenting their lives to their vengeful foes. Hitherto a
+fleet, and unfrequented seas, had been the resources of their cowardice
+against an assaulting or a pursuing enemy; but now that they were to
+engage hand to hand, vain would be their relief from wind and oars after
+a defeat. The Germans needed only remember their rapine, cruelty, and
+pride; and that to themselves nothing remained but either to maintain
+their native liberty, or by death to prevent bondage."
+
+The enemy, thus inflamed and calling for battle, were led into a
+plain called Idistavisus: [Footnote: Near Minden.] it lies between the
+Visurgis and the hills, and winds unequally along, as it is straitened
+by the swellings of the mountains or enlarged by the circuits of the
+river. Behind rose a forest of high trees, thick of branches above but
+clear of bushes below. The army of Barbarians kept the plain, and
+the entrances of the forest. The Cheruscans alone sat down upon the
+mountain, in order to pour down from thence upon the Romans as soon as
+they became engaged in the fight. Our army marched thus: the auxiliary
+Gauls and Germans in front, after them the foot archers, next four
+legions, and then Germanicus with two Praetorian cohorts and the choice
+of the cavalry; then four legions more, and the light foot with archers
+on horseback and the other troops of the allies; the men all intent to
+march in order of battle and ready to engage as they marched.
+
+As the impatient bands of Cheruscans were now perceived descending
+fiercely from the hills, Germanicus commanded a body of the best horse
+to charge them in the flank, and Stertinius with the rest to wheel round
+to attack them in the rear, and promised to be ready to assist them in
+person. During this a joyful omen appeared: eight eagles were seen
+to fly toward the wood, and to enter it; a presage of victory to the
+General. "_Advance_," he cried, "_follow the Roman birds; follow the
+tutelar Deities of the legions!_" Instantly the foot charged the enemy's
+front, and instantly the detached cavalry attacked their flank and rear:
+this double assault had a strange event; the two divisions of their
+army fled opposite ways; that in the woods ran to the plain; that in the
+plain rushed into the woods. The Cheruscans, between both, were driven
+from the hills; amongst them Arminius, remarkably brave, who with his
+hand, his voice, and distinguished wounds was still sustaining the
+fight. He had assaulted the archers, and would have broken through them,
+but the cohorts of the Retians, the Vindelicians, and the Gauls marched
+to their relief; however, by his own vigour and the force of his horse,
+he escaped, his face besmeared with his own blood to avoid being
+known. Some have related that the Chaucians, who were amongst the
+Roman auxiliaries, knew him, and let him go; the same bravery or deceit
+procured Inguiomerus his escape; the rest were everywhere slain; and
+great numbers attempting to swim the Visurgis were destroyed in it,
+either pursued with darts, or swallowed by the current, or overwhelmed
+with the weight of the crowd, or buried under the falling banks; some
+seeking a base refuge on the tops of trees, and concealment amongst the
+branches, were shot in sport by the archers, or squashed as the trees
+were felled: a mighty victory this, and to us far from bloody!
+
+This slaughter of the foe, from the fifth hour of the day till night,
+filled the country for ten miles with carcasses and arms: amongst the
+spoils, chains were found, which, sure of conquering, they had brought
+to bind the Roman captives. The soldiers proclaimed Tiberius _Imperator_
+upon the field of battle, and raising a mount, placed upon it as
+trophies the German arms, with the names of all the vanquished nations
+inscribed below.
+
+This sight filled the Germans with more anguish and rage than all their
+wounds, past afflictions, and slaughters. They, who were just prepared
+to abandon their dwellings, and flit beyond the Elbe, meditate war and
+grasp their arms: people, nobles, youth, aged, all rush suddenly upon
+the Roman army in its march and disorder it. They next chose their
+camp, a strait and moist plain shut in between a river and a forest, the
+forest too surrounded with a deep marsh, except on one side, which was
+closed with a barrier raised by the Angrivarians between them and the
+Cheruscans. Here stood their foot; their horse were distributed and
+concealed amongst the neighbouring groves, thence, by surprise, to beset
+the legions in the rear as soon as they had entered the wood.
+
+Nothing of all this was a secret to Germanicus: he knew their counsels,
+their stations, what steps they pursued, what measures they concealed;
+and, to the destruction of the enemy, turned their own subtilty and
+devices. To Seius Tubero, his Lieutenant, he committed the horse and
+the field; the infantry so disposed, that part might pass the level
+approaches into the wood, and the rest force the ramparts; this was the
+most arduous task, and to himself he reserved it; the rest he left to
+his Lieutenants. Those who had the even ground to traverse, broke easily
+in; but they who were to assail the rampart, were as grievously battered
+from above, as if they had been storming a wall. The General perceived
+the inequality of this close attack, and drawing off the legions a small
+distance, ordered the slingers to throw, and the engineers to play, to
+beat off the enemy: immediately showers of darts were poured from the
+engines, and the defenders of the barrier, the more bold and exposed
+they were, with the more wounds they were beaten down. Germanicus,
+having taken the rampart, first forced his way, at the head of the
+Praetorian cohorts, into the woods, and there it was fought foot to
+foot; behind, the enemy were begirt with the morass, the Romans with the
+mountains or the rivers; no room for either to retreat, no hope but in
+valour, no safety but in victory.
+
+The Germans had no inferior courage, but they were exceeded in the
+fashion of arms and art of fighting. Their mighty multitude, hampered
+in narrow places, could not push nor recover their long spears, nor
+practise in a close combat their usual boundings and velocity of limbs.
+On the contrary, our soldiers, with handy swords, and their breasts
+closely guarded with a buckler, delved the large bodies and naked faces
+of the Barbarians, and opened themselves a way with a havoc of the
+enemy: besides, the activity of Arminius now failed him, either spent
+through his continual efforts or slackened by a wound just received.
+Inguiomerus was everywhere upon the spur, animating the battle, but
+fortune rather than courage deserted him. Germanicus, to be the easier
+known, pulled off his helmet, and exhorted his men "to prosecute the
+slaughter; they wanted no captives," he said; "only the cutting off that
+people root and branch would put an end to the war." It was now late
+in the day, and he drew off a legion to make a camp; the rest glutted
+themselves till night, with the blood of the foe; the horse fought with
+doubtful success.
+
+Germanicus, in a speech from the tribunal, praised his victorious army,
+and raised a monument of arms with a proud inscription: "That the army
+of Tiberius Caesar, having vanquished entirely the nations between the
+Rhine and the Elbe, had consecrated that monument to Mars, to Jupiter,
+and to Augustus." Of himself, he made no mention, either fearful of
+provoking envy, or that he thought it sufficient praise to have deserved
+it. He had next commanded Stertinius to carry the war amongst the
+Angrivarians; but they instantly submitted; and these supplicants, by
+yielding without articles, obtained pardon without reserve.
+
+The summer now declining, some of the legions were sent back into winter
+quarters by land; more were embarked with Germanicus upon the river
+Amisia, to go from thence by the ocean. The sea at first was serene, no
+sound or agitation but from the oars or sails of a thousand ships; but
+suddenly a black host of clouds poured a storm of hail; furious winds
+roared on every side, and the tempest darkened the deep, so that all
+prospect was lost; and it was impossible to steer. The soldiers too,
+unaccustomed to the terrors of the sea, in the hurry of fear disordered
+the mariners, or interrupted the skilful by unskilful help. At last the
+south wind, mastering all the rest, drove the ocean and the sky: the
+tempest derived new force from the windy mountains and swelling rivers
+of Germany, as well as from an immense train of clouds; and contracting
+withal fresh vigour from the boisterous neighbourhood of the north, it
+hurled the ships and tossed them into the open ocean, or against islands
+shored with rocks or dangerously beset with covered shoals. The ships
+by degrees, with great labour and the change of the tide, were relieved
+from the rocks and sands, but remained at the mercy of the winds; their
+anchors could not hold them; they were full of water, nor could all
+their pumps discharge it: hence, to lighten and raise the vessels
+swallowing at their decks the invading waves, the horses, beasts,
+baggage, and even the arms were cast into the deep.
+
+By how much the German ocean is more outrageous than the rest of the
+sea, and the German climate excels in rigour, by so much this ruin was
+reckoned to exceed in greatness and novelty. They were engaged in a
+tempestuous sea, believed deep without bottom, vast without bounds, or
+no shores near but hostile shores: part of the fleet were swallowed up;
+many were driven upon remote islands void of human culture, where the
+men perished through famine, or were kept alive by the carcasses of
+horses cast in by the flood. Only the galley of Germanicus landed upon
+the coast of the Chaucians, where wandering sadly, day and night, upon
+the rocks and prominent shore, and incessantly accusing himself as
+the author of such mighty destruction, he was hardly restrained by his
+friends from casting himself desperately into the same hostile floods.
+At last, with the returning tide and an assisting gale, the ships began
+to return, all maimed, almost destitute of oars, or with coats spread
+for sails; and some, utterly disabled, were dragged by those that
+were less. He repaired them hastily, and despatched them to search the
+islands; and by this care many men were gleaned up; many were by the
+Angrivarians, our new subjects, redeemed from their maritime neighbours
+and restored; and some, driven into Great Britain, were sent back by the
+little British kings. Those who had come from afar, recounted wonders
+at their return, "the impetuosity of whirlwinds; wonderful birds; sea
+monsters of ambiguous forms, between man and beasts." Strange sights
+these! or the effects of imagination and fear.
+
+The noise of this wreck, as it animated the Germans with hopes of
+renewing the war, awakened Germanicus also to restrain them: he
+commanded Caius Silius, with thirty thousand foot and three thousand
+horse, to march against the Cattans: he himself, with a greater force,
+invaded the Marsians, where he learnt from Malovendus, their general,
+lately taken into our subjection, that the Eagle of one of Varus's
+legions was hid underground in a neighbouring grove, and kept by a
+slender guard. Instantly two parties were despatched; one to face the
+enemy and provoke them from their post; the other to beset their rear
+and dig up the Eagle; and success attended both. Hence Germanicus
+advanced with great alacrity, laid waste the country, and smote the
+foe, either not daring to engage, or, wherever they engaged, suddenly
+defeated. Nor, as we learnt from the prisoners, were they ever seized
+with greater dismay: "The Romans," they cried, "are invincible: no
+calamities can subdue them: they have wrecked their fleet; their arms
+are lost; our shores are covered with the bodies of their horses and
+men; and yet they attack us with their usual ferocity, with the same
+firmness, and with numbers as it were increased."
+
+The army was from thence led back into winter quarters, full of joy to
+have balanced, by this prosperous expedition, their late misfortune at
+sea; and by the bounty of Germanicus, their joy was heightened, since to
+each sufferer he caused to be paid as much as each declared he had
+lost; neither was it doubted but the enemy were humbled, and concerting
+measures for obtaining peace, and that the next summer would terminate
+the war. But Tiberius by frequent letters urged him "to come home, there
+to celebrate the triumph already decreed him; urged that he had already
+tried enough of events, and tempted abundant hazards: he had indeed
+fought great and successful battles; but he must likewise remember his
+losses and calamities, which, however, owing to wind and waves, and no
+fault of the general, were yet great and grievous. He himself had been
+sent nine times into Germany by Augustus, and effected much more by
+policy than arms: it was thus he had brought the Sigambrians into
+subjection, thus drawn the Suevians and King Maroboduus under the bonds
+of peace. The Cheruscans too, and the other hostile nations, now the
+Roman vengeance was satiated, might be left to pursue their own national
+feuds." Germanicus besought one year to accomplish his conquest; but
+Tiberius assailed his modesty with a new bait and fresh opportunity, by
+offering him another Consulship, for the administration of which he was
+to attend in person at Rome. He added, "that if the war was still to
+be prosecuted, Germanicus should leave a field of glory to his brother
+Drusus, to whom there now remained no other; since the Empire had
+nowhere a war to maintain but in Germany, and thence only Drusus
+could acquire the title of Imperator, and merit the triumphal laurel."
+Germanicus persisted no longer; though he knew that this was all feigned
+and hollow, and saw himself invidiously torn away from a harvest of ripe
+glory.
+
+Decrees of the Senate were made for driving astrologers and magicians
+out of Italy; and one of the herd, Lucius Pituanius, was precipitated
+from the Tarpeian Rock: Publius Marcius, another, was, by the judgment
+of the Consuls, at the sound of trumpet executed without the Esquiline
+Gate, according to the ancient form.
+
+Next time the Senate sat, long discourses against the luxury of the
+city were made by Quintus Haterius, a consular, and by Octavius Fronto,
+formerly Praetor; and a law was passed "against using table-plate
+of solid gold, and against men debasing themselves with gorgeous and
+effeminate silks." Fronto went further, and desired that "the quantities
+of silver plate, the expense of furniture, and the number of domestics
+might be limited;" for it was yet common for senators to depart from
+the present debate and offer, as their advice, whatever they judged
+conducing to the interest of the commonweal. Against him it was argued
+by Asinius Callus, "That with the growth of the Empire private riches
+were likewise grown, and it was no new thing for citizens to live
+according to their conditions, but agreeable to the most primitive
+usage: the ancient Fabricii and the later Scipios, having different
+wealth, lived differently; but all suitably to the several stages of the
+Commonwealth. Public property was accompanied with domestic; but when
+the State rose to such a height of magnificence, the magnificence of
+particulars rose too. As to plate, and train, and expense, there was no
+standard of excess or frugality, but from the fortunes of men. The law,
+indeed, had made a distinction between the fortunes of senators and
+knights; not for any natural difference between them, but that they
+who excelled in place, rank, and civil pre-eminence, might excel too in
+other particulars, such as conduced to the health of the body or to the
+peace and solacement of the soul; unless it were expected, that the most
+illustrious citizens should sustain the sharpest cares, and undergo
+the heaviest fatigues and dangers, but continue destitute of every
+alleviation of fatigue and danger and care." Gallus easily prevailed,
+whilst under worthy names he avowed and supported popular vices in an
+assembly engaged in them. Tiberius too had said, "That it was not a
+season for reformation; or, if there were any corruption of manners,
+there would not be wanting one to correct them."
+
+During these transactions, Lucius Piso, after he had declaimed bitterly
+in the Senate against "the ambitious practices and intrigues of the
+Forum, the corruption of the tribunals, and the inhumanity of the
+pleaders breathing continual terror and impeachments," declared "he
+would entirely relinquish Rome, and retire into a quiet corner of the
+country, far distant and obscure." With these words he left the Senate;
+Tiberius was provoked; and yet not only soothed him with gentle words,
+but likewise obliged Piso's relations, by their authority or entreaties,
+to retain him. The same Piso gave soon after an equal instance of the
+indignation of the free spirit, by prosecuting a suit against Urgulania;
+a lady whom the partial friendship of Livia had set at defiance with the
+laws. Urgulania being carried, for protection, to the palace, despised
+the efforts of Piso; so that neither did she submit; nor would he
+desist, notwithstanding the complaints and resentments of Livia, that
+in the prosecution "violence and indignity were done to her own person."
+Tiberius promised to attend the trial, and assist Urgulania; but only
+promised in civility to his mother, for so far he thought it became him;
+and thus left the palace, ordering his guards to follow at a distance.
+People the while crowded about him, and he walked with a slow and
+composed air: as he lingered, and prolonged the time and way with
+various discourse, the trial went on. Piso would not be mollified by the
+importunity of his friends; and hence at last the Empress ordered the
+payment of the money claimed by him. This was the issue of the affair:
+by it, Piso lost no renown; and it signally increased the credit of
+Tiberius. The power, however, of Urgulania was so exorbitant to the
+State, that she disdained to appear a witness in a certain cause before
+the Senate: and, when it had been always usual even for the Vestal
+Virgins to attend the Forum and Courts of Justice, as oft as their
+evidence was required; a Praetor was sent to examine Urgulania at her
+own house.
+
+The procrastination which happened this year in the public affairs, I
+should not mention, but that the different opinions of Cneius Piso and
+Asinius Gallus about it, are worth knowing. Their dispute was occasioned
+by a declaration of Tiberius; "that he was about to be absent," and it
+was the motion of Piso, "that for that very reason, the prosecution
+of public business was the rather to be continued; since, as in the
+Prince's absence, the Senate and equestrian order might administer
+their several parts, the same would redound to the honour of the
+Commonwealth." This was a declaration for liberty, and in it Piso had
+prevented Gallus, who now in opposition said, "that nothing sufficiently
+illustrious, nor suiting the dignity of the Roman People, could be
+transacted but under the immediate eye of the Emperor, and therefore the
+conflux of suitors and affairs from Italy and the provinces must by
+all means be reserved for his presence." Tiberius heard and was silent,
+while the debate was managed on both sides with mighty vehemence; but
+the adjournment was carried.
+
+A debate too arose between Gallus and the Emperor: for Gallus moved
+"that the magistrates should be henceforth elected but once every five
+years; that the legates of the legions, who had never exercised the
+Praetorships, should be appointed Praetors; and that the Prince should
+nominate twelve candidates every year." It was not doubted but this
+motion had a deeper aim, and that by it the secret springs and
+reserves of imperial power were invaded. But Tiberius, as if he rather
+apprehended the augmentation of his power, argued "that it was a heavy
+task upon his moderation, to choose so many magistrates, and to postpone
+so many candidates. That disgusts from disappointments were hardly
+avoided in yearly elections; though, for their solacement, fresh hopes
+remained of approaching success in the next; now how great must be the
+hatred, how lasting the resentment of such whose pretensions were to be
+rejected beyond five years? and whence could it be foreseen that, in
+so long a tract of time, the same men would continue to have the
+same dispositions, the same alliances and fortunes? even an annual
+designation to power made men imperious; how imperious would it make
+them, if they bore the honour for five years! besides, it would multiply
+every single magistrate into five, and utterly subvert the laws which
+had prescribed a proper space for exercising the diligence of the
+candidates, and for soliciting as well as enjoying preferments."
+
+By this speech, in appearance popular, he still retained the spirit
+and force of the sovereignty. He likewise sustained by gratuities, the
+dignity of some necessitous Senators: hence it was the more wondered,
+that he received with haughtiness and repulse the petition of Marcus
+Hortalus, a young man of signal quality and manifestly poor. He was
+the grandson of Hortensius the Orator; and had been encouraged by
+the deified Augustus, with a bounty of a thousand great sestertia,
+[Footnote: L8333.] to marry for posterity; purely to prevent the
+extinction of a family most illustrious and renowned. The Senate were
+sitting in the palace, and Hortalus having set his four children before
+the door, fixed his eyes, now upon the statue of Hortensius, placed
+amongst the orators; then upon that of Augustus; and instead of speaking
+to the question, began on this wise: "Conscript Fathers, you see there
+the number and infancy of my children; not mine by my own choice, but in
+compliance with the advice of the Prince: such too was the splendour of
+my ancestors, that it merited to be perpetuated in their race; but for
+my own particular, who, marred by the revolution of the times, could not
+raise wealth, nor engage popular favour, nor cultivate the hereditary
+fortune of our house, the fortune of Eloquence: I deemed it sufficient
+if, in my slender circumstances, I lived no disgrace to myself, no
+burden to others. Commanded by the Emperor, I took a wife; behold
+the offspring of so many Consuls; behold the descendants of so many
+Dictators! nor is this remembrance invidiously made, but made to move
+mercy. In the progress of your reign, Caesar, these children may arrive
+at the honours in your gift; defend them in the meantime from want:
+they are the great-grandsons of Hortensius; they are the foster sons of
+Augustus."
+
+The inclination of the Senate was favourable; an incitement this to
+Tiberius the more eagerly to thwart Hortalus. These were in effect his
+words: "If all that are poor recur hither for a provision of money to
+their children, the public will certainly fail, and yet particulars
+never be satiated. Our ancestors, when they permitted a departure from
+the question, to propose somewhat more important to the State, did not
+therefore permit it, that we might here transact domestic matters, and
+augment our private rents: an employment invidious both in the Senate
+and the Prince; since, whether they grant or deny the petitioned
+bounties, either the people or the petitioners will ever be offended.
+But these, in truth, are not petitions; they are demands made against
+order, and made by surprise: while you are assembled upon other affairs,
+he stands up and urges your pity, by the number and infancy of his
+children; with the same violence, he charges the attack to me, and as
+it were bursts open the exchequer; but if by popular bounties we exhaust
+it, by rapine and oppression we must supply it. The deified Augustus
+gave you money, Hortalus; but without solicitation he gave it, and on
+no condition that it should always be given: otherwise diligence will
+languish; sloth will prevail; and men having no hopes in resources
+of their own, no anxiety for themselves, but all securely relying on
+foreign relief, will become private sluggards and public burdens." These
+and the like reasonings of Tiberius were differently received; with
+approbation by those whose way it is to extol, without distinction,
+all the doings of Princes, worthy and unworthy; by most, however, with
+silence, or low and discontented murmurs. Tiberius perceived it, and
+having paused a little, said "his answer was particularly to Hortalus;
+but if the Senate thought fit, he would give his sons two hundred great
+sestertia each." [Footnote: L1666.] For this all the Senators presented
+their thanks; only Hortalus said nothing; perhaps through present awe,
+or perhaps possessed, even in poverty, with the grandeur of his ancient
+nobility. Nor did Tiberius ever show further pity, though the house of
+Hortensius was fallen into shameful distress.
+
+At the end of the year, a triumphal arch was raised near the Temple of
+Saturn; a monument this for the recovery of the Varian Eagles, under
+the conduct of Germanicus, under the auspices of Tiberius. A temple was
+dedicated to Happy Fortune near the Tiber, in the gardens bequeathed to
+the Roman People by Caesar, the Dictator. A chapel was consecrated to
+the Julian family, and statues to the deified Augustus, in the suburbs
+called Bovillae. In the consulship of Caius Celius and Lucius Pomponius,
+the six-and-twentieth of May, Germanicus Caesar triumphed over the
+Cheruscans, the Cattans, the Angrivarians, and the other nations as far
+as the Elbe. In the triumph were carried all the spoils and captives,
+with the representations of mountains, of rivers, and of battles; so
+that his conquests, because he was restrained from completing them, were
+taken for complete. His own graceful person, and his chariot filled with
+his five children, heightened the show and the delight of the beholders;
+yet they were checked with secret fears, as they remembered "that
+popular favour had proved malignant to his father Drusus; that his uncle
+Marcellus was snatched, in his youth, from the burning affections of the
+populace; and that ever short-lived and unfortunate were the favourites
+of the Roman People."
+
+Tiberius distributed to the people, in the name of Germanicus, three
+hundred sesterces a man, [Footnote: L2, 10s.] and named himself his
+colleague in the Consulship. Nor even thus did he gain the opinion of
+tenderness and sincerity: in effect, on pretence of investing the young
+Prince with fresh preferment and honours, he resolved to alienate
+him from Rome; and, to accomplish it, craftily framed an occasion, or
+snatched such an one as chance presented. Archelaus had enjoyed
+the kingdom of Cappadocia now fifty years; a Prince under the deep
+displeasure of Tiberius, because, in his retirement at Rhodes, the King
+had paid him no sort of court or distinction: an omission this which
+proceeded from no disdain, but from the warnings given him by the
+confidents of Augustus; for that the young Caius Caesar, the presumptive
+heir to the sovereignty, then lived, and was sent to compose and
+administer the affairs of the East; hence the friendship of Tiberius was
+reckoned then dangerous. But when, by the utter fall of the family of
+the Caesars, he had gained the Empire, he enticed Archelaus to Rome,
+by means of letters from his mother, who, without dissembling her son's
+resentment, offered the King his mercy, provided he came and in person
+implored it. He, who was either ignorant of the snare, or dreaded
+violence if he appeared to perceive it, hastened to the city, where he
+was received by Tiberius with great sternness and wrath, and soon after
+accused as a criminal in the Senate. The crimes alleged against him were
+mere fictions; yet, as equal treatment is unusual to kings, and to be
+treated like malefactors intolerable; Archelaus, who was broken with
+grief as well as age, by choice or fate ended his life; his kingdom was
+reduced into a province, and by its revenues Tiberius declared the tax
+of a hundredth penny would be abated, and reduced it for the future to
+the two hundredth. At the same time died Antiochus, king of Comagena,
+as also Philopator, king of Cilicia; and great combustions shook these
+nations; whilst of the people many desired Roman government, and many
+were addicted to domestic monarchy. The provinces, too, of Syria and
+Judea, as they were oppressed with impositions, prayed an abatement of
+tribute.
+
+These affairs, and such as I have above related concerning Armenia,
+Tiberius represented to the Fathers, and "that the commotions of the
+East could only be settled by the wisdom and abilities of Germanicus;
+for himself, his age now declined, and that of Drusus was not yet
+sufficiently ripe." The provinces beyond the sea were thence decreed to
+Germanicus, with authority superior to all those who obtained provinces
+by lot, or the nomination of the Prince; but Tiberius had already taken
+care to remove from the government of Syria Creticus Silanus, one united
+to Germanicus in domestic alliance, by having to Nero, the eldest son of
+Germanicus, betrothed his daughter. In his room he had preferred Cneius
+Piso, a man of violent temper, incapable of subjection, and heir to all
+the ferocity and haughtiness of his father Piso; the same who, in the
+civil war, assisted the reviving party against Caesar in Africa with
+vehement efforts; and then followed Brutus and Cassius, but had at last
+leave to come home, yet disdained to sue for any public offices; nay,
+was even courted by Augustus to accept the Consulship. His son, besides
+his hereditary pride and impetuosity, was elevated with the nobility and
+wealth of Plancina his wife; scarce yielded he to Tiberius, and, as men
+far beneath him, despised the sons of Tiberius; neither did he doubt but
+he was set over Syria on purpose to thwart the measures and defeat all
+the views of Germanicus. Some even believed that he had to this purpose
+secret orders from Tiberius, as it was certain that Livia directed
+Plancina to exert the spirit of the sex, and by constant emulation and
+indignities persecute Agrippina. For the whole court was rent, and their
+affections secretly divided between Drusus and Germanicus. Tiberius
+was partial to Drusus, as his own son by generation; others loved
+Germanicus; the more for the aversion of his uncle, and for being by his
+mother of more illustrious descent; as Marc Anthony was his grandfather,
+and Augustus his great-uncle. On the other side, Pomponius Atticus, a
+Roman knight, by being the great-grandfather of Drusus, seemed thence
+to have derived a stain upon the images of the Claudian house; besides,
+Agrippina, the wife of Germanicus, did in the fruitfulness of her body
+and the reputation of her virtue far excel Livia, the wife of Drusus.
+Yet the two brothers lived in amiable dearness and concord, no wise
+shaken or estranged by the reigning contention amongst their separate
+friends and adherents.
+
+Drusus was soon after sent into Illyricum in order to inure him to war,
+and gain him the affections of the army; besides, Tiberius thought
+that the youth, who loved wantoning in the luxuries of Rome, would be
+reformed in the camp, and that his own security would be enlarged when
+both his sons were at the head of the legions. But the pretence of
+sending him was the protection of the Suevians, who were then imploring
+assistance against the powers of the Cheruscans. For these nations, who
+since the departure of the Romans saw themselves no longer threatened
+with terrors from abroad, and were then particularly engaged in a
+national competition for glory, had relapsed, as usual, into their old
+intestine feuds, and turned their arms upon each other. The two
+people were equally powerful, and their two leaders equally brave; but
+differently esteemed, as the title of king upon Maroboduus had drawn
+the hate and aversion of his countrymen; whilst Arminius, as a champion
+warring for the defence of liberty, was the universal object of popular
+affection.
+
+Hence not only the Cheruscans and their confederates, they who had been
+the ancient soldiery of Arminius, took arms; but to him too revolted
+the Semnones and Langobards, both Suevian nations, and even subjects of
+Maroboduus; and by their accession he would have exceeded in puissance,
+but Inguiomerus with his band of followers deserted to Maroboduus; for
+no other cause than disdain, that an old man and an uncle like himself
+should obey Arminius, a young man, his nephew. Both armies were drawn
+out, with equal hopes; nor disjointed, like the old German battles, into
+scattered parties for loose and random attacks; for by long war with us
+they had learnt to follow their ensigns, to strengthen their main body
+with parties of reserves, and to observe the orders of their generals.
+Arminius was now on horseback viewing all the ranks: as he rode through
+them he magnified their past feats; "their liberty recovered; the
+slaughtered legions; the spoils of arms wrested from the Romans;
+monuments of victory still retained in some of their hands." Upon
+Maroboduus he fell with contumelious names, as "a fugitive, one of
+no abilities in war; a coward who had sought defence from the gloomy
+coverts of the Hercynian woods, and then by gifts and solicitations
+courted the alliance of Rome; a betrayer of his country, and a
+lifeguard-man of Caesar's, worthy to be exterminated with no less
+hostile vengeance than in the slaughter of Quinctilius Varus they had
+shown. Let them only remember so many battles bravely fought; the
+events of which, particularly the utter expulsion of the Romans, were
+sufficient proofs with whom remained the glory of the war."
+
+Neither did Maroboduus fail to boast himself and depreciate the foe. "In
+the person of Inguiomerus," he said (holding him by the hand), "rested
+the whole renown of the Cheruscans; and from his counsels began all
+their exploits that ended in success. Arminius, a man of a frantic
+spirit, and a novice in affairs, assumed to himself the glory of
+another, for having by treachery surprised three legions, which expected
+no foe, and their leader, who feared no fraud; a base surprise, revenged
+since on Germany with heavy slaughters, and on Arminius himself with
+domestic infamy, while his wife and his son still bore the bonds of
+captivity. For himself, when attacked formerly by Tiberius at the head
+of twelve legions, he had preserved unstained the glory of Germany, and
+on equal terms ended the war. Nor did he repent of the treaty, since it
+was still in their hands to wage anew equal war with the Romans, or
+save blood and maintain peace." The armies, besides the incitements from
+these speeches, were animated by national stimulations of their own.
+The Cheruscans fought for their ancient renown; the Langobards for their
+recent liberty; and the Suevians and their king, on the contrary, were
+struggling for the augmentation of their monarchy. Never did armies make
+a fiercer onset; never had onset a more ambiguous event; for both the
+right wings were routed, and hence a fresh encounter was certainly
+expected, till Maroboduus drew off his army and encamped upon the
+hills; a manifest sign this that he was humbled. Frequent desertions too
+leaving him at last naked of forces, he retired to the Marcomannians,
+and thence sent ambassadors to Tiberius to implore succours. They were
+answered, "That he had no right to invoke aid of the Roman arms against
+the Cheruscans, since to the Romans, while they were warring with
+the same foe, he had never administered any assistance." Drusus was,
+however, sent away, as I have said, with the character of a negotiator
+of peace.
+
+The same year twelve noble cities of Asia were overturned by an
+earthquake: the ruin happened in the night, and the more dreadful as its
+warnings were unobserved; neither availed the usual sanctuary against
+such calamities, namely, a flight to the fields, since those who
+fled, the gaping earth devoured. It is reported "that mighty mountains
+subsided, plains were heaved into high hills: and that with flashes and
+eruptions of fire, the mighty devastation was everywhere accompanied."
+The Sardians felt most heavily the rage of the concussion, and therefore
+most compassion: Tiberius promised them an hundred thousand great
+sesterces, [Footnote: L83,000.] and remitted their taxes for five years.
+The inhabitants of Magnesia, under Mount Sipylus, were held the next in
+sufferings, and had proportionable relief. The Temnians, Philadelphians,
+the Aegeatans, Apollonians, with those called the Mostenians or
+Macedonians of Hyrcania, the cities too of Hierocaesarea, Cyme, and
+Tmolus, were all for the same term eased of tribute. It was likewise
+resolved to send one of the Senate to view the desolations and
+administer proper remedies: Marcus Aletus was therefore chosen, one of
+Praetorian rank; because, a Consular Senator then governing Asia, had
+another of the like quality been sent, an emulation between equals was
+apprehended, and consequently opposition and delays.
+
+The credit of this noble bounty to the public, he increased by private
+liberalities, which proved equally popular: the estate of the wealthy
+Aemilia Musa, claimed by the exchequer, as she died intestate, he
+surrendered to Aemilius Lepidus, to whose family she seemed to belong;
+as also to Marcus Servilius the inheritance of Patuleius, a rich Roman
+knight, though part of it had been bequeathed to himself; but he found
+Servilius named sole heir in a former and well-attested will. He said
+such was "the nobility of both, that they deserved to be supported." Nor
+did he ever to himself accept any man's inheritance, but where former
+friendship gave him a title. The wills of such as were strangers to him,
+and of such as, from hate and prejudice to others, had appointed the
+Prince their heir, he utterly rejected. But, as he relieved the honest
+poverty of the virtuous, so he degraded from the Senate (or suffered
+to quit it of their own accord) Vibidius Varro, Marius Nepos, Appius
+Appianus, Cornelius Sylla, and Quintus Vitellius, all prodigals, and
+only through debauchery indigent.
+
+About this time Tiberius finished and consecrated what Augustus began,
+the Temples of the Gods consumed by age or fire: that near the great
+Circus, vowed by Aulus Posthumius the Dictator, to Bacchus, Proserpina,
+and Ceres. In the same place the Temple of Flora, founded by Lucius
+Publicius and Marcus Publicius while they were Aediles. The Temple of
+Janus, built in the Herb Market by Caius Duillius, who first
+signalised the Roman power at sea, and merited a naval triumph over the
+Carthaginians. That of Hope was dedicated by Germanicus: this temple
+Atilius had vowed in the same war.
+
+The Consuls for the following year were, Tiberius the third time,
+Germanicus the second. This dignity overtook Germanicus at Nicopolis,
+a city of Achaia, whither he arrived by the coast of Illyricum, from
+visiting his brother Drusus, then abiding in Dalmatia; and had suffered
+a tempestuous passage, both in the Adriatic and Ionian Sea: he therefore
+spent a few days to repair his fleet, and viewed the while the Bay
+of Actium renowned for the naval victory there; as also the spoils
+consecrated by Augustus, and the Camp of Anthony, with an affecting
+remembrance of these his ancestors; for Anthony, as I have said, was
+his great uncle, Augustus his grandfather; hence this scene proved to
+Germanicus a mighty source of images pleasing and sad. Next he proceeded
+to Athens, where in concession to that ancient city, allied to Rome,
+he would use but one Lictor. The Greeks received him with the most
+elaborate honours, and to dignify their personal flattery, carried
+before him tablatures of the signal deeds and sayings of his ancestors.
+
+Hence he sailed to Eubea, thence to Lesbos, where Agrippina was
+delivered of Julia, who proved her last birth; then he kept the coast of
+Asia and visited Perinthus and Byzantium, cities of Thrace, and entered
+the straits of Propontis, and the mouth of the Euxine; fond of beholding
+ancient places long celebrated by fame: he relieved at the same time,
+the provinces wherever distracted with intestine factions, or aggrieved
+with the oppressions of their magistrates. In his return he strove to
+see the religious rites of the Samothracians, but by the violence of the
+north wind was repulsed from the shore. As he passed, he saw Troy and
+her remains, venerable for the vicissitude of her fate, and for the
+birth of Rome: regaining the coast of Asia, he put in at Colophon, to
+consult there the oracle of the Clarian Apollo: it is no Pythoness that
+represents the God here, as at Delphos, but a Priest, one chosen from
+certain families, chiefly of Miletus; neither requires he more than just
+to hear the names and numbers of the querists, and then descends into
+the oracular cave; where, after a draught of water from a secret spring,
+though ignorant for the most part of letters and poetry, he yet utters
+his answers in verse, which has for its subject the conceptions and
+wishes of each consultant. He was even said to have sung to Germanicus
+his hastening fate, but as oracles are wont, in terms dark and doubtful.
+
+But Cneius Piso, hurrying to the execution of his purposes, terrified
+the city of Athens by a tempestuous entry, and reproached them in a
+severe speech, with oblique censure of Germanicus, "that debasing the
+dignity of the Roman name, he had paid excessive court, not to the
+Athenians by so many slaughters long since extinct, but to the then
+mixed scum of nations there; for that these were they who had leagued
+with Mithridates against Sylla, and with Anthony against Augustus." He
+even charged them with the errors and misfortunes of ancient Athens; her
+impotent attempts against the Macedonians; her violence and ingratitude
+to her own citizens. He was also an enemy to their city from personal
+anger; because they would not pardon at his request one Theophilus
+condemned by the Areopagus for forgery. From thence sailing hastily
+through the Cyclades, and taking the shortest course, he overtook
+Germanicus at Rhodes, but was there driven by a sudden tempest upon
+the rocks: and Germanicus, who was not ignorant with what malignity and
+invectives he was pursued, yet acted with so much humanity, that when
+he might have left him to perish, and to casualty have referred the
+destruction of his enemy; he despatched galleys to rescue him from the
+wreck. This generous kindness however assuaged not the animosity of
+Piso; and scarce could he brook a day's delay with Germanicus, but left
+him in haste to arrive in Syria before him: nor was he sooner there, and
+found himself amongst the legions, than he began to court the common
+men by bounties and caresses, to assist them with his countenance and
+credit, to form factions, to remove all the ancient centurions and every
+tribune of remarkable discipline and severity, and, in their places, to
+put dependents of his own, or men recommended only by their crimes; he
+permitted sloth in the camp, licentiousness in the towns, a rambling
+and disorderly soldiery, and carried the corruption so high, that in the
+discourses of the herd, he was styled _Father of the Legions_. Nor did
+Plancina restrain herself to a conduct seemly in her sex, but frequented
+the exercises of the cavalry, and attended the decursions of the
+cohorts; everywhere inveighing against Agrippina, everywhere against
+Germanicus; and some even of the most deserving soldiers became prompt
+to base obedience, from a rumour whispered abroad, "that all this was
+not unacceptable to Tiberius."
+
+These doings were all known to Germanicus; but his more instant care
+was to visit Armenia, an inconstant and restless nation this from the
+beginning; inconstant from the genius of the people, as well as from the
+situation of their country, which bordering with a large frontier on our
+provinces, and stretching thence quite to Media, is enclosed between
+the two great Empires, and often at variance with them; with the Romans
+through antipathy and hatred, with the Parthians through competition and
+envy. At this time and ever since the removal of Vonones, they had no
+king; but the affections of the nations leaned to Zeno, son of Polemon,
+king of Pontus, because by an attachment, from his infancy, to the
+fashions and customs of the Armenians, by hunting, feasting, and other
+usages practised and renowned amongst the barbarians, he had equally won
+the nobles and people. Upon his head therefore, at the city of Artaxata,
+with the approbation of the nobles, in a great assembly, Germanicus put
+the regal diadem; and the Armenians doing homage to their king, saluted
+him, _Artaxias_, a name which from that of their city, they gave him.
+The Cappadocians, at this time reduced into the form of a province,
+received for their governor Quintus Veranius; and to raise their
+hopes of the gentler dominion of Rome, several of the royal taxes were
+lessened. Quintus Servaeus was set over the Comagenians, then first
+subjected to the jurisdiction of a Praetor.
+
+From the affairs of the allies, thus all successfully settled,
+Germanicus reaped no pleasure, through the perverseness and pride of
+Piso, who was ordered to lead by himself or his son, part of the legions
+into Armenia, but contemptuously neglected to do either. They at last
+met at Cyrrum, the winter quarters of the tenth legion, whither each
+came with a prepared countenance; Piso to betray no fear, and Germanicus
+would not be thought to threaten. He was indeed, as I have observed,
+of a humane and reconcilable spirit: but, officious friends expert at
+inflaming animosities, aggravated real offences, added fictitious, and
+with manifold imputations charged Piso, Plancina, and their sons.
+To this interview Germanicus admitted a few intimates, and began his
+complaints in words such as dissembled resentment dictates. Piso replied
+with disdainful submissions; and they parted in open enmity. Piso
+hereafter came rarely to the tribunal of Germanicus; or, if he did, sate
+sternly there, and in manifest opposition: he likewise published his
+spite at a feast of the Nabathean King's, where golden crowns of great
+weight were presented to Germanicus and Agrippina; but to Piso and the
+rest, such as were light: "This banquet," he said, "was made for the son
+of a Roman prince, not of a Parthian monarch:" with these words, he
+cast away his crown, and uttered many invectives against luxury: sharp
+insults and provocations these to Germanicus; yet he bore them.
+
+In the consulship of Marcus Silanus and Lucius Norbanus, Germanicus
+travelled to Egypt, to view the famous antiquities of the country;
+though for the motives of the journey, the care and inspection of the
+province were publicly alleged: and, indeed, by opening the granaries,
+he mitigated the price of corn, and practised many things grateful to
+the people; walking without guards, his feet bare, and his habit the
+same with that of the Greeks; after the example of Publius Scipio, who,
+we are told, was constant in the same practices in Sicily, even during
+the rage of the Punic War there. For these his assumed manners and
+foreign habit, Tiberius blamed him in a gentle style, but censured him
+with great asperity for violating an establishment of Augustus, and
+entering Alexandria without consent of the Prince. For Augustus, amongst
+other secrets of power, had appropriated Egypt, and restrained the
+senators, and dignified Roman knights from going thither without
+licence; as he apprehended that Italy might be distressed with famine by
+any who seized that province, the key to the Empire by sea and land, and
+defensible by a light band of men against potent armies.
+
+Germanicus, not yet informed that his journey was censured, sailed up
+the Nile, beginning at Canopus, [Footnote: Near Aboukir.] one of its
+mouths: it was built by the Spartans, as a monument to Canopus, a pilot
+buried there, at the time when Menelaus returning to Greece was driven
+to different seas and the Lybian continent. Hence he visited the next
+mouth of the river sacred to Hercules: him the nations aver to have been
+born amongst them; that he was the most ancient of the name, and that
+all the rest, who with equal virtue followed his example, were, in
+honour, called after him. Next he visited the mighty antiquities of
+ancient Thebes; [Footnote: Karnak and Luxor.] where upon huge obelisks
+yet remained Egyptian characters, describing its former opulency: one of
+the oldest priests was ordered to interpret them; he said they related
+"that it once contained seven hundred thousand fighting men; that with
+that army King Rhamses had conquered Lybia, Ethiopia, the Medes and
+Persians, the Bactrians and Scythians; and to his Empire had added
+the territories of the Syrians, Armenians, and their neighbours the
+Cappadocians; a tract of countries reaching from the sea of Bithynia to
+that of Lycia:" here also was read the assessment of tribute laid on the
+several nations; what weight of silver and gold; what number of horses
+and arms; what ivory and perfumes, as gifts to the temples; what
+measures of grain; what quantities of all necessaries, were by
+each people paid; revenues equally grand with those exacted by the
+denomination of the Parthians, or by the power of the Romans.
+
+Germanicus was intent upon seeing other wonders: the chief were; the
+effigies of Memnon, a colossus of stone, yielding when struck by the
+solar rays, a vocal sound; the Pyramids rising, like mountains, amongst
+rolling and almost impassable waves of sand; monuments these of the
+emulation and opulency of Egyptian kings; the artificial lake, a
+receptacle of the overflowing Nile; and elsewhere abysses of such
+immense depth, that those, who tried, could never fathom. Thence he
+proceeded to Elephantina and Syene, two islands, formerly frontiers of
+the Roman empire, which is now widened to the Red Sea.
+
+Whilst Germanicus spent this summer in several provinces, Drusus was
+sowing feuds amongst the Germans, and thence reaped no light renown;
+and, as the power of Maroboduus was already broken, he engaged them to
+persist and complete his ruin. Amongst the Gotones was a young man of
+quality, his name Catualda, a fugitive long since from the violence of
+Maroboduus, but now in his distress, resolved on revenge: hence with a
+stout band, he entered the borders of the Marcomannians, and corrupting
+their chiefs into his alliance, stormed the regal palace, and the castle
+situate near it. In the pillage were found the ancient stores of prey
+accumulated by the Suevians; as also many victuallers and traders from
+our provinces; men who were drawn hither from their several homes, first
+by privilege of traffic, then retained by a passion to multiply gain,
+and at last, through utter oblivion of their own country, fixed, like
+natives, in a hostile soil.
+
+To Maroboduus on every side forsaken, no other refuge remained but the
+mercy of Caesar: he therefore passed the Danube where it washes the
+province of Norica, and wrote to Tiberius; not however in the language
+of a fugitive or supplicant, but with a spirit suitable to his late
+grandeur, "that many nations invited him to them, as a king once so
+glorious; but he preferred to all the friendship of Rome." The Emperor
+answered, "that in Italy he should have a safe and honourable retreat,
+and, when his affairs required his presence, the same security to
+return." But to the Senate he declared, "that never had Philip of
+Macedon been so terrible to the Athenians; nor Pyrrhus, nor Antiochus
+to the Roman people." The speech is extant: in it he magnifies "the
+greatness of the man, the fierceness and bravery of the nations his
+subjects; the alarming nearness of such an enemy to Italy, and his own
+artful measures to destroy him." Maroboduus was kept at Ravenna, for
+a check and terror to the Suevians; as if, when at any time they grew
+turbulent, he were there in readiness to recover their subjection: yet
+in eighteen years he left not Italy, but grew old in exile there; his
+renown too became eminently diminished; such was the price he paid for
+an over-passionate love of life. The same fate had Catualda, and
+no other sanctuary; he was soon after expulsed by the forces of the
+Hermundurans led by Vibilius, and being received under the Roman
+protection, was conveyed to Forum Julium, a colony in Narbon Gaul.
+The barbarians their followers, lest, had they been mixed with the
+provinces, they might have disturbed their present quiet, were placed
+beyond the Danube, between the rivers Marus and Cusus, and for their
+king had assigned them Vannius, by nation a Quadian.
+
+As soon as it was known at Rome, that Artaxias was by Germanicus given
+to the Armenians for their king, the fathers decreed to him and Drusus
+the lesser triumph: triumphal arches were likewise erected, on each side
+of the Temple of Mars the Avenger, supporting the statues of these two
+Caesars; and for Tiberius, he was more joyful to have established peace
+by policy, than if by battles and victories he had ended the war.
+
+Germanicus returning from Egypt, learned that all his orders left with
+the legions, and the eastern cities, were either entirely abolished,
+or contrary regulations established: a ground this for his severe
+reproaches and insults upon Piso. Nor less keen were the efforts and
+machinations of Piso against Germanicus; yet Piso afterwards determined
+to leave Syria, but was detained by the following illness of Germanicus:
+again when he heard of his recovery, and perceived that vows were paid
+for his restoration; the Lictors, by his command, broke the solemnity,
+drove away the victims already at the altars; overturned the apparatus
+of the sacrifice; and scattered the people of Antioch employed in
+celebrating the festival. He then departed to Seleucia, waiting the
+event of the malady which had again assaulted Germanicus. His own
+persuasion too, that poison was given him by Piso, heightened the cruel
+vehemence of the disease: indeed, upon the floors and walls were found
+fragments of human bodies, the spoils of the grave; with charms and
+incantations; and the name of Germanicus graved on sheets of lead;
+carcasses half burnt, besmeared with gore; and other witchcrafts, by
+which souls are thought doomed to the infernal gods: besides there
+were certain persons, charged as creatures of Piso, purposely sent and
+employed to watch the progress and efforts of the disease.
+
+These things filled Germanicus with apprehensions great as his
+resentment: "If his doors," he said, "were besieged, if under the eyes
+of his enemies he must render up his spirit, what was to be expected to
+his unhappy wife, what to his infant children?" The progress of poison
+was thought too slow; Piso was impatient, and urging with eagerness to
+command alone the legions, to possess alone the province: but Germanicus
+was not sunk to such lowness and impotence, that the price of his murder
+should remain with the murderer: and by a letter to Piso, he renounced
+his friendship: some add, that he commanded him to depart the province.
+Nor did Piso tarry longer, but took ship; yet checked her sailing in
+order to return with the more quickness, should the death of Germanicus
+the while leave the government of Syria vacant.
+
+Germanicus, after a small revival, drooping again; when his end
+approached, spoke on this wise to his attending friends: "Were I to
+yield to the destiny of nature; just, even then, were my complaints
+against the Gods, for hurrying me from my parents, my children, and my
+country, by a hasty death, in the prime of life: now shortened in my
+course by the malignity of Piso, and his wife, to your breasts I commit
+my last prayers: tell my father, tell my brother, with what violent
+persecutions afflicted, with what mortal snares circumvented, I end a
+most miserable life by death of all others the worst. All they whose
+hopes in my fortune, all they whose kindred blood, and even they whose
+envy, possessed them with impressions about me whilst living, shall
+bewail me dead; that once great in glory, and surviving so many wars, I
+fell at last by the dark devices of a woman. To you will be place left
+to complain in the Senate, and place to invoke the aid and vengeance
+of the laws. To commemorate the dead with slothful wailings, is not the
+principal office of friends: they are to remember his dying wishes, to
+fulfil his last desires. Even strangers will lament Germanicus: you are
+my friends: if you loved me rather than my fortune, you will vindicate
+your friendship: show the people of Rome my wife, her who is the
+grand-daughter of Augustus, and enumerate to them our six children.
+Their compassion will surely attend you who accuse; and the accused, if
+they pretend clandestine warrants of iniquity, will not be believed;
+if believed, not pardoned." His friends, as a pledge of their fidelity,
+touching the hand of the dying prince, swore that they would forego
+their lives sooner than their revenge. Then turning to his wife, he
+besought her "that in tenderness to his memory, in tenderness to their
+common children, she would banish her haughty spirit, yield to
+her hostile fortune, nor, upon her return to Rome, by an impotent
+competition for ruling, irritate those who were masters of rule." So
+much openly, and more in secret; whence he was believed to have warned
+her of guile and danger from Tiberius. Soon after he expired, to the
+heavy sorrow of the province, and of all the neighbouring countries;
+insomuch that remote nations and foreign kings were mourners: such
+had been his complacency to our confederates; such his humanity to his
+enemies! Alike venerable he was, whether you saw him or heard him; and
+without ever departing from the grave port and dignity of his sublime
+rank, he yet lived destitute of arrogance and untouched by envy.
+
+The funeral, which was performed without exterior pomp or a procession
+of images, drew its solemnity from the loud praises and amiable memory
+of his virtues. There were those who from his loveliness, his age,
+his manner of dying, and even from the proximity of places where both
+departed, compared him in the circumstances of his fate, to Great
+Alexander: "Each of a graceful person, each of illustrious descent;
+in years neither much exceeding thirty; both victims to the malice and
+machinations of their own people, in the midst of foreign nations: but
+Germanicus gentle towards his friends; his pleasures moderate; confined
+to one wife; all his children by one bed; nor less a warrior, though not
+so rash, and however hindered from a final reduction of Germany, broken
+by him in so many victories, and ready for the yoke: so that had he been
+sole arbiter of things, had he acted with the sovereignty and title of
+royalty, he had easier overtaken him in the glory of conquests, as he
+surpassed him in clemency, in moderation, and in other virtues." His
+body, before its commitment to the pile, was exhibited naked in the
+Forum of Antioch, the place where the pile was erected: whether it
+bore the marks of poison, remained undecided: for, people as they were
+divided in their affections, as they pitied Germanicus, and presumed the
+guilt of Piso, or were partial to him, gave opposite accounts.
+
+It was next debated amongst the legates of the legions and the other
+senators there, to whom should be committed the administration of Syria:
+and after the faint effort of others, it was long disputed between
+Vibius Marsus and Cneius Sentius: Marsus at last yielded to Sentius, the
+older man and the more vehement competitor. By him one Martina, infamous
+in that province for practices in poisoning, and a close confidant of
+Plancina, was sent to Rome, at the suit of Vitellius, Veranius, and
+others, who were preparing criminal articles against Piso and Plancina,
+as against persons evidently guilty.
+
+Agrippina, though overwhelmed with sorrow, and her body indisposed,
+yet impatient of all delays to her revenge, embarked with the ashes of
+Germanicus, and her children; attended with universal commiseration,
+"that a lady, in quality a princess, wont to be beheld in her late
+splendid wedlock with applauses and adorations, was now seen bearing in
+her bosom her husband's funeral urn, uncertain of vengeance for him and
+fearful for herself; unfortunate in her fruitfulness, and from so many
+children obnoxious to so many blows of fortune." Piso the while was
+overtaken at the Isle of Cooes by a message, "that Germanicus was
+deceased," and received it intemperately, slew victims and repaired with
+thanksgiving to the temples: and yet, however immoderate and undisguised
+was his joy, more arrogant and insulting proved that of Plancina, who
+immediately threw off her mourning, which for the death of a sister she
+wore, and assumed a dress adapted to gaiety and gladness.
+
+About him flocked the Centurions with officious representations, "that
+upon him particularly were bent the affections and zeal of the legions,
+and he should proceed to resume the province, at first injuriously taken
+from him and now destitute of a governor." As he therefore consulted
+what he had best pursue, his son Marcus Piso advised "a speedy journey
+to Rome: hitherto," he said, "nothing past expiation was committed; nor
+were impotent suspicions to be dreaded; nor the idle blazonings of fame:
+his variance and contention with Germanicus was perhaps subject to hate
+and aversion, but to no prosecution or penalty; and, by bereaving him of
+the province, his enemies were gratified: but if he returned thither, as
+Sentius would certainly oppose him with arms, a civil war would thence
+be actually begun: neither would the Centurions and soldiers persist in
+his party; men with whom the recent memory of their late commander, and
+an inveterate love to the Caesarian general, were still prevalent."
+
+Domitius Celer, one in intimate credit with Piso, argued on the
+contrary, "that the present event must by all means be improved; it was
+Piso and not Sentius who had commission to govern Syria; upon him, were
+conferred the jurisdiction of Praetor, and the badges of magistracy, and
+with him the legions were instructed: so that if acts of hostility were
+by his opponents attempted, with how much better warrant could he avow
+assuming arms in his own right and defence, who was thus vested with the
+authority of general, and acted under special orders from the Emperor.
+Rumours too were to be neglected, and left to perish with time: in
+truth to the sallies and violence of recent hate the innocent were often
+unequal: but were he once possessed of the army, and had well augmented
+his forces, many things, not to be foreseen, would from fortune derive
+success. Are we then preposterously hastening to arrive at Rome with the
+ashes of Germanicus, that you may there fall, unheard and undefended, a
+victim to the wailings of Agrippina, a prey to the passionate populace
+governed by the first impressions of rumour? Livia, it is true, is your
+confederate; Tiberius is your friend; but both secretly: and indeed none
+will more pompously bewail the violent fate of Germanicus, than such as
+for it do most sincerely rejoice."
+
+Piso of himself prompt to violent pursuits, was with no great labour
+persuaded into this opinion, and, in a letter transmitted to Tiberius,
+accused Germanicus "of luxury and pride: that for himself, he had been
+expulsed, to leave room for dangerous designs against the State, and now
+resumed, with his former faith and loyalty, the care of the army." In
+the meantime he put Domitius on board a galley, and ordered him to avoid
+appearing upon the coasts or amongst the isles, but, through the
+main sea, to sail to Syria. The deserters, who from all quarters were
+flocking to him in crowds, he formed into companies, and armed all the
+retainers to the camp; then sailing over to the continent, intercepted
+a regiment of recruits, upon their march into Syria; and wrote to the
+small kings of Cilicia to assist him with present succours: nor was
+the younger Piso slow in prosecuting all the measures of war, though to
+adventure a war had been against his sentiments and advice.
+
+As they coasted Lycia and Pamphilia, they encountered the ships which
+carried Agrippina, with hostile spirit on each side, and each at first
+prepared for combat; but as equal dread of one another possessed
+both, proceeded not further than mutual contumelies. Vibius Marsus
+particularly summoned Piso, as a criminal, to Rome, there to make his
+defence: he answered with derision "that when the Praetor, who was to
+sit upon poisonings, had assigned a day to the accusers and the accused,
+he would attend." Domitius, the while, landing at Laodicea, a city of
+Syria, would have proceeded to the winter quarters of the sixth legion,
+which he believed to be the most prone to engage in novel attempts, but
+was prevented by Pacuvius, its commander. Sentius represented this by
+letter to Piso, and warned him, "at his peril to infect the camp by
+ministers of corruption; or to assail the province of war;" and drew
+into a body such as he knew loved Germanicus, or such as were averse to
+his foes: upon them he inculcated with much ardour, that Piso was with
+open arms attacking the majesty of the Prince, and invading the Roman
+State; and then marched at the head of a puissant body, equipped for
+battle and resolute to engage.
+
+Neither failed Piso, though his enterprises had thus far miscarried, to
+apply the securest remedies to his present perplexities; and therefore
+seized a castle of Cilicia strongly fortified, its name Celendris: for,
+to the auxiliary Cilicians, sent him by the petty kings, he had joined
+his body of deserters, as also the recruits lately intercepted, with all
+his own and Plancina's slaves; and thus in number and bulk had of
+the whole composed a legion. To them he thus harangued: "I who am the
+lieutenant of Caesar, am yet violently excluded from the province which
+to me Caesar has committed: not excluded by the legions (for by their
+invitation I am arrived), but by Sentius, who thus disguises under
+feigned crimes against me, his own animosity and personal hate: but with
+confidence you may stand in battle, where the opposite army, upon the
+sight of Piso, a commander lately by themselves styled their _Father_,
+will certainly refuse to fight; they know too, that were right to decide
+it, I am the stronger; and of no mean puissance in a trial at arms."
+He then arrayed his men without the fortifications, on a hill steep and
+craggy, for all the rest was begirt by the sea: against them stood the
+veterans regularly embattled, and supported with a body of reserve;
+so that here appeared the force of men, there only the terror and
+stubbornness of situation. On Piso's side was no spirit, nor hope,
+nor even weapons save those of rustics, for instant necessity hastily
+acquired. As soon as they came to blows, the issue was no longer
+doubtful than while the Roman cohorts struggled up the steep: the
+Cilicians then fled, and shut themselves up in the castle.
+
+Piso having the while attempted in vain to storm the fleet, which rode
+at a small distance, as soon as he returned, presented himself upon the
+walls; where, by a succession of passionate complaints and entreaties,
+now bemoaning in agonies the bitterness of his lot, then calling and
+cajolling every particular soldier by his name, and by rewards tempting
+all, he laboured to excite a sedition; and thus much had already
+effected, that the Eagle-bearer of the sixth legion revolted to him with
+his Eagle. This alarmed Sentius, and instantly he commanded the cornets
+and trumpets to sound, a mound to be raised, the ladders placed, and
+the bravest men to mount, and others to pour from the engines volleys of
+darts and stones, and flaming torches. The obstinacy of Piso was at
+last vanquished; and he desired "that upon delivering his arms he might
+remain in the castle till the Emperor's pleasure, to whom he would
+commit the government of Syria, were known;" conditions which were not
+accepted; nor was aught granted him save ships and a passport to Rome.
+
+After the illness of Germanicus grew current there, and all its
+circumstances, like rumours magnified by distance, were related
+with many aggravations; sadness seized the people; they burned with
+indignation, and even poured out in plaints the anguish of their souls.
+"For this," they said, "he had been banished to the extremities of the
+Empire, for this the province of Syria was committed to Piso, and these
+the fruits of Livia's mysterious conferences with Plancina: truly had
+our fathers spoken concerning his father Drusus; that the possessors of
+rule beheld with an evil eye the popular spirit of their sons; nor for
+aught else were they sacrificed, but for their equal treatment of
+the Roman People, and studying to restore the popular state." These
+lamentations of the populace were, upon the tidings of his death, so
+inflamed, that, without staying for an edict from the magistrates,
+without a decree of Senate, they by general consent assumed a vacation;
+the public courts were deserted, private houses shut up, prevalent
+everywhere were the symptoms of woe, heavy groans, dismal silence; the
+whole a scene of real sorrow, and nothing devised for form or show; and,
+though they forbore not to bear the exterior marks and habiliments of
+mourning; in their souls they mourned still deeper. Accidentally some
+merchants from Syria, who had left Germanicus still alive, brought
+more joyful news of his condition: these were instantly believed, and
+instantly proclaimed: each, as fast as they met, informed others,
+who forthwith conveyed their light information with improvements and
+accumulated joy to more, and all flew with exultation through the city;
+and, to pay their thanks and vows, burst open the temple doors: the
+night too heightened their credulity, and affirmation was bolder in the
+dark. Nor did Tiberius restrain the course of these fictions, but left
+them to vanish with time: hence with more bitterness they afterwards
+grieved for him, as if anew snatched from them.
+
+Honours were invented and decreed to Germanicus, various as the
+affections and genius of the particular Senators who proposed them:
+"that his name should be sung in the Salian hymns; curule chairs placed
+for him amongst the priests of Augustus, and over these chairs oaken
+crowns hung; his statue in ivory precede in the Cercensian games; none
+but one of the Julian race be, in the room of Germanicus, created flamen
+or augur:" triumphal arches were added; one at Rome; one upon the banks
+of the Rhine; one upon Mount Amanus, in Syria; with inscriptions of
+his exploits, and a testimony subjoined, "that he died for the
+Commonwealth:" a sepulchre at Antioch, where his corpse was burnt; a
+tribunal at Epidaphne, the place where he ended his life. The multitude
+of statues, the many places where divine honours were appointed to be
+paid him, would not be easily recounted. They would have also decreed
+him, as to one of the masters of eloquence, a golden shield, signal in
+bulk as in metal; but Tiberius offered to dedicate one himself, such
+as was usual and of a like size with others; for that eloquence was not
+measured by fortune; and it was sufficient glory, if he were ranked with
+ancient writers. The battalion called after the name of the Junii was
+now, by the equestrian order, entitled the battalion of Germanicus,
+and a rule made that, on every fifteenth of July, these troops should
+follow, as their standard, the effigies of Germanicus: of these honours
+many continue; some were instantly omitted, or by time are utterly
+obliterated.
+
+In the height of this public sorrow, Livia, sister to Germanicus,
+and married to Drusus, was delivered of male twins: an event even in
+middling families, rare and acceptable, and to Tiberius such mighty
+matter of joy, that he could not refrain boasting to the fathers, "that
+to no Roman of the same eminence, before him, were never two children
+born at a birth:" for to his own glory he turned all things, even things
+fortuitous. But to the people, at such a sad conjuncture, it brought
+fresh anguish; as they feared that the family of Drusus thus increased,
+would press heavy upon that of Germanicus.
+
+The same year the lubricity of women was by the Senate restrained with
+severe laws; and it was provided, "that no woman should become venal, if
+her father, grandfather or husband, were Roman knights." For Vistilia,
+a lady born of a Praetorian family, had before the Aediles published
+herself a prostitute; upon a custom allowed by our ancestors, who
+thought that prostitutes were by thus avowing their infamy, sufficiently
+punished. Titidius Labeo too was questioned, that in the manifest guilt
+of his wife, he had neglected the punishment prescribed by the law;
+but he alleged that the sixty days allowed for consultation were not
+elapsed; and it was deemed sufficient to proceed against Vistilia,
+who was banished to the Isle of Seriphos. Measures were also taken for
+exterminating the solemnities of the Jews and Egyptians; and by decree
+of Senate four thousand descendants of franchised slaves, all defiled
+with that superstition, but of proper strength and age, were to be
+transported to Sardinia; to restrain the Sardinian robbers; and if,
+through the malignity of the climate, they perished, despicable would be
+the loss: the rest were doomed to depart Italy, unless by a stated day
+they renounced their profane rites.
+
+After this Tiberius represented that, to supply the place of Occia, who
+had presided seven and fifty years with the highest sanctimony over the
+Vestals, another virgin was to be chosen; and thanked Fonteius Agrippa
+and Asinius Pollio, that by offering their daughters, they contended in
+good offices towards the Commonwealth. Pollio's daughter was preferred;
+for nothing else but that her mother had ever continued in the same
+wedlock: for Agrippa, by a divorce, had impaired the credit of his
+house: upon her who was postponed, Tiberius, in consolation, bestowed
+for her fortune a thousand great sestertia. [Footnote: L8300.]
+
+As the people murmured at the severe dearth of corn, he settled grain
+at a price certain to the buyer, and undertook to pay fourteenpence a
+measure to the seller: neither yet would he accept the name of _Father
+of his Country_, a title offered him before, and for these bounties, now
+again; nay, he sharply rebuked such as styled these provisions of his,
+_divine occupations_, and him, _Lord_: hence freedom of speech became
+cramped and insecure, under such a Prince; one who dreaded liberty, and
+abhorred flattery.
+
+I find in the writers of those times, some of them Senators, that in
+the Senate were read letters from Adgandestrius, prince of the Cattans,
+undertaking to despatch Arminius, if in order to it poison were sent
+him; and an answer returned, "that not by frauds and blows in the dark,
+but armed and in the face of the sun, the Roman People took vengeance
+on their foes." In this Tiberius gained equal glory with our ancient
+captains, who rejected and disclosed a plot to poison King Pyrrhus.
+Arminius however, who upon the departure of the Romans and expulsion
+of Maroboduus, aimed at royalty, became thence engaged in a struggle
+against the liberty of his country; and, in defence of their liberty,
+his countrymen took arms against him: so that, while with various
+fortune he contended with them, he fell by the treachery of his own
+kindred: the deliverer of Germany without doubt he was; one who
+assailed the Roman power, not like other kings and leaders, in its first
+elements, but in its highest pride and elevation; one sometimes beaten
+in battle, but never conquered in war: thirty-seven years he lived;
+twelve he commanded; and, amongst these barbarous nations, his memory is
+still celebrated in their songs; but his name unknown in the annals of
+the Greeks, who only admire their own national exploits and renown; nor
+even amongst the Romans does this great captain bear much distinction,
+while, overlooking instances of modern prowess and glory, we only
+delight to magnify men and feats of old.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK III
+
+A.D. 20-22.
+
+
+Agrippina, notwithstanding the roughness of winter, pursuing without
+intermission her boisterous voyage, put in at the Island Corcyra,
+[Footnote: Corfu.] situate over against the coasts of Calabria. Here
+to settle her spirit, she spent a few days, violent in her grief, and
+a stranger to patience. Her arrival being the while divulged, all the
+particular friends to her family, mostly men of the sword, many who had
+served under Germanicus, and even many strangers from the neighbouring
+towns, some in officiousness towards the Emperor, more for company,
+crowded to the city of Brundusium, the readiest port in her way and the
+safest landing. As soon as the fleet appeared in the deep, instantly
+were filled, not the port alone and adjacent shores, but the walls
+and roofs, and as far as the eye could go; filled with the sorrowing
+multitude. They were consulting one from one, how they should receive
+her landing, "whether with universal silence, or with some note of
+acclamation." Nor was it manifest which they would do, when the fleet
+stood slowly in, not as usual with joyful sailors and cheerful oars, but
+all things impressed with the face of sadness. After she descended from
+the ship, accompanied with her two infants, carrying in her bosom the
+melancholy urn, with her eyes cast steadily down; equal and universal
+were the groans of the beholders: nor could you distinguish relations
+from strangers, nor the wailings of men from those of women, unless
+that the new-comers, who were recent in their sallies of grief, exceeded
+Agrippina's attendants, wearied out with long lamentations.
+
+Tiberius had despatched two Praetorian cohorts, with directions, that
+the magistrates of Calabria, Apulia and Campania, should pay their last
+offices to the memory of his son: upon the shoulders therefore of the
+Tribunes and Centurions his ashes were borne; before went the ensigns
+rough and unadorned, with the fasces reversed. As they passed through
+the colonies, the populace were in black, the knights in purple; and
+each place, according to its wealth, burnt precious raiment, perfumes
+and whatever else is used in funeral solemnities: even they whose cities
+lay remote attended: to the Gods of the dead they slew victims, they
+erected altars, and with tears and united lamentations, testified
+their common sorrow. Drusus came as far as Terracina, with Claudius the
+brother of Germanicus, and those of his children who had been left at
+Rome. The Consuls Marcus Valerius and Marcus Aurelius (just then entered
+upon their office), the Senate, and great part of the people, filled the
+road; a scattered procession, each walking and weeping his own way: in
+this mourning, flattery had no share; for all knew how real was the joy,
+how hollow the grief, of Tiberius for the death of Germanicus.
+
+Tiberius and Livia avoided appearing abroad: public lamentation they
+thought below their grandeur; or perhaps they apprehended that their
+countenances, examined by all eyes, might show deceitful hearts. That
+Antonia, mother to the deceased, bore any part in the funeral, I do not
+find either in the historians or in the city journals: though, besides
+Agrippina, and Drusus, and Claudius, his other relations are likewise
+there recorded by name: whether by sickness she was prevented; or
+whether her soul vanquished by sorrow, could not bear the representation
+of such a mighty calamity. I would rather believe her constrained
+by Tiberius and Livia, who left not the palace; and affecting equal
+affliction with her, would have it seem that, by the example of the
+mother, the grandmother too and uncle were detained.
+
+The day his remains were reposited in the tomb of Augustus, various
+were the symptoms of public grief; now the vastness of silence; now the
+uproar of lamentation; the city in every quarter full of processions;
+the field of Mars on a blaze of torches: here the soldiers under arms,
+the magistrates without the insignia, the people by their tribes, all
+cried in concert that "the Commonwealth was fallen, and henceforth
+there was no remain of hope;" so openly and boldly that you would have
+believed they had forgot, who bore sway. But nothing pierced Tiberius
+more than the ardent affections of the people towards Agrippina, while
+such titles they gave her as "the ornament of her country, the only
+blood of Augustus, the single instance of ancient virtue;" and, while
+applying to heaven, they implored "the continuance of her issue, that
+they might survive the persecuting and malignant."
+
+There were those who missed the pomp of a public funeral, and compared
+with this the superior honours and magnificence bestowed by Augustus on
+that of Drusus the father of Germanicus; "that he himself had travelled,
+in the sharpness of winter, as far as Pavia, and thence, continuing by
+the corpse, had with it entered the city; round his head were placed
+the images of the Claudii and Julii; he was mourned in the Forum; his
+encomium pronounced in the Rostras; all sorts of honours, such as were
+the inventions of our ancestors, or the improvements of their posterity,
+were heaped upon him. But to Germanicus were denied the ordinary
+solemnities, and such as were due to every distinguished Roman. In a
+foreign country indeed, his corpse because of the long journey, was
+burnt without pomp; but afterwards, it was but just to have supplied
+the scantiness of the first ceremony by the solemnity of the last: his
+brother met him but one day's journey; his uncle not even at the gate.
+Where were those generous observations of the ancients; the effigies of
+the dead borne on a bed, hymns composed in memory of their virtue, with
+the oblations of praise and tears? Where at least were the ceremonies
+and even outside of sorrow?"
+
+All this was known to Tiberius; and, to suppress the discourses of the
+populace, he published an edict, "that many illustrious Romans had died
+for the Commonwealth, but none so vehemently lamented: this however was
+to the glory of himself and of all men, if a measure were observed. The
+same things which became private families and small states, became not
+Princes and an Imperial People: fresh grief indeed required vent and
+ease by lamentation; but it was now time to recover and fortify their
+minds. Thus the deified Julius, upon the loss of an only daughter; thus
+the deified Augustus, upon the hasty death of his grandsons, had both
+vanquished their sorrow. More ancient examples were unnecessary; how
+often the Roman People sustained with constancy the slaughter of their
+armies, the death of their generals, and entire destruction of their
+noblest families: Princes were mortal; the Commonwealth was eternal:
+they should therefore resume their several vocations." And because the
+Megalesian games were at hand, he added, "that they should even apply to
+the usual festivities."
+
+The vacation ended, public affairs were resumed; Drusus departed for
+the army in Illyricum, and the minds of all men were bent upon seeing
+vengeance done upon Piso. They repeated their resentments, that while
+he wandered over the delightful countries of Asia and Greece, he was
+stifling, by contumacious and deceitful delays, the evidences of his
+crimes; for it was bruited abroad, that Martina, she who was famous for
+poisonings, and sent, as I have above related, by Cneius Sentius towards
+Rome, was suddenly dead at Brundusium; that poison lay concealed in
+a knot of her hair, but upon her body were found no symptoms of
+self-murder.
+
+Piso, sending forward his son to Rome, with instructions how to soften
+the Emperor, proceeded himself to Drusus: him he hoped to find less
+rigid for the death of a brother, than favourable for the removal of a
+rival. Tiberius, to make show of a spirit perfectly unbiassed, received
+the young man graciously, and honoured him with the presents usually
+bestowed on young noblemen. The answer of Drusus to Piso was, "That if
+the current rumours were true, he stood in the first place of grief and
+revenge; but he hoped they were false and chimerical, and that the death
+of Germanicus would be pernicious to none." This he declared in public,
+and avoided all privacy: nor was it doubted but the answer was dictated
+by Tiberius; when a youth, otherwise easy and unwary, practised thus the
+wiles and cunning of age.
+
+Piso having crossed the sea of Dalmatia, and left his ships at Ancona,
+took first the road of Picenum and then the Flaminian way, following the
+legion which was going from Pannonia to Rome, and thence to garrison
+in Africa. This too became the subject of popular censure, that he
+officiously mixed with the soldiers, and courted them in their march and
+quarters: he therefore, to avoid suspicion; or, because when men are
+in dread, their conduct wavers, did at Narni embark upon the Nar, and
+thence sailed into the Tiber. By landing at the burying-place of the
+Caesars, he heightened the wrath of the populace: besides, he and
+Plancina came ashore, in open day, in the face of the city who were
+crowding the banks, and proceeded with gay countenances; he attended by
+a long band of clients, she by a train of ladies. There were yet other
+provocations to hatred; the situation of his house, proudly overlooking
+the Forum, and adorned and illuminated as for a festival; the banquet
+and rejoicings held in it, and all as public as the place.
+
+The next day Fulcinius Trio arraigned Piso before the Consuls, but
+was opposed by Vitellius, Veranius, and others, who had accompanied
+Germanicus: they said, "that in this prosecution Trio had no part; nor
+did they themselves act as accusers, but only gathered materials, and,
+as witnesses, produced the last injunctions of Germanicus." Trio dropped
+that accusation; but got leave to call in question his former life: and
+now the Emperor was desired to undertake the trial; a request which the
+accused did not at all oppose, dreading the inclinations of the people
+and Senate: he knew Tiberius, on the contrary, resolute in despising
+popular rumours, and in guilt confederate with his mother: besides that
+truth and misrepresentations were easiest distinguished by a single
+judge, but in assemblies odium and envy often prevailed. Tiberius
+was aware of the weight of the trial, and with what reproaches he was
+assaulted. Admitting therefore a few confidants, he heard the charge
+of the accusers, as also the apology of the accused; and left the cause
+entire to the Senate.
+
+Drusus returned the while from Illyricum; and though the Senate had for
+the reduction of Maroboduus, and other his exploits the summer before,
+decreed him the triumph of ovation; he postponed the honour, and
+privately entered the city. Piso, for his advocates, desired Titus
+Arruntius, Fulcinius, Asinius Gallus, Eserninus Marcellus, and Sextus
+Pompeius: but they all framed different excuses; and he had, in their
+room, Marcus Lepidus, Lucius Piso and Liveneius Regulus. Now earnest
+were the expectations of all men, "how great would prove the fidelity of
+the friends of Germanicus; what the assurance of the criminal, what the
+behaviour of Tiberius; whether he would sufficiently smother, or betray
+his sentiments." He never had a more anxious part; neither did the
+people ever indulge themselves in such secret murmurs against their
+Emperor, nor harbour in silence severer suspicions.
+
+When the Senate met, Tiberius made a speech full of laboured moderation:
+"That Piso had been his father's lieutenant and friend; and lately
+appointed by himself, at the direction of the Senate, coadjutor to
+Germanicus in administering the affairs of the East: whether he had
+there by contumacy and opposition exasperated the young Prince, and
+exulted over his death, or wickedly procured it, they were then to judge
+with minds unprejudiced. For, if he who was the lieutenant of my
+son violated the limits of his commission, cast off obedience to his
+general, and even rejoiced at his decease and at my affliction; I
+will detest the man, I will banish him from my house, and for domestic
+injuries exert domestic revenge; not the revenge of an Emperor. But for
+you; if his guilt of any man's death whatsoever is discovered, show your
+just vengeance, and by it satisfy yourselves, satisfy the children of
+Germanicus, and us his father and grandmother. Consider too especially,
+whether he vitiated the discipline and promoted sedition in the army;
+whether he sought to debauch the affections of the soldiers, and to
+recover the province by arms: or whether these allegations are not
+published falsely and with aggravations by the accusers, with whose
+over-passionate zeal, I am justly offended: for, whither tended the
+stripping the corpse and exposing it to the eyes and examination of the
+populace; with what view was it proclaimed even to foreign nations, that
+his death was the effect of poison; if all this was still doubtful,
+and remains yet to be tried? It is true I bewail my son, and shall ever
+bewail him: but neither do I hinder the accused to do what in him lies
+to manifest his innocence, even at the expense of Germanicus, if aught
+blamable was in him. From you I entreat the same impartiality: let not
+the connection of my sorrow with this cause, mislead you to take crimes
+for proved because they are imputed. For Piso; if the tenderness of
+kinsmen, if the faith of friends, has furnished him with patrons, let
+them aid him in his peril, show their utmost eloquence, and exert their
+best diligence. To the same pains, to the same firmness I exhort the
+accusers. Thus much we will grant to the memory of Germanicus, that the
+inquest concerning his death, be held rather here than in the Forum, in
+the Senate than the common Tribunals. In all the rest, we will descend
+to the ordinary methods. Let no man in this cause consider Drusus's
+tears; let none regard my sorrow, no more than the probable fictions of
+calumny against us."
+
+Two days were then appointed for maintaining the charge; six for
+preparing the defence, and three for making it. Fulcinius began with
+things stale and impertinent, about the ambition and rapine of Piso in
+his administration of Spain: things which, though proved, brought him
+under no penalty, if acquitted of the present charge; nor, though he
+had been cleared of former faults, could he escape the load of greater
+enormities. After him Servaeus, Veranius, and Vitellius, all with equal
+zeal, but Vitellius with great eloquence urged "that Piso, in hatred to
+Germanicus, and passionate for innovations, had by tolerating general
+licentiousness, and the oppression of the allies, corrupted the common
+soldiers to that degree, that by the most profligate he was styled
+_Father of the Legions_: he had, on the contrary, been outrageous to the
+best men, above all to the friends and companions of Germanicus; and, at
+last, by witchcraft and poison destroyed Germanicus himself: hence the
+infernal charms and immolations practised by him and Plancina: he had
+then attacked the Commonwealth with open arms; and, before he could be
+brought to be tried, they were forced to fight and defeat him."
+
+In every article but one his defence was faltering. For, neither his
+dangerous intrigues in debauching the soldiery, nor his abandoning the
+province to the most profligate and rapacious, nor even his insults to
+Germanicus, were to be denied. He seemed only to wipe off the charge of
+poison; a charge which in truth was not sufficiently corroborated by the
+accusers, since they had only to allege, "that at an entertainment of
+Germanicus, Piso, while he sat above him, with his hands poisoned the
+meat." It appeared absurd that amongst so many attending slaves besides
+his own, in so great a presence, and under the eye of Germanicus, he
+would attempt it: he himself required that the waiters might be
+racked, and offered to the rack his own domestics: but the Judges were
+implacable, implacable from different motives; Tiberius for the war
+raised in the province; and the Senate could never be convinced that
+the death of Germanicus was not the effect of fraud. Some moved for the
+letters written to Piso from Rome; a motion opposed by Tiberius no less
+than by Piso. From without, at the same time, were heard the cries of
+the people, "that if he escaped the judgment of the Senate, they would
+with their own hands destroy him." They had already dragged his statues
+to the place from whence malefactors were precipitated, and there
+had broken them; but by the orders of Tiberius they were rescued and
+replaced. Piso was put into a litter and carried back by a tribune of
+a Praetorian cohort; an attendance variously understood, whether as a
+guard for his safety, or a minister of death.
+
+Plancina was under equal public hatred, but had more secret favour:
+hence it was doubted how far Tiberius durst proceed against her. For
+herself; while her husband's hopes were yet plausible, she professed
+"she would accompany his fortune, whatever it were, and, if he fell,
+fall with him." But when by the secret solicitations of Livia, she had
+secured her own pardon, she began by degrees to drop her husband, and to
+make a separate defence. After this fatal warning, he doubted whether
+he should make any further efforts; but, by the advice of his sons,
+fortifying his mind, he again entered the Senate: there he found the
+prosecution renewed, suffered the declared indignation of the Fathers,
+and saw all things cross and terrible; but nothing so much daunted
+him as to behold Tiberius, without mercy, without wrath, close, dark,
+unmovable, and bent against every access of tenderness. When he was
+brought home, as if he were preparing for his further defence the next
+day, he wrote somewhat, which he sealed and delivered to his freedman:
+he then washed and anointed, and took the usual care of his person. Late
+in the night, his wife leaving the chamber, he ordered the door to be
+shut; and was found, at break of day, with his throat cut, his sword
+lying by him.
+
+I remember to have heard from ancient men, that in the hands of Piso
+was frequently seen a bundle of writings, which he did not expose, but
+which, as his friends constantly averred, "contained the letters of
+Tiberius and his cruel orders towards Germanicus: that he resolved to
+lay them before the Fathers and to charge the Emperor, but was deluded
+by the hollow promises of Sejanus: and that neither did Piso die by his
+own hands, but by those of an express and private executioner." I dare
+affirm neither; nor yet ought I to conceal the relations of such
+as still lived when I was a youth. Tiberius, with an assumed air of
+sadness, complained to the Senate, that Piso, by that sort of death,
+had aimed to load him with obloquy; and asked many questions how he had
+passed his last day, how his last night? The freedman answered to most
+with prudence, to some in confusion. The Emperor then recited the letter
+sent him by Piso. It was conceived almost in these words: "Oppressed by
+a combination of my enemies and the imputation of false crimes; since
+no place is left here to truth and my innocence; to the Immortal Gods I
+appeal, that towards you, Caesar, I have lived with sincere faith,
+nor towards your mother with less reverence. For my sons I implore her
+protection and yours: my son Cneius had no share in my late management
+whatever it were, since, all the while, he abode at Rome: and my son
+Marcus dissuaded me from returning to Syria. Oh that, old as I am, I
+had yielded to him, rather than he, young as he is, to me! Hence
+more passionately I pray that innocent as he is, he suffer not in the
+punishment of my guilt: by a series of services for five-and-forty
+years, I entreat you; by our former fellowship in the consulship; by the
+memory of the deified Augustus, your father; by his friendship to me; by
+mine to you, I entreat you for the life and fortune of my unhappy son.
+It is the last request I shall ever make you." Of Plancina he said
+nothing.
+
+Tiberius, upon this, cleared the young man of any crime as to the
+civil war: he alleged "the orders of his father, which a son could not
+disobey." He likewise bewailed "that noble house, and even the grievous
+lot of Piso himself, however deserved," For Plancina he pleaded with
+shame and guilt, alleging the importunity of his mother; against whom
+more particularly the secret murmurs of the best people waxed bitter and
+poignant. "Was it then the tender part of a grandmother to admit to her
+sight the murderess of her grandson, to be intimate with her, and to
+snatch her from the vengeance of the Senate? To Germanicus alone was
+denied what by the laws was granted to every citizen. By Vitellius
+and Veranius, the cause of that prince was mourned and pleaded: by the
+Emperor and his mother, Plancina was defended and protected. Henceforth
+she might pursue her infernal arts so successfully tried, repeat
+her poisonings, and by her arts and poisons assail Agrippina and her
+children; and, with the blood of that most miserable house, satiate the
+worthy grandmother and uncle." In this mock trial two days were wasted;
+Tiberius, all the while, animating the sons of Piso to defend their
+mother: when the pleaders and witnesses had vigorously pushed the
+charge, and no reply was made, commiseration prevailed over hatred. The
+Consul Aurelius Cotta was first asked his opinion: for, when the Emperor
+collected the voices, the magistrates likewise voted. Cotta's sentence
+was, "that the name of Piso should be razed from the annals, part of
+his estate forfeited, part granted to his son Cneius, upon changing that
+name; his son Marcus be divested of his dignity, and content with fifty
+thousand great sestertia, [Footnote: L42,000.] be banished for ten
+years: and to Plancina, at the request of Livia, indemnity should be
+granted."
+
+Much of this sentence was abated by the Emperor; particularly that of
+striking Piso's name out of the annals, when "that of Marc Anthony, who
+made war upon his country; that of Julius Antonius, who had by adultery
+violated the house of Augustus, continued still there." He also exempted
+Marcus Piso from the ignominy of degradation, and left him his whole
+paternal inheritance; for, as I have already often observed, he was to
+the temptations of money incorruptible, and from the shame of having
+acquitted Plancina, rendered then more than usually mild. He likewise
+withstood the motion of Valerius Messalinus, "for erecting a golden
+statue in the Temple of Mars the Avenger;" and that of Caecina Severus,
+"for founding an altar to revenge." "Such monuments as these," he
+argued, "were only fit to be raised upon foreign victories; domestic
+evils were to be buried in sadness." Messalinus had added, "that to
+Tiberius, Livia, Antonia, Agrippina and Drusus, public thanks were to be
+rendered for having revenged the death of Germanicus;" but had omitted
+to mention Claudius. Messalinus was asked by Lucius Asprenas, in the
+presence of the Senate, "Whether by design he had omitted him?" and then
+at last the name of Claudius was subjoined. To me, the more I revolve
+the events of late or of old, the more of mockery and slipperiness
+appears in all human wisdom and the transactions of men: for, in popular
+fame, in the hopes, wishes and veneration of the public, all men were
+rather destined to the Empire, than he for whom fortune then reserved
+the sovereignty in the dark.
+
+A few days after, Vitellius, Veranius and Servaeus, were by the Senate
+preferred to the honours of the Priesthood, at the motion of Tiberius.
+To Fulcinius he promised his interest and suffrage towards preferment,
+but advised him "not to embarrass his eloquence by impetuosity." This
+was the end of revenging the death of Germanicus; an affair ambiguously
+related, not by those only who then lived and interested themselves in
+it, but likewise the following times: so dark and intricate are all
+the highest transactions; while some hold for certain facts, the most
+precarious hearsays; others turn facts into falsehood; and both are
+swallowed and improved by the credulity of posterity. Drusus went now
+without the city, there to renew the ceremony of the auspices, and
+presently re-entered in the triumph of _ovation_. A few days after died
+Vipsania his mother; of all the children of Agrippa, the only one who
+made a pacific end: the rest manifestly perished, or are believed to
+have perished, by the sword, poison, or famine.
+
+The qualifying of the Law Papia Poppaea was afterwards proposed; a law
+which, to enforce those of Julius Caesar, Augustus had made when he was
+old, for punishing celibacy and enriching the Exchequer. Nor even by
+this means had marriages and children multiplied, while a passion to
+live single and childless prevailed: but, in the meantime, the numbers
+threatened and in danger by it increased daily, while by the glosses and
+chicane of the impleaders every family was undone. So that, as before
+the city laboured under the weight of crimes, so now under the pest of
+laws. From this thought I am led backwards to the first rise of laws,
+and to open the steps and causes by which we are arrived to the present
+number and excess; a number infinite and perplexed.
+
+The first race of men, free as yet from every depraved passion, lived
+without guile and crimes, and therefore without chastisements or
+restraints; nor was there occasion for rewards, when of their own accord
+they pursued righteousness: and as they courted nothing contrary to
+justice, they were debarred from nothing by terrors. But, after they
+had abandoned their original equality, and from modesty and shame to do
+evil, proceeded to ambition and violence; lordly dominion was introduced
+and arbitrary rule, and in many nations grew perpetual. Some, either
+from the beginning, or after they were surfeited with kings, preferred
+the sovereignty of laws; which, agreeable to the artless minds of men,
+were at first short and simple. The laws in most renown were those
+framed for the Cretans by Minos; for the Spartans by Lycurgus; and
+afterwards such as Solon delivered to the Athenians, now greater
+in number and more exquisitely composed. To the Romans justice was
+administered by Romulus according to his pleasure: after him,
+Numa managed the people by religious devices and laws divine. Some
+institutions were made by Tullus Hostilius, some by Ancus Martius; but
+above all our laws were those founded by Servius Tullius; they were such
+as even our kings were bound to obey.
+
+Upon the expulsion of Tarquin; the people, for the security of their
+freedom against the encroachment and factions of the Senate, and for
+binding the public concord, prepared many ordinances: hence were created
+the Decemviri, and by them were composed the twelve tables, out of a
+collection of the most excellent institutions found abroad. The period
+this of all upright and impartial laws. What laws followed, though
+sometimes made against crimes and offenders, were yet chiefly made by
+violence, through the animosity of the two Estates, and for seizing
+unjustly withholden offices or continuing unjustly in them, or for
+banishing illustrious patriots, and to other wicked ends. Hence the
+Gracchi and Saturnini, inflamers of the people; and hence Drusus vying,
+on behalf of the Senate, in popular concessions with these inflamers;
+and hence the corrupt promises made to our Italian allies, promises
+deceitfully made, or, by the interposition of some Tribune, defeated.
+Neither during the war of Italy, nor during the civil war, was the
+making of regulations discontinued; many and contradictory were even
+then made. At last Sylla the Dictator, changing or abolishing the past,
+added many of his own, and procured some respite in this matter, but
+not long; for presently followed the turbulent pursuits and proposals of
+Lepidus, and soon after were the Tribunes restored to their licentious
+authority of throwing the people into combustions at pleasure. And
+now laws were not made for the public only, but for particular men
+particular laws; and corruption abounding in the Commonwealth, the
+Commonwealth abounded in laws.
+
+Pompey was, now in his third Consulship, chosen to correct the public
+enormities; and his remedies proved to the State more grievous than its
+distempers. He made laws such as suited his ambition, and broke them
+when they thwarted his will; and lost by arms the regulations which by
+arms he had procured. Henceforward for twenty years discord raged, and
+there was neither law nor settlement; the most wicked found impunity
+in the excess of their wickedness; and many virtuous men, in their
+uprightness met destruction. At length, Augustus Caesar in his sixth
+Consulship, then confirmed in power without a rival, abolished the
+orders which during the Triumvirate he had established, and gave us laws
+proper for peace and a single ruler. These laws had sanctions severer
+than any heretofore known: as their guardians, informers were appointed,
+who by the Law Papia Poppaea were encouraged with rewards, to watch
+such as neglected the privileges annexed to marriage and fatherhood, and
+consequently could claim no legacy or inheritance, the same, as vacant,
+belonging to the Roman People, who were the public parent. But these
+informers struck much deeper: by them the whole city, all Italy, and
+the Roman citizens in every part of the Empire, were infested and
+persecuted: numbers were stripped of their entire fortunes, and terror
+had seized all; when Tiberius, for a check to this evil, chose twenty
+noblemen, five who were formerly Consuls, five who were formerly
+Praetors, with ten other Senators, to review that law. By them many of
+its intricacies were explained, its strictness qualified; and hence some
+present alleviation was yielded.
+
+Tiberius about this time, to the Senate recommended Nero, one of the
+sons of Germanicus, now seventeen years of age, and desired "that
+he might be exempted from executing the office of the Vigintivirate,
+[Footnote: Officers for distributing the public lands; for regulating
+the mint, the roads, and the execution of criminals.] and have leave to
+sue for the Quaestorship five years sooner than the laws directed."
+A piece of mockery, this request to all who heard it: but, Tiberius
+pretended "that the same concessions had been decreed to himself and his
+brother Drusus, at the request of Augustus." Nor do I doubt, but there
+were then such who secretly ridiculed that sort of petitions from
+Augustus: such policy was however natural to that Prince, while he was
+but yet laying the foundations of the Imperial power, and while the
+Republic and its late laws were still fresh in the minds of men:
+besides, the relation was lighter between Augustus and his wife's
+sons, than between a grandfather and his grandsons. To the grant of the
+Quaestorship was added a seat in the College of Pontiffs; and the first
+day he entered the Forum in his manly robe, a donative of corn and
+money was distributed to the populace, who exulted to behold a son of
+Germanicus now of age. Their joy was soon heightened by his marriage
+with Julia, the daughter of Drusus. But as these transactions were
+attended with public applauses; so the intended marriage of the
+daughter of Sejanus with the son of Claudius was received with popular
+indignation. By this alliance the nobility of the Claudian house seemed
+stained; and by it Sejanus, already suspected of aspiring views, was
+lifted still higher.
+
+At the end of this year died Lucius Volusius and Sallustius Crispus;
+great and eminent men. The family of Volusius was ancient, but, in the
+exercise of public offices, rose never higher than the Praetorship; it
+was he, who honoured it with the Consulship: he was likewise created
+Censor for modelling the classes of the equestrian order; and first
+accumulated the wealth which gave that family such immense grandeur.
+Crispus was born of an equestrian house, great nephew by a sister to
+Caius Sallustius, the renowned Roman historian, and by him adopted: the
+way to the great offices was open to him; but, in imitation of Maecenas,
+he lived without the dignity of Senator, yet outwent in power many who
+were distinguished with Consulships and triumphs: his manner of living,
+his dress and daintiness were different from the ways of antiquity; and,
+in expense and affluence, he bordered rather upon luxury. He possessed
+however a vigour of spirit equal to great affairs, and exerted the
+greater promptness for that he hid it in a show of indolence and
+sloth: he was therefore, in the time of Maecenas, the next in favour,
+afterwards chief confidant in all the secret counsels of Augustus and
+Tiberius, and privy and consenting to the order for slaying Agrippa
+Posthumus. In his old age he preserved with the Prince rather the
+outside than the vitals of authority: the same had happened to Maecenas.
+It is the fate of power, which is rarely perpetual; perhaps from satiety
+on both sides, when Princes have no more to grant, and Ministers no more
+to crave.
+
+Next followed the Consulship of Tiberius and Drusus; to Tiberius the
+fourth, to Drusus the second: a Consulship remarkable, for that in it
+the father and son were colleagues. There was indeed the same fellowship
+between Tiberius and Germanicus, two years before; but besides the
+distastes of jealousy in the uncle, the ties of blood were not so near.
+In the beginning of the year, Tiberius, on pretence of his health,
+retired to Campania; either already meditating a long and perpetual
+retirement; or to leave to Drusus, in his father's absence, the honour
+of executing the Consulship alone: and there happened a thing which,
+small in itself, yet as it produced mighty contestation, furnished
+the young Consul with matter of popular affection. Domitius Corbulo,
+formerly Praetor, complained to the Senate of Lucius Sylla, a noble
+youth, "that in the show of gladiators, Sylla would not yield him
+place." Age, domestic custom, and the ancient men were for Corbulo: on
+the other side, Mamercus Scaurus, Lucius Arruntius, and others laboured
+for their kinsman Sylla: warm speeches were made, and the examples
+of our ancestors were urged, "who by severe decrees had censured
+and restrained the irreverence of the youth." Drusus interposed with
+arguments proper for calming animosities, and Corbulo had satisfaction
+made him by Scaurus, who was to Sylla both father-in-law and uncle,
+and the most copious orator of that age. The same Corbulo, exclaiming
+against "the condition of most of the roads through Italy, that through
+the fraud of the undertakers and negligence of the overseers, they were
+broken and unpassable;" undertook of his own accord the cure of that
+abuse; an undertaking which he executed not so much to the advantage
+of the public as to the ruin of many private men in their fortunes and
+reputation, by his violent mulcts and unjust judgments and forfeitures.
+
+Upon this occasion Caecina Severus proposed, "that no magistrate should
+go into any province accompanied by his wife." He introduced this motion
+with a long preface, "that he lived with his own in perfect concord,
+by her he had six children; and what he offered to the public he had
+practised himself, having during forty years' service left her still
+behind him, confined to Italy. It was not indeed, without cause,
+established of old, that women should neither be carried by their
+husbands into confederate nations nor foreign. A train of women
+introduced luxury in peace, by their fears retarded war, and made a
+Roman army resemble, in their march, a mixed host of barbarians. The
+sex was not tender only and unfit for travel, but, if suffered, cruel,
+aspiring, and greedy of authority: they even marched amongst the
+soldiers, and were obeyed by the officers. A woman had lately presided
+at the exercises of the troops, and at the decursions of the legions.
+The Senate themselves might remember, that as often as any of the
+magistrates were charged with plundering the provinces, their wives were
+always engaged in the guilt. To the ladies, the most profligate in
+the province applied; by them all affairs were undertaken, by them
+transacted: at home two distinct courts were kept, and abroad the wife
+had her distinct train and attendance. The ladies, too, issued distinct
+orders, but more imperious and better obeyed. Such feminine excesses
+were formerly restrained by the Oppian, and other laws; but now these
+restraints were violated, women ruled all things, their families, the
+Forum, and even the armies."
+
+This speech was heard by few with approbation, and many proclaimed
+their dissent; "for, that neither was that the point in debate, nor was
+Caecina considerable enough to censure so weighty an affair." He was
+presently answered by Valerius Messalinus, who was the son of Messala,
+and inherited a sparkling of his father's eloquence: "that many rigorous
+institutions of the ancients were softened and changed for the better:
+for, neither was Rome now, as of old, beset with wars, nor Italy with
+hostile provinces; and a few concessions were made to the conveniences
+of women, who were so far from burdening the provinces, that to their
+own husbands there they were no burden. As to honours, attendance and
+expense, they enjoyed them in common with their husbands, who could
+receive no embarrassment from their company in time of peace. To war
+indeed we must go equipped and unencumbered; but after the fatigues of
+war, what was more allowable than the consolations of a wife? But it
+seemed the wives of some magistrates had given a loose to ambition and
+avarice. And were the magistrates themselves free from these excesses?
+were not most of them governed by many exorbitant appetites? did we
+therefore send none into the provinces? It was added, that the husbands
+were corrupted by their corrupt wives: and were therefore all single
+men uncorrupt? The Oppian Laws were once thought necessary, because the
+exigencies of the State required their severity: they were afterwards
+relaxed and mollified, because that too was expedient for the State.
+In vain we covered our own sloth with borrowed names: if the wife broke
+bounds, the husband ought to bear the blame. It was moreover unjustly
+judged, for the weak and uxorious spirit of one or a few, to bereave all
+others of the fellowship of their wives, the natural partners of their
+prosperity and distress. Besides, the sex, weak by nature, would be left
+defenceless, exposed to the luxurious bent of their native passions,
+and a prey to the allurements of adulterers: scarce under the eye and
+restraint of the husband was the marriage bed preserved inviolate: what
+must be the consequence, when by an absence of many years, the ties
+of marriage would be forgot, forgot as it were in a divorce? It became
+them, therefore, so to cure the evils abroad as not to forget the
+enormities at Rome." To this Drusus added somewhat concerning his own
+wedlock. "Princes," he said, "were frequently obliged to visit the
+remote parts of the Empire: how often did the deified Augustus travel
+to the East, how often to the West, still accompanied with Livia?
+He himself too had taken a progress to Illyricum, and, if it were
+expedient, was ready to visit other nations; but not always with an easy
+spirit, if he were to be torn from his dear wife, her by whom he had so
+many children." Thus was Caecina's motion eluded.
+
+When the Senate met next, they had a letter from Tiberius. In it he
+affected to chide the fathers, "that upon him they cast all public
+cares;" and named them M. Lepidus and Junius Blesus, to choose
+either for Proconsul of Africa. They were then both heard as to this
+nomination: Lepidus excused himself with earnestness; he pleaded "his
+bodily frailty, the tender age of his children, and a daughter fit for
+marriage." There was another reason too, of which he said nothing; but
+it was easily understood: Blesus was uncle to Sejanus, and therefore
+had the prevailing interest. Blesus too made a show of refusing, but
+not with the like positiveness, and was heard with partiality by the
+flatterers of power.
+
+The same year the cities of Gaul, stimulated by their excessive debts,
+began a rebellion. The most vehement incendiaries were Julius Florus and
+Julius Sacrovir; the first amongst those of Treves, the second amongst
+the Aeduans. They were both distinguished by their nobility, and by the
+good services of their ancestors, who thence had acquired of old the
+right of Roman citizens; a privilege rare in those days, and then only
+the prize of virtue. When by secret meetings, they had gained those
+who were most prompt to rebel; with such as were desperate through
+indigence, or, from guilt of past crimes, forced to commit more; they
+agreed that Florus should begin the insurrection in Belgia; Sacrovir
+amongst the neighbouring Gauls. In order to this, they had many
+consultations and cabals, where they uttered seditious harangues; they
+urged "their tribute without end, their devouring usury, the pride and
+cruelty of their Governors: that they had now a glorious opportunity
+to recover their liberty; for that since the report of the murder
+of Germanicus, discord had seized the Roman soldiery: they need only
+consider their own strength and numbers; while Italy was poor and
+exhausted; the Roman populace weak and unwarlike, the Roman armies
+destitute of all vigour but that derived from foreigners."
+
+Scarce one city remained untainted with the seeds of this rebellion; but
+it first broke at Angiers and Tours. The former were reduced by Acilius
+Aviola, a legate, with the assistance of a cohort drawn from the
+garrison at Lyons. Those of Tours were suppressed by the same Aviola,
+assisted with a detachment sent from the legions, by Visellius Varro,
+lieutenant-governor of lower Germany. Some of the chiefs of the Gauls
+had likewise joined him with succours, the better to disguise their
+defection, and to push it with more effect hereafter. Even Sacrovir
+was beheld engaged in fight for the Romans, with his head bare, a
+_demonstration_, he pretended, _of his bravery_; but the prisoners
+averred, that "he did it to be known to his countrymen, and to escape
+their darts."
+
+An account of all this was laid before Tiberius, who slighted it, and
+by hesitation fostered the war. Florus the while pushed his designs, and
+tried to debauch a regiment of horse, levied at Treves, and kept under
+our pay and discipline: he would have engaged them to begin the war, by
+putting to the sword the Roman merchants; and some few were corrupted,
+but the body remained in their allegiance. A rabble however, of his own
+followers and desperate debtors, took arms and were making to the forest
+of Arden, when the legions sent from both armies by Visellius and Caius
+Silius, through different routes to intercept them, marred their march:
+and Julius Indus, one of the same country with Florus, at enmity with
+him, and therefore more eager to engage him, was despatched forward with
+a chosen band, and broke the ill-appointed multitude. Florus by lurking
+from place to place, frustrated the search of the conquerors: but at
+last, when he saw all the passes beset with soldiers, he fell by his own
+hands. This was the issue of the insurrection at Treves.
+
+Amongst the Aeduans the revolt was stronger, as much stronger as the
+state was more opulent; and the forces to suppress it were to be brought
+from afar. Augustodunum, [Footnote: Autun.] the capital of the nation,
+was seized by Sacrovir, and in it all the noble youth of Gaul, who were
+there instructed in the liberal arts. By securing these pledges he aimed
+to bind in his interest their parents and relations; and at the same
+time distributed to the young men the arms, which he had caused to be
+secretly made. He had forty thousand men, the fifth part armed like
+our legions, the rest with poles, hangers, and other weapons used
+by hunters. To the number were added such of the slaves as had been
+appointed to be gladiators; these were covered, after the fashion of the
+country, with a continued armour of iron; and styled _Crupellarii_;
+a sort of militia unwieldy at exercising their own weapons, and
+impenetrable by those of others. These forces were still increased by
+volunteers from the neighbouring cities, where, though the public
+body did not hitherto avow the revolt, yet the zeal of particulars was
+manifest: they had likewise leisure to increase from the contention of
+the two Roman generals; a contention for some time undecided, while
+each demanded the command in that war. At length Varro, old and infirm,
+yielded to the superior vigour of Silius.
+
+Now at Rome, "not only the insurrection of Treves and of the Aeduans,
+but likewise, that threescore and four cities of Gaul had revolted; that
+the Germans had joined in the revolt, and that Spain fluctuated;" were
+reports all believed with the usual aggravations of fame. The best men
+grieved in sympathy for their country: many from hatred of the present
+government and thirst of change, rejoiced in their own perils: they
+inveighed against Tiberius, "that in such a mighty uproar of rebellion,
+he was only employed in perusing the informations of the State
+accusers." They asked, "did he mean to surrender Julius Sacrovir to the
+Senate, to try him for treason?" They exulted, "that there were at last
+found men, who would with arms restrain his bloody orders for private
+murders." And declared "that even war was a happy change for a most
+wretched peace." So much the more for this, Tiberius affected to appear
+wrapped up in security and unconcern; he neither changed place nor
+countenance, but behaved himself at that time as at other times; whether
+from elevation of mind, or whether he had learned that the state of
+things was not alarming, and only heightened by vulgar representation.
+
+Silius the while sending forward a band of auxiliaries, marched with two
+legions, and in his march ravaged the villages of the Sequanians,
+next neighbours to the Aeduans, and their associates in arms. He then
+advanced towards Augustodunum; a hasty march, the standard-bearers
+mutually vying in expedition, and the common men breathing ardour and
+eagerness: they desired, "that no time might be wasted in the usual
+refreshments, none of their nights in sleep; let them only see and
+confront the foe: they wanted no more, to be victorious." Twelve miles
+from Augustodunum, Sacrovir appeared with his forces upon the plains:
+in the front he had placed the iron troop; his cohorts in the wings; the
+half-armed in the rear: he himself, upon a fine horse, attended by the
+other chiefs, addressed himself to them from rank to rank; he reminded
+them "of the glorious achievements of the ancient Gauls; of the
+victorious mischiefs they had brought upon the Romans; of the liberty
+and renown attending victory; of their redoubled and intolerable
+servitude, if once more vanquished."
+
+A short speech; and an unattentive, and disheartened audience! For, the
+embattled legions approached; and the crowd of townsmen, ill appointed
+and novices in war, stood astonished, bereft of the present use of eyes
+and hearing. On the other side, Silius, though he presumed the victory,
+and thence might have spared exhortations, yet called to his men, "that
+they might be with reason ashamed that they, the conquerors of Germany,
+should be thus led against a rabble of Gauls as against an equal enemy:
+one cohort had newly defeated the rebels of Tours; one regiment of
+horse, those of Treves; a handful of this very army had routed the
+Sequanians: the present Aeduans, as they are more abounding in wealth,
+as they wallow more in voluptuousness, are by so much more soft and
+unwarlike: this is what you are now to prove, and your task to prevent
+their escape." His words were returned with a mighty cry. Instantly the
+horse surrounded the foe; the foot attacked their front, and the wings
+were presently routed: the iron band gave some short obstruction, as
+the bars of their coats withstood the strokes of sword and pike: but the
+soldiers had recourse to their hatchets and pick-axes; and, as if they
+had battered a wall, hewed their bodies and armour: others with clubs,
+and some with forks, beat down the helpless lumps, who as they lay
+stretched along, without one struggle to rise, were left for dead.
+Sacrovir fled first to Augustodunum; and thence, fearful of being
+surrendered, to a neighbouring town, accompanied by his most faithful
+adherents. There he slew himself; and the rest, one another: having
+first set the town on fire, by which they were all consumed.
+
+Now at last Tiberius wrote to the Senate about this war, and at once
+acquainted them with its rise and conclusion, neither aggravating facts
+nor lessening them; but added "that it was conducted by the fidelity
+and bravery of his lieutenants, guided by his counsels." He likewise
+assigned the reasons why neither he, nor Drusus, went to that war;
+"that the Empire was an immense body; and it became not the dignity of
+a Prince, upon the revolt of one or two towns, to desert the capital,
+whence motion was derived to the whole: but since the alarm was over, he
+would visit those nations and settle them." The Senate decreed vows
+and supplications for his return, with other customary honours.
+Only Cornelius Dolabella, while he strove to outdo others, fell into
+ridiculous sycophancy, and moved "that from Campania he should enter
+Rome in the triumph of ovation." This occasioned a letter from Tiberius:
+in it he declared, "he was not so destitute of glory, that after having
+in his youth subdued the fiercest nations, and enjoyed or slighted so
+many triumphs, he should now in his old age seek empty honours from a
+short progress about the suburbs of Rome."
+
+Caius Sulpitius and Decimus Haterius were the following Consuls. Their
+year was exempt from disturbances abroad; but at home some severe blow
+was apprehended against luxury, which prevailed monstrously in all
+things that create a profusion of money. But as the more pernicious
+articles of expense were covered by concealing their prices; therefore
+from the excesses of the table, which were become the common subject of
+daily animadversion, apprehensions were raised of some rigid correction
+from a Prince, who observed himself the ancient parsimony. For, Caius
+Bibulus having begun the complaint, the other Aediles took it up, and
+argued "that the sumptuary laws were despised; the pomp and expense of
+plate and entertainments, in spite of restraints, increased daily,
+and by moderate penalties were not to be stopped." This grievance thus
+represented to the Senate, was by them referred entire to the Emperor.
+Tiberius having long weighed with himself whether such an abandoned
+propensity to prodigality could be stemmed; whether the stemming it
+would not bring heavier evils upon the public; how dishonourable it
+would be to attempt what could not be effected, or at least effected by
+the disgrace of the nobility, and by the subjecting illustrious men to
+infamous punishments; wrote at last to the Senate in this manner:
+
+"In other matters, Conscript Fathers, perhaps it might be more expedient
+for you to consult me in the Senate; and for me to declare there, what I
+judge for the public weal: but in the debate of this affair, it was best
+that my eyes were withdrawn; lest, while you marked the countenances and
+terror of particulars charged with scandalous luxury, I too should have
+observed them, and, as it were, caught them in it. Had the vigilant
+Aediles first asked counsel of me, I know not whether I should not have
+advised them rather to have passed by potent and inveterate corruptions,
+than only make it manifest, what enormities are an overmatch for us:
+but they in truth have done their duty, as I would have all other
+magistrates fulfil theirs. But for myself, it is neither commendable
+to be silent; nor does it belong to my station to speak out; since I
+neither bear the character of an Aedile, nor of a Praetor, nor of a
+Consul: something still greater and higher is required of a Prince.
+Every one is ready to assume to himself the credit of whatever is well
+done, while upon the Prince alone are thrown the miscarriages of all.
+But what is it, that I am first to prohibit, what excess retrench to the
+ancient standard? Am I to begin with that of our country seats, spacious
+without bounds; and with the number of domestics, a number distributed
+into nations in private families? or with the quantity of plate, silver,
+and gold? or with the pictures, and works, and statues of brass, the
+wonders of art? or with the gorgeous vestments, promiscuously worn by
+men and women? or with what is peculiar to the women, those precious
+stones, for the purchase of which our corn is carried into foreign and
+hostile nations.
+
+"I am not ignorant that at entertainments and in conversation, these
+excesses are censured, and a regulation is required: and yet if an equal
+law were made, if equal penalties were prescribed, these very censurers
+would loudly complain, _that the State was utterly overturned, that
+snares and destruction were prepared for every illustrious house, that
+no men could be guiltless, and all men would be the prey of informers_.
+And yet bodily diseases grown inveterate and strengthened by time,
+cannot be checked but by medicines rigid and violent: it is the same
+with the soul: the sick and raging soul, itself corrupted and scattering
+its corruption, is not to be qualified but by remedies equally strong
+with its own flaming lusts. So many laws made by our ancestors, so many
+added by the deified Augustus; the former being lost in oblivion, and
+(which is more heinous) the latter in contempt, have only served to
+render luxury more secure. When we covet a thing yet unforbid, we are
+apt to fear that it may be forbid; but when once we can with impunity
+and defiance overleap prohibited bounds, there remains afterwards nor
+fear nor shame. How therefore did parsimony prevail of old? It was
+because, every one was a law to himself; it was because we were then
+only masters of one city: nor afterwards, while our dominion was
+confined only to Italy, had we found the same instigations to
+voluptuousness. By foreign conquests, we learned to waste the property
+of others; and in the Civil Wars, to consume our own. What a mighty
+matter is it that the Aediles remonstrate! how little to be weighed in
+the balance with others? It is wonderful that nobody represents, that
+Italy is in constant want of foreign supplies; that the lives of the
+Roman People are daily at the mercy of uncertain seas and of tempests:
+were it not for our supports from the provinces; supports, by which the
+masters, and their slaves, and their estates, are maintained; would
+our own groves and villas maintain us? This care therefore, Conscript
+Fathers, is the business of the Prince; and by the neglect of this
+care, the foundations of the State would be dissolved. The cure of other
+defects depends upon our own private spirits: some of us, shame will
+reclaim; necessity will mend the poor; satiety the rich. Or if any of
+the Magistrates, from a confidence of his own firmness and perseverance,
+will undertake to stem the progress of so great an evil; he has both
+my praises, and my acknowledgment, that he discharges me of part of my
+fatigues: but if such will only impeach corruptions, and when they have
+gained the glory, would leave upon me the indignation (indignation of
+their own raising); believe me, Conscript Fathers, I am not fond of
+bearing resentments: I already suffer many for the Commonwealth; many
+that are grievous and almost all unjust; and therefore with reason I
+intreat that I may not be loaded with such as are wantonly and vainly
+raised, and promise no advantage to you nor to me."
+
+The Senate, upon reading the Emperor's letter, released the Aediles
+from this pursuit: and the luxury of the table which, from the battle
+of Actium till the revolution made by Galba, flowed, for the space of an
+hundred years, in all profusion; at last gradually declined. The causes
+of this change are worth knowing. Formerly the great families, great in
+nobility or abounding in riches, were carried away with a passion for
+magnificence: for even then it was allowed to court the good graces of
+the Roman People, with the favour of kings, and confederate nations; and
+to be courted by them: so that each was distinguished by the lustre
+of popularity and dependances, in proportion to his affluence, the
+splendour of his house, and the figure he made. But after Imperial fury
+had long raged in the slaughter of the Grandees, and the greatness of
+reputation was become the sure mark of destruction; the rest grew wiser:
+besides, new men frequently chosen Senators from the municipal towns,
+from the colonies, and even from the provinces, brought into the Senate
+their own domestic parsimony; and though, by fortune or industry, many
+of them grew wealthy as they grew old, yet their former frugal spirit
+continued. But above all, Vespasian proved the promoter of thrifty
+living, being himself the pattern of ancient economy in his person
+and table: hence the compliance of the public with the manners of the
+Prince, and an emulation to practise them; an incitement more prevalent
+than the terrors of laws and all their penalties. Or perhaps all human
+things go a certain round; and, as in the revolutions of time, there are
+also vicissitudes in manners: nor indeed have our ancestors excelled
+us in all things; our own age has produced many excellences worthy of
+praise and the imitation of posterity. Let us still preserve this strife
+in virtue with our forefathers.
+
+Tiberius having gained the fame of moderation; because, by rejecting the
+project for reforming luxury, he had disarmed the growing hopes of the
+accusers; wrote to the Senate, to desire the _Tribunitial Power_ for
+Drusus. Augustus had devised this title, as best suiting the unbounded
+height of his views; while avoiding the odious name of _King_ or
+_Dictator_, he was yet obliged to use some particular appellation,
+under it to control all other powers in the State. He afterwards assumed
+Marcus Agrippa into a fellowship in it; and, upon his death, Tiberius;
+that none might doubt, who was to be his successor. By this means, he
+conceived, he should defeat the aspiring views of others: besides, he
+confided in the moderation of Tiberius, and in the mightiness of his own
+authority. By his example, Tiberius now advanced Drusus to the supreme
+Magistracy; whereas, while Germanicus yet lived, he acted without
+distinction towards both. In the beginning of his letter he besought the
+Gods "that by his counsels the Republic might prosper," and then added
+a modest testimony concerning the qualities and behaviour of the young
+Prince, without aggravation or false embellishments; "that he had a wife
+and three children, and was of the same age with himself, when called
+by the deified Augustus to that office: that Drusus was not now by him
+adopted a partner in the toils of government, precipitately; but after
+eight years' experience made of his qualifications; after seditions
+suppressed, wars concluded, the honour of triumph, and two Consulships."
+
+The Senators had foreseen this address; hence they received it with the
+more elaborate adulation. However, they could devise nothing to decree,
+but "statues to the two Princes, altars to the Gods, arches," and other
+usual honours: only that Marcus Silanus strove to honour the Princes by
+the disgrace of the Consulship: he proposed "that all records public and
+private should, for their date, be inscribed no more with the names
+of the Consuls, but of those who exercised the Tribunitial power." But
+Haterius Agrippa, by moving to have "the decrees of that day engraved
+in letters of gold, and hung up in the Senate," became an object of
+derision; for that, as he was an ancient man, he could reap from his
+most abominable flattery no other fruit but that of infamy.
+
+Tiberius, while he fortified the vitals of his own domination, afforded
+the Senate a shadow of their ancient jurisdiction; by referring to their
+examination petitions and claims from the provinces. For there had now
+prevailed amongst the Greek cities a latitude of instituting sanctuaries
+at pleasure. Hence the temples were filled with the most profligate
+fugitive slaves: here debtors found protection against their creditors;
+and hither were admitted such as were pursued for capital crimes. Nor
+was any force of Magistracy or laws sufficient to bridle the mad zeal
+of the people, who confounding the sacred villainies of men with
+the worship peculiar to the Gods, seditiously defended these profane
+sanctuaries. It was therefore ordered that these cities should send
+deputies to represent their claims. Some of the cities voluntarily
+relinquished the nominal privileges, which they had arbitrarily assumed:
+many confided in their rights; a confidence grounded on the antiquity of
+their superstitions, or on the merits of their kind offices to the Roman
+People. Glorious to the Senate was the appearance of that day, when
+the grants from our ancestors, the engagements of our confederates, the
+ordinances of kings, such kings who had reigned as yet independent of
+the Roman power; and when even the sacred worship of the Gods were now
+all subjected to their inspection, and their judgment free, as of old,
+to ratify or abolish with absolute power.
+
+First of all the Ephesians applied. They alleged, that "Diana and Apollo
+were not, according to the credulity of the vulgar, born at Delos: in
+their territory flowed the river Cenchris; where also stood the Ortygian
+Grove: there the big-bellied Latona, leaning upon an olive tree, which
+even then remained, was delivered of these deities; and thence by their
+appointment the Grove became sacred. Thither Apollo himself, after his
+slaughter of the Cyclops, retired for a sanctuary from the wrath of
+Jupiter: soon after, the victorious Bacchus pardoned the suppliant
+Amazons, who sought refuge at the altar of Diana: by the concession of
+Hercules, when he reigned in Lydia, her temple was dignified with an
+augmentation of immunities; nor during the Persian monarchy were they
+abridged: they were next maintained by the Macedonians, and then by us."
+
+The Magnesians next asserted their claim, founded on an establishment
+of Lucius Scipio, confirmed by another of Sylla: the former after the
+defeat of Antiochus; the latter after that of Mithridates, having, as
+a testimony of the faith and bravery of the Magnesians, dignified their
+temple of the Leucophrynaean Diana with the privileges of an inviolable
+sanctuary. After them, the Aphrodisians and Stratoniceans produced a
+grant from Caesar the Dictator, for their early services to his party;
+and another lately from Augustus, with a commendation inserted,
+"that with zeal unshaken towards the Roman People, they had borne the
+irruption of the Parthians." But these two people adored different
+deities: Aphrodisium was a city devoted to Venus; that of Stratonicea
+maintained the worship of Jupiter and of Diana Trivia. Those of
+Hierocaesarea exhibited claims of higher antiquity, "that they possessed
+the Persian Diana, and her temple consecrated by King Cyrus." They
+likewise pleaded the authorities of Perpenna, Isauricus, and of many
+more Roman captains, who had allowed the same sacred immunity not to
+the temple only, but to a precinct two miles round it. Those of Cyprus
+pleaded right of sanctuary to three of their temples: the most ancient
+founded by Aerias to the Paphian Venus; another by his son Amathus to
+the Amathusian Venus; the third to the Salaminian Jupiter by Teucer, the
+son of Telamon, when he fled from the fury of his father.
+
+The deputies too of other cities were heard. But the Senate tired with
+so many, and because there was a contention begun amongst particular
+parties for particular cities; gave power to the Consuls "to search into
+the validity of their several pretensions, and whether in them no fraud
+was interwoven;" with orders "to lay the whole matter once more before
+the Senate." The Consuls reported that, besides the cities already
+mentioned, "they had found the temple of AEsculapius at Pergamus to be a
+genuine sanctuary: the rest claimed upon originals, from the darkness of
+antiquity, altogether obscure. Smyrna particularly pleaded an oracle
+of Apollo, in obedience to which they had dedicated a temple to Venus
+Stratonices; as did the Isle of Tenos an oracular order from the same
+God, to erect to Neptune a statue and temple. Sardis urged a later
+authority, namely, a grant from the Great Alexander; and Miletus
+insisted on one from King Darius: as to the deities of these two cities;
+one worshipped Diana; the other, Apollo. And Crete too demanded the
+privilege of sanctuary, to a statue of the deified Augustus." Hence
+diverse orders of Senate were made, by which, though great reverence
+was expressed towards the deities, yet the extent of the sanctuaries was
+limited; and the several people were enjoined "to hang up in each
+temple the present decree engraven in brass, as a sacred memorial, and a
+restraint against their lapsing, under the colour of religion, into the
+abuses and claims of superstition."
+
+At the same time, a vehement distemper having seized Livia, obliged the
+Emperor to hasten his return to Rome; seeing hitherto the mother and son
+lived in apparent unanimity; or perhaps mutually disguised their hate:
+for, not long before, Livia, having dedicated a statue to the deified
+Augustus, near the theatre of Marcellus, had the name of Tiberius
+inscribed after her own. This he was believed to have resented
+heinously, as a degrading the dignity of the Prince; but to have buried
+his resentment under dark dissimulation. Upon this occasion, therefore,
+the Senate decreed "supplications to the Gods; with the celebration of
+the greater Roman games, under the direction of the Pontifs, the Augurs,
+the College of Fifteen, assisted by the College of Seven, and the
+Fraternity of Augustal Priests." Lucius Apronius had moved, that "with
+the rest might preside the company of heralds." Tiberius opposed it; he
+distinguished between the jurisdiction of the priests and theirs; "for
+that at no time had the heralds arrived to so much pre-eminence: but
+for the Augustal Fraternity, they were therefore added, because they
+exercised a priesthood peculiar to that family for which the present
+vows and solemnities were made," It is no part of my purpose to
+trace all the votes of particular men, unless they are memorable for
+integrity, or for notorious infamy: this I conceive to be the principal
+duty of an historian, that he suppress no instance of virtue; and that
+by the dread of future infamy and the censures of posterity, men may be
+deterred from detestable actions and prostitute speeches. In short,
+such was the abomination of those times, so prevailing the contagion
+of flattery, that not only the first nobles, whose obnoxious splendour
+found protection only in obsequiousness; but all who had been Consuls,
+a great part of such as had been Praetors, and even many of the
+unregistered Senators, strove for priority in the vileness and excess
+of their votes. There is a tradition, that Tiberius, as often as he went
+out of the Senate, was wont to cry out in Greek, _Oh men prepared for
+bondage!_ Yes, even Tiberius, he who could not bear public liberty,
+nauseated this prostitute tameness of slaves.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK IV
+
+A.D. 23-28.
+
+
+When Caius Asinius and Caius Antistius were Consuls, Tiberius was in
+his ninth year; the State composed, and his family flourishing (for the
+death of Germanicus he reckoned amongst the incidents of his prosperity)
+when suddenly fortune began to grow boisterous, and he himself to
+tyrannise, or to furnish others with the weapons of tyranny. The
+beginning and cause of this turn arose from Aelius Sejanus, captain of
+the Praetorian cohorts. Of his power I have above made mention; I shall
+now explain his original, his manners, and by what black deeds he strove
+to snatch the sovereignty. He was born at Vulsinii, son to Sejus Strabo,
+a Roman knight; in his early youth, he was a follower of Caius Caesar
+(grandson of Augustus) and lay then under the contumely of having
+for hire exposed himself to the constupration of Apicius; a debauchee
+wealthy and profuse: next by various artifices he so enchanted Tiberius,
+that he who to all others was dark and unsearchable, became to Sejanus
+alone destitute of all restraint and caution: nor did he so much
+accomplish this by any superior efforts of policy (for at his own
+stratagems he was vanquished by others) as by the rage of the Gods
+against the Roman State, to which he proved alike destructive when he
+flourished and when he fell. His person was hardy and equal to fatigues;
+his spirit daring but covered; sedulous to disguise his own counsels,
+dexterous to blacken others; alike fawning and imperious; to appearance
+exactly modest; but in his heart fostering the lust of domination; and,
+with this view, engaged at one time in profusion, largesses, and luxury;
+and again, often laid out in application and vigilance; qualities
+no less pernicious, when personated by ambition for the acquiring of
+Empire.
+
+The authority of his command over the guards, which was but moderate
+before his time, he extended, by gathering into one camp all the
+Praetorian cohorts then dispersed over the city; that thus united, they
+might all at once receive his orders, and by continually beholding their
+own numbers and strength, conceive confidence in themselves and prove
+a terror to all other men. He pretended, "that the soldiers, while they
+lived scattered, lived loose and debauched; that when gathered into a
+body, there could, in any hasty emergency, be more reliance upon their
+succour; and that when encamped, remote from the allurements of the
+town, they would in their discipline be more exact and severe." When the
+encampment was finished, he began gradually to allure the affections of
+the soldiers, by all the ways of affability, court, and familiarity: it
+was he too who chose the Centurions, he who chose the Tribunes.
+Neither in his pursuits of ambition did the Senate escape him; but
+by distinguishing his followers in it with offices and provinces,
+he cultivated power and a party there: for, to all this Tiberius
+was entirely resigned; and even so passionate for him, that not in
+conversation only, but in public, in his speeches to the Senate and
+people, he treated and extolled him, as _the sharer of his burdens_;
+nay, allowed his effigies to be publicly adored, in the several
+theatres, in all places of popular convention, and even amongst the
+Eagles of the legions.
+
+But to his designs were many retardments: the Imperial house was full
+of Caesars; the Emperor's son a grown man, and his grandsons of age: and
+because the cutting them off all at once, was dangerous; the treason he
+meditated, required a gradation of murders. He however chose the darkest
+method, and to begin with Drusus; against whom he was transported with
+a fresh motive of rage. For, Drusus impatient of a rival, and in his
+temper inflammable, had upon some occasional contest, shaken his fist at
+Sejanus, and, as he prepared to resist, given him a blow on the face.
+As he therefore cast about for every expedient of revenge, the readiest
+seemed to apply to Livia his wife: she was the sister of Germanicus, and
+from an uncomely person in her childhood, grew afterwards to excel in
+loveliness. As his passion for this lady was vehement, he tempted her to
+adultery, and having fulfilled the first iniquity (nor will a woman, who
+has sacrificed her chastity, stick at any other) he carried her greater
+lengths, to the views of marriage, a partnership in the Empire, and
+even the murder of her husband. Thus she, the niece of Augustus, the
+daughter-in-law of Tiberius, the mother of children by Drusus, defiled
+herself, her ancestors, and her posterity, with a municipal adulterer;
+and all to exchange an honourable condition possessed, for pursuits
+flagitious and uncertain. Into a fellowship in the guilt was assumed
+Eudemus, physician to Livia; and, under colour of his profession,
+frequently with her in private. Sejanus too, to avoid the jealousy of
+the adulteress, discharged from his bed Apicata his wife, her by whom he
+had three children. But still the mightiness of the iniquity terrified
+them, and thence created caution, delays, and frequently opposite
+counsels.
+
+During this, in the beginning of the year, Drusus one of the sons of
+Germanicus, put on the manly robe; and upon him the Senate conferred the
+same honours decreed before to his brother Nero. A speech was added by
+Tiberius with a large encomium upon his son, "that with the tenderness
+of a father he used the children of his brother." For, Drusus, however
+rare it be for power and unanimity to subsist together, was esteemed
+benevolent, certainly not ill-disposed, towards these youths. Now again
+was revived by Tiberius the proposal of a progress into the Provinces;
+a stale proposal, always hollow, but often feigned. He pretended "the
+multitude of veterans discharged, and thence the necessity of recruiting
+the armies; that volunteers were wanting, or if already such there were,
+they were chiefly the necessitous and vagabonds, and destitute of the
+like modesty and courage." He likewise cursorily recounted the number of
+the legions, and what countries they defended: a detail which I think
+it behoves me also to repeat; that thence may appear what was then the
+complement of the Roman forces, what kings their confederates, and how
+much more narrow the limits of the Empire.
+
+Italy was on each side guarded by two fleets; one at Misenum, one at
+Ravenna; and the coast joining to Gaul, by the galleys taken by Augustus
+at the battle of Actium, and sent powerfully manned to Forojulium.
+[Footnote: Frejus.] But the chief strength lay upon the Rhine; they
+were eight legions, a common guard upon the Germans and the Gauls.
+The reduction of Spain, lately completed, was maintained by three.
+Mauritania was possessed by King Juba; a realm which he held as a gift
+from the Roman People: the rest of Africa by two legions; and Egypt by
+the like number. Four legions kept in subjection all the mighty range
+of country, extending from the next limits of Syria, as far as the
+Euphrates, and bordering upon the Iberians, Albanians, and other
+Principalities, who by our might are protected against Foreign Powers.
+Thrace was held by Rhoemetalces, and the sons of Cotys; and both banks
+of the Danube by four legions; two in Pannonia, two in Moesia. In
+Dalmatia likewise were placed two; who, by the situation of the country,
+were at hand to support the former, and had not far to march into
+Italy, were any sudden succours required there: though Rome too had her
+peculiar soldiery; three city cohorts, and nine Praetorian, enlisted
+chiefly out of Etruria and Umbria, or from the ancient Latium and the
+old Roman colonies. In the several Provinces, besides, were disposed,
+according to their situation and necessity, the fleets of the several
+confederates, with their squadrons and battalions; a number of forces
+not much different from all the rest: but the particular detail would be
+uncertain; since, according to the exigency of times, they often shifted
+stations, with numbers sometimes enlarged, sometimes reduced.
+
+It will, I believe, fall in properly here to review also the other parts
+of the Administration, and by what measures it was hitherto conducted,
+till with the beginning of this year the Government of Tiberius began to
+wax worse. First then, all public, and every private business of moment,
+was determined by the Senate: to the great men he allowed liberty of
+debate: those who in their debates lapsed into flattery, he checked:
+in conferring preferments, he was guided by merit, by ancient nobility,
+renown in war abroad, by civil accomplishments at home; insomuch that it
+was manifest, his choice could not have been better. There remained to
+the Consuls, there remained to the Praetors the useful marks of their
+dignities; to inferior magistrates the independent exercise of their
+charges; and the laws, where the power of the Prince was not concerned,
+were in proper force. The tributes, duties, and all public receipts,
+were directed by companies of Roman knights: the management of his own
+revenue he committed only to those of the most noted qualifications;
+mostly known by himself, and to some known by reputation alone: and when
+once taken, they were continued, without all restriction of term;
+since most grew old in the same employments. The populace were indeed
+aggrieved by the dearth of provisions; but without any fault of the
+Prince: nay, he spared no possible expense nor pains to remedy the
+effects of barrenness in the earth, and of wrecks at sea. He provided
+that the Provinces should not be oppressed with new impositions; and
+that no extortion, or violence should be committed by the magistrates
+in raising the old: there were no infamous corporal punishments, no
+confiscations of goods.
+
+The Emperor's possessions through Italy, were thin; the behaviour of
+his slaves modest; the freedmen who managed his house, few; and in his
+disputes with particulars, the courts were open and the law equal. All
+which restraints he observed, not, in truth, in the ways of complaisance
+and popularity; but always stern, and for the most part terrible; yet
+still he retained them, till by the death of Drusus they were abandoned:
+for, while he lived they continued; because Sejanus, while he was but
+laying the foundations of his power, studied to recommend himself
+by good counsels. He then had besides, an avenger to dread, one who
+disguised not his enmity, but was frequent in his complaints; "that
+when the son was in his prime, another was called, as coadjutor, to the
+Government; nay, how little was wanting to his being declared colleague
+in the Empire? That the first advances to sovereignty are steep and
+perilous; but, once you are entered, parties and instruments are
+ready to espouse you. Already a camp for the guards was formed, by the
+pleasure and authority of the captain: into whose hands the soldiers
+were delivered: in the theatre of Pompey his statue was beheld: in
+his grandchildren would be mixed the blood of the Drusi with that of
+Sejanus. After all this what remained but to supplicate his modesty to
+rest contented." Nor was it rarely that he uttered these disgusts,
+nor to a few; besides, his wife being debauched, all his secrets were
+betrayed.
+
+Sejanus therefore judging it time to despatch, chose such a poison as by
+operating gradually, might preserve the appearances of a casual disease.
+This was administered to Drusus by Lygdus the eunuch, as, eight years
+after, was learnt. Now during all the days of his illness, Tiberius
+disclosed no symptoms of anguish (perhaps from ostentation of a firmness
+of spirit) nay, when he had expired, and while he was yet unburied, he
+entered the Senate; and finding the Consuls placed upon a common seat,
+as a testimony of their grief; he admonished them of their dignity and
+station: and as the Senators burst into tears, he smothered his rising
+sighs, and, by a speech uttered without hesitation, animated them. "He,
+in truth, was not ignorant," he said, "that he might be censured,
+for having thus in the first throbs of sorrow, beheld the face of the
+Senate; when most of those who feel the fresh pangs of mourning, can
+scarce endure the soothings of their kindred, scarce behold the day:
+neither were such to be condemned of weakness: but for himself, he
+had more powerful consolations; such as arose from embracing the
+Commonwealth, and pursuing her welfare." He then lamented "the extreme
+age of his mother, the tender years of his grandsons, his own days in
+declension;" and desired that, "as the only alleviation of the present
+evils, the children of Germanicus might be introduced." The Consuls
+therefore went for them, and having with kind words fortified their
+young minds, presented them to the Emperor. He took them by the hand
+and said, "Conscript Fathers, these infants, bereft of their father, I
+committed to their uncle; and besought him that, though he had issue
+of his own, he would rear and nourish them no otherwise than as the
+immediate offspring of his blood; that he would appropriate them as
+stays to himself and posterity. Drusus being snatched from us, to you I
+address the same prayers; and in the presence of the Gods, in the face
+of your country, I adjure you, receive into your protection, take under
+your tuition the great-grandchildren of Augustus; children, descended
+from ancestors the most glorious in the State: towards them fulfil your
+own, fulfil my duty. To you, Nero; to you, Drusus, these Senators are in
+the stead of a father; and such is the situation of your birth, that on
+the Commonwealth must light all the good and evil which befalls you."
+
+All this was heard with much weeping, and followed with propitious
+prayers and vows: and had he only gone thus far, and in his speech
+observed a medium, he had left the souls of his hearers full of sympathy
+and applause. But, by renewing an old project, always chimerical and so
+often ridiculed, about "restoring the Republic, reinstating it again
+in the Consuls, or whoever else would undertake the administration;"
+he forfeited his faith even in assertions which were commendable and
+sincere. To the memory of Drusus were decreed the same solemnities as
+to that of Germanicus; with many super-added; agreeably to the genius
+of flattery, which delights in variety and improvements. Most signal was
+the lustre of the funeral in a conspicuous procession of images; when at
+it appeared in a pompous train, Aeneas, father of the Julian race;
+all the kings of Alba, and Romulus founder of Rome; next the Sabine
+nobility, Attus Clausus, and his descendants of the Claudian family.
+
+In relating the death of Drusus, I have followed the greatest part of
+our historians, and the most faithful: I would not however omit a rumour
+which in those times was so prevailing that it is not extinguished in
+ours; "that Sejanus having by adultery gained Livia to the murder, had
+likewise engaged by constupration the affections and concurrence of
+Lygdus the eunuch; because Lygdus was, for his youth and loveliness,
+dear to his master, and one of his chief attendants: that when the time
+and place of poisoning, were by the conspirators concerted; the eunuch
+carried his boldness so high, as to charge upon Drusus a design of
+poisoning Tiberius; and secretly warning the Emperor of this, advised
+him to shun the first draught offered him in the next entertainment
+at his son's: that the old man possessed with this fictitious treason,
+after he had sate down to table, having received the cup delivered it to
+Drusus, who ignorantly and gaily drank it off: that this heightened the
+jealousy and apprehensions of Tiberius, as if through fear and shame
+his son had swallowed the same death, which for his father he had
+contrived."
+
+These bruitings of the populace, besides that they are supported by no
+certain author, may be easily refuted. For, who of common prudence (much
+less Tiberius so long practised in great affairs) would to his own son,
+without hearing him, present the mortal bane; with his own hands too,
+and cutting off for ever all possibility of retraction? Why would he not
+rather have tortured the minister of the poison? Why not inquired into
+the author of the poison? Why not observed towards his only son, a son
+hitherto convicted of no iniquity, that slowness and hesitation, which,
+even in his proceedings against strangers, was inherent in him? But as
+Sejanus was reckoned the framer of every wickedness, therefore, from the
+excessive fondness of Tiberius towards him, and from the hatred of all
+others towards both, things the most fabulous and direful were believed
+of them; besides that common fame is ever most fraught with tales of
+horror upon the departure of Princes: in truth, the plan and process of
+the murder were first discovered by Apicata, wife of Sejanus, and laid
+open upon the rack by Eudemus and Lygdus. Nor has any writer appeared
+so outrageous to charge it upon Tiberius; though in other instances
+they have sedulously collected and inflamed every action of his. My own
+purpose in recounting and censuring this rumour, was to blast, by so
+glaring an example, the credit of groundless tales; and to request of
+those into whose hands our present undertaking shall come, that they
+would not prefer hearsays, void of credibility and rashly swallowed, to
+the narrations of truth not adulterated with romance.
+
+To proceed; whilst Tiberius was pronouncing in public the panegyric of
+his son, the Senate and People assumed the port and accent of mourners,
+rather in appearance than cordially; and in their hearts exulted to see
+the house of Germanicus begin to revive. But this dawn of fortune,
+and the conduct of Agrippina, ill disguising her hopes, quickened the
+overthrow of that house. For Sejanus, when he saw the death of Drusus
+pass unrevenged upon his murderers, and no public lamentation following
+it; undaunted as he was in villainy since his first efforts had
+succeeded; cast about in himself, how he might destroy the sons of
+Germanicus, whose succession to the Empire was now unquestionable. They
+were three; and, from the distinguished fidelity of their governors, and
+incorruptible chastity of Agrippina, could not be all circumvented by
+poison. He therefore chose to attack her another way; to raise alarms
+from the haughtiness and contumacy of her spirit; to rouse the old
+hatred of Livia the elder, and the guilty mind of his late accomplice,
+Livia the younger; that to the Emperor they might represent her
+"as elated with the credit and renown of her fruitfulness; and that
+confiding in it, and in the zeal of the populace, she grasped with open
+arms at the Empire." The young Livia acted in this engagement by crafty
+calumniators; amongst whom she had particularly chosen Julius Posthumus,
+a man every way qualified for her purposes; as he was the adulterer of
+Mutilia Prisca, and thence a confidant of her grandmother's; (for over
+the mind of the Empress, Prisca had powerful influence) and by their
+means the old woman, in her own nature tender and anxious of power, was
+rendered utterly irreconcilable to the widow of her grandson. Such too
+as were nearest the person of Agrippina, were promoted to be continually
+enraging her tempestuous heart by perverse representations.
+
+This year also brought deputations from the Grecian cities; one from the
+people of Samos; one from those of Cooes; the former to request that the
+ancient right of Sanctuary in the Temple of Juno might be confirmed;
+the latter to solicit the same confirmation for that of Aesculapius. The
+Samians claimed upon a decree of the Council of Amphictyons, the supreme
+Judicature of Greece, at the time when the Greeks by their cities
+founded in Asia, possessed the maritime coasts. Nor had they of Cooes a
+weaker title to antiquity; to which likewise accrued the pretensions of
+the place to the friendship of Rome: for they had lodged in the Temple
+of Aesculapius all the Roman citizens there, when by the order of King
+Mithridates, such were universally butchered throughout all the cities
+of Asia and the Isles. And now after many complaints from the Praetors,
+for the most part ineffectual, the Emperor at last made a representation
+to the Senate, concerning the licentiousness of the players; "that in
+many instances they raised seditious tumults, and violated the public
+peace; and, in many, promoted debauchery in private families: that the
+_Oscan Farce_, formerly only the contemptible delight of the vulgar,
+was risen to such a prevailing pitch of credit and enormity, that it
+required the authority of the Senate to check it." The players therefore
+were driven out of Italy.
+
+The same year carried off one of the twins of Drusus, and thence
+afflicted the Emperor with fresh woe; nor with less for the death of a
+particular friend. It was Lucillius Longus, the inseparable companion
+of all the traverses of his fortune smiling or sad; and, of all the
+Senators, the only one who accompanied him in his retirement at Rhodes.
+For this reason, though but a new man, the Senate decreed him a public
+funeral; and a statue to be placed, at the expense of the Treasury, in
+the square of Augustus. For by the Senate, even yet, all affairs were
+transacted; insomuch that Lucillius Capito, the Emperor's Comptroller in
+Asia, was, at the accusation of the Province, brought upon his defence
+before them: the Emperor too upon this occasion protested with great
+earnestness, "that from him Lucillius had no authority but over his
+slaves, and in collecting his domestic rents: that if he had usurped
+the jurisdiction of Praetor, and employed military force, he had so far
+violated his orders; they should therefore hear the allegations of the
+Province." Thus the accused was upon trial condemned. For this just
+vengeance, and that inflicted the year before on Caius Silanus, the
+cities of Asia decreed a temple to Tiberius, and his mother, and the
+Senate; and obtained leave to build it. For this concession Nero made
+a speech of thanks to the Senators and his grandfather; a speech which
+charmed the affections of his hearers, who, as they were full of the
+memory of Germanicus, fancied it was him they heard, and him they
+saw. There was also in the youth himself an engaging modesty, and a
+gracefulness becoming a princely person: ornaments which, by the known
+hatred that threatened him from Sejanus, became still more dear and
+adored.
+
+I am aware that most of the transactions which I have already related,
+or shall hereafter relate, may perhaps appear minute, and too trivial to
+be remembered. But, none must compare these my annals with the writings
+of those who compiled the story of the ancient Roman People. They had
+for their subjects mighty wars, potent cities sacked, great kings routed
+and taken captive: or if they sometimes reviewed the domestic affairs of
+Rome, they there found the mutual strife and animosities of the Consuls
+and Tribunes; the agrarian and frumentary laws, pushed and opposed; and
+the lasting struggles between the nobles and populace. Large and noble
+topics these, at home and abroad, and recounted by the old historians
+with full room and free scope. To me remains a straitened task, and void
+of glory; steady peace, or short intervals of war; the proceedings at
+Rome sad and affecting; and a Prince careless of extending the Empire:
+nor yet will it be without its profit to look minutely into such
+transactions, as however small at first view, give rise and motion to
+great events.
+
+For, all nations and cities are governed either by the populace, by the
+nobility, or by single rulers. As to the frame of a state chosen
+and compacted out of all these three, it is easier applauded than
+accomplished; or if accomplished, cannot be of long duration. So that,
+as during the Republic, either when the power of the people prevailed,
+or when the Senate bore the chief sway; it was necessary to know the
+genius of the commonalty, and by what measures they were to be humoured
+and restrained; and such too who were thoroughly acquainted with the
+spirit of the Senate and leading men, came to be esteemed skilful in the
+times, and men of prowess: so now when that establishment is changed,
+and the present situation such as if one ruled all; it is of advantage
+to collect and record these later incidents, as matters of public
+example and instruction; since few can by their own wisdom distinguish
+between things crooked and upright; few between counsels pernicious and
+profitable; and since most men are taught by the fate of others. But the
+present detail, however instructive, yet brings scanty delight. It is by
+the descriptions and accounts of nations; by the variety of battles; by
+the brave fall of illustrious captains, that the soul of the reader
+is engaged and refreshed. For myself, I can only give a sad display
+of cruel orders, incessant accusations, faithless friendships, the
+destruction of innocents, and endless trials, all attended with the
+same issue, death and condemnation: an obvious round of repetition and
+satiety! Besides that the old historians are rarely censured; nor is any
+man now concerned whether they chiefly magnify the Roman or Carthaginian
+armies. But, of many who under Tiberius suffered punishment, or were
+marked with infamy, the posterity are still subsisting; or if the
+families themselves are extinct, there are others found, who from
+a similitude of manners, think that, in reciting the evil doings of
+others, they themselves are charged: nay, even virtue and a glorious
+name create foes, as they expose in a light too obvious the opposite
+characters. But I return to my undertaking.
+
+Whilst Cornelius Cossus and Asinius Agrippa were Consuls, Cremutius
+Cordus was arraigned for that, "having published annals and in them
+praised Brutus, he had styled Cassius the last of the Romans:" a new
+crime, then first created. Satrius Secundus and Pinarius Natta were
+his accusers; creatures of Sejanus: a mortal omen this to the accused;
+besides that Tiberius received his defence with a countenance settled
+into cruelty. He began it on this wise, casting away all hopes of life:
+
+"As to facts, I am so guiltless, Conscript Fathers, that my words only
+are accused: but neither are any words of mine pointed against the
+Emperor, or his mother; who are the only persons comprehended in the law
+concerning violated majesty. It is alleged that I have praised Brutus
+and Cassius; men whose lives and actions have been compiled by a cloud
+of writers, and their memory treated by none but with honour. Titus
+Livius, an historian eminently famous for eloquence and veracity,
+signalised Pompey with such abundant encomiums, that he was thence
+by Augustus named Pompeianus; nor did this prejudice their common
+friendship. Neither Scipio, nor Afranius, nor even this same Cassius,
+nor this same Brutus, are anywhere mentioned by him as _traitors_ and
+_parricides_, the common nicknames now bestowed on them; but often, as
+great and memorable men. The writings of Asinius Pollio have conveyed
+down the memory of the same men, under honourable characters. Corvinus
+Messala gloried to have had Cassius for his general: and yet both
+Pollio and Corvinus became signally powerful in wealth and honours under
+Augustus. That book of Cicero's, in which he exalted Cato to the skies;
+what other animadversion did it draw from Caesar the Dictator, than a
+written reply, in the same style and equality as if before his judges
+he had made it? The letters of Marc Anthony; the speeches of Brutus, are
+full of reproaches, and recriminations against Augustus; false in truth,
+but urged with signal asperity: the poems of Bibaculus and those of
+Catullus, stuffed with virulent satires against the Caesars, are still
+read. But even the deified Julius, even the deified Augustus, bore all
+these invectives and disdained them; whether with greater moderation or
+wisdom, I cannot easily say. For, if they are despised, they fade away;
+if you wax wroth, you seem to avow them to be just.
+
+"Instances from the Greeks I bring none: with them not the freedom
+only, but even the licentiousness of speech, is unpunished: or if any
+correction is returned, it is only by revenging words with words. It has
+been ever allowed, without restriction or rebuke, to pass our judgment
+upon those whom death has withdrawn from the influence of affection and
+hate. Are Cassius and Brutus now in arms? do they at present fill with
+armed troops the fields of Philippi? or do I fire the Roman People,
+by inflammatory harangues, with the spirit of civil rage? Brutus
+and Cassius, now above seventy years slain, are still known in their
+statues, which even the conqueror did not abolish: and as these exhibit
+their persons, why not the historian their characters? Impartial
+posterity to every man repays his proper praise: nor will there be
+wanting such as, if my death is determined, will not only revive the
+story of Cassius and Brutus, but even my story." Having thus said he
+withdrew from the Senate, and ended his life by abstinence. The
+Fathers condemned the books to be by the Aediles burned; but they
+still continued concealed and dispersed: hence we may justly mock
+the stupidity of those, who imagine that they can, by present power,
+extinguish the lights and memory of succeeding times: for, quite
+otherwise, the punishment of writers exalts the credit of the writings:
+nor did ever foreign kings, or any else, reap other fruit from it, than
+infamy to themselves, and glory to the sufferers.
+
+To proceed; for this whole year there was such an incessant torrent of
+accusations, that even during the solemnity of the Latin festival,
+when Drusus for his inauguration, as Governor of Rome, had ascended the
+Tribunal, he was accosted by Calpurnius Salvianus with a charge against
+Sextus Marius: a proceeding openly resented by the Emperor, and thence
+Salvianus was banished. The city of Cyzicus was next accused, "of
+not observing the established worship of the deified Augustus;" with
+additional crimes, "of violences committed upon some Roman citizens."
+Thus that city lost her liberties; which by her behaviour during the
+Mithridatic war, she had purchased; having in it sustained a siege;
+and as much by her own bravery, as by the aid of Lucullus, repulsed
+the king, But Fonteius Capito, who had as Proconsul governed Asia, was
+acquitted, upon proof that the crimes brought against him by Vibius
+Serenus were forged: and yet the forgery drew no penalty upon Serenus:
+nay, the public hate rendered him the more secure: for, every accuser,
+the more eager and incessant he was, the more sacred and inviolable he
+became: the sorry and impotent were surrendered to chastisement.
+
+About the same time, the furthermost Spain besought the Senate by their
+ambassadors, "that after the example of Asia, they might erect a temple
+to Tiberius and his mother." Upon this occasion, the Emperor, always
+resolute in contemning honours, and now judging it proper to confute
+those, who exposed him to the popular censure, of having deviated into
+ambition; spoke in this manner: "I know, Conscript Fathers, that it is
+generally blamed, and ascribed to a defect of firmness in me, that when
+the cities of Asia petitioned for this very thing, I withstood them not.
+I shall therefore now unfold at once the motives of my silence then,
+and the rules which for the future I am determined to observe. Since the
+deified Augustus had not opposed the founding at Pergamus a temple to
+himself and the city of Rome; I, with whom all his actions and sayings
+have the force of laws, followed an example already approved; and
+followed it the more cheerfully, because to the worship bestowed upon
+me, that of the Senate was annexed. But as the indulging of this, in
+one instance, will find pardon; so a general latitude of being adored
+through every province, under the sacred representations of the Deities,
+would denote a vain spirit; a heart swelled with ambition. The glory too
+of Augustus will vanish, if by the promiscuous courtship of flattery it
+comes to be vulgarly prostituted.
+
+"For myself, Conscript Fathers, I am a mortal man; I am confined to
+the functions of human nature; and if I well supply the principal
+place amongst you, it suffices me. This I acknowledge to you; and
+this acknowledgment, I would have posterity to remember. They will do
+abundant right to my memory, if they believe me to have been worthy of
+my ancestors; watchful of the Roman state; unmoved in perils, and in
+maintaining the public interest, fearless of private enmities. These
+are the temples which in your breasts I would raise; these the fairest
+portraitures, and such as will endure. As to temples and statues of
+stone, if the idol adored in them comes to be hated by posterity, they
+are despised as his sepulchres. Hence it is I here invoke the Gods,
+that to the end of my life they would grant me a spirit undisturbed, and
+discerning in duties human and divine: and hence too I here implore our
+citizens and allies, that whenever my dissolution comes, they would
+with approbation and benevolent testimonies of remembrance, celebrate
+my actions and retain the odour of my name." And thenceforward he
+persevered in slighting upon all occasions, and even in private
+conversation, this divine worship of himself. A conduct which was by
+some ascribed to modesty; by many to a conscious diffidence; by others
+to degeneracy of spirit. "Since the most sublime amongst men naturally
+covet the most exalted honours: thus Hercules and Bacchus amongst the
+Greeks, and with us Romulus, were added to the society of the Gods:
+Augustus too had chosen the nobler part, and hoped for deification: all
+the other gratifications of Princes were instantly procured: one only
+was to be pursued insatiably; the praise and perpetuity of their name.
+For by contemning fame, the virtues that procure it, are contemned."
+
+Now Sejanus, intoxicated with excess of fortune, and moreover stimulated
+by the importunity of Livia, who, with the restless passion of a woman,
+craved the promised marriage, composed a memorial to the Emperor.
+For, it was then the custom to apply to him in writing, though he were
+present. This of Sejanus was thus conceived: "That such had been towards
+him the benevolence of Augustus; such and so numerous, since, the
+instances of affection from Tiberius, that he was thence accustomed,
+without applying to the Gods, to carry his hopes and prayers directly
+to the Emperors: yet of them he had never sought a blaze of honours:
+watching and toils like those of common soldiers, for the safeguard
+of the Prince, had been his choice and ambition. However what was most
+glorious for him he had attained; to be thought worthy of alliance with
+the Emperor: hence the source of his present hopes: and, since he had
+heard that Augustus, in the disposal of his daughter, had not been
+without thoughts even of some of the Roman knights; he begged that if a
+husband were sought for Livia, Tiberius would remember his friend; one
+whose ambition aimed no higher than the pure and disinterested glory of
+the affinity: for that he would never abandon the burden of his present
+trust; but hold it sufficient to be, by that means, enabled to support
+his house against the injurious wrath of Agrippina; and in this he only
+consulted the security of his children. For himself; his own life would
+be abundantly long, whenever finally spent in the ministry of such a
+Prince."
+
+For a present answer, Tiberius praised the loyalty of Sejanus;
+recapitulated cursorily the instances of his own favours towards him,
+and required time, as it were for a thorough deliberation. At last he
+made this reply: "That all other men were, in their pursuits, guided by
+the notions of convenience: far different was the lot and situation of
+Princes, who were in their action to consider chiefly the applause and
+good liking of the public: he therefore did not delude Sejanus with
+an obvious and plausible answer; that Livia could herself determine
+whether, after Drusus, she ought again to marry, or still persist his
+widow, and that she had a mother and grandmother, nearer relations and
+more interested to advise. He would deal more candidly with him: and
+first as to the enmity of Agrippina; it would flame out with fresh fury,
+if by the marriage of Livia, the family of the Caesars were rent as
+it were into two contending parties: that even as things stood, the
+emulation of these ladies broke into frequent sallies, and, by their
+animosities, his grandsons were instigated different ways. What would be
+the consequence, if, by such a marriage, the strife were inflamed? For
+you are deceived, Sejanus, if you think to continue then in the same
+rank as now; or that Livia, she who was first the wife of the young
+Caius Caesar, and afterwards the wife of Drusus, will be of a temper
+to grow old with a husband no higher than a Roman knight: nay, allowing
+that I suffered you afterwards to remain what you are; do you believe
+that they who saw her father, they who saw her brother, and the
+ancestors of our house, covered with the supreme dignities, will ever
+suffer it? You in truth propose, yourself, to stand still in the same
+station: but the great magistrates and grandees of the state, those very
+magistrates and grandees who, in spite of yourself, break in upon
+you, and in all affairs court you as their oracle, make no secret
+of maintaining that you have long since exceeded the bounds of the
+Equestrian Order, and far outgone in power all the confidants of my
+father; and from their hatred to you, they also censure me. But still,
+Augustus deliberated about giving his daughter to a Roman knight. Where
+is the wonder, if perplexed with a crowd of distracting cares, and
+apprised to what an unbounded height above others he raised whomsoever
+he dignified with such a match, he talked of Proculeius, and some like
+him; remarkable for the retiredness of their life, and nowise engaged
+in the affairs of state? But if we are influenced by the hesitation of
+Augustus, how much more powerful is the decision; since he bestowed his
+daughter on Agrippa, and then on me? These are considerations which in
+friendship I have not withheld: however, neither your own inclinations,
+nor those of Livia, shall be ever thwarted by me. The secret and
+constant purposes of my own heart towards you, and with what further
+ties of affinity, I am contriving to bind you still faster to me; I at
+present forbear to recount. Thus much only I will declare, that there is
+nothing so high but those abilities, and your singular zeal and fidelity
+towards me, may justly claim: as when opportunity presents, either in
+Senate, or in a popular assembly, I shall not fail to testify."
+
+In answer to this, Sejanus no longer soliciting the marriage, but filled
+with higher apprehensions, besought him "to resist the dark suggestions
+of suspicion; to despise the pratings of the vulgar, nor to admit the
+hostile breath of envy." And as he was puzzled about the crowds which
+incessantly haunted his house; lest by keeping them off he might
+impair his power; or by encouraging them, furnish a handle for criminal
+imputations; he came to this result, that he would urge the Emperor out
+of Rome, to spend his life remote from thence in delightful retirements.
+From this counsel he foresaw many advantages: upon himself would depend
+all access to the Emperor; all letters and expresses would, as the
+soldiers were the carriers, be in great measure under his direction; in
+a little time, the Prince, now in declining age, and then softened by
+recess, would more easily transfer upon him the whole charge of the
+Empire: he should be removed from the multitude of such as to make their
+court, attended him at Rome; and thence one source of envy would be
+stopped. So that by discharging the empty phantoms of power, he should
+augment the essentials. He therefore began by little and little to rail
+at the hurry of business at Rome, the throng of people, the flock of
+suitors: he applauded "retirement and quiet; where, while they were
+separate from irksome fatigues, nor exposed to the discontents and
+resentments of particulars, all affairs of moment were best despatched."
+
+Next were heard ambassadors from the Lacedaemonians and Messenians,
+about the right that each people claimed to the Temple of Diana
+Limenetis; which the Lacedaemonians asserted to be theirs, "founded
+in their territory, and dedicated by their ancestors," and offered as
+proofs the ancient authority of their annals, and the hymns of the old
+poets. "It had been in truth taken from them by the superior force of
+Philip of Macedon, when at war with him; but restored afterwards by the
+judicial decision of Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony." The Messenians,
+on the contrary, pleaded, "the ancient partition of Peloponnesus amongst
+the descendants of Hercules; whence the territory where the temple
+stood, had fallen to their king; and the monuments of that allotment
+still remained, engraven in stone and old tables of brass; but, if the
+testimony of histories and poets were appealed to; they themselves had
+the most and the fullest. Nor had Philip, in his decision, acted by
+power, but from equity: the same afterwards was the adjudgment of King
+Antigonus; the same that of the Roman commander Mummius. Thus too the
+Milesians had awarded, they who were by both sides chosen arbitrators:
+and thus lastly it had been determined by Atidius Geminus, Praetor of
+Achaia." The Messenians therefore gained the suit. The citizens also of
+Segestum applied on behalf of "the Temple of Venus on Mount Eryx; which
+fallen through age, they desired might be restored." They represented
+the story of its origin and antiquity; a well-pleasing flattery to
+Tiberius; who frankly took upon himself the charge, as kinsman to
+the Goddess. Then was discussed the petition from the citizens of
+Marseilles; and what they claimed, according to the precedent of Publius
+Rutilius, was approved: for Rutilius, though by a law expelled from
+Rome, had been by those of Smyrna adopted a citizen: and as Volcatius
+Moschus, another exile, had found at Marseilles the same privilege and
+reception, he had to their Republic, as to his country, left his estate.
+
+During the same Consuls, a bloody assassination was perpetrated in the
+nethermost Spain, by a boor in the territory of Termes. By him, Lucius
+Piso, Governor of the Province, as he travelled careless and unattended,
+relying on the established peace, was surprised, and despatched at one
+deadly blow. The assassin however escaped to a forest, by the fleetness
+of his horse; and there dismissed him: from thence travelling over rocks
+and pathless places, he baffled his pursuers: but their ignorance of his
+person was soon removed; for his horse being taken and shown through the
+neighbouring villages, it was thence learned who was the owner; so that
+he too was found; but when put to the rack to declare his accomplices,
+he proclaimed with a mighty and assured voice, in the language of his
+country, "that in vain they questioned him; his associates might stand
+safely by and witness his constancy: and that no force of torture could
+be so exquisite as from him to extort a discovery." Next day as he
+was dragged back to the rack, he burst with a vehement effort from
+his guard, and dashed his head so desperately against a stone, that he
+instantly expired. Piso is believed to have been assassinated by a plot
+of the Termestinians; as in exacting the repayment of some money, seized
+from the public, he acted with more asperity, than a rough people could
+bear.
+
+In the Consulship of Lentulus Getulicus and Caius Calvisius, the
+triumphal ensigns were decreed to Poppeus Sabinus for having routed
+some clans of Thracians, who living wildly on the high mountains, acted
+thence with the more outrage and contumacy. The ground of their late
+commotion, not to mention the savage genius of the people, was their
+scorn and impatience, to have recruits raised amongst them, and all
+their stoutest men enlisted in our armies; accustomed as they were not
+even to obey their native kings further than their own humour, nor to
+aid them with forces but under captains of their own choosing, nor to
+fight against any enemy but their own borderers. Their discontents too
+were inflamed by a rumour which then ran current amongst them; that they
+were to be dispersed into different regions; and exterminated from their
+own, to be mixed with other nations. But before they took arms and began
+hostilities, they sent ambassadors to Sabinus, to represent "their past
+friendship and submission, and that the same should continue, if they
+were provoked by no fresh impositions: but, if like a people subdued by
+war, they were doomed to bondage; they had able men and steel, and souls
+determined upon liberty or death." The ambassadors at the same time
+pointed to their strongholds founded upon precipices; and boasted that
+they had thither conveyed their wives and parents; and threatened a war
+intricate, hazardous and bloody.
+
+Sabinus amused them with gentle answers till he could draw together his
+army; while Pomponius Labeo was advancing with a legion from Moesia, and
+King Rhoemetalces with a body of Thracians who had not renounced their
+allegiance. With these, and what forces he had of his own, he marched
+towards the foe, now settled in the passes of the forest: some more bold
+presented themselves upon the hills: against the last, the Roman general
+first bent his forces in battle, and without difficulty drove them
+thence, but with small slaughter of the Barbarians, because of their
+immediate refuge. Here he straight raised an encampment, and with a
+stout band took possession of a hill, which extended with an even narrow
+ridge to the next fortress, which was garrisoned by a great host of
+armed men and rabble: and as the most resolute were, in the way of
+the nation, rioting without the fortification in dances and songs, he
+forthwith despatched against them his select archers. These, while they
+only poured in volleys of arrows at a distance did thick and extensive
+execution; but, approaching too near, were by a sudden sally put in
+disorder. They were however supported by a cohort of the Sigambrians,
+purposely posted by Sabinus in readiness against an exigency; a people
+these, equally terrible in the boisterous and mixed uproar of their
+voices and arms.
+
+He afterwards pitched his camp nearer to the enemy; having in his former
+entrenchments left the Thracians, whom I have mentioned to have joined
+us. To them too was permitted "to lay waste, burn, and plunder; on
+condition that their ravages were confined to the day; and that, at
+nights, they kept within the camp, secure under guard." This restriction
+was at first observed; but, anon lapsing into luxury, and grown opulent
+in plunder, they neglected their guards, and resigned themselves to
+gaiety and banquetting, to the intoxication and sloth of wine and sleep.
+The enemy therefore apprised of their negligence, formed themselves
+into two bands; one to set upon the plunderers; the other to assault
+the Roman camp, with no hopes of taking it; but only that the soldiers
+alarmed with shouts and darts, and all intent upon their own defence,
+might not hear the din of the other battle: moreover to heighten the
+terror, it was to be done by night. Those who assailed the lines of
+the legions were easily repulsed: but, the auxiliary Thracians were
+terrified with the sudden encounter, as they were utterly unprepared.
+Part of them lay along the entrenchments; many were roaming abroad; and
+both were slain with the keener vengeance, as they were upbraided "for
+fugitives and traitors, who bore arms to establish servitude over their
+country and themselves."
+
+Next day Sabinus drew up his army in view of the enemy, on ground equal
+to both; to try, if elated with their success by night, they would
+venture a battle: and, when they still kept within the fortress, or
+on the cluster of hills, he began to begird them with a siege; and
+strengthening his old lines and adding new, enclosed a circuit of four
+miles. Then to deprive them of water and forage, he straitened his
+entrenchment by degrees, and hemmed them in still closer. A bulwark
+was also raised, whence the enemy now within throw, were annoyed with
+discharges of stones, darts, and fire. But nothing aggrieved them so
+vehemently as thirst, whilst only a single fountain remained amongst a
+huge multitude of armed men and families: their horses too and cattle,
+penned up with the people, after the barbarous manner of the country,
+perished for want of provender: amongst the carcasses of beasts lay
+those of men; some dead of thirst, some of their wounds; a noisome
+mixture of misery and death; all was foul and tainted with putrefaction,
+stench, and filthy contamination. To these distresses also accrued
+another, and of all calamities the most consummate, the calamity of
+discord: some were disposed to surrender; others proposed present death,
+and to fall upon one another. There were some too who advised a sally,
+and to die avenging their deaths. Nor were these last mean men, though
+dissenting from the rest.
+
+But there was one of their leaders, his name Dinis, a man stricken in
+years, who, by long experience, acquainted with the power and clemency
+of the Romans, argued, "that they must lay down their arms, the same
+being the sole cure for their pressing calamities;" and was the first
+who submitted, with his wife and children to the conqueror. There
+followed him all that were weak through sex or age, and such as had a
+greater passion for life than glory. The young men were parted between
+Tarsa and Turesis; both determined to fall with liberty: but Tarsa
+declared earnestly "for instant death; and that by it all hopes and
+fears were at once to be extinguished;" and setting an example, buried
+his sword in his breast. Nor were there wanting some who despatched
+themselves the same way. Turesis and his band stayed for night: of
+which our General was aware. The guards were therefore strengthened
+with extraordinary reinforcements: and now with the night, darkness
+prevailed, its horror heightened by outrageous rain; and the enemy with
+tumultuous shouts, and by turns with vast silence, alarmed and puzzled
+the besiegers. Sabinus therefore going round the camp, warned the
+soldiers, "that they should not be misguided by the deceitful voice of
+uproar, nor trust to a feigned calm, and thence open an advantage to the
+enemy, who by these wiles sought it; but keep immovably to their several
+posts; nor throw their darts at random."
+
+Just then came the Barbarians, pouring in distinct droves: here, with
+stones, with wooden javelins hardened in the fire, and with the broken
+limbs of trees, they battered the palisade: there with hurdles, faggots
+and dead bodies, they filled the trench: by others, bridges and ladders,
+both before framed, were planted against the battlements; these they
+violently grappled and tore, and struggled hand to hand with those who
+opposed them. The Romans, on the other side, beat them back with their
+bucklers, drove them down with darts, and hurled upon them great mural
+stakes and heaps of stones. On both sides were powerful stimulations: on
+ours the hopes of victory almost gained, if we persisted; and thence the
+more glaring infamy, if we recoiled: on theirs, the last struggle for
+their life; most of them, too, inspired with the affecting presence of
+their mothers and wives, and made desperate by their dolorous wailings.
+The night was an advantage to the cowardly and the brave; by it, the
+former became more resolute; by it, the latter hid their fear: blows
+were dealt, the striker knew not upon whom; and wounds received, the
+wounded knew not whence: such was the utter indistinction of friend and
+foe. To heighten the general jumble and blind confusion, the echo from
+the cavities of the mountain represented to the Romans the shouts of the
+enemy as behind them: hence in some places they deserted their lines, as
+believing them already broken and entered: and yet such of the enemy,
+as broke through, were very few. All the rest, their most resolute
+champions being wounded or slain, were at the returning light driven
+back to their fort; where they were at length forced to surrender; as
+did the places circumjacent of their own accord. The remainder could
+then be neither forced nor famished; as they were protected by a furious
+winter, always sudden about Mount Haemus.
+
+At Rome, discord shook the Prince's family: and, to begin the series of
+destruction, which was to end in Agrippina, Claudia Pulchra her cousin
+was accused; Domitius Afer the accuser. This man, just out of the
+Praetorship, in estimation small, but hasty to signalise himself by
+some notable exploit however heinous, alleged against her the "crimes
+of prostitution, of adultery with Furnius, of magical execrations
+and poison prepared against the life of the Emperor." Agrippina ever
+vehement, and then in a flame for the peril of her kinswoman, flew to
+Tiberius, and by chance found him sacrificing to the Emperor his father.
+Having got this handle for upbraiding him, she told him "that it ill
+became the same man to slay victims to the deified Augustus and to
+persecute his children: his divine spirit was not transfused into dumb
+statues: the genuine images of Augustus were the living descendants
+from his celestial blood: she herself was one; one sensible of impending
+danger, and now in the mournful state of a supplicant. In vain were
+foreign crimes pretended against Pulchra; when the only cause of her
+concerted overthrow was her affection for Agrippina, foolishly carried
+even to adoration; forgetful as she was of the fate of Sosia, a
+condemned sufferer for the same fault." All these bitter words drew
+small answer from the dark breast of Tiberius: he rebuked her by quoting
+a Greek verse; "That she was therefore aggrieved, because she did not
+reign:" Pulchra and Furnius were condemned. Afer, having thus displayed
+his genius, and gained a declaration from Tiberius, pronouncing him
+_eloquent in his own independent right_, was ranked with the most
+celebrated orators: afterwards in prosecuting accusations, or in
+protecting the accused, he flourished more in the fame of eloquence than
+in that of uprightness: however, old age eminently sunk the credit and
+vigour of his eloquence; while, with parts decayed, he still retained
+a passion for haranguing. [Footnote: Dum fessa mente, retinet silentii
+inpatientiam.]
+
+Agrippina still fostering her wrath, and seized too with a bodily
+disorder, received the Emperor, come purposely to see her, with
+many tears and long silence. At last she accosted him with invidious
+expostulations and prayers; "that he would relieve her solitude, and
+give her a husband. She was still endowed with proper youth; to virtuous
+women there was no consolation but that of marriage; and Rome afforded
+illustrious men who would readily assent to entertain the wife of
+Germanicus, and his children." Tiberius was not ignorant to what mighty
+power in the state, that demand tended; but, that he might betray no
+tokens of resentment or fear, he left her, though instant with him,
+without an answer. This passage, not related by the authors of our
+annals, I found in the commentaries of her daughter Agrippina; her, who
+was the mother of the Emperor Nero, and has published her own life with
+the fortunes of her family.
+
+As to Agrippina; still grieving and void of foresight, she was yet more
+sensibly dismayed by an artifice of Sejanus, who employed such, as under
+colour of friendship warned her, "that poison was prepared for her,
+and that she must shun eating at her father-in-law's table." She was a
+stranger to all dissimulation: so that as she sat near him at table, she
+continued stately and unmoved; not a word, not a look escaped her,
+and she touched no part of the meat. Tiberius observed her, whether
+accidentally, or that he was before apprised; and, to be convinced by
+a more powerful experiment, praising the apples that stood before him,
+presented some with his own hand to his daughter-in-law. This only
+increased the suspicion of Agrippina; and, without ever putting them
+to her mouth, she delivered them to the servants. For all this, the
+reserved Tiberius let not a word drop from him openly; but, turning
+to his mother; "There was no wonder," he said, "if he had really taken
+harsh measures with her, who thus charged him as a poisoner." Hence a
+rumour spread, "that her doom was contrived; and that the Emperor not
+daring to pursue it publicly, chose to have her despatched in secret."
+
+Tiberius, as a means to divert upon other matters the popular talk,
+attended assiduously the deliberations of the Senate; and there heard
+for many days the several Ambassadors from Asia, mutually contending,
+"in what city should be built the temple lately decreed." For this
+honour eleven cities strove, with equal ambition, though different
+in power: nor did the pleas urged by all, greatly vary; namely, "the
+antiquity of their original, and their distinguished zeal for the Roman
+People, during their several wars with Perseus, Aristonicus, and other
+kings." But the Trallians, the Laodiceans, the Magnesians and those of
+the Hypaepis, were at once dismissed, as insufficient for the charge.
+Nor, in truth, had they of Ilium, who represented, "that Troy was the
+mother of Rome," any superior advantage, besides the glory of antiquity.
+The plea of the Halicarnassians took some short consideration: they
+asserted, "that for twelve hundred years, no earthquake had shaken their
+town; and that they would fix in a solid rock the foundations of the
+temple." The same considerations were urged by the inhabitants of
+Pergamus; where already was erected a temple to Augustus; a distinction
+which was judged sufficient for them. The cities too of Ephesus and
+Miletus seemed fully employed in the ceremonies of their own distinct
+deities; the former in those of Diana; the other, in those of Apollo.
+Thus the dispute was confined to Sardis and Smyrna. The first recited
+a decree of the Etrurians, which owned them for kinsmen: "for that
+Tyrrhenus and Lydus, sons of King Atys, having between them divided
+their people, because of their multitude, Lydus re-settled in his
+native country; and it became the lot of Tyrrhenus to find out a fresh
+residence; and by the names of these chiefs the parted people came
+afterwards to be called, Lydians in Asia, Tyrrhenians in Italy. That the
+opulence of the Lydians spread yet farther, by their colonies sent
+under Pelops into Greece, which from him afterwards took its name." They
+likewise urged "the letters of our Generals; their mutual leagues with
+us during the war of Macedon; their plenty of rivers, temperate climate,
+and the fertility of the circumjacent country."
+
+The Smyrnaeans having likewise recounted their ancient establishment,
+"whether Tantalus, the son of Jupiter; or Theseus, the son also of
+a God; or one of the old Amazons, were their founder;" proceeded to
+considerations in which they chiefly trusted; their friendly offices
+to the Roman People, having aided them with a naval force, not in their
+foreign wars only, but in those which infested Italy. "It was they who
+first reared a temple to the City of Rome, in the Consulship of Marcus
+Porcius; then, in truth, when the power of the Roman People was already
+mighty, but however not yet raised to its highest glory; for the city of
+Carthage still stood, and potent kings governed Asia. Witness too their
+generosity to Sylla, when the condition of his army ready to famish in a
+cruel winter and a scarcity of clothes, being related to the citizens
+of Smyrna then assembled; all that were present divested themselves of
+their raiments, and sent them to our legions." Thus when the votes of
+the Senators were gathered, the pretensions of Smyrna were preferred. It
+was also moved by Vibius Marsus, that Lentulus, to whom had fallen
+the province of Asia, should be attended by a Legate extraordinary, to
+supervise the building of the temple; and as Lentulus himself through
+modesty declined to choose one, several who had been Praetors were drawn
+by lot, and the lot fell upon Valerius Naso.
+
+In the meantime, according to a purpose long meditated, and from time to
+time deferred, Tiberius at last retired to Campania; in profession, to
+dedicate a temple to Jupiter at Capua, and one at Nola to Augustus; but
+in truth determined to remove, for ever, from Rome. The cause of his
+departure, I have before referred to the stratagems of Sejanus; but
+though in it I have followed most of our authors; yet, since after
+the execution of Sejanus, he persisted for six years in the like dark
+recess; I am rather influenced by a stronger probability, that the
+ground of his absence is more justly to be ascribed to his own spirit,
+while he strove to hide in the shades of solitude, what in deeds he
+proclaimed, the rage of his cruelty and lust. There were those who
+believed that, in his old age, he was ashamed of the figure of his
+person; for he was very lean, long and stooping, his head bald, his face
+ulcerous, and for the most besmeared with salves: he was moreover
+wont, during his recess at Rhodes, to avoid the public, and cover his
+debauches in secrecy. It is also related that he was driven from Rome by
+the restless aspiring of his mother, whom he scorned to admit a partner
+in the sovereignty; nor yet could entirely seclude, since as her gift he
+had received the sovereignty itself. For, Augustus had deliberated
+about setting Germanicus at the head of the Roman state; his sister's
+grandson, and one adored by all men: but subdued by the solicitations of
+his wife, he adopted Tiberius; and caused Tiberius to adopt Germanicus.
+With this grandeur of her own procuring, Livia upbraided her son; and
+even reclaimed it.
+
+His going was narrowly accompanied; by one Senator, Cocceius Nerva,
+formerly Consul, and accomplished in the knowledge of the laws; and,
+besides Sejanus, by one dignified Roman knight, Curtius Atticus. The
+rest were men of letters, chiefly Greeks; whose conversation pleased and
+amused him. The skilled in astrology declared, "that he had left Rome in
+such a conjunction of the planets, as for ever to exclude his return."
+Hence a source of destruction to many, who conjectured his end to be
+at hand, and published their conjectures: for, it was an event too
+incredible to be foreseen, that for eleven years he should of choice
+be withdrawn from his country. The sequel discovered the short bounds
+between the art and the falsehood of the art, and what obscurities
+perplex even the facts it happens to foretell. _That he should never
+return to Rome_, proved not to be falsely said: as to everything else
+about him they were perfectly in the dark; since he still lived, never
+far distant, sometimes in the adjacent champain, sometimes on the
+neighbouring shore, often under the very walls of the city; and died at
+last in the fulness and extremity of age.
+
+There happened to Tiberius, about that time, an accident, which, as it
+threatened his life, fired the empty prognostics at Rome; but to himself
+proved matter of more confidence in the friendship and faith of Sejanus.
+They were eating in a cave at a villa, thence called _Spelunca_, between
+the Amyclean Sea and the mountains of Fondi: it was a native cave, and
+its mouth fell suddenly in, and buried under it some of the attendants:
+hence dread seized all, and they who were celebrating the entertainment
+fled: as to Sejanus; he covered the Emperor's body with his own, and
+stooping upon his knees and hands, exposed himself to the descending
+ruin; such was the posture he was found in by the soldiers, who came to
+their relief. He grew mightier from thence; and being now considered by
+Tiberius as one regardless of himself, all his counsels, however bloody
+and destructive, were listened to with blind credulity: so that he
+assumed the office of a judge against the offspring of Germanicus, and
+suborned such as were to act the parts of accusers, and especially to
+pursue and blacken Nero, the next in succession; a young Prince modest
+indeed, but forgetful of that restraint and circumspection which his
+present situation required. He was misguided by his freedmen and the
+retainers to his house; who eager to be masters of power, animated him
+with intemperate counsels; "that he would show a spirit resolute and
+assured; it was what the Roman People wished, what the armies longed
+for: nor would Sejanus dare then to resist; though he now equally
+insulted the tameness of an old man and the sloth of a young one."
+
+While he listened to these and the like suggestions, there escaped him,
+no expressions, in truth, of any criminal purpose; but sometimes such as
+were resentful and unguarded: these were catched up by the spies placed
+upon him, and charged against him with aggravations; neither was
+he allowed the privilege of clearing himself. Several threatening
+appearances moreover dismayed him: some avoided to meet him; others
+having just paid him the salute, turned instantly away: many, in the
+midst of conversation, broke off and left him; while the creatures of
+Sejanus stood still fearlessly by and sneered upon him. For Tiberius; he
+always entertained him with a stern face, or a hollow smile; and whether
+the youth spoke or said nothing, there were crimes in his words, crimes
+in his silence: nor was he safe even at the dead of night; since his
+uneasiness and watchings, nay, his very sighs and dreams were, by his
+wife, divulged to her mother Livia, and by Livia to Sejanus; who had
+also drawn his brother Drusus into the combination, by tempting him with
+the immediate prospect of Empire, if his elder brother, already sinking,
+were once set effectually aside. The genius of Druses naturally furious,
+instigated besides by a passion for power, and by the usual hate and
+competition between brothers, was further kindled by the partiality
+of Agrippina, who was fonder of Nero. However, Sejanus did not so far
+favour Drusus, but that against him too he was even then ripening the
+studied measures of future destruction; as he knew him to be violent,
+and thence more obnoxious to snares.
+
+In the end of the year departed these eminent persons; Asinius Agrippa,
+of ancestors more illustrious than ancient, and in his own character
+not unworthy of them: and Quintus Haterius, of a Senatorian family, and
+himself, while he yet lived, famous for eloquence: but the monuments
+of his genius, since published, are not equally esteemed. In truth,
+he prevailed more by rapidity than accuracy: insomuch that, as the
+elaborate compositions of others flourish after them; so that enchanting
+melody of voice in Haterius, with that fluency of words which was
+personal to him, died with him.
+
+In the Consulship of Marcus Licinius and Lucius Calpurnius, the casualty
+of an instant, its beginning unforeseen, and ended as soon as begun,
+equalled in calamity the slaughter and overthrow of mighty armies. One
+Atilius had undertaken to erect an amphitheatre at Fidena, [Footnote:
+Castel Giubileo, near Rome.] there to exhibit a combat of gladiators:
+he was of the race of freedmen, and as he began it from no exuberance of
+wealth, nor to court popularity amongst the inhabitants, but purely
+for the meanness of gain, he neither established solid foundations, nor
+raised the timber-work with sufficient compactness. Thither thronged
+from Rome those of every sex and age, eager for such shows; as during
+the reign of Tiberius they were debarred from diversions at home; and,
+the nearer the place, the greater the crowds: hence the calamity was the
+more dreadful; for, as the theatre was surcharged with the multitude,
+the structure burst, and sinking violently in, while its extremities
+rushed impetuously out, huge was the press of people, who intent upon
+the gladiators within, or gathered round the walls, were crushed by the
+deadly ruin, and even buried under it. And verily, they who in the first
+fury of the havoc were smitten with final death, escaped as far as in
+such a doleful disaster they could escape, the misery of torture: much
+more to be lamented were those, who bereft of joints and pieces of their
+body, were yet not forsaken of life; those who by day could with their
+eyes behold their wives and children imprisoned in the same ruins; and
+by night could distinguish them by their groans, and howlings.
+
+Now others from abroad excited by the sad tidings, found here their
+several sorrows: one bewailed his brother, one his kinsman, another his
+parents: even they whose friends or kindred were absent on a different
+account, were yet terrified: for, as it was not hitherto distinctly
+known upon whom the destruction had lighted, the dread was widened by
+uncertainty. When the ruins began to be removed, great about the dead
+was the concourse of the living; frequent the kisses and embraces
+of tenderness and sorrow: and even frequent the contention about the
+propriety of the dead; where the features distorted by death or bruises,
+or where parity of age or resemblance of person, had confounded the
+slain, and led into mistakes their several claimers. Fifty thousand
+souls were destroyed or maimed by this sad stroke: it was therefore
+for the future provided by a decree of Senate, "that no man under the
+qualification of four hundred thousand sesterces, [Footnote: L3,300.]
+should exhibit the spectacle of gladiators; and no amphitheatre should
+be founded but upon ground manifestly solid." Atilius was punished with
+exile. To conclude; during the fresh pangs of this calamity, the doors
+of the Grandees were thrown open; medicines were everywhere furnished;
+they who administered medicines, were everywhere employed to attend:
+and at that juncture the city though sorrowful of aspect, seemed to
+have recalled the public spirit of the ancient Romans; who, after great
+battles, constantly relieved the wounded, sustained them by liberality,
+and restored them with care.
+
+The public agonies from this terrible blow, were not yet deadened, when
+another supervened; and the city felt the affliction and violence of
+fire, which with uncommon rage utterly consumed Mount Caelius. "It was a
+deadly and mournful year," they said, "and under boding omens the
+Prince had formed the design of his absence." It is the way this of
+the multitude; who to malignant counsels are wont to ascribe events
+altogether fortuitous. But the Emperor dissipated their murmurs, by
+bestowing on each sufferer money to the value of his sufferings: hence
+he had the thanks of men of rank, in the Senate; and was by the populace
+rewarded with applauses, "for that without the views of ambition,
+without the application of friends, he had of his own accord even sought
+out the unknown, and by his bounty relieved them." It was likewise moved
+and decreed in Senate, "that Mount Caelius should be for the future
+styled _Mount Augustus_, since there the statue of Tiberius, standing
+in the house of Junius the Senator, escaped unhurt in the flames,
+though devouring all round them:" it was remembered, that the same rare
+exemption had formerly happened to Claudia Pulchra; that her statue
+being twice spared by the fury of fire, had thence been placed and
+consecrated by our ancestors in the Temple of the Mother of the Gods.
+Thus sacred were the Claudian race, and dear to the deities; and
+therefore the place, where the Gods had testified such mighty honour
+towards the Prince, ought to be dignified with consecration.
+
+It will not be impertinent to insert here, that this mount was of old
+named _Querquetulanus_, from a grove of oak which grew thick upon it. It
+was afterwards called _Mount Caelius_, from Caeles Vibenna, who having
+led to Rome a body of Tuscan auxiliaries, was presented with that
+settlement by Tarquinius Priscus, or some other of our kings; for in
+this particular, writers differ: about other circumstances there remains
+no dispute; that these forces were very numerous, and extended their
+dwellings all along the plain below, as far as the Forum. Hence the
+_Tuscan Street_, so called after these strangers.
+
+Tiberius, having dedicated the temples in Campania; though he had by
+an edict warned the public, "that none should interrupt his quiet;"
+and though soldiers were posted to keep off all confluence from the
+neighbouring towns; nevertheless, hating the towns themselves, and
+the colonies, and every part in the continent, imprisoned himself in
+Capreae, [Footnote: Capri.] an island disjoined from the point of the
+Cape of Surrentum by a channel of three miles. I should chiefly believe
+that he was taken with its solitude, as the sea above it is void of
+havens, as the stations for the smallest vessels are few and difficult,
+and as none could put in unperceived by the Guards. The genius of
+the climate is mild in winter, from the shelter of a mountain which
+intercepts the rigour of the winds: its summers are refreshed by gales
+from the west; and the sea open all round it, makes a delightful view:
+from thence too was beheld a most lovely landscape, before the eruptions
+of Mount Vesuvius had changed the face of the prospect. It is the
+tradition of fame that the Greeks occupied the opposite region, and
+that Capreae was particularly inhabited by the Teleboi. However it were,
+Tiberius then confined his retirement to twelve villas, their names
+famous of old and their structure sumptuous. And the more intent he had
+formerly been upon public cares, he became now so much the more buried
+in dark debauches, and resigned over to mischievous privacy: for, there
+remained still in him his old bent to suspicions, and rash faith in
+informers; qualities which even at Rome Sejanus had always fostered, and
+here inflamed more vigorously; his devices against Agrippina and Nero
+being no longer a secret. About them guards were placed, by whom every
+petty circumstance, the messages they sent or received, their visits and
+company, their open behaviour, their private conversation, were all as
+it were minuted into journals: there were others, too, instructed to
+warn them to fly to the armies in Germany; or that embracing the statue
+of the deified Augustus in the great Forum, they would there implore the
+aid and protection of the Senate and People of Rome. And these counsels,
+though rejected by them, were fathered and charged upon them, as just
+ripe for execution.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK V
+
+A.D. 29-31.
+
+
+In the Consulship of Rubellius and Fusius, each surnamed Geminus, died
+Julia Augusta, the mother of Tiberius, in the extremity of age. She was
+descended from the Claudian house; adopted through her father into the
+Livian family; into the Julian, by Augustus; and both by adoption and
+descent, signally noble: her first marriage was with Tiberius Nero; and
+by him she had children: her husband, after the surrender of Perusia,
+[Footnote: Perugia.] in the Civil War, became a fugitive; but, upon
+peace made between Sextus Pompeius and the Triumvirate, returned to
+Rome. Afterwards, Octavius Caesar smitten with her beauty, snatched
+her from her husband; whether with or against her own inclinations, is
+uncertain; but with such precipitation, that, without staying for her
+delivery, he married her yet big with child by Tiberius. Henceforward
+she had no issue; but, by the marriage of Germanicus and Agrippina,
+her blood came to be mixed with that of Augustus in their
+great-grandchildren. In her domestic deportment, she conformed to
+the venerable model of antiquity; but with more complaisance than was
+allowed by the ladies of old: an easy courteous wife, an ambitious
+mother; and well comporting with the nice arts of her husband, and the
+dissimulation of her son: her funeral was moderate, and her last will
+lay long unfulfilled: her encomium was pronounced in public by Caligula,
+her grandson, [Footnote: Great-grandson.] afterwards Emperor.
+
+Tiberius by a letter excused himself to the Senate, for not having paid
+his last offices to his mother; and, though he rioted in private
+luxury without abatement, pleaded "the multitude of public affairs."
+He likewise abridged the honours decreed to her memory, and, of a
+large number, admitted but very few: for this restriction he pretended
+modesty, and added, "that no religious worship should be appointed her;
+for that the contrary was her own choice." Nay, in a part of the same
+letter, he censured _feminine friendships_; obliquely upbraiding the
+Consul Fusius, a man highly distinguished by the favour of Augusta, and
+dexterous to engage and cajole the affections of women; a gay talker,
+and one accustomed to play upon Tiberius with biting sarcasms; the
+impressions of which never die in the hearts of Princes.
+
+From this moment, the domination waxed completely outrageous and
+devouring: for while she lived, some refuge still remained, as the
+observance of Tiberius towards his mother was ever inviolate; nor durst
+Sejanus arrogate precedence of the authority of a parent: but now, as
+let loose from all restraint, they broke out with unbridled fury: so
+that letters were despatched avowedly against Agrippina and Nero; and as
+they were read in the Senate soon after the death of Augusta, the
+people believed them to have been sent before and by her suppressed. The
+expressions were elaborately bitter; and yet by them no hostile purpose
+of taking arms, no endeavour to change the State, was objected to the
+youth; but only "the love of boys, and other impure pleasures:" against
+Agrippina he durst not even feign so much; and therefore arraigned
+"her haughty looks, her impetuous and stubborn spirit." The Senate
+were struck with deep silence and affright: but, as particular men will
+always be drawing personal favour from public miseries, there were
+some who, having no hopes founded upon uprightness, demanded that "they
+should proceed upon the letters:" amongst these the foremost in zeal was
+Cotta Messalinus, with a terrible motion: but, the other leading men,
+and chiefly the magistrates, were embarrassed by fear: for Tiberius,
+though he had sent them a flaming invective, left all the rest a riddle.
+
+In the Senate was one Junius Rusticus, appointed by the Emperor to keep
+a journal of their proceedings, and therefore thought well acquainted
+with his purposes. This man, by some fatal impulse (for he had never
+before shown any instance of magnanimity) or blinded by deceitful
+policy, while forgetful of present and impending dangers, he dreaded
+future possibilities, joined the party that hesitated, and even warned
+the Consuls "not to begin the debate:" he argued "that in a short moment
+the highest affairs might take a new turn: and an interval ought to be
+allowed to the old man to change his passion into remorse." At the same
+time, the people, carrying with them the images of Agrippina and Nero,
+gathered about the Senate, and proclaiming their good wishes for the
+prosperity of the Emperor, cried earnestly, "that the letters were
+counterfeit; and, against the consent of the Prince, the doom of his
+family was pursued:" so that nothing tragical was that day transacted.
+There were also dispersed amongst them several speeches, said to have
+been uttered in Senate by the Consulars, as their motions and advices
+against Sejanus; but all framed, and with the more petulance as the
+several authors exercised their satirical wit in the dark. Hence Sejanus
+boiled with greater rage, and hence had a handle for branding the
+Senate, "that by them the anguish and resentments of the Prince were
+despised: the people were revolted; popular and disaffected harangues
+were publicly read and listened to: new and arbitrary acts of Senate
+were passed and published: what more remained, but to arm the populace
+and place at their head, as leaders and Imperial commanders, those whose
+images they had already chosen for standards?"
+
+Tiberius having therefore repeated his reproaches against his grandson
+and daughter-in-law: having chastised the people by an edict, and
+complained to the Senate, "that by the fraud of a single Senator the
+Imperial dignity should be battled and insulted, required that the whole
+affair should be left to himself, entire and untouched." The Senate
+hesitated no longer, but instantly proceeded, not now in truth to
+decree penalties and capital vengeance; for that was forbid them; but to
+testify "how ready they were to inflict just punishments, and that they
+were only interrupted by the power and pleasure of the Prince."...
+
+[_Here begins a lamentable chasm in this "Annal" for almost three years;
+and by it we have lost the detail of the most remarkable incidents in
+this reign, the exile of Agrippina into the Isle of Pandataria; of
+Nero, into that of Pontia; and the murder of both there by the orders of
+Tiberius: the conspiracy and execution of Sejanus, with that of all
+his friends and dependents: the further wickedness of Livia, and her
+death._]
+
+Now though the rage of the populace was expiring, and though most men
+were mollified by former executions; it was determined to condemn the
+other children of Sejanus. They were therefore carried both to prison,
+the boy sensible of his impending doom; but the girl so ignorant, that
+she frequently asked; "For what offence? and whither did they drag her?
+she would do so no more; and they might take the rod and whip her."
+The writers of that time relate, "that as it was a thing unheard, for
+a virgin to suffer capital punishment, she was deflowered by the
+executioner just before he tied the rope; and that being both strangled,
+the tender bodies of these children were cast into the place where the
+carcasses of malefactors are exposed, before they are flung into the
+Tiber."...
+
+
+
+
+BOOK VI
+
+A.D. 32-37.
+
+
+Cneius Domitius and Camillus Scribonianus had begun their Consulship,
+when the Emperor, having crossed the channel between Capreae [Footnote:
+Capri.] and Surrentum, [Footnote: Sorrento.] sailed along the shore
+of Campania; unresolved whether he should proceed to Rome; or
+counterfeiting a show of coming, because he had determined not to come.
+He often approached to the neighbourhood of the city, and even visited
+the gardens upon the Tiber; but at last resumed his old retirement,
+the gloomy rocks and solitude of the sea, ashamed of his cruelties, and
+abominable lusts; in which he rioted so outrageously, that after the
+fashion of royal tyrants, the children of ingenuous parentage became the
+objects of his pollution: nor in them was he struck with a lovely face
+only, or the graces of their persons; but in some their amiable and
+childish innocence, in others their nobility and the glory of their
+ancestors, became the provocatives of his unnatural passion. Then
+likewise were devised the filthy names, till then unknown, of the
+_Sellarii_ and _Spintriae_, expressing the odious lewdness of the place,
+and the manifold postures and methods of prostitution practised in it.
+For supplying his lust with these innocent victims, he entertained, in
+his service professed procurers, to look them out and carry them off.
+The willing they encouraged with presents, the backward they terrified
+with threats; and upon such parents or kindred as withheld the infants,
+they exercised force, seizure, and, as upon so many captives, every
+species of licentious rage.
+
+At Rome in the beginning of the year, as if the iniquities of Livia
+had been but just discovered, and not even long since punished, furious
+orders were passed against her statues too, and memory; with another,
+"that the effects of Sejanus should be taken from the public treasury,
+and placed in that of the Emperor:" as if this vain translation could
+any wise avail the State. And yet such was the motion of these great
+names, the Scipios, the Silani, and the Cassii; who urged it, each
+almost in the same words, but all with mighty zeal and earnestness: when
+all on a sudden, Togonius Gallus, while he would be thrusting his own
+meanness amongst names so greatly illustrious, became the object of
+derision: for he besought the Prince "to choose a body of Senators
+of whom twenty, drawn by lot and under arms, should wait upon him and
+defend his person, as often as he entered the Senate." He had been weak
+enough to credit a letter from the Emperor, requiring "the guard and
+protection of one of the Consuls, that he might return in safety from
+Capreae to Rome." Tiberius however returned thanks to the Senate for
+such an instance of affection; but as he was wont to mix pleasantry with
+things serious, he asked, "How was it to be executed? what Senators were
+to be chosen? who to be omitted? whether always the same, or a continued
+succession? whether young Senators, or such as had borne dignities?
+whether those who were Magistrates, or those exercising no magistracy?
+moreover what a becoming figure they would make, grave Senators, men of
+the gown, under arms at the entrance of the Senate! in truth he held not
+his life of such importance, to have it thus protected by arms." So much
+in answer to Togonius, without asperity of words; nor did he farther,
+than this, press them to cancel the motion.
+
+But Junius Gallio escaped not thus. He had proposed "that the Praetorian
+soldiers, having accomplished their term of service, should thence
+acquire the privilege of sitting in the fourteen rows of the theatre
+allotted to the Roman knights." Upon him Tiberius fell with violent
+wrath, and, as if present, demanded, what business had he with the
+soldiers? men whose duty bound them to observe only the orders of the
+Emperor, and from the Emperor alone to receive their rewards. Gallio had
+forsooth discovered a recompense which had escaped the sagacity of the
+deified Augustus? Or was it not rather a project started by a mercenary
+of Sejanus, to raise sedition and discord; a project tending to debauch
+the rude minds of the soldiers with the show and bait of new honour; to
+corrupt their discipline, and set them loose from military restrictions?
+This reward, had the studied flattery of Gallio; who was instantly
+expelled the Senate, and then Italy: nay, it became a charge upon him,
+that his exile would be too easy, having for the place of it chosen
+Lesbos, an island noble and delightful; he was therefore haled back to
+Rome and confined a prisoner in the house of a Magistrate. Tiberius
+in the same letter demanded the doom of Sextus Paconianus, formerly
+Praetor, to the extreme joy of the Senate, as he was a man bold and
+mischievous, one armed with snares, and continually diving into the
+purposes and secret transactions of all men; and one chosen by Sejanus,
+for plotting the overthrow of Caligula. When this was now laid open,
+the general hate and animosities long since conceived against him, broke
+violently out, and had he not offered to make a discovery, he had been
+instantly condemned to death.
+
+The next impeached was Cotta Messalinus, the author of every the
+most bloody counsel, and thence long and intensely hated. The first
+opportunity was therefore snatched to fall upon him with a combination
+of crimes; as that he had called Caius Caligula by the feminine name of
+_Caia Caligula_, and branded him with constuprations of both kinds; that
+when he celebrated among the Priests the birthday of Augusta, he had
+styled the entertainment a _funeral supper_; and that complaining of the
+great sway of Marcus Lepidus, and of Lucius Arruntius, with whom he had
+a suit about money, he had added; "they indeed will be supported by the
+Senate, but I by my little Tiberius." [Footnote: Tiberiolus meus.] Of
+all this he stood exposed to conviction by men of the first rank in
+Rome; who being earnest to attack him, he appealed to Caesar: from whom
+soon after a letter was brought in behalf of Cotta; in it he recounted
+"the beginning of their friendship," repeated "his many good services
+to himself," and desired "that words perversely construed, and humorous
+tales told at an entertainment, might not be wrested into crimes."
+
+Most remarkable was the beginning of that letter; for in these words he
+introduced it: "What to write you, Conscript Fathers, or in what
+manner to write, or what at all not to write at this instant; if I can
+determine, may all the Deities, Gods and Goddesses, doom me still
+to more cruel agonies than those under which I feel myself perishing
+daily." So closely did the bloody horror of his cruelties and infamy
+haunt this man of blood, and became his torturers! Nor was it at random
+what the wisest of all men [Footnote: Socrates.] was wont to affirm,
+that if the hearts of tyrants were displayed, in them might be seen
+deadly wounds and gorings, and all the butcheries of fear and rage;
+seeing what the severity of stripes is to the body, the same to the
+soul is the bitter anguish of cruelty, lust, and execrable pursuits.
+To Tiberius not his imperial fortune, not his gloomy and inaccessible
+solitudes could ensure tranquillity; nor exempt him from feeling and
+even avowing the rack in his breast and the avenging furies that pursued
+him.
+
+After this, it was left to the discretion of the Senate to proceed as
+they listed against Caecilianus the Senator, "who had loaded Cotta with
+many imputations;" and it was resolved, "to subject him to the same
+penalties inflicted upon Aruseius and Sanquinius, the accusers of
+Lucius Annuntius." A more signal instance of honour than this had never
+befallen Cotta; who noble in truth, but through luxury indigent, and,
+for the baseness of his crimes, detestable, was by the dignity of
+this amends equalled in character to the most venerable reputation and
+virtues of Arruntius.
+
+About the same time died Lucius Piso, the Pontiff; and, by a felicity,
+then rare in so much splendour and elevation, died by the course of
+nature. The author he never himself was of any servile motion, and ever
+wise in moderating such motions from others, where necessity enforced
+his assent. That his father had sustained the sublime office of Censor,
+I have before remembered: he himself lived to fourscore years, and for
+his warlike feats in Thrace, had obtained the glory of triumph. But from
+hence arose his most distinguished glory, that being created Governor
+of Rome, a jurisdiction newly instituted, and the more difficult, as
+not yet settled into public reverence, he tempered it wonderfully and
+possessed it long.
+
+For, of old, to supply the absence of the Kings, and afterwards of the
+Consuls, that the city might not remain without a ruler, a temporary
+Magistrate was appointed to administer justice, and watch over
+exigencies: and it is said that by Romulus was deputed Denter Romulius;
+Numa Marcius, by Tullus Hostilius; and by Tarquin the Proud, Spurius
+Lucretius. The same delegation was made by the Consuls; and there
+remains still a shadow of the old institution, when during the Latin
+festival, one is authorised to discharge the Consular function.
+Moreover, Augustus during the Civil Wars, committed to Cilnius Maecenas
+of the Equestrian Order, the Government of Rome and of all Italy.
+Afterwards, when sole master of the Empire, and moved by the immense
+multitude of people and the slowness of relief from the laws, he chose
+a Consular to bridle the licentiousness of the slaves, and to awe such
+turbulent citizens as are only quiet from the dread of chastisement.
+Messala Corvinus was the first invested with this authority, and in a
+few days dismissed, as a man insufficient to discharge it. It was then
+filled by Taurus Statilius, who, though very ancient, sustained it with
+signal honour. After him Piso held it for twenty years, with a credit so
+high and uninterrupted, that he was distinguished with a public funeral,
+by decree of the Senate.
+
+A motion was thereafter made in Senate by Quinctilianus, Tribune of the
+People, concerning a Book of the Sibyl, which Caninius Gallus, one
+of the College of Fifteen, had prayed "might be received by a decree
+amongst the rest of that Prophetess." The decree passed without
+opposition, but was followed by letters from Tiberius. In them having
+gently chid the Tribune, "as young and therefore unskilled in the
+ancient usages," he upbraided Gallus, "that he who was so long practised
+in the science of sacred ceremonies, should without taking the opinion
+of his own college, without the usual reading and deliberation with
+the other Priests, deal, by surprise, with a thin Senate, to admit a
+prophetic book of an uncertain author." He also advertised them "of
+the conduct of Augustus, who, to suppress the multitude of fictious
+predictions everywhere published under the solemn name of the Sibyl, had
+ordained, that within a precise day, they should be carried to the City
+Praetor; and made it unlawful to keep them in private hands." The same
+had likewise been decreed by our ancestors, when after the burning of
+the capitol in the Social War, the Rhymes of the Sibyl (whether there
+were but one, or more) were everywhere sought, in Samos, Ilium, and
+Erythrae, through Africa too and Sicily and all the Roman colonies, with
+injunctions to the Priests, that, as far as human wit could enable them,
+they would separate the genuine. Therefore, upon this occasion also, the
+book was subjected to the inspection of the Quindecimvirate.
+
+Under the same Consuls, the dearth of corn had nigh raised a sedition.
+The populace for many days urged their wants and demands in the public
+theatre, with a licentiousness towards the Emperor, higher than usual.
+He was alarmed with this bold spirit, and censured the Magistrates and
+Senate, "that they had not by the public authority quelled the people."
+He recounted "the continued supplies of grain which he had caused to be
+imported; from what provinces, and in how much greater abundance than
+those procured by Augustus." So that for correcting the populace,
+a decree passed framed in the strain of ancient severity: nor less
+vigorous was the edict published by the Consuls. His own silence, which
+he hoped would be taken by the people as an instance of moderation, was
+by them imputed to his pride.
+
+In the meanwhile, the whole band of accusers broke loose upon those who
+augmented their wealth by usury, in contradiction to a law of Caesar
+the Dictator, "for ascertaining the terms of lending money, and holding
+mortgages in Italy;" a law waxed long since obsolete, through the
+selfish passions of men, sacrificing public good to private gain. Usury
+was, in truth, an inveterate evil in Rome, and the eternal cause of
+civil discord and seditions, and therefore restrained even in ancient
+times, while the public manners were not yet greatly corrupted. For,
+first it was ordained by a law of the twelve tables, "that no man should
+take higher interest than twelve in the hundred;" when, before, it was
+exacted at the pleasure of the rich. Afterwards by a regulation of the
+Tribunes it was reduced to six, and at last was quite abolished. By the
+people, too, repeated statutes were made, for obviating all elusions,
+which by whatever frequent expedients repressed, were yet through
+wonderful devices still springing up afresh. Gracchus the Praetor was
+therefore now appointed to inquire into the complaints and allegations
+of the accusers; but, appalled with the multitude of those threatened
+by the accusation, he had recourse to the Senate. The Fathers also were
+dismayed (for of this fault not a soul was guiltless) and sought and
+obtained impunity from the Prince; and a year and six months were
+granted for balancing all accounts between debtors and creditors,
+agreeably to the direction of the law.
+
+Hence a great scarcity of money: for, besides that all debts were at
+once called in; so many delinquents were condemned, that by the sale of
+their effects, the current coin was swallowed up in the public treasury,
+or in that of the Emperor. Against this stagnation, the Senate had
+provided, "that two-thirds of the debts should by every creditor be
+laid out upon lands in Italy." But the creditors warned in the whole;
+[Footnote: Demanded payment in full.] nor could the debtors without
+breach of faith divide the payment. So that at first, meetings and
+entreaties were tried; and at last it was contested before the Praetor.
+And the project applied as a remedy; namely, that the debtor should
+sell, and the creditor buy, had a contrary operation: for the usurers
+hoarded up all their treasure for purchasing of lands, and the plenty
+of estates to be sold, miserably sinking the price; the more men were
+indebted, the more difficult they found it to sell. Many were utterly
+stripped of their fortunes; and the ruin of their private patrimony drew
+headlong with it that of their reputation and all public preferment.
+The destruction was going on, when the Emperor administered relief, by
+lending a hundred thousand great sesterces [Footnote: About L830,000.]
+for three years, without interest; provided each borrower pawned to the
+people double the value in inheritance. [Footnote: Gave a security to
+the State, on landed property.] Thus was credit restored; and by degrees
+private lenders too were found.
+
+About the same time, Claudia, daughter to Marcus Silanus, was given in
+marriage to Caligula, who had accompanied his grandfather to Capreae,
+having always hid under a subdolous guise of modesty, his savage and
+inhuman spirit: even upon the condemnation of his mother, even for the
+exile of his brothers, not a word escaped him, not a sigh, nor groan.
+So blindly observant of Tiberius, that he studied the bent of his temper
+and seemed to possess it; practised his looks, imitated the change and
+fashion of his dress, and affected his words and manner of expression.
+Hence the observation of Passienus the Orator, grew afterwards famous,
+"that never lived a better slave nor a worse master." Neither would I
+omit the presage of Tiberius concerning Galba, then Consul. Having sent
+for him and sifted him upon several subjects, he at last told him in
+Greek, "and thou, Galba, shalt hereafter taste of Empire;" signifying
+his late and short sovereignty. This he uttered from his skill in
+astrology, which at Rhodes he had leisure to learn; and Thrasullus for
+his teacher, whose capacity he proved by this following trial.
+
+As often as he consulted this way concerning any affair, he retired to
+the roof of the house, attended by one freedman trusted with the secret.
+This man strong of body, but destitute of letters, guided along the
+astrologer, whose art Tiberius meant to try, over solitary precipices
+(for upon a rock the house stood) and, as he returned, if any suspicion
+arose that his predictions were vain, or that the author designed fraud,
+cast him headlong into the sea, to prevent his making discoveries.
+Thrasullus being therefore led over the same rocks, and minutely
+consulted, his answers were full, and struck Tiberius; as approaching
+Empire and many future revolutions were specifically foretold him. The
+artist was then questioned, "whether he had calculated his own nativity,
+and thence presaged what was to befall him that same year, nay,
+that very day?" Thrasullus surveying the positions of the stars, and
+calculating their aspects, began at first to hesitate, then to quake,
+and the more he meditated, being more and more dismayed with wonder
+and dread, he at last cried out, "that over him just then hung a
+boding danger and well-nigh fatal." Forthwith Tiberius embraced him,
+congratulated him "upon his foresight of perils, and his security
+from them;" and esteeming his predictions as so many oracles, held him
+thenceforward in the rank of his most intimate friends.
+
+For myself, while I listen to these and the like relations, my judgment
+wavers, whether things human are in their course and rotation determined
+by Fate and immutable necessity, or left to roll at random. For upon
+this subject the wisest of the ancients and those addicted to their
+Sects, are of opposite sentiments. [Footnote: The Epicureans.] Many are
+of opinion "that to the Gods neither the generation of us men nor our
+death, and in truth neither men nor the actions of men, are of any
+importance or concernment: and thence such numberless calamities afflict
+the upright, while pleasure and prosperity surround the wicked." Others
+[Footnote: The Stoics.] hold the contrary position, and believe "a Fate
+to preside over events; a fate however not resulting from wandering
+stars, but coeval with the first principles of things, and operating by
+the continued connection of natural causes. Yet their philosophy leaves
+our course of life in our own free option; but that after the choice is
+made, the chain of consequences is inevitable: neither is that good or
+evil, which passes for such in the estimation of the vulgar: many, who
+seem wounded with adversity, are yet happy; numbers, that wallow
+in wealth, are yet most wretched: since the first often bear with
+magnanimity the blows of fortune; and the latter abuse her bounty in
+baneful pursuits." For the rest, it is common to multitudes of men "to
+have each their whole future fortunes determined from the moment of
+their birth: or if some events thwart the prediction, it is through the
+mistakes of such as pronounce at random, and thence debase the credit
+of an art, which, both in ages past and our own, hath given signal
+instances of its certainty." For, to avoid lengthening this digression,
+I shall remember in its order, how by the son of this same Thrasullus
+the Empire was predicted to Nero.
+
+During the same Consulship flew abroad the death of Asinius Gallus: that
+he perished through famine was undoubted; but whether of his own accord,
+or by constraint, was held uncertain. The pleasure of the Emperor
+being consulted, "whether he would suffer him to be buried;" he was
+not ashamed to grant such a piece of mock mercy, nor even to blame the
+anticipations of casualty, which had withdrawn the criminal, before he
+was publicly convicted: as if during three intermediate years between
+his accusation and his death, there wanted time for the trial of an
+ancient Consular, and the father of so many Consulars. Next perished
+Drusus, condemned by his grandfather to be starved; but by gnawing the
+weeds upon which he lay, he by that miserable nourishment protracted
+life the space of nine days. Some authors relate that, in case Sejanus
+had resisted and taken arms, Macro had instructions to draw the young
+man out of confinement (for he was kept in the palace) and set him
+at the head of the people: afterwards because a report ran, "that the
+Emperor was about to be reconciled to his daughter-in-law and grandson;"
+he chose rather to gratify himself by cruelty, than the public by
+relenting.
+
+Tiberius not satiated with the death of Drusus, even after death pursued
+him with cruel invectives, and, in a letter to the Senate, charged him
+with "a body foul with prostitution; with a spirit breathing destruction
+to his own family, and rage against the Republic;" and ordered to be
+recited "the minutes of his words and actions, which had been long and
+daily registered," A proceeding more black with horror could not
+be devised! That for so many years, there should be those expressly
+appointed, who were to note down his looks, his groans, his secret
+and extorted murmurs; that his grandfather should delight to hear the
+treacherous detail, to read it, and to the public expose it, would
+appear a series of fraud, meanness and amazement beyond all measure of
+faith, were it not for the letters of Actius the Centurion, and Didymus
+the Freedman; who in them declare, particularly, the names of the slaves
+set purposely to abuse and provoke Drusus, with the several parts they
+acted; how one struck him going out of his chamber, and how another
+filled him with terrors and dismay. The Centurion too repeated, as
+matter of glory, his own language to Drusus, language full of outrage
+and barbarity, with the words uttered by him under the agonies of
+famine; that, at first, feigning disorder of spirit, he vented, in the
+style of a madman, dismal denunciations against Tiberius; but after
+all hopes of life had forsaken him, then, in steady and deliberate
+imprecations, he invoked the direful vengeance of the Gods, "that as he
+had slaughtered his son's wife, slaughtered the son of his brother, and
+his son's sons, and with slaughters had filled his own house; so they
+would in justice to the ancestors of the slain, in justice to their
+posterity, doom him to the dreadful penalties of so many murders."
+The Senators, in truth, upon this raised a mighty din, under colour of
+detesting these imprecations: but it was dread which possessed them,
+and amazement, that he who had been once so dark in the practice of
+wickedness, and so subtle in the concealment of his bloody spirit, was
+arrived at such an utter insensibility of shame, that he could thus
+remove, as it were, the covert of the walls, and represent his own
+grandson under the ignominious chastisement of a Centurion, torn by the
+barbarous stripes of slaves, and imploring in vain the last sustenance
+of life.
+
+Before the impressions of this grief were worn away, the death of
+Agrippina was published. I suppose she had lived thus long upon the
+hopes, which from the execution of Sejanus she had conceived; but,
+feeling afterwards no relaxation of cruelty, death grew her choice:
+unless she were bereaved of nourishment, and her decease feigned to have
+been of her own seeking. For, Tiberius raged against her with abominable
+imputations, reproaching her "with lewdness; as the adulteress of
+Asinius Gallus; and that upon his death she became weary of life." But
+these were none of her crimes: Agrippina impatient of an equal lot,
+and eager for rule, had thence sacrificed to masculine ambition all the
+passions and vices of women. The Emperor added, "that she departed the
+same day on which Sejanus had suffered as a traitor two years before,
+and that the same ought to be perpetuated by a public memorial." Nay,
+he boasted of his clemency, in "that she had not been strangled, and her
+body cast into the charnel of malefactors." For this, as for an instance
+of mercy the Senate solemnly thanked him, and decreed "that, on the
+seventeenth of October, the day of both their deaths, a yearly offering
+should be consecrated to Jupiter for ever."
+
+Not long after, Cocceius Nerva, in full prosperity of fortune, in
+perfect vigour of body, formed a purpose of dying. As he was the
+incessant companion of the Prince, and accomplished in the knowledge
+of all laws divine and humane, Tiberius having learnt his design, was
+earnest to dissuade him, examined his motives, joined entreaties, and
+even declared, "how grievous to his own spirit it would prove, how
+grievous to his reputation, if the nearest of his friends should
+relinquish life, without any cause for dying." Nerva rejected his
+reasoning, and completed his purpose by abstinence. It was alleged, by
+such as knew his thoughts, that the more he saw into the dreadful source
+and increase of public miseries, the more transported with indignation
+and fear, he resolved to make an honest end, in the bloom of his
+integrity, e'er his life and credit were assaulted. Moreover the fall of
+Agrippina, by a reverse hardly credible, procured that of Plancina. She
+was formerly married to Cneius Piso; and, though she exulted publicly
+for the death of Germanicus, yet when Piso fell, she was protected
+by the solicitations of Augusta, nor less by the known animosity of
+Agrippina. But as favour and hate were now withdrawn, justice prevailed,
+and being questioned for crimes long since sufficiently manifest, she
+executed with her own hand that vengeance, which was rather too slow
+than too severe,
+
+In the Consulship of Paulus Fabius and Lucius Vitellius, after a long
+vicissitude of ages, the phoenix arrived in Egypt, and furnished the
+most learned of the natives and Greeks with matter of large and various
+observations concerning that miraculous bird. The circumstances in which
+they agree, with many others, that, however disputed, deserve to be
+known, claim a recital here. That it is a creature sacred to the sun,
+and in the fashion of its head, and diversity of feathers, distinct from
+other birds, all who have described its figure, are agreed; about the
+length of its life, relations vary. It is by the vulgar tradition
+fixed at five hundred years: but there are those, who extend it to one
+thousand four hundred and sixty-one; and assert that the three former
+phoenixes appeared in reigns greatly distant, the first under Sesostris,
+the next under Amasis; and that one was seen under Ptolomy the
+third King of Egypt of the Macedonian race, and flew to the city of
+Heliopolis, accompanied by a vast host of other birds gazing upon the
+wonderful stranger. But these are, in truth, the obscure accounts of
+antiquity: between Ptolomy and Tiberius the interval was shorter, not
+two hundred and fifty years: hence some have believed that the present
+was a spurious phoenix, and derived not its origin from the territories
+of Arabia, since it observed nothing of the instinct which ancient
+tradition attributes to the genuine: for that the latter having
+completed his course of years, just before his death builds a nest
+in his native land, and upon it sheds a generative power, from whence
+arises a young one, whose first care, when he is grown, is to bury his
+father: neither does he undertake it unadvisedly, but by collecting and
+fetching loads of myrrh, tries his strength in great journeys; and
+as soon as he finds himself equal to the burden, and fit for the long
+flight, he rears upon his back his father's body, carries it quite to
+the altar of the sun, and then flies away. These are uncertain tales,
+and their uncertainty heightened by fables; but that this bird has been
+sometimes seen in Egypt, is not questioned.
+
+The same year the city suffered the grievous calamity of fire, which
+burnt down that part of the Circus contiguous to Mount Aventine and the
+Mount itself: a loss which turned to the glory of the Prince, as he paid
+in money the value of the houses destroyed. A hundred thousand great
+sesterces [Footnote: About L830,000.] he expended in this bounty, which
+proved the more grateful to the people as he was ever sparing in private
+buildings: in truth, his public works never exceeded two, the Temple of
+Augustus and the scene [Footnote: The stage.] of Pompey's Theatre; nor,
+when he had finished both, did he dedicate either, whether obstructed
+by old age, or despising popularity. For ascertaining the damage of
+particulars, the four sons-in-law of Tiberius were appointed, Cneius
+Domitius, Cassius Longinus, Marcus Vincinus and Rubellius Blandus;
+assisted by Publius Petronius, nominated by the Consuls. To the Emperor
+likewise were decreed several honours, variously devised according to
+the different drift and genius of such as proposed them. Which of these
+he meant to accept, or which to reject, the approaching issue of his
+days, has buried in uncertainty. For not long after, Cneius Acerronius
+and Caius Pontius commenced Consuls; the last under Tiberius. The power
+of Macro was already excessive; who, as he had at no time neglected the
+favour of Caligula, courted it now more and more earnestly every day.
+After the death of Claudia, whom I have mentioned to have been espoused
+to the young Prince, he constrained Ennia his own wife to stimulate the
+affections of Caligula and to secure him by a promise of marriage.
+The truth is, he was one that denied nothing that opened his way to
+sovereignty; for although of a tempestuous genius, he had yet in the
+school of his grandfather, well acquired all the hollow guises of
+dissimulation.
+
+His spirit was known to the Emperor; hence he was puzzled about
+bequeathing the Empire: and first as to his grandsons; the son of Drusus
+was nearer in blood, and dearer in point of affection, but as yet a
+child; the son of Germanicus had arrived at the vigour of youth, and the
+zeal of the people followed him, a motive this to his grandfather,
+only to hate him. He had even debates with himself concerning Claudius,
+because of solid age and naturally inclined to honest pursuits; but
+the defect of his faculties withstood the choice. In case he sought
+a successor apart from his own family, he dreaded lest the memory of
+Augustus, lest the name of the Caesars should come to be scorned and
+insulted. For, it was not so much any study of his, to gratify the
+present generation and secure the Roman State, as to perpetuate to
+posterity the grandeur of his race. So that his mind still wavering and
+his strength decaying, to the decision of fortune he permitted a counsel
+to which he was now unequal. Yet he dropped certain words whence might
+be gathered that he foresaw the events and revolutions which were to
+come to pass after him: for, he upbraided Macro, by no dark riddle,
+"that he forsook the setting sun and courted the rising:" and of
+Caligula, who upon some occasional discourse ridiculed Sylla, he
+foretold, "that he would have all Sylla's vices, and not one of his
+virtues." Moreover, as he was, with many tears, embracing the younger of
+his grandsons, and perceived the countenance of Caligula implacable and
+provoked; "thou," said he, "wilt slay him, and another shall slay thee."
+But, however his illness prevailed, he relinquished nothing of his vile
+voluptuousness; forcing patience, and feigning health. He was wont too
+to ridicule the prescriptions of physicians, and all men who, after the
+age of thirty, needed to be informed by any one else, what helped or
+hurted their constitutions.
+
+At Rome, the while, were sown the sanguinary seeds of executions to be
+perpetrated even after Tiberius. Laelius Balbus had with high treason
+charged Acutia, some time the wife of Publius Vitellius; and, as the
+Senate were, after her condemnation, decreeing a reward to the accuser,
+the same was obstructed by the interposition of Junius Otho, Tribune of
+the People: hence their mutual hate, which ended in the exile of Otho.
+Thereafter Albucilla, who had been married to Satrius Secundus, him that
+revealed the conspiracy of Sejanus, and herself famous for many amours,
+was impeached of impious rites devised against the Prince. In the charge
+were involved, as her associates and adulterers, Cneius Domitius, Vibius
+Marsus, and Lucius Arruntius. The noble descent of Domitius I have above
+declared: Marsus too was distinguished by the ancient dignities in
+his house, and himself illustrious for learning. The minutes, however,
+transmitted to the Senate imported, "that in the examination of the
+witnesses, and torture of the slaves, Macro had presided:" neither came
+these minutes accompanied with any letter from the Emperor against the
+accused. Hence it was suspected, that, while he was ill, and perhaps
+without his privacy, the accusations were in great measure forged by
+Macro, in consequence of his notorious enmity to Arruntius.
+
+Domitius therefore by preparing for his defence, and Marsus by seeming
+determined to famish, both protracted their lives. Arruntius chose to
+die; and to the importunity of his friends, urging him to try delays and
+evasions, he answered, "that the same measures were not alike honourable
+to all men: his own life was abundantly long; nor had he wherewithal to
+reproach himself, save that he had submitted to bear thus far an old age
+loaded with anxieties, exposed to daily dangers, and the cruel sport
+of power; long hated as he was by Sejanus, now by Macro, always by
+some reigning minister; hated through no fault of his own, but as one
+irreconcilable to baseness and the iniquities of power. He might, in
+truth, outlive and avoid the few and last days of Tiberius: but how
+escape the youth of his heir? If upon Tiberius at such an age, and after
+such consummate experience, the violent spirit of unbridled dominion had
+wrought with such efficacy, as entirely to transport and change him;
+was it likely that Caligula, he who had scarce outgrown his childhood,
+a youth ignorant of all things, or nursed and principled in the worst,
+would follow a course more righteous under the guidance of Macro; the
+same Macro, who, for destroying Sejanus, was employed as the more wicked
+of the two, and had since by more mischiefs and cruelties torn and
+afflicted the Commonweal? For himself; he foresaw a servitude yet more
+vehement, and therefore withdrew at once from the agonies of past and of
+impending tyranny." Uttering these words, with the spirit of a prophet,
+he opened his veins. How wisely Arruntius anticipated death, the
+following times will terribly demonstrate. For Albucilla; she aimed at
+her own life, but the blow being impotent, she was by order of Senate
+dragged to execution in the prison. Against the ministers of her lusts
+it was decreed, "that Grasidius Sacerdos, formerly Praetor, should be
+exiled into an island; Pontius Fregellanus be degraded from the Senate;
+and that upon Laelius Balbus the same penalty be inflicted:" his
+punishment particularly proved matter of joy, as he was accounted a man
+of pestilent eloquence, and prompt to attack the innocent.
+
+About the same time, Sextus Papinius of a Consular family, chose on a
+sudden a frightful end, by a desperate and precipitate fall. The cause
+was ascribed to his mother, who, after many repulses, had by various
+allurements and the stimulations of sensuality, urged him to practices
+and embarrassments from whence, only by dying, he could devise an issue.
+She was therefore accused in the Senate; and, though in a prostrate
+posture she embraced the knees of the Fathers, and pleaded "the
+tenderness and grief of a mother, the imbecility of a woman's spirit
+under such an affecting calamity;" with other motives of pity in the
+same doleful strain; she was banished Rome for ten years, till her
+younger son were past the age of lubricity.
+
+As to Tiberius; already his body, already his spirits failed him; but
+his dissimulation failed him not. He exerted the same vigour of mind,
+the same energy in his looks and discourse; and even sometimes studied
+to be gay, by it to hide his declension however notorious. So that,
+after much shifting of places, he settled at the Promontory of Misenum,
+in a villa of which Lucullus was once Lord. There it was discovered that
+his end was at hand, by this device. In his train was a physician, his
+name Charicles, signal in his profession, one, in truth, not employed to
+govern the Prince's health, but wont however to afford his counsel and
+skill. Charicles, as if he were departing to attend his own affairs,
+under the appearance of paying duty and kissing his hands, touched his
+pulse. But the artifice beguiled not Tiberius; for he instantly ordered
+the entertainment to be served up; whether incensed, and thence the more
+smothering his wrath, is uncertain: but, at table he continued beyond
+his wont, as if he meant that honour only for a farewell to his friend.
+But for all this Charicles satisfied Macro, "that the flame of life was
+expiring, and could not outlast two days." Hence the whole court was
+filled with close consultations, and expresses were despatched to the
+generals and armies. On the 16th of March, so deep a swoon seized him,
+that he was believed to have paid the last debt of mortality:
+insomuch that Caligula, in the midst of a great throng, paying their
+congratulations, was already appearing abroad, to assume the first
+offices of sovereignty, when sudden notice came, "that Tiberius had
+recovered his sight and voice, and, to strengthen his fainting spirits,
+had called for some refreshment." Hence dread seized all, and the whole
+concourse about Caligula dispersed, every man resuming false sorrow, or
+feigning ignorance: he himself was struck speechless, and thus fallen
+from the highest hopes, waited for present death. Macro continued
+undismayed, and ordering the apartment to be cleared, caused the
+feeble old man to be smothered with a weight of coverings. Thus expired
+Tiberius in the seventy-eighth year of his age.
+
+He was the son of Nero, and on both sides a branch of the Claudian
+House; though his mother had been ingrafted by adoptions into the
+Livian, and next into the Julian stock. From his first infancy, his life
+was chequered by various turns and perils: for, then he followed, like
+an exile, his proscribed father; and when taken in quality of a step-son
+into the family of Augustus, he long struggled there with many potent
+rivals, during the lives of Marcellus and Agrippa; next of the young
+Caesars, Caius and Lucius. His brother Drusus too eclipsed him, and
+possessed more eminently the hearts of the Roman People. But above all,
+his marriage with Julia, most egregiously threatened and distressed
+him; whether he bore the prostitutions of his wife, or relinquished
+the daughter of Augustus. Upon his return thereafter from Rhodes, he
+occupied for twelve years the Prince's family, now bereft of heirs, and
+nigh four-and-twenty ruled the Roman State. His manners also varied with
+the several junctures of his fortune: he was well esteemed while yet
+a private man; and, in discharging public dignities under Augustus, of
+signal reputation: covert and subdolous in feigning virtue so long
+as Germanicus and Drusus survived: a mixed character of good and evil
+during the days of his mother: detestably cruel; but secret in his
+lewdness, while he loved or feared Sejanus: at last he abandoned
+himself, at once, to the rage of tyranny and the sway of his lusts: for,
+he had then conquered all the checks of shame and fear, and thenceforth
+followed only the bent of his own abominable spirit.
+
+
+
+
+A TREATISE OF THE SITUATION, CUSTOMS, AND PEOPLE OF GERMANY.
+
+
+The whole of Germany is thus bounded; separated from Gaul, from Rhoetia
+and Pannonia, by the rivers Rhine and Danube; from Sarmatia and Dacia by
+mutual fear, or by high mountains: the rest is encompassed by the ocean,
+which forms huge bays, and comprehends a tract of islands immense in
+extent: for we have lately known certain nations and kingdoms there,
+such as the war discovered. The Rhine rising in the Rhoetian Alps from a
+summit altogether rocky and perpendicular, after a small winding towards
+the west, is lost in the Northern Ocean. The Danube issues out of the
+mountain Abnoba, one very high but very easy of ascent, and traversing
+several nations, falls by six streams into the Euxine Sea; for its
+seventh channel is absorbed in the Fenns.
+
+The Germans, I am apt to believe, derive their original from no other
+people; and are nowise mixed with different nations arriving amongst
+them: since anciently those who went in search of new dwellings,
+travelled not by land, but were carried in fleets; and into that mighty
+ocean so boundless, and, as I may call it, so repugnant and forbidding,
+ships from our world rarely enter. Moreover, besides the dangers from
+a sea tempestuous, horrid and unknown, who would relinquish Asia, or
+Africa, or Italy, to repair to Germany, a region hideous and rude,
+under a rigorous climate, dismal to behold or to manure; [Footnote:
+To cultivate.] unless the same were his native country? In their old
+ballads (which amongst them are the only sort of registers and history)
+they celebrate _Tuisto_, a God sprung from the earth, and _Mannus_ his
+son, as the fathers and founders of the nation. To _Mannus_ they assign
+three sons, after whose names so many people are called; the Ingaevones,
+dwelling next the ocean; the Herminones, in the middle country; and all
+the rest, Istaevones. Some, borrowing a warrant from the darkness of
+antiquity, maintain that the God had more sons, that thence came
+more denominations of people, the Marsians, Cambrians, Suevians, and
+Vandalians, and that these are the names truly genuine and original. For
+the rest, they affirm Germany to be a recent word, lately bestowed: for
+that those who first passed the Rhine and expulsed the Gauls, and are
+now named Tungrians, were then called Germans: and thus by degrees
+the name of a tribe prevailed, not that of the nation; so that by an
+appellation at first occasioned by terror and conquest, they afterwards
+chose to be distinguished, and assuming a name lately invented were
+universally called _Germans_.
+
+They have a tradition that Hercules also had been in their country, and
+him above all other heroes they extol in their songs when they advance
+to battle. Amongst them too are found that kind of verses by the recital
+of which (by them called _Barding_) they inspire bravery; nay, by such
+chanting itself they divine the success of the approaching fight. For,
+according to the different din of the battle, they urge furiously, or
+shrink timorously. Nor does what they utter, so much seem to be singing
+as the voice and exertion of valour. They chiefly study a tone fierce
+and harsh, with a broken and unequal murmur, and therefore apply their
+shields to their mouths, whence the voice may by rebounding swell with
+greater fulness and force. Besides there are some of opinion, that
+Ulysses, whilst he wandered about in his long and fabulous voyages, was
+carried into this ocean and entered Germany, and that by him Asciburgium
+was founded and named, a city at this day standing and inhabited upon
+the bank of the Rhine: nay, that in the same place was formerly found an
+altar dedicated to Ulysses, with the name of his father Laertes added
+to his own, and that upon the confines of Germany and Rhoetia are still
+extant certain monuments and tombs inscribed with Greek characters.
+Traditions these which I mean not either to confirm with arguments of
+my own or to refute. Let every one believe or deny the same according to
+his own bent.
+
+For myself, I concur in opinion with such as suppose the people of
+Germany never to have mingled by inter-marriages with other nations, but
+to have remained a people pure, and independent, and resembling none but
+themselves. Hence amongst such a mighty multitude of men, the same make
+and form is found in all, eyes stern and blue, yellow hair, huge bodies,
+but vigorous only in the first onset. Of pains and labour they are not
+equally patient, nor can they at all endure thrift and heat. To bear
+hunger and cold they are hardened by their climate and soil.
+
+Their lands, however somewhat different in aspect, yet taken all
+together consist of gloomy forests or nasty marshes; lower and moister
+towards the confines of Gaul, more mountainous and windy towards Noricum
+and Pannonia; very apt to bear grain, but altogether unkindly to fruit
+trees; abounding in flocks and herds, but generally small of growth.
+Nor even in their oxen is found the usual stateliness, no more than the
+natural ornaments and grandeur of head. In the number of their herds
+they rejoice; and these are their only, these their most desirable
+riches. Silver and gold the Gods have denied them, whether in mercy or
+in wrath, I am unable to determine. Yet I would not venture to aver
+that in Germany no vein of gold or silver is produced; for who has
+ever searched? For the use and possession, it is certain they care not.
+Amongst them indeed are to be seen vessels of silver, such as have
+been presented to their Princes and Ambassadors, but holden in no other
+esteem than vessels made of earth. The Germans however adjoining to our
+frontiers value gold and silver for the purposes of commerce, and are
+wont to distinguish and prefer certain of our coins. They who live more
+remote are more primitive and simple in their dealings, and exchange
+one commodity for another. The money which they like is the old and long
+known, that indented, [Footnote: With milled edges.] or that impressed
+with a chariot and two horses. Silver too is what they seek more than
+gold, from no fondness or preference, but because small pieces are more
+ready in purchasing things cheap and common.
+
+Neither in truth do they abound in iron, as from the fashion of their
+weapons may be gathered. Swords they rarely use, or the larger spear.
+They carry javelins or, in their own language, _framms_, pointed with a
+piece of iron short and narrow, but so sharp and manageable, that with
+the same weapon they can fight at a distance or hand to hand, just as
+need requires. Nay, the horsemen also are content with a shield and a
+javelin. The foot throw likewise weapons missive, each particular
+is armed with many, and hurls them a mighty space, all naked or only
+wearing a light cassock. In their equipment they show no ostentation;
+only that their shields are diversified and adorned with curious
+colours. With coats of mail very few are furnished, and hardly upon any
+is seen a headpiece or helmet. Their horses are nowise signal either in
+fashion or in fleetness; nor taught to wheel and bound, according to the
+practice of the Romans: they only move them forward in a line, or turn
+them right about, with such compactness and equality that no one is ever
+behind the rest. To one who considers the whole it is manifest, that
+in their foot their principal strength lies, and therefore they fight
+intermixed with the horse: for such is their swiftness as to match
+and suit with the motions and engagements of the cavalry. So that the
+infantry are elected from amongst the most robust of their youth, and
+placed in front of the army. The number to be sent is also ascertained,
+out of every village _an hundred_, and by this very name they continue
+to be called at home, _those of the hundred band_: thus what was at
+first no more than a number, becomes thenceforth a title and distinction
+of honour. In arraying their army, they divide the whole into distinct
+battalions formed sharp in front. To recoil in battle, provided you
+return again to the attack, passes with them rather for policy than
+fear. Even when the combat is no more than doubtful, they bear away the
+bodies of their slain. The most glaring disgrace that can befall them,
+is to have quitted their shield; nor to one branded with such ignominy
+is it lawful to join in their sacrifices, or to enter into their
+assemblies; and many who had escaped in the day of battle, have hanged
+themselves to put an end to this their infamy.
+
+In the choice of kings they are determined by the splendour of their
+race, in that of generals by their bravery. Neither is the power of
+their kings unbounded or arbitrary: and their generals procure obedience
+not so much by the force of their authority as by that of their example,
+when they appear enterprising and brave, when they signalise themselves
+by courage and prowess; and if they surpass all in admiration and
+pre-eminence, if they surpass all at the head of an army. But to none
+else but the Priests is it allowed to exercise correction, or to inflict
+bonds or stripes. Nor when the Priests do this, is the same considered
+as a punishment, or arising from the orders of the general, but from the
+immediate command of the Deity, Him whom they believe to accompany them
+in war. They therefore carry with them when going to fight, certain
+images and figures taken out of their holy groves. What proves the
+principal incentive to their valour is, that it is not at random nor by
+the fortuitous conflux of men that their troops and pointed battalions
+are formed, but by the conjunction of whole families, and tribes of
+relations. Moreover, close to the field of battle are lodged all the
+nearest and most interesting pledges of nature. Hence they hear the
+doleful howlings of their wives, hence the cries of their tender
+infants. These are to each particular the witnesses whom he most
+reverences and dreads; these yield him the praise which affect him most.
+Their wounds and maims they carry to their mothers, or to their wives,
+neither are their mothers or wives shocked in telling, or in sucking
+their bleeding sores. [Footnote: Nec illae numerare aut exigere plagas
+pavent.] Nay, to their husbands and sons whilst engaged in battle, they
+administer meat and encouragement.
+
+In history we find, that some armies already yielding and ready to fly,
+have been by the women restored, through their inflexible importunity
+and entreaties, presenting their breasts, and showing their impending
+captivity; an evil to the Germans then by far most dreadful when it
+befalls their women. So that the spirit of such cities as amongst
+their hostages are enjoined to send their damsels of quality, is always
+engaged more effectually than that of others. They even believe them
+endowed with something celestial and the spirit of prophecy. Neither
+do they disdain to consult them, nor neglect the responses which they
+return. In the reign of the deified Vespasian, we have seen _Veleda_ for
+a long time, and by many nations, esteemed and adored as a divinity. In
+times past they likewise worshipped _Aurinia_ and several more, from
+no complaisance or effort of flattery, nor as Deities of their own
+creating.
+
+Of all the Gods, Mercury is he whom they worship most. To him on certain
+stated days it is lawful to offer even human victims. Hercules and Mars
+they appease with beasts usually allowed for sacrifice. Some of the
+Suevians make likewise immolations to _Isis_, Concerning the cause and
+original of this foreign sacrifice I have found small light; unless
+the figure of her image formed like a galley, show that such devotion
+arrived from abroad. For the rest, from the grandeur and majesty of
+beings celestial, they judge it altogether unsuitable to hold the Gods
+enclosed within walls, or to represent them under any human likeness.
+They consecrate whole woods and groves, and by the names of the Gods
+they call these recesses; divinities these, which only in contemplation
+and mental reverence they behold.
+
+To the use of lots and auguries, they are addicted beyond all other
+nations. Their method of divining by lots is exceeding simple. From a
+tree which bears fruit they cut a twig, and divide it into two small
+pieces. These they distinguish by so many several marks, and throw them
+at random and without order upon a white garment. Then the Priest of the
+community, if for the public the lots are consulted, or the father of
+a family if about a private concern, after he has solemnly invoked the
+Gods, with eyes lifted up to heaven, takes up every piece thrice, and
+having done thus forms a judgment according to the marks before made. If
+the chances have proved forbidding, they are no more consulted upon the
+same affair during the same day: even when they are inviting, yet, for
+confirmation, the faith of auguries too is tried. Yea, here also is the
+known practice of divining events from the voices and flight of birds.
+But to this nation it is peculiar, to learn presages and admonitions
+divine from horses also. These are nourished by the State in the same
+sacred woods and groves, all milk-white and employed in no earthly
+labour. These yoked in the holy chariot, are accompanied by the Priest
+and the King, or the Chief of the community, who both carefully observe
+his actions and neighing. Nor in any sort of augury is more faith and
+assurance reposed, not by the populace only, but even by the nobles,
+even by the Priests. These account themselves the ministers of the Gods,
+and the horses privy to his will. They have likewise another method of
+divination, whence to learn the issue of great and mighty wars. From the
+nation with whom they are at war they contrive, it avails not how, to
+gain a captive: him they engage in combat with one selected from amongst
+themselves, each armed after the manner of his country, and according
+as the victory falls to this or to the other, gather a presage of the
+whole.
+
+Affairs of smaller moment the chiefs determine: about matters of
+higher consequence the whole nation deliberates; yet in such sort,
+that whatever depends upon the pleasure and decision of the people, is
+examined and discussed by the chiefs. Where no accident or emergency
+intervenes, they assemble upon stated days, either when the moon
+changes, or is full: since they believe such seasons to be the most
+fortunate for beginning all transactions. Neither in reckoning of time
+do they count, like us, the number of days but that of nights. In this
+style their ordinances are framed, in this style their diets appointed;
+and with them the night seems to lead and govern the day. From their
+extensive liberty this evil and default flows, that they meet not at
+once, nor as men commanded and afraid to disobey; so that often the
+second day, nay often the third, is consumed through the slowness of the
+members in assembling. They sit down as they list, promiscuously, like a
+crowd, and all armed. It is by the Priests that silence is enjoined,
+and with the power of correction the Priests are then invested. Then the
+King or Chief is heard, as are others, each according to his precedence
+in age, or in nobility, or in warlike renown, or in eloquence; and the
+influence of every speaker proceeds rather from his ability to persuade
+than from any authority to command. If the proposition displease, they
+reject it by an inarticulate murmur: if it be pleasing, they brandish
+their javelins. The most honourable manner of signifying their assent,
+is to express their applause by the sound of their arms.
+
+In the assembly it is allowed to present accusations, and to prosecute
+capital offences. Punishments vary according to the quality of the
+crime. Traitors and deserters they hang upon trees. Cowards, and
+sluggards, and unnatural prostitutes they smother in mud and bogs under
+an heap of hurdles. Such diversity in their executions has this view,
+that in punishing of glaring iniquities, it behoves likewise to
+display them to sight: but effeminacy and pollution must be buried and
+concealed. In lighter transgressions too the penalty is measured by
+the fault, and the delinquents upon conviction are condemned to pay a
+certain number of horses or cattle. Part of this mulct accrues to the
+King or to the community, part to him whose wrongs are vindicated, or to
+his next kindred. In the same assemblies are also chosen their chiefs
+or rulers, such as administer justice in their villages and boroughs.
+To each of these are assigned an hundred persons chosen from amongst
+the populace, to accompany and assist him, men who help him at once with
+their authority and their counsel.
+
+Without being armed they transact nothing, whether of public or private
+concernment. But it is repugnant to their custom for any man to use
+arms, before the community has attested his capacity to wield them.
+Upon such testimonial, either one of the rulers, or his father, or
+some kinsman dignify the young man in the midst of the assembly, with
+a shield and javelin. This amongst them is the _manly robe_, this the
+first degree of honour conferred upon their youth. Before this they seem
+no more than part of a private family, but thenceforward part of the
+Commonweal. The princely dignity they confer even upon striplings, whose
+race is eminently noble, or whose fathers have done great and signal
+services to the State. For about the rest, who are more vigorous and
+long since tried, they crowd to attend: nor is it any shame to be seen
+amongst the followers of these. Nay, there are likewise degrees of
+followers, higher or lower, just as he whom they follow judges fit.
+Mighty too is the emulation amongst these followers, of each to be first
+in favour with his Prince; mighty also the emulation of the Princes,
+to excel in the number and valour of followers. This is their principal
+state, this their chief force, to be at all times surrounded with a huge
+band of chosen young men, for ornament and glory in peace, for security
+and defence in war. Nor is it amongst his own people only, but even from
+the neighbouring communities, that any of their Princes reaps so
+much renown and a name so great, when he surpasses in the number and
+magnanimity of his followers. For such are courted by Embassies, and
+distinguished with presents, and by the terror of their fame alone often
+dissipate wars.
+
+In the day of battle, it is scandalous to the Prince to be surpassed in
+feats of bravery, scandalous to his followers to fail in matching the
+bravery of the Prince. But it is infamy during life, and indelible
+reproach, to return alive from a battle where their Prince was slain.
+To preserve their Prince, to defend him, and to ascribe to his glory all
+their own valorous deeds, is the sum and most sacred part of their oath.
+The Princes fight for victory; for the Prince his followers fight. Many
+of the young nobility, when their own community comes to languish in
+its vigour by long peace and inactivity, betake themselves through
+impatience to other States which then prove to be in war. For,
+besides that this people cannot brook repose, besides that by perilous
+adventures they more quickly blazon their fame, they cannot otherwise
+than by violence and war support their huge train of retainers. For from
+the liberality of their Prince, they demand and enjoy that _war-horse_
+of theirs, with that _victorious javelin_ dyed in the blood of their
+enemies. In the place of pay, they are supplied with a daily table and
+repasts; though grossly prepared, yet very profuse. For maintaining such
+liberality and munificence, a fund is furnished by continual wars and
+plunder. Nor could you so easily persuade them to cultivate the ground,
+or to await the return of the seasons and produce of the year, as
+to provoke the foe and to risk wounds and death: since stupid and
+spiritless they account it, to acquire by their sweat what they can gain
+by their blood.
+
+Upon any recess from war, they do not much attend the chase. Much more
+of their time they pass in indolence, resigned to sleep and repasts.
+[Footnote: "Dediti somno, ciboque:" handed over to sloth and gluttony.]
+All the most brave, all the most warlike, apply to nothing at all;
+but to their wives, to the ancient men, and to every the most impotent
+domestic, trust all the care of their house, and of their lands and
+possessions. They themselves loiter. [Footnote: Are rude and lazy.] Such
+is the amazing diversity of their nature, that in the same men is
+found so much delight in sloth, with so much enmity to tranquillity and
+repose. The communities are wont, of their own accord and man by man,
+to bestow upon their Princes a certain number of beasts, or a certain
+portion of grain; a contribution which passes indeed for a mark of
+reverence and honour, but serves also to supply their necessities. They
+chiefly rejoice in the gifts which come from the bordering countries,
+such as are sent not only by particulars but in the name of the State;
+curious horses, splendid armour, rich harness, with collars of silver
+and gold. Now too they have learnt, what we have taught them, to receive
+money.
+
+That none of the several people in Germany live together in cities, is
+abundantly known; nay, that amongst them none of their dwellings are
+suffered to be contiguous. They inhabit apart and distinct, just as a
+fountain, or a field, or a wood happened to invite them to settle. They
+raise their villages in opposite rows, but not in our manner with the
+houses joined one to another. Every man has a vacant space quite round
+his own, whether for security against accidents from fire, or that they
+want the art of building. With them in truth, is unknown even the use of
+mortar and of tiles. In all their structures they employ materials
+quite gross and unhewn, void of fashion and comeliness. Some parts
+they besmear with an earth so pure and resplendent, that it resembles
+painting and colours. They are likewise wont to scoop caves deep in the
+ground, and over them to lay great heaps of dung. Thither they retire
+for shelter in the winter, and thither convey their grain: for by such
+close places they mollify the rigorous and excessive cold. Besides
+when at any time their enemy invades them, he can only ravage the
+open country, but either knows not such recesses as are invisible and
+subterraneous; or must suffer them to escape him, on this very account
+that he is uncertain where to find them.
+
+For their covering a mantle is what they all wear, fastened with a clasp
+or, for want of it, with a thorn. As far as this reaches not they
+are naked, and lie whole days before the fire. The most wealthy are
+distinguished with a vest, not one large and flowing like those of
+Sarmatians and Parthians, but girt close about them and expressing the
+proportion of every limb. They likewise wear the skins of savage beasts,
+a dress which those bordering upon the Rhine use without any fondness or
+delicacy, but about which such who live further in the country are more
+curious, as void of all apparel introduced by commerce. They choose
+certain wild beasts, and, having flayed them, diversify their hides with
+many spots, as also with the skins of monsters from the deep, such as
+are engendered in the distant ocean and in seas unknown. Neither does
+the dress of the women differ from that of the men, save that the
+women are orderly attired in linen embroidered with purple, and use no
+sleeves, so that all their arms are bare. The upper part of their breast
+is withal exposed. Yet the laws of matrimony are severely observed
+there; nor in the whole of their manners is ought more praiseworthy than
+this: for they are almost the only Barbarians contented with one wife,
+excepting a very few amongst them; men of dignity who marry divers
+wives, from no wantonness or lubricity, but courted for the lustre of
+their family into many alliances.
+
+To the husband, the wife tenders no dowry; but the husband, to the wife.
+The parents and relations attend and declare their approbation of the
+presents, not presents adapted to feminine pomp and delicacy, nor such
+as serve to deck the new married woman; but oxen and horse accoutred,
+and a shield, with a javelin and sword. By virtue of these gifts, she
+is espoused. She too on her part brings her husband some arms. This they
+esteem the highest tie, these the holy mysteries, and matrimonial Gods.
+That the woman may not suppose herself free from the considerations of
+fortitude and fighting, or exempt from the casualties of war, the very
+first solemnities of her wedding serve to warn her, that she comes to
+her husband as a partner in his hazards and fatigues, that she is to
+suffer alike with him, to adventure alike, during peace or during war.
+This the oxen joined in the same yoke plainly indicate, this the horse
+ready equipped, this the present of arms. 'Tis thus she must be content
+to live, thus to resign life. The arms which she then receives she must
+preserve inviolate, and to her sons restore the same, as presents worthy
+of them, such as their wives may again receive, and still resign to her
+grandchildren.
+
+They therefore live in a state of chastity well secured; corrupted by no
+seducing shows and public diversions, by no irritations from banqueting.
+Of learning and of any secret intercourse by letters, they are all
+equally ignorant, men and women. Amongst a people so numerous, adultery
+is exceeding rare; a crime instantly punished, and the punishment left
+to be inflicted by the husband. He, having cut off her hair, expells her
+from his house naked, in presence of her kindred, and pursues her with
+stripes throughout the village. For, to a woman who has prostituted her
+person, no pardon is ever granted. However beautiful she be, however
+young, however abounding in wealth, a husband she can never find. In
+truth, nobody turns vices into mirth there, nor is the practice of
+corrupting and of yielding to corruption, called the custom of the Age.
+Better still do those communities, in which none but virgins marry, and
+where to a single marriage all their views and inclinations are at once
+confined. Thus, as they have but one body and one life, they take
+but one husband, that beyond him they may have no thought, no further
+wishes, nor love him only as their husband but as their marriage.
+[Footnote: "Sed tamquam matrimonium ament."] To restrain generation and
+the increase of children, is esteemed an abominable sin, as also to kill
+infants newly born. And more powerful with them are good manners, than
+with other people are good laws.
+
+In all their houses the children are reared naked and nasty; and thus
+grow into those limbs, into that bulk, which with marvel we behold.
+They are all nourished with the milk of their own mothers, and never
+surrendered to handmaids and nurses. The lord you cannot discern from
+the slave, by any superior delicacy in rearing. Amongst the same cattle
+they promiscuously live, upon the same ground they without distinction
+lie, till at a proper age the free-born are parted from the rest, and
+their bravery recommend them to notice. Slow and late do the young men
+come to the use of women, and thus very long preserve the vigour of
+youth. Neither are the virgins hastened to wed. They must both have
+the same sprightly youth, the like stature, and marry when equal and
+able-bodied. Thus the robustness of the parents is inherited by the
+children. Children are holden in the same estimation with their mother's
+brother, as with their father. Some hold this tie of blood to be most
+inviolable and binding, and in receiving of hostages, such pledges are
+most considered and claimed, as they who at once possess affections
+the most unalienable, and the most diffuse interest in their family.
+To every man, however, his own children are heirs and successors: wills
+they make none: for want of children his next akin inherits; his own
+brothers, those of his father, or those of his mother. To ancient men,
+the more they abound in descendants, in relations and affinities, so
+much the more favour and reverence accrues. From being childless, no
+advantage nor estimation is derived.
+
+All the enmities of your house, whether of your father or of your
+kindred, you must necessarily adopt; as well as all their friendships.
+Neither are such enmities unappeasable and permanent: since even for
+so great a crime as homicide, compensation is made by a fixed number of
+sheep and cattle, and by it the whole family is pacified to content.
+A temper this, wholesome to the State; because to a free nation,
+animosities and faction are always more menacing and perilous. In social
+feasts, and deeds of hospitality, no nation upon earth was ever more
+liberal and abounding. To refuse admitting under your roof any man
+whatsoever, is held wicked and inhuman. Every man receives every
+comer, and treats him with repasts as large as his ability can possibly
+furnish. When the whole stock is consumed, he who had treated
+so hospitably guides and accompanies his guest to a new scene of
+hospitality; and both proceed to the next house, though neither of them
+invited. Nor avails it, that they were not: they are there received,
+with the same frankness and humanity. Between a stranger and an
+acquaintance, in dispensing the rules and benefits of hospitality, no
+difference is made. Upon your departure, if you ask anything, it is
+the custom to grant it; and with the same facility, they ask of you. In
+gifts they delight, but neither claim merit from what they give, nor own
+any obligation for what they receive. Their manner of entertaining their
+guests is familiar and kind.
+
+The moment they rise from sleep, which they generally prolong till late
+in the day, they bathe, most frequently in warm water; as in a country
+where the winter is very long and severe. From bathing, they sit down to
+meat; every man apart, upon a particular seat, and at a separate table.
+They then proceed to their affairs, all in arms; as in arms, they
+no less frequently go to banquet. To continue drinking night and day
+without intermission, is a reproach to no man. Frequent then are their
+broils, as usual amongst men intoxicated with liquor; and such broils
+rarely terminate in angry words, but for the most part in maimings and
+slaughter. Moreover in these their feasts, they generally deliberate
+about reconciling parties at enmity, about forming affinities, choosing
+of Princes, and finally about peace and war. For they judge, that at no
+season is the soul more open to thoughts that are artless and upright,
+or more fired with such as are great and bold. This people, of
+themselves nowise subtile or politic, from the freedom of the place
+and occasion acquire still more frankness to disclose the most secret
+motions and purposes of their hearts. When therefore the minds of all
+have been once laid open and declared, on the day following the several
+sentiments are revised and canvassed; and to both conjectures of time,
+due regard is had. They consult, when they know not how to dissemble;
+they determine, when they cannot mistake.
+
+For their drink, they draw a liquor from barley or other grain; and
+ferment the same, so as to make it resemble wine. Nay, they who dwell
+upon the bank of the Rhine deal in wine. Their food is very simple; wild
+fruit, fresh venison, or coagulated milk. They banish hunger without
+formality, without curious dressing and curious fare. In extinguishing
+thirst, they use not equal temperance. If you will but humour their
+excess in drinking, and supply them with as much as they covet, it will
+be no less easy to vanquish them by vices than by arms.
+
+Of public diversions they have but one sort, and in all their meetings
+the same is still exhibited. Young men, such, as make it their pastime,
+fling themselves naked and dance amongst sharp swords and the deadly
+points of javelins. From habit they acquire their skill, and from their
+skill a graceful manner; yet from hence draw no gain or hire: though
+this adventurous gaiety has its reward, namely, that of pleasing the
+spectators. What is marvellous, playing at dice is one of their most
+serious employments; and even sober, they are gamesters: nay, so
+desperately do they venture upon the chance of winning or losing, that
+when their whole substance is played away, they stake their liberty and
+their persons upon one and the last throw. The loser goes calmly into
+voluntary bondage. However younger he be, however stronger, he tamely
+suffers himself to be bound and sold by the winner. Such is their
+perseverance in an evil course: they themselves call it honour.
+
+Slaves of this class, they exchange away in commerce, to free themselves
+too from the shame of such a victory. Of their other slaves they make
+not such use as we do of ours, by distributing amongst them the several
+offices and employments of the family. Each of them has a dwelling of
+his own, each a household to govern. His lord uses him like a tenant,
+and obliges him to pay a quantity of grain, or of cattle, or of cloth.
+Thus far only the subserviency of the slave extends. All the other
+duties in a family, not the slaves, but the wives and children
+discharge. To inflict stripes upon a slave, or to put him in chains, or
+to doom him to severe labour, are things rarely seen. To kill them they
+sometimes are wont, not through correction or government, but in heat
+and rage, as they would an enemy, save that no vengeance or penalty
+follows. The freedmen very little surpass the slaves, rarely are of
+moment in the house; in the community never, excepting only such nations
+where arbitrary dominion prevails. For there they bear higher sway
+than the free-born, nay, higher than the nobles. In other countries the
+inferior condition of freedmen is a proof of public liberty.
+
+To the practice of usury and of increasing money by interest, they are
+strangers; and hence is found a better guard against it, than if it
+were forbidden. They shift from land to land; and, still appropriating
+a portion suitable to the number of hands for manuring, anon parcel out
+the whole amongst particulars according to the condition and quality
+of each. As the plains are very spacious, the allotments are easily
+assigned. Every year they change, and cultivate a fresh soil; yet
+still there is ground to spare. For they strive not to bestow labour
+proportionable to the fertility and compass of their lands, by planting
+orchards, by enclosing meadows, by watering gardens. From the earth,
+corn only is exacted. Hence they quarter not the year into so many
+seasons. Winter, Spring, and Summer, they understand; and for each
+have proper appellations. Of the name and blessings of Autumn, they are
+equally ignorant.
+
+In performing their funerals, they show no state or vainglory. This only
+is carefully observed, that with the corpses of their signal men certain
+woods be burned. Upon the funeral pile they accumulate neither apparel
+nor perfumes. Into the fire, are always thrown the arms of the dead, and
+sometimes his horse. With sods of earth only the sepulchre is raised.
+The pomp of tedious and elaborate monuments they contemn, as things
+grievous to the deceased. Tears and wailings they soon dismiss: their
+affliction and woe they long retain. In women, it is reckoned becoming
+to bewail their loss; in men, to remember it. This is what in general
+we have learned, in the original and customs of the whole people of
+Germany. I shall now deduce the institutions and usages of the several
+people, as far as they vary one from another; as also an account of what
+nations from thence removed, to settle themselves in Gaul.
+
+That the Gauls were in times past more puissant and formidable, is
+related by the Prince of authors, the deified Julius; [Footnote:
+Julius Caesar.] and hence it is probable that they too have passed into
+Germany. For what a small obstacle must be a river, to restrain any
+nation, as each grew more potent, from seizing or changing habitations;
+when as yet all habitations were common, and not parted or appropriated
+by the founding and terror of Monarchies? The region therefore between
+the Hercynian Forest and the rivers Moenus [Footnote: Main.] and Rhine,
+was occupied by the Helvetians; as was that beyond it by the Boians,
+both nations of Gaul. There still remains a place called _Boiemum_,
+which denotes the primitive name and antiquity of the country, although
+the inhabitants have been changed. But whether the Araviscans are
+derived from the Osians, a nation of Germans passing into Pannonia, or
+the Osians from the Araviscans removing from thence into Germany, is
+a matter undecided; since they both still use the language, the same
+customs and the same laws. For, as of old they lived alike poor and
+alike free, equal proved the evils and advantages on each side the
+river, and common to both people. The Treverians and Nervians aspire
+passionately to the reputation of being descended from the Germans;
+since by the glory of this original, they would escape all imputation
+of resembling the Gauls in person and effeminacy. Such as dwell upon the
+bank of the Rhine, the Vangiones, the Tribocians, and the Nemetes, are
+without doubt all Germans. The Ubians are ashamed of their original;
+though they have a particular honour to boast, that of having merited
+an establishment as a Roman Colony, and still delight to be called
+_Agrippinensians_, after the name of their founder: they indeed formerly
+came from beyond the Rhine, and, for the many proofs of their fidelity,
+were settled upon the very bank of the river; not to be there confined
+or guarded themselves, but to guard and defend that boundary against the
+rest of the Germans.
+
+Of all these nations, the Batavians are the most signal in bravery. They
+inhabit not much territory upon the Rhine, but possess an island in it.
+They were formerly part of the Cattans, and by means of feuds at home
+removed to these dwellings; whence they might become a portion of the
+Roman Empire. With them this honour still remains, as also the memorials
+of their ancient association with us: for they are not under the
+contempt of paying tribute, nor subject to be squeezed by the farmers of
+the revenue. Free from all impositions and payments, and only set apart
+for the purposes of fighting, they are reserved wholly for the wars,
+in the same manner as a magazine of weapons and armour. Under the same
+degree of homage are the nation of the Mattiacians. For such is the
+might and greatness of the Roman People, as to have carried the awe and
+esteem of their Empire beyond the Rhine and the ancient boundaries. Thus
+the Mattiacians, living upon the opposite banks, enjoy a settlement and
+limits of their own; yet in spirit and inclination are attached to
+us: in other things resembling the Batavians, save that as they still
+breathe their original air, still possess their primitive soil, they are
+thence inspired with superior vigour and keenness. Amongst the people
+of Germany I would not reckon those who occupy the lands which are
+under decimation, though they be such as dwell beyond the Rhine and the
+Danube. By several worthless and vagabond Gauls, and such as poverty
+rendered daring, that region was seized as one belonging to no certain
+possessor: afterwards it became a skirt of the Empire and part of a
+province, upon the enlargement of our bounds and the extending of our
+garrisons and frontier.
+
+Beyond these are the Cattans, whose territories begin at the Hercynian
+Forest, and consist not of such wide and marshy plains, as those of
+the other communities contained within the vast compass of Germany; but
+produce ranges of hills, such as run lofty and contiguous for a long
+tract, then by degrees sink and decay. Moreover the Hercynian Forest
+attends for a while its native Cattans, then suddenly forsakes them.
+This people are distinguished with bodies more hardy and robust, compact
+limbs, stern countenances, and greater vigour of spirit. For Germans,
+they are men of much sense and address. [Footnote: "Leur intelligence
+et leur finesse etonnent, dans des Germains."] They dignify chosen men,
+listen to such as are set over them, know how to preserve their post,
+to discern occasions, to rebate their own ardour and impatience; how
+to employ the day, how to entrench themselves by night. They account
+fortune amongst things slippery and uncertain, but bravery amongst such
+as are never-failing and secure; and, what is exceeding rare nor ever to
+be learnt but by a wholesome course of discipline, in the conduct of
+the general they repose more assurance than in the strength of the
+army. Their whole forces consist of foot, who besides their arms carry
+likewise instruments of iron and their provisions. You may see other
+Germans proceed equipped to battle, but the Cattans so as to conduct a
+war. [Footnote: "Alios ad proelium ire videas, Chattos ad bellum."]
+They rarely venture upon excursions or casual encounters. It is in truth
+peculiar to cavalry, suddenly to conquer, or suddenly to fly. Such haste
+and velocity rather resembles fear. Patience and deliberation are more
+akin to intrepidity.
+
+Moreover a custom, practised indeed in other nations of Germany, yet
+very rarely and confined only to particulars more daring than the rest,
+prevails amongst the Cattans by universal consent. As soon as they
+arrive to maturity of years, they let their hair and beards continue to
+grow, nor till they have slain an enemy do they ever lay aside this form
+of countenance by vow sacred to valour. Over the blood and spoil of a
+foe they make bare their face. They allege, that they have now acquitted
+themselves of the debt and duty contracted by their birth, and rendered
+themselves worthy of their country, worthy of their parents. Upon the
+spiritless, cowardly and unwarlike, such deformity of visage still
+remains. [Footnote: "Manet squalor."] All the most brave likewise wear
+an iron ring (a mark of great dishonour this in that nation) and retain
+it as a chain; till by killing an enemy they become released. Many of
+the Cattans delight always to bear this terrible aspect; and, when grown
+white through age, become awful and conspicuous by such marks, both to
+the enemy and their own countrymen. By them in all engagements the first
+assault is made: of them the front of the battle is always composed,
+as men who in their looks are singular and tremendous. For even
+during peace they abate nothing in the grimness and horror of their
+countenance. They have no house to inhabit, no land to cultivate, nor
+any domestic charge or care. With whomsoever they come to sojourn,
+by him they are maintained; always very prodigal of the substance of
+others, always despising what is their own, till the feebleness of old
+age overtakes them, and renders them unequal to the efforts of such
+rigid bravery.
+
+Next to the Cattans, dwell the Usipians and Tencterians; upon the Rhine
+now running in a channel uniform and certain, such as suffices for a
+boundary. The Tencterians, besides their wonted glory in war, surpass in
+the service and discipline of their cavalry. Nor do the Cattans derive
+higher applause from their foot, than the Tencterians from their horse.
+Such was the order established by their forefathers, and what their
+posterity still pursue. From riding and exercising of horses, their
+children borrow their pastimes; in this exercise the young men find
+matter for emulating one another, and in this the old men take pleasure
+to persevere. Horses are by the father bequeathed as part of his
+household and family, horses are conveyed amongst the rights of
+succession, and as such the son receives them; but not the eldest son,
+like other effects, by priority of birth, but he who happens to be
+signal in boldness and superior in war.
+
+Contiguous to the Tencterians formerly dwelt the Bructerians, in whose
+room it is said the Chamavians and Angrivarians are now settled; they
+who expulsed and almost extirpated the Bructerians, with the concurrence
+of the neighbouring nations: whether in detestation of their arrogance,
+or allured by the love of spoil, or through the special favour of the
+Gods towards us Romans. They in truth even vouchsafed to gratify us with
+the sight of the battle. In it there fell above sixty thousand souls,
+without a blow struck by the Romans; but, what is a circumstance
+still more glorious, fell to furnish them with a spectacle of joy and
+recreation. May the Gods continue and perpetuate amongst these nations,
+if not any love for us, yet by all means this their animosity and hate
+towards each other: since whilst the destiny of the Empire thus urges
+it, fortune cannot more signally befriend us, than in sowing strife
+amongst our foes.
+
+The Angrivarians and Chamavians are enclosed behind, by the Dulgibinians
+and Chasuarians; and by other nations not so much noted: before, the
+Frisians face them. The country of Frisia is divided into two; called
+the greater and lesser, according to the measure of their strength. Both
+nations stretch along the Rhine, quite to the ocean; and surround
+vast lakes such as once have borne Roman fleets. We have moreover even
+ventured out from thence into the ocean, and upon its coasts common fame
+has reported the pillars of Hercules to be still standing: whether it be
+that Hercules ever visited these parts, or that to his renowned name we
+are wont to ascribe whatever is grand and glorious everywhere. Neither
+did Drusus who made the attempt, want boldness to pursue it: but the
+roughness of the ocean withstood him, nor would suffer discoveries to
+be made about itself, no more than about Hercules. Thenceforward the
+enterprise was dropped: nay, more pious and reverential it seemed, to
+believe the marvellous feats of the Gods than to know and to prove them.
+[Footnote: "Coelum ipsum petimus stultitia."]
+
+Hitherto, I have been describing Germany towards the west. To the
+northward, it winds away with an immense compass. And first of all
+occurs the nation of the Chaucians: who though they begin immediately
+at the confines of the Frisians, and occupy part of the shore, extend
+so far as to border upon all the several people whom I have already
+recounted; till at last, by a circuit, they reach quite to the
+boundaries of the Cattans. A region so vast, the Chaucians do not only
+possess but fill; a people of all the Germans the most noble, such as
+would rather maintain their grandeur by justice than violence. They live
+in repose, retired from broils abroad, void of avidity to possess more,
+free from a spirit of domineering over others. They provoke no wars,
+they ravage no countries, they pursue no plunder. Of their bravery and
+power, the chief evidence arises from hence, that, without wronging or
+oppressing others, they are come to be superior to all. Yet they are all
+ready to arm, and if an exigency require, armies are presently raised,
+powerful and abounding as they are in men and horses; and even when they
+are quiet and their weapons laid aside, their credit and name continue
+equally high.
+
+Along the side of the Chaucians and Cattans dwell the Cheruscans; a
+people who finding no enemy to rouse them, were enfeebled by a peace
+overlasting and uniform, but such as they failed not to nourish. A
+conduct which proved more pleasing than secure; since treacherous is
+that repose which you enjoy amongst neighbours that are very powerful
+and very fond of rule and mastership. When recourse is once had to the
+sword, modesty and fair dealing will be vainly pleaded by the weaker;
+names these which are always assumed by the stronger. Thus the
+Cheruscans, they who formerly bore the character of _good and upright_,
+are now called _cowards and fools_; and the fortune of the Cattans
+who subdued them, grew immediately to be wisdom. In the ruin of the
+Cheruscans, the Fosians, also their neighbours, were involved; and in
+their calamities bore an equal share, though in their prosperity they
+had been weaker and less considered.
+
+In the same winding tract of Germany live the Cimbrians, close to the
+ocean; a community now very small, but great in fame. Nay, of their
+ancient renown, many and extensive are the traces and monuments still
+remaining; even their entrenchments upon either shore, so vast in
+compass that from thence you may even now measure the greatness and
+numerous bands of that people, and assent to the account of an army so
+mighty. It was on the six hundred and fortieth year of Rome, when of the
+arms of the Cimbrians the first mention was made, during the Consulship
+of Caecilius Metellus and Papirius Carbo. If from that time we count to
+the second Consulship of the Emperor Trajan, the interval comprehends
+near two hundred and ten years; so long have we been conquering Germany.
+In a course of time, so vast between these two periods, many have been
+the blows and disasters suffered on each side. In truth neither from the
+Samnites, nor from the Carthaginians, nor from both Spains, nor from all
+the nations of Gaul, have we received more frequent checks and alarms;
+nor even from the Parthians: for, more vigorous and invincible is the
+liberty of the Germans than the monarchy of the Arsacides. Indeed, what
+has the power of the East to allege to our dishonour; but the fall of
+Crassus, that power which was itself overthrown and abased by Ventidius,
+with the loss of the great King Pacorus bereft of his life? But by the
+Germans the Roman People have been bereft of five armies, all commanded
+by Consuls; by the Germans, the commanders of these armies, Carbo, and
+Cassius, and Scaurus Aurelius, and Servilius Caepio, as also Marcus
+Manlius, were all routed or taken: by the Germans even the Emperor
+Augustus was bereft of Varus and three legions. Nor without difficulty
+and loss of men were they defeated by Caius Marius in Italy, or by the
+deified Julius in Gaul, or by Drusus or Tiberius or Germanicus in their
+native territories. Soon after, the mighty menaces of Caligula against
+them ended in mockery and derision. Thenceforward they continued quiet,
+till taking advantage of our domestic division and civil wars, they
+stormed and seized the winter entrenchments of the legions, and aimed at
+the dominion of Gaul; from whence they were once more expulsed, and in
+the times preceding the present, we gained a triumph over them rather
+than a victory.
+
+I must now proceed to speak of the Suevians, who are not, like the
+Cattans and Tencterians, comprehended in a single people; but divided
+into several nations all bearing distinct names, though, in general
+they are entitled Suevians, and occupy the larger share of Germany. This
+people are remarkable for a peculiar custom, that of twisting their hair
+and binding it up in a knot. It is thus the Suevians are distinguished
+from the other Germans, thus the free Suevians from their slaves. In
+other nations, whether from alliance of blood with the Suevians, or, as
+is usual, from imitation, this practice is also found, yet rarely, and
+never exceeds the years of youth. The Suevians, even when their hair is
+white through age, continue to raise it backwards in a manner stern and
+staring; and often tie it upon the top of their head only. That of their
+Princes, is more accurately disposed, and so far they study to appear
+agreeable and comely; but without any culpable intention. For by
+it, they mean not to make love or to incite it: they thus dress when
+proceeding to war, and deck their heads so as to add to their height and
+terror in the eyes of the enemy.
+
+Of all the Suevians, the Semnones recount themselves to be the most
+ancient and most noble. The belief of their antiquity is confirmed
+by religious mysteries. At a stated time of the year, all the several
+people descended from the same stock, assemble by their deputies in
+a wood; consecrated by the idolatries of their forefathers, and by
+superstitious awe in times of old. There by publicly sacrificing a man,
+they begin the horrible solemnity of their barbarous worship. To this
+grove another sort of reverence is also paid. No one enters it otherwise
+than bound with ligatures, thence professing his subordination and
+meanness, and the power of the Deity there. If he fall down, he is not
+permitted to rise or be raised, but grovels along upon the ground. And
+of all their superstition, this is the drift and tendency; that from
+this place the nation drew their original, that here God, the supreme
+Governor of the world, resides, and that all things else whatsoever
+are subject to him and bound to obey him. The potent condition of the
+Semnones has increased their influence and authority, as they inhabit an
+hundred towns; and from the largeness of their community it comes, that
+they hold themselves for the head of the Suevians.
+
+What on the contrary ennobles the Langobards is the smallness of their
+number, for that they, who are surrounded with very many and very
+powerful nations, derive their security from no obsequiousness or
+plying; but from the dint of battle and adventurous deeds. There follow
+in order the Reudignians, and Aviones, and Angles, and Varinians, and
+Eudoses, and Suardones and Nuithones; all defended by rivers or forests.
+Nor in one of these nations does aught remarkable occur, only that they
+universally join in the worship of _Herthum_; that is to say, the Mother
+Earth. Her they believe to interpose in the affairs of men, and to visit
+countries. In an island of the ocean stands the wood _Castum_; in it
+is a chariot dedicated to the Goddess, covered over with a curtain, and
+permitted to be touched by none but the Priest. Whenever the Goddess
+enters this her holy vehicle, he perceives her; and with profound
+veneration attends the motion of the chariot, which is always drawn by
+yoked cows. Then it is that days of rejoicing always ensue, and in all
+places whatsoever which she descends to honour with a visit and her
+company, feasts and recreation abound. They go not to war; they touch
+no arms; fast laid up is every hostile weapon; peace and repose are
+then only known, then only beloved, till to the temple the same priest
+reconducts the Goddess when well tired with the conversation of mortal
+beings. Anon the chariot is washed and purified in a secret lake, as
+also the curtains; nay, the Deity herself too, if you choose to believe
+it. In this office it is slaves who minister, and they are forthwith
+doomed to be swallowed up in the same lake. Hence all men are possessed
+with mysterious terror; as well as with a holy ignorance what that must
+be, which none see but such as are immediately to perish. Moreover this
+quarter of the Suevians stretches to the middle of Germany.
+
+The community next adjoining, is that of the Hermondurians; (that I may
+now follow the course of the Danube, as a little before I did that of
+the Rhine) a people this, faithful to the Romans. So that to them alone
+of all the Germans, commerce is permitted; not barely upon the bank of
+the Rhine, but more extensively, and even in that glorious colony in the
+province of Rhoetia. They travel everywhere at their own discretion and
+without a guard; and when to other nations, we show no more than our
+arms and encampments, to this people we throw open our houses and
+dwellings, as to men who have no longing to possess them. In the
+territories of the Hermondurians rises the Elbe, a river very famous and
+formerly well known to us; at present we only hear it named.
+
+Close by the Hermondurians reside the Nariscans, and next to them the
+Marcomanians and Quadians. Amongst these the Marcomanians are most
+signal in force and renown; nay, their habitation itself they acquired
+by their bravery, as from thence they formerly expulsed the Boians. Nor
+do the Nariscans or Quadians degenerate in spirit. Now this is as it
+were the frontier of Germany, as far as Germany is washed by the Danube.
+To the times within our memory the Marcomanians and Quadians were
+governed by kings, who were natives of their own, descended from the
+noble line of Maroboduus and Tudrus. At present they are even subject to
+such as are foreigners. But the whole strength and sway of their kings
+is derived from the authority of the Romans. From our arms, they rarely
+receive any aid; from our money very frequently.
+
+Nor less powerful are the several people beyond them; namely, the
+Marsignians, the Gothinians, the Osians and the Burians, who altogether
+enclose the Marcomanians and Quadians behind. Of those, the Marsignians
+and the Burians in speech and dress resemble the Suevians. From the
+Gallic language spoken by the Gothinians, and from that of Pannonia by
+the Osians, it is manifest that neither of these people are Germans; as
+it is also from their bearing to pay tribute. Upon them as upon aliens
+their tribute is imposed, partly by the Sarmatians, partly by the
+Quadians. The Gothinians, to heighten their disgrace, are forced to
+labour in the iron mines. By all these several nations but little level
+country is possessed: they are seated amongst forests, and upon
+the ridges and declivities of mountains. For, Suevia is parted by a
+continual ridge of mountains; beyond which, live many distinct nations.
+Of these the Lygians are most numerous and extensive, and spread into
+several communities. It will suffice to mention the most puissant; even
+the Arians, Helvicones, Manimians; Elysians and Naharvalians. Amongst
+the Naharvalians is shown a grove, sacred to devotion extremely ancient.
+Over it a Priest presides apparelled like a woman; but according to
+the explication of the Romans, 'tis _Castor_ and _Pollux_ who are here
+worshipped. This Divinity is named _Alcis_. There are indeed no images
+here, no traces of an extraneous superstition: yet their devotion is
+addressed to young men and to brothers. Now the Aryans, besides their
+forces, in which they surpass the several nations just recounted, are
+in their persons stern and truculent; and even humour and improve their
+natural grimness and ferocity by art and time. They wear black shields,
+their bodies are painted black, they choose dark nights for engaging in
+battle; and by the very awe and ghastly hue of their army, strike the
+enemy with dread, as none can bear this their aspect so surprising and
+as it were quite infernal. For, in all battles the eyes are vanquished
+first.
+
+Beyond the Lygians dwell the Gothones, under the rule of a King; and
+thence held in subjection somewhat stricter than the other German
+nations, yet not so strict as to extinguish all their liberty.
+Immediately adjoining are the Rugians and Lemovians upon the coast of
+the ocean, and of these several nations the characteristics are a round
+shield, a short sword and kingly government. Next occur the communities
+of the Suiones, situated in the ocean itself; and besides their strength
+in men and arms, very powerful at sea. The form of their vessels varies
+thus far from ours, that they have prows at each end, so as to be always
+ready to row to shore without turning; nor are they moved by sails, nor
+on their sides have benches of oars placed, but the rowers ply here and
+there in all parts of the ship alike, as in some rivers is done, and
+change their oars from place to place, just as they shift their course
+hither or thither. To wealth also, amongst them, great veneration is
+paid, and thence a single ruler governs them, without all restriction of
+power, and exacting unlimited obedience. Neither here, as amongst other
+nations of Germany, are arms used indifferently by all, but shut up and
+warded under the care of a particular keeper, who in truth too is always
+a slave: since from all sudden invasions and attacks from their foes,
+the ocean protects them: besides that armed bands, when they are not
+employed, grow easily debauched and tumultuous. The truth is, it suits
+not the interest of an arbitrary Prince, to trust the care and power of
+arms either with a nobleman or with a freeman, or indeed with any man
+above the condition of a slave.
+
+Beyond the Suiones is another sea, one very heavy and almost void
+of agitation; and by it the whole globe is thought to be bounded and
+environed, for that the reflection of the sun, after his setting,
+continues till his rising, so bright as to darken the stars. To this,
+popular opinion has added, that the tumult also of his emerging from
+the sea is heard, that forms divine are then seen, as likewise the rays
+about his head. Only thus far extend the limits of nature, if what fame
+says be true. Upon the right of the Suevian Sea the Aestyan nations
+reside, who use the same customs and attire with the Suevians; their
+language more resembles that of Britain. They worship the Mother of the
+Gods. As the characteristic of their national superstition, they wear
+the images of wild boars. This alone serves them for arms, this is the
+safeguard of all, and by this every worshipper of the Goddess is secured
+even amidst his foes. Rare amongst them is the use of weapons of iron,
+but frequent that of clubs. In producing of grain and the other fruits
+of the earth, they labour with more assiduity and patience than is
+suitable to the usual laziness of Germans. Nay, they even search the
+deep, and of all the rest are the only people who gather _amber_. They
+call it _glasing_, and find it amongst the shallows and upon the very
+shore. But, according to the ordinary incuriosity and ignorance of
+Barbarians, they have neither learnt, nor do they inquire, what is
+its nature, or from what cause it is produced. In truth it lay long
+neglected amongst the other gross discharges of the sea; till from our
+luxury, it gained a name and value. To themselves it is of no use: they
+gather it rough, they expose it in pieces coarse and unpolished, and for
+it receive a price with wonder. You would however conceive it to be a
+liquor issuing from trees, for that in the transparent substance are
+often seen birds and other animals, such as at first stuck in the soft
+gum, and by it, as it hardened, became quite enclosed. I am apt to
+believe that, as in the recesses of the East are found woods and groves
+dropping frankincense and balms, so in the isles and continent of the
+West such gums are extracted by the force and proximity of the sun; at
+first liquid and flowing into the next sea, then thrown by winds and
+waves upon the opposite shore. If you try the nature of amber by the
+application of fire, it kindles like a torch; and feeds a thick and
+unctuous flame very high scented, and presently becomes glutinous like
+pitch or rosin.
+
+Upon the Suiones, border the people Sitones; and, agreeing with them in
+all other things, differ from them in one, that here the sovereignty is
+exercised by a woman. So notoriously do they degenerate not only from
+a state of liberty, but even below a state of bondage. Here end the
+territories of the Suevians.
+
+Whether amongst the Sarmatians or the Germans I ought to account the
+Peucinians, the Venedians, and the Fennians, is what I cannot determine;
+though the Peucinians, whom some call Basstarnians, speak the same
+language with the Germans, use the same attire, build like them, and
+live like them, in that dirtiness and sloth so common to all.
+Somewhat they are corrupted into the fashion of the Sarmatians by the
+intermarriages of the principal sort with that nation: from whence
+the Venedians have derived very many of their customs and a great
+resemblance. For they are continually traversing and infesting with
+robberies all the forests and mountains lying between the Peucinians
+and Fennians. Yet they are rather reckoned amongst the Germans, for
+that they have fixed houses, and carry shields, and prefer travelling
+on foot, and excel in swiftness. Usages these, all widely differing from
+those of the Sarmatians, who live on horseback and dwell in waggons.
+In wonderful savageness live the nation of the Fennians, and in beastly
+poverty, destitute of arms, of horses, and of homes; their food, the
+common herbs; their apparel, skins; their bed, the earth; their only
+hope in their arrows, which for want of iron they point with bones.
+Their common support they have from the chase, women as well as men;
+for with these the former wander up and down, and crave a portion of
+the prey. Nor other shelter have they even for their babes, against the
+violence of tempests and ravening beasts, than to cover them with the
+branches of trees twisted together: this a reception for the old men,
+and hither resort the young. Such a condition they judge more happy than
+the painful occupation of cultivating the ground, than the labour of
+rearing houses, than the agitations of hope and fear attending the
+defence of their own property or the seizing that of others. Secure
+against the designs of men, secure against the malignity of the Gods,
+they have accomplished a thing of infinite difficulty; that to them
+nothing remains even to be wished.
+
+What further accounts we have are fabulous: as that the Hellusians and
+Oxiones have the countenances and aspect of men, with the bodies and
+limbs of savage beasts. This, as a thing about which I have no certain
+information, I shall leave untouched.
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE SITUATION, CLIMATE, AND
+PEOPLE OF BRITAIN.
+
+
+Amongst the Ancients, it was common to transmit to posterity the
+characters and exploits of memorable men: nor in truth in our own times
+has the Age, however indifferent about what concerns itself, failed to
+observe the like usage, whenever any spirit eminent for great and signal
+virtue has vanquished and triumphed over the blindness of such as cannot
+distinguish right from wrong, as well as over the spite of malignants;
+for, spite and blindness are evils common to great States and to small.
+But, as in those early times there was found greater propensity to feats
+of renown, and more scope to perform them; so whoever excelled in a
+happy genius was naturally led to display the merits and memory of the
+virtuous dead, without all view to court favour, or to gain advantages,
+but only by the motives and recompense flowing from a benevolent and
+conscientious mind. Indeed there were several who, in recounting their
+own lives, concluded, that they thence showed rather a confidence in
+their own integrity and demeanour than any mark of arrogance. Neither
+was the account which Rutilius and Scaurus gave of themselves, thence
+the less credited or the more censured. So true it is, that the several
+virtues are best understood and most prized, during the same times in
+which they are most easily produced. But to myself, who am going to
+relate the life of a person deceased, I find pardon necessary; which I
+should not have asked, were I not about to revive and traverse times so
+sanguinary, and baneful to all virtue.
+
+We find it recorded, that for celebrating the praises of Paetus Thrasea,
+Arulenus Rusticus suffered a deadly doom; as did Herennius Senesce, for
+those of Helvidius Priscus. Nor upon the persons of the authors only was
+this cruelty inflicted, but also upon the books themselves; since to the
+Triumvirate of Justice orders were sent, that in the Forum and place of
+popular elections, the works of men so illustrious for parts and genius
+should be burned. Yes, in this very fire they imagined, that they should
+abolish the voice and utterance of the Roman People, with the liberty of
+the Senate, and all the ideas and remembrances of humankind. For, they
+had besides expelled all the professors of philosophy, [Footnote:
+When Vespasian's worthless son "cleared Rome of what most sham'd him:"
+Domitian banished Epictetus, and the other philosophers.] and driven
+every laudable science into exile, that nought which was worthy and
+honest might anywhere be seen. Mighty surely was the testimony which
+we gave of our patience; and as our forefathers had beheld the ultimate
+consummation of liberty, so did we of bondage, since through dread
+of informers and inquisitions of State, we were bereft of the common
+intercourse of speech and attention. Nay, with our utterance we had
+likewise lost our memory; had it been equally in our power to forget, as
+to be silent.
+
+Now indeed at length our spirit returns. Yet, though from the first dawn
+of this very happy age begun by the reign of Nerva, he blended together
+two things once found irreconcilable, public liberty and sovereign
+power; and though Trajan his adopted successor be daily augmenting the
+felicity of the State; insomuch that for the general security not only
+hopes and vows are conceived, but even firm assurance follows these
+vows, and their full accomplishment is seen; such however is the frailty
+of man and its effects, that much more slow is the progress of the
+remedies than of the evils; and as human bodies attain their growth by
+tedious degrees, and are subject to be destroyed in an instant, so it is
+much easier to suppress than to revive the efforts of genius and study.
+For, upon the mind there steals a pleasure even in sloth and remissness,
+and that very inactivity which was at first hated, is at last loved.
+Will it not be found that during a course of fifteen years (a mighty
+space in the age of mortal man) numbers perished through fortuitous
+disasters, and all men noted for promptness and spirit were cut off by
+the cruelty of the Emperor? Few we are, who have escaped; and if I may
+so speak, we have survived not only others but even ourselves, when from
+the middle of our life so many years were rent; whence from being young
+we are arrived at old age, from being old we are nigh come to the utmost
+verge of mortality, all in a long course of awful silence. I shall
+however find no cause of regret from having framed an historical
+deduction of our former bondage, as also a testimony of the public
+blessings which at present we enjoy; though, in doing it, my style be
+negligent and unpolished. To the honour of Agricola my wife's father,
+this present book is in the meantime dedicated; and, as 'tis a
+declaration of filial duty and affection, will thence be commended, at
+least excused.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A.D. 40. Cnaeus Julius Agricola was born in the ancient and illustrious
+Colony of Forojulium, [Footnote: Frejus.] and both his grandfathers were
+Procurators to the Emperors; a dignity peculiar to the Equestrian Order.
+His father Julius Graecinus was a Senator, and noted for eloquence and
+philosophy. By these his virtues, he earned the wrath of Caligula. For,
+he was by him ordered to accuse Marcus Silanus, and put to death for
+refusing. His mother was Julia Procilla, a lady of singular chastity.
+Under her eye and tender care he was reared, and spent his childhood
+and youth in the continual pursuit and cultivation of worthy
+accomplishments. What guarded him from the allurements of the vicious
+(besides his own virtuous disposition and natural innocence) was, that
+for the seat and nursery of his studies, whilst yet very little, he had
+the city of Marseilles; a place well tempered and framed, as in it
+all the politeness of the Greeks and all the provincial parsimony are
+blended together. I remember he was wont to declare, that in his early
+youth he studied Philosophy and the Law with more avidity than was
+allowable to a Roman and a Senator; till the discretion of his mother
+checked his spirit, engaged with passion and ardour in the pursuit. In
+truth, his superior and elevated genius thirsted, with more vehemence
+than caution, after the loveliness and lustre of a name and renown so
+mighty and sublime. Reason and age afterwards qualified his heat; and,
+what is a task extremely hard, he satisfied himself with a limited
+measure of philosophy.
+
+A.D. 59-62. The first rudiments of war he learnt in Britain, under that
+prudent and vigilant commander Suetonius Paulinus; by whom he was chosen
+and distinguished, as his domestic companion. Neither did Agricola
+behave licentiously, after the manner of young men, who turn warfare
+into riot; nor assumed the title and office of a Tribune without the
+sufficiency, in order to use it slothfully in feats of pleasure and
+absence from duty, but to know the Province, to be known to the army,
+to learn of such as had experience, to follow such as were worthy and
+brave, to seek for no exploits for ostentation, to refuse none through
+fear, and in all his pursuits was equally zealous and active. Indeed
+at no time had Britain been under greater combustions, nor our affairs
+there more precarious. Our veterans were slaughtered, our colonies
+burned down, our armies surprised and taken. At that juncture the
+struggle was for life; afterwards, for victory. Now though all these
+affairs were transacted by the counsels and conduct of another than
+Agricola, and though the stress of the whole, with the glory of
+recovering the Province, accrued to the General; they all however proved
+to the young man matters of skill, of experience and stimulation; and
+there seized his soul a passion for military glory, a spirit disgustful
+to the times, when of men signally eminent a malignant opinion was
+entertained, and when as much peril arose from a great character as from
+a bad.
+
+A.D. 62-68. Departing from hence to Rome for the exercise of public
+dignities, he there married Domitia Decidiana, a lady splendid in her
+descent; and to him, who was aspiring to higher honours, this marriage
+proved a great ornament and support. In marvellous unanimity they also
+lived, in a course of mutual tenderness and mutual preference; a temper
+commendable in both, only that the praise of a good wife rises in
+proportion to the contumely of a bad. His lot as Quaestor fell upon
+Asia, where he had Salvius Titianus for Proconsul. But neither the
+Province nor the Proconsul corrupted his probity, though the country
+was very rich, nay, prepared as a prey for men corruptly disposed;
+and Titianus, a man bent upon all acts of rapine, was ready, upon
+the smallest encouragement, to have purchased a mutual connivance in
+iniquity. In Asia he was enriched by the birth of a daughter, tending at
+once to his consolation and the support of his family; for the son born
+to him before, he very soon lost. The interval between his bearing the
+office of Quaestor and that of Tribune of the People, and even the year
+of his Tribuneship, he passed in repose and inactivity; as well aware of
+the spirit of the times under Nero, when sloth and heaviness served for
+wisdom. With the like indolence he held the Praetorship, and in the same
+quiet and silence. For upon him the jurisdiction of that dignity fell
+not. The public pastimes and the empty gaieties of the office, he
+exhibited according to the rules of good sense and to the measure of
+his wealth, in a manner though remote from prodigality, yet deserving
+popular applause. As he was next appointed by Galba to make research
+into the gifts and oblations appertaining to the temples, he proceeded
+with such diligence and an examination so strict, that the State
+suffered from no sacrilege save that of Nero.
+
+A.D. 69 and 70. In the year following he suffered a grievous blow in his
+spirit and family. For, Otho's fleet, which continued roving upon
+the coast and pursuing rapine, whilst they were ravaging Intemelium
+[Footnote: Vinitimiglia.] (a part of Liguria) slew the mother of
+Agricola upon her estate there, and plundered the estate itself with
+a great part of her treasure, which had indeed proved the cause of the
+murder. As he therefore went from Rome to solemnise her funeral, he had
+tidings upon the road that Vespasian was pursuing the sovereignty, and
+instantly espoused his party. In the beginning of this reign all the
+exercise of power and the government of the city, were entirely in the
+hands of Mucianus; for, Domitian was yet extremely young, and, of the
+Imperial fortune of his father, assumed nothing further than a latitude
+for debauchery. Mucianus, who had despatched Agricola to levy forces,
+and found him to have acted in that trust with uprightness and
+magnanimity, preferred him to the command of the twentieth legion; as
+soon as he was informed, that he who commanded it before was engaged
+in seditious practices. Indeed that legion had with great slowness and
+reluctance been brought to swear allegiance to Vespasian, nay, was grown
+over mighty and even formidable to the commanders-in-chief: so that
+their own commander was found void of authority to control them; though
+it is uncertain whether from the temper of the man or from that of
+the soldiers. Thus Agricola was chosen, at once to succeed him, and to
+punish delinquency in them; and exercising moderation altogether rare,
+would rather have it thought, that he had found them unblamable than
+made them so.
+
+A.D. 72. Over Britain at that juncture Vettius Bolanus bore rule, but
+with more complacency than suited a province so fierce and untamed.
+Hence Agricola restrained his own heat, and held within bounds the
+ardour of his spirit, as he was well skilled how to show his obedience,
+and had thoroughly learned to blend what was honourable with what was
+profitable: soon after this, Britain received for its Governor Petilius
+Cerialis, one of Consular quality. The virtue and abilities of Agricola
+had now ample space for producing suitable effects. But to him at first
+Cerialis communicated only the dangers and fatigues: with him anon
+he likewise shared the glory; frequently, for trial of his prowess,
+committed to his conduct a part of the army; sometimes, according to the
+measure of his success, set him at the head of forces still larger.
+Nor did Agricola ever vaunt his exploits to blazon his own fame. To his
+general, as to the Author of all, he, as his instrument and inferior,
+still ascribed his good fortune. Thus from his bravery in the execution
+of his orders, from his modesty in recounting his deeds of bravery, he
+escaped envy, yet failed not to gain glory.
+
+A.D. 73-78. Upon his return from commanding a legion, the deified
+Vespasian raised him to the rank of a patrician, and afterwards invested
+him with the government of the Province of Aquitaine; a government of
+the foremost dignity, and given as previous to the Consulship, to
+which that Prince had destined him. There are many who believe, that
+to military men subtilty of spirit is wanting; for that in camps
+the direction of process and authority, is rather rough and void of
+formality; and that where hands and force are chiefly used, there the
+address and refinements usual to Courts are not exercised. Yet Agricola,
+assisted by his natural prudence, though he was then engaged only with
+men of peace and the robe, acquitted himself with great facility and
+great uprightness. He carefully distinguished the seasons of business
+and the seasons of recess. Whenever he sat in Council or upon the
+Tribunals of justice, he was grave, attentive, awful, generally addicted
+to compassion. The moment he had fulfilled the duties of his office,
+he personated no longer the man of power: he had then cast off all
+sternness, all airs of State, and all rigour. Nay, what is very rarely
+to be seen, his complaisance neither weakened his authority, nor did his
+severity make him less amiable. It were an injury to the virtues of so
+great a man, to particularise his just dealings, his temperance, and
+the cleanness of his hands. [Footnote: "Integritatem atque abstinentiam
+referre."] In truth glory itself was what he pursued, not by any
+ostentation of bravery, nor by any strain of artifice or address; though
+of that pursuit even the best men are often fond. Thus he was far from
+maintaining any competition with his equals in station, far from any
+contest with the Procurators of the Prince: since, to conquer in this
+contention he judged to be no glory; and to be crushed by them were
+disgrace. His administration here lasted hardly three years, ere he
+was recalled to the present possession of the Consulship. With this
+employment there accrued the public opinion, that for his province
+Britain would be assigned him, from no words which had dropped from him
+about it, but because he was deemed equal to the office. Common fame
+does not always err; sometimes it even directs the public choice. To
+myself yet very young, whilst he was Consul, he contracted his daughter,
+a young lady even then of excellent hopes, and, at the end of his
+Consulship, presented her in marriage. He was then forthwith promoted
+to the government of Britain, as also invested with the honour of the
+Pontificate.
+
+The account which I shall here present of the situation and people of
+Britain, a subject about which many authors have written, comes not from
+any design of setting up my own exactness and genius against theirs, but
+only because the country was then first thoroughly subdued. So that such
+matters as former writers have, without knowing them, embellished with
+eloquence, will by me be recounted according to the truth of evidence
+and discoveries. Of all the islands which have reached the knowledge of
+the Romans, Britain is the largest. It extends towards Germany to the
+east, towards Spain to the west. To the south it looks towards Gaul. Its
+northern shore, beyond which there is no land, is beaten by a sea vast
+and boundless. [Footnote: "Belluosus, qui remotis Obstrepit Oceanus
+Britannis."] Britain is by Livy and Fabius Rusticus, the former the most
+eloquent of the ancient historians, the latter of the moderns, compared
+in shape to an oblong shield, or a broad knife with two edges. And such
+in effect is its figure on this side Caledonia, whence common opinion
+has thus also fashioned the whole. But a tract of territory huge and
+unmeasurable stretches forward to the uttermost shore, and straitening
+by degrees, terminates like a wedge. Round the coast of this sea, which
+beyond it has no land, the Roman fleet now first sailed, and thence
+proved Britain to be an island, as also discovered and subdued the Isles
+of Orkney till then unknown. Thule was likewise descried, hitherto
+hid by winter under eternal snow. This sea they report to be slow and
+stagnate, difficult to the rowers, and indeed hardly to be raised by
+the force of winds. This I conjecture to be because land and mountains,
+which are the cause and materials of tempests, very rarely occur in
+proportion to the mighty mass of water, a mass so deep and uninterrupted
+as not to be easily agitated. An inquiry into the nature of the ocean
+and of the tide, is not the purpose of this work, and about it many have
+written. One thing I would add, that nowhere is the power of the sea
+more extensive than here, forcing back the waters of many rivers, or
+carrying them away with its own; nor is its flux and ebbings confined to
+the banks and shore; but it works and winds itself far into the country,
+nay forms bays in rocks and mountains, as if the same were its native
+bed.
+
+For the rest; who were the first inhabitants of Britain, whether natives
+of its own, or foreigners, can be little known amongst a people thus
+barbarous. In their looks and persons they vary; from whence arguments
+and inferences are formed. For, the red hair of the Caledonians and
+their large limbs, testify their descent to be from Germany. The swarthy
+complexion of the Silures, and their hair, which is generally curled,
+with their situation opposite to the coast of Spain, furnish ground to
+believe, that the ancient Iberians had arrived from thence here, and
+taken possession of the territory. They who live next to Gaul are also
+like the Gauls; whether it be that the spirit of the original stock
+from which they sprang, still remains, or whether in countries
+near adjoining, the genius of the climate confers the same form and
+disposition upon the bodies of men. To one who considers the whole,
+it seems however credible, that the Gauls at first occupied this their
+neighbouring coast. That their sacred rites are the same, you may learn
+from their being possessed with the same superstition of every sort.
+Their speech does not much vary. In daring and dangers they are prompted
+by the like boldness, and with the like affright avoid them when they
+approach. In the Britons however superior ferocity and defiance is
+found, as in a people not yet softened by a long peace. For we learn
+from history, that the Gauls too flourished in warlike prowess and
+renown: amongst them afterwards, together with peace and idleness, there
+entered effeminacy; and thus with the loss of their liberty they lost
+their spirit and magnanimity. The same happened to those of the Britons
+who were conquered long ago. The rest still continue such as the Gauls
+once were.
+
+Their principal force consists in their foot. Some nations amongst them
+make also war in chariots. The more honourable person always drives:
+under his leading his followers fight. They were formerly subject to
+Kings. They are now swayed by several chiefs, and rent into factions and
+parties, according to the humour and passions of those their leaders.
+Nor against nations thus powerful does aught so much avail us, as that
+they consult not in a body for the security of the whole. It is rare
+that two or three communities assemble and unite to repulse any public
+danger threatening to all. So that whilst only a single community fought
+at a time, they were every one vanquished. The sky from frequent clouds
+and rain is dull and hazy. Excessive cold they feel not. Their days in
+length surpass ours. Their nights are very clear, and at the extremity
+of the country, very short; so that between the setting and return of
+the day, you perceive but small interval. They affirm, that were it not
+for the intervention of clouds, the rays of the sun would be seen in the
+night, and that he doth not rise and fall, but only pass by: for that
+the extremities of the earth, which are level, yielding but a low
+shadow, prevent darkness from rising high and spreading; and thence
+night is far short of reaching the stars and the sky. The soil is such,
+that except the olive and the vine, and other vegetables, which are wont
+to be raised in hotter climes, it readily bears all fruits and grain,
+and is very fertile. It quickly produces, but its productions ripen
+slowly; and of both these effects there is the same cause, the extreme
+humidity of the earth and of the sky. Britain yields gold and silver,
+with other metals, all which prove the prize and reward of the
+Conquerors. The sea also breeds pearls, but of a dark and livid hue,
+a defect by some ascribed to the unskilfulness of such as gather them.
+For, in the Red Sea they are pulled from the rocks alive and vigorous.
+In Britain they are gathered at random, such as the sea casts them
+upon the shore. For myself; I am much apter to believe, that nature
+has failed to give the pearls perfection, than that we fail in avarice.
+[Footnote: "Ego facilius crediderim naturam margaritis de esse; quam
+nobis avaritiam."]
+
+The Britons themselves are a people who cheerfully comply with the
+levies of men, and with the imposition of taxes, and with all the duties
+enjoined by Government; provided they receive no illegal treatment and
+insults from their governors: those they bear with impatience. Nor have
+the Romans any further subdued them than only to obey just laws, but
+never to submit to be slaves. Even the deified Julius Caesar, the first
+of all the Romans who entered Britain with an army, though by gaining
+a battle he frightened the natives, and became master of the coast;
+[Footnote: Caesar conquered to the north of the Thames.] yet may be
+thought to have rather presented posterity with a view of the country,
+than to have conveyed down the possession. Anon the civil wars ensued,
+and against the Commonwealth were turned the arms of her own chiefs
+and leaders. Thus Britain was long forgot, and continued to be so even
+during peace. This was what Augustus called _Reason of State_, but what
+Tiberius styled the _Ordinance of Augustus_. That Caligula meditated an
+invasion of Britain in person, is well known: but he possessed a
+spirit, as precipitate and wild, so presently surfeited with any design
+whatever; besides that all his mighty efforts against Germany were
+quite baffled. The deified Claudius accomplished the undertaking; having
+thither transported the legions, with a number of auxiliary forces, and
+associated Vespasian into the direction of the design: an incident which
+proved the introduction to his approaching fortune. There, nations were
+subdued, Kings taken captive, and Vespasian placed to advantage in the
+eye of the Fates.
+
+The first Governor of Consular quality, was Aulus Plautius, then
+Ostorius Scapula, both signal in war: and by degrees the nearest part
+of Britain was reduced into the condition of a Province. To secure it,
+a colony of veterans was likewise settled. To the British King Cogidunus
+certain communities were given, a Prince who even till our times
+continued in perfect fidelity to us. For, with the Roman People it is a
+custom long since received, and practised of old, that for establishing
+the bondage of nations, they are to employ even Kings as their
+instruments. Afterwards followed Didius Gallus, and just preserved what
+acquisitions his predecessors had made; only that further in the island
+he raised some forts, and very few they were, purely for the name and
+opinion of having enlarged his government. Next to Didius came Veranius,
+and died in less than a year. Then immediately succeeded Suetonius
+Paulinus, who during two years commanded with success, subdued fresh
+nations and established garrisons. Trusting to these he went to assail
+the Isle of Anglesey, as a place which supplied the revolters with
+succours, and thus left the country behind him exposed to the enemy.
+
+For, the Britons, when through the absence of the Governor they were
+eased of their fear, began to commune together concerning the miseries
+of bondage, to recount their several grievances, and so to construe and
+heighten their injuries as effectually to inflame their resentments.
+"Their patience," they said, "availed them nothing, further than to
+invite the imposition of heavier burdens upon a people who thus tamely
+bore any. In times past they had only a single King: they were now
+surrendered to two. One of these the Governor-General, tyrannised over
+their bodies and lives; the Imperial Procurator, who was the other, over
+their substance and fortunes. Equally pernicious to their subjects was
+any variance between these their rulers, as their good intelligence and
+unanimity. Against them the one employed his own predatory bands, as
+did the other his Centurions and their men; and both exercised violence
+alike, both treated them with equal insults and contumely. To such
+height was oppression grown, that nothing whatever was exempt from their
+avarice, nothing whatever from their lust. He who in the day of battle
+spoiled others, was always stronger than they. But here it was chiefly
+by the cowardly and effeminate that their houses were seized, their
+children forced away, and their men obliged to enlist; as if their
+country were the only thing for which the Britons knew not how to die.
+In truth, what a small force would all the soldiers arrived in the
+island appear; would the Britons but compute their own numbers? It
+was from this consideration that Germany had thrown off the same yoke,
+though a country defended only by a river, and not like this, by the
+ocean. To animate themselves to take arms, they had their country, their
+wives, their parents; whilst these their oppressors were prompted
+by nothing but their avarice and sensuality: nor would they fail to
+withdraw from the island, as even the deified Julius had withdrawn,
+would the natives but imitate the bravery of their forefathers, and not
+be dismayed with the issue of an encounter or two. Amongst people like
+themselves reduced to misery, superior ardour was ever found, as also
+greater firmness and perseverance. Towards the Britons, at this juncture
+even the Gods manifested compassion, since they thus kept the Roman
+General at such a distance, thus held the Roman army confined in
+another island. Nay, already they themselves had gained a point the most
+difficult to be gained, that they could now deliberate about measures
+common to all: for, doubtless more perilous it were to be discovered
+forming such counsels, than openly to put them in execution."
+
+When with these and the like reasons they had instigated one another,
+they unanimously took arms under the leading of Boudicea, [Footnote:
+Boadicea.] a woman of royal descent; for, in conferring sovereignty,
+they make no distinction of sexes. They then forthwith assailed on every
+side the soldiers dispersed here and there in forts, and having stormed
+and sacked the several garrisons, fell upon the colony itself, as
+the seat and centre of public servitude: nor was any kind of cruelty
+omitted, with which rage and victory could possibly inspire the hearts
+of Barbarians. In truth, had not Paulinus, upon learning the revolt of
+the Province, come with notable speed to its relief, Britain had been
+lost. Yet by the success of a single battle, he reduced the country to
+its old subjection, though several continued in arms, such namely as
+were conscious of inciting the rebellion, and under personal dread from
+the spirit of the Governor. He, though otherwise a signal commander, yet
+treated such as had surrendered themselves in a manner very imperious;
+and, as one who likewise avenged his own particular injury, thence
+exerted the greater rigour. Insomuch that in his room Petronius
+Turpilianus was sent, as one whose behaviour would prove more relenting,
+one who being unacquainted with the delinquencies of the enemies, would
+be more gentle in accepting their remorse and submission. Turpilianus,
+when he had quite appeased the late commotions, ventured upon nothing
+further, and then delivered the Province to Trebellius Maximus. He,
+still more unwarlike and inactive than his predecessor, and nowise
+trained in camps and armies, maintained the tranquillity of the Province
+by a method of softness and complaisance. The Barbarians had now
+likewise learned to forgive such vices as humoured them in pleasure and
+ease. Moreover, the civil wars which then intervened, furnished a proper
+excuse for the lazy behaviour of the Governor. But he found himself
+greatly embarrassed with faction and discord; for that the soldiers, who
+had ever been inured to expeditions and feats in the field, were through
+idleness grown turbulent and licentious. Trebellius, by flight and
+lurking, escaped the present fury of the army: he afterwards resumed the
+command, but with an authority altogether precarious, without all spirit
+and destitute of all dignity; as if between him and them articles
+had been settled, that the soldiers should retain their licentious
+behaviour, and the General be permitted to enjoy his life. During this
+mutiny no blood was spilled. Neither did Vettius Bolanus, as the civil
+war yet subsisted, exert any discipline in Britain. Towards the enemy
+there still remained the same sloth and negligence, with the same
+insolent spirit in the camp: this difference only there was, that
+Bolanus was a man perfectly innocent; and being subject to no hate, as
+he was free from all crimes, he had instead of authority over them, only
+gained their affections.
+
+But, when Vespasian had, with the possession of the world, also
+recovered Britain, in it were seen great commanders, noble armies, and
+the hopes of the enemy quite abated, Petilius Cerialis, particularly,
+at his first entrance, struck them at once with general terror, by
+attacking the community of the Brigantes, reckoned the most populous of
+the whole Province. There followed many encounters, such as sometimes
+proved very bloody. So that he held most part of their country as
+his conquest, or continued to ravage it by war. In truth, though the
+exploits of Cerialis would have eclipsed the vigilance and fame of any
+other successor, yet Julius Frontinus sustained in his turn the mighty
+task; and, as he was a man as great and able as he found scope and
+safety to be, he by the sword utterly subdued the powerful and warlike
+nation of the Silures; though besides the bravery of the enemy, he
+was likewise obliged to struggle with the difficulties of places and
+situation.
+
+A.D. 78. Such was the condition in which Agricola found Britain, such to
+have been the vicissitudes of the war there, upon his arrival about the
+middle of summer, a time when the Roman soldiers, supposing the service
+of the season to be concluded, were securely bent upon inaction and
+repose, as were the enemy upon any opportunity to annoy the Romans. The
+Community of the Ordovicans had not long before his coming slaughtered,
+almost entirely, a band of horse stationed upon their confines; and by
+an essay so notable the Province in general became roused; while such as
+were intent upon present war, commended the action as an example and a
+call to the whole, and others were for delaying till they had discovered
+the spirit of the new Lieutenant-General. Now though the summer
+was over, though the troops were severed and lay dispersed over the
+Province, though the soldiers had assured themselves of rest for the
+residue of the year (a heavy obstacle and very discouraging to one who
+is commencing war), nay, though many judged it better only to guard the
+places which were threatened and precarious; yet Agricola determined to
+meet the danger. Hence drawing together the choice bands of the legions,
+with a small body of auxiliaries, he led them against the Ordovicans;
+and as these dared not descend into equal ground, he, who by sharing
+equal danger, would inspire his men with equal courage, marching in
+person before his army, conducted them to the encounter upon the ascent.
+Almost the whole nation was here cut off; but as he was well aware, that
+it behoved him to urge and maintain this his fame, and that with the
+issue of his first attempts all the rest would correspond, he conceived
+a design to reduce the Isle of Anglesey, a conquest from which
+Paulinus was recalled by the general revolt of Britain, as above I have
+recounted. But, as this counsel was suddenly concerted, and therefore
+ships were found wanting, such was the firmness and capacity of the
+General, that without ships he transported his men. From the auxiliaries
+he detached all their chosen men, such as knew the fords, and according
+to the usage of their country were dexterous in swimming, so as, in the
+water, at once to manage themselves, and their horses and arms. These,
+unencumbered with any of their baggage, he caused to make a descent and
+onset so sudden, that the enemy were quite struck with consternation,
+as men who apprehended nothing but a fleet and transports, and a
+formal invasion by sea, and now believed no enterprise difficult and
+insurmountable to such as came thus determined to war. Thus they sued
+for peace and even surrendered the island; and thence Agricola was
+already considered as a very great and even renowned commander: for
+that, at his first entrance into the Province, a time which other
+governors are wont to waste in show and parade, or in courting
+compliment and addresses, he preferred feats of labour and of peril.
+Nor did he apply this his good fortune and success to any purpose of
+vainglory: so that upon the bridling of such as were vanquished before,
+he would not bestow the title of an expedition or of victory; nor in
+truth would he so much as with the bare honour of the laurel distinguish
+these his exploits. But even by disguising his fame, he enlarged it; as
+men considered how vast must be his future views, when he thus smothered
+in silence deeds so noble.
+
+For the rest; as he was acquainted with the temper of the people in
+his Province; as he had also learned from the conduct and experience of
+others, that little is gained by arms where grievances and oppressions
+follow, he determined to cut off all the causes of war. Beginning
+therefore with himself and those appertaining to him, he checked and
+regulated his own household; a task which to many proves not less
+difficult than that of governing a province. By none of his domestics,
+bond or freed, was aught that concerned the public transacted. In
+raising the soldiers to a superior class, he was swayed by no personal
+interest or partiality, nor by the recommendation and suit of the
+Centurions, but by his own opinion and persuasion, that the best
+soldiers were ever the most faithful. All that passed he would know;
+though all that was amiss he would not punish. Upon small offences he
+bestowed pardon; for such as were great he exercised proportionable
+severity. Nor did he always exact the punishment assigned, but
+frequently was satisfied with compunction and remorse. In conferring
+offices and employments he rather chose men who would not transgress,
+than such as he must afterwards condemn for transgressing. Though the
+imposition of tribute and of grain had been augmented, yet he softened
+it by causing a just and equal distribution of all public burdens;
+since he abolished whatever exactions had been devised for the lucre of
+particulars, and were therefore borne with more regret than the
+tribute itself. For, the inhabitants were forced to bear the mockery
+of attending at their own barns, locked up by the publicans, and
+of purchasing their own corn of the monopolists, nay, of selling it
+afterwards back again at a poor price. They were moreover enjoined to
+take long journeys, and carry grain across the several countries to
+places extremely distant; insomuch that the several communities, instead
+of supplying the winter-quarters which lay adjoining, must furnish such
+as were remote and difficultly travelled, to the end, that what was easy
+to be had by all, might produce gain to a few.
+
+A.D. 79. By suppressing these grievances immediately in his first year,
+he gained a high character to a state of peace; a state which, either
+through the neglect or connivance of his predecessors, was till then
+dreaded no less than that of war. But, upon the coming of summer, he
+assembled his army; then proceeded to commend such of the men who in
+marching observed their duty and rank, and to check such as were loose
+and straggling. He himself always chose the ground for encamping: the
+salt marshes, friths, and woods he himself always first examined, and
+to the enemies all the while allowed not a moment's quiet or recess,
+but was ever distressing them with sudden incursions and ravages. Then,
+having sufficiently alarmed and terrified them, his next course was to
+spare them, thus to tempt them with the sweetness and allurements of
+peace. By this conduct, several communities which till that day had
+asserted a state of equality and independence, came to lay down all
+hostility, gave hostages, and were begirt with garrisons and fortresses,
+erected with such just contrivance and care, that no part of Britain
+hitherto known escaped thenceforward from being annoyed by them.
+
+The following winter was employed in measures extremely advantageous
+and salutary. For, to the end that these people, thus wild and dispersed
+over the country, and thence easily instigated to war, might by a taste
+of pleasures be reconciled to inactivity and repose, he first privately
+exhorted them, then publicly assisted them, to build temples, houses and
+places of assembling. Upon such as were willing and assiduous in these
+pursuits he heaped commendations, and reproofs upon the lifeless and
+slow. So that a competition for this distinction and honour, had all the
+force of necessity. He was already taking care to have the sons of
+their chiefs taught the liberal sciences, already preferring the natural
+capacity of the Britons to the studied acquirements of the Gauls; and
+such was his success, that they who had so lately scorned to learn
+the Roman language, were become fond of acquiring the Roman eloquence.
+Thence they began to honour our apparel, and the use of the Roman gown
+grew frequent amongst them. [Footnote: "Inde etiam habitus nostri honor,
+et frequens toga."] By degrees they proceeded to the incitements and
+charms of vice and dissoluteness, to magnificent galleries, sumptuous
+bagnios, and all the stimulations and elegance of banqueting. Nay, all
+this innovation was by the unexperienced styled politeness and humanity,
+when it was indeed part of their bondage.
+
+A.D. 80. During the third year of his command, in pursuit of his
+conquests he discovered new people, by continuing his devastations
+through the several nations quite to the mouth of the Tay: so the frith
+is called. Whence such terror seized the foe, that they durst not attack
+our army though sorely shaken and annoyed by terrible tempests: nay,
+the Romans had even time to secure possession by erecting forts. It was
+observed of Agricola by men of experience, that never had any captain
+more sagely chosen his stations for commodiousness and situation; for
+that no place of strength founded by him, was ever taken by violence,
+or abandoned upon articles or despair. From these their strongholds
+frequent excursions were made; for, against any long siege they were
+supplied with provisions for a year. Thus they passed the winter there
+without all apprehension: every single fort defended itself. So that
+in all their attempts upon them the enemies were baffled, and thence
+reduced to utter despair; for that they could not, as formerly they were
+wont, repair their losses in the summer by their success in the winter;
+since now whether it were winter or summer, they were equally defeated.
+Neither did Agricola ever arrogate to himself the glory of exploits
+performed by others: were he a Centurion or were he Commander of a
+legion, in the General he was sure to find a sincere witness of
+his achievements. By some he is said to have been over sharp in his
+reproofs, since he was one who, as to them that were good he abounded in
+courtesy, appeared withal stern and unpleasant to the bad. But from his
+anger no spleen remained. In him you had no dark reserves, no boding
+silence to fear. More honourable he thought it to give open offence than
+to foster secret hate.
+
+A.D. 81. The fourth summer was employed in settling and securing what
+territories he had overrun: indeed would the bravery of the armies and
+the glory of the Roman name, have suffered it, there had been then
+found in Britain itself a boundary to our conquests there. For, into the
+rivers Glota and Bodotria [Footnote: The Clyde and Forth.] the tide from
+each opposite sea flows so vastly far up the country, that their heads
+are parted only by a narrow neck of land, which was now secured with
+garrisons. Thus of all on this side we were already masters; since the
+enemy were driven as it were into another island.
+
+A.D. 82. In the fifth year of the war, Agricola passing the Frith,
+himself in the first ship that landed, in many and successful encounters
+subdued nations till that time unknown, and placed forces in that part
+of Britain which fronts Ireland, more from future views than from any
+present fear. In truth Ireland, as it lies just between Britain and
+Spain, and is capable of an easy communication with the coast of Gaul,
+would have proved of infinite use in linking together these powerful
+limbs of the Empire. In size it is inferior to Britain, but surpasses
+the islands in our sea. In soil and climate, as also in the temper and
+manners of the natives, it varies little from Britain. Its ports
+and landings are better known, through the frequency of commerce and
+merchants. A petty King of the country, expelled by domestic dissension,
+was already received into protection by Agricola, and under the
+appearance of friendship, reserved for a proper occasion. By him I have
+often heard it declared, that with a single legion and a few auxiliaries
+Ireland might be conquered and preserved; nay, that such an acquisition
+were of moment for the securing of Britain, if, on all sides the Roman
+arms were seen, and all national liberty banished as it were out of
+sight.
+
+A.D. 83. For the rest; on the summer which began the sixth year of his
+administration, as it was apprehended, that the nations forward would
+universally take arms, and that the ways were all infested with
+the enemy's host, his first step was to coast and explore the large
+communities beyond Bodotria [Footnote: The Forth.] by the means of
+his fleet, which was from the beginning employed by him as part of his
+forces, and in attending him at this time made a glorious appearance,
+when thus by sea and land the war was urged. In truth, the same camp
+often contained the foot and the horse and the marines, all intermixed,
+and rejoicing in common, severally magnifying their own feats, their
+own hazards and adventures: here were displayed the horrors of steep
+mountains and dismal forests; there the outrages of waves and tempests.
+These boasted their exploits by land and against the foe: those the
+vanquished ocean; all vying together according to the usual vaunts and
+ostentation of soldiers. Upon the Britons also, as from the captives was
+learned, the sight of the fleet brought much consternation and dismay;
+as if, now that their solitary ocean and recesses of the deep were
+disclosed and invaded, the last refuge of the vanquished was cut off. To
+action and arms, the several people inhabiting Caledonia had immediate
+recourse, and advanced with great parade, made still greater by common
+rumour (as usual in things that are unknown), for that they daringly
+assailed our forts, and by thus insulting and defying us, created much
+fear and alarm. Nay, there were some who covering real cowardice under
+the guise of prudence and counsel, exhorted a return to the nether side
+of Bodotria, [Footnote: To retreat south of the Forth.] for that it
+were more eligible to retire back than to be driven. He was apprised the
+while, that the enemy meant to attack him in divers bands: so that, as
+they surpassed him in numbers and in the knowledge of the country, he
+too divided his army into three parts, and thus marched, to prevent
+their surrounding him.
+
+As soon as this disposition of his was known to the enemy, they suddenly
+changed theirs, and all in a body proceeded to fall upon the ninth
+legion as the least sufficient and weakest of all; and, as the assault
+was in the night they slew the guards and entered the trenches, aided
+by the general sleep or general dismay there. They were already pursuing
+the fight in the camp itself, when Agricola having from his spies learnt
+what route the enemy had taken, and closely following their track,
+commanded the lightest of his foot and cavalry to charge them, whilst
+yet engaged, in the rear, and the whole army presently after to give a
+mighty shout. Moreover at break of day, the Roman banners were beheld
+refulgent. Thus were the Britons dismayed with double peril and
+distress; and to the Romans their courage returned. Hence seeing their
+lives secure, they now maintained the conflict for glory. They even
+returned the attack upon the enemy: insomuch that in the very gates of
+the camp a bloody encounter ensued, till the enemy were quite routed;
+for both these our armies exerted their might, the one contending to
+show that they had brought relief, the other to appear not to have
+wanted assistance. Indeed, had not the woods and marshes served for
+shelter to the fugitives, by this victory the war had been determined.
+
+By this success, with such valour gained, and followed with such renown,
+the army was become elated and resolute. With fierce din they cried,
+"That to their bravery nothing could prove insurmountable. They must
+penetrate into the heart of Caledonia, and advance in a continual
+succession of battles, till they had at last found the utmost limits of
+Britain." Thus it was that they, who a little before had been so wary
+and so wise, were now, after the event was determined, grown full of
+boasts and intrepidity. Such is the lot of warfare, very unequal and
+unjust: in success all men assume part: the disasters are all imputed
+to one. Now the Britons, conjecturing the victory to proceed not from
+superior courage, but from circumstances improved and the address of
+our General, lost nothing of their spirit and defiance, but armed their
+young men, removed their wives and children into places of security, and
+in general conventions of their several communities engaged them in a
+league ratified by solemn sacrifices. And thus they mutually retired for
+the winter, with minds on both sides abundantly irritated.
+
+During the same summer, a cohort of Usipians levied in Germany and
+thence transported to Britain, adventured upon a feat very desperate and
+memorable. When they had slain the Centurion and soldiers placed amongst
+them for training them in discipline, and to serve them for patterns
+and directors, they embarked in three pinnaces, forcing the pilots to
+conduct them; and since one of these forsook them and fled away, they
+suspected and therefore killed the other two. As the attempt was not
+yet divulged, their launching into the deep was beheld as a wonder. Anon
+they were tossed hither and thither at the mercy of the waves: and, as
+they often engaged for spoil with several of the Britons, obliging
+them to defend their property thus invaded, in which conflicts they
+frequently proved victorious, and were sometimes defeated, they were
+at last reduced to want so pressing, as to feed upon one another, first
+upon the weakest, then upon whomsoever the lot fell. In this manner were
+they carried round about Britain, and having lost their vessels through
+ignorance how to manage them, they were accounted robbers and pirates,
+and fell into the hands first of the Suevians, afterwards of the
+Frisians. Nay, as they were bought and sold for slaves, some of them,
+through change of masters, were brought over to our side of the Rhine,
+and grew famous from the discovery of an adventure so extraordinary.
+
+A.D. 84. In the beginning of the summer, Agricola suffered a sore blow
+in his family, by losing his son born about a year before. A misfortune
+which he neither bore with an ostentation of firmness and unconcern,
+like many other men of magnanimity, nor with lamentations and tears
+worthy only of women. Besides that for this affliction, war proved one
+of his remedies. When therefore he had sent forward the navy, which by
+committing devastations in several places, would not fail to spread a
+mighty and perplexing terror, he put himself at the head of his army
+lightly equipped, and to it had added some of the bravest Britons, such
+as had been well proved through a long course of peace. Thus he arrived
+at the Grampian Hills, upon which the enemy were already encamped. For,
+the Britons, nothing daunted by the issue of the former battle, and
+boldly waiting either to take vengeance or to suffer bondage, taught
+withal at last, that a general union was the best way to repel common
+danger, had by embassies and confederacies drawn together the forces of
+all their communities. Even then were to be seen thirty thousand men in
+arms, and their youth from every quarter were still continuing to flock
+in, as were also such of their elderly men as were yet vigorous and
+hale, they who were signal in war, and now carried with them their
+several ensigns of honour formerly gained in the field. And now
+Galgacus, he who amongst their several leaders surpassed all in valour
+and descent, is said to have spoke in this strain to the multitude all
+very pressing for battle,
+
+"Whenever I contemplate the causes of the war, and the necessity to
+which we are reduced, great is my confidence that this day and this
+union of yours will prove the beginning of universal liberty to Britain.
+For, besides that bondage is what we have never borne, we are so beset
+that beyond us there is no further land; nor in truth is there any
+security left us from the sea whilst the Roman fleet is hovering upon
+our coasts. Thus the same expedient which proves honourable to brave
+men, is to cowards too become the safest of all others, even present
+recourse to battle and arms. The other Britons, in their past conflicts
+with the Romans, whence they found various success, had still a
+remaining source of hope and succour in this our nation. For, of all the
+people of Britain we are the noblest, and thence placed in its innermost
+regions, and, as we behold not so much as the coasts of such as are
+slaves, we thus preserve even our eyes free and unprofaned by the sight
+of lawless and usurped rule. To us who are the utmost inhabitants of the
+earth, to us the last who enjoy liberty, this extremity of the globe,
+this remote tract unknown even to common fame, has to this day proved
+the only protection and defence. At present the utmost boundary of
+Britain is laid open; and to conquer parts unknown, is thought matter of
+great pomp and boasting. Beyond us no more people are found, nor aught
+save seas and rocks; and already the Romans have advanced into the heart
+of our country. Against their pride and domineering you will find it
+in vain to seek a remedy or refuge from any obsequiousness or humble
+behaviour of yours. Plunderers of the earth these, who in their
+universal devastations finding countries to fail them, investigate and
+rob even the sea. If the enemy be wealthy, he inflames their avarice;
+if poor, their ambition. They are general spoilers, such as neither the
+eastern world nor the western can satiate. They only of all men thirst
+after acquisitions both poor and rich, with equal avidity and passion.
+To spoil, to butcher, and to commit every kind of violence, they style
+by a lying name, _Government_; and when they have spread a general
+desolation, they call it _Peace_. [Footnote: "Ubi solitudinem faciunt,
+pacem appellant."]
+
+"Dearest to every man are his children and kindred, by the contrivance
+and designation of nature. These are snatched from us for recruits, and
+doomed to bondage in other parts of the earth. Our wives and sisters,
+however they escape rapes and violence as from open enemies, are
+debauched under the appearance and privilege of friendship and
+hospitality. Our fortunes and possessions they exhaust for tribute, our
+grain for their provisions. Even our bodies and limbs are extenuated
+and wasted, while we are doomed to the drudgery of making cuts through
+woods, and drains in bogs, under continual blows and outrages. Such as
+are born to be slaves are but once sold, and thenceforward nourished by
+their lords. Britain is daily paying for its servitude, is daily feeding
+it. Moreover, as in a tribe of household slaves, he who comes last
+serves for sport to all his fellows; so in this ancient state of slavery
+to which the world is reduced, we, as the freshest slaves and thence
+held the most contemptible, are now designed to destruction. For, we
+have no fields to cultivate, nor mines to dig, nor ports to make; works
+for which they might be tempted to spare us alive: besides that ever
+distasteful to rulers is magnanimity and a daring spirit in their
+subjects. Indeed our very situation, so solitary and remote, the more
+security it affords to us, does but raise the greater jealousy in them.
+Seeing therefore you are thus bereft of all hopes of mercy, rouse now at
+last all your courage, both you to whom life is dearest, and you to whom
+glory. The Brigantes, even under the leading of a woman, burned
+their colony, stormed their entrenchments, and, had not such success
+degenerated into sloth, might have quite cast off the yoke of slavery.
+Let us who still preserve our forces entire, us who are still unsubdued,
+and want not to acquire liberty but only to secure it, manifest at once,
+upon the first encounter, what kind of men they are that Caledonia has
+reserved for her own vindication and defence.
+
+"Do you indeed believe the Romans to be equally brave and vigorous in
+war, as during peace they are vicious and dissolute? From our quarrels
+and divisions it is that they have derived their renown, and thus
+convert the faults of their enemies to the glory of their own army;
+an army compounded of many nations so different, that as it is success
+alone which holds them together, misfortunes and disasters will surely
+dissolve them. Unless you suppose that the Germans there, that the
+Gauls, and many of the Britons (whom with shame I mention), men who
+however have been all much longer their enemies than their slaves,
+are yet attached to them by any real fidelity and affection, whilst
+presenting their blood to establish a domination altogether foreign
+and unnatural to them all. What restrains them is no more than awe and
+terror, frail bonds of endearment; and when these are removed, such who
+cease to fear, will immediately begin to manifest their hate. Amongst us
+is found whatever can stimulate men to victory. The Romans have no wives
+to hearten and to urge them. They have here no fathers and mothers to
+upbraid them for flying. Many of them have no country at all, or at
+least their country is elsewhere. But a few in number they are, ignorant
+of the region and thence struck with dread, whilst to their eyes,
+whatever they behold around them, is all wild and strange, even the air
+and sky, with the woods and the sea; so that the Gods have in some sort
+delivered them enclosed and bound into our hands.
+
+"Be not dismayed with things of mere show, and with a glare of gold and
+of silver: this is what can neither wound, nor save. In the very host
+of the enemy we shall find bands of our own. The Britons will own and
+espouse their own genuine cause. The Gauls will recollect their former
+liberty. What the Usipians have lately done, the other Germans will do,
+and abandon the Romans. Thereafter nothing remains to be feared. Their
+forts are ungarrisoned; their colonies replenished with the aged and
+infirm; and between the people and their magistrates, whilst the
+former are averse to obedience, and the latter rule with injustice, the
+municipal cities are weakened and full of dissensions. Here you see a
+general, here an army: there you may behold tributes and the mines, with
+all the other train of calamities and curses ever pursuing men enslaved.
+Whether all these are to be for ever imposed, or whether we forthwith
+avenge ourselves for the attempt, this very field must determine. As
+therefore you advance to battle, look back upon your ancestors, look
+forward to your posterity."
+
+They received his speech joyfully, with chantings, and terrible din, and
+many dissonant shouts, after the manner of barbarians. Already too their
+bands moved, and the glittering of their arms appeared, as all the most
+resolute were running to the front: moreover the army was forming
+in battle array; when Agricola; who indeed saw his soldiers full of
+alacrity, and hardly to be restrained even by express cautions, yet
+chose to discourse to them in the following strain. "It is now the
+eighth year, my fellow-soldiers, since through the virtue and auspicious
+fortune of the Roman Empire, and by your own services and fidelity you
+have been pursuing the conquest of Britain. In so many expeditions that
+you have undertaken, in so many battles as you have fought, you have
+still had constant occasion either to be exerting your bravery against
+the foe, or your patience and pains even against the obstacles of
+nature. Neither, during all these struggles, have we found any cause
+of mutual regret, I to have conducted such soldiers, or you to have
+followed such a captain. We have both passed the limits which we found,
+I those known to the ancient governors, you those of former armies; and
+we possess the very extremity of Britain, not only in the bruitings of
+fame and vulgar rumour, but possess it with our camps and arms. Britain
+is entirely discovered, and entirely subdued. In truth, as the army has
+been marching, whilst in passing morasses and mountains and rivers
+you have been fatigued and distressed, I was wont to hear every man
+remarkably brave ask, _When shall we see the enemy, when be led to
+battle?_ Already they are come, roused from their fastnesses and lurking
+holes. Here you see the end of all your wishes, here scope for all your
+valour, and all things promising and propitious, if you conquer; but
+all cross and disastrous, should you be vanquished. For, as to have
+thus marched over a tract of country so immense, to have passed through
+gloomy forests, to have crossed arms of the deep, is matter of glory and
+applause whilst we advance against the enemy; so if we fly before them,
+whatever is now most in our favour, will then prove most to our peril.
+We know not the situation of the country so well as they know it; we
+have not provisions so abundant as they have: but we have limbs and
+arms; and in these, all things. For myself; it is a rule long since
+settled by me, that safety there is none either to the army or to the
+general, in turning their backs upon the foe. Hence it is not only more
+eligible to lose life honourably than to save it basely, but security
+and renown both arise from the same source. Neither would it be a fate
+void of glory to fall in this the utmost verge of earth and of nature.
+
+"Were the people now arrayed against you such as were new to you, were
+you to engage with bands never before tried, I should animate you by the
+examples of other armies. At present, only recollect and enumerate your
+own signal exploits, only ask and consult your own eyes. These are they
+whom but the last year you utterly discomfited, only by the terror of
+your shouting, when, trusting to the darkness of the night, they by
+stealth attacked a single legion. These are they who of all the Britons
+are the most abandoned to fear and flight, and thence happen thus long
+to survive all the rest. It is with us as with those who make inroads
+into woods and forests. As beasts of the greatest strength there, are
+driven thence by the superior force of such as pursue them, and as the
+timorous and spiritless fly even at the cry of the pursuers: in like
+manner, all the bravest Britons are long since fallen by the sword.
+They that remain are only a crowd, fearful and effeminate: nor can you
+consider them as men whom you have therefore reached, because they have
+persisted to oppose you, but as such whom you have surprised as the last
+and forlorn of all, who struck with dread and bereft of spirit, stand
+benumbed in yonder field, whence you may gain over them a glorious and
+memorable victory. Here complete all your expeditions and efforts: here
+close a struggle of fifty years with one great and important day, so
+that to the army may not be imputed either the procrastination of the
+war, or any cause for reviving it."
+
+Apparent, even whilst Agricola spoke, was the ardour of the soldiers,
+mighty their transport and applause at the end of his speech, and
+instantly they flew to their arms. Thus inflamed and urging to engage,
+he formed them so that the strong band of auxiliary foot, who were eight
+thousand men, composed the centre. The wings were environed with three
+thousand horse. The legions without advancing stood embattled just
+without the entrenchment; for that mighty would be the glory of the
+victory, were it, by sparing them, gained without spilling any Roman
+blood; and they were still a sure stay and succour, should the rest be
+repulsed. The British host was ranged upon the rising grounds, at once
+for show and terror, in such sort that the first band stood upon the
+plain, and the rest rose successively upon the brows of the hills, one
+rank close above another, as if they had been linked together. Their
+cavalry and chariots of war filled the interjacent field with great
+tumult and boundings to and fro. Agricola then, fearing from the
+surpassing multitude of the enemy, that he might be beset at once in
+the front and on each flank, opened and extended his host. Yet, though
+thence his ranks must prove more relaxed, and many advised him to bring
+on the legions, he, who rather entertained a spirit of hope, and in all
+difficulties was ever firm, dismissed his horse and advanced on foot
+before the banners.
+
+In the beginning of the onset the conflict was maintained at a distance.
+The Britons, they who were possessed at once of bravery and skill, armed
+with their huge swords and small bucklers, quite eluded our missive
+weapons, or beat them quite off, whilst of their own they poured a
+torrent upon us, till Agricola encouraged three Batavian cohorts and
+two of the Tungrians, to close with the enemy and bring them to an
+engagement hand to hand; as what was with those veteran soldiers a
+long practice, and become familiar, but to the enemy very uneasy and
+embarrassing, as they were armed with very little targets and with
+swords of enormous size. For, the swords of the Britons, which are blunt
+at the end, are unfit for grapling and cannot support a close encounter.
+Hence the Batavians thickened their blows, wounded them with the iron
+bosses of their bucklers, mangled their faces, and, bearing down all who
+withstood them upon the plain, were already carrying the attack up to
+the hills: insomuch that the rest of the cohorts, incited by emulation
+and sudden ardour, joined with those and made havoc of all whom they
+encountered. Nay, such was the impetuosity and hurry of the victory,
+that many were left behind but half dead, others not so much as wounded.
+In the meantime their troops of cavalry took to flight: the chariots of
+war mingled with the battalions of foot; and though they had so lately
+struck terror, were now themselves beset and entangled with our thick
+bands, as also with the unevenness and intricacy of the place. Of
+a combat of cavalry this bore not the least appearance: since here,
+standing obstinately foot to foot, they pressed to overthrow each other
+by the weight and bodies of their horses. Moreover the war-chariots, now
+abandoned and straggling, as also the horses destitute of managers and
+thence wild and affrighted, were running hither and thither just as the
+next fright drove them; insomuch that all of their own side, who met
+them or crossed their way, were beaten down by them.
+
+Now those of the Britons who were lodged upon the ridges of the hills
+and had hitherto no share in the encounter, like men yet pressed by no
+peril looked with scorn upon our forces as but few in number, and began
+to descend softly and to surround them in the rear, whilst they were
+urging their victory. But Agricola, who had apprehended this very
+design, despatched to engage them four squadrons of horse, such as he
+had reserved near him for the sudden exigencies of the field; and by
+this providence of his, the more furiously they had advanced, the more
+keenly were they repulsed and utterly routed. Thus against the Britons
+themselves their own devices were turned; and by the order of the
+General, the squadrons of cavalry which charged in front, wheeled about
+and assailed the enemy behind. Then in truth, all over the open fields
+was to be seen a spectacle prodigious and tragical, incessant pursuits,
+wounds and captivity, and the present captives always slaughtered, as
+often as others occurred to be taken. Now the enemy behaved just as they
+happened to be prompted by their several humours. Sometimes they fled in
+large troops with all their arms, before a smaller number that pursued
+them: others, quite unarmed, rushed into peril, and desperately
+presented themselves to instant death. On all sides lay scattered arms
+and carcasses, and mangled limbs, and the ground was dyed with blood.
+Nay, now and then even by the vanquished was exerted notable wrath and
+bravery. When once they drew near the woods, they rejoined and rallied,
+and thus circumvented the foremost pursuers, such as, without knowing
+the country, had rashly ventured too far. Whence we must have suffered
+some notable disaster, from such confidence void of caution, had
+not Agricola who was assiduously visiting every quarter, ordered the
+stoutest cohorts lightly equipped to range themselves in the form of
+a toil [Footnote: A net or web, to encompass them; such as Herodotus
+describes, for clearing out a vanquished enemy.] to invest them, also
+some of the cavalry to dismount, and enter the strait passes, and the
+rest of the horse, at the same time, to beat the more open and passable
+parts of the woods. Now, as soon as they perceived our forces to
+continue the pursuit with ranks regular and close, they betook
+themselves to open flight, in no united bands as before, no one man
+regarding or awaiting another; but quite scattered, and each shunning
+any companion, they all made to places far remote and desert. What ended
+the pursuit was night and a satiety of slaughter. Of the enemy were
+slain ten thousand. There fell of our men three hundred and forty,
+amongst these Aulus Atticus, commander of a cohort; one by his own
+youthful heart, as also by a fiery horse, hurried into the midst of the
+enemies.
+
+It was indeed a night of great joy to the conquerors, both from victory
+and spoil. The Britons, who wandered in despair, men and women uttering
+in concert their dismal wailings, dragged along their wounded, called to
+such as were unhurt, deserted their houses, nay, in rage even set them
+on fire; made choice of lurking holes, then instantly forsook them; then
+met to consult, and from their counsels gathered some hope: sometimes,
+upon beholding their dearest pledges of nature, their spirits became
+utterly sunk and dejected; sometimes, by the same sight, they were
+roused into resolution and fury. Nay, 'tis very certain, that some
+murdered their children and wives, as an act of compassion and
+tenderness. The next day produced a more ample display of the victory;
+on all sides a profound silence, solitary hills, thick smoke rising from
+the houses on fire, and not a living soul to be found by the scouts.
+When from these, who had been despatched out every way, it was learnt,
+that whither the enemy had fled no certain traces could be discovered,
+and that they had nowhere rallied in bodies; when the summer was
+likewise passed and thence an impossibility of extending the operations
+of war, he conducted his army into the borders of the Horestians. After
+he had there received hostages, he ordered the Admiral of the Fleet to
+sail round Britain. For this expedition he was furnished with proper
+forces, and before him was already gone forth the terror of the Roman
+power: he himself the while led on his foot and horse with a slow pace,
+that thus the minds of these new nations might be awed and dismayed
+even by prolonging his march through them: he then lodged his army in
+garrisons for the winter. The fleet too having found a favourable sea,
+entered with great fame, into the harbour of Rhutupium: [Footnote:
+Supposed to be Sandwich Haven.] for, from thence it had sailed, and
+coasting along the nethermost shore of Britain, thither returned.
+
+With this course and situation of things Agricola by letters acquainted
+the Emperor; tidings which, however modestly recounted, without all
+ostentation, or any pomp of words, Domitian received as with joy in his
+countenance, so with anguish in his soul: such was his custom. His heart
+indeed smote him for his late mock triumph over the Germans, which he
+knew to be held in public derision; as to adorn it he had purchased a
+number of slaves, who were so decked in their habits and hair, as to
+resemble captives in war. But here a victory mighty and certain, gained
+by the slaughter of so many thousands of the enemy, was universally
+sounded by the voice of fame, and received with vast applause. Terrible
+above all things it was to him, that the name of a private man should be
+exalted above that of the Prince. In vain had he driven from the public
+tribunals all pursuits of popular evidence and fame, in vain smothered
+the lustre of every civil accomplishment, if any other than himself
+possessed the glory of excelling in war: nay, however he might dissemble
+every other distaste, yet to the person of the Emperor properly
+appertained the virtue and praise of being a great General. Tortured
+with these anxious thoughts, and indulging his humour of being shut up
+in secret, a certain indication that he was fostering some sanguinary
+purpose, he at last judged it the best course, upon this occasion, to
+hide and reserve his rancour till the first flights of fame were
+passed, and the affection of the army cooled. For, Agricola held yet the
+administration of Britain.
+
+To him therefore he caused to be decreed in Senate the triumphal
+ornaments, a statue crowned with laurel, with whatever else is bestowed
+instead of a real triumph, and heightened this his compliment with many
+expressions full of esteem and honour. He directed moreover a general
+expectation to be raised, that to Agricola was destined the Province of
+Syria, a Government then vacant by the death of Atilius Rufus, a man
+of Consular quality, since the same was reserved only for men of
+illustrious rank. Many there were who believed, that an Imperial
+freedman, one much trusted with the secret designs of his master, was by
+him despatched to carry the instrument appointing Agricola Governor of
+Syria, with orders to deliver it to him, were he still in Britain;
+that the freedman met Agricola crossing the Channel, and without once
+speaking to him, returned directly to Domitian. It is uncertain whether
+this account be true, or only a fiction framed in conformity to the
+character and genius of the Prince. To his successor, in the meantime,
+Agricola had surrendered the Province now settled in perfect peace and
+security. Moreover, to prevent all remarks upon the manner of his entry
+into Rome, from any popular distinction paid him, and any concourse of
+people to meet him, he utterly declined this observance of his friends,
+and came into the city by night; and by night, as he was directed,
+went to the palace. He was there received by the Emperor, with a short
+embrace, but without a word said; then passed, undistinguished, amongst
+the crowd of servile courtiers. Now in order to soften with other
+and different virtues the reputation of a military man, a name ever
+distasteful to those who live themselves in idleness, he resigned
+himself entirely to indolence and repose. In his dress he was modest;
+in his conversation courteous and free, and never found accompanied with
+more than one or two of his friends. Insomuch that many, such especially
+as are wont to judge of great men by their retinue and parade, all
+calculated to gain popular admiration, when they had beheld and observed
+Agricola, sought to know whence proceeded his mighty fame: there were
+indeed but few who could account for the motives of his conduct.
+
+Frequently, during the course of that time, was he accused in his
+absence before Domitian, and in his absence also acquitted. What
+threatened his life was no crime of his, nor complaint of any particular
+for injuries received, nor aught else save the glorious character of
+the man, and the spirit of the Emperor hating all excellence and every
+virtue. With these causes there concurred the most mischievous sort of
+all enemies, they who extolled him in order to destroy him. Moreover in
+the Commonwealth there ensued such times as would not permit the name
+of Agricola to remain unmentioned: so many were the armies which we had
+lost in Moesia, in Dacia, in Germany, in Pannonia; all by the wretched
+conduct of our Generals, either altogether impotent or foolhardy:
+so many withal were the brave officers, with so many bands of men
+overthrown and taken. Neither was the question and contest now about
+maintaining the limits of the Empire and guarding the rivers which
+served for its boundaries, but about defending the standing encampments
+of the legions and preserving our own territories. Thus, when public
+misfortunes were following one another in a continual train, when every
+year was become signal for calamities and slaughters, Agricola was by
+the common voice of the populace required for the command of our armies.
+For, all men were comparing his vigour, his firmness, and his mind
+trained in war, with the sloth and timidity of the others. With
+discourses of this strain, it is certain that even the ears of Domitian
+himself were teased; whilst all the best of his freedmen advised and
+pressed him to this choice, out of pure affection and duty, as did the
+worst out of virulence and envy; and to whatever appeared most malignant
+that Prince was ever prone. In this manner was Agricola, as well through
+his own virtues as through the base management of others, pushed upon a
+precipice even of glory.
+
+A.D. 90. The year was now arrived when to the lot of Agricola was to
+fall the Proconsulship of Asia or of Africa: and, as Civica had been
+lately murdered (even whilst Proconsul of the former Province), Agricola
+was neither unprepared what course to pursue, nor Domitian unfurnished
+with an example to follow. It happened too, that certain persons, men
+apprised of the secret purposes of the Prince, made it their business
+to accost Agricola and ask him, whether he meant in earnest to take
+possession of his Province. Nay, they began, at first indeed with some
+reserve, to extol a life of tranquillity and repose; anon they proffered
+their good offices to procure his demission and excuse: at last,
+throwing off all disguise, and proceeding at once to dissuade and to
+intimidate him, they prevailed with him to be carried, with this as his
+suit, to Domitian. He, already prepared to dissemble his sentiments,
+and assuming a mien of haughtiness, not only received the petition of
+Agricola to be excused, but when he had granted it, suffered himself
+to be presented with formal thanks, Nor was he ashamed of conferring
+a grace so unpopular and odious. To Agricola however he gave not the
+salary which was wont to be paid to Proconsuls, and which he himself had
+continued to some. Whether he were affronted that it was not asked, or
+whether restrained by his own guilty mind, lest he might seem to have
+purchased with money what he had hindered by his interposition and
+power. It is the nature of men, that whomsoever they injure they hate.
+Now Domitian was in his temper apt to be suddenly transported into
+rage, and, in proportion as he smothered his vengeance, the more
+irreconcilable he always certainly proved. Yet by the prudence and
+moderation of Agricola, he was softened. For, by no contumacy of his,
+nor by any vain ostentation of a spirit of liberty ill-timed, did he
+court fame or urge his fate. Let such who are wont to admire things
+daring and forbidden, know, that even under evil Princes great men may
+be produced, and that by the means of modesty and observance, provided
+these be accompanied with application and vigour, they may rise to an
+equal measure of public estimation and praise with that of many, who
+through a conduct very stubborn and precipitate, but of no advantage to
+the Commonweal, have distinguished themselves by dying only to gain a
+great name.
+
+A.D. 93. Afflicting to us his family proved the end of his life,
+sorrowful to his friends; and even to foreigners and such as knew him
+not, matter of trouble and condolence. The commonalty likewise, and
+such people as were void of employment, [Footnote: Or it may be thus
+translated: "The body of the people though chiefly intent upon such
+affairs as concerned not the State."--GORDON. Burnouf is better: "Ce
+peuple, qu'occupent d'autres interets."] were not only frequent in
+their visits to his house, but in all public places, in all particular
+companies made him the subject of their conversation. Nor, when his
+death was divulged, was there a soul found who either rejoiced at it,
+or presently forgot it. What heightened the public commiseration and
+concern, was a prevailing rumour that he was despatched by poison.
+That there was any proof of this, I dare not aver. Yet it is true, that
+during the whole course of his illness, Domitian caused frequent visits
+to be made him, indeed much more frequent than Princes are wont to
+make, both by his favourite freedmen and most trusty physicians;
+whether through real concern for his health, or solicitude to learn the
+probability of his death. It is well known that on the day in which he
+expired, continual accounts were, by messengers purposely placed, every
+instant transmitted to the Emperor, how fast his end was approaching;
+and no one believed, that he would thus quicken such tidings, had he
+been to feel any sorrow from hearing them. In his face however and even
+in his spirit, he affected to show some guise of grief; for, he was now
+secure against the object of his hate, and could more easily dissemble
+his present joy, than lately his fear. It was abundantly notorious how
+much it rejoiced him, upon reading the last will of Agricola, to find
+himself left joint heir with his excellent wife and tender daughter.
+This he took to have been done out of judgment and choice, and in
+pure honour to himself. So blind and corrupt was his mind rendered by
+continual flattery, as not to know, that to no Prince but a bad one will
+any good father bequeath his fortune.
+
+Agricola was born on the 13th of June, during the third Consulship
+of the Emperor Caligula. He died on the 24th of August, during the
+Consulship of Collega and Priscus, in the fifty-sixth year of his age.
+If posterity be desirous to know his make and stature; in his person
+he was rather genteel and regular than tall. [Footnote: Decentior quam
+sublimior fuit.] In his aspect there was nothing terrible. His looks
+were extremely graceful and pleasing. A good man you would have readily
+believed him, and been glad to have found that he was a great man. Nay,
+though he was snatched away whilst his age was yet in full vigour,
+if however his life be measured by his glory, he attained to a mighty
+length of days. For, every true felicity and acquisition, namely, all
+such as arise from virtue, he had already enjoyed to the full. As he had
+been likewise dignified with the Consular and triumphal honours, what
+more could fortune add to his lustre and renown? After enormous wealth
+he sought not: an honourable share he possessed. As behind him he left
+surviving his daughter and his wife, he may be even accounted happy;
+since by dying whilst his credit was nowise impaired, his fame in its
+full splendour, his relations and friends yet in a state of security, he
+escaped the evils to come. For, as before us he was wont to express his
+wishes, that he might survive to see this truly blessed Age, and Trajan
+swaying the sovereignty, wishes which he uttered with presages as of
+what would surely ensue; so it was a wondrous consolation attending the
+quickness of his death, that thence he evaded the misery of the latter
+times, when Domitian, who had ceased to exert his tyranny by starts only
+and intermissions, was come now to rend the Commonwealth by cruelties
+without all respite, and to overthrow it as it were by one great and
+deadly stroke.
+
+For, Agricola saw not the Court of the Senate besieged, nor the Senate
+enclosed by armed men, nor the butchery of so many men of Consular
+dignity, nor the flight and exile of so many ladies of the prime
+nobility, all effected in one continued havoc. Till then Carus Metius,
+the accuser, was only considerable for having been victorious in one
+bloody process; till then the cruel motions of Messallinus rang only
+within the palace at Alba; [Footnote: A country palace of Domitian.] and
+in those days Massa Bebius (afterwards so exercised in arraigning the
+innocent) was himself arraigned as a criminal. Presently after we, with
+our own hands, dragged Helvidius to prison and execution: we beheld the
+melancholy doom of Mauricus and Rusticus: we found ourselves besprinkled
+with the innocent blood of Senecio. Even Nero withheld his eyes from
+scenes of cruelty, he indeed ordered murders to be perpetrated, but saw
+not the perpetration. The principal part of our miseries under Domitian,
+was to be obliged to see him and be seen by him, at a time when all our
+sighs and sorrows were watched and marked down for condemnation; when
+that cruel countenance of his, always covered with a settled red, whence
+he hardened himself against all shame and blushing, served him to mark
+and recount all the pale horrors at once possessing so many men. Thou
+therefore, Agricola, art happy, not only as thy life was glorious, but
+as thy death was seasonable. According to the account of such who heard
+thy last words, thou didst accept thy fate cheerfully and with firmness,
+as if thou thus didst thy part to show the Emperor to be guiltless. But
+to myself and thy daughter, besides the anguish of having our father
+snatched from us, it proves a fresh accession of sorrow, that we had
+not an opportunity to attend thee in thy sickness, to solace thy sinking
+spirits, to please ourselves with seeing thee, please ourselves
+with embracing thee. Doubtless, we should have greedily received thy
+instructions and sayings, and engraved them for ever upon our hearts.
+This is our woe, this a wound to our spirit, that by the lot of long
+absence from thee thou wast already lost to us for four years before thy
+death. There is no question, excellent father, but that with whatever
+thy condition required thou wast honourably supplied, as thou wast
+attended by thy wife, one so full of tenderness for her husband: yet
+fewer tears accompanied thy course, and during thy last moments somewhat
+was wanting to satisfy thine eyes.
+
+If for the _Manes_ of the just any place be found; if, as philosophers
+hold, great spirits perish not with the body, pleasing be thy repose.
+Moreover, recall us thy family from this our weakness in regretting
+thee, and from these our effeminate wailings, to the contemplation of
+thy virtues, for which it were unjust to lament or to mourn. Let us
+rather adorn thy memory with deathless praises and (as far as our
+infirmities will allow) by pursuing and adopting thy excellencies.
+This is true honour, this the natural duty incumbent upon every near
+relation. This is also what I would recommend to thy daughter and thy
+wife, so to reverence the memory of a father, and a husband, as to be
+ever ruminating upon all his doings, upon all his sayings, and rather to
+adore his immortal name, rather the image of his mind than that of
+his person. Not that I mean to condemn the use of statues, such as
+are framed of marble or brass. But as the persons of men are frail and
+perishing, so are likewise the portraitures of men. The form of the soul
+is eternal, such as you cannot represent and preserve by the craft of
+hands or by materials foreign to its nature, nor otherwise than by a
+similitude and conformity of manners. Whatever we loved in Agricola,
+whatever we admired, remains, and will for ever remain implanted in the
+hearts of men, through an eternity of ages, and conveyed down in the
+voice of fame, in the record of things. For, many of the great ancients,
+by being buried in oblivion, have thence reaped the fate of men
+altogether mean and inglorious: but Agricola shall ever survive in his
+history here composed and transmitted to posterity.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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