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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


*** 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
étonnent, 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 Écrivante;" 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 à 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: £362,500. ] to the populace or
common sort, thirty-five thousand; to every common soldier of the
Praetorian Guards, a thousand small sesterces, [Footnote: £8, 6s. 8d. ]
and to every soldier of the Roman legions three hundred. [Footnote: £2,
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?