No More Learning

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: £8333. ] 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: £1666. ] 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: £2, 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: £83,000. ] 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 Coös 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: £8300. ]

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: £42,000. ] 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.