A further decree of the senate was passed
admonishing
the
commons of Siena to pay more respect to the laws.
commons of Siena to pay more respect to the laws.
Tacitus
' Having thus inflamed Montanus he
told him to take back a milder answer and dismissed him. On his return
Montanus pretended that his errand had been fruitless, and said
nothing about the rest of the interview: but it soon came to light.
Retaining a portion of his force, Civilis sent the veteran cohorts 33
with the most efficient of the German troops against Vocula and his
army. [320] He gave the command to Julius Maximus and his nephew
Claudius Victor. After rushing the winter-quarters of a cavalry
regiment at Asciburgium[321] on their way, they fell upon the Roman
camp and so completely surprised it that Vocula had no time to address
his army or to form it for battle. The only precaution he could take
in the general panic was to mass the legionaries in the centre with
the auxiliaries scattered on either flank. Our cavalry charged, but
found the enemy in good order ready to receive them, and came flying
back on to their own infantry. What followed was more of a massacre
than a battle. The Nervian cohorts, either from panic or treachery,
left our flanks exposed; thus the legions had to bear the brunt. They
had already lost their standards and were being cut down in the
trenches, when a fresh reinforcement suddenly changed the fortune of
the fight. Some Basque auxiliaries,[322] originally levied by Galba,
who had now been summoned to the rescue, on nearing the camp heard the
sound of fighting, and while the enemy were occupied, came charging in
on their rear. This caused more consternation than their numbers
warranted, the enemy taking them for the whole Roman force, either
from Novaesium or from Mainz. This mistake encouraged the Roman
troops: their confidence in others brought confidence in themselves.
The best of the Batavians, at least of their infantry, fell. The
cavalry made off with the standards and prisoners taken in the earlier
stage of the battle. Though our losses that day were numerically
larger, they were unimportant, whereas the Germans lost their best
troops.
On both sides the generals deserved defeat, and failed to make 34
good use of their success. Their fault was the same. Had Civilis
furnished the attacking column with more troops, they could never have
been surrounded by such a small force, and having stormed the camp
would have destroyed it. Vocula, on the other hand, had not even set
scouts to warn him of the enemy's approach, and consequently no sooner
sallied out than he was beaten. Then, when he had won the victory, he
showed great lack of confidence, and wasted day after day before
moving against the enemy. If he had made haste to follow up his
success and struck at the enemy at once, he might have raised the
siege of Vetera at one blow.
Meanwhile Civilis had been playing upon the feelings of the besieged
by pretending that the Romans had been defeated and success had
favoured his arms. The captured standards and colours were carried
round the walls and the prisoners also displayed. One of these did a
famous deed of heroism. Shouting at the top of his voice, he revealed
the truth. The Germans at once struck him dead, which only served to
confirm his information. Soon, too, the besieged saw signs of harried
fields and the smoke of burning farms, and began to realize that a
victorious army was approaching. When he was in sight of the camp
Vocula ordered his men to plant the standards and construct a trench
and rampart round them: they were to deposit all their baggage there
and fight unencumbered. This made them shout at the general to give
them the signal; and they had learnt to use threats too. Without even
taking time to form their line they started the battle, all tired as
they were, and in disorder. Civilis was ready waiting for them,
trusting quite as much to their mistakes as to the merits of his own
men. The Romans fought with varying fortune. All the most mutinous
proved cowards: some, however, remembered their recent victory and
stuck to their places, cutting down the enemy, and encouraging
themselves and their neighbours. When the battle was thus renewed,
they waved their hands and signalled to the besieged not to lose their
opportunity. These were watching all that happened from the walls, and
now came bursting out at every gate. It chanced that at this point
Civilis' horse fell and threw him; both armies believed the rumour
that he had been wounded and killed. This caused immense consternation
to his army and immense encouragement to ours. However, Vocula failed
to pursue them when they fled, and merely set about strengthening the
rampart and turrets, apparently in fear of another blockade. His
frequent failure to make use of his victory gives colour to the
suspicion that he preferred war. [323]
What chiefly distressed our troops was the lack of supplies. The 35
baggage-train of the legions was sent to Novaesium with a crowd of
non-combatants to fetch provisions thence by land, the enemy being now
masters of the river. The first convoy got through safely, while
Civilis was recovering from his fall. But when he heard that a second
foraging-party had been sent to Novaesium under guard of several
cohorts, and that they were proceeding on their way with their arms
piled in the wagons as if it was a time of perfect peace, few keeping
to the standards and all wandering at will, he sent some men forward
to hold the bridges and any places where the road was narrow, and then
formed up and attacked. The battle was fought on a long straggling
line, and the issue was still doubtful when nightfall broke it off.
The cohorts made their way through to Gelduba, where the camp remained
as it was,[324] garrisoned by the soldiers who had been left behind
there. It was obvious what dangers the convoy would have to face on
the return journey; they would be heavily laden and had already lost
their nerve. Vocula[325] accordingly added to his force a thousand
picked men from the Fifth and Fifteenth legions who had been at Vetera
during the siege, all tough soldiers with a grievance against their
generals. Against his orders, more than the thousand started with him,
openly complaining on the march that they would not put up with famine
and the treachery of their generals any longer. On the other hand,
those who stayed behind grumbled that they were left to their fate now
that part of the garrison had been removed. Thus there was a double
mutiny, one party calling Vocula back, the others refusing to return
to camp.
Meanwhile Civilis laid siege to Vetera. Vocula retired to Gelduba, 36
and thence to Novaesium, shortly afterwards winning a cavalry skirmish
just outside Novaesium. The Roman soldiers, however, alike in success
and in failure, were as eager as ever to make an end of their
generals. Now that their numbers were swelled by the arrival of the
detachments from the Fifth and the Fifteenth[326] they demanded their
donative, having learnt that money had arrived from Vitellius. Without
further delay Flaccus gave it to them in Vespasian's name, and this
did more than anything else to promote mutiny. They indulged in wild
dissipation and met every night in drinking-parties, at which they
revived their old grudge against Hordeonius Flaccus. None of the
officers ventured to interfere with them--the darkness somehow
obscured their sense of duty--and at last they dragged Flaccus out of
bed and murdered him. They were preparing to do the same with Vocula,
but he narrowly escaped in the darkness, disguised as a slave.
When the excitement subsided, their fears returned, and they sent 37
letters round by centurions to all the Gallic communities, asking for
reinforcements and money for the soldiers' pay.
Without a leader a mob is always rash, timorous, and inactive. On the
approach of Civilis they hurriedly snatched up their arms, and then
immediately dropped them and took to flight. Misfortune now bred
disunion, and the army of the Upper Rhine[327] dissociated itself
from the rest. However, they set up the statues of Vitellius again in
the camp and in the neighbouring Belgic villages, although by now
Vitellius was dead. [328] Soon the soldiers of the First, Fourth, and
Twenty-second repented of their folly and rejoined Vocula. He made
them take a second oath of allegiance to Vespasian and led them off to
raise the siege of Mainz. The besieging army, a combined force of
Chatti,[329] Usipi, and Mattiaci,[330] had already retired, having got
sufficient loot and suffered some loss. Our troops surprised them
while they were scattered along the road, and immediately attacked.
Moreover, the Treviri had built a rampart and breastwork all along
their frontier and fought the Germans again and again with heavy loss
to both sides. Before long, however, they rebelled, and thus sullied
their great services to the Roman people.
FOOTNOTES:
[316] The end of October, A. D. 69 (see iii. 30-34).
[317] Caecina, as consul, had probably while at Cremona issued
a manifesto in favour of joining the Flavian party.
[318] Cp. iii. 35.
[319] See chap. 13.
[320] At Gelduba (chap. 26).
[321] Asberg.
[322] From the north-east frontier of the Tarragona division
of Spain, of which Galba had been governor. Hordeonius
explained (chap. 25) that he had summoned aid from Spain.
[323] Mr. Henderson calls this sentence 'a veritable
masterpiece of improbability', and finds it 'hard to speak
calmly of such a judgement'. He has to confess that a military
motive for Vocula's inaction is hard to find. Tacitus, feeling
the same, offers a merely human motive. Soldiers of fortune
often prefer war to final victory, and in these days the
dangers of peace were only equalled by its ennui. Besides,
Tacitus' explanation lends itself to an epigram which he would
doubtless not have exchanged for the tedium of tactical truth.
[324] Cp. chap. 26.
[325] Having strengthened the defences of Vetera, he was now
going back to Gelduba.
[326] From the Vetera garrison.
[327] i. e. the troops which Flaccus at Mainz had put under
Vocula for the relief of Vetera (chap. 24).
[328] It was therefore later than December 21.
[329] Cp. chap. 12.
[330] The Usipi lived on the east bank of the Rhine between
the Sieg and the Lahn; the Mattiaci between the Lahn and the
Main, round Wiesbaden.
ROME AND THE EMPIRE UNDER VESPASIAN
During these events Vespasian took up his second consulship and 38
Titus his first, both in absence. [331] Rome was depressed and beset by
manifold anxieties. Apart from the real miseries of the moment, it
was plunged into a groundless panic on the rumour of a rebellion in
Africa, where Lucius Piso was supposed to be plotting a revolution.
Piso, who was governor of the province, was far from being a
firebrand. But the severity of the winter delayed the corn-ships, and
the common people, accustomed to buy their bread day by day, whose
interest in politics was confined to the corn-supply, soon began to
believe their fears that the coast of Africa was being blockaded and
supplies withheld. The Vitellians, who were still under the sway of
party spirit, fostered this rumour, and even the victorious party were
not entirely displeased at it, for none of their victories in the
civil war had satisfied their greed, and even foreign wars fell far
short of their ambition.
On the first of January the senate was convened by the Urban 39
Praetor,[332] Julius Frontinus, and passed votes of thanks and
congratulation to the generals, armies, and foreign princes. [333]
Tettius Julianus,[334] who had left his legion when it went over to
Vespasian, was deprived of his praetorship, which was conferred upon
Plotius Grypus. [335] Hormus[336] was raised to equestrian rank.
Frontinus then resigned his praetorship and Caesar Domitian succeeded
him. His name now stood at the head of all dispatches and edicts, but
the real authority lay with Mucianus, although Domitian, following
the promptings of his friends and of his own desires, frequently
asserted his independence. But Mucianus' chief cause of anxiety lay in
Antonius Primus and Arrius Varus. The fame of their exploits was still
fresh; the soldiers worshipped them; and they were popular in Rome,
because they had used no violence off the field of battle. It was even
hinted that Antonius had urged Crassus Scribonianus[337] to seize the
throne. He was a man who owed his distinction to famous ancestors and
to his brother's memory, and Antonius could promise him adequate
support for a conspiracy. However, Scribonianus refused. He had a
terror of all risks, and would hardly have been seduced even by the
certainty of success. Being unable to crush Antonius openly, Mucianus
showered compliments on him in the senate and embarrassed him with
promises, hinting at the governorship of Nearer Spain, which the
departure of Cluvius Rufus[338] had left vacant. Meanwhile he lavished
military commands on Antonius' friends. Then, having filled his empty
head with ambitious hopes, he destroyed his influence at one stroke by
moving the Seventh legion,[339] which was passionately attached to
Antonius, into winter-quarters. The Third, who were similarly devoted
to Arrius Varus, were sent back to Syria,[340] and part of the army
was taken out to the war in Germany. Thus, on the removal of the
disturbing factors, the city could resume its normal life under the
old regime of law and civil government.
On the day of his first appearance in the senate Domitian spoke a 40
few moderate sentences regretting the absence of his father and
brother. His behaviour was most proper, and, as his character was
still an unknown quantity, his blushes were taken for signs of
modesty. [341] He moved from the chair that all Galba's honours should
be restored, to which Curtius Montanus proposed an amendment that some
respect should also be paid to the memory of Piso. The senate approved
both proposals, though nothing was done about Piso. Next, various
commissions were appointed by lot to restore the spoils of war to the
owners; to examine and affix the bronze tablets of laws, which in
course of time had dropped off the walls; to revise the list of public
holidays, which in these days of flattery had been disgracefully
tampered with; and to introduce some economy into public expenditure.
Tettius Julianus was restored to his praetorship as soon as it was
discovered that he had taken refuge with Vespasian: but Grypus was
allowed to retain his rank. [342] It was then decided to resume the
hearing of the case of Musonius Rufus against Publius Celer[343]
Publius was convicted and the shade of Soranus satisfied. This strict
verdict made the day memorable in the annals of Rome, and credit was
also due to private enterprise, for everybody felt that Musonius had
done his duty in bringing the action. On the other hand, Demetrius, a
professor of Cynic philosophy, earned discredit for defending an
obvious criminal[344] more for ostentatious motives than from honest
conviction. As for Publius, courage and fluency alike failed him at
the critical moment. This trial was the signal for further reprisals
against prosecutors. Junius Mauricus[345] accordingly petitioned
Domitian that the senate might be allowed access to the minutes of the
imperial cabinet, in order to find out who had applied for leave to
bring a prosecution and against whom. The answer was that on such a
question as this the emperor must be consulted. Accordingly, at 41
the instigation of its leading members, the senate framed an oath in
these words, 'I call heaven to witness that I have never countenanced
any action prejudicial to any man's civil status, nor have I derived
any profit or any office from the misfortune of any Roman citizen. '
The magistrates vied with each other in their haste to take this oath,
and the other members did the same, when called upon to speak. Those
who had a guilty conscience were alarmed, and managed to alter the
wording of the oath by various devices. The house meanwhile applauded
every sign of scruple, and protested against each case of perjury.
This kind of informal censure fell most severely on Sariolenus Vocula,
Nonius Attianus, and Cestius Severus, who were notorious as habitual
informers under Nero. Against Sariolenus there was also a fresh charge
of having continued his practices with Vitellius. The members went on
shaking their fists at him until he left the house. They next turned
on Paccius Africanus, trying to hound him out in the same way. He was
supposed to have suggested to Nero the murder of the two brothers
Scribonius,[346] who were famous for their friendship and their
wealth. Africanus dared not admit his guilt, though he could not very
well deny it. So he swung round on Vibius Crispus,[347] who was
pestering him with questions, and tried to turn the tables by
implicating him in the charges which he could not rebut, thus shifting
the odium on to his accomplice.
On this occasion Vipstanus Messala[348] gained a great reputation, 42
both for dutiful affection and for eloquence, by venturing to
intercede for his brother Aquilius Regulus,[349] although he had not
attained the senatorial age. [350] Regulus had fallen into great
disfavour for having brought about the ruin of the noble families of
the Crassi and of Orfitus. It was supposed that, though quite a young
man, he had voluntarily undertaken the prosecution, not to escape any
danger which was threatening him, but from purely ambitious motives.
Crassus' wife, Sulpicia Praetextata, and his four sons were anxious to
secure revenge if the senate would grant a trial. Messala therefore
made no attempt to defend the case or the accused, but tried to
shelter his brother, and had already won over some of the senators.
Curtius Montanus now attacked him in a savage speech, and even went so
far as to charge Regulus with having given money to Piso's murderer
after Galba's death, and with having bitten Piso's head. [351] 'That,'
said he, 'Nero certainly did not compel you to do. You purchased
neither position nor safety by that savage piece of cruelty. We may
put up with the pleas of those wretches who prefer to ruin others
rather than endanger their own lives. But your father's banishment had
guaranteed your security. His property had been divided amongst his
creditors. [352] You were not of an age to stand for office. Nero had
nothing either to hope or to fear from you. Your talents were as yet
untried and you had never exerted them in any man's defence, yet your
lust for blood, your insatiable ambition, led you to stain your young
hands in the blood of Rome's nobility. At one swoop you caused the
ruin of innocent youths, of old and distinguished statesmen, of
high-born ladies; and out of the country's disaster you secured for
yourself the spoils of two ex-consuls,[353] stuffed seven million
sesterces into your purse, and shone with the reflected glory of a
priesthood. You would blame Nero's lack of enterprise because he took
one household at a time, thus causing unnecessary fatigue to himself
and his informers, when he might have ruined the whole senate at a
single word. Why, gentlemen, you must indeed keep and preserve to
yourselves a counsellor of such ready resource. Let each generation
have its good examples: and as our old men follow Eprius Marcellus or
Vibius Crispus, let the rising generation emulate Regulus. Villainy
finds followers even when it fails. What if it flourish and prosper?
If we hesitate to touch a mere ex-quaestor, shall we be any bolder
when he has been praetor and consul? Or do you suppose that the race
of tyrants came to an end in Nero? That is what the people believed
who outlived Tiberius or Caligula, and meanwhile there arose one more
infamous and more bloody still. [354] We are not afraid of Vespasian.
We trust his years and his natural moderation. But a good precedent
outlives a good sovereign. Gentlemen, we are growing effete: we are no
longer that senate which, after Nero had been killed, clamoured for
the punishment of all informers and their menials according to our
ancestors' rigorous prescription. The best chance comes on the day
after the death of a bad emperor. '
The senate listened to Montanus's speech with such sympathy that 43
Helvidius began to hope that it might be possible to get a verdict
even against Marcellus. Beginning with a eulogy of Cluvius Rufus, who,
though quite as rich and as eloquent as Marcellus, had never brought
any one into trouble under Nero, he went on to attack Marcellus, both
by contrasting him with Rufus and by pressing home the charge against
him. Feeling that the house was warming to this rhetoric, Marcellus
got up as though to leave, exclaiming, 'I am off, Helvidius: I leave
you your senate: you can tyrannize over it under Caesar's nose. '
Vibius Crispus followed Marcellus, and, though both were angry, their
expressions were very different. Marcellus marched out with flashing
eyes, Crispus with a smile on his face. Eventually their friends went
and brought them back. Thus the struggle grew more and more heated
between a well-meaning majority and a small but powerful minority; and
since they were both animated by irreconcilable hatred, the day was
spent in vain recriminations.
At the next sitting Domitian opened by recommending them to forget 44
their grievances and grudges and the unavoidable exigences of the
recent past. Mucianus then at great length moved a motion in favour of
the prosecutors, issuing a mild warning, almost in terms of entreaty,
to those who wanted to revive actions which had been begun and
dropped. Seeing that their attempt at independence was being
thwarted, the senate gave it up. However, that it might not seem as if
the senate's opinion had been flouted and complete impunity granted
for all crimes committed under Nero, Mucianus forced Octavius Sagitta
and Antistius Sosianus, who had returned from exile, to go back to the
islands to which they had been confined. Octavius had committed
adultery with Pontia Postumina, and, on her refusal to marry him, had
murdered her in a fit of jealous fury. Sosianus was an unprincipled
scoundrel who had been the ruin of many. [355] The senate had found
them both guilty, and passed a heavy sentence of exile, nor had their
penalty been remitted, although others were allowed to return.
However, this failed to allay the ill-feeling against Mucianus, for
Sosianus and Sagitta, whether they returned or not, were of no
importance, whereas people were afraid of the professional
prosecutors, who were men of wealth and ability and experts in crime.
Unanimity was gradually restored in the senate by the holding of a 45
trial according to ancient precedent, before a court of the whole
house. A senator named Manlius Patruitus complained that he had been
beaten before a mob of people in the colony of Siena by order of the
local magistrates. Nor had the affront stopped there. They had held a
mock funeral before his eyes, and had accompanied their dirges and
lamentations with gross insults levelled at the whole senate. The
accused were summoned; their case was tried; they were convicted and
punished.
A further decree of the senate was passed admonishing the
commons of Siena to pay more respect to the laws. About the same time
Antonius Flamma was prosecuted by Cyrene for extortion, and exiled for
the inhumanity of his conduct.
Meanwhile, a mutiny almost broke out among the soldiers. The men 46
who had been discharged by Vitellius[356] came together again in
support of Vespasian, and demanded re-admission. They were joined by
the selected legionaries who had also been led to hope for service in
the Guards, and they now demanded the pay they had been promised. Even
the Vitellians[357] alone could not have been dispersed without
serious bloodshed, but it would require immense sums of money to
retain the services of such a large number of men. Mucianus
accordingly entered the barracks to make a careful estimate of each
man's term of service. He formed up the victorious troops with their
own arms and distinctive decorations, each company a few paces from
the next. Then the Vitellians who had surrendered, as we have
described, at Bovillae,[358] and all the other soldiers who had been
hunted down in the city and its neighbourhood, were marched out almost
entirely without arms or uniforms. Mucianus then had them sorted out,
and drew up in separate corps the troops of the German army, of the
British army, and of any others that were in Rome. Their first glance
at the scene astounded them. Facing them they saw what looked like a
fighting front bristling with weapons, while they were caught in a
trap, defenceless and foul with dirt. As soon as they began to be
sorted out a panic seized them. The German troops in particular were
terrified at their isolation, and felt they were being told off for
slaughter. They embraced their comrades and clung upon their necks,
asking for one last kiss, begging not to be left alone, crying out,
'Our cause is the same as yours, why should our fate be different? '
They appealed now to Mucianus, now to the absent emperor, and lastly
to the powers of Heaven, until Mucianus came to the rescue of their
imaginary terrors by calling them all 'sworn servants of one emperor',
for he found that the victorious army was joining in and seconding
their tears with cheering. On that day the matter ended there. A few
days later, when Domitian addressed them, they received him with
renewed confidence, refused his offer of lands, and begged for
enlistment and their pay instead. This was only a petition, but one
that could not be refused: so they were admitted to the Guards.
Subsequently, those who had grown old and completed the regular term
of service[359] were honourably discharged. Others were dismissed for
misbehaviour, but one by one at different times, which is always the
safest method of weakening any kind of conspiracy.
To return to the senate; a bill was now passed that a loan of 47
sixty million sesterces should be raised from private individuals and
administered by Pompeius Silvanus. This may have been a financial
necessity, or they may have wanted it to seem so. At any rate the
necessity soon ceased to exist, or else they gave up the pretence.
Domitian then carried a proposal that the consulships conferred by
Vitellius should be cancelled, and that a state funeral should be held
in honour of Flavius Sabinus. [360] Both proposals are striking
evidence of the fickleness of human fortune, which so often makes the
first last and the last first.
It was about this time that Lucius Piso,[361] the pro-consul of 48
Africa, was killed. To give a true explanation of this murder we must
go back and take a brief survey of certain matters which are closely
connected with the reasons for such crimes. Under the sainted Augustus
and Tiberius the pro-consul of Africa had in his command one legion
and some auxiliaries with which to guard the frontier of the
empire. [362] Caligula, who was restless by nature and harboured
suspicions of the then pro-consul, Marcus Silanus, withdrew the
legion from his command and put it under a legate whom he sent out for
the purpose. As each had an equal amount of patronage and their
functions overlapped, Caligula thus caused a state of friction which
was further aggravated by regrettable quarrels. The greater permanence
of his tenure[363] gradually strengthened the legate's position, and
perhaps an inferior is always anxious to vie with his betters. The
most eminent governors, on the other hand, were more careful of their
comfort than of their authority.
At the present time the legion in Africa was commanded by Valerius 49
Festus,[364] an extravagant young man, immoderately ambitious, whose
kinship with Vitellius had given him some anxiety. He had frequent
interviews with Piso, and it is impossible to tell whether he tempted
Piso to rebel or resisted Piso's temptations. No one was present at
their interviews, which were held in private, and after Piso's death
most people were inclined to sympathize with his murderer. Beyond
doubt the province and the garrison were unfavourable to Vespasian.
Besides, some of the Vitellian refugees from Rome pointed out to Piso
that the Gallic provinces were wavering. Germany was ready to rebel,
and he himself was in danger; 'and,' they added, 'if you earn
suspicion in peace your safest course is war. ' Meanwhile, Claudius
Sagitta, who commanded Petra's Horse,[365] made a good crossing and
outstripped the centurion Papirius, who had been sent out by Mucianus
and was commissioned, so Sagitta affirmed, to assassinate Piso.
Sagitta further stated that Galerianus,[366] Piso's cousin and
son-in-law, had already been murdered, and told him that while his one
hope lay in taking a bold step, there were two courses open to him: he
might either take up arms on the spot, or he might prefer to sail to
Gaul and offer to lead the Vitellian armies. This made no impression
on Piso. When the centurion whom Mucianus had sent arrived at the
gates of Carthage, he kept on shouting all sorts of congratulations to
Piso on becoming emperor. The people he met, who were astounded at
this unexpected miracle, were instructed to take up the cry. With a
crowd's usual credulity, they rushed into the forum calling on Piso to
appear, and as they had a passion for flattery and took no interest in
the truth, they proceeded to fill the whole place with a confused
noise of cheering. Piso, however, either at a hint from Sagitta, or
from his natural good sense, would not show himself in public or give
way to the excitement of the crowd. He examined the centurion, and
learnt that his object was to trump up a charge against him and then
kill him. [367] He accordingly had the man executed more from
indignation against the assassin than in any hope of saving his life;
for he found that the man had been one of the murderers of Clodius
Macer,[368] and after staining his hand in the blood of a military
officer was now proposing to turn it against a civil governor. Piso
then reprimanded the Carthaginians in an edict which clearly showed
his anxiety, and refrained from performing even the routine of his
office, shutting himself up in his house, for fear that he might by
accident provide some pretext for further demonstrations.
When the news of the popular excitement and the centurion's 50
execution reached the ears of Festus, considerably exaggerated and
with the usual admixture of falsehood, he at once sent off a party of
horsemen to murder Piso. Riding at full speed, they reached the
governor's house in the twilight of early dawn and broke in with drawn
swords. As Festus had mainly chosen Carthaginian auxiliaries and Moors
to do the murder, most of them did not know Piso by sight. However,
near his bedroom they happened on a slave and asked him where Piso was
and what he looked like. In answer the slave told them a heroic lie
and said he was Piso, whereupon they immediately cut him down.
However, Piso himself was killed very soon after, for there was one
man among them who knew him, and that was Baebius Massa, one of the
imperial agents in Africa, who was already a danger to all the best
men in Rome. His name will recur again and again in this narrative, as
one of the causes of the troubles which beset us later on. [369]
Festus had been waiting at Adrumetum[370] to see how things went, and
he now hastened to rejoin his legion. He had the camp-prefect,
Caetronius Pisanus, put in irons, alleging that he was one of Piso's
accomplices, though his real motive was personal dislike. He then
punished some of the soldiers and centurions and rewarded others; in
neither case for their deserts, but because he wanted it to be thought
that he had stamped out a war. His next task was to settle the
differences between Oea and Lepcis. [371] These had had a trivial
origin in thefts of fruit and cattle by the peasants, but they were
now trying to settle them in open warfare. Oea, being inferior in
numbers, had called in the aid of the Garamantes,[372] an invincible
tribe, who were always a fruitful source of damage to their
neighbours. Thus the people of Lepcis were in great straits. Their
fields had been wasted far and wide, and they had fled in terror under
shelter of their walls, when the Roman auxiliaries, both horse and
foot, arrived on the scene. They routed the Garamantes and recovered
all the booty, except what the nomads had already sold among the
inaccessible hut-settlements of the far interior.
After the battle of Cremona and the arrival of good news from 51
every quarter, Vespasian now heard of Vitellius' death. A large number
of people of all classes, who were as lucky as they were adventurous,
successfully braved the winter seas on purpose to bring him the
news. [373] There also arrived envoys from King Vologaesus offering the
services of forty thousand Parthian cavalry. [374] It was, indeed, a
proud and fortunate situation to be courted with such splendid offers
of assistance, and to need none of them. Vologaesus was duly thanked
and instructed to send his envoys to the senate and to understand that
peace had been made. Vespasian now devoted his attention to the
affairs of Italy and the Capitol, and received an unfavourable report
of Domitian, who seemed to be trespassing beyond the natural sphere of
an emperor's youthful son. He accordingly handed over the flower of
his army to Titus, who was to finish off the war with the Jews. [375]
It is said that before his departure Titus had a long talk with 52
his father and begged him not to be rash and lose his temper at these
incriminating reports, but to meet his son in a forgiving and
unprejudiced spirit, 'Neither legions nor fleets,' he is reported to
have said, 'are such sure bulwarks of the throne as a number of
children. Time, chance and often, too, ambition and misunderstanding
weaken, alienate or extinguish friendship: a man's own blood cannot be
severed from him; and above all is this the case with a sovereign,
for, while others enjoy his good fortune, his misfortunes only concern
his nearest kin. Nor again are brothers likely to remain good friends
unless their father sets them an example. ' These words had the effect
of making Vespasian rather delighted at Titus' goodness of heart than
inclined to forgive Domitian. 'You may ease your mind,' he said to
Titus, 'It is now your duty to increase the prestige of Rome on the
field: I will concern myself with peace at home. ' Though the weather
was still very rough, Vespasian at once launched his fastest
corn-ships with a full cargo. For the city was on the verge of
famine. [376] Indeed, there were not supplies for more than ten days in
the public granaries at the moment when Vespasian's convoy brought
relief.
The task of restoring the Capitol[377] was entrusted to Lucius 53
Vestinus, who, though only a knight, yet in reputation and influence
could rank with the highest. He summoned all the soothsayers,[378] and
they recommended that the ruins of the former temple should be carried
away to the marshes[379] and a new temple erected on the same site:
the gods were unwilling, they said, that the original form of the
building should be changed. On the 21st of June, a day of bright
sunshine, the whole consecrated area of the temple was decorated with
chaplets and garlands. In marched soldiers, all men with names of good
omen, carrying branches of lucky trees:[380] then came the Vestal
Virgins accompanied by boys and girls, each of whom had father and
mother alive,[381] and they cleansed it all by sprinkling fresh water
from a spring or river. [382] Next, while the high priest, Plautius
Aelianus, dictated the proper formulae, Helvidius Priscus, the
praetor, first consecrated the site by a solemn sacrifice[383] of a
pig, a sheep and an ox, and then duly offering the entrails on an
altar of turf, he prayed to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, as the
guardian deities of the empire, to prosper the enterprise, and by
divine grace to bring to completion this house of theirs which human
piety had here begun. He then took hold of the chaplets to which the
ropes holding the foundation-stone were attached. At the same moment
the other magistrates and the priests and senators and knights and
large numbers of the populace in joyous excitement with one great
effort dragged the huge stone into its place. On every side gifts of
gold and silver were flung into the foundations, and blocks of virgin
ore unscathed by any furnace, just as they had come from the womb of
the earth. For the soothsayers had given out that the building must
not be desecrated by the use of stone or gold that had been put to any
other purpose. The height of the roof was raised. This was the only
change that religious scruples would allow, and it was felt to be the
only point in which the former temple lacked grandeur.
FOOTNOTES:
[331] We now reach the year A. D. 70. Vespasian had already
been consul under Claudius in 51.
[332] In the absence of both consuls.
[333] i. e. Sohaemus, Antiochus, and Agrippa (cp. ii. 81).
[334] Cp. ii. 85.
[335] Cp. iii. 52.
[336] Vespasian's freedman (cp. iii. 12, 28. )
[337] The elder brother of Galba's adopted son Piso.
[338] See ii. 65. He must by now have ceased to be absentee
governor.
[339] It was to the command of this legion that Galba promoted
Antonius (see ii. 86).
[340] Varus had served under Corbulo in Syria.
[341] In his life of _Agricola_ Tacitus speaks of Domitian's
red face as 'his natural bulwark against shame'.
[342] See chap. 39.
[343] See chap. 10.
[344] i. e. Publius Celer. As this Demetrius was present with
Thrasea at the end, holding high philosophical discourse with
him (_Ann. _ xvi. 34), he seems to have been a Cynic in the
modern sense as well.
[345] Another Stoic malcontent, brother of the Arulenus
Rusticus mentioned in iii. 80.
[346] According to Dio they were two devoted and inseparable
brothers. They became governors, one of Upper and the other of
Lower Germany, and, being wealthy, were forced by Nero to
commit suicide.
[347] Cp. ii. 10.
[348] Cp. iii. 9.
[349] Cp. i. 48, note 79.
[350] Twenty-five.
[351] Piso was a brother of Regulus' victim. He was therefore
glad to see him incapable of reprisal.
[352] i. e. there was no property left to tempt Nero.
[353] i. e. the money and other rewards won by prosecuting
Crassus and Orfitus.
[354] Nero.
[355] He had recited some libellous verses on Nero and been
condemned for treason.
[356] Cp. ii. 67.
[357] i. e. those who had surrendered at Narnia and Bovillae,
as distinct from those who had been discharged after Galba's
death.
[358] Chap. 2.
[359] i. e. those who were either over fifty or had served in
the Guards sixteen or in a legion twenty years.
[360] See iii. 74.
[361] See chap. 38.
[362] Africa was peculiar in that the pro-consul, who governed
it for the senate, commanded an army. All the other provinces
demanding military protection were under imperial control.
Caligula, without withdrawing the province from the senate, in
some degree regularized the anomaly by transferring this
command to a 'legate' of his own, technically inferior to the
civil governor.
[363] Whereas the pro-consul's appointment was for one year
only, the emperor's legate retained his post at the emperor's
pleasure, and was usually given several years.
[364] Cp. ii. 98.
[365] See i. 70.
[366] See chap. 11.
[367] i. e. he hoped that Piso would accept the story with
alacrity and thus commit himself.
[368] Cp. i. 7.
[369] Under Domitian he became one of the most notorious and
dreaded of informers. His name doubtless recurred in the lost
books of the Histories. But the only other extant mention of
him by Tacitus is in the life of Agricola (chap. 45).
[370] On the coast between Carthage and Thapsus.
[371] Tripoli and Lebda.
[372] Further inland; probably the modern Fezzan.
[373] Vespasian was still at Alexandria.
[374] Cp. ii. 82, note 410.
[375] Cp. ii. 4 and Book V.
[376] It had been Vespasian's original plan to starve Rome out
by holding the granaries of Egypt and Africa. See iii. 48.
told him to take back a milder answer and dismissed him. On his return
Montanus pretended that his errand had been fruitless, and said
nothing about the rest of the interview: but it soon came to light.
Retaining a portion of his force, Civilis sent the veteran cohorts 33
with the most efficient of the German troops against Vocula and his
army. [320] He gave the command to Julius Maximus and his nephew
Claudius Victor. After rushing the winter-quarters of a cavalry
regiment at Asciburgium[321] on their way, they fell upon the Roman
camp and so completely surprised it that Vocula had no time to address
his army or to form it for battle. The only precaution he could take
in the general panic was to mass the legionaries in the centre with
the auxiliaries scattered on either flank. Our cavalry charged, but
found the enemy in good order ready to receive them, and came flying
back on to their own infantry. What followed was more of a massacre
than a battle. The Nervian cohorts, either from panic or treachery,
left our flanks exposed; thus the legions had to bear the brunt. They
had already lost their standards and were being cut down in the
trenches, when a fresh reinforcement suddenly changed the fortune of
the fight. Some Basque auxiliaries,[322] originally levied by Galba,
who had now been summoned to the rescue, on nearing the camp heard the
sound of fighting, and while the enemy were occupied, came charging in
on their rear. This caused more consternation than their numbers
warranted, the enemy taking them for the whole Roman force, either
from Novaesium or from Mainz. This mistake encouraged the Roman
troops: their confidence in others brought confidence in themselves.
The best of the Batavians, at least of their infantry, fell. The
cavalry made off with the standards and prisoners taken in the earlier
stage of the battle. Though our losses that day were numerically
larger, they were unimportant, whereas the Germans lost their best
troops.
On both sides the generals deserved defeat, and failed to make 34
good use of their success. Their fault was the same. Had Civilis
furnished the attacking column with more troops, they could never have
been surrounded by such a small force, and having stormed the camp
would have destroyed it. Vocula, on the other hand, had not even set
scouts to warn him of the enemy's approach, and consequently no sooner
sallied out than he was beaten. Then, when he had won the victory, he
showed great lack of confidence, and wasted day after day before
moving against the enemy. If he had made haste to follow up his
success and struck at the enemy at once, he might have raised the
siege of Vetera at one blow.
Meanwhile Civilis had been playing upon the feelings of the besieged
by pretending that the Romans had been defeated and success had
favoured his arms. The captured standards and colours were carried
round the walls and the prisoners also displayed. One of these did a
famous deed of heroism. Shouting at the top of his voice, he revealed
the truth. The Germans at once struck him dead, which only served to
confirm his information. Soon, too, the besieged saw signs of harried
fields and the smoke of burning farms, and began to realize that a
victorious army was approaching. When he was in sight of the camp
Vocula ordered his men to plant the standards and construct a trench
and rampart round them: they were to deposit all their baggage there
and fight unencumbered. This made them shout at the general to give
them the signal; and they had learnt to use threats too. Without even
taking time to form their line they started the battle, all tired as
they were, and in disorder. Civilis was ready waiting for them,
trusting quite as much to their mistakes as to the merits of his own
men. The Romans fought with varying fortune. All the most mutinous
proved cowards: some, however, remembered their recent victory and
stuck to their places, cutting down the enemy, and encouraging
themselves and their neighbours. When the battle was thus renewed,
they waved their hands and signalled to the besieged not to lose their
opportunity. These were watching all that happened from the walls, and
now came bursting out at every gate. It chanced that at this point
Civilis' horse fell and threw him; both armies believed the rumour
that he had been wounded and killed. This caused immense consternation
to his army and immense encouragement to ours. However, Vocula failed
to pursue them when they fled, and merely set about strengthening the
rampart and turrets, apparently in fear of another blockade. His
frequent failure to make use of his victory gives colour to the
suspicion that he preferred war. [323]
What chiefly distressed our troops was the lack of supplies. The 35
baggage-train of the legions was sent to Novaesium with a crowd of
non-combatants to fetch provisions thence by land, the enemy being now
masters of the river. The first convoy got through safely, while
Civilis was recovering from his fall. But when he heard that a second
foraging-party had been sent to Novaesium under guard of several
cohorts, and that they were proceeding on their way with their arms
piled in the wagons as if it was a time of perfect peace, few keeping
to the standards and all wandering at will, he sent some men forward
to hold the bridges and any places where the road was narrow, and then
formed up and attacked. The battle was fought on a long straggling
line, and the issue was still doubtful when nightfall broke it off.
The cohorts made their way through to Gelduba, where the camp remained
as it was,[324] garrisoned by the soldiers who had been left behind
there. It was obvious what dangers the convoy would have to face on
the return journey; they would be heavily laden and had already lost
their nerve. Vocula[325] accordingly added to his force a thousand
picked men from the Fifth and Fifteenth legions who had been at Vetera
during the siege, all tough soldiers with a grievance against their
generals. Against his orders, more than the thousand started with him,
openly complaining on the march that they would not put up with famine
and the treachery of their generals any longer. On the other hand,
those who stayed behind grumbled that they were left to their fate now
that part of the garrison had been removed. Thus there was a double
mutiny, one party calling Vocula back, the others refusing to return
to camp.
Meanwhile Civilis laid siege to Vetera. Vocula retired to Gelduba, 36
and thence to Novaesium, shortly afterwards winning a cavalry skirmish
just outside Novaesium. The Roman soldiers, however, alike in success
and in failure, were as eager as ever to make an end of their
generals. Now that their numbers were swelled by the arrival of the
detachments from the Fifth and the Fifteenth[326] they demanded their
donative, having learnt that money had arrived from Vitellius. Without
further delay Flaccus gave it to them in Vespasian's name, and this
did more than anything else to promote mutiny. They indulged in wild
dissipation and met every night in drinking-parties, at which they
revived their old grudge against Hordeonius Flaccus. None of the
officers ventured to interfere with them--the darkness somehow
obscured their sense of duty--and at last they dragged Flaccus out of
bed and murdered him. They were preparing to do the same with Vocula,
but he narrowly escaped in the darkness, disguised as a slave.
When the excitement subsided, their fears returned, and they sent 37
letters round by centurions to all the Gallic communities, asking for
reinforcements and money for the soldiers' pay.
Without a leader a mob is always rash, timorous, and inactive. On the
approach of Civilis they hurriedly snatched up their arms, and then
immediately dropped them and took to flight. Misfortune now bred
disunion, and the army of the Upper Rhine[327] dissociated itself
from the rest. However, they set up the statues of Vitellius again in
the camp and in the neighbouring Belgic villages, although by now
Vitellius was dead. [328] Soon the soldiers of the First, Fourth, and
Twenty-second repented of their folly and rejoined Vocula. He made
them take a second oath of allegiance to Vespasian and led them off to
raise the siege of Mainz. The besieging army, a combined force of
Chatti,[329] Usipi, and Mattiaci,[330] had already retired, having got
sufficient loot and suffered some loss. Our troops surprised them
while they were scattered along the road, and immediately attacked.
Moreover, the Treviri had built a rampart and breastwork all along
their frontier and fought the Germans again and again with heavy loss
to both sides. Before long, however, they rebelled, and thus sullied
their great services to the Roman people.
FOOTNOTES:
[316] The end of October, A. D. 69 (see iii. 30-34).
[317] Caecina, as consul, had probably while at Cremona issued
a manifesto in favour of joining the Flavian party.
[318] Cp. iii. 35.
[319] See chap. 13.
[320] At Gelduba (chap. 26).
[321] Asberg.
[322] From the north-east frontier of the Tarragona division
of Spain, of which Galba had been governor. Hordeonius
explained (chap. 25) that he had summoned aid from Spain.
[323] Mr. Henderson calls this sentence 'a veritable
masterpiece of improbability', and finds it 'hard to speak
calmly of such a judgement'. He has to confess that a military
motive for Vocula's inaction is hard to find. Tacitus, feeling
the same, offers a merely human motive. Soldiers of fortune
often prefer war to final victory, and in these days the
dangers of peace were only equalled by its ennui. Besides,
Tacitus' explanation lends itself to an epigram which he would
doubtless not have exchanged for the tedium of tactical truth.
[324] Cp. chap. 26.
[325] Having strengthened the defences of Vetera, he was now
going back to Gelduba.
[326] From the Vetera garrison.
[327] i. e. the troops which Flaccus at Mainz had put under
Vocula for the relief of Vetera (chap. 24).
[328] It was therefore later than December 21.
[329] Cp. chap. 12.
[330] The Usipi lived on the east bank of the Rhine between
the Sieg and the Lahn; the Mattiaci between the Lahn and the
Main, round Wiesbaden.
ROME AND THE EMPIRE UNDER VESPASIAN
During these events Vespasian took up his second consulship and 38
Titus his first, both in absence. [331] Rome was depressed and beset by
manifold anxieties. Apart from the real miseries of the moment, it
was plunged into a groundless panic on the rumour of a rebellion in
Africa, where Lucius Piso was supposed to be plotting a revolution.
Piso, who was governor of the province, was far from being a
firebrand. But the severity of the winter delayed the corn-ships, and
the common people, accustomed to buy their bread day by day, whose
interest in politics was confined to the corn-supply, soon began to
believe their fears that the coast of Africa was being blockaded and
supplies withheld. The Vitellians, who were still under the sway of
party spirit, fostered this rumour, and even the victorious party were
not entirely displeased at it, for none of their victories in the
civil war had satisfied their greed, and even foreign wars fell far
short of their ambition.
On the first of January the senate was convened by the Urban 39
Praetor,[332] Julius Frontinus, and passed votes of thanks and
congratulation to the generals, armies, and foreign princes. [333]
Tettius Julianus,[334] who had left his legion when it went over to
Vespasian, was deprived of his praetorship, which was conferred upon
Plotius Grypus. [335] Hormus[336] was raised to equestrian rank.
Frontinus then resigned his praetorship and Caesar Domitian succeeded
him. His name now stood at the head of all dispatches and edicts, but
the real authority lay with Mucianus, although Domitian, following
the promptings of his friends and of his own desires, frequently
asserted his independence. But Mucianus' chief cause of anxiety lay in
Antonius Primus and Arrius Varus. The fame of their exploits was still
fresh; the soldiers worshipped them; and they were popular in Rome,
because they had used no violence off the field of battle. It was even
hinted that Antonius had urged Crassus Scribonianus[337] to seize the
throne. He was a man who owed his distinction to famous ancestors and
to his brother's memory, and Antonius could promise him adequate
support for a conspiracy. However, Scribonianus refused. He had a
terror of all risks, and would hardly have been seduced even by the
certainty of success. Being unable to crush Antonius openly, Mucianus
showered compliments on him in the senate and embarrassed him with
promises, hinting at the governorship of Nearer Spain, which the
departure of Cluvius Rufus[338] had left vacant. Meanwhile he lavished
military commands on Antonius' friends. Then, having filled his empty
head with ambitious hopes, he destroyed his influence at one stroke by
moving the Seventh legion,[339] which was passionately attached to
Antonius, into winter-quarters. The Third, who were similarly devoted
to Arrius Varus, were sent back to Syria,[340] and part of the army
was taken out to the war in Germany. Thus, on the removal of the
disturbing factors, the city could resume its normal life under the
old regime of law and civil government.
On the day of his first appearance in the senate Domitian spoke a 40
few moderate sentences regretting the absence of his father and
brother. His behaviour was most proper, and, as his character was
still an unknown quantity, his blushes were taken for signs of
modesty. [341] He moved from the chair that all Galba's honours should
be restored, to which Curtius Montanus proposed an amendment that some
respect should also be paid to the memory of Piso. The senate approved
both proposals, though nothing was done about Piso. Next, various
commissions were appointed by lot to restore the spoils of war to the
owners; to examine and affix the bronze tablets of laws, which in
course of time had dropped off the walls; to revise the list of public
holidays, which in these days of flattery had been disgracefully
tampered with; and to introduce some economy into public expenditure.
Tettius Julianus was restored to his praetorship as soon as it was
discovered that he had taken refuge with Vespasian: but Grypus was
allowed to retain his rank. [342] It was then decided to resume the
hearing of the case of Musonius Rufus against Publius Celer[343]
Publius was convicted and the shade of Soranus satisfied. This strict
verdict made the day memorable in the annals of Rome, and credit was
also due to private enterprise, for everybody felt that Musonius had
done his duty in bringing the action. On the other hand, Demetrius, a
professor of Cynic philosophy, earned discredit for defending an
obvious criminal[344] more for ostentatious motives than from honest
conviction. As for Publius, courage and fluency alike failed him at
the critical moment. This trial was the signal for further reprisals
against prosecutors. Junius Mauricus[345] accordingly petitioned
Domitian that the senate might be allowed access to the minutes of the
imperial cabinet, in order to find out who had applied for leave to
bring a prosecution and against whom. The answer was that on such a
question as this the emperor must be consulted. Accordingly, at 41
the instigation of its leading members, the senate framed an oath in
these words, 'I call heaven to witness that I have never countenanced
any action prejudicial to any man's civil status, nor have I derived
any profit or any office from the misfortune of any Roman citizen. '
The magistrates vied with each other in their haste to take this oath,
and the other members did the same, when called upon to speak. Those
who had a guilty conscience were alarmed, and managed to alter the
wording of the oath by various devices. The house meanwhile applauded
every sign of scruple, and protested against each case of perjury.
This kind of informal censure fell most severely on Sariolenus Vocula,
Nonius Attianus, and Cestius Severus, who were notorious as habitual
informers under Nero. Against Sariolenus there was also a fresh charge
of having continued his practices with Vitellius. The members went on
shaking their fists at him until he left the house. They next turned
on Paccius Africanus, trying to hound him out in the same way. He was
supposed to have suggested to Nero the murder of the two brothers
Scribonius,[346] who were famous for their friendship and their
wealth. Africanus dared not admit his guilt, though he could not very
well deny it. So he swung round on Vibius Crispus,[347] who was
pestering him with questions, and tried to turn the tables by
implicating him in the charges which he could not rebut, thus shifting
the odium on to his accomplice.
On this occasion Vipstanus Messala[348] gained a great reputation, 42
both for dutiful affection and for eloquence, by venturing to
intercede for his brother Aquilius Regulus,[349] although he had not
attained the senatorial age. [350] Regulus had fallen into great
disfavour for having brought about the ruin of the noble families of
the Crassi and of Orfitus. It was supposed that, though quite a young
man, he had voluntarily undertaken the prosecution, not to escape any
danger which was threatening him, but from purely ambitious motives.
Crassus' wife, Sulpicia Praetextata, and his four sons were anxious to
secure revenge if the senate would grant a trial. Messala therefore
made no attempt to defend the case or the accused, but tried to
shelter his brother, and had already won over some of the senators.
Curtius Montanus now attacked him in a savage speech, and even went so
far as to charge Regulus with having given money to Piso's murderer
after Galba's death, and with having bitten Piso's head. [351] 'That,'
said he, 'Nero certainly did not compel you to do. You purchased
neither position nor safety by that savage piece of cruelty. We may
put up with the pleas of those wretches who prefer to ruin others
rather than endanger their own lives. But your father's banishment had
guaranteed your security. His property had been divided amongst his
creditors. [352] You were not of an age to stand for office. Nero had
nothing either to hope or to fear from you. Your talents were as yet
untried and you had never exerted them in any man's defence, yet your
lust for blood, your insatiable ambition, led you to stain your young
hands in the blood of Rome's nobility. At one swoop you caused the
ruin of innocent youths, of old and distinguished statesmen, of
high-born ladies; and out of the country's disaster you secured for
yourself the spoils of two ex-consuls,[353] stuffed seven million
sesterces into your purse, and shone with the reflected glory of a
priesthood. You would blame Nero's lack of enterprise because he took
one household at a time, thus causing unnecessary fatigue to himself
and his informers, when he might have ruined the whole senate at a
single word. Why, gentlemen, you must indeed keep and preserve to
yourselves a counsellor of such ready resource. Let each generation
have its good examples: and as our old men follow Eprius Marcellus or
Vibius Crispus, let the rising generation emulate Regulus. Villainy
finds followers even when it fails. What if it flourish and prosper?
If we hesitate to touch a mere ex-quaestor, shall we be any bolder
when he has been praetor and consul? Or do you suppose that the race
of tyrants came to an end in Nero? That is what the people believed
who outlived Tiberius or Caligula, and meanwhile there arose one more
infamous and more bloody still. [354] We are not afraid of Vespasian.
We trust his years and his natural moderation. But a good precedent
outlives a good sovereign. Gentlemen, we are growing effete: we are no
longer that senate which, after Nero had been killed, clamoured for
the punishment of all informers and their menials according to our
ancestors' rigorous prescription. The best chance comes on the day
after the death of a bad emperor. '
The senate listened to Montanus's speech with such sympathy that 43
Helvidius began to hope that it might be possible to get a verdict
even against Marcellus. Beginning with a eulogy of Cluvius Rufus, who,
though quite as rich and as eloquent as Marcellus, had never brought
any one into trouble under Nero, he went on to attack Marcellus, both
by contrasting him with Rufus and by pressing home the charge against
him. Feeling that the house was warming to this rhetoric, Marcellus
got up as though to leave, exclaiming, 'I am off, Helvidius: I leave
you your senate: you can tyrannize over it under Caesar's nose. '
Vibius Crispus followed Marcellus, and, though both were angry, their
expressions were very different. Marcellus marched out with flashing
eyes, Crispus with a smile on his face. Eventually their friends went
and brought them back. Thus the struggle grew more and more heated
between a well-meaning majority and a small but powerful minority; and
since they were both animated by irreconcilable hatred, the day was
spent in vain recriminations.
At the next sitting Domitian opened by recommending them to forget 44
their grievances and grudges and the unavoidable exigences of the
recent past. Mucianus then at great length moved a motion in favour of
the prosecutors, issuing a mild warning, almost in terms of entreaty,
to those who wanted to revive actions which had been begun and
dropped. Seeing that their attempt at independence was being
thwarted, the senate gave it up. However, that it might not seem as if
the senate's opinion had been flouted and complete impunity granted
for all crimes committed under Nero, Mucianus forced Octavius Sagitta
and Antistius Sosianus, who had returned from exile, to go back to the
islands to which they had been confined. Octavius had committed
adultery with Pontia Postumina, and, on her refusal to marry him, had
murdered her in a fit of jealous fury. Sosianus was an unprincipled
scoundrel who had been the ruin of many. [355] The senate had found
them both guilty, and passed a heavy sentence of exile, nor had their
penalty been remitted, although others were allowed to return.
However, this failed to allay the ill-feeling against Mucianus, for
Sosianus and Sagitta, whether they returned or not, were of no
importance, whereas people were afraid of the professional
prosecutors, who were men of wealth and ability and experts in crime.
Unanimity was gradually restored in the senate by the holding of a 45
trial according to ancient precedent, before a court of the whole
house. A senator named Manlius Patruitus complained that he had been
beaten before a mob of people in the colony of Siena by order of the
local magistrates. Nor had the affront stopped there. They had held a
mock funeral before his eyes, and had accompanied their dirges and
lamentations with gross insults levelled at the whole senate. The
accused were summoned; their case was tried; they were convicted and
punished.
A further decree of the senate was passed admonishing the
commons of Siena to pay more respect to the laws. About the same time
Antonius Flamma was prosecuted by Cyrene for extortion, and exiled for
the inhumanity of his conduct.
Meanwhile, a mutiny almost broke out among the soldiers. The men 46
who had been discharged by Vitellius[356] came together again in
support of Vespasian, and demanded re-admission. They were joined by
the selected legionaries who had also been led to hope for service in
the Guards, and they now demanded the pay they had been promised. Even
the Vitellians[357] alone could not have been dispersed without
serious bloodshed, but it would require immense sums of money to
retain the services of such a large number of men. Mucianus
accordingly entered the barracks to make a careful estimate of each
man's term of service. He formed up the victorious troops with their
own arms and distinctive decorations, each company a few paces from
the next. Then the Vitellians who had surrendered, as we have
described, at Bovillae,[358] and all the other soldiers who had been
hunted down in the city and its neighbourhood, were marched out almost
entirely without arms or uniforms. Mucianus then had them sorted out,
and drew up in separate corps the troops of the German army, of the
British army, and of any others that were in Rome. Their first glance
at the scene astounded them. Facing them they saw what looked like a
fighting front bristling with weapons, while they were caught in a
trap, defenceless and foul with dirt. As soon as they began to be
sorted out a panic seized them. The German troops in particular were
terrified at their isolation, and felt they were being told off for
slaughter. They embraced their comrades and clung upon their necks,
asking for one last kiss, begging not to be left alone, crying out,
'Our cause is the same as yours, why should our fate be different? '
They appealed now to Mucianus, now to the absent emperor, and lastly
to the powers of Heaven, until Mucianus came to the rescue of their
imaginary terrors by calling them all 'sworn servants of one emperor',
for he found that the victorious army was joining in and seconding
their tears with cheering. On that day the matter ended there. A few
days later, when Domitian addressed them, they received him with
renewed confidence, refused his offer of lands, and begged for
enlistment and their pay instead. This was only a petition, but one
that could not be refused: so they were admitted to the Guards.
Subsequently, those who had grown old and completed the regular term
of service[359] were honourably discharged. Others were dismissed for
misbehaviour, but one by one at different times, which is always the
safest method of weakening any kind of conspiracy.
To return to the senate; a bill was now passed that a loan of 47
sixty million sesterces should be raised from private individuals and
administered by Pompeius Silvanus. This may have been a financial
necessity, or they may have wanted it to seem so. At any rate the
necessity soon ceased to exist, or else they gave up the pretence.
Domitian then carried a proposal that the consulships conferred by
Vitellius should be cancelled, and that a state funeral should be held
in honour of Flavius Sabinus. [360] Both proposals are striking
evidence of the fickleness of human fortune, which so often makes the
first last and the last first.
It was about this time that Lucius Piso,[361] the pro-consul of 48
Africa, was killed. To give a true explanation of this murder we must
go back and take a brief survey of certain matters which are closely
connected with the reasons for such crimes. Under the sainted Augustus
and Tiberius the pro-consul of Africa had in his command one legion
and some auxiliaries with which to guard the frontier of the
empire. [362] Caligula, who was restless by nature and harboured
suspicions of the then pro-consul, Marcus Silanus, withdrew the
legion from his command and put it under a legate whom he sent out for
the purpose. As each had an equal amount of patronage and their
functions overlapped, Caligula thus caused a state of friction which
was further aggravated by regrettable quarrels. The greater permanence
of his tenure[363] gradually strengthened the legate's position, and
perhaps an inferior is always anxious to vie with his betters. The
most eminent governors, on the other hand, were more careful of their
comfort than of their authority.
At the present time the legion in Africa was commanded by Valerius 49
Festus,[364] an extravagant young man, immoderately ambitious, whose
kinship with Vitellius had given him some anxiety. He had frequent
interviews with Piso, and it is impossible to tell whether he tempted
Piso to rebel or resisted Piso's temptations. No one was present at
their interviews, which were held in private, and after Piso's death
most people were inclined to sympathize with his murderer. Beyond
doubt the province and the garrison were unfavourable to Vespasian.
Besides, some of the Vitellian refugees from Rome pointed out to Piso
that the Gallic provinces were wavering. Germany was ready to rebel,
and he himself was in danger; 'and,' they added, 'if you earn
suspicion in peace your safest course is war. ' Meanwhile, Claudius
Sagitta, who commanded Petra's Horse,[365] made a good crossing and
outstripped the centurion Papirius, who had been sent out by Mucianus
and was commissioned, so Sagitta affirmed, to assassinate Piso.
Sagitta further stated that Galerianus,[366] Piso's cousin and
son-in-law, had already been murdered, and told him that while his one
hope lay in taking a bold step, there were two courses open to him: he
might either take up arms on the spot, or he might prefer to sail to
Gaul and offer to lead the Vitellian armies. This made no impression
on Piso. When the centurion whom Mucianus had sent arrived at the
gates of Carthage, he kept on shouting all sorts of congratulations to
Piso on becoming emperor. The people he met, who were astounded at
this unexpected miracle, were instructed to take up the cry. With a
crowd's usual credulity, they rushed into the forum calling on Piso to
appear, and as they had a passion for flattery and took no interest in
the truth, they proceeded to fill the whole place with a confused
noise of cheering. Piso, however, either at a hint from Sagitta, or
from his natural good sense, would not show himself in public or give
way to the excitement of the crowd. He examined the centurion, and
learnt that his object was to trump up a charge against him and then
kill him. [367] He accordingly had the man executed more from
indignation against the assassin than in any hope of saving his life;
for he found that the man had been one of the murderers of Clodius
Macer,[368] and after staining his hand in the blood of a military
officer was now proposing to turn it against a civil governor. Piso
then reprimanded the Carthaginians in an edict which clearly showed
his anxiety, and refrained from performing even the routine of his
office, shutting himself up in his house, for fear that he might by
accident provide some pretext for further demonstrations.
When the news of the popular excitement and the centurion's 50
execution reached the ears of Festus, considerably exaggerated and
with the usual admixture of falsehood, he at once sent off a party of
horsemen to murder Piso. Riding at full speed, they reached the
governor's house in the twilight of early dawn and broke in with drawn
swords. As Festus had mainly chosen Carthaginian auxiliaries and Moors
to do the murder, most of them did not know Piso by sight. However,
near his bedroom they happened on a slave and asked him where Piso was
and what he looked like. In answer the slave told them a heroic lie
and said he was Piso, whereupon they immediately cut him down.
However, Piso himself was killed very soon after, for there was one
man among them who knew him, and that was Baebius Massa, one of the
imperial agents in Africa, who was already a danger to all the best
men in Rome. His name will recur again and again in this narrative, as
one of the causes of the troubles which beset us later on. [369]
Festus had been waiting at Adrumetum[370] to see how things went, and
he now hastened to rejoin his legion. He had the camp-prefect,
Caetronius Pisanus, put in irons, alleging that he was one of Piso's
accomplices, though his real motive was personal dislike. He then
punished some of the soldiers and centurions and rewarded others; in
neither case for their deserts, but because he wanted it to be thought
that he had stamped out a war. His next task was to settle the
differences between Oea and Lepcis. [371] These had had a trivial
origin in thefts of fruit and cattle by the peasants, but they were
now trying to settle them in open warfare. Oea, being inferior in
numbers, had called in the aid of the Garamantes,[372] an invincible
tribe, who were always a fruitful source of damage to their
neighbours. Thus the people of Lepcis were in great straits. Their
fields had been wasted far and wide, and they had fled in terror under
shelter of their walls, when the Roman auxiliaries, both horse and
foot, arrived on the scene. They routed the Garamantes and recovered
all the booty, except what the nomads had already sold among the
inaccessible hut-settlements of the far interior.
After the battle of Cremona and the arrival of good news from 51
every quarter, Vespasian now heard of Vitellius' death. A large number
of people of all classes, who were as lucky as they were adventurous,
successfully braved the winter seas on purpose to bring him the
news. [373] There also arrived envoys from King Vologaesus offering the
services of forty thousand Parthian cavalry. [374] It was, indeed, a
proud and fortunate situation to be courted with such splendid offers
of assistance, and to need none of them. Vologaesus was duly thanked
and instructed to send his envoys to the senate and to understand that
peace had been made. Vespasian now devoted his attention to the
affairs of Italy and the Capitol, and received an unfavourable report
of Domitian, who seemed to be trespassing beyond the natural sphere of
an emperor's youthful son. He accordingly handed over the flower of
his army to Titus, who was to finish off the war with the Jews. [375]
It is said that before his departure Titus had a long talk with 52
his father and begged him not to be rash and lose his temper at these
incriminating reports, but to meet his son in a forgiving and
unprejudiced spirit, 'Neither legions nor fleets,' he is reported to
have said, 'are such sure bulwarks of the throne as a number of
children. Time, chance and often, too, ambition and misunderstanding
weaken, alienate or extinguish friendship: a man's own blood cannot be
severed from him; and above all is this the case with a sovereign,
for, while others enjoy his good fortune, his misfortunes only concern
his nearest kin. Nor again are brothers likely to remain good friends
unless their father sets them an example. ' These words had the effect
of making Vespasian rather delighted at Titus' goodness of heart than
inclined to forgive Domitian. 'You may ease your mind,' he said to
Titus, 'It is now your duty to increase the prestige of Rome on the
field: I will concern myself with peace at home. ' Though the weather
was still very rough, Vespasian at once launched his fastest
corn-ships with a full cargo. For the city was on the verge of
famine. [376] Indeed, there were not supplies for more than ten days in
the public granaries at the moment when Vespasian's convoy brought
relief.
The task of restoring the Capitol[377] was entrusted to Lucius 53
Vestinus, who, though only a knight, yet in reputation and influence
could rank with the highest. He summoned all the soothsayers,[378] and
they recommended that the ruins of the former temple should be carried
away to the marshes[379] and a new temple erected on the same site:
the gods were unwilling, they said, that the original form of the
building should be changed. On the 21st of June, a day of bright
sunshine, the whole consecrated area of the temple was decorated with
chaplets and garlands. In marched soldiers, all men with names of good
omen, carrying branches of lucky trees:[380] then came the Vestal
Virgins accompanied by boys and girls, each of whom had father and
mother alive,[381] and they cleansed it all by sprinkling fresh water
from a spring or river. [382] Next, while the high priest, Plautius
Aelianus, dictated the proper formulae, Helvidius Priscus, the
praetor, first consecrated the site by a solemn sacrifice[383] of a
pig, a sheep and an ox, and then duly offering the entrails on an
altar of turf, he prayed to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, as the
guardian deities of the empire, to prosper the enterprise, and by
divine grace to bring to completion this house of theirs which human
piety had here begun. He then took hold of the chaplets to which the
ropes holding the foundation-stone were attached. At the same moment
the other magistrates and the priests and senators and knights and
large numbers of the populace in joyous excitement with one great
effort dragged the huge stone into its place. On every side gifts of
gold and silver were flung into the foundations, and blocks of virgin
ore unscathed by any furnace, just as they had come from the womb of
the earth. For the soothsayers had given out that the building must
not be desecrated by the use of stone or gold that had been put to any
other purpose. The height of the roof was raised. This was the only
change that religious scruples would allow, and it was felt to be the
only point in which the former temple lacked grandeur.
FOOTNOTES:
[331] We now reach the year A. D. 70. Vespasian had already
been consul under Claudius in 51.
[332] In the absence of both consuls.
[333] i. e. Sohaemus, Antiochus, and Agrippa (cp. ii. 81).
[334] Cp. ii. 85.
[335] Cp. iii. 52.
[336] Vespasian's freedman (cp. iii. 12, 28. )
[337] The elder brother of Galba's adopted son Piso.
[338] See ii. 65. He must by now have ceased to be absentee
governor.
[339] It was to the command of this legion that Galba promoted
Antonius (see ii. 86).
[340] Varus had served under Corbulo in Syria.
[341] In his life of _Agricola_ Tacitus speaks of Domitian's
red face as 'his natural bulwark against shame'.
[342] See chap. 39.
[343] See chap. 10.
[344] i. e. Publius Celer. As this Demetrius was present with
Thrasea at the end, holding high philosophical discourse with
him (_Ann. _ xvi. 34), he seems to have been a Cynic in the
modern sense as well.
[345] Another Stoic malcontent, brother of the Arulenus
Rusticus mentioned in iii. 80.
[346] According to Dio they were two devoted and inseparable
brothers. They became governors, one of Upper and the other of
Lower Germany, and, being wealthy, were forced by Nero to
commit suicide.
[347] Cp. ii. 10.
[348] Cp. iii. 9.
[349] Cp. i. 48, note 79.
[350] Twenty-five.
[351] Piso was a brother of Regulus' victim. He was therefore
glad to see him incapable of reprisal.
[352] i. e. there was no property left to tempt Nero.
[353] i. e. the money and other rewards won by prosecuting
Crassus and Orfitus.
[354] Nero.
[355] He had recited some libellous verses on Nero and been
condemned for treason.
[356] Cp. ii. 67.
[357] i. e. those who had surrendered at Narnia and Bovillae,
as distinct from those who had been discharged after Galba's
death.
[358] Chap. 2.
[359] i. e. those who were either over fifty or had served in
the Guards sixteen or in a legion twenty years.
[360] See iii. 74.
[361] See chap. 38.
[362] Africa was peculiar in that the pro-consul, who governed
it for the senate, commanded an army. All the other provinces
demanding military protection were under imperial control.
Caligula, without withdrawing the province from the senate, in
some degree regularized the anomaly by transferring this
command to a 'legate' of his own, technically inferior to the
civil governor.
[363] Whereas the pro-consul's appointment was for one year
only, the emperor's legate retained his post at the emperor's
pleasure, and was usually given several years.
[364] Cp. ii. 98.
[365] See i. 70.
[366] See chap. 11.
[367] i. e. he hoped that Piso would accept the story with
alacrity and thus commit himself.
[368] Cp. i. 7.
[369] Under Domitian he became one of the most notorious and
dreaded of informers. His name doubtless recurred in the lost
books of the Histories. But the only other extant mention of
him by Tacitus is in the life of Agricola (chap. 45).
[370] On the coast between Carthage and Thapsus.
[371] Tripoli and Lebda.
[372] Further inland; probably the modern Fezzan.
[373] Vespasian was still at Alexandria.
[374] Cp. ii. 82, note 410.
[375] Cp. ii. 4 and Book V.
[376] It had been Vespasian's original plan to starve Rome out
by holding the granaries of Egypt and Africa. See iii. 48.
