ladies whom they wished to send into exile? He was the author of that
graceful, erotic poetry who, through the themes which he chose for his
elegant verses, had encouraged the tendencies toward luxury, diversion,
and the pleasures which had transformed the austere matron of a former
day into an extravagant and undisciplined creature given to
voluptuousness; the poet who had gained the admiration of women
especially by flattering their most dangerous and perverse tendencies.
The puritanical party hated and combatted this trend of the newer
generations, and therefore, also, the poetry of Ovid on account of its
disastrous effects upon the women, whom it weaned from the virtues most
prized in former days--frugality, simplicity, family affection, and
purity of life. The Roman aristocracy did not recognize the right of
absolute literary freedom which is acknowledged by many modern states,
in which writers and men of letters have acquired a strong political
influence. The theory, held by many countries to-day that any
publication is justifiable, provided it be a work of art, was not
accepted by the Romans in power. On the contrary, they were convinced
that an idea or a sentiment, dangerous in itself, became still more
harmful when artistically expressed. Therefore Rome had always known
the existence of a kind of police supervision of ideas and of literary
forms, exercised through various means by the ruling aristocracy, and
especially in reference to women, who constituted that element of
social life in which virtue and purity of customs are of the greatest
consequence. The Roman ladies of the aristocracy, as we have seen,
received considerable instruction. They read the poets and
philosophers, and precisely for this reason there was always at Rome a
strong aversion to light and immoral literature. If books had
circulated among men only, the poetry of Ovid would perhaps not have
enjoyed the good fortune of a persecution which was to focus upon it
the attention of posterity. The greater liberty conceded to women thus
placed upon society an even greater reserve in the case of its
literature. This Ovid learned to his cost when he was driven into
exile because his books gave too much delight to too many ladies at
Rome. By the order of Augustus these books were removed from the
libraries, which did not hinder their coming down to us entire, while
many a more serious work--like Livy's history, for example--has been
either entirely or in large part lost.
[Illustration: Drusus, the younger brother of Tiberius.]
After the fall of the second Julia up to the time of his death, which
occurred August 23, in the year 14 A.D., Augustus had no further
serious griefs over the ladies of his family. The great misfortune of
the last years of his government was a public misfortune--the defeat of
Varus and the loss of Germany. But with what sadness must he have
looked back in the last weeks of his long life upon the history of his
family! All those whom he had loved were torn from him before their
time by a cruel destiny: Drusus, Caius, and Lucius Caesar by death; the
Julias by the cruelty of the law and by an infamy worse than death.
The unique grandeur to which he had attained had not brought fortune to
his family. He was old, almost alone, a weary survivor among the tombs
of those dear to him who had been untimely lost through fate, and with
the still sadder memories of those who had been buried in a living
grave of infamy. His only associates were Tiberius, with whom he had
become reconciled; Antonia, his sweet and highly respected
daughter-in-law; and Livia, the woman whom destiny had placed at his
side in one of the most critical moments of his life, the faithful
companion through fifty-two years of his varied and wonderful fortune.
We can therefore understand why it was that, as the historians tell us,
the last words of the old emperor should have been a tender expression
of gratitude to his faithful wife. "Farewell, farewell, Livia!
Remember our long union!" With these words, rendering homage to the
wife whom custom and the law had made the faithful and loving
companion, and not the docile slave, of her husband, he ended his life
like a true Roman.
If the family of Augustus had undergone grievous vicissitudes during
his life, its situation became even more dangerous after his death.
The historian who sets out with the preconceived notion that Augustus
founded a monarchy, and imagines that his family was destined to enjoy
the privileges which in all monarchies are accorded the sovereign's
house, will never arrive at a complete understanding of the story of
the first empire. His family did, to be sure, always enjoy a
privileged status, if not at law, at least in fact, and through the
very force of circumstances; but it was not for naught that Rome had
been for many centuries an aristocratic republic in which all the
families of the nobility had considered themselves equal, and had been
subject to the same laws. The aristocracy avenged itself upon the
imperial family for the privileges which the lofty dignity of its head
assured it by giving it hatred instead of respect. They suspected and
calumniated all of its members, and with a malicious joy subjected
them, whenever possible, to the common laws and even maltreated with
particular ferocity those who by chance fell under the provisions of
any statute. As a compensation for the privileges which the royal
family enjoyed, they had to assume the risk of receiving the harshest
penalties of the laws. If any of them, therefore, fell under the rigor
of these laws, the senatorial aristocracy especially was ever eager to
enjoy the atrocious satisfaction of seeing one of the favored tortured
as much as or more than the ordinary man. There is no doubt, for
example, that the two Julias were more severely punished and disgraced
than other ladies of the aristocracy guilty of the same crime. And
Augustus was forced to waive his affection for them in order that it
might not be said, particularly in the senate, that his relatives
enjoyed special favors and that Augustus made laws only for others.
[Illustration: Statue of a young Roman woman.]
Yet as long as Augustus lived, he was a sufficient protection for his
relatives. He was, especially in the last twenty years of his life,
the object of an almost religious veneration. The great and stormy
epoch out of which he had risen, the extraordinary fortune which had
assisted him, his long reign, the services both real and imaginary
which he had rendered the empire--all had conferred upon him such an
authority that envy laid aside its most poisonous darts before him.
Out of respect for him even his family was not particularly calumniated
or maltreated, save now and then in moments of great irritation, as
when the two Julias were condemned. But after his death the situation
grew considerably worse; for Tiberius, although he was a man of great
capacity and merit, a sagacious administrator and a valiant general,
did not enjoy the sympathy and respect which had been accorded to
Augustus. Rather was he hated by those who had for a long time sided
with Caius and Lucius Caesar and who formed a considerable portion of
the senate and the aristocracy. It was not the spontaneous admiration
of the senate and of the people, but the exigencies of the situation,
which had made him master of the government when Augustus died. The
empire was at war with the Germans, and the Pannonico-Illyrian
provinces were in revolt, and it was necessary to place at the head of
the empire a man who should strike terror to the hearts of the
barbarians and who on occasion should be able to combat them.
Tiberius, furthermore, was so well aware that the majority of the
senate and the Roman people would submit to his government only through
force, that he had for a long time been in doubt whether to accept the
empire or not, so completely did he understand that with so many
enemies it would be difficult to rule.
Under the government of Tiberius the imperial family was surrounded by
a much more intense and open hatred than under Augustus. One couple
only proved an exception, Germanicus and Agrippina, who were very
sympathetic to the people. But right here began the first serious
difficulties for Tiberius. Germanicus was twenty-nine years old when
Tiberius took over the empire, and about him there began to form a
party which by courting and flattering both him and his wife began to
set him up against Tiberius. In this they were unconsciously aided by
Agrippina. Unlike her sister Julia, she was a lady of blameless life;
faithfully in love with her husband; a true Roman matron, such as
tradition had loved; chaste and fruitful, who at the age of twenty-six
had already borne nine children, of whom, however, six had died. But
Agrippina was to show that in the house of Augustus, in those
tumultuous, strange times, virtue was not less dangerous than vice,
though in another way and for different reasons. She was so proud of
her fidelity to her husband and of the admiration which she aroused at
Rome that all the other defects of her character were exaggerated and
increased by her excessive pride in her virtue. And among these
defects should be counted a great ambition, a kind of harum-scarum and
tumultuous activity, an irreflective impetuosity of passion, and a
dangerous lack of balance and judgment. Agrippina was not evil; she
was ambitious, violent, intriguing, imprudent, and thoughtless, and
therefore could easily adapt her own feelings and interests to what
seemed expedient. She had much influence over her husband, whom she
accompanied upon all his journeys; and out of the great love she bore
him, in which her own ambition had its part, she urged him on to
support that hidden movement which was striving to oppose Germanicus to
the emperor.
That two parties were not formed was due very largely to the fact that
Germanicus was sufficiently reasonable not to allow himself to be
carried too far by the current which favored him, and possibly also to
the fact that during the entire reign of Tiberius his mother Antonia
was the most faithful and devoted friend of the emperor. After his
divorce from Julia, Tiberius had not married again, and the offices of
tenderness which a wife should have given him were discharged in part
by his mother, but largely by his sister-in-law. No one exercised so
much influence as Antonia over the diffident and self-centered spirit
of the emperor. Whoever wished to obtain a favor from him could do no
better than to intrust his cause to Antonia. There is no doubt,
therefore, that Antonia checked her son, and in his society
counterbalanced the influence of his wife.
But even if two parties were not formed, it was not long before other
difficulties arose. Discord soon made itself felt between Livia and
Agrippina. More serious still was the fact that Germanicus, who, after
the death of Augustus, had been sent as a legate to Gaul, initiated a
German policy contrary to the instructions given him by Tiberius. This
was due partly to his own impetuous temperament and partly to the
goadings of his wife and the flatterers who surrounded him. Tiberius,
whom the Germans knew from long experience, no longer wished to molest
them. The revolt of Arminius proved that when their independence was
threatened by Rome they were capable of uniting and becoming dangerous;
when left to themselves they destroyed one another by continual wars.
It was advisable, therefore, according to Tiberius, not to attack or
molest them, but at the proper moment to fan the flames of their
continual dissensions and wars in order that, while destroying
themselves, they should leave the empire in peace. This wise and
prudent policy might please a seasoned soldier like Tiberius, who had
already won his laurels in many wars and who had risen to the pinnacle
of glory and power. It did not please the pushing and eager youth
Germanicus, who was anxious to distinguish himself by great and
brilliant exploits, and who had at his side, as a continual stimulus,
an ambitious and passionate wife, surrounded by a court of flatterers.
Germanicus, on his own initiative, crossed the Rhine and took up the
offensive again all along the line, attacking the most powerful of the
German tribes one after the other in important and successful
expeditions. At Rome this bold move was naturally looked upon with
pleasure, especially by the numerous enemies of Tiberius, either
because boldness in politics rather than prudence always pleases those
who have nothing to lose, or because it was felt that the glory which
accrued to Germanicus might offend the emperor. And Tiberius, though
he did disapprove, allowed his adopted son to continue for a time,
doubtless in order that he might not have to shock public opinion and
that it might not seem that he wished to deprive the youthful
Germanicus of the glory which he was gaining for himself.
[Illustration: A Roman girl of the time of the Caesars.]
He was nevertheless resolved not to allow Germanicus to involve Rome
too deeply in German affairs, and when it seemed to him that the youth
had fittingly proved his prowess and had made the enemies of Rome feel
its power sufficiently, he recalled him and in his stead sent Drusus,
who was his real, and not his adopted, son. But this recall did not at
all please the party of Germanicus, who were loud and bitter in their
recriminations. They began to murmur that Tiberius was jealous of
Germanicus and his popularity; that he had recalled him in order to
prevent his winning glory by an immortal achievement. Tiberius so
little thought of keeping Germanicus from using his brilliant qualities
in the service of Rome that shortly after, in the year 18 A.D., he sent
him into the Orient to introduce order into Armenia, which was shaken
by internal dissensions, and he gave him a command there not less
important than the one of which he had deprived him. At the same time
he was unwilling to intrust things entirely to the judgment of
Germanicus, in whom he recognized a young man of capacity and valor,
but, nevertheless, a young man influenced by an imprudent wife and
incited by an irresponsible court of flatterers. For this reason he
placed at his side an older and more experienced man in whom he had the
fullest confidence--Cnaeus Piso, a senator who belonged to one of the
most illustrious families in Rome.
It was the duty of Cnaeus Piso to counsel, to restrain, and to aid the
young Germanicus, and doubtless also to keep Tiberius informed of all
that Germanicus was doing in the East. When we remember that Tiberius
was responsible for the empire, no one will deny him the right of
setting a guard upon the young man of thirty-three, into whose hands
had been intrusted many and serious interests. But though this idea
was warrantable in itself, it became the source of great woe.
Germanicus was offended, and, driven on by his friends, he broke with
Piso. The latter had brought with him his wife Plancina, who was a
close friend of Livia, just as Germanicus had brought Agrippina. The
two wives fell to quarreling no less furiously than their husbands, and
two parties were formed in the Orient, one for Piso and one for
Germanicus, who accused each other of illegality, extortion, and
assuming unwarranted powers; and each thought only of undoing what the
other had accomplished. It is difficult to tell which of the two was
right or in how far either was right or wrong, for the documents are
too few and the account of Tacitus, clouded by an undiscerning
antipathy, sheds no light upon this dark secret. In any case, we are
sure that Germanicus did not always respect the laws and that he
occasionally acted with a supreme heedlessness which now and then
forced Tiberius to intervene personally, as he did on the occasion when
Germanicus left his province with Agrippina in order that, dressed like
a Greek philosopher, he might make a tour of Egypt and see that
country, which then, as now, attracted the attention of persons of
culture. But at that time, unlike the present, there was an ordinance
of Augustus which forbade Roman senators to set foot in Egypt without
special permission. As he had paid no attention to this prohibition,
we need not be astonished if we find that Germanicus did not respect as
scrupulously as Tiberius wished all the laws which defined his powers
and set limits to his authority.
However that may be, the dissension between Germanicus and Piso filled
the entire Orient with confusion and disorder, and it was early echoed
at Rome, where the party hostile to Tiberius continued to accuse him,
out of motives of hatred and jealousy, of forever laying new obstacles
in the way of his adopted son. Livia, too, now no longer protected by
Augustus, became a target for the accusations of a malevolent public
opinion. It was said that she persecuted Germanicus out of hatred for
Agrippina. Tiberius was much embarrassed, being hampered by public
opinion favorable to Germanicus and at the same time desiring that his
sons should set an example of obedience to the laws.
A sudden catastrophe still further complicated the situation. In 19
A.D. Germanicus was taken ill at Antioch. The malady was long and
marked by periods of convalescence and relapses, but finally, like his
father and like his brothers-in-law, Germanicus, too, succumbed to his
destiny in the fullness of youth. At thirty-four, when life with her
most winning smiles seemed to be stretching out her arms to him, he
died. This one more untimely death brought to an abrupt end a most
dangerous political struggle. Is it to be wondered at, then, that the
people, whose imagination had been aroused, should have begun to murmur
about poison? The party of Germanicus was driven to desperation by
this death, which virtually ended its existence, and destroyed at a
single stroke all the hopes of those who had seen in Germanicus the
instrument of their future fortune. They therefore eagerly collected,
embellished, and spread these rumors. Had Agrippina been a woman of
any judgment or reflection, she would have been the first to see the
absurdity of this foolish gossip; but as a matter of fact no one placed
more implicit faith in such reports than she, now that affliction had
rendered her even more impetuous and violent.
It was not long before every one at Rome had heard it said that
Germanicus had been poisoned by Piso, acting, so it was intimated in
whispers, at the bidding of Tiberius and Livia. Piso had been the tool
of Tiberius; Plancina, the tool of Livia. The accusation is absurd; it
is even recognized as such by Tacitus, who was actuated by a fierce
hatred against Tiberius. We know from him how the accusers of Piso
recounted that the poison had been drunk in a health at a banquet to
which Piso had been invited by Germanicus and at which he was seated
several places from his host; he was supposed to have poured the poison
into his dishes in the presence of all the guests without any one
having seen him! Tacitus himself says that every one thought this an
absurd fable, and such every man of good sense will think it to-day.
But hatred makes even intelligent persons believe fables even more
absurd; the people favorable to Germanicus were embittered against Piso
and would not listen to reason. All the enemies of Tiberius easily
persuaded themselves that some atrocious mystery was hidden in this
death and that, if they instituted proceedings against Piso, they might
bring to light a scandal which would compromise the emperor himself.
They even began to repeat that Piso possessed letters from Tiberius
which contained the order to poison Germanicus.
[Illustration: Costumes of Roman men, women, and children in the
procession of a peace festival. These reliefs formed part of the outer
frieze of the right wall of the Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace), erected by
Augustus and dedicated 9 B.C. This and another well-preserved section
are in the Uffizi Palace, Florence. One of two other fragments in the
Villa Medici contains the head and bust of Augustus, and with the
section here shown completes what is supposed to be a group of the
family of Augustus.]
At last Agrippina arrived at Rome with the ashes of her husband, and
she began with her usual vehemence to fill the imperial house, the
senate, and all Rome with protests, imprecations, and accusations
against Piso. The populace, which admired her for her fidelity and
love for her husband, was even more deeply stirred, and on every hand
the cry was raised that an exemplary punishment ought to be meted out
to so execrable a crime.
If at first Piso had treated these absurd charges with haughty disdain,
he soon perceived that the danger was growing serious and that it was
necessary for him to hasten his return to Rome, where a trial was now
inevitable. One of Germanicus's friends had accused him; Agrippina, an
unwitting tool in the hands of the emperor's enemies, every day stirred
public opinion to still higher pitches of excitement through her grief
and her laments; the party of Germanicus worked upon the senate and the
people, and when Piso arrived at Rome he found that he had been
abandoned by all. His hope lay in Tiberius, who knew the truth and who
certainly desired that these wild notions be driven out of the popular
mind. But Tiberius was watched with the most painstaking malevolence.
Any least action in favor of Piso would have been interpreted as a
decisive proof that he had been the murderer's accomplice and therefore
wished to save him. In fact, it was being reported at Rome with
ever-increasing insistence that at the trial Piso would show the
letters of Tiberius. When the trial began, Livia, in the background,
cleverly directed her thoughts to the saving of Plancina; but Tiberius
could do no more for Piso than to recommend to the senate that they
exercise the most rigorous impartiality. His noble speech on this
occasion has been preserved for us by Tacitus. "Let them judge," he
said, "without regard either for the imperial family or for the family
of Piso." The admonition was useless, for his condemnation was a
foregone conclusion, despite the absurdity of the charges. The enemies
of Tiberius wished to force matters to the uttermost limit in the hope
that the famous letters would have to be produced; and they acted with
such frenzied hatred and excited public opinion to such a pitch that
Piso killed himself before the end of the trial.
The violence of Agrippina had sent an innocent victim to follow the
shade of her young husband. Despite bitter opposition, the emperor,
through personal intervention, succeeded in saving the wife, the son,
and the fortune of Piso, whose enemies had wished to exterminate his
house root and branch. Tiberius thus offered a further proof that he
was one of the few persons at Rome who were capable in that trying and
troubled time of passing judgment and of reasoning with calm.
IV
TIBERIUS AND AGRIPPINA
The blackest and most tragic period in the life of Tiberius begins with
the death of Germanicus and the terrible scandal of the suit against
Piso. It was to pass into history as the worst period of the "Tiberian
tyranny"; for it was at this time that the famous _Lex de majestate_
[1] (on high treason), which had not been applied under Augustus, came
to be frequently invoked, and through its operation atrocious
accusations, scandalous trials, and frightful condemnations were
multiplied in Rome, to the terror of all. Many committed suicide in
despair, and illustrious families were given over to ruin and infamy.
[Illustration: Tiberius.]