the concessions were forged, insisted to have them forthwith executed;
and instantly the Tribunes despatched the discharge of the veterans:
that of the money was adjourned to their several winter quarters; but
the fifth legion, and the one-and-twentieth, refused to stir, till in
that very camp they were paid; so that out of the money reserved by
himself and his friends for travailing expenses, Germanicus was obliged
to raise the sum. Caecina, Lieutenant-General, led the first legion and
twentieth back to the capital of the Ubians: an infamous march, when the
plunder of their General's coffers was carried amidst the ensigns and
Roman Eagles. Germanicus, the while, proceeding to the army in higher
Germany, brought the second, thirteenth, and sixteenth legions to swear
allegiance without hesitation: to the fourteenth, who manifested some
short suspense, he made unasked a tender of their money, and a present
discharge.
But a party of veterans which belonged to the disorderly legions, and
then in garrison among the Chaucians, as they began a sedition there,
were somewhat quelled by the instant execution of two of their body: an
execution this, commanded by Maenius, Camp-Marshal, and rather of good
example, than done by competent authority. The tumult, however, swelling
again with fresh rage, he fled, but was discovered; so that, finding
no safety in lurking, from his own bravery he drew his defence, and
declared "that to himself, who was only their Camp-Marshal, these their
outrages were not done, but done to the authority of Germanicus, their
General, to the majesty of Tiberius their Emperor." At the same time,
braving and dismaying all that would have stopped him, he fiercely
snatched the colours, faced about towards the Rhine, and pronouncing
the doom of traitors and deserters to every man who forsook his ranks,
brought them back to their winter quarters, mutinous, in truth, but not
daring to mutiny.
In the meantime the deputies from the Senate met Germanicus at the
altar of the Ubians [Footnote: Cologne.], whither in his return he was
arrived. Two legions wintered there, the first and twentieth, with the
soldiers lately placed under the standard of veterans; men already under
the distractions of guilt and fear: and now a new terror possessed them,
that these Senators were come armed with injunctions to cancel every
concession which they had by sedition extorted; and, as it is the custom
of the crowd to be ever charging somebody with the crimes suggested by
their own false alarms, the guilt of this imaginary decree they laid
upon Minutius Plancus, a Senator of consular dignity, and at the head of
this deputation. In the dead of night, they began to clamour aloud for
the purple standard placed in the quarters of Germanicus, and, rushing
tumultuously to his gate, burst the doors, dragged the Prince out of his
bed, and, with menaces of present death, compelled him to deliver the
standard. Then, as they roved about the camp, they met the deputies,
who, having learnt the outrage, were hastening to Germanicus: upon
them they poured a deluge of contumelies, and to present slaughter were
devoting them, Plancus chiefly, whom the dignity of his character had
restrained from flight; nor in this mortal danger had he other refuge
than the quarters of the first legion, where, embracing the Eagle and
other ensigns, he sought sanctuary from the religious veneration
ever paid them. But, in spite of religion, had not Calpurnius, the
Eagle-bearer, by force defeated the last violence of the assault, in the
Roman camp had been slain an ambassador of the Roman People, and
with his blood had been stained the inviolable altars of the Gods; a
barbarity rare even in the camp of an enemy. At last, day returning,
when the General, and the soldiers, and their actions could be
distinguished, Germanicus entered the camp, and commanding Plancus to
be brought, seated him by himself upon the tribunal: he then inveighed
against the late "pernicious frenzy, which in it, he said, had fatality,
and was rekindled by no despite in the soldiers, but by that of the
angry Gods." He explained the genuine purposes of that embassy, and
lamented with affecting eloquence "the outrage committed upon Plancus,
altogether brutal and unprovoked; the foul violence done to the sacred
person of an Ambassador, and the mighty disgrace from thence derived
upon the legion." Yet as the assembly showed more stupefaction than
calmness, he dismissed the deputies under a guard of auxiliary horse.
During this affright, Germanicus was by all men censured, "that he
retired not to the higher army, whence he had been sure of ready
obedience, and even of succour against the revolters: already he had
taken wrong measures more than enow, by discharging some, rewarding all,
and other tender counsels; if he despised his own safety, yet why expose
his infant son, why his wife big with child, to the fury of outrageous
traitors, wantonly violating all the most sacred rights amongst men? It
became him at least to restore his wife and son safe to Tiberius and
to the State." He was long unresolved; besides Agrippina was averse to
leave him, and urged, that "she was the grand-daughter of Augustus, and
it was below her spirit to shrink in a time of danger." But embracing
her and their little son, with great tenderness and many tears, he
prevailed with her to depart. Thus there marched miserably along a band
of helpless women: the wife of a great commander fled like a fugitive,
and upon her bosom bore her infant son: about her a troop of other
ladies, dragged from their husbands, and drowned in tears, uttering
their heavy lamentations; nor weaker than theirs was the grief felt by
all who remained.
These groans and tears, and this spectacle of woe, the appearances
rather of a city stormed and sacked, than of a Roman camp, that of
Germanicus Caesar, victorious and flourishing, awakened attention and
inquiry in the soldiers: leaving their tents, they cried, "Whence these
doleful wailings? what so lamentable! so many ladies of illustrious
quality, travelling thus forlorn; not a Centurion to attend them; not
a soldier to guard them; their General's wife amongst them,
undistinguished by any mark of her princely dignity; destitute of her
ordinary train; frightened from the Roman legions, and repairing, like
an exile, for shelter to Treves, there to commit herself to the faith
of foreigners." Hence shame and commiseration seized them, and the
remembrance of her illustrious family, with that of her own virtues;
the brave Agrippa her father; the mighty Augustus her grandfather; the
amiable Drusus her father-in-law, herself celebrated for a fruitful bed,
and of signal chastity: add the consideration of her little son, born
in the camp, nursed in the arms of the legions, and by themselves named
Caligula, a military name from the boots which of the same fashion
with their own, in compliment to them, and to win their affections, he
frequently wore. But nothing so effectually subdued them as their own
envy towards the inhabitants of Treves: hence they all besought, all
adjured, that she would return to themselves, and with themselves
remain: thus some stopped Agrippina; but the main body returned with
their entreaties to Germanicus, who, as he was yet in the transports
of grief and anger, addressed himself on this wise to the surrounding
crowd.
"To me neither is my wife or son dearer than my father and the
Commonwealth. But him doubtless the majesty of his name will defend; and
there are other armies, loyal armies, to defend the Roman State. As to
my wife and children, whom for your glory I could freely sacrifice, I
now remove them from your rage; that by my blood alone may be expiated
whatever further mischief your fury meditates; and that the murder of
the great grandson of Augustus, the murder of the daughter-in-law of
Tiberius, may not be added to mine, nor to the blackness of your past
guilt. For, during these days of frenzy what has been too horrid for you
to commit? What so sacred that you have not violated? To this audience
what name shall I give? Can I call you _soldiers_? you who have beset
with arms the son of your Emperor, confined him in your trenches, and
held him in a siege? _Roman citizens_ can I call you? you who
have trampled upon the supreme authority of the Roman Senate? Laws
religiously observed by common enemies, you have profaned; violated
the sacred privileges, and persons of Ambassadors; broken the laws of
nations. The deified Julius Caesar quelled a sedition in his army by a
single word: he called all who refused to follow him, _townsmen_. The
deified Augustus, when, after the battle of Actium, the legions who won
it lapsed into mutiny, terrified them into submission by the dignity
of his presence and an awful look. These, it is true, are mighty and
immortal names, whom I dare not emulate; but, as I am their descendant,
and inherit their blood, should the armies in Syria and Spain reject my
orders, and contemn my authority, I should think their behaviour strange
and base: are not the present legions under stronger ties than those in
Syria and Spain? You are the first and the twentieth legions; the former
enrolled by Tiberius himself; the other his constant companions in so
many battles, his partners in so many victories, and by him enriched
with so many bounties! Is this the worthy return you make your Emperor,
and late Commander, for the distinction he has shown you, for the favour
he has done you, and for his liberalities towards you? And shall I be
the author of such tidings to him; such heavy tidings in the midst of
congratulations and happy accounts from every province in the Empire?
Must it be my sad task to acquaint him that his own new levies, as well
as his own veterans who long fought under him; these not appeased by
their discharge, and neither of them satiated with the money given them,
are both still combined in a furious mutiny? must I tell him that here
and only here the Centurions are butchered, the Tribunes driven away,
the Ambassadors imprisoned; that with blood the camp is stained, and
the rivers flow with blood; and that for me his son, I hold a precarious
life at the mercy of men, who owe me duty, and practise enmity?
"Why did you the other day, oh unseasonable and too officious friends!
why did you leave me at their mercy by snatching from me my sword, when
with it I would have put myself out of their power? He who offered me
his own sword showed greater kindness, and was more my friend. I would
then have fallen happy; happy that my death would have hid from mine
eyes so many horrible crimes since committed by my own army; and for
you, you would have chosen another general, such a general, no doubt, as
would have left my death unpunished, but still one who would have sought
vengeance for that of Varus and the three legions; for the Gods are too
just to permit that ever the Belgians, however generously they offer
their service, shall reap the credit and renown of retrieving the glory
of the Roman name, and of reducing in behalf of Rome the German nations
her foes. Filled with this passion for the glory of Rome, I here
invoke thy spirit now with the Gods, oh deified Augustus; and thy image
interwoven in the ensigns, and thy memory, oh deceased father. Let thy
revered spirit, oh Augustus, let thy loved image and memory, oh Drusus,
still dear to these legions, vindicate them from this guilty stain,
this foul infamy of leaving to foreigners the honour of defending
and avenging the Roman State. They are Romans; they already feel the
remorses of shame; they are already stimulated with a sense of honour:
improve, oh improve this generous disposition in them; that thus
inspired they may turn the whole tide of their civil rage to the
destruction of their common enemy. And for you, my fellow-soldiers,
in whom I behold all the marks of compunction, other countenances,
and minds happily changed; if you mean to restore to the Senate its
ambassadors; to your Emperor your sworn obedience; to me, your general,
my wife and son; be it the first instance of your duty, to fly the
contagious company of incendiaries, to separate the sober from the
seditious: this will be a faithful sign of remorse, this a firm pledge
of fidelity."
These words softened them into supplicants: they confessed that all
his reproaches were true; they besought him to punish the guilty and
malicious, to pardon the weak and misled, and to lead them against the
enemy; to recall his wife, to bring back his son, nor to suffer the
fosterling of the legions to be given in hostage to the Gauls. Against
the recalling of Agrippina he alleged the advance of winter, and her
approaching delivery; but said, that his son should return, and that
to themselves he left to execute what remained further to be executed.
Instantly, with changed resentments, they ran, and seizing the most
seditious, dragged them in bonds to Caius Cretonius, commander of the
first legion, who judged and punished them in this manner. The legions,
with their swords drawn, surrounded the tribunal; from thence the
prisoner was by a Tribune exposed to their view, and if they
proclaimed him guilty, cast headlong down, and executed even by his
fellow-soldiers, who rejoiced in the execution, because by it they
thought their own guilt to be expiated: nor did Germanicus restrain
them, since on themselves remained the cruelty and reproach of the
slaughter committed without any order of his. The veterans followed the
same example of vengeance, and were soon after ordered into Rhetia, in
appearance to defend that province against the invading Suevians; in
reality, to remove them from a camp still horrible to their sight, as
well in the remedy and punishment, as from the memory of their crime.
Germanicus next passed a scrutiny upon the conduct and characters of the
Centurions: before him they were cited singly; and each gave an account
of his name, his company, country, the length of his service, exploits
in war, and military presents, if with any he had been distinguished:
if the Tribunes or his legion bore testimony of his diligence and
integrity, he kept his post; upon concurring complaint of his avarice or
cruelty, he was degraded.
Thus were the present commotions appeased; but others as great still
subsisted, from the rage and obstinacy of the fifth and twenty-first
legions. They were in winter quarters sixty miles off, in a place called
the Old Camp, [Footnote: Xanten.] and had first began the sedition: nor
was there any wickedness so horrid, that they had not perpetrated; nay,
at this time, neither terrified by the punishment, nor reclaimed by the
reformation of their fellow-soldiers, they persevered in their fury.
Germanicus therefore determined to give them battle, if they persisted
in their revolt; and prepared vessels, arms, and troops to be sent down
the Rhine.
Before the issue of the sedition in Illyricum was known at Rome, tidings
of the uproar in the German legions arrived; hence the city was filled
with much terror; and hence against Tiberius many complaints, "that
while with feigned consultations and delays he mocked the Senate and
people, once the great bodies of the estate, but now bereft of power and
armies, the soldiery were in open rebellion, one too mighty and stubborn
to be quelled by two princes so young in years and authority: he
ought at first to have gone himself, and awed them with the majesty of
imperial power, as doubtless they would have returned to duty upon the
sight of their Emperor, a Prince of consummate experience, the sovereign
disposer of rewards and severity. Did Augustus, even under the pressure
of old age and infirmities, take so many journeys into Germany? and
should Tiberius, in the vigour of his life, when the same or greater
occasions called him thither, sit lazily in the Senate to watch senators
and cavil at words? He had fully provided for the domestic servitude
of Rome; he ought next to cure the licentiousness of the soldiers,
to restrain their turbulent spirits, and reconcile them to a life of
peace."
But all these reasonings and reproaches moved not Tiberius: he was
determined not to depart from the capital, the centre of power and
affairs; nor to chance or peril expose his person and empire. In truth,
many and contrary difficulties pressed and perplexed him: "the German
army was the stronger; that of Pannonia nearer; the power of both the
Gauls supported the former; the latter was at the gates of Italy. Now to
which should he repair first? and would not the last visited be inflamed
by being postponed? But by sending one of his sons to each, the equal
treatment of both was maintained; as also the majesty of the supreme
power, which from distance ever derived most reverence. Besides, the
young princes would be excused, if to their father they referred such
demands as were for them improper to grant; and if they disobeyed
Germanicus and Drusus, his own authority remained to appease or punish
them: but if once they had contemned their Emperor himself, what other
resource was behind?" However, as if he had been upon the point of
marching, he chose his attendance, provided his equipage, and prepared
a fleet: but by various delays and pretences, sometimes that of the
winter, sometimes business, he deceived for a time even the wisest men;
much longer the common people, and the provinces for a great while.
Germanicus had already drawn together his army, and was prepared to take
vengeance on the seditious: but judging it proper to allow space for
trial, whether they would follow the late example, and consulting their
own safety do justice upon one another, he sent letters to Caecina,
"that he himself approached, with a powerful force; and if they
prevented him not, by executing the guilty, he would put all
indifferently to the slaughter." These letters Caecina privately read
to the principal officers, and such of the camp as the sedition had not
tainted; besought them "to redeem themselves from death, and all
from infamy; urged that in peace alone reason was heard and merit
distinguished; but in the rage of war the blind steel spared the
innocent no more than the guilty." The officers, having tried those they
believed for their purpose, and found the majority still to persevere
in their duty, did, in concurrence with the General, settle the time for
falling with the sword upon the most notoriously guilty and turbulent.
Upon a particular signal given they rushed into their tents and
butchered them, void as they were of all apprehension; nor did any but
the centurions and executioners know whence the massacre began, or where
it would end.
This had a different face from all the civil slaughters that ever
happened: it was a slaughter not of enemies upon enemies, nor from
different and opposite camps, nor in a day of battle; but of comrades
upon comrades, in the same tents where they ate together by day, where
they slept together by night. From this state of intimacy they flew
into mortal enmity, and friends launched their darts at friends: wounds,
outcries, and blood were open to view; but the cause remained hid: wild
chance governed the rest, and several innocents were slain. For the
criminals, when they found against whom all this fury was bent, had also
betaken themselves to their arms; neither did Caecina, nor any of the
Tribunes, intervene to stay the rage; so that the soldiers had full
permission to vengeance, and a licentious satiety of killing. Germanicus
soon after entered the camp now full of blood and carcasses, and
lamenting with many tears that "this was not a remedy, but cruelty
and desolation," commanded the bodies to be burnt. Their minds, still
tempestuous and bloody, were transported with sudden eagerness to attack
the foe, as the best expiation of their tragical fury: nor otherwise,
they thought, could the ghosts of their butchered brethren be appeased,
than by receiving in their own profane breasts a chastisement of
honourable wounds. Germanicus fell in with the ardour of the soldiers,
and laying a bridge upon the Rhine, marched over twelve thousand
legionary soldiers, twenty-six cohorts of the allies, and eight
regiments of horse; men all untainted in the late sedition.
The Germans rejoiced, not far off, at this vacation of war, occasioned
first by the death of Augustus, and afterwards by intestine tumults in
the camp; but the Romans by a hasty march passed through the Caesian
woods, and levelling the barrier formerly begun by Tiberius, upon
it pitched their camp. In the front and rear they were defended by a
palisade; on each side by a barricade of the trunks of trees felled.
From thence, beginning to traverse gloomy forests, they stopped to
consult which of two ways they should choose, the short and frequented,
or the longest and least known, and therefore unsuspected by the
foe: the longest way was chosen; but in everything else despatch was
observed; for by the scouts intelligence was brought that the Germans
did, that night, celebrate a festival with great mirth and revelling.
Hence Caecina was commanded to advance with the cohorts without their
baggage, and to clear a passage through the forest: at a moderate
distance followed the legions; the clearness of the night facilitated
the march, and they arrived at the villages of the Marsians, which with
guards they presently invested. The Germans were even yet under the
effects of their debauch, scattered here and there, some in bed, some
lying by their tables; no watch placed, no apprehension of an enemy. So
utterly had their false security banished all order and care; and they
were under no dread of war, without enjoying peace, other than the
deceitful and lethargic peace of drunkards.
The legions were eager for revenge; and Germanicus, to extend their
ravage, divided them into four battalions. The country was wasted by
fire and sword fifty miles round; nor sex nor age found mercy; places
sacred and profane had the equal lot of destruction, all razed to the
ground, and with them the temple of Tanfana, of all others the most
celebrated amongst these nations: nor did all this execution cost the
soldiers a wound, while they only slew men half asleep, disarmed, or
dispersed. This slaughter roused the Bructerans, the Tubantes, and the
Usipetes; and they beset the passes of the forest, through which the
army was to return: an event known to Germanicus, and he marched in
order of battle. The auxiliary cohorts and part of the horse led the
van, followed close by the first legion; the baggage was in the middle;
the twenty-first legion closed the left wing, and the fifth the right;
the twentieth defended the rear; and after them marched the rest of the
allies. But the enemy stirred not, till the body of the army entered
the wood: they then began lightly to insult the front and wings; and at
last, with their whole force, fell upon the rear. The light cohorts were
already disordered by the close German bands, when Germanicus riding up
to the twentieth legion, and exalting his voice, "This was the season,"
he cried, "to obliterate the scandal of sedition: hence they should
fall resolutely on, and into sudden praise convert their late shame and
offence." These words inflamed them: at one charge they broke the enemy,
drove them out of the wood, and slaughtered them in the plain. In the
meanwhile, the front passed the forest, and fortified the camp: the rest
of the march was uninterrupted; and the soldiers, trusting to the merit
of their late exploits, and forgetting at once past faults and terrors,
were placed in winter quarters.
The tidings of these exploits affected Tiberius with gladness and
anguish: he rejoiced that the sedition was suppressed; but that
Germanicus had, by discharging the veterans, by shortening the term of
service to the rest, and by largesses to all, gained the hearts of the
army, as well as earned high glory in war, proved to the Emperor matter
of torture. To the Senate, however, he reported the detail of his feats,
and upon his valour bestowed copious praises, but in words too pompous
and ornamental to be believed dictated by his heart. It was with more
brevity that he commended Drusus, and his address in quelling the
sedition of Illyricum, but more cordially withal, and in language
altogether sincere; and even to the Pannonian legions he extended all
the concessions made by Germanicus to his own.
There was this year an admission of new rites, by the establishment
of another College of Priests, one sacred to the deity of Augustus; as
formerly Titus Tatius, to preserve the religious rites of the Sabines,
had founded the fraternity of Titian Priests. To fill the society,
one-and-twenty, the most considerable Romans were drawn by lot, and
to them added Tiberius, Drusus, Claudius, and Germanicus. The games in
honour of Augustus began then first to be embroiled by emulation among
the players, and the strife of parties in their behalf. Augustus had
countenanced these players and their art, in complaisance to Maecenas,
who was mad in love with Bathyllus the comedian; nor to such favourite
amusements of the populace had he any aversion himself; he rather judged
it an acceptable courtesy to mingle with the multitude in these their
popular pleasures. Different was the temper of Tiberius, different
his politics: to severer manners, however, he durst not yet reduce the
people, so many years indulged in licentious gaieties.
In the consulship of Drusus Caesar and Caius Norbanus, a triumph was
decreed to Germanicus, while the war still subsisted. He was preparing
with all diligence to prosecute it the following summer; but began much
sooner by a sudden irruption early in the spring into the territories of
the Cattans: an anticipation of the campaign, which proceeded from the
hopes given him of dissension amongst the enemy, caused by the opposite
parties of Arminius and Segestes; two men signally known to the Romans
upon different accounts; the last for his firm faith, the first for
faith violated. Arminius was the incendiary of Germany; but by Segestes
had been given repeated warnings of an intended revolt, particularly
during the festival immediately preceding the insurrection: he had even
advised Varus "to secure himself and Arminius, and all the other chiefs;
for that the multitude, thus bereft of their leaders, would dare to
attempt nothing; and Varus have time to distinguish crimes and such
as committed none." But by his own fate, and the sudden violence of
Arminius, Varus fell. Segestes, though by the weight and unanimity of
his nation he was forced into the war, yet remained at constant variance
with Arminius: a domestic quarrel too heightened their hate, as Arminius
had carried away the daughter of Segestes, already betrothed to another;
and the same relations, which amongst friends prove bonds of tenderness,
were fresh stimulations of wrath to an obnoxious son and an offended
father.
Upon these encouragements, Germanicus to the command of Caecina
committed four legions, five thousand auxiliaries, and some bands of
Germans, dwellers on this side the Rhine, drawn suddenly together;
he led himself as many legions with double the number of allies, and
erecting a fort in Mount Taunus, [Footnote: Near Homburg.] upon the old
foundations of one raised by his father, rushed full march against the
Cattans; having behind him left Lucius Apronius, to secure the ways from
the fury of inundations: for as the roads were then dry and the rivers
low, events in that climate exceeding rare, he had without check
expedited his march; but against his return apprehended the violence of
rains and floods. Upon the Cattans he fell with such surprise, that all
the weak through sex or age were instantly taken or slaughtered: their
youth, by swimming over the Adrana, [Footnote: Eder.] escaped, and
attempted to force the Romans from building a bridge to follow them, but
by dint of arrows and engines were repulsed; and then, having in vain
tried to gain terms of peace, some submitted to Germanicus; the rest
abandoned their villages and dwellings, and dispersed themselves in the
woods. Mattium, [Footnote: Maden.] the capital of the nation, he burnt,
ravaged all the open country, and bent his march to the Rhine; nor durst
the enemy harass his rear, an usual practice of theirs, when sometimes
they fly more through craft than affright. The Cheruscans indeed were
addicted to assist the Cattans, but terrified from attempting it by
Caecina, who moved about with his forces from place to place; and by
routing the Marsians who had dared to engage him, restrained all their
efforts.
Soon after arrived deputies from Segestes, praying relief against
the combination and violence of his countrymen, by whom he was held
besieged; as more powerful amongst them than his was the credit of
Arminius, since it was he who had advised the war. The genius this of
barbarians, to judge that men are to be trusted in proportion as they
are fierce, and in public commotions ever to prefer the most resolute.
To the other deputies Segestes had added Segimundus, his son; but the
young man faltered a while, as his own heart accused him; for that
the year when Germany revolted, he, who had been by the Romans created
Priest of the altar of the Ubians, rent the sacerdotal tiara and fled to
the revolters: yet, encouraged by the Roman clemency, he undertook the
execution of his father's orders, was himself graciously received, and
then conducted with a guard to the frontiers of Gaul. Germanicus led
back his army to the relief of Segestes, and was rewarded with success.
He fought the besiegers, and rescued him with a great train of his
relations and followers; amongst them too were ladies of illustrious
rank, particularly the wife of Arminius, the same who was the daughter
of Segestes: a lady more of the spirit of her husband than that of her
father; a spirit so unsubdued, that from her eyes captivity forced not
a tear, nor from her lips a breath in the style of a supplicant: not a
motion of her hands, nor a look escaped her; but, fast across her breast
she held her arms, and upon her heavy womb her eyes were immovably
fixed. There were likewise carried Roman spoils taken at the slaughter
of Varus and his army, and then divided as prey amongst many of those
who were now prisoners: at the same time appeared Segestes, of superior
stature; and from a confidence in his good understanding with the
Romans, undaunted. In this manner he spoke:
"It is not the first day this, that to the Roman People I have approved
my faith and adherence: from the moment I was by the deified Augustus
presented with the freedom of the city, I have continued by your
interest to choose my friends, by your interest to denominate my
enemies; from no hate of mine to my native country (for odious are
traitors even to the party they embrace), but because the same measures
were equally conducing to the benefit of the Romans and of the Germans;
and I was rather for peace than war. For this reason to Varus, the then
General, I applied, with an accusation against Arminius, who from me had
ravished my daughter, and with you violated the faith of leagues: but
growing impatient with the slowness and inactivity of Varus, and well
apprised how little security was to be hoped from the laws, I pressed
him to seize myself, and Arminius, and his accomplices: witness that
fatal night, to me I wish it had been the last! more to be lamented than
defended are the sad events which followed. I moreover cast Arminius
into irons, and was myself cast into irons by his faction; and as soon
as to you, Caesar, I could apply, you see I prefer old engagements to
present violence, and tranquillity to combustions, with no view of
my own to interest or reward, but to banish from me the imputation
of perfidiousness. For the German nation, too, I would thus become a
mediator, if peradventure they will choose rather to repent than be
destroyed: for my son, I intreat you, have mercy upon his youth, and
pardon his error; that my daughter is your prisoner by force I own: in
your breast it wholly lies under which character you will treat her,
whether as one by Arminius impregnated, or by me begotten." The answer
of Germanicus was gracious: he promised indemnity to his children and
kindred, and to himself a safe retreat in one of the old provinces; then
returned with his army, and by the direction of Tiberius, received the
title of _Imperator_. The wife of Arminius brought forth a male child,
and the boy was brought up at Ravenna; his unhappy conflicts afterwards,
with the contumelious insults of fortune, will be remembered in their
place.
The desertion of Segestes being divulged, with his gracious reception
from Germanicus, affected his countrymen variously; with hope or
anguish, as they were prone or averse to the war. Naturally violent was
the spirit of Arminius, and now, by the captivity of his wife, by the
fate of his child doomed to bondage though yet unborn, enraged even to
distraction: he flew about amongst the Cheruscans, calling them to arms;
to arm against Segestes, to arm against Germanicus. Invectives followed
his fury; "A blessed father this Segestes," he cried! "a mighty general
this Germanicus! invincible warriors these Romans! so many troops have
made prisoner of a woman. It is not thus that I conquer; before me three
legions fell, and three lieutenant-generals. Open and honourable is my
method of war, nor waged with big-bellied women, but against men and
arms; and treason is none of my weapons. Still to be seen are the Roman
standards in the German groves, there by me hung up and devoted to our
country Gods. Let Segestes live a slave in a conquered province; let him
to his son recover a foreign priesthood: with the German nations he can
never obliterate his reproach, that through him they have seen between
the Elbe and Rhine rods and axes, and the Roman toga. To other nations
who know not the Roman domination, executions and tributes are also
unknown; evils which we too have cast off, in spite of that Augustus now
dead and enrolled with the Deities; in spite too of Tiberius, his
chosen successor: let us not after this dread a mutinous army, and a boy
without experience, their commander; but if you love your country, your
kindred, your ancient liberty and laws, better than tyrants and new
colonies, let Arminius rather lead you to liberty and glory, than the
wicked Segestes to the infamy of bondage."
By these stimulations, not the Cheruscans only were roused, but all the
neighbouring nations; and into the confederacy was drawn Inguiomerus,
paternal uncle to Arminius, a man long since in high credit with the
Romans: hence a new source of fear to Germanicus, who, to avoid the
shock of their whole forces, and to divert the enemy, sent Caecina with
forty Roman cohorts to the river Amisia, [Footnote: Ems.] through the
territories of the Bructerans. Pedo the Prefect led the cavalry by the
confines of the Frisians: he himself, on the lake, [Footnote: The Zuyder
Zee.] embarked four legions; and upon the bank of the said river the
whole body met, foot, horse, and fleet. The Chaucians, upon offering
their assistance, were taken into the service; but the Bructerans,
setting fire to their effects and dwellings, were routed by Stertinius,
by Germanicus despatched against them with a band lightly armed. As this
party were engaged between slaughter and plunder, he found the Eagle of
the nineteenth legion lost in the overthrow of Varus. The army marched
next to the farthest borders of the Bructerans, and the whole country
between the rivers Amisia and Luppia [Footnote: Lippe.] was laid waste.
Not far hence lay the forest of Teutoburgium, and in it the bones of
Varus and the legions, by report still unburied.
Hence Germanicus became inspired with a tender passion to pay the
last offices to the legions and their leader; the like tenderness also
affected the whole army. They were moved with compassion, some for
the fate of their friends, others for that of their relations here
tragically slain; they were struck with the doleful casualties of war,
and the sad lot of humanity. Caecina was sent before to examine the
gloomy recesses of the forest; to lay bridges over the pools; and upon
the deceitful marshes, causeways. The army entered the doleful solitude,
hideous to sight, hideous to memory. First they saw the camp of Varus,
wide in circumference; and the three distinct spaces, allotted to the
different Eagles, showed the number of the legions. Further, they
beheld the ruinous entrenchment, and the ditch nigh choked up: in it the
remains of the army were supposed to have made their last effort, and
in it to have found their graves. In the open fields lay their bones
all bleached and bare, some separate, some on heaps; just as they had
happened to fall, flying for their lives, or resisting unto death. Here
were scattered the limbs of horses, there pieces of broken javelins; and
the trunks of trees bore the skulls of men. In the adjacent groves were
the savage altars; where, of the tribunes and principal centurions,
the barbarians had made a horrible immolation. Those who survived the
slaughter, having escaped from captivity and the sword, related the sad
particulars to the rest: "Here the commanders of the legions were slain;
there we lost the Eagles; here Varus had his first wound; there he gave
himself another, and perished by his own unhappy hand. In that place,
too, stood the tribunal whence Arminius harangued; in this quarter, for
the execution of his captives, he erected so many gibbets; in that such
a number of funeral trenches were digged; and with these circumstances
of pride and despite he insulted the ensigns and Eagles."
Thus the Roman army buried the bones of the three legions, six years
after the slaughter: nor could any one distinguish whether he gathered
the particular remains of a stranger, or those of a kinsman; but all
considered the whole as their friends, the whole as their relations;
with heightened resentments against the foe, at once sad and revengeful.
In this pious office, so acceptable to the dead, Germanicus was a
partner in the woe of the living; and upon the common tomb laid the
first sod: a proceeding not liked by Tiberius; whether it were that upon
every action of Germanicus he put a perverse meaning, or believed that
the affecting spectacle of the unburied slain would sink the spirit
of the army, and heighten their terror of the enemy; as also that "a
general vested, as Augur, with the intendency of religious rites, became
defiled by touching the solemnities of the dead."
Arminius, retiring into desert and pathless places, was pursued by
Germanicus; who, as soon as he reached him, commanded the horse to
advance, and dislodge the enemy from the post they had possessed.
Arminius, having directed his men to keep close together, and draw near
to the woods, wheeled suddenly about, and to those whom he had hid in
the forest gave the signal to rush out: the Roman horse, now engaged
by a new army, became disordered, and to their relief some cohorts were
sent, but likewise broken by the press of those that fled; and great
was the consternation so many ways increased. The enemy too were already
pushing them into the morass, a place well known to the pursuers, as to
the unapprised Romans it had proved pernicious, had not Germanicus drawn
out the legions in order of battle. Hence the enemy became terrified,
our men reassured, and both retired with equal loss and advantage.
Germanicus presently after returning with the army to the river Amisia,
reconducted the legions, as he had brought them, in the fleet: part
of the horse were ordered to march along the sea-shore to the Rhine.
Caecina, who led his own men, was warned, that though he was to return
through unknown roads, yet he should with all speed pass the causeway
called the long bridges: it is a narrow track this, between vast
marshes, and formerly raised by Lucius Domitius. The marshes themselves
are of an uncertain soil, here full of mud, there of heavy sticking
clay, or traversed with various currents. Round about are woods which
rise gently from the plain, and were already filled with soldiers by
Arminius; who, by shorter ways and a running march, had arrived there
before our men, who were loaded with arms and baggage. Caecina, who was
perplexed how at once to repair the causeway decayed by time, and to
repulse the foe, resolved at last to encamp in the place, that whilst
some were employed in the work, others might maintain the fight.
The Barbarians strove violently to break our station, and to fall upon
the entrenchers: they harassed our men, assaulted the works, changed
their attacks, and pushed everywhere. With the shouts of the assailants,
the cries of the workmen were confusedly mixed; and all things equally
combined to distress the Romans: the place deep with ooze sinking under
those who stood, slippery to such as advanced; their armour heavy;
the waters deep, nor could they in them launch their javelins. The
Cheruscans, on the contrary, were inured to encounters in the bogs;
their persons tall, their spears long, such as could wound at a
distance. At last the legions, already yielding, were by night redeemed
from an unequal combat; but night interrupted not the activity of the
Germans, become by success indefatigable. Without refreshing themselves
with sleep, they diverted all the courses of the springs which rise in
the neighbouring mountains, and turned them into the plains: thus
the Roman camp was flooded, the work, as far as they had carried it,
overturned, and the labour of the poor soldiers renewed and doubled. To
Caecina this year proved the fortieth of his sustaining as officer or
soldier the functions of arms; a man in all the vicissitudes of war,
prosperous or disastrous, well experienced and thence undaunted.
Weighing, therefore, with himself all probable events and expedients, he
could devise no other than that of restraining the enemy to the woods,
till he had sent forward the wounded men and baggage; for, from the
mountains to the marshes there stretched a plain fit only to hold a
little army: to this purpose the legions were thus appointed; the fifth
had the right wing, and the one-and-twentieth the left; the first led
the van; the twentieth defended the rear.
A restless night it was to both armies, but in different ways; the
Barbarians feasted and caroused, and with songs of triumph, or with
horrid and threatening cries, filled all the plain and echoing woods.
Amongst the Romans were feeble fires, sad silence, or broken words;
they leaned drooping here and there against the pales, or wandered
disconsolately about the tents, like men without sleep, but not quite
awake. A frightful dream too terrified the General; he thought he heard
and saw Quinctilius Varus, rising out of the marsh all besmeared with
blood, stretching forth his hand, and calling upon him; but that he
rejected the call and pushed him away. At break of day, the legions
posted on the wings, through contumacy or affright, deserted their
stations, and took sudden possession of a field beyond the bogs. Neither
did Arminius fall straight upon them, however open they lay to his
assault; but, when he perceived the baggage set fast in mire and
ditches, the soldiers above it disorderly and embarrassed, the ranks and
ensigns in confusion, and, as usual in a time of distress, every one in
haste to save himself, but slow to obey his officer, he then commanded
his Germans to break in, "Behold," he vehemently cried; "behold again
Varus and his legions subdued by the same fate." Thus he cried, and
instantly with a select body broke quite through our forces, and chiefly
against the horse directed his havoc; so that the ground becoming
slippery by their blood and the slime of the marsh, their feet flew from
them, and they cast their riders; then galloping and stumbling amongst
the ranks, they overthrew all they met, and trod to death all they
overthrew. The greatest difficulty was to maintain the Eagles; a storm
of darts made it impossible to advance them, and the rotten ground
impossible to fix them. Caecina, while he sustained the fight, had his
horse shot, and having fallen was nigh taken; but the first legion
saved him. Our relief came from the greediness of the enemy, who ceased
slaying to seize the spoil: hence the legions had respite to struggle
into the fair field and firm ground. Nor was here an end of their
miseries: a palisade was to be raised, an entrenchment digged; their
instruments too for throwing up and carrying earth, and their tools
for cutting turf, were almost all lost; no tents for the soldiers; no
remedies for the wounded; and their food all defiled with mire or blood.
As they shared it in sadness amongst them, they lamented that mournful
night, they lamented the approaching day, to so many thousand men the
last.
It happened that a horse, which had broke his collar as he strayed
about, became frightened with noise, and ran over some that were in his
way: this raised such a consternation in the camp, from a persuasion
that the Germans in a body had forced an entrance, that all rushed to
the gates, especially to the postern, as the farthest from the foe, and
safer for flight. Caecina having found the vanity of their dread, but
unable to stop them, either by his authority, or by his prayers, or
indeed by force, flung himself at last across the gate. This prevailed;
their awe and tenderness of their General restrained them from running
over his body; and the Tribunes and Centurions satisfied them the while,
that it was a false alarm.
Then calling them together, and desiring them to hear him with silence,
he reminded them of their difficulties, and how to conquer them: "That
for their lives they must be indebted to their arms, but force was to
be tempered with art; they must therefore keep close within their camp,
till the enemy, in hopes of taking it by storm, advanced; then make a
sudden sally on every side, and by this push they should break through
the enemy, and reach the Rhine. But if they fled, more forests remained
to be traversed, deeper marshes to be passed, and the cruelty of a
pursuing foe to be sustained." He laid before them the motives and
fruits of victory, public rewards and glory, with every tender domestic
consideration, as well as those of military exploits and praise. Of
their dangers and sufferings he said nothing. He next distributed
horses, first his own, then those of the Tribunes and leaders of the
legions, to the bravest soldiers impartially; that thus mounted they
might begin the charge, followed by the foot.
Amongst the Germans there was not less agitation, from hopes of victory,
greediness of spoil, and the opposite counsels of their leaders.
Arminius proposed "to let the Romans march off, and to beset them
in their march, when engaged in bogs and fastnesses." The advice of
Inguiomerus was fiercer, and thence by the Barbarians more applauded:
he declared "for forcing the camp, for that the victory would be quick,
there would be more captives, and entire plunder." As soon, therefore,
as it was light, they rushed out upon the camp, cast hurdles into
the ditch, attacked and grappled the palisade. Upon it few soldiers
appeared, and these seemed frozen with fear; but as the enemy was in
swarms, climbing the ramparts, the signal was given to the cohorts;
the cornets and trumpets sounded, and instantly, with shouts and
impetuosity, they issued out and begirt the assailants. "Here are no
thickets," they scornfully cried; "no bogs; but an equal field and
impartial Gods." The enemy, who imagined few Romans remaining, fewer
arms, and an easy conquest, were struck with the sounding trumpets, with
the glittering armour; and every object of terror appeared double to
them who expected none. They fell like men who, as they are void of
moderation in prosperity, are also destitute of conduct in distress.
Arminius forsook the fight unhurt; Inguiomerus grievously wounded; their
men were slaughtered as long as day and rage lasted. In the evening the
legions returned, in the same want of provisions, and with more wounds;
but in victory they found all things, health, vigour, and abundance.
In the meantime a report had flown, that the Roman forces were routed,
and an army of Germans upon full march to invade Gaul; so that under
the terror of this news there were those whose cowardice would have
emboldened them to have demolished the bridge upon the Rhine, had not
Agrippina restrained them from that infamous attempt. In truth, such was
the undaunted spirit of the woman, that at this time she performed all
the duties of a general, relieved the necessitous soldiers, upon the
wounded bestowed medicines, and upon others clothes. Caius Plinius,
the writer of the German wars, relates that she stood at the end of
the bridge, as the legions returned, and accosted them with thanks and
praises; a behaviour which sunk deep into the spirit of Tiberius: "For
that all this officiousness of hers," he thought, "could not be upright;
nor that it was against foreigners only she engaged the army. To the
direction of the generals nothing was now left, when a woman reviewed
the companies, attended the Eagles, and to the men distributed
largesses: as if before she had shown but small tokens of ambitious
designs, in carrying her child (the son of the General) in a soldier's
coat about the camp, with the title of Caesar Caligula: already in
greater credit with the army was Agrippina than the leaders of the
legions, in greater than their generals; and a woman had suppressed
sedition, which the authority of the Emperor was not able to restrain."
These jealousies were inflamed, and more were added, by Sejanus; one who
was well skilled in the temper of Tiberius, and purposely furnished him
with sources of hatred, to lie hid in his heart, and be discharged with
increase hereafter. Germanicus, in order to lighten the ships in which
he had embarked his men, and fit their burden to the ebbs and shallows,
delivered the second and fourteenth legions to Publius Vitellius, to
lead them by land. Vitellius at first had an easy march on dry ground,
or ground moderately overflowed by the tide, when suddenly the fury of
the north wind swelling the ocean (a constant effect of the equinox) the
legions were surrounded and tossed with the tide, and the land was all
on flood; the sea, the shore, the fields, had the same tempestuous face;
no distinction of depths from shallows; none of firm, from deceitful,
footing. They were overturned by the billows, swallowed down by the
eddies; and horses, baggage, and drowned men encountered each other,
and floated together. The several companies were mixed at random by
the waves; they waded, now breast high, now up to the chin, and as the
ground failed them, they fell, some never more to rise. Their cries and
mutual encouragements availed them nothing against the prevailing and
inexorable waves; no difference between the coward and the brave, the
wise and the foolish; none between circumspection and chance; but
all were equally involved in the invincible violence of the flood.
Vitellius, at length struggling on to an eminence, drew the legions
thither, where they passed the cold night without fire, and destitute of
every convenience; most of them naked or lamed; not less miserable than
men enclosed by an enemy; for even to such remained the consolation of
an honourable death; but here was destruction every way void of glory.
The land returned with the day, and they marched to the river Vidrus,
[Footnote: Weser.] whither Germanicus had gone with the fleet. There the
two legions were again embarked, when fame had given them for drowned;
nor was their escape believed till Germanicus and the army were seen to
return.
Stertinius, who in the meanwhile had been sent before to receive
Sigimerus, the brother of Segestes (a prince willing to surrender
himself) brought him and his son to the city of the Ubians. Both were
pardoned; the father freely, the son with more difficulty, because he
was said to have insulted the corpse of Varus. For the rest, Spain,
Italy, and both the Gauls strove with emulation to supply the losses of
the army; and offered arms, horses, money, according as each abounded.
Germanicus applauded their zeal; but accepted only the horses and
arms for the service of the war. With his own money he relieved the
necessities of the soldiers: and to soften also by his kindness the
memory of the late havoc, he visited the wounded, extolled the exploits
of particulars, viewed their wounds, with hopes encouraged some, with
a sense of glory animated others; and by affability and tenderness
confirmed them all in devotion to himself and to his fortune in war.
The ornaments of triumph were this year decreed to Aulus Caecina, Lucius
Apronius, and Caius Silius, for their services under Germanicus. The
title of Father of his Country, so often offered by the people to
Tiberius, was rejected by him; nor would he permit swearing upon his
acts, though the same was voted by the Senate. Against it he urged "the
instability of all mortal things, and that the higher he was raised
the more slippery he stood." But for all this ostentation of a popular
spirit, he acquired not the reputation of possessing it, for he had
revived the law concerning violated majesty; a law which, in the days
of our ancestors, had indeed the same name, but implied different
arraignments and crimes, namely, those against the State; as when an
army was betrayed abroad, when seditions were raised at home; in short,
when the public was faithlessly administered and the majesty of the
Roman People was debased: these were actions, and actions were punished,
but words were free. Augustus was the first who brought libels under the
penalties of this wrested law, incensed as he was by the insolence of
Cassius Severus, who had in his writings wantonly defamed men and ladies
of illustrious quality. Tiberius too afterwards, when Pompeius Macer,
the Praetor, consulted him "whether process should be granted upon
this law?" answered, "That the laws must be executed." He also
was exasperated by satirical verses written by unknown authors and
dispersed; exposing his cruelty, his pride, and his mind naturally
alienated from his mother.
It will be worth while to relate here the pretended crimes charged upon
Falanius and Rubrius, two Roman knights of small fortunes; that hence
may be seen from what beginnings, and by how much dark art of Tiberius,
this grievous mischief crept in; how it was again restrained; how at
last it blazed out and consumed all things. To Falanius was objected
by his accusers, that "amongst the adorers of Augustus, who went in
fraternities from house to house, he had admitted one Cassius, a mimic
and prostitute; and having sold his gardens, had likewise with them sold
the statue of Augustus." The crime imputed to Rubrius was, "That he had
sworn falsely by the divinity of Augustus." When these accusations
were known to Tiberius, he wrote to the consuls, "That Heaven was not
therefore decreed to his father, that the worship of him might be a
snare to the citizens of Rome; that Cassius, the player, was wont to
assist with others of his profession at the interludes consecrated by
his mother to the memory of Augustus: neither did it affect religion,
that his effigies, like other images of the Gods, were comprehended in
the sale of houses and gardens. As to the false swearing by his name,
it was to be deemed the same as if Rubrius had profaned the name of
Jupiter; but to the Gods belonged the avenging of injuries done to the
Gods."
Not long after, Granius Marcellus, Praetor of Bithynia, was charged with
high treason by his own Quaestor, Cepio Crispinus; Romanus Hispo, the
pleader, supporting the charge. This Cepio began a course of life which,
through the miseries of the times and the bold wickedness of men, became
afterwards famous: at first needy and obscure, but of a busy spirit,
he made court to the cruelty of the Prince by occult informations; and
presently, as an open accuser, grew terrible to every distinguished
Roman. This procured him credit with one, hatred from all, and made a
precedent to be followed by others, who from poverty became rich; from
being contemned, dreadful; and in the destruction which they brought
upon others, found at last their own. He accused Marcellus of "malignant
words concerning Tiberius," an inevitable crime! when the accuser,
collecting all the most detestable parts of the Prince's character,
alleged them as the expressions of the accused; for, because they were
true, they were believed to have been spoken. To this, Hispo added,
"That the statue of Marcellus was by him placed higher than those of the
Caesars; and that, having cut off the head of Augustus, he had in the
room of it set the head of Tiberius." This enraged him so, that breaking
silence, he cried, "He would himself, in this cause, give his vote
explicitly and under the tie of an oath." By this he meant to force the
assent of the rest of the Senate. There remained even then some faint
traces of expiring liberty. Hence Cneius Piso asked him, "In what place,
Caesar, will you choose to give your opinion? If first, I shall have
your example to follow; if last, I fear I may ignorantly dissent from
you." The words pierced him, but he bore them, the rather as he was
ashamed of his unwary transport; and he suffered the accused to be
acquitted of high treason. To try him for the public money was referred
to the proper judges.
Nor sufficed it Tiberius to assist in the deliberations of the Senate
only: he likewise sat in the seats of justice; but always on one side,
because he would not dispossess the Praetor of his chair; and by his
presence there, many ordinances were established against the intrigues
and solicitations of the Grandees. But while private justice was thus
promoted, public liberty was overthrown. About this time, Pius Aurelius,
the Senator, whose house, yielding to the pressure of the public road
and aqueducts, had fallen, complained to the Senate and prayed relief:
a suit opposed by the Praetors who managed the treasury; but he was
relieved by Tiberius, who ordered him the price of his house; for he
was fond of being liberal upon honest occasions: a virtue which he long
retained, even after he had utterly abandoned all other virtues. Upon
Propertius Celer, once Praetor, but now desiring leave to resign the
dignity of Senator, as a burden to his poverty, he bestowed a thousand
great sesterces; [Footnote: £8333.] upon ample information, that Celer's
necessities were derived from his father. Others, who attempted the same
thing, he ordered to lay their condition before the Senate; and from
an affectation of severity was thus austere even where he acted with
uprightness. Hence the rest preferred poverty and silence to begging and
relief.
The same year the Tiber, being swelled with continual rains, overflowed
the level parts of the city; and the common destruction of men and
houses followed the returning flood. Hence Asinius Callus moved "that
the Sibylline books might be consulted." Tiberius opposed it, equally
smothering all inquiries whatsoever, whether into matters human or
divine. To Ateius Capito, however, and Lucius Arruntius, was committed
the care of restraining the river within its banks. The provinces of
Achaia and Macedon, praying relief from their public burdens, were for
the present discharged of their Proconsular government, and subjected to
the Emperor's lieutenants. In the entertainment of gladiators at Rome,
Drusus presided: it was exhibited in the name of Germanicus, and his
own; and at it he manifested too much lust of blood, even of the blood
of slaves: a quality terrible to the populace; and hence his father
was said to have reproved him. His own absence from these shows was
variously construed: by some it was ascribed to his impatience of a
crowd; by others to his reserved and solitary genius, and his fear of
an unequal comparison with Augustus, who was wont to be a cheerful
spectator. But, that he thus purposely furnished matter for exposing the
cruelty of his son there, and for raising him popular hate, is what I
would not believe; though this too was asserted.
The dissensions of the theatre, begun last year, broke out now more
violently, with the slaughter of several, not of the people only, but of
the soldiers, with that of a Centurion. Nay, a Tribune of a Praetorian
cohort was wounded, whilst they were securing the magistrates from
insults, and quelling the licentiousness of the rabble. This riot was
canvassed in the Senate, and votes were passing for empowering the
Praetors to whip the players. Haterius Agrippa, Tribune of the People,
opposed it; and was sharply reprimanded by a speech of Asinius Gallus.
Tiberius was silent, and to the Senate allowed these empty apparitions
of liberty. The opposition, however, prevailed, in reverence to the
authority of Augustus; who, upon a certain occasion, had given his
judgment, "that players were exempt from stripes:" nor would Tiberius
assume to violate any words of his. To limit the wages of players, and
restrain the licentiousness of their partisans, many decrees were made:
the most remarkable were, "That no Senator should enter the house of a
pantomime; no Roman Knight attend them abroad; they should show nowhere
but in the theatre; and the Praetors should have power to punish any
insolence in the spectators with exile."
The Spaniards were, upon their petition, permitted to build a temple
to Augustus in the colony of Tarragon; an example this for all the
provinces to follow. In answer to the people, who prayed to be relieved
from the _centesima_, a tax of one in the hundred, established at the
end of the civil wars, upon all vendible commodities; Tiberius by an
edict declared, "That upon this tax depended the fund for maintaining
the army; nor even thus was the Commonwealth equal to the expense, if
before their twentieth year the veterans were dismissed." So that
the concessions made them during the late sedition, to discharge
them finally at the end of sixteen years, as they were made through
necessity, were for the future abolished.
It was next proposed to the Senate, by Arruntius and Ateius, whether,
in order to restrain the overflowing of the Tiber, the channels of the
several rivers and lakes by which it was swelled, must not be diverted.
Upon this question the deputies of several cities and colonies were
heard. The Florentines besought, "that the bed of the Clanis [Footnote:
Chiana.] might not be turned into their river Arnus; [Footnote: Arno.]
for that the same would prove their utter ruin." The like plea was urged
by the Interamnates; [Footnote: Terni.] "since the most fruitful plains
in Italy would be lost, if, according to the project, the Nar, branched
out into rivulets, overflowed them." Nor were the Reatinians less
earnest against stopping the outlets of the Lake Velinus into the Nar;
"otherwise," they said, "it would break over its banks, and stagnate all
the adjacent country; the direction of nature was best in all natural
things: it was she that to rivers had appointed their courses and
discharges, and set them their limits as well as their sources. Regard
too was to be paid to the religion of our Latin allies, who, esteeming
the rivers of their country sacred, had to them dedicated Priests, and
altars, and groves; nay, the Tiber himself, when bereft of his auxiliary
streams, would flow with diminished grandeur." Now, whether it were
that the prayers of the colonies, or the difficulty of the work, or the
influence of superstition prevailed, it is certain the opinion of Piso
was followed; namely, that nothing should be altered,
To Poppeus Sabinus was continued his province of Mesia; and to it was
added that of Achaia and Macedon. This too was part of the politics of
Tiberius, to prolong governments, and maintain the same men in the same
armies, or civil employments, for the most part, to the end of
their lives; with what view, is not agreed. Some think "that from an
impatience of returning cares, he was for making whatever he once liked
perpetual." Others, "that from the malignity of his invidious nature, he
regretted the preferring of many." There are some who believe, "that
as he had a crafty penetrating spirit, so he had an understanding ever
irresolute and perplexed." So much is certain, that he never courted any
eminent virtue, yet hated vice; from the best men he dreaded danger
to himself, and disgrace to the public from the worst. This hesitation
mastered him so much at last that he committed foreign governments to
some, whom he meant never to suffer to leave Rome.
Concerning the management of consular elections, either then or
afterwards under Tiberius, I can affirm scarce anything: such is the
variance about it, not only amongst historians, but even in his own
speeches. Sometimes, not naming the candidates, he described them by
their family, by their life and manners, and by the number of their
campaigns; so as it might be apparent whom he meant. Again, avoiding
even to describe them, he exhorted the candidates not to disturb the
election by their intrigues, and promised himself to take care of
their interests. But chiefly he used to declare, "that to him none had
signified their pretensions, but such whose names he had delivered to
the Consuls; others too were at liberty to offer the like pretensions,
if they trusted to the favour of the Senate or their own merits."
Specious words! but entirely empty, or full of fraud; and by how
much they were covered with the greater guise of liberty, by so much
threatening a more hasty and devouring bondage.