THE FIRST PRINCIPATUS, B.C. 27-23
_Serves iturum Cæsarem in ultimos_
_orbis Britannos et invenum recens_
_examen Eois timendum_
_partibus Oceanoque rubro._
[Sidenote: Gaul and Britain.]
The settlement of his official status at Rome left Augustus free to turn
to other parts of the Empire. He had spent the greater part of two years
after the victory at Actium in organising the East. His face was now
turned northward and westward. In the spring of B.C. 27, he set out for
Gaul to reorganise the provinces won by Iulius in B.C. 58-49, and farther
secured by the operations of Agrippa in B.C. 37 and Messalla in B.C.
29. It was understood that he meant also to cross to Britain, and the
court poets are dutifully anxious as to the dangers he will incur, and
prophetically certain of the victories he will win. A British expedition
had been for some years floating in Roman minds. It is true that Iulius
Cæsar had invaded the island and imposed a tribute on some of the tribes.
But the tribute does not seem to have been paid. The Briton was still
_intactus_, and was classed with the Parthian as a danger to the frontier
of the Empire.[240] He was chiefly known at Rome by the presence of
certain stalwart slaves, and by the determination he displayed not to
admit adventurous Roman merchants.[241] But, after all, Augustus found
enough to do in Gaul, and saw good reason for abstaining from such a
dangerous adventure. The Britons, though they neglected the _tributum_,
yet paid a duty on exports and imports to and from Gaul, principally
ivory ornaments, and the better sorts of glass and pottery; and it was
pointed out that the danger of a British invasion of Gallia was small,
that a military occupation of the island would cost more than the tribute
would bring in, and that the _portoria_ would be rather diminished than
increased by it.[242] Augustus, at any rate, professed to be satisfied by
certain envoys sent to him from Britain. They dedicated some offerings on
the Capitol, and received for their countrymen the title of “Friends of
Rome!”[243]
[Sidenote: Augustus in Gaul, B.C. 27-6.]
Augustus spent the summer and winter of B.C. 27-6 in Narbo, finding
enough to do in holding a census of the rest of Gaul for purposes of
taxation, and regularly organising the country annexed by Iulius to
that ancient province, which had been Roman long before his time. Four
provinces were created with separate legati. The original “province” was
now called Gallia Narbonensis; the south-western district, extending
from the Pyrennees to the Loire, retained its old name of Aquitania;
the central or “Celtic” Gaul was called Lugdunensis, from its capital
Lugdunum, made a _colonia_ in B.C. 43; the northern country up to the
Rhine was Belgica, including the districts on the left bank of the Rhine,
in which Agrippa had settled certain German tribes who had crossed the
river. Augustus was not content with a merely political organisation.
He established schools to spread the use of the Latin language, and
everywhere introduced the principles of Roman law. He took especial
pains to adorn and promote the towns in Narbonensis, where traces of his
buildings are still to be seen. The effect of his work now and ten years
later was that Gaul became rapidly Romanised both in speech and manners,
and that in learning and civilisation it soon rivalled Italy itself.
This was a work thoroughly congenial to Augustus, and in which his
ability was conspicuous. But he now had to engage again in war, for which
his genius was by no means so well suited. Ianus Quirinus was again open.
The surrounding barbarians were again threatening Macedonia; the Salassi
of the _Val d’Aosta_ were again making raids, and there was imminent
danger in Northern Spain. The governor of Macedonia, M. Crassus (grandson
of the triumvir) had been so successful over the Thracians and Getæ, that
he was allowed a triumph in July, B.C. 27, but it appears that their
incursions did not cease in spite of these victories.[244] The war with
the Salassi was entrusted to Terentius Varro Muræna, who, after winning
some victories in the field, sold many thousands of their men of military
age into slavery, and established a colony of 3,000 veterans to overawe
them, called Augusta Prætoria, the modern Aosta.[245]
[Sidenote: Augustus in Spain, B.C. 26-25.]
[Sidenote: The Arabian Expedition.]
From Narbo, Augustus next proceeded to Spain in the early part of B.C.
26, and spent the rest of the year in peaceful reforms and in the
organisation of the province. But in B.C. 25 he was forced to enter
upon a campaign against the Cantabri and Astures, those warlike tribes
in the north-west, who, nominally included in the upper province,
were continually harassing the more obedient peoples, and showing
their dislike of Roman supremacy.[246] The war was tantalising and
difficult. The hardy highlanders knew every forest, mountain, and
valley, and the Roman soldiers could neither provide against sudden
attacks, not get at the enemy in their fastnesses. From fatigue and
anxiety Augustus fell ill and was obliged to retire to Tarraco, leaving
the conduct of the campaign to Gaius Antistius Vetus, who was able to
win several engagements, because after the retirement of Augustus the
natives ventured more frequently to appear in the open. Another of his
legates, Titus Carisius, took Lance (_Sallanco_); and finally Augustus
founded a colony of veterans among the Lusitani, called Augusta Emerita
(_Merida_), and another called Cæsar-Augusta (_Zaragossa_) among the
Editani, on the site of the ancient Salduba, from which all the great
roads to the Pyrennees branch off. The Cantabri were not crushed, but
they were quiet for a time. Ianus was closed, and Augustus returned at
the beginning of B.C. 24; and the courtier Horace is again called on
to celebrate a success, and to welcome the Emperor’s home-coming as of
a victor.[247] The Senate voted him a triumph, partly for the Spanish
campaign and partly for some successes of his legate, M. Vinicius, in
Gaul, who had caused his soldiers to proclaim Augustus imperator for the
eighth time. Augustus refused the triumph, but accepted the acclamation
of imperator—thus assuming as head of the army that what was everywhere
done was, to use the technical expression, done “under his auspices,”
and was to be reckoned to his credit. He also accepted honours for his
young nephew Marcellus, and his stepson Tiberius. The former was admitted
to the Senate with prætorian rank, and with ten years seniority for
office, in virtue of which he was at once elected ædile, though only in
his twentieth year; the latter was allowed five years’ seniority, and
at once elected quæstor in his nineteenth year. A triumphal arch was
also erected in honour of Augustus in the Alpine region.[248] The temple
of Ianus did not remain long closed, however. Soon after Augustus left
Spain the Cantabri and Astures again rose; and in B.C. 24 took place
the ill-judged and unfortunate expedition of Ælius Gallus into Arabia.
A march of six months’ duration, in which large numbers perished from
heat and disease and only seven men in actual fighting, was followed
by a retreat lasting sixty days. Gallus had been misled and duped
by the satrap of the Nabatæans, and all the hopes of splendid booty
were baffled. The expedition had been approved, if not suggested, by
Augustus, partly on the pretext of preventing incursions into Egypt;
but more, it would seem, because Arabia was regarded as an El Dorado,
where vast treasures of gold and jewels were to be found, accumulated
from the export of the rich spices of the country, which the inhabitants
were believed to keep jealously in a country as yet never pillaged by
an invader. As usual, the court poets echo the popular delusions, and
eulogise the certain success of the Emperor; Horace harps on the rich
“treasures of the Arabians,” their “well-stocked houses,” their “virgin
stores.” The Roman arms are to strike terror in the East and the Red Sea,
and are at length being employed on what is their proper and natural
foe.[249] Augustus, says another poet, is now a terror to the “homestead
of the yet unplundered Arabia.”[250] Happily this was an almost solitary
instance of such wild schemes, prompted by greed, and promoted by
ignorance and delusion. Augustus came to see that the frontiers of his
great empire afforded sufficient work for its military resources; but it
was not till near the end of his long life that a great military disaster
gave him a sharp reminder of the impolicy of pushing beyond them.
[Sidenote: New buildings at Rome.]
During these years the process of adorning Rome with splendid buildings
or restorations of old ones had been steadily going on. For the largest
number of these Augustus himself was responsible. In B.C. 28 the temple
of Apollo on the Palatine, with its colonnades and libraries, had been
dedicated. In the same year the restoration of 82 temples was begun on
his initiative, and apparently at his expense. The new temple of Mars
Ultor, vowed at Philippi, with its surrounding forum Augustum, was in
process of erection, as well as another to Iupiter Tonans on the Capitol,
vowed in the course of the Cantabrian expedition to commemorate a narrow
escape from being struck by lightning. He also completed the forum and
basilica partly erected by Iulius, had begun or projected the _porticus
Liviæ et Octaviæ_, and had erected the imposing rotunda intended as the
mortuary of the Iulian _gens_: while Statilius Taurus had built the first
amphitheatre, Plancus a great temple of Saturn, and Cornelius Balbus
was about to begin a new theatre. But most splendid of all were the
benefactions of Agrippa. Baths, bridges, colonnades, gardens, aqueducts,
were all dedicated by him to the use of the public. Above all, by B.C.
25 he had completed the magnificent Pantheon, still in its decline one
of the most striking buildings in the world. It was dedicated to Mars
and Venus, mythical ancestors of the Iulian _gens_, but its name may
be derived either from its numerous statues of the gods, or from the
supposed likeness of its dome to the sky. Its purpose—beyond being a
compliment to Augustus—is still a subject of dispute. Nor have we any
record of its use except as the meeting-place of the Arval brothers.[251]
[Sidenote: The illness and recovery of Augustus, B.C. 23.]
Great way, therefore, was already made towards justifying the boast of
Augustus that he found Rome brick and left it marble. For these buildings
were lined or paved with every kind of precious marble and stone. But
the year following his return from Spain witnessed a crisis in his
life as well as in his political position. He seems to have been in a
feeble state of health all through B.C. 24, the effect probably of his
fatigues and anxieties in Spain. But soon after entering on his eleventh
consulship in B.C. 23, he became so much worse that he believed himself
to be dying. It became necessary, therefore, to make provision for the
continuance of the government. Augustus had no hereditary office, and no
power of transmitting his authority. Still it was supposed that he was
training his nephew and son-in-law Marcellus, or his stepson Tiberius,
to be his successor. The former was curule-ædile, and seems to have
conceived the ambition of succeeding his uncle. But when he thought death
approaching, Augustus did not designate either of these young men. He
handed his seal to Agrippa, and the official records of the army and
revenue to Cn. Calpurnius Piso, his colleague in the consulship. He would
play his part as constitutional magistrate to the last. To speculate
on what might have been is not very profitable. Agrippa had advised a
restoration of the republic in B.C. 30. But every year since then had
made it more difficult; and, if he had wished to do it, he would probably
have found it as impossible as his master had done, and would have had
to choose between supporting Marcellus and taking the direction of
affairs into his own hands. The difficulty, however, did not arise; for
owing either to the goodness of his constitution, or the skill of his
physician, Antonius Musa, Augustus recovered.
[Sidenote: The new constitutional settlement, B.C. 23.]
When he met the Senate once more he offered to read his will to prove
that he had been true to his constitutional obligations, and had named
no successor, but had left the decision in the hands of the Senate and
people. The Senators, however, declined to hear it, but insisted that the
powers which he had been exercising should be more clearly defined and
placed on a better legal footing. Accordingly a _Senatus-consultum_ was
drawn up, to be afterwards submitted to the centuriate assembly, giving
him a variety of powers, and forming a precedent which was followed in
the case of subsequent emperors. It began with a confirmation of the
_tribunicia potestas_, for life and unlimited as to place, with the right
of bringing business of any kind before the Senate (_ius relationis_).
It next gave him the _ius proconsulare_, both within and without the
pomærium, involving a _maius imperium_ in all provinces. Further, it gave
him the right of making treaties; the right of summoning, consulting,
and dismissing the Senate (_ius consulare_); the confirmation of all his
_acta_, “Whatever he shall think to be for the benefit and honour of the
republic in things divine and human, whether public or private”; finally,
exemption from the provisions of certain laws and _plebiscita_. Some
legal difficulty was apparently discovered afterwards as to the right of
proposing laws to the centuriate assembly, which was remedied in B.C.
19 by his receiving the full consular power for life, with the right
of having _lictors_, and sitting on the consular bench. This seems to
have been a concession to legal purists. He doubtless exercised the full
consular powers before; but a distinction was drawn by some between the
_ius consulare_ and the _imperium consulare_, and whatever doubt there
might be was now set at rest.
[Sidenote: The imperial powers.]
As the imperial powers may now be considered as fully developed, future
extensions being merely logical deductions from the constitution as now
established, it will be convenient here once for all to point out their
nature and extent. They may be classed under two headings—(1) _imperium_;
(2) _potestas tribunicia_.
The first—_imperium_—embraces all those powers which Augustus obtained as
representing the curule magistrates, or from special law and senatorial
decrees. As imperator, then, he had supreme command of all forces by
land or sea. The military oath was now taken in his name, no longer to
individual officers raising legions. He alone had the right to enrol
soldiers; he nominated the officers; his procurators paid the men in his
name; from him proceeded all rewards. The Senate, indeed, still awarded
triumphs and _triumphalia ornamenta_, but it was at his suggestion, and
the tendency was to confine the right of triumph to the Emperor himself.
By the same _imperium_ he decided on questions of peace or war; on the
distribution of the _ager publicus_, and the assignation of lands to
veterans and _coloni_ generally.
Finally, the right of conferring the citizenship, complete or partial,
and settling the status of all colonies and _municipia_, and of
interpreting the laws by a _constitutio principis_, expressed in an edict
or decree, which amounted, in fact, to legislative power.
The second—_potestas tribunicia_—was superior to the ordinary powers
of the tribunes, because by it he could veto their proceedings, while
they could not veto his. “It gave him”—to use Dio’s words—“the means of
absolutely putting a stop to any proceeding of which he disapproved;
it rendered his person inviolable, so that the least violence offered
him by word or deed made a man liable to death without trial as being
under a curse.” From the ancient constitution of the office also it
made him president of the _comitia tributa_ (representing the old
_consilia plebis_), gave him the right of interposing in all decisions of
magistrates or Senate affecting the persons or civil status of citizens
(_auxilii latio_), and that of compelling obedience by imprisonment or
other means, as in the republic the tribunes had done even to the consuls
in extreme cases (_coercitio_). Though this power was given the Emperor
for life, it was also in a sense annual; and it was in effect so much
the most important of all his powers, while at the same time in origin
and professed object so much the most popular, that it became the custom
from henceforth to date all documents, inscriptions, and the like, by the
year of the tribunician power from 27th of June this year (B.C. 23). The
_imperium_ was renewed at intervals of ten or five years, the tribunician
power of Augustus went on from year to year without break. It was now
unnecessary any longer to hold the consulship, for the _imperium_ given
him in other ways covered all, and more than all, which the consulship
could give. It was convenient to use it for rewarding others, as it
retained all its outward signs of dignity, and still in theory made
its holder head of the state, though in reality its duties had become
almost wholly ceremonial. He therefore abdicated the consulship, which he
did not hold again till B.C. 5, when he desired to give _éclat_ to his
grandson’s _deductio in forum_.
The clause in the _lex_, quoted above, also gave Augustus supreme control
of all religious matters, and made him able, among other things, to
nominate most of the members of the sacred colleges. He did not become
Pontifex Maximus till the death of Lepidus (B.C. 13). When that took
place he became official, as well as real, head of the Roman religion.
Certain other arrangements in regard to the city of Rome itself followed,
all in the direction of centralisation. Thus Augustus presided at the
review of the equites, which used to be held by the censors. Public
works were mostly entrusted to _curatores_ appointed by him; for the
supply of corn he named a _præfectus annonæ_; and for police a _præfectus
urbi_, under whom were the _cohortes urbanæ_, the night-watch and fire
brigade (_nocturni vigiles_). Each of these bodies had their own
officers or _præfecti_; but Augustus from time to time appointed some
one as _præfectus urbi_, to whom all alike would be subject. Such an
officer, however, did not always assume the name, and really as well as
theoretically the ultimate authority was Augustus himself, who later on,
by dividing Rome into _regiones_ and _vici_, made elaborate arrangements
for the effective policing of the city.
[Sidenote: The succession.]
Augustus might pose as a constitutional magistrate enjoying a life-tenure
of his office, without the right of transmitting it to an heir. This view
was strictly legal, but it was evident that such a power could not safely
be left by its holder without any understanding as to a successor. The
matter was indeed in the hands of Senate and people; but in the minds of
possible heirs, as well as of the Senate and people themselves, it began
to be thought natural and necessary that some arrangement of the sort
should be made. The cases are numerous in all history of rulers, whether
new or hereditary, who have wished to found or continue a dynasty, or
who have thought to prevent confusion and danger after their own death
by naming a successor, or by taking him into present partnership. Such a
scheme was not as yet fully developed, even if it was contemplated. But
Marcellus, who had been adopted by Augustus on his marriage to Iulia,
betrayed his hopes by protesting against the preference shewn by the
apparently dying Emperor to Agrippa; and Augustus yielded so far as to
send Agrippa from Rome as governor of Syria.
[Sidenote: Death of Marcellus.]
A sudden disaster, however, put an end to any intention that may have
been formed in regard to Marcellus. In the summer of B.C. 23, he was
attacked by fever, and Antonius Musa, who had successfully treated
Augustus by a _régime_ of cold baths, tried a similar treatment on the
young man with fatal effect. His death was a great grief to Augustus
and so severe a blow to Octavia, that she lived afterwards in complete
retirement. It produced a sensation in Rome such as has been witnessed
more than once among us at the death of an heir to the throne; and has
been immortalised by a celebrated passage inserted by Vergil in the sixth
book of the _Æneid_, a work in which Augustus was specially interested
as a consecration of the greatness of Rome and the hereditary dignity of
the Iulian _gens_. It is skilfully placed at the end of the catalogue of
Roman heroes whose souls are being reviewed by Anchises in the Elysian
realms, where they are waiting their time for entering the bodies of men
destined to make Roman history. The Marcellus of the Punic war naturally
introduces the younger shade, whose brief tenure of life is even now
foreshadowed by the cloud that hangs about his brow. When Vergil recited
the lines to the Emperor and his sorrowing sister, Octavia fainted from
emotion, and Augustus bestowed a splendid reward upon the poet. It may
help us to realise the scene if we once more read the familiar lines.
Æneas notices the mysterious and melancholy shade and eagerly questions
his father:—
“‘What youth is this of glorious mien
The noblest and the best between,
Cheered to the echo? See, a cloud
(The darkening shadow of the shroud)
Hovers about him even now,
And black night broods upon his brow.
Is he some scion of the race,
Destined our mighty line to grace?’
Thus spake the son, the father sighed,
And thus with rising tears replied:
‘Seek not, my son, to learn the woe,
Your progeny is doomed to know.
The fates will show and then withdraw
The gift men loved but hardly saw.
Too mighty, gods! for so you deemed,
With such a prince Rome’s race had seemed!
What sobs shall thrill the Martian plain!
Ah, Tiber, what dark funeral train
Your waves shall see, as past the Mound
New-built you sweep your waters round!
No scion of the Ilian stock
Shall raise such hopes, such hopes shall mock.
Ah, Romulus, thy land shall see
No son to fire thy pride as he.
Oh loyalty! Oh faith unstained!
Oh strong right hand to yield untrained!
Whether on foot he grasped the sword,
Or charger’s flank with rowel scored,
No foe would e’er have faced his steel
Nor learnt what ’tis the vanquished feel.
Oh child of many tears, if fate
Shall not prevent your living date,
Thou art Marcellus! Lilies fair
Scatter in handfuls on his bier!
Oh let me but his herse bestrew
With flowers bright with purple hue.
Vain gift! but let it still be paid
To grace my far-off grandson’s shade.’”
The death of Marcellus had occurred in an unhealthy season when many
shared the same fate. Yet there were found people who attributed it to
Livia’s jealousy on behalf of her son Tiberius, and her anger at the
preference shown to the Emperor’s nephew. Scarcely any death occurred
in the imperial family that did not give rise to some such idle and
malevolent gossip. But the Emperor soon had cause to regret the absence
of Agrippa, who was living in Lesbos and administering Syria by his
legate. The next year was a year of sickness and scarcity at Rome, and
was also disturbed by more than one outbreak of political unrest, one
of the few conspiracies against the life of Augustus being detected and
punished. We do not know why Muræna and Fannius Cæpio plotted to kill
Augustus, if they really did so. It may be that the change made in the
principate in B.C. 23 seemed to them to be too much in the direction
of autocracy, or that the consulship without Augustus as colleague
suggested some idea that its old supremacy might be recovered. The
violent party strife which occurred later at the election for B.C. 21,
may have had some connection with the same feeling. Muræna had had a
successful career, had been rewarded by an augurship and a consulship
in B.C. 23, and there is nothing known which explains his conduct. It
may be that his offence was chiefly intemperance of language. Dio says
that he had a sharp tongue which spared no one, and Horace perhaps
meant to give him a hint in the ode addressed to him. Velleius tells
us that, unlike his fellow conspirator Fannius Cæpio, he was a man of
high character.[252] At any rate their execution—for both are said
to have been put to death—is one of the few instances of severity on
the part of Augustus since the civil war. This trouble was followed
by others—a renewed outbreak in Spain, riots at the elections, and a
coldness between himself and his devoted friend and minister Mæcenas,
caused, it is said, by his being supposed to have communicated to his
wife Terentia, the sister of Muræna, some secret as to the detection of
the plot. All these things must have caused Augustus much uneasiness. He
had left Rome in the summer of B.C. 22 for Sicily, intending to start
thence on another progress through the Eastern Provinces. There urgent
messages came to him to return and put a stop to the disturbances. He
did not wish to give up his Eastern journey and yet did not venture to
leave the city without some control. His thoughts turned naturally to
the support that had never failed him—to Agrippa. He was summoned home
primarily to take charge of Rome; but he came back to what seemed the
highest possible position next to that of the Emperor, and one that
promised a still greater one in the future. Augustus insisted on his
divorcing Marcella (daughter of Octavia) and marrying his own daughter
Iulia, left a widow by Marcellus. As usual Agrippa did all that was
imposed upon him well and thoroughly (B.C. 21-20). Having restored order
in the city, he next went to Gallia Narbonensis, where he not only put
a stop to some dangerous disturbances, but initiated great public works
in the way of roads and aqueducts. Passing to Spain he finally crushed
the Cantabri and Astures, who were again in arms. He seems indeed to
have suffered reverses in this war, as his master had done before, but
in the end he reduced them to submission. All this good work was done
while Augustus was in the East (B.C. 21-19), and for it he refused the
triumph offered him by the Senate at the instigation of the Emperor.
But his succession, should he survive the Emperor, was now secured by
his being associated with him in the _tribunicia potestas_ and other
prerogatives for five years at the first renewal of his powers in B.C.
17. Agrippa had now two sons by Iulia, Gaius born in B.C. 20, Lucius in
B.C. 17; and Augustus adopted both of them by the ancient process of a
fictitious purchase. He had now legitimate heirs and nothing farther was
done about the succession for some years. Agrippa died in March, B.C.
12, just as his period of tribunician power was expiring. But during
these years the two sons of Livia, Tiberius and Drusus, had begun those
services on the German frontier and among the Rhæti and other powerful
tribes which proved their vigour and ability. These services were
renewed, after a few months’ interval of quiet, in B.C. 13 and following
years. Accordingly Augustus seems to have meditated putting Tiberius in
much the same position as Agrippa had held. In B.C. 11 he compelled him
to divorce his wife Vipsania (a daughter of Agrippa) and marry Agrippa’s
widow Iulia, the Emperor’s only daughter. He thought still farther to
secure a line of descendants to succeed if necessary to his power. But he
made the mistake of neglecting sentiment. Tiberius was devotedly attached
to Vipsania, by whom he had a son, and could feel neither affection nor
respect for Iulia, who fancied that she lowered herself in marrying him.
The only thing that could compensate him for such a marriage was the
chance of succession, and that was barred by the existence of Gaius and
Lucius Cæsar. His only son by Iulia died, and before long her frivolity
and debaucheries disgusted him, and therefore, though associated in
the tribunician power for five years in B.C. 7, he sought and obtained
permission in the next year to retire to Rhodes, where he stayed seven
years in seclusion.
[Sidenote: Gaius and Lucius Cæsar.]
Meanwhile the boys were being brought up with a view to their splendid
future under the eye of Augustus, when he was at home, and often under
his personal instruction, accompanied him as they grew older on his
journeys, in a carriage preceding his own or riding by his side, and in
fact were treated in every way as real and much beloved sons. In the year
in which they assumed the _toga virilis_ (B.C. 5 and B.C. 2) Augustus
again entered upon the consulship, that the _deductio in forum_ should be
as brilliant and dignified as possible. The Senate was not behindhand;
from the day of taking the _toga virilis_ it voted that they should be
capable of taking part in public business, and each of them in turn was
designated consul, Gaius to enter upon his office that time five years.
A new dignity moreover was invented, each in turn being named by the
equites _princeps inventutis_. As Augustus was _princeps senatus_ as well
as _princeps civitatis_, each of these young men was to be the head of
the next _ordo_, the original condition for belonging to which was that
a man must be _iuvenis_. Both were members of the College of Augurs.
They were, in fact, treated as we expect to see princes of the blood and
heirs-apparent treated.[253] But whatever was the intention of Augustus
or the expectation of the people, fate interposed ruthlessly. The
younger—Lucius—died first, on the 20th of August, A.D. 2, at Marseilles,
before he could enter on the consulship to which he had been designated;
the elder Gaius was sent into Asia in B.C. 1, where he entered upon his
consulship of A.D. 1. The object of his mission was to force Phraates
IV., king of the Parthians, to evacuate Armenia which he had invaded.
This was accomplished without fighting and by personal negotiation with
the Parthian king; but when he entered Armenia to take possession and
arrange for its restoration to its recognised king, he was wounded by
an act of treason under the walls of Artagera. Weakened by this wound,
and being in other respects in a feeble state of health and spirits, he
obtained leave from Augustus to lay down his command. He started on his
homeward journey, but died on the way at Limyra in Lycia the 23rd of
February, A.D. 4.
[Sidenote: Tiberius finally fixed upon as successor.]
The succession was once more uncertain. The members of the imperial
family at this time were few. Of the children of Agrippa and Iulia
Agrippa Postumus was barely sixteen, and his two sisters, the younger
Iulia and Agrippina a few years older. Drusus, the younger brother of
Tiberius, had married Antonia, daughter of Marcus Antonius and Octavia,
and had left three children, Germanicus, b. B.C. 15, Livia b. B.C. 12,
and Claudius (afterwards Emperor) b. B.C. 10. Augustus meant to provide
a new line of descendants by marrying Agrippina to Germanicus, but that
did not take place till about A.D. 5. Meanwhile, probably on Livia’s
suggestion, he turned his thoughts to his stepson Tiberius, who had
divorced Iulia and had a son (Drusus) by his former wife Vipsania, who
was married to his cousin Livia. There is no good evidence that Augustus
entertained any but warm feelings for Tiberius, and he certainly had
had good reason to respect his military abilities and energy. He seems
to have been hurt at his prolonged stay at Rhodes and to have regarded
it as a sign that Tiberius cared nothing for him and his family. He
had therefore discouraged his return two years before, though he had
given him the position of legatus as a colourable pretext for staying
abroad without loss of dignity. Upon the death of Lucius, however, he
seems to have wished him to return to Rome. Tiberius did so, partly
on the instigation of his mother, and partly, perhaps, because he had
reason to expect the hostility of Gaius, and yet had judged from the
latter’s visit to him on his way to Syria that he was not likely to be a
formidable rival; for he was at once somewhat arrogant and weak, and was
surrounded by injudicious and dishonest advisers. On his return he for
some time lived in retirement and refrained from all public business.
But when the death of Gaius was announced (A.D. 4) Augustus adopted
Tiberius and Agrippa Postumus, having first arranged that Tiberius
should adopt his nephew Germanicus. The adoption of Agrippa Postumus
was shortly afterwards annulled, and he was banished to an island under
surveillance.[254]
There was now therefore a regular line of succession. Tiberius indeed had
no drop of Iulian blood in his veins, but adoption according to Roman
law and sentiment placed him exactly in the same position as that of a
naturally born son, and by his son’s marriage to Antonia, his adoption of
Germanicus, and the marriage of the latter to Agrippina, it seemed that
there was security that after him must come some one who was collaterally
or directly descended from Augustus. In the same year (A.D. 4) Tiberius
was once more associated with Augustus in the tribunician power for ten
years.[255] There could be no longer any doubt who would succeed. At the
death of Augustus there would be, if Tiberius survived, a man already
possessed of the most important of his functions; and his position
was still farther strengthened in the last year of the Emperor’s life
by being associated also in his _imperium proconsulare_. This gave him
authority in the provinces and the command of all military forces; and
we find him, in fact, upon the death of Augustus giving the watchword at
once to the prætorian guard.
Augustus therefore is responsible for the principate of Tiberius, though
some of its powers had to be formally bestowed by a decree of the
Senate. Did he do ill or well in this? Hardly any emperor left behind
him such an evil reputation as Tiberius. His funeral procession was
greeted with shouts of “Tiberius to the Tiber,” the Senate did not vote
him the usual divine honours, and Tacitus has exerted all his skill to
make his name infamous. A gallant attempt has been made by Mr. Tarver to
plead for a rehearing of the case, and to shew that Tiberius was pure
in private life and admirable as a ruler. I for one agree with him in
rejecting as unproved slander and often as physically impossible the
charges of monstrous immoralities raked up both by Tacitus and Suetonius,
often, no doubt, from the prurient gossip of Rome, which has never been
surpassed for foulness. The same summary rejection cannot, I think, be
applied to the formidable list of his cruelties. But these mainly fell
upon members of the imperial family and their adherents; they did not
affect the Empire at large. Augustus could not foresee these family and
dynastic tragedies; but he judged, and apparently judged rightly, that
he was leaving a successor whose prudence and sagacity, in spite of
what seemed a sullen reserve, would secure the peace and prosperity of
the Empire as a whole. There is nothing to prove that Augustus regarded
him otherwise than affectionately. If he turned out to be the monster
represented by his enemies, Augustus no doubt made a grave mistake. It is
a ridiculous suggestion that he deliberately designated him his successor
in order that people might regret himself. Such recondite snares for
posthumous fame are more like the cunning of a madman than the motives
influencing a reasonable being. Suetonius, who reports the suggestion,
says that after mature reflection he is convinced that a man so careful
and prudent as Augustus must have acted on better motives; must have
weighed the virtues and faults of Tiberius and decided that the former
predominated. As a matter of fact Augustus had little choice. Agrippa
Postumus was impossible; Germanicus might have served, but he could never
have displaced his uncle without a struggle. At the time of Tiberius’
adoption he was only nineteen, and Augustus could not reckon on the ten
more years of life which in fact remained for him. No doubt in these last
years of his life Augustus had come to see that some sort of hereditary
principle was necessary to prevent civil war at every vacancy. In B.C. 23
he had ignored that principle altogether, and as far as he could without
naming an heir had put Agrippa in the way of the succession. But Agrippa
had now been dead nearly sixteen years, and Augustus had had no minister
since either so able or so faithful. Like Cromwell in his last hours, he
was driven to recognise the conveniency of the hereditary principle; and
though the practical designation of Tiberius was apparently a breach of
it, yet by means of the adoptions and marriages which he had arranged,
it best prepared for its continuance hereafter. It was one of those
politic compromises which had characterised his whole policy. It moreover
best secured the position and safety of the beloved Livia; and it set
a precedent which was often followed with advantage in after-times,
when military arrogance and violence did not overpower every other
consideration, that an Emperor’s natural heir should be his successor,
or at any rate some one closely allied to him; and that in case of the
failure or complete unworthiness of such an heir a prudent emperor should
provide for the succession by adoption.