Kings held dominion in the city of Rome from its foundation: Lucius
Brutus instituted liberty and the consulate. Dictatorships were
resorted to in temporary emergencies: neither the power of the
decemvirs continued in force beyond two years, nor the consular
authority of the military tribunes for any length of time. The
domination of Cinna did not continue long, nor that of Sulla: the
influence of Pompey and Crassus quickly merged in Caesar: the arms of
Lepidus and Antony in Augustus, who, with the title of prince, took
under his command the commonwealth, exhausted with civil dissensions.
But the affairs of the ancient Roman people, whether prosperous or
adverse, have been recorded by writers of renown. Nor were there
wanting authors of distinguished genius to have composed the history
of the times of Augustus, till by the spirit of flattery, which became
prevalent, they were deterred. As to Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and
Nero, whilst they yet reigned the histories of their times were
falsified through fear; and after they had fallen, they were written
under the influence of recent detestation. Thence my own design of
recounting a few incidents respecting Augustus, and those toward the
latter part of his life; and, after that, of giving a history of the
reign of Tiberius and the rest; uninfluenced by resentment and
partiality, as I stand aloof from the causes of them.
When, after the fall of Brutus and Cassius, there remained none to
fight for the commonwealth; when Sextus Pompeius was utterly defeated
at Sicily; and Lepidus being deprived of his command, and Mark Antony
slain, there remained no leader even to the Julian party but Octavius;
having put off the name of triumvir, styling himself Consul, and
pretending that all he aimed at was the jurisdiction attached to the
tribuneship for the protection of the commons; when he had cajoled the
soldiery by donations, the people by distribution of corn, and men in
general by the charms of peace, he (Octavius) began by gradations to
exalt himself over them; to draw to himself the functions of the
senate and of the magistrate, and the framing of the laws; in which
he was thwarted by no man: the boldest spirits having fallen in some
or other of the regular battles, or by proscription; and the surviving
nobility being distinguished by wealth and public honors, according to
the measure of their promptness to bondage; and as these innovations
had been the cause of aggrandizement to them, preferring the present
state of things with safety to the revival of ancient liberty with
personal peril. Neither were the provinces averse to that condition of
affairs; since they mistrusted the government of the senate and
people, on account of the contentions among the great and the avarice
of the magistrates: while the protection of the laws was enfeebled and
borne down by violence, intrigue, and bribery.
Moreover, Augustus, as supports to his domination, raised his sister's
son, Claudius Marcellus,[103] a mere youth, to the dignity of pontiff
and curule aedile; aggrandized by two successive consulships Marcus
Agrippa,[104] a man meanly born, but an accomplished soldier, and the
companion of his victories; and soon, on the death of Marcellus, chose
him for his son-in-law. The sons of his wife, Tiberius Nero and
Claudius Drusus, he dignified with the title of Imperator, tho there
had been no diminution in the members of his house. For into the
family of the Caesars he had already adopted Lucius and Caius, the sons
of Agrippa; and tho they had not yet laid aside the puerile garment,
vehement had been his ambition to see them declared princes of the
Roman youth, and even designed to the consulship; while he affected to
decline the honors for them. Upon the decease of Agrippa, they were
cut off, either by a death premature but natural, or by the arts of
their stepmother Livia; Lucius on his journey to the armies in Spain,
Caius on his return from Armenia, ill of a wound: and as Drusus had
been long since dead, Tiberius Nero was the only survivor of his
stepsons. On him every honor was accumulated (to that quarter all
things inclined); he was by Augustus adopted for his son, assumed
colleague in the empire, partner in the tribunitian authority, and
presented to the several armies; not from the secret machinations of
his mother, as heretofore, but at her open suit For over Augustus, now
very aged, she had obtained such absolute sway, that he banished into
the isle of Planasia his only surviving grandson, Agrippa Posthumus; a
person destitute indeed of liberal accomplishments, and a man of
clownish brutality with great bodily strength, but convicted of no
heinous offense. The emperor, strange to say, set Germanicus, the son
of Drusus, over eight legions quartered upon the Rhine, and ordered
that he should be engrafted into his family by Tiberius by adoption,
tho Tiberius had then a son of his own on the verge of manhood; but
the object was that he might stand firm by having many to support and
protect him. War at that time there remained none, except that in
Germany, kept on foot rather to blot out the disgrace sustained by the
loss of Quintilius Varus, with his army, than from any ambition to
enlarge the empire, or for any advantage worth contending for. In
profound tranquillity were affairs at Rome. The magistrates retained
their wonted names; of the Romans, the younger sort had been born
since the battle of Actium, and even most of the old during the civil
wars: how few were then living who had seen the ancient free state!
The character of the government thus totally changed; no traces were
to be found of the spirit of ancient institutions. The system by which
every citizen shared in the government being thrown aside, all men
regarded the orders of the prince as the only rule of conduct and
obedience; nor felt they any anxiety for the present, while Augustus,
yet in the vigor of life, maintained the credit of himself and house,
and the peace of the state. But when old age had crept over him, and
he was sinking under bodily infirmities--when his end was at hand, and
thence a new source of hopes and views was presented--some few there
were who began to talk idly about the blessings of liberty: many
dreaded a civil war--others longed for one; while far the greatest
part were occupied in circulating various surmises reflecting upon
those who seemed likely to be their masters: "That Agrippa was
naturally stern and savage, and exasperated by contumely; and neither
in age nor experience equal to a task of such magnitude. Tiberius,
indeed, had arrived at fulness of years, and was a distinguished
captain, but possest the inveterate and inherent pride of the
Claudian family; and many indications of cruel nature escaped him, in
spite of all his arts to disguise it; that even from his early infancy
he had been trained up in an imperial house; that consulships and
triumphs had been accumulated upon him while but a youth. Not even
during the years of his abode at Rhodes, where under the plausible
name of retirement, he was in fact an exile, did he employ himself
otherwise than in meditating future vengeance, studying the arts of
simulation, and practising secret and abominable sensualities. That to
these considerations was added that of his mother, a woman with the
ungovernable spirit peculiar to her sex; that the Romans must be under
bondage to a woman, and moreover to two youths, who would meanwhile
oppress the state, and, at one time or other, rend it piecemeal."
While the public mind was agitated by these and similar discussions,
the illness of Augustus grew daily more serious, and some suspected
nefarious practises on the part of his wife. For some months before, a
rumor had gone abroad that Augustus, having singled out a few to whom
he communicated his purpose, had taken Fabius Maximus for his only
companion, had sailed over to the island of Planasia, to visit
Agrippa; that many tears were shed on both sides, many tokens of
mutual tenderness shown, and hopes from thence conceived that the
youth would be restored to the household gods of his grandfather. That
Maximus had disclosed this to Martia, his wife--she to Livia; and that
the emperor was informed of it: and that Maximus, not long after,
dying (it is doubtful whether naturally or by means sought for the
purpose), Martia was observed, in her lamentations at his funeral, to
upbraid herself as the cause of her husband's destruction. Howsoever
that matter might have been, Tiberius was scarce entered Illyrium when
he was summoned by a letter from his mother, forwarded with speed, nor
is it fully known whether, at his return to Nola,[105] he found
Augustus yet breathing, or already lifeless. For Livia had carefully
beset the palace, and all the avenues to it, with vigilant guards; and
favorable bulletins were from time to time given out, until, the
provisions which the conjuncture required being completed, in one and
the same moment were published the departure of Augustus, and the
accession of Tiberius.