another, Aratus arrived. He made no secret of his distress at what had
happened, and did not restrain his son when he bitterly reproached and
abused Philip. The young man was thought to have been Philip's lover;
and he now told Philip that after such deeds he did not any longer think
him handsome, but hideous. Philip made no answer, although he was
thought likely to do so, as he often had burst into a fury when thus
spoken to, but, just as though he had patiently endured the reproof and
was really of a moderate and statesmanlike disposition, he took the
elder Aratus by the hand, led him out of the theatre, and proceeded with
him as far as the summit of Ithome, to sacrifice to Zeus and to view the
place, which is naturally as strong as the citadel of Corinth, and if
garrisoned would become a thorn in the side of the neighbouring states,
and quite impregnable. After mounting the hill and offering sacrifice,
when the soothsayer brought him the entrails of the ox, he, taking them
into his own hands, kept showing them first to Aratus and then to
Demetrius of Pharos, alternately placing them before each, and asking
what they thought was the meaning of the entrails, that he would keep
possession of the citadel, or that he would restore it to the
Messenians. At this Demetrius laughed and said, "If you have the soul of
a soothsayer, you will give up the place; but if you have that of a
king, you will clutch the ox by both horns," alluding to Peloponnesus,
which, if he held the citadels of Messene and of Corinth, would be quite
tame and at his mercy.
Aratus remained silent for a long while, but when Philip begged him to
say what he thought, he answered, "My king, there are many high
mountains in Crete, and there are many strong positions in Boeotia and
Phokis. I believe too, that there are many places of surprising strength
in Acarnania, both on the sea coast and inland, yet you have not taken
any of these, and nevertheless the people of those countries willingly
execute your commands. Brigands cling to high cliffs and haunt
precipitous places, but kings find nothing so secure as loyalty and
goodwill. This it is that opened to you the Cretan sea, and the
Peloponnesus. By these arts you, young as you are, have made yourself
the master of the one, and the leader of the other." While Aratus was
yet speaking Philip gave back the entrails to the soothsayer, and,
taking Aratus by the hand, said, "Come now, let us go back again,"
having been, as it were, overruled by him into letting the city remain
free.
LI. Aratus now began to withdraw himself from the court, and by degrees
to break off his intimacy with Philip. When Philip conveyed his army
across the Corinthian gulf into Epirus,[597] and desired Aratus to make
the campaign with him, Aratus refused and remained at home, fearing that
he might share the disgrace of Philip's operations. Philip, after his
fleet had been ignominiously destroyed by the Romans, and his whole
enterprise had failed,[598] returned to Peloponnesus, and, as he did not
succeed in a second attempt to outwit the Messenians and to gain
possession of their citadel, he threw off the mask and openly wronged
them by ravaging their territory. Aratus now became quite estranged from
him, and was misrepresented to him. He had by this time learned the
domestic dishonour which he had sustained from Philip, and grieved over
it, though he kept it secret from his son; for when he had discovered
it, he was powerless to avenge it. Indeed Philip's character seems to
have undergone a very great and remarkable change, as from a mild ruler
and a modest youth he grew into a profligate man and an atrocious
tyrant. This change was not due to any alteration of his real nature,
but to the fact that he could now with impunity indulge the vices which
fear had hitherto forced him to conceal.
LII. His treatment of Aratus showed that he had always regarded him with
a mixture of respect and fear; for though he desired to make away with
him, and considered that during Aratus's lifetime he should not even be
a free man, much less a despot or king, yet he would not openly attack
him, but bade Taurion, one of his generals and friends, to do this
secretly, by poison if possible, during his own absence. This man gained
the confidence of Aratus, and administered drugs to him, whose action
was not quick and sudden, but which produced slight heats in the body
and a chronic cough, and so gradually undermined his strength. He did
not, however, do this without being discovered by Aratus; but he, as he
could gain nothing by convicting him, continued to endure his malady
just as if it were some ordinary disorder. Only once when he spat blood,
and one of his friends who was in the same room noticed it and expressed
his concern, Aratus said, "This, Kephalon, is the return I get for my
friendship for the king."
LIII. Thus died Aratus at Ægium, when holding the office of general of
the league for the seventeenth time. The Achæans wished his funeral to
take place in that city, and to raise a suitable monument over so great
a man; but the people of Sikyon regarded it as a national misfortune
that he should not be buried in their city, and prevailed upon the
Achæans to deliver up the body to them. As there was a law which was
regarded with superstitious reverence, forbidding any one to be interred
within the walls of Sikyon, they sent ambassadors to Delphi to consult
the oracle. The Pythia returned the following answer:--
"Dost thou, fair Sikyon, hesitate to raise
A fitting tomb to thy lost hero's praise?
Curst be the land, nay, curst the air or wave
That grudges room for thy Aratus' grave."
When this response was brought back all the Achæans were delighted, and
the Sikyonians in particular, turning their mourning into joy, put on
white robes, crowned themselves with garlands, and removed the body of
Aratus from Ægium to Sikyon in festal procession with songs and dances.
They chose a conspicuous spot, and interred him in it with as much
reverence as though he were the founder and saviour of their city. The
place is called the Arateum to the present day, and on the day upon
which he freed the city from its despot, which is the fifth day of the
month Daisius, or Anthesterion in the Athenian calendar, a sacrifice,
called the thanksgiving for safety, is offered, and also on the day of
the month on which Aratus was born. The former sacrifice used to be
conducted by the priest of Zeus the Saviour, and the latter by the
priest of Aratus, who wore a headband, not all white, but mixed with
purple. Songs used to be chanted to the music of the harp by the actors,
called the servants of Dionysius, and the president of the gymnasiums
took part in the procession, leading the boys and young men, after whom,
followed the council of the city, crowned with flowers, and any of the
citizens who wished to do so. Some traces of these proceedings still
survive, as religious ceremonies; but the most part of the honours paid
to Aratus have died out through lapse of time and change of
circumstances.
LIV. This is the account which history gives us of the life and
character of the elder Aratus. As for his son, Philip, who was naturally
a villain, and whose disposition combined insolence with cruelty,
administered drugs to him, which were not deadly, but which deprived him
of his reason; so that he conceived a passion for monstrous lusts and
shameful debaucheries, by which he was soon so worn out that, although
he was in the flower of his age, death appeared to him to be a release
from sufferings rather than a misfortune. Yet Zeus, the patron of
hospitality and of friendship, exacted a notable penalty from Philip for
his wickedness, and pursued him throughout his life: for he was utterly
defeated by the Romans, and forced to surrender at discretion to them.
He lost all his empire, was obliged to deliver up all his fleet, except
five ships, had to pay a thousand talents and give up his own son as a
hostage, and then only was allowed, by the pity of his conquerors to
keep Macedonia itself and its dependencies. As he always put to death
all the leading men of his kingdom, and all his nearest relations, he
inspired the whole country with terror and hatred. Amidst all his
miseries he had one piece of good fortune, in having a son of remarkable
promise, and him he put to death out of jealousy and envy at the honours
which were paid him by the Romans. He left his kingdom to his other son
Perseus, who was said not to be legitimate, but to be the son of a
sempstress named Gnathæna. Over him Paulus Æmilius triumphed, and so put
an end to the dynasty of Antigonus. However, the family of Aratus
survived in Sikyon and Pellene down to my own times.
LIFE OF GALBA.
I. The Athenian general Iphikrates thought that a mercenary soldier
ought to be fond both of money and pleasure, as in that case he would
risk his life the more freely to obtain the means of procuring
enjoyment. Most persons, however, are of opinion that an army, like a
healthy body, should receive no impulses save from its head. Thus we are
told that Paulus Æmilius, when he assumed the command of the army in
Macedonia, and found that the soldiers did nothing but talk and meddle,
as though each man were a general, gave them orders to keep their hands
ready and their swords sharp, and leave the rest to him. And Plato
likewise, seeing that a good general is useless without a disciplined
and united army, thought that soldiers should be mild and gentle, as
well as spirited and energetic, because those who know how to obey
require a noble nature and a philosophic training as much as those who
know how to command. The events which took place at Rome after Nero's
death prove most conclusively that nothing is more terrible than a
military force which is guided only by its own blind and ignorant
impulses. Demades, when he saw the disorderly and senseless movements of
the Macedonian army after the death of Alexander, compared it to the
Cyclops after he had been blinded; but the state of the Roman Empire
resembled the fabled rebellion of the Titans, as it was torn asunder
into several portions, which afterwards fought with one another, not so
much because of the ambition of those who were proclaimed emperors, as
through the avarice and licentiousness of the soldiers, who made use of
one emperor to drive out another, just as one nail drives out another.
When Alexander of Pheræ was assassinated, after reigning in Thessaly
for ten months, Dionysius, sneering at the shortness of his reign,
called him a mere tragedy king; but the palace of the Cæsars in a
shorter time than this saw four emperors, for the soldiers brought one
in and drove another out, as if they were actors on a stage. The only
consolation which the unhappy Romans enjoyed was that the authors of
their miseries required no avenger to destroy them, for they fell by one
another's hands, and first of all, and most justly, perished the man who
had seduced the army into expecting such great things from a change of
Cæsars, and who brought dishonour upon a glorious action, the
dethronement of Nero, by bribing men to do it as though it were a
treason.
II. Nymphidius Sabinus, who, as has been related, was together with
Tigellinus, Præfect of the Prætorian Guard,[599] when Nero's cause was
quite hopeless, and he was evidently preparing to escape to Egypt,
persuaded the soldiers to salute Galba as emperor, as though Nero were
already gone. He promised to each of the prætorians, or household
troops, seven thousand five hundred drachmas, and to each of the
legionary soldiers serving in the provinces twelve hundred and fifty
drachmæ; a sum which it would have been impossible to collect without
inflicting ten thousand-fold more misery on mankind than Nero himself
had done.
This offer at once caused the downfall of Nero, and soon afterwards that
of Galba; for the soldiery deserted Nero in hopes of receiving the
money, and murdered Galba because they did not receive it. After this
they sought so eagerly for some one who would give them as much, that
before they obtained the hoped-for bribe, their own treasons and
rebellions proved their ruin. To relate each event exactly as it
happened belongs more properly to the professed historian; yet, those
words and deeds of the Cæsars which are worthy of record ought not to be
passed over even by an essayist like myself.
III. It is generally agreed that Servius Sulpicius Galba was the richest
private person who ever was raised to the throne of the Cæsars. Though
illustrious by birth, being descended from the noble family of the
Servii, he prided himself even more upon his relationship with
Catulus,[600] who, though he shrank from taking any active part in
politics, was yet one of the most virtuous and eminent men of the time.
Galba was likewise related to Livia, the wife of Augustus, and by her
influence he had been raised from the post which he held in the palace
to the office of consul. He is said to have ably commanded the army in
Germany, and to have gained especial praise by his conduct as proconsul
in Libya. But when he became emperor, his simple and inexpensive mode of
life was thought to be sheer meanness, while his ideas of discipline and
sobriety appeared obsolete and ridiculous. Nero, before he had learned
to fear the most eminent of the Romans, had appointed Galba to a command
in Spain. Indeed, besides the mildness of his character, it was thought
that his advanced age was a guarantee against his engaging in any rash
enterprise.
IV. While Galba was in Spain, the procurators of the emperor treated the
provincials with the greatest harshness and cruelty. Galba could not
afford them any assistance, but he made no secret of his sympathy with
them and sorrow at their wrongs, and thus afforded them some relief
while they were being condemned unjustly and sold into slavery. Many
scurrilous songs also were written about Nero and sung and circulated
everywhere, and as Galba did not discourage this, and did not share the
indignation of the procurators, he became even more endeared to the
natives, with whom he was already intimately acquainted, as he was now
in the eighth year of his command, during which Junius Vindex, who
commanded the army in Gaul, revolted.
It is said that before Vindex committed any overt act of rebellion he
wrote to Galba, and that Galba neither agreed to his proposals nor yet
denounced him, as some other generals did; for many of them sent
Vindex's letters to Nero, and as far as they were able ruined his cause.
Yet these men afterwards became traitors, and so proved that they could
betray themselves as well as Vindex. When, however, Vindex openly raised
the standard of revolt, and called upon Galba to accept the offer of
empire, and constitute himself the head of a strong body--namely, the
troops in Gaul, a hundred thousand armed men, and many times more men
capable of bearing arms--Galba called a council of his friends. Some of
them advised him to temporise, and watch the progress of events at Rome;
but Titus Vinius, the captain of the prætorian cohort, said, "Galba, why
do you hesitate? for you cannot remain quiet, and yet think of remaining
faithful to Nero. If Nero is to be your foe, you must not refuse the
proffered alliance of Vindex, or else you must at once denounce him and
attack him, because he wishes the Romans to have you for their chief
rather than Nero for their tyrant."
V. After this, Galba by an edict appointed a day upon which he would
grant manumission to whoever might wish it, and rumour and gossip drew
together on that day a great multitude of people eager for revolution.
No sooner did Galba appear upon the tribune than all with one voice
saluted him as emperor. Galba did not at once accept this title, but
spoke in disparagement of Nero, deplored the best citizens of Rome who
had been murdered by him, and promised that he would watch over his
country to the best of his power, not as Cæsar or Emperor, but merely as
the general of the Senate and people of Rome. That Vindex acted justly
and on due reflection when he offered the empire to Galba, is proved by
the conduct of Nero himself; for though he affected to despise Vindex
and to regard Gaul as of no importance, yet as soon as he heard of
Galba's rising, which was when he was at breakfast after his bath, he
overturned the table. However, as the Senate declared Galba a public
enemy, Nero, wishing to show his courage and to jest with his friends,
said that this gave him a good pretext for raising the money of which he
stood in need; for when he had conquered the Gauls he would sell their
spoils by public auction, and in the meantime he could at once
confiscate the estate of Galba, as he had been declared a public enemy.
Nero, after this, ordered Galba's property to be sold, and Galba, when
he heard of this, ordered all Nero's property in Spain to be put up to
auction and found people much more ready to purchase it.
VI. Many now revolted from Nero, and all these, as might be expected,
declared for Galba, with the exception of Clodius Macer, in Africa, and
Virginius Rufus[601] who commanded the German army in Gaul, who each
acted for themselves, though for different reasons. Clodius, who had
plundered his province, and put many men to death from cruelty and
covetousness, hesitated, because he could neither continue to hold his
command nor yet give it up with safety. Virginius on the other hand, who
was at the head of the most powerful force in the empire, and who was
constantly saluted as emperor by his soldiers and urged to assume the
purple, declared that he would neither become emperor himself nor yet
allow any one else to do so without the consent of the Senate. Galba was
at first much disturbed at this. Soon the two armies of Vindex and
Virginius, like horses that have taken the bit between their teeth,
fought a severe battle with one another. After two thousand Gauls had
fallen, Vindex committed suicide; and a rumour became prevalent that
after so signal a victory the whole army would either place Virginius
upon the throne, or would return to their allegiance to Nero. Galba, who
was now greatly alarmed, wrote to Virginius, begging him to act in
concert with him, and preserve the empire and liberty of the Romans.
Meanwhile he retired with his friends to Colonia, a city of Spain, where
he occupied himself more in repenting of the steps which he had taken,
and in regretting the loss of his usual life of ease and leisure more
than in doing anything to further his cause.
VII. Summer was just beginning, when one evening, shortly before dark,
there arrived Icelus, one of Galba's freed men, who had travelled from
Rome in seven days. Hearing that Galba was retired to rest, he proceeded
at once to his chamber, forced open the door in spite of the resistance
of the attendants, made his way in and told him that while Nero was
still alive, first the army, and then the people and Senate had declared
Galba emperor: and that shortly afterwards a report was spread of Nero's
death. The messenger said that he had not believed this rumour, and that
he had not left Rome before he had seen the corpse of Nero. This news
very greatly raised the credit of Galba, and a multitude of men, whose
confidence in him had been restored by this message, flocked to his
doors to salute him. Yet the time[602] in which he received the news
seemed incredibly short. But, two days afterwards Titus Vinius arrived
with several other persons, who brought a detailed account of the
proceedings both of the prætorians and of the Senate. He was at once
promoted to a post of honour; while Icelus was presented with a
gold[603] ring, received the surname of Marcianus, and took the first
place among the freed men of Galba.
VIII. Meanwhile at Rome Nymphidius Sabinus, not quietly and by degrees,
but by one bold stroke, attempted to get all departments of the state
into his own hands. He pointed out that Galba was an old man who would
scarcely live long enough to be carried to Rome in a litter; and indeed
Galba was in his seventy-third year. The soldiers in the provinces, he
declared, had long been his friends, and they now depended on him alone
because of the enormous presents which he offered them, which made them
regard him as their benefactor, and Galba as their debtor. Nymphidius
now at once ordered his colleague Tigellinus to give up his sword, and
entertained all men of consular or prætorian rank at state banquets,
although he still invited them in the name of Galba, while he suborned
many of the prætorian guard to say that they must petition Galba to
appoint Nymphidius as their præfect for life without any colleague. He
was urged to even more audacious pretensions by the conduct of the
Senate, who added to his fame and power by addressing him as their
benefactor, by assembling daily to pay their respects to him, and by
requiring him to propose and to ratify every decree: so that in a short
time he became an object not only of jealousy but of terror to his
supporters. When the consuls chose public messengers to carry the
decrees of the Senate to the emperor, and had given them the sealed
documents known as diplomas,[604] at the sight of which the local
authorities in all towns assist the bearer on his journey by relays of
horses at each stage. Nymphidius was much vexed at their not having come
to him to affix the seals and to provide messengers from the prætorian
guard, and he is even said to have thought of wreaking his displeasure
on the consuls; but when they begged his pardon he forgave them. In
order to win the favour of the people he permitted them to massacre any
of Nero's creatures who fell into their hands: and they killed Spicillus
the gladiator by throwing him under the statues of Nero when they were
being dragged about the Forum; laid Aponius, one of the informers, on
the ground and drove waggons loaded with stones over his body, and tore
to pieces many other persons, some of whom were perfectly innocent, so
that Mauriscus, who was justly held to be one of the noblest men in
Rome, openly declared in the Senate that he feared they would soon wish
to have Nero back again.
IX. Nymphidius, who thus began to draw nearer to the object of his
hopes, did not dislike being called the son of Caius Cæsar, who was
emperor after Tiberius. It seems that Caius, when a boy, did have an
intrigue with the mother of Nymphidius, who was a good looking woman,
the daughter of a hired sempstress and of one Callisto, a freed man of
the emperor. But it appears that her intrigue with Caius must have
taken place after the birth of Nymphidius, whose father was generally
supposed to have been Martianus the gladiator, for whom Nymphidia
conceived a passion because of his renown as a swordsman; and this
belief was confirmed by the likeness which he bore to the gladiator.
However, though he did not deny that Nymphidia was his mother, he
nevertheless boasted that the dethronement of Nero was entirely his own
work, and, not satisfied with having gained by it both honours and
riches, and the embraces of Sporus, the favourite of Nero, whom he had
fetched away from the funeral pyre of his late master and now treated as
his wife, calling her Poppæa, he was intriguing to gain the throne for
himself. He employed several of his friends, among whom were some ladies
of rank and senators, to further his interests in Rome, and sent one
Gellianus to Spain to watch the proceedings of Galba.