(this was principally later, in the consulship of Cæcilius Metellus and
Lincinius Silanus), but took refuge on the heights, from which they made
descents whenever they saw a chance.
[-31-] When Augustus learned this he began to be suspicious of Tiberius,
for he thought the latter might have overcome them soon but was delaying
purposely so that he might be under arms as long as possible, with war
for an excuse. The emperor therefore sent Germanicus, though he was then
quæstor, and gave him soldiers not only from the free born citizens but
from the freedmen, some of whom were slaves that he had taken from both
men and women, in return for their value, with food for six months,
and had set free. This was not the only measure he took in view of the
necessities of the war: he also postponed the review of the knights,
which was wont to occur in the Forum. And he vowed to conduct the Great
Games [18] because a woman had cut some letters on her arm and had
practiced some kind of divination. He knew well, to be sure, that she had
not been possessed by some divine power, but had done it intentionally.
Inasmuch, however, as the populace were terribly wrought up over the wars
and the famine (which had now set in once more), he, too, affected
to believe what was said and did anything that would lead to the
encouragement of the multitude as a matter of course. In view of the
stringency in the grain supply he again appointed two grain commissioners
from among the ex-consuls, together with lictors. As there was need
of further money for operations against the enemy and the support of
night-watchmen, he introduced the tax of two per cent. on the sale of
slaves, and he ordered that the money delivered from the public treasury
to the prætors who gave armed combats should no longer be expended.
[-32-]The reason that he sent Germanicus and not Agrippa to take the
field was that the latter possessed a servile nature and spent most of
his time fishing, wherefore he also used to call himself Neptune. He used
to give way to violent anger and slandered Julia as a stepmother, while
upon Augustus he heaped abundant reproaches in the matter of his paternal
inheritance. When he could not be made to moderate his conduct he was
banished and his property was given to the ærarium militare: he himself
was put ashore on Planasia, the island near Corsica.--These were the
events in the City.
Germanicus reached Pannonia, where armies from various points were
shortly to assemble; the Batos watched for Severus, who was approaching
from Moesia, and fell upon him unexpectedly, while he was encamped near
the Volcæan marshes. The pickets outside the ramparts they frightened
and hurled back within it, but as the men inside stood their ground, the
attacking party was defeated. After this the Romans divided, in order
that many detachments might overrun the country in separate places at one
time. Most of them did nothing worthy of note during this enterprise,
but Germanicus conquered in battle and badly demoralized the Mæzei, a
Dalmatian tribe.--These were the results of that year.
[A.D. 8 (_a. u._ 761)]
[-33-] In the consulship of Marcus Furius with Sextus Nonius the
Dalmatians and Pannonians decided they would like to make peace because
they were in distress primarily from famine and then from disease that
followed it, due to their using grasses of various sorts and roots for
food. They did not attempt, however to open any negotiations, being
restrained by those who had no hope of preservation at the hands of the
Romans. So even as they were they still resisted. And one Scenobardus,
who had feigned a readiness to change sides, and had had dealings on this
very business with Manius Ennius, commander of the garrison in Siscia,
declaring that he was ready to desert, became afraid that he might be
injured ere his project was complete, and [19] ...
_The Po, which they call the monarch of rivers that cleave the soil of
Italy, known by the name Eridanus, had its waters let into a very
broad excavation, on the command of the emperor Augustus. A seventh
division of the channel of this river flows through the center of the
state, affording at its mouth a most satisfactory harbor, and was
formerly believed (my authority is Dio) to be an entirely safe anchorage
for a fleet of two hundred and fifty ships._ (From the Latin of
Jordan.)
When the famine at last had subsided, he conducted a horse-race in
the name of Germanicus, who was son of Drusus, and in the name of
his brother. On this occasion an elephant fought a rhinoceros, and a
knight who had once held a prominent position on account of
wealth contended in single combat.
And he found himself sinking under the burden of old age and
physical weakness, so that he could not transact business with all the
persons that needed his services, he delivered to three ex-consuls the
care of the embassies that were constantly arriving from peoples and
kings; each one of these officials separately was empowered to give any
such delegation a hearing and to transmit an answer to them, save in
such cases as he and the senate needed to pass upon finally. Other
questions continued to be investigated and decided by the emperor himself
with the help of his cabinet.
[-34-] ... however, among the first, but among the last he declared, in
order that everybody might be permitted to hold an individual opinion,
and no one of them be obliged to abandon his own ideas because he felt
it obligatory to agree with his sovereign; and he would often help the
magistrates try cases. Also, as often as the consulting judges held
different views, his vote was reckoned only as equal to that of any one
else. It was at this time that Augustus allowed the senate to try the
majority of cases without his being present, and he no longer frequented
the assemblies of the people. Instead, he had the previous year
personally appointed all who were to hold office, because there were
factional outbreaks: this year and those following he merely posted a
kind of bulletin and made known to the plebs and to the people what
persons he favored. Yet he had so much strength for managing hostile
campaigns that he journeyed to Ariminum in order that he might be able to
give from close at hand all necessary advice in regard to the Dalmatians
and Pannonians. Prayers were offered at his departure and sacrifices upon
his return, as if he had come back from some hostile territory. This was
what was done in Rome.
Meantime Bato the Breucan, who had betrayed Pinnes and received the
governorship of the Breuci as reward for this, was captured by the other
Bato, and perished. The Breucan had been a little suspicious of his
subject tribes and went around to each of the garrisons to demand
hostages: the other, learning of this habit, lay in wait for him,
conquered him in battle, and shut him up within the fortifications. Later
his defeated rival was given up by those in the place, and he took him
and led him before the army, whereupon the man was condemned to death
and sentence executed without delay. After this event numbers of the
Pannonians rose in revolt. Silvanus led a campaign in person, conquered
the Breucans, and won the allegiance of some of the rest without a
struggle. Bato seeing this gave up all hope of Pannonia, but stationed
garrisons at the passes leading to Dalmatia and ravaged the country.
Then the remainder of the Pannonians, especially as their country was
suffering harm from Silvanus, made terms. Only certain nests of brigands,
who in so great a disturbance could naturally do damage for a long time,
held out. Tins practically always happens in the case of all enemies, and
is especially characteristic of the tribes in question. These localities
were reduced by other persons.
[Footnote 1: Lat. _custodes vigilum_.]
[Footnote 2: Cp. Ovid, _Tristia_, IV, 10, vv. 7 and 8.]
[Footnote 3: See Chapter 2.]
[Footnote 4: Compare Reifferscheid's _Suetoni Reliquice_, page 136.]
[Footnote 5: Or _Curatores Viarum_.]
[Footnote 6: Between this point and ... "to Mars" two leaves are missing
in the codex Marcianus. The gap is filled in the usual makeshift fashion
by Xiphilinus and Zonaras.]
[Footnote 7: The ancients seem rather uncertain about this personage's
name, for Velleius Paterculus gives _Adduus_, and Florus _Donnes_. The
modern reader may take his choice of the three, and the layman is as
likely to be right as the expert]
[Footnote 8: Between this point and the words "he both adopted Tiberius,"
etc., in chapter 13, two leaves of the codex Marcianus are lacking.
Of the missing portion Xiphilinus and Zonaras supply perhaps
three-sevenths.]
[Footnote 9: These are the words of Xiphilinus. Zonaras presents an
alternate possibility (X, 36) as follows: "Among the Greeks, Dio says,
the coin called _aureus_ has twenty drachmæ (denarii) as its regular rate
of exchange."]
[Footnote 10: It seems rather likely that Zonaras has become confused,
and that he should have said "Livia."]
[Footnote 11: Verb supplied by Xylander.]
[Footnote 12: Possibly a reference to the opening of Book Fifty-four.
(Boissée.)]
[Footnote 13: Compare Xenophon, _Cyropædia_, VIII, 4, 5.]
[Footnote 14: The three words after "kill" are on the basis of a
suggestion made by Boissevain. The MS. has a gap of some fifteen
letters.]
[Footnote 15: Emendation by Mommsen.]
[Footnote 16: Compare Book Fifty-three, chapter 14.]
[Footnote 17: His true name was Archelaus.]
[Footnote 18: Cp. Suetonius, Life of Augustus, chapter 23.]
[Footnote 19: At this point in the codex Marcianus four leaves have been
lost.]
DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY
56
The following is contained in the Fifty-sixth of Dio's Rome:
How Augustus addressed those having children and afterward the childless
and unmarried, and what rules he laid down to apply to them (chapters
1-10).
How Quintilius Varus was defeated by the Celtæ and perished (chapters
18-24).
How the Temple of Concord was consecrated (chapter 25).
How the Portico of Livia was consecrated (chapter 27).
How Augustus passed away (chapters 29-47).
Duration of time, six years, in which there were the following
magistrates here enumerated:
Q. Sulpicius Q.F. Camerinus, C. Poppæus Q.F. Sabinus. (A.D. 9 = a. u.
762.)
P. Cornelius P.F. Dolabella, C. Iunius C.F. Silanus. (A.D. 10 = a. u.
763.)
M. Æmilius Q.F. Lepidus, T. Statilius T.F. Taurus. (A.D. 11 = a. u. 764.)
Germanicus Cæsaris F. Cæsar, C. Fonteius C.F. Capito. (A.D. 12 = a. u.
765.)
L. Munatius L.F. Plancus, C. Silius C.F. Cæcina Largus. (A.D. 13 = a. u.
766.)
Sextus Pompeius Sexti F., Sex. Apuleius Sex. F. (A.D. 14 = a. u. 767.)
_( BOOK 56, BOISSEVAIN.)_
[A.D. 9 (_a. u._ 762)]
[-1-] Tiberius returned to Rome after the winter when Quintus Sulpicius
and Gaius Sabinus were consuls. Augustus went out into the suburbs to
meet him, accompanied him to the Sæpta, and there from a platform greeted
the people. Next he performed the ceremonies proper on such an occasion
and had the consuls give triumphal spectacles. And since the knights on
this occasion with great vigor sought for the repeal of the law regarding
the unmarried and the childless, he assembled in one place in the Forum
the unmarried men of this number and in another those who were married or
had children. Seeing that the latter were much fewer in number than the
former he was filled with grief and addressed them to the following
effect:
[-2-] "Though you are but few all together, in comparison with the great
throng that inhabits this city, and are far behind the others, who are
unwilling to fulfill their duties at all, yet for this reason I praise
you the more and I am heartily grateful that you have shown yourselves
obedient and are helping to replenish the fatherland. It is by lives so
conducted that the Romans of later days will become a mighty multitude.
We were at first a mere handful, but when We had recourse to marriage and
begot children we came to surpass all mankind not only in manliness but
in populousness. This we must remember and console the mortal element of
our being with an endless succession of generations like torches. Thus
the one gap which separates us from divine happiness may through relays
of men be filled by immortality. It was for this cause most of all that
that first and greatest god who fashioned us divided the race of mortals
in twain, rendering one half of it male and the other female, and added
love and the compulsion of their intercourse together, making their
association fruitful, that by the young continually born he might in
a way render mortality eternal. Even of the gods themselves some are
believed to be male, the rest female: and the tradition prevails that
some have begotten others and certain ones have been born of others. So,
even among them, who need no such device, marriage and child-begetting
have been approved as noble. [-3-] You have done right, then, to imitate
the gods and right to emulate your fathers, that, just as they begot you,
you may also bring others into the world. Just as you deem them and
name them ancestors, others will regard you and address you in similar
fashion. The undertakings which they nobly achieved and handed down to
you with glory you will hand on to others. The possessions which they
acquired and left to you will leave to others sprung from your own loins.
Surely the best of all things is a woman who is temperate, domestic,
a good house-keeper, a rearer of children; one to gladden you when in
health, to tend you when sick; to be your partner in good fortune, to
console you in misfortune; to restrain the frenzied nature of the youth
and to temper the superannuated severity of the old man. Is it not a
delight to acknowledge a child bearing the nature of both, to nurture and
educate it, a physical image and a spiritual image, so that in its growth
you yourself live again? Is it not most blessed on departing from life to
leave behind a successor to and inheritor of one's substance and family,
something that is one's own, sprung from one's self? And to have only
one's human part waste away, but to live through the child as successor?
We need not be in the hands of aliens, as in war, nor perish utterly, as
in war. These are the private advantages that accrue to those who marry
and beget children: but for the State, for whose sake we ought to do many
things that are even distasteful to us, how excellent and how necessary
it is, if cities and peoples are to exist, if you are to rule others and
others are to obey you, that there should be a multitude of men to till
the earth in peace and quiet, to make voyages, practice arts, follow
handicrafts, men who in war will protect what we already have with the
greater zeal because of family ties and will replace those that fall by
others. Therefore, men,--for you alone may properly be called men,--and
fathers,--for you are worthy to hold this title like myself,--I love you
and I praise you for this, I am glad of the prizes I have already offered
and I will glorify you still more besides by honors and offices. Thus
you may yourselves reap great benefits and leave them to your children
undiminished. I shall now descend to speak to the rest, who have not done
like you, and whose lot will therefore be directly the opposite: you will
thus learn not only from words but by facts even more how far you excel
them."
[-4-] After this speech he made presents to some of them at once and
promised to make others: he then went over to the other throng, to whom
he addressed these words:
"A strange experience has been mine, O--What shall I call you?--Men? But
you do not perform the offices of men.--Citizens? But so far as you are
concerned the city is perishing.--Romans? But you are undertaking to do
away with this name.--Well, at any rate, whoever you are and by whatever
name you delight to be called, mine has been an unexpected experience.
For, though I am always doing everything to promote an increase of
population among you and am now about to rebuke you, I grieve to see that
you are numerous. I could rather wish that those others to whom I have
just spoken were so many than to see you as many as you are; or, still
better, to see you mustered with them,--or at least not to know how
things stand. It is you who without pausing to reflect on the foresight
of the gods or the care of your forefathers are bent upon annihilating
your whole race and making it in truth mortal, upon destroying and ending
the whole Roman nation. What seed of human beings would be left, if all
the remainder of mankind should do the same as you? You are their leaders
and may rightly bear the responsibility for universal destruction. Or,
even if no others emulate you, will you not be justly hated for the very
reason that you overlook what no one else would overlook, and neglect
what no one else would neglect? You are introducing customs and
practices, which, if imitated, would lead to the annihilation of all,
and, if hated, would end in your own punishment. We do not spare
murderers because all persons do not murder, nor do we let temple-robbers
go because not everybody robs temples: but anybody who is convicted of
committing any forbidden act is chastised for the very reason that he
alone, or as one of a small group, does such things as no one else would
do. [-5-] Yet if one should name over the greatest offences, there is
none to compare with that which is now being committed by you, and this
statement holds true not only if you examine crime for crime but if you
compare all of them together with this single one of yours. You have
incurred blood guiltiness by not begetting those who ought to be your
descendants; you are sacrilegious in putting an end to the names and
honors of your ancestors; you are impious in abolishing your families,
which were instituted by the gods, and destroying the greatest of
offerings to them,--the human being,--and by overthrowing in this way
their rites and their temples. Moreover, by causing the downfall of the
government you are disobedient to the laws, and you even betray your
country by rendering her barren and childless: nay more, you lay her even
with the dust by making her destitute of inhabitants. A city consists of
human beings, not of houses or porticos or fora empty of men. Think what
rage would justly seize the great Romulus, the founder of our race, if he
could reflect on the circumstances of his own birth, and then upon
your attitude,--refusing to get children even by lawful marriages! How
wrathful would the Romans who were his followers be when they considered
that they themselves even seized foreign girls, but you are not satisfied
with those of your own race. They actually had children even by their
enemies: you will not beget them even of women with undisputed standing
in the State. How incensed would Curtius be, who endured to die that
the married men might not be sundered from their wives: how indignant
Hersilia, the attendant of her daughter, who instituted for us all the
rites of marriage. Our fathers fought the Sabines to obtain marriages and
made peace through the intercession of their wives and children; they
administered oaths and made sundry treaties for this very purpose: you
are bringing all that labor to naught. Why is it? Do you desire to live
forever apart from women, as the vestal virgins live apart from men?
Then you should be punished like them if you break out into any act of
lewdness.
[-6-] "I know that my words to you appear bitter and harsh. But, first of
all, reflect that physicians, too, treat many patients by burning when
they can not recover health in any other way. In the second place, it is
not my wish or my pleasure to speak them; and hence it is that I have
this further reproach to bring against you, that you have provoked me to
this discourse. If you dislike what I say, do not continue the conduct
for which you are inevitably reprimanded. If my speech wounds any of you,
how much more do your acts wound both me and all the rest of the Romans.
If you vexed in very truth, make a change, that so I may praise and
reward you. You yourselves are aware that I am not irritable by nature
and that I have done, subject to human limitations, all the acts proper
for a good lawgiver. Never in old times was any one permitted to neglect
marriage and the rearing of children, but from the very outset, at the
first establishment of the government, strict laws were passed regarding
them: since then many decrees have been issued by both the senate and the
people, which it would be superfluous to enumerate. I have increased the
penalties for the disobedient in order that through fear of becoming
liable to them you may be brought to your senses. To those that obey I
have offered more numerous and greater prizes than are given for any
other display of excellence, that if for no other reason at least by
this one you may be persuaded to marry and beget children. Yet you, not
striving for any of the recompenses nor fearing any of the penalties,
have despised all these measures, have trodden them all under foot, as
if you were not even inhabitants of the city. You declare you have taken
upon yourselves this free and continent life, without wives and without
children. You are no different from robbers or the most savage [-7-]
beasts. It is not your delight in a solitary existence that leads you
to live without wives. There is not one of you who either eats alone
or sleeps alone, but you want to have opportunity for wantonness and
licentiousness. Yet I have allowed you to court girls still tender and
not yet of age for marriage, in order that having the name of intendant
bridegrooms you may lead a domestic life. And those not in the senatorial
class I have permitted to wed freedwomen, so that if any one through
passion or some inclination should be disposed to such a proceeding he
might go about it lawfully. I have not limited you rigidly to this, even,
but at first gave you three whole years in which to make preparations,
and later two. Yet not even so, by threatening or urging or postponing or
entreating, have I accomplished anything. You see for yourselves how much
larger a mass you constitute than the married men, when you ought by this
time to have furnished us with as many more children, or rather with
several times your number. How otherwise shall families continue? How can
the commonwealth be preserved if we neither marry nor produce children?
Surely you are not expecting some to spring up from the earth to succeed
to your goods and to public affairs, as myths describe. It is neither
pleasing to Heaven nor creditable that our race should cease and the
name of Romans meet extinguishment in us, and the city be given up to
foreigners,--Greek or even barbarians. We liberate slaves chiefly for the
purpose of making out of them as many citizens as possible; we give our
allies a share in the government that our numbers may increase: yet you,
Romans of the original stock, including Quintii, Valerii, Iulli, are
eager that your families and names at once shall perish with you.