very reasons just cited, as soon as he had freed himself from the civil
wars after acting and enduring (not in a way that pleased himself)
as Heaven approved, first of all preserved the lives of most of his
opponents, who were survivors of the army, and thus he in no way imitated
Sulla, called the Fortunate. Not to give you a list of all of them, who
does not know about Sosius, about Scaurus the brother of Sextus, and
particularly about Lepidus, who lived so long a time after his defeat and
continued to be high priest his whole life through? Next he honored his
companions in conflict with many great gifts, but did not allow them to
act in any arrogant way or to be wanton. You know thoroughly among others
in this category both Mæcenas and Agrippa, so that there is no need of my
enumerating the names. Augustus had two qualities, too, which were never
united in any one else. Some conquerors, I know, have spared their
enemies and others have refused to allow their companions to give way
to license. But both sorts of behavior at once, continually without any
exception, were never found in the same man. Here is evidence. Sulla and
Marius treated as enemies even the children of those who fought against
them. Why need I cite the other less important men? Pompey and Cæsar were
in general guiltless of this conduct, but permitted their friends to do
not a few things that were contrary to their own principles. But this
man had each of the two virtues so fused and intermingled that to his
adversaries he made defeat look like victory and to his comrades he
showed a happiness in excellence.
[-39-] "After doing this and quieting by kindness all that remained of
factional disputes and imposing temperance by his benefits upon the
victorious military, he might as a result of this and the weapons and the
money at his command have been indisputably the sole lord of everything,
as, indeed, he had been made by the very course of events. Yet he
refused, and like a good physician, who takes in hand a disease-ridden
body and heals it, he restored everything to you after making it well.
And to what this action amounted you can best realize from the fact that
our fathers spoke in praise of Pompey and Metellus, who was formerly
prominent, because they voluntarily disbanded the forces with which they
had been engaged in war. Now if they, who had but a small force and a
merely temporary one and besides saw opponents who would not allow them
to do otherwise,--if they received praise for doing this,--how could one
speak fittingly of the magnanimity of Augustus? He held all your forces,
however great, he was master of all your funds, vast in amount, had no
one to fear or suspect: but whereas he might have ruled alone with the
approval of all, he would not accept such a course, but laid the arms,
the provinces, the money at your feet. Wherefore you with wise insistence
and proper prudence would not have it nor allow him to retire to private
life; you knew well that democracy would never accommodate itself to such
tremendous interests, but that the superintendence of a single person
would most surely preserve them, and so refused what was nominally
independence but really factional discord. And making choice of him, whom
you had proved worthy by his very deeds, you compelled him to stand at
your head for a time at least. When you had in this way tested him even
more than before, you finally forced him a second, a third, a fourth, and
a fifth time to remain as manager of public affairs. [-40-] It was
only natural. Who would not choose to be safe without trouble, to
be prosperous without danger, to enjoy unsparingly the blessings of
government and not to be disturbed by cares for its maintenance? Who was
there that could rule even his private possessions better than Augustus,
to say nothing of the goods of so many human beings? He accepted the
trying and hostile provinces for his own portion to guard and preserve,
but restored to you all such others as were peaceful and free from
danger. Though he supported such a large standing army to fight in your
behalf, he let the soldiers be troublesome to none of his own countrymen
but rendered them to outsiders most terrifying guardians, to the people
at home unarmed and unwarlike. The senators in places of authority
were not deprived of appeal to the lot, but prizes for excellence were
furnished them in addition. He did not destroy the power of the ballot in
their decisions and he guaranteed safety in free speech as well. Cases
difficult to decide he transferred from the people to the searching
justice of the courts, but preserved to the popular body the dignity of
the elections and trained citizens in these to seek a means of honor, not
of strife. He even cut away the ambitious greed of office seekers and put
a regard for reputation in its place. His own money, which he increased
by legitimate methods, he spent for public needs: for the public funds he
cared as if they were his own, while he refrained from touching them, as
belonging to others. He saw that all public works that were falling to
decay were repaired, and deprived no one connected with their renovation
of the glory attaching: many structures he built anew (some in his own
name, some in that of another), or else gave others charge of erecting
them. Consequently, his gaze was directed toward public utility and
privately he grudged no one the fame to be derived from public service.
Wantonness among his own kin he recompensed relentlessly, but the
offences of others he treated with humaneness. Those who had traits of
excellence he allowed to come as near as they could to his own standard,
and with the conduct of such as lived otherwise he did not concern
himself minutely. Among those who conspired against him he invoked
justice upon only those whose lives were of no profit even to themselves.
The rest he placed in such a position that for a great while they could
obtain no excuse either true or false for attacking him. It is nothing
surprising that he was occasionally the object of conspiracies, for
even the gods do not please all alike. The excellence of good rulers
is discernible not in the villainies of others but in their own good
behavior.
[-41-] "I have spoken, Quirites, of his greatest and most striking
characteristics in a rather summary way. For if one should desire to
enumerate all of his great points individually, it would need many days.
Furthermore, I know that though you will have heard so few facts from me,
they will lead you to remember for yourselves everything else, and it
will seem almost as if I had spoken that too. In the rest that I have
said about him I have not been speaking in a spirit of vainglory [7], nor
has that been your state of mind in listening; but I intended that his
many noble achievements might obtain an ever memorable glory in your
souls. Who would not feel inclined to make mention of his senators?--how
without giving offence he removed the scum that had come to the surface
from the factions, how by this very act he exalted the remainder,
magnified it by increasing the property requirement, and enriched it by
grants of money; how he voted on an equality with the senators and
had their help in making changes; how he communicated to them all the
greatest and most important matters either in the meeting-place or else
at his house, whither he called different members at different times
because of his age and bodily infirmity. Who would not like to cite the
condition of the rest of the Romans, before whom he set public works,
money, games, festivals, amnesty, an abundance of food, safety not only
from the enemy and evildoers but even from the acts of Heaven, nor such
alone as befall by day, but by night as well? Or, again, the allies?--how
he made their freedom free from danger and their alliance to involve
no loss. Or the subject nations?--how no one of them was treated with
insolence or abuse. How can one forget a man who was in private life
poor, in public life rich, saving in his own case but liberal of
expenditures for others?--one who even endured all toil and danger for
you but would not submit to your escorting him when he went forth on any
expedition or to your meeting him when he returned: one who on festivals
admitted even the populace to his home, but on other days greeted even
the senate only in its chambers? How could one forget the number and
precision as well of his laws, which contained for the wronged an
all-sufficient consolation and for the wrongdoers a not inhuman
punishment? Or his rewards offered to those who married and had children?
Or the prizes given to the soldiers without disadvantage to any
other person? Then there is the fact of his being satisfied with our
possessions once for all acquired by the will of Destiny, and his refusal
to subjugate additional territory. For while imagining that we bore a
wider sway we might meantime lose all we had. You recall how he always
shared the joys and sorrows, the jests and earnestness of his intimate
friends, and allowed absolutely all who could make any useful suggestion
to feel free to speak; how he praised those who spoke the truth and hated
flatterers; how he bestowed upon many large sums from his own means, and
how when aught was bequeathed to him by men with children he restored it
all to those children. What oblivion is dark enough to bury all this? It
was for this, therefore, I say, that you naturally made him your head and
a father of the people, that you decked him with many marks of esteem and
numerous consulships and finally declared him a hero and published him
as immortal. Hence we ought not either to mourn for him, but to give his
body back now in due time to Nature, and to glorify his spirit, as that
of a god, forever."
[-42-] This was what Tiberius read. Directly after, the same men as
before took up the couch and carried it through the triumphal gateway,
according to the senate's decree. There were present and took part in
carrying him out the senate and the equestrian class, the women of his
family, and the pretorian guard; and nearly everybody else in the city
was in attendance. When the body had been placed on the pyre in the
Campus Martius, all the priests marched about it first; and then the
knights, all the magistrates and others, and the heavy-armed force for
garrison duty ran around it; and they cast upon it all the triumphal
decorations which any of them had ever received from him for any deed of
valor. Next the centurions took torches, conformably to a decree of the
senate, and kindled the fire from beneath. So it was consumed, and an
eagle released from it flew aloft appearing to bear his spirit into
heaven. When this had been accomplished most of those present departed;
but Livia remained on the spot for five days in company with the most
prominent knights, and gathered his bones, which she placed in the
monument.
The show of grief required by law was prolonged [-43-] only for a few
days by the men, but by the women, according to a decree, for a whole
year. Real grief not in the hearts of many at the time, but later felt by
all the citizens. Augustus had been accessible to all and was accustomed
to aid many persons in the matter of money. He used to bestow honors
scrupulously upon his friends and delighted exceedingly to have them
speak frankly. One instance, in addition to what has been told, occurred
in the case of Athenodorus. The latter was once brought into his room in
a covered litter, as if it were some woman, and leaping from it sword in
hand asked: "Aren't you afraid that some one may come in this way
and kill you?" Instead of being angry Augustus thanked him for his
suggestion.
The people consequently were wont to recall these traits of his, and how
he did not get blindly enraged at those who injured him as well as how
he kept faith with even such as were unworthy of it. There was a robber
named Corocotta, who flourished in Spain, and the emperor was in the
first place so angry at him that he offered twenty-five myriads to the
man that captured him alive. Later the robber came to him of his own
accord, and he not only did him no harm but made him richer by the amount
of money mentioned. Hence the Romans missed him mightily for these
reasons as well as because by mingling monarchy with democracy he
preserved their freedom for them and secured orderliness and security, so
that their lives, free from the audacities of democracy, free from the
wantonness of tyrannies, were cast in a liberty of moderation and under a
monarchy without terrors; they were subjects of royalty, yet not slaves,
and democratic citizens without discord. [-44-] If any of them remembered
his former deeds in the course of the civil wars, they laid them to the
pressure of circumstances, and they thought it fair to look for his real
disposition, which had given him undisputed authority. This offered, in
truth, a mighty contrast. Any one who goes carefully into each of his
separate actions will find this true. In regard to the mass of them I
must record curtly that he stopped all factional disputes, transformed
the government in a way to give it power, and strengthened it greatly.
Therefore if any deed of violence is encountered,--as is often bound to
happen when the face of a situation shifts unexpectedly,--one might more
justly blame the circumstances themselves than him.
Not the smallest factor in his glory was the length of his reign. The
majority of those that had lived under a democracy and the more powerful
had time to die. Those who were left, knowing nothing of that form of
government and having been reared entirely or mostly under existing
conditions, were not only not displeased with them,--they had become so
familiar,--but took delight in them, for they saw that these were better
and more free from terror than others of which they heard.
[-45-] Though the people knew this during his life they nevertheless
realized it more fully after his decease. Human nature is so constituted
that in good fortune it does not perceive its prosperity so fully as it
misses it when evil days arrive. This was the case then in regard to
Augustus. When they found his successor Tiberius not the same sort of
man they longed for the previous emperor. Persons with their wits about
them had some immediate evidence of the change in the constitution.
The consul Pompeius, who went out to meet the men bearing the body of
Augustus, received a blow in the leg and had to be carried back with the
body. An owl sat over the senate-house again at the very first sitting of
the senate after his death and uttered many ill-omened cries. The two men
differed so from each other that some suspected that Augustus with full
knowledge of Tiberius's character had purposely appointed him for
successor to the end that he himself might have greater glory. This
began to be rumored at a later date.
[-46-] At this time they declared Augustus immortal and assigned to him
attendants and sacred rites, making Livia (who was already called Julia
and Augusta) his priestess. Permission was granted Livia to employ a
lictor during the services. And she bestowed upon a certain Numerius
Atticus, a senatorial exprætor, twenty-five myriads because he swore that
he had seen Augustus ascending into heaven after the manner described in
the cases of Proclus and of Romulus. A heroüm voted by the senate and
built by Livia and Tiberius was erected to the dead emperor in Rome,
and others at many different points, sometimes with the consent of the
nations concerned and sometimes without their consent. Also the house at
Nola, where he passed away, was dedicated to him as a precinct. While the
heroüm was being built in Rome, they placed a golden image of him upon a
couch in the temple of Mars, and to this they paid all the honors that
they were afterward to give to his statue. Other votes in regard to
him were that his image should not be borne in procession at any one's
funeral and the consuls should celebrate his birthday with games no less
than that of Mars[8] the tribunes, as being sacrosanct, were to manage
the Augustalia. These officials conducted everything as had been the
custom, wearing the triumphal costume at the horse-race; they did not,
however, ascend the chariot. Besides this Livia held a private festival
in his honor for three days in the Palatium, and this is continued to the
present day by whoever is emperor.
[-47-] This was the extent of the decrees passed in memory of Augustus
nominally by the senate but really by Tiberius and Livia. Various men
made various motions and they decided that Tiberius should receive
written proposals from them and pick out whatever he chose. I have added
the name of Livia because she took a share in the proceedings, as though
she had full power.
Meantime the populace was plunged in tumult because at the Augustalia one
of the dancers would not enter the theatre for the stipulated pay. They
did not cease their disturbances until the tribunes convened the senate
without delay and begged that body to allow them to spend something more
than the legal amount.--Here ends my account of Augustus.
[Footnote 1: Undoubtedly _C. Vibius_ POSTUMUS is the person meant.]
[Footnote 2: Reading [Greek: paremenoi] (Boissevain, following the MS.).]
[Footnote 3: A leaf is here missing in the codex Marcianus. Of the
portion lost Zonaras supplies about one quarter.]
[Footnote 4: Another leaf of the codex Marcianus is here lacking, leaving
a gap of which Zonaras and an Excerpt of de Valois supply a sixth or
more.]
[Footnote 5: A conjecture of Boissevain's. The MS. has "Sardinia." (See
Mnemosyne, N.S. XIII, p. 329.)]
[Footnote 6: Dio here appears to confuse the festival of Augustus's
Birthday (September 23d) with that of the Augustalia proper, which was
celebrated October third to twelfth. The opening of chapter 34, Book
Fifty-four, might lead one to think, however, that he had accustomed
himself to use the phrase "which are still celebrated" to listing the
latter from the former.]
[Footnote 7: This sentence in the MS. is faulty. Oddey and Bekker
supplied words for the necessary sense.]
[Footnote 8: Compare Roscher, II, column 2399.];
DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY
57
The following is contained in the Fifty-seventh of Dio's Rome:
About Tiberius (chapter I ff.). How Cappadocia began to be governed by
Romans (chapter 17). How Germanicus Cæsar died (chapter 18). How Drusus
Cæsar died (chapter 22).
Duration of time, 11 years, in which there were the following magistrates
here enumerated:
Drusus Cæsar Tiberi F., C. Norbanus C. F. Flaccus (A.D. 15 = a. u. 768 =
Second of Tiberius, from Aug. 19th.)
T. Statilius T. F. Sisenna Taurus, L. Scribonius L. F. Libo. (A.D. 16 =
a. u. 769 = Third of Tiberius.)
C. Cæcilius C. F. Nepos [or] Rufus, L. Pomponius L. F. Flaccus. (A.D. 17
= a. u. 770 = Fourth of Tiberius.)
Tib. Cæsar Augusti F. (III), Germanicus Cæsar Tib. F. (II). (A.D. 18 = a.
u. 771 = Fifth of Tiberius.)
M. Iunius M. F. Silanus, C. Norbanus C. F. Flaccus or Balbus. (A.D. 19 =
a. u. 772 = Sixth of Tiberius.)
M. Valerius M. F. Messala, M. Aurelius M. F. Cotta. (A.D. 20 = a. u. 773
= Seventh of Tiberius.)
Tib. Cæsar Augusti F. (IV), Drusus Iulius Tib. F. (II). (A.D. 21 = a. u.
774 = Eighth of Tiberius.)
Decimus Haterius C. F. Agrippa, C. Sulpicius Serg. F. Galba. (A.D. 22 =
a. u. 775 = Ninth of Tiberius.)
C. Asinius C. F. Pollio, C. Antistius C. F. Vetus. (A.D. 23 = a. u. 776 =
Tenth of Tiberius.)
Sergius Cornelius Sergi F. Cethego, L. Visellius L. F. Varro. (A.D. 24 =
a. u. 777 = Eleventh of Tiberius.)
M. [or C.] Asinius [M. or] C. F. Agrippa, Cossus Cornelius Cossi F.
Lentulus. (A.D. 25 = a. u. 778 = Twelfth of Tiberius.)
_(BOOK 57 BOISSEVAIN)_
[A.D. 14 (_a. u._ 767)]
[-1-] Tiberius was a patrician of good education, but he had a most
peculiar nature. He never let what he desired appear in his talk, and
about what he said he wished he usually cared nothing at all. Thus his
words indicated just the opposite of his real purpose: be denied any
interest in what he longed for and urged the claims of what he hated. He
would exhibit anger over matters that were very far from arousing his
rage and made a show of affability where he was most vexed. He would pity
those whom he severely punished and retain a grudge against those whom he
pardoned. Sometimes he would regard his dearest foe as his nearest friend
and again he would act toward his most intimate companion as if the
latter were thoroughly hostile. In general, he thought it bad policy
for the independent sovereign to reveal his state of mind; this was the
source, he said, of great failures, but by the opposite course even more
successes, and greater, were attained. If he had merely followed this
method without complications, he would have had no protection against
such as had come to know him; they would have taken everything by
contraries and would have deemed his saying that he did not wish
something to be equivalent to his ardently desiring it, and that he was
eager for something equivalent to his not being concerned about it. It
happened, however, that he became angry if any one gave evidence of
understanding him. Many were those he put to death for no other offence
than having comprehended him. It was a dangerous matter, then, to fail to
understand him--for many were ruined by approving what he said instead of
what he wished,--but still more dangerous to understand him. Such persons
were suspected of discovering his practice and being consequently
displeased with it. Practically the only sort of man that could maintain
himself,--and such a person is rarely found,--was one who did not
misunderstand his nature yet did not subject it to uncomfortable
exposure. Under these conditions men would not be deceived by believing
him nor be hated for revealing their comprehension of his policy. For he
gave plenty of trouble both to any one who opposed what he said and to
any one who favored it. As he was really anxious for one thing to be
done but wanted to appear to desire something different, he invariably
regarded those who took either side as his opponents and therefore was
hostile to the one class because of his real feelings, and to the other
for the sake of appearances.
[-2-] It was due to this characteristic that, as emperor, he sent a
dispatch straight from Nola to the legions and provinces declaring that
he was emperor. This name, which was voted him along with the rest, he
would not accept, and though taking the portion of Augustus he would not
adopt this title of his. At a time when he was already surrounded by the
body-guards he asked the senate to help him escape suffering any violence
at the burial of the emperor's body. He was afraid some men might snatch
it up and burn it in the Forum, as they had that of Cæsar. When somebody
thereupon as a compliment voted that he be given a guard, as if he had
none, he saw through the man's flattery and answered: "The soldiers are
not mine but the public's." Besides doing this he administered in fact
all the business of the empire, meanwhile declaring that he wanted none
of it. At first he said he should give it all up on account of his
age,--fifty-six,--and his near-sightedness (although he saw extremely
well in the dark, his eyes in the daylight were very weak). Later he
asked for some associates and colleagues, though not to take charge of
the whole domain at once, as in an oligarchy, but he divided it into
three parts, one of which he should retain himself and yield the
remaining two to others. One of these portions consisted of Rome and
the rest of Italy, the second of the legions, the third of the subject
peoples outside. Though he became very urgent, most of the senators
still opposed him and begged him to govern the entire realm. But Asinius
Gallus, who employed the frank speech of old days more than was good for
him, replied: "Choose whichever part you wish." Tiberius rejoined: "How
is it feasible for the same man both to make the division and to choose?"
Gallus, perceiving into what a plight he had fallen, framed his words to
flatter him, interrupting to the effect that: "I not setting before you
the idea of your having a third but the impossibility of the empire's
being divided." In fact, however, he did not mollify Tiberius, but after
first undergoing many dire sufferings was subsequently murdered. For
Gallus had married the former wife of the new ruler and claimed Drusus as
his son, and consequently there had been hatred between them before this.