Chapter IX: Part 9

[-11-] Furthermore he was extremely easy of access and ready to grant an audience. The senators he bade greet him all at once and so avoid jostling one another. In fine, he showed himself so considerate that once, when the leaders of the Rhodians sent him some communication and failed to write at the foot of the letter this customary formula about offering their prayers for his welfare, he summoned them in haste as if he intended to do them some harm, but on their arrival instead of administering any serious rebuke had them subscribe what was lacking and then sent them away. The temporary officials he honored as he would have done in a democracy, even rising from his seat at the approach of the consuls. Whenever he entertained them at dinner he would in the first place receive them at the door when they entered, and secondly escort them on their way when they departed. In case he was at any time being carried anywhere in his litter, he would not allow even one of the knights who was prominent to accompany him, still less a senator. On the occasion of festivals or so often as anything similar was going to afford the people leisure, he would go the evening before to one of the Cæsarians who lived near the places where there was sure to be a large crowd and there pass the night. His object was to make it possible for the people to meet him with a minimum of formality and fatigue. The equestrian contests he would often watch in person from the house of some freedman. He attended the spectacles very frequently in order to do honor to those who gave them as well as to ensure the orderliness of the multitude and to seem to take an interest in their celebration. Really he did not care in the least about anything of the kind, nor did he have the reputation of being enthusiastic in these matters. In every way he was so fair and equal that when the populace once desired that a certain dancer be set free he would not approve the proposal until the man's master had been persuaded and received the value of his chattel. His intercourse with his companions was like that between private individuals: he helped them when they were sued and joined them in the ceremony of sacrifice; he visited them when they were sick, taking no guard into the room with him; over one of them who died he himself delivered the funeral oration.

[-12-] Moreover, he bade his mother behave in a similar manner, so far as it was proper for her to do so, partly that she might imitate him and partly to prevent her becoming overproud. She occupied a position of great prominence, far above all women of former time, so that she could at any time receive the senate and such of the people as so wished to greet her in her house. This was also inscribed in the public records. The letters of Tiberius bore for a time her name also and were written by both with equal authority. Except that she never ventured to enter the senate or the camps or the public assemblies she undertook to man age everything like a sole ruler. In the time of Augustus she had had great influence and she declared that it was she who made Tiberius emperor. Consequently she was not satisfied to rule on equal terms with him, but wished to assert a superiority over him. In this way many measures out of the ordinary were introduced and many persons voted that she should be called Mother of her Country, many others that she should he termed Parent. Others proposed that Tiberius should receive his name from her, that just as the Greeks were called by their father's name so he should be called by his mother's. This vexed him and he neither ratified the honors voted her (save a very few) nor allowed her any further unusual freedom of action. For instance, she had once dedicated in her house an image to Augustus and in honor of the event wished to entertain the senate and the knights together with their wives, but he would not grant her permission to carry out any part of this program until the senate had voted it, and not even then to receive the men at dinner. Instead, he entertained the latter and she attended to the women. Finally, he removed her entirely from the public sphere, allowing her to direct affairs within doors; then, as she was troublesome even in this capacity, he proceeded to absent himself from the City and avoided her in every way possible. It was chiefly on her account that he removed to Capreae.--This is the tradition that obtains about Livia.

[-13-] Now Tiberius began to treat more harshly those accused of any crime and became at enmity with his son Drusus, who was most licentious and cruel (as is evidenced by the fact that the sharpest kind of swords was called Drusian after him); him he often censured both privately and publicly. Once he said to him outright in the Presence of many witnesses: "While I live you shall perform no act of violence or insolence, and if you venture to do any such thing, you shall be cut off from the possibility after I am dead." For during some time the emperor continued to live a very temperate life and allowed no one else to indulge in licentiousness but punished numbers for it. Yet once when the senators evinced a desire to have a penalty imposed by law upon those guilty of lewd living he would make no such ruling, explaining that it is better to correct them privately in some way or other instead of laying them open to a public punishment. Under existing conditions, he said, there was a chance of bringing some of them to moderation through fear of disgrace, and they might endeavor to escape discovery; but if the law should once be overcome by nature, no one would pay any further heed to it. Not a few men also were wearing quantities of purple clothing (though this had formerly been forbidden); of these no one was either rebuked or fined: but when a rain came up on a certain festival the emperor put on a dark woolen cloak. After this none of them dared any longer to assume any different kind of garb.

This is the way he behaved under all conditions so long as Germanicus lived. Subsequent to that event he changed many of his ways. Perhaps he had been minded from the first as he later appeared to feel, and had been merely shamming as long as Germanicus existed because he saw that he was lying in wait for the leadership; or perhaps he was excellent by nature but drifted into vice when he was deprived of his rival. [-14-] I shall notice also separate events,--all those, at least that deserve mention,--each in its proper place.

[A.D. 15 (_a. u._ 768)]

In the consulship of Drusus his son and of Gaius Norbanus he presented to the people the bequests made by Augustus: this was after some one had approached a corpse that was being carried out through the Forum for burial and bending down had whispered something in its ear; when the spectators asked what he had said, he stated that he had commissioned the dead to tell Augustus that they had got nothing as yet. This man the emperor immediately despatched, in order (as he jokingly said) that he might carry his own message to Augustus; with the rest he settled after a little, distributing sixty-five denarii apiece. Some say this payment was made the previous year.

At this time certain knights desired to enter a championship contest in the games which Drusus had arranged for his own celebration and that of Germanicus; Tiberius did not view their combat, and when one of them was killed he forbade the other to fight as a gladiator again. Still other conflicts took place in connection with the horse-race that was in honor of Augustus's birthday; indeed, a few beasts were slain. So things went on for a number of years.

At this time, too, Crete, its governor being dead, was attached to the quaestorship and to the quaestor's assistant for the future. Since, also, many of those to whom the provinces had been allotted lingered in Rome and in the remainder of Italy for a long time, so that those who had held the office before them delayed, contrary to precedent, Tiberius commanded that they should take their departure by the first day of June. Meanwhile his grandson by Drusus died, but he neglected none of his customary duties; it was his settled conviction that a governor of men ought not to give up care of the common weal by reason of private misfortunes, and he confirmed the rest in their purpose not to jeopardize the interests of the living because of the dead.

The river Tiber now proceeded to occupy a large portion of the City, so that there was an inundation. Most people regarded this also as a prodigy, like the great earthquakes which shook down a portion of the wall, and like the frequent fall of thunderbolts, which made wine leak even from pails that were sound. The emperor, however, thinking that it was due to the great number of springs, appointed five senators, chosen by lot, to constitute a permanent board to look after the river, to the end that it should not give out in summer nor become over full in winter, but flow evenly so far as possible all the time. These were the measures of Tiberius.

As for Drusus, he performed the duties pertaining to the consulship along with his colleague as any private citizen might have done. Being left heir to someone's estate he assisted in carrying out the funeral. Yet he was so prone to anger that he inflicted blows upon a distinguished knight, and for this exploit he obtained the surname of Castor. [2] And he showed himself such a hard drinker that one night, when he was forced to lend aid with the Pretorians to some people whose property was on fire, he commanded, at their request for water, to pour it out hot for them. He was so fond of dancers that this class raised a tumult and would not be brought to order by the laws which Tiberius had introduced to apply to them.

[A.D. 16 (_a. u._ 769)]

[-15-] These were the events of that period. Now when Statilius Taurus was consul with Lucius Libo, Tiberius forbade any man to wear silk clothing and likewise to use gold ornaments, except for sacred ceremonies. As some were at a loss to know whether it were forbidden them also to possess silver ornaments which had some gold inlaid, he wished to issue some decree about this too, but he refused to let the word _emblaema_, since it was a Greek term, be inserted in the original document. Yet he could find no native word that would describe such inlaid work.

This was the position he took in that matter. Now there was a centurion who wished to give some evidence before the senate in Greek, and he would not allow it. Yet he was wont to hear many suits that were argued there in that language and to investigate many himself. Besides his unusual behavior in this respect he failed to pass sentence on Lucius Scribonius Libo, a young noble suspected of revolutionary designs, so long as the latter was well; but upon his falling sick he had him brought into the senate in a covered litter (such as the wives of senators use) to be condemned to death.

A slight delay ensued and Libo committed suicide, whereupon the emperor passed judgment upon his behavior, though he was dead, gave his money to the accusers, and had sacrifices voted for his overthrow, not only for his own sake, but for the sake of Augustus and of the latter's father Julius, as had occasionally been decreed in past times.

Though he took such action in the case of this man, he administered no rebuke at all to Vibius Rufus, who used Cæsar's chair (the one on which the latter was always accustomed to sit and on which he was slain). Rufus did this regularly, besides having Cicero's wife as his consort, and prided himself on both achievements, evidently thinking that he would become an orator by means of the wife or a Cæsar by means of the chair. For this, as I have stated, he received no censure; indeed, he became consul.

Tiberius was, moreover, forever in the company of Thrasyllus and made some use of the mantic art every day, becoming himself so proficient in the study that when he was once bidden in a dream to give money to a certain person, he comprehended that a deceitful spirit had been called up before him and he put the man to death. Likewise, in the case of all the rest of the astrologers and magicians and those who practiced divination in any other way whatever, he had the foreigners executed and banished all such citizens as still at that time after the previous decree, by which it had been forbidden to engage in any such business in the City, were accused in court of employing the art.

To such of them as obeyed immunity had been granted. In fact, all the citizens would have been acquitted even contrary to his wish, had not a certain tribune prevented it. Here one could catch a glimpse of the democratic constitution, inasmuch as the senate, approving the course of Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, overcame Drusus and Tiberius and was itself subdued by the tribune.

[-16-] These affairs were settled in this way. Certain men who had been quaestors the previous year were sent out to the provinces, since those who were quaestors at the time proved too few for them. This was done again and again, as often as it was found necessary.

Many of the public documents had either perished utterly or had faded during the lapse of time. Three senators were therefore elected to copy off what was extant and to look up the rest.--Assistance was given in several conflagrations not only by Tiberius but also by Livia.

The same year a certain Clemens, who had been a slave of Agrippa and resembled him to a certain extent, pretended to be he. He went to Gaul and won the attachment of many there, and later of many in Italy. Finally he marched upon Rome with the avowed intention of recovering the dominion of his grandfather. Many of the inhabitants of the city were thrown into confusion at this, and not a few joined his cause. Tiberius, however, got him in his hands by a clever device and through the agency of certain persons who pretended to sympathize with the upstart. Then he tortured the prisoner in order to learn something about his fellow conspirators, but when the victim uttered not a word the emperor asked him:" How did you get to be Agrippa?" And he replied: "In the same way as you got to be Cæsar."

[A.D. 17 (a. u. 770)]

[-17-] The following year Gaius Cæcilius and Lucius Flaccus received the title of consuls. And when some brought Tiberius money after the first of the month, he would not accept it and published a kind of document regarding this very point, in which he used a word that was not Latin. After thinking it over by night he sent for all those who had accurate knowledge of such matters, for he was extremely anxious to have his diction irreproachable. Thereupon a certain Ateius Capito declared: "Even if no one has previously used this expression, yet because of you we shall all enumerate it among the primitive usages," but was interrupted by one Marcellus,[3] who said: "You, being Cæsar, can extend Roman government over men, but not over words." And the emperor did the man no harm for this, in spite of the excessive frankness of his speech.

He had a grudge, however, against Archelaus. the king of Cappadocia, because the latter had first become his suppliant to the extent of employing him as advocate when this monarch in the time of Augustus had been accused by his people, and had subsequently slighted him on the occasion of a visit to Rhodes, but had paid court to Gaius, who also went to Asia. Therefore he summoned him on the charge of rebellious behavior and delivered him up to the votes of the senate. (The king was not only well stricken in years, but a great sufferer from gout, and was moreover believed to be demented.) As a matter of fact he had been incommoded previously by loss of mind to the extent of having a guardian placed over his domain by Augustus; but at that time he was no longer weak-witted and was merely feigning, in the hope of saving himself by this expedient if by no other. He would now have been executed, had not some one in testifying against him stated that he had once said: "When I get back home, I will show him what sort of sinews I possess." A shout of laughter went up at this, for the man was not only unable to stand, but could not even assume a sitting posture, and so Tiberius gave up his plan of putting him to death. The condition of the prince was so serious that he was carried into the senate in a covered litter. For since it was customary even for men, whenever one of them came there feeling ill, to be carried in a reclining position, Tiberius took advantage of the method on this occasion, too. (And the invalid spoke a few words, bending forward from the litter.) So it was that the life of Archelaus was temporarily saved, but he died shortly afterward in some other way. After this Cappadocia reverted to the Romans and was put in charge of a knight.

To the cities in Asia which had been damaged by the earthquake an ex-prætor was assigned with five lictors. Considerable money therefore was diverted from the revenues and considerable was given by Tiberius personally. For whereas he refrained scrupulously from the possessions of others,--so long at least as he practiced virtue at all,--and would not even accept the inheritances which were left to him by testators having relatives, he spent vast sums both upon the cities and upon private individuals. He would not hear of any honor or praise for these acts.--Embassies that came from foreign cities or nations he never dealt with alone, but caused a number of others to participate in the deliberations, and especially such as had once governed these peoples.

[-18-] Now Germanicus, having acquired a reputation for his campaign against the Celtae, advanced as far as the ocean, inflicted an overwhelming defeat upon the barbarians, collected and buried the bones of those who had fallen under Varus, and won back the military standards.

His wife Julia was not recalled from the banishment to which for
unchastity her father Augustus had condemned her; nay, he even put
her under lock and key till wretchedness and starvation caused her
death.

[A.D. 17 or 18]

The senate urged upon Tiberius the request that the month of November, on the sixteenth of which he had been born, should be called Tiberius; to which he responded: "What will you do, if there arise thirteen Cæsars?"

[A.D. 19 (_a. u._ 772)]

Later, when Marcus Junius and Lucius Norbanus came to office, a portent of some magnitude occurred on the very first day of the month, and it doubtless had a bearing on the fate of Germanicus. Norbanus the consul had always been devoted to the trumpet, and as he had practiced assiduously in this pursuit he wished on this occasion also to play the instrument just about dawn, when many persons were already near his house This proceeding threw them all without exception into confusion, just as if the consul had imparted to them some warlike signal; and they were also disturbed by the falling of the statue of Janus. Their calm was further ruffled by an oracle, reputed to be a Sibylline utterance, which would not fit any other period of the city's history, but pointed to that very time. It declared:

"After thrice three hundred revolving years have been numbered, Civil
strife shall consume the Romans,--and the Sybaritan Folly." ...

Tiberius denounced these verses as false and made an investigation of all the books containing any prophecies. Some he rejected as worthless and others he admitted as genuine.

As there had been a large influx of Jews into Rome and they were
converting many of the native inhabitants to their principles he
expelled the great majority of them.

At the death of Germanicus Tiberius and Livia were thoroughly pleased, but everybody else was mightily afflicted. He was a man who possessed the most striking physical beauty and likewise the noblest of spirits. Both in education and in strength he was conspicuous [and whereas he was the bravest of the brave against the enemy, he was the mildest of the mild to his friend. Though as a Cæsar he had extreme power he kept his ambitions on the same plane as weaker men. He in no wise conducted himself oppressively toward his subjects] or with jealousy toward Drusus or in any way to deserve censure toward Tiberius. [In brief, he belonged to the few men of all time who have neither sinned against the fortune allotted to them nor been destroyed by it.]

Although on several occasions he might [with the free consent not only of the soldiers but of the people and senate as well] have obtained the imperial power, he refused to do so. His death occurred in Antioch as the result of a plot formed by Piso and Plancina. Bones of men buried in the house where he dwelt and sheets of lead containing certain curses along with his name were found while he yet breathed.

[A.D. 20 (_a u._ 773)]

Piso was brought before the senate by Tiberius himself on the charge of having murdered Germanicus, but succeeded in securing a postponement and committed suicide.

Germanicus left three sons, whom Augustus in his testament denominated
Cæsars. The eldest of these, Nero, at that time had his name
placed among the number of the iuvenes.

[-19-] Tiberius, who had hitherto been the author of manifold meritorious works and had made but few errors, now, when he ceased to have a rival in view, changed to precisely the reverse of his previous conduct, which had included many excellent deeds. Among other ways in which his rule became cruel he pushed to the bitter end the trials for maiestas, in cases where complaint was made against any one for committing any improper act or uttering any improper speech not only against Augustus but against Tiberius personally and against his mother.

And towards those suspected of plotting against him he was inexorable.

Tiberius was stern in his chastisement of persons accused of an
offence. He would remark as follows: "Nobody willingly submits to
be ruled, but a man is driven into it reluctantly. Not only do subjects
like to refuse obedience, but, more than that, they enjoy plotting
against their rulers. And he would accept accusers indiscriminately: a
slave might denounce a master or a son a father.

Indeed, by indicating to certain persons his wish for the death of
certain others he brought about the destruction of the latter through
the medium of the former, and there was no secrecy about these
transactions.

Not only were slaves tortured to make them testify against their own masters, but freedmen and citizens as well. Such as accused or offered testimony against persons divided by lot the property of those convicted and received in addition both offices and honors. In the case of many he took care to ascertain the day and the hour that they had been born and on the basis of their character and fortune thus investigated would put them to death. If he discovered any qualities of haughtiness and aspiration to power in any one, he despatched him whether or no. Yet so much did he investigate and understand what was fated for each of the prominent men that on meeting Galba (subsequently emperor), when the latter had betrothed a wife, he remarked: "You also shall taste of the sovereignty." He spared him, as I conjecture, because this was settled as his fate; but, as he explained it himself, because Galba would reign only in old age and long after his death.

[Tiberius also found some pretexts for assassinations. The death of Germanicus led to the destruction of many others on the ground that they were pleased at it.]

The man who coöperated with him and helped him in all his undertakings with the utmost zeal was Lucius Aelius Sejanus, a son of Strabo, and formerly a favorite of Marcus Gabius Apicius,--that Apicius who so surpassed all mankind in voluptuous living that when he had once desired to learn how much he had already spent and how much he still had, on finding that two hundred and fifty myriads were left him became grief-stricken, feeling that he was destined to die of hunger, and took his own life. This Sejanus, accordingly, at one time shared his father's command of the Pretorians. After his father had been sent to Egypt, and he obtained entire control, he made the force more compact in many ways, gathering within one fortification the cohorts, which had been separate and apart from one another like those of the night guardsmen. In this way the entire body could receive the orders speedily and they were a source of terror to all, because they were within one fortification. This was the man whom Tiberius, because of the similarity of their characters, took as his helper, elevating him to prætorial honors, which had never yet been accorded to any of his peers; and he made him his adviser and assistant in all matters. [In fine, he changed so much after the death of Germanicus that whereas previously he was highly praised, he now attracted even greater wonder.]

[A.D.21 (a. u. 774)]

[-20-] When Tiberius began to hold the consular office in company with Drusus, men immediately began to prophecy destruction for Drusus from this very circumstance. For there is not a man who was ever consul with Tiberius that did not meet a violent death, but in the first place there was Quintilius Varus, and next Gnæus Piso, and then Germanicus himself, who perished violently and miserably. The emperor was evidently doomed to cause such ruin throughout his life: Drusus, his colleague at this time, and Sejanus, who subsequently participated in the office, also came to grief.

While Tiberius was out of town, Gaius Lutorius Priscus,[4] a knight, who took great pride in his poetic talents and had composed a notable funeral oration over Germanicus for which he had received considerable money, was charged with having composed a poem upon Drusus also, during the latter's illness. For this he was tried in the senate, condemned and put to death. Now Tiberius was vexed, not because the man had been punished, but because the senators had inflicted death upon any one without his approval. He therefore rebuked them and ordered a decree to be issued to the effect that no person condemned by them be executed within ten days, nor the document applying to his case be made public before the same time. This was to ensure the possibility of his learning their decrees in advance even while absent and of rendering a final decision on such matters.

[A.D. 22 (_a. u._ 775)]

[-21-] After this, when his consulship had expired, he came to Rome and prevented the consuls from acting as advocates to certain persons by saying: "If I were consul, I should not do this."

One of the prætors was accused of having uttered some impious word or having committed some impious act against him, whereupon the man left the senate and taking off his robe of office returned, demanding as a private citizen to have the complaint lodged at once. At this the emperor showed great grief and molested him no further.

[A.D. 23 (_a. u._ 776)]

The dancers he drove out of Rome and would allow them no place in which to practice their profession, because they kept debauching the women and stirring up tumults.

He honored many men, and numbers of those who died, with statues and public funerals. A bronze statue of Sejanus was erected in the theatre during the life of the model. As a result, numerous images of this minister were made by many persons and many encomiuma were spoken both in the assembly and in the senate. The consuls themselves, besides the other prominent citizens, regularly had recourse to his house just at dawn, and communicated to him both all the private requests that any of them wished to make of Tiberius and the public business which had to be taken up. In brief, henceforth nothing of the kind was considered without his knowledge.

About this time one of the largest porticos in Rome began to lean to one side and was set upright in a remarkable way by a certain architect whose name no one knows, because Tiberius, jealous of his wonderful achievement, would not permit it to be entered in the records. This architect, accordingly, however he was called after strengthening the foundations all about, so that they could not move out of position, and surrounding all the rest of the arcade with thick fleeces and cloths, ran ropes all over it and through it and by the pushing of many men and machines brought it once more into its previous position. At the time Tiberius both admired him and felt envious of him; for the former reason he honored him with a present of money and for the latter he expelled him from the city. Later, the exile approached him to make supplication during the course of which he purposely let fall a crystal goblet, which fell apart somehow or was broken, and then by passing his hands over it showed it straightway intact; for this the suppliant hoped to have obtained pardon, but instead the emperor put him to death.

[-22-] Drusus, son of Tiberius, perished by poison. Sejanus, puffed up by power and rank, in addition to his other overweening behavior finally turned against Drusus and once struck him a blow with his fist. As this gave the assailant reason to fear both Drusus and Tiberius, and inasmuch as he felt sure that, if he could get the young man out of the way, he could handle the elder very easily, he administered poison to the former through the agency of those in attendance upon him and of Drusus's wife, whom some name Livilla. [5] Sejanus was her paramour.--The guilt was imputed to Tiberius because he altered none of his accustomed habits either during the illness of Drusus or at his death and would not allow others to alter theirs. But the story is not credible. This was his regular behavior, as a matter of principle, in every case alike, and furthermore he was attached to his son, the only one he had and legitimate. Those that engineered his death he punished, some at once and some later. At the time he entered the senate, delivered the appropriate eulogy over his child, and departed homeward.

Thus perished Sejanus's victim. Tiberius took his way to the
senate-house, where he lamented him publicly, put Nero and Drusus
(children of Germanicus) in charge of the senate, and exposed the body
of Drusus upon the rostra; and Nero, being his son-in-law, pronounced
an eulogy over him. This man's death proved a cause of death to many
persons, who were taxed with being pleased at his demise. Among the
large number of people who lost their lives was Agrippina, together
with her children, the youngest excepted. Sejanus had incensed
Tiberius greatly against her, anticipating that, when she and her
children were disposed of, he might have for his spouse Livia, wife of
Drusus, for whom he entertained a passion, and might wield supreme
power, since no successor would be found for Tiberius. The latter
detested his nephew as a bastard. Many others also did he banish or
destroy for different and ever different causes, for the most part
fictitious.

Tiberius forbade those debarred from fire and water to make any will,--a custom still observed. Ælius Saturninus he brought before the senate for trial on the charge of having recited some improper verses about him, and the culprit having been found guilty was hurled from the Capitol. [-23-]I might narrate many other such occurrences, if I were to go into all in detail. But the general statement may suffice that many were slain by him for such offences. And also this,--that he investigated carefully, case by case, all the slighting remarks that any persons were accused of uttering against him and then called himself all the ill names that other men invented. Even if a person made some statement secretly and to a single companion, he would publish this too, and actually had it entered on the official records. Often he falsely added, from his own consciousness of defects, what no one had even said as really spoken, in order that it might be thought he had juster cause for his wrath. Consequently it came to pass that he himself committed against himself all those outrages for which he was wont to chastise other people on the ground of impiety; and he likewise became subject to no little ridicule. For, if persons denied having spoken certain phrases, he, by asserting and taking oath that it had been said, wronged himself with greater show of reality. For this reason some suspected that he was bereft of his senses. Yet he was not generally believed to be insane simply for this behavior. All other business he managed in a way quite beyond criticism. For instance, he appointed a guardian over a certain senator that lived licentiously, as he might have done for a child. Again, he brought Capito, procurator of Asia, before the senate, and, after charging him with using soldiers and acting in some other ways as if he had supreme command, he banished him. In those days officials administering the imperial funds were allowed to do nothing more than to levy the customary tribute, and they were compelled, in the case of disputes, to stand trial in the Forum and according to the laws, on an equal footing with private persons.--So great were the contrasts in Tiberius's conduct.

[A.D. 24 (_a. u._ 777)]

[-24-] When the ten years of his office had expired, he did not ask any vote for its resumption, for he had no wish to receive it piecemeal, as Augustus had done. The decennial festival, however, was held.

[A.D. 25 (_a. u._ 778)]

Cremutius Cordus was forced to lay violent hands upon himself, because he had come into collision with Sejanus. He was at the gates of old age and had lived most irreproachably, so much so that no sufficient complaint could be found against him and he was tried for the history which he had long before composed regarding the deeds of Augustus and the latter himself had read. The ground of censure was that he had praised Cassius and Brutus and had attacked the people and the senate. Of Cæsar and Augustus he had spoken no ill, but at the same time had shown no excessive respect for them. This was the complaint against him, and this it was that caused his death as well as the burning of his works,--those found in the city at this time being destroyed by the ædiles, and those abroad by the officials of each place. Later they were published again, for his daughter Marcia in particular, as well as others, had hidden copies, and they attracted much greater attention by reason of the unhappy end of Cordus.

About this time Tiberius exhibited to the senators his pretorian cohort in the act of exercising, as if they were ignorant of his power; his purpose was to make them more afraid of him, when they saw his defenders so many and so strong.

Besides these events of the time that seem worthy to chronicle in a history, the people of Cyzicus were once more deprived of their freedom because they had imprisoned certain Romans and because they had not completed the heroüm to Augustus that they had begun to build.--And the emperor would certainly have put to death the man who sold the emperor's statue along with his house and was brought to trial for the act, had not the consul asked the ruler himself to give his vote first. Being ashamed to appear partial to himself, he cast his ballot for acquittal.

Also a senator, Lentulus, an excellent man naturally and now far advanced in old age, was accused by some one of having plotted against the emperor. Lentulus was present and burst out laughing. At this an uproar arose in the senate, which was calmed by Tiberius saying: "I am no longer worthy to live, if Lentulus, too, hates me."

[Footnote 1: Reading [Greek: epratten] (Boissevain) in place of the MS. [Greek: eplatten].]

[Footnote: 2: This was the name of a celebrated gladiator of the time. (Compare Horace, Epistles, I, 18, 19.)]

[Footnote 3: This is M. Pomponius Marcellus.]

[Footnote 4: Reported elsewhere as _Clutorius_ or _Cluturius Priscus_. The error may probably be referred to Dio as well as to Xiphilus, through whom this particular chapter comes. (See Dessau, Prosop. Imp. Rom., I, p.425)]

[Footnote 5: The version of Zonaras says: "whom some record as Julia, others as Livia." Inscriptions give her name as either _Claudia Livia_ or _Livilla_. From these two pieces of evidence Boissevain with customary acumen concludes that Dio's original words were probably: "whom some name Livilla, and others Livia."]

DIO'S ROMAN HISTORY

58

Tiberius withdraws to Capreæ: Sabinus loses his life through the treachery of Latiarius (chapter 1).

About the death of Livia (chapter 2).

Gallus is condemned to consume away by a slow death (chapter 3).

Sejanus, puffed up by excessive honors, is put to death together with his household and friends by the artifice of Tiberius (chapters 4-19).

The method of selecting magistrates and of holding comitia (chapter 20).

The lustfulness of Tiberius, his cruelty towards his own family and others, and likewise his greed (chapters 21-25).

About Artabanus, the Parthian King, and about Armenia (chapter 26).

About the death of Thrasyllus (chapter 27).

About the death of Tiberius (chapter 28).

DURATION OF TIME.

Cn. Lentulus Gætulicus, C. Calvisius Sabinus. (A.D. 26 = a. u. 779 = Thirteenth of Tiberius, from Aug. 19th.)

M. Licinius Crassus, L. Calpurnius Piso. (A.D. 27 = a. u. 780 = Fourteenth of Tiberius.)

App. Iunius Silanus, P. Silius Nerva. (A.D. 28 = a. u. 781 = Fifteenth of Tiberius.)

L. Rubellius Geminus, C. Fufius Geminus. (A.D. 29 = a. u. 782 = Sixteenth of Tiberius.)

M. Vinicius Quartinus, L. Cassius Longinus. (A.D. 30 = a. u. 783 = Seventeenth of Tiberius.)

Tiberius Aug. (V), L. Ælius Seianus. (A.D. 31 = a. u. 784 = Eighteenth of Tiberius.)

Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, Furius Camillus Scribonianus. (A.D. 32 = a. u. 785 = Nineteenth of Tiberius.)

Serv. Sulpicius Galba, L. Cornelius Sulla, (A.D. 33 = a. u. 786 = Twentieth of Tiberius.)

L. Vitellius, Paulus Fabius Persicus. (A.D. 34 = a. u. 787 = Twenty-first of Tiberius.)

C. Cestius Gallus, M. Servilius Nonianus. (A.D. 35 = a. u. 788 = Twenty-second of Tiberius.)

Sex. Papinius, Q. Plautius. (A.D. 36 = a. u. 789 = Twenty-third of Tiberius.)

Cn. Acerronius Proculus, C. Pontius Nigrinus. (A.D. 37 = a. u. 790 = Twenty-fourth of Tiberius, to March 26th.)

_(BOOK 57, BOISSEVAIN.)_

[A.D. 26 (_a. u._ 779)]

[-1-] He went away about this time from Rome and never returned to the city at all, though he was ever on the point of doing so and kept sending messages to that effect.

[A.D. 27 (_a. u._ 780)]

Much calamity could be laid by the Romans at his door, since
he wasted the lives of men alike for public service and for
private whim, as when he decided to expel the hunting
spectacles from the city. Consequently some persons attempted
to carry them on in the country outside and perished in the
ruins of their theatres, which had been loosely
constructed of rude planks.

[A.D. 28 (_a. u._ 781)]

It was now, too, that a certain Latiarius, a companion of Sabinus (one of the most prominent men at Rome) and also in favor with Sejanus, concealed senators in the ceiling of the apartment where his friend lived and led Sabinus into conversation. By throwing out some of his usual remarks he induced the other also to speak out freely all that he had in his mind. It is the practice of such as wish to play the sycophant to take the lead in some kind of abuse and to disclose some secret, intending that their victim either for listening to them or for saying something similar may find himself liable to indictment. To the sycophants, since they do it with a purpose, freedom of speech involves no danger. They are regarded as speaking so not because their words express their real sentiments but because they wish to convict others. Their victims, however, are punished for the smallest syllable out of the ordinary that they may utter. This also happened in the present case. Sabinus was put in prison that very day and subsequently perished without trial. His body was flung down the Scalæ Gemoniæ and cast into the river. The affair was made more tragic by the behavior of a dog of Sabinus that went with him to his cell, was by him at his death, and at the end was thrown into the river with him.--Such was the nature of this event.

[Sidenote: A.D. 29 (_a. u._ 782)]

[-2-] During this same period Livia also passed away at the age of eighty-six. Tiberius paid her no visits while she was ill and did not personally attend to her laying out. In fact, he made no arrangements at all in her honor save the public funeral and images and some other small matters of no importance. As for her being deified, he forbade that absolutely. The senate, however, did not content itself with voting merely the measures which he had ordained, but enjoined upon the women mourning for her during the entire year, although it approved the course of Tiberius in not abandoning even at this time the conduct of public business. Furthermore they voted her an arch (as had never been done in the case of any other woman), because she had preserved not a few of them, had reared many children belonging to citizens, and had helped find husbands for numerous girls,--for all of which acts some called her Mother of her Country. She was buried in the mausoleum of Augustus.

Tiberius would not pay a single one of her bequests to anybody.

Among the many excellent utterances of hers that are related is one concerned with the occasion when some men that were naked met her and on that account fell under sentence of execution; she saved their lives by saying that to chaste women such persons were no whit different from statues. When some one asked her how and by what course of action she had obtained such an influence over Augustus, she answered that it was by being scrupulously chaste herself, doing willingly whatever pleased him, not meddling with any of his business, and particularly by pretending neither to hear of nor notice the favorites that were the objects of his passion. Such was the character of Livia. The arch voted to her, however, was not built for the reason that Tiberius promised to construct it at his own expense. For, as he disliked to annul the decree by direct command, he made it void in this way, by not allowing the work to be undertaken out of the public funds nor attending to it himself.

[A.D. 29 or 30]

Sejanus was rising to still greater heights. It was voted that his birthday should be publicly observed, and the mass of statues which the senate and the equestrian order, the tribes and the foremost citizens set up, would have passed any one's power to count. Separate envoys were sent to both these "rulers" by the senate as well as the knights and also by the people, who selected them from their own tribunes and aediles. For both of them alike they offered prayers and sacrifices and they took oaths by their Fortunes.

[A.D. 30 (a. u. 783)]

[-3-] Gallus, who married the wife of Tiberius and spoke his mind regarding the empire, was the next object of the emperor's attack, for which the right moment had been carefully selected. [Whether he really believed that Sejanus would be emperor or whether it was out of fear of Tiberius, he paid court to the former. It may indeed, have been a kind of plot, to make the minister irksome to Tiberius and so accomplish his ruin: but at any rate Gallus transacted the greater and more important part of his business with him and made efforts to be one of the envoys. Therefore the emperor sent a report about him to the senate, making among other statements one to the effect that this man was jealous of his friendship for Sejanus, although Gallus himself treated Syriacus as an intimate friend. He did not make this known to Gallus, entertaining him most hospitably instead.] Hence something most unusual befell him that never happened to any one else. On the very same day he was banqueted at the house of Tiberius, pledging him in the cup of friendship, and was condemned before the senate. Indeed, a prætor was sent to imprison him and lead him away for punishment. Yet Tiberius, though he had acted so, did not permit his victim to die, in spite of the latter's wish for death as soon as he learned the decree. Instead, he bade Gallus (in order to make his lot still more dismal) to be of good cheer and instructed the senate[1] that he should be guarded without bonds until the emperor should reach the City; his object, as I said, was to make the prisoner suffer for the longest possible time both from deprivation of his civic rights and from terror. So it turned out. He was kept under the eyes of the consuls of each year except when Tiberius held the office, in that case he was guarded by the prætors, not to prevent his escape, but to prevent his death. He had no companion or servant as associate, spoke to no one, saw no one, except when he was compelled to take food. And what he got was of such a quality and amount as neither to afford him any pleasure or strength nor yet to allow him to die. This was the worst feature of it. Tiberius did the same thing in the case of many others. For instance, he had imprisoned one of his companions, and when there was later talk about executing him, he said: "I have not yet made my peace with him." Some one else, again, he had tortured very severely, and then on ascertaining that the victim had been unjustly accused he had him killed with all speed, remarking that he had been too terribly outraged to find any satisfaction in living. Syriacus, who had neither committed nor been charged with any wrong, but was renowned for his education, was slain merely for the reason that Tiberius said he was a friend of Gallus. [Sejanus brought false accusation also against Drusus, through the medium of his wife. For, by maintaining illicit relations with practically all the wives of the distinguished men, he learned what their husbands said and did, and further made them his assistants by promises of marriage. Now when Tiberius without discussion sent Drusus to Rome, Sejanus, fearing that his position might be injured, persuaded Cassius [2] to busy himself against him.]

After exalting Sejanus to a high pinnacle of glory and making him a member of his family by the alliance with Julia, daughter of Drusus, Tiberius later killed him.

[-4-] Now Sejanus was growing greater and more formidable all the time, and his progress made the senators and the rest look up to him as if he were actually emperor and esteem Tiberius lightly. When Tiberius learned this, he did not regard the matter as a trivial one, fearing, indeed, that they would hail his rival as emperor outright, and he did not neglect it. Yet he did nothing openly, for Sejanus had won the entire pretorian guard thoroughly to his own side and had gained the favor of the senators partly by benefits, partly by implanting hopes, and partly by intimidation. He had made all the attendants on Tiberius so entirely his friends that absolutely everything the emperor did was at once reported to him, whereas of what he did not a word reached Tiberius's ears. Hence the latter appeared content to follow where Sejanus led, appointed him consul, and termed him Sharer of his Cares, repeating often the phrase "My Sejanus," and publishing the same by writing it to the senate and the people. Men took this behavior as sincere and were deceived, and so set up bronze statues all about to both alike, wrote their names together in bulletins, and brought into the theatres gilded chairs for both. Finally it was voted that they should together be made consuls every four years and that a body of citizens should go out to meet both alike whenever they entered Rome. In the end they sacrificed to the images of Sejanus as to those of Tiberius. This was the way matters stood with Sejanus. Now among the rest many famous men met an ill fate, of whom was also Gaius Fufius Geminus. Being accused of the crime of maiestas against Tiberius he took his will into the senate-chamber and read it, showing that he had left his inheritance in equal portions to his children and to his sovereign. As he was charged with weakness he went home before any vote was reached. When he learned that the quæstor had arrived to attend to his execution, he wounded himself and displaying the wound to the official exclaimed: "Report to the senate that it is thus one dies who is a man." Likewise, his wife, Mutilia Prisca, against whom some complaint was made, made her way into the senate and there stabbed herself with a dagger, which she had brought in secretly.

Next he destroyed Mutilia and her husband together with two daughters on account of her friendship for his mother.

In the days of Tiberius all who accused any persons regularly received money and large allotments both from the victims' property and from the public treasury in addition to various honors. There were cases where certain men who impudently threw others into a panic or recklessly passed the death sentence upon them obtained in the one instance statues and in the other triumphal honors. Hence several citizens who were really illustrious and conquered the right to some such distinction would not assume it out of reluctance to let any period of their lives betray even a superficial similarity to the careers of those scoundrels.

Tiberius, feigning sickness, sent Sejanus on to Rome with the assurance that he should follow. He declared that in this separation a part of his own body and soul was wrenched away from him: shedding tears he embraced and kissed him, and Sejanus naturally was thereat the more elated.

[A.D. 31 (a u. 784)]