Chapter IX: Book IV: A.d. 23-28 (2)

At Rome, discord shook the Prince's family: and, to begin the series of destruction, which was to end in Agrippina, Claudia Pulchra her cousin was accused; Domitius Afer the accuser. This man, just out of the Praetorship, in estimation small, but hasty to signalise himself by some notable exploit however heinous, alleged against her the "crimes of prostitution, of adultery with Furnius, of magical execrations and poison prepared against the life of the Emperor." Agrippina ever vehement, and then in a flame for the peril of her kinswoman, flew to Tiberius, and by chance found him sacrificing to the Emperor his father. Having got this handle for upbraiding him, she told him "that it ill became the same man to slay victims to the deified Augustus and to persecute his children: his divine spirit was not transfused into dumb statues: the genuine images of Augustus were the living descendants from his celestial blood: she herself was one; one sensible of impending danger, and now in the mournful state of a supplicant. In vain were foreign crimes pretended against Pulchra; when the only cause of her concerted overthrow was her affection for Agrippina, foolishly carried even to adoration; forgetful as she was of the fate of Sosia, a condemned sufferer for the same fault." All these bitter words drew small answer from the dark breast of Tiberius: he rebuked her by quoting a Greek verse; "That she was therefore aggrieved, because she did not reign:" Pulchra and Furnius were condemned. Afer, having thus displayed his genius, and gained a declaration from Tiberius, pronouncing him _eloquent in his own independent right_, was ranked with the most celebrated orators: afterwards in prosecuting accusations, or in protecting the accused, he flourished more in the fame of eloquence than in that of uprightness: however, old age eminently sunk the credit and vigour of his eloquence; while, with parts decayed, he still retained a passion for haranguing. [Footnote: Dum fessa mente, retinet silentii inpatientiam.]

Agrippina still fostering her wrath, and seized too with a bodily disorder, received the Emperor, come purposely to see her, with many tears and long silence. At last she accosted him with invidious expostulations and prayers; "that he would relieve her solitude, and give her a husband. She was still endowed with proper youth; to virtuous women there was no consolation but that of marriage; and Rome afforded illustrious men who would readily assent to entertain the wife of Germanicus, and his children." Tiberius was not ignorant to what mighty power in the state, that demand tended; but, that he might betray no tokens of resentment or fear, he left her, though instant with him, without an answer. This passage, not related by the authors of our annals, I found in the commentaries of her daughter Agrippina; her, who was the mother of the Emperor Nero, and has published her own life with the fortunes of her family.

As to Agrippina; still grieving and void of foresight, she was yet more sensibly dismayed by an artifice of Sejanus, who employed such, as under colour of friendship warned her, "that poison was prepared for her, and that she must shun eating at her father-in-law's table." She was a stranger to all dissimulation: so that as she sat near him at table, she continued stately and unmoved; not a word, not a look escaped her, and she touched no part of the meat. Tiberius observed her, whether accidentally, or that he was before apprised; and, to be convinced by a more powerful experiment, praising the apples that stood before him, presented some with his own hand to his daughter-in-law. This only increased the suspicion of Agrippina; and, without ever putting them to her mouth, she delivered them to the servants. For all this, the reserved Tiberius let not a word drop from him openly; but, turning to his mother; "There was no wonder," he said, "if he had really taken harsh measures with her, who thus charged him as a poisoner." Hence a rumour spread, "that her doom was contrived; and that the Emperor not daring to pursue it publicly, chose to have her despatched in secret."

Tiberius, as a means to divert upon other matters the popular talk, attended assiduously the deliberations of the Senate; and there heard for many days the several Ambassadors from Asia, mutually contending, "in what city should be built the temple lately decreed." For this honour eleven cities strove, with equal ambition, though different in power: nor did the pleas urged by all, greatly vary; namely, "the antiquity of their original, and their distinguished zeal for the Roman People, during their several wars with Perseus, Aristonicus, and other kings." But the Trallians, the Laodiceans, the Magnesians and those of the Hypaepis, were at once dismissed, as insufficient for the charge. Nor, in truth, had they of Ilium, who represented, "that Troy was the mother of Rome," any superior advantage, besides the glory of antiquity. The plea of the Halicarnassians took some short consideration: they asserted, "that for twelve hundred years, no earthquake had shaken their town; and that they would fix in a solid rock the foundations of the temple." The same considerations were urged by the inhabitants of Pergamus; where already was erected a temple to Augustus; a distinction which was judged sufficient for them. The cities too of Ephesus and Miletus seemed fully employed in the ceremonies of their own distinct deities; the former in those of Diana; the other, in those of Apollo. Thus the dispute was confined to Sardis and Smyrna. The first recited a decree of the Etrurians, which owned them for kinsmen: "for that Tyrrhenus and Lydus, sons of King Atys, having between them divided their people, because of their multitude, Lydus re-settled in his native country; and it became the lot of Tyrrhenus to find out a fresh residence; and by the names of these chiefs the parted people came afterwards to be called, Lydians in Asia, Tyrrhenians in Italy. That the opulence of the Lydians spread yet farther, by their colonies sent under Pelops into Greece, which from him afterwards took its name." They likewise urged "the letters of our Generals; their mutual leagues with us during the war of Macedon; their plenty of rivers, temperate climate, and the fertility of the circumjacent country."

The Smyrnaeans having likewise recounted their ancient establishment, "whether Tantalus, the son of Jupiter; or Theseus, the son also of a God; or one of the old Amazons, were their founder;" proceeded to considerations in which they chiefly trusted; their friendly offices to the Roman People, having aided them with a naval force, not in their foreign wars only, but in those which infested Italy. "It was they who first reared a temple to the City of Rome, in the Consulship of Marcus Porcius; then, in truth, when the power of the Roman People was already mighty, but however not yet raised to its highest glory; for the city of Carthage still stood, and potent kings governed Asia. Witness too their generosity to Sylla, when the condition of his army ready to famish in a cruel winter and a scarcity of clothes, being related to the citizens of Smyrna then assembled; all that were present divested themselves of their raiments, and sent them to our legions." Thus when the votes of the Senators were gathered, the pretensions of Smyrna were preferred. It was also moved by Vibius Marsus, that Lentulus, to whom had fallen the province of Asia, should be attended by a Legate extraordinary, to supervise the building of the temple; and as Lentulus himself through modesty declined to choose one, several who had been Praetors were drawn by lot, and the lot fell upon Valerius Naso.

In the meantime, according to a purpose long meditated, and from time to time deferred, Tiberius at last retired to Campania; in profession, to dedicate a temple to Jupiter at Capua, and one at Nola to Augustus; but in truth determined to remove, for ever, from Rome. The cause of his departure, I have before referred to the stratagems of Sejanus; but though in it I have followed most of our authors; yet, since after the execution of Sejanus, he persisted for six years in the like dark recess; I am rather influenced by a stronger probability, that the ground of his absence is more justly to be ascribed to his own spirit, while he strove to hide in the shades of solitude, what in deeds he proclaimed, the rage of his cruelty and lust. There were those who believed that, in his old age, he was ashamed of the figure of his person; for he was very lean, long and stooping, his head bald, his face ulcerous, and for the most besmeared with salves: he was moreover wont, during his recess at Rhodes, to avoid the public, and cover his debauches in secrecy. It is also related that he was driven from Rome by the restless aspiring of his mother, whom he scorned to admit a partner in the sovereignty; nor yet could entirely seclude, since as her gift he had received the sovereignty itself. For, Augustus had deliberated about setting Germanicus at the head of the Roman state; his sister's grandson, and one adored by all men: but subdued by the solicitations of his wife, he adopted Tiberius; and caused Tiberius to adopt Germanicus. With this grandeur of her own procuring, Livia upbraided her son; and even reclaimed it.

His going was narrowly accompanied; by one Senator, Cocceius Nerva, formerly Consul, and accomplished in the knowledge of the laws; and, besides Sejanus, by one dignified Roman knight, Curtius Atticus. The rest were men of letters, chiefly Greeks; whose conversation pleased and amused him. The skilled in astrology declared, "that he had left Rome in such a conjunction of the planets, as for ever to exclude his return." Hence a source of destruction to many, who conjectured his end to be at hand, and published their conjectures: for, it was an event too incredible to be foreseen, that for eleven years he should of choice be withdrawn from his country. The sequel discovered the short bounds between the art and the falsehood of the art, and what obscurities perplex even the facts it happens to foretell. _That he should never return to Rome_, proved not to be falsely said: as to everything else about him they were perfectly in the dark; since he still lived, never far distant, sometimes in the adjacent champain, sometimes on the neighbouring shore, often under the very walls of the city; and died at last in the fulness and extremity of age.

There happened to Tiberius, about that time, an accident, which, as it threatened his life, fired the empty prognostics at Rome; but to himself proved matter of more confidence in the friendship and faith of Sejanus. They were eating in a cave at a villa, thence called _Spelunca_, between the Amyclean Sea and the mountains of Fondi: it was a native cave, and its mouth fell suddenly in, and buried under it some of the attendants: hence dread seized all, and they who were celebrating the entertainment fled: as to Sejanus; he covered the Emperor's body with his own, and stooping upon his knees and hands, exposed himself to the descending ruin; such was the posture he was found in by the soldiers, who came to their relief. He grew mightier from thence; and being now considered by Tiberius as one regardless of himself, all his counsels, however bloody and destructive, were listened to with blind credulity: so that he assumed the office of a judge against the offspring of Germanicus, and suborned such as were to act the parts of accusers, and especially to pursue and blacken Nero, the next in succession; a young Prince modest indeed, but forgetful of that restraint and circumspection which his present situation required. He was misguided by his freedmen and the retainers to his house; who eager to be masters of power, animated him with intemperate counsels; "that he would show a spirit resolute and assured; it was what the Roman People wished, what the armies longed for: nor would Sejanus dare then to resist; though he now equally insulted the tameness of an old man and the sloth of a young one."

While he listened to these and the like suggestions, there escaped him, no expressions, in truth, of any criminal purpose; but sometimes such as were resentful and unguarded: these were catched up by the spies placed upon him, and charged against him with aggravations; neither was he allowed the privilege of clearing himself. Several threatening appearances moreover dismayed him: some avoided to meet him; others having just paid him the salute, turned instantly away: many, in the midst of conversation, broke off and left him; while the creatures of Sejanus stood still fearlessly by and sneered upon him. For Tiberius; he always entertained him with a stern face, or a hollow smile; and whether the youth spoke or said nothing, there were crimes in his words, crimes in his silence: nor was he safe even at the dead of night; since his uneasiness and watchings, nay, his very sighs and dreams were, by his wife, divulged to her mother Livia, and by Livia to Sejanus; who had also drawn his brother Drusus into the combination, by tempting him with the immediate prospect of Empire, if his elder brother, already sinking, were once set effectually aside. The genius of Druses naturally furious, instigated besides by a passion for power, and by the usual hate and competition between brothers, was further kindled by the partiality of Agrippina, who was fonder of Nero. However, Sejanus did not so far favour Drusus, but that against him too he was even then ripening the studied measures of future destruction; as he knew him to be violent, and thence more obnoxious to snares.

In the end of the year departed these eminent persons; Asinius Agrippa, of ancestors more illustrious than ancient, and in his own character not unworthy of them: and Quintus Haterius, of a Senatorian family, and himself, while he yet lived, famous for eloquence: but the monuments of his genius, since published, are not equally esteemed. In truth, he prevailed more by rapidity than accuracy: insomuch that, as the elaborate compositions of others flourish after them; so that enchanting melody of voice in Haterius, with that fluency of words which was personal to him, died with him.

In the Consulship of Marcus Licinius and Lucius Calpurnius, the casualty of an instant, its beginning unforeseen, and ended as soon as begun, equalled in calamity the slaughter and overthrow of mighty armies. One Atilius had undertaken to erect an amphitheatre at Fidena, [Footnote: Castel Giubileo, near Rome.] there to exhibit a combat of gladiators: he was of the race of freedmen, and as he began it from no exuberance of wealth, nor to court popularity amongst the inhabitants, but purely for the meanness of gain, he neither established solid foundations, nor raised the timber-work with sufficient compactness. Thither thronged from Rome those of every sex and age, eager for such shows; as during the reign of Tiberius they were debarred from diversions at home; and, the nearer the place, the greater the crowds: hence the calamity was the more dreadful; for, as the theatre was surcharged with the multitude, the structure burst, and sinking violently in, while its extremities rushed impetuously out, huge was the press of people, who intent upon the gladiators within, or gathered round the walls, were crushed by the deadly ruin, and even buried under it. And verily, they who in the first fury of the havoc were smitten with final death, escaped as far as in such a doleful disaster they could escape, the misery of torture: much more to be lamented were those, who bereft of joints and pieces of their body, were yet not forsaken of life; those who by day could with their eyes behold their wives and children imprisoned in the same ruins; and by night could distinguish them by their groans, and howlings.

Now others from abroad excited by the sad tidings, found here their several sorrows: one bewailed his brother, one his kinsman, another his parents: even they whose friends or kindred were absent on a different account, were yet terrified: for, as it was not hitherto distinctly known upon whom the destruction had lighted, the dread was widened by uncertainty. When the ruins began to be removed, great about the dead was the concourse of the living; frequent the kisses and embraces of tenderness and sorrow: and even frequent the contention about the propriety of the dead; where the features distorted by death or bruises, or where parity of age or resemblance of person, had confounded the slain, and led into mistakes their several claimers. Fifty thousand souls were destroyed or maimed by this sad stroke: it was therefore for the future provided by a decree of Senate, "that no man under the qualification of four hundred thousand sesterces, [Footnote: £3,300.] should exhibit the spectacle of gladiators; and no amphitheatre should be founded but upon ground manifestly solid." Atilius was punished with exile. To conclude; during the fresh pangs of this calamity, the doors of the Grandees were thrown open; medicines were everywhere furnished; they who administered medicines, were everywhere employed to attend: and at that juncture the city though sorrowful of aspect, seemed to have recalled the public spirit of the ancient Romans; who, after great battles, constantly relieved the wounded, sustained them by liberality, and restored them with care.

The public agonies from this terrible blow, were not yet deadened, when another supervened; and the city felt the affliction and violence of fire, which with uncommon rage utterly consumed Mount Caelius. "It was a deadly and mournful year," they said, "and under boding omens the Prince had formed the design of his absence." It is the way this of the multitude; who to malignant counsels are wont to ascribe events altogether fortuitous. But the Emperor dissipated their murmurs, by bestowing on each sufferer money to the value of his sufferings: hence he had the thanks of men of rank, in the Senate; and was by the populace rewarded with applauses, "for that without the views of ambition, without the application of friends, he had of his own accord even sought out the unknown, and by his bounty relieved them." It was likewise moved and decreed in Senate, "that Mount Caelius should be for the future styled _Mount Augustus_, since there the statue of Tiberius, standing in the house of Junius the Senator, escaped unhurt in the flames, though devouring all round them:" it was remembered, that the same rare exemption had formerly happened to Claudia Pulchra; that her statue being twice spared by the fury of fire, had thence been placed and consecrated by our ancestors in the Temple of the Mother of the Gods. Thus sacred were the Claudian race, and dear to the deities; and therefore the place, where the Gods had testified such mighty honour towards the Prince, ought to be dignified with consecration.

It will not be impertinent to insert here, that this mount was of old named _Querquetulanus_, from a grove of oak which grew thick upon it. It was afterwards called _Mount Caelius_, from Caeles Vibenna, who having led to Rome a body of Tuscan auxiliaries, was presented with that settlement by Tarquinius Priscus, or some other of our kings; for in this particular, writers differ: about other circumstances there remains no dispute; that these forces were very numerous, and extended their dwellings all along the plain below, as far as the Forum. Hence the _Tuscan Street_, so called after these strangers.

Tiberius, having dedicated the temples in Campania; though he had by an edict warned the public, "that none should interrupt his quiet;" and though soldiers were posted to keep off all confluence from the neighbouring towns; nevertheless, hating the towns themselves, and the colonies, and every part in the continent, imprisoned himself in Capreae, [Footnote: Capri.] an island disjoined from the point of the Cape of Surrentum by a channel of three miles. I should chiefly believe that he was taken with its solitude, as the sea above it is void of havens, as the stations for the smallest vessels are few and difficult, and as none could put in unperceived by the Guards. The genius of the climate is mild in winter, from the shelter of a mountain which intercepts the rigour of the winds: its summers are refreshed by gales from the west; and the sea open all round it, makes a delightful view: from thence too was beheld a most lovely landscape, before the eruptions of Mount Vesuvius had changed the face of the prospect. It is the tradition of fame that the Greeks occupied the opposite region, and that Capreae was particularly inhabited by the Teleboi. However it were, Tiberius then confined his retirement to twelve villas, their names famous of old and their structure sumptuous. And the more intent he had formerly been upon public cares, he became now so much the more buried in dark debauches, and resigned over to mischievous privacy: for, there remained still in him his old bent to suspicions, and rash faith in informers; qualities which even at Rome Sejanus had always fostered, and here inflamed more vigorously; his devices against Agrippina and Nero being no longer a secret. About them guards were placed, by whom every petty circumstance, the messages they sent or received, their visits and company, their open behaviour, their private conversation, were all as it were minuted into journals: there were others, too, instructed to warn them to fly to the armies in Germany; or that embracing the statue of the deified Augustus in the great Forum, they would there implore the aid and protection of the Senate and People of Rome. And these counsels, though rejected by them, were fathered and charged upon them, as just ripe for execution.