67 1 The number of the accusers was swelled by Gellius Publicola and Marcus Paconius, the former the quaestor of Silanus, the latter his legate. No doubt was felt that the defendant was guilty on the counts of cruelty and malversation; but there were many additional circumstances, which would have imperilled even the innocent. Over and above the array of hostile senators were the most fluent advocates of all Asia, selected, as such, to press the charge; and to these was replying a solitary man, devoid of forensic knowledge, and beset by that personal fear which enfeebles even professional eloquence: for Tiberius did not scruple to injure his case, by word, by look, by the fact that he himself was most assiduous in his questions, which it was permissible neither to refute nor to elude, while often an admission had to be made, lest the sovereign should have asked in vain. Further, to allow the examination of his slaves under torture, they had been formally sold to the treasury-agent; and, lest a single friend should come to his help in the hour of peril, charges of treason were subjoined — a binding and inevitable argument for silence. He requested, therefore, an interval of a few days, and threw up his defence, first hazarding a note to the Caesar in which he had mingled reproaches with petitions.
68 1 Tiberius, in order that the measures he was preparing against Silanus might come with the better grace through being supported by a precedent, ordered the bill in which the deified Augustus had indicted Volesus Messala, another proconsul of Asia, to be read aloud, together with the decree registered against him by the senate. He then asked Lucius Piso for his opinion. After a long preface devoted to the sovereign’s clemency, he declared for the outlawry of Silanus from fire and water and his relegation to the isle of Gyarus. So, too, the others; with the exception of Gnaeus Lentulus, who moved that, so far as the property of Silanus had been derived from his mother, it should, as she came of the Atian house, be treated as distinct from the rest and restored to his son.
69 1 Tiberius approved; but Cornelius Dolabella, to pursue the sycophancy further, proposed, after an attack on Silanus’ character, that no man of scandalous life and bankrupt reputation should be eligible for a province, the decision in such cases to rest with the emperor. “For delinquencies were punished by the law; but how much more merciful to the delinquent, how much better for the provincial, to provide against all irregularities beforehand!” The Caesar spoke in opposition:—”True, the reports with regard to Silanus were not unknown to him; but judgments could not be based on rumour. Many a man by his conduct in his province had reversed the hopes or fears entertained concerning him: some natures were roused to better things by great position, others became sluggish. It was neither possible for a prince to comprehend everything within his own knowledge, nor desirable that he should be influenced by the intrigues of others. The reason why laws were made retrospective towards the thing done was that things to be were indeterminable. It was on this principle their forefathers had ruled that, if an offence had preceded, punishment should follow; and they must not now overturn a system wisely invented and always observed. Princes had enough of burdens — enough, even, of power: the rights of the subject shrank as autocracy grew; and, where it was possible to proceed by form of law, it was a mistake to employ the fiat of the sovereign.” This democratic doctrines were hailed with a pleasure answering to their rarity on the lips of Tiberius. He himself, tactful and moderate when not swayed by personal anger, added that “Gyarus was a bleak and uninhabited island. Out of consideration for the Junian house and for a man once their peer, they might allow him to retire to Cythnus instead. This was also the desire of Silanus’ sister Torquata, a Vestal of old-world saintliness.” The proposal was adopted without discussion.
70 1 Later, an audience was given to the Cyrenaeans, and Caesius Cordus was convicted of extortion on the arraignment of Ancharius Priscus. Lucius Ennius, a Roman knight, found himself indicted for treason on the ground that he had turned a statuette of the emperor to the promiscuous uses of household silver. The Caesar forbade the entry of the case for trial, though Ateius Capito protested openly and with a display of freedom: for “the right of decision ought not to be snatched from the senate, nor should so grave an offence pass without punishment. By all means let the sovereign be easy-tempered in a grievance of his own; but injuries to the state he must not condone!” Tiberius understood this for what it was, rather than for what it purported to be, and persisted in his veto. The degradation of Capito was unusually marked, since, authority as he was on secular and religious law, he was held to have dishonoured not only the fair fame of the state but his personal good qualities.
71 1 A problem in religion now presented itself: in what temple were the knights to lodge the offering vowed, in connection with Augusta’s illness, to Equestrian Fortune? For though shrines to Fortune were plentiful in the city, none carried the epithet in question. It was found that there was a temple of the name at Antium, and that all sacred rites in the country towns of Italy, with all places of worship and divine images, were subject to the jurisdiction and authority of Rome. At Antium, accordingly, the gift was placed.
And since points of religion were under consideration, the Caesar produced his recently deferred answer to the Flamen Dialis, Servius Maluginensis; and read a pontifical decree, according to which the Flamen, whenever attacked by illness, might at the discretion of the supreme pontiff absent himself for more than two nights, so long as it was not on days of public sacrifice nor oftener than twice in one year. The ruling thus laid down in the principate of Augustus showed that a year’s absence and a provincial governorship were not for the flamens of Jupiter. Attention was also called to a precedent set by the supreme pontiff, Lucius Metellus; who had vetoed the departure of the Flamen, Aulus Postumius. Asia, therefore, was allotted to the consular next in seniority to Maluginensis.
72 1 Nearly at the same time, Marcus Lepidus asked permission from the senate to strengthen and decorate the Basilica of Paulus, a monument of the Aemilian house, at his own expense. Public munificence was a custom still; nor had Augustus debarred a Taurus, a Philippus, or a Balbus from devoting the trophies of his arms or the overflow of his wealth to the greater splendour of the capital and the glory of posterity: and now Lepidus, a man of but moderate fortune, followed in their steps by renovating the famous edifice of his fathers. On the other hand, the rebuilding of the Theatre of Pompey, destroyed by a casual fire, was undertaken by Caesar, on the ground that no member of the family was equal to the task of restoration: the name of Pompey was, however, to remain. At the same time, he gave high praise to Sejanus, “through whose energy and watchfulness so grave an outbreak had stopped at one catastrophe.” The Fathers voted a statue to Sejanus, to be placed in the Theatre of Pompey. Again, a short time afterwards, when he was honouring Junius Blaesus, proconsul of Africa, with the triumphal insignia, he explained that he did so as a compliment to Sejanus, of whom Blaesus was uncle. — None the less the exploits of Blaesus deserved such a distinction.
73 1 For Tacfarinas, in spite of many repulses, having first recruited his forces in the heart of Africa, had reached such a pitch of insolence as to send an embassy to Tiberius, demanding nothing less than a territorial settlement for himself and his army, and threatening in the alternative a war from which there was no extrication. By all accounts, no insult to himself and the nation ever stung the emperor more than this spectacle of a deserter and bandit aping the procedure of an unfriendly power. “Even Spartacus, after the annihilation of so many consular armies, when his fires were blazing through an Italy unavenged while the commonwealth reeled in the gigantic conflicts with Sertorius and Mithridates, — even Spartacus was not accorded a capitulation upon terms. And now, at the glorious zenith of the Roman nation, was this brigand Tacfarinas to be bought off by a peace and a cession of lands?” He handed over the affair to Blaesus; who, while inducing the other rebels to believe they might sheathe the sword with impunity, was to capture the leader by any means whatsoever. Large numbers came in under the amnesty. Then, the arts of Tacfarina
s were met by a mode of warfare akin to his own.
74 1 Since it was noticed that the African, overmatched in solid fighting strength but more expert in the petty knaveries of war, operated with a number of bands, first attacking, then vanishing, and always manoeuvring for an ambuscade, arrangements were made for three forward movements and three columns to execute them. One, in charge of the legate Cornelius Scipio, held the road by which the enemy raided the Leptitanians and then fell back upon the Garamantians. On another side, the younger Blaesus marched with his own division to prevent the hamlets of Cirta from being ravaged with impunity. In the centre, with the flower of the troops, was the commander himself; who, by securing the appropriate positions with fortresses or entrenchments, had rendered the whole district cramped and dangerous for his enemies. Turn where they would, they found some part of the Roman forces — on the front, on the flank, often in the rear; and numbers were destroyed or entrapped by these methods. Next, he subdivided his tripartite army into yet more numerous detachments, headed by centurions of tested courage. Not even when summer was spent would he fall in with custom by withdrawing his men and quartering them for a winter’s rest in the Old Province. Precisely as though he stood on the threshold of a campaign, he arranged his chain of forts, and with flying columns of men familiar with the deserts kept hounding Tacfarinas from one desert camp to another; until at last, after capturing the renegade’s brother, he returned; too hastily, however, for the interests of the province, since he left those behind him who were capable of resuscitating the war. Tiberius, however, chose to treat it as ended, and even conferred on Blaesus the privilege of being saluted Imperator by his legions: a time-honoured tribute to generals who, after a successful campaign, were acclaimed by the joyful and spontaneous voice of a conquering army. Several might hold the title simultaneously, nor did it raise them above an equality with their colleagues. It was awarded in a few cases even by Augustus; and now for the last time Tiberius assigned it to Blaesus.
75 1 This year saw the passing of two famous men: one, Asinius Saloninus, distinguished as the grandson of Marcus Agrippa and Asinius Pollio, as the brother of Drusus, and as the destined consort of the Caesar’s grandchild; the other, Ateius Capito, on whom I have touched already. By his eminence as a jurist he had won the first position in the state; but his grandfather had been one of Sulla’s centurions, nor had his father risen above a praetorship. His consulate had been accelerated by Augustus, so that the prestige of that office should give him an advantage over Antistius Labeo, a commanding figure in the same profession. For that age produced together two of the glories of peace; but, while Labeo’s uncompromising independence assured him the higher reputation with the public, the pliancy of Capito was more to the taste of princes. The one, because he halted at the praetorship, won respect by his ill-treatment; the other, because he climbed to the consulate, reaped hatred from a begrudged success.
76 1 Junia, too, born niece to Cato, wife of Caius Cassius, sister of Marcus Brutus, looked her last on life, sixty-three full years after the field of Philippi. Her will was busily discussed by the crowd; because in disposing of her great wealth she mentioned nearly every patrician of note in complimentary terms, but omitted the Caesar. The slur was taken in good part, and he offered no objection to the celebration of her funeral with a panegyric at the Rostra and the rest of the customary ceremonies. The effigies of twenty great houses preceded her to the tomb — members of the Manlian and Quinctian families, and names of equal splendour. But Brutus and Cassius shone brighter than all by the very fact that their portraits were unseen.
BOOK IV
1 1 The consulate of Gaius Asinius and Gaius Antistius was to Tiberius the ninth year of public order and of domestic felicity (for he counted the death of Germanicus among his blessings), when suddenly fortune disturbed the peace and he became either a tyrant himself or the source of power to the tyrannous. The starting-point and the cause were to be found in Aelius Sejanus, prefect of the praetorian cohorts. Of his influence I spoke above: now I shall unfold his origin, his character, and the crime by which he strove to seize on empire.
Born at Vulsinii to the Roman knight Seius Strabo, he became in early youth a follower of Gaius Caesar, grandson of the deified Augustus; not without a rumour that he had disposed of his virtue at a price to Apicius, a rich man and a prodigal. Before long, by his multifarious arts, he bound Tiberius fast: so much so that a man inscrutable to others became to Sejanus alone unguarded and unreserved; and the less by subtlety (in fact, he was beaten in the end by the selfsame arts) than by the anger of Heaven against that Roman realm for whose equal damnation he flourished and fell. He was a man hardy by constitution, fearless by temperament; skilled to conceal himself and to incriminate his neighbour; cringing at once and insolent; orderly and modest to outward view, at heart possessed by a towering ambition, which impelled him at whiles to lavishness and luxury, but oftener to industry and vigilance — qualities not less noxious when assumed for the winning of a throne.
2 1 The power of the prefectship, which had hitherto been moderate, he increased by massing the cohorts, dispersed through the capital, in one camp; in order that commands should reach them simultaneously, and that their numbers, their strength, and the sight of one another, might in themselves breed confidence and in others awe. His pretext was that scattered troops became unruly; that, when a sudden emergency called, help was more effective if the helpers were compact; and that there would be less laxity of conduct, if an encampment was created at a distance from the attractions of the city. Their quarters finished, he began little by little to insinuate himself into the affections of the private soldiers, approaching them and addressing them by name, while at the same time he selected personally their centurions and tribunes. Nor did he fail to hold before the senate the temptation of those offices and governorships with which he invested his satellites: for Tiberius, far from demurring, was complaisant enough to celebrate “the partner of his toils” not only in conversation but before the Fathers and the people, and to allow his effigies to be honoured, in theatre, in forum, and amid the eagles and altars of the legions.
3 1 Still, the imperial house with its plentitude of Caesars — a son arrived at manhood, grandchildren at the years of discretion — gave his ambition pause: for to attack all at once by violence was hazardous, while treachery demanded an interval between crime and crime. He resolved, however, to take the more secret way, and to begin with Drusus, against whom he felt the stimulus of a recent anger; for Drusus, impatient of a rival, and quick-tempered to a fault, had in a casual altercation raised his hand against the favourite, and, upon a counter-demonstration, had struck him in the face. On exploring the possibilities, then, it appeared simplest to turn to the prince’s wife Livia, sister of Germanicus, in her early days a harsh-favoured girl, later a sovereign beauty. In the part of a fiery lover, he seduced her to adultery: then, when the first infamy had been achieved — and a woman, who has parted with her virtue, will not refuse other demands — he moved her to dream of marriage, a partnership in the empire, and the murder of her husband. And she, the grand-niece of Augustus, the daughter-in-law of Tiberius, the mother of Drusus’ children, defiled herself, her ancestry, and her posterity, with a market-town adulterer, in order to change an honoured estate in the present for the expectation of a criminal and doubtful future. Eudemus, doctor and friend of Livia, was made privy to the danger, his profession supplying a pretext for repeated interviews. Sejanus, to forestall the suspicions of his mistress, closed his doors on Apicata, the wife who had borne him three children. Still the dimensions of the crime brought tremors, adjournments, and occasionally a division of counsels.
4 1 Meanwhile, in the beginning of the year, Drusus, one of Germanicus’ children, assumed the garb of manhood; and the senate repeated the compliments which it had decreed to his brother Nero. The Caesar followed with a speech, comprising a large encomium on his own son, “who showed a fatherly benevolence towards the family of his brothe
r.” For Drusus, difficult as it is for power and concord to dwell together, had the reputation of being well-disposed, or at least not inimical, to the youths. Next, the old, oft-simulated project of an excursion to the provinces came up for discussion. The Emperor alleged the multitude of time-expired troops and the need of fresh conscriptions to maintain the armies at strength. For there was a dearth, he said, of volunteers; and, even when forthcoming, they failed to show the old courage and discipline, since it was too often the destitute and the vagrant who enlisted of their own accord. He ran rapidly over the number of the legions and the provinces beneath their guardianship: a theme which I hold it my own duty to pursue, in order that it may appear what were the Roman forces then under arms, who the kings in federation with the empire, and how narrow, comparatively, the limits of our dominion.
Complete Works of Tacitus (Delphi Classics) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 24) Page 61
