Complete Works of Tacitus (Delphi Classics) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 24)

by Publius Cornelius Tacitus

  [27] Sub idem tempus e familia Scriboniorum Libo Drusus defertur moliri res novas. eius negotii initium, ordinem, finem curatius disseram, quia tum primum reperta sunt quae per tot annos rem publicam exedere. Firmius Catus senator, ex intima Libonis amicitia, invenem inprovidum et facilem inanibus ad Chaldaeorum promissa, magorum sacra, somniorum etiam interpretes impulit, dum proavom Pompeium, amitam Scriboniam, quae quondam Augusti coniunx fuerat, consobrinos Caesares, plenam imaginibus domum ostentat, hortaturque ad luxum et aes alienum, socius libidinum et necessitatum, quo pluribus indiciis inligaret.

  27 Nearly at the same time, a charge of revolutionary activities was laid against Libo Drusus, a member of the Scribonian family. I shall describe in some detail the origin, the progress, and the end of this affair, as it marked the discovery of the system destined for so many years to prey upon the vitals of the commonwealth. Firmius Catus, a senator, and one of Libo’s closest friends, had urged that short-sighted youth, who had a foible for absurdities, to resort to the forecasts of astrologers, the ritual of magicians, and the society of interpreters of dreams; pointing to his great-grandfather Pompey, to his great-aunt Scribonia (at one time the consort of Augustus), to his cousinship with the Caesars, and to his mansion crowded with ancestral portraits; encouraging him in his luxuries and loans; and, to bind him in a yet stronger chain of evidence, sharing his debaucheries and his embarrassments.

  [28] Vt satis testium et qui servi eadem noscerent repperit, aditum ad principem postulat, demonstrato crimine et reo per Flaccum Vescularium equitem Romanum, cui propior cum Tiberio usus erat. Caesar indicium haud aspernatus congressus abnuit: posse enim eodem Flacco internuntio sermones commeare. atque interim Libonem ornat praetura, convictibus adhibet, non vultu alienatus, non verbis commotior (adeo iram condiderat); cunctaque eius dicta factaque, cum prohibere posset, scire malebat, donec Iunius quidam, temptatus ut infernas umbras carminibus eliceret, ad Fulcinium Trionem indicium detulit. celebre inter accusatores Trionis ingenium erat avidumque famae malae. statim corripit reum, adit consules, cognitionem senatus poscit. et vocantur patres, addito consultandum super re magna et atroci.

  28 When he had found witnesses enough, and slaves to testify in the same tenor, he asked for an interview with the sovereign, to whom the charge and the person implicated had been notified by Vescularius Flaccus, a Roman knight on familiar terms with Tiberius. The Caesar, without rejecting the information, declined a meeting, as “their conversations might be carried on through the same intermediate, Flaccus.” In the interval, he distinguished Libo with a praetorship and several invitations to dinner. There was no estrangement on his brow, no hint of asperity in his speech: he had buried his anger far too deep. He could have checked every word and action of Libo: he preferred, however, to know them. At length, a certain Junius, solicited by Libo to raise departed spirits by incantations, carried his tale to Fulcinius Trio. Trio’s genius, which was famous among the professional informers, hungered after notoriety. He swooped immediately on the accused, approached the consuls, and demanded a senatorial inquiry. The Fathers were summoned, to deliberate (it was added) on a case of equal importance and atrocity.

  [29] Libo interim veste mutata cum primoribus feminis circumire domos, orare adfinis, vocem adversum pericula poscere, abouentibus cunctis, cum diversa praetenderent, eadem formidine. die senatus metu et aegritudine fessus, sive, ut tradidere quidam, simulato morbo, lectica delatus ad foris curiae innisusque fratri et manus ac supplices voces ad Tiberium tendens immoto eius vultu excipitur. mox libellos et auctores recitat Caesar ita moderans ne lenire neve asperare crimina videretur.

  29 Meanwhile, Libo changed into mourning, and with an escort of ladies of quality made a circuit from house to house, pleading with his wife’s relatives, and conjuring them to speak in mitigation of his danger, — only to be everywhere refused on different pretexts and identical grounds of alarm. On the day the senate met, he was so exhausted by fear and distress — unless, as some accounts have it, he counterfeited illness — that he was borne to the doors of the Curia in a litter, and, leaning on his brother, extended his hands and his appeals to Tiberius, by whom he was received without the least change of countenance. The emperor then read over the indictment and the names of the sponsors, with a self-restraint that avoided the appearance of either palliating or aggravating the charges.

  [30] Accesserant praeter Trionem et Catum accusatores Fonteius Agrippa et C. Vibius , certabantque cui ius perorandi in reum daretur, donec Vibius, quia nec ipsi inter se concederent et Libo sine patrono introisset, singillatim se crimina obiecturum professus, protulit libellos vaecordes adeo ut consultaverit Libo an habiturus foret opes quis viam Appiam Brundisium usque pecunia operiret. inerant et alia huiusce modi stolida vana, si mollius acciperes, miseranda. uni tamen libello manu Libonis nominibus Caesarum aut senatorum additas atrocis vel occultas notas accusator arguebat. negante reo adgnoscentis servos per tormenta interrogari placuit. et quia vetere senatus consulto quaestio in caput domini prohibebatur, callidus et novi iuris repertor Tiberius mancipari singulos actori publico iubet, scilicet ut in Libonem ex servis salvo senatus consulto quaereretur. ob quae posterum diem reus petivit domumque digressus extremas preces P. Quirinio propinquo suo ad principem mandavit.

  30 Besides Trio and Catus, Fonteius Agrippa and Gaius Vibius had associated themselves with the prosecution, and it was disputed which of the four should have the right of stating the case against the defendant. Finally, Vibius announced that, as no one would give way and Libo was appearing without legal representation, he would take the counts one by one. He produced Libo’s papers, so fatuous that, according to one, he had inquired of his prophets if he would be rich enough to cover the Appian Road as far as Brundisium with money. There was more in the same vein, stolid, vacuous, or, if indulgently read, pitiable. In one paper, however, the accuser argued, a set of marks, sinister or at least mysterious, had been appended by Libo’s hand to the names of the imperial family and a number of senators. As the defendant denied the allegation, it was resolved to question the slaves, who recognized the handwriting, under torture; and, since an old decree prohibited their examination in a charge affecting the life of their master, Tiberius, applying his talents to the discovery of a new jurisprudence, ordered them to be sold individually to the treasury agent: all to procure servile evidence against a Libo, without overriding a senatorial decree! In view of this, the accused asked for an adjournment till the next day, and left for home, after commissioning his relative, Publius Quirinius, to make a final appeal to the emperor.

  [31] Responsum est ut senatum rogaret. cingebatur interim milite domus, strepebant etiam in vestibulo ut audiri, ut aspici possent, cum Libo ipsis quas in novissimam voluptatem adhibuerat epulis excruciatus vocare percussorem, prensare servorum dextras, inserere gladium. atque illis, dum trepidant, dum refugiunt, evertentibus adpositum cum mensa lumen, feralibus iam sibi tenebris duos ictus in viscera derexit. ad gemitum conlabentis adcurrere liberti, et caede visa miles abstitit. accusatio tamen apud patres adseveratione eadem peracta, iuravitque Tiberius petiturum se vitam quamvis nocenti, nisi voluntariam mortem properavisset.

  31 The reply ran, that he must address his petitions to the senate. Meanwhile, his house was picketed by soldiers; they were tramping in the portico itself, within eyeshot and earshot, when Libo, thus tortured at the very feast which he had arranged to be his last delight on earth, called out for a slayer, clutched at the hands of his slaves, strove to force his sword upon them. They, as they shrank back in confusion, overturned lamp and table together; and he, in what was now for him the darkness of death, struck two blows into his vitals. He collapsed with a moan, and his freedmen ran up: the soldiers had witnessed the bloody scene, and retired. In the senate, however, the prosecution was carried through with unaltered gravity, and Tiberius declared on oath that, guilty as the defendant might have been, he would have interceded for his life, had he not laid an over-hasty hand upon himself.

  [32] Bona inter accusatores dividuntur, et
praeturae extra ordinem datae iis qui senatorii ordinis erant. tunc Cotta Messalinus, ne imago Libonis exequias posterorum comitaretur, censuit, Cn. Lentulus, ne quis Scribonius cognomentum Drusi adsumeret. supplicationum dies Pomponii Flacci sententia constituti, dona Iovi, Marti, Concordiae, utque idumn Septembrium dies, quo se Libo interfecerat, dies festus haberetur, L. Piso et Gallus Asinius et Papius Mutilus et L. Apronius decrevere; quorum auctoritates adulationesque rettuli ut sciretur vetus id in re publica malum. facta et de mathematicis magisque Italia pellendis senatus consulta; quorum e numero L. Pituanius saxo deiectus est, in P. Marcium consules extra portam Esquilinam, cum classicum canere iussissent, more prisco advertere.

  32 His estate was parcelled out among the accusers, and extraordinary praetorships were conferred on those of senatorial status. Cotta Messalinus then moved that the effigy of Libo should not accompany the funeral processions of his descendants; Gnaeus Lentulus, that no member of the Scribonian house should adopt the surname of Drusus. Days of public thanksgiving were fixed at the instance of Pomponius Flaccus. Lucius Piso, Asinius Gallus, Papius Mutilus, and Lucius Apronius procured a decree that votive offerings should be made to Jupiter, Mars, and Concord; and that the thirteenth of September, the anniversary of Libo’s suicide, should rank as a festival. This union of sounding names and sycophancy I have recorded as showing how long that evil has been rooted in the State. — Other resolutions of the senate ordered the expulsion of the astrologers and magic-mongers from Italy. One of their number, Lucius Pituanius, was flung from the Rock; another — Publius Marcius — was executed by the consuls outside the Esquiline Gate according to ancient usage and at sound of trumpet.

  [33] Proatus die multa in luxum civitatis dicta a Q. Haterio consulari, Octavio Frontone praetura functo; decretumque ne vasa auro solida ministrandis cibis fierent, ne vestis serica viros foedaret. excessit Fronto ac postulavit modum argento, supellectili, familiae: erat quippe adhuc frequens senatoribus, si quid e re publica crederent, loco sententiae promere. contra Gallus Asinius disseruit: auctu imperii adolevisse etiam privatas opes, idque non novum, sed e vetustissimis moribus: aliam apud Fabricios, aliam apud Scipiones pecuniam; et cuncta ad rem publicam referri, qua tenui angustas civium domos, postquam eo magnificentiae venerit, gliscere singulos. neque in familia et argento quaeque ad usum parentur nimium aliquid aut modicum nisi ex fortuna possidentis. distinctos senatus et equitum census, non quia diversi natura, sed ut locis ordinibus dignationibus antistent, ita iis quae ad requiem animi aut salubritatem corporum parentur, nisi forte clarissimo cuique pluris curas, maiora pericula subeunda, delenimentis curarum et periculorum carendum esse. facilem adsensum Gallo sub nominibus honestis confessio vitiorum et similitudo audientium dedit. adiecerat et Tiberius non id tempus censurae nec, si quid in moribus labaret, defuturum corrigendi auctorem.

  33 At the next session, the ex-consul, Quintus Haterius, and Octavius Fronto, a former praetor, spoke at length against the national extravagance; and it was resolved that table-plate should not be manufactured in solid gold, and that Oriental silks should no longer degrade the male sex. Fronto went further, and pressed for a statutory limit to silver, furniture, and domestics: for it was still usual for a member to precede his vote by mooting any point which he considered to be in the public interest. Asinius Gallus opposed:—”With the expansion of the empire, private fortunes had also grown; nor was this new, but consonant with extremely ancient custom. Wealth was one thing with the Fabricii, another with the Scipios; and all was relative to the state. When the state was poor, you had frugality and cottages: when it attained a pitch of splendour such as the present, the individual also throve. In slaves or plate or anything procured for use there was neither excess nor moderation except with reference to the means of the owner. Senators and knights had a special property qualification, not because they differed in kind from their fellow-men, but in order that those who enjoyed precedence in place, rank, and dignity should enjoy it also in the easements that make for mental peace and physical well-being. And justly so — unless your distinguished men, while saddled with more responsibilities and greater dangers, were to be deprived of the relaxations compensating those responsibilities and those dangers.” — With his virtuously phrased confession of vice, Gallus easily carried with him that audience of congenial spirits. Tiberius, too, had added that it was not the time for a censorship, and that, if there was any loosening of the national morality, a reformer would be forthcoming.

  [34] Inter quae L. Piso ambitum fori, corrupta iudicia, saevitiam oratorum accusationes minitantium increpans, abire se et cedere urbe, victurum in aliquo abdito et longinquo rure testabatur; simul curiam relinquebat. commotus est Tiberius, et quamquam mitibus verbis Pisonem permulsisset, propinquos quoque eius impulit ut abeuntem auctoritate vel precibus tenerent. haud minus liberi doloris documentum idem Piso mox dedit vocata in ius Vrgulania, quam supra leges amicitia Augustae extulerat. nec aut Vrgulania optemperavit, in domum Caesaris spreto Pisone vecta, aut ille abscessit, quamquam Augusta se violari et imminui quereretur. Tiberius hactenus indulgere matri civile ratus, ut se iturum ad praetoris tribunal, adfuturum Vrgulaniae diceret, processit Palatio, procul sequi iussis militibus. spectabatur occursante populo compositus ore et sermonibus variis tempus atque iter ducens, donec propinquis Pisonem frustra coercentibus deferri Augusta pecuniam quae petebatur iuberet. isque finis rei, ex qua neque Piso inglorius et Caesar maiore fama fuit. ceterum Vrgulaniae potentia adeo nimia civitati erat ut testis in causa quadam, quae apud senatum tractabatur, venire dedignaretur: missus est praetor qui domi interrogaret, cum virgines Vestales in foro et iudicio audiri, quotiens testimonium dicerent, vetus mos fuerit.

  34 During the debate, Lucius Piso, in a diatribe against the intrigues of the Forum, the corruption of the judges, and the tyranny of the advocates with their perpetual threats of prosecution, announced his retirement — he was migrating from the capital, and would live his life in some sequestered, far-away country nook. At the same time, he started to leave the Curia. Tiberius was perturbed; and, not content with having mollified him by a gentle remonstrance, induced his relatives also to withhold him from departure by their influence or their prayers. — It was not long before the same Piso gave an equally striking proof of the independence of his temper by obtaining a summons against Urgulania, whose friendship with the ex-empress had raised her above the law. Urgulania declined to obey, and, ignoring Piso, drove to the imperial residence: her antagonist, likewise, stood his ground, in spite of Livia’s complaint that his act was an outrage and humiliation to herself. Tiberius, who reflected that it would be no abuse of his position to indulge his mother up to the point of promising to appear at the praetorian court and lend his support to Urgulania, set out from the palace, ordering his guards to follow at a distance. The people, flocking to the sight, watched him while with great composure of countenance he protracted the time and the journey by talking on a variety of topics, until, as his relatives failed to control Piso, Livia gave orders for the sum in demand to be paid. This closed an incident of which Piso had some reason to be proud, while at the same time it added to the emperor’s reputation. For the rest, the influence of Urgulania lay so heavy on the state that, in one case on trial before the senate, she disdained to appear as a witness, and a praetor was sent to examine her at home, although the established custom has always been for the Vestal Virgins, when giving evidence, to be heard in the Forum and courts of justice.

  [35] Res eo anno prolatas haud referrem, ni pretium foret Cn. Pisonis et Asinii Galli super eo negotio diversas sententias noscere. Piso, quamquam afuturum se dixerat Caesar, ob id magis agendas censebat, ut absente principe senatum et equites posse sua munia sustinere decorum rei publicae foret. Gallus, quia speciem libertatis Piso praeceperat, nihil satis inlustre aut ex dignitate populi Romani nisi coram et sub oculis Caesaris, eoque conventum Italiae et adfluentis provincias praesentiae eius servanda dicebat. audiente haec Tiberio ac silente magnis utrimque contentionibus acta, sed res dilatae.

  3
5 Of this year’s adjournment I should say nothing, were it not worth while to note the divergent opinions of Gnaeus Piso and Asinius Gallus on the subject. Piso, although the emperor had intimated that he would not be present, regarded it as a further reason why public business should go forward, so that the ability of the senators and knights to carry out their proper duties in the absence of the sovereign might redound to the credit of the state. Forestalled by Piso in this show of independence, Gallus objected that business, not transacted under the immediate eye of their prince, lacked distinction and fell short of the dignity of the Roman people; and for that reason the concourse of Italy and the influx from the provinces ought to be reserved for his presence. The debate was conducted with much vigour on both sides, while Tiberius listened and was mute: the adjournment, however, was carried.