 Section 24 of the Complete Works of Tacitus, edited by Thomas Gordon. The Complete Works of Tacitus, to which are prefixed political discourses upon that author, edited and translated by Thomas Gordon, with introductory essays by Thomas Gordon. Volume 1. The Annals Book II, Section 6, The Death of Germanicus. As soon as it was known at Rome that our taxius was by Germanicus given to the Armenians for their king, the fathers decreed to him and Drusus the lesser triumph. Political arches were likewise erected on each side the temple of Mars the Avenger, supporting the statues of these two Caesars, and for Tiberius he was more joyful to have established peace by policy than if by battles and victories he had ended the war. He therefore also assailed by the ways of craft Rescuporis a king of Thrace. That whole nation had been subject to remittalsis, but upon his death one moiety was by Augustus granted to Rescuporis his brother, and one to Cotis his son. In this partition the veils, cities, and territories bounding upon Greece fell to Cotis, to Rescuporis the wilds, the hills, and the parts exposed to a hostile neighborhood. The two kings were likewise dissonant in their genius, the former mild and agreeable, the latter cruel, rapacious, and impatient of equality. Yet at first they lived in hollow friendship, but in a while Rescuporis began to break bounds to seize for himself the portions of Cotis, and where he met resistance to exercise violence. Cautiously it is true, and by degrees, in the life of Augustus to whose grant they owed both their kingdoms, and if his authority had been despised his vengeance was dreaded. But upon the change of emperors he poured in bands of robbers, demolished forts, and thus sought to provoke war. This was about no consideration of state so anxious, as that things once settled should never after be molested. He instantly dispatched a centurion to the two kings to forbid their proceeding to a decision by arms, and Cotis forthwith dismissed the forces he had raised. Rescuporis feigned submission and desired an interview, for that by treaty he said they might adjust all their differences, and upon the time, the place, and even upon the conditions they quickly agreed, while one through easiness, one through fraud yielded and accepted every proposition. Rescuporis, for a sanction as he pretended to the league, added a banquet, and the festivity and drinking was prolonged till midnight, when Cotis warm with wine and feasting, and void of circumspection, was suddenly loaded with chains, deprecating in vain the brutal treachery by the inviolable rites of kings, by the common gods of their family, by that very banquet of sacred pledge of concord and hospitality. Rescuporis, having now seized all Thrace, wrote to Tiberius that bloody snares were contrived for him, but he had anticipated the contriver, and, pretending a war against the Bastoneans and Scythians, fortified himself with new forces, horse, and foot. He had a soft answer, that if he had practiced no guile, he might securely trust to his innocence. But neither could he himself nor the Senate, without hearing the cause, distinguish between justice and violence, that therefore, delivering up Cotis, he should come, and upon him effectively transfer the odium of the crime. This letter, Latinius Pandus, Propreter of Mesia, transmitted to Thrace by the soldiers sent to receive Cotis. Rescuporis, wavering long between fear and rage, determined at last rather to be guilty of a finish to than an imperfect villainy. He caused Cotis to be murdered, and belied his death, as if by his own hands it had been procured. Neither yet did Tiberius change his favourite course of dissembling, but upon the death of Pandus, whom Rescuporis alleged to have been his enemy, preferred to the government of Mesia Pomponius Flaccus, an ancient officer, one in close friendship with the King, and by it more qualified to betray him. Hence chiefly he was preferred. Flaccus passed into Thrace, and though he found him full of hesitation and revolving with great dismay upon the crying horror of his own wickedness, yet by mighty promises prevailed upon him to enter the Roman barrier. Here the King, on pretense of solemnity and honour, was surrounded with a strong party and a crowd of officers who pressed him by earnest exhortations and many arguments, and the further they travelled the more apparent to him was his confinement, so that at last convinced of the necessity of going he was by them hailed to Rome. He was accused before the Senate by the wife of Cotis, and condemned to exile far from his kingdom. This was divided between Rebutalsis, his son, who, it was manifest, had opposed all his father's outrageous measures, and the sons of Cotis. These were miners, and placed with their kingdom under the administration of Trebellianus Rufus, formerly Prita, after the example of our ancestors who sent Marcus Lepidus into Egypt in quality of guardian to the children of Ptolemy. The scooperism was transported to Alexandria, and their slain attempting flight, or falsely charged with it. At the same time, Venonis, who had been removed, as I have above related, into Silicia, corrupted his keepers and endeavoured to escape to Armenia, thence to the Albanians and Heneokians, and then to his kinsmen the king of Scythia, thus pretending to hunt, and avoiding the maritime coasts, he gained the devious recesses of the forests, and then, on a sudden, rode full speed to the river Pyramus. But the countrymen, apprised of the king's flight, had broken the bridges, neither was the stream to be forwarded. Upon the banks, therefore, of the river, he was by Vibius Fronto, general of horse, and in bonds, and presently after, by Remus, a resumed veteran, lately his keeper, run through, in affected wroth, with a sword. Hence arose the stronger belief that, from consciousness of fraud and dread of discovery, Venonis was slain. Germanicus, returning from Egypt, learned that all his orders left with the legions and the eastern cities were either entirely abolished, or contrary regulations established, a ground for his severe resentment and reproaches upon Piso. Nor less keen were the efforts and machinations of Piso against Germanicus. Yet Piso afterwards determined to leave Scythia, but was detained by the following illness of Germanicus. Then when he heard of his recovery, and perceived that vows were paid for his restoration, the lictors, by his command, broke the solemnity, drove away the victims already of the altars, overturned the apparatus of the sacrifice, and scattered the people of Antioch employed in celebrating the festival. He then departed to Scythia, waiting the event of the malady which had again assaulted Germanicus. His own persuasion, too, that poison was given him by Piso, heightened the cruel vehemence of the disease. Indeed upon the floors and walls were found fragments of human bodies, the spoils of the grave, with charms and incantations, at the name of Germanicus graved on sheets of lead, carcasses half burnt, besmeared with gore, and other witch-crops, by which souls are thought doomed to the infernal gods. Besides, there were certain persons, charged as creatures of Piso, purposely sent and employed to watch the progress and efforts of the disease. These things filled Germanicus with apprehensions great as his resentment. If his doors, he said, were besieged, if under the eyes of his enemies he must render up his spirit, what was to be expected to his unhappy wife, what to his infant children. The progress of poison was thought too slow, Piso was impatient, and urging with eagerness to command alone the legions to possess alone the province. But Germanicus was not sunk to such loneness and impotence that the price of his murder should remain with the murderer. And by a letter to Piso he renounced his friendship. Some add that he commanded him to depart the province, nor did Piso tarry longer but took ship, yet checked her sailing, in order to return with the more quickness should the death of Germanicus the while leave the government of Syria vacant. Germanicus, after a small revival drooping again, when his end approached, spoke on this wise to his attending friends. Were I to yield to the destiny of nature, just even then were my complaints against the gods for hurrying me from my parents, my children, and my country by a hasty death in the prime of life. Now shortened in my course by the malignity of Piso and his wife, to your breasts I commit my last prayers. Tell my father, tell my brother, with what violent persecutions afflicted, with what mortal snares circumvented, I end a most miserable life by death of all others the worst. All they whose hopes in my fortune, all they whose kindred blood, and even they whose envy possess them with impressions about me whilst living, shall bewail me dead, that once great in glory, and surviving so many wars, I fell at last by the dark devices of a woman. To you place will be left to complain in the Senate, place to invoke the aid and vengeance of the laws. To commemorate the dead with slothful wailings is not the principal office of friends. They are to remember his dying wishes, to fulfill his last desires. Even strangers will lament Germanicus. You are my friends. If you loved me rather than my fortune you will vindicate your friendship. Show the people of Rome my wife, her who is the granddaughter of Augustus, and enumerate to them our offspring even six children. Their compassion will surely attend you who accuse, and the accused, if they pretend clandestine warrants of iniquity, will not be believed, if believed not pardoned. His friends as a pledge of their fidelity, touching the hand of the dying prince, swore that they would forgo their lives sooner than their revenge. Then turning to his wife he besought her, that in tenderness to his memory, in tenderness to their common children, she would banish her haughtiest spirit, yield to her hostile fortune, nor upon her return to Rome by an impotent competition for ruling irritate those who were masters of rule. So much openly, and more in secret, whence he was believed to have warned her of guile and danger from Tiberius. Soon after he expired, to the heavy sorrow of the province, and of all the neighbouring countries, in so much that remote nations and foreign kings were mourners. Such had been his complacency to our Confederates, such his humanity to his enemies. Like venerable he was, whether you saw him or heard him, and without ever departing from the grave-port and dignity of his sublime rank, he yet lived destitute of arrogance and untouched by envy. The funeral, which was performed without exterior pomp or a procession of images, drew its solemnity from the loud praises and amiable memory of his virtuous. There were those who, from the loveliness of his person, his age, his manner of dying, and even from the proximity of places where both departed, compared him in the circumstances of his fate to the great Alexander. Each of a graceful person, each of illustrious descent, in years neither much exceeding thirty, both victims to the malice and machinations of their own people in the midst of foreign nations. But Germanicus, gentle towards his friends, his pleasures moderate, confined to one wife, all his children by one bed, nor less a warrior, though not so rash, however hindered from a final reduction of Germany broken by him in so many victories and ready for the yoke. So that had he been sole arbiter of things, had he acted with the sovereignty and title of royalty, he had easier overtaken him in the glory of conquests as he surpassed him in clemency, in moderation, and in other virtues. His body, before its commitment to the pile, was exhibited naked in the Forum of Antioch, the place where the pile was erected. Whether it bore the marks of poison remained undecided, for people, as they were divided in their affections, as they pitted Germanicus and presumed the guilt of Piso, or were partial to him, gave opposite accounts. It was next debated amongst the legates of the legions and the other senators there, to whom should be committed the administration of Syria, and after the faint efforts of others it was long disputed between Vibious Marceus and Caneus Centius. Marceus at last yielded to Centius the older man and the more vehement competitor. By him one Martina, infamous in that province for practices in poisoning and a close confidant of Plancina, was sent to Rome at the suit of Vitelius, Varanius, and others, who were preparing criminal articles against Piso and Plancina as against persons evidently guilty. Agrippina, though overwhelmed with sorrow and her body indisposed, yet impatient of all delays to her revenge, embarked with the ashes of Germanicus and her children, attended with universal commiseration. But a lady in quality of princess, wont to be beheld in her late splendid wedlock with applauses and adorations, was now seen bearing in her bosom her husband's funeral earn, uncertain of vengeance for him and fearful for herself, unfortunate in her fruitfulness and from so many children obnoxious to so many blows of fortune. Piso the while was overtaken at the Isle of Cous by a message that Germanicus was deceased, and received it intemperately, slew victims and repaired with thanksgivings to the temples. Yet however immoderate and undisguised was his joy, more arrogant and insulting proved that of Plancina, who immediately threw off her mourning, which for the death of a sister she wore, and assumed a dress adapted to gaiety and gladness. About him flocked the centurions with officious representations, that upon him particularly were bent the affections and zeal of the legions, and he should proceed to resume the province at first injuriously taken from him and now destitute of a governor. As he therefore consulted what he had best pursue, his son Marcus Piso advised a speedy journey to Rome. Hitherto, he said, nothing past expiation was committed. Neither were impotent suspicions to be dreaded, nor the idle blazenings of fame. His variance and contention with Germanicus was perhaps subject to popular hate and aversion, but to no prosecution or penalty, and by bereaving him of the province his enemies were gratified. And if he returned thither, as Centius would certainly oppose him with arms, a civil war would thence be actually begun. Neither would the centurions and soldiers persist in his party, men with whom the recent memory of their late commander and an inveterate love to the Caesars in general were still prevalent. Donisius Seller, one in intimate credit with Piso, argued on the contrary, that the present event must by all means be improved. It was Piso and not Centius who had commissioned to govern Syria. Upon him were conferred the jurisdiction of Praetor and the badges of magistracy, and with him the legions were entrusted. So that if acts of hostility were by his opponents attempted, with how much better warrant could he avow assuming arms in his own right and defence, who was thus vested with the authority of general, and acted under special orders from the emperor. Rumours too were to be neglected and left to perish with time. In truth to the sallies and violence of recent hate the innocent were often unequal. But were he once possessed of the army, and had well augmented his forces, many things not to be foreseen would from fortune derive success. Are we then preposterously hastening to arrive at Rome with the ashes of Germanicus, that you may therefore unheard and undefended a victim to the wailings of Agrippina, a prey to the passionate populace governed by the first impressions of Bruma? Livia it is true is your confederate, Tiberius is your friend, but both secretly, and indeed none will more pompously be wail the violent fate of Germanicus than such as do most sincerely rejoice for it. Piso of himself prompt to violent pursuits was with no great labour persuaded into this opinion, and in a letter transmitted to Tiberius accused Germanicus of luxury and pride, that for himself he had been expulsed to leave room for dangerous designs against the state, and now resumed with his form of faith and loyalty the care of the army. In the meantime he put Domitius on board a galley, and ordered him to avoid appearing upon the coasts or amongst the isles, but through the main sea to sail to Syria. The deserters who from all quarters were flocking to him in crowds he formed into companies, and armed all the retainers to the camp, then sailing over to the continent intercepted a regiment of recruits upon their march into Syria, and wrote to the small kings of Silicia to assist him with present suckers. Nor was the younger Piso slow in prosecuting all the measures of war, though to adventure a war had been against his sentiments and advice. As they coasted Licia and Pamphylia they encountered the ships which carried Agrippina, with hostile spirits on each side, and each at first prepared for combat. But as equal dread of one another possessed both, they proceeded not further than mutual contumilies. Vibious masses particularly summoned Piso as a criminal to Rome there to make his defense. He answered with derision that when the Preter who was to sit upon poisonings had assigned a day to the accusers and the accused he would attend. To mischus the while, landing at Laodicea, a city of Syria, would have proceeded to the winter quarters of the Sixth Legion, which he believed to be the most prone to engage in novel attempts, but was prevented by Pacuvius its commander. Centius represented this by letter to Piso, and warned him at his peril to infect the camp by ministers of corruption or to assail the province by war, and drew into a body such as he knew loved Germanicus or such as were averse to his foes. Upon them he inculcated with much ardour that Piso was with open arms attacking the majesty of the prince and invading the Roman state, and then marched at the head of a peasant body equipped for battle and resolute to engage. Neither failed Piso, though his enterprises had thus far miscarried, to apply the securest remedies to his present perplexities, and therefore seized a castle of Silicia strongly fortified, its name Cylendris, for to the auxiliary Silicians sent him by the petty kings he had joined his body of deserters as also the recruits lately intercepted, with all his own and Plancina's slaves, and thus in number and bulk had of the whole composed legion. To them he thus haranged, I who am the lieutenant of Cesar am yet violently excluded from the province which to me Cesar has committed, not excluded by the legions, for by their invitation I am arrived, but by Centius, who thus disguises under feigned crimes against me his own animosity and personal hate. But with confidence you may stand in battle, where the opposite army upon the sight of Piso, a commander lately by themselves styled their father, will certainly refuse to fight. They know too that were right to decide it, I am the stronger and of no mean presence in a trial at arms. He then arrayed his men without the fortifications on a hill steep and craggy, for all the rest was begirt by the sea. Against them stood the veterans regularly embattled and supported with a body of reserve, so that here appeared the force of men there only the terror and stubbornness of situation. On Piso's side was no spirit, no hope, nor even weapons save those of rustics for instant necessity hastily acquired. As soon as they came to blows the issue was no longer doubtful than while the Roman cohorts struggled up the steep. The Silicians then fled and shut themselves up in the castle. Piso having the while attempted in vain to storm the fleet which rode at a small distance, as soon as he returned presented himself upon the walls, whereby a succession of passionate complaints and entreaties, now bemoaning in agonies the bitterness of his lot, then calling and cajoling every particular soldier by his name, and by rewards tempting all, he laboured to excite a sedition, and thus much he had already effected that the eagle bearer of the sixth legion revolted to him with his eagle. This alarmed Sentius, and instantly he commanded the cornets and trumpets to sound, a mount to be raised, the ladders placed, and the bravest men to mount, and others to pour from the engines volleys of darts and stones and flaming torches. The obstinacy of Piso was at last vanquished, and he desired that upon delivering his arms he might remain in the castle till the emperor's pleasure to whom he would commit the government of Syria were known, conditions which were not accepted, nor was ought granted him save ships and a passport to Rome. After the illness of Germanicus became noise abroad there, and all its circumstances like rumours magnified by distance were related with many aggravations, sadness seized the people. They burned with indignation and even poured out in plains the anguish of their souls. For this, they said, he had been banished till the extremities of the empire. For this the province of Syria was committed to Piso, and these the fruits of Livia's mysterious conferences with Plancina. Truly had our fathers spoken concerning his father, Drusus, that the possessors of rule beheld with an evil eye the populace spirit of their sons, nor for ought else were they sacrificed but for their equal treatment of the Roman people and studying to restore the populace state. These lamentations of the populace were, upon the tidings of his death, so inflamed, that without staying for an edict from the magistrates, without a decree of senate, they by general consent assumed a vacation. The public courts were deserted, private houses shut up, prevalent everywhere were the symptoms of woe, heavy groans, dismal silence, the whole a scene of real sorrow, and nothing devised for form or show, and though they forbore not to bear the exterior marks and habiliments of mourning, in their souls they mourned still deeper. Accidentalism, merchants from Syria, who had left Germanicus still alive, brought more joyful news of his condition. These were instantly believed and instantly proclaimed, each as fast as they met informed others who forthwith conveyed their light information with improvements and accumulated joy to more. All flew with exaltation through the city, and to pay their thanks and vows burst open the temple doors. The night, too, heightened their credulity, and affirmation was bolder in the dark. Nor did Tiberius restrain the course of these fictions, but left them to vanish with time. Hence with more bitterness they afterwards grieved for him, as if a new snatched from them. Honours were invented and decreed to Germanicus, various as the affections and genius of the particular senators who proposed them, that his name should be sung in the Salian hymns. Curial chairs placed for him amongst the priests of Augustus, and over these chairs Oaken crowns hung. His statue in ivory precede in the Cersensian games. None but one of the Julian race be in the room of Germanicus created flamen or auger. Triumphal arches were added, one at Rome, one upon the banks of the Thrine, one upon Mount Amainus in Syria, with inscriptions of his exploits, and a testimony subjoined that he died for the Commonwealth. A sepulchre at Antioch, where his corpse was burnt, a tribunal at Epidaphne, the place where he ended his life. The multitude of statues, the many places where divine honours were appointed to be paid him, would not be easily recounted. They would have also decreed him, as to one of the masters of eloquence, a golden shield, signal in bulk as in metal. But Tiberius offered to dedicate one himself, such as was usual and of a like size with others, for that eloquence was not measured by fortune and it was sufficient glory if he were ranked with ancient writers. The battalion called after the name of the junior I was now by the equestrian order entitled the Battalion of Germanicus, and a rule made that on every fifteenth of July these troops should follow as their standard the effigies of Germanicus. Of these honours many continue. Some were instantly omitted or by time are utterly obliterated. In the height of this public sorrow Livia, sister to Germanicus and married to Drusus, was delivered of male twins, an event even in middling families rare and acceptable, and to Tiberius such mighty matter of joy that he could not refrain boasting to the fathers that to no Roman of the same eminence before him were ever two children born at a birth. For to his own glory he turned all things, even things for Tuitus. But to the people at such a sad conjuncture it brought fresh anguish as they feared that the family of Drusus thus increased would press heavily upon that of Germanicus. The same year the lubricity of women was by the Senate restrained with severe laws, and it was provided that no woman should become venal if her father, grandfather, or husband were Roman knights. For Vistilia, a lady born of a Praetorian family, had before the Ediles published herself a prostitute upon a customer loud by our ancestors, who thought that prostitutes were by thus avowing their infamy sufficiently punished. Titerius' labio, too, was questioned that in the manifest guilt of his wife he had neglected the punishment prescribed by the law, but he alleged that the sixty days allowed for consultation were not elapsed, and it was deemed sufficient to proceed against Vistilia, who was banished to the Isle of Seraphus. Measures were also taken for exterminating the solemnities of the Jews and Egyptians, and by decree of Senate four thousand descendants of franchised slaves, all tainted with that superstition but of proper strength and age, were to be transported to Sardinia to restrain the Sardinian robbers, and if through the malignity of the climate they perished, despicable would be the loss. The rest were doomed to depart Italy unless by a stated day they renounced their profane rights. After this Tiberius represented that to supply the place of Oxyra, who had presided seven and fifty years with the highest sanctum any over the vestals, another virgin was to be chosen, and thanked Fonteus Agrippa and a sinious polio that by offering their daughters they contended in good offices towards the common wealth. Polio's daughter was preferred for nothing else but that her mother had ever continued in the same wedlock, for Agrippa by a divorce had impaired the credit of his house. Upon her who was postponed Tiberius in consolation bestowed for her fortune a thousand great cesterces. As the people murmured at the severe dearth of corn, he settled grain at a price certain to the buyer, and undertook to pay fourteen pence a measure to the seller. Neither yet would he accept the name of father of his country, a title offered him before, and for these bounties now again. Nay, he sharply rebuked such as styled these provisions of his divine occupations and him lord. Hence freedom of speech became cramped and insecure under such a prince, one who dreaded liberty and abhorred flattery. I find in the writers of those times, some of them senators, that in the senate were red letters from Agandestris, prince of the Cateons, undertaking to dispatch Arminius if in order to it poison were sent him, and an answer returned that not by frauds and blows in the dark, but armed and in the face of the sun the Roman people took vengeance on their foes. In this Tiberius gained equal glory with our ancient captains, who rejected and disclosed a plot to poison King Pyrrhus. Arminius, however, who upon the departure of the Romans and expulsion of Maribodius aimed at royalty, became thence engaged in a struggle against the liberty of his country, and in defence of their liberty his countrymen took arms against him, so that while with various fortune he contended with them, he fell by the treachery of his own kindred. The deliverer of Germany without doubt he was, one who assailed the Roman power not like other kings and leaders in its first elements, but in its highest pride and elevation, one sometimes beaten in battle, but never conquered in war. Thirty-seven years he lived, twelve he commanded, and amongst these barbarous nations his memory is still celebrated in their songs, though his name be unknown in the annals of the Greeks who only admire their own national exploits and renown, nor even amongst the Romans does this great captain bear much distinction, while overlooking instances of modern prowess and glory we only delight to magnify men and feats of old. Discourses upon that author. Edited and translated by Thomas Gorton with introductory essays by Thomas Gorton. Volume I. The Annals Book III. Part I. The Disgrace of Piso. Agrippina, notwithstanding the roughness of winter, pursuing without intermission her boisterous voyage, put in at the island Corsaira situated over against the coasts of Calabria. Here to settle her spirit she spent a few days violent in her grief and a stranger to patience. Her arrival being the while divulged all the particular friends to her family, mostly men of the sword, many who had served under Germanicus, and even many strangers from the neighbouring towns, some in officiousness towards the emperor, more for company, crowded to the city of Bryndusium, the reddiest port in her way, and the safest landing. As soon as the fleet appeared in the deep, instantly were filled not the port alone and adjacent shores, but the walls and roofs, and as far as the eye would go, filled with the sorrowing multitude. They were consulting, one from one, how they should receive her landing, whether with universal silence or with some note of acclamation. Nor was it manifest which they would do when the fleet sailed slowly in, not as usual with joyful sailors and cheerful oars, but all things impressed with the face of sadness. After she descended from the ship, accompanied with her two infants, carrying in her bosom the melancholy urn, with her eyes cast steadily down, equal and universal were the groans of the beholders. Nor could you distinguish relations from strangers, nor the wailings of men from those of women, unless that the newcomers, who were recent in their sallies of grief, exceeded Agrippina's attendance, wearied out with long lamentations. Unless that the newcomers, who were recent in their sallies of grief, exceeded Agrippina's attendance, wearied out with long lamentations. Tiberius had dispatched two Praetorian cohorts, with directions that the magistrates of Calabria, Apulia, and Campania should pay their last offices to the memory of his son. Upon the shoulders, therefore, of the tribunes and centurions, his ashes were born, before went the ensigns rough and unadorned, with the facies reversed. As they passed through the colonies, the populace were in black, the knights in purple, and each place, according to its wealth, burnt precious raiment, perfumes, and whatever else is used in funeral solemnities. Even they whose cities lay remote attended. To the gods of the dead they slew victims, they erected altars, and with tears and united lamentations testified their common sorrow. Drusus came as far as Teresina, with Claudius the brother of Germanicus, and those of his children, who had been left at Rome. The consuls Marcus Valerius and Marcus Aurelius just then entered upon their office. The senate and great part of the people filled the road, a scattered procession, each walking and weeping his own way. In this morning flattery had no share, for all knew how real was the joy how hollow the grief of Tiberius for the death of Germanicus. Tiberius and Livia avoided appearing abroad. Public lamentation they thought below their grandeur, or perhaps they apprehended that their countenances examined by all eyes might show deceitful hearts. That Antonia, mother to the deceased, bore any part in the funeral, I do not find either in the historians or in the city journals. Though besides Agrippina and Drusus and Claudius, his other relations are likewise there recorded by name. Whether by sickness she was prevented, or whether her soul vanquished by sorrow could not bear the representation of such a mighty calamity. I would rather believe her to have been constrained by Tiberius and Livia, who left not the palace, and affecting equal affliction with her, would have it seem that by the example of the mother, the grandmother too and uncle were detained. The day when his remains were deposited in the tomb of Augustus, various were the symptoms of public grief. Now an awful silence, then an uproar of lamentation, the city in every quarter full of processions, the field of Mars in a blaze of torches. Here the soldiers under arms, the magistrates without the insignia, the people by their tribes, all cried in concert that the Commonwealth was fallen, and henceforth there was no remain of hope, so openly and boldly that you would have believed they had forgot who bore sway. But nothing pierced Tiberius more than the ardent affections of the people towards Agrippina, while they gave her such titles as the ornament of her country, the only blood of Augustus, the single instance of ancient virtue, and while applying to heaven they implored the continuance of her issue that they might survive the persecuting and malignant. There were those who missed the pomp of a public funeral, and compared with this the superior honours and magnificence bestowed by Augustus on that of Drusus the father of Germanicus, that he himself had travelled in the sharpness of winter as far as Pavia, and thence continuing by the corpse had with it entered the city. Round his head were placed the images of the Claudii and Julieii, he was mourned in the forum, his encomium pronounced in the rosters, all sorts of honours such as worthy inventions of our ancestors or the improvements of their posterity were heaped upon him. But to Germanicus were denied the ordinary solemnities, and such as were due to every distinguished Roman. In a foreign country indeed his corpse, because of the long journey, was burnt without pomp, but afterwards it was but just to have supplied the scantiness of the first ceremony by the solemnity of the last. His brother met him but one day's journey, his uncle not even at the gate. Where were those generous observances of the ancients, the effigies of the dead born on a bed, hymns composed in memory of their virtue, with the oblations of praises and tears? Where at least were the ceremonies and even outside of sorrow? All this was known to Tiberius, and to suppress the discourses of the populace he published an edict that many illustrious Romans had died for the Commonwealth, but none so vehemently lamented. This, however, was to the glory of himself and of all men if a measure were observed. The same things which became private families and small states became not princes and an imperial people. Fresh grief indeed required vent and ease by lamentation, but it was now time to recover and fortify their minds. Thus the deified Julius upon the loss of an only daughter, thus the deified Augustus upon the hasty death of his grandsons, had both vanquished their sorrow. More ancient examples were unnecessary, how often the Roman people sustained with constancy the slaughter of their armies, the death of their generals, and entire destruction of their noblest families. Princes were mortal, the Commonwealth was eternal. They should therefore resume their several vocations. And because the megalensian games were at hand, he added that they should even apply to the usual festivities. The vocation ended, public affairs were resumed, Drusus departed for the army in Illyricum, and the minds of all men were bent upon seeing vengeance done upon Piso. They repeated their resentments, that while he wandered over the delightful countries of Asia and Greece, he was stifling by contumatious and deceitful delays the evidences of his crimes. For it was brooded abroad that Martina, she who was famous for poisonings, and sent, as I have above related by Cnius Sentius towards Rome, was suddenly dead at Brundusium. That poison lay concealed in a knot of her hair, but upon her body were found no symptoms of self-murder. Piso sending forward his son to Rome, with instructions how to soften the emperor, proceeded himself to Drusus. Him he hoped to find less rigid for the death of a brother than favourable for the removal of a rival. Tiberius, to make sure of a spirit perfectly unbiased, received the young man graciously, and honoured him with the presence usually bestowed on young noblemen. The answer of Drusus to Piso was that if the current rumours were true, he stood in the first place of grief and revenge. But he hoped they were false and chimerical, and that the death of Germanicus would be pernicious to none. This he declared in public and avoided all privacy. Nor was it doubted, but the answer was dictated by Tiberius, when a youth otherwise easy and unwary practiced thus the wiles and cunning of age. Piso, having crossed the sea of Dalmatia, and left his ships at Ancona, took first the road of Piscinum, and then the Flaminian Way, following the legion which was going from Pannonia to Rome, and then to Garrison in Africa. This too became the subject of popular censure that he officially mixed with the soldiers and courted them in their march and quarters. He therefore, to avoid suspicion, or because when men are in dread, their conduct waivers, did at Nani embark upon the Naa, and then sailed into the Tiber. By landing at the burying place of the Caesars, he heightened the wrath of the populace. Besides, he and Plancina came ashore in open day in the face of the city, who were crowding the banks, and proceeded with gay countenances he attended by a long band of clients, she by a train of ladies. There were yet other provocations to hatred. The situation of his house proudly overlooking the forum, and adorned and illuminated as for a festival, the banquet and rejoicings held in it all as public as the place. The next day Fulcinius Trio arraigned Piso before the consuls, but was opposed by Vitelius, Veranius, and others who had accompanied Germanicus. They said that in this prosecution Trio had no part, nor did they themselves act as accusers, but only gathered materials and as witnesses produced the last injunctions of Germanicus. Trio dropped that accusation, but got leave to call in question his former life. And now the emperor was desired to undertake the trial, a request which the accused did not at all oppose, dreading the inclinations of the people and senate. He knew Tiberius on the contrary, resolute in despising popular rumors, and in guilt confederate with his mother. Besides that truth and misrepresentations were easiest distinguished by a single judge, but in assemblies odium and envy often prevailed. Tiberius was aware of the weight of the trial, and with what reproaches he was assaulted. Admitting therefore a few confidence, he heard the charge of the accusers as also the apology of the accused, and left the cause entire to the senate. Drusus returned the while from Illyricum, and though the senate had for the reduction of Maribodius and other his exploits the summer before decreed him the triumph of evasion, he postponed the honor and privately entered the city. Pizzo for his advocates desired Titus, Arrantius, Fulcinius, Asinius Gallus, Asininus, Marcellus, and Sextus Pompeius, but they all framed different excuses and he had in their room Marcus Lepidus, Lucius Pizzo, Liveneus Regulus. Now earnest were the expectations of all men how great would prove the fidelity of the friends of Germanicus, what the assurance of the criminal, what the behavior of Tiberius, whether he would sufficiently smother or betray his sentiments. He never had a more anxious part, neither did the people ever indulge themselves in such secret murmurs against their emperor, nor harbour in silence severer suspicions. When the senate met, Tiberius made a speech full of labored moderation, that Pizzo had been his father's lieutenant and friend, and lately appointed by himself at the direction of the senate co-agitor to Germanicus in administering the affairs of the east. Whether he had there by contumacy and opposition exasperated the young prince and exalted over his death or wickedly procured it, they were then to judge with minds unprejudiced. For if he who was the lieutenant of my son violated the limits of his commission, cast off obedience to his general, and even rejoiced at his decease and at my affliction, I will detest the man, I will banish him from my house, and for domestic injuries exert domestic revenge, not the revenge of an emperor. But for you, if his guilt of any man's death whatsoever be discovered, show your just vengeance, and by it satisfy yourselves, satisfy the children of Germanicus, and us, his father and grandmother. Consider too especially whether he vitiated the discipline and promoted sedition in the army, whether he sought to debauch the affections of the soldiers and to recover the province by arms, or whether these allegations are not published falsely and with aggravations by the accusers, with whose over-passionate zeal I am justly offended. For wither tended the stripping the corpse and exposing it to the eyes and examination of the populace, with what view was it proclaimed even to foreign nations, that his death was the effect of poison, if all this was still doubtful and remains yet to be tried. It is true I bewail my son and shall ever bewail him, but neither do I hinder the accused to do what in him lies to manifest his innocence even at the expense of Germanicus, if ought blamable was in him. From you I entreat the same impartiality. Let not the connection of my sorrow with this cause mislead you to take crimes for proved because they are imputed. For piezo, if the tenderness of kinsmen, if the faith of friends has furnished him with patrons, let them aid him in his peril, show their utmost eloquence, and exert their best diligence. To the same pains, to the same firmness, I exhort the accusers. Thus much out of the common course we will grant to the memory of Germanicus that the inquest concerning his death be held rather here than in the forum, in the senate than in the common tribunals. In all the rest we will descend to the ordinary methods. Let no man in this course consider Drusus his tears. Let none regard my sorrow no more than the probable fictions of Calumny against us. Two days were then appointed for maintaining the charge, six for preparing the defense, and three for making it. Falsinius began with things stale and impertinent about the ambition and wrapping of piezo in his administration of Spain, things which, though proved, brought him under no penalty if acquitted of the present charge. Nor, though he had been cleared of former faults, could he escape the load of greater enormities. After him, Servius, Varanius, and Vitellius, all with equal zeal, but Vitellius with great eloquence urged that piezo in hatred to Germanicus and passionate for innovations, had by tolerating general licentiousness and the oppression of the allies, corrupted the common soldiers to that degree that by the most profligate he was styled father of the legions. He had, on the contrary, been outrageous to the best men, above all to the friends and companions of Germanicus, and at last by witchcraft and poison destroyed Germanicus himself, hence the infernal charms and immolations practiced by him and Plancina. He had then attacked the commonwealth with open arms, and before he could be brought to be tried they were forced to fight and defeat him. In every article but one his defense was faltering, for neither his dangerous intrigues in deborging the soldiery, nor his abandoning the province to the most profligate and rapacious, nor even his insults to Germanicus were to be denied. He seemed only to wipe off the charge of poison, a charge which in truth was not sufficiently corroborated by the accusers, since they had only to allege that at an entertainment of Germanicus piezo while he sat above him with his hands poisoned the meat. It appeared absurd that amongst so many attending slaves besides his own in so greater presence and under the eye of Germanicus he would attempt it. He himself required that the waiters might be racked and offered to the rack his own domestics. But the judges were implacable from different motives. Tiberius for the war raised in the province, and the senate could never be convinced that the death of Germanicus was not the effect of fraud. Some moved for the letters written to piezo from Rome, a motion opposed by Tiberius no less than by piezo. From without at the same time were heard the cries of the people that if he escaped the judgment of the senate they would with their own hands destroy him. They had already dragged his statues to the place from whence malefactors were precipitated and there had broken them. But by the orders of Tiberius they were rescued and replaced. Piezo was put into a litter and carried back by a tribune of a Praetorian cohort, and attendance variously understood whether that officer was intended as a guard for his safety or a minister of death. Plancina was under equal public hatred, but had more secret favor. Hence it was doubted how far Tiberius' thirst proceed against her. For herself, while her husband's hopes were yet plausible, she professed that she would accompany his fortune whatever it were and if he fell fall with him. But when by the secret solicitations of Livia she had secured her own pardon she began by degrees to drop her husband and to make a separate defense. After this fatal warning he doubted whether he should make any further efforts, but by the advice of his sons fortifying his mind he again entered the senate. There he found the prosecution renewed, suffered the declared indignation of the fathers, and saw all things cross and terrible, but nothing so much daunted him as to behold Tiberius, without mercy, without wrath, close, dark, unmovable, and bent against every access of tenderness. When he was brought home, as if he were preparing for his further defense the next day, he wrote somewhat, which he sealed and delivered to his freedmen. He then washed and anointed and took the usual care of his person. Late in the night his wife leaving the chamber he ordered the door to be shut, and was found at break of day with his throat cut, his sword lying by him. I remember to have heard from ancient men that in the hands of Piso was frequently seen a bundle of writings which he did not expose, but which, as his friends constantly averred, contained the letters of Tiberius and his cruel orders towards Germanicus, that he resolved to lay them before the fathers and to charge the emperor, but was deluded by the hollow promises of Sojanus, and that neither did Piso die by his own hands, but by those of an expressant private executioner. I dare affirm neither, nor yet ought I to conceal the relations of such as still lived when I was a youth. Tiberius, with an assumed air of sadness, complained in the Senate that Piso, by that sort of death, had aimed to load him with obliquy, and asked many questions, how he had passed his last day, how his last night. The freedmen answered to most with prudence, to some in confusion. The emperor then recited the letter sent him by Piso. It was conceived almost in these words. Oppressed by a combination of my enemies and the imputation of false crimes, since no place is left here to truth and my innocence, to the immortal gods I appeal that towards you Caesar I have lived with sincere faith, nor towards your mother with less reverence. For my sons I implore her protection and yours. My son Cnius had no share in my late management whatever it were, since all the while he abode at Rome. My son Marcus dissuaded me from returning to Syria. Oh, that old as I am I had yielded to him rather than he young as he is to me. Hence more passionately I pray that innocent as he is he suffer not in the punishment of my guilt. By a series of services for five and forty years I entreat you, by our former fellowship in the consulship, by the memory of the deified Augustus, your father, by his friendship to me, by mine to you I entreat you for the life and fortune of my unhappy son. It is the last request which I shall ever make you. Of Plancina he said nothing. Tiberius upon this cleared the young man of any crime as to the civil war. He alleged the orders of his father which a son could not disobey. He likewise bewailed that noble house and even the grievous lot of Piso himself however deserved. For Plancina he pleaded with shame and guilt alleging the importunity of his mother against whom more particularly the secret murmurs of the best people waxed bitter and poignant. Was it then the tender part of a grandmother to admit to her sight the murderous of her grandson, to be intimate with her and to snatch her from the vengeance of the Senate? To Germanicus alone was denied what by the laws was granted to every citizen. By Vitellius and Verranius the cause of that prince was mourned and pleaded. By the emperor and his mother Plancina was defended and protected. Henceforth she might pursue her infernal art so successfully tried, repeat her poisonings, and by her arts and poisons assail Agrippina and her children, and with the blood of that most miserable house satiate the worthy grandmother and uncle. In this mock trial two days were wasted. Tiberius all the while animating the sons of Piso to defend their mother. When the pleaders and witnesses had vigorously pushed the charge and no reply was made, commiseration prevailed over hatred. The consul Aurelius Cotter was first asked his opinion, for when the emperor collected the voices the magistrates likewise voted. Cotter's sentence was that the name of Piso should be raised from the annals, part of his estate forfeited, part granted to his son Cnius upon changing that name. His son Marcus should be divested of his dignity and content with 50,000 great cesterces be banished for ten years, and to Plancina at the request of Livia indemnity should be granted. Much of this sentence was abated by the emperor, particularly that of striking Piso's name out of the annals, when that of Mark Antony, who made war upon his country, that of Julus Antonius, who had by adultery violated the house of Augustus, continued still there. He also exempted Marcus Piso from the ignominy of degradation and left him his whole paternal inheritance. For as I have already often observed he was incorruptible by any temptations of money, and from the shame of having acquitted Plancina rendered then more than usually mild. He likewise withstood the motion of Villerius Messilinas for erecting a golden statue in the temple of Mars the Avenger, and that of Cicina Severus for founding an altar to revenge. Such monuments, as these, he argued, were only fit to be raised upon foreign victories. Domestic evils were to be buried in sadness. Messilinas had added that to Tiberius, Livia, Antonia, Agrippina, and Drusus public thanks were to be rendered for having revenged the death of Germanicus, but had admitted to mention Claudius. Messilinas was asked by Lucius Espranus in the presence of the Senate whether by design he had omitted him, and then at last the name of Claudius was subjoined. To me, the more I revolve the events of late or of old, the more of mockery and slipperiness appears in all human wisdom and the transactions of men. For in popular fame, in the hopes, wishes, and veneration of the public, all men were rather destined to the empire than he for whom fortune then reserved the sovereignty in the dark. Recorded by Claude Banta. The complete works of Tacitus, to which are prefixed political discourses upon that author. edited and translated by Thomas Corden. Volume one, The Annals, Book Three, Part Two, The Disgrace of Piso. A few days after, Vitelius, Voronius, and Severus were by the Senate prefer to the honors of the priesthood at the motion of Tiberius. To Volcinius he promised his interest in suffrage towards performant, but advised him not to embarrass his eloquence by impetuosity. This was the end of Revenging the Death of Germanicus. An affair ambiguously related, not by those only who then lived and interested themselves in it, but likewise in following times. So dark and intricate are all the highest transactions. While some hold for certain facts, the most precarious hearsays, others turn facts into falsehood, and both are swallowed and improved by the credulity of posterity. Juicis went now without the city, there to renew the ceremony of the auspices, and presently re-entered in the triumph of Ovation. A few days after, died Vispania his mother, of all the children of Agrippa, the only one who made a pacific end. The rest manifestly perished, or are believed to have perished by the sword, poison, and famine. The same year, Takfaranus, whom I have mentioned to have been the former summer defeated by Camillus, renewed the war in Africa. First, by roving devastations, so sudden that they escaped, unchastised. Next, he sacked towns, and bore away mighty plunder. At last he bejured a Roman cohort, a small distance from the river Pajida. It was a fort commanded by Decreus, a brave soldier, exercised in war, and now touched with the ignominy of such a siege. Encouraging therefore his men to offer open battle, he drew them up without the walls. At the first shock the cohort was repulsed, but the resolute Decreus braved the enemy s darts, opposed the runaways, and upbraided the standard-bearers, that upon vagabonds and undisciplined robbers the Roman soldiers turned their backs. He had already received several wounds, and his eye was beat out, but still faced the foe, nor ceased fighting, till wholly deserted by his men, he at last was slain. Lucius Apronius had succeeded Camillus. As soon as he learned this defeat, peaked rather by the infamy of his own men, than by the glory of the enemy, he practiced an exemplary severity, at this time rare, but agreeable to ancient discipline, by executing with a club every tenth man of that anonymous cohort drawn by lot. Such, too, was the effect of this rigor, that those very forces of Tachforanus, as they besieged the fortress of Thala, were routed by a squadron of five hundred veterans. In this battle, Rufus Helveus, a common soldier, acquired the glory of saving a citizen, and was, by Apronius, presented with the spear and collar. Tiberius added the civic crown, complaining, rather than resenting, that Apronius had not, in right of proconsul, granted that also. Tachforanus, now his Numidians were dismayed, and bent against sieges, made a desultory war, flying when attacked, and upon a retreat, assaulting the rear. As long as the African observed this method, he, with impunity to himself, mocked and harassed the Romans. But, after he drew down to the maritime places, the alarments and quantities of plunder confined him to his camp. Hither, Apronius Cezanius was, by his father, dispatched with the cavalry and auxiliary cohorts, to which was added a detachment of the best legionary foot, and, having successfully fought the Numidians, drove them back to the deserts. At Rome the while, Emilia Lepida, who, besides the nobleness of the Emilean family, was great-granddaughter to Pompeii and Sila, was charged with imposing a false birth upon Publius Corinius, her husband, a man rich and childless. The charge was swelled with adulterous poisonings, and reasonable dealings with the Shaldians about the fate and continuance of the imperial house. Her brother Mannyus Lepidus defended her, and, guilty and infamous as she was, the persecution from her husband, continued after their divorce, drew compassion upon her. In the trial it was no easy matter to discover the heart of Tiberius. With such subtlety he mixed and shifted the symptoms of indignation and clemency. At first he besought the Senate, not to muddle with the articles of treason, and presently engaged Marcus Servilius, once consul, and the other witnesses, to produce the very evidences of treason, which he would have appeared desirous to suppress. Yet he took the slaves of Lepida from the guard of soldiers, and surrendered them to the consuls. Nor would he suffer them to be examined by torture, as to her practice against himself. He even excused Drusus from voting first as consul-elect. This some understood as an instance of complacence, that the rest might not be obliged to follow the example of Drusus. Some ascribe it to cruelty, for that only with design to have her condemned, that concession was made. The public games interrupted the trial, and in the recess Lepida, accompanied with other ladies of great quality, entered the theatra. There, with doful lamentations, invoking her illustrious ancestors, especially the great Pompeii, whose statues stood round in view, the theatra itself, a monument of his raising, she excited such universal commiseration, that the spectators burst into tears, and uttering cruel and direful implications against Carinius, declared their indignation. That, to his childless old age and mean blood, should be given a lady once designed for the wife of Lucius Caesar, and for the daughter-in-law of the deified Augustus. At last, by racking her slaves, her crimes were made manifest, and the judgment of rebellious blondes prevailed, for interdicting her from fire and water. To this judgment Drusus assented, though others had proposed a milder, that her estate should not be forfeited, was granted to Scourus, who by her had had a daughter. And now, after condemnation, Tiberius advertised the senate, that, from the slaves too of Carinius, he had learnt her attempts to poison him. As a consolation to the illustrious families of Rome, for their late calamities, for the Calpurnian house had suffered the loss of Piso, and just after the Emelian house, that of Lepida, Decius Silanus was now restored to the Junian family. I will briefly recite his disgrace, as against the Republic, the fortune of Augustus was prevalent. So, in his family, it was unhappy, by the lewdness of his daughter and granddaughter, whom he turned out of Rome, and with death or exile punished their adulterers. For to a fault common between men and women, he gave the heinous name of sacrilege and treason, and thence had a color for departing from the tenderness of our ancestors, and for violating his own laws. But I shall hereafter relate the fate of others, from this his severity, as also the other transactions of that time, if having finished my present undertaking, life remains for other studies. Silanus, who had viciated the granddaughter of Augustus, though he felt no higher indignation than to be excluded from the friendship and presence of the emperor, yet understood this as a denunciation of banishment, nor dursty till the reign of Tiberius supplicates the prince and senate for leave to return, and then only trusted to the prevailing credit of his brother Marcus Silanus, distinguished by his illustrious quality and eminent for his great eloquence. Marcus, having returned thanks to Tiberius, had this answer before the senate, that he himself also rejoiced that his brother was returned from travels so long and remote that his return home was perfectly unexceptionable, since neither by decree of senate nor by any sentence of law had he been driven thence, that to himself, however, still remained entire the resentment of his father towards him, nor by the return of Silanus, were the purposes of Augustus violated. Thenceforth he remained in Rome, but distinguished by no performant in the state. The qualifying of the law Papia Popeia was afterwards proposed, a law which, to enforce those of Julius Caesar, Augustus had made when he was old for punishing celibacy and enriching the exchequer. Nor, even by this means, had marriages and children multiplied, while a passion to live single and childless still prevailed. But in the meantime the numbers threatened and in danger by it increased daily, while by the glosses and chicaney of the impletors every family was undone. So that, as before the city labored under the weight of crimes, so now under the pest of laws, from this thought I am led backwards to the first rise of laws, and to open the steps and causes by which we are arrived to the present number and excess, a number infinite and perplexed. The first race of men, free as yet from every depraved passion, lived without guile and crimes, and therefore without chastisements and restraints, nor was their occasion for rewards. When of their own accord they pursued righteousness, and as they courted nothing contrary to justice they were debarred from nothing by terrors. But after they had abandoned their original equality and from modesty and shame to do evil proceeded to ambition and violence. Lordly dominion was introduced and arbitrary rule, and in many nations grew perpetual. Some, either from the beginning or after they were surfeited with kings, preferred the sovereignty of laws, which, agreeably to the artless minds of men, were at first short and simple. The laws in most renown were those framed for the creations by Minos, for the Spartans by Lycurgus, and afterwards such as Solon delivered to the Athenians, now greater in number and more exquisitely composed. To the Romans justice was administered by Romulus according to his pleasure. After him Numa managed the people by religious devices and laws divine. Some institutions were made by Tolius Hostilius, some by Ancus Martinus, but above all our laws were those founded by Servius Tullius. Such laws as even our kings were bound to obey. Upon the expulsion of Arcoin, the people, for the security of their freedom against the encroachment and factions of the senate, and for binding the public concord, prepared many ordinances. Hence were created the Decemberi, and by them were composed the twelve tables out of a collection of the most excellent institutions found abroad. This was the period of all upright and impartial laws. What laws followed, though sometimes made against crimes and offenders, were yet chiefly made by violence, through the animosity of the two estates, and for seizing unjustly withholding offices, or for banishing illustrious patriots and other wicked ends. Hence the Gracchi and Saternani, inflamers of the people, and hence Livius Drusus vying on behalf of the senate in popular concessions with these inflamers, whence our Italian allies were first corrupted and animated with their promises, then by the opposition of other demagogues disappointed and deceived. Neither during the war of Italy, nor during the civil war, was the making of regulations discontinued. Many and contradictory were even then made. At last, Silla the dictator, changing or abolishing the past, added many of his own, and procured some respite in this matter but not long, for presently followed the turbulent pursuits and proposals of Lepidus, and soon after were the tribunes restored to their licentious authority of throwing the people into combustions at pleasure. And now laws were not made for the public only, but for particular men, particular laws, and corruption abounding in the commonwealth, the commonwealth abounded in laws. Ampe was now, in his third consulship, chosen to correct the public enormities, and his remedies proved to the state more grievous than its distempers. He made laws such as suited his ambition, and broke them when they thwarted his will, and lost by arms the regulations which by arms he had procured. Henceforward, for twenty years, civil discord raged, and there was neither law nor settlement. The most wicked found impunity in the excess of their wickedness, and many virtuous men in their uprightness met destruction. At length, Augustus Caesar, in his sixth consulship, then confirmed in power without arrival, abolished the orders which during the triumvirate he had established, and gave us laws proper for peace and a single ruler. These laws had sanctions severe than any here too foreknown. As their guardians, informers, were appointed, who by the law Papia Popeia were encouraged with rewards, to watch such as neglected the privileges annexed to marriage and fatherhood, and consequently could claim no legacy or inheritance. The same as vacant belonging to the Roman people, who were the public parent. But these informers struck much deeper, by them the whole city, all Italy, and the Roman citizens in every part of the empire, were infested and persecuted. Numbers were stripped of their entire fortunes, and terror had seized all. When Tiberius, for a check to this evil, chose twenty noblemen, five who were formerly consuls, five who were formerly praetors, with ten other senators, to review that law, by them many of its intricacies were explained, its strictness qualified, and hence some present alleviation was yielded. Tiberius, about this time, recommended to the senate Nero, one of the sons of Germanicus, now seventeen years of age, and desired, that he might be exempted from executing the office of the vision to ferrate, and have leave to sue for the coistership five years sooner than the laws directed. A piece of mockery this request to Alu heard it, but Tiberius pretended, that the same concessions had been decreed to himself and his brother Drusus, at the request of Augustus. Nor do I doubt, but there were then such who secretly ridiculed that sort of petitions from Augustus. Such policy was however natural to that prince, then laying the foundations of the imperial power, and while the republic and its laws were still fresh in the minds of men. Besides, the relation was lighter between the Augustus and his wife's sons, than between a grandfather and his grandsons. To the grant of the coistership was added a seat in the College of Pontiffs, and the first day he entered the forum in his manly robe, a donative of corn and money was distributed to the populace, who exalted to behold the son of Germanicus, now of age. Their joy was soon heightened by his marriage with Julia, the daughter of Drusus, but as these transactions were attended with public applauses, so the intended marriage of the daughter of Sejanus with the son of Claudius was received with popular indignation. By this alliance, the nobility of the Claudian house seemed stained, and by its Sejanus, already suspected of aspiring views, was exalted still higher. At the end of this year died two great and eminent men, Lucius Volusius and Celestius Crispus. The family of Volusius was ancient, but in the exercise of public office rose never higher than the praetorship it was he who honored it with the consulship. He was likewise created censor for modeling the classes of the equestrian order and first accumulated the wealth which raised that family beyond all measure. Crispus was born of an equestrian house, great nephew by a sister, Takia Celestius, their renowned Roman historian, and by him adopted. The way to the great offices was open to him, but in imitation of Masonus he lived without the dignity of senator, yet out went in power many who were distinguished with consulships and triumphs. His manner of living, his dress, and daintiness were different from the ways of antiquity, and in expense and affluence he bordered rather upon luxury. He possessed, however, a vigor of spirit equal to great affairs, and exerted the greater promise for that he hid it in a shoe of indolence and sloth. He was therefore in the lifetime of Masonus the next in favor, afterwards chief confidant in all the secret councils of Augustus and Tiberius, and assenting to the order for slaying a grip of posthumous. In his old age he preserved with the prince rather the outside than the vitals of authority. The same had happened to Masonus. Such is the lot of power, rarely perpetual, perhaps from satiety on both sides, when princes have no more to grant and ministers no more to crave. Next followed the consulship of Tiberius and Drusus, to Tiberius the fourth, to Drusus the second. A consulship remarkable for that in it the father and son were colleagues. There was indeed the same fellowship between Tiberius and Germanicus two years before, but besides the distaste of jealousy in the uncle the ties of blood were not so near. In the beginning of the year Tiberius, on pretense of his health, retired to Campania, either already meditating along and perpetual retirement, or to leave to Drusus in his father's absence, the honor of executing the consulship alone. And there happened a thing, which small in itself, yet as it produced mighty contestation, furnished the young consul with matter of popular affection. Domitius Corbulo, formerly Praetor, complained to the senate of Lucius Sila, a noble youth, that in the shoe of gladiators Sila would not yield in place. Age, domestic custom, and the ancient men were for Corbulo. Mamarchus Scaurus, Lucius Aruntius, and others labored for their kinsmen Sila. Warm speeches were made, and the examples of our ancestors were urged, who by severe decrees and censured and restrained the irreverence of youth. Drusus interposed with arguments proper for calming animosities, and Corbulo had satisfaction made him by Scaurus, who was both father-in-law and uncle to Sila, and the most copious orator of that age. The same Corbulo, exclaiming against the condition of most of the roads through Italy, that through the fraud of the undertakers and negligence of the civil officers, they were broken and unpassable, undertook of his own accord the cure of that abuse, and undertaking which he executed, not so much to the advantage of the public as to the ruin of many private men in their fortunes and reputation by his violent mulks and unjust judgments and forfeitures. Soon after, Tiberius, by letter, acquainted the senate, thought by the incursions of Takforanus, there were fresh commotions in Africa, and that they must choose a proconsul, one of military experience, vigorous and equal to that war. Sextus Pompeius, taking this occasion to discharge his hate against Marcus Lepidus, reproached him as dastardly indigent, a scandal to his ancestors, and therefore to be divested even of the government of Asia, his province by lot. The senate opposed him. They thought Lepidus, a man rather mild than slothful, and that, as in his narrow fortune bequeathed to him, but not impaired by him, he supported his quality without blemish. He merited honor rather than contumely. He was therefore sent to Asia. Concerning Africa, it was decreed that the appointment of a governor should be left to the emperor. During these transactions, Cicina Severus proposed that no magistrate should go into any province accompanied by his wife. He introduced this motion with a long preface, that he lived with his own in perfect concord. By her he had six children, and what he offered to the public he had practiced himself, having, during forty years' service, left her still behind him, confined to Italy. It was not indeed without cause, established of old, that women should neither be carried by their husbands into Confederate nations nor into foreign. A train of women introduced luxury in peace by their fears retarded war, and made a Roman army resemble, in their march, a mixed host of barbarians. The sex was not tender only and unfit for travel, but if suffered cruel and aspiring and greedy of authority. They even marched amongst the soldiers and were obeyed by the officers. A woman had lately presided at the exercises of the troops and at the decursions of the legions. The senate themselves might remember, that as often as many of the magistrates were charged with plundering the provinces, their wives were always charged with much guilt. To the ladies the most profligate in the province ever applied, by them all affairs were undertaken, by them transacted. At home two distinct courts were kept, and abroad the wife had her distinct train and attendance. The ladies, too, issued distinct orders, but more imperious and better obeyed. Such feminine excesses were formerly restrained by the opium and other laws, but now these restraints were violated, women ruled all things, their families, the forum and tribunals, and even the armies. This speech was heard by few with approbation, and many proclaimed their dissent, for that neither was at the point in debate, nor was Cecina considerable enough to censor so weighty an affair. He was presently answered by Valerius Masalinas, who was the son of Masala, and inherited a sparkling of his father's eloquence. That many rigorous institutions of the ancients were softened and changed for the better, for neither was Rome now, as of old, beset with wars, nor Italy with hostile provinces. Hence a few concessions were made to the conveniences of women, who were so far from burdening the provinces, that to their own husbands there they were no burden. As to honors, attendance and expense, they enjoyed them in common with their husbands, who could receive no embarrassment from their company in time of peace. To war, indeed, we must go equipped and unencumbered, but after the fatigues of war, what was more allowable than the consolations of a wife? But it seemed the wives of some magistrates had given a loose to ambition and avarice, and were the magistrates themselves free from these excesses, were not most of them governed by many exorbitant appetites? Did we therefore send none into the provinces? It was added that the husbands were corrupted by their corrupt wives, were therefore all single men uncorrupt? The opium laws were once thought necessary, because the exigencies of the State required their severity. They were afterwards relaxed and mollified, because that too was expedient for the State. In vain we covered our own sloth with borrowed names. If the wife broke bounds, the husband ought to bear the blame. It was, moreover, unjustly judged for the weak and exorious spirit of one or a few to bereave all others of the fellowship of their wives, the natural partners of their prosperity and distress. Besides, the sex weak by nature would be left defenseless, exposed to the luxurious bent of their native passions and to the seduction of adulterers. Scarce under the eye and restraint of the husband was the marriage bed preserved in violet. What must be the consequence, when, by an absence of many years, the ties of marriage would be forgot as it were in a divorce? It became them therefore, so to cure the evils abroad, as not to forget the enormities at Rome. To this, Drusus added somewhat concerning his own wedlock. Princes, he said, were frequently obliged to visit the remote parts of the empire. How often did the deified Augustus travel to the east? How often to the west? Still accompanied with Livia. He himself, too, had taken a progress to Illyricum, and, if it were expedient, was ready to visit other nations, but not always with an easy spirit if he were to be torn from his dear wife, her by whom he had so many children. Thus was Cicina's motion eluded. When the senate met next, they had a letter from Tiberius. In it, he affected indirectly to chide the fathers, though upon whom they cast all public cares, and named them M. Lepidus and Junius Blisius to choose either for proconsul of Africa. They were then both heard as to this nomination, and Lepidus excused himself with earnestness, pleaded his bodily frailty, the tender age of his children, and a daughter fit for marriage. There was another reason, too, of which he said nothing, but it was easily understood, even that Blisius was Uncle Decisionus, and, therefore, had the prevailing interest. Blisius, too, made a shoe of refusing, but not with a like positiveness, and, moreover, was heard with partiality by the flatterers of power. Now at last broke out a grievance which had lain hithero smothered in the uneasy minds of men. The statues of the emperor were become sanctuaries to every profligate, who, by laying hold of these statues, had assumed the insolence of venting with impunity, their invectives, and hatred against worthy men. Even slaves and freedmen were then scorned terrible to their masters, and wantonly insulted and threatened them. Against this abuse it was argued by Caesestius, the senator, that princes were indeed the representatives of the gods, but by the gods just petitions only were heard. Nor did anyone but take himself to the capital, or to the other temples of Rome, that under their sacred shelter he might exercise villainies. The laws were abolished, and finally overturned, if a criminal convict could, in the public forum, nay at the door of the senate, assault her prosecutor with invectives and menaces. Yet thus had Aenea Rufila assaulted him. She, whom Ea got judicially condemned for forgery, neither durst he seek relief from the law, for that she protected herself with the emperor's statue. Much the same reasoning was offered by others. Some aggravated the offense with greater bitterness, and besought drusas to shoe an exemplary instance of vengeance, so that she was summoned, convicted of the charge, and by his command committed to the common prison. Caesestius Icus II and Celius Cursor, Roman knights, were at the motion of drusas, punished by a decree of senate, for forging a charge of treason against the praetor Maggia Cecilianus. From this their punishment, and that of Rufila, drusas reaped popular praise, that by him living thus sociably at Rome, and frequenting the public assemblies, the dark spirit and designs of his father were softened. Neither did the luxury in which the young prince lived give much offense, let him it was said, be rather thus employed, his days in shoes and acts of popularity, his knights in banqueting, then in dismal solitude, withdrawn from public aity, worried with incessant distrusts, and fostering black designs. For neither was Tiberius, nor the Impleters yet tired with accusations. On Carius Priscus had accused Caceus Cordus, proconsul of Crete, of robbing the public, with an additional charge of high treason. A charge which at the time was the main bulwark of all accusations. Antistias Vitus, a noble man of the first rank in Macedonia, had been tried for adultery and absolved. This offended Tiberius, who reproached the judges and recalled him to be tried for treason, as a disturber of the public and confederate with the late King Rescuporis. When having slain his brother Cotis, he meditated war against us, so that Vitus was condemned and interdicted from fire and water. To this sentence it was added, that he should be confined to an island, neither in the neighborhood of Macedon, nor of Thrace. For upon the division of that kingdom, between Remitocles and the sons of Cotis, who being children had for their guardian Trebulinus Rufus, the Thracians, not used to our government, waxed discontented and tumultuous. Nor did they less censor Remitocles than Trebulinus. For leaving unpunished, the violence has done them. The Coletians, Odracians, and other very powerful nations took arms under distinct captains, but all equal in meanness and in capacity. For this reason their armies were not united, nor the war terrible. Some committed ravages at home, others traversed Mount Hamas to engage in the insurrection the distant provinces. The greatest part, and best appointed, besieged Philipopolis, a city founded by Philip of Macedon, and in it King Remitocles. Publius Vilius, who commanded the army in the neighboring province, when he heard of these commotions, dispatched parties of horse and light foot. Some against those who roamed about for plunder, some against such as rambled from place to place to solicit suckers. He himself led the body of the infantry to raise the siege. These several enterprises were at once successfully executed. The rovers were cut off, divisions arose amongst the besiegers, and the king fortunately sallied, just as the Roman forces arrived. This gang of Thracians deserved not the name of an army, nor this route to be called a battle, where vagabonds, half armed or slaughtered, without blood on our side.