 INTRODUCTION TO THE COMPLETE WORKS OF TACITUS, EDITED BY TOMAS GORDEN THE COMPLETE WORKS OF TACITUS, TO WHICH ARE PREFIXED POLITICAL DISCORSES APON THAT AUTHOR, EDITED AND TRANSLATED BY TOMAS GORDEN, WITH INTERDUCTORY ESSES BY TOMAS GORDEN, VOL. 1, THE ANALS, BOOK III, PART III, TIBERIOUS PLEADS WITH THE SENATE The same year the cities of Gaul stimulated by their excessive debts began a rebellion. The most vehement incendiaries were Julius Flores and Julius Sacrover, the first amongst those of Treves, the second amongst the Ed ones. They were both of distinguished nobility, both descended from ancestors who had done signal services to the Roman state, and thence acquired of old the right of Roman citizens, a privilege rare in those days, and only the prize of virtue. When by secret meetings they had gained those who were most prompt to rebel, with such as were desperate enough through indigence, or from guilt of past crimes, forced to commit more, they agreed that Flores should begin the insurrection in Belgium, Sacrover, among the neighboring Gauls. They therefore had many consultations and cabals, where they spared no topic of sedition. Their tribute without end, their devouring usury, the pride and cruelty of their governors, the discord that had seized the Roman soldiery since the report of the murder of Germanicus, a glorious conjecture for redeeming their liberty, if they would only consider their own happiness and strength, while Italy was poor and exhausted, the Roman populace weak and unwarlike, the Roman army's destitute of all vigor, but that derived from foreigners. Scarce one city remained untainted with the seeds of this rebellion, but it first broke out at Angiers en Tour. The former were reduced by Achilius aviola, a legate, with the assistance of a cohort drawn from the garrison at Lyons. Those of Tours were suppressed by the same aviola, assisted with a detachment sent from the legions by Visellius Varro, lieutenant governor of lower Germany. Some of the chiefs of the Gauls had likewise joined him with Sukkars, the better to disguise their defection, and to push it with more effect hereafter. Even Sacrover was beheld engaged in fight for the Romans, with his head bare, a demonstration he pretended of his bravery, but the prisoners of Erd, quotes open, that he did it to be known to his countrymen and to escape their darts, quotes closed. An account of all this was laid before Tiberius, who slighted it, and by hesitation, fostered the war. Florus the Wild pushed his designs and tried to persuade a regiment of horse levied at treves and kept under our pay and discipline to begin the war by putting to the sword the Roman merchants, and some few were corrupted by him, but the body remained in their legions. A rabble, however, of his followers and desperate debtors, took arms and were making to the forest of Arden when the legions, sent from both armies by Visellius and Caesilius, through different routes to intercept them, marred their march. Julius Indus, too, one of the same country with Florus, at enmity with him, and therefore more eager to engage him, was dispatched forward with a chosen band and broke the ill-appointed multitude. Florus, by lurking from place to place, frustrated the search of the conquerors. At last, when he saw all the passes beset with soldiers, he fell by his own hands. This was the issue of the insurrection at treves. Since the Eduans, the revolt was much stronger, as the state was more opulent, and the forces to suppress it were to be brought from afar. Augusta Dunem, the capital of the nation, was seized by Sacrover, and in it all the noble youth of Gaul, who were there instructed in the liberal arts. By securing these pledges, he aimed to bind in his interest their parents and relations, and at the same time distributed to the young man the arms which he had caused to be secretly made. He had forty thousand men, the fifth part armed like our legions, the rest with poles, hangers, and other weapons used by hunters. To the number were added such of the slaves as had been appointed to be gladiators, covered after the fashion of the country with a continued armor of iron, and styled croupillarii, a sort of militia, unwieldy at exercising their own weapons and impenetrable by those of others. These forces were still increased by volunteers from the neighboring cities, where, though the public body did not hitherto avow the revolt, yet the zeal of particulars was manifest. They had likewise leisure to increase from the contention of the two Roman generals, a contention for some time undecided, while each demanded the command in that war. At length, Varro, old and infirm, yielded to the superior vigor of Silius. Now at Rome, quotes open, not only the insurrection of treves and that of the Eduans, but likewise that three score and four cities of Gaul had revolted, that the Germans had joined in the revolt, and that Spain fluctuated, quotes closed, were reports, all believed with the usual aggravations of fame. The best men grieved in sympathy for their country, many from hatred of the present government, and thirst of change rejoiced in their own perils. They invaded against Tiberius, quotes open, that in such a mighty uproar of rebellion he was only employed in perusing the informations of the state accusers, quotes closed. They asked, quotes open, did he mean to surrender Julius Sacrover to the Senate, to try him for treason, quotes closed. They exalted, quotes open, that there were at last found men who would with arms restrain his bloody letters to the Senate, continually demanding condemnations and executions, quotes closed, and declared, quotes open, that even war was a happy change for a most wretched and calamitous peace, quotes closed. So much the more for this, Tiberius affected to appear wrapped up in security and unconcern. He neither changed place nor countenance, but behaved himself at that time as at other times, whether from elevation of mind, or whether he had learnt that the state of things was not alarming and only heightened by vulgar representation. Cilius, while sending forward a band of exiliaries, marched with two legions and ravaged the villages of the Sequanians, next neighbors to the Eduans, and their associates in arms. He then advanced towards Augusta Dunham, a hasty march, the standard bearers mutually vying in expedition, and the common men breathing ardour and eagerness, quotes open, that no time might be wasted even in the usual refreshments, none of their nights in sleep. Let them only see and confront the foe, they wanted no more to be victorious, quotes closed. Twelve miles from Augusta Dunham, Sacrover appeared with his forces upon the planes. In the front he had placed the iron troop, his cohorts in the wings, the half-armed in the rear. He himself, upon a fine horse, attended by the other chiefs, addressing himself to them from rank to rank, reminded them, quotes open, of the glorious achievements of the ancient Gauls, of the victorious mischiefs they had brought upon the Romans, of the liberty and renown attending victory, of their redoubled and intolerable servitude, if once more vanquished, quotes closed. A short speech and disheartened audience. Four, the embattled legions approached, and the crowd of townsmen, ill-appointed and novices in war, stood astonished, bereft of the present use of eyes and hearing. On the other side, Silius, though he presumed the victory, and thence might have spared exhortations, yet called to his men, quotes open, that they might be with reason ashamed, that they, the conquerors of Germany, should be thus led against a rabble of Gauls as against an equal enemy. One cohort had newly defeated the rebels of Ture, one regiment of horse, those of treaves. A handful of this very army had routed the Sequanians. The present Eduans, the more they abound in wealth, the more they wallow in voluptuousness, are so much the more soft and unwarlike. This is what you are now to prove, and your task to prevent their escape. Quotes closed. His words were returned with a mighty cry. The horse surrounded the foe. The foot attacked their front, and the wings were presently routed. The iron band gave some short obstruction, as the bars of their coats withstood the strokes of sword and pike. But the soldiers had recourse to their hatchets and pickaxes, and, as if they had battered a wall, hewed their bodies in armor. Others with clubs and some with forks beat down the helpless lumps, who as they lay stretched along without one struggle to rise, were left for dead. Sacrover fled first to Augusta Dunum, then fearful of being surrendered to a neighboring town, accompanied by his most faithful adherents. There he slew himself, and the rest one another, having first set the town on fire, by which they were all consumed. Now at last Tiberius wrote to the Senate about this war. And it once acquainted them with its rise and conclusion. Neither aggravating facts nor lessening them, but added, quotes open, that it was conducted by the fidelity and bravery of his lieutenants, guided by his counsels. Quotes closed. He likewise assigned the reasons why neither he nor Drusus went to that war, quotes open, that the empire was an immense body, and it became not the dignity of a prince upon the revolt of one or two communities to desert the capital whence motion was derived to the whole. But now, since he could not be thought conducted by any dread of those nations, he would take a progress to visit and settle them, quotes closed. The Senate decreed vows and supplications for his return with other customary honors. Only Cornelius Dolabella, while he strove to outdo others, fell into ridiculous sycophancy by proposing, quotes open, that returning from Campania he should enter Rome through the triumph of Ovation, quotes closed. This occasioned a letter from Tiberius, in which he declared, quotes open, that he was not so destitute of glory that after having in his youth subdued the fiercest nations and enjoyed or slighted so many triumphs he should now, in his old age, seek empty honors from a short progress about the suburbs of Rome, quotes closed. About the same time he desired of the Senate, that, quotes open, the core of Sulpetius Quirinus might be distinguished with a public funeral, quotes closed. Quirinus was born at Lanuvium, a municipal town, and no wise related to the ancient patrician family of the Sulpete, but being a brave soldier was for his vigorous military services to Augustus rewarded with a consulship, and soon after with a triumph for driving the Hominades out of their strongholds in Cilicia. Next when the young Chaos Caesar was sent to settle the affairs of Armenia, Quirinus was appointed his governor, and at the same time paid all court to Tiberius, then in his retirement at Rhodes. This the emperor represented now to the Senate, extolled the kind offices of Quirinus, and branded Marcus Lolius as the author of the perverse behavior of Chaos Caesar to himself, and of all the jarring between them. In other instances the memory of Quirinus was not acceptable to the Senate, for his deadly persecution against Lepida above recited, and for his prevailing power and avarice in his old age. At the end of the year, Caeus Lutorius Priscus, a Roman knight, who had composed a celebrated poem bewailing the death of Germanicus, and received a reward from Tiberius, was attacked by an informer. His charge was, that during an illness of Drusus he had composed another, which if the distemper proved mortal he hoped to publish with a reward still greater. This poem Lutorius had, in the fullness of vanity and ostentation, rehearsed at the house of Publius Petronius, in the presence of Vitellia, mother-in-law to Petronius, and of other ladies of quality, who were all summoned by the impleter, and all except Vitellia, were terrified into a confession. She alone persisted that she had heard nothing. But the evidence tending to destroy him had most credit, and it was the sentence of Heterius Agrippa, consul-elect, that death should be his punishment. This was opposed by M. Lepidus, who spoke on this wise, quotes open, Conscript Fathers, if we only regard with what abominable effusions Lutorius Priscus has defiled his own soul, and the ears of Ben, neither dungeon nor rope nor, indeed, the punishments peculiar to slaves are sufficient for him. But though wickedness and enormities abound without measure, yet since in coercions and penalties we must observe the limits set by the moderation of the Prince, set by precedence made by our ancestors and yourselves, and since we must distinguish the vanity of the head from the malignity of the heart, and words from evil doings, there is room left for a middle judgment by which neither his offense need escape unpunished, nor we repent of our tenderness or severity. I have often heard our Prince complain when any criminal had by a desperate death prevented his mercy. The life of Lutorius is still untouched. To save it will no wise endanger the state, nor will the taking it away have any influence upon others. His studies, as they are full of wildness, are likewise empty and perishing. Neither is ought important or terrible to be apprehended from one who thus betrays his own follies, and makes his court not to the minds of men, but to the imaginations of women. Let him however be expelled Rome, interdicted from fire and water, and his estate beforefitted, which judgment of mine is the same as if he were charged with high treason." Of all the consulers, only rebellious blandus assented to this opinion of Lepidus, the rest voted with a gripper. Priscus was led to the dungeon, and instantly put to death. Tiberius, in a letter to the Senate, discounted upon the proceeding with his usual doubles and ambiguities, magnified, quotes open, their tenderness and zeal in avenging thus with severity, even such slight injuries done to the Prince, quotes closed, and treated them, quotes open, not to be sudden in punishing for words, quotes closed. He praised Lepidus, and censured not a gripper. Hence an order was made, quotes open, that the decrees of Senate should not in less than ten days be carried to the exchequer, and to the condemned so much time should be granted, quotes closed. But to the Senate remain no liberty of revisal for a nulling, nor was Tiberius ever softened by time. Caesulpitius and Decimus Heterius were the following consuls. Their year was exempt from disturbances abroad, but at home some severe blow was apprehended against luxury, which prevailed monstrously in all things that create a profusion of money. But as the more pernicious articles of expense were covered by concealing their prices, therefore from the excesses of the table, which were become the common subject of daily animadversion, apprehensions were raised of some rigid correction from a Prince who observed himself the ancient parsimony. For Caesbibulus, having begun the complaint, the other ediles took it up and argued, quotes open, that the sumptuary laws were despised, the pomp and expense of plate and entertainments, in spite of restraints, increased daily, and by moderate penalties were not to be stopped, quotes closed. This grievance, thus represented to the Senate, was them referred entire to the Emperor. Tiberius, having long weighed with himself whether such an abandoned propensity to prodigality could be stemmed, whether the stemming it would not bring heavier evils upon the public, how dishonorable it would be to attempt what could not be affected, or at least affected by the disgrace of the nobility, and by the subjecting illustrious men to infamous punishments, wrote it last to the Senate in this manner, quotes open. In other matters, conscript fathers, perhaps it might be more expedient for you to consult me in the Senate, and for me to declare there what I judge for the public wheel. But in the debate of this affair it was best that my eyes were withdrawn, lest, while you mark countenances and terror of particulars charged with scandalous luxury, I too should have observed them, and, as it were, caught them in it. Had the vigilant ediles first asked counsel of me, I know not whether I should not have advised them, rather, to have passed by potent and inveterate corruptions, than only make it manifest what enormities are an overmatch for us. But they, in truth, have done their duty, as I would have all other magistrates fulfill theirs. But for myself it is neither commendable to be silent, nor does it belong to my station to speak out, since I neither bear the character of an edile, nor of a praetor, nor of a counsel. Something still greater and higher is required of a prince. One is ready to assume to himself the credit of whatever is well done, while upon the prince alone are thrown the miscarriages of all. But what is it that I am first to prohibit? What excess retrench to the ancient standard? Am I to begin with that of our country seats, spacious without bounds, and with the number of domestics, a number distributed into nations in private families, or with the quantity of plate, silver, and gold, or with pictures, and the works and statues of brass, the wonders of art, or with the gorgeous vestments promiscuously worn by men and women, or with what is peculiar to the women, those precious stones for the purchase of which our coin is carried into foreign and hostile nations? I am not ignorant that at entertainments and in conversations these excesses are censured and a regulation is required. Yet if an equal law were made, if equal penalties were prescribed, these very censures would loudly complain that the state was utterly overturned, that snares and destruction were prepared for every illustrious house, that no man could be guiltless, and all men would be the prey of informers, and yet bodily diseases grow inveterate, and strengthened by time cannot be checked but by medicines rigid and violent. It is the same with the soul, the sick and raging soul itself corrupted in scattering its corruption, is not to be qualified by remedies equally strong with its own flaming lusts. So many laws made by our ancestors, so many added by the deified Augustus, the former being lost in oblivion and, which is more heinous, the latter in contempt have only served to render luxury more secure. When we covet a thing yet unforbidden, we are apt to fear that it may be forbidden, but when once we can with impunity and defiance over leap prohibited bounds, there remain afterwards, nor fear nor shame. How therefore did parsimony prevail of old? It was because everyone was a law to himself. It was because we were then only masters of one city, nor afterwards while our dominion was confined only to Italy had we found the same instigations to voluptuousness. By foreign conquests we learned to waste the property of others, and in the civil war to consume our own. What a mighty matter is it that the ediles remonstrate? How little to be weighed in the balance with others. It is wonderful that nobody represents that Italy is in constant want of foreign supplies, that the lives of the Roman people are daily at the mercy of uncertain seas and of tempests. Were it not for our opponents from the provinces, supports by which the masters and their slaves and their estates are maintained, would our own groves and villas maintain us? This care, therefore, conscript fathers, is the business of the prince, and by the neglect of this care, the foundations of the state would be dissolved. The cure of other defects depends upon our own private spirits. Some of us shame will reclaim, necessity will mend the poor, satiety the rich, or if any of the magistrates from a confidence of his own firmness and perseverance will undertake to stem the progress of so great an evil, he has both my praises and my acknowledgement that he discharges me of part of my fatigues. But if such will only impede corruptions, and when they have gained the glory, would leave upon me the indignation, indignation of their own raising. Believe me, conscript fathers, I am not fond of bearing resentments. I already suffer many for the commonwealth, many that are grievous and almost all unjust, and therefore with reason I intend that I may not be loaded with such as are wantonly and vainly raised, and promise no advantage to you, nor to me. Quotes closed. The Senate, upon reading the emperor's letter, released the ediles from this pursuit, and the luxury of the table which, from the battle of Actium till the revolution made by Galba, flowed for the space of an hundred years in all profusion, at last gradually declined. The causes of this change are worth knowing. Formerly the great families, signaled for nobility, or for riches, were carried away with a passion for magnificence. For in those days it was allowed to court the good graces of the Roman people, with the favor of kings and confederate nations, and to be courted by them, so that each was distinguished by the luster of popularity and dependencies in proportion to his affluence, the splendor of his house, and the figure which he made. But after imperial fury had for some time raged in the slaughter of the grandees, and great reputation brought short destruction, the rest grew wiser. Besides, new men frequently chosen senators from the municipal towns, from the colonies, and even from the provinces, brought with them their own domestic parsimony. And though by fortune or industry many of them grew wealthy as they grew old, yet their former frugal spirit continued. But above all the Spasian proved the promoter of moderation and frugality, being himself the pattern of ancient economy in his person and table, hence the compliance of the public with the manners of the prince, and an emulation to practice them, an incitement more prevalent than the terrors of laws and all their penalties. Or perhaps all human things go a certain round, as there are revolutions of time, there are also vicissitudes in manners. No indeed have our ancestors excelled us in all these things. Our own age has produced many excellencies worthy of praise and the imitation of posterity. Let us still preserve this strife in virtue with our forefathers. Tiberius, having gained the fame of moderation, because by rejecting the profit for reforming luxury, he had disarmed the growing hopes of the accusers, wrote to the senate to desire the tribuncial power for Drusus. Augustus had devised this title as best suiting the supreme power, while avoiding the odious name of king or dictator. Yet he wanted some particular appellation under it to control all powers in the state. He assumed Marcus Agrippa into fellowship in it, and upon his death, Tiberius, that none might doubt who was to be his successor. By this means he conceived he should defeat the aspiring views of others. Besides, he confided in the moderation of Tiberius and in the mightiness of his own authority. By his example, Tiberius now advanced Drusus into a participation of the supreme majesty, whereas, while Germanicus yet lived, he acted without distinction towards both. In the beginning of his letter, he besought the Greeks, quotes open, that by his counsels the Republic might prosper, quotes closed, then added a modest testimony concerning the qualities and behavior of the young prince, without aggravation or false embellishments, quotes open, that he had a wife and three children, and was of the same age with himself, when called by the deified Augustus to that office. That Drusus was not now by him adopted a partner in the Toils of Government precipitately, but after eight years' experience made of his qualifications. After sedition suppressed, wars concluded the honor of triumph and two consul ships, quotes closed. The senators had foreseen this address. Hence they received it with the more elaborate adulation. However they could devise nothing to decree, but, quotes open, statutes to the two princes, altars to the two gods, triumphal arches, quotes closed, and other usual honors, only that Marcus Solanus strove to honor the princes by the disgrace of the consul ship. He proposed, quotes open, that all records, public and private, should for their date be inscribed no more with the names of the consuls, but of those who exercise the tribuncial power, quotes closed. But Heterius Agrippa, by moving to have, quotes open, the decrees of that day engraved in letters of gold and hung up in the senate, quotes closed, became an object of derision. For that, as he was an ancient man, he could reap from his most abominable flattery no other fruit but that of infamy. Section 27 of Tacitus, the Annals, Book 3, Part 3 Section 28 of the Complete Works of Tacitus, edited by Thomas Corden. This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit LibriVox.org. The Complete Works of Tacitus, to which are prefixed political discourses upon that author. Edited and translated by Thomas Corden, with introductory essays by Thomas Corden. Volume 1 The Annals, Book 3, Part 4 International Relations Under Tiberias In the meantime, as the province of Africa was continued to Junius Blicis, Servius Meligonensis, the priest of Jupiter demanded that of Asia, he insisted that it was vainly alleged that such priests were not allowed to leave Italy, that he was under no other restrictions than that of Mars and Romulus, and that if they were admitted to the lots of provinces, why were those of Jupiter debarred? The same was neither adjudged by the authority of the people, nor in the books which assert the sacred rites. Frequently, when the priests of Jupiter were detained by sickness, or engaged, in the public, their function was supplied by the Pontiffs. The function itself lay unfilled for two and seventy years together, after the death of Cornelius Merula, and yet the exercise of religion never ceased. Now, if in such a series of years, religion could subsist unhurt, without the creation of any such priest at all, how much easier might his absence be borne in the exercise of the proconsular power for one year? It was to satiate private peaks, if formerly the priests of Jupiter were by the chief Pontiffs debarred from the government of provinces. But now, by the goodness of the gods, the chief Pontiff was also the chief of men, a Pontiff to whom emulation, hatred, and other personal prepossessions had no access. To these, his reasonings, several answers were made by Lentulus, the augur, and others, but all disagreeing, so that the result was to, wait for the decision of the supreme Pontiff. Tiberius, in his answer to the Senate, postponing his notice of the pretensions of the priest of Jupiter, qualified the honors decreed to Drusus with the tribuncial power, and especially censured the extravagance of the proposition for golden letters, as contrary to the example and usage of Rome. Letters from Drusus were likewise read, and though modest in expression were construed to be full of haughtiness, were all things in the Roman state so miserably reversed that even a youth, one just distinguished with such supreme honor, day not to visit the gods of Rome, nor appear in the Senate, nor begin, in his native city, the auspices of his dignity. No war detained him, he had no journey to make from remote countries, while he was only diverting himself upon the lakes and shores of Campania, and pleasure his chief evocation. With such tuition was he prepared the future ruler of humankind, that this lesson he had himself learned from the maxims of his father. In truth the emperor himself, an ancient man, might find uneasiness in living under the eye of the public, and plead a life already fatigued with age and occupations. But what, besides pride and stateliness, could obstruct Drusus? Tiberius, while he fortified the vitals of his own domination, afforded the Senate the shadow of their ancient jurisdiction, by referring to their examination and petitions and claims from the provinces. For they are now prevailed amongst the Greek cities a latitude of instituting sanctuaries of pleasure. Hence the temples were filled with the most profligate fugitive slaves. Here debtors found protection against their creditors, and hither were admitted such as were pursued for capital crimes. Nor was any authority found sufficient to brindle the seditious zeal of the people, thus defending the villainy of men, as if the same were the sacred institutions of the deities. It was therefore ordered that these cities should send deputies to represent their claims. Some voluntarily relinquished the privileges which they had arbitrarily assumed. Many confided in their right, from the antiquity of their superstitions, or their service to the Roman people. Glorious to the Senate was the appearance of that day. When the grants from our ancestors, the engagements of our Confederates, the ordinances of kings, such kings who had reigned as independent of the Roman power, and even when the institutions sacred to the gods were now all subjugated to their inspection, and their judgment free, as of old, to ratify or abolish with absolute power. First of all, the Ephesons applied, and alleged that Diana and Apollo were not born at Delos according to the opinion of the Volgar. In their territory flowed the river Sincris, where also stood the Ortigian Grove. There the big-bellied Laetana, leaning upon an olive tree, which even then remained, was delivered of these deities, and thence by their appointment the Grove became sacred. Thither Apollo himself, after his slaughter of the Cyclops, retired for a sanctuary from the wrath of Jupiter. Soon after, the victorious Bacchus pardoned the suppliant Amazons, who sought refuge at the altar of Diana. By the concession of Hercules, when he reigned in Lydia, her temple was dignified with an augmentation of immunities, nor during the Persian monarchy where they abridged. They were next maintained by the Macedonians, and then by us. The Magnesians, next asserted their claim, founded on an establishment of Luchius Scipio, confirmed by another of Scylla, the former after the defeat of Antiochus, the latter after that of Mithridates. Having, as a testimony of the faith and bravery of the Magnesians, dignified their temple, the Lucrophrenian Diana with the privileges of an inviolable sanctuary. After them, the Aphrodisians, Estratocenesians, produced a grant from Caesar the dictator for their early services to his party, and another, lately from Augustus, with a commendation inserted, that, was zeal unshaken towards the Roman people, they had borne the eruptions of the Parthians. But these two people adored different deities. Aphrodisium was a city devoted to Venus, that Estratonisia maintained the worship of Jupiter and of Diana Trivia, those of Harios Caesarea exhibited claims of higher antiquity, that they possessed the Persian Diana, and her temple consecrated by King Cyrus. They likewise pleaded the authorities of Perpenna, Isoricus, and of many more Roman captains, who had allowed the same sacred immunity, not to the temple only, but to the precinct two miles around it. Those of Cyprus pleaded rite of sanctuary to three of their temples, the most ancient founded by Aearius, to the Pafian Venus, another by his son Amethus to the Amethusian Venus, the third to the Salamian Jupiter by Tuiker, the son of Telemann, after he fled from the fury of his father. The deputies, too, of the other cities were heard, but the senate, tired with so many, and because there was a contention, begun amongst particular parties for particular cities, gave power to the consuls to search into the validity of their several pretensions, and whether in them no fraud was interroven, with orders to lay the whole matter once more before the senate. The consuls reported that, besides the cities already mentioned, they had found the temple of Iscalapius at Pergamos to be a genuine sanctuary. The rest claimed upon originals from the darkness of antiquity, although obscure, Smyrna particularly pleaded an oracle of Apollo, in obedience to which they had dedicated a temple to Venus Strathenesis, as did the Isle of Tainos, an irracular order from the same god, to erect to Neptune a statue and temple. Sardis urged a later authority, namely a grant from the great Alexander, and Miletus insisted on one from King Darius. As to the deities of these two cities, one worshipped Diana, and the other Apollo, and Crete too demanded the privilege of sanctuary to a statue of the deified Augustus. Hence, diverse orders of the senate were made, by which, though great reverence was expressed towards the deities, yet the extent of the sanctuaries was limited, and the several people were enjoined to, hang up in each temple, the present decree, engraving in brass, as a sacred memorial, and restraint against their lapsing, under the color of religion, into claims of superstition and preeminence. At the same time, a vehement distemper having seized Livia, obliged the emperor to hasten his return to Rome. Seeing the mother and son lived hitherto in apparent unanimity, or perhaps mutually disguised their hate, for, not long before, Livia, having dedicated a statue to the deified Augustus, near the theater of Marcellus, had the name of Tiberius inscribed after her own. This he was believed to have resented heinously, as a degrading the dignity of the prince, but to have smothered his resentment under dark dissimulation. Upon this occasion, therefore, the senate decreed, supplications to the gods, with the celebration of the greater Roman games, under the direction of the Pontus, the augurs, the College of Fifteen, assisted by the College of Seven, and the fraternity of Augustal priests. Lucius Apronius had moved that, with the rest, might persuade the company of heralds. Tiberius opposed it, and distinguished between the jurisdiction of the priests and theirs, for that at no time had the heralds arrived to so much preeminence, but for the Augustal fraternity, they were, therefore, added, because they exercised a priesthood peculiar to that family for which the present vows and solemnities were made. It is no part of my purpose to trace all the votes of particular men, unless they are memorable for integrity, or for notorious infamy. This I conceived to be the principal duty of an historian, that he suppress no instance of virtue, and that by the dread of future infamy, and the censures of posterity, men may be deterred from detestable actions and prostitute speeches. In short, such was the abomination of those times, so prevailing the contingent of flattery, that not the first nobles, whose obnoxious splendor found protection and obsequiousness, but all who had been consuls, a great part of such had been praetors, and even many of the unregistered senators strove for priority in the vileness and excess of their votes. There is a tradition that Tiberius, as often as he went out of the Senate, was want to cry out in Greek. Oh, men, prepared for bondage! Even he who could not bear public liberty nauseated this prostitute tameness of slaves. Hence, by degrees, they proceeded from acts of abasement to those of vengeance. Gaius Salanus, proconsul of Asia, accused by these our allies of robbing the public, was impleted by Remercis Scoris, once consul, Junius Otho, praetor, and Brutidius Kneijer, Edile. They both charged him with violating the divinity of Augustus, and with despising the majesty of Tiberius. Remercis boasted that he had imitated the great examples of old, that Lucius Cata was accused by Scipio, Servius Galba by Cato the Sensor, Publius Brutilius by Marcus Scoris, as if by such crimes as these had ever been avenged by Scipio and Cato. Or by that very Scoris, whom this Marmercus, his great grandson, and the reproach of his progenitors, was now disgracing by the vile occupation of an informer. The old employment of Junius Otho was that of a schoolmaster. Thence, being by the power of Sejanus created a senator, he labored by notorious attempts to triumph over the baseness of his original. Brutidius abounded in worthy accomplishments, and, had he proceeded in the upright road, was in the ready way to every the most distinguished honor. But eagerness hurried him, while he pushed to surpass his first equals, afterwards his superiors, and at last his own very hopes. A course which has overwhelmed even many virtuous men, who, scorning acquirements that came slow, but attended with security, grasped as such as were sudden, though linked to destruction. Galeus Bublicola and Marcus Paconius increased the number of the accusers, the former Quaster to Salinas, the other his lieutenant. Neither was it doubted, but the accused was guilty of cruelty and extortion. But he was beset with a series of hardships, dangerous even to the innocent, when, beside so many senators, his foes, he was to reply, single to the most eloquent leaders of all Asia, chosen purposefully to accuse him, ignorant himself of pleading, and beset with capital terrors, a circumstance which disables the most practice eloquence. Neither did Tiberius spare him, but with an angry voice and countenance, daunted and interrupted him with incessant questions, nor was he allowed to refute or evade them. Nay was often forced to confess, thus the emperor should have asked in vain. The slaves, too of Salinas, in order to be examined by torturers, were delivered in sale to the city steward, that none of his relations might engage to insist him. When his life was thus at stake, crimes of treason were subjoined, a sure bar to all help and a seal upon their lips. Having therefore requested an interval of few days, he dropped all defense and tried the emperor by a memorial, in which he menaced him with a public odium, and blended expostulations with prayers. Tiberius, the better to palliate by precedent his purposes against Salinas, caused to be recited a representation from Augustus, concerning Volicius Messala, procounsel of the same province, and the decree of the senate was made against him. He then asked Lucius Piso his opinion. Piso, after a long preface of the emperor's clemency, proposed to interdict Salinas from fire and water, and to banish him into the island, Gyrus. The rest voted the same thing, only that Nius Luntulus moved that the estate descending from his mother Cornelius should be distinguished from his own and restored to his son. Tiberius assented, but Cornelius Dolabela, pursuing his old strain of adulation, and having first exposed the morals of Salinas, added that no man of profligate manners and marked with infamy should be admitted to the lot of provinces. And of this their character, the prince, was to judge. Transgressions, he said, were punished by the laws. But how much more merciful would it be to prevent transgressors, more merciful to the men themselves, more to the provinces? Against this, Tiberius reasoned that, in truth, he was not ignorant of the prevailing rumors concerning the conduct of Salinas, but establishments must not be built upon rumors. In the administration of provinces, many had disappointed our hopes, and many our fears. Some were, by the great weight of affairs, roused into diligence and adamant. Others degenerated and sunk under them. The prince could not, within his own view, comprise all things. Nor was it at all expedient for him to make himself answerable for the characters of other men, engaged in pursuits of ambition. Laws were therefore appointed against facts committed, because all things future are hid in uncertainty. Such were the institutions of our ancestors, that if crimes proceeded, punishments were to follow. Nor should they change establishments, wisely contrived and always approved. The prince had already sufficiency of burdens, and even sufficiency of power. The authority of the laws decreased when that of the prince advanced. Nor was sovereignty to be exercised when the laws would serve. A popular speech, and the more joyfully heard, as acts of popularity were rare with Tiberius. To it, he added, prudent as he was in mitigating excesses, where his own proper resentments did not control him, that Gairus was an unhospitable island and devoid of human culture, that in favor to the Junian family, and to a patrician lately of their own order, they should allow him for his place of exile, the Isle of Scythera, that this too was the request of Torquata, the sister of Salinas, a vestal virgin, a primitive sanctity. This motion prevailed. The Cyrenians were afterwards heard, and Caesius Cordus, charged by them, and impleted by Ancarius Priscus for plundering the province, was condemned. Lucius Inius, a Roman knight, was impeached of treason. For that, he had converted in effigies of the prince into common usages of silver, but Tiberius withstood admitting him as a criminal. Against this acquittal, Aetius Capito openly declared his protest from an affected spirit of liberty, for that the emperor ought not to snatch from the fathers the power of penalties, nor ought such a mighty iniquity to pass unpunished. He indeed might be passive under his own grievances, but let him not give up the indignation of the senate and the injuries done to the commonwealth. Tiberius considered, rather, the drift of these words than the expression, and persisted in his interposition. The infamy of Capito was the Morse signal because, learned as he was in Laws human and divine, he thus debased the dignity of the state, and his own personal accomplishments. The next was a religious debate, in what temple to place the gift vowed by the Roman knights to fortune still the equestrian for the recovery of Olivia? For, though in the city were many temples to this goddess, yet none had that title. Elast was discovered that at Antium was one thus named, and as all the religious institutions in the cities of Italy, all the temples and statues of the deities were included in the jurisdiction in sovereignty of Rome, the gift was ordered to be presented there. While matters of religion were on foot, the answer lately deferred concerning Servius Malagonensis, priest of Jupiter, was now produced by Tiberius, who recited a statute of the Pontiffs, that, when the priest of Jupiter was taken ill, he might, with the consent of the chief Pontiff, be absent two nights, except on days of public sacrifices, and never more than twice in the same year. This regulation, made under Augustus, sufficiently showed that a year's absence and the administration of provinces were not allowed to the priest of Jupiter. He likewise quoted the example of Lucius Metellus, chief Pontiff, who was strained to Rome, all his pastumias who was under that character. So the lot of Asia was conferred on that consular who was next in seniority to Malagonensis. During this time, Lepidus asked Liva the senate to strengthen and beautify at his expense the Basilic of Paulus, a peculiar monument of the Amelian family. For even then it was usual with private men to be magnificent in public structures, nor had Augustus blame Taurus, Philippus, or Balbus, for applying their overflowing wealth or the spoils of the enemy towards the decoration of the city, and the perpetuation of their own fame. By their example, Lepidus, though but moderately rich, revived the venerable glory of his ancestors. But, as the theater of Pompey was consumed by accidental fire, Tiberius undertook to rebuild it, because none of the family were equal to the charge, and promised that it should, however, be called still by the name of Pompey. At the same time he celebrated the praises of Sejanus, and to his diligence and efforts ascribed it, that a flame so violent was stopped at one building only. Hence the father's decreed, a statue to Sejanus, to be placed under the theater of Pompey. Nor was it long after that the emperor, when he dignified Junius Blicis with the insigns of triumph, declared that, in honor of Sejanus he did it, for, to Sejanus, Blicis was uncle. Yet the actions of Blicis were entitled to so much distinction. For Takferinus, though often repulsed, was still repairing his forces in the heart of Africa, had arrived to such a pitch of arrogance that he sent ambassadors to Tiberius with demands for a settlement to himself and his army. Otherwise he threatened everlasting war. They say that upon no occasion did ever Tiberius, for any insult offered himself in the Roman name, manifest a more sensible indignation, that a deserter and a robber should presume to offer terms like an equal foe, when even to Spartacus no concession was being made, received, and treated under the sanction of the public faith. While, after the slaughter of so many consular armies he still carried, with impunity fire and desolation through Italy. Though the Commonwealth was then gasping under two mighty wars, with Sertorius and Mithridates, butch less was Takferinus a freebooter. To be bought off by terms of peace and concession of lands, wilse the Roman people enjoyed to the highest pitch of glory and power. Hence he commissioned Blicis to engage by the hopes of indemnity all his followers to lay down their arms, but to get into his hands the leader himself by whatever means. So that by this part and many were brought over, and the war was forthwith prosecuted against him by stratagems not unlike his own. For as he, who in strength of men was unequal, but in arts of stealth and pillaging superior, made his incursions in separate bands, and thence could at once elude any attack of ours, and harass us by ambushes of his. So on our side three distinct roots were resolved, and three several bodies formed. Scipio, the proconsul's lieutenant, commanded on that quarter whence Takferinus had made his depudations against the lepetanians, and then his retreat amongst the Grametes. In another quarter, Blicis, the son, led a band of his own to protect the territory of the Sertensians from ravages. Between both marched the proconsul himself with the flower of the army erecting forts, and casting up in treachments and convenient places. By these dispositions he sorely cramped the foe, and rendered all their movements dangerous. For, whichever way they turned, still some party of the Roman forces was upon them, in front, in flank, and often at their heels, and by this means many were slain or made prisoners. This triple army was again split by Blicis and the bands still smaller, and over each a centurion of tried bravery placed. Neither did he, as usual at the end of the season, draw off his forces from the field, or dispose them into winter quarters in the old province. But, as in the first heat of war, having raised more forts, he dispatched light parties acquainted with the wilderness, who drove Takferinus before them, continually shifting his huts, till, having taken his brother, he retreated, too suddenly, however, for the good of the province. As there were still left behind instruments to rekindle the war. But Tiberius took it for concluded, and likewise granted to Blicis that he should be by the legions saluted Imperator, an ancient honor usually done to the old Roman captains, who, upon their successful exploits for their country, were in the shouts and vehemence of victory, thus complimented by their armies. And there had been, at once, several Imperators, without any preeminence of one over the rest. It was a title vouchsafe to some, even by Augustus, and now, for the last time, by Tiberius to Blicis. This year died two illustrious Romans, Asinius Solonius, splendid in his relations in descent, as Marcus Agrippa and Asinius Polio were his grandfathers. Drusus, his half-brother, and himself betrothed to the emperor's granddaughter, and Ateius Capito, already mentioned, in civil acquirements the principal man in Rome. As to descent, his grandfather was only a centurion under Sulla, but his father arrived to the pritorship. Augustus had pushed him early into the consulship. That, by the grandeur of that office, he might be set above, Aesthistius Labio, who excelled in equal accomplishments. For that age produced together these two ornaments a piece, but Labio preserved unstained a spirit of liberty, and thence was more the object of popular renown, while Capito gained by obsequiousness greater credit with those who bore rule. The former, as he was never suffered to rise beyond the pritorship, met with matter of praise from a source of injury, to the other, with the glory of the consulate, accrued likewise the envy, and with envy, hatred. Junia, too, now sixty-four years after the battle of Philippi, finished her course, the niece of Cato, sister of Brutus, and wife of Cassius. Her will made much noise amongst the populace, for that being immensely rich, and having honorably distinguished with legacies almost all the great men of Rome. She omitted Tiberius, an omission which he took civilly, nor hindered her panjiric from being pronounced in public, nor her funeral from being celebrated with other customary salendities. Before it were born the images of twenty the most noble families, the manly-e, the quinkty-e, and other names of equal luster, but superior to all, shown Cassius and Brutus, on this very account, that their images were not with the rest seen now. End of section twenty-eight. And end of the complete works of Tacitus, volume one, translated and edited by Thomas Gordon.