 Book 2, Part 3 of the Annals by Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Volume 1. Recording by Graham Redman. The Annals by Publius Cornelius Tacitus, Volume 1. Translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Broderib. Book 2, A.D. 16-18, Part 3. Tiberius, meanwhile, in the name of Germanicus, gave every one of the city populace three-hundreds esterses, and nominated himself his colleague in the consulship. Still, failing to obtain credit for sincere affection, he resolved to get the young prince out of the way, under pretence of conferring distinction, and for this he invented reasons, or eagerly fastened on such as chance presented. King Archelaus had been in possession of Cappadocia for fifty years, and Tiberius hated him because he had not shown him any mark of respect while he was at Rhodes. This neglect of Archelaus was not due to pride, but was suggested by the intimate friends of Augustus, because when Gaius Caesar was in his prime and had charge of the affairs of the East, Tiberius's friendship was thought to be dangerous. When, after the extinction of the family of the Caesars, Tiberius acquired the empire, he enticed Archelaus by a letter from his mother, who, without concealing her son's displeasure, promised mercy if he would come to beg for it. Archelaus, either quite unsuspicious of treachery, or dreading compulsion, should it be thought that he saw through it, hastened to Rome. There he was received by a pitiless emperor, and soon afterwards was arraigned before the Senate. In his anguish and in the weariness of old age, and from being unused as a king to equality, much less to degradation, not certainly from fear of the charges fabricated against him, he ended his life by his own act or by a natural death. His kingdom was reduced into a province, and Caesar declared that, with its revenues, the one percent tax could be lightened, which for the future he fixed at one-half percent. During the same time, on the deaths of Antiochus and Philip Peter, kings respectively of the Comergenii and Silicians, these nations became excited, a majority desiring the Roman rule, some that of their kings. The provinces, too, of Syria and Judea, exhausted by their burdens, implored a reduction of tribute. Tiberius accordingly discussed these matters and the affairs of Armenia, which I have already related, before the Senate. The commotions in the East, he said, could be quieted only by the wisdom of Germanicus. His own life was on the decline, and Drusus had not yet reached his maturity. Thereupon, by a decree of the Senate, the provinces beyond sea were entrusted to Germanicus, with greater powers wherever he went, than were given to those who obtained their provinces by lot or by the emperor's appointment. Tiberius had, however, removed from Syria Criticus Silanus, who was connected by a close tie with Germanicus, his daughter being betrothed to Nero, the eldest of Germanicus's children. He appointed to it Nios Piso, a man of violent temper, without an idea of obedience, with indeed a natural arrogance inherited from his father Piso, who in the Civil War supported with the most energetic aid against Caesar the reviving faction in Africa, then embraced the cause of Brutus and Cassius, and, when suffered to return, refrained from seeking promotion till he was actually solicited to accept a consulship offered by Augustus. But beside the father's haughty temper, there was also the noble rank and wealth of his wife Plancina, to inflame his ambition. He would hardly be the inferior of Tiberius, and as for Tiberius's children he looked down on them as far beneath him. He thought it a certainty that he had been chosen to govern Syria in order to thwart the aspirations of Germanicus. Some believed that he had even received secret instructions from Tiberius, and it was beyond a question that Augusta, with feminine jealousy, had suggested to Plancina columnius insinuations against Agrippina. For there was division and discord in the court, with unexpressed partialities towards either Drusus or Germanicus. Tiberius favoured Drusus as his son, and born of his own blood. As for Germanicus, his uncle's estrangement had increased the affection which all others felt for him, and there was the fact, too, that he had an advantage in the illustrious rank of his mother's family, among whom he could point to his grandfather Marcus Antonius and to his great uncle Augustus. Drusus, on the other hand, had for his great-grandfather a Roman knight, Pomponius Atticus, who seemed to disgrace the ancestral images of the Claudii. Again the consort of Germanicus, Agrippina, in number of children and in character, was superior to Livia, the wife of Drusus. Yet the brothers were singularly united and were wholly unaffected by the rivalries of their kinsfolk. Soon afterwards Drusus was sent into Illyricum to be familiarised with military service and to win the goodwill of the army. Tiberius also thought that it was better for the young prince, who was being demoralised by the luxury of the capital, to serve in a camp, while he felt himself the safer with both his sons in command of legions. However he made a pretext of the Suivai, who were imploring help against the Cherusci, for when the Romans had departed and they were free from the fear of an invader, these tribes, according to the custom of the race, and then specially as rivals in fame, had turned their arms against each other. The strength of the two nations, the valor of their chiefs, were equal. But the title of king rendered Maribodius hated among his countrymen, while Arminius was regarded with favour as the champion of freedom. Thus it was not only the Cherusci and their allies, the old soldiers of Arminius, who took up arms, but even the Semnonis and Lango Bardai from the kingdom of Maribodius revolted to that chief. With this addition he must have had an overwhelming superiority, had not Ingeomerus deserted with a troop of his dependents to Maribodius, simply for the reason that the aged uncle scorned to obey a brother's youthful son. The armies were drawn up with equal confidence on both sides, and there were not those desultory attacks or irregular bands, formally so common with the Germans. Prolonged warfare against us had accustomed them to keep close to their standards, to have the support of reserves, and to take the word of command from their generals. On this occasion Arminius, who reviewed the whole field on horseback as he rode up to each band, posted of regained freedom, of slaughtered legions, of spoils and weapons rested from the Romans, and still in the hands of many of his men. As for Maribodius, he called him a fugitive, who had no experience of battles, who had sheltered himself in the recesses of the Hussainian forest, and then with presents and embosses sued for a treaty, a traitor to his country, a satellite of Caesar, who deserved to be driven out with rage as furious as that with which they had slain Quintilius Verus. They should simply remember their many battles, the result of which, with the final expulsion of the Romans, sufficiently showed who could claim the crowning success in war. Nor did Maribodius abstain from vants about himself, or from revilings of the foe. Clasping the hand of Ingeomerus, he protested that in the person before them centred all the renown at the Cherusci, that to his counsels was due whatever had ended successfully. Arminius, in his infatuation and ignorance, was taking to himself the glory which belonged to another, for he had treacherously surprised three un-officerate legions and a general who had not an idea of perfidy to the great hurt of Germany and to his own disgrace, since his wife and his son were still enduring slavery. As for himself, he had been attacked by twelve legions led by Tiberius, and had preserved untarnished the glory of the Germans, and then on equal terms the armies had parted. He was by no means sorry that they had the matter in their own hands whether they preferred to war with all their might against Rome, or to accept a bloodless peace. To these words which roused the two armies, was added the stimulus of special motives of their own. The Cherusci and Langobadai were fighting for ancient renown or newly won freedom, the other side for the increase of their dominion. Never at any time was the shock of battle more tremendous or the issue more doubtful, as the right wings of both armies were routed. Further fighting was expected when Maribodius withdrew his camp to the hills. This was a sign of discomforture. He was gradually stripped of his strength by desertions, and having fled to the Marco Manai he sent envoys to Tiberius within treaties for help. The answer was that he had no right to invoke the aid of Roman arms against the Cherusci when he had rendered no assistance to the Romans in their conflict with the same enemy. Drusus however was sent as I have related to establish peace. That same year twelve famous cities of Asia fell by an earthquake in the night so that the destruction was all the more unforeseen and fearful. Nor were there the means of escape usual in such a disaster by rushing out into the open country, for their people were swallowed up by the yawning earth. Vast mountains, it is said, collapsed. What had been level ground seemed to be raised aloft, and fires blazed out amid the ruin. The calamity fell most fatally on the inhabitants of Sardis, and it attracted to them the largest share of sympathy. The Emperor promised ten million sistercies, and remitted for five years all they paid to the Exchequer or to the Emperor's purse. Magnesia under Mount Sipilus was considered to come next in loss and in need of help. The people of Temnus, Philadelphia, Egi, Apollonis, the Mostinians and Hercainian Macedonians as they were called, with the towns of Hierocesarea, Myrina, Symi and Tmolus were it was decided to be exempted from tribute for the same time, and someone was to be sent from the Senate to examine their actual condition and to relieve them. Marcus Eletus, one of the ex-preters, was chosen from a fear that as an ex-consul was governor of Asia, there might be rivalry between men of equal rank and consequent embarrassment. To his splendid public liberality the Emperor added bounties no less popular. The property of Emilia Musa, a rich woman who died in Testate, on which the Imperial Treasury had a claim, he handed over to Emilia's Lepidus to whose family she appeared to belong, and the estate of Patulius, a wealthy Roman knight, though he was himself left in part his heir, he gave to Marcus Sevilleus, whose name he discovered in an earlier and unquestioned will. In both these cases he said that noble rank ought to have the support of wealth, nor did he accept a legacy from any one unless he had earned it by friendship. Those who were strangers to him, and who, because they were at enmity with others, made the Emperor their heir, he kept at a distance. While, however, he relieved the honourable poverty of the virtuous, he expelled from the Senate, or suffered voluntarily to retire, spendthrifts whose vices had brought them to Penury, like Vybidius Varro, Marius Nepos, Appius Appianus, Cornelius Sulla, and Quintus Vitellius. About the same time he dedicated some temples of the gods, which had perished from age or from fire, and which Augustus had begun to restore. These were temples to Libera, Libera, and Ceres, near the Great Circus, which last all as posthumous when dictator had vowed. A temple to Flora in the same place, which had been built by Lucius and Marcus Publicius, Ediles, and a temple to Janus, which had been erected in the vegetable market, by Gaius D'Ilius, who was the first to make the Roman power successful at sea and to win a naval triumph over the Carthaginians. A temple to Hope was consecrated by Germanicus. This had been vowed by Attilius in that same war. Meantime the law of treason was gaining strength. Apulia Verilia, grandniece of Augustus, was accused of treason by an informer for having ridiculed the divine Augustus, Tiberius, and Tiberius's mother in some insulting remarks, and for having been convicted of adultery, allied though she was to Caesar's house. Adultery, it was thought, was sufficiently guarded against by the Julian law. As to the charge of treason, the emperor insisted that it should be taken separately and that she should be condemned if she had spoken irreverently of Augustus. Her insinuations against himself he did not wish to be the subject of judicial inquiry. When asked by the consul what he thought of the unfavorable speeches she was accused of having uttered against his mother, he said nothing. Afterwards on the next day of the Senate's meeting he even begged in his mother's name that no words of any kind spoken against her might in any case be treated as criminal. He then acquitted Apulia of treason. For her adultery he deprecated the severe appennalty and advised that she should be removed by her kinsfolk after the example of our forefathers to more than two hundred miles from Rome. Her paramour, Manlius, was forbidden to live in Italy or Africa. A contest then arose about the election of a preter in the room of Vipstainus Gallus whom death had removed. Germanicus and Drusus, for they were still at Rome, supported Heterius Agrippa a relative of Germanicus. Many, on the other hand, endeavored to make the number of children way most in favour of the candidates. Tiberius rejoiced to see a strife in the Senate between his sons and the law. Beyond question the law was beaten but not at once and only by a few votes in the same way as laws were defeated even when they were in force. In this same year a war broke out in Africa where the enemy was led by Tachphyrinus. A Numidian by birth he had served as an auxiliary in the Roman camp and, becoming a deserter, he at first gathered round him a roving band familiar with robbery for plunder and for rapine. After a while he marshaled them like regular soldiers under standards and in troops till at last he was regarded as the leader not of an undisciplined rabble but of the musulamian people. This powerful tribe bordering on the deserts of Africa and even then with none of the civilisation of cities took up arms and drew their Moorish neighbours into the war. These two had a leader, Mazippa. The army was so divided that Tachphyrinus kept the picked men who were armed in Roman fashion within a camp and familiarised them with the commander's authority while Mazippa, with light troops, spread around him fire, slaughter and consternation. They had forced the Syniphii, a far from contemptible tribe, into their cause when Furious Camillus, proconsul of Africa, united in one force, a legion and all the regularly enlisted allies and with an army insignificant indeed compared with the multitude of the Numidians and Moors marched against the enemy. There was nothing, however, which he strove so much to avoid as they're eluding an engagement out of fear. It was by the hope of victory that they were lured on only to be defeated. The legion was in the army's centre, the light cohorts and two cavalry squadrons on its wings nor did Tachphyrinus refuse battle. The Numidians were routed and after a number of years the name of Furious won military renown. Since the days of the famous deliverer of our city and his son Camillus, famous of general had fallen to the lot of other branches of the family and the man of whom I am now speaking was regarded as an inexperienced soldier. All the more willingly did Tiberius commemorate his achievements in the senate and the senators voted him the ornaments of triumph, an honour which Camillus, because of his unambitious life, enjoyed without harm. In the following year Tiberius held his third, Germanicus, his second consulship. Germanicus, however, entered on the office at Nicopolis, a city of Achia, whither he had arrived by the coast of Illyricum, after having seen his brother Drusus, who was then in Dalmatia and endured a stormy voyage through the Adriatic and afterwards the Ionian Sea. He accordingly devoted a few days to the repair of his fleet and, at the same time, in remembrance of his ancestors, he visited the bay which the victory of Actium had made famous, the spoils consecrated by Augustus and the camp of Antonius. For, as I have said, Augustus was his great-uncle Antonius, his grandfather, and vivid images of disaster and success rose before him on the spot. Thence he went to Athens, and there, as a concession to our treaty with an allied and ancient city, he was attended only by a single lictor. The Greeks welcomed him with the most elaborate honours and brought forward all the old deeds and sayings of their countrymen to give additional dignity to their flattery. Thence he directed his course to Euboea and crossed to Lesbos, where Agrippina for the last time was confined and gave birth to Julia. He then penetrated to the remote parts of the province of Asia, visited the Thracian cities Perinthus and Byzantium, next the narrow strait of the propontis and the entrance of the pontis from an anxious wish to become acquainted with those ancient and celebrated localities. He gave relief as he went to provinces which had been exhausted by internal feuds or by the oppressions of governors. In his return he attempted to see the sacred mysteries of the Samothracians, but north winds which he encountered drove him aside from his course. And so, after visiting Ilium and surveying a scene venerable from the vicissitudes of fortune and as the birthplace of our people, he coasted back along Asia and touched at Colophon to consult the oracle of the Clarion Apollo. There it is not a woman as at Delphi, but a priest chosen from certain families generally from Miletus, who ascertains simply the number and the names of the applicants. Then descending into a cave and drinking a draft from a secret spring, the man who is commonly ignorant of letters and of poetry utters a response in verse answering to the thoughts conceived in the mind of any inquirer. It was said that he prophesied to Germanicus in dark hints, as oracles usually do, an early doom. Cnius Pizzo meanwhile, that he might the sooner enter on his design, terrified the citizens of Athens by his tumultuous approach and then reviled them in a bitter speech with indirect reflections on Germanicus who, he said, had derogated from the honour of the Roman name in having treated with excessive courtesy not the people of Athens who indeed had been exterminated by repeated disasters, but a miserable medley of tribes. As for the men before him, they had been Mithridates' allies against Sulla, allies of Antonius, against the divine Augustus. He taunted them too with the past, with their ill success against the Macedonians, their violence to their own countrymen, for he had his own special grudge against this city because they would not spare at his intercession one Theophilus whom the Areopagus had condemned for forgery. Then, by sailing rapidly and by the shortest route through the Cyclades, he overtook Germanicus at the island of Rhodes. The prince was not ignorant of the slanders with which he had been assailed, but his good nature was such that when a storm arose and drove Pizzo on rocks and his enemies' destruction could have been referred to chance, he sent some triremes by the help of which he might be rescued from danger. But this did not soften Pizzo's heart, scarcely allowing a day's interval, he left Germanicus and hastened on in advance. When he reached Syria and the legions, he began by bribery and favoritism to encourage the lowest of the common soldiers, removing the old centurions and the strict tribunes and assigning their places to creatures of his own or to the vilest of the men, while he allowed idleness in the camp, licentiousness in the towns and the soldiers to roam through the country and take their pleasure. He went such lengths in demoralizing them that he was spoken of in their vulgar talk as the father of the legions. Plansina II, instead of keeping herself within the proper limits of a woman, would be present at the evolutions of the cavalry and the maneuvers of the cohorts and would fling insulting remarks at Agrippina and Germanicus. Some even of the good soldiers were inclined to a corrupt compliance as a whispered rumor gained ground that the emperor was not averse to these proceedings. Of all this, Germanicus was aware, but his most pressing anxiety was to be first in reaching Armenia. This had been of old an unsettled country from the character of its people and from its geographical position, bordering as it does to a great extent on our provinces and stretching far away to media. It lies between two most mighty empires and is very often at strife with them, hating Rome and jealous of Parthia. It had at this time no king, the nones having been expelled, but the nation's likings inclined toward Zeno, son of Polymon, king of Pontus, who from his earliest infancy had imitated Armenian manners and customs, loving the chase, the banquet, and all the popular pastimes of barbarians, and who had thus bound to himself chiefs and people alike. Germanicus, accordingly, in the city of Artaxata, with the approval of the nobility in the presence of a vast multitude, placed the royal diadem on his head. All paid him homage and saluted him as king Artaxias, which name they gave him from the city. Cappadocia, meanwhile, which had been reduced to the form of a province, received as its governor Quintus veranius. Some of the royal tributes were diminished to inspire hope of a gentler rule under Rome. Quintus servius was appointed to Comergini, then first put under a preter's jurisdiction. Successful as was this settlement of all the interests of our allies, it gave Germanicus little joy because of the arrogance of Piso, though he had been ordered to march part of the legions into Armenia under his own or his son's command, he had neglected to do either. At length the two met at Cirrus, the winter-quarters of the Tenth Legion, each controlling his looks, Piso concealing his fears, Germanicus shunning the semblance of menace. He was, indeed, as I have said, a kind-hearted man. But friends who knew well how to inflame a quarrel exaggerated what was true and added lies, alleging various charges against Piso, Plancina, and their sons. At last, in the presence of a few intimate associates, Germanicus addressed him in language such as suppressed resentment suggests, to which Piso replied with haughty apologies. They parted in open enmity. After this Piso was seldom seen at Caesar's tribunal, and if he ever sat by him it was with a sullen frown and a marked display of opposition. He was even heard to say at a banquet given by the king of the Nabataeans when some golden crowns of great weight were presented to Caesar and Agrippina and light ones to Piso and the rest, that the entertainment was given to the son of a Roman emperor, not of a Parthian king. At the same time he threw his crown on the ground with a long speech against luxury, which, though it angered Germanicus, he still bore with patience. Meantime envoys arrived from Artibanus, king of the Parthians. He had sent them to recall the memory of friendship and alliance with an assurance that he wished for a renewal of the emblems of Concord and that he would in honour of Germanicus yield the point of advancing to the bank of the Euphrates. He begged, meanwhile, that the nones might not be kept in Syria where by emissaries from an easy distance he might draw the chiefs of the tribes into civil strife. Germanicus' answer as to the alliance between Rome and Parthia was dignified as to the king's visit and the respect shown to himself, it was graceful and modest. Venonis was removed to Pompeiopolis, a city on the coast of Silicia. This was not merely a concession to the request of Artibanus, but was meant as an affront to Piso who had a special liking for Venonis because of the many attentions and presence by which he had won Plancina's favour. In the consulship of Marcus Silanus and Lucius Norbanus, Germanicus set out for Egypt to study its antiquities. His ostensible motive, however, was solicitude for the province. He reduced the price of corn by opening the granaries and adopted many practices pleasing to the multitude. He would go about without soldiers, with sandaled feet and apparelled after the Greek fashion in imitation of Publius Scipio, who it is said habitually did the same in Sicily even when the war with Carthage was still raging. Tiberius, having gently expressed disapproval of his dress and manners, pronounced a very sharp censure on his visit to Alexandria without the emperor's leave contrary to the regulations of Augustus. That prince, among other secrets of imperial policy, had forbidden senators and Roman knights of the higher rank to enter Egypt except by permission, and he had specially reserved the country from a fear that anyone who held a province containing the key of the land and of the sea with ever so small a force against the mightiest army might distress Italy by famine. Germanicus, however, who had not yet learned how much he was blamed for his expedition, sailed up the Nile from the city of Canopus as his starting point. Spartans founded the place because Canopus, pilot of one of their ships, had been buried there when many Laos on his return to Greece was driven into a distant sea and to the shores of Libya. Thence he went to the river's nearest mouth, dedicated to a Hercules, who the natives say was born in the country and was the original hero, others who afterward showed like Valla having received his name. Next he visited the vast ruins of ancient Thebes. There yet remained on the towering piles Egyptian inscriptions with a complete account of the city's past grandeur. One of the aged priests, who was desired to interpret the language of his country, related how once there had dwelt in Thebes 700,000 men of military age, and how with such an army King Ramses conquered Libya, Ethiopia, Medea, Persia, Bactria and Scythia and held under his sway the countries inhabited the Syrians, Armenians and their neighbours the Cappadocians from the Bithynian to the Lycian Sea. There was also to be read what tributes were imposed on these nations, the weight of silver and gold, the tail of arms and horses, the gifts of ivory and of perfumes to the temples with the amount of grain and supplies furnished by each people, a revenue as magnificent as is now exacted by the might of Parthia or the power of Rome. But Germanicus also bestowed attention on other wonders. Chief of these were the stone image of Memnon, which when struck by the sun's rays gives out the sound of a human voice, the pyramids rising up like mountains amid almost impossible wastes of shifting sand raised by the emulation and vast wealth of kings, the lake hollowed out of the earth to be a receptacle for the Nile's overflow and elsewhere the river's narrow channel and profound depth which no line of the explorer can penetrate. He then came to Elefantini and Sygini, formerly the limits of the Roman Empire, which now extends to the Red Sea. End of book 2 part 3 Recording by Graham Redman Book 2 part 4 of the Annals by Publius Cornelius Tacitus, volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Graham Redman The Annals by Publius Cornelius Tacitus, volume 1 Translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Broderib Book 2, AD 16-19, part 4 While Germanicus was spending the summer in visits to several provinces, Drusus gained no little glory by sowing discord among the Germans and urging them to complete the destruction of the now broken power of Maru Boduus. Among the Gotonies was a youth of noble birth, Catoelda by name, who had formerly been driven into exile by the might of Maru Boduus and who now, when the king's fortunes were declining, ventured on revenge. He entered the territory of the Marco Manai with a strong force and, having corruptly won over the nobles to join him, burst into the palace and into an adjacent fortress. There he found the long accumulated plunder of the Suivai and camp-followers and traders from our provinces who had been attracted to an enemy's land, each from their various homes, first by the freedom of commerce, next by the desire of amassing wealth, finally by forgetfulness of their fatherland. Maru Boduus, now utterly deserted, had no resource but in the mercy of Caesar. Having crossed the Danube, where it flows by the province of Noricum, he wrote to Tiberius, not like a fugitive or a supliant, but as one who remembered his past greatness. When, as a most famous king in former days, he received invitations from many nations, he had still, he said, preferred the friendship of Rome. Caesar replied that he should have a safe and honourable home in Italy if he would remain there, or if his interests required something different, he might leave it under the same protection under which he had come, but in the Senate he maintained that Philip had not been so formidable to the Athenians or Pyrrhus or Antiochus to the Roman people as was Maru Boduus. The speech is extant, and in it he magnifies the man's power, the ferocity of the tribes under his sway, his proximity to Italy as a foe, finally his own measures for his overthrow. The result was that Maru Boduus was kept at Ravenna, where his possible return was a menace to the Suivai should they ever disdain obedience. But he never left Italy for eighteen years, living to old age and losing much of his renown through an excessive clinging to life. Cato Alda had a like downfall and no better refuge. Driven out soon afterwards by the overwhelming strength of the Hermandusai led by Vibilius, he was received and sent to Forum Giuliae, a colony of Narbonensian Gaul. The barbarians who followed the two kings, lest they might disturb the peace of the provinces by mingling with the population, were settled beyond the Danube between the rivers Marus and Cusus under a king, Vanius, of the nation of the Quadi. Tidings having also arrived of Artaxias being made king of Armenia by Germanicus, the senate decreed that both he and Drusus should enter the city with an ovation. Arches too were raised round the sides of the temple of Mars the Avenger with statues of the two Caesars. Tiberius was the more delighted at having established peace by wise policy than if he had finished a war by battle. And so next he planned a crafty scheme against Rescuperus king of Thrace. That entire country had been in the possession of Remotelses after whose death Augustus assigned half to the king's brother Rescuperus half to his son Cotus. In this division the cultivated lands, the towns and what bordered on Greek territories fell to Cotus the wild and barbarous portion with enemies on its frontier to Rescuperus. The kings too themselves differed, Cotus having a gentle and kindly temper, the other a fierce and ambitious spirit which could not broke a partner. Still at first they lived in a hollow friendship but soon Rescuperus overstepped his bounds and appropriated to himself what had been given to Cotus using force when he was resisted though somewhat timidly under Augustus who having created both kingdoms would he feared avenge any contempt of his arrangement. When however he heard of the change of Emperor he let loose bands of free booters and raised the fortresses as a provocation to war. Nothing made Tiberius so uneasy as an apprehension of the disturbance of any settlement. He commissioned a centurion to tell the kings not to decide their dispute by arms. Cotus at once dismissed the forces which he had prepared. Rescuperus with assumed modesty asked for a place of meeting where he said they might settle their differences by an interview. There was little hesitation in fixing on a time, a place, finally on terms as every point was mutually conceded and accepted by the one out of good nature by the other with a treacherous intent. Rescuperus to ratify the treaty as he said further proposed a banquet and when their mirth had been prolonged far into the night and Cotus amid the feasting and the wine was unsuspicious of danger he loaded him with chains though he appealed on perceiving the perfidy to the sacred character of a king, to the gods of their common house and to the hospitable board. Having possessed himself of all thrace he wrote words to Tiberius that a plot had been formed against him and that he had forestalled the plotter. Meanwhile under pretext of a war against the Bastanian and Scythian tribes he was strengthening himself with fresh forces of infantry and cavalry. He received a conciliatory answer. If there was no treachery in his conduct he could rely on his innocence but neither the emperor nor the senate would decide on the right or wrong of his cause without hearing it. He was therefore to surrender Cotus, come in person and transfer from himself the odium of the charge. This letter, Latinius Pandus, propreter of Misia sent to Thrace with soldiers to whose custody Cotus was to be delivered. Rescuparis, hesitating between fear and rage preferred to be charged with an accomplished rather than with an attempted crime. He ordered Cotus to be murdered and falsely represented his death as self-inflicted. Still the emperor did not change the policy which he had once for all adopted. On the death of Pandus, whom Rescuparis accused of being his personal enemy he appointed to the government of Misia Pomponius Flaccus, a veteran soldier especially because of his close intimacy with the king and his consequent ability to entrap him. Flaccus on arriving in Thrace induced the king by great promises though he hesitated and thought of his guilty deeds to enter the Roman lines. He then surrounded him with a strong force under pretense of showing him honour and the tribunes and centurions by counsel, by persuasion and by a more undisguised captivity the further he went brought him aware at last of his desperate plight to Rome. He was accused before the Senate by the wife of Cotus and was condemned to be kept a prisoner far away from his kingdom. Thrace was divided between his son Rimetalsis, who it was proved had opposed his father's designs and the sons of Cotus. As these were still minors, Trebellionus Rufus and ex-preter was appointed to govern the kingdom in the meanwhile after the precedent of our ancestors who sent Marcus Lepidus into Egypt as guardian to Ptolemy's children. Rescuperus was removed to Alexandria and their attempting or falsely charged with attempting escape was put to death. About the same time Venonis, who as I have related had been banished to Silicia, endeavored by bribing his guards to escape into Armenia, thence to Albania and Heneokia, and to his kinsmen the king of Scythia. Quitting the sea coast on the pretense of a hunting expedition he struck into trackless forests and was soon born by his swift steed to the river Pyramus. The bridges over which had been broken down by the natives as soon as they heard of the king's escape, nor was there a ford by which it could be crossed, and so on the river's bank he was put in chains by Vibius Fronto, an officer of cavalry, and then Remius, an enrolled pensioner who had previously been entrusted with the king's custody, in pretended rage pierced him with his sword. Hence there was more ground for believing that the man, conscious of guilty complicity and fearing accusation, had slain Venonis. Germanicus, meanwhile, as he was returning from Egypt, found that all his directions to the legions and to the various cities had been repealed or reversed. This led to grievous insults on Piso while he as savagely assailed the prince. Piso then resolved to quit Scythia. Soon he was detained there by the failing health of Germanicus, but when he heard of his recovery, while people were paying the vows they had offered for his safety, he went, attended by his lictors, drove away the victims placed by the altars with all the preparations for sacrifice and the festival gathering of the populace of Antioch. Then he left for Scythia and awaited the result of the illness which had again attacked Germanicus. The terrible intensity of the malady was increased by the belief that he had been poisoned by Piso, and certainly there were found hidden in the floor and in the walls This interred remains of human bodies, incantations and spells, and the name of Germanicus inscribed on leaden tablets, half burnt cinders smeared with blood, and other horrors by which in popular belief souls are devoted to the infernal deities. Piso too was accused of sending emissaries to note curiously every unfavorable symptom of the illness. Germanicus heard of all this with anger, no less than with fear. If my doors, he said, are to be besieged, if I must gasp out my last breath under my enemy's eyes, what will then be the lot of my most unhappy wife, of my infant children? Poisoning seems tedious, he is in eager haste to have the sole control of the province and the legions. But Germanicus is not yet fallen so low, nor will the murderer long retain the reward of the fatal deed. He then addressed a letter to Piso, renouncing his friendship, and, as many also state, ordered him to quit the province. Piso, without further delay, weighed anchor, slackening his course that he might not have a long way to return, should Germanicus' death leave Syria open to him. For a brief space the prince's hopes rose, then his frame became exhausted, and as his end drew near, he spoke as follows to the friends by his side. Were I succumbing to nature, I should have just ground of complaint even against the gods for thus tearing me away in my youth by an untimely death from parents, children, country. Now, cut off by the wickedness of Piso and Plancina, I leave to your hearts my last entreaties. Described to my father and brother, torn by what persecutions entangled by what plots, I have ended by the worst of deaths, the most miserable of lives. If any were touched by my bright prospects, by ties of blood, or even by envy towards me while I lived, they will weep that the once prosperous survivor of so many wars has perished by a woman's treachery. You will have the opportunity of complaint before the Senate of an appeal to the laws. It is not the chief duty of friends to follow the dead with unprofitable laments, but to remember his wishes, to fulfil his commands. Tears for Germanicus even strangers will shed. Vengeance must come from you if you loved the man more than his fortune. Show the people of Rome her who is the granddaughter of the Divine Augustus as well as my consort. Set before them my six children. Sympathy will be on the side of the accusers, and to those who screen themselves under infamous orders, belief or pardon will be refused. His friends clasped the dying man's right hand, and swore that they would sooner lose life than revenge. He then turned to his wife and implored her by the memory of her husband and by their common offspring to lay aside her high spirit, to submit herself to the cruel blows of fortune, and not, when she returned to Rome, to enrage by political rivalry those who were stronger than herself. This was said openly, other words were whispered pointing it was supposed to his fears from Tiberius. Soon afterwards he expired to the intense sorrow of the province and of the neighbouring peoples. Foreign nations and kings grieved over him so great was his courtesy to allies, his humanity to enemies. He inspired reverence alike by look and voice, and while he maintained the greatness and dignity of the highest rank, he had escaped the hatred that waits on arrogance. His funeral, though it lacked the family's statues and procession, was honoured by panigerics and a commemoration of his virtues. Some there were who, as they thought of his beauty, his age, and the manner of his death, the vicinity too of the country where he died, likened his end to that of Alexander the Great. Both had a graceful person and were of noble birth, neither had much exceeded thirty years of age, and both fell by the treachery of their own people in strange lands. But Germanicus was gracious to his friends, temperate in his pleasures, the husband of one wife with only legitimate children. He was, too, no less a warrior, though rashness he had none, and though after having called Germany by his many victories he was hindered from crushing it into subjection. Had he had the sole control of affairs, had he possessed the power and title of a king, he would have attained military glory as much more easily as he had excelled Alexander in clemency, in self-restraint, and in all other virtues. As to the body, which, before it was burnt, lay bare in the forum at Antioch, its destined place of burial, it is doubtful whether it exhibited the marks of poisoning. For men, according as they pitted Germanicus and were prepossessed with suspicion, or were biased by partiality towards Piso, gave conflicting accounts. Then followed a deliberation among the generals and other senators present about the appointment of a governor to Syria. The contest was slight among all but Vibious Marsus and Cnius Censius, between whom there was a long dispute. Finally Marsus yielded to Censius as an older and keener competitor. Censius at once sent to Rome a woman infamous for poisonings in the province, and a special favourite of Plancina, Martina by name, on the demand of Vitellius and Veranius and others, who were preparing the charges and the indictment as if a prosecution had already been commenced. Agrippina, meantime, worn out though she was with sorrow and bodily weakness, yet still impatient of everything which might delay her vengeance, embarked with the ashes of Germanicus and with her children, pitted by all. Here indeed was a woman of the highest nobility, and but lately, because of her splendid union, won't to be seen amid an admiring and sympathising throng, now bearing in her bosom the mournful relics of death, with an uncertain hope of revenge, with apprehensions for herself, repeatedly at fortune's mercy by reason of the ill-starred fruitfulness of her marriage. Piso was at the island of Coos when tidings reached him that Germanicus was dead. He received the news with extravagant joy. Slew victims visited the temples with no moderation in his transports, while Plancena's insolence increased, and she then for the first time exchanged for the gayest attire the morning she had worn for her lost sister. Centurions streamed in and hinted to Piso that he had the sympathy of the legions at his command. Go back, they said, to the province which has not been rightfully taken from you and is still vacant. While he deliberated what he was to do, his son, Marcus Piso, advised Speedy return to Rome. As yet, he said, you have not contracted any inexperable guilt, and you need not dread feeble suspicions or vague rumours. Your strife with Germanicus deserved hatred, perhaps, but not punishment, and by your having been deprived of the province, your enemies have been fully satisfied. But if you return, should Sensius resist you, civil war is begun, and you will not retain on your side the centurions and soldiers who are powerfully swayed by the yet recent memory of their general and by a deep-rooted affection for the Caesars. Against this view, Demitius Seller, one of Piso's intimate friends, argued that he ought to profit by the opportunity. It was Piso not Sensius who had been appointed to Syria. It was to Piso that the symbols of power and a preter's jurisdiction and the legions had been given. In case of a hostile menace, who would more rightfully confront it by arms than the man who had received the authority and special commission of a governor? And as for rumours, it is best to leave time in which they may die away. Often the innocent cannot stand against the first burst of unpopularity, but if Piso possesses himself of the army and increases his resources, much which cannot be foreseen will happily turn out in his favour. Are we hastening to reach Italy along with the ashes of Germanicus that unheard and undefended, you may be hurried to ruin by the wailings of Agrippina and the first gossip of an ignorant mob? You have on your side the complicity of Augusta and the Emperor's favour, though in secret, and none more and more ostentatiously over the death of Germanicus than those who most rejoice at it. Without much difficulty Piso, who was ever ready for violent action, was led into this view. He sent a letter to Tiberius accusing Germanicus of luxury and arrogance, and asserting that, having been driven away to make room for revolution, he had resumed the command of the army in the same loyal spirit in which he had before held it. At the same time he put Domitius on board a trireme with an order to avoid the coast and to push on to Syria through the open sea away from the islands. He formed into regular companies the deserters who flocked to him, armed the camp-followers, crossed with his ships to the mainland, intercepted a detachment of new levies on their way to Syria, and wrote words to the petty kings of Silicia that they were to help him with auxiliaries, the young Piso actively assisting in all the business of war though he had advised against undertaking it. And so they coasted along Lycia and Pamphylia, and on meeting the fleet which conveyed Agrippina, both sides in hot anger at first armed for battle, and then in mutual fear, confined themselves to revilings, massus Vibius telling Piso that he was to go to Rome to defend himself. Piso mockingly replied that he would be there as soon as the preter who had to try poisoning cases had fixed a day for the accused and his prosecutors. Meanwhile Domitius, having landed at Laodicea, a city of Syria, as he was on his way to the winter-quarters of the sixth legion, which was, he believed, particularly open to revolutionary schemes, was anticipated by its commander Pachuvius. Of this, Sensius informed Piso in a letter and warned him not to disturb the armies by agents of corruption or the province by war. He gathered round him all whom he knew to cherish the memory of Germanicus and to be opposed to his enemies, dwelling repeatedly on the greatness of the general, with hints that the state was being threatened with an armed attack, and he put himself at the head of a strong force prepared for battle. Piso, too, though his first attempts were unsuccessful, did not omit the safest precautions under present circumstances, but occupied a very strongly fortified position in Silicia named Cylinderis. He had raised to the strength of a legion the Silician auxiliaries which the petty kings had sent by mixing with them some deserters and the lately intercepted recruits with his own and Plancina's slaves, and he protested that he, though Caesar's legate, was kept out of the province which Caesar had given him, not by the legions, for he had come at their invitation, but by Sensius, who was veiling private animosity under lying charges. Only, he said, stand in battle array, and the soldiers will not fight when they see that Piso, whom they themselves once called father, is the stronger, if right is to decide, if arms is far from powerless. He then deployed his companies before the lines of the fortress on a high and precipitous hill with the sea surrounding him on every other side. Against him were the veteran troops drawn up in ranks and with reserves, a formidable soldiery on one side, a formidable position on the other. But his men had neither heart nor hope, and only rustic weapons extemporised for sudden use. When they came to fighting the result was doubtful only while the Roman cohorts were struggling up to level ground. Then the Silicians turned their backs and shut themselves up within the fortress. Meanwhile Piso vainly attempted an attack on the fleet which waited at a distance. He then went back, and as he stood before the walls, now smiting his breast, now calling on individual soldiers by name and luring them on by rewards, sought to excite a mutiny. He had so far roused them that a standard bearer of the sixth legion went over to him with his standard. Thereupon censures ordered the horns and trumpets to be sounded, the rampart to be assaulted, the scaling ladders to be raised, all the bravest men to mount on them while others were to discharge from the engines, spears, stones, and brands. At last Piso's obstinacy was overcome, and he begged that he might remain in the fortress on surrendering his arms while the emperor was being consulted about the appointment of a governor to Syria. The proposed terms were refused, and all that was granted him were some ships and a safe return to Rome. There, meantime, when the illness of Germanicus was universally known, and all news coming as it did from a distance exaggerated the danger, there was grief and indignation. There was too an outburst of complaint. Of course this was the meaning, they said, of banishing him to the ends of the earth, of giving Piso the province. This was the drift of Augusta's secret interviews with Plancina. What elderly men had said of Drusus was perfectly true, that rulers disliked a citizen-like temper in their sons, and the young princes had been put out of the way because they had the idea of comprehending in a restored era of freedom the Roman people under equal laws. This popular talk was so stimulated by the news of Germanicus's death that even before the magistrate's proclamation or the senate's resolution there was a voluntary suspension of business. The public courts were deserted and private houses closed. Everywhere there was a silence broken only by groans. Nothing was arranged for mere effect, and though they refrained not from the emblems of the mourner, they sorrowed yet the more deeply in their hearts. It chanced that some merchants who left Syria while Germanicus was still alive brought more cheering tidings about his health. These were instantly believed, instantly published. Everyone passed on to others whom he met, the intelligence ill-authenticated as it was, and they again too many more with joyous exaggeration. They ran to and fro through the city and broke open the doors of the temples. Knight assisted their credulity, and amid the darkness confident assertion was comparatively easy, nor did Tiberius check the false reports till by lapse of time they died away. And so the people grieved the more bitterly as though Germanicus was again lost to them. New honours were devised and decreed, as men were inspired by affection for him or by genius. His name was to be celebrated in the song of the sally eye. Chairs of state with oak and garlands over them were to be set up in the places assigned to the priesthood of the augustailies. His image in ivory was to head the procession in the games of the circus. No flamen or augur, except from the Julian family, was to be chosen in the room of Germanicus. Triomphal arches were erected at Rome, on the banks of the Rhine, and on Mount Amanus in Syria, with an inscription recording his achievements and how he had died in the public service. A cenotaph was raised at Antioch where the body was burnt, a lofty mound at Epidaphna where he had ended his life. The number of his statues, or of the places in which they were honoured, could not easily be computed. When a golden shield of remarkable size was voted him as a leader among orators, Tiberius declared that he would dedicate to him one of the usual kind, similar to the rest. For in eloquence, he said, there was no distinction of rank, and it was a sufficient glory for him to be classed among ancient writers. The knights called the seats in the theatre known as the juniors, Germanicus' benches, and arranged that their squadrons were to ride in procession behind his effigy on the 15th of July. Many of these honours still remain, some were at once dropped, or became obsolete with time. While men's sorrow was yet fresh, Germanicus' sister Livia, who was married to Drusus, gave birth to twin sons. This, as a rare event, causing joy even in humble homes, so delighted the emperor that he did not refrain from boasting before the senators that to no Roman of the same rank had twin offspring ever before been born. In fact, he would turn to his own glory every incident, however casual. But at such a time even this brought grief to the people who thought that the increase of Drusus' family still further depressed the house of Germanicus. That same year the profligacy of women was checked by stringent enactments, and it was provided that no woman whose grandfather, father, or husband had been a Roman knight should get money by prostitution. Vistilia, born of a Praetorian family, had actually published her name with this object on the Ediles list, according to a recognised custom of our ancestors, who considered it a sufficient punishment on unchaste women to have to profess their shame. Titidius' labio, Vistilia's husband, was judicially called on to say why with a wife whose guilt was manifest he had neglected to inflict the legal penalty. When he pleaded that the sixty days given for deliberation had not yet expired, it was thought sufficient to decide Vistilia's case, and she was banished out of sight to the island of Seraphus. There was a debate, too, about expelling the Egyptian and Jewish worship, and a resolution of the Senate was passed that four thousand of the freedmen class, who were infected with those superstitions and were of military age, should be transported to the island of Sardinia to quell the brigandage of the place, a cheap sacrifice should they die from the pestilential climate. The rest were to quit Italy, unless before a certain day they repudiated their impious rights. Next the emperor brought forward a motion for the election of a Vestal virgin in the room of Oksia, who for fifty-seven years had presided with the most immaculate virtue over the Vestal worship. He formally thanked Fonteus Agrippa and Demitius Polio for offering their daughters and so vying with one another in zeal for the Commonwealth. Polio's daughter was preferred, only because her mother had lived with one and the same husband, while Agrippa had impaired the honour of his house by a divorce. The emperor consoled his daughter, passed over though she was, with a dowry of a million sistercies. As the city populace complained of the cruel dearness of Corn, he fixed a price for grain to be paid by the purchaser, promising himself to add two sistercies on every peck for the traders. But he would not therefore accept the title of Father of the Country, which once before too had been offered him, and he sharply rebuked those who called his work divine and himself Lord. Consequently, speech was restricted and perilous under an emperor who feared freedom while he hated sycophancy. I find it stated by some writers and senators of the period that a letter from Ad Gandestrius, chief of the Chatai, was read in the Senate, promising the death of Arminius, if poisoned, was sent for the perpetration of the murder, and that the reply was that it was not by secret treachery, but openly and by arms that the people of Rome avenge themselves of their enemies, a noble answer by which Tiberius sought to liken himself to those generals of old who had forbidden and even denounced the poisoning of King Pyrrhus. Arminius, meanwhile, when the Romans retired and Maruboduus was expelled, found himself opposed in aiming at the throne by his countryman's independent spirit. He was assailed by armed force, and while fighting with various success, fell by the treachery of his kinsmen. Assuredly he was the deliverer of Germany, one too who had defied Rome not in her early rise as other kings and generals, but in the height of her empire's glory had fought indeed indecisive battles, yet in war remained unconquered. He completed thirty-seven years of life, twelve years of power, and he is still a theme of song among barbarous nations, though to Greek historians who admire only their own achievements he is unknown, and to Romans not as famous as he should be, while we extol the past and are indifferent to our own times. End of book two. Recording by Graham Redman Book three, part one of the Annals by Publius Cornelius Tacitus, volume one. This is a Librivox recording. All Librivox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org. Recording by Graham Redman The Annals by Publius Cornelius Tacitus, volume one, translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Broderib. Book three, AD 20 to 22, part one. Without pausing in her winter voyage, Agrippina arrived at the island of Corsaira, facing the shores of Calabria. There she spent a few days to compose her mind, for she was wild with grief and knew not how to endure. Meanwhile, on hearing of her arrival, all her intimate friends and several officers, everyone indeed who had served under Germanicus, many strangers too from the neighbouring towns, some thinking it respectful to the emperor and still more following their example, thronged eagerly to Brandisium, the nearest and safest landing-place for a voyager. As soon as the fleet was seen on the horizon, not only the harbour and the adjacent shores, but the city walls too and the roofs and every place which commanded the most distant prospect were filled with crowds of mourners who incessantly asked one another whether, when she landed, they were to receive her in silence or with some utterance of emotion. They were not agreed on what befitted the occasion when the fleet slowly approached. Its crew not joyous as is usual, but wearing all a studied expression of grief. When Agrippina descended from the vessel with her two children, clasping the funeral urn with eyes riveted to the earth, there was one universal groan. You could not distinguish kinsfolk from strangers or the laments of men from those of women. Only the attendants of Agrippina, worn out as they were by long sorrow, were surpassed by the mourners who now met them fresh in their grief. The emperor had dispatched two Praetorian cohorts with instructions that the magistrates of Calabria, Apulia and Campania would obey the last honours to his son's memory. Accordingly tribunes and centurions bore Germanicus's ashes on their shoulders. They were preceded by the standards unadorned and the facies reversed. As they passed colony after colony, the populace in black, the knights in their state robes burnt vestments and perfumes with other funeral adjuncts in proportion to the wealth of the place. Even those whose towns were out of the root met the mourners, offered victims and built altars to the dead, testifying their grief by tears and wailings. Drusus went as far as Tarasina with Claudius' brother of Germanicus and the children who had been at Rome. Marcus Valerius and Gaius Aurelius, the consuls, who had already entered on office, and a great number of the people, thronged the road in scattered groups, everyone weeping as he felt inclined. Flattery there was none, for all knew that Tiberius could scarcely disemble his joy at the death of Germanicus. Tiberius and Augusta refrained from showing themselves, thinking it below their dignity to shed tears in public or else fearing that, if all eyes scrutinized their faces, their hypocrisy would be revealed. I do not find in any historian or in the daily register that Antonia, Germanicus' mother, rendered any conspicuous honour to the deceased, though besides Agrippina, Drusus and Claudius, all his other kinsfolk are mentioned by name. She may either have been hindered by illness, or with a spirit overpowered by grief, she may not have had the heart to endure the sight of so great an affliction. But I can more easily believe that Tiberius and Augusta, who did not leave the palace, kept her within that their sorrow might seem equal to hers, and that the grandmother and uncle might be thought to follow the mother's example in staying at home. The day on which the remains were consigned to the tomb of Augustus was now desolate in its silence, now distracted by lamentations. The streets of the city were crowded, torches were blazing throughout the campus marshes. There the soldiers under arms, the magistrates without their symbols of office, the people in the tribes were all incessantly exclaiming that the commonwealth was ruined, that not a hope remained too boldly and openly to let one think that they remembered their rulers. But nothing impressed Tiberius more deeply than the enthusiasm kindled in favour of Agrippina, whom men spoke of as the glory of the country, the soul surviving offspring of Augustus, the solitary example of the old times, while looking up to heaven and the gods they prayed for the safety of her children and that they might outlive their oppressors. Some there were who missed the grandeur of a state funeral and contrasted the splendid honours conferred by Augustus on Drusus the father of Germanicus. Then the emperor himself, they said, went in the extreme rigor of winter as far as Tysinum and never leaving the corpse entered Rome with it. Round the funeral beer were ranged the images of the Claudii and the Juliii. There was weeping in the forum and a panigeric before the rostrum. Every honour devised by our ancestors or invented by their descendants was heaped on him. But as for Germanicus, even the customary distinctions due to any noble had not fallen to his lot. Granting that his body, because of the distance of the journey, was burnt in any fashion in foreign lands, still all the more honours ought to have been afterwards paid him because at first chance had denied them. His brother had gone but one day's journey to meet him, his uncle not even to the city gates. Where were all those usages of the past, the image of the head of the beer, the laze composed in commemoration of worth, the eulogies and laments, or at least the semblance of grief? All this was known to Tiberius and, to silence popular talk, he reminded the people in a proclamation that many eminent Romans had died for their country and that none had been honoured with such passionate regret. This regret was a glory both to himself and to all, provided only a due mean were observed. For what was becoming in humble homes and communities did not be fit princely personages and an imperial people. Tears and the solace found in mourning were suitable enough for the first burst of grief, but now they must brace their hearts to endurance, as in former days the Divine Julius, after the loss of his only daughter, and the Divine Augustus, when he was bereft of his grandchildren, had thrust away their sorrow. There was no need of examples from the past showing how often the Roman people had patiently endured the defeats of armies, the destruction of generals, the total extinction of noble families. Princes were mortal, the state was everlasting. Let them then return to their usual pursuits, and as the shows of the festival of the great goddess were at hand, even resume their amusements. The suspension of business then ceased and men went back to their occupations. Drusus was sent to the armies of Illyricum, amidst an universal eagerness to exact vengeance on Piso, and ceaseless complaints that he was meantime roaming through the delightful regions of Asia and Acaya, and was weakening the proofs of his guilt by an insolent and artful procrastination. It was indeed widely rumoured that the notorious Poisoner Martina, who, as I have related, had been dispatched to Rome by Cniocentius, had died suddenly at Brundizium, that poison was concealed in a knot of her hair, and that no symptoms of suicide were discovered on her person. Piso, meanwhile, sent his son on to Rome with a message intended to pacify the emperor, and then made his way to Drusus, who would, he hoped, be not so much infuriated at his brother's death, as kindly disposed towards himself in consequence of a rival's removal. Tiberius, to show his impartiality, received the youth courteously, and enriched him with the liberality he usually bestowed on the sons of noble families. Drusus replied to Piso that if certain insinuations were true, he must be foremost in his resentment, but he preferred to believe that they were false and groundless, and that Germanicus's death need be the ruin of no one. This he said openly, avoiding anything like secrecy. Men did not doubt that his answer was prescribed him by Tiberius in as much as one who had generally the simplicity and candour of youth now had recourse to the artifices of old age. Piso, after crossing the Dalmatian Sea and leaving his ships at Ancona, went through Piscinum and along the Flaminian Road, where he overtook a legion which was marching from Pannonia to Rome, and was then to Garrison, Africa. It was a matter of common talk how he had repeatedly displayed himself to the soldiers on the road during the march. From Narnia to avoid suspicion or because the plans of fear are uncertain, he sailed down the Naa, then down the Tiber, and increased the fury of the populace by bringing his vessel to shore at the tomb of the Caesars. In broad daylight, when the riverbank was thronged, he himself, with a numerous following of dependence and plancina with a retinue of women, moved onward with joy in their countenances. Among other things which provoked men's anger was his house, towering above the forum, gay with festival decorations, his banquets, and his feasts, about which there was no secrecy because the place was so public. Next day, Falsinius Trio asked the consuls leave to prosecute Pizzo. It was contended against him by Vitelius and Ferenius and the others who had been the companions of Germanicus that this was not Trio's proper part, and that they themselves meant to report their instructions from Germanicus not as accusers, but as deponents and witnesses to facts. Trio, abandoning the prosecution on this count, obtained leave to accuse Pizzo's previous career and the emperor was requested to undertake the inquiry. This even the accused did not refuse, fearing as he did the bias of the people and of the Senate, while Tiberius he knew was resolute enough to despise report and was also entangled in his mother's complicity. Truth, too, would be more easily distinguished from perverse misrepresentation by a single judge, but a number would be swayed by hatred and ill-will. Tiberius was not unaware of the formidable difficulty of the inquiry and of the rumours by which he was himself assailed. Having therefore summoned a few intimate friends, he listened to the threatening speeches of the prosecutors and to the pleadings of the accused and finally referred the whole case to the Senate. Drusus, meanwhile, on his return from Illyricum, though the Senate had voted him an ovation for the submission of Maribodius and the successes of the previous summer, postponed the honour and entered Rome. Then the defendants sought the advocacy of Lucius Arrantius, Marcus Venitius, Asinius Gallus, Is aninus Marcellus, and Sextus Pompeius. And on their declining for different reasons, Marcus Lepidus, Lucius Pizzo, and Livinius Regulus became his council amid the excitement of the whole country, which wondered how much fidelity would be shown by the friends of Germanicus on what the accused rested his hopes and how far Tiberius would repress and hide his feelings. Never were the people more keenly interested, never did they indulge themselves more freely in secret whispers against the emperor or in the silence of suspicion. On the day the Senate met, Tiberius delivered a speech of studied moderation. Pizzo, he said, was my father's representative and friend, and was appointed by myself on the advice of the Senate to assist Germanicus in the administration of the east. Whether he there had provoked the young prince by willful opposition and rivalry and had rejoiced at his death or wickedly destroyed him is for you to determine with minds unbiased. Certainly if a subordinate oversteps the bounds of duty and of obedience to his commander and has exalted in his death and in my affliction, I shall hate him and exclude him from my house, and I shall avenge a personal quarrel without resorting to my power as emperor. If, however, a crime is discovered which ought to be punished, whoever the murdered man may be, it is for you to give just reparation both to the children of Germanicus and to us, his parents. Consider this, too, whether Pizzo dealt with the armies in a revolutionary and seditious spirit, whether he sought by intrigue popularity with the soldiers, whether he attempted to repossess himself of the province by arms, or whether these are falsehoods which his accusers have published with exaggeration. As for them I am justly angry with their intemperate zeal. For to what purpose did they strip the corpse and expose it to the pollution of the vulgar gaze and circulate a story among foreigners that he was destroyed by poison if all this is still doubtful and requires investigation. For my part I sorrow for my son and shall always sorrow for him. Still I would not hinder the accused from producing all the evidence which can relieve his innocence or convict Germanicus of any unfairness if such there was. And I implore you not to take as proven charges alleged, merely because the case is intimately bound up with my affliction. Do you, whom ties of blood or your own true heartedness have made his advocates, in his peril, every one of you as far as each man's eloquence and diligence can do so. To like exertions and like persistency I would urge the prosecutors. In this and in this only will we place Germanicus above the laws by conducting the inquiry into his death in this house instead of in the forum and before the senate of before a bench of judges. In all else let the case be tried as simply as others. Let no one heed the tears of drusus or my own sorrow or any stories invented to our discredit. Two days were then assigned for the bringing forward of the charges and after six days interval the prisoner's defence was to occupy three days. Thereupon Falsinius' trio began with some old and irrelevant accusations about intrigues and extortion during Pisa's government of Spain. This, if proved, would not have been fatal to the defendant if he cleared himself as to his late conduct and, if refuted, would not have secured his acquittal if he were convicted of the greater crimes. Next, Servius, Varanius and Vitelius all with equal earnestness, Vitelius with striking eloquence, alleged against Pisa that out of hatred of Germanicus and a desire of revolution he had so corrupted the common soldiers by license and oppression of the allies that he was called by the vilest of them father of the legions. While on the other hand to all the best men, especially to the companions of Germanicus, he had been savagely cruel. Lastly he had, they said, destroyed Germanicus himself by sorceries and poison, and hence came those ceremonies and horrible sacrifices made by himself and Glancena. Then he had threatened the state with war and had been defeated in battle before he could be tried as a prisoner. On all points, but one, the defence broke down, that he had tampered with the soldiers, that his province had been at the mercy of the vilest of them, that he had even insulted his chief, he could not deny. It was only the charge of poisoning from which he seemed to have cleared himself. This indeed the prosecutors did not adequately sustain by merely alleging that at a banquet given by Germanicus his food had been tainted with poison by the hands of Piso who sat next above him. It seemed absurd to suppose that he would have dared such an attempt among strange servants in the sight of so many bystanders and under Germanicus's own eyes. And, besides, the defendant offered his slaves to the torture and insisted on its application to the attendants on that occasion. But the judges, for different reasons, were merciless. The emperor, because war had been made on a province, the senate, because they could not be sufficiently convinced that there had been no treachery about the death of Germanicus. At the same time shouts were heard from the people in front of the senate house, threatening violence if he escaped the verdict of the senators. They had actually dragged Piso's statues to the Germanian stares and were breaking them in pieces when by the emperor's order they were rescued and replaced. Piso was then put in a litter and attended by a tribune of one of the Praetorian cohorts who followed him, so it was variously rumoured, to guard his person or to be his executioner. Plancina was equally detested but had stronger interest. Consequently it was considered a question how far the emperor would be allowed to go against her. While Piso's hopes were in suspense she offered to share his lot, whatever it might be, and in the worst event to be his companion in death. But as soon as she had secured her pardon through the secret intercessions of Augusta she gradually withdrew from her husband and separated her defence from his. When the prisoner saw that this was fatal to him he hesitated whether he should still persist but at the urgent request of his sons braced his courage and once more entered the senate. There he bore patiently the renewal of the accusation the furious voices of the senators savage opposition indeed from every quarter but nothing daunted him so much as to see Tiberius without pity and without anger resolutely closing himself against any in-road of emotion. He was conveyed back to his house where seemingly by way of preparing his defence for the next day he wrote a few words sealed the paper and handed it to a freedman. Then he bestowed the usual attention on his person after a while late at night his wife having left his chamber he ordered the doors to be closed and at daybreak was found with his throat cut and a sword lying on the ground. I remember to have heard old men say that a document was often seen in Piso's hands the substance of which he never himself divulged but which his friends repeatedly declared contained a letter from Tiberius with instructions referring to Germanicus and that it was his intention to produce it before the senate and up-braid the emperor had he not been deluded by vain promises from Sygenus nor did he perish they said by his own hand but by that of one sent to be his executioner neither of these statements would I positively affirm still it would not have been right for me to conceal as related by those who lived up to the time of my youth the emperor assuming an air of sadness complained in the senate that the purpose of such a death was to bring odium on himself and he asked with repeated questionings how Piso had spent his last day and night receiving answers which were mostly judicious though in part somewhat in cautious he read out a note written by Piso nearly to the following effect crushed by a conspiracy of my foes and the odium excited by a lying charge since my truth and innocence find no place here I call the immortal gods to witness that towards you Caesar I have lived loyally and with like-dutiful respect towards your mother and I implore you to think of my children of whom Knius is in no way implicated in my career whatever it may have been seeing that all this time he has been at Rome while the other Marcus Piso dissuaded me from returning to Syria would that I had yielded to my young son rather than he to his aged father and therefore I pray the more earnestly that the innocent may not pay the penalty of my wickedness for forty-five years of obedience by my association with you in the consulate as one who formerly won the esteem of the Divine Augustus your father as one who is your friend and will never hereafter ask a favour I implore you to save my unhappy son about Plancina he added not a word Tiberius after this he acquitted the young Piso of the charge of civil war on the ground that a son could not have refused a father's orders compassionating at the same time the high rank of the family and the terrible downfall even of Piso himself however he might have deserved it for Plancina he spoke with shame and conscious disgrace alleging in excuse the intercession of his mother secret complaints against whom from all good men were growing more and more vehement so it was the duty of a grandmother people said to look a grandson's murderous in the face to converse with her and rescue her from the senate what the laws secure on behalf of every citizen had to Germanicus alone been denied the voices of Vitellius and Varanius had bewailed a Caesar while the emperor and Augusta had defended Plancina she might as well now turn her poisonings and her devices which had proved so successful against Agrippina and her children and thus sate this exemplary grandmother and uncle with the blood of a most unhappy house two days were frittered away over this mockery of a trial Tiberius urging Piso's children to defend their mother while the accusers and their witnesses pressed the prosecution with rival zeal and there was no reply pity rather than anger was on the increase Aurelius Cotter the consul who was first called on for his vote for when the emperor put the question even those in office went through the duty of voting held that Piso's name ought to be erased from the public register half of his property confiscated half given up to his son Cnius Piso who was to change his first name that Marcus Piso stripped of his rank with an allowance of five billion cesterces should be banished for ten years Plancina's life being spared in consideration of Augustus intercession much of the sentence was mitigated by the emperor the name of Piso was not to be struck out of the public register since that of Marcus Antonius who had made war on his country and that of Julius Antonius who had dishonoured the house of Augustus still remained Marcus Piso too he saved from degradation and gave him his father's property for he was firm enough as I have often related against the temptation of money and now for very shame at Plancina's acquittal he was more than usually merciful again when Valerius Messelinus and Cicina Severus proposed respectively the erection of a golden statue in the temple of Mars the Avenger and of an altar to vengeance he interposed protesting that victories over the foreigner were commemorated with such monuments but that domestic woes ought to be shrouded in silent grief there was a further proposal of Messelinus that Tiberius or Gaster, Antonia, Agrippina and Drusus ought to be publicly thanked for having avenged Germanicus he omitted all mention of Claudius thereupon he was pointedly asked by Lucius Aspirinus before the senate whether the omission had been intentional and it was only then that the name of Claudius was added for my part the wider the scope of my reflection on the present and the past the more am I impressed by their mockery of human plans in every transaction clearly the very last man marked out for empire by public opinion expectation and general respect was he whom fortune was holding in reserve as the emperor of the future End of book 3 part 1 Recording by Graham Redman