--- title: "Tiberius" author: "Suetonius" translator: "Alexander Thomson" languages: [la, en] shelf: "Classical Latin" section: 3 of 3 url: https://scriptura.si/works/suetonius-tiberius/3/ cite: "Suetonius, tr. Alexander Thomson, Tiberius, section 3. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/suetonius-tiberius/3/" --- # Tiberius *Suetonius, tr. Alexander Thomson* The reluctant, suspicious emperor, and his retreat to Capri. > Latin: ed. Maximilian Ihm, from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit, phi1348.abo013, CC BY-SA 4.0). > English: Alexander Thomson, from the Perseus Digital Library (phi1348.abo013.perseus-eng2). Notes are not included. > Rows follow the references the two texts share (chapters and sections), cut where both reach the end of a sentence. ## 3. Chapters 52–76 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/suetonius-tiberius/3/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/suetonius-tiberius/3/#p-N [¶0] 52. He entertained no paternal affection either for his own son Drusus, or his adopted son Germanicus. Offended at the vices of the former, who was of a loose disposition and led a dissolute life, he was not much affected at his death; but, almost immediately after the funeral, resumed his attention to business, and prevented the courts from being longer closed. The ambassadors from the people of Ilium coming rather late to offer their condolence, he said to them by way of banter, as if the affair had already faded from his memory, "And I heartily condole with you on the loss of your renowned countryman Hector." He so much affected to depreciate Germanicus, that he spoke of his achievements as utterly insignificant, and railed at his most glorious victories as ruinous to the state; complaining of him also to the senate for going to Alexandria without his knowledge, upon occasion of a great and sudden famine at Rome. It was believed that he took care to have him dispatched by Cneius Piso, his lieutenant in Syria. This person was afterwards tried for the murder, and would, as was supposed, have produced his orders, had they not been contained in a private and confidential dispatch. The follo-ring words therefore were posted up in many placez, and frequently shouted in the night: "Give us back our Germanicus." This suspicion was afterwards confirmed by the barbarous treatment of his wife and children. > Latin: 52. Filiorum neque naturalem Drusum neque adoptiuum Germanicum patria caritate dilexit, alterius uitiis infensus. nam Drusus fluxioris remissiorisque uitae erat. itaque ne mortuo quidem perinde adfectus est, sed tantum non statim a funere ad negotiorum consuetudinem rediit iustitio longiore inhibito. quin et Iliensium legatis paulo serius consolantibus, quasi obliterata iam doloris memoria, irridens se quoque respondit uicem eorum dolere, quod egregium ciuem Hectorem amisissent. Germanico usque adeo obtrectauit, ut et praeclara facta eius pro superuacuis eleuarit et gloriosissimas uictorias ceu damnosas rei p. increparet. quod uero Alexandream propter immensam et repentinam famem inconsulto se adisset, questus est in senatu. etiam causa mortis fuisse ei per Cn. Pisonem legatum Syriae creditur, quem mox huius criminis reum putant quidam mandata prolaturum, nisi ea secreto ostentant ⟨… ⟩ quae multifariam inscriptum et per noctes celeberrime adclamatum est: 'redde Germanicum!' quam suspicionem confirmauit ipse postea coniuge etiam ac liberis Germanici crudelem in modum afflictis. [¶1] 53. His daughter-in-law Agrippina, after the death of her husband, complaining upon some occasion with more than ordinary freedom, he took her by the hand, and addressed her in a Greek verse to this effect: "My dear child, do you think yourself injured, because you are not empress?" Nor did he ever vouchsafe to speak to her again. Upon her refusing once at supper to taste some fruit which he presented to her, he declined inviting her to his table, pretending that she in effect charged him with a design to poison her; whereas the whole was a contrivance of his own. He was to offer the fruit, and she to be privately cautioned against eating what would infallibly cause her death. At last, having her accused of intending to flee for refuge to the statue of Augustus, or to the army, he banished her to the island of Pandataria. Upon her reviling him for it, he caused a centurion to beat out one of her eyes; and when she resolved to starve herself to death, he ordered her mouth to be forced open, and meat to be crammed down her throat. But she persisting in her resolution, and dying soon afterwards, he persecuted her memory with the basest aspersions, and persuaded the senate to put her birth-day amongst the number of unlucky days in the calendar. He likewise took credit for not having caused her to be strangled and her body cast upon the Gemonian Steps, and suffered a decree of the senate to pass, thanking him for his clemency, and an offering of gold to be made to Jupiter Capitolinus on the occasion. > Latin: 53. Nurum Agrippinam post mariti mortem liberius quiddam questam manu apprehendit Graecoque uersu: 'si non dominaris,' inquit, 'filiola, iniuriam te accipere existimas?' nec ullo mox sermone dignatus est. quondam uero inter cenam porrecta a se poma gustare non ausam etiam uocare desiit, simulans ueneni se crimine accersi; cum praestructum utrumque consulto esset, ut et ipse temptandi gratia offerret et illa quasi certissimum exitium caueret. nouissime calumniatus modo ad statuam Augusti modo ad exercitus confugere uelle, Pandatariam relegauit conuiciantique oculum per centurionem uerberibus excussit. rursus mori inedia destinanti per uim ore diducto infulciri cibum iussit. sed et perseuerantem atque ita absumptam criminosissime insectatus, cum diem quoque natalem eius inter nefastos referendum suasisset, imputauit etiam, quod non laqueo strangulatam in Gemonias abiecerit: proque tali clementia interponi decretum passus est, quo sibi gratiae agerentur et Capitolino Ioui donum ex auro sacraretur. [¶2] 54. He had by Germanicus three grandsons, Nero, Drusus, and Caius; and by his son Drusus one, named Tiberius. Of these, after the loss of his sons, he commended Nero and Drusus, the two eldest sons of Germanicus, to the senate; and at their being solemnly in troduced into the forum, distributed money among the people. But when he found that on entering upon the new year they were included in the public vows for his own welfare, he told the senate, " that such honours ought not to be conferred but upon those who had been proved, and were of more advanced years." By thus betraying his private feelings towards them,' he exposed them to all sorts of accusations; and after practising many artifices to provoke them to rail at and abuse him, that he might be furnished with a pretence to destroy them, he charged them with it in a letter to the senate: and at the same time accusing them, in the bitterest terms, of the most scandalous vices. Upon their being declared enemies by the senate, he starved them to death; Nero in the island of Ponza, and Drusus in the vaults of the Palatium. It is thought by some that Nero was driven to a voluntary death by the executioner's shewing him some halters and hooks, as if he had been sent to him by order of the senate. Drusus, it is said, was so rabid with hunger, that he attempted to eat the chaff with which his mattress was stuffed. The relics of both were so scattered, that it was with difficulty they were collected. > Latin: 54. Cum ex Germanico tres nepotes, Neronem et Drusum et Gaium, ex Druso unum Tiberium haberet, destitutus morte liberorum maximos natu de Germanici filiis, Neronem et Drusum, patribus conscriptis commendauit diemque utriusque tirocinii congiario plebei dato celebrauit. sed ut comperit ineunte anno pro eorum quoque salute publice uota suscepta, egit cum senatu, non debere talia praemia tribui nisi expertis et aetate prouectis. atque ex eo patefacta interiore animi sui nota omnium criminationibus obnoxios reddidit uariaque fraude inductos, ut et concitarentur ad conuicia et concitati proderentur, accusauit per litteras amarissime congestis etiam probris et iudicatos hostis fame necauit, Neronem in insula Pontia, Drusum in ima parte Palatii. putant Neronem ad uoluntariam mortem coactum, cum ei carnifex quasi ex senatus auctoritate missus laqueos et uncos ostentaret, Druso autem adeo alimenta subducta, ut tomentum e culcita temptauerit mandere; amborum sic reliquias dispersas, ut uix quandoque colligi possent. [¶3] 55. Besides his old friends and intimate acquaintance, he required the assistance of twenty of the most eminent persons in the city, as counsellors in the administration of public affairs. Out of all this number, scarcely two or three escaped the fury of his savage disposition. All the rest he destroyed upon one pretence or another; and among them AFlius Sejanus, whose fall was attended with the ruin of many others. He had advanced this minister to the highest pitch of grandeur, not so much from any real regard for him, as that by his base and sinister contrivances he might ruin the children of Germani cus, and thereby secure the succession to his own grandson by Drusus. > Latin: 55. Super ueteres amicos ac familiares uiginti sibi e numero principum ciuitatis depoposcerat uelut consiliarios in negotiis publicis. horum omnium uix duos anne tres incolumis praestitit, ceteros alium alia de causa perculit, inter quos cum plurimorum clade Aelium Seianum; quem ad summam potentiam non tam beniuolentia prouexerat, quam ut esset cuius ministerio ac fraudibus liberos Germanici circumueniret, nepotemque suum ex Druso filio naturalem ad successionem imperii confirmaret. [¶4] 56. He treated with no greater leniency the Greeks in his family, even those with whom he was most pleased. Having asked one Zeno, upon his using some far-fetched phrases, "What uncouth dialect is that?" he replied, " The Doric." For this answer he banished him to Cinara, suspecting that he taunted him with his former residence at Rhodes, where the Doric dialect is spoken. It being his custom to start questions at supper, arising out of what he had been reading in the day, and finding that Seleucus, the grammarian, used to inquire of his attendants what authors he was then studying, and so came prepared for his inquiries-he first turned him out of his family, and then drove him to the extremity of laying violent hands upon himself. > Latin: 56. Nihilo lenior in conuictores Graeculos, quibus uel maxime adquiescebat, Xenonem quendam exquisitius sermocinantem cum interrogasset, quaenam illa tam molesta dialectos esset, et ille respondisset Doridem, relegauit Cinariam, existimans exprobratum sibi ueterem secessum, quod Dorice Rhodii loquantur. item cum soleret ex lectione cotidiana quaestiones super cenam proponere comperissetque Seleucum grammaticum a ministris suis perquirere, quos quoque tempore tractaret auctores, atque ita praeparatum uenire, primum a contubernio remouit, deinde etiam ad mortem compulit. [¶5] 57. His cruel and sullen temper appeared when he was still a boy; which Theodorus of Gadara, his master in rhetoric, first discovered, and expressed by a very opposite simile, calling him sometimes, when he chid him, "Mud mixed with blood." But his disposition shewed itself still more clearly on his attaining the imperial power, and even in the beginning of his administration, when he was endeavouring to gain the popular favour, by affecting moderation. Upon a funeral passing by, a wag called out to the dead man, "Tell Augustus, that the legacies he bequeathed to the people are not yet paid." The man being brought before him, he ordered that he should receive what was due to him, and then be led to execution, that he might deliver the message to his father himself. Not long afterwards, when one Pompey, a Roman knight, persisted in his opposition to something he proposed in the senate, he threatened to put him in prison, and told him, "Of a Pompey I shall make a Pompeian of you;" by a bitter kind of pun playing upon the man's name, and the ill-fortune of his party. > Latin: 57. Saeua ac lenta natura ne in puero quidem latuit; quam Theodorus Gadareus rhetoricae praeceptor et perspexisse primus sagaciter et assimilasse aptissime uisus est, subinde in obiurgando appellans eum πηλὸν αἵματι πεφυραμένον, id est lutum a sanguine maceratum. sed aliquanto magis in principe eluxit, etiam inter initia cum adhuc fauorem hominum moderationis simulatione captaret. scurram, qui praetereunte funere clare mortuo mandarat, ut nuntiaret Augusto nondum reddi legata quae plebei reliquisset, adtractum ad se recipere debitum ducique ad supplicium imperauit et patri suo uerum referre. nec multo post in senatu Pompeio cuidam equiti R. quiddam perneganti, dum uincula minatur, affirmauit fore ut ex Pompeio Pompeianus fieret, acerba cauillatione simul hominis nomen incessens ueteremque partium fortunam. [¶6] 58. About the same time, when the praetor consulted him, whether it was his pleasure that the tribunals should take cognizance of accusations of treason, he replied, "The laws ought to be put in execution;" and he did put them in execution most severely. Some person had taken off the head of Augustus from one of his statues, and replaced it by another. The matter was brought before the senate, and because the case was not clear, the witnesses were put to the torture. The party accused being found guilty, and condemned, this kind of proceeding was carried so far, that it became capital for a man to beat his slave, or change his clothes, near the statue of Augustus; to carry his head stamped upon the coin, or cut in the stone of a ring, into a necessary house, or the stews; or to reflect upon anything that had been either said or done by him. In fine, a person was condemned to death, for suffering some honours to be decreed to him in the colony where he lived, upon the same day on which they had formerly been decreed to Augustus. > Latin: 58. sub idem tempus consulente praetore an iudicia maiestatis cogi iuberet, exercendas esse leges respondit et atrocissime exercuit. statuae quidam Augusti caput dempserat, ut alterius imponeret; acta res in senatu et, quia ambigebatur, per tormenta quaesita est. damnato reo paulatim genus calumniae eo processit, ut haec quoque capitalia essent: circa Augusti simulacrum seruum cecidisse, uestimenta mutasse, nummo uel anulo effigiem impressam latrinae aut lupanari intulisse, dictum ullum factumue eius existimatione aliqua laesisse. perit denique et is, qui honorem in colonia sua eodem die decerni sibi passus est, quo decreti et Augusto olim erant. [¶7] 59. He was besides guilty of many barbarous actions, under the pretence of strictness and reformation of manners, but more to gratify his own savage disposition. Some verses were published, which displayed the present calamities of his reign, and anticipated the future. Asper et immitis, breviter vis omnia dicam? Dispeream si te mater amare potest. Non es eques, quare? non sunt tibi millia centum? Omnia si quaras, et Rhodos exsilium est. Aurea mutasti Saturni saecula, Caesar: Incolumi nam te, ferrea semper erunt. Fastidit vinum, quia jam sitit iste cruorem: Tam bibit hunc avide, quam bibit ante merum. Adspice felicem sibi, non tibi, Romule, Sullam: Et Marium, si vis, adspice, sed reducem. Nec non Antoni civilia bella moventis Nec semel infectas adspice cada manus, Et dic, Roma perit: regnabit sanguine multo, Ad regnum quisquis venit ab exsilio. Obdurate wretch! too fierce, too fell to move The least kind yearnings of a mother's love! No knight thou art, as having no estate; Long suffered'st thou in Rhodes an exile's fate, No more the happy Golden Age we see; The Iron's come, and sure to last with thee. Instead of wine he thirsted for before, He wallows now in floods of human gore. Reflect, ye Romans, on the dreadful times, Made such by Marius, and by Sylla's crimes. Reflect how Antony's ambitious rage Twice scar'd with horror a distracted age. And say, Alas! Rome's blood in streams will flow, When banish'd miscreants rule this world below. At first he would have it understood, that these satirical verses were drawn forth by the resentment of those who were impatient under the discipline of reformation, rather than that they spoke, their real sentiments; and he would frequently say, "Let them hate me, so long as they do but approve my conduct." At length, however, his behaviour showed that he was sensible they were too well founded. > Latin: 59. Multa praeterea specie grauitatis ac morum corrigendorum, sed et magis naturae optemperans, ita saeue et atrociter factitauit, ut nonnulli uersiculis quoque et praesentia exprobrarent et futura denuntiarent mala: Asper et immitis, breuiter uis omnia dicam? dispeream, si te mater amare potest. Non es eques; quare? non sunt tibi milia centum; omnia si quaeras, et Rhodus exilium est. Aurea mutasti Saturni saecula, Caesar: incolumi nam te ferrea semper erunt. Fastidit uinum, quia iam sitit iste cruorem: tam bibit hunc auide, quam bibit ante merum. Aspice felicem sibi, non tibi, Romule, Sullam et Marium, si uis, aspice, sed reducem, nec non Antoni ciuilia bella mouentis non semel infectas aspice caede manus, et dic: Roma perit! regnauit sanguine multo, ad regnum quisquis uenit ab exilio. quae primo, quasi ab impatientibus remediorum ac non tam ex animi sententia quam bile et stomacho fingerentur, uolebat accipi dicebatque identidem: 'oderint, dum probent.' dein uera plane certaque esse ipse fecit fidem. [¶8] 60. A few days after his arrival at Capri, a fisherman coming up to him unexpectedly, when he was desirous of privacy, and presenting him with a large mullet, he ordered the man's face to be scrubbed with the fish; being terrified with the thought of his having been able to creep upon him from the back of the island, over such rugged and steep rocks. The man, while undergoing the punishment, expressing his joy that he had not likewise offered him a large crab which he had also taken, he ordered his face to be farther lacerated with its claws. He put to death one of the pretorian guards, for having stolen a peacock out of his orchard. In one of his journeys, his litter being obstructed by some bushes, he ordered the officer whose duty it was to ride on and examine the road, a centurion of the first cohorts, to be laid on his face upon the ground, and scourged almost to death. > Latin: 60. In paucis diebus quam Capreas attigit piscatori, qui sibi secretum agenti grandem mullum inopinanter obtulerat, perfricari eodem pisce faciem iussit, territus quod is a tergo insulae per aspera et deuia erepsisset ad se; gratulanti autem inter poenam, quod non et lucustam, quam praegrandem ceperat, obtulisset, lucusta quoque lacerari os imperauit. militem praetorianum ob subreptum e uiridiario pauonem capite puniit. in quodam itinere lectica, qua uehebatur, uepribus impedita exploratorem uiae, primarum cohortium centurionem, stratum humi paene ad necem uerberauit. [¶9] 61. Soon afterwards, he abandoned himself to every species of cruelty, never wanting occasions of one kind or another, to serve as a pretext. He first fell upon the friends and acquaintances of his mother, then those of his grandsons, and his daughter-in-law, and lastly those of Sejanus; after whose death he became cruel in the extreme. From this it appeared, that he had not been so much instigated by Sejanus, as supplied with occasions of gratifying his savage temper, when he wanted them. Though in a short memoir which he composed of his own life, he had the effrontery to write, "I have punished Sejanus, because I found him bent upon the destruction of the children of my son Germanicus," one of these he put to death, when he began to suspect Sejanus; and another, after he was taken off. It would be tedious to relate all the numerous instances of his cruelty: suffice it to give a few examples, in their different kinds. Not a day passed without the punishment of some person or other, not excepting holidays, or those appropriated to the worship of the gods. Some were tried even on NewYear's-Day. Of many who were condemned, their wives and children shared the same fate; and for those who Were sentenced to death, the relations were forbid to put on mourning. Considerable rewards were voted for the prosecutors, and sometimes for the witnesses also. The information of any person, without exception, was taken; and all offences were capital, even speaking a few words, though without any ill intention. A poet was charged with abusing Agamemnon; and a historian, for calling Brutus and Cassius " the last of the Romans." The two authors were immediately called to account, and their writings suppressed; though they had been well received some years before, and read in the hearing of Augustus. Some, who were thrown into prison, were not only denied the solace of study, but debarred from all company and conversation. Many persons, when summoned to trial, stabbed themselves at home, to avoid the distress and ignominy of a public condemnation, which they were certain would ensue. Others took poison in the senate-house. The wounds were bound up, and all who had not expired, were carried, half-dead, and panting for life, to prison. Those who were put to death, were thrown down the Gemonian stairs, and then dragged into the Tiber. In one day, twenty were treated in this manner; and amongst them women and boys. Because, according to an ancient custom, it was not lawful to strangle virgins, the young girls were first deflowered by the executioner, and afterwards strangled. Those who were desirous to die, were forced to live. For he thought death so slight a punishment, that upon hearing that Carnulius, one of the accused, who was under prosecution, had killed himself," he exclaimed, "Carnulius has escaped me." In calling over his prisoners, when one of them requested the favour of a speedy death, he replied, " You are not yet restored to favour." A man of consular rank writes in his annals, that at table, where he himself was present with a large company, he was suddenly asked aloud by a dwarf who stood by amongst the buffoons, why Paconius, who was under prosecution for treason, lived so long. Tiberius immediately reprimanded him for his pertness; but wrote to the senate a few days after, to proceed without delay to the punishment of Paconius. > Latin: 61. mox in omne genus crudelitatis erupit numquam deficiente materia, cum primo matris, deinde nepotum et nurus, postremo Seiani familiares atque etiam notos persequeretur; post cuius interitum uel saeuissimus extitit. quo maxime apparuit, non tam ipsum ab Seiano concitari solitum, quam Seianum quaerenti occasiones sumministrasse; etsi commentario, quem de uita sua summatim breuiterque composuit, ausus est scribere Seianum se punisse, quod comperisset furere aduersus liberos Germanici filii sui; quorum ipse alterum suspecto iam, alterum oppresso demum Seiano interemit. Singillatim crudeliter facta eius exequi longum est; genera, uelut exemplaria saeuitiae, enumerare sat erit. nullus a poena hominum cessauit dies, ne religiosus quidem ac sacer; animaduersum in quosdam ineunte anno nouo. accusati damnatique multi cum liberis atque etiam a liberis suis. interdictum ne capite damnatos propinqui lugerent. decreta accusatoribus praecipua praemia, nonnumquam et testibus. nemini delatorum fides abrogata. omne crimen pro capitali receptum, etiam paucorum simpliciumque uerborum. obiectum est poetae, quod in tragoedia Agamemnonem probris lacessisset; obiectum et historico, quod Brutum Cassiumque ultimos Romanorum dixisset; animaduersum statim in auctores scriptaque abolita, quamuis probarentur ante aliquot annos etiam Augusto audiente recitata. quibusdam custodiae traditis non modo studendi solacium ademptum, sed etiam sermonis et conloqui usus. citati ad causam dicendam partim se domi uulnerauerunt certi damnationis et ad uexationem ignominiamque uitandam, partim in media curia uenenum hauserunt; et tamen conligatis uulneribus ac semianimes palpitantesque adhuc in carcerem rapti. nemo punitorum non in Gemonias abiectus uncoque tractus, uiginti uno die abiecti tractique, inter eos feminae et pueri. immaturae puellae, quia more tradito nefas esset uirgines strangulari, uitiatae prius a carnifice, dein strangulatae. mori uolentibus uis adhibita uiuendi. nam mortem adeo leue supplicium putabat, ut cum audisset unum e reis, Carnulum nomine, anticipasse eam, exclamauerit: 'Carnulus me euasit.' et in recognoscendis custodiis precanti cuidam poenae maturitatem respondit: 'nondum tecum in gratiam redii.' annalibus suis uir consularis inseruit, frequenti quodam conuiuio, cui et ipse affuerit, interrogatum eum subito et clare a quodam nano astante mensae inter copreas, cur Paconius maiestatis reus tam diu uiueret, statim quidem petulantiam linguae obiurgasse, ceterum post paucos dies scripsisse senatui, ut de poena Paconi quam primum statueret. [¶10] 62. Exasperated by information he received respect ing the death of his son Drusus, he carried his cruelty still farther. He imagined that he had died of a disease occasioned by his intemperance; but finding that he had been poisoned by the contrivance of his wife Livilla, and Sejanus, he spared no one from torture and death. He was so entirely occupied with the examination of this affair, for whole days together, that, upon being informed that the person in whose house he had lodged at Rhodes, and whom he had by a friendly letter invited to Rome, was arrived, he ordered him immediately to be put to the torture, as a party concerned in the enquiry. Upon finding his mistake, he commanded him to be put to death, that he might not publish the injury done him. The place of execution is still shown at Capri, where he ordered those who were condemned to die, after long and exquisite tortures, to be thrown, before his eyes, from a precipice into the sea. There a party of soldiers belonging to the fleet waited for them, and broke their bones with poles and oars, lest they should have any life left in them. Had not death prevented him, and Thrasyllus, designedly, as some say, prevailed with him to defer some of his cruelties, in hopes of longer life, it is believed that he would have destroyed many more; and not have spared even the rest of his grand-children: for he was jealous of Caius, and hated Tiberius as having been conceived in adultery. This conjecture is indeed highly probable; for he used often to say, "Happy Priam, who survived all his children!" > Latin: 62. Auxit intenditque saeuitiam exacerbatus indicio de morte filii sui Drusi. quem cum morbo et intemperantia perisse existimaret, ut tandem ueneno interemptum fraude Liuillae uxoris atque Seiani cognouit, neque tormentis neque supplicio cuiusquam pepercit, soli huic cognitioni adeo per totos dies deditus et intentus, ut Rhodiensem hospitem, quem familiaribus litteris Romam euocarat, aduenisse sibi nuntiatum torqueri sine mora iusserit, quasi aliquis ex necessariis quaestioni adesset, deinde errore detecto et occidi, ne uulgaret iniuriam. carnificinae eius ostenditur locus Capreis, unde damnatos post longa et exquisita tormenta praecipitari coram se in mare iubebat, excipiente classiariorum manu et contis atque remis elidente cadauera, ne cui residui spiritus quicquam inesset. excogitauerat autem inter genera cruciatus etiam, ut larga meri potione per fallaciam oneratos, repente ueretris deligatis, fidicularum simul urinaeque tormento distenderet. quod nisi eum et mors praeuenisset et Thrasyllus consulto, ut aiunt, differre quaedam spe longioris uitae compulisset, plures aliquanto necaturus ac ne reliquis quidem nepotibus parsurus creditur, cum et Gaium suspectum haberet et Tiberium ut ex adulterio conceptum aspernaretur. nec abhorret a uero; namque identidem felicem Priamum uocabat, quod superstes omnium suorum extitisset. [¶11] 63. Amidst these enormities, in how much fear and apprehension, as well as odium and detestation, he lived, is evident from many indications. He forbade the soothsayers to be consulted in private, and without some witnesses being present. He attempted to suppress the oracles in the neighbourhood of the city; but being terrified by the divine authority of the Praenestine Lots, he abandoned the design. For though they were sealed up in a box, and carried to Rome, yet they were not to be found in it until it was returned to the temple. More than one person of consular rank, appointed governors of provinces, he never ventured to dismiss to their respective destinations, but kept them until several years after, when he nominated their successors, while they still remained present with him. In the meantime they bore the title of their office; and he frequently gave them orders, which they took care to have executed by their deputies and assistants. > Latin: 63. Quam inter haec non modo inuisus ac detestabilis, sed praetrepidus quoque atque etiam contumeliis obnoxius uixerit, multa indicia sunt. haruspices secreto ac sine testibus consuli uetuit. uicina uero urbi oracula etiam dis[s]icere conatus est, sed maiestate Praenestinarum sortium territus destitit, cum obsignatas deuectasque Romam non repperisset in arca nisi relata rursus ad templum. unum et alterum consulares oblatis prouinciis non ausus a se dimittere usque eo detinuit, donec successores post aliquot annos praesentibus daret, cum interim manente officii titulo etiam delegaret plurima assidue, quae illi per legatos et adiutores suos exequenda curarent. [¶12] 64. He never removed his daughter-in-law or grandsons, after their condemnation, to any place, but in fetters and in a covered litter, with a guard to hinder all who met them on the road, and travellers, from stopping to gaze at them. > Latin: 64. nurum ac nepotes numquam aliter post damnationem quam catenatos obsutaque lectica loco mouit, prohibitis per militem obuiis ac uiatoribus respicere usquam uel consistere. [¶13] 65. After Sejanus had plotted against him, though he saw that his birth-day was solemnly kept by the public, and divine honours paid to golden images of him in every quarter, yet it was with difficulty at last, and more by artifice than his imperial power, that he accomplished his death. In the first place, to remove him from about his person, under the pretext of doing him honour, he made him his colleague in his fifth consulship; which, although then absent from the city, he took upon him for that purpose, long after his preceding consulship. Then, having flattered him with the hope of an alliance by marriage with one of his own kindred, and the prospect of the tribunitian authority, he suddenly, while Sejanus little expected it, charged him with treason, in an abject and pitiful address to the senate; in which, among other things, he begged them "to send one of the consuls, to conduct himself, a poor solitary old man, with a guard of soldiers, into their presence." Still distrustful, however, and apprehensive of an insurrection, he ordered his grandson, Drusus, whom he still kept in confinement at Rome, to be set at liberty, and if occasion required, to head the troops. He had likewise ships in readiness to transport him to any of the legions to which he might consider it expedient to make his escape. Meanwhile, he was upon the watch, from the summit of a lofty cliff, for the signals which he had ordered to be made if any thing occurred, lest the messengers should be tardy. Even when he had quite foiled the conspiracy of Sejanus, he was still haunted as much as ever with fears and apprehensions, insomuch that he never once stirred out of the Villa Jovis for nine months after. > Latin: 65. Seianum res nouas molientem, quamuis iam et natalem eius publice celebrari et imagines aureas coli passim uideret, uix tandem et astu magis ac dolo quam principali auctoritate subuertit. nam primo, ut a se per speciem honoris dimitteret, collegam sibi assumpsit in quinto consulatu, quem longo interuallo absens ob id ipsum susceperat. deinde spe affinitatis ac tribuniciae potestatis deceptum inopinantem criminatus est pudenda miserandaque oratione, cum inter alia patres conscriptos precaretur, mitterent alterum e consulibus, qui se senem et solum in conspectum eorum cum aliquo militari praesidio perduceret. sic quoque diffidens tumultumque metuens Drusum nepotem, quem uinculis adhuc Romae continebat, solui, si res posceret, ducemque constitui praeceperat. aptatis etiam nauibus ad quascumque legiones meditabatur fugam, speculabundus ex altissima rupe identidem signa, quae, ne nuntii morarentur, tolli procul, ut quidque factum foret, mandauerat. uerum et oppressa coniuratione Seiani nihilo securior aut constantior per nouem proximos menses non egressus est uilla, quae uocatur Ionis. [¶14] 66. To the extreme anxiety of mind which he now experienced, he had the mortification to find superadded the most poignant reproaches from all quarters. Those who were condemned to die, heaped upon him the most opprobrious language in his presence, or by hand-bills scattered in the senators' seats in the theatre. These produced different effects: sometimes he wished, out of shame, to have all smothered and concealed; at other times he would disregard what was said, and publish it himself. To this accumulation of scandal and open sarcasm, there is to be subjoined a letter from Artabanus, king of the Parthians, in which he upbraids him with his parricides, murders, cowardice, and lewdness, and advises him to satisfy the furious rage of his own people, which he had so justly excited, by putting an end to his life without delay. > Latin: 66. Vrebant insuper anxiam mentem uaria undique conuicia, nullo non damnatorum omne probri genus coram uel per libellos in orchestra positos ingerente. quibus quidem diuersissime adficiebatur, modo ut prae pudore ignota et celata cuncta cuperet, nonnumquam eadem contemneret et proferret ultro atque uulgaret. quin et Artabani Parthorum regis laceratus est litteris parricidia et caedes et ignauiam et luxuriam obicientis monentisque, ut uoluntaria morte maximo iustissimoque ciuium odio quam primum satis faceret. [¶15] 67. At last, being quite weary with himself, he acknowledged his extreme misery, in a letter to the senate, which begun thus: "What to write to you, Conscript Fathers, or how to write, or what not to write at this time, may all the gods and goddesses pour upon my head a more terrible vengeance than that under which I feel myself daily sinking, if I can tell." Some are of opinion that he had a foreknowledge of those things, from his skill in the science of divination, and perceived long before what misery and infamy would at last come upon him; and that for this reason, at the beginning of his reign, he had absolutely refused the title of the " Father of his Country," and the proposal of the senate to swear to his acts; lest he should afterwards, to his greater shame, be found unequal to such extraordinary honours. This, indeed, may be justly inferred from the speeches which he made upon both those occasions; as when he says, " I shall ever be the same, and shall never change my conduct, so long as I retain my senses; but to avoid giving a bad precedent to posterity, the senate ought to beware of binding themselves to the acts of any person whatever, who might by some accident or other be induced to alter them." And again: " If ye should at any time entertain a jealousy of my conduct, and my entire affection for you, which heaven prevent by putting a period to my days, rather than I should live to see such an alteration in your opinion of me, the title of Father will add no honour to me, but be a reproach to you, for your rashness in conferring it upon me, or inconsistency in altering your opinion of me." > Latin: 67. postremo semet ipse pertaesus, tali[s] epistulae principio tantum non summam malorum suorum professus est: 'quid scribam uobis, p. c., aut quo modo scribam, aut quid omnino non scribam hoc tempore, dii me deaeque peius perdant quam cotidie perire sentio, si scio.' Existimant quidam praescisse haec eum peritia futurorum ac multo ante, quanta se quandoque acerbitas et infamia maneret, prospexisse; ideoque, ut imperium inierit, et patris patriae appellationem et ne in acta sua iuraretur obstinatissime recusasse, ne mox maiore dedecore impar tantis honoribus inueniretur. quod sane ex oratione eius, quam de utraque re habuit, colligi potest; uel cum ait: similem se semper sui futurum nec umquam mutaturum mores suos, quam diu sanae mentis fuisset; sed exempli causa cauendum esse, ne se senatus in acta cuiusquam obligaret, quia aliquo casu mutari posset. et rursus: 'Si quando autem,' inquit, 'de moribus meis deuotoque uobis animo dubitaueritis,—quod prius quam eueniat, opto ut me supremus dies huic mutatae uestrae de me opinioni eripiat— nihil honoris adiciet mihi patria appellatio, uobis autem exprobrabit aut temeritatem delati mihi eius cognominis aut inconstantiam contrarii de me iudicii.' [¶16] 68. In person he was large and robust; of a stature somewhat above the common size; broad in the shoulders and chest, and proportionable in the rest of his frame. He used his left hand more readily and with more force than his right; and his joints were so strong, that he could bore a fresh, sound apple through with his finger, and wound the head of a boy, or even a young man, with a fillip. He was of a fair complexion, and wore his hair so long behind, that it covered his neck, which was observed to be a mark of distinction affected by the family. He had a handsome face, but it was often full of pimples. His eyes, which were large, had a wonderful faculty of seeing in the night-time, and in the dark, for a short time only, and immediately after awaking from sleep; but they soon grew dim again. He walked with his neck stiff and upright; generally with a frowning countenance, being for the most part silent: when he spoke to those about him, it was very slowly, and usually accompanied with a slight gesticulation of his fingers. All which, being repulsive habits and signs of arrogance, were remarked by Augustus, who often endeavoured to excuse them to the senate and people, declaring that "they were natural defects, which proceeded from no viciousness of mind." He enjoyed a good state of health, without interruption, almost during the whole period of his rule; though, from the thirtieth year of his age, he treated himself according to his own discretion, without any medical assistance. > Latin: 68. Corpore fuit amplo atque robusto, statura quae iustam excederet; latus ab umeris et pectore, ceteris quoque membris usque ad imos pedes aequalis et congruens; sinistra manu agiliore ac ualidiore, articulis ita firmis, ut recens et integrum malum digito terebraret, caput pueri uel etiam adulescentis talitro uulneraret. colore erat candido, capillo pone occipitium summissiore ut ceruicem etiam obtegeret, quod gentile in illo uidebatur; facie honesta, in qua tamen crebri et subiti tumores, cum praegrandibus oculis et qui, quod mirum esset, noctu etiam et in tenebris uiderent, sed ad breue et cum primum e somno patuissent; deinde rursum hebescebant. incedebat ceruice rigida et obstipa, adducto fere uultu, plerumque tacitus, nullo aut rarissimo etiam cum proximis sermone eoque tardissimo, nec sine molli quadam digitorum gesticulatione. quae omnia ingrata atque arrogantiae plena et animaduertit Augustus in eo et excusare temptauit saepe apud senatum ac populum professus naturae uitia esse, non animi. ualitudine prosperrima usus est, tempore quidem principatus paene toto prope inlaesa, quamuis a tricesimo aetatis anno arbitratu eam suo rexerit sine adiumento consilioue medicorum. [¶17] 69. In regard to the gods, and matters of religion, he discovered much indifference; being greatly addicted to astrology, and fully persuaded that all things were governed by fate. Yet he was extremely afraid of lightning, and when the sky was in a disturbed state, always wore a laurel crown on his head; because it is supposed that the leaf of that tree is never touched by the lightning. > Latin: 69. Circa deos ac religiones neglegentior, quippe addictus mathematicae plenusque persuasionis cuncta fato agi, tonitrua tamen praeter modum expauescebat et turbatiore caelo numquam non coronam lauream capite gestauit, quod fulmine afflari negetur id genus frondis. [¶18] 70. He applied himself with great diligence to the liberal arts, both Greek and Latin. In his Latin style, he affected to imitate the Messala Corvinus, a venerable man, to whom he had paid much respect in his own early years. But he rendered his style obscure by excessive affectation and abstruseness, so that he was thought to speak better extempore, than in a premeditated discourse. He composed likewise a lyric ode, under the title of " A Lamentation upon the Death of Lucius Caesar; " and also some Greek poems, in imitation of Euphorion, Rhianus, and Parthenius. These poets he greatly admired, and placed their works and statues in the public libraries, amongst the eminent authors of antiquity. On this account, most of the learned men of the time vied with each other in publishing observations upon them, which they addressed to him. His principal study, however, was the history of the fabulous ages, inquiring even into its trifling details in a ridiculous manner; for he used to try the grammarians, a class of men which, as I have already observed, he much affected, with such questions as these: "Who was Hecuba's mother? What name did Achilles assume among the virgins? What was it that the Sirens used to sing?" And the first day that he entered the senate-house, after the death of Augustus, as if he intended to pay respect at once to his father's memory and to the gods, he made an offering of frankincense and wine, but without any music, in imitation of Minos, upon the death of his son. > Latin: 70. Artes liberales utriusque generis studiosissime coluit. in oratione Latina secutus est Coruinum Messalam, quem senem adulescens obseruarat. sed adfectatione et morositate nimia obscurabat stilum, ut aliquanto ex tempore quam a cura praestantior haberetur. composuit et carmen lyricum, cuius est titulus 'conquestio de morte L. Caesaris.' fecit et Graeca poemata imitatus Euphorionem et Rhianum et Parthenium, quibus poetis admodum delectatus scripta omnium et imagines publicis bibliothecis inter ueteres et praecipuos auctores dedicauit; et ob hoc plerique eruditorum certatim ad eum multa de his ediderunt. maxime tamen curauit notitiam historiae fabularis usque ad ineptias atque derisum; nam et grammaticos, quod genus hominum praecipue, ut diximus, appetebat, eius modi fere quaestionibus experiebatur: 'quae mater Hecubae, quod Achilli nomen inter uirgines fuisset, quid Sirenes cantare sint solitae.' et quo primum die post excessum Augusti curiam intrauit, quasi pietati simul ac religioni satis facturus Minonis exemplo ture quidem ac uino uerum sine tibicine supplicauit, ut ille olim in morte filii. [¶19] 71. Though he was ready and conversant with the Greek tongue, yet he did not use it everywhere; but chiefly he avoided it in the senate-house, insomuch that having occasion to employ the word monopolium (monopoly), he first begged pardon for being obliged to adopt a foreign word. And when, in a decree of the senate, the word ἔμβλημα (emblem) was read, he proposed to have it changed, and that a Latin word should be substituted in its room; or, if no proper one could be found, to express the thing by circumlocution. A soldier who was examined as a witness upon a trial, in Greek, he would not allow to reply, except in Latin. > Latin: 71. sermone Graeco quamquam alioqui promptus et facilis, non tamen usque quaque usus est abstinuitque maxime in senatu; adeo quidem, ut monopolium nominaturus ueniam prius postularet, quod sibi uerbo peregrino utendum esset. atque etiam cum in quodam decreto patrum ἔμβλημα recitaretur, commutandam censuit uocem et pro peregrina nostratem requirendam aut, si non reperiretur, uel pluribus et per ambitum uerborum rem enuntiandam. militem quoque Graece testimonium interrogatum nisi Latine respondere uetuit. [¶20] 72. During the whole time of his seclusion at Capri, twice only he made an effort to visit Rome. Once he came in a galley as far as the gardens near the Naumachia, but placed guards along the banks of the Tiber, to keep off all who should offer to come to meet him. The second time he travelled on the Appian way, as far as the seventh mile-stone from the city, but he immediately returned, without entering it, having only taken a view of the walls at a distance. For what reason he did not disembark in his first excursion, is uncertain; but in the last, he was deterred from entering the city by a prodigy. He was in the habit of diverting himself with a snake, and upon going to feed it with his own hand, according to custom, he found it devoured by ants: from which he was advised to beware of the fury of the mob. On this account, returning in all haste to Campania, he fell ill at Astura; but recovering a little, went on to Circeii. And to obviate any suspicion of his being in a bad state of health, he was not only present at the sports in the camp, but encountered, with javelins, a wild boar, which was let loose in the arena. Being immediately seized with a pain in the side, and catching cold upon his overheating himself in the exercise, he relapsed into a worse condition than he was before. He held out, however, for some time; and sailing as far as Misenum, omitted no thing in his usual mode of life, not even in his entertainments, and other gratifications, partly from an ungovernable appetite, and partly to conceal his condition. For Charicles, a physician, having obtained leave of absence, on his rising from table, took his hand to kiss it; upon which Tiberius, supposing he did it to feel his pulse, desired him to stay and resume his place, and continued the entertainment longer than usual. Nor did he omit his usual custom of taking his station in the centre of the apartment, a lictor standing by him, while he took leave of each of the party by name. > Latin: 72. Bis omnino toto secessus tempore Romam redire conatus, semel triremi usque ad proximos naumachiae hortos subuectus est disposita statione per ripas Tiberis, quae obuiam prodeuntis submoueret, iterum Appia usque ad septimum lapidem; sed prospectis modo nec aditis urbis moenibus rediit, primo incertum qua de causa, postea ostento territus. erat ei in oblectamentis serpens draco, quem ex consuetudine manu sua cibaturus cum consumptum a formicis inuenisset, monitus est ut uim multitudinis caueret. rediens ergo propere Campaniam Asturae in languorem incidit, quo paulum leuatus Cerceios pertendit. ac ne quam suspicionem infirmitatis daret, castrensibus ludis non tantum interfuit, sed etiam missum in harenam aprum iaculis desuper petit; statimque latere conuulso et, ut exaestuarat, afflatus aura in grauiorem recidit morbum. sustentauit tamen aliquamdiu, quamuis Misenum usque deuectus nihil ex ordine cotidiano praetermitteret, ne conuiuia quidem aut ceteras uoluptates partim intemperantia partim dissimulatione. nam Chariclen medicum, quod commeatu afuturus e conuiuio egrediens manum sibi osculandi causa apprehendisset, existimans temptatas ab eo uenas, remanere ac recumbere hortatus est cenamque protraxit. nec abstinuit consuetudine quin tunc quoque instans in medio triclinio astante lictore singulos ualere dicentis appellaret. [¶21] 73. Meanwhile, finding, upon looking over the acts of the senate, "that some person under prosecution had been discharged, without being brought to a hearing," for he had only written cursorily that they had been denounced by an informer; he complained in a great rage that he was treated with contempt, and resolved at all hazards to return to Capri; not daring to attempt any thing until he found himself in a place of security. But being detained by storms, and the increasing violence of his disorder, he died shortly afterwards, at a villa formerly belonging to Lucullus, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, and the twenty-third of his reign, upon the seventeenth of the calends of April [i6th March], in the consulship of Cneius Acerronius Proculus and Caius Pontius Niger. Some think that a slow-consuming poison was given him by Caius. Others say that during the interval of the intermittent fever with which he happened to be seized, upon asking for food, it was denied him. Others report, that he was stifled by a pillow thrown upon him, when, on his recovering from a swoon, he called for his ring, which had been taken from him in the fit. Seneca writes, "That finding himself dying, he took his signet ring off his finger, and held it a while, as if he would deliver it to somebody; but put it again upon his finger, and lay for some time, with his left hand clenched, and without stirring; when suddenly summoning his attendants, and no one answering the call, he rose; but his strength failing him, he fell down at a short distance from his bed." > Latin: 73. interim cum in actis senatus legisset dimissos ac ne auditos quidem quosdam reos, de quibus strictim et nihil aliud quam nominatos ab indice scripserat, pro contempto se habitum fremens repetere Capreas quoquo modo destinauit, non temere quicquam nisi ex tuto ausurus. sed tempestatibus et ingrauescente ui morbi retentus paulo post obiit in uilla Lucullana octauo et septuagesimo aetatis anno, tertio et uicesimo imperii, XVII. Kal. Ap. Cn. Acerronio Proculo C. Pontio Nigrino conss. Sunt qui putent uenenum ei a Gaio datum lentum atque tabificum; alii, in remissione fortuitae febris cibum desideranti negatum; nonnulli, puluinum iniectum, cum extractum sibi deficienti anulum mox resipiscens requisisset. Seneca eum scribit intellecta defectione exemptum anulum quasi alicui traditurum parumper tenuisse, dein rursus aptasse digito et compressa sinistra manu iacuisse diu immobilem; subito uocatis ministris ac nemine respondente consurrexisse nec procul a lectulo deficientibus uiribus concidisse. [¶22] 74. Upon his last birth-day, he had brought a full-sized statue of the Timenian Apollo from Syracuse, a work of exquisite art, intending to place it in the library of the new temple; but he dreamt that the god appeared to him in the night, and assured him "that his statue could not be erected by him." A few days before he died, the Pharos at Capri was thrown down by an earthquake. And at Misenum, some embers and live coals, which were brought in to warm his apartment, went out, and after being quite cold, burst out into a flame again towards evening, and continued burning very brightly for several hours. > Latin: 74. Supremo natali suo Apollinem Temenitem et amplitudinis et artis eximiae, aduectum Syracusis ut in bibliotheca templi noui poneretur, uiderat per quietem affirmantem sibi non posse se ab ipso dedicari. et ante paucos quam obiret dies, turris Phari terrae motu Capreis concidit. ac Miseni cinis e fauilla et carbonibus ad calficiendum triclinium inlatis, extinctus iam et diu frigidus, exarsit repente prima uespera atque in multam noctem pertinaciter luxit. [¶23] 75. The people were so much elated at his death, that when they first heard the news, they ran up and down the city, some, crying out "Away with Tiberius to the Tiber;" others exclaiming, "May the earth, the common mother of mankind, and the infernal gods, allow him no abode in death, but amongst the wicked." Others threatened his body with the hook and the Gemonian stairs, their indignation at his former cruelty being increased by a recent atrocity. It had been provided by an act of the senate, that the execution of condemned criminals should always be deferred until the tenth day after the sentence. Now this fell on the very day when the news of Tiberius's death arrived, and in consequence of which the unhappy men implored a reprieve, for mercy's sake; but. as Caius had not yet arrived, and there was no one else to whom application could be made on their behalf, their guards, apprehensive of violating the law, strangled them, and threw them down the Gemonian stairs. This roused the people to a still greater abhorrence of the tyrant's memory, since his cruelty continued in use even after he was dead. As soon as his corpse was begun to be moved from Misenum, many cried out for its being carried to Atella, and being half burnt there in the amphitheatre. It was, however, brought to Rome, and burnt with the usual ceremony. > Latin: 75. Morte eius ita laetatus est populus, ut ad primum nuntium discurrentes pars: 'Tiberium in Tiberim!' clamitarent, pars Terram matrem deosque Manes orarent, ne mortuo sedem ullam nisi inter impios darent, alii uncum et Gemonias cadaueri minarentur, exacerbati super memoriam pristinae crudelitatis etiam recenti atrocitate. nam cum senatus consulto cautum esset, ut poena damnatorum in decimum semper diem differretur, forte accidit ut quorundam supplicii dies is esset, quo nuntiatum de Tiberio erat. hos implorantis hominum fidem, quia absente adhuc Gaio nemo extabat qui adiri interpellarique posset, custodes, ne quid aduersus constitutum facerent, strangulauerunt abieceruntque in Gemonias. creuit igitur inuidia, quasi etiam post mortem tyranni saeuitia permanente. corpus ut moueri a Miseno coepit, conclamantibus plerisque Atellam potius deferendum et in amphitheatro semiustilandum, Romam per milites deportatum est crematumque publico funere. [¶24] 76. He had made, about two years before, duplicates of his will, one written by his own hand, and the other by that of one of his freedmen; and both were witnessed by some persons of very mean rank. He appointed his two grandsons, Caius by Germanicus, and Tiberius by Drusus, joint heirs to his estate; and upon the death of one of them, the other was to inherit the whole. He gave likewise many legacies; amongst which were bequests to the Vestal Virgins, to all the soldiers, and each one of the people of Rome, and to the magistrates of the several quarters of the city. At the death of Augustus, there had elapsed so long a period from the overthrow of the republic by Julius Caesar, that few were now living who had been born under the ancient constitution of the Romans; and the mild and prosperous administration of Augustus, during forty-four years, had by this time reconciled the minds of the people to a despotic government. Tiberius, the adopted son of the former sovereign, was of mature age; and though he had hitherto lived, for the most part, abstracted from any concern with public affairs, yet, having been brought up in the family of Augustus, he was acquainted with his method of government, which, there was reason to expect, he would render the model of his own. Livia, too, his mother, and the relict of the late emperor, was still living, a woman venerable by years, who had long been familiar with the councils of Augustus, and from her high rank, as well as uncommon affability, possessed an extensive influence amongst all classes of the people. Such were the circumstances in favour of Tiberius's succession at the demise of Augustus; but there were others of a tendency disadvantageous to his views. His temper was haughty and reserved: Augustus had often apologised for the ungraciousness of his manners. He was disobedient to his mother; and though he had not openly discovered any propensity to vice, he enjoyed none of those qualities which usually conciliate popularity. To these considerations it is to be added, that Postumus Agrippa, the grandson of Augustus by Julia, was living; and if consanguinity was to be the rule of succession, his right was indisputably preferable to that of an adopted son. Augustus had sent this youth into exile a few years before; but, towards the close of his life, had expressed a design of recalling him, with the view, as was supposed, of appointing him his successor. The father of young Agrippa had been greatly beloved by the Romans; and the fate of his mother, Julia, though she was notorious for her profligacy, had ever been regarded by them with peculiar sympathy and tenderness. Many, therefore, attached to the son the partiality entertained for his parents; which was increased not only by a strong suspicion, but a general surmise, that his elder brothers, Caius and Lucius, had been violently taken off, to make way for the succession of Tiberius. That an obstruction was apprehended to Tiberius's succession from this quarter, is put beyond all doubt, when we find that the death of Augustus was industriously kept secret, until young Agrippa should be removed; who, it is generally agreed, was dispatched by an order from Livia and Tiberius conjointly, or at least from the former. Though, by this act, there reilained no rival to Tiberius, yet the consciousness of his own want of pretensions to the Roman throne, seems to have still rendered him distrustful of the succession; and that he should have quietly obtained it, without the voice of the people, the real inclination of the senate, or the support of the army, can be imputed only to the influence of his mother, and his own dissimulation. Ardently solicitous to attain the object, yet affecting a total indifference; artfully prompting the senate to give him the charge of the government, at the time that he intimated an invincible reluctance to accept it; his absolutely declining it in perpetuity, but fixing no time for an abdication; his deceitful insinuation of bodily infirmities, with hints likewise of approaching old age, that he might allay in the senate all apprehensions of any great duration of nis power, and repress in his adopted son, Germanicus, the emotions of ambition to displace him; form altogether a scene of the most insidious policy, inconsistency, and dissimulation. In this period died, in the eighty-sixth year of her age, Livia Drusilla, mother of the emperor, and the relict of Augustus, whom she survived fifteen years. She was the daughter of I Drusus Calidianus and married Tiberius Claudius Nero, by whom she had two sons, Tiberius and Drusus. The conduct of this lady seems to justify the remark of Caligula, that " she was an Ulysses in a woman's dress." Octavius first saw her as she fled from the danger which threatened her husband, who had espoused the cause of Antony; and though she was then pregnant, he resolved to marry her; whether with her own inclination or not, is left by Tacitus undetermined. To pave the way for this union, he divorced his wife Scribonia, and with the approbation of the Augurs, which he could have no difficulty in obtaining, celebrated his nuptials with Livia. There ensued from this marriage no issue, though much desired by both parties; but Livia retained, without interruption, an unbounded ascendancy over the emperor, whose confidence she abused, while the uxorious husband little suspected that he was cherishing in his bosom a viper who was to prove the destruction of his house. She appears to have entertained a predominant ambition of giving an heir to the Roman empire; and since it could not be done by any fruit of her marriage with Augustus, she resolved on accomplishing that end in the person of Tiberius, the eldest son by her former husband. The plan which she devised for this purpose, was to exterminate all the male offspring of Augustus by his daughter Julia, who was married to Agrippa; a stratagem which, when executed,.would procure for Tiberius, through the means of adoption, the eventual succession to the empire. The cool yet sanguinary policy, and the patient perseverance of resolution, with which she prosecuted her design, have seldom been equalled. While the sons of Julia were yet young, and while there was still a possibility that she herself might have issue by Augustus, she suspended her project, in the hope, perhaps, that accident or disease might operate in its favour; but when the natural term of her constitution had put a period to her hopes of progeny, and when the grandsons of the emperor were risen to the years of manhood, and had been adopted by him, she began to carry into execution what she long had meditated. The first object devoted to destruction was C. Caesar Agrippa, the eldest of Augustus's grandsons. This promising youth was sent to Armenia, upon an expedition against the Persians; and Lollius, who had been his governor, either accompanied him thither from Rome, or met him in the East, where he had obtained some appointment. From the hand of this traitor, perhaps under the pretext of exercising the authority of a preceptor, but in reality instigated by Livia, the young prince received a fatal blow, of which he died some time after. The manner of Caius's death seems to have been carefully kept from the knowledge of Augustus, who promoted Lollius to the consulship, and made him governor of a province; but, by his rapacity in this station, he afterwards incurred the emperor's displeasure. The true character of this person had escaped the keen discernment of Horace, as well as the sagacity of the emperor; for in two epistles addressed to Lollius, he mentions him as great and accomplished in the superlative degree; maxime Lolli, liberrime Lolli; so imposing had been the manners and address of this deceitfnl courtier. Lucius, the second son of Julia, was banished into Campania, for using, as it is said, seditious language against his grandfather. In the seventh year of his exile, Augustus proposed to recall him; but Livia and Tiberius, dreading the consequences of his being restored to the emperor's favour, put in practice the expedient of having him immediately assassinated. Postumus Agrippa, the third son, incurred the displeasure of his grandfather in the same way as Lucius, and was confined at Surrentum, where he remained a prisoner until he was put to death by the order either of Livia alone, or in conjunction with Tiberius, as was before observed. Such was the catastrophe, through the means of Livia, of all the grandsons of Augustus; and reason justifies the inference, that she who scrupled not to lay violent hands upon those young men, had formerly practised every artifice that could operate towards rendering them obnoxious to the emperor. We may even ascribe to her dark intrigues the dissolute conduct of Julia: for the woman who could secretly act as procuress to her own husband, would feel little restraint upon her mind against corrupting his daughter, when such an effect might contribute to answer the purpose which she had in view. But in the ingratitude of Tiberius, however undutiful and reprehensible in a son towards a parent, she at last experienced a just retribution for the crimes in which she had trained him to procure the succession to the empire. To the disgrace of her sex, she introduced amongst the Romans the horrible practice of domestic murder, little known before the times when the thirst or intoxication of unlimited power had vitiated the social affections; and she transmitted to succeeding ages a pernicious example, by which immoderate ambition might be gratified, at the expense of every moral obligation, as well as of humanity. One of the first victims in the sanguinary reign of the present emperor, was Germanicus, the son of Drusus, Tiberius's own brother, and who had been adopted by his uncle himself. Under any sovereign, of a temper different from that of Tiberius, this amiable and meritorious prince would have been held in the highest esteem. At the death of his grandfather Augustus, he was employed in a war in Germany, where he greatly distinguished himself by his military achievements; and as soon as intelligence of that event arrived, the soldiers, by whom he was extremely beloved, unanimously saluted him emperor. Refusing, however, to accept this mark of their partiality, he persevered in allegiance to the government of his uncle, and prosecuted the war with success. Upon the conclusion of this expedition, he was sent, with the title of emperor in the East, to repress the seditions of the Armenians, in which he was equally successful. But the fame which he acquired, served only to render him an object of jealousy to Tiberius, by whose order he was secretly poisoned at Daphne, near Antioch, in the thirtyfourth year of his age. The news of Germanicus's death was received at Rome with universal lamentation; and all ranks of the people entertained an opinion, that, had he survived Tiberius, he would have restored the freedom of the republic. The love and grditude of the Romans decreed many honours to his memory. It was ordered, that his name should be sung in a solemn procession of the Salii; that crowns of oak, in allusion to his victories, should be placed upon curule chairs in the hall pertaining to the priests of Augustus; and that an effigy of him in ivory should be drawn upon a chariot, preceding the ceremonies of the Circensian games. Triumphal arches were erected, one at Rome, another on the banks of the Rhine, and a third upon Mount Amanus in Syria, with inscriptions of his achievements, and that he died for his services to the republic. His obsequies were celebrated, not with the display of images and funeral pomp, but with the recital of his praises and the virtues which rendered him illustrious. From a resemblance in his personal accomplishments, his age, the manner of his death, and the vicinity of Daphne to Babylon, many compared his fate to that of Alexander the Great. He was celebrated for humanity and benevolence, as well as military talents, and amidst the toils of war, found leisure to cultivate the arts of literary genius. He composed two comedies in Greek, some epigrams, and a translation of Aratus into Latin verse. He married Agrippina, the daughter of M. Agrippa, by whom he had nine children. This lady, who had accompanied her husband into the east, carried his ashes to Italy, and accused his murderer, Piso; who, unable to bear up against the public odium incurred by that transaction, laid violent hands upon himself. Agrippina was now nearly in the same predicament with regard to Tiberius, that Ovid had formerly been in respect of Augustus. He was sensible, that when she accused Piso, she was not ignorant of the person by whom the perpetrator of the murder had been instigated; and her presence, therefore, seeming continually to reproach him with his guilt, he resolved to rid himself of a person become so obnoxious to his sight, and banished her to the island of Pandataria, where she died some time afterwards with famine. But it was not sufficient to gratify this sanguinary tyrant, that he had, without any cause, cut off both Germanicus and his wife Agrippina: the distinguished merits and popularity of that prince were yet to be revenged upon his children; and accordingly he set himself to invent a pretext for their destruction. After endeavouring in vain, by various artifices, to provoke the resentment of Nero and Drusus against him, he had recourse to false accusation, and not only charged them with seditious designs, to which their tender years were ill adapted, but with vices of a nature the most scandalous. By a sentence of the senate, which manifested the extreme servility of that assembly, he procured them both to be declared open enemies to their country. Nero he banished to the island'of Pontia, where, like his unfortunate mother, he miserably perished by famine; and Drusus was doomed to the same fate, in the lower part of the Palatium, after suffering for nine days the violence of hunger, and having, as is related, devoured part of his bed. The remaining son, Caius, on account of his vicious disposition, he resolved to appoint his successor on the throne, that, after his own death, a comparison might be made in favour of his own memory, when the Romans should be governed by a sovereign yet more vicious and more tyrannical, if possible, than himself. Sejanus, the minister in the present reign, imitated with success, for some time, the hypocrisy of his master; and, had his ambitious temper, impatient of attaining its object, allowed him to wear the mask for a longer period, he might have gained the imperial diadem; in the pursuit of which he was overtaken by that fate which he merited still more by his cruelties than his perfidy to Tiberms. This man was a native of Volsinium in Tuscany, and the son of a Roman knight. He had first insinuated himself into the favour of Caius Caesar, the grandson of Augustus, after whose death he courted the friendship of Tiberius, and obtained m a short time his entire confidence, which he improved to the best advantage. The object which he next pursued, was to gain the attachment of the senate, and the officers of the army; besides whom, with a new kind of policy, he endeavoured to secure in his interest every lady of distinguished connections, by giving secretly to each of them a promise of marriage, as soon as he should arrive at the sovereignty. The chief obstacles in his way were the sons and grandsons of Tiberius; and these he soon sacrificed to his ambition, under various pretences. Drusus, the eldest of this progeny, having in a fit of passion struck the favourite, was destined by him to destruction. For this purpose, he had the presumption to seduce Livia, the wife of Drusus, to whom she had borne several children; and she consented to marry her adulterer upon the death of her husband, who was soon after poisoned, through the means of an eunuch named Lygdus, by order of her and Sejanus. Drusus was the son of Tiberius by Vipsania, one of Agrippa's daughters. He displayed great intrepidity during the war m the provinces of Illyricum and Pannonia, but appears to have been dissolute in his morals. Horace is said to have written the Ode in praise of Drusus at the desire of Augustus; and while the poet celebrates the military courage of the prince, he insinuates indirectly a salutary admonition to the cultivation of the civil virtues: Doctrina sed vim promovet insitam, Rectique cultus pectora roborant: Utcumque defecere mores, Dedecorant bene nata culpae. Yet sage instructions to refine the soul And raise the genius, wondrous aid impart, Conveying inward, as they purely roll, Strength to the mind and vigour to the heart: When mortals fail, the stains of vice disgrace The fairest honours of the noblest race. Upon the death of Drusus, Sejanus openly avowed a desire of marrying the widowed princess; but Tiberius opposing this measure, and at the same time recommending Germanicus to the senate as his successor in the empire, the mind of Sejanus was more than ever inflamed by the united, and now furious, passions of love and ambition. He therefore urged his demand with increased importunity; but the emperor still refusing his consent, and things being not yet ripe for an immediate revolt, Sejanus thought nothing so favourable for the prosecution of his designs as the absence of Tiberius from the capital. With this view, under the pretence of relieving his master from the cares of government, he persuaded him to retire to a distance from Rome. The emperor, indolent and luxurious, approved of the proposal, and retired into Campania, leaving to his ambitious minister the whole direction of the empire. Had Sejanus now been governed by common prudence and moderation, he might have attained to the accomplishment of all his wishes; but a natural impetuosity of temper, and the intoxication of power, precipitated him into measures which soon effected his destruction. As if entirely emancipated from the control of a master, he publicly declared himself sovereign of the Roman empire, and that Tiberius, who had by this time retired to Capri, was only the dependent prince of that tributary island. He even went so far in degrading the emperor, as to have him introduced in a ridiculous light upon the stage. Advice of Sejanus's proceedings was soon carried to the emperor at Capri; his indignation was immediately excited; and with a confidence founded upon an authority exercised for several years, he sent orders for accusing Sejanus before the senate. This mandate no sooner arrived, than the audacious minister was deserted by his adherents; he was in a short time after seized without resistance, and strangled in prison the same day. Human nature recoils with horror at the cruelties of this execrable tyrant, who, having first imbrued his hands in the blood of his own relations, proceeded to exercise them upon the public with indiscriminate fury. Neither age nor sex afforded any exemption from his insatiable thirst for blood. Innocent children were condemned to death, and butchered in the presence of their parents; virgins, without any imputed guilt, were sacrificed to a similar destiny; but there being an ancient custom of not strangling females in that situation, they were first deflowered by the executioner, and afterwards strangled, as if an atrocious addition to cruelty could sanction the exercise of it. Fathers were constrained by violence to witness the death of their own children; and even the tears of a mother, at the execution of her child, were punished as a capital offence. Some extraordinary calamities, occasioned by accident, added to the horrors of the reign. A great number of houses on Mount Ccelius were destroyed by fire; and by the fall of a temporary building at Fidenae, erected for the purpose of exhibiting public shows, about twenty thousand persons were either greatly hurt, or crushed to death in the ruins. By another fire which afterwards broke out, a part of the Circus was destroyed, with the numerous buildings on Mgunt Aventine. The only act of munificence displayed by Tiberius during his reign, was upon the occasion of those fires, when, to qualify the severity of his government, he indemnified the most considerable sufferers for the loss they had sustained. Through the whole of his life, Tiberius seems to have conducted himself with a uniform repugnance to nature. Affable on a few occasions, but in general averse to society, he indulged, from his earliest years, a moroseness of disposition, which counterfeited the appearance of austere virtue; and in the decline of life, wRien it is common to reform from juvenile indiscretions, he launched forth into excesses, of a kind the most.unnatural and most detestable. Considering the vicious passions which had ever brooded in his heart, it may seem surprising that he restrained himself within the bounds of decency during so many years after his accession; but though utterly destitute of reverence or affection for his mother, he still felt, during her life, a filial awe upon his mind: and after her death, ie was actuated by a slavish fear of Sejanus, until at last political necessity absolved him likewise from this restraint. These checks being both removed, he rioted without any control, either from sentiment or authority. Pliny relates, that the art of making glass malleable was actually discovered under the reign of Tiberius, and that the shop and tools of the artist were destroyed, lest, by the establishment of this invention, gold and silver should lose their value. Dion adds, that the author of the discovery was put to death. The gloom which darkened the Roman capital during this melancholy period, shed a baleful influence on the progress of science throughout the empire, and literature languished during the present reign, in the same proportion as it: had flourished in the preceding. It is doubtful' whether such a change might not have happened in some degree, even had the government of Tiberius been equally mild with that of his predecessor. The prodigious fame of the writers of the Augustan age, by repressing emulation, tended to a general diminution of the efforts of genius for some time; while the banishment of Ovid, it is probable, and the capital punishment of a subsequent poet, for censuring the character of Agamemnon, operated towards the farther discouragement of poetical exertions. There now existed no circumstance to counterbalance these disadvantages. Genius no longer found a patron either in the emperor or his minister; and the gates of the palace were shut against all who cultivated the elegant pursuits of the Muses. Panders, catamites, assassins, wretches stained with every crime, were the constant attendants, as the only fit companions, of the tyrant who now occupied the throne. We are informed, however, that even this emperor had a taste for the liberal arts, and that he composed a lyric poem upon the death of Lucius Caesar, with some Greek poems in imitation of Euphorion, Rhianus, and Parthenius. But none of these has been transmitted to posterity: and if we should form an opinion of them upon the principle of Catullus, that to be a good poet one ought to be a good man, there is little reason to regret that they have perished. > Latin: 76. Testamentum duplex ante biennium fecerat, alterum sua, alterum liberti manu, sed eodem exemplo, obsignaueratque etiam humillimorum signis. eo testamento heredes aequis partibus reliquit Gaium ex Germanico et Tiberium ex Druso nepotes substituitque in uicem; dedit et legata plerisque, inter quos uirginibus Vestalibus, sed et militibus uniuersis plebeique Romanae uiritim atque etiam separatim uicorum magistris.