Tacitus, Annals Book
I
Rome at the beginning was ruled by kings.
Freedom and the consulship were established by
Lucius Brutus. Dictatorships were held for a
temporary crisis. The power of the decemvirs
did not last beyond two years, nor was the consular jurisdiction
of the military tribunes of long duration. The despotisms of Cinna and Sulla were brief; the rule of Pompeius
and of Crassus soon yielded before Caesar; the arms of Lepidus
and Antonius before Augustus; who, when the world was wearied by
civil strife, subjected it to empire under the title of
"Prince." But the successes and reverses of the old Roman
people have been recorded by famous historians; and fine intellects were
not wanting to describe the times of Augustus, till growing sycophancy scared them away. The histories of Tiberius, Caius, Claudius, and
Nero, while they were in power, were falsified through terror,
and after their death were written under the irritation of a
recent hatred. Hence my purpose is to relate a few facts about
Augustus- more particularly his last acts, then the reign of
Tiberius, and all which follows, without either bitterness or
partiality, from any motives to which I am far removed.
When after the destruction of Brutus and Cassius there was no longer any army of the Commonwealth, when Pompeius
was crushed in Sicily, and when, with Lepidus pushed aside and
Antonius slain, even the Julian faction had only Caesar left to
lead it, then, dropping the title of triumvir, and giving out
that he was a Consul, and was satisfied with a tribune's authority
for the protection of the people, Augustus won over the soldiers with
gifts, the populace with cheap corn, and all men with the sweets of repose,
and so grew greater by degrees, while he concentrated in himself the
functions of the Senate, the magistrates, and the laws. He was wholly unopposed, for the boldest spirits had fallen in battle, or in the
proscription, while the remaining nobles, the readier they were
to be slaves, were raised the higher by wealth and promotion, so
that, aggrandised by revolution, they
preferred the safety of the present to the dangerous past. Nor did the
provinces dislike that condition of affairs, for they distrusted the government of the Senate and the people, because of the rivalries
between the leading men and the rapacity of the officials, while
the protection of the laws was unavailing, as they were
continually deranged by violence, intrigue, and finally by
corruption.
Augustus meanwhile, as supports to his despotism, raised to the pontificate
and curule aedileship
Claudius Marcellus, his sister's son, while a mere stripling,
and Marcus Agrippa, of humble birth, a good soldier, and one who
had shared his victory, to two consecutive consulships, and as
Marcellus soon afterwards died, he also accepted him as his son-in-law. Tiberius Nero and Claudius Drusus, his stepsons, he honoured with imperial tides, although his
own family was as yet undiminished. For he had admitted the
children of Agrippa, Caius and Lucius, into the house
of the Caesars; and before they had yet laid aside the dress of
boyhood he had most fervently desired, with an outward show of
reluctance, that they should be entitled "princes of the
youth," and be consuls-elect. When Agrippa died, and Lucius
Caesar as he was on his way to our armies in Spain, and Caius
while returning from Armenia, still suffering from a wound, were
prematurely cut off by destiny, or by their step-mother Livia's treachery, Drusus too having long been
dead, Nero remained alone of the stepsons, and in him everything tended to centre. He was adopted as a son, as a colleague in empire and a
partner in the tribunitian power, and
paraded through all the armies, no longer through his mother's
secret intrigues, but at her open suggestion. For she had gained
such a hold on the aged Augustus that he drove out as an exile
into the island of Planasia, his only grandson,
Agrippa Postumus, who, though devoid
of worthy qualities, and having only the brute courage of
physical strength, had not been convicted of any gross offence. And yet
Augustus had appointed Germanicus, Drusus's
offspring, to the command of eight legions on the Rhine, and
required Tiberius to adopt him, although Tiberius had a son, now
a young man, in his house; but he did it that he might have
several safeguards to rest on. He had no war at the time on his
hands except against the Germans, which was rather to wipe out the disgrace
of the loss of Quintilius Varus
and his army than out of an ambition to extend the empire, or
for any adequate recompense. At home all was tranquil, and there
were magistrates with the same titles; there was a younger generation, sprung up since the victory of Actium, and even many of the older
men had been born during the civil wars. How few were left who
had seen the republic!
Thus the State had been revolutionised, and there was
not a vestige left of the old sound morality. Stript of equality, all looked up to the commands
of a sovereign without the least apprehension for the present, while
Augustus in the vigour of life, could maintain his
own position, that of his house, and the general tranquillity. When in advanced old age, he was worn out by a sickly frame, and the end was near and
new prospects opened, a few spoke in vain of the blessings of
freedom, but most people dreaded and some longed for war. The
popular gossip of the large majority fastened itself variously
on their future masters. "Agrippa was savage, and had been
exasperated by insult, and neither from age nor experience in
affairs was equal to so great a burden. Tiberius Nero was of mature years,
and had established his fame in war, but he had the old arrogance inbred
in the Claudian family, and many symptoms of a cruel
temper, though they were repressed, now and then broke out. He
had also from earliest infancy been reared in an imperial house;
consulships and triumphs had been heaped on him in his younger
days; even in the years which, on the pretext of seclusion he
spent in exile at Rhodes, he had had no thoughts but of wrath,
hypocrisy, and secret sensuality. There was his mother too with
a woman caprice. They must, it seemed, be subject to a female and to
two striplings besides, who for a while would burden, and some day rend asunder the State."
While these and like topics were discussed, the infirmities of Augustus
increased, and some suspected guilt on his wife's part. For a rumour had gone abroad that a few months before he had
sailed to Planasia on a visit to
Agrippa, with the knowledge of some chosen friends, and with one
companion, Fabius Maximus;
that many tears were shed on both sides, with expressions of
affection, and that thus there was a hope of the young man
being restored to the home of his grandfather. This, it was said, Maximus had divulged to his wife Marcia,
she again to Livia. All was known
to Caesar, and when Maximus
soon afterwards died, by a death some thought to be self-inflicted, there were heard at his funeral wailings from Marcia, in which she
reproached herself for having been the cause of her husband's
destruction. Whatever the fact was, Tiberius as he was just
entering Illyria was summoned home by an urgent letter from his
mother, and it has not been thoroughly ascertained whether at
the city of Nola he found Augustus still breathing or quite lifeless.
For Livia had surrounded the house and its approaches
with a strict watch, and favourable
bulletins were published from time to time, till, provision
having been made for the demands of the crisis, one and the
same report told men that Augustus was dead and that Tiberius Nero was
master of the State.
The first crime of the new reign was the murder of Postumus
Agrippa. Though he was surprised and unarmed, a centurion of
the firmest resolution despatched him
with difficulty. Tiberius gave no explanation of the matter to
the Senate; he pretended that there were directions from his father ordering the tribune in charge of the prisoner not to delay the
slaughter of Agrippa, whenever he should himself have breathed
his last. Beyond a doubt, Augustus had often complained of the
young man's character, and had thus succeeded in obtaining the
sanction of a decree of the Senate for his banishment. But he
never was hard-hearted enough to destroy any of his kinsfolk,
nor was it credible that death was to be the sentence of the
grandson in order that the stepson might feel secure. It was more probable
that Tiberius and Livia, the one from fear, the other
from a stepmother's enmity, hurried on the destruction of a
youth whom they suspected and hated. When the centurion
reported, according to military custom, that he had executed
the command, Tiberius replied that he had not given the command, and
that the act must be justified to the Senate.
As soon as Sallustius Crispus
who shared the secret (he had, in fact, sent the written order
to the tribune) knew this, fearing that the charge would be
shifted on himself, and that his peril would be the same whether
he uttered fiction or truth, he advised Livia not to
divulge the secrets of her house or the counsels of friends, or
any services performed by the soldiers, nor to let Tiberius
weaken the strength of imperial power by referring everything
to the Senate, for "the condition," he said, "of holding
empire is that an account cannot be balanced unless it be rendered to
one person."
Meanwhile at Rome people plunged into slavery- consuls, senators, knights.
The higher a man's rank, the more eager his hypocrisy, and his looks
the more carefully studied, so as neither to betray joy at the decease of one emperor nor sorrow at the rise of another, while he mingled
delight and lamentations with his flattery. Sextus
Pompeius and Sextus
Apuleius, the consuls, were the first to swear allegiance to
Tiberius Caesar, and in their presence the oath was taken by Seius Strabo and Caius Turranius,
respectively the commander of the praetorian cohorts and the
superintendent of the corn supplies. Then the Senate, the
soldiers and the people did the same. For Tiberius would
inaugurate everything with the consuls, as though the ancient
constitution remained, and he hesitated about being emperor.
Even the proclamation by which he summoned the senators to their chamber,
he issued merely with the title of Tribune, which he had received under
Augustus. The wording of the proclamation was brief, and in a very modest
tone. "He would," it said, "provide for the honours
due to his father, and not leave the lifeless body, and this
was the only public duty he now claimed."
As soon, however, as Augustus was dead, he had given the watchword to
the praetorian cohorts, as commander-in-chief. He had the guard under arms, with all the other adjuncts of a court; soldiers attended
him to the forum; soldiers went with him to the Senate House.
He sent letters to the different armies, as though supreme
power was now his, and showed hesitation only when he spoke in
the Senate. His chief motive was fear that Germanicus,
who had at his disposal so many legions, such vast auxiliary forces
of the allies, and such wonderful popularity, might prefer the possession to the expectation of empire. He looked also at public opinion,
wishing to have the credit of having been called and elected by
the State rather than of having crept into power through the
intrigues of a wife and a dotard's adoption. It was
subsequently understood that he assumed a wavering attitude, to
test likewise the temper of the nobles. For he would twist a
word or a look into a crime and treasure it up in his memory.
As soon, however, as Augustus was dead, he had given the watchword to the
praetorian cohorts, as commander-in-chief. He had the guard under arms, with
all the other adjuncts of a court; soldiers attended him to the forum; soldiers
went with him to the Senate House. He sent letters to the different armies, as
though supreme power was now his, and showed hesitation only when he spoke in
the Senate. His chief motive was fear that Germanicus,
who had at his disposal so many legions, such vast auxiliary forces of the
allies, and such wonderful popularity, might prefer the possession to the
expectation of empire. He looked also at public opinion, wishing to have the
credit of having been called and elected by the State rather than of having
crept into power through the intrigues of a wife and a dotard's adoption. It
was subsequently understood that he assumed a wavering attitude, to test
likewise the temper of the nobles. For he would twist a word
or a look into a crime and treasure it up in his memory.
On the first day of the Senate he allowed nothing to be discussed but
the funeral of Augustus, whose will, which was brought in by the Vestal Virgins, named as his heirs Tiberius and Livia.
The latter was to be admitted into the Julian family with the
name of Augusta; next in expectation were the grand and
great-grandchildren. In the third place, he had named the chief
men of the State, most of whom he hated, simply out of ostentation and
to win credit with posterity. His legacies were not beyond the scale of a private citizen, except a bequest of forty-three million five
hundred thousand sesterces "to the people and populace of
Rome," of one thousand to every praetorian soldier, and of
three hundred to every man in the legionary cohorts composed of
Roman citizens.
Next followed a deliberation about funeral honours.
Of these the most imposing were thought fitting. The procession
was to be conducted through "the gate of triumph," on
the motion of Gallus Asinius; the titles of
the laws passed, the names of the nations conquered by Augustus were to be borne in front, on that of Lucius Arruntius. Messala Valerius further proposed that the oath of
allegiance to Tiberius should be yearly renewed, and when
Tiberius asked him whether it was at his bidding that he had brought forward this motion, he replied that he had proposed it
spontaneously, and that in whatever concerned the State he
would use only his own discretion, even at the risk of
offending. This was the only style of adulation which yet remained. The Senators unanimously exclaimed that the body
ought to be borne on their shoulders to the funeral pile. The
emperor left the point to them with disdainful moderation, he
then admonished the people by a proclamation not to indulge in
that tumultuous enthusiasm which had distracted the funeral of
the Divine Julius, or express a wish that Augustus should be
burnt in the Forum instead of in his appointed resting-place in the Campus Martius.
On the day of the funeral soldiers stood round as a guard, amid much
ridicule from those who had either themselves witnessed or who had heard
from their parents of the famous day when slavery was still something fresh, and freedom had been resought in
vain, when the slaying of Caesar, the Dictator, seemed to some
the vilest, to others, the most glorious of deeds.
"Now," they said, "an aged sovereign, whose power had lasted
long, who had provided his heirs with abundant means to coerce
the State, requires forsooth the defence
of soldiers that his burial may be undisturbed."
Then followed much talk about Augustus himself, and many expressed an
idle wonder that the same day marked the beginning of his assumption of empire and the close of his life, and, again, that he had ended
his days at Nola in the same house and room as his father Octavius. People extolled too the number of
his consulships, in which he had equalled Valerius Corvus
and Caius Marius combined, the continuance for thirty-seven years of
the tribunitian power, the title of Imperator
twenty-one times earned, and his other honours
which had either frequently repeated or were wholly new.
Sensible men, however, spoke variously of his life with praise and censure.
Some said "that dutiful feeling towards a father, and the necessities of the State in which laws had then no place, drove him into civil
war, which can neither be planned nor conducted on any right
principles. He had often yielded to Antonius, while he was
taking vengeance on his father's murderers, often also to
Lepidus. When the latter sank into feeble dotage and the former
had been ruined by his profligacy, the only remedy for his distracted
country was the rule of a single man. Yet the State had been organized
under the name neither of a kingdom nor a dictatorship, but under that
of a prince. The ocean and remote rivers were the
boundaries of the empire; the legions, provinces, fleets, all
things were linked together; there was law for the citizens;
there was respect shown to the allies. The capital had been
embellished on a grand scale; only in a few instances had he
resorted to force, simply to secure general tranquillity."
It was said, on the other hand, "that filial duty and State necessity were merely assumed as a mask. It was really from a lust of
sovereignty that he had excited the veterans by bribery, had,
when a young man and a subject, raised an army, tampered with
the Consul's legions, and feigned an attachment to the faction
of Pompeius. Then, when by a decree of the Senate he had usurped the high functions and authority of Praetor
when Hirtius and Pansa
were slain- whether they were destroyed by the enemy, or Pansa by poison infused into a wound, Hirtius
by his own soldiers and Caesar's treacherous machinations- he
at once possessed himself of both their armies, wrested the
consulate from a reluctant Senate, and turned against the State
the arms with which he had been intrusted against
Antonius. Citizens were proscribed, lands divided, without so
much as the approval of those who executed these deeds. Even
granting that the deaths of Cassius and of the Bruti were sacrifices to a hereditary enmity (though duty
requires us to waive private feuds for the sake of the public
welfare), still Pompeius had been
deluded by the phantom of peace, and Lepidus by the mask of friendship. Subsequently, Antonius had been lured on by the treaties of
Tarentum and Brundisium, and by his
marriage with the sister, and paid by his death the penalty of
a treacherous alliance. No doubt, there was peace after all
this, but it was a peace stained with blood; there were the disasters of Lollius and Varus,
the murders at Rome of the Varros, Egnatii, and Juli."