No More Learning

This passage, not related by the authors of our
annals, I found in the commentaries of her daughter Agrippina; her, who
was the mother of the Emperor Nero, and has published her own life with
the fortunes of her family.

As to Agrippina; still grieving and void of foresight, she was yet more
sensibly dismayed by an artifice of Sejanus, who employed such, as under
colour of friendship warned her, "that poison was prepared for her,
and that she must shun eating at her father-in-law's table. " She was a
stranger to all dissimulation: so that as she sat near him at table, she
continued stately and unmoved; not a word, not a look escaped her,
and she touched no part of the meat. Tiberius observed her, whether
accidentally, or that he was before apprised; and, to be convinced by
a more powerful experiment, praising the apples that stood before him,
presented some with his own hand to his daughter-in-law. This only
increased the suspicion of Agrippina; and, without ever putting them
to her mouth, she delivered them to the servants. For all this, the
reserved Tiberius let not a word drop from him openly; but, turning
to his mother; "There was no wonder," he said, "if he had really taken
harsh measures with her, who thus charged him as a poisoner. " Hence a
rumour spread, "that her doom was contrived; and that the Emperor not
daring to pursue it publicly, chose to have her despatched in secret. "

Tiberius, as a means to divert upon other matters the popular talk,
attended assiduously the deliberations of the Senate; and there heard
for many days the several Ambassadors from Asia, mutually contending,
"in what city should be built the temple lately decreed. " For this
honour eleven cities strove, with equal ambition, though different
in power: nor did the pleas urged by all, greatly vary; namely, "the
antiquity of their original, and their distinguished zeal for the Roman
People, during their several wars with Perseus, Aristonicus, and other
kings. " But the Trallians, the Laodiceans, the Magnesians and those of
the Hypaepis, were at once dismissed, as insufficient for the charge.
Nor, in truth, had they of Ilium, who represented, "that Troy was the
mother of Rome," any superior advantage, besides the glory of antiquity.
The plea of the Halicarnassians took some short consideration: they
asserted, "that for twelve hundred years, no earthquake had shaken their
town; and that they would fix in a solid rock the foundations of the
temple. " The same considerations were urged by the inhabitants of
Pergamus; where already was erected a temple to Augustus; a distinction
which was judged sufficient for them. The cities too of Ephesus and
Miletus seemed fully employed in the ceremonies of their own distinct
deities; the former in those of Diana; the other, in those of Apollo.
Thus the dispute was confined to Sardis and Smyrna.
The first recited
a decree of the Etrurians, which owned them for kinsmen: "for that
Tyrrhenus and Lydus, sons of King Atys, having between them divided
their people, because of their multitude, Lydus re-settled in his
native country; and it became the lot of Tyrrhenus to find out a fresh
residence; and by the names of these chiefs the parted people came
afterwards to be called, Lydians in Asia, Tyrrhenians in Italy. That the
opulence of the Lydians spread yet farther, by their colonies sent
under Pelops into Greece, which from him afterwards took its name. " They
likewise urged "the letters of our Generals; their mutual leagues with
us during the war of Macedon; their plenty of rivers, temperate climate,
and the fertility of the circumjacent country. "

The Smyrnaeans having likewise recounted their ancient establishment,
"whether Tantalus, the son of Jupiter; or Theseus, the son also of
a God; or one of the old Amazons, were their founder;" proceeded to
considerations in which they chiefly trusted; their friendly offices
to the Roman People, having aided them with a naval force, not in their
foreign wars only, but in those which infested Italy. "It was they who
first reared a temple to the City of Rome, in the Consulship of Marcus
Porcius; then, in truth, when the power of the Roman People was already
mighty, but however not yet raised to its highest glory; for the city of
Carthage still stood, and potent kings governed Asia. Witness too their
generosity to Sylla, when the condition of his army ready to famish in a
cruel winter and a scarcity of clothes, being related to the citizens
of Smyrna then assembled; all that were present divested themselves of
their raiments, and sent them to our legions. " Thus when the votes of
the Senators were gathered, the pretensions of Smyrna were preferred. It
was also moved by Vibius Marsus, that Lentulus, to whom had fallen
the province of Asia, should be attended by a Legate extraordinary, to
supervise the building of the temple; and as Lentulus himself through
modesty declined to choose one, several who had been Praetors were drawn
by lot, and the lot fell upon Valerius Naso.

In the meantime, according to a purpose long meditated, and from time to
time deferred, Tiberius at last retired to Campania; in profession, to
dedicate a temple to Jupiter at Capua, and one at Nola to Augustus; but
in truth determined to remove, for ever, from Rome. The cause of his
departure, I have before referred to the stratagems of Sejanus; but
though in it I have followed most of our authors; yet, since after
the execution of Sejanus, he persisted for six years in the like dark
recess; I am rather influenced by a stronger probability, that the
ground of his absence is more justly to be ascribed to his own spirit,
while he strove to hide in the shades of solitude, what in deeds he
proclaimed, the rage of his cruelty and lust. There were those who
believed that, in his old age, he was ashamed of the figure of his
person; for he was very lean, long and stooping, his head bald, his face
ulcerous, and for the most besmeared with salves: he was moreover
wont, during his recess at Rhodes, to avoid the public, and cover his
debauches in secrecy. It is also related that he was driven from Rome by
the restless aspiring of his mother, whom he scorned to admit a partner
in the sovereignty; nor yet could entirely seclude, since as her gift he
had received the sovereignty itself. For, Augustus had deliberated
about setting Germanicus at the head of the Roman state; his sister's
grandson, and one adored by all men: but subdued by the solicitations of
his wife, he adopted Tiberius; and caused Tiberius to adopt Germanicus.
With this grandeur of her own procuring, Livia upbraided her son; and
even reclaimed it.

His going was narrowly accompanied; by one Senator, Cocceius Nerva,
formerly Consul, and accomplished in the knowledge of the laws; and,
besides Sejanus, by one dignified Roman knight, Curtius Atticus. The
rest were men of letters, chiefly Greeks; whose conversation pleased and
amused him.