No More Learning

The writings of Asinius Pollio have conveyed
down the memory of the same men, under honourable characters. Corvinus
Messala gloried to have had Cassius for his general: and yet both
Pollio and Corvinus became signally powerful in wealth and honours under
Augustus. That book of Cicero's, in which he exalted Cato to the skies;
what other animadversion did it draw from Caesar the Dictator, than a
written reply, in the same style and equality as if before his judges
he had made it? The letters of Marc Anthony; the speeches of Brutus, are
full of reproaches, and recriminations against Augustus; false in truth,
but urged with signal asperity: the poems of Bibaculus and those of
Catullus, stuffed with virulent satires against the Caesars, are still
read. But even the deified Julius, even the deified Augustus, bore all
these invectives and disdained them; whether with greater moderation or
wisdom, I cannot easily say. For, if they are despised, they fade away;
if you wax wroth, you seem to avow them to be just.

"Instances from the Greeks I bring none: with them not the freedom
only, but even the licentiousness of speech, is unpunished: or if any
correction is returned, it is only by revenging words with words. It has
been ever allowed, without restriction or rebuke, to pass our judgment
upon those whom death has withdrawn from the influence of affection and
hate. Are Cassius and Brutus now in arms? do they at present fill with
armed troops the fields of Philippi? or do I fire the Roman People,
by inflammatory harangues, with the spirit of civil rage? Brutus
and Cassius, now above seventy years slain, are still known in their
statues, which even the conqueror did not abolish: and as these exhibit
their persons, why not the historian their characters? Impartial
posterity to every man repays his proper praise: nor will there be
wanting such as, if my death is determined, will not only revive the
story of Cassius and Brutus, but even my story. " Having thus said he
withdrew from the Senate, and ended his life by abstinence. The
Fathers condemned the books to be by the Aediles burned; but they
still continued concealed and dispersed: hence we may justly mock
the stupidity of those, who imagine that they can, by present power,
extinguish the lights and memory of succeeding times: for, quite
otherwise, the punishment of writers exalts the credit of the writings:
nor did ever foreign kings, or any else, reap other fruit from it, than
infamy to themselves, and glory to the sufferers.
To proceed; for this whole year there was such an incessant torrent of
accusations, that even during the solemnity of the Latin festival,
when Drusus for his inauguration, as Governor of Rome, had ascended the
Tribunal, he was accosted by Calpurnius Salvianus with a charge against
Sextus Marius: a proceeding openly resented by the Emperor, and thence
Salvianus was banished. The city of Cyzicus was next accused, "of
not observing the established worship of the deified Augustus;" with
additional crimes, "of violences committed upon some Roman citizens. "
Thus that city lost her liberties; which by her behaviour during the
Mithridatic war, she had purchased; having in it sustained a siege;
and as much by her own bravery, as by the aid of Lucullus, repulsed
the king, But Fonteius Capito, who had as Proconsul governed Asia, was
acquitted, upon proof that the crimes brought against him by Vibius
Serenus were forged: and yet the forgery drew no penalty upon Serenus:
nay, the public hate rendered him the more secure: for, every accuser,
the more eager and incessant he was, the more sacred and inviolable he
became: the sorry and impotent were surrendered to chastisement.

About the same time, the furthermost Spain besought the Senate by their
ambassadors, "that after the example of Asia, they might erect a temple
to Tiberius and his mother. " Upon this occasion, the Emperor, always
resolute in contemning honours, and now judging it proper to confute
those, who exposed him to the popular censure, of having deviated into
ambition; spoke in this manner: "I know, Conscript Fathers, that it is
generally blamed, and ascribed to a defect of firmness in me, that when
the cities of Asia petitioned for this very thing, I withstood them not.
I shall therefore now unfold at once the motives of my silence then,
and the rules which for the future I am determined to observe. Since the
deified Augustus had not opposed the founding at Pergamus a temple to
himself and the city of Rome; I, with whom all his actions and sayings
have the force of laws, followed an example already approved; and
followed it the more cheerfully, because to the worship bestowed upon
me, that of the Senate was annexed. But as the indulging of this, in
one instance, will find pardon; so a general latitude of being adored
through every province, under the sacred representations of the Deities,
would denote a vain spirit; a heart swelled with ambition. The glory too
of Augustus will vanish, if by the promiscuous courtship of flattery it
comes to be vulgarly prostituted.

"For myself, Conscript Fathers, I am a mortal man; I am confined to
the functions of human nature; and if I well supply the principal
place amongst you, it suffices me. This I acknowledge to you; and
this acknowledgment, I would have posterity to remember. They will do
abundant right to my memory, if they believe me to have been worthy of
my ancestors; watchful of the Roman state; unmoved in perils, and in
maintaining the public interest, fearless of private enmities. These
are the temples which in your breasts I would raise; these the fairest
portraitures, and such as will endure. As to temples and statues of
stone, if the idol adored in them comes to be hated by posterity, they
are despised as his sepulchres. Hence it is I here invoke the Gods,
that to the end of my life they would grant me a spirit undisturbed, and
discerning in duties human and divine: and hence too I here implore our
citizens and allies, that whenever my dissolution comes, they would
with approbation and benevolent testimonies of remembrance, celebrate
my actions and retain the odour of my name. " And thenceforward he
persevered in slighting upon all occasions, and even in private
conversation, this divine worship of himself.