No More Learning

" For, Drusus, however
rare it be for power and unanimity to subsist together, was esteemed
benevolent, certainly not ill-disposed, towards these youths. Now again
was revived by Tiberius the proposal of a progress into the Provinces;
a stale proposal, always hollow, but often feigned. He pretended "the
multitude of veterans discharged, and thence the necessity of recruiting
the armies; that volunteers were wanting, or if already such there were,
they were chiefly the necessitous and vagabonds, and destitute of the
like modesty and courage. " He likewise cursorily recounted the number of
the legions, and what countries they defended: a detail which I think
it behoves me also to repeat; that thence may appear what was then the
complement of the Roman forces, what kings their confederates, and how
much more narrow the limits of the Empire.

Italy was on each side guarded by two fleets; one at Misenum, one at
Ravenna; and the coast joining to Gaul, by the galleys taken by Augustus
at the battle of Actium, and sent powerfully manned to Forojulium.
[Footnote: Fréjus. ] But the chief strength lay upon the Rhine; they
were eight legions, a common guard upon the Germans and the Gauls.
The reduction of Spain, lately completed, was maintained by three.
Mauritania was possessed by King Juba; a realm which he held as a gift
from the Roman People: the rest of Africa by two legions; and Egypt by
the like number. Four legions kept in subjection all the mighty range
of country, extending from the next limits of Syria, as far as the
Euphrates, and bordering upon the Iberians, Albanians, and other
Principalities, who by our might are protected against Foreign Powers.
Thrace was held by Rhoemetalces, and the sons of Cotys; and both banks
of the Danube by four legions; two in Pannonia, two in Moesia. In
Dalmatia likewise were placed two; who, by the situation of the country,
were at hand to support the former, and had not far to march into
Italy, were any sudden succours required there: though Rome too had her
peculiar soldiery; three city cohorts, and nine Praetorian, enlisted
chiefly out of Etruria and Umbria, or from the ancient Latium and the
old Roman colonies. In the several Provinces, besides, were disposed,
according to their situation and necessity, the fleets of the several
confederates, with their squadrons and battalions; a number of forces
not much different from all the rest: but the particular detail would be
uncertain; since, according to the exigency of times, they often shifted
stations, with numbers sometimes enlarged, sometimes reduced.

It will, I believe, fall in properly here to review also the other parts
of the Administration, and by what measures it was hitherto conducted,
till with the beginning of this year the Government of Tiberius began to
wax worse. First then, all public, and every private business of moment,
was determined by the Senate: to the great men he allowed liberty of
debate: those who in their debates lapsed into flattery, he checked:
in conferring preferments, he was guided by merit, by ancient nobility,
renown in war abroad, by civil accomplishments at home; insomuch that it
was manifest, his choice could not have been better.
There remained to
the Consuls, there remained to the Praetors the useful marks of their
dignities; to inferior magistrates the independent exercise of their
charges; and the laws, where the power of the Prince was not concerned,
were in proper force. The tributes, duties, and all public receipts,
were directed by companies of Roman knights: the management of his own
revenue he committed only to those of the most noted qualifications;
mostly known by himself, and to some known by reputation alone: and when
once taken, they were continued, without all restriction of term;
since most grew old in the same employments. The populace were indeed
aggrieved by the dearth of provisions; but without any fault of the
Prince: nay, he spared no possible expense nor pains to remedy the
effects of barrenness in the earth, and of wrecks at sea. He provided
that the Provinces should not be oppressed with new impositions; and
that no extortion, or violence should be committed by the magistrates
in raising the old: there were no infamous corporal punishments, no
confiscations of goods.

The Emperor's possessions through Italy, were thin; the behaviour of
his slaves modest; the freedmen who managed his house, few; and in his
disputes with particulars, the courts were open and the law equal. All
which restraints he observed, not, in truth, in the ways of complaisance
and popularity; but always stern, and for the most part terrible; yet
still he retained them, till by the death of Drusus they were abandoned:
for, while he lived they continued; because Sejanus, while he was but
laying the foundations of his power, studied to recommend himself
by good counsels. He then had besides, an avenger to dread, one who
disguised not his enmity, but was frequent in his complaints; "that
when the son was in his prime, another was called, as coadjutor, to the
Government; nay, how little was wanting to his being declared colleague
in the Empire? That the first advances to sovereignty are steep and
perilous; but, once you are entered, parties and instruments are
ready to espouse you. Already a camp for the guards was formed, by the
pleasure and authority of the captain: into whose hands the soldiers
were delivered: in the theatre of Pompey his statue was beheld: in
his grandchildren would be mixed the blood of the Drusi with that of
Sejanus. After all this what remained but to supplicate his modesty to
rest contented. " Nor was it rarely that he uttered these disgusts,
nor to a few; besides, his wife being debauched, all his secrets were
betrayed.

Sejanus therefore judging it time to despatch, chose such a poison as by
operating gradually, might preserve the appearances of a casual disease.
This was administered to Drusus by Lygdus the eunuch, as, eight years
after, was learnt. Now during all the days of his illness, Tiberius
disclosed no symptoms of anguish (perhaps from ostentation of a firmness
of spirit) nay, when he had expired, and while he was yet unburied, he
entered the Senate; and finding the Consuls placed upon a common seat,
as a testimony of their grief; he admonished them of their dignity and
station: and as the Senators burst into tears, he smothered his rising
sighs, and, by a speech uttered without hesitation, animated them. "He,
in truth, was not ignorant," he said, "that he might be censured,
for having thus in the first throbs of sorrow, beheld the face of the
Senate; when most of those who feel the fresh pangs of mourning, can
scarce endure the soothings of their kindred, scarce behold the day:
neither were such to be condemned of weakness: but for himself, he
had more powerful consolations; such as arose from embracing the
Commonwealth, and pursuing her welfare. " He then lamented "the extreme
age of his mother, the tender years of his grandsons, his own days in
declension;" and desired that, "as the only alleviation of the present
evils, the children of Germanicus might be introduced.