In relating the death of Drusus, I have followed the greatest part of
our historians, and the most faithful: I would not however omit a rumour
which in those times was so prevailing that it is not extinguished in
ours; "that Sejanus having by adultery gained Livia to the murder, had
likewise engaged by constupration the affections and concurrence of
Lygdus the eunuch; because Lygdus was, for his youth and loveliness,
dear to his master, and one of his chief attendants: that when the time
and place of poisoning, were by the conspirators concerted; the eunuch
carried his boldness so high, as to charge upon Drusus a design of
poisoning Tiberius; and secretly warning the Emperor of this, advised
him to shun the first draught offered him in the next entertainment
at his son's: that the old man possessed with this fictitious treason,
after he had sate down to table, having received the cup delivered it to
Drusus, who ignorantly and gaily drank it off: that this heightened the
jealousy and apprehensions of Tiberius, as if through fear and shame
his son had swallowed the same death, which for his father he had
contrived.
our historians, and the most faithful: I would not however omit a rumour
which in those times was so prevailing that it is not extinguished in
ours; "that Sejanus having by adultery gained Livia to the murder, had
likewise engaged by constupration the affections and concurrence of
Lygdus the eunuch; because Lygdus was, for his youth and loveliness,
dear to his master, and one of his chief attendants: that when the time
and place of poisoning, were by the conspirators concerted; the eunuch
carried his boldness so high, as to charge upon Drusus a design of
poisoning Tiberius; and secretly warning the Emperor of this, advised
him to shun the first draught offered him in the next entertainment
at his son's: that the old man possessed with this fictitious treason,
after he had sate down to table, having received the cup delivered it to
Drusus, who ignorantly and gaily drank it off: that this heightened the
jealousy and apprehensions of Tiberius, as if through fear and shame
his son had swallowed the same death, which for his father he had
contrived.
Tacitus
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. " The Consuls
therefore went for them, and having with kind words fortified their
young minds, presented them to the Emperor. He took them by the hand
and said, "Conscript Fathers, these infants, bereft of their father, I
committed to their uncle; and besought him that, though he had issue
of his own, he would rear and nourish them no otherwise than as the
immediate offspring of his blood; that he would appropriate them as
stays to himself and posterity. Drusus being snatched from us, to you I
address the same prayers; and in the presence of the Gods, in the face
of your country, I adjure you, receive into your protection, take under
your tuition the great-grandchildren of Augustus; children, descended
from ancestors the most glorious in the State: towards them fulfil your
own, fulfil my duty. To you, Nero; to you, Drusus, these Senators are in
the stead of a father; and such is the situation of your birth, that on
the Commonwealth must light all the good and evil which befalls you. "
All this was heard with much weeping, and followed with propitious
prayers and vows: and had he only gone thus far, and in his speech
observed a medium, he had left the souls of his hearers full of sympathy
and applause. But, by renewing an old project, always chimerical and so
often ridiculed, about "restoring the Republic, reinstating it again
in the Consuls, or whoever else would undertake the administration;"
he forfeited his faith even in assertions which were commendable and
sincere. To the memory of Drusus were decreed the same solemnities as
to that of Germanicus; with many super-added; agreeably to the genius
of flattery, which delights in variety and improvements. Most signal was
the lustre of the funeral in a conspicuous procession of images; when at
it appeared in a pompous train, Aeneas, father of the Julian race;
all the kings of Alba, and Romulus founder of Rome; next the Sabine
nobility, Attus Clausus, and his descendants of the Claudian family.
In relating the death of Drusus, I have followed the greatest part of
our historians, and the most faithful: I would not however omit a rumour
which in those times was so prevailing that it is not extinguished in
ours; "that Sejanus having by adultery gained Livia to the murder, had
likewise engaged by constupration the affections and concurrence of
Lygdus the eunuch; because Lygdus was, for his youth and loveliness,
dear to his master, and one of his chief attendants: that when the time
and place of poisoning, were by the conspirators concerted; the eunuch
carried his boldness so high, as to charge upon Drusus a design of
poisoning Tiberius; and secretly warning the Emperor of this, advised
him to shun the first draught offered him in the next entertainment
at his son's: that the old man possessed with this fictitious treason,
after he had sate down to table, having received the cup delivered it to
Drusus, who ignorantly and gaily drank it off: that this heightened the
jealousy and apprehensions of Tiberius, as if through fear and shame
his son had swallowed the same death, which for his father he had
contrived. "
These bruitings of the populace, besides that they are supported by no
certain author, may be easily refuted. For, who of common prudence (much
less Tiberius so long practised in great affairs) would to his own son,
without hearing him, present the mortal bane; with his own hands too,
and cutting off for ever all possibility of retraction? Why would he not
rather have tortured the minister of the poison? Why not inquired into
the author of the poison? Why not observed towards his only son, a son
hitherto convicted of no iniquity, that slowness and hesitation, which,
even in his proceedings against strangers, was inherent in him? But as
Sejanus was reckoned the framer of every wickedness, therefore, from the
excessive fondness of Tiberius towards him, and from the hatred of all
others towards both, things the most fabulous and direful were believed
of them; besides that common fame is ever most fraught with tales of
horror upon the departure of Princes: in truth, the plan and process of
the murder were first discovered by Apicata, wife of Sejanus, and laid
open upon the rack by Eudemus and Lygdus. Nor has any writer appeared
so outrageous to charge it upon Tiberius; though in other instances
they have sedulously collected and inflamed every action of his. My own
purpose in recounting and censuring this rumour, was to blast, by so
glaring an example, the credit of groundless tales; and to request of
those into whose hands our present undertaking shall come, that they
would not prefer hearsays, void of credibility and rashly swallowed, to
the narrations of truth not adulterated with romance.
To proceed; whilst Tiberius was pronouncing in public the panegyric of
his son, the Senate and People assumed the port and accent of mourners,
rather in appearance than cordially; and in their hearts exulted to see
the house of Germanicus begin to revive. But this dawn of fortune,
and the conduct of Agrippina, ill disguising her hopes, quickened the
overthrow of that house. For Sejanus, when he saw the death of Drusus
pass unrevenged upon his murderers, and no public lamentation following
it; undaunted as he was in villainy since his first efforts had
succeeded; cast about in himself, how he might destroy the sons of
Germanicus, whose succession to the Empire was now unquestionable. They
were three; and, from the distinguished fidelity of their governors, and
incorruptible chastity of Agrippina, could not be all circumvented by
poison. He therefore chose to attack her another way; to raise alarms
from the haughtiness and contumacy of her spirit; to rouse the old
hatred of Livia the elder, and the guilty mind of his late accomplice,
Livia the younger; that to the Emperor they might represent her
"as elated with the credit and renown of her fruitfulness; and that
confiding in it, and in the zeal of the populace, she grasped with open
arms at the Empire. " The young Livia acted in this engagement by crafty
calumniators; amongst whom she had particularly chosen Julius Posthumus,
a man every way qualified for her purposes; as he was the adulterer of
Mutilia Prisca, and thence a confidant of her grandmother's; (for over
the mind of the Empress, Prisca had powerful influence) and by their
means the old woman, in her own nature tender and anxious of power, was
rendered utterly irreconcilable to the widow of her grandson. Such too
as were nearest the person of Agrippina, were promoted to be continually
enraging her tempestuous heart by perverse representations.
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. " The Consuls
therefore went for them, and having with kind words fortified their
young minds, presented them to the Emperor. He took them by the hand
and said, "Conscript Fathers, these infants, bereft of their father, I
committed to their uncle; and besought him that, though he had issue
of his own, he would rear and nourish them no otherwise than as the
immediate offspring of his blood; that he would appropriate them as
stays to himself and posterity. Drusus being snatched from us, to you I
address the same prayers; and in the presence of the Gods, in the face
of your country, I adjure you, receive into your protection, take under
your tuition the great-grandchildren of Augustus; children, descended
from ancestors the most glorious in the State: towards them fulfil your
own, fulfil my duty. To you, Nero; to you, Drusus, these Senators are in
the stead of a father; and such is the situation of your birth, that on
the Commonwealth must light all the good and evil which befalls you. "
All this was heard with much weeping, and followed with propitious
prayers and vows: and had he only gone thus far, and in his speech
observed a medium, he had left the souls of his hearers full of sympathy
and applause. But, by renewing an old project, always chimerical and so
often ridiculed, about "restoring the Republic, reinstating it again
in the Consuls, or whoever else would undertake the administration;"
he forfeited his faith even in assertions which were commendable and
sincere. To the memory of Drusus were decreed the same solemnities as
to that of Germanicus; with many super-added; agreeably to the genius
of flattery, which delights in variety and improvements. Most signal was
the lustre of the funeral in a conspicuous procession of images; when at
it appeared in a pompous train, Aeneas, father of the Julian race;
all the kings of Alba, and Romulus founder of Rome; next the Sabine
nobility, Attus Clausus, and his descendants of the Claudian family.
In relating the death of Drusus, I have followed the greatest part of
our historians, and the most faithful: I would not however omit a rumour
which in those times was so prevailing that it is not extinguished in
ours; "that Sejanus having by adultery gained Livia to the murder, had
likewise engaged by constupration the affections and concurrence of
Lygdus the eunuch; because Lygdus was, for his youth and loveliness,
dear to his master, and one of his chief attendants: that when the time
and place of poisoning, were by the conspirators concerted; the eunuch
carried his boldness so high, as to charge upon Drusus a design of
poisoning Tiberius; and secretly warning the Emperor of this, advised
him to shun the first draught offered him in the next entertainment
at his son's: that the old man possessed with this fictitious treason,
after he had sate down to table, having received the cup delivered it to
Drusus, who ignorantly and gaily drank it off: that this heightened the
jealousy and apprehensions of Tiberius, as if through fear and shame
his son had swallowed the same death, which for his father he had
contrived. "
These bruitings of the populace, besides that they are supported by no
certain author, may be easily refuted. For, who of common prudence (much
less Tiberius so long practised in great affairs) would to his own son,
without hearing him, present the mortal bane; with his own hands too,
and cutting off for ever all possibility of retraction? Why would he not
rather have tortured the minister of the poison? Why not inquired into
the author of the poison? Why not observed towards his only son, a son
hitherto convicted of no iniquity, that slowness and hesitation, which,
even in his proceedings against strangers, was inherent in him? But as
Sejanus was reckoned the framer of every wickedness, therefore, from the
excessive fondness of Tiberius towards him, and from the hatred of all
others towards both, things the most fabulous and direful were believed
of them; besides that common fame is ever most fraught with tales of
horror upon the departure of Princes: in truth, the plan and process of
the murder were first discovered by Apicata, wife of Sejanus, and laid
open upon the rack by Eudemus and Lygdus. Nor has any writer appeared
so outrageous to charge it upon Tiberius; though in other instances
they have sedulously collected and inflamed every action of his. My own
purpose in recounting and censuring this rumour, was to blast, by so
glaring an example, the credit of groundless tales; and to request of
those into whose hands our present undertaking shall come, that they
would not prefer hearsays, void of credibility and rashly swallowed, to
the narrations of truth not adulterated with romance.
To proceed; whilst Tiberius was pronouncing in public the panegyric of
his son, the Senate and People assumed the port and accent of mourners,
rather in appearance than cordially; and in their hearts exulted to see
the house of Germanicus begin to revive. But this dawn of fortune,
and the conduct of Agrippina, ill disguising her hopes, quickened the
overthrow of that house. For Sejanus, when he saw the death of Drusus
pass unrevenged upon his murderers, and no public lamentation following
it; undaunted as he was in villainy since his first efforts had
succeeded; cast about in himself, how he might destroy the sons of
Germanicus, whose succession to the Empire was now unquestionable. They
were three; and, from the distinguished fidelity of their governors, and
incorruptible chastity of Agrippina, could not be all circumvented by
poison. He therefore chose to attack her another way; to raise alarms
from the haughtiness and contumacy of her spirit; to rouse the old
hatred of Livia the elder, and the guilty mind of his late accomplice,
Livia the younger; that to the Emperor they might represent her
"as elated with the credit and renown of her fruitfulness; and that
confiding in it, and in the zeal of the populace, she grasped with open
arms at the Empire. " The young Livia acted in this engagement by crafty
calumniators; amongst whom she had particularly chosen Julius Posthumus,
a man every way qualified for her purposes; as he was the adulterer of
Mutilia Prisca, and thence a confidant of her grandmother's; (for over
the mind of the Empress, Prisca had powerful influence) and by their
means the old woman, in her own nature tender and anxious of power, was
rendered utterly irreconcilable to the widow of her grandson. Such too
as were nearest the person of Agrippina, were promoted to be continually
enraging her tempestuous heart by perverse representations.
