No More Learning

It was conceived almost in these words: "Oppressed by
a combination of my enemies and the imputation of false crimes; since
no place is left here to truth and my innocence; to the Immortal Gods I
appeal, that towards you, Caesar, I have lived with sincere faith,
nor towards your mother with less reverence. For my sons I implore her
protection and yours: my son Cneius had no share in my late management
whatever it were, since, all the while, he abode at Rome: and my son
Marcus dissuaded me from returning to Syria. Oh that, old as I am, I
had yielded to him, rather than he, young as he is, to me! Hence
more passionately I pray that innocent as he is, he suffer not in the
punishment of my guilt: by a series of services for five-and-forty
years, I entreat you; by our former fellowship in the consulship; by the
memory of the deified Augustus, your father; by his friendship to me; by
mine to you, I entreat you for the life and fortune of my unhappy son.
It is the last request I shall ever make you. " Of Plancina he said
nothing.

Tiberius, upon this, cleared the young man of any crime as to the
civil war: he alleged "the orders of his father, which a son could not
disobey. " He likewise bewailed "that noble house, and even the grievous
lot of Piso himself, however deserved," For Plancina he pleaded with
shame and guilt, alleging the importunity of his mother; against whom
more particularly the secret murmurs of the best people waxed bitter and
poignant. "Was it then the tender part of a grandmother to admit to her
sight the murderess of her grandson, to be intimate with her, and to
snatch her from the vengeance of the Senate? To Germanicus alone was
denied what by the laws was granted to every citizen. By Vitellius
and Veranius, the cause of that prince was mourned and pleaded: by the
Emperor and his mother, Plancina was defended and protected. Henceforth
she might pursue her infernal arts so successfully tried, repeat
her poisonings, and by her arts and poisons assail Agrippina and her
children; and, with the blood of that most miserable house, satiate the
worthy grandmother and uncle. " In this mock trial two days were wasted;
Tiberius, all the while, animating the sons of Piso to defend their
mother: when the pleaders and witnesses had vigorously pushed the
charge, and no reply was made, commiseration prevailed over hatred. The
Consul Aurelius Cotta was first asked his opinion: for, when the Emperor
collected the voices, the magistrates likewise voted. Cotta's sentence
was, "that the name of Piso should be razed from the annals, part of
his estate forfeited, part granted to his son Cneius, upon changing that
name; his son Marcus be divested of his dignity, and content with fifty
thousand great sestertia, [Footnote: £42,000.
] be banished for ten
years: and to Plancina, at the request of Livia, indemnity should be
granted. "

Much of this sentence was abated by the Emperor; particularly that of
striking Piso's name out of the annals, when "that of Marc Anthony, who
made war upon his country; that of Julius Antonius, who had by adultery
violated the house of Augustus, continued still there. " He also exempted
Marcus Piso from the ignominy of degradation, and left him his whole
paternal inheritance; for, as I have already often observed, he was to
the temptations of money incorruptible, and from the shame of having
acquitted Plancina, rendered then more than usually mild. He likewise
withstood the motion of Valerius Messalinus, "for erecting a golden
statue in the Temple of Mars the Avenger;" and that of Caecina Severus,
"for founding an altar to revenge. " "Such monuments as these," he
argued, "were only fit to be raised upon foreign victories; domestic
evils were to be buried in sadness. " Messalinus had added, "that to
Tiberius, Livia, Antonia, Agrippina and Drusus, public thanks were to be
rendered for having revenged the death of Germanicus;" but had omitted
to mention Claudius. Messalinus was asked by Lucius Asprenas, in the
presence of the Senate, "Whether by design he had omitted him? " and then
at last the name of Claudius was subjoined. To me, the more I revolve
the events of late or of old, the more of mockery and slipperiness
appears in all human wisdom and the transactions of men: for, in popular
fame, in the hopes, wishes and veneration of the public, all men were
rather destined to the Empire, than he for whom fortune then reserved
the sovereignty in the dark.

A few days after, Vitellius, Veranius and Servaeus, were by the Senate
preferred to the honours of the Priesthood, at the motion of Tiberius.
To Fulcinius he promised his interest and suffrage towards preferment,
but advised him "not to embarrass his eloquence by impetuosity. " This
was the end of revenging the death of Germanicus; an affair ambiguously
related, not by those only who then lived and interested themselves in
it, but likewise the following times: so dark and intricate are all
the highest transactions; while some hold for certain facts, the most
precarious hearsays; others turn facts into falsehood; and both are
swallowed and improved by the credulity of posterity. Drusus went now
without the city, there to renew the ceremony of the auspices, and
presently re-entered in the triumph of _ovation_. A few days after died
Vipsania his mother; of all the children of Agrippa, the only one who
made a pacific end: the rest manifestly perished, or are believed to
have perished, by the sword, poison, or famine.

The qualifying of the Law Papia Poppaea was afterwards proposed; a law
which, to enforce those of Julius Caesar, Augustus had made when he was
old, for punishing celibacy and enriching the Exchequer. Nor even by
this means had marriages and children multiplied, while a passion to
live single and childless prevailed: but, in the meantime, the numbers
threatened and in danger by it increased daily, while by the glosses and
chicane of the impleaders every family was undone.