No More Learning

Not least admirable was his
quiet dignity, in periods of disturbance and of panic: he refused to
hurry to the mutinous legions, or to a mean rebellion in Gaul; and he
condescended to reason excellently about his behaviour, when his
people were sane enough to listen. He was both sensible and modest: he
restrained the worship of Augustus, "lest through being too common
it should be turned into an idle ceremony;" he refused the worship of
himself, except in one temple dedicated equally to the Senate and to
the Emperor. Tiberius could be pathetic, too: "I bewail my son, and ever
shall bewail him," he says of Germanicus; and again, "Eloquence is not
measured by fortune, and it is a sufficient honour, if he be ranked
among the ancient orators. " "Princes are mortal;" he says again, "the
Commonwealth, eternal. " Then his wit, how fine it was; how quick his
humour: when he answered the tardy condolences from Troy, by lamenting
the death of Hector: when he advised an eager candidate, "not to
embarrass his eloquence by impetuosity;" when he said of another, a
low, conceited person, "he gives himself the airs of a dozen ancestors,"
"videtur mihi ex se natus:" when he muttered in the Senate, "O homines
ad servitutem paratos:" when he refused to become a persecutor; "It
would be much better, if the Gods were allowed to manage their own
affairs," "Deorum injurias Dis curae. " In all this; in his leisured
ways, in his dislike of parade and ceremonial, in his mockery of
flatterers and venal "patriots"; how like to Charles II. , "the last
King of England who was a man of parts. " And no one will deny "parts"
to Tiberius; he was equal to the burden of Imperial cares: the latest
researches have discovered, that his provincial administration was
most excellent; and even Tacitus admits, that his choice of magistrates
"could not have been better. " He says, in another passage, "The
Emperor's domains throughout Italy, were thin; the behaviour of his
slaves modest; the freed-men, who managed his house, few; and, in his
disputes with particulars, the courts were open and the law equal. " This
resembles the account of Antoninus Pius, by Marcus Aurelius; and it is
for this modesty, this careful separation between private and public
affairs, that Tacitus has praised Agricola. I am well contented, with
the virtues of the Antonines; but there are those, who go beyond. I have
seen a book entitled "The History of that Inimitable Monarch Tiberius,
who in the xiv year of his Reign requested the Senate to permit the
worship of Jesus Christ; and who suppressed all Opposition to it. " In
this learned volume, it is proved out of the Ancients, that Tiberius was
the most perfect of all sovereigns; and he is shown to be nothing
less than the forerunner of Saint Peter, the first Apostle and the
nursing-father of the Christian Church. The author was a Cambridge
divine, and one of their Professors of mathematics: "a science,"
Goldsmith says, "to which the meanest intellects are equal. "

Upon the other hand, we have to consider that view of Tiberius, which is
thus shown by Milton;

_This Emperor hath no son, and now is old;
Old and lascivious: and from Rome retired
To Capreae, an island small but strong,
On the Campanian shore; with purpose there,
His horrid lusts in private to enjoy.
_

This theme is enlarged by Suetonius, and evidently enjoyed: he
represents Tiberius, as addicted to every established form of vice;
and as the inventor of new names, new modes, and a new convenience, for
unheard-of immoralities. These propensities of the Emperor are handled
by Tacitus with more discretion, though he does not conceal them. I wish
neither to condemn nor to condone Tiberius: I desire, if it be
possible, to see him as he is; and whether he be good or bad, he is very
interesting. I have drawn attention to what is good in "The Annals,"
because Tacitus leans with all his weight upon the bad; and either
explains away what is favourable, or passes over it with too light a
stroke. At the end, I must conclude, as I began, that the character of
Tiberius is a mystery. It is a commonplace, that no man is entirely good
nor entirely evil; but the histories of Tiberius are too contradictory,
to be thus dismissed by a platitude. It is not easy to harmonise
Paterculus with Suetonius: it is impossible to reconcile Tacitus with
himself; or to combine the strong, benevolent ruler with the Minotaur of
Capri. The admirers of an almost perfect prose, must be familiar with a
story, which is not the highest effort of that prose: they will remember
a certain man with a double nature, like all of us; but, unlike us,
able to separate his natures, and to personate at will his good or evil
genius. Tiberius was fond of magic, and of the curious arts: it may be,
that he commanded the secrets of which Mr. Stevenson has dreamed!

The readers of "The Annals" have seen enough of blood, of crime, and of
Tiberius; and I would now engage their attention upon a more pleasing
aspect of Imperial affairs: I wish to speak about the Empire itself;
about its origin, its form, its history: and, if my powers were equal to
the task, I would sketch a model Emperor; Marcus Aurelius, or the elder
Antonine. Gibbon has described the limits of the Roman Empire; which
"comprised the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilised portion
of mankind. " Its boundaries were "the Rhine and Danube, on the north;
the Euphrates, on the east; towards the south, the sandy deserts of
Arabia and Africa;" and upon the west, the Atlantic ocean. It was over
this extensive monarchy, that Caesar reigned; by the providence of
Caesar, was the whole defended and administered.

_Quis Parthum paveat? Quis gelidum Scythen
Quis, Germania quos horrida parturit
Fetus, incolumi Caesare?