No More Learning

The law,
indeed, had made a distinction between the fortunes of senators and
knights; not for any natural difference between them, but that they
who excelled in place, rank, and civil pre-eminence, might excel too in
other particulars, such as conduced to the health of the body or to the
peace and solacement of the soul; unless it were expected, that the most
illustrious citizens should sustain the sharpest cares, and undergo
the heaviest fatigues and dangers, but continue destitute of every
alleviation of fatigue and danger and care. " Gallus easily prevailed,
whilst under worthy names he avowed and supported popular vices in an
assembly engaged in them. Tiberius too had said, "That it was not a
season for reformation; or, if there were any corruption of manners,
there would not be wanting one to correct them. "

During these transactions, Lucius Piso, after he had declaimed bitterly
in the Senate against "the ambitious practices and intrigues of the
Forum, the corruption of the tribunals, and the inhumanity of the
pleaders breathing continual terror and impeachments," declared "he
would entirely relinquish Rome, and retire into a quiet corner of the
country, far distant and obscure. " With these words he left the Senate;
Tiberius was provoked; and yet not only soothed him with gentle words,
but likewise obliged Piso's relations, by their authority or entreaties,
to retain him. The same Piso gave soon after an equal instance of the
indignation of the free spirit, by prosecuting a suit against Urgulania;
a lady whom the partial friendship of Livia had set at defiance with the
laws. Urgulania being carried, for protection, to the palace, despised
the efforts of Piso; so that neither did she submit; nor would he
desist, notwithstanding the complaints and resentments of Livia, that
in the prosecution "violence and indignity were done to her own person. "
Tiberius promised to attend the trial, and assist Urgulania; but only
promised in civility to his mother, for so far he thought it became him;
and thus left the palace, ordering his guards to follow at a distance.
People the while crowded about him, and he walked with a slow and
composed air: as he lingered, and prolonged the time and way with
various discourse, the trial went on. Piso would not be mollified by the
importunity of his friends; and hence at last the Empress ordered the
payment of the money claimed by him. This was the issue of the affair:
by it, Piso lost no renown; and it signally increased the credit of
Tiberius. The power, however, of Urgulania was so exorbitant to the
State, that she disdained to appear a witness in a certain cause before
the Senate: and, when it had been always usual even for the Vestal
Virgins to attend the Forum and Courts of Justice, as oft as their
evidence was required; a Praetor was sent to examine Urgulania at her
own house.

The procrastination which happened this year in the public affairs, I
should not mention, but that the different opinions of Cneius Piso and
Asinius Gallus about it, are worth knowing. Their dispute was occasioned
by a declaration of Tiberius; "that he was about to be absent," and it
was the motion of Piso, "that for that very reason, the prosecution
of public business was the rather to be continued; since, as in the
Prince's absence, the Senate and equestrian order might administer
their several parts, the same would redound to the honour of the
Commonwealth. " This was a declaration for liberty, and in it Piso had
prevented Gallus, who now in opposition said, "that nothing sufficiently
illustrious, nor suiting the dignity of the Roman People, could be
transacted but under the immediate eye of the Emperor, and therefore the
conflux of suitors and affairs from Italy and the provinces must by
all means be reserved for his presence.
" Tiberius heard and was silent,
while the debate was managed on both sides with mighty vehemence; but
the adjournment was carried.

A debate too arose between Gallus and the Emperor: for Gallus moved
"that the magistrates should be henceforth elected but once every five
years; that the legates of the legions, who had never exercised the
Praetorships, should be appointed Praetors; and that the Prince should
nominate twelve candidates every year. " It was not doubted but this
motion had a deeper aim, and that by it the secret springs and
reserves of imperial power were invaded. But Tiberius, as if he rather
apprehended the augmentation of his power, argued "that it was a heavy
task upon his moderation, to choose so many magistrates, and to postpone
so many candidates. That disgusts from disappointments were hardly
avoided in yearly elections; though, for their solacement, fresh hopes
remained of approaching success in the next; now how great must be the
hatred, how lasting the resentment of such whose pretensions were to be
rejected beyond five years? and whence could it be foreseen that, in
so long a tract of time, the same men would continue to have the
same dispositions, the same alliances and fortunes? even an annual
designation to power made men imperious; how imperious would it make
them, if they bore the honour for five years! besides, it would multiply
every single magistrate into five, and utterly subvert the laws which
had prescribed a proper space for exercising the diligence of the
candidates, and for soliciting as well as enjoying preferments. "

By this speech, in appearance popular, he still retained the spirit
and force of the sovereignty. He likewise sustained by gratuities, the
dignity of some necessitous Senators: hence it was the more wondered,
that he received with haughtiness and repulse the petition of Marcus
Hortalus, a young man of signal quality and manifestly poor. He was
the grandson of Hortensius the Orator; and had been encouraged by
the deified Augustus, with a bounty of a thousand great sestertia,
[Footnote: £8333. ] to marry for posterity; purely to prevent the
extinction of a family most illustrious and renowned. The Senate were
sitting in the palace, and Hortalus having set his four children before
the door, fixed his eyes, now upon the statue of Hortensius, placed
amongst the orators; then upon that of Augustus; and instead of speaking
to the question, began on this wise: "Conscript Fathers, you see there
the number and infancy of my children; not mine by my own choice, but in
compliance with the advice of the Prince: such too was the splendour of
my ancestors, that it merited to be perpetuated in their race; but for
my own particular, who, marred by the revolution of the times, could not
raise wealth, nor engage popular favour, nor cultivate the hereditary
fortune of our house, the fortune of Eloquence: I deemed it sufficient
if, in my slender circumstances, I lived no disgrace to myself, no
burden to others. Commanded by the Emperor, I took a wife; behold
the offspring of so many Consuls; behold the descendants of so many
Dictators! nor is this remembrance invidiously made, but made to move
mercy. In the progress of your reign, Caesar, these children may arrive
at the honours in your gift; defend them in the meantime from want:
they are the great-grandsons of Hortensius; they are the foster sons of
Augustus.