No More Learning

Or if any of
the Magistrates, from a confidence of his own firmness and perseverance,
will undertake to stem the progress of so great an evil; he has both
my praises, and my acknowledgment, that he discharges me of part of my
fatigues: but if such will only impeach corruptions, and when they have
gained the glory, would leave upon me the indignation (indignation of
their own raising); believe me, Conscript Fathers, I am not fond of
bearing resentments: I already suffer many for the Commonwealth; many
that are grievous and almost all unjust; and therefore with reason I
intreat that I may not be loaded with such as are wantonly and vainly
raised, and promise no advantage to you nor to me. "

The Senate, upon reading the Emperor's letter, released the Aediles
from this pursuit: and the luxury of the table which, from the battle
of Actium till the revolution made by Galba, flowed, for the space of an
hundred years, in all profusion; at last gradually declined. The causes
of this change are worth knowing. Formerly the great families, great in
nobility or abounding in riches, were carried away with a passion for
magnificence: for even then it was allowed to court the good graces of
the Roman People, with the favour of kings, and confederate nations; and
to be courted by them: so that each was distinguished by the lustre
of popularity and dependances, in proportion to his affluence, the
splendour of his house, and the figure he made. But after Imperial fury
had long raged in the slaughter of the Grandees, and the greatness of
reputation was become the sure mark of destruction; the rest grew wiser:
besides, new men frequently chosen Senators from the municipal towns,
from the colonies, and even from the provinces, brought into the Senate
their own domestic parsimony; and though, by fortune or industry, many
of them grew wealthy as they grew old, yet their former frugal spirit
continued. But above all, Vespasian proved the promoter of thrifty
living, being himself the pattern of ancient economy in his person
and table: hence the compliance of the public with the manners of the
Prince, and an emulation to practise them; an incitement more prevalent
than the terrors of laws and all their penalties. Or perhaps all human
things go a certain round; and, as in the revolutions of time, there are
also vicissitudes in manners: nor indeed have our ancestors excelled
us in all things; our own age has produced many excellences worthy of
praise and the imitation of posterity. Let us still preserve this strife
in virtue with our forefathers.

Tiberius having gained the fame of moderation; because, by rejecting the
project for reforming luxury, he had disarmed the growing hopes of the
accusers; wrote to the Senate, to desire the _Tribunitial Power_ for
Drusus. Augustus had devised this title, as best suiting the unbounded
height of his views; while avoiding the odious name of _King_ or
_Dictator_, he was yet obliged to use some particular appellation,
under it to control all other powers in the State. He afterwards assumed
Marcus Agrippa into a fellowship in it; and, upon his death, Tiberius;
that none might doubt, who was to be his successor. By this means, he
conceived, he should defeat the aspiring views of others: besides, he
confided in the moderation of Tiberius, and in the mightiness of his own
authority. By his example, Tiberius now advanced Drusus to the supreme
Magistracy; whereas, while Germanicus yet lived, he acted without
distinction towards both. In the beginning of his letter he besought the
Gods "that by his counsels the Republic might prosper," and then added
a modest testimony concerning the qualities and behaviour of the young
Prince, without aggravation or false embellishments; "that he had a wife
and three children, and was of the same age with himself, when called
by the deified Augustus to that office: that Drusus was not now by him
adopted a partner in the toils of government, precipitately; but after
eight years' experience made of his qualifications; after seditions
suppressed, wars concluded, the honour of triumph, and two Consulships. "

The Senators had foreseen this address; hence they received it with the
more elaborate adulation.
However, they could devise nothing to decree,
but "statues to the two Princes, altars to the Gods, arches," and other
usual honours: only that Marcus Silanus strove to honour the Princes by
the disgrace of the Consulship: he proposed "that all records public and
private should, for their date, be inscribed no more with the names
of the Consuls, but of those who exercised the Tribunitial power. " But
Haterius Agrippa, by moving to have "the decrees of that day engraved
in letters of gold, and hung up in the Senate," became an object of
derision; for that, as he was an ancient man, he could reap from his
most abominable flattery no other fruit but that of infamy.

Tiberius, while he fortified the vitals of his own domination, afforded
the Senate a shadow of their ancient jurisdiction; by referring to their
examination petitions and claims from the provinces. For there had now
prevailed amongst the Greek cities a latitude of instituting sanctuaries
at pleasure. Hence the temples were filled with the most profligate
fugitive slaves: here debtors found protection against their creditors;
and hither were admitted such as were pursued for capital crimes. Nor
was any force of Magistracy or laws sufficient to bridle the mad zeal
of the people, who confounding the sacred villainies of men with
the worship peculiar to the Gods, seditiously defended these profane
sanctuaries. It was therefore ordered that these cities should send
deputies to represent their claims. Some of the cities voluntarily
relinquished the nominal privileges, which they had arbitrarily assumed:
many confided in their rights; a confidence grounded on the antiquity of
their superstitions, or on the merits of their kind offices to the Roman
People. Glorious to the Senate was the appearance of that day, when
the grants from our ancestors, the engagements of our confederates, the
ordinances of kings, such kings who had reigned as yet independent of
the Roman power; and when even the sacred worship of the Gods were now
all subjected to their inspection, and their judgment free, as of old,
to ratify or abolish with absolute power.

First of all the Ephesians applied. They alleged, that "Diana and Apollo
were not, according to the credulity of the vulgar, born at Delos: in
their territory flowed the river Cenchris; where also stood the Ortygian
Grove: there the big-bellied Latona, leaning upon an olive tree, which
even then remained, was delivered of these deities; and thence by their
appointment the Grove became sacred. Thither Apollo himself, after his
slaughter of the Cyclops, retired for a sanctuary from the wrath of
Jupiter: soon after, the victorious Bacchus pardoned the suppliant
Amazons, who sought refuge at the altar of Diana: by the concession of
Hercules, when he reigned in Lydia, her temple was dignified with an
augmentation of immunities; nor during the Persian monarchy were they
abridged: they were next maintained by the Macedonians, and then by us. "

The Magnesians next asserted their claim, founded on an establishment
of Lucius Scipio, confirmed by another of Sylla: the former after the
defeat of Antiochus; the latter after that of Mithridates, having, as
a testimony of the faith and bravery of the Magnesians, dignified their
temple of the Leucophrynaean Diana with the privileges of an inviolable
sanctuary. After them, the Aphrodisians and Stratoniceans produced a
grant from Caesar the Dictator, for their early services to his party;
and another lately from Augustus, with a commendation inserted,
"that with zeal unshaken towards the Roman People, they had borne the
irruption of the Parthians. " But these two people adored different
deities: Aphrodisium was a city devoted to Venus; that of Stratonicea
maintained the worship of Jupiter and of Diana Trivia. Those of
Hierocaesarea exhibited claims of higher antiquity, "that they possessed
the Persian Diana, and her temple consecrated by King Cyrus.