No More Learning

" By this he meant to force the
assent of the rest of the Senate. There remained even then some faint
traces of expiring liberty. Hence Cneius Piso asked him, "In what place,
Caesar, will you choose to give your opinion? If first, I shall have
your example to follow; if last, I fear I may ignorantly dissent from
you. " The words pierced him, but he bore them, the rather as he was
ashamed of his unwary transport; and he suffered the accused to be
acquitted of high treason. To try him for the public money was referred
to the proper judges.

Nor sufficed it Tiberius to assist in the deliberations of the Senate
only: he likewise sat in the seats of justice; but always on one side,
because he would not dispossess the Praetor of his chair; and by his
presence there, many ordinances were established against the intrigues
and solicitations of the Grandees. But while private justice was thus
promoted, public liberty was overthrown. About this time, Pius Aurelius,
the Senator, whose house, yielding to the pressure of the public road
and aqueducts, had fallen, complained to the Senate and prayed relief:
a suit opposed by the Praetors who managed the treasury; but he was
relieved by Tiberius, who ordered him the price of his house; for he
was fond of being liberal upon honest occasions: a virtue which he long
retained, even after he had utterly abandoned all other virtues. Upon
Propertius Celer, once Praetor, but now desiring leave to resign the
dignity of Senator, as a burden to his poverty, he bestowed a thousand
great sesterces; [Footnote: £8333. ] upon ample information, that Celer's
necessities were derived from his father. Others, who attempted the same
thing, he ordered to lay their condition before the Senate; and from
an affectation of severity was thus austere even where he acted with
uprightness. Hence the rest preferred poverty and silence to begging and
relief.

The same year the Tiber, being swelled with continual rains, overflowed
the level parts of the city; and the common destruction of men and
houses followed the returning flood. Hence Asinius Callus moved "that
the Sibylline books might be consulted.
" Tiberius opposed it, equally
smothering all inquiries whatsoever, whether into matters human or
divine. To Ateius Capito, however, and Lucius Arruntius, was committed
the care of restraining the river within its banks. The provinces of
Achaia and Macedon, praying relief from their public burdens, were for
the present discharged of their Proconsular government, and subjected to
the Emperor's lieutenants. In the entertainment of gladiators at Rome,
Drusus presided: it was exhibited in the name of Germanicus, and his
own; and at it he manifested too much lust of blood, even of the blood
of slaves: a quality terrible to the populace; and hence his father
was said to have reproved him. His own absence from these shows was
variously construed: by some it was ascribed to his impatience of a
crowd; by others to his reserved and solitary genius, and his fear of
an unequal comparison with Augustus, who was wont to be a cheerful
spectator. But, that he thus purposely furnished matter for exposing the
cruelty of his son there, and for raising him popular hate, is what I
would not believe; though this too was asserted.

The dissensions of the theatre, begun last year, broke out now more
violently, with the slaughter of several, not of the people only, but of
the soldiers, with that of a Centurion. Nay, a Tribune of a Praetorian
cohort was wounded, whilst they were securing the magistrates from
insults, and quelling the licentiousness of the rabble. This riot was
canvassed in the Senate, and votes were passing for empowering the
Praetors to whip the players. Haterius Agrippa, Tribune of the People,
opposed it; and was sharply reprimanded by a speech of Asinius Gallus.
Tiberius was silent, and to the Senate allowed these empty apparitions
of liberty. The opposition, however, prevailed, in reverence to the
authority of Augustus; who, upon a certain occasion, had given his
judgment, "that players were exempt from stripes:" nor would Tiberius
assume to violate any words of his. To limit the wages of players, and
restrain the licentiousness of their partisans, many decrees were made:
the most remarkable were, "That no Senator should enter the house of a
pantomime; no Roman Knight attend them abroad; they should show nowhere
but in the theatre; and the Praetors should have power to punish any
insolence in the spectators with exile. "

The Spaniards were, upon their petition, permitted to build a temple
to Augustus in the colony of Tarragon; an example this for all the
provinces to follow. In answer to the people, who prayed to be relieved
from the _centesima_, a tax of one in the hundred, established at the
end of the civil wars, upon all vendible commodities; Tiberius by an
edict declared, "That upon this tax depended the fund for maintaining
the army; nor even thus was the Commonwealth equal to the expense, if
before their twentieth year the veterans were dismissed. " So that
the concessions made them during the late sedition, to discharge
them finally at the end of sixteen years, as they were made through
necessity, were for the future abolished.