No More Learning

"To these innocents," says he, "to these
miserable sufferers, our fellow-soldiers, you have indeed restored
breath and liberty: but who will restore life to my poor brother; who
my poor brother to me? He was sent hither by the German armies, with
propositions for our common good; and for this, was last night butchered
by that same Blesus, who in the murder employed his gladiators, bloody
men, whom he purposely entertains and arms for our common execution.
Where, oh where, Blesus, hast thou thrown his unoffending and mangled
corpse? Even open enemies do not inhumanly deny burial to the slain:
when I have satiated my sorrow with a thousand kisses, and a flood
of tears; command me also to be murdered, that these our brethren may
together bury my poor brother and me, slaughtered both as victims, yet
both guiltless of any crime but that of studying the common interest of
the legions. "

He inflamed those his complaints and expostulations with affecting sighs
and lamentations, beat his breast, tore his face, and showed all the
symptoms of anguish. Then those who carried him giving way, he threw
himself headlong at the feet of his companions; and thus prostrate and
supplicating, in them raised such a spirit of commiseration and such a
storm of vengeance, that one party of them instantly seized and bound
the General's gladiators; another, the rest of his family; while many
ran and dispersed themselves to search for the corpse: and had it not
been quickly manifest that there was no corpse to be found, that
the slaves of Blesus had upon the rack cleared themselves, and that
Vibulenus never had any brother; they had gone nigh to have sacrificed
the General. As it was, they expulsed the Camp-Marshal and Tribunes;
and as they fled, plundered their baggage: they likewise put to
death Lucilius the Centurion, whom they had sarcastically named _Cedo
Alteram_, because when upon the back of a soldier he had broken one
wand, he was wont to call for another, and then a third. The other
Centurions lurked in concealment, all but Julius Clemens, who for his
prompt capacity was saved, in order to manage the negotiations of the
soldiers: even two of the legions, the eighth and the fifteenth, were
ready to turn their swords upon each other; and had, but for the ninth:
one Sirpicus, a centurion, was the subject of the quarrel; him the
eighth required to be put to death, and the fifteenth protected him; but
the ninth interposed with entreaties to both, and with threats to those
who would not listen to prayers.

Tiberius, however, close and impenetrable, and ever labouring to smother
all melancholy tidings, was yet driven by those from Pannonia, to
despatch his son Drusus thither, accompanied by the principal nobility
and guarded by two Praetorian cohorts; but charged with no precise
instructions, only to adapt his measures to the present exigency: the
cohorts were strengthened with an extraordinary addition of chosen men,
with the greatest part of the Praetorian horse, and main body of the
German, then the Emperor's guards. Aelius Sejanus, lately joined with
his father Strabo in the command of the Praetorian bands, was also sent,
not only as Governor to the young Prince, but as his credit with the
Emperor was known to be mighty, to deal with the revolters by promises
and terrors. When Drusus approached, the legions, for show of respect,
marched out to meet him; not with the usual symptoms and shouts of
joy, nor with gay ensigns and arms glittering, but in a dress and
accoutrements hideous and squalid: in their countenances too, though
composed to sadness, were seen greater marks of sullenness and
contumacy.

As soon as he was within the camp, they secured the entrances with
guards, and in several quarters of it placed parties upon duty: the rest
crowded about the tribunal of Drusus, who stood beckoning with his hand
for silence. Here as often as they surveyed their own numbers and met
one another's resentful looks, they uttered their rage in horrible
cries: again, when upon the tribunal they beheld Caesar, awe and
trembling seized them: now, there prevailed an hollow and inarticulate
murmur; next, a furious clamour; then suddenly a dead silence: so that,
by a hasty succession of opposite passions, they were at once dismayed
and dreadful. When at last the uproar was stayed, he read his father's
letters, who in them declared, "that he would take an affectionate
care of the brave and invincible legions by whom he had sustained
successfully so many wars; and, as soon as his grief was a little
abated, deal with the Senate about their demands; in the meantime he
had sent them his son, on purpose to make them forthwith all the
concessions, which could instantly be made them: the rest were to
be reserved for the Senate, the proper distributers of rewards and
punishments by a right altogether unalienable. "

The assembly answered, that to Julius Clemens they had intrusted what
to speak in their name: he began with their demands, "to be discharged
after sixteen years' service, to have the reward which, for past
services upon that discharge, they claimed; their pay to be increased
to a Roman denarius; the veterans to be no longer detained under their
ensigns.
" When Drusus urged, that wholly in the judgment of the Senate
and his father, these matters rested he was interrupted by their
clamours: "To what purpose came he; since he could neither augment their
pay, nor alleviate their grievances? and while upon them every officer
was allowed to inflict blows and death, the son of their Emperor wanted
power to relieve them by one beneficent action. The policy this of the
late reign, when Tiberius frustrated every request of the soldiers, by
referring all to Augustus; now Drusus was come with the same artifices
to delude them: were they never to have a higher visit than from the
children of their Prince? It was, indeed, unaccountable, that to the
Senate the Emperor should leave no part in the direction of the army,
only the rewarding of the soldiery: ought not the same Senate to be
consulted as often as a battle was to be fought, or a private man to be
punished? or, were their recompenses to be adjudged by many masters,
but their punishments to remain without any restraint or moderator
whatsoever? "

At last they abandoned the tribunal, and with menaces and insults fell
upon all they met belonging to Drusus, either as guards or friends;
meditating thus to provoke a quarrel, and an introduction to blood.
Chiefly enraged they were against Cneius Lentulus, as one for years and
warlike renown superior to any about the person of Drusus, and thence
suspected to have hardened the Prince, and been himself the foremost to
despise these outrages in the soldiery: nor was it long after, that as
he was leaving Drusus, and from the foresight of danger returning to the
winter quarters, they surrounded him and demanded "whither he went? to
the Emperor or Senate? there also to exercise his enmity to the legions,
and oppose their interest? " and instantly assaulted him with stones.
He was already covered with wounds and blood, and awaiting certain
assassination, when the troops attending Drusus flew to his assistance
and saved him.

The following night had a formidable aspect, and threatened the speedy
eruption of some tragical vengeance; when a phenomenon intervened and
assuaged all. The Moon, in the midst of a clear sky, seemed to the
soldiers suddenly to sicken; and they, who were ignorant of the natural
cause, took this for an omen foreboding the issue of their present
adventures: to their own labours, they compared the eclipse of the
planet; and prophesied, "that if to the distressed Goddess should be
restored her wonted brightness and vigour, equally successful would
be the issue of these their struggles. " Hence they strove to charm and
revive her with sounds, and by ringing upon brazen metal, and an uproar
of trumpets and cornets, made a vehement bellowing. As she appeared
brighter or darker, they exulted or lamented; but when gathering clouds
had utterly bereft them of her sight, and they believed her now buried
in everlasting darkness; then, as minds once thoroughly dismayed are
pliant to superstition, they bewailed "their own eternal sufferings
thus portended, and that against their misdeeds the angry Deities
were contending. " Drusus, who thought it behoved him to improve this
disposition of theirs, and to reap the fruits of wisdom from the
operations of chance; ordered certain persons to go round, and apply
to them from tent to tent.