No More Learning

After the illness of Germanicus grew current there, and all its
circumstances, like rumours magnified by distance, were related
with many aggravations; sadness seized the people; they burned with
indignation, and even poured out in plaints the anguish of their souls.
"For this," they said, "he had been banished to the extremities of the
Empire, for this the province of Syria was committed to Piso, and these
the fruits of Livia's mysterious conferences with Plancina: truly had
our fathers spoken concerning his father Drusus; that the possessors of
rule beheld with an evil eye the popular spirit of their sons; nor for
aught else were they sacrificed, but for their equal treatment of
the Roman People, and studying to restore the popular state. " These
lamentations of the populace were, upon the tidings of his death, so
inflamed, that, without staying for an edict from the magistrates,
without a decree of Senate, they by general consent assumed a vacation;
the public courts were deserted, private houses shut up, prevalent
everywhere were the symptoms of woe, heavy groans, dismal silence; the
whole a scene of real sorrow, and nothing devised for form or show; and,
though they forbore not to bear the exterior marks and habiliments of
mourning; in their souls they mourned still deeper. Accidentally some
merchants from Syria, who had left Germanicus still alive, brought
more joyful news of his condition: these were instantly believed, and
instantly proclaimed: each, as fast as they met, informed others,
who forthwith conveyed their light information with improvements and
accumulated joy to more, and all flew with exultation through the city;
and, to pay their thanks and vows, burst open the temple doors: the
night too heightened their credulity, and affirmation was bolder in the
dark. Nor did Tiberius restrain the course of these fictions, but left
them to vanish with time: hence with more bitterness they afterwards
grieved for him, as if anew snatched from them.

Honours were invented and decreed to Germanicus, various as the
affections and genius of the particular Senators who proposed them:
"that his name should be sung in the Salian hymns; curule chairs placed
for him amongst the priests of Augustus, and over these chairs oaken
crowns hung; his statue in ivory precede in the Cercensian games; none
but one of the Julian race be, in the room of Germanicus, created flamen
or augur:" triumphal arches were added; one at Rome; one upon the banks
of the Rhine; one upon Mount Amanus, in Syria; with inscriptions of
his exploits, and a testimony subjoined, "that he died for the
Commonwealth:" a sepulchre at Antioch, where his corpse was burnt; a
tribunal at Epidaphne, the place where he ended his life. The multitude
of statues, the many places where divine honours were appointed to be
paid him, would not be easily recounted. They would have also decreed
him, as to one of the masters of eloquence, a golden shield, signal in
bulk as in metal; but Tiberius offered to dedicate one himself, such
as was usual and of a like size with others; for that eloquence was not
measured by fortune; and it was sufficient glory, if he were ranked with
ancient writers. The battalion called after the name of the Junii was
now, by the equestrian order, entitled the battalion of Germanicus,
and a rule made that, on every fifteenth of July, these troops should
follow, as their standard, the effigies of Germanicus: of these honours
many continue; some were instantly omitted, or by time are utterly
obliterated.

In the height of this public sorrow, Livia, sister to Germanicus,
and married to Drusus, was delivered of male twins: an event even in
middling families, rare and acceptable, and to Tiberius such mighty
matter of joy, that he could not refrain boasting to the fathers, "that
to no Roman of the same eminence, before him, were never two children
born at a birth:" for to his own glory he turned all things, even things
fortuitous. But to the people, at such a sad conjuncture, it brought
fresh anguish; as they feared that the family of Drusus thus increased,
would press heavy upon that of Germanicus.

The same year the lubricity of women was by the Senate restrained with
severe laws; and it was provided, "that no woman should become venal, if
her father, grandfather or husband, were Roman knights. " For Vistilia,
a lady born of a Praetorian family, had before the Aediles published
herself a prostitute; upon a custom allowed by our ancestors, who
thought that prostitutes were by thus avowing their infamy, sufficiently
punished. Titidius Labeo too was questioned, that in the manifest guilt
of his wife, he had neglected the punishment prescribed by the law;
but he alleged that the sixty days allowed for consultation were not
elapsed; and it was deemed sufficient to proceed against Vistilia,
who was banished to the Isle of Seriphos. Measures were also taken for
exterminating the solemnities of the Jews and Egyptians; and by decree
of Senate four thousand descendants of franchised slaves, all defiled
with that superstition, but of proper strength and age, were to be
transported to Sardinia; to restrain the Sardinian robbers; and if,
through the malignity of the climate, they perished, despicable would be
the loss: the rest were doomed to depart Italy, unless by a stated day
they renounced their profane rites.
After this Tiberius represented that, to supply the place of Occia, who
had presided seven and fifty years with the highest sanctimony over the
Vestals, another virgin was to be chosen; and thanked Fonteius Agrippa
and Asinius Pollio, that by offering their daughters, they contended in
good offices towards the Commonwealth. Pollio's daughter was preferred;
for nothing else but that her mother had ever continued in the same
wedlock: for Agrippa, by a divorce, had impaired the credit of his
house: upon her who was postponed, Tiberius, in consolation, bestowed
for her fortune a thousand great sestertia. [Footnote: £8300. ]

As the people murmured at the severe dearth of corn, he settled grain
at a price certain to the buyer, and undertook to pay fourteenpence a
measure to the seller: neither yet would he accept the name of _Father
of his Country_, a title offered him before, and for these bounties, now
again; nay, he sharply rebuked such as styled these provisions of his,
_divine occupations_, and him, _Lord_: hence freedom of speech became
cramped and insecure, under such a Prince; one who dreaded liberty, and
abhorred flattery.

I find in the writers of those times, some of them Senators, that in
the Senate were read letters from Adgandestrius, prince of the Cattans,
undertaking to despatch Arminius, if in order to it poison were sent
him; and an answer returned, "that not by frauds and blows in the dark,
but armed and in the face of the sun, the Roman People took vengeance
on their foes. " In this Tiberius gained equal glory with our ancient
captains, who rejected and disclosed a plot to poison King Pyrrhus.
Arminius however, who upon the departure of the Romans and expulsion
of Maroboduus, aimed at royalty, became thence engaged in a struggle
against the liberty of his country; and, in defence of their liberty,
his countrymen took arms against him: so that, while with various
fortune he contended with them, he fell by the treachery of his own
kindred: the deliverer of Germany without doubt he was; one who
assailed the Roman power, not like other kings and leaders, in its first
elements, but in its highest pride and elevation; one sometimes beaten
in battle, but never conquered in war: thirty-seven years he lived;
twelve he commanded; and, amongst these barbarous nations, his memory is
still celebrated in their songs; but his name unknown in the annals of
the Greeks, who only admire their own national exploits and renown; nor
even amongst the Romans does this great captain bear much distinction,
while, overlooking instances of modern prowess and glory, we only
delight to magnify men and feats of old.




BOOK III

A. D. 20-22.


Agrippina, notwithstanding the roughness of winter, pursuing without
intermission her boisterous voyage, put in at the Island Corcyra,
[Footnote: Corfu. ] situate over against the coasts of Calabria. Here
to settle her spirit, she spent a few days, violent in her grief, and
a stranger to patience. Her arrival being the while divulged, all the
particular friends to her family, mostly men of the sword, many who had
served under Germanicus, and even many strangers from the neighbouring
towns, some in officiousness towards the Emperor, more for company,
crowded to the city of Brundusium, the readiest port in her way and the
safest landing. As soon as the fleet appeared in the deep, instantly
were filled, not the port alone and adjacent shores, but the walls
and roofs, and as far as the eye could go; filled with the sorrowing
multitude. They were consulting one from one, how they should receive
her landing, "whether with universal silence, or with some note of
acclamation.