No More Learning

This incendiary practised
upon the ignorant and unwary, such as were solicitous what might prove
their future usage, now Augustus was dead. He engaged them in nightly
confabulations, and by little and little incited them to violence and
disorders; and towards the evening, when the soberest and best affected
were withdrawn, he assembled the worst and most turbulent. When he
had thus ripened them for sedition, and other ready incendiaries were
combined with him, he personated the character of a lawful Commander,
and thus questioned and harangued them:

"Why did they obey, like slaves, a few Centurions and a fewer Tribunes?
When would they be bold enough to demand redress of their heavy
grievances, unless they snatched the present occasion, while the Emperor
was yet new and his authority wavering, to prevail with him by petition,
or by arms to force him? They had already by the misery of many years
paid dear for their patient sloth and stupid silence, since decrepit
with age and maimed with wounds, after a course of service for thirty or
forty years, they were still doomed to carry arms: nor even to those who
were discharged was there any end of the misery of warfare; they were
still kept tied to the colours, and under the creditable title of
Veterans endured the same hardships, and underwent the same labours.
But suppose any of them escaped so many dangers, and survived so many
calamities, where was their reward at last? Why, a long and weary march
remained yet to be taken into countries far remote and strange; where,
under the name of lands given them to cultivate, they had unhospitable
bogs to drain, and the wild wastes of mountains to manure. Severe and
ungainful of itself was the occupation of war: ten Asses [Footnote:
About 5d. ] a day the poor price of their persons and lives; out of this,
they must buy clothes, and tents, and arms; out of this, bribe the cruel
Centurions for a forbearance of blows, and occasional exemption from
hard duty: but stripes from their officers, and wounds from their
enemies, hard winters and laborious summers, bloody wars and barren
peace, were miseries without end: nor remained there other cure or
relief than to refuse to enlist but upon conditions certain, and fixed
by themselves; particularly, that their pay be a denarius or sixteen
Asses a day, [Footnote: About 8-1/2d. ] sixteen years be the utmost
term of serving; when discharged, to be no longer obliged to follow the
colours, but have their reward in ready money, paid them in the camp
where they earned it. Did the Praetorian Guards, they who had double
pay, they who after sixteen years' service were paid off and sent home,
bear severer difficulties, undergo superior dangers? He did not mean to
detract from the merit of their brethren the City guards; their own lot
however it was, to be placed amongst horrid and barbarous nations, nor
could they look from their tents, but they saw the foe. "

The whole crowd received this harangue with shouts of applause; but
from various instigations. Some displayed upon their bodies the obvious
impressions of stripes, others their hoary heads, many their vestments
ragged and curtailed, with backs utterly bare; as did all, their various
griefs, in the bitterness of reproach. At length to such excessive fury
they grew, that they proposed to incorporate the three legions into
one; nor by aught but emulation was the project defeated: for to his own
legion every man claimed the prerogative of swallowing and denominating
the other two.
They took another method, and placed the three Eagles
of the legions, with the standards of the several cohorts, altogether
without rank or priority; then forthwith digged turf and were rearing
a tribunal, one high enough to be seen at a distance. In this
hurry arrived Blesus, who, falling into sore rebukes, and by force
interrupting particulars, called with vehemence to all: "Dip your hands
rather in my blood: to murder your General will be a crime less shameful
and heinous than to revolt from your Prince; for determined I am, either
to preserve the legions in their faith and obedience, if you kill me not
for my intended good office; or my death, if I fall by your hands, shall
hasten your remorse. "

For all this, turfs were accumulated, and the work was already breast
high, when, at last, overcome by his spirit and perseverance, they
forbore. Blesus was an able speaker: he told them "that sedition and
mutiny were not the methods of conveying to the Emperor the pretensions
of the soldiers; their demands too were new and singular; such as
neither the soldiers of old had ever made to the ancient Generals, nor
they themselves to the deified Augustus: besides, their claims were
ill-timed, when the Prince, just upon his accession, was already
embarrassed with the weight and variety of other cares. If, however,
they meant to try to gain in full peace those concessions, which, even
after a civil war, the conquerors never claimed; yet why trample upon
duty and obedience, why reject the laws of the army, and rules of
discipline? And if they meant to petition, why meditate violence? They
might at least appoint deputies; and in his presence trust them with
their pretensions. " Here they all cried out, "that the son of Blesus,
one of their Tribunes, should execute that deputation; and demand in
their name that, after sixteen years' service they should be discharged:
they said they would give him new orders, when he had succeeded in
these. " After the departure of the young officer, a moderate recess
ensued; the soldiers however exulted to have carried such a point:
the sending the son of their General, as the public advocate for their
cause, was to them full proof that they had gained by force and terror
that which by modesty and gentle means they would never have gained.

In the meantime those companies which, before the sedition began, were
sent to Nauportum [Footnote: Over-Laybach, in Carniola. ] to mend roads
and bridges, and upon other duties, no sooner heard of the uproar in
the camp, but they cast off all obedience, tore away the ensigns, and
plundered the neighbouring villages; even Nauportum itself, which for
greatness resembled a municipal town, was plundered. The endeavours
of the Centurions to restrain this violence, were first returned with
mockery and contempt, then with invectives and contumelies, at last
with outrage and blows. Their vengeance was chiefly bent against the
Camp-Marshal, Aufidienus Rufus: him they dragged from his chariot, and,
loading him with baggage, drove him before the first ranks; they then
insulted him, and asked in scorn, "whether he would gladly bear such
enormous burdens, whether endure such immense marches? " Rufus had
been long a common soldier, then became a Centurion, and afterwards
Camp-Marshal; a severe restorer of primitive strictness and discipline;
an indefatigable observer of every military duty, which he exacted from
others with the more rigour, as he had himself undergone them all with
patience.

By the arrival of this tumultuous band the sedition was again awakened
to its former outrage, and the seditious, roving abroad without control,
ravaged the country on every side. Blesus, for an example of terror
to the rest, commanded those who were most laden with plunder, to be
punished with stripes and cast into prison: for the General was still
dutifully obeyed by the Centurions, and by all the soldiers of any
merit; but the criminals refused to submit, and even struggled with
the guard who were carrying them off; they clasped the knees of the
bystanders, implored help from their fellows, now calling upon every
individual, and conjuring them by their particular names; then appealed
to them in a body, and supplicated the company, the cohort, the legion
to which they belonged; warning and proclaiming that the same ignominy
and chastisement hung over them all.