No More Learning

" [Footnote: Tiberiolus meus. ] Of
all this he stood exposed to conviction by men of the first rank in
Rome; who being earnest to attack him, he appealed to Caesar: from whom
soon after a letter was brought in behalf of Cotta; in it he recounted
"the beginning of their friendship," repeated "his many good services
to himself," and desired "that words perversely construed, and humorous
tales told at an entertainment, might not be wrested into crimes. "

Most remarkable was the beginning of that letter; for in these words he
introduced it: "What to write you, Conscript Fathers, or in what
manner to write, or what at all not to write at this instant; if I can
determine, may all the Deities, Gods and Goddesses, doom me still
to more cruel agonies than those under which I feel myself perishing
daily. " So closely did the bloody horror of his cruelties and infamy
haunt this man of blood, and became his torturers! Nor was it at random
what the wisest of all men [Footnote: Socrates. ] was wont to affirm,
that if the hearts of tyrants were displayed, in them might be seen
deadly wounds and gorings, and all the butcheries of fear and rage;
seeing what the severity of stripes is to the body, the same to the
soul is the bitter anguish of cruelty, lust, and execrable pursuits.
To Tiberius not his imperial fortune, not his gloomy and inaccessible
solitudes could ensure tranquillity; nor exempt him from feeling and
even avowing the rack in his breast and the avenging furies that pursued
him.

After this, it was left to the discretion of the Senate to proceed as
they listed against Caecilianus the Senator, "who had loaded Cotta with
many imputations;" and it was resolved, "to subject him to the same
penalties inflicted upon Aruseius and Sanquinius, the accusers of
Lucius Annuntius. " A more signal instance of honour than this had never
befallen Cotta; who noble in truth, but through luxury indigent, and,
for the baseness of his crimes, detestable, was by the dignity of
this amends equalled in character to the most venerable reputation and
virtues of Arruntius.

About the same time died Lucius Piso, the Pontiff; and, by a felicity,
then rare in so much splendour and elevation, died by the course of
nature. The author he never himself was of any servile motion, and ever
wise in moderating such motions from others, where necessity enforced
his assent. That his father had sustained the sublime office of Censor,
I have before remembered: he himself lived to fourscore years, and for
his warlike feats in Thrace, had obtained the glory of triumph. But from
hence arose his most distinguished glory, that being created Governor
of Rome, a jurisdiction newly instituted, and the more difficult, as
not yet settled into public reverence, he tempered it wonderfully and
possessed it long.

For, of old, to supply the absence of the Kings, and afterwards of the
Consuls, that the city might not remain without a ruler, a temporary
Magistrate was appointed to administer justice, and watch over
exigencies: and it is said that by Romulus was deputed Denter Romulius;
Numa Marcius, by Tullus Hostilius; and by Tarquin the Proud, Spurius
Lucretius. The same delegation was made by the Consuls; and there
remains still a shadow of the old institution, when during the Latin
festival, one is authorised to discharge the Consular function.
Moreover, Augustus during the Civil Wars, committed to Cilnius Maecenas
of the Equestrian Order, the Government of Rome and of all Italy.
Afterwards, when sole master of the Empire, and moved by the immense
multitude of people and the slowness of relief from the laws, he chose
a Consular to bridle the licentiousness of the slaves, and to awe such
turbulent citizens as are only quiet from the dread of chastisement.
Messala Corvinus was the first invested with this authority, and in a
few days dismissed, as a man insufficient to discharge it. It was then
filled by Taurus Statilius, who, though very ancient, sustained it with
signal honour. After him Piso held it for twenty years, with a credit so
high and uninterrupted, that he was distinguished with a public funeral,
by decree of the Senate.

A motion was thereafter made in Senate by Quinctilianus, Tribune of the
People, concerning a Book of the Sibyl, which Caninius Gallus, one
of the College of Fifteen, had prayed "might be received by a decree
amongst the rest of that Prophetess. " The decree passed without
opposition, but was followed by letters from Tiberius. In them having
gently chid the Tribune, "as young and therefore unskilled in the
ancient usages," he upbraided Gallus, "that he who was so long practised
in the science of sacred ceremonies, should without taking the opinion
of his own college, without the usual reading and deliberation with
the other Priests, deal, by surprise, with a thin Senate, to admit a
prophetic book of an uncertain author. " He also advertised them "of
the conduct of Augustus, who, to suppress the multitude of fictious
predictions everywhere published under the solemn name of the Sibyl, had
ordained, that within a precise day, they should be carried to the City
Praetor; and made it unlawful to keep them in private hands. " The same
had likewise been decreed by our ancestors, when after the burning of
the capitol in the Social War, the Rhymes of the Sibyl (whether there
were but one, or more) were everywhere sought, in Samos, Ilium, and
Erythrae, through Africa too and Sicily and all the Roman colonies, with
injunctions to the Priests, that, as far as human wit could enable them,
they would separate the genuine. Therefore, upon this occasion also, the
book was subjected to the inspection of the Quindecimvirate.

Under the same Consuls, the dearth of corn had nigh raised a sedition.
The populace for many days urged their wants and demands in the public
theatre, with a licentiousness towards the Emperor, higher than usual.
He was alarmed with this bold spirit, and censured the Magistrates and
Senate, "that they had not by the public authority quelled the people. "
He recounted "the continued supplies of grain which he had caused to be
imported; from what provinces, and in how much greater abundance than
those procured by Augustus. " So that for correcting the populace,
a decree passed framed in the strain of ancient severity: nor less
vigorous was the edict published by the Consuls.