No More Learning

" This Emperor gave orders, that the writings of Tacitus
should be placed in all the public libraries; and that ten copies should
be taken annually, at the public charge. Notwithstanding the Imperial
anxiety, a valuable part of Tacitus is lost: indeed we might argue, from
the solicitude of the Emperor, as well as from his own "distinction,"
that Tacitus could not be generally popular; and, in the sixteenth
century, a great portion of him was reduced to the single manuscript,
which lay hidden within a German monastery. Of his literary works, five
remain; some fairly complete, the rest in fragments. Complete, are "The
Life of Julius Agricola," "The Dialogue on Orators," and "The Account
of Germany": these are, unfortunately, the minor works of Tacitus. His
larger works are "The History," and "The Annals. " "The History" extended
from the second Consulship of Galba, in the year 69, to the murder of
Domitian, in the year 96; and Tacitus desired to write the happy times
of Nerva, and of Trajan: we are ignorant, whether infirmity or death
prevented his design. Of "The History," only four books have been
preserved; and they contain the events of a single year: a year, it is
true, which, saw three civil wars, and four Emperors destroyed; a year
of crime, and accidents, and prodigies: there are few sentences more
powerful, than Tacitus' enumeration of these calamities, in the opening
chapters. The fifth book is imperfect; it is of more than common
interest to some people, because Tacitus mentions the siege of Jerusalem
by Titus; though what he says about the Chosen People, here and
elsewhere, cannot be satisfactory to them nor gratifying to their
admirers. With this fragment, about revolts in the provinces of Gaul
and Syria, "The History" ends. "The Annals" begin with the death of
Augustus, in the year 14; and they were continued until the death of
Nero, in 68. The reign of Tiberius is nearly perfect, though the fall
of Sejanus is missing out of it. The whole of Caligula, the beginning of
Claudius, and the end of Nero, have been destroyed: to those, who know
the style of Tacitus and the lives and genius of Caligula and Nero, the
loss is irreparable; and the admirers of Juvenal must always regret,
that from the hand of Tacitus we have only the closing scene, and not
the golden prime, of Messalina.

The works of Tacitus are too great for a Camelot volume; and, therefore,
I have undertaken a selection of them. I give entire, "The Account of
Germany" and "The Life of Agricola": these works are entertaining, and
should have a particular interest for English readers. I have added to
them, the greater portion of the first six books of "The Annals"; and
I have endeavoured so to guide my choice, that it shall present the
history of Tiberius.
In this my volume, the chapters are not numbered:
for the omission, I am not responsible; and I can only lament, what I
may not control. But scholars, who know their Tacitus, will perceive
what I have left out; and to those others, who are not familiar with
him, the omission can be no affront. I would say briefly, that I
have omitted some chapters, which describe criminal events and legal
tragedies in Rome: but of these, I have retained every chapter, which
preserves an action or a saying of Tiberius; and what I have inserted
is a sufficient specimen of the remainder. I have omitted many chapters,
which are occupied with wearisome disputes between the Royal Houses
of Parthia and Armenia: and I have spared my readers the history of
Tacfarinas, an obscure and tedious rebel among the Moors; upon whose
intricate proceedings Tacitus appears to have relied, when he was at a
loss for better material. To reject any part of Tacitus, is a painful
duty; because the whole of him is good and valuable: but I trust, that I
have maintained the unity of my selection, by remembering that it is to
be an history of Tiberius.

Tiberius Claudius Nero Caesar, the third master of the Roman world,
derived his origin, by either parent, from the Claudian race; the
proudest family, and one of the most noble and illustrious, in the
ancient Commonwealth: the pages of Livy exhibit the generosity, the
heroism, and the disasters, of the Claudii; who were of unequal fortune
indeed, but always magnificent, in the various events of peace and
war. Suetonius enumerates, among their ancestral honours, twenty-eight
Consulships, five Dictators, seven Censorial commissions, and seven
triumphs: their _cognomen_ of Nero, he says, means in the Sabine tongue
"vigorous and bold," _fortis et strenuus_; and the long history of the
Claudian House does not belie their gallant name. Immediately after the
birth of Tiberius, or perhaps before it, his mother Livia was divorced
from Claudius, and married by Augustus: the Empress is revealed
mysteriously and almost as a divine being, in the progress of "The
Annals. " The Emperor adopted the offspring of Claudius: among the
Romans, these legal adoptions were as valid as descent by blood; and
Tiberius was brought up to be the son of Caesar. His natural parts were
improved and strengthened, by the training of the Forum and the camp.
Tiberius became a good orator; and he gained victory and reputation, in
his wars against the savages of Germany and Dalmatia: but his peculiar
talent was for literature; in this, "he was a great purist, and affected
a wonderful precision about his words. " He composed some Greek poems,
and a Latin Elegy upon Lucius Caesar: he also wrote an account of his
own life, an _Apologia_; a volume, which the Emperor Domitian was
never tired of reading. But the favourite pursuit of Tiberius was Greek
divinity; like some of the mediaeval Doctors, he frequented the by-ways
of religion, and amused his leisure with the more difficult problems in
theology: "Who was Hecuba's mother? " "What poetry the Sirens chaunted? "
"What was Achilles' name, when he lay hid among the women? " The writings
of Tiberius have all perished; and in these days, we have only too much
cause to regret, that nothing of his "precision" has come down to us.