No More Learning

They were engaged in a
tempestuous sea, believed deep without bottom, vast without bounds, or
no shores near but hostile shores: part of the fleet were swallowed up;
many were driven upon remote islands void of human culture, where the
men perished through famine, or were kept alive by the carcasses of
horses cast in by the flood. Only the galley of Germanicus landed upon
the coast of the Chaucians, where wandering sadly, day and night, upon
the rocks and prominent shore, and incessantly accusing himself as
the author of such mighty destruction, he was hardly restrained by his
friends from casting himself desperately into the same hostile floods.
At last, with the returning tide and an assisting gale, the ships began
to return, all maimed, almost destitute of oars, or with coats spread
for sails; and some, utterly disabled, were dragged by those that
were less. He repaired them hastily, and despatched them to search the
islands; and by this care many men were gleaned up; many were by the
Angrivarians, our new subjects, redeemed from their maritime neighbours
and restored; and some, driven into Great Britain, were sent back by the
little British kings. Those who had come from afar, recounted wonders
at their return, "the impetuosity of whirlwinds; wonderful birds; sea
monsters of ambiguous forms, between man and beasts. " Strange sights
these! or the effects of imagination and fear.

The noise of this wreck, as it animated the Germans with hopes of
renewing the war, awakened Germanicus also to restrain them: he
commanded Caius Silius, with thirty thousand foot and three thousand
horse, to march against the Cattans: he himself, with a greater force,
invaded the Marsians, where he learnt from Malovendus, their general,
lately taken into our subjection, that the Eagle of one of Varus's
legions was hid underground in a neighbouring grove, and kept by a
slender guard. Instantly two parties were despatched; one to face the
enemy and provoke them from their post; the other to beset their rear
and dig up the Eagle; and success attended both. Hence Germanicus
advanced with great alacrity, laid waste the country, and smote the
foe, either not daring to engage, or, wherever they engaged, suddenly
defeated. Nor, as we learnt from the prisoners, were they ever seized
with greater dismay: "The Romans," they cried, "are invincible: no
calamities can subdue them: they have wrecked their fleet; their arms
are lost; our shores are covered with the bodies of their horses and
men; and yet they attack us with their usual ferocity, with the same
firmness, and with numbers as it were increased. "

The army was from thence led back into winter quarters, full of joy to
have balanced, by this prosperous expedition, their late misfortune at
sea; and by the bounty of Germanicus, their joy was heightened, since to
each sufferer he caused to be paid as much as each declared he had
lost; neither was it doubted but the enemy were humbled, and concerting
measures for obtaining peace, and that the next summer would terminate
the war. But Tiberius by frequent letters urged him "to come home, there
to celebrate the triumph already decreed him; urged that he had already
tried enough of events, and tempted abundant hazards: he had indeed
fought great and successful battles; but he must likewise remember his
losses and calamities, which, however, owing to wind and waves, and no
fault of the general, were yet great and grievous. He himself had been
sent nine times into Germany by Augustus, and effected much more by
policy than arms: it was thus he had brought the Sigambrians into
subjection, thus drawn the Suevians and King Maroboduus under the bonds
of peace. The Cheruscans too, and the other hostile nations, now the
Roman vengeance was satiated, might be left to pursue their own national
feuds.
" Germanicus besought one year to accomplish his conquest; but
Tiberius assailed his modesty with a new bait and fresh opportunity, by
offering him another Consulship, for the administration of which he was
to attend in person at Rome. He added, "that if the war was still to
be prosecuted, Germanicus should leave a field of glory to his brother
Drusus, to whom there now remained no other; since the Empire had
nowhere a war to maintain but in Germany, and thence only Drusus
could acquire the title of Imperator, and merit the triumphal laurel. "
Germanicus persisted no longer; though he knew that this was all feigned
and hollow, and saw himself invidiously torn away from a harvest of ripe
glory.

Decrees of the Senate were made for driving astrologers and magicians
out of Italy; and one of the herd, Lucius Pituanius, was precipitated
from the Tarpeian Rock: Publius Marcius, another, was, by the judgment
of the Consuls, at the sound of trumpet executed without the Esquiline
Gate, according to the ancient form.

Next time the Senate sat, long discourses against the luxury of the
city were made by Quintus Haterius, a consular, and by Octavius Fronto,
formerly Praetor; and a law was passed "against using table-plate
of solid gold, and against men debasing themselves with gorgeous and
effeminate silks. " Fronto went further, and desired that "the quantities
of silver plate, the expense of furniture, and the number of domestics
might be limited;" for it was yet common for senators to depart from
the present debate and offer, as their advice, whatever they judged
conducing to the interest of the commonweal. Against him it was argued
by Asinius Callus, "That with the growth of the Empire private riches
were likewise grown, and it was no new thing for citizens to live
according to their conditions, but agreeable to the most primitive
usage: the ancient Fabricii and the later Scipios, having different
wealth, lived differently; but all suitably to the several stages of the
Commonwealth. Public property was accompanied with domestic; but when
the State rose to such a height of magnificence, the magnificence of
particulars rose too. As to plate, and train, and expense, there was no
standard of excess or frugality, but from the fortunes of men. The law,
indeed, had made a distinction between the fortunes of senators and
knights; not for any natural difference between them, but that they
who excelled in place, rank, and civil pre-eminence, might excel too in
other particulars, such as conduced to the health of the body or to the
peace and solacement of the soul; unless it were expected, that the most
illustrious citizens should sustain the sharpest cares, and undergo
the heaviest fatigues and dangers, but continue destitute of every
alleviation of fatigue and danger and care. " Gallus easily prevailed,
whilst under worthy names he avowed and supported popular vices in an
assembly engaged in them. Tiberius too had said, "That it was not a
season for reformation; or, if there were any corruption of manners,
there would not be wanting one to correct them. "

During these transactions, Lucius Piso, after he had declaimed bitterly
in the Senate against "the ambitious practices and intrigues of the
Forum, the corruption of the tribunals, and the inhumanity of the
pleaders breathing continual terror and impeachments," declared "he
would entirely relinquish Rome, and retire into a quiet corner of the
country, far distant and obscure. " With these words he left the Senate;
Tiberius was provoked; and yet not only soothed him with gentle words,
but likewise obliged Piso's relations, by their authority or entreaties,
to retain him. The same Piso gave soon after an equal instance of the
indignation of the free spirit, by prosecuting a suit against Urgulania;
a lady whom the partial friendship of Livia had set at defiance with the
laws. Urgulania being carried, for protection, to the palace, despised
the efforts of Piso; so that neither did she submit; nor would he
desist, notwithstanding the complaints and resentments of Livia, that
in the prosecution "violence and indignity were done to her own person.