No More Learning

And shall I be
the author of such tidings to him; such heavy tidings in the midst of
congratulations and happy accounts from every province in the Empire?
Must it be my sad task to acquaint him that his own new levies, as well
as his own veterans who long fought under him; these not appeased by
their discharge, and neither of them satiated with the money given them,
are both still combined in a furious mutiny? must I tell him that here
and only here the Centurions are butchered, the Tribunes driven away,
the Ambassadors imprisoned; that with blood the camp is stained, and
the rivers flow with blood; and that for me his son, I hold a precarious
life at the mercy of men, who owe me duty, and practise enmity?

"Why did you the other day, oh unseasonable and too officious friends!
why did you leave me at their mercy by snatching from me my sword, when
with it I would have put myself out of their power? He who offered me
his own sword showed greater kindness, and was more my friend. I would
then have fallen happy; happy that my death would have hid from mine
eyes so many horrible crimes since committed by my own army; and for
you, you would have chosen another general, such a general, no doubt, as
would have left my death unpunished, but still one who would have sought
vengeance for that of Varus and the three legions; for the Gods are too
just to permit that ever the Belgians, however generously they offer
their service, shall reap the credit and renown of retrieving the glory
of the Roman name, and of reducing in behalf of Rome the German nations
her foes. Filled with this passion for the glory of Rome, I here
invoke thy spirit now with the Gods, oh deified Augustus; and thy image
interwoven in the ensigns, and thy memory, oh deceased father. Let thy
revered spirit, oh Augustus, let thy loved image and memory, oh Drusus,
still dear to these legions, vindicate them from this guilty stain,
this foul infamy of leaving to foreigners the honour of defending
and avenging the Roman State. They are Romans; they already feel the
remorses of shame; they are already stimulated with a sense of honour:
improve, oh improve this generous disposition in them; that thus
inspired they may turn the whole tide of their civil rage to the
destruction of their common enemy. And for you, my fellow-soldiers,
in whom I behold all the marks of compunction, other countenances,
and minds happily changed; if you mean to restore to the Senate its
ambassadors; to your Emperor your sworn obedience; to me, your general,
my wife and son; be it the first instance of your duty, to fly the
contagious company of incendiaries, to separate the sober from the
seditious: this will be a faithful sign of remorse, this a firm pledge
of fidelity. "

These words softened them into supplicants: they confessed that all
his reproaches were true; they besought him to punish the guilty and
malicious, to pardon the weak and misled, and to lead them against the
enemy; to recall his wife, to bring back his son, nor to suffer the
fosterling of the legions to be given in hostage to the Gauls. Against
the recalling of Agrippina he alleged the advance of winter, and her
approaching delivery; but said, that his son should return, and that
to themselves he left to execute what remained further to be executed.
Instantly, with changed resentments, they ran, and seizing the most
seditious, dragged them in bonds to Caius Cretonius, commander of the
first legion, who judged and punished them in this manner. The legions,
with their swords drawn, surrounded the tribunal; from thence the
prisoner was by a Tribune exposed to their view, and if they
proclaimed him guilty, cast headlong down, and executed even by his
fellow-soldiers, who rejoiced in the execution, because by it they
thought their own guilt to be expiated: nor did Germanicus restrain
them, since on themselves remained the cruelty and reproach of the
slaughter committed without any order of his.
The veterans followed the
same example of vengeance, and were soon after ordered into Rhetia, in
appearance to defend that province against the invading Suevians; in
reality, to remove them from a camp still horrible to their sight, as
well in the remedy and punishment, as from the memory of their crime.
Germanicus next passed a scrutiny upon the conduct and characters of the
Centurions: before him they were cited singly; and each gave an account
of his name, his company, country, the length of his service, exploits
in war, and military presents, if with any he had been distinguished:
if the Tribunes or his legion bore testimony of his diligence and
integrity, he kept his post; upon concurring complaint of his avarice or
cruelty, he was degraded.

Thus were the present commotions appeased; but others as great still
subsisted, from the rage and obstinacy of the fifth and twenty-first
legions. They were in winter quarters sixty miles off, in a place called
the Old Camp, [Footnote: Xanten. ] and had first began the sedition: nor
was there any wickedness so horrid, that they had not perpetrated; nay,
at this time, neither terrified by the punishment, nor reclaimed by the
reformation of their fellow-soldiers, they persevered in their fury.
Germanicus therefore determined to give them battle, if they persisted
in their revolt; and prepared vessels, arms, and troops to be sent down
the Rhine.

Before the issue of the sedition in Illyricum was known at Rome, tidings
of the uproar in the German legions arrived; hence the city was filled
with much terror; and hence against Tiberius many complaints, "that
while with feigned consultations and delays he mocked the Senate and
people, once the great bodies of the estate, but now bereft of power and
armies, the soldiery were in open rebellion, one too mighty and stubborn
to be quelled by two princes so young in years and authority: he
ought at first to have gone himself, and awed them with the majesty of
imperial power, as doubtless they would have returned to duty upon the
sight of their Emperor, a Prince of consummate experience, the sovereign
disposer of rewards and severity. Did Augustus, even under the pressure
of old age and infirmities, take so many journeys into Germany? and
should Tiberius, in the vigour of his life, when the same or greater
occasions called him thither, sit lazily in the Senate to watch senators
and cavil at words? He had fully provided for the domestic servitude
of Rome; he ought next to cure the licentiousness of the soldiers,
to restrain their turbulent spirits, and reconcile them to a life of
peace. "

But all these reasonings and reproaches moved not Tiberius: he was
determined not to depart from the capital, the centre of power and
affairs; nor to chance or peril expose his person and empire. In truth,
many and contrary difficulties pressed and perplexed him: "the German
army was the stronger; that of Pannonia nearer; the power of both the
Gauls supported the former; the latter was at the gates of Italy. Now to
which should he repair first? and would not the last visited be inflamed
by being postponed? But by sending one of his sons to each, the equal
treatment of both was maintained; as also the majesty of the supreme
power, which from distance ever derived most reverence. Besides, the
young princes would be excused, if to their father they referred such
demands as were for them improper to grant; and if they disobeyed
Germanicus and Drusus, his own authority remained to appease or punish
them: but if once they had contemned their Emperor himself, what other
resource was behind?