The Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, Complete - C. Suetonius Tranquillus
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XVIII. Next year he went again to Germany, where finding that the defeat
of Varus was occasioned by the rashness and negligence of the commander,
he thought proper to be guided in everything by the advice of a council
of war; whereas, at other times, he used to follow the dictates of his
own judgment, and considered himself alone as sufficiently qualified for
the direction of affairs. He likewise used more cautions than usual.
Having to pass the Rhine, he restricted the whole convoy within certain
limits, and stationing himself on the bank of the river, would not suffer
the waggons to cross the river, until he had searched them at the
water-side, to see that they carried nothing but what was allowed or
necessary. Beyond the Rhine, such was his way of living, that he took his
meals sitting on the bare ground [321], and often passed the night without
a tent; and his regular orders for the day, as well as those upon sudden
emergencies, he gave in writing, with this injunction, that in case of any
doubt as to the meaning of them, they should apply to him for
satisfaction, even at any hour of the night.
XIX. He maintained the strictest discipline amongst the troops; reviving
many old customs relative to punishing and degrading offenders; setting a
mark of disgrace even upon the commander of a legion, for sending a few
soldiers with one of his freedmen across the river for the purpose of
hunting. Though it was his desire to leave as little as possible in the
power of fortune or accident, yet he always engaged the enemy with more
confidence when, in his night-watches, the lamp failed and went out of
itself; trusting, as he said, in an omen which had never failed him and
his ancestors (206) in all their commands. But, in the midst of victory,
he was very near being assassinated by some Bructerian, who mixing with
those about him, and being discovered by his trepidation, was put to the
torture, and confessed his intended crime.
XX. After two years, he returned from Germany to the city, and
celebrated the triumph which he had deferred, attended by his
lieutenants, for whom he had procured the honour of triumphal ornaments
[322]. Before he turned to ascend the Capitol, he alighted from his
chariot, and knelt before his father, who sat by, to superintend the
solemnity. Bato, the Pannonian chief, he sent to Ravenna, loaded with
rich presents, in gratitude for his having suffered him and his army to
retire from a position in which he had so enclosed them, that they were
entirely at his mercy. He afterwards gave the people a dinner at a
thousand tables, besides thirty sesterces to each man. He likewise
dedicated the temple of Concord [323], and that of Castor and Pollux,
which had been erected out of the spoils of the war, in his own and his
brother's name.
XXI. A law having been not long after carried by the consuls [324] for
his being appointed a colleague with Augustus in the administration of
the provinces, and in taking the census, when that was finished he went
into Illyricum [325]. But being hastily recalled during his journey, he
found Augustus alive indeed, but past all hopes of recovery, and was with
him in private a whole day. I know, it is generally believed, that upon
Tiberius's quitting the room, after their private conference, those who
were in waiting overheard Augustus say, "Ah! unhappy Roman people, to be
ground by the jaws of such a slow devourer!" Nor am I ignorant of its
being reported by some, that Augustus so openly and undisguisedly
condemned the sourness of his temper, that sometimes, upon his coming in,
he would break off any jocular conversation in which he was engaged; and
that he was only prevailed upon by the (207) importunity of his wife to
adopt him; or actuated by the ambitious view of recommending his own
memory from a comparison with such a successor. Yet I must hold to this
opinion, that a prince so extremely circumspect and prudent as he was,
did nothing rashly, especially in an affair of so great importance; but
that, upon weighing the vices and virtues of Tiberius with each other, he
judged the latter to preponderate; and this the rather since he swore
publicly, in an assembly of the people, that "he adopted him for the
public good." Besides, in several of his letters, he extols him as a
consummate general, and the only security of the Roman people. Of such
declarations I subjoin the following instances: "Farewell, my dear
Tiberius, and may success attend you, whilst you are warring for me and
the Muses [326]. Farewell, my most dear, and (as I hope to prosper) most
gallant man, and accomplished general." Again. "The disposition of your
summer quarters? In truth, my dear Tiberius, I do not think, that amidst
so many difficulties, and with an army so little disposed for action, any
one could have behaved more prudently than you have done. All those
likewise who were with you, acknowledge that this verse is applicable to
you:"
Unus homo nobis _vigilando_ restituit rem. [327]
One man by vigilance restored the state.
"Whenever," he says, "anything happens that requires more than ordinary
consideration, or I am out of humour upon any occasion, I still, by
Hercules! long for my dear Tiberius; and those lines of Homer frequently
occur to my thoughts:"
Toutou d' espomenoio kai ek pyros aithomenoio
Ampho nostaesuimen, epei peri oide noaesai. [328]
Bold from his prudence, I could ev'n aspire
To dare with him the burning rage of fire.
"When I hear and read that you are much impaired by the (208) continued
fatigues you undergo, may the gods confound me if my whole frame does not
tremble! So I beg you to spare yourself, lest, if we should hear of your
being ill, the news prove fatal both to me and your mother, and the Roman
people should be in peril for the safety of the empire. It matters
nothing whether I be well or no, if you be not well. I pray heaven
preserve you for us, and bless you with health both now and ever, if the
gods have any regard for the Roman people."
XXII. He did not make the death of Augustus public, until he had taken
off young Agrippa. He was slain by a tribune who commanded his guard,
upon reading a written order for that purpose: respecting which order, it
was then a doubt, whether Augustus left it in his last moments, to
prevent any occasion of public disturbance after his decease, or Livia
issued it, in the name of Augustus; and whether with the knowledge of
Tiberius or not. When the tribune came to inform him that he had
executed his command, he replied, "I commanded you no such thing, and you
must answer for it to the senate;" avoiding, as it seems, the odium of
the act for that time. And the affair was soon buried in silence.
XXIII. Having summoned the senate to meet by virtue of his tribunitian
authority, and begun a mournful speech, he drew a deep sigh, as if unable
to support himself under his affliction; and wishing that not his voice
only, but his very breath of life, might fail him, gave his speech to his
son Drusus to read. Augustus's will was then brought in, and read by a
freedman; none of the witnesses to it being admitted, but such as were of
the senatorian order, the rest owning their hand-writing without doors.
The will began thus: "Since my ill-fortune has deprived me of my two
sons, Caius and Lucius, let Tiberius Caesar be heir to two-thirds of my
estate." These words countenanced the suspicion of those who were of
opinion, that Tiberius was appointed successor more out of necessity than
choice, since Augustus could not refrain from prefacing his will in that
manner.
XXIV. Though he made no scruple to assume and exercise immediately the
imperial authority, by giving orders that he (209) should be attended by
the guards, who were the security and badge of the supreme power; yet he
affected, by a most impudent piece of acting, to refuse it for a long
time; one while sharply reprehending his friends who entreated him to
accept it, as little knowing what a monster the government was; another
while keeping in suspense the senate, when they implored him and threw
themselves at his feet, by ambiguous answers, and a crafty kind of
dissimulation; insomuch that some were out of patience, and one cried
out, during the confusion, "Either let him accept it, or decline it at
once;" and a second told him to his face, "Others are slow to perform
what they promise, but you are slow to promise what you actually
perform." At last, as if forced to it, and complaining of the miserable
and burdensome service imposed upon him, he accepted the government; not,
however, without giving hopes of his resigning it some time or other.
The exact words he used were these: "Until the time shall come, when ye
may think it reasonable to give some rest to my old age."
XXV. The cause of his long demur was fear of the dangers which
threatened him on all hands; insomuch that he said, "I have got a wolf
by the ears." For a slave of Agrippa's, Clemens by name, had drawn
together a considerable force to revenge his master's death; Lucius
Scribonius Libo, a senator of the first distinction, was secretly
fomenting a rebellion; and the troops both in Illyricum and Germany were
mutinous. Both armies insisted upon high demands, particularly that
their pay should be made equal to that of the pretorian guards. The army
in Germany absolutely refused to acknowledge a prince who was not their
own choice; and urged, with all possible importunity, Germanicus [329],
who commanded them, to take the government on himself, though he
obstinately refused it. It was Tiberius's apprehension from this
quarter, which made him request the senate to assign him some part only
in the administration, such as they should judge proper, since no man
could be sufficient for the whole, without one or more to assist him. He
pretended likewise to be in a bad state of health, that Germanicus might
the more patiently wait in hopes of speedily succeeding him, or at least
of being (210) admitted to be a colleague in the government. When the
mutinies in the armies were suppressed, he got Clemens into his hands by
stratagem. That he might not begin his reign by an act of severity, he
did not call Libo to an account before the senate until his second year,
being content, in the mean time, with taking proper precautions for his
own security. For upon Libo's attending a sacrifice amongst the
high-priests, instead of the usual knife, he ordered one of lead to be
given him; and when he desired a private conference with him, he would not
grant his request, but on condition that his son Drusus should be present;
and as they walked together, he held him fast by the right hand, under the
pretence of leaning upon him, until the conversation was over.
XXVI. When he was delivered from his apprehensions, his behaviour at
first was unassuming, and he did not carry himself much above the level
of a private person; and of the many and great honours offered him, he
accepted but few, and such as were very moderate. His birth-day, which
happened to fall at the time of the Plebeian Circensian games, he with
difficulty suffered to be honoured with the addition of only a single
chariot, drawn by two horses. He forbad temples, flamens, or priests to
be appointed for him, as likewise the erection of any statues or effigies
for him, without his permission; and this he granted only on condition
that they should not be placed amongst the images of the gods, but only
amongst the ornaments of houses. He also interposed to prevent the
senate from swearing to maintain his acts; and the month of September
from being called Tiberius, and October being named after Livia. The
praenomen likewise of EMPEROR, with the cognomen of FATHER OF HIS
COUNTRY, and a civic crown in the vestibule of his house, he would not
accept. He never used the name of AUGUSTUS, although he inherited it, in
any of his letters, excepting those addressed to kings and princes. Nor
had he more than three consulships; one for a few days, another for three
months, and a third, during his absence from the city, until the ides
[fifteenth] of May.
XXVII. He had such an aversion to flattery, that he would never suffer
any senator to approach his litter, as he passed the streets in it,
either to pay him a civility, or upon business. (211) And when a man of
consular rank, in begging his pardon for some offence he had given him,
attempted to fall at his feet, he started from him in such haste, that he
stumbled and fell. If any compliment was paid him, either in
conversation or a set speech, he would not scruple to interrupt and
reprimand the party, and alter what he had said. Being once called
"lord," [330] by some person, he desired that he might no more be
affronted in that manner. When another, to excite veneration, called his
occupations "sacred," and a third had expressed himself thus: "By your
authority I have waited upon the senate," he obliged them to change their
phrases; in one of them adopting persuasion, instead of "authority," and
in the other, laborious, instead of "sacred."
XXVIII. He remained unmoved at all the aspersions, scandalous reports,
and lampoons, which were spread against him or his relations; declaring,
"In a free state, both the tongue and the mind ought to be free." Upon
the senate's desiring that some notice might be taken of those offences,
and the persons charged with them, he replied, "We have not so much time
upon our hands, that we ought to involve ourselves in more business. If
you once make an opening [331] for such proceedings, you will soon have
nothing else to do. All private quarrels will be brought before you
under that pretence." There is also on record another sentence used by
him in the senate, which is far from assuming: "If he speaks otherwise of
me, I shall take care to behave in such a manner, as to be able to give a
good account both of my words and actions; and if he persists, I shall
hate him in my turn."
XXIX. These things were so much the more remarkable in him, because, in
the respect he paid to individuals, or the whole body of the senate, he
went beyond all bounds. Upon his differing with Quintus Haterius in the
senate-house, "Pardon me, sir," he said, "I beseech you, if I shall, as a
senator, speak my mind very freely in opposition to you." Afterwards,
addressing the senate in general, he said: "Conscript Fathers, I have
often said it both now and at other times, that a good (212) and useful
prince, whom you have invested with so great and absolute power, ought to
be a slave to the senate, to the whole body of the people, and often to
individuals likewise: nor am I sorry that I have said it. I have always
found you good, kind, and indulgent masters, and still find you so."
XXX. He likewise introduced a certain show of liberty, by preserving to
the senate and magistrates their former majesty and power. All affairs,
whether of great or small importance, public or private, were laid before
the senate. Taxes and monopolies, the erecting or repairing edifices,
levying and disbanding soldiers, the disposal of the legions and
auxiliary forces in the provinces, the appointment of generals for the
management of extraordinary wars, and the answers to letters from foreign
princes, were all submitted to the senate. He compelled the commander of
a troop of horse, who was accused of robbery attended with violence, to
plead his cause before the senate. He never entered the senate-house but
unattended; and being once brought thither in a litter, because he was
indisposed, he dismissed his attendants at the door.
XXXI. When some decrees were made contrary to his opinion, he did not
even make any complaint. And though he thought that no magistrates after
their nomination should be allowed to absent themselves from the city,
but reside in it constantly, to receive their honours in person, a
praetor-elect obtained liberty to depart under the honorary title of a
legate at large. Again, when he proposed to the senate, that the
Trebians might have leave granted them to divert some money which had
been left them by will for the purpose of building a new theatre, to that
of making a road, he could not prevail to have the will of the testator
set aside. And when, upon a division of the house, he went over to the
minority, nobody followed him. All other things of a public nature were
likewise transacted by the magistrates, and in the usual forms; the
authority of the consuls remaining so great, that some ambassadors from
Africa applied to them, and complained, that they could not have their
business dispatched by Caesar, to whom they had been sent. And no
wonder; since it was observed that he used to rise up as the consuls
approached, and give them the way.
(213) XXXII. He reprimanded some persons of consular rank in command of
armies, for not writing to the senate an account of their proceedings,
and for consulting him about the distribution of military rewards; as if
they themselves had not a right to bestow them as they judged proper. He
commended a praetor, who, on entering office, revived an old custom of
celebrating the memory of his ancestors, in a speech to the people. He
attended the corpses of some persons of distinction to the funeral pile.
He displayed the same moderation with regard to persons and things of
inferior consideration. The magistrates of Rhodes, having dispatched to
him a letter on public business, which was not subscribed, he sent for
them, and without giving them so much as one harsh word, desired them to
subscribe it, and so dismissed them. Diogenes, the grammarian, who used
to hold public disquisitions, at Rhodes every sabbath-day, once refused
him admittance upon his coming to hear him out of course, and sent him a
message by a servant, postponing his admission until the next seventh
day. Diogenes afterwards coming to Rome, and waiting at his door to be
allowed to pay his respects to him, he sent him word to come again at the
end of seven years. To some governors, who advised him to load the
provinces with taxes, he answered, "It is the part of a good shepherd to
shear, not flay, his sheep."
XXXIII. He assumed the sovereignty [332] by slow degrees, and exercised
it for a long time with great variety of conduct, though generally with a
due regard to the public good. At first he only interposed to prevent
ill management. Accordingly, he rescinded some decrees of the senate;
and when the magistrates sat for the administration of justice, he
frequently offered his service as assessor, either taking his place
promiscuously amongst them, or seating himself in a corner of the
tribunal. If a rumour prevailed, that any person under prosecution was
likely to be acquitted by his interest, he would suddenly make his
appearance, and from the floor of the court, (214) or the praetor's
bench, remind the judges of the laws, and of their oaths, and the nature
of the charge brought before them, he likewise took upon himself the
correction of public morals, where they tended to decay, either through
neglect, or evil custom.
XXXIV. He reduced the expense of the plays and public spectacles, by
diminishing the allowances to actors, and curtailing the number of
gladiators. He made grievous complaints to the senate, that the price of
Corinthian vessels was become enormous, and that three mullets had been
sold for thirty thousand sesterces: upon which he proposed that a new
sumptuary law should be enacted; that the butchers and other dealers in
viands should be subject to an assize, fixed by the senate yearly; and
the aediles commissioned to restrain eating-houses and taverns, so far as
not even to permit the sale of any kind of pastry. And to encourage
frugality in the public by his own example, he would often, at his solemn
feasts, have at his tables victuals which had been served up the day
before, and were partly eaten, and half a boar, affirming, "It has all
the same good bits that the whole had." He published an edict against
the practice of people's kissing each other when they met; and would not
allow new-year's gifts [333] to be presented after the calends [the
first] of January was passed. He had been in the habit of returning
these offerings four-fold, and making them with his own hand; but being
annoyed by the continual interruption to which he was exposed during the
whole month, by those who had not the opportunity of attending him on the
festival, he returned none after that day.
XXXV. Married women guilty of adultery, though not prosecuted publicly,
he authorised the nearest relations to punish by agreement among
themselves, according to ancient custom. He discharged a Roman knight
from the obligation of an oath he had taken, never to turn away his wife;
and allowed him to divorce her, upon her being caught in criminal
intercourse with her son-in-law. Women of ill-fame, divesting themselves
of the rights and dignity of matrons, had now begun a practice of
professing themselves prostitutes, to avoid (215) the punishment of the
laws; and the most profligate young men of the senatorian and equestrian
orders, to secure themselves against a decree of the senate, which
prohibited their performing on the stage, or in the amphitheatre,
voluntarily subjected themselves to an infamous sentence, by which they
were degraded. All those he banished, that none for the future might
evade by such artifices the intention and efficacy of the law. He
stripped a senator of the broad stripes on his robe, upon information of
his having removed to his gardens before the calends [the first] of July,
in order that he might afterwards hire a house cheaper in the city. He
likewise dismissed another from the office of quaestor, for repudiating,
the day after he had been lucky in drawing his lot, a wife whom he had
married only the day before.
XXXVI. He suppressed all foreign religions, and the Egyptian [334] and
Jewish rites, obliging those who practised that kind of superstition, to
burn their vestments, and all their sacred utensils. He distributed the
Jewish youths, under the pretence of military service, among the
provinces noted for an unhealthy climate; and dismissed from the city all
the rest of that nation as well as those who were proselytes to that
religion [335], under pain of slavery for life, unless they complied. He
also expelled the astrologers; but upon their suing for pardon, and
promising to renounce their profession, he revoked his decree.
XXXVII. But, above all things, he was careful to keep the (216) public
peace against robbers, burglars, and those who were disaffected to the
government. He therefore increased the number of military stations
throughout Italy; and formed a camp at Rome for the pretorian cohorts,
which, till then, had been quartered in the city. He suppressed with
great severity all tumults of the people on their first breaking out; and
took every precaution to prevent them. Some persons having been killed
in a quarrel which happened in the theatre, he banished the leaders of
the parties, and the players about whom the disturbance had arisen; nor
could all the entreaties of the people afterwards prevail upon him to
recall them [336]. The people of Pollentia having refused to permit the
removal of the corpse of a centurion of the first rank from the forum,
until they had extorted from his heirs a sum of money for a public
exhibition of gladiators, he detached a cohort from the city, and another
from the kingdom of Cottius [337]; who concealing the cause of their
march, entered the town by different gates, with their arms suddenly
displayed, and trumpets sounding; and having seized the greatest part of
the people, and the magistrates, they were imprisoned for life. He
abolished every where the privileges of all places of refuge. The
Cyzicenians having committed an outrage upon some Romans, he deprived
them of the liberty they had obtained for their good services in the
Mithridatic war. Disturbances from foreign enemies he quelled by his
lieutenants, without ever going against them in person; nor would he even
employ his lieutenants, but with much reluctance, and when it was
absolutely necessary. Princes who were ill-affected towards him, he kept
in subjection, more by menaces and remonstrances, than by force of arms.
Some whom he induced to come to him by fair words and promises, he never
would permit to return home; as Maraboduus the German, Thrascypolis the
(217) Thracian, and Archelaus the Cappadocian, whose kingdom he even
reduced into the form of a province.
XXXVIII. He never set foot outside the gates of Rome, for two years
together, from the time he assumed the supreme power; and after that
period, went no farther from the city than to some of the neighbouring
towns; his farthest excursion being to Antium [338], and that but very
seldom, and for a few days; though he often gave out that he would visit
the provinces and armies, and made preparations for it almost every year,
by taking up carriages, and ordering provisions for his retinue in the
municipia and colonies. At last he suffered vows to be put up for his
good journey and safe return, insomuch that he was called jocosely by the
name of Callipides, who is famous in a Greek proverb, for being in a
great hurry to go forward, but without ever advancing a cubit.