M. Æmilius Q.F. Lepidus, T. Statilius T.F. Taurus. (A.D. 11 = a. u. 764.)
Germanicus Cæsaris F. Cæsar, C. Fonteius C.F. Capito. (A.D. 12 = a. u. 765.)
L. Munatius L.F. Plancus, C. Silius C.F. Cæcina Largus. (A.D. 13 = a. u. 766.)
Sextus Pompeius Sexti F., Sex. Apuleius Sex. F. (A.D. 14 = a. u. 767.)
( BOOK 56, BOISSEVAIN.)
[A.D. 9 (a. u. 762)]
[-1-] Tiberius returned to Rome after the winter when Quintus Sulpicius and Gaius Sabinus were consuls. Augustus went out into the suburbs to meet him, accompanied him to the Sæpta, and there from a platform greeted the people. Next he performed the ceremonies proper on such an occasion and had the consuls give triumphal spectacles. And since the knights on this occasion with great vigor sought for the repeal of the law regarding the unmarried and the childless, he assembled in one place in the Forum the unmarried men of this number and in another those who were married or had children. Seeing that the latter were much fewer in number than the former he was filled with grief and addressed them to the following effect:
[-2-] "Though you are but few all together, in comparison with the great throng that inhabits this city, and are far behind the others, who are unwilling to fulfill their duties at all, yet for this reason I praise you the more and I am heartily grateful that you have shown yourselves obedient and are helping to replenish the fatherland. It is by lives so conducted that the Romans of later days will become a mighty multitude. We were at first a mere handful, but when We had recourse to marriage and begot children we came to surpass all mankind not only in manliness but in populousness. This we must remember and console the mortal element of our being with an endless succession of generations like torches. Thus the one gap which separates us from divine happiness may through relays of men be filled by immortality. It was for this cause most of all that that first and greatest god who fashioned us divided the race of mortals in twain, rendering one half of it male and the other female, and added love and the compulsion of their intercourse together, making their association fruitful, that by the young continually born he might in a way render mortality eternal. Even of the gods themselves some are believed to be male, the rest female: and the tradition prevails that some have begotten others and certain ones have been born of others. So, even among them, who need no such device, marriage and child-begetting have been approved as noble. [-3-] You have done right, then, to imitate the gods and right to emulate your fathers, that, just as they begot you, you may also bring others into the world. Just as you deem them and name them ancestors, others will regard you and address you in similar fashion. The undertakings which they nobly achieved and handed down to you with glory you will hand on to others. The possessions which they acquired and left to you will leave to others sprung from your own loins. Surely the best of all things is a woman who is temperate, domestic, a good house-keeper, a rearer of children; one to gladden you when in health, to tend you when sick; to be your partner in good fortune, to console you in misfortune; to restrain the frenzied nature of the youth and to temper the superannuated severity of the old man. Is it not a delight to acknowledge a child bearing the nature of both, to nurture and educate it, a physical image and a spiritual image, so that in its growth you yourself live again? Is it not most blessed on departing from life to leave behind a successor to and inheritor of one's substance and family, something that is one's own, sprung from one's self? And to have only one's human part waste away, but to live through the child as successor? We need not be in the hands of aliens, as in war, nor perish utterly, as in war. These are the private advantages that accrue to those who marry and beget children: but for the State, for whose sake we ought to do many things that are even distasteful to us, how excellent and how necessary it is, if cities and peoples are to exist, if you are to rule others and others are to obey you, that there should be a multitude of men to till the earth in peace and quiet, to make voyages, practice arts, follow handicrafts, men who in war will protect what we already have with the greater zeal because of family ties and will replace those that fall by others. Therefore, men,—for you alone may properly be called men,—and fathers,—for you are worthy to hold this title like myself,—I love you and I praise you for this, I am glad of the prizes I have already offered and I will glorify you still more besides by honors and offices. Thus you may yourselves reap great benefits and leave them to your children undiminished. I shall now descend to speak to the rest, who have not done like you, and whose lot will therefore be directly the opposite: you will thus learn not only from words but by facts even more how far you excel them."
[-4-] After this speech he made presents to some of them at once and promised to make others: he then went over to the other throng, to whom he addressed these words:
"A strange experience has been mine, O—What shall I call you?—Men? But you do not perform the offices of men.—Citizens? But so far as you are concerned the city is perishing.—Romans? But you are undertaking to do away with this name.—Well, at any rate, whoever you are and by whatever name you delight to be called, mine has been an unexpected experience. For, though I am always doing everything to promote an increase of population among you and am now about to rebuke you, I grieve to see that you are numerous. I could rather wish that those others to whom I have just spoken were so many than to see you as many as you are; or, still better, to see you mustered with them,—or at least not to know how things stand. It is you who without pausing to reflect on the foresight of the gods or the care of your forefathers are bent upon annihilating your whole race and making it in truth mortal, upon destroying and ending the whole Roman nation. What seed of human beings would be left, if all the remainder of mankind should do the same as you? You are their leaders and may rightly bear the responsibility for universal destruction. Or, even if no others emulate you, will you not be justly hated for the very reason that you overlook what no one else would overlook, and neglect what no one else would neglect? You are introducing customs and practices, which, if imitated, would lead to the annihilation of all, and, if hated, would end in your own punishment. We do not spare murderers because all persons do not murder, nor do we let temple-robbers go because not everybody robs temples: but anybody who is convicted of committing any forbidden act is chastised for the very reason that he alone, or as one of a small group, does such things as no one else would do. [-5-] Yet if one should name over the greatest offences, there is none to compare with that which is now being committed by you, and this statement holds true not only if you examine crime for crime but if you compare all of them together with this single one of yours. You have incurred blood guiltiness by not begetting those who ought to be your descendants; you are sacrilegious in putting an end to the names and honors of your ancestors; you are impious in abolishing your families, which were instituted by the gods, and destroying the greatest of offerings to them,—the human being,—and by overthrowing in this way their rites and their temples. Moreover, by causing the downfall of the government you are disobedient to the laws, and you even betray your country by rendering her barren and childless: nay more, you lay her even with the dust by making her destitute of inhabitants. A city consists of human beings, not of houses or porticos or fora empty of men. Think what rage would justly seize the great Romulus, the founder of our race, if he could reflect on the circumstances of his own birth, and then upon your attitude,—refusing to get children even by lawful marriages! How wrathful would the Romans who were his followers be when they considered that they themselves even seized foreign girls, but you are not satisfied with those of your own race. They actually had children even by their enemies: you will not beget them even of women with undisputed standing in the State. How incensed would Curtius be, who endured to die that the married men might not be sundered from their wives: how indignant Hersilia, the attendant of her daughter, who instituted for us all the rites of marriage. Our fathers fought the Sabines to obtain marriages and made peace through the intercession of their wives and children; they administered oaths and made sundry treaties for this very purpose: you are bringing all that labor to naught. Why is it? Do you desire to live forever apart from women, as the vestal virgins live apart from men? Then you should be punished like them if you break out into any act of lewdness.