[-6-] "I know that my words to you appear bitter and harsh. But, first of all, reflect that physicians, too, treat many patients by burning when they can not recover health in any other way. In the second place, it is not my wish or my pleasure to speak them; and hence it is that I have this further reproach to bring against you, that you have provoked me to this discourse. If you dislike what I say, do not continue the conduct for which you are inevitably reprimanded. If my speech wounds any of you, how much more do your acts wound both me and all the rest of the Romans. If you vexed in very truth, make a change, that so I may praise and reward you. You yourselves are aware that I am not irritable by nature and that I have done, subject to human limitations, all the acts proper for a good lawgiver. Never in old times was any one permitted to neglect marriage and the rearing of children, but from the very outset, at the first establishment of the government, strict laws were passed regarding them: since then many decrees have been issued by both the senate and the people, which it would be superfluous to enumerate. I have increased the penalties for the disobedient in order that through fear of becoming liable to them you may be brought to your senses. To those that obey I have offered more numerous and greater prizes than are given for any other display of excellence, that if for no other reason at least by this one you may be persuaded to marry and beget children. Yet you, not striving for any of the recompenses nor fearing any of the penalties, have despised all these measures, have trodden them all under foot, as if you were not even inhabitants of the city. You declare you have taken upon yourselves this free and continent life, without wives and without children. You are no different from robbers or the most savage [-7-] beasts. It is not your delight in a solitary existence that leads you to live without wives. There is not one of you who either eats alone or sleeps alone, but you want to have opportunity for wantonness and licentiousness. Yet I have allowed you to court girls still tender and not yet of age for marriage, in order that having the name of intendant bridegrooms you may lead a domestic life. And those not in the senatorial class I have permitted to wed freedwomen, so that if any one through passion or some inclination should be disposed to such a proceeding he might go about it lawfully. I have not limited you rigidly to this, even, but at first gave you three whole years in which to make preparations, and later two. Yet not even so, by threatening or urging or postponing or entreating, have I accomplished anything. You see for yourselves how much larger a mass you constitute than the married men, when you ought by this time to have furnished us with as many more children, or rather with several times your number. How otherwise shall families continue? How can the commonwealth be preserved if we neither marry nor produce children? Surely you are not expecting some to spring up from the earth to succeed to your goods and to public affairs, as myths describe. It is neither pleasing to Heaven nor creditable that our race should cease and the name of Romans meet extinguishment in us, and the city be given up to foreigners,—Greek or even barbarians. We liberate slaves chiefly for the purpose of making out of them as many citizens as possible; we give our allies a share in the government that our numbers may increase: yet you, Romans of the original stock, including Quintii, Valerii, Iulli, are eager that your families and names at once shall perish with you.
[-8-] "I am thoroughly ashamed that I have been led to speak in such a fashion. Have done with your madness, then, and reflect now if not before that with many dying all the time by disease and many in the wars it is impossible for the city to maintain itself unless the multitude in it is constantly reinforced by those who are ever and anon being born. Let no one of you think that I am ignorant of the many disagreeable and painful features that belong to marriage and child-rearing. But bear in mind that we possess nothing at all good with which some bane is not mingled, and that in our most abundant and greatest blessings there reside the most abundant and greatest woes. If you decline to accept the latter, do not strive to obtain the former. Practically all who possess any real excellence and pleasure are obliged to work before its enjoyment, to work at the time, and to work afterward. Why should I lengthen my speech by going into each one of them in detail? Therefore even if there are some unpleasant features connected with marriage and the begetting of children, set over against them the better elements: you will find them more numerous and more vital. For, in addition to all the other blessings that naturally inhere in this state of life, the prizes offered by law—an infinitesimal portion of which determines many to undergo death—might induce anybody to obey me. And is it not a disgrace that for rewards which influence others to give up their own lives you should be unwilling either to marry wives or to rear children?
[-9-] "Therefore, fellow-citizens (for I believe that I have now persuaded you both to hold fast to the name of citizens and to secure the additional title of men and fathers), I have administered this rebuke reluctantly but of necessity, not as your foe nor as one hating you, but rather loving you and wishing to obtain many others like you,—as one wishing you to guard lawful hearths, with houses full of descendants, that we may approach the gods together with wives and children, and associate with one another standing on an equality in whatever we possess and harvesting equally the hopes to which it gives rise. How could I call myself a good ruler over you if I should endure seeing you becoming constantly fewer? How could I any longer be rightfully named your father, if you rear no children? Therefore, if you really have a regard for me and have given me this title not out of flattery but as an honor, desire yourselves to become men and fathers. Thus you may yourselves share this title and also render me well named."
[-10-] Such were his words to both groups at that time. After this he increased the rewards for those having children and by penalties made a still wider difference between the married and those without wives. He further allowed each of them a year in which persons who obeyed him might render themselves non-liable by yielding obedience. Contrary to the Voconian Law, according to which no woman could inherit any property over two and a half myriads in value, he gave women permission to become inheritors of any amount. He also granted the vestal virgins all the benefits enjoyed by women who had children. Later the Pappian and Poppæan Law was framed by Marcus Pappius Mutilus and by Quintus Poppæus Secundus, who were then consuls for a portion of the year. It turned out that both of them had not only no children but not even wives. From this very fact the need of the law was discernible.—These were the events in Rome.
[-11-] Germanicus meanwhile had captured among other posts in Dalmatia also Splonum, in spite of the fact that it occupied a naturally strong position, was well protected by walls, and had a huge number of defenders. Consequently he was unable to accomplish aught with engines or by assaults, yet he took it as a result of the following coincidence. Pusio, a Celtic horseman, discharged a stone against the wall which so shook the superstructure that it immediately fell and dragged down the man who was leaning upon it. At this the rest were terrified, and in fear left the wall to ascend the acropolis. Subsequently they surrendered both it and themselves.
The Romans under Germanicus having reached Rætinium, a city of Dalmatia, fared rather badly. Their opponents, forced back by the numbers, could not resist them and therefore placed fire in a circle about themselves and threw it into the buildings near by, devising a way to keep it surely from blazing up at once and to make it go unnoticed for a long time. The enemy after doing this retired to the heights. The Romans, unaware of their action, followed hard after them expecting to find no work at all in pillaging extensively. Thus they got inside of the circle of fire and with their minds directed upon the enemy saw nothing of it until they were encompassed by it on all sides. Then they found themselves in imminent danger, being pelted by men from above and injured by fire from without. They could neither safely stay where they were nor break their way out without danger. If they stood out of range of the missiles they were consumed by the fire, or if they jumped away from the flame they were destroyed by the hurlers of missiles. Some were caught in narrow places and perished by both at once, wounded on one side and burned on the other. The majority of those who entered the circle met their fate in this way. Some few by casting corpses into the very flame and making a passage over them as over bridges managed to escape. The fire gained such headway that not even those on the acropolis could stay there, but abandoned it in the night and hid themselves in subterranean chambers.
[-12-] These were the operations at that point.—Seretium, which Tiberius had once besieged but not captured, was subdued, and after this some other towns were more easily won. But since the remainder even under these conditions offered resistance and the war kept lengthening out and famine came in its train, especially in Italy, Augustus sent Tiberius again into Dalmatia. He saw that the soldiers were not for enduring further delay and were anxious to end the war in some way eyen if it involved danger; therefore, fearing that if they remained in one place together they might revolt, he divided them into three parts. One he assigned to Silvanus and one to Marcus Lepidus; with the remainder he marched with Germanicus against Bato. Without difficulty the two former overcame those arrayed in battle opposite them. Tiberius himself went wandering off through practically the entire country, as Bato appeared first at one point and then at another: finally, Bato took refuge in Fort Andetrium, located close to Salonæ, and Tiberius, who besieged him, found himself in sore straits. The garrison had the protection of fortifications built upon a well guarded rock, difficult of access, encircled by deep ravines through which torrents roared, and the men had all necessary provisions, part of which they had previously stored there, while a part they were still bringing from the mountains, which were in their hands. Moreover, by ambuscades they interfered with the Roman provision trains. Hence Tiberius, though supposed to be besieging them, was himself placed in the position of a besieged force.
[-13-] He was in a dilemma and could not find any plan to pursue: the siege was proving fruitless and dangerous and a retreat appeared disgraceful. This led to an uproar on the part of the soldiers, who raised so great an outcry that the enemy, who were encamped in the shelter of the wall, were terrified and retreated. As a consequence, being partly angry and partly pleased, he called them together and administered some rebukes and some admonition. He displayed no rashness nor yet did he withdraw, but remained quietly on the spot until Bato, despairing of victory, sent a herald to ask terms. This act was due to the subjugation of all but a few of the other tribes and the fact that the force which Bato had was inferior to the one then opposing it. He could not persuade the rest to ask a truce and so abandoned them, nor did he again assist one of them, though he received many requests for aid. Tiberius consequently conceived a contempt for those still left in the fortress and thinking that he could conquer them without loss paid no further heed to the nature of the country but proceeded straight up the cliff. Since there was no level ground and the enemy would not come down against them, he himself took his seat on a platform in full view in order to watch the engagement (for this would cause his soldiers to contend more vigorously), and to render opportune assistance, should there be any need of it. He kept a part of the army, inasmuch as he had a great plenty of men, for this very purpose. The rest, drawn up in a dense square, at first proceeded at a walk; later they were separated by the steepness and unevenness of the mountain (which was full of gullies and at many points cut up into ravines), and some ascended more quickly, others more slowly. [-14-] Seeing this, the Dalmatians marshaled outside the wall, at the top of the steep, and hurled down quantities of stones upon them, throwing some from slings, and rolling down others. Others set in motion wheels, others whole wagons full of rocks, others circular chests manufactured in some way peculiar to the country and packed with stones. All these things coming down with great noise kept striking in different quarters, as if discharged from a sling, and separated the Romans from one another even more than before and crushed them. Others by discharging either missiles or spears knocked many of them down. At this juncture much rivalry developed on the part of the warriors, one side endeavoring to ascend and conquer the heights, the other to repulse them and hurl them back. There was great excitement also on the part of the rest, who watched the action from the walls, and on the part of those about Tiberius. Each side as a body and also individually encouraged its own men, trying to lend strength to such as showed zeal and chiding those that anywhere gave way. Those whose voices could be heard above the rest were invoking the gods, both parties praying for the protection of their warriors for the time being, and one side calling for freedom for themselves in the future, and the other for peace. Under these circumstances the Romans would certainly have risked their lives in vain, having to contend against two things at once,—the nature of the country and the lines of their antagonists,—had not Tiberius by sudden reinforcements prevented them from taking to flight and disturbed the enemy from another quarter by means of other soldiers who went about and ascended the incline a considerable distance off. As a result, the enemy were routed and could not even enter the fortifications, but scattered up the mountain sides, first casting off their armor so as to be lightly equipped. Their pursuers followed them at every point, for they were exceedingly anxious to end the war and did not want them to unite again and cause trouble. So they discovered the most of them hiding in the forests and killed them like beasts, after which they took possession of the men in the fort, who capitulated. To these Tiberius assured the rights which had been agreed upon and some others.
[-15-] Germanicus now turned to meet his adversaries, for many deserters who were in their ranks prevented a peaceful settlement. He succeeded in enslaving a place called Arduba, but could not do it with his own force, though the latter was far greater than his opponents' army. The town had been powerfully strengthened and a river with a strong current surrounded its foundations except for a small space. But the deserters had a dispute with the inhabitants, because the latter were anxious for peace, and came to blows with them. The assailants had the coöperation of the women in the town, for these contrary to the judgment of the men desired liberty, and were ready to suffer any fate whatever sooner than slavery: there was consequently a great battle, the deserters were beaten and surrendered, and some of them made their escape. The women caught up their children, and some threw themselves into the fire, others hurled themselves down into the river. In this way that post was taken and others near it voluntarily came to an understanding with Germanicus. He, after effecting this, went back to Tiberius, and Postumius[1] completed the subjugation of the remaining sections. [-16-] Upon this, Bato sent his son Sceuas to Tiberius, promising to surrender himself and all his followers if he could obtain protection. When he had received a pledge he came by night into his conqueror's camp and was on the following day led before the latter who was seated on a platform. Bato asked nothing for himself, even holding his head forward to await the stroke, but in behalf of the rest he made a long defence. Being again asked by Tiberius: "Why has it pleased you to revolt and to war against us so long a time?" he made the same answer as before: "You are responsible for this; for you send as guardians over your flocks not dogs or shepherds, but wolves."
In this way, then, the war was ended once more, after many men and much money had been consumed. The legions supported for it were very numerous, whereas the spoils taken were exceedingly meagre. [-17-] On this occasion also Germanicus announced the victory, in honor of which Augustus and Tiberius were allowed to bear the name imperator and to celebrate a triumph; and they received still other honors, as well as two arches bearing trophies, in Pannonia. These, at least, were all of many distinctions voted that Augustus would accept. Germanicus received triumphal honors (which belonged likewise to the other commanders) and prætorial honors, the right of casting his vote immediately after the ex-consuls and of obtaining the consulship earlier than custom allowed. Drusus, the son of Tiberius, although he had not participated in the war, was voted permission to attend the sittings of the senate before he became a member of that body, and when he should become quæstor to cast his vote before the exprætors.