He had a grudge, however, against Archelaus. the king of Cappadocia, because the latter had first become his suppliant to the extent of employing him as advocate when this monarch in the time of Augustus had been accused by his people, and had subsequently slighted him on the occasion of a visit to Rhodes, but had paid court to Gaius, who also went to Asia. Therefore he summoned him on the charge of rebellious behavior and delivered him up to the votes of the senate. (The king was not only well stricken in years, but a great sufferer from gout, and was moreover believed to be demented.) As a matter of fact he had been incommoded previously by loss of mind to the extent of having a guardian placed over his domain by Augustus; but at that time he was no longer weak-witted and was merely feigning, in the hope of saving himself by this expedient if by no other. He would now have been executed, had not some one in testifying against him stated that he had once said: "When I get back home, I will show him what sort of sinews I possess." A shout of laughter went up at this, for the man was not only unable to stand, but could not even assume a sitting posture, and so Tiberius gave up his plan of putting him to death. The condition of the prince was so serious that he was carried into the senate in a covered litter. For since it was customary even for men, whenever one of them came there feeling ill, to be carried in a reclining position, Tiberius took advantage of the method on this occasion, too. (And the invalid spoke a few words, bending forward from the litter.) So it was that the life of Archelaus was temporarily saved, but he died shortly afterward in some other way. After this Cappadocia reverted to the Romans and was put in charge of a knight.
To the cities in Asia which had been damaged by the earthquake an ex-prætor was assigned with five lictors. Considerable money therefore was diverted from the revenues and considerable was given by Tiberius personally. For whereas he refrained scrupulously from the possessions of others,—so long at least as he practiced virtue at all,—and would not even accept the inheritances which were left to him by testators having relatives, he spent vast sums both upon the cities and upon private individuals. He would not hear of any honor or praise for these acts.—Embassies that came from foreign cities or nations he never dealt with alone, but caused a number of others to participate in the deliberations, and especially such as had once governed these peoples.
[-18-] Now Germanicus, having acquired a reputation for his campaign against the Celtae, advanced as far as the ocean, inflicted an overwhelming defeat upon the barbarians, collected and buried the bones of those who had fallen under Varus, and won back the military standards.
His wife Julia was not recalled from the banishment to which for unchastity her father Augustus had condemned her; nay, he even put her under lock and key till wretchedness and starvation caused her death.
[A.D. 17 or 18]
The senate urged upon Tiberius the request that the month of November, on the sixteenth of which he had been born, should be called Tiberius; to which he responded: "What will you do, if there arise thirteen Cæsars?"
[A.D. 19 (a. u. 772)]
Later, when Marcus Junius and Lucius Norbanus came to office, a portent of some magnitude occurred on the very first day of the month, and it doubtless had a bearing on the fate of Germanicus. Norbanus the consul had always been devoted to the trumpet, and as he had practiced assiduously in this pursuit he wished on this occasion also to play the instrument just about dawn, when many persons were already near his house This proceeding threw them all without exception into confusion, just as if the consul had imparted to them some warlike signal; and they were also disturbed by the falling of the statue of Janus. Their calm was further ruffled by an oracle, reputed to be a Sibylline utterance, which would not fit any other period of the city's history, but pointed to that very time. It declared:
"After thrice three hundred revolving years have been numbered, Civil strife shall consume the Romans,—and the Sybaritan Folly." …
Tiberius denounced these verses as false and made an investigation of all the books containing any prophecies. Some he rejected as worthless and others he admitted as genuine.