The same year twelve noble cities of Asia were overturned by an earthquake: the ruin happened in the night, and the more dreadful as its warnings were unobserved; neither availed the usual sanctuary against such calamities, namely, a flight to the fields, since those who fled, the gaping earth devoured. It is reported "that mighty mountains subsided, plains were heaved into high hills: and that with flashes and eruptions of fire, the mighty devastation was everywhere accompanied." The Sardians felt most heavily the rage of the concussion, and therefore most compassion: Tiberius promised them an hundred thousand great sesterces, {Footnote: £83,000.} and remitted their taxes for five years. The inhabitants of Magnesia, under Mount Sipylus, were held the next in sufferings, and had proportionable relief. The Temnians, Philadelphians, the Aegeatans, Apollonians, with those called the Mostenians or Macedonians of Hyrcania, the cities too of Hierocaesarea, Cyme, and Tmolus, were all for the same term eased of tribute. It was likewise resolved to send one of the Senate to view the desolations and administer proper remedies: Marcus Aletus was therefore chosen, one of Praetorian rank; because, a Consular Senator then governing Asia, had another of the like quality been sent, an emulation between equals was apprehended, and consequently opposition and delays.
The credit of this noble bounty to the public, he increased by private liberalities, which proved equally popular: the estate of the wealthy Aemilia Musa, claimed by the exchequer, as she died intestate, he surrendered to Aemilius Lepidus, to whose family she seemed to belong; as also to Marcus Servilius the inheritance of Patuleius, a rich Roman knight, though part of it had been bequeathed to himself; but he found Servilius named sole heir in a former and well-attested will. He said such was "the nobility of both, that they deserved to be supported." Nor did he ever to himself accept any man's inheritance, but where former friendship gave him a title. The wills of such as were strangers to him, and of such as, from hate and prejudice to others, had appointed the Prince their heir, he utterly rejected. But, as he relieved the honest poverty of the virtuous, so he degraded from the Senate (or suffered to quit it of their own accord) Vibidius Varro, Marius Nepos, Appius Appianus, Cornelius Sylla, and Quintus Vitellius, all prodigals, and only through debauchery indigent.
About this time Tiberius finished and consecrated what Augustus began, the Temples of the Gods consumed by age or fire: that near the great Circus, vowed by Aulus Posthumius the Dictator, to Bacchus, Proserpina, and Ceres. In the same place the Temple of Flora, founded by Lucius Publicius and Marcus Publicius while they were Aediles. The Temple of Janus, built in the Herb Market by Caius Duillius, who first signalised the Roman power at sea, and merited a naval triumph over the Carthaginians. That of Hope was dedicated by Germanicus: this temple Atilius had vowed in the same war.
The Consuls for the following year were, Tiberius the third time, Germanicus the second. This dignity overtook Germanicus at Nicopolis, a city of Achaia, whither he arrived by the coast of Illyricum, from visiting his brother Drusus, then abiding in Dalmatia; and had suffered a tempestuous passage, both in the Adriatic and Ionian Sea: he therefore spent a few days to repair his fleet, and viewed the while the Bay of Actium renowned for the naval victory there; as also the spoils consecrated by Augustus, and the Camp of Anthony, with an affecting remembrance of these his ancestors; for Anthony, as I have said, was his great uncle, Augustus his grandfather; hence this scene proved to Germanicus a mighty source of images pleasing and sad. Next he proceeded to Athens, where in concession to that ancient city, allied to Rome, he would use but one Lictor. The Greeks received him with the most elaborate honours, and to dignify their personal flattery, carried before him tablatures of the signal deeds and sayings of his ancestors.
Hence he sailed to Eubea, thence to Lesbos, where Agrippina was delivered of Julia, who proved her last birth; then he kept the coast of Asia and visited Perinthus and Byzantium, cities of Thrace, and entered the straits of Propontis, and the mouth of the Euxine; fond of beholding ancient places long celebrated by fame: he relieved at the same time, the provinces wherever distracted with intestine factions, or aggrieved with the oppressions of their magistrates. In his return he strove to see the religious rites of the Samothracians, but by the violence of the north wind was repulsed from the shore. As he passed, he saw Troy and her remains, venerable for the vicissitude of her fate, and for the birth of Rome: regaining the coast of Asia, he put in at Colophon, to consult there the oracle of the Clarian Apollo: it is no Pythoness that represents the God here, as at Delphos, but a Priest, one chosen from certain families, chiefly of Miletus; neither requires he more than just to hear the names and numbers of the querists, and then descends into the oracular cave; where, after a draught of water from a secret spring, though ignorant for the most part of letters and poetry, he yet utters his answers in verse, which has for its subject the conceptions and wishes of each consultant. He was even said to have sung to Germanicus his hastening fate, but as oracles are wont, in terms dark and doubtful.
But Cneius Piso, hurrying to the execution of his purposes, terrified the city of Athens by a tempestuous entry, and reproached them in a severe speech, with oblique censure of Germanicus, "that debasing the dignity of the Roman name, he had paid excessive court, not to the Athenians by so many slaughters long since extinct, but to the then mixed scum of nations there; for that these were they who had leagued with Mithridates against Sylla, and with Anthony against Augustus." He even charged them with the errors and misfortunes of ancient Athens; her impotent attempts against the Macedonians; her violence and ingratitude to her own citizens. He was also an enemy to their city from personal anger; because they would not pardon at his request one Theophilus condemned by the Areopagus for forgery. From thence sailing hastily through the Cyclades, and taking the shortest course, he overtook Germanicus at Rhodes, but was there driven by a sudden tempest upon the rocks: and Germanicus, who was not ignorant with what malignity and invectives he was pursued, yet acted with so much humanity, that when he might have left him to perish, and to casualty have referred the destruction of his enemy; he despatched galleys to rescue him from the wreck. This generous kindness however assuaged not the animosity of Piso; and scarce could he brook a day's delay with Germanicus, but left him in haste to arrive in Syria before him: nor was he sooner there, and found himself amongst the legions, than he began to court the common men by bounties and caresses, to assist them with his countenance and credit, to form factions, to remove all the ancient centurions and every tribune of remarkable discipline and severity, and, in their places, to put dependents of his own, or men recommended only by their crimes; he permitted sloth in the camp, licentiousness in the towns, a rambling and disorderly soldiery, and carried the corruption so high, that in the discourses of the herd, he was styled Father of the Legions. Nor did Plancina restrain herself to a conduct seemly in her sex, but frequented the exercises of the cavalry, and attended the decursions of the cohorts; everywhere inveighing against Agrippina, everywhere against Germanicus; and some even of the most deserving soldiers became prompt to base obedience, from a rumour whispered abroad, "that all this was not unacceptable to Tiberius."
These doings were all known to Germanicus; but his more instant care was to visit Armenia, an inconstant and restless nation this from the beginning; inconstant from the genius of the people, as well as from the situation of their country, which bordering with a large frontier on our provinces, and stretching thence quite to Media, is enclosed between the two great Empires, and often at variance with them; with the Romans through antipathy and hatred, with the Parthians through competition and envy. At this time and ever since the removal of Vonones, they had no king; but the affections of the nations leaned to Zeno, son of Polemon, king of Pontus, because by an attachment, from his infancy, to the fashions and customs of the Armenians, by hunting, feasting, and other usages practised and renowned amongst the barbarians, he had equally won the nobles and people. Upon his head therefore, at the city of Artaxata, with the approbation of the nobles, in a great assembly, Germanicus put the regal diadem; and the Armenians doing homage to their king, saluted him, Artaxias, a name which from that of their city, they gave him. The Cappadocians, at this time reduced into the form of a province, received for their governor Quintus Veranius; and to raise their hopes of the gentler dominion of Rome, several of the royal taxes were lessened. Quintus Servaeus was set over the Comagenians, then first subjected to the jurisdiction of a Praetor.
From the affairs of the allies, thus all successfully settled, Germanicus reaped no pleasure, through the perverseness and pride of Piso, who was ordered to lead by himself or his son, part of the legions into Armenia, but contemptuously neglected to do either. They at last met at Cyrrum, the winter quarters of the tenth legion, whither each came with a prepared countenance; Piso to betray no fear, and Germanicus would not be thought to threaten. He was indeed, as I have observed, of a humane and reconcilable spirit: but, officious friends expert at inflaming animosities, aggravated real offences, added fictitious, and with manifold imputations charged Piso, Plancina, and their sons. To this interview Germanicus admitted a few intimates, and began his complaints in words such as dissembled resentment dictates. Piso replied with disdainful submissions; and they parted in open enmity. Piso hereafter came rarely to the tribunal of Germanicus; or, if he did, sate sternly there, and in manifest opposition: he likewise published his spite at a feast of the Nabathean King's, where golden crowns of great weight were presented to Germanicus and Agrippina; but to Piso and the rest, such as were light: "This banquet," he said, "was made for the son of a Roman prince, not of a Parthian monarch:" with these words, he cast away his crown, and uttered many invectives against luxury: sharp insults and provocations these to Germanicus; yet he bore them.
In the consulship of Marcus Silanus and Lucius Norbanus, Germanicus travelled to Egypt, to view the famous antiquities of the country; though for the motives of the journey, the care and inspection of the province were publicly alleged: and, indeed, by opening the granaries, he mitigated the price of corn, and practised many things grateful to the people; walking without guards, his feet bare, and his habit the same with that of the Greeks; after the example of Publius Scipio, who, we are told, was constant in the same practices in Sicily, even during the rage of the Punic War there. For these his assumed manners and foreign habit, Tiberius blamed him in a gentle style, but censured him with great asperity for violating an establishment of Augustus, and entering Alexandria without consent of the Prince. For Augustus, amongst other secrets of power, had appropriated Egypt, and restrained the senators, and dignified Roman knights from going thither without licence; as he apprehended that Italy might be distressed with famine by any who seized that province, the key to the Empire by sea and land, and defensible by a light band of men against potent armies.
Germanicus, not yet informed that his journey was censured, sailed up the Nile, beginning at Canopus, {Footnote: Near Aboukir.} one of its mouths: it was built by the Spartans, as a monument to Canopus, a pilot buried there, at the time when Menelaus returning to Greece was driven to different seas and the Lybian continent. Hence he visited the next mouth of the river sacred to Hercules: him the nations aver to have been born amongst them; that he was the most ancient of the name, and that all the rest, who with equal virtue followed his example, were, in honour, called after him. Next he visited the mighty antiquities of ancient Thebes; {Footnote: Karnak and Luxor.} where upon huge obelisks yet remained Egyptian characters, describing its former opulency: one of the oldest priests was ordered to interpret them; he said they related "that it once contained seven hundred thousand fighting men; that with that army King Rhamses had conquered Lybia, Ethiopia, the Medes and Persians, the Bactrians and Scythians; and to his Empire had added the territories of the Syrians, Armenians, and their neighbours the Cappadocians; a tract of countries reaching from the sea of Bithynia to that of Lycia:" here also was read the assessment of tribute laid on the several nations; what weight of silver and gold; what number of horses and arms; what ivory and perfumes, as gifts to the temples; what measures of grain; what quantities of all necessaries, were by each people paid; revenues equally grand with those exacted by the denomination of the Parthians, or by the power of the Romans.