The Reign of Tiberius, Out of the First Six Annals of Tacitus; / With His Account of Germany, and Life of Agricola

by Cornelius Tacitus

At the end of this year died Lucius Volusius and Sallustius Crispus; great and eminent men. The family of Volusius was ancient, but, in the exercise of public offices, rose never higher than the Praetorship; it was he, who honoured it with the Consulship: he was likewise created Censor for modelling the classes of the equestrian order; and first accumulated the wealth which gave that family such immense grandeur. Crispus was born of an equestrian house, great nephew by a sister to Caius Sallustius, the renowned Roman historian, and by him adopted: the way to the great offices was open to him; but, in imitation of Maecenas, he lived without the dignity of Senator, yet outwent in power many who were distinguished with Consulships and triumphs: his manner of living, his dress and daintiness were different from the ways of antiquity; and, in expense and affluence, he bordered rather upon luxury. He possessed however a vigour of spirit equal to great affairs, and exerted the greater promptness for that he hid it in a show of indolence and sloth: he was therefore, in the time of Maecenas, the next in favour, afterwards chief confidant in all the secret counsels of Augustus and Tiberius, and privy and consenting to the order for slaying Agrippa Posthumus. In his old age he preserved with the Prince rather the outside than the vitals of authority: the same had happened to Maecenas. It is the fate of power, which is rarely perpetual; perhaps from satiety on both sides, when Princes have no more to grant, and Ministers no more to crave.

Next followed the Consulship of Tiberius and Drusus; to Tiberius the fourth, to Drusus the second: a Consulship remarkable, for that in it the father and son were colleagues. There was indeed the same fellowship between Tiberius and Germanicus, two years before; but besides the distastes of jealousy in the uncle, the ties of blood were not so near. In the beginning of the year, Tiberius, on pretence of his health, retired to Campania; either already meditating a long and perpetual retirement; or to leave to Drusus, in his father's absence, the honour of executing the Consulship alone: and there happened a thing which, small in itself, yet as it produced mighty contestation, furnished the young Consul with matter of popular affection. Domitius Corbulo, formerly Praetor, complained to the Senate of Lucius Sylla, a noble youth, "that in the show of gladiators, Sylla would not yield him place." Age, domestic custom, and the ancient men were for Corbulo: on the other side, Mamercus Scaurus, Lucius Arruntius, and others laboured for their kinsman Sylla: warm speeches were made, and the examples of our ancestors were urged, "who by severe decrees had censured and restrained the irreverence of the youth." Drusus interposed with arguments proper for calming animosities, and Corbulo had satisfaction made him by Scaurus, who was to Sylla both father-in-law and uncle, and the most copious orator of that age. The same Corbulo, exclaiming against "the condition of most of the roads through Italy, that through the fraud of the undertakers and negligence of the overseers, they were broken and unpassable;" undertook of his own accord the cure of that abuse; an undertaking which he executed not so much to the advantage of the public as to the ruin of many private men in their fortunes and reputation, by his violent mulcts and unjust judgments and forfeitures.

Upon this occasion Caecina Severus proposed, "that no magistrate should go into any province accompanied by his wife." He introduced this motion with a long preface, "that he lived with his own in perfect concord, by her he had six children; and what he offered to the public he had practised himself, having during forty years' service left her still behind him, confined to Italy. It was not indeed, without cause, established of old, that women should neither be carried by their husbands into confederate nations nor foreign. A train of women introduced luxury in peace, by their fears retarded war, and made a Roman army resemble, in their march, a mixed host of barbarians. The sex was not tender only and unfit for travel, but, if suffered, cruel, aspiring, and greedy of authority: they even marched amongst the soldiers, and were obeyed by the officers. A woman had lately presided at the exercises of the troops, and at the decursions of the legions. The Senate themselves might remember, that as often as any of the magistrates were charged with plundering the provinces, their wives were always engaged in the guilt. To the ladies, the most profligate in the province applied; by them all affairs were undertaken, by them transacted: at home two distinct courts were kept, and abroad the wife had her distinct train and attendance. The ladies, too, issued distinct orders, but more imperious and better obeyed. Such feminine excesses were formerly restrained by the Oppian, and other laws; but now these restraints were violated, women ruled all things, their families, the Forum, and even the armies."

This speech was heard by few with approbation, and many proclaimed their dissent; "for, that neither was that the point in debate, nor was Caecina considerable enough to censure so weighty an affair." He was presently answered by Valerius Messalinus, who was the son of Messala, and inherited a sparkling of his father's eloquence: "that many rigorous institutions of the ancients were softened and changed for the better: for, neither was Rome now, as of old, beset with wars, nor Italy with hostile provinces; and a few concessions were made to the conveniences of women, who were so far from burdening the provinces, that to their own husbands there they were no burden. As to honours, attendance and expense, they enjoyed them in common with their husbands, who could receive no embarrassment from their company in time of peace. To war indeed we must go equipped and unencumbered; but after the fatigues of war, what was more allowable than the consolations of a wife? But it seemed the wives of some magistrates had given a loose to ambition and avarice. And were the magistrates themselves free from these excesses? were not most of them governed by many exorbitant appetites? did we therefore send none into the provinces? It was added, that the husbands were corrupted by their corrupt wives: and were therefore all single men uncorrupt? The Oppian Laws were once thought necessary, because the exigencies of the State required their severity: they were afterwards relaxed and mollified, because that too was expedient for the State. In vain we covered our own sloth with borrowed names: if the wife broke bounds, the husband ought to bear the blame. It was moreover unjustly judged, for the weak and uxorious spirit of one or a few, to bereave all others of the fellowship of their wives, the natural partners of their prosperity and distress. Besides, the sex, weak by nature, would be left defenceless, exposed to the luxurious bent of their native passions, and a prey to the allurements of adulterers: scarce under the eye and restraint of the husband was the marriage bed preserved inviolate: what must be the consequence, when by an absence of many years, the ties of marriage would be forgot, forgot as it were in a divorce? It became them, therefore, so to cure the evils abroad as not to forget the enormities at Rome." To this Drusus added somewhat concerning his own wedlock. "Princes," he said, "were frequently obliged to visit the remote parts of the Empire: how often did the deified Augustus travel to the East, how often to the West, still accompanied with Livia? He himself too had taken a progress to Illyricum, and, if it were expedient, was ready to visit other nations; but not always with an easy spirit, if he were to be torn from his dear wife, her by whom he had so many children." Thus was Caecina's motion eluded.

When the Senate met next, they had a letter from Tiberius. In it he affected to chide the fathers, "that upon him they cast all public cares;" and named them M. Lepidus and Junius Blesus, to choose either for Proconsul of Africa. They were then both heard as to this nomination: Lepidus excused himself with earnestness; he pleaded "his bodily frailty, the tender age of his children, and a daughter fit for marriage." There was another reason too, of which he said nothing; but it was easily understood: Blesus was uncle to Sejanus, and therefore had the prevailing interest. Blesus too made a show of refusing, but not with the like positiveness, and was heard with partiality by the flatterers of power.

The same year the cities of Gaul, stimulated by their excessive debts, began a rebellion. The most vehement incendiaries were Julius Florus and Julius Sacrovir; the first amongst those of Treves, the second amongst the Aeduans. They were both distinguished by their nobility, and by the good services of their ancestors, who thence had acquired of old the right of Roman citizens; a privilege rare in those days, and then only the prize of virtue. When by secret meetings, they had gained those who were most prompt to rebel; with such as were desperate through indigence, or, from guilt of past crimes, forced to commit more; they agreed that Florus should begin the insurrection in Belgia; Sacrovir amongst the neighbouring Gauls. In order to this, they had many consultations and cabals, where they uttered seditious harangues; they urged "their tribute without end, their devouring usury, the pride and cruelty of their Governors: that they had now a glorious opportunity to recover their liberty; for that since the report of the murder of Germanicus, discord had seized the Roman soldiery: they need only consider their own strength and numbers; while Italy was poor and exhausted; the Roman populace weak and unwarlike, the Roman armies destitute of all vigour but that derived from foreigners."

Scarce one city remained untainted with the seeds of this rebellion; but it first broke at Angiers and Tours. The former were reduced by Acilius Aviola, a legate, with the assistance of a cohort drawn from the garrison at Lyons. Those of Tours were suppressed by the same Aviola, assisted with a detachment sent from the legions, by Visellius Varro, lieutenant-governor of lower Germany. Some of the chiefs of the Gauls had likewise joined him with succours, the better to disguise their defection, and to push it with more effect hereafter. Even Sacrovir was beheld engaged in fight for the Romans, with his head bare, a demonstration, he pretended, of his bravery; but the prisoners averred, that "he did it to be known to his countrymen, and to escape their darts."

An account of all this was laid before Tiberius, who slighted it, and by hesitation fostered the war. Florus the while pushed his designs, and tried to debauch a regiment of horse, levied at Treves, and kept under our pay and discipline: he would have engaged them to begin the war, by putting to the sword the Roman merchants; and some few were corrupted, but the body remained in their allegiance. A rabble however, of his own followers and desperate debtors, took arms and were making to the forest of Arden, when the legions sent from both armies by Visellius and Caius Silius, through different routes to intercept them, marred their march: and Julius Indus, one of the same country with Florus, at enmity with him, and therefore more eager to engage him, was despatched forward with a chosen band, and broke the ill-appointed multitude. Florus by lurking from place to place, frustrated the search of the conquerors: but at last, when he saw all the passes beset with soldiers, he fell by his own hands. This was the issue of the insurrection at Treves.

Amongst the Aeduans the revolt was stronger, as much stronger as the state was more opulent; and the forces to suppress it were to be brought from afar. Augustodunum, {Footnote: Autun.} the capital of the nation, was seized by Sacrovir, and in it all the noble youth of Gaul, who were there instructed in the liberal arts. By securing these pledges he aimed to bind in his interest their parents and relations; and at the same time distributed to the young men the arms, which he had caused to be secretly made. He had forty thousand men, the fifth part armed like our legions, the rest with poles, hangers, and other weapons used by hunters. To the number were added such of the slaves as had been appointed to be gladiators; these were covered, after the fashion of the country, with a continued armour of iron; and styled Crupellarii; a sort of militia unwieldy at exercising their own weapons, and impenetrable by those of others. These forces were still increased by volunteers from the neighbouring cities, where, though the public body did not hitherto avow the revolt, yet the zeal of particulars was manifest: they had likewise leisure to increase from the contention of the two Roman generals; a contention for some time undecided, while each demanded the command in that war. At length Varro, old and infirm, yielded to the superior vigour of Silius.

Now at Rome, "not only the insurrection of Treves and of the Aeduans, but likewise, that threescore and four cities of Gaul had revolted; that the Germans had joined in the revolt, and that Spain fluctuated;" were reports all believed with the usual aggravations of fame. The best men grieved in sympathy for their country: many from hatred of the present government and thirst of change, rejoiced in their own perils: they inveighed against Tiberius, "that in such a mighty uproar of rebellion, he was only employed in perusing the informations of the State accusers." They asked, "did he mean to surrender Julius Sacrovir to the Senate, to try him for treason?" They exulted, "that there were at last found men, who would with arms restrain his bloody orders for private murders." And declared "that even war was a happy change for a most wretched peace." So much the more for this, Tiberius affected to appear wrapped up in security and unconcern; he neither changed place nor countenance, but behaved himself at that time as at other times; whether from elevation of mind, or whether he had learned that the state of things was not alarming, and only heightened by vulgar representation.