But Junius Gallio escaped not thus. He had proposed "that the Praetorian soldiers, having accomplished their term of service, should thence acquire the privilege of sitting in the fourteen rows of the theatre allotted to the Roman knights." Upon him Tiberius fell with violent wrath, and, as if present, demanded, what business had he with the soldiers? men whose duty bound them to observe only the orders of the Emperor, and from the Emperor alone to receive their rewards. Gallio had forsooth discovered a recompense which had escaped the sagacity of the deified Augustus? Or was it not rather a project started by a mercenary of Sejanus, to raise sedition and discord; a project tending to debauch the rude minds of the soldiers with the show and bait of new honour; to corrupt their discipline, and set them loose from military restrictions? This reward, had the studied flattery of Gallio; who was instantly expelled the Senate, and then Italy: nay, it became a charge upon him, that his exile would be too easy, having for the place of it chosen Lesbos, an island noble and delightful; he was therefore haled back to Rome and confined a prisoner in the house of a Magistrate. Tiberius in the same letter demanded the doom of Sextus Paconianus, formerly Praetor, to the extreme joy of the Senate, as he was a man bold and mischievous, one armed with snares, and continually diving into the purposes and secret transactions of all men; and one chosen by Sejanus, for plotting the overthrow of Caligula. When this was now laid open, the general hate and animosities long since conceived against him, broke violently out, and had he not offered to make a discovery, he had been instantly condemned to death.
The next impeached was Cotta Messalinus, the author of every the most bloody counsel, and thence long and intensely hated. The first opportunity was therefore snatched to fall upon him with a combination of crimes; as that he had called Caius Caligula by the feminine name of Caia Caligula, and branded him with constuprations of both kinds; that when he celebrated among the Priests the birthday of Augusta, he had styled the entertainment a funeral supper; and that complaining of the great sway of Marcus Lepidus, and of Lucius Arruntius, with whom he had a suit about money, he had added; "they indeed will be supported by the Senate, but I by my little Tiberius." {Footnote: Tiberiolus meus.} Of all this he stood exposed to conviction by men of the first rank in Rome; who being earnest to attack him, he appealed to Caesar: from whom soon after a letter was brought in behalf of Cotta; in it he recounted "the beginning of their friendship," repeated "his many good services to himself," and desired "that words perversely construed, and humorous tales told at an entertainment, might not be wrested into crimes."
Most remarkable was the beginning of that letter; for in these words he introduced it: "What to write you, Conscript Fathers, or in what manner to write, or what at all not to write at this instant; if I can determine, may all the Deities, Gods and Goddesses, doom me still to more cruel agonies than those under which I feel myself perishing daily." So closely did the bloody horror of his cruelties and infamy haunt this man of blood, and became his torturers! Nor was it at random what the wisest of all men {Footnote: Socrates.} was wont to affirm, that if the hearts of tyrants were displayed, in them might be seen deadly wounds and gorings, and all the butcheries of fear and rage; seeing what the severity of stripes is to the body, the same to the soul is the bitter anguish of cruelty, lust, and execrable pursuits. To Tiberius not his imperial fortune, not his gloomy and inaccessible solitudes could ensure tranquillity; nor exempt him from feeling and even avowing the rack in his breast and the avenging furies that pursued him.
After this, it was left to the discretion of the Senate to proceed as they listed against Caecilianus the Senator, "who had loaded Cotta with many imputations;" and it was resolved, "to subject him to the same penalties inflicted upon Aruseius and Sanquinius, the accusers of Lucius Annuntius." A more signal instance of honour than this had never befallen Cotta; who noble in truth, but through luxury indigent, and, for the baseness of his crimes, detestable, was by the dignity of this amends equalled in character to the most venerable reputation and virtues of Arruntius.
About the same time died Lucius Piso, the Pontiff; and, by a felicity, then rare in so much splendour and elevation, died by the course of nature. The author he never himself was of any servile motion, and ever wise in moderating such motions from others, where necessity enforced his assent. That his father had sustained the sublime office of Censor, I have before remembered: he himself lived to fourscore years, and for his warlike feats in Thrace, had obtained the glory of triumph. But from hence arose his most distinguished glory, that being created Governor of Rome, a jurisdiction newly instituted, and the more difficult, as not yet settled into public reverence, he tempered it wonderfully and possessed it long.
For, of old, to supply the absence of the Kings, and afterwards of the Consuls, that the city might not remain without a ruler, a temporary Magistrate was appointed to administer justice, and watch over exigencies: and it is said that by Romulus was deputed Denter Romulius; Numa Marcius, by Tullus Hostilius; and by Tarquin the Proud, Spurius Lucretius. The same delegation was made by the Consuls; and there remains still a shadow of the old institution, when during the Latin festival, one is authorised to discharge the Consular function. Moreover, Augustus during the Civil Wars, committed to Cilnius Maecenas of the Equestrian Order, the Government of Rome and of all Italy. Afterwards, when sole master of the Empire, and moved by the immense multitude of people and the slowness of relief from the laws, he chose a Consular to bridle the licentiousness of the slaves, and to awe such turbulent citizens as are only quiet from the dread of chastisement. Messala Corvinus was the first invested with this authority, and in a few days dismissed, as a man insufficient to discharge it. It was then filled by Taurus Statilius, who, though very ancient, sustained it with signal honour. After him Piso held it for twenty years, with a credit so high and uninterrupted, that he was distinguished with a public funeral, by decree of the Senate.
A motion was thereafter made in Senate by Quinctilianus, Tribune of the People, concerning a Book of the Sibyl, which Caninius Gallus, one of the College of Fifteen, had prayed "might be received by a decree amongst the rest of that Prophetess." The decree passed without opposition, but was followed by letters from Tiberius. In them having gently chid the Tribune, "as young and therefore unskilled in the ancient usages," he upbraided Gallus, "that he who was so long practised in the science of sacred ceremonies, should without taking the opinion of his own college, without the usual reading and deliberation with the other Priests, deal, by surprise, with a thin Senate, to admit a prophetic book of an uncertain author." He also advertised them "of the conduct of Augustus, who, to suppress the multitude of fictious predictions everywhere published under the solemn name of the Sibyl, had ordained, that within a precise day, they should be carried to the City Praetor; and made it unlawful to keep them in private hands." The same had likewise been decreed by our ancestors, when after the burning of the capitol in the Social War, the Rhymes of the Sibyl (whether there were but one, or more) were everywhere sought, in Samos, Ilium, and Erythrae, through Africa too and Sicily and all the Roman colonies, with injunctions to the Priests, that, as far as human wit could enable them, they would separate the genuine. Therefore, upon this occasion also, the book was subjected to the inspection of the Quindecimvirate.
Under the same Consuls, the dearth of corn had nigh raised a sedition. The populace for many days urged their wants and demands in the public theatre, with a licentiousness towards the Emperor, higher than usual. He was alarmed with this bold spirit, and censured the Magistrates and Senate, "that they had not by the public authority quelled the people." He recounted "the continued supplies of grain which he had caused to be imported; from what provinces, and in how much greater abundance than those procured by Augustus." So that for correcting the populace, a decree passed framed in the strain of ancient severity: nor less vigorous was the edict published by the Consuls. His own silence, which he hoped would be taken by the people as an instance of moderation, was by them imputed to his pride.
In the meanwhile, the whole band of accusers broke loose upon those who augmented their wealth by usury, in contradiction to a law of Caesar the Dictator, "for ascertaining the terms of lending money, and holding mortgages in Italy;" a law waxed long since obsolete, through the selfish passions of men, sacrificing public good to private gain. Usury was, in truth, an inveterate evil in Rome, and the eternal cause of civil discord and seditions, and therefore restrained even in ancient times, while the public manners were not yet greatly corrupted. For, first it was ordained by a law of the twelve tables, "that no man should take higher interest than twelve in the hundred;" when, before, it was exacted at the pleasure of the rich. Afterwards by a regulation of the Tribunes it was reduced to six, and at last was quite abolished. By the people, too, repeated statutes were made, for obviating all elusions, which by whatever frequent expedients repressed, were yet through wonderful devices still springing up afresh. Gracchus the Praetor was therefore now appointed to inquire into the complaints and allegations of the accusers; but, appalled with the multitude of those threatened by the accusation, he had recourse to the Senate. The Fathers also were dismayed (for of this fault not a soul was guiltless) and sought and obtained impunity from the Prince; and a year and six months were granted for balancing all accounts between debtors and creditors, agreeably to the direction of the law.
Hence a great scarcity of money: for, besides that all debts were at once called in; so many delinquents were condemned, that by the sale of their effects, the current coin was swallowed up in the public treasury, or in that of the Emperor. Against this stagnation, the Senate had provided, "that two-thirds of the debts should by every creditor be laid out upon lands in Italy." But the creditors warned in the whole; {Footnote: Demanded payment in full.} nor could the debtors without breach of faith divide the payment. So that at first, meetings and entreaties were tried; and at last it was contested before the Praetor. And the project applied as a remedy; namely, that the debtor should sell, and the creditor buy, had a contrary operation: for the usurers hoarded up all their treasure for purchasing of lands, and the plenty of estates to be sold, miserably sinking the price; the more men were indebted, the more difficult they found it to sell. Many were utterly stripped of their fortunes; and the ruin of their private patrimony drew headlong with it that of their reputation and all public preferment. The destruction was going on, when the Emperor administered relief, by lending a hundred thousand great sesterces {Footnote: About £830,000.} for three years, without interest; provided each borrower pawned to the people double the value in inheritance. {Footnote: Gave a security to the State, on landed property.} Thus was credit restored; and by degrees private lenders too were found.