About the same time, Claudia, daughter to Marcus Silanus, was given in marriage to Caligula, who had accompanied his grandfather to Capreae, having always hid under a subdolous guise of modesty, his savage and inhuman spirit: even upon the condemnation of his mother, even for the exile of his brothers, not a word escaped him, not a sigh, nor groan. So blindly observant of Tiberius, that he studied the bent of his temper and seemed to possess it; practised his looks, imitated the change and fashion of his dress, and affected his words and manner of expression. Hence the observation of Passienus the Orator, grew afterwards famous, "that never lived a better slave nor a worse master." Neither would I omit the presage of Tiberius concerning Galba, then Consul. Having sent for him and sifted him upon several subjects, he at last told him in Greek, "and thou, Galba, shalt hereafter taste of Empire;" signifying his late and short sovereignty. This he uttered from his skill in astrology, which at Rhodes he had leisure to learn; and Thrasullus for his teacher, whose capacity he proved by this following trial.
As often as he consulted this way concerning any affair, he retired to the roof of the house, attended by one freedman trusted with the secret. This man strong of body, but destitute of letters, guided along the astrologer, whose art Tiberius meant to try, over solitary precipices (for upon a rock the house stood) and, as he returned, if any suspicion arose that his predictions were vain, or that the author designed fraud, cast him headlong into the sea, to prevent his making discoveries. Thrasullus being therefore led over the same rocks, and minutely consulted, his answers were full, and struck Tiberius; as approaching Empire and many future revolutions were specifically foretold him. The artist was then questioned, "whether he had calculated his own nativity, and thence presaged what was to befall him that same year, nay, that very day?" Thrasullus surveying the positions of the stars, and calculating their aspects, began at first to hesitate, then to quake, and the more he meditated, being more and more dismayed with wonder and dread, he at last cried out, "that over him just then hung a boding danger and well-nigh fatal." Forthwith Tiberius embraced him, congratulated him "upon his foresight of perils, and his security from them;" and esteeming his predictions as so many oracles, held him thenceforward in the rank of his most intimate friends.
For myself, while I listen to these and the like relations, my judgment wavers, whether things human are in their course and rotation determined by Fate and immutable necessity, or left to roll at random. For upon this subject the wisest of the ancients and those addicted to their Sects, are of opposite sentiments. {Footnote: The Epicureans.} Many are of opinion "that to the Gods neither the generation of us men nor our death, and in truth neither men nor the actions of men, are of any importance or concernment: and thence such numberless calamities afflict the upright, while pleasure and prosperity surround the wicked." Others {Footnote: The Stoics.} hold the contrary position, and believe "a Fate to preside over events; a fate however not resulting from wandering stars, but coeval with the first principles of things, and operating by the continued connection of natural causes. Yet their philosophy leaves our course of life in our own free option; but that after the choice is made, the chain of consequences is inevitable: neither is that good or evil, which passes for such in the estimation of the vulgar: many, who seem wounded with adversity, are yet happy; numbers, that wallow in wealth, are yet most wretched: since the first often bear with magnanimity the blows of fortune; and the latter abuse her bounty in baneful pursuits." For the rest, it is common to multitudes of men "to have each their whole future fortunes determined from the moment of their birth: or if some events thwart the prediction, it is through the mistakes of such as pronounce at random, and thence debase the credit of an art, which, both in ages past and our own, hath given signal instances of its certainty." For, to avoid lengthening this digression, I shall remember in its order, how by the son of this same Thrasullus the Empire was predicted to Nero.
During the same Consulship flew abroad the death of Asinius Gallus: that he perished through famine was undoubted; but whether of his own accord, or by constraint, was held uncertain. The pleasure of the Emperor being consulted, "whether he would suffer him to be buried;" he was not ashamed to grant such a piece of mock mercy, nor even to blame the anticipations of casualty, which had withdrawn the criminal, before he was publicly convicted: as if during three intermediate years between his accusation and his death, there wanted time for the trial of an ancient Consular, and the father of so many Consulars. Next perished Drusus, condemned by his grandfather to be starved; but by gnawing the weeds upon which he lay, he by that miserable nourishment protracted life the space of nine days. Some authors relate that, in case Sejanus had resisted and taken arms, Macro had instructions to draw the young man out of confinement (for he was kept in the palace) and set him at the head of the people: afterwards because a report ran, "that the Emperor was about to be reconciled to his daughter-in-law and grandson;" he chose rather to gratify himself by cruelty, than the public by relenting.
Tiberius not satiated with the death of Drusus, even after death pursued him with cruel invectives, and, in a letter to the Senate, charged him with "a body foul with prostitution; with a spirit breathing destruction to his own family, and rage against the Republic;" and ordered to be recited "the minutes of his words and actions, which had been long and daily registered," A proceeding more black with horror could not be devised! That for so many years, there should be those expressly appointed, who were to note down his looks, his groans, his secret and extorted murmurs; that his grandfather should delight to hear the treacherous detail, to read it, and to the public expose it, would appear a series of fraud, meanness and amazement beyond all measure of faith, were it not for the letters of Actius the Centurion, and Didymus the Freedman; who in them declare, particularly, the names of the slaves set purposely to abuse and provoke Drusus, with the several parts they acted; how one struck him going out of his chamber, and how another filled him with terrors and dismay. The Centurion too repeated, as matter of glory, his own language to Drusus, language full of outrage and barbarity, with the words uttered by him under the agonies of famine; that, at first, feigning disorder of spirit, he vented, in the style of a madman, dismal denunciations against Tiberius; but after all hopes of life had forsaken him, then, in steady and deliberate imprecations, he invoked the direful vengeance of the Gods, "that as he had slaughtered his son's wife, slaughtered the son of his brother, and his son's sons, and with slaughters had filled his own house; so they would in justice to the ancestors of the slain, in justice to their posterity, doom him to the dreadful penalties of so many murders." The Senators, in truth, upon this raised a mighty din, under colour of detesting these imprecations: but it was dread which possessed them, and amazement, that he who had been once so dark in the practice of wickedness, and so subtle in the concealment of his bloody spirit, was arrived at such an utter insensibility of shame, that he could thus remove, as it were, the covert of the walls, and represent his own grandson under the ignominious chastisement of a Centurion, torn by the barbarous stripes of slaves, and imploring in vain the last sustenance of life.
Before the impressions of this grief were worn away, the death of Agrippina was published. I suppose she had lived thus long upon the hopes, which from the execution of Sejanus she had conceived; but, feeling afterwards no relaxation of cruelty, death grew her choice: unless she were bereaved of nourishment, and her decease feigned to have been of her own seeking. For, Tiberius raged against her with abominable imputations, reproaching her "with lewdness; as the adulteress of Asinius Gallus; and that upon his death she became weary of life." But these were none of her crimes: Agrippina impatient of an equal lot, and eager for rule, had thence sacrificed to masculine ambition all the passions and vices of women. The Emperor added, "that she departed the same day on which Sejanus had suffered as a traitor two years before, and that the same ought to be perpetuated by a public memorial." Nay, he boasted of his clemency, in "that she had not been strangled, and her body cast into the charnel of malefactors." For this, as for an instance of mercy the Senate solemnly thanked him, and decreed "that, on the seventeenth of October, the day of both their deaths, a yearly offering should be consecrated to Jupiter for ever."
Not long after, Cocceius Nerva, in full prosperity of fortune, in perfect vigour of body, formed a purpose of dying. As he was the incessant companion of the Prince, and accomplished in the knowledge of all laws divine and humane, Tiberius having learnt his design, was earnest to dissuade him, examined his motives, joined entreaties, and even declared, "how grievous to his own spirit it would prove, how grievous to his reputation, if the nearest of his friends should relinquish life, without any cause for dying." Nerva rejected his reasoning, and completed his purpose by abstinence. It was alleged, by such as knew his thoughts, that the more he saw into the dreadful source and increase of public miseries, the more transported with indignation and fear, he resolved to make an honest end, in the bloom of his integrity, e'er his life and credit were assaulted. Moreover the fall of Agrippina, by a reverse hardly credible, procured that of Plancina. She was formerly married to Cneius Piso; and, though she exulted publicly for the death of Germanicus, yet when Piso fell, she was protected by the solicitations of Augusta, nor less by the known animosity of Agrippina. But as favour and hate were now withdrawn, justice prevailed, and being questioned for crimes long since sufficiently manifest, she executed with her own hand that vengeance, which was rather too slow than too severe,
In the Consulship of Paulus Fabius and Lucius Vitellius, after a long vicissitude of ages, the phoenix arrived in Egypt, and furnished the most learned of the natives and Greeks with matter of large and various observations concerning that miraculous bird. The circumstances in which they agree, with many others, that, however disputed, deserve to be known, claim a recital here. That it is a creature sacred to the sun, and in the fashion of its head, and diversity of feathers, distinct from other birds, all who have described its figure, are agreed; about the length of its life, relations vary. It is by the vulgar tradition fixed at five hundred years: but there are those, who extend it to one thousand four hundred and sixty-one; and assert that the three former phoenixes appeared in reigns greatly distant, the first under Sesostris, the next under Amasis; and that one was seen under Ptolomy the third King of Egypt of the Macedonian race, and flew to the city of Heliopolis, accompanied by a vast host of other birds gazing upon the wonderful stranger. But these are, in truth, the obscure accounts of antiquity: between Ptolomy and Tiberius the interval was shorter, not two hundred and fifty years: hence some have believed that the present was a spurious phoenix, and derived not its origin from the territories of Arabia, since it observed nothing of the instinct which ancient tradition attributes to the genuine: for that the latter having completed his course of years, just before his death builds a nest in his native land, and upon it sheds a generative power, from whence arises a young one, whose first care, when he is grown, is to bury his father: neither does he undertake it unadvisedly, but by collecting and fetching loads of myrrh, tries his strength in great journeys; and as soon as he finds himself equal to the burden, and fit for the long flight, he rears upon his back his father's body, carries it quite to the altar of the sun, and then flies away. These are uncertain tales, and their uncertainty heightened by fables; but that this bird has been sometimes seen in Egypt, is not questioned.
The same year the city suffered the grievous calamity of fire, which burnt down that part of the Circus contiguous to Mount Aventine and the Mount itself: a loss which turned to the glory of the Prince, as he paid in money the value of the houses destroyed. A hundred thousand great sesterces {Footnote: About £830,000.} he expended in this bounty, which proved the more grateful to the people as he was ever sparing in private buildings: in truth, his public works never exceeded two, the Temple of Augustus and the scene {Footnote: The stage.} of Pompey's Theatre; nor, when he had finished both, did he dedicate either, whether obstructed by old age, or despising popularity. For ascertaining the damage of particulars, the four sons-in-law of Tiberius were appointed, Cneius Domitius, Cassius Longinus, Marcus Vincinus and Rubellius Blandus; assisted by Publius Petronius, nominated by the Consuls. To the Emperor likewise were decreed several honours, variously devised according to the different drift and genius of such as proposed them. Which of these he meant to accept, or which to reject, the approaching issue of his days, has buried in uncertainty. For not long after, Cneius Acerronius and Caius Pontius commenced Consuls; the last under Tiberius. The power of Macro was already excessive; who, as he had at no time neglected the favour of Caligula, courted it now more and more earnestly every day. After the death of Claudia, whom I have mentioned to have been espoused to the young Prince, he constrained Ennia his own wife to stimulate the affections of Caligula and to secure him by a promise of marriage. The truth is, he was one that denied nothing that opened his way to sovereignty; for although of a tempestuous genius, he had yet in the school of his grandfather, well acquired all the hollow guises of dissimulation.
His spirit was known to the Emperor; hence he was puzzled about bequeathing the Empire: and first as to his grandsons; the son of Drusus was nearer in blood, and dearer in point of affection, but as yet a child; the son of Germanicus had arrived at the vigour of youth, and the zeal of the people followed him, a motive this to his grandfather, only to hate him. He had even debates with himself concerning Claudius, because of solid age and naturally inclined to honest pursuits; but the defect of his faculties withstood the choice. In case he sought a successor apart from his own family, he dreaded lest the memory of Augustus, lest the name of the Caesars should come to be scorned and insulted. For, it was not so much any study of his, to gratify the present generation and secure the Roman State, as to perpetuate to posterity the grandeur of his race. So that his mind still wavering and his strength decaying, to the decision of fortune he permitted a counsel to which he was now unequal. Yet he dropped certain words whence might be gathered that he foresaw the events and revolutions which were to come to pass after him: for, he upbraided Macro, by no dark riddle, "that he forsook the setting sun and courted the rising:" and of Caligula, who upon some occasional discourse ridiculed Sylla, he foretold, "that he would have all Sylla's vices, and not one of his virtues." Moreover, as he was, with many tears, embracing the younger of his grandsons, and perceived the countenance of Caligula implacable and provoked; "thou," said he, "wilt slay him, and another shall slay thee." But, however his illness prevailed, he relinquished nothing of his vile voluptuousness; forcing patience, and feigning health. He was wont too to ridicule the prescriptions of physicians, and all men who, after the age of thirty, needed to be informed by any one else, what helped or hurted their constitutions.