Tacitus: ANNALES

[1] Urbem Romam a principio reges habuere; libertatem et consulatum L. Brutus instituit. dictaturae ad tempus sumebantur; neque decemviralis potestas ultra biennium, neque tribunorum militum consulare ius diu valuit. non Cinnae, non Sullae longa dominatio; et Pompei Crassique potentia cito in Caesarem, Lepidi atque Antonii arma in Augustum cessere, qui cuncta discordiis civilibus fessa nomine principis sub imperium accepit.

[1] The city Rome from the beginning had kings; liberty and the consulship L. Brutus established. Dictatorships were assumed for a time; neither the decemviral power beyond a biennium, nor the consular right of the military tribunes, prevailed long. Not long the dominion of Cinna, not of Sulla; and the power of Pompey and Crassus quickly yielded to Caesar, the arms of Lepidus and Antony to Augustus, who, with everything wearied by civil discords, under the name of princeps received all things under his imperium.

sed veteris populi Romani prospera vel adversa claris scriptoribus memorata sunt; temporibusque Augusti dicendis non defuere decora ingenia, donec gliscente adulatione deterrerentur. Tiberii Gaique et Claudii ac Neronis res florentibus ipsis ob metum falsae, postquam occiderant, recentibus odiis compositae sunt. inde consilium mihi pauca de Augusto et extrema tradere, mox Tiberii principatum et cetera, sine ira et studio, quorum causas procul habeo.

but the prosperities or adversities of the old Roman people have been recorded by renowned writers; and for narrating the times of Augustus, seemly talents were not lacking, until, as adulation swelled, they were deterred. The affairs of Tiberius and Gaius and Claudius and Nero, while they themselves were flourishing, were falsified out of fear; after they had fallen, they were composed with fresh hatreds. Hence my plan is to hand down a few things about Augustus and his last acts, then the principate of Tiberius and the rest, without wrath or partisanship, from the causes of which I am far removed.

[2] Postquam Bruto et Cassio caesis nulla iam publica arma, Pompeius apud Siciliam oppressus exutoque Lepido, interfecto Antonio ne Iulianis quidem partibus nisi Caesar dux reliquus, posito triumviri nomine consulem se ferens et ad tuendam plebem tribunicio iure contentum, ubi militem donis, populum annona, cunctos dulcedine otii pellexit, insurgere paulatim, munia senatus magistratuum legum in se trahere, nullo adversante, cum ferocissimi per acies aut proscriptione cecidissent, ceteri nobilium, quanto quis servitio promptior, opibus et honoribus extollerentur ac novis ex rebus aucti tuta et praesentia quam vetera et periculosa mallent. neque provinciae illum rerum statum abnuebant, suspecto senatus populique imperio ob certamina potentium et avaritiam magistratuum, invalido legum auxilio quae vi ambitu postremo pecunia turbabantur.

[2] After Brutus and Cassius were cut down and there were now no longer any arms of the commonwealth, with Pompeius crushed off Sicily, Lepidus stripped [of power], and Antony killed, not even in the Julian party was any leader left save Caesar: laying aside the title of triumvir, styling himself consul, and content with tribunician right for the protection of the plebs, when he had enticed the soldiers with gifts, the people with the grain-supply, and everyone with the sweetness of leisure, he began gradually to rise, to draw the functions of the senate, the magistracies, and the laws to himself, with no one opposing, since the fiercest had fallen in the field or by proscription, while the rest of the nobles—each the readier for servitude—in wealth and honors were exalted; and, augmented by the new state of affairs, they preferred the safe and present to the old and perilous. Nor did the provinces refuse that condition of things, with the authority of the senate and people distrusted on account of the rivalries of the powerful and the avarice of magistrates, and with the aid of the laws weak—laws which were being thrown into disorder by violence, by canvassing, and finally by money.

[3] Ceterum Augustus subsidia dominationi Claudium Marcellum sororis filium admodum adulescentem pontificatu et curuli aedilitate, M. Agrippam ignobilem loco, bonum militia et victoriae socium, geminatis consulatibus extulit, mox defuncto Marcello generum sumpsit; Tiberium Neronem et Claudium Drusum privignos imperatoriis nominibus auxit, integra etiam tum domo sua. nam genitos Agrippa Gaium ac Lucium in familiam Caesarum induxerat, necdum posita puerili praetexta principes iuventutis appellari, destinari consules specie recusantis flagrantissime cupiverat. ut Agrippa vita concessit, Lucium Caesarem euntem ad Hispaniensis exercitus, Gaium remeantem Armenia et vulnere invalidum mors fato propera vel novercae Liviae dolus abstulit, Drusoque pridem extincto Nero solus e privignis erat, illuc cuncta vergere: filius, collega imperii, consors tribuniciae potestatis adsumitur omnisque per exercitus ostentatur, non obscuris, ut antea, matris artibus, sed palam hortatu.

[3] Moreover, as supports to his domination, Augustus exalted Claudius Marcellus, his sister’s son, a very young man, with the pontificate and the curule aedileship; he advanced M. Agrippa, undistinguished in birth, good in soldiery and a partner in victory, with twin consulships, and soon, when Marcellus died, he took Agrippa as a son-in-law; he augmented Tiberius Nero and Claudius Drusus, his step-sons, with imperatorial names, his own household being still intact even then. For the sons born from Agrippa, Gaius and Lucius, he had introduced into the family of the Caesars, and, with the boyish praetexta not yet laid aside, he had most ardently desired that they be called princes of the youth and be designated consuls, with a show of refusing. When Agrippa departed life, death—whether by hasty fate or by the treachery of the stepmother Livia—carried off Lucius Caesar as he was going to the Spanish armies, and Gaius as he was returning from Armenia and was weakened by a wound; and with Drusus long since extinct, Nero was sole among the step-sons, everything tending thither: he is taken in as son, colleague in imperium, partner of the tribunician power, and is displayed through all the armies, not by obscure arts of his mother, as before, but by open exhortation.

nam senem Augustum devinxerat adeo, uti nepotem unicum Agrippam Postumum, in insulam Planasiam proiecerit, rudem sane bonarum artium et robore corporis stolide ferocem, nullius tamen flagitii conpertum. at hercule Germanicum Druso ortum octo apud Rhenum legionibus inposuit adscirique per adoptionem a Tiberio iussit, quamquam esset in domo Tiberii filius iuvenis, sed quo pluribus munimentis insisteret. bellum ea tempestate nullum nisi adversus Germanos supererat, abolendae magis infamiae ob amissum cum Quintilio Varo exercitum quam cupidine proferendi imperii aut dignum ob praemium.

for he had so bound the aged Augustus, that he even hurled his only grandson, Agrippa Postumus, onto the island Planasia, untaught indeed in the good arts and, by the strength of his body, foolishly ferocious, yet found guilty of no disgrace. But indeed he set Germanicus, sprung from Drusus, over eight legions at the Rhine and ordered that he be enrolled by adoption to Tiberius, although there was in Tiberius’s house a youthful son—so that he might stand upon more bulwarks. At that time no war remained save against the Germans, and that rather for abolishing the infamy over the army lost with Quintilius Varus than from a desire of extending the empire or for a worthy reward.

domi res tranquillae, eadem magistratuum vocabula; iuniores post Actiacam victoriam, etiam senes plerique inter bella civium nati: quotus quisque reliquus qui rem publicam vidisset?

at home affairs were tranquil, the same titles of magistrates; the younger men after the victory of Actium, and even most of the old men had been born amid the civil wars: how few remained who had seen the Republic?

[4] Igitur verso civitatis statu nihil usquam prisci et integri moris: omnes exuta aequalitate iussa principis aspectare, nulla in praesens formidine, dum Augustus aetate validus seque et domum in pacem sustentavit. postquam provecta iam senectus aegro et corpore fatigabatur, aderatque finis et spes novae, pauci bona libertatis in cassum disserere, plures bellum pavescere, alii cupere. pars multo maxima inminentis dominos variis rumoribus differebant: trucem Agrippam et ignominia accensum non aetate neque rerum experientia tantae moli parem, Tiberium Neronem maturum annis, spectatum bello, sed vetere atque insita Claudiae familiae superbia, multaque indicia saevitiae, quamquam premantur, erumpere.

[4] Therefore, the condition of the state having been overturned, nowhere was there anything of pristine and intact custom: all, with equality stripped off, looked to the commands of the princeps, with no fear for the present, while Augustus, vigorous in age, sustained himself and his house in peace. After his old age, now advanced, was wearied and his body ailing, and the end was at hand and new hopes, a few argued the goods of liberty to no effect, more dreaded war, others desired it. The far greatest part spread various rumors about the impending masters: that Agrippa was savage and inflamed by ignominy, not equal to so great a burden in age nor in experience of affairs; that Tiberius Nero was mature in years, proven in war, but that the old and inborn arrogance of the Claudian family, and many tokens of savagery—although they are repressed—break forth.

hunc et prima ab infantia eductum in domo regnatrice; congestos iuveni consulatus, triumphos; ne iis quidem annis, quibus Rhodi specie secessus exul egerit, aliud quam iram et simulationem et secretas lubidines meditatum. accedere matrem muliebri inpotentia: serviendum feminae duobusque insuper adulescentibus, qui rem publicam interim premant, quandoque distrahant.

that he too from earliest infancy was brought up in a reigning house; that consulships and triumphs were heaped upon him as a youth; that not even in those years in which at Rhodes, under the guise of retirement, he lived as an exile, did he have in mind anything other than wrath and dissimulation and secret lusts. Added to this was a mother with womanish lack of restraint: there must be servitude to a woman and, besides, to two adolescents, who meanwhile would oppress the commonwealth, and someday tear it asunder.

[5] Haec atque talia agitantibus gravescere valetudo Augusti, et quidam scelus uxoris suspectabant. quippe rumor incesserat, paucos ante menses Augustum, electis consciis et comite uno Fabio Maximo, Planasiam vectum ad visendum Agrippam; multas illic utrimque lacrimas et signa caritatis spemque ex eo fore ut iuvenis penatibus avi redderetur: quod Maximum uxori Marciae aperuisse, illam Liviae. gnarum id Caesari; neque multo post extincto Maximo, dubium an quaesita morte, auditos in funere eius Marciae gemitus semet incusantis, quod causa exitii marito fuisset.

[5] While they were agitating these and suchlike matters, Augustus’s health grew grievous, and some suspected the crime of his wife. Indeed a rumor had arisen that a few months before Augustus, with chosen confidants and with one companion, Fabius Maximus, had been conveyed to Planasia to see Agrippa; that there, on both sides, there were many tears and signs of affection, and from that the hope that the young man would be restored to the household of his grandsire; that Maximus had disclosed this to his wife Marcia, and she to Livia. This became known to Caesar; and not long after, Maximus being extinguished—doubtful whether by a death sought—there were heard at his funeral the groans of Marcia, accusing herself that she had been the cause of her husband’s demise.

utcumque se ea res habuit, vixdum ingressus Illyricum Tiberius properis matris litteris accitur; neque satis conpertum est, spirantem adhuc Augustum apud urbem Nolam an exanimem reppererit. acribus namque custodiis domum et vias saepserat Livia, laetique interdum nuntii vulgabantur, donec provisis quae tempus monebat simul excessisse Augustum et rerum potiri Neronem fama eadem tulit.

However that matter stood, scarcely had Tiberius entered Illyricum when he is summoned by his mother’s hasty letters; nor is it sufficiently ascertained whether he found Augustus still breathing at the city of Nola or lifeless. For Livia had fenced off the house and the roads with strict guards, and cheerful reports were sometimes being spread abroad, until, with those measures provided which the moment advised, one and the same rumor carried that Augustus had at once departed and that Nero was in possession of affairs.

[6] Primum facinus novi principatus fuit Postumi Agrippae caedes, quem ignarum inerumumque quamvis firmatus animo centurio aegre confecit. nihil de ea re Tiberius apud senatum disseruit: patris iussa simulabat, quibus praescripsisset tribuno custodiae adposito, ne cunctaretur Agrippam morte adficere, quandoque ipse supremum diem explevisset. multa sine dubio saevaque Augustus de moribus adulescentis questus, ut exilium eius senatus consulto sanciretur perfecerat: ceterum in nullius umquam suorum necem duravit, neque mortem nepoti pro securitate privigni inlatam credibile erat.

[6] The first crime of the new principate was the slaughter of Agrippa Postumus, whom, unwitting and unarmed, the centurion, though fortified in spirit, scarcely dispatched. Tiberius said nothing about that matter before the senate: he was feigning his father’s orders, by which he had prescribed to the tribune set over the guard not to delay to visit Agrippa with death whenever he himself had fulfilled his last day. Augustus, without doubt, had complained many and savage things about the young man’s morals, and had brought it to pass that his exile be sanctioned by a senatorial decree: but he never hardened himself to the killing of any of his own, nor was it believable that death had been inflicted on a grandson for the security of a stepson.

propius vero Tiberium ac Liviam, illum metu, hanc novercalibus odiis, suspecti et invisi iuvenis caedem festinavisse. nuntianti centurioni, ut mos militiae, factum esse quod imperasset, neque imperasse sese et rationem facti reddendam apud senatum respondit. quod postquam Sallustius Crispus particeps secretorum (is ad tribunum miserat codicillos) comperit, metuens ne reus subderetur, iuxta periculoso ficta seu vera promeret, monuit Liviam ne arcana domus, ne consilia amicorum, ministeria militum vulgarentur, neve Tiberius vim principatus resolveret cunta ad senatum vocando: eam condicionem esse imperandi, ut non aliter ratio constet quam si uni reddatur.

More plausible is that Tiberius and Livia—he from fear, she from stepmotherly hatreds—hastened the killing of the suspect and hated youth. To the centurion announcing, as is the custom of the soldiery, that what he had commanded had been done, he replied that he had not commanded it, and that an account of the deed must be rendered before the senate. After Sallustius Crispus, a participant in the secrets (he had sent the note to the tribune), learned this, fearing lest he be put forward as the accused—since it was equally perilous whether he brought forth fictions or truths—he warned Livia not to let the secrets of the house, nor the counsels of friends, nor the ministries of soldiers be made common, and not to let Tiberius dissolve the force of the principate by calling everything to the senate: that this is the condition of imperating, that the reckoning stands firm in no other way than if it is rendered to one.

[7] At Romae ruere in servitium consules, patres, eques. quanto quis inlustrior, tanto magis falsi ac festinantes, vultuque composito, ne laeti excessu principis neu tristiores primordio, lacrimas gaudium, questus adulationem miscebant. Sex.

[7] But at Rome the consuls, the senators, the equestrian order rushed into servitude. The more illustrious anyone was, by so much the more they were false and hasty; and with a composed countenance, lest they seem glad at the departure of the princeps nor more downcast at the beginning, they mixed tears with joy, complaints with adulation. Sex.

Pompeius et Sex. Appuleius consules primi in verba Tiberii Caesaris iuravere, apudque eos Seius Strabo et C. Turranius, ille praetoriarum cohortium praefectus, hic annonae; mox senatus milesque et populus. Nam Tiberius cuncta per consules incipiebat, tamquam vetere re publica et ambiguus imperandi: ne edictum quidem, quo patres in curiam vocabat, nisi tribuniciae potestatis praescriptione posuit sub Augusto acceptae.

Pompeius and Sex. Appuleius, consuls, were the first to swear in the words of Tiberius Caesar; and in their presence Seius Strabo and C. Turranius— the former prefect of the praetorian cohorts, the latter of the grain-supply— then the senate, the soldiery, and the people. For Tiberius was initiating everything through the consuls, as if under the old republic and uncertain about exercising command: not even the edict by which he summoned the Fathers into the Curia did he issue, except with the heading of tribunician power, received under Augustus.

verba edicti fuere pauca et sensu permodesto: de honoribus parentis consulturum, neque abscedere a corpore, idque unum ex publicis muneribus usurpare. sed defuncto Augusto signum praetoriis cohortibus ut imperator dederat; excubiae, arma, cetera aulae; miles in forum, miles in curiam comitabatur. litteras ad exercitus tamquam adepto principatu misit, nusquam cunctabundus nisi cum in senatu loqueretur.

The words of the edict were few and with a very modest tenor: that he would consult concerning the honors of his father, and not depart from the body, and that he would usurp this one thing as among public duties. But with Augustus deceased he had given the watchword to the praetorian cohorts as imperator; guards, arms, and the other appurtenances of the court; a soldier escorted him into the forum, a soldier into the curia. He sent letters to the armies as though the principate had been obtained, nowhere hesitating except when he was speaking in the senate.

causa praecipua ex formidine, ne Germanicus, in cuius manu tot legiones, immensa sociorum auxilia, mirus apud populum favor, habere imperium quam exspectare mallet. dabat et famae, ut vocatus electusque potius a re publica videretur quam per uxorium ambitum et senili adoptione inrepsisse. postea cognitum est ad introspiciendas etiam procerum voluntates inductam dubitationem: nam verba vultus in crimen detorquens recondebat.

The chief cause was from fear, lest Germanicus—on whose hand were so many legions, the immense auxiliaries of the allies, and a wondrous favor with the populace—should prefer to have the imperium rather than to await it. He was paying also to fame, that he might seem called and elected by the republic rather than to have crept in through uxorial canvassing and a senile adoption. Later it was learned that the hesitation had been induced also for the introspecting of the nobles’ wills: for, detorting words and countenances into a crime, he was hoarding them up.

[8] Nihil primo senatus die agi passus [est] nisi de supremis Augusti, cuius testamentum inlatum per virgines Vestae Tiberium et Liviam heredes habuit. Livia in familiam Iuliam nomenque Augustum adumebatur; in spem secundam nepotes pronepotesque, tertio gradu primores civitatis scripserat, plerosque invisos sibi, sed iactantia gloriaque ad posteros. legata non ultra civilem modum, nisi quod opulo et plebi quadringentiens triciens quinquiens, praetoriarum cohortium militibus singula nummum milia, [urbanis quingenos], legionariis aut cohortibus civium Romanorum trecenos nummos viritim dedit.

[8] He allowed nothing to be transacted on the first day of the senate except about the last rites of Augustus, whose testament, brought in by the virgins of Vesta, had Tiberius and Livia as heirs. Livia was adopted into the Julian family and the name Augusta was assumed; in the second hope (rank) he had the grandsons and great-grandsons, in the third degree he had written down the foremost men of the state, most of them odious to himself, but out of vaunting and a reach for glory toward posterity. The legacies were not beyond the civil measure, except that to the people and the plebs he gave forty‑three million five hundred thousand; to the soldiers of the praetorian cohorts a thousand coins apiece, [to the urban (cohorts) five hundred], to the legionaries or to the cohorts of Roman citizens three hundred coins each, man by man, he gave.

tum conultatum de honoribus; ex quis [qui] maxime insignes visi, ut porta triumphali duceretur funus, Gallus Asinius, ut legum latarum tituli, victarum ab eo gentium vocabula anteferentur, L. Arruntius censuere. addebat Messalla Valerius renovandum per annos sacramentum in nomen Tiberii; interrogatusque a Tiberio num se mandante eam sententiam prompsisset, sponte dixisse respondit, neque in iis quae ad rem publicam pertinerent consilio nisi suo usurum, vel cum periculo offensionis: ea sola species adulandi supererat. conclamant patres corpus ad rogum umeris senatorum ferendum.

then there was deliberation about honors; among which [who] seemed most distinguished were these: that the funeral be led through the triumphal gate, Asinius Gallus [so] judged; that the titles of the laws he had carried, the names of the nations conquered by him, be borne in front, L. Arruntius judged. Messalla Valerius added that the oath should be renewed annually in the name of Tiberius; and when asked by Tiberius whether he had brought forth that opinion at his bidding, he replied that he had spoken of his own accord, and that in those things which pertained to the commonwealth he would use no counsel save his own, even with the danger of giving offense: that sole guise of adulation was left. the Fathers cry out that the body must be carried to the pyre on the shoulders of the senators.

remisit Caesar adroganti moderatione, populumque edicto monuit ne, ut quondam nimiis studiis funus divi Iulii turbassent, ita Augustum in foro potius quam in campo Martis, sede destinata, cremari vellent. die funeris milites velut praesidio stetere, multum inridentibus qui ipsi vierant quique a parentibus acceperant diem illum crudi adhuc servitii et libertatis inprospere repetitae, cum occisus dictator Caesar aliis pessimum, aliis pulcherrimum facinus videretur: nunc senem principem, longa potentia, provisis etiam heredum in rem publicam opibus, auxilio scilicet militari tuendum, ut sepultura eius quieta foret.

Caesar remitted with arrogant moderation, and by an edict admonished the people not to wish, as once by excessive partisanships they had disturbed the funeral of the deified Julius, so now that Augustus be cremated in the forum rather than in the Campus Martius, the appointed site. On the day of the funeral the soldiers stood as if for a guard, to the great derision of those who had themselves seen and those who had received from their parents that day of servitude still raw and of liberty unsuccessfully resumed, when the slain dictator Caesar seemed to some the worst, to others the most glorious deed: now an old princeps, of long-standing potency, with even the resources of the heirs provided for the commonwealth, must be protected, forsooth, by military aid, that his sepulture might be quiet.

[9] Multus hinc ipso de Augusto sermo, plerisque vana mirantibus, quod idem dies accepti quondam imperii princeps et vitae supremus, quod Nolae in domo et cubiculo in quo pater eius Octavius vitam finivisset. numerus etiam consulatuum celebrabatur, quo Valerium Corvum et C. Marium simul aequaverat, continuata per septem et triginta annos tribunicia potestas, nomen imperatoris semel atque viciens partum aliaque honorum mutiplicata aut nova. at apud prudentes vita eius varie extollebatur arguebaturve.

[9] Hence there was much talk about Augustus himself, many marveling at empty trifles: that the same day was both the first of the dominion once accepted and the last of his life; that at Nola he died in the house and the bedroom in which his father Octavius had ended his life. The number of his consulships too was celebrated, wherein he had equaled Valerius Corvus and Gaius Marius together; the tribunician power continued for 37 years; the name of imperator was earned 21 times; and other honors were multiplied or new. But among the prudent his life was variously extolled or arraigned.

hi pietate erga parentem et necessitudine rei publicae, in qua nullus tunc legibus locus, ad arma civilia actum, quae neque parari possent neque haberi per bonas artes. multa Antonio, dum interfectores patris ulcisceretur, mula Lepido concessisse. postquam hic socordia senuerit, ille per libidines pessum datus sit, non aliud discordantis patriae remedium fuisse quam [ut] ab uno regeretur.

these men [said that], out of piety toward his parent and by the necessity of the republic—in which at that time there was no place for laws—he was driven to civil arms, which could neither be prepared nor held by good arts. that he had conceded many things to Antony, while he was avenging his father’s killers, many to Lepidus. after the latter had grown feeble through sluggishness, and the former had been ruined by lusts, there was no other remedy for a discordant fatherland than that it be ruled by one.

non regno tamen neque dictatura, sed principis nomine constitutam rem publicam; mari Oceano aut amnibus longinquis saeptum imperium; legiones, provincias, classes, cuncta inter se conexa; ius apud cives, modestiam apud socios; urbem ipsam magnificio ornatu; pauca admodum vi tractata quo ceteris quies esset.

not a kingship, however, nor a dictatorship, but a commonwealth constituted under the name of Princeps; an empire girded by Ocean or by far-off rivers; legions, provinces, fleets, all things interconnected; law among the citizens, moderation toward the allies; the city itself with magnificent adornment; very few things handled by force, so that there might be quiet for the rest.

[10] Dicebatur contra: pietatem erga parentem et tempora rei publicae obtentui sumpta: ceterum cupidine dominandi concitos per largitionem veteranos, paratum ab adulescente privato exercitum, corruptas consulis legiones, simulatam Pompeianarum gratiam partium; mox ubi decreto patrum fasces et ius praetoris invaserit, caesis Hirtio et Pansa, sive hostis illos, seu Pansam venenum vulneri adfusum, sui milites Hirtium et machinator doli Caesar abstulerat, utriusque copias ocupavisse; extortum invito senatu consulatum, armaque quae in Antonium acceperit contra rem publicam versa; proscriptionem civium, divisiones agrorum ne ipsis quidem qui fecere laudatas. sane Cassii et Brutorum exitus paternis inimicitiis datos, quamquam fas sit privata odia publicis utilitatibus remittere: sed Pompeium imagine pacis, sed Lepidum specie amicitiae deceptos; post Antonium, Tarentino Brundisinoque foedere et nuptiis sororis inlectum, subdolae adfinitatis poenas morte exsolvisse. pacem sine dubio post haec, verum cruentam: Lollianas Varianasque clades, interfectos Romae Varrones, Egnatios, Iullos.

[10] It was said, contrariwise: piety toward his parent and the exigencies of the commonwealth were taken up as a pretext; but, from a lust of dominion, veterans were stirred by largess, an army was prepared by a young private man, the consul’s legions were corrupted, a feigned favor of the Pompeian party; soon, when by a decree of the Fathers he had invaded the fasces and the right of a praetor, with Hirtius and Pansa cut down—whether the enemy did for them, or poison applied to Pansa’s wound, or his own soldiers removed Hirtius—and Caesar, the contriver of the stratagem, had carried it off, he seized the forces of both; the consulship was extorted with the senate unwilling, and the arms which he had taken up against Antony were turned against the commonwealth; the proscription of citizens, the divisions of lands, praised not even by those who did them. Truly, the downfall of Cassius and the Brutuses was attributed to paternal enmities, although it is right to remit private hatreds to public utilities; but Pompey was deceived by an image of peace, and Lepidus by a semblance of friendship; afterwards Antony, enticed by the Tarentine and Brundisian pact and by the marriage of his sister, paid by death the penalties of a treacherous affinity. Peace, without doubt, after these things—but bloody: the Lollian and Varian disasters, and at Rome the Varros, Egnatii, and Julii slain.

nec domesticis abstinebatur: abducta Neroni uxor et consulti per ludibrium pontifices an concepto necdum edito partu rite nuberet; Q. +Tedii+ et Vedii Pollionis luxus; postremo Livia gravis in rem publicam mater, gravis domui Caesarum noverca. nihil deorum honoribus relictum, cum se templis et effigie numinum per flamines et sacerdotes coli vellet. ne Tiberium quidem caritate aut rei publicae cura successorem adscitum, sed quoniam adrogantiam saevitiamque eius introspexerit, comparatione deterrima sibi gloriam quaesivisse.

nor did he refrain even in domestic matters: the wife was abducted from Nero, and the pontiffs were consulted, in mockery, whether, the child conceived but not yet born, he might rightly marry; the luxuries of Q. +Tedius+ and Vedius Pollio; finally Livia, burdensome to the commonwealth as a mother, burdensome to the house of the Caesars as a stepmother. nothing was left to the honors of the gods, since he wished himself to be worshiped in temples and with the effigy of the divinities, through flamens and priests. not even Tiberius was adopted as successor out of affection or concern for the commonwealth, but because he had looked into his arrogance and savagery, he sought glory for himself by a most wretched comparison.

etenim Augustus paucis ante annis, cum Tiberio tribuniciam potestatem a patribus rursum postularet, quamquam honora oratione quaedam de habitu cultuque et institutis eius iecerat, quae velut excusando exprobraret. ceterum sepultura more perfecta templum et caelestes religiones decernuntur.

indeed, a few years before, when Augustus was again requesting from the Fathers the tribunician power for Tiberius, although in an honorable oration he had thrown out certain remarks about his habit, culture, and institutions, which, as if by excusing, he was reproaching. however, with the burial completed according to custom, a temple and celestial rites are decreed.

[11] Versae inde ad Tiberium preces. et ille varie diserebat de magnitudine imperii sua modestia. solam divi Augusti mentem tantae molis capacem: se in partem curarum ab illo vocatum experiendo didicisse quam arduum, quam subiectum fortunae regendi cuncta onus.

[11] Then prayers were turned to Tiberius. And he variously discoursed about the magnitude of the imperium and his own modesty: that only the mind of the deified Augustus was capacious of so great a mass; that he, called by that man into a share of cares, had learned by experience how arduous, how subject to Fortune the burden of governing all things is.

proinde in civitate tot inlustribus viris subnixa non ad unum omnia deferrent: plures facilius munia rei publicae sociatis laboribus exsecuturos. plus in oratione tali dignitatis quam fidei erat; Tiberioque etiam in rebus quas non occuleret, seu natura sive adsuetudine, suspensa semper et obscura verba: tunc vero nitenti ut sensus suos penitus abderet, in incertum et ambiguum magis implicabantur. at patres, quibus unus metus si intellegere viderentur, in questus lacrimas vota effundi; ad deos, ad effigiem Augusti, ad genua ipsius o manus tendere, cum proferri libellum recitarique iussit.

accordingly, in a commonwealth propped on so many illustrious men, let not all things be referred to one: more would more easily execute the duties of the republic by associated labors. there was more of dignity than of good faith in such a speech; and with Tiberius, even in matters which he did not conceal—whether by nature or by habituation—his words were ever suspended and obscure: then indeed, as he strove to hide his sentiments utterly, they became the more entangled in uncertainty and ambiguity. but the senators, for whom there was one fear—that they might seem to understand—poured themselves out into complaints, tears, vows; to the gods, to the effigy of Augustus, to his very knees—oh—hands were stretched forth, when he ordered a little paper to be brought out and read.

opes publicae continebantur, quantum civium sociorumque in armis, quot classes, regna, provinciae, tributa aut vectigalia, et necessitates ac largitiones. quae cuncta sua manu perscripserat Augustus addideratque consilium coercendi intra terminos imperii, incertum metu an per invidiam.

the public resources were contained: how many citizens and allies under arms, how many fleets, kingdoms, provinces, tributes or revenues, and necessities and largesses. all which Augustus had written out with his own hand, and he had added the counsel of restraining within the boundaries of the empire, uncertain whether from fear or through envy.

[12] Inter quae senatu ad infimas obtestationes procumbente, dixit forte Tiberius se ut non toti rei publicae parem, ita quaecumque pars sibi mandaretur eius tutelam suscepturum. tum Asinius Gallus 'interrogo' inquit, 'Caesar, quam partem rei publicae mandari tibi velis.' perculsus inprovisa interrogatione paulum reticuit: dein collecto animo respondit nequaquam decorum pudori suo legere aliquid aut evitare ex eo cui in universum excusari mallet. rursum Gallus (etenim vultu offensionem coniectaverat) non idcirco interrogatum ait, ut divideret quae separari nequirent sed ut sua confessione argueretur unum esse rei publicae corpus atque unius animo regendum.

[12] Among these things, with the senate prostrating itself to the lowest entreaties, Tiberius happened to say that, although he was not equal to the whole republic, yet whatever part should be entrusted to him he would undertake the guardianship of it. Then Asinius Gallus said, 'I ask, Caesar, what part of the republic you wish to be entrusted to you.' Struck by the unforeseen interrogation he was silent for a little; then, his mind collected, he replied that it was by no means decorous to his modesty to choose something or to avoid something out of that from which, in its universality, he would rather be excused. Again Gallus (for from his countenance he had conjectured an offense) said that it was not therefore asked in order to divide things which cannot be separated, but so that by his own confession it might be argued that the body of the republic is one and must be governed by the mind of one.

addidit laudem de Augusto Tiberiumque ipsum victoriarum suarum quaeque in toga per tot annos egregie fecisset admonuit. nec ideo iram eius lenivit, pridem invisus, tamquam ducta in matrimonium Vipsania M. Agrippae filia, quae quondam Tiberii uxor fuerat, plus quam civilia agitaret Pollionisque Asinii patris ferociam retineret.

he added praise about Augustus and reminded Tiberius himself of his victories and of whatever he had done excellently in the toga for so many years. Nor for that did he soften his anger—long since hateful—since, with Vipsania, the daughter of M. Agrippa, taken in marriage, who once had been Tiberius’s wife, he was thought to be agitating more-than-civil affairs and to be retaining the ferocity of his father, Asinius Pollio.

[13] Post quae L. Arruntius haud multum discrepans a Galli oratione perinde offendit, quamquam Tiberio nulla vetus in Arruntium ira: sed divitem, promptum, artibus egregiis et pari fama publice, suspectabat. quippe Augustus supremis sermonibus cum tractaret quinam adipisci principem locum suffecturi abnuerent aut inpares vellent vel idem possent cuperentque, M'. Lepidum dixerat capacem sed aspernantem, Gallum Asinium avidum et minorem, L. Arruntium non indignum et si casus daretur ausurum. de prioribus consentitur, pro Arruntio quidam Cn. Pisonem tradidere; omnesque praeter Lepidum variis mox criminibus struente Tiberio circumventi sunt.

[13] After which L. Arruntius, differing not much from Gallus’s speech, offended in like measure, although Tiberius had no old enmity against Arruntius: but he suspected him as wealthy, ready, of outstanding arts, and with equal renown publicly. For Augustus, in his final conversations, when he was handling who, destined to succeed, would refuse to obtain the chief place, or who, unequal, would want it, or who likewise both could and would desire it, had said that M'. Lepidus was capable but would disdain it, Asinius Gallus eager and inferior, L. Arruntius not unworthy and, if chance were given, would dare it. About the former two there is agreement; in place of Arruntius some have reported Cn. Piso; and all, except Lepidus, were soon hemmed in by various charges, with Tiberius contriving.

etiam Q. Haterius et Mamercus Scaurus suspicacem animum perstrinxere, Haterius cum dixisset 'quo usque patieris, Caesar, non adesse caput rei publicae?' Scaurus quia dixerat spem esse ex eo non inritas fore senatus preces quod relationi consulum iure tribuniciae potestatis non intercessisset. in Haterium statim invectus est; Scaurum, cui inplacabilius irascebatur, silentio tramisit. fessusque clamore omnium, expostulatione singulorum flexit paulatim, non ut fateretur suscipi a se imperium, sed ut negare et rogari desineret.

even Q. Haterius and Mamercus Scaurus scored his suspicious mind, Haterius when he had said, 'how long will you allow, Caesar, that the republic should not have a head present?' Scaurus because he had said that there was hope from this, that the prayers of the senate would not be in vain, since he had not interposed a veto, by right of tribunician power, against the consuls’ relatio. Against Haterius he immediately inveighed; Scaurus, at whom he grew angry the more implacably, he passed over in silence. And wearied by the shouting of all and the remonstrance of individuals, he gradually yielded, not so as to confess that the imperium was being taken up by himself, but so as to stop denying and being entreated.

constat Haterium, cum deprecandi causa Palatium introisset ambulantisque Tiberii genua advolveretur, prope a militibus interfectum quia Tiberius casu an manibus eius inpeditus prociderat. neque tamen periculo talis viri mitigatus est, donec Haterius Augustam oraret eiusque curatissimis precibus protegeretur.

It is agreed that Haterius, when for the sake of deprecation he had entered the Palatine and, as Tiberius was walking, rolled himself at his knees, was nearly killed by the soldiers because Tiberius had fallen, whether by chance or hampered by his hands. Nor, however, was Tiberius mitigated by the peril of such a man, until Haterius entreated the Augusta and was protected by her most solicitous prayers.

[14] Multa patrum et in Augustam adulatio. alii parentem, alii matrem patriae appellandam, plerique ut nomini Caesaris adscriberetur 'Iuliae filius' censebant. ille moderandos feminarum honores dictitans eademque se temperantia usurum in iis quae sibi tribuerentur, ceterum anxius invidia et muliebre fastigium in deminutionem sui accipiens ne lictorem quidem ei decerni passus est aramque adoptionis et alia huiusce modi prohibuit.

[14] Much adulation of the Fathers and toward Augusta. Some were of the opinion that she should be called “parent,” others “mother of the fatherland,” and most that to the name of Caesar there should be inscribed “son of Julia.” He, repeatedly saying that the honors of women must be moderated and that he would employ the same temperance in those which were to be attributed to himself, moreover, anxious at envy and taking a feminine fastigium as a diminution of himself, did not allow even a lictor to be decreed to her and forbade an altar of adoption and other things of this sort.

at Germanico Caesari pro consulare imperium petivit, missique legati qui deferrent, simul maestitiam eius ob excessum Augusti solarentur. quo minus idem pro Druso postularetur, ea causa quod designatus consul Drusus praesensque erat. candidatos praeturae duodecim nominavit, numerum ab Augusto traditum; et hortante senatu ut augeret, iure iurando obstrinxit se non excessurum.

but for Germanicus Caesar he sought proconsular imperium, and legates were sent to confer it and at the same time to console his mourning on account of the passing of Augustus. The reason why the same was not requested for Drusus was that Drusus was consul-designate and present. He nominated twelve candidates for the praetorship, the number handed down by Augustus; and when the senate urged him to increase it, he bound himself by oath that he would not exceed it.

[15] Tum primum e campo comitia ad patres translata sunt: nam ad eam diem, etsi potissima arbitrio principis, quaedam tamen studiis tribuum fiebant. neque populus ademptum ius questus est nisi inani rumore, et senatus largitionibus ac precibus sordidis exsolutus libens tenuit, moderante Tiberio ne plures quam quattuor candidatos commendaret sine repulsa et ambitu designandos. inter quae tribuni plebei petivere ut proprio sumptu ederent ludos qui de nomine Augusti fastis additi Augustales vocarentur.

[15] Then for the first time the comitia were transferred from the Campus to the Fathers (the Senate): for up to that day, although the greatest part was at the discretion of the princeps, nevertheless certain things were carried by the partisanships of the tribes. Nor did the people complain of the right taken away except with empty rumor, and the senate, released from sordid largesses and petitions, gladly held it, Tiberius moderating that he recommend no more than four candidates, to be designated without rejection and without canvassing. Among these matters the tribunes of the plebs asked leave to put on at their own expense games which, from the name of Augustus, added to the Fasti, should be called the Augustales.

sed decreta pecunia ex aerario, utque per circum triumphali veste uterentur: curru vehi haud permissum. mox celebratio annua ad praetorem translata cui inter civis et peregrinos iurisdictio evenisset.

but money was decreed from the treasury, and that they should make use of triumphal dress throughout the Circus: to be carried in a chariot was not permitted. Soon the annual celebration was transferred to the praetor to whom the jurisdiction between citizens and peregrines had fallen.

[16] Hic rerum urbanarum status erat, cum Pannonicas legiones seditio incessit, nullis novis causis nisi quod mutatus princeps licentiam turbarum et ex civili bello spem praemiorum ostendebat. castris aestivis tres simul legiones habebantur, praesidente Iunio Blaeso, qui fine Augusti et initiis Tiberii auditis ob iustitium aut gaudium intermiserat solita munia. eo principio lascivire miles, discordare, pessimi cuiusque sermonibus praebere auris, denique luxum et otium cupere, disciplinam et laborem aspernari.

[16] This was the status of urban affairs, when sedition assailed the Pannonian legions, from no new causes except that a changed princeps advertised license for disturbances and, from civil war, a hope of rewards. In the summer camp three legions at once were being held, with Junius Blaesus presiding, who, after the end of Augustus and the beginnings of Tiberius were heard of, on account of a justitium or rejoicing, had suspended the usual duties. At that beginning the soldiery grew wanton, fell into discord, lent their ears to the speeches of every worst man, and, in fine, longed for luxury and leisure, and spurned discipline and toil.

erat in castris Percennius quidam, dux olim theatralium operarum, dein gregarius miles, procax lingua et miscere coetus histrionali studio doctus. is imperitos animos et quaenam post Augustum militiae condicio ambigentis inpellere paulatim nocturnis conloquiis aut flexo in vesperam die et dilapsis melioribus deterrimum quemque congregare.

There was in the camp a certain Percennius, once leader of theatrical work-gangs, then a rank-and-file soldier, saucy of tongue and taught by histrionic zeal to stir up assemblies. He, little by little, by nocturnal colloquies or when the day was bent toward evening, would impel inexperienced minds and those wavering as to what the condition of military service would be after Augustus, and, the better men having slipped away, would congregate every very worst man.

[17] Postremo promptis iam et aliis seditionis ministris velut contionabundus interrogabat cur paucis centurionibus paucioribus tribunis in modum servorum oboedirent. quando ausuros exposcere remedia, nisi novum et nutantem adhuc principem precibus vel armis adirent? satis per tot annos ignavia peccatum, quod tricena aut quadragena stipendia senes et plerique truncato ex vulneribus corpore tolerent.

[17] Finally, with other ministers of sedition now ready as well, he, as if haranguing an assembly, asked why they obeyed a few centurions and fewer tribunes in the manner of slaves. When would they dare to demand remedies, unless they approached the new and still tottering emperor with prayers or with arms? Enough had been sinned through sloth for so many years, that old men and the majority endure thirty or forty years’ service, with bodies maimed from wounds.

ne dimissis quidem finem esse militiae, sed apud vexillum tendentis alio vocabulo eosdem labores perferre. ac si quis tot casus vita superaverit, trahi adhuc diversas in terras ubi per nomen agrorum uligines paludum vel inculta montium accipiant. enimvero militiam ipsam gravem, infructuosam: denis in diem assibus animam et corpus aestimari: hinc vestem arma tentoria, hinc saevitiam centurionum et vacationes munerum redimi.

not even for the discharged is there an end to military service, but, encamped under the standard, they under another name endure the same labors. and if anyone has outlived so many disasters with life, they are still dragged into different lands, where under the name of fields they receive the water-logged sloughs of swamps or the uncultivated wastes of mountains. indeed the military service itself is burdensome, unfruitful: at ten asses per day the soul and the body are appraised: from this are to be bought clothing, arms, tents; from this the savagery of the centurions and exemptions from duties are ransomed.

at hercule verbera et vulnera, duram hiemem, exercitas aestates, bellum atrox: aut sterilem pacem sempiterna. nec aliud levamentum quam si certis sub legibus militia iniretur, ut singulos denarios mererent, sextus decumus stipendii annus finem adferret, ne ultra sub vexillis tenerentur, sed isdem in castris praemium pecunia solveretur. an praetorias cohortis, quae binos; denarios acceperint, quae post sedecim annos penatibus suis reddantur, plus periculorum suscipere?

But, by Hercules, the beatings and wounds, the hard winter, the toiled-out summers, the war atrocious; or a barren peace everlasting. Nor any other alleviation than if military service were entered under fixed laws: that they should earn single denarii, that the 16th year of stipend should bring an end; that they should not be held longer under the standards, but that in the same camps the reward in money be paid. Or do the praetorian cohorts—who receive two denarii apiece, who after 16 years are given back to their household gods—take on more dangers?

non obtrectari a se urbanas excubias: sibi tamen apud horridas gentis e contuberniis hostem aspici.

that the urban watches are not disparaged by them: for their part, however, among horrid tribes, the enemy is seen from their tents.

[18] Adstrepebat vulgus, diversis incitamentis, hi verberum notas, illi canitiem, plurimi detrita tegmina et nudum corpus exprobrantes. postremo eo furoris venere ut tres legiones miscere in unam agitaverint. depulsi aemulatione, quia suae quisque legioni eum honorem quaerebant, alio vertunt atque una tres aquilas et signa cohortium locant; simul congerunt caespites, exstruunt tribunal, quo magis conspicua sedes foret.

[18] The populace was clamoring, with diverse incitements: these men displaying the marks of beatings, those their gray hairs, a great many upbraiding their worn-out coverings and their bare bodies. At last they came to such a pitch of frenzy that they actually agitated to merge the three legions into one. Checked by emulation—since each was seeking that honor for his own legion—they turn to another course and, together, set in one place the three eagles and the standards of the cohorts; at the same time they heap sods of turf, they build a tribunal, so that the seat might be more conspicuous.

properantibus Blaesus advenit, increpabatque ac retinebat singulos, clamitans 'mea potius caede imbuite manus: leviore flagitio legatum interficietis quam ab imperatore desciscitis. aut incolumis fidem legionum retinebo aut iugulatus paenitentiam adcelerabo.'

as they were hastening, Blaesus arrived, and he kept rebuking and restraining them one by one, shouting: 'rather steep your hands in my slaughter: with a lighter disgrace you will kill your legate than you secede from the emperor. either unharmed I shall keep the loyalty of the legions, or, once throat-cut, I shall accelerate your repentance.'

[19] Aggerabatur nihilo minus caespes iamque pectori usque adcreverat, cum tandem pervicacia victi inceptum omisere. Blaesus multa dicendi arte non per seditionem et turbas desideria militum ad Caesarem ferenda ait, neque veteres ab imperatoribus priscis neque ipsos a divo Augusto tam nova petivisse; et parum in tempore incipientis principis curas onerari. si tamen tenderent in pace temptare quae ne civilium quidem bellorum victores expostulaverint cur contra morem obsequii, contra fas disciplinae vim meditentur?

[19] The turf was being heaped up nonetheless, and already it had grown up to his breast, when at last, overcome by his pervicacity, they abandoned the undertaking. Blaesus, with much art of speaking, said that the soldiers’ desiderata were to be carried to Caesar not through sedition and tumults; that neither had the ancients from former commanders nor had they themselves from the deified Augustus sought such novelties; and that it was ill-timed to burden the cares of an incipient princeps. If, however, they were aiming in peace to try those things which not even the victors of civil wars had demanded, why do they contemplate force contrary to the custom of obedience, contrary to the right of discipline?

decernerent legatos seque coram mandata darent. adclamavere ut filius Blaesi tribunus legatione ea fungeretur peteretque militibus missionem ab sedecim annis: cetera mandaturos ubi prima provenissent. profecto iuvene modi cum otium: sed superbire miles quod filius legati orator publicae causae satis ostenderet necessitate expressa quae per modestiam non obtinuissent.

they resolved to appoint legates and to give their mandates to him face to face. They acclaimed that Blaesus’s son, a tribune, should discharge that legation and should request for the soldiers a discharge after 16 years; the rest they would mandate when the first requests had proved successful. With the young man having set out, there was moderation together with quiet; but the soldiery began to grow overproud, because the legate’s son, as orator of the public cause, sufficiently showed that by necessity avowed they had extorted what by modesty they would not have obtained.

[20] Interea manipuli ante coeptam seditionem Nauportum missi ob itinera et pontes et alios usus, postquam turbatum in castris accepere, vexilla convellunt direptisque proximis vicis ipsoque Nauporto, quod municipii instar erat, retinentis centuriones inrisu et contumeliis, postremo verberibus insectantur, praecipua in Aufidienum Rufum praefectum castrorum ira, quem dereptum vehiculo sarcinis gravant aguntque primo in agmine per ludibrium rogitantes an tam immensa onera, tam longa itinera libenter ferret. quippe Rufus diu manipularis, dein centurio, mox castris praefectus, antiquam duramque militiam revocabat, vetus operis ac laboris et eo inmitior quia toleraverat.

[20] Meanwhile the maniples that before the sedition had been begun had been sent to Nauportus for roads and bridges and other uses, after they learned there was turmoil in the camp, tear up their standards, and, having plundered the nearest villages and Nauportus itself, which was of the nature of a municipality, they assail the centurions who tried to restrain them with ridicule and insults, finally with beatings, their chief wrath against Aufidienus Rufus, prefect of the camp, whom, dragged from his vehicle, they load with packs and drive at the head of the column in mockery, repeatedly asking whether he would gladly bear such immense burdens, such long marches. For indeed Rufus, long a rank‑and‑file maniple-soldier, then a centurion, soon prefect of the camp, was reviving the old and harsh soldiery, old‑style in tasks and toil, and all the more immitior because he had endured it.

[21] Horum adventu redintegratur seditio et vagi circumiecta populabantur. Blaesus paucos, maxime praeda onustos, ad terrorem ceterorum adfici verberibus, claudi carcere iubet; nam etiam tum legato a centurionibus et optimo quoque manipularium parebatur. illi obniti trahentibus, prensare circumstantium genua, ciere modo nomina singulorum, modo centuriam quisque cuius manipularis erat, cohortem, legionem, eadem omnibus inminere clamitantes.

[21] At the advent of these men the sedition is renewed, and the roving were plundering the surrounding places. Blaesus orders a few, especially those laden with booty, to be subjected to beatings and to be shut in prison, for the terror of the rest; for even then the legate was obeyed by the centurions and by the best of the manipularii. They resisted those dragging them, grasped the knees of the bystanders, called now upon the names of individuals, now each upon the century of which he was a manipularis, the cohort, the legion, shouting that the same peril was imminent over all.

simul probra in legatum cumulant, caelum ac deos obtestantur, nihil reliqui faciunt quo minus invidiam misericordiam metum et iras permoverent. adcurritur ab universis, et carcere effracto solvunt vincula desertoresque ac rerum capitalium damnatos sibi iam miscent.

at the same time they heap insults upon the legate, call heaven and the gods to witness, and leave nothing undone to stir up ill-will, pity, fear, and wrath. there is a rush from all sides, and, the prison broken open, they loosen the bonds and now join to themselves the deserters and those condemned on capital charges.

[22] Flagrantior inde vis, plures seditioni duces. et Vibulenus quidam gregarius miles, ante tribunal Blaesi adlevatus circumstantium umeris, apud turbatos et quid pararet intentos 'vos quidem' inquit 'his innocentibus et miserrimis lucem et spiritum reddidistis: sed quis fratri meo vitam, quis fratrem mihi reddit? quem missum ad vos a Germanico exercitu de communibus commodis nocte proxima iugulavit per gladiatores suos, quos in exitium militum habet atque armat.

[22] Thence the violence was more inflamed, more leaders for the sedition. And a certain Vibulenus, a common soldier, lifted up before the tribunal of Blaesus on the shoulders of those standing around, among men agitated and intent on what he was preparing, said: 'You indeed have given back light and breath to these innocent and most wretched men: but who gives life back to my brother, who gives a brother back to me? He, sent to you by the army of Germanicus about the common interests, was throttled last night by his gladiators—whom he keeps and arms for the destruction of the soldiers.'

responde, Blaese, ubi cadaver abieceris: ne hostes quidem sepultura invident. cum osculis, cum lacrimis dolorem meum implevero, me quoque trucidari iube, dum interfectos nullum ob scelus sed quia utilitati legionum consulebamus hi sepeliant.'

answer, Blaesus, where you have cast the cadaver: not even enemies begrudge sepulture. When with kisses, with tears I shall have filled up my grief, order me too to be slaughtered, provided that these men bury those slain, not on account of any crime, but because we were consulting for the utility of the legions.'

[23] Incendebat haec fletu et pectus atque os manibus verberans. mox disiectis quorum per umeros sustinebatur, praeceps et singulorum pedibus advolutus tantum consternationis invidiaeque concivit, ut pars militum gladiatores, qui e servitio Blaesi erant, pars ceteram eiusdem familiam vincirent, alii ad quaerendum corpus effunderentur. ac ni propere neque corpus ullum reperiri, et servos adhibitis cruciatibus abnuere caedem, neque illi fuisse umquam fratrem pernotuisset, haud multum ab exitio legati aberant.

[23] He was inflaming this with weeping and with beating his breast and face with his hands. Soon, the men by whose shoulders he was being upheld having been scattered, headlong and having rolled himself at the feet of individuals, he stirred up so much consternation and ill will that part of the soldiers bound the gladiators, who were from the servitude of Blaesus, part bound the rest of that same household, others poured out to search for the body. And if it had not promptly become well known that no body could be found, and that the slaves, torments having been applied, denied the killing, and that he had never had a brother, they were not far from the destruction of the legate.

tribunos tamen ac praefectum castrorum extrusere, sarcinae fugientium direptae, et centurio Lucilius interficitur cui militaribus facetiis vocabulum 'cedo alteram' indiderant, quia fracta vite in tergo militis alteram clara voce ac rursus aliam poscebat. ceteros latebrae texere, uno retento Clemente Iulio qui perferendis militum mandatis habebatur idoneus ob promptum ingenium. quin ipsae inter se legiones octava et quinta decuma ferrum parabant, dum centurionem cognomento Sirpicum illa morti deposcit, quintadecumani tuentur, ni miles nonanus preces et adversum aspernantis minas interiecisset.

nevertheless they thrust out the tribunes and the prefect of the camp, the baggage of the fugitives was plundered, and the centurion Lucilius was slain, upon whom by military facetiae they had fastened the nickname 'hand me another,' because, when a vine-staff was broken on a soldier’s back, he would in a loud voice demand another and yet again another. the rest hiding-places covered, one being kept back, Clement Julius, who was held suitable for carrying the soldiers’ mandates on account of his prompt ingenium. nay, the legions themselves, the eighth and the fifteenth, were preparing steel among themselves, while that one demanded for death the centurion by the cognomen Sirpicus, the Fifteenth defend him, had not a soldier of the Ninth interposed prayers, and, against those who spurned them, threats.

[24] Haec audita quamquam abstrusum et tristissima quaeque maxime occultantem Tiberium perpulere, ut Drusum filium cum primoribus civitatis duabusque praetoriis cohortibus mitteret, nullis satis certis mandatis, ex re consulturum. et cohortes delecto milite supra solitum firmatae. additur magna pars praetoriani equitis et robora Germanorum, qui tum custodes imperatori aderant; simul praetorii praefectus Aelius Seianus, collega Straboni patri suo datus, magna apud Tiberium auctoritate, rector iuveni et ceteris periculorum praemiorumque ostentator.

[24] These things, once heard, although Tiberius—withdrawn and one who most of all concealed whatever was most gloomy—compelled him to send his son Drusus with the foremost men of the state and with two praetorian cohorts, with no sufficiently definite mandates, to take counsel from the circumstance. And the cohorts were strengthened beyond the customary with a picked soldiery. There was added a great part of the praetorian cavalry and the flower of the Germans, who at that time were in attendance upon the emperor as guards; at the same time the prefect of the praetorium, Aelius Sejanus, assigned as colleague to his father Strabo, a man of great authority with Tiberius—guide to the youth, and to the rest a displayer of dangers and rewards.

Druso propinquanti quasi per officium obviae fuere legiones, non laetae, ut adsolet, neque insignibus fulgentes, sed inluvie deformi et vultu, quamquam maestitiam imitarentur contumaciae propiores.

As Drusus was approaching, the legions came to meet him, as if by duty, not joyful, as is their wont, nor gleaming with insignia, but disfigured by squalor and in countenance—although they imitated sadness, they were nearer to contumacy.

[25] Postquam vallum introiit, portas stationibus firmant, globos armatorum certis castrorum locis opperiri iubent: ceteri tribunal ingenti agmine circumveniunt. stabat Drusus silentium manu poscens. illi quoties oculos ad multitudinem rettulerant, vocibus truculentis strepere, rursum viso Caesare trepidare; murmur incertum, atrox clamor et repente quies; diversis animorum motibus pavebant terrebantque.

[25] After he entered within the rampart, they make the gates firm with sentry-posts, they order masses of armed men to wait at designated places of the camp: the rest surround the tribunal with a huge throng. Drusus stood, demanding silence with his hand. They, whenever they turned their eyes to the multitude, rattled with truculent voices; again, at the sight of Caesar, they grew alarmed; an uncertain murmur, a fierce clamor, and suddenly a hush; with diverse movements of spirit they were at once fearing and frightening.

tandem interrupto tumultu litteras patris recitat, in quis perscriptum erat, praecipuam ipsi fortissimarum legionum curam, quibuscum plurima bella toleravisset; ubi primum a luctu requiesset animus, acturum apud patres de postulatis eorum; misisse interim filium ut sine cunctatione concederet quae statim tribui possent; cetera senatui servanda quem neque gratiae neque severitatis expertem haberi par esset.

at length, the tumult having been interrupted, he recites a letter of his father, in which it had been written in detail: that the chief care of the bravest legions was his own, with whom he had endured very many wars; that as soon as his mind had rested from mourning, he would act before the Fathers concerning their demands; that meanwhile he had sent his son to concede without delay those things which could be granted at once; the rest were to be reserved for the Senate, which it would be proper to consider no stranger to either favor or severity.

[26] Responsum est a contione mandata Clementi centurioni quae perferret. is orditur de missione a sedecim annis, de praemiis finitae militiae, ut denarius diurnum stipendium foret, ne veterani sub vexillo haberentur. ad ea Drusus cum arbitrium senatus et patris obtenderet, clamore turbatur.

[26] It was answered by the assembly that mandates be given to the centurion Clemens to convey. He begins about discharge at sixteen years, about the premiums of finished military service: that a denarius should be the daily stipend, and that veterans not be kept under the vexillum. At these, when Drusus was putting forward the judgment of the Senate and of his father, he is thrown into confusion by a clamor.

cur venisset neque augendis militum stipendiis neque adlevandis laboribus, denique nulla bene faciendi licentia? at hercule verbera et necem cunctis permitti. Tiberium olim nomine Augusti desideria legionum frustrari solitum: easdem artis Drusum rettulisse.

why had he come neither to augment the soldiers’ stipends nor to alleviate their labors, in fine with no license to do good? yet, by Hercules, floggings and death are permitted to everyone. Tiberius formerly, under the name of Augustus, was wont to frustrate the desires of the legions: Drusus has brought back the same arts.

numquamne ad se nisi filios familiarum venturos? novum id plane quod imperator sola militis commoda ad senatum reiciat. eundem ergo senatum consulendum quotiens supplicia aut proelia indicantur: an praemia sub dominis, poenas sine arbitro esse?

Will there never come to them anyone except sons of great households? That is plainly a novelty, that the emperor should relegate the soldier’s benefits alone to the Senate. Then let that same Senate be consulted whenever punishments or battles are proclaimed: or are the rewards under masters, the penalties without an arbiter?

[27] Postremo deserunt tribunal, ut quis praetorianorum militum amicorumve Caesaris occurreret, manus intentantes, causam discordiae et initium armorum, maxime infensi Cn. Lentulo, quod is ante alios aetate et gloria belli firmare Drusum credebatur et illa militiae flagitia primus aspernari. nec multo post digredientem cum Caesare ac provisu periculi hiberna castra repetentem circumsistunt, rogitantes quo pergeret, ad imperatorem an ad patres, ut illic quoque commodis legionum adversaretur; simul ingruunt, saxa iaciunt. iamque lapidis ictu cruentus et exitii certus adcursu multitudinis quae cum Druso advenerat protectus est.

[27] Finally they abandon the tribunal, so that if any of the praetorian soldiers or the friends of Caesar should meet them, they brandish their hands— a cause of discord and the inception of arms—being especially hostile to Cn. Lentulus, because he, before others in age and glory of war, was believed to be strengthening Drusus and to be the first to spurn those disgraces of military service. And not much later, as he was departing with Caesar and, by foresight of danger, was making back for the winter camp, they surround him, repeatedly asking whither he was proceeding, to the emperor or to the Fathers, so as there too to oppose the interests of the legions; at once they press in, they hurl stones. And now, bloodied by the blow of a stone and certain of destruction, he was protected by the running up of the multitude which had come with Drusus.

[28] Noctem minacem et in scelus erupturam fors lenivit: nam luna claro repente caelo visa languescere. id miles rationis ignarus omen praesentium accepit, suis laboribus defectionem sideris adsimulans, prospereque cessura qua pergerent si fulgor et claritudo deae redderetur. igitur aeris sono, tubarum cornuumque concentu strepere; prout splendidior obscuriorve laetari aut maerere; et postquam ortae nubes offecere visui creditumque conditam tenebris, ut sunt mobiles ad superstitionem perculsae semel mentes, sibi aeternum laborem portendi, sua facinora aversari deos lamentantur.

[28] A night menacing and ready to burst forth into crime Chance softened: for the moon, in a suddenly clear sky, seemed to languish. The soldier, ignorant of reason, took this as an omen of the present, likening the defection of the star to their own labors, and that things would turn out prosperously wherever they proceeded if the brightness and clarity of the goddess were restored. Therefore they make a din with the sound of bronze, with the concert of trumpets and horns; as she was more splendid or more obscured, they rejoice or mourn; and after clouds arose and hindered the sight and it was believed she had been buried in shadows, as minds once struck are mobile toward superstition, they lament that eternal toil is portended for themselves, that the gods are averse to their deeds.

utendum inclinatione ea Caesar et quae casus obtulerat in sapientiam vertenda ratus circumiri tentoria iubet; accitur centurio Clemens et si alii bonis artibus grati in vulgus. hi vigiliis, stationibus, custodiis portarum se inserunt, spem offerunt, metum intendunt. 'quo usque filium imperatoris obsidebimus?

Caesar, thinking that advantage should be taken of that inclination and that the things which chance had offered were to be turned into wisdom, orders the tents to be gone around; the centurion Clemens is summoned, and any others who, by good arts, are in favor with the common crowd. These men insert themselves into the watches, the outposts, the guards of the gates; they offer hope, they heighten fear. “How long shall we besiege the emperor’s son?”

quis certaminum finis? Percennione et Vibuleno sacramentum dicturi sumus? Percennius et Vibulenus stipendia militibus, agros emeritis largientur?

What end to the contests? Are we to swear the military oath to Percennius and Vibulenus? Will Percennius and Vibulenus bestow stipends upon the soldiers, and lands upon the veterans?

denique pro Neronibus et Drusis imperium populi Romani capessent? quin potius, ut novissimi in culpam, ita primi ad paenitentiam sumus? tarda sunt quae in commune expostulantur: privatam gratiam statim mereare, statim recipias.' commotis per haec mentibus et inter se suspectis, tironem a veterano.

at last, will they, on behalf of the Nerones and the Drusi, seize the imperium of the Roman people? why not rather, as we were the latest into fault, so let us be the first to repentance? the things demanded in common are slow: you may at once merit private favor, at once recover it.' with minds stirred by these things and suspicious of one another, they separated recruit from veteran.

legionem a legione dissociant. tum redire paulatim amor obsequii: omittunt portas, signa unum in locum principio seditionis congregata suas in sedes referunt.

they dissociate legion from legion. then little by little the love of obedience returns: they abandon the gates, they carry back the standards—congregated into one place at the beginning of the sedition—to their own stations.

[29] Drusus orto die et vocata contione, quamquam rudis dicendi, nobilitate ingenita incusat priora, probat praesentia; negat se terrore et minis vinci: flexos ad modestiam si videat, si supplices audiat, scripturum patri ut placatus legionum preces exciperet. orantibus rursum idem Blaesus et L. Aponius, eques Romanus e cohorte Drusi, Iustusque Catonius, primi ordinis centurio, ad Tiberium mittuntur. certatum inde sententiis, cum alii opperiendos legatos atque interim comitate permulcendum militem censerent, alii fortioribus remediis agendum: nihil in vulgo modicum; terrere ni paveant, ubi pertimuerint inpune contemni: dum superstitio urgeat, adiciendos ex duce metus sublatis seditionis auctoribus.

[29] At daybreak Drusus, with an assembly convoked, although untrained in speaking, by inborn nobility accuses the earlier acts, approves the present; he says he is not to be conquered by terror and threats: if he should see them bent back to modesty, if he should hear them as suppliants, he will write to his father that, appeased, he should receive the prayers of the legions. While they were begging again, the same Blaesus and L. Aponius, a Roman eques from Drusus’s cohort, and Justus Catonius, a centurion of the first rank, are sent to Tiberius. Then there was a contest of opinions, since some judged that the envoys should be waited for and meanwhile the soldiery soothed by comity, others that the matter should be handled by stronger remedies: nothing in the crowd is moderate; if they do not fear, they must be terrified; once you have thoroughly feared, you are despised with impunity. While the panic presses, fears ought to be added from the leader, with the authors of the sedition removed.

promptum ad asperiora ingenium Druso erat: vocatos Vibulenum et Percennium interfici iubet. tradunt plerique intra tabernaculum ducis obrutos, alii corpora extra vallum abiecta ostentui.

Drusus had a temperament prompt for harsher measures: he orders Vibulenus and Percennius, once summoned, to be put to death. Most relate that they were buried within the commander’s tent; others, that the bodies were cast outside the rampart for display.

[30] Tum ut quisque praecipuus turbator conquisiti, et pars, extra castra palantes, a centurionibus aut praetoriarum cohortium militibus caesi: quosdam ipsi manipuli documentum fidei tradidere. auxerat militum curas praematura hiems imbribus continuis adeoque saevis, ut non egredi tentoria, congregari inter se, vix tutari signa possent, quae turbine atque unda raptabantur. durabat et formido caelestis irae, nec frustra adversus impios hebescere sidera, ruere tempestates: non aliud malorum levamentum, quam si linquerent castra infausta temerataque et soluti piaculo suis quisque hibernis redderentur.

[30] Then the chief agitators were hunted down each in his turn, and some, wandering outside the camp, were cut down by the centurions or by soldiers of the praetorian cohorts; some the maniples themselves handed over as a proof of loyalty. A premature winter had increased the soldiers’ anxieties with continuous and so savage rains that they could not go out of their tents, gather together among themselves, scarcely protect the standards, which were being snatched away by whirlwind and flood. The dread of celestial wrath also endured, nor, they thought, was it for nothing that the stars grew dim against the impious and tempests came rushing down. There was no other alleviation of their woes than to leave the ill-omened and desecrated camp, and, released from the piacular guilt, that each be restored to his own winter-quarters.

primum octava, dein quinta decuma legio rediere: nonanus opperiendas Tiberii epistulas clamitaverat, mox desolatus aliorum discessione imminentem necessitatem sponte praevenit. et Drusus non exspectato legatorum regressu, quia praesentia satis consederant, in urbem rediit.

first the Eighth, then the Fifteenth legion returned: the Ninth had been clamoring that Tiberius’s letters should be awaited, but soon, left desolate by the departure of the others, it of its own accord forestalled the imminent necessity. And Drusus, not waiting for the return of the legates, because by his presence matters had sufficiently settled, returned to the city.

[31] Isdem ferme diebus isdem causis Germanicae legiones turbatae, quanto plures tanto violentius, et magna spe fore ut Germanicus Caesar imperium alterius pati nequiret daretque se legionibus vi sua cuncta tracturis. duo apud ripam Rheni exercitus erant: cui nomen superiori sub C. Silio legato, inferiorem A. Caecina curabat. regimen summae rei penes Germanicum agendo Galliarum censui tum intentum.

[31] In almost the same days, from almost the same causes, the German legions were disturbed—so much the more violently as they were more numerous—and with great hope that Germanicus Caesar would be unable to endure the imperium of another and would give himself to the legions, who by their own force would carry all things. Two armies were along the bank of the Rhine: that which bore the name “Upper” was under the legate Gaius Silius; the “Lower” Aulus Caecina administered. The regimen of the sum of affairs was in the hands of Germanicus, then intent on conducting the census of the Gauls.

sed quibus Silius moderabatur, mente ambigua fortunam seditionis alienae speculabantur: inferioris exercitus miles in rabiem prolapsus est, orto ab unetvicesimanis quintanisque initio, et tractis prima quoque ac vicesima legionibus: nam isdem aestivis in finibus Vbiorum habebantur per otium aut levia munia. igitur audito fine Augusti vernacula multitudo, nuper acto in urbe dilectu, lasciviae sueta, laborum intolerans, implere ceterorum rudes animos: venisse tempus quo veterani maturam missionem, iuvenes largiora stipendia, cuncti modum miseriarum exposcerent saevitiamque centurionum ulciscerentur. non unus haec, ut Pannonicas inter legiones Percennius, nec apud trepidas militum auris, alios validiores exercitus respicientium, sed multa seditionis ora vocesque: sua in manu sitam rem Romanam, suis victoriis augeri rem publicam, in suum cognomentum adscisci imperatores.

but those whom Silius was moderating, with an ambiguous mind were watching the fortune of another’s sedition; the soldiery of the lower army collapsed into rabidity, the outbreak having arisen from the Twenty-First and the Fifth, and the First and the Twentieth legions being drawn in as well: for in the same summer-quarters on the borders of the Ubii they were kept, in idleness or light duties. accordingly, when the end of Augustus was heard, the home-bred multitude, from a levy lately conducted in the city, accustomed to licentiousness, intolerant of labors, began to fill the raw minds of the rest: that the time had come when the veterans should demand a ripe discharge, the young men more ample stipends, all a limit of miseries, and that they should avenge the savagery of the centurions. it was not a single man saying these things, as Percennius among the Pannonian legions, nor was it among the trepid ears of soldiers who were looking back to other, stronger armies, but many mouths and voices of sedition: that the Roman state was set in their own hand, that by their victories the republic was increased, that emperors were enrolled into their own cognomen.

[32] Nec legatus obviam ibat: quippe plurium vaecordia constantiam exemerat. repente lymphati destrictis gladiis in centuriones invadunt: ea vetustissima militaribus odiis materies et saeviendi principium. prostratos verberibus mulcant, sexageni singulos, ut numerum centurionum adaequarent: tum convulsos laniatosque et partim exanimos ante vallum aut in amnem Rhenum proiciunt.

[32] Nor did the legate go to meet them: for the madness of the majority had stripped him of constancy. Suddenly, crazed (lymphatic), with swords drawn, they rush upon the centurions—this the most timeworn material for military hatreds and the beginning of savagery. Having thrown them down, they maul them with beatings, sixty to each one, so as to equal the number of centurions; then, wrenched and torn, and some lifeless, they cast them before the rampart or into the river Rhine.

Septimius cum perfugisset ad tribunal pedibusque Caecinae advolveretur, eo usque flagitatus est donec ad exitium dederetur. Cassius Chaerea, mox caede Gai Caesaris memoriam apud posteros adeptus, tum adulescens et animi ferox, inter obstantis et armatos ferro viam patefecit. non tribunus ultra, non castrorum praefectus ius obtinuit: vigilias, stationes, et si qua alia praesens usus indixerat, ipsi partiebantur.

Septimius, when he had fled for refuge to the tribunal and was rolling himself at Caecina’s feet, was clamored for to that point until he was given over to destruction. Cassius Chaerea, soon to obtain remembrance among posterity by the slaughter of Gaius Caesar, then a youth and fierce in spirit, opened a way with iron through those obstructing and the armed. No longer did the tribune, nor the prefect of the camp, maintain authority: the vigils, the stations, and whatever else the present exigency had enjoined, they themselves apportioned.

id militaris animos altius coniectantibus praecipuum indicium magni atque inplacabilis motus, quod neque disiecti nec paucorum instinctu, set pariter ardescerent, pariter silerent, tanta aequalitate et constantia ut regi crederes.

To those conjecturing more deeply about the soldiers’ minds, this was the chief indication of a great and implacable commotion: that they were neither scattered nor stirred by the instigation of a few, but flared up together and fell silent together, with such equality and constancy that you would think them ruled.

[33] Interea Germanico per Gallias, ut diximus, census accipienti excessisse Augustum adfertur. neptem eius Agrippinam in matrimonio pluresque ex ea liberos habebat, ipse Druso fratre Tiberii genitus, Augustae nepos, set anxius occultis in se patrui aviaeque odiis quorum causae acriores quia iniquae. quippe Drusi magna apud populum Romanum memoria, credebaturque, si rerum potitus foret, libertatem redditurus; unde in Germanicum favor et spes eadem.

[33] Meanwhile, to Germanicus, as he was conducting the census through the Gauls, as we said, it is reported that Augustus has departed. He had in matrimony his granddaughter Agrippina and several children by her; he himself, born of Drusus, the brother of Tiberius, the grandson of Augusta, but anxious at the hidden hatreds toward him of his paternal uncle and grandmother, the causes of which were the more bitter because unjust. For the memory of Drusus was great among the Roman people, and it was believed that, if he had gained possession of affairs, he would have restored liberty; whence toward Germanicus the same favor and the same hope.

nam iuveni civile ingenium, mira comitas et diversa ab Tiberii sermone vultu, adrogantibus et obscuris. accedebant muliebres offensiones novercalibus Liviae in Agrippinam stimulis, atque ipsa Agrippina paulo commotior, nisi quod castitate et mariti amore quamvis indomitum animum in bonum vertebat.

for the youth a civil disposition, wondrous comity, and qualities unlike Tiberius’s in speech and countenance—haughty and obscure. There were added feminine offenses, with Livia’s stepmotherly goads against Agrippina; and Agrippina herself was a little more excitable, except that by chastity and by love of her husband she would turn her spirit, however indomitable, toward the good.

[34] Sed Germanicus quanto summae spei propior, tanto impensius pro Tiberio niti. Sequanos proximos et Belgarum civitates in verba eius adigit. dehinc audito legionum tumultu raptim profectus obvias extra castra habuit, deiectis in terram oculis velut paenitentia.

[34] But the nearer Germanicus came to the highest hope, the more earnestly he strove on behalf of Tiberius. He brought the neighboring Sequani and the states of the Belgae to take the oath to him. Then, on hearing the tumult of the legions, setting out in haste he met those coming to meet him outside the camp, with his eyes cast down to the ground, as if in penitence.

postquam vallum iniit dissoni questus audiri coepere. et quidam prensa manu eius per speciem exosculandi inseruerunt digitos ut vacua dentibus ora contingeret; alii curvata senio membra ostendebant. adsistentem contionem, quia permixta videbatur, discedere in manipulos iubet: sic melius audituros responsum; vexilla praeferri ut id saltem discerneret cohortis: tarde obtemperavere.

After he entered the rampart, discordant complaints began to be heard. And certain men, his hand having been seized, under the guise of kissing inserted their fingers, so that his hand might touch mouths empty of teeth; others were displaying limbs bent with age. He orders the assembly standing by, because it seemed mingled, to break up into maniples: thus they would better hear the response; that the standards be borne in front, so that at least that might distinguish the cohorts: they obeyed slowly.

tunc a veneratione Augusti orsus flexit ad victorias triumphosque Tiberii, praecipuis laudibus celebrans quae apud Germanias illis cum legionibus pulcherrima fecisset. Italiae inde consensum, Galliarum fidem extollit; nil usquam turbidum aut discors. silentio haec vel murmure modico audita sunt.

then, beginning from the veneration of Augustus, he turned to the victories and triumphs of Tiberius, celebrating with chief praises what most splendid deeds he had accomplished among the Germanies with those legions. Thereafter he extols the consensus of Italy, the fidelity of the Gauls; nothing anywhere turbid or discordant. These things were heard in silence or with a slight murmur.

[35] Ut seditionem attigit, ubi modestia militaris, ubi veteris disciplinae decus, quonam tribunos, quo centuriones exegissent, rogitans, nudant universi corpora, cicatrices ex vulneribus, verberum notas exprobrant; mox indiscretis vocibus pretia vacationum, angustias stipendii, duritiam operum ac propriis nominibus incusant vallum, fossas, pabuli materiae lignorum adgestus, et si qua alia ex necessitate aut adversus otium castrorum quaeruntur. atrocissimus veteranorum clamor oriebatur, qui tricena aut supra stipendia numerantes, mederetur fessis, neu mortem in isdem laboribus, sed finem tam exercitae militiae neque inopem requiem orabant. fuere etiam qui legatam a divo Augusto pecuniam reposcerent, faustis in Germanicum ominibus; et si vellet imperium promptos ostentavere.

[35] When he touched upon the sedition—asking where was military modesty, where the glory of the old discipline, whither they had driven the tribunes, whither the centurions—they all strip their bodies, upbraid him with cicatrices from wounds and the marks of floggings; soon, with indiscriminate voices, they arraign the prices of exemptions from duty, the meagerness of pay, the hardness of tasks, and by their proper names they indict the rampart, the ditches, the haulings‑in of fodder, materials, and wood, and whatever else is demanded either by necessity or to ward off the idleness of the camp. The most atrocious clamor of the veterans arose, who, counting thirty or more stipends (years of service), begged that relief be applied to the weary, and prayed not for death in the same toils, but for an end to such over‑drilled soldiery and a rest not destitute. There were even some who demanded back the money bequeathed by the deified Augustus, with omens favorable to Germanicus; and, if he wished the imperium (supreme command), they showed themselves ready.

tum vero, quasi scelere contaminaretur, praeceps tribunali desiluit. opposuerunt abeunti arma, minitantes, ni regrederetur; at ille moriturum potius quam fidem exueret clamitans, ferrum a latere diripuit elatumque deferebat in pectus, ni proximi prensam dextram vi attinuissent. extrema et conglobata inter se pars contionis ac, vix credibile dictu, quidam singuli propius incedentes feriret hortabantur; et miles nomine Calusidius strictum obtulit gladium, addito acutiorem esse.

Then indeed, as if he were being contaminated by crime, he leapt headlong down from the tribunal. They set arms against him as he departed, threatening that he must return; but he, shouting that he would rather die than cast off his fidelity, snatched the steel from his side, and, lifted up, was bringing it down into his breast, unless those nearest had by force held back his seized right hand. The outermost and mutually massed part of the assembly—and, scarcely credible to say—certain men, advancing nearer one by one, were urging him to strike; and a soldier by the name Calusidius offered a drawn sword, adding that it was sharper.

saevum id malique moris etiam furentibus visum, ac spatium fuit quo Caesar ab amicis in tabernaculum raperetur.

That was deemed savage and of evil custom even by the frenzied, and there was an interval during which Caesar was snatched by his friends into the tent.

[36] Consultatum ibi de remedio; etenim nuntiabatur parari legatos qui superiorem exercitum ad causam eandem traherent; destinatum excidio Vbiorum oppidum, imbutasque praeda manus in direptionem Galliarum erupturas. augebat metum gnarus Romanae seditionis et, si omitteretur ripa, invasurus hostis: at si auxilia et socii adversum abscedentis legiones armarentur, civile bellum suscipi. periculosa severitas, flagitiosa largitio: seu nihil militi sive omnia concedentur in ancipiti res publica.

[36] A consultation was held there about a remedy; for indeed it was reported that legates were being prepared to draw the Upper army into the same cause; that the town of the Ubii was destined for destruction, and that hands steeped in booty would burst forth for the direption of the Gauls. The fear was increased by an enemy aware of the Roman sedition and ready to invade if the riverbank were abandoned; but if the auxiliaries and allies were armed against the legions as they withdrew, a civil war would be undertaken. Severity is perilous, largess is shameful: whether nothing or everything be conceded to the soldier, the commonwealth is in a doubtful pass.

igitur volutatis inter se rationibus placitum ut epistulae nomine principis scriberentur: missionem dari vicena stipendia meritis, exauctorari qui sena dena fecissent ac retineri sub vexillo ceterorum inmunes nisi propulsandi hostis, legata quae petiverant exsolvi duplicarique.

therefore, after they had revolved considerations among themselves, it was decided that epistles be written in the name of the Princeps: that discharge be given to those who had earned twenty stipends, that those who had completed sixteen be cashiered and retained under the standard, immune from the rest except for repelling the enemy; that the legacies which they had requested be paid and doubled.

[37] Sensit miles in tempus conficta statimque flagitavit. missio per tribunos maturatur, largitio differebatur in hiberna cuiusque. non abscessere quintani unetvicesimanique donec isdem in aestivis contracta ex viatico amicorum ipsiusque Caesaris pecunia persolveretur.

[37] The soldiery sensed that the promises had been contrived for the moment and at once demanded fulfillment. The discharge was hastened by the tribunes; the largess was deferred to each man’s winter-quarters. The men of the Fifth and Twenty-first did not withdraw until, in the same summer camp, money gathered from the viaticum of friends and of Caesar himself was paid in full.

primam ac vicesimam legiones Caecina legatus in civitatem Vbiorum reduxit turpi agmine cum fisci de imperatore rapti inter signa interque aquilas veherentur. Germanicus superiorem ad exercitum profectus secundam et tertiam decumam et sextam decumam legiones nihil cunctatas sacramento adigit. quartadecumani paulum dubitaverant: pecunia et missio quamvis non flagitantibus oblata est.

The First and the Twentieth legions Caecina the legate led back into the city of the Ubii, in a disgraceful column, with the coffers of the imperial fiscus, plundered from the emperor, being carried among the standards and among the eagles. Germanicus set out to the upper army and compelled the Second, the Thirteenth, and the Sixteenth legions, not hesitating at all, to the oath. The Fourteenth had wavered a little: money and discharge, although not being demanded, were offered.

[38] At in Chaucis coeptavere seditionem praesidium agitantes vexillarii discordium legionum et praesenti duorum militum supplicio paulum repressi sunt. iusserat id M'. Ennius castrorum praefectus, bono magis exemplo quam concesso iure. deinde intumescente motu profugus repertusque, postquam intutae latebrae, praesidium ab audacia mutuatur: non praefectum ab iis, sed Germanicum ducem, sed Tiberium imperatorem violari.

[38] But among the Chauci the vexillaries, doing garrison-duty, of the discordant legions began a sedition, and by the present punishment of two soldiers were somewhat repressed. M'. Ennius, the prefect of the camp, had ordered this, more for a good example than by a conceded right. Then, as the movement swelled, a fugitive and found out—when his hiding-places were unsafe—he borrows a safeguard from audacity: it is not a prefect that is being violated by them, but Germanicus the leader, but Tiberius the emperor.

simul exterritis qui obstiterant, raptum vexillum ad ripam vertit, et si quis agmine decessisset, pro desertore fore clamitans, reduxit in hiberna turbidos et nihil ausos.

at the same time, with those who had stood in the way terrified, he turned the snatched standard toward the bank, and, shouting that if anyone had departed from the column he would be as a deserter, he led back into the winter-quarters men in turmoil and daring nothing.

[39] Interea legati ab senatu regressum iam apud aram Vbiorum Germanicum adeunt. duae ibi legiones, prima atque vicesima, veteranique nuper missi sub vexillo hiemabant. pavidos et conscientia vaecordes intrat metus venisse patrum iussu qui inrita facerent quae per seditionem expresserant.

[39] Meanwhile envoys from the Senate approach Germanicus, now returned at the Altar of the Ubii. Two legions there, the First and the Twentieth, and veterans recently dismissed under the standard, were wintering. Into men timid and distraught by conscience there enters a fear that there had come, by the order of the Fathers, those who would invalidate the things which they had extorted by sedition.

utque mos vulgo quamvis falsis reum subdere, Munatium Plancum consulatu functum, principem legationis, auctorem senatus consulti incusant; et nocte concubia vexillum in domo Germanici situm flagitare occipiunt, concursuque ad ianuam facto moliuntur foris, extractum cubili Caesarem tradere vexillum intento mortis metu subigunt. mox vagi per vias obvios habuere legatos, audita consternatione ad Germanicum tendentis. ingerunt contumelias, caedem parant, Planco maxime, quem dignitas fuga impediverat; neque aliud periclitanti subsidium quam castra primae legionis.

And, as the mob’s custom is to pin a charge, even on false grounds, they accuse Munatius Plancus, who had discharged the consulship, the chief of the embassy, as the author of the senatorial decree; and at dead of night they begin insistently to demand the standard that had been set up in the house of Germanicus, and, with a rush made to the doorway, they heave at the doors, and, with the fear of death held over him, they force Caesar, dragged from his bed, to hand over the standard. Soon, wandering through the streets, they fell in with the envoys, who, the consternation having been heard, were making for Germanicus. They heap contumelies upon them, they prepare slaughter—especially against Plancus, whom his dignity had hindered from flight; nor was there any aid for the man in peril other than the camp of the First Legion.

illic signa et aquilam amplexus religione sese tutabatur, ac ni aquilifer Calpurnius vim extremam arcuisset, rarum etiam inter hostis, legatus populi Romani Romanis in castris sanguine suo altaria deum commaculavisset. luce demum, postquam dux et miles et facta noscebantur, ingressus castra Germanicus perduci ad se Plancum imperat recepitque in tribunal. tum fatalem increpans rabiem, neque militum sed deum ira resurgere, cur venerint legati aperit; ius legationis atque ipsius Planci gravem et immeritum casum, simul quantum dedecoris adierit legio, facunde miseratur, attonitaque magis quam quieta contione legatos praesidio auxiliarium equitum dimittit.

there, embracing the standards and the eagle, he was protecting himself by religious sanctity; and, had not the aquilifer Calpurnius warded off the extreme violence, a thing rare even among enemies, the legate of the Roman people would, in the Roman camp, with his own blood have befouled the altars of the gods. at last at daybreak, after the commander and the soldiers and the deeds were recognized, Germanicus, entering the camp, orders that Plancus be brought to him and received him upon the tribunal. then, rebuking the fated rabies, and that it was not by the soldiers but by the gods’ wrath that matters were rising again, he discloses why the envoys have come; the right of legation and Plancus’s own grave and undeserved plight, at the same time how much disgrace the legion has incurred, he eloquently laments; and, the assembly more thunderstruck than quieted, he dismisses the envoys with a guard of auxiliary cavalry.

[40] Eo in metu arguere Germanicum omnes quod non ad superiorem exercitum pergeret, ubi obsequia et contra rebellis auxilium: satis superque missione et pecunia et mollibus consultis peccatum vel si vilis ipsi salus, cur filium parvulum, cur gravidam coniugem inter furentis et omnis humani iuris violatores haberet? illos saltem avo et rei publicae redderet. diu cunctatus aspernantem uxorem, cum se divo Augusto ortam neque degenerem ad pericula testaretur, postremo uterum eius et communem filium multo cum fletu complexus, ut abiret perpulit.

[40] In that fear all were accusing Germanicus because he did not proceed to the upper army, where there was obedience and, against the rebels, aid: there had been sin enough and to spare in discharges and money and soft counsels; or if his own safety were cheap to himself, why did he keep his little son, why his pregnant wife, among the frenzied and violators of all human law? Those at least he should restore to their grandfather and to the commonwealth. After long delaying, though his wife refused, since she was avowing that she had sprung from the deified Augustus and was not degenerate for dangers, at last, embracing her womb and their common son with much weeping, he compelled her to depart.

incedebat muliebre et miserabile agmen, profuga ducis uxor, parvulum sinu filium gerens, lamentantes circum amicorum coniuges quae simul trahebantur nec minus tristes qui manebant.

there was proceeding a womanly and miserable procession, the fugitive wife of the leader, bearing a tiny son at her bosom, around her the wives of friends lamenting who were being dragged along together, and those who remained were no less sad.

[41] Non florentis Caesaris neque suis in castris, sed velut in urbe victa facies gemitusque ac planctus etiam militum auris oraque advertere: progrediuntur contuberniis. quis ille flebilis sonus? quod tam triste?

[41] Not the aspect of a flourishing Caesar nor of his own camp, but as in a captured city; and the groans and lamentation even drew the soldiers’ ears and faces: they come forth from their tent-parties. what is that mournful sound? what so sad?

feminas inlustris, non centurionem ad tutelam, non militem, nihil imperatoriae uxoris aut comitatus soliti: pergere ad Treviros [et] externae fidei. pudor inde et miseratio et patris Agrippae, Augusti avi memoria, socer Drusus, ipsa insigni fecunditate, praeclara pudicitia; iam infans in castris genitus, in contubernio legionum eductus, quem militari vocabulo Caligulam appellabant, quia plerumque ad concilianda vulgi studia eo tegmine pedum induebatur. sed nihil aeque flexit quam invidia in Treviros: orant obsistunt, rediret maneret, pars Agrippinae occursantes, plurimi ad Germanicum regressi.

illustrious women, no centurion for protection, no soldier, nothing of the imperial wife or of the usual retinue: to proceed to the Treveri [and] to the faith of foreigners. From this came shame and compassion, and the memory of her father Agrippa, her grandsire Augustus, her father‑in‑law Drusus, she herself with remarkable fecundity, with renowned chastity; already an infant born in the camp, brought up in the contubernium of the legions, whom with a military vocable they called “Caligula,” because very often, to conciliate the favor of the crowd, he was clothed in that covering of the feet. But nothing bent them so much as ill‑will toward the Treveri: they beg, they block, that she return, that she remain, some running to meet Agrippina, very many having gone back to Germanicus.

isque ut erat recens dolore et ira apud circumfusos ita coepit.

and he, as he was, fresh with grief and anger, began thus among the surrounding crowd.

[42] 'Non mihi uxor aut filius patre et re publica cariores sunt, sed illum quidem sua maiestas, imperium Romanum ceteri exercitus defendent. coniugem et liberos meos, quos pro gloria vestra libens ad exitium offerrem, nunc procul a furentibus summoveo, ut quidquid istud sceleris imminet, meo tantum sanguine pietur, neve occisus Augusti pronepos, interfecta Tiberii nurus nocentiores vos faciant. quid enim per hos dies inausum intemeratumve vobis?

[42] 'Not my wife or my son are dearer to me than my father and the commonwealth; but him indeed his own majesty, the Roman imperium, and the other armies will defend. My consort and my children, whom for your glory I would gladly offer to destruction, I now remove far from the frenzied, so that whatever that crime is which impends may be expiated by my blood alone, and lest, with the great-grandson of Augustus slain and the daughter-in-law of Tiberius murdered, they make you more culpable. For what, through these days, has been left unattempted or inviolate by you?

quod nomen huic coetui dabo? militesne appellem, qui filium imperatoris vestri vallo et armis circumsedistis? an civis, quibus tam proiecta senatus auctoritas?

What name shall I give to this coetus? Shall I call you soldiers, who have besieged the son of your emperor with rampart and arms? Or citizens, for whom the authority of the senate has been so cast aside?

hostium quoque ius et sacra legationis et fas gentium rupistis. divus Iulius seditionem exercitus verbo uno compescuit, Quirites vocando qui sacramentum eius detrectabant: divus Augustus vultu et aspectu Actiacas legiones exterruit: nos ut nondum eosdem, ita ex illis ortos si Hispaniae Syriaeve miles aspernaretur, tamen mirum et indignum erat. primane et vicesima legiones, illa signis a Tiberio acceptis, tu tot proeliorum socia, tot praemiis aucta, egregiam duci vestro gratiam refertis?

You have broken even the right of enemies, and the sanctity of legation, and the sacred law of nations. The deified Julius quelled an army’s sedition with a single word, by calling “Quirites” those who were declining his sacrament; the deified Augustus, by his countenance and aspect, terrified the Actian legions. That soldiers of Spain or of Syria should spurn us—though we are not yet the same men, yet sprung from those—would nevertheless be strange and disgraceful. And you—the First and the Twentieth legions, the former having received its standards from Tiberius, and you, partner in so many battles, augmented by so many rewards—do you render such remarkable gratitude to your leader?

hunc ego nuntium patri laeta omnia aliis e provinciis audienti feram? ipsius tirones, ipsius veteranos non missione, non pecunia satiatos: hic tantum interfici centuriones, eici tribunos, includi legatos, infecta sanguine castra, flumina, meque precariam animam inter infensos trahere.

Shall I carry this message to my father, as he hears that all is joyful from the other provinces? that his tyros, his veterans are satisfied neither by discharge nor by pecuniary pay: that here only the centurions are being slain, the tribunes driven out, the legates shut in, the camp and the rivers stained with blood, and that I drag a precarious life among the hostile.

[43] 'Cur enim primo contionis die ferrum illud, quod pectori meo infigere parabam, detraxistis, o inprovidi amici? melius et amantius ille qui gladium offerebat. cecidissem certe nondum tot flagitiorum exercitu meo conscius; legissetis ducem, qui meam quidem mortem inpunitam sineret, Vari tamen et trium legionum ulcisceretur.

[43] 'Why indeed, on the first day of the assembly, did you take away that iron which I was preparing to drive into my breast, O improvident friends? Better and more lovingly was he who was offering the sword. I would certainly have fallen, my army not yet conscious of so many flagitious acts; you would have chosen a leader who would indeed allow my death to go unpunished, yet would avenge Varus and the three legions.

neque enim di sinant ut Belgarum quamquam offerentium decus istud et claritudo sit subvenisse Romano nomini, compressisse Germaniae populos. tua, dive Auguste, caelo recepta mens, tua, pater Druse, imago, tui memoria isdem istis cum militibus, quos iam pudor et gloria intrat, eluant hanc maculam irasque civilis in exitium hostibus vertant. vos quoque, quorum alia nunc ora, alia pectora contueor, si legatos senatui, obsequium imperatori, si mihi coniugem et filium redditis, discedite a contactu ac dividite turbidos: id stabile ad paenitentiam, id fidei vinculum erit.'

nor indeed let the gods allow that the honor and renown—though the Belgae offer it—belong to the Belgae: to have come to the aid of the Roman name, to have suppressed the peoples of Germania. your mind, divine Augustus, received into heaven; you, father Druse, your image; the memory of you, with these same soldiers, whom now shame and glory take hold of, let them wash out this stain and turn civil wraths into destruction for the enemies. you too, whose faces I now behold to be other, whose hearts are other, if you return envoys to the senate, obedience to the emperor, if you restore to me my wife and son, withdraw from contagion and separate the turbulent: that will be a stable step toward penitence, that will be a bond of faith.'

[44] Supplices ad haec et vera exprobrari fatentes orabant puniret noxios, ignosceret lapsis et duceret in hostem: revocaretur coniunx, rediret legionum alumnus neve obses Gallis traderetur. reditum Agrippinae excusavit ob inminentem partum et hiemem: venturum filium: cetera ipsi exsequerentur. discurrunt mutati et seditiosissimum quemque vinctos trahunt ad legatum legionis primae C. Caetronium, qui iudicium et poenas de singulis in hunc modum exercuit.

[44] As suppliants, and confessing that true reproaches were being cast at them, they begged that he punish the guilty, forgive the lapsed, and lead them against the enemy: that the spouse be recalled, that the alumnus of the legions return, and that he not be handed over as a hostage to the Gauls. He excused Agrippina’s return on account of the imminent childbirth and the winter: the son would come; they themselves would carry out the rest. They run about, changed, and they drag each most seditious man in bonds to the legate of the 1st legion, Gaius Caetronius, who exercised judgment and penalties upon individuals in this manner.

stabant pro contione legiones destrictis gladiis: reus in suggestu per tribunum ostendebatur: si nocentem adclamaverant, praeceps datus trucidabatur. et gaudebat caedibus miles tamquam semet absolveret; nec Caesar arcebat, quando nullo ipsius iussu penes eosdem saevitia facti et invidia erat. secuti exemplum veterani haud multo post in Raetiam mittuntur, specie defendendae provinciae ob imminentis Suebos ceterum ut avellerentur castris trucibus adhuc non minus asperitate remedii quam sceleris memoria.

The legions stood before the assembly with drawn swords: the accused was shown on the platform by a tribune; if they had acclaimed him guilty, he was hurled headlong and butchered. And the soldiery rejoiced at the slaughters as though they were absolving themselves; nor did Caesar restrain them, since, with no order of his, the savagery of the deed and the odium lay with those same men. The veterans, following the example, not long after are sent into Raetia, under the pretext of defending the province on account of the imminent Suebi—but in fact so that they might be torn away from the camp, the camps still truculent, not less from the harshness of the remedy than from the memory of the crime.

centurionatum inde egit. citatus ab imperatore nomen, ordinem, patriam, numerum stipendiorum, quae strenue in proeliis fecisset, et cui erant, dona militaria edebat. si tribuni, si legio industriam innocentiamque ad probaverant, retinebat ordinem: ubi avaritiam aut crudelitatem consensu obiectavissent, solvebatur militia.

He then exercised the centurionate. Summoned by the emperor, he produced his name, rank, fatherland, the number of stipends (terms of service), what he had done strenuously in battles, and, if he had them, he produced his military gifts (decorations). If the tribunes, if the legion had approved his industry and innocence, he retained his rank; when by consensus they had alleged avarice or cruelty, he was released from the soldiery.

[45] Sic compositis praesentibus haud minor moles supererat ob ferociam quintae et unetvicesimae legionum, sexagesimum apud lapidem (loco Vetera nomen est) hibernantium. nam primi seditionem coeptaverant: atrocissimum quodque facinus horum manibus patratum; nec poena commilitonum exterriti nec paenitentia conversi iras retinebant. igitur Caesar arma classem socios demittere Rheno parat, si imperium detrectetur, bello certaturus.

[45] With the present matters thus composed, a burden no less remained, on account of the ferocity of the Fifth and Nineteenth legions, wintering at the sixtieth milestone (the place has the name Vetera). For they had been the first to begin the sedition: every most atrocious deed was perpetrated by the hands of these; nor, terrified by the punishment of their fellow-soldiers nor turned by penitence, did they lay aside their wrath. Therefore Caesar prepares to send down arms, the fleet, and allies down the Rhine, if the command should be refused, intending to contend by war.

[46] At Romae nondum cognito qui fuisset exitus in Illyrico, et legionum Germanicarum motu audito, trepida civitas incusare Tiberium quod, dum patres et plebem, invalida et inermia, cunctatione ficta ludificetur, dissideat interim miles neque duorum adulescentium nondum adulta auctoritate comprimi queat. ire ipsum et opponere maiestatem imperatoriam debuisse cessuris ubi principem longa experientia eundemque severitatis et munificentiae summum vidissent. an Augustum fessa aetate totiens in Germanias commeare potuisse: Tiberium vigentem annis sedere in senatu, verba patrum cavillantem?

[46] But at Rome, since it was not yet known what the outcome had been in Illyricum, and when the movement of the German legions was heard of, the alarmed city began to accuse Tiberius because, while with feigned procrastination he was making sport of the fathers and the plebs, feeble and unarmed, meanwhile the soldiery was at odds and could not be restrained by the not yet adult authority of two adolescents. He himself, they said, ought to go and set in opposition the imperatorial majesty—who would yield when they had seen the princeps, with long experience, and the same man supreme in severity and munificence. Or could Augustus, with age worn, so often make journeys to the Germanies, while Tiberius, vigorous in years, sits in the senate, cavilling at the words of the fathers?

satis prospectum urbanae servituti: militaribus animis adhibenda fomenta ut ferre pacem velint.

enough provision has been made for urban servitude: fomentations must be applied to the military spirits, so that they may be willing to endure peace.

[47] Immotum adversus eos sermones fixumque Tiberio fuit non omittere caput rerum neque se remque publicam in casum dare. multa quippe et diversa angebant: validior per Germaniam exercitus, propior apud Pannoniam; ille Galliarum opibus subnixus, hic Italiae inminens: quos igitur anteferret? ac ne postpositi contumelia incenderentur.

[47] Unmoved by those speeches and fixed was it for Tiberius not to abandon the head of affairs, nor to give himself and the commonwealth over to chance. For many and diverse concerns were vexing him: the army throughout Germany was the stronger, that in Pannonia the nearer; the former propped by the resources of the Gauls, the latter overhanging Italy. Which, then, should he prefer? and lest those who were postponed be inflamed by the contumely.

at per filios pariter adiri maiestate salva, cui maior e longinquo reverentia. simul adulescentibus excusatum quaedam ad patrem reicere, resistentisque Germanico aut Druso posse a se mitigari vel infringi: quod aliud subsidium si imperatorem sprevissent? ceterum ut iam iamque iturus legit comites, conquisivit impedimenta, adornavit navis: mox hiemem aut negotia varie causatus primo prudentis, dein vulgum, diutissime provincias fefellit.

but through the sons he could be approached equally, with majesty kept safe, for which there is greater reverence from a distance. At the same time it was excused for adolescents to refer certain matters back to the father, and those resisting Germanicus or Drusus could by himself be mitigated or broken: what other succor was there if they had scorned the emperor? Moreover, as though just now and now about to go, he chose companions, collected the impedimenta, fitted out ships: soon, alleging winter or business in various ways, he deceived at first the prudent, then the crowd, and for the longest time the provinces.

[48] At Germanicus, quamquam contracto exercitu et parata in defectores ultione, dandum adhuc spatium ratus, si recenti exemplo sibi ipsi consulerent, praemittit litteras ad Caecinam, venire se valida manu ac, ni supplicium in malos praesumant, usurum promisca caede. eas Caecina aquiliferis signiferisque et quod maxime castrorum sincerum erat occulte recitat, utque cunctos infamiae, se ipsos morti eximant hortatur: nam in pace causas et merita spectari, ubi bellum ingruat innocentis ac noxios iuxta cadere. illi temptatis quos idoneos rebantur, postquam maiorem legionum partem in officio vident, de sententia legati statuunt tempus, quo foedissimum quemque et seditioni promptum ferro invadant.

[48] But Germanicus, although with the army contracted and vengeance prepared against the defectors, thinking that a respite was still to be given, if by the recent example they would consult their own interests, sends letters ahead to Caecina, that he is coming with a strong force and, unless they anticipate punishment upon the wicked, he will employ promiscuous slaughter. These Caecina secretly reads to the eagle-bearers and standard-bearers and whatever was the most untainted of the camp, and he urges that they exempt all from infamy, themselves from death: for in peace causes and merits are weighed; when war threatens, the innocent and the guilty fall alike. They, after testing those whom they deemed suitable, after they see the greater part of the legions in obedience, in accordance with the opinion of the legate they fix a time at which they may assail with steel each vilest man and the one prompt for sedition.

tunc signo inter se dato inrumpunt contubernia, trucidant ignaros, nullo nisi consciis noscente quod caedis initium, quis finis.

then, a signal having been given among themselves, they burst into the barrack-tents, butcher the unsuspecting, none knowing save the accomplices what the beginning of the slaughter, what the end.

[49] Diversa omnium, quae umquam accidere, civilium armorum facies. non proelio, non adversis e castris, sed isdem e cubilibus, quos simul vescentis dies, simul quietos nox habuerat, discedunt in partis, ingerunt tela clamor vulnera sanguis palam, causa in occulto; cetera fors regit. et quidam bonorum caesi, postquam intellecto in quos saeviretur pessimi quoque arma rapuerant.

[49] A visage unlike all that ever befell in civil arms. Not by pitched battle, not from opposing camps, but from the same couches, those whom the day had held feasting together and the night quiet together, they part into parties; they thrust in weapons—shout, wounds, blood in the open, the cause in the hidden; fortune rules the rest. And some of the good were cut down, after, once it was understood at whom the savagery was aimed, the worst men too had snatched up arms.

neque legatus aut tribunus moderator adfuit: permissa vulgo licentia atque ultio et satietas. mox ingressus castra Germanicus, non medicinam illud plurimis cum lacrimis sed cladem appellans, cremari corpora iubet. Truces etiam tum animos cupido involat eundi in hostem, piaculum furoris; nec aliter posse placari commilitonum manis quam si pectoribus impiis honesta vulnera accepissent.

nor was a legate or a tribune present as moderator: license and vengeance and satiety were granted to the common crowd. soon, Germanicus, having entered the camp, calling that not a remedy with very many tears but a disaster, orders the bodies to be cremated. Even then a desire swoops into their savage spirits of going against the enemy, an expiation of the frenzy; nor could the shades of their fellow-soldiers be appeased otherwise than if upon impious breasts they had dealt honorable wounds.

sequitur ardorem militum Caesar iunctoque ponte tramittit duodecim milia e legionibus, sex et viginti socias cohortis, octo equitum alas, quarum ea seditione intemerata modestia fuit.

Caesar follows the ardor of the soldiers, and, a bridge having been joined, sends across twelve thousand from the legions, twenty-six allied cohorts, and eight wings of cavalry, whose modesty was unsullied in that sedition.

[50] Laeti neque procul Germani agitabant, dum iustitio ob amissum Augustum, post discordiis attinemur. at Romanus agmine propero silvam Caesiam limitemque a Tiberio coeptum scindit, castra in limite locat, frontem ac tergum vallo, latera concaedibus munitus. inde saltus obscuros permeat consultatque ex duobus itineribus breve et solitum sequatur an inpeditius et intemptatum eoque hostibus incautum.

[50] Glad, and not far off, the Germans were active, while we were held back by a iustitium for the loss of Augustus, and afterward by discords. But the Roman, with a hasty column, cuts through the Caesian Forest and the limes begun by Tiberius, sets his camp on the limes, its front and rear fortified with a rampart, its flanks with felled trunks. Thence he permeates shadowy passes and considers, between two itineraries, whether to follow the short and usual route, or the more impeded and unattempted, and for that very reason unwatched by the enemy.

delecta longiore via cetera adcelerantur: etenim attulerant exploratores festam eam Germanis noctem ac sollemnibus epulis ludicram. Caecina cum expeditis cohortibus praeire et obstantia silvarum amoliri iubetur: legiones modico intervallo sequuntur. iuvit nox sideribus inlustris, ventumque ad vicos Marsorum et circumdatae stationes stratis etiam tum per cubilia propterque mensas, nullo metu, non antepositis vigiliis: adeo cuncta incuria disiecta erant neque belli timor, ac ne pax quidem nisi languida et soluta inter temulentos.

with the longer route chosen, the rest are accelerated: for the explorers had brought word that that night was festal for the Germans and, with solemn banquets, given over to merrymaking. Caecina is ordered to go before with the unencumbered cohorts and to remove the obstacles of the forests; the legions follow at a moderate interval. The night, illustrious with stars, helped, and they came to the villages of the Marsi, and the outposts were surrounded—men even then stretched over their couches and beside their tables—without any fear, with no watches set in advance: to such a degree was everything scattered by carelessness, nor was there fear of war, and not even peace except languid and loosened among the drunken.

[51] Caesar avidas legiones quo latior populatio foret quattuor in cuneos dispertit; quinquaginta milium spatium ferro flammisque pervastat. non sexus, non aetas miserationem attulit: profana simul et sacra et celeberrimum illis gentibus templum quod Tanfanae vocabant solo aequantur. sine vulnere milites, qui semisomnos, inermos aut palantis ceciderant.

[51] Caesar distributes the avid legions into four wedges, so that the depredation might be broader; he utterly devastates a space of fifty miles with iron and flames. Neither sex nor age brought compassion: profane and sacred alike, and the most celebrated temple among those peoples, which they called that of Tanfana, are leveled with the soil. The soldiers were without wound, as they had cut down men half-asleep, unarmed, or straggling.

excivit ea caedes Bructeros, Tubantes, Vsipetes, saltusque, per quos exercitui regressus, insedere. quod gnarum duci incessitque itineri et proelio. pars equitum et auxiliariae cohortes ducebant, mox prima legio, et mediis impedimentis sinistrum latus unetvicesimani, dextrum quintani clausere, vicesima legio terga firmavit, post ceteri sociorum.

That slaughter excited the Bructeri, the Tubantes, the Usipetes, and they occupied the forest-passes through which there was a return for the army. This being known to the leader, he advanced both for the march and for battle. A part of the cavalry and the auxiliary cohorts led the way, next the 1st legion; and with the baggage-train in the middle, the 21st closed the left flank, the 5th the right; the 20th legion strengthened the rear; after them, the rest of the allies.

sed hostes, donec agmen per saltus porrigeretur, immoti, dein latera et frontem modice adsultantes, tota vi novissimos incurrere. turbabanturque densis Germanorum catervis leves cohortes, cum Caesar advectus ad vicesimanos voce magna hoc illud tempus obliterandae seditionis clamitabat: pergerent, properarent culpam in decus vertere. exarsere animis unoque impetu perruptum hostem redigunt in aperta caeduntque: simul primi agminis copiae evasere silvas castraque communivere.

but the enemy, until the column was stretched out through the forest-passes, stood unmoved; then, moderately assailing the flanks and the front, with their whole force they ran upon the rearmost. and the light cohorts were thrown into disorder by the dense bands of the Germans, when Caesar, having ridden up to the men of the Twentieth, with a great voice kept shouting that this was the time for blotting out the sedition: let them press on, let them hasten to turn blame into decorum-glory. they blazed up in spirit, and with one impulse they break through the enemy, drive them back into the open and cut them down; at the same time the forces of the vanguard escaped the woods and fortified the camp.

quietum inde iter, fidensque recentibus ac priorum oblitus miles in hibernis locatur.

From there the march was quiet, and the soldiery, confident from the recent and forgetful of the prior, was settled in winter quarters.

[52] Nuntiata ea Tiberium laetitia curaque adfecere: gaudebat oppressam seditionem, sed quod largiendis pecuniis et missione festinata favorem militum quaesivisset, bellica quoque Germanici gloria angebatur. rettulit tamen ad senatum de rebus gestis multaque de virtute eius memoravit, magis in speciem verbis adornata quam ut penitus sentire crederetur. paucioribus Drusum et finem Illyrici motus laudavit, sed intentior et fida oratione.

[52] Those announcements, when reported, affected Tiberius with joy and care: he rejoiced that the sedition had been crushed, but because by largesses of money and by a hastened discharge he had sought the favor of the soldiers, he was also vexed by the military glory of Germanicus. Nevertheless he reported to the Senate about the deeds accomplished and made mention of many things concerning his virtue, the words adorned rather for appearance than such as one would believe he felt deeply. With fewer words he praised Drusus and the end of the Illyricum disturbance, but with a more intent and faithful oration.

cunctaque quae Germanicus indulserat servavit etiam apud Pannonicos exercitus.

and he preserved all the indulgences that Germanicus had granted, even among the Pannonian armies.

[53] Eodem anno Iulia supremum diem obiit, ob impudicitiam olim a patre Augusto Pandateria insula, mox oppido Reginorum, qui Siculum fretum accolunt, clausa. fuerat in matrimonio Tiberii florentibus Gaio et Lucio Caesaribus spreveratque ut inparem; nec alia tam intima Tiberio causa cur Rhodum abscederet. imperium adeptus extorrem, infamem et post interfectum Postumum Agrippam omnis spei egenam inopia ac tabe longa peremit, obscuram fore necem longinquitate exilii ratus.

[53] In the same year Julia met her last day, long ago for her impudicity shut up by her father Augustus on the island of Pandateria, soon afterwards in the town of the Regini, who dwell by the Sicilian strait. She had been in marriage to Tiberius while Gaius and Lucius Caesars were flourishing, and had spurned him as not a match; nor was there any other cause so intimate to Tiberius why he withdrew to Rhodes. Having attained the imperium, he destroyed her—an exile, infamous, and, after Agrippa Postumus had been killed, bereft of all hope—by want and long wasting, thinking the death would be obscure by the remoteness of the exile.

par causa saevitiae in Sempronium Gracchum, qui familia nobili, sollers ingenio et prave facundus, eandem Iuliam in matrimonio Marci Agrippae temeraverat. nec is libidini finis: traditam Tiberio pervicax adulter contumacia et odiis in maritum accendebat; litteraeque quas Iulia patri Augusto cum insectatione Tiberii scripsit a Graccho compositae credebantur. igitur amotus Cercinam, Africi maris insulam, quattuordecim annis exilium toleravit.

an equal cause of savagery against Sempronius Gracchus, who, of a noble house, adroit in wit and perversely eloquent, had defiled that same Julia while in the marriage of Marcus Agrippa. Nor was this the end of lust: after she had been handed over to Tiberius, the pervicacious adulterer, by contumacy and hatreds, kept inflaming her against her husband; and the letters which Julia wrote to her father Augustus with an inveighing against Tiberius were believed to have been composed by Gracchus. Therefore, removed to Cercina, an island of the African Sea, he endured exile for fourteen years.

tunc milites ad caedem missi invenere in prominenti litoris nihil laetum opperientem. quorum adventu breve tempus petivit ut suprema mandata uxori Alliariae per litteras daret, cervicemque percussoribus obtulit; constantia mortis haud indignus Sempronio nomine vita degeneraverat. quidam non Roma eos milites, sed ab L. Asprenate pro consule Africae missos tradidere auctore Tiberio, qui famam caedis posse in Asprenatem verti frustra speraverat.

then soldiers sent to the slaughter found him on a promontory of the shore, awaiting nothing cheerful. at their advent he asked a brief time so that he might give his final mandates to his wife Alliaria by letters, and he offered his neck to the executioners; by the constancy of his death he was hardly unworthy of the Sempronian name—his life had degenerated. some have related that those soldiers were sent not from Rome, but by L. Asprenas, proconsul of Africa, with Tiberius as instigator, who had vainly hoped that the report of the killing could be turned upon Asprenas.

[54] Idem annus novas caerimonias accepit addito sodalium Augustalium sacerdotio, ut quondam Titus Tatius retinendis Sabinorum sacris sodalis Titios instituerat. sorte ducti e primoribus civitatis unus et viginti: Tiberius Drusus que et Claudius et Germanicus adiciuntur. ludos Augustalis tunc primum coeptos turbavit discordia ex certamine histrionum.

[54] The same year received new ceremonies with the addition of the priesthood of the Augustan sodales, as once Titus Tatius had instituted the Titial sodales for the retaining of the Sabine sacred rites. Drawn by lot from the foremost men of the state were twenty-one: Tiberius and Drusus and Claudius and Germanicus are added. The Augustalian games then first begun were disturbed by discord arising from a contest of the actors.

indulserat ei ludicro Augustus, dum Maecenati obtemperat effuso in amorem Bathylli; neque ipse abhorrebat talibus studiis, et civile rebatur misceri voluptatibus vulgi. alia Tiberio morum via: sed populum per tot annos molliter habitum nondum audebat ad duriora vertere.

Augustus had indulged that ludic entertainment, while obeying Maecenas, lavishly poured out in love for Bathyllus; nor did he himself abhor such pursuits, and he deemed it civic to be mingled with the pleasures of the vulgus. A different path of morals for Tiberius: but the people, handled softly for so many years, he did not yet dare to turn to sterner things.

[55] Druso Caesare C. Norbano consulibus decernitur Germanico triumphus manente bello; quod quamquam in aestatem summa ope parabat, initio veris et repentino in Chattos excursu praecepit. nam spes incesserat dissidere hostem in Arminium ac Segestem, insignem utrumque perfidia in nos aut fide. Arminius turbator Germaniae, Segestes parari rebellionem saepe alias et supremo convivio, post quod in arma itum, aperuit suasitque Varo ut se et Arminium et ceteros proceres vinciret: nihil ausuram plebem principibus amotis; atque ipsi tempus fore quo crimina et innoxios discerneret.

[55] In the consulship of Drusus Caesar and Gaius Norbanus a triumph was decreed to Germanicus with the war still ongoing; and although he was preparing for it with utmost effort for the summer, at the beginning of spring he forestalled it with a sudden incursion against the Chatti. For a hope had arisen that the enemy was at odds in Arminius and Segestes, each conspicuous either for perfidy against us or for fidelity. Arminius was the disturber of Germany; Segestes had often on other occasions, and at the final banquet after which there was a going to arms, disclosed that a rebellion was being prepared, and he advised Varus to chain both himself and Arminius and the other chiefs: the plebs would dare nothing with the leading men removed; and that for himself the time would come when he could distinguish the guilty and the guiltless.

sed Varus fato et vi Armini cecidit; Segestes quamquam consensu gentis in bellum tractus discors manebat, auctis privatim odiis, quod Arminius filiam eius alii pactam rapuerat: gener invisus inimici soceri; quaeque apud concordes vincula caritatis, incitamenta irarum apud inrensos erant.

but Varus fell by fate and by the force of Arminius; Segestes, although drawn into the war by the consensus of his nation, remained at odds, his private hatreds increased, because Arminius had carried off his daughter, pledged to another: a son-in-law detested, a father-in-law an enemy; and the things which among those in concord are bonds of charity were, among the estranged, incitements of ire.

[56] Igitur Germanicus quattuor legiones, quinque auxiliarium milia et tumultuarias catervas Germanorum cis Rhenum colentium Caecinae tradit; totidem legiones, duplicem sociorum numerum ipse ducit, positoque castello super vestigia paterni praesidii in monte Tauno expeditum exercitum in Chattos rapit, L. Apronio ad munitiones viarum et fluminum relicto. nam (rarum illi caelo) siccitate et amnibus modicis inoffensum iter properaverat, imbresque et fluminum auctus regredienti metuebantur. sed Chattis adeo inprovisus advenit, ut quod imbecillum aetate ac sexu statim captum aut trucidatum sit.

[56] Therefore Germanicus handed over to Caecina four legions, five thousand auxiliaries, and tumultuary bands of Germans dwelling on this side of the Rhine; he himself led just as many legions and a double number of allies, and, a fort having been placed upon the vestiges of his father’s garrison on Mount Taunus, he swept the unencumbered army against the Chatti, with L. Apronius left behind for the works on the roads and rivers. For (a rarity in that climate) owing to dryness and rivers of modest volume he had hastened an unobstructed march, and rains and the swellings of the rivers were feared for the return. But he came upon the Chatti so unforeseen that whatever was feeble by age and sex was at once captured or slaughtered.

iuventus flumen Adranam nando tramiserat, Romanosque pontem coeptantis arcebant. dein tormentis sagittisque pulsi, temptatis frustra condicionibus pacis, cum quidam ad Germanicum perfugissent, reliqui omissis pagis vicisque in silvas disperguntur. Caesar incenso Mattio (id genti caput) aperta populatus vertit ad Rhenum, non auso hoste terga abeuntium lacessere, quod illi moris, quotiens astu magis quam per formidinem cessit.

The youth had swum across the river Adrana, and were warding off the Romans as they began a bridge. Then, driven back by engines and arrows, with terms of peace tried in vain, since certain men had fled for refuge to Germanicus, the rest, their pagi and vici abandoned, are scattered into the forests. Caesar, with Mattium burned (that was the head of the tribe), having laid waste the open country, turned toward the Rhine, the enemy not daring to harry the backs of those departing, which is their custom whenever they have yielded more by astuteness than through fear.

fuerat animus Cheruscis iuvare Chattos, sed exterruit Caecina huc illuc ferens arma; et Marsos congredi ausos prospero proelio cohibuit.

The Cherusci had had the intention to aid the Chatti, but Caecina, bearing arms hither and thither, terrified them; and he restrained the Marsi, who had dared to engage, by a prosperous battle.

[57] Neque multo post legati a Segeste venerunt auxilium orantes adversus vim popularium a quis circumsedebatur, validiore apud eos Arminio quoniam bellum suadebat: nam barbaris, quanto quis audacia promptus, tanto magis fidus rebusque motis potior habetur. addiderat Segestes legatis filium, nomine Segimundum: sed iuvenis conscientia cunctabatur. quippe anno quo Germaniae descivere sacerdos apud aram Vbiorum creatus ruperat vittas, profugus ad rebellis.

[57] Nor long after, envoys from Segestes came, begging aid against the violence of his partisans by whom he was being besieged, Arminius having the stronger influence among them since he was urging war: for among barbarians, the more one is prompt in audacity, by so much the more he is held trustworthy and, with affairs in commotion, the more powerful. Segestes had added to the envoys his son, named Segimundus; but the youth hesitated from conscience. Indeed, in the year in which the Germanies seceded, having been created priest at the altar of the Ubii, he had torn off his fillets, a fugitive to the rebels.

adductus tamen in spem clementiae Romanae pertulit patris mandata benigneque exceptus cum praesidio Gallicam in ripam missus est. Germanico pretium fuit convertere agmen, pugnatumque in obsidentis, et ereptus Segestes magna cum propinquorum et clientium manu. inerant feminae nobiles, inter quas uxor Arminii eademque filia Segestis, mariti magis quam parentis animo, neque victa in lacrimas neque voce supplex; compressis intra sinum manibus gravidum uterum intuens.

Nevertheless induced into hope of Roman clemency he bore his father’s mandates, and, benignly received, was sent with a guard to the Gallic bank. For Germanicus it was the reward to wheel the column, and there was fighting against the besiegers, and Segestes was rescued with a great band of kinsmen and clients. Noble women were among them, among whom the wife of Arminius and likewise the daughter of Segestes, with the spirit of a spouse rather than of a daughter, neither overcome into tears nor suppliant in voice; with her hands pressed within her bosom, gazing upon her pregnant womb.

ferebantur et spolia Varianae cladis, plerisque eorum qui tum in deditionem veniebant praedae data: simul Segestes ipse, ingens visu et memoria bonae societatis inpavidus.

there were being carried also the spoils of the Varian disaster, given as booty to many of those who at that time were coming into surrender; at the same time Segestes himself, mighty to behold and, with a memory of the good alliance, undaunted.

[58] Verba eius in hunc modum fuere: 'non hic mihi primus erga populum Romanum fidei et constantiae dies. ex quo a divo Augusto civitate donatus sum, amicos inimicosque ex vestris utilitatibus delegi, neque odio patriae (quippe proditores etiam iis quos anteponunt invisi sunt), verum quia Romanis Germanisque idem conducere et pacem quam bellum probabam. ergo raptorem filiae meae, violatorem foederis vestri, Arminium apud Varum, qui tum exercitui praesidebat, reum feci.

[58] His words were after this mode: 'this is not for me the first day of fidelity and constancy toward the Roman People. From the time when I was endowed with citizenship by the deified Augustus, I selected friends and enemies from your advantages, not from hatred of my fatherland (for traitors are hateful even to those whom they put before their own), but because I judged that the same thing was conducive to Romans and Germans alike, and I approved peace rather than war. Therefore the ravisher of my daughter, the violator of your treaty, Arminius, I arraigned as a defendant before Varus, who at that time was presiding over the army.

dilatus segnitia ducis, quia parum praesidii in legibus erat, ut me et Arminium et conscios vinciret flagitavi: testis illa nox, mihi utinam potius novissima! quae secuta sunt defleri magis quam defendi possunt: ceterum et inieci catenas Arminio et a factione eius iniectas perpessus sum. atque ubi primum tui copia, vetera novis et quieta turbidis antehabeo, neque ob praemium, sed ut me perfidia exsolvam, simul genti Germanorum idoneus conciliator, si paenitentiam quam perniciem maluerit.

delayed by the leader’s sluggishness, since there was too little safeguard in the laws, I demanded that he bind me and Arminius and the accomplices: that night is witness—would that it rather had been my last! What followed can be lamented more than defended: but for my part I both threw chains upon Arminius and endured chains thrown on me by his faction. And as soon as I had access to you, I prefer the old to the new and the quiet to the turbulent, not for reward, but that I may loose myself from perfidy, and at the same time as a suitable conciliator to the nation of the Germans, if it should prefer penitence rather than perdition.

pro iuventa et errore filii veniam precor: filiam necessitate huc adductam fateor. tuum erit consultare utrum praevaleat quod ex Arminio concepit an quod ex me genita est.' Caesar clementi responso liberis propinquisque eius incolumitatem, ipsi sedem vetere in provincia pollicetur. exercitum reduxit nomenque imperatoris auctore Tiberio accepit.

for the youth and error of my son I beg pardon: I confess that my daughter was brought hither by necessity. it will be yours to consult whether what she conceived from Arminius should prevail, or that she was begotten from me.' Caesar, with a clement answer, promises incolumity to his children and kinsfolk, and to himself a seat in the old province. he led back the army and, with Tiberius as author, received the name of imperator.

Arminii uxor virilis sexus stirpem edidit: educatus Ravennae puer quo mox ludibrio conflictatus sit in tempore memorabo.

Arminius’s wife bore issue of the male sex: the boy, brought up at Ravenna, I will in due time recount with what mockery he was soon harassed.

[59] Fama dediti benigneque excepti Segestis vulgata, ut quibusque bellum invitis aut cupientibus erat, spe vel dolore accipitur. Arminium super insitam violentiam rapta uxor, subiectus servitio uxoris uterus vaecordem agebant, volitabatque per Cheruscos, arma in Segestem, arma in Caesarem poscens. neque probris temperabat: egregium patrem, magnum imperatorem, fortem exercitum, quorum tot manus unam mulierculam avexerint.

[59] The report of Segestes having surrendered and having been kindly received, once spread abroad, is received with hope or with grief, according as war was to each, whether unwelcome or desired. Arminius, in addition to his inborn violence—his wife carried off, the womb of his wife subjected to servitude—was being driven frenzied, and he flitted about among the Cherusci, demanding arms against Segestes, arms against Caesar. Nor did he restrain from reproaches: an excellent father, a great emperor, a brave army—by whose so many bands a single little woman has been carried off.

sibi tres legiones, totidem legatos procubuisse; non enim se proditione neque adversus feminas gravidas, sed palam adversus armatos bellum tractare. cerni adhuc Germanorum in lucis signa Romana, quae dis patriis suspenderit. coleret Segestes victam ripam, redderet filio sacerdotium hominum: Germanos numquam satis excusaturos quod inter Albim et Rhenum virgas et securis et togam viderint.

that to himself three legions, and just as many legates, had gone down prostrate; for he did not prosecute war by treachery nor against pregnant women, but openly against the armed. Even now in the Germans’ groves Roman standards are to be seen, which he had suspended to the ancestral gods. Let Segestes cultivate the conquered bank; let him restore to his son the priesthood among men: the Germans would never make sufficient excuse for having seen between the Elbe and the Rhine the rods and axes and the toga.

aliis gentibus ignorantia imperi Romani inexperta esse supplicia, nescia tributa: quae quoniam exuerint inritusque discesserit ille inter numina dicatus Augustus, ille delectus Tiberius, ne inperitum adulescentulum, ne seditiosum exercitum pavescerent. si patriam parentes antiqua mallent quam domi nos et colonias novas, Arminium potius gloriae ac libertatis quam Segestem flagitiosae servitutis ducem sequerentur.

to other peoples, ignorance of the Roman imperium has made punishments unexperienced, tributes unknown; since they have cast these off and that Augustus, consecrated among the numina, has departed in vain, that chosen Tiberius, let them not dread an unskilled adolescent, let them not dread a seditious army. if they prefer the fatherland, the ancient one of their parents, rather than us at home and new colonies, let them follow Arminius as leader of glory and liberty rather than Segestes, leader of shameful servitude.

[60] Conciti per haec non modo Cherusci, sed conterminae gentes, tractusque in partis Inguiomerus Arminii patruus, vetere apud Romanos auctoritate; unde maior Caesari metus. et ne bellum mole una ingrueret Caecinam cum quadraginta cohortibus Romanis distrahendo hosti per Bructeros ad flumen Amisiam mittit, equitem Pedo praefectus finibus Frisiorum ducit. ipse inpositas navibus quattuor legiones per lacus vexit; simulque pedes eques classis apud praedictum amnem convenere.

[60] Roused by these things were not only the Cherusci, but the conterminous peoples as well, and drawn into their party was Inguiomerus, Arminius’s uncle, with ancient authority among the Romans; whence greater fear for Caesar. And lest the war should assail with a single mass, he sends Caecina with forty Roman cohorts, to distract the enemy, through the Bructeri to the river Amisia; the cavalry the prefect Pedo leads along the borders of the Frisians. He himself conveyed four legions, put aboard ships, across the lakes; and at the same time the infantry, the cavalry, and the fleet met at the aforesaid river.

Chauci cum auxilia pollicerentur, in commilitium adsciti sunt. Bructeros sua urentis expedita cum manu L Stertinius missu Germanici fudit; interque caedem et praedam repperit undevicesimae legionis aquilam cum Varo amissam. ductum inde agmen ad ultimos Bructerorum, quantumque Amisiam et Lupiam amnis inter vastatum, haud procul Teutoburgiensi saltu in quo reliquiae Vari legionumque insepultae dicebantur.

The Chauci, when they promised auxiliaries, were admitted into comradeship. Lucius Stertinius, sent by Germanicus, with a light-armed detachment routed the Bructeri, who were burning their own property; and amid the slaughter and the plunder he found the eagle of the 19th legion, lost with Varus. Thence the column was led to the farthest borders of the Bructeri, and the land between the rivers Amisia and Lupia was laid waste; not far from the Teutoburgian pass, in which the remains of Varus and the legions were said to lie unburied.

[61] Igitur cupido Caesarem invadit solvendi suprema militibus ducique, permoto ad miserationem omni qui aderat exercitu ob propinquos, amicos, denique ob casus bellorum et sortem hominum. praemisso Caecina ut occulta saltuum scrutaretur pontesque et aggeres umido paludum et fallacibus campis inponeret, incedunt maestos locos visuque ac memoria deformis. prima Vari castra lato ambitu et dimensis principiis trium legionum manus ostentabant; dein semiruto vallo, humili fossa accisae iam reliquiae consedisse intellegebantur: medio campi albentia ossa, ut fugerant, ut restiterant, disiecta vel aggerata.

[61] Therefore a desire seizes Caesar to pay the last rites to the soldiers and the leader, all the army that was present being moved to compassion on account of their kinsmen, friends, and, finally, on account of the casualties of wars and the lot of men. Caecina having been sent ahead to search out the hidden places of the forest-passes and to lay bridges and causeways upon the wetness of the marshes and the treacherous fields, they advance into mournful places, disfigured to the sight and in memory. The first camp of Varus, with its broad circuit and the measured principia, displayed the handiwork of three legions; then, from the half-ruined rampart and the shallow ditch, it was understood that the already cut-down remnants had settled there. In the middle of the plain whitening bones, as they had fled, as they had stood their ground, were scattered or heaped up.

adiacebant fragmina telorum equorumque artus, simul truncis arborum antefixa ora. Lucis propinquis barbarae arae, apud quas tribunos ac primorum ordinum centuriones mactaverant. et cladis eius superstites, pugnam aut vincula elapsi, referebant hic cecidisse legatos, illic raptas aquilas; primum ubi vulnus Varo adactum, ubi infelici dextera et suo ictu mortem invenerit; quo tribunali contionatus Arminius, quot patibula captivis, quae scrobes, utque signis et aquilis per superbiam inluserit.

Nearby lay fragments of weapons and the limbs of horses, along with faces affixed to the trunks of trees. In the neighboring groves were barbarian altars, at which they had sacrificed the tribunes and the centurions of the first ranks. And survivors of that disaster, who had slipped from the fight or from chains, recounted how here the legates had fallen, there the eagles had been snatched; where first the wound was driven into Varus, where with unlucky right hand and by his own stroke he found death; from what tribunal Arminius had harangued; how many gibbets for the captives, what pits; and how in his pride he had mocked the standards and the eagles.

[62] Igitur Romanus qui aderat exercitus sextum post cladis annum trium legionum ossa, nullo noscente alienas reliquias an suorum humo tegeret, omnis ut coniunctos, ut consanguineos, aucta in hostem ira, maesti simul et infensi condebant. primum extruendo tumulo caespitem Caesar posuit, gratissimo munere in defunctos et praesentibus doloris socius. quod Tiberio haud probatum, seu cuncta Germanici in deterius trahenti, sive exercitum imagine caesorum insepultorumque tardatum ad proelia et formidolosiorem hostium credebat; neque imperatorem auguratu et vetustissimis caerimoniis praeditum adtrectare feralia debuisse.

[62] Therefore the Roman army which was present, in the sixth year after the disaster, were interring the bones of the three legions, with no one knowing whether he covered with earth the remains of others or of his own, all of them as if of those joined to them, as if of consanguinei, with anger against the enemy increased, mournful and at the same time hostile. First, in building up the tumulus, Caesar placed a sod, as a most welcome service for the defunct and a partner in the present grief. This was not approved by Tiberius, whether because he drew all the doings of Germanicus to a worse construction, or because he believed the army, by the image of the slain and unburied, to be slowed for battles and made more timorous toward the enemy; nor ought an emperor, endowed with the augurate and the most ancient ceremonies, to have handled things funereal.

[63] Sed Germanicus cedentem in avia Arminium secutus, ubi primum copia fuit, evehi equites campumque quem hostis insederat eripi iubet. Arminius colligi suos et propinquare silvis monitos vertit repente: mox signum prorumpendi dedit iis quos per saltus occultaverat. tunc nova acie turbatus eques, missaeque subsidiariae cohortes et fugientium agmine impulsae auxerant consternationem; trudebanturque in paludem gnaram vincentibus, iniquam nesciis, ni Caesar productas legiones instruxisset: inde hostibus terror, fiducia militi; et manibus aequis abscessum.

[63] But Germanicus, having followed Arminius as he was withdrawing into the trackless places, when first there was opportunity, orders the cavalry to sally forth and the field which the enemy had occupied to be snatched away. Arminius, after warning his men to gather and to draw near the woods, wheeled about suddenly: soon he gave the signal to burst out for those whom he had concealed through the forest passes. Then the cavalry, thrown into disorder by a new battle line, and the subsidiary cohorts that had been sent in, swept along by the column of fugitives, had increased the consternation; and they were being shoved into a marsh known to the victors, unfair to the unknowing, if Caesar had not drawn forth the legions and arrayed them: from there terror to the enemies, confidence to the soldiery; and there was a withdrawal on equal terms.

,mox reducto ad Amisiam exercitu legiones classe, ut ad vexerat, reportat; pars equitum litore Oceani petere Rhenum iussa; Caecina, qui suum militem ducebat, monitus, quamquam notis itineribus regrederetur, pontes longos quam maturrime superare. angustus is trames vastas inter paludes et quondam a L. Domitio aggeratus, cetera limosa, tenacia gravi caeno aut rivis incerta erant; circum silvae paulatim adclives, quas tum Arminius inplevit, compendiis viarum et cito agmine onustum sarcinis armisque militem cum antevenisset. Caecinae dubitanti quonam modo ruptos vetustate pontes reponeret simulque propulsaret hostem, castra metari in loco placuit, ut opus et alii proelium inciperent.

,soon, with the army led back to the Amisia, he brings back the legions by the fleet, as he had conveyed them; part of the horse were ordered to make for the Rhine along the shore of the Ocean; Caecina, who was leading his own soldiery, was warned, although he was returning by known routes, to get over the long bridges as quickly as possible. Narrow is that track between vast marshes and once banked up by L. Domitius with an agger; the rest was miry, tenacious with heavy mud, or uncertain with streams; around were woods gradually sloping up, which Arminius then filled, since by shortcuts of the roads and with a swift column he had outstripped the soldier burdened with packs and arms. As Caecina was doubting in what way he might replace the bridges broken by age and at the same time repel the enemy, it seemed good to measure out a camp on the spot, so that some might begin the work and others the battle.

[64] Barbari perfringere stationes seque inferre munitoribus nisi lacessunt, circumgrediuntur, occursant: miscetur operantium bellantiumque clamor. et cuncta pariter Romanis adversa, locus uligine profunda, idem ad gradum instabilis, procedentibus lubricus, corpora gravia loricis; neque librare pila inter undas poterant. contra Cheruscis sueta apud paludes proelia, procera membra, hastae ingentes ad vulnera facienda quamvis procul.

[64] The barbarians do not break the pickets nor thrust themselves upon the fortifiers; unless provoked, they go around and run to meet them: the clamor of the workers and the warriors is mingled. And all things alike were adverse to the Romans—the place with deep marsh, the same unstable for a step, slippery for those advancing, bodies heavy with cuirasses; nor could they poise their pila amid the waves. By contrast, for the Cherusci battles were accustomed in the fens, their limbs were tall, their spears immense for making wounds even from afar.

nox demum inclinantis iam legiones adversae pugnae exemit. Germani ob prospera indefessi, ne tum quidem sumpta quiete, quantum aquarum circum surgentibus iugis oritur vertere in subiecta, mersaque humo et obruto quod effectum operis duplicatus militi labor. quadragesimum id stipendium Caecina parendi aut imperitandi habebat, secundarum ambiguarumque rerum sciens eoque interritus.

Night at last withdrew the legions, now wavering, from the adverse battle. The Germans, indefatigable because of their prosperities, not then even taking rest, turned into the subjacent parts as much of the waters as rises around from the swelling ridges; and with the ground submerged and what work had been effected buried, the soldier’s labor was doubled. This was the 40th year of service that Caecina had in obeying or in commanding, versed in favorable and ambiguous affairs and therefore undismayed.

igitur futura volvens non aliud repperit quam ut hostem silvis coerceret, donec saucii quantumque gravioris agminis anteirent; nam medio montium et paludum porrigebatur planities, quae tenuem aciem pateretur. deliguntur legiones quinta dextro lateri, unetvicesima in laevum, primani ducendum ad agmen, vicesimanus adversum secuturos.

Therefore, pondering future outcomes, he found nothing else but to restrain the enemy with the forests until the wounded and as much of the heavier column as possible could go on ahead; for in the midst of the mountains and marshes there stretched a plain which would admit a thin battle-line. The legions are selected: the 5th for the right flank, the 21st for the left; the Primani (the 1st) to lead the column, the 20th to face those who would follow in pursuit.

[65] Nox per diversa inquies, cum barbari festis epulis, laeto cantu aut truci sonore subiecta vallium ac resultantis saltus complerent, apud Romanos invalidi ignes, interruptae voces, atque ipsi passim adiacerent vallo, oberrarent tentoriis, insomnes magis quam pervigiles. ducemque terruit dira quies: nam Quintilium Varum sanguine oblitum et paludibus emersum cernere et audire visus est velut vocantem, non tamen obsecutus et manum intendentis reppulisse coepta luce missae in latera legiones, metu an contumacia, locum deseruere, capto propere campo umentia ultra. neque tamen Arminius quamquam libero incursu statim prorupit: sed ut haesere caeno fossisque impedimenta, turbati circum milites, incertus signorum ordo, utque tali in tempore sibi quisque properus et lentae adversum imperia aures, inrumpere Germanos iubet, clamitans 'en Varus eodemque iterum fato vinctae legiones!' simul haec et cum delectis scindit agmen equisque maxime vulnera ingerit.

[65] A night restless in opposite ways: while the barbarians, with festive banquets, with joyful song or with grim clangor, were filling the valleys below and the echoing forest-glades, among the Romans there were feeble fires, broken voices, and they themselves lay here and there by the rampart, wandered among the tents, sleepless rather than watchful. And an ominous dream terrified the leader: for he seemed to see Quintilius Varus, smeared with blood and risen from the marshes, and to hear him as if calling; yet he did not comply and seemed to have pushed away the hand that was reaching out. With daybreak begun, the legions sent to the flanks, whether from fear or contumacy, abandoned their place, and, having quickly seized the open plain, left the wet places beyond. Nor, however, did Arminius, although free to make an inrush, burst forth at once: but when the baggage-train stuck in the mud and ditches, the soldiers around were thrown into disorder, the order of the standards was uncertain, and, as at such a time, each man was hurrying for himself and ears were slow against commands, he orders the Germans to break in, shouting, 'Look—Varus and the legions again bound by the same fate!' With this cry he and his chosen men at once split the column, and chiefly by his horsemen he pours in wounds.

illi sanguine suo et lubrico paludum lapsantes excussis rectoribus disicere obvios, proterere iacentis. plurimus circa aquilas labor, quae neque ferri adversum ingruentia tela neque figi limosa humo poterant. Caecina dum sustentat aciem, suffosso equo delapsus circumveniebatur, ni prima legio sese opposuisset.

They, slipping in their own blood and in the slick of the marshes, with their riders shaken off, scattered those who met them and trampled the fallen. The greatest struggle was around the eagles, which could neither be carried forward against the incoming
missiles nor planted in the muddy soil. While Caecina was sustaining the battle line, his horse having been undermined and he himself thrown, he was being surrounded, had not the First Legion set itself in the way.

iuvit hostium aviditas, omissa caede praedam sectantium, enisaeque legiones vesperascente die in aperta et solida. neque is miseriarum finis. struendum vallum, petendus agger, amissa magna ex parte per quae egeritur humus aut exciditur caespes; non tentoria manipulis, non fomenta sauciis; infectos caeno aut cruore cibos dividentes funestas tenebras et tot hominum milibus unum iam reliquum diem lamentabantur.

the avidity of the enemy helped, as they, having set slaughter aside, were chasing plunder, and the legions, having forced their way out, with the day verging toward evening, into open and solid ground. nor was that the end of their miseries. a rampart had to be built, an agger to be sought, the implements for the most part lost by which earth is carried out or turf is cut; no tents for the maniples, no fomentations for the wounded; dividing rations infected with mud or blood, they lamented the funereal darkness and that, for so many thousands of men, only a single day now remained.

[66] Forte equus abruptis vinculis vagus et clamore territus quosdam occurrentium obturbavit. tanta inde consternatio inrupisse Germanos credentium ut cuncti ruerent ad portas, quarum decumana maxime petebatur, aversa hosti et fugientibus tutior. Caecina comperto vanam esse formidinem, cum tamen neque auctoritate neque precibus, ne manu quidem obsistere aut retinere militem quiret, proiectus in limine portae miseratione demum, quia per corpus legati eundum erat, clausit viam: simul tribuni et centuriones falsum pavorem esse docuerunt.

[66] By chance a horse, its bonds snapped, wandering and terrified by the clamor, threw some of those coming up into disorder. Thence so great a consternation of people believing that the Germans had broken in, that all rushed to the gates, of which the decuman gate was especially sought, facing away from the enemy and safer for those fleeing. Caecina, having discovered that the fear was vain, although he could neither by authority nor by prayers, not even by force, oppose or hold back the soldiery, cast himself down on the threshold of the gate and, by compassion at last—because one would have to pass over the legate’s body—he closed the way: at the same time the tribunes and centurions showed that the panic was false.

[67] Tunc contractos in principia iussosque dicta cum silentio accipere temporis ac necessitatis monet. unam in armis salutem, sed ea consilio temperanda manendumque intra vallum, donec expugnandi hostis spe propius succederent; mox undique erumpendum: illa eruptione ad Rhenum perveniri. quod si fugerent, pluris silvas, profundas magis paludes, saevitiam hostium superesse; at victoribus decus gloriam.

[67] Then, having gathered them into the principia and having ordered them to receive his words in silence, he reminds them of the exigency of the time and of necessity. One safety lies in arms, but it must be tempered by counsel, and they must remain within the rampart until the enemy, in the hope of storming, should approach nearer; soon a breakout must be made on all sides: by that eruption they would reach the Rhine. But if they fled, there would remain more woods, deeper marshes, the savagery of the enemies; but for victors, honor and glory.

quae domi cara, quae in castris honesta, memorat; reticuit de adversis. equos dehinc, orsus a suis, legatorum tribunorumque nulla ambitione fortissimo cuique bellatori tradit, ut hi, mox pedes in hostem invaderent.

he recounts what at home is dear, what in the camp is honorable; he kept silent about the adverse. thereafter, beginning with his own, he hands over the horses of the legates and tribunes, with no ambition, to each bravest warrior, so that these men, soon on foot, might assail the enemy.

[68] Haud minus inquies Cermanus spe, cupidine et diversis ducum sententiis agebat, Arminio sinerent egredi egressosque rursum per umida et inpedita circumvenirent suadente, atrociora Inguiomero et laeta barbaris, ut vallum armis ambirent: promptam expugnationem, plures captivos, incorruptam praedam fore. igitur orta die proruunt fossas, iniciunt cratis, summa valli prensant, raro super milite et quasi ob metum defixo. postquam haesere munimentis, datur cohortibus signum cornuaque ac tubae concinuere.

[68] No less restless, the German was driven by hope, desire, and the divergent opinions of the leaders, Arminius advising that they should allow them to go out and, once they had gone out, surround them again through the wet and obstructed places; Inguiomerus urged harsher measures, pleasing to the barbarians, namely that they should ring the rampart with arms: there would be a prompt storming, more captives, and unspoiled booty. Therefore, when day arose, they rush the ditches, throw in hurdles, seize the rampart’s top, with the soldiery sparse above and, as if from fear, fixed in place. After they had stuck fast upon the defenses, the signal is given to the cohorts, and the horns and trumpets sounded together.

exim clamore et impetu tergis Germanorum circumfunduntur, exprobrantes non hic silvas nec paludes, sed aequis locis aequos deos. hosti facile excidium et paucos ac semermos cogitanti sonus tubarum, fulgor armorum, quanto inopina tanto maiora offunduntur, cadebantque, ut rebus secundis avidi, ita adversis incauti. Arminius integer, Inguiomerus post grave vulnus pugnam deseruere: vulgus trucidatum est, donec ira et dies permansit.

Then, with clamor and impetus, they pour around the backs of the Germans, upbraiding that here there are not woods nor marshes, but on level places equal gods. To the enemy, who was imagining an easy destruction and that they were few and half-armed, the sound of the trumpets and the gleam of arms—so much the greater the more unexpected—are poured upon them, and they were falling, as in prosperous affairs greedy, so in adverse incautious. Arminius, unhurt, and Inguiomerus, after a grave wound, deserted the fight: the common crowd was butchered, as long as wrath and day endured.

nocte demum reversae legiones, quamvis plus vulnerum, eadem ciborum egestas fatigaret, vim sanitatem copias, cuncta in victoria habuere.

At night at last the legions returned; although more wounds and the same lack of food wearied them, they possessed strength, health, troops—everything—in victory.

[69] Penaserat interim circumventi exercitus fama et infesto Germanorum agmine Gallias peti, ac ni Agrippina inpositum Rheno pontem solvi prohibuisset, erant qui id fiagitium formidine auderent. sed femina ingens animi munia ducis per eos dies induit, militibusque, ut quis inops aut saucius, vestem et fomenta dilargita est. tradit C. Plinius Germanicorum bellorum scriptor, stetisse apud principium ponti laudes et grates reversis legionibus habentem.

[69] Meanwhile the report had penetrated that the army was surrounded and that, with a hostile column of Germans, the Gauls were being sought as the objective; and, had not Agrippina forbidden the bridge set upon the Rhine to be taken down, there were those who in their fear would have dared that disgrace. But the woman, vast in spirit, assumed during those days the duties of a leader, and to the soldiers, as each was needy or wounded, she distributed clothing and fomentations. Gaius Pliny, the writer of the Germanic wars, relates that she stood at the head of the bridge, offering praises and thanks to the returning legions.

id Tiberii animum altius penetravit: non enim simplicis eas curas, nec adversus externos [studia] militum quaeri. nihil relictum imperatoribus, ubi femina manipulos intervisat, signa adeat, largitionem temptet, tamquam parum ambitiose filium ducis gregali habitu circumferat Caesaremque Caligulam appellari velit. potiorem iam apud exercitus Agrippinam quam legatos, quam duces; conpressam a muliere seditionem, cui nomen principis obsistere non qui verit.

That penetrated Tiberius’s mind more deeply: for those concerns were not simple, nor were the soldiers’ [zeals] being sought against external foes. Nothing is left to commanders, when a woman goes among the maniples, approaches the standards, attempts largess, as though it were not ambitious enough that she carry about the general’s son in a common soldier’s habit and wish him to be called Caesar and Caligula. Agrippina already counted as more powerful with the armies than the legates, than the generals; a sedition suppressed by a woman, which the name of the princeps had not been able to withstand.

accendebat haec onerabatque Seianus, peritia morum Tiberii odia in longum iaciens, quae reconderet auctaque promeret.

Sejanus inflamed these things and burdened them, with his expertise of Tiberius’s mores casting his hatreds into the long term, to lay them away and bring them forth augmented.

[70] At Germanicus legionum, quas navibus vexerat, secundam et quartam decimam itinere terrestri P. Vitellio ducendas tradit, quo levior classis vadoso mari innaret vel reciproco sideret. Vitellius primum iter sicca humo aut modice adlabente aestu quietum habuit: mox inpulsu aquilonis, simul sidere aequinoctii, quo maxime tumescit Oceanus, rapi agique agmen. et opplebantur terrae: eadem freto litori campis facies, neque discemi poterant incerta ab solidis, brevia a profundis.

[70] But Germanicus hands over the 2nd and 14th legions, which he had conveyed by ships, to P. Vitellius to be led by a land route, so that the fleet, being lighter, might float in the shoaly sea or ground in the returning tide. At first Vitellius had a quiet march, the soil being dry or the tide only moderately washing in: soon, by the impulse of the north wind, together with the equinoctial season, at which the Ocean swells most, the column was swept away and driven. And the lands were being flooded: the same aspect on the strait, the shore, and the plains; nor could the uncertain be distinguished from the solid, the shallows from the depths.

sternuntur fluctibus, hauriuntur gurgitibus; iumenta, sarcinae, corpora exanima interfluunt, occursant. permiscentur inter se manipuli, modo pectore, modo ore tenus extantes, aliquando subtracto solo disiecti aut obruti. non vox et mutui hortatus iuvabant adversante unda; nihil strenuus ab ignavo, sapiens ab inprudenti, consilia a casu differre: cuncta pari violentia involvebantur.

they are laid low by the waves, swallowed by whirlpools; pack-animals, baggage, lifeless bodies flow between, collide. the maniples are mingled with one another, now standing out to the chest, now up to the mouth, sometimes with the ground withdrawn scattered or overwhelmed. neither voice nor mutual exhortations availed, the wave opposing; in nothing did the strenuous differ from the slothful, the wise from the imprudent, counsels from chance differ: all things were being enveloped by equal violence.

tandem Vitellius in editiora enisus eodem agmen subduxit. pernoctavere sine utensilibus, sine igni, magna pars nudo aut mulcato corpore, haud minus miserabiles quam quos hostis circumsidet: quippe illic etiam honestae mortis usus, his inglorium exitium. Iux reddidit terram, penetratumque ad amnem [Visurgin], quo Caesar classe contenderat.

At length Vitellius, having struggled onto higher ground, drew the column off thither. They passed the night without equipment, without fire, a great part with body naked or battered, no less pitiable than those whom an enemy besieges: for there even the recourse of an honorable death is available, for these an inglorious end. Daylight gave back the land, and they penetrated to the river [Visurgis], whither Caesar had pressed with the fleet.

in positae dein legiones, vagante fama submersas; nec fides salutis, antequam Caesarem exercitumque reducem videre.

then the legions were put on board, with rumor wandering that they had been submerged; nor was there belief in their safety, before they saw Caesar and the army returned.

[71] Iam Stertinius, ad accipiendum in deditionem Segimerum fratrem Segestis praemissus, ipsum et filium eius in civitatem Vbiorum perduxerat. data utrique venia, facile Segimero, cunctantius filio, quia Quintilii Vari corpus inlusisse dicebatur. ceterum ad supplenda exercitus damna certavere Galliae Hispaniae Italia, quod cuique promptum, arma equos aurum offerentes.

[71] Now Stertinius, sent ahead to accept into surrender Segimerus, the brother of Segestes, had led him and his son to the city of the Ubii. Pardon was given to each—readily to Segimerus, more hesitantly to the son, because he was said to have mocked the body of Quintilius Varus. Moreover, to supplement the army’s losses, Gaul, Spain, and Italy vied, offering—each with what was ready at hand—arms, horses, and gold.

quorum laudato studio Germanicus, armis modo et equis ad bellum sumptis, propria pecunia militem iuvit. utque cladis memoriam etiam comitate leniret, circumire saucios, facta singulorum extollere; vulnera intuens alium spe, alium gloria, cunctos adloquio et cura sibique et proelio firmabat.

Germanicus, with their zeal praised, with arms only and horses taken up for war, aided the soldiery with his own money. And in order to soften the memory of the disaster even by comity, he would go about the wounded, extol the deeds of individuals; looking upon the wounds, he strengthened one with hope, another with glory, and by his address and care he made all firm both for himself and for the battle.

[72] Decreta eo anno triumphalia insignia A. Caecinae, L. Apronio, C. Silio ob res cum Germanico gestas. nomen patris patriae Tiberius, a populo saepius ingestum, repudiavit; neque in acta sua iurari quamquam censente senatu permisit, cuncta mortalium incerta, quantoque plus adeptus foret, tanto se magis in lubrico dictitans. non tamen ideo faciebat fidem civilis animi; nam legem maiestatis reduxerat, cui nomen apud veteres idem, sed alia in iudicium veniebant, si quis proditione exercitum aut plebem seditionibus, denique male gesta re publica maiestatem populi Romani minuisset: facta arguebantur, dicta inpune erant.

[72] In that year triumphal insignia were decreed to A. Caecina, L. Apronius, and C. Silius for exploits conducted with Germanicus. The name “father of the fatherland,” often pressed upon him by the people, Tiberius repudiated; nor did he permit an oath to be sworn upon his acta, although the senate was advising it, saying that all things mortal are uncertain, and that the more he had acquired, the more he, he kept saying, was on slippery ground. Yet not even for that did he win credence of a civil spirit; for he had revived the Law of Maiestas, which among the ancients had the same name, but different things came into judgment—if anyone had by treachery betrayed an army, or by seditions the plebs, and finally by a badly managed res publica had diminished the majesty of the Roman People: deeds were arraigned, words were with impunity.

primus Augustus cognitionem de famosis libellis specie legis eius tractavit, commotus Cassii Severi libidine, qua viros feminasque inlustris procacibus scriptis diffamaverat; mox Tiberius, consultante Pompeio Macro praetore an iudicia maiestatis redderentur, exercendas leges esse re spondit. hunc quoque asperavere carmina incertis auctoribus vulgata in saevitiam superbiamque eius et discordem cum matre animum.

the first Augustus handled an inquiry concerning defamatory libels under the guise of that law, moved by the libido of Cassius Severus, by which he had defamed illustrious men and women with impudent writings; soon Tiberius, when the praetor Pompeius Macro consulted whether judgments of majesty (treason) should be rendered, replied in effect that the laws were to be enforced. Him too there embittered verses, published with authors uncertain, against his savagery and arrogance and his discordant spirit with his mother.

[73] Haud pigebit referre in Falanio et Rubrio, modicis equitibus Romanis, praetemptata crimina, ut quibus initiis, quanta Tiberii arte gravissimum exitium inrepserit, dein repressum sit, postremo arserit cunctaque corripuerit, noscatur. Falanio obiciebat accusator, quod inter cultores Augusti, qui per omnis domos in modum collegiorum habebantur, Cassium quendam mimum corpore infamem adscivisset, quodque venditis hortis statuam Augusti simul mancipasset. Rubrio crimini dabatur violatum periurio numen Augusti.

[73] It will not be irksome to relate, in the cases of Falanius and Rubrius, modest Roman equestrians, the charges tentatively tried, so that it may be known by what beginnings, and with how great an artifice of Tiberius, the most grievous ruin crept in, then was checked, and at last blazed up and seized all things. The accuser objected against Falanius that, among the worshipers of Augustus, who were maintained through all households in the fashion of collegia, he had enrolled a certain Cassius, a mime, infamous in his person; and that, with the gardens sold, he had at the same time conveyed by mancipation the statue of Augustus. To Rubrius it was given as a charge that the divinity (numen) of Augustus had been violated by perjury.

quae ubi Tiberio notuere, scripsit consulibus non ideo decretum patri suo caelum, ut in perniciem civium is honor verteretur. Cassium histrionem solitum inter alios eiusdem artis interesse ludis, quos mater sua in memoriam Augusti sacrasset; nec contra religiones fieri quod effigies eius, ut alia numinum simulacra, venditionibus hortorum et domuum accedant. ius iurandum perinde aestimandum quam si Iovem fefellisset: deorum iniurias dis curae.

when these things came to Tiberius’s notice, he wrote to the consuls that heaven had not been decreed to his father for this reason, that that honor be turned to the ruin of citizens. Cassius the stage-player had been accustomed to take part among others of the same art in the games which his mother had consecrated in memory of Augustus; nor was it done against religions that his effigy, like other simulacra of the numina, should be included with sales of gardens and houses. An oath is to be judged just as if he had deceived Jupiter: the injuries of the gods are the gods’ concern.

[74] Nec multo post Granium Marcellum praetorem Bithyniae quaestor ipsius Caepio Crispinus maiestatis postulavit, subscribente Romano Hispone: qui formam vitae iniit, quam postea celebrem miseriae temporum et audaciae hominum fecerunt. nam egens, ignotus, inquies, dum occultis libellis saevitiae principis adrepit, mox clarissimo cuique periculum facessit, potentiam apud unum, odium apud omnis adeptus dedit exemplum, quod secuti ex pauperibus divites, ex contemptis metuendi perniciem aliis ac postremum sibi invenere. sed Marcellum insimulabat sinistros de Tiberio sermones habuisse, inevitabile crimen, cum ex moribus principis foedissima quaeque deligeret accusator obiectaretque reo.

[74] Not long after, Granius Marcellus, praetor of Bithynia, was charged on a count of maiestas by his own quaestor, Caepio Crispinus, with Romanus Hispo subscribing: he entered upon a form of life which the miseries of the times and the audacity of men later made famous. For needy, unknown, restless, while by secret libelli he crept up to the savagery of the princeps, soon he made danger for each most illustrious man, and having acquired power with the one, hatred with all, he gave an example; following which, men from poor became rich, from despised to be feared, and they found destruction for others and, at the last, for themselves. But he was accusing Marcellus of having had sinister conversations about Tiberius—an inevitable crime—since from the morals of the princeps the accuser would select whatever was most foul and hurl it at the defendant.

nam quia vera erant, etiam dicta credebantur. addidit Hispo statuam Marcelli altius quam Caesarum sitam, et alia in statua amputato capite Augusti effigiem Tiberii inditam. ad quod exarsit adeo, ut rupta taciturnitate proclamaret se quoque in ea causa laturum sententiam palam et iuratum, quo ceteris eadem necessitas fieret.

for since the things were true, even the words were believed. Hispo added that a statue of Marcellus had been set higher than those of the Caesars, and that on another statue, with the head of Augustus cut off, the effigy of Tiberius had been inserted. at this he flamed up so far that, his taciturnity broken, he proclaimed that he too, in that case, would deliver his opinion openly and on oath, in order that the same necessity might be made for the others.

manebant etiam tum vestigia morientis libertatis. igitur Cn. Piso 'quo' inquit 'loco censebis, Caesar? si primus, habebo quod sequar: si post omnis, vereor ne inprudens dissentiam.' permotus his, quantoque incautius efrerverat, paenitentia patiens tulit absolvi reum criminibus maiestatis: de pecuniis repetundis ad reciperatores itum est.

Even then there still remained the vestiges of a dying liberty. Therefore Gnaeus Piso said, “In what place will you give your opinion, Caesar? If first, I shall have something to follow; if after everyone, I fear lest unwitting I may dissent.” Moved by this, and the more incautiously he had flared up, submitting to repentance, he allowed the defendant to be acquitted of the charges of treason; on the matter of monies to be reclaimed for extortion, the case went to the Recuperators.

[75] Nec patrum cognitionibus satiatus iudiciis adsidebat in cornu tribunalis, ne praetorem curuli depelleret; multaque eo coram adversus ambitum et potentium preces constituta. sed dum veritati consulitur, libertas corrumpebatur. inter quae Pius Aurelius senator questus mole publicae viae ductuque aquarum labefactas aedis suas, auxilium patrum invocabat.

[75] Not satisfied with the Fathers’ hearings, he sat beside the trials at the wing of the tribunal, so as not to drive the praetor from the curule seat; and many measures were established there in his presence against ambitus (canvassing) and the petitions of the powerful. But while provision was made for truth, liberty was being corrupted. Among these, Pius Aurelius, a senator, complaining that his house had been undermined by the mass of the public road and by the conduit of waters, was invoking the aid of the Fathers.

resistentibus aerarii praetoribus subvenit Caesar pretiumque aedium Aurelio tribuit, erogandae per honesta pecuniae cupiens, quam virtutem diu retinuit, cum ceteras exueret. Propertio Celeri praetorio, veniam ordinis ob paupertatem petenti, decies sestertium largitus est, satis conperto paternas ei angustias esse. temptantis eadem alios probare causam senatui iussit, cupidine severitatis in iis etiam quae rite faceret acerbus.

With the praetors of the aerarium resisting, Caesar came to the aid and granted to Aurelius the price of the houses, being eager to disburse money for honorable causes—a virtue which he long retained, while he was divesting himself of the others. To Propertius Celer, a praetorian, who was seeking pardon from the order on account of poverty, he bestowed ten hundred-thousands of sesterces (1,000,000 sesterces), having sufficiently ascertained that his straits were paternal. Those others attempting the same he ordered to prove their case to the Senate, harsh, from a desire for severity, even in those things which he did duly.

unde ceteri silentium et paupertatem confessioni et beneficio praeposuere.

whence the others preferred silence and poverty to confession and to a benefit.

[76] Eodem anno continuis imbribus auctus Tiberis plana urbis stagnaverat; relabentem secuta est aedificiorum et hominum strages. igitur censuit Asinius Gallus ut libri Sibyllini adirentur. Renuit Tiberius, perinde divina humanaque obtegens; sed remedium coercendi fluminis Ateio Calpitoni et L. Arruntio mandatum.

[76] In the same year, the Tiber, increased by continuous showers, had inundated the flat parts of the city; as it was ebbing back, there followed a destruction of buildings and of men. Accordingly Asinius Gallus proposed that the Sibylline books be consulted. Tiberius refused, cloaking divine and human matters alike; but the remedy for coercing the river was entrusted to Ateius Capito and L. Arruntius.

Achaiam ac Macedoniam onera deprecantis levari in praesens proconsulari imperio tradique Caesari placuit. edendis gladiatoribus, quos Germanici fratris ac suo nomine obtulerat, Drusus praesedit, quamquam vili sanguine nimis gaudens; quod [in] vu]gus formidolosum et pater arguisse dicebatur. cur abstinuerit spectaculo ipse, varie trahebant; alii taedio coetus, quidam tristitia ingenii et metu conparationis, quia Augustus comiter interfuisset.

It was decided that Achaia and Macedonia, pleading off their burdens, be in the present relieved from proconsular imperium and be handed over to Caesar. Drusus presided over the exhibition of gladiators, which he had offered in the name of his brother Germanicus and of himself, although rejoicing too much in cheap blood; a thing said to be dread-inspiring to the [in] vu]gus and to have been censured by his father. Why he himself had abstained from the spectacle, people interpreted variously: some to a weariness of gatherings, others to gloominess of temperament and a fear of comparison, since Augustus had attended affably.

non crediderim ad ostentandam saevitiam movendasque populi offensiones concessam filio materiem, quamquam id quoque dictum est.

I would not believe that material was granted to the son for the display (ostentation) of savagery and for stirring the people’s offenses, although that too has been said.

[77] At theatri licentia, proximo priore anno coepta, gravius tum erupit, occisis non modo e plebe set militibus et centurione, vulnerato tribuno praetoriae cohortis, dum probra in magistratus et dissensionem vulgi prohibent. actum de ea seditione apud patres dicebanturque sententiae, ut praetoribus ius virgarum in histriones esset. intercessit Haterius Agrippa tribunus plebei increpitusque est Asinii Galli oratione, silente Tiberio, qui ea simulacra libertatis senatui praebebat.

[77] But the license of the theater, begun in the immediately prior year, then burst out more grievously, with slain not only from the plebs but soldiers as well and a centurion, and a tribune of the praetorian cohort wounded, while they were checking the insults against the magistrates and the mob’s dissension. The matter of that sedition was handled among the Fathers, and opinions were being voiced that the praetors should have the right of rods over the actors. Haterius Agrippa, tribune of the plebs, interposed, and he was rebuked by a speech of Asinius Gallus, while Tiberius was silent, who was affording to the Senate those simulacra of liberty.

valuit tamen intercessio, quia divus Augustus immunis verberum histriones quondam responderat, neque fas Tiberio infringere dicta eius. de modo lucaris et adversus lasciviam fautorum multa decernuntur; ex quis maxime insignia, ne domos pantomimorum senator introiret, ne egredientis in publicum equites Romani cingerent aut alibi quam in theatro spectarentur, et spectantium immodestiam exilio multandi potestas praetoribus fieret.

nevertheless the intercession prevailed, because the deified Augustus had once pronounced the actors immune from beatings, nor was it lawful for Tiberius to infringe his pronouncements. concerning the measure of the lucar (prize-money) and against the wantonness of their supporters many things were decreed; of which the most notable were: that no senator should enter the houses of pantomimes, that Roman equestrians should not surround them as they went out into public, and that they should not be viewed anywhere other than in the theater, and that power be given to the praetors to punish with exile the immodesty of spectators.

[78] Templum ut in colonia Tarraconensi strueretur Augusto petentibus Hispanis permissum, datumque in omnis provincias exemplum. centesimam rerum venalium post bella civilia institutam deprecante populo edixit Tiberius militare aerarium eo subsidio niti; simul imparem oneri rem publicam, nisi vicesimo militiae anno veterani dimitterentur. ita proximae seditionis male consulta, quibus sedecim stipendiorum finem expresserant, abolita in posterum.

[78] It was permitted, at the request of the Spaniards, that a temple to Augustus be constructed in the colony of Tarraco, and a precedent was given for all the provinces. The one-hundredth on saleable goods, established after the civil wars, the people pleading for its remission, Tiberius by edict declared that the military treasury relied on that subsidy; at the same time that the commonwealth was unequal to the burden, unless veterans were discharged in the twentieth year of service. Thus the ill-counsels of the most recent mutiny, by which they had wrung out a termination at sixteen years’ service, were abolished for the future.

[79] Actum deinde in senatu ab Arruntio et Ateio an ob moderandas Tiberis exundationes verterentur flumina et lacus, per quos augescit; auditaeque municipiorum et coloniarum legationes, orantibus Florentinis ne Clanis solito alveo demotus in amnem Arnum transferretur idque ipsis perniciem adferret. congruentia his Interamnates disseruere: pessum ituros fecundissimos Italiae campos, si amnis Nar (id enim parabatur) in rivos diductus supersta gnavisset. nec Reatini silebant, Velinum lacum, qua in Narem effunditur, obstrui recusantes, quippe in adiacentia erupturum; optume rebus mortalium consuluisse naturam, quae sua ora fluminibus, suos cursus utque originem, ita finis dederit; spectandas etiam religiones sociorum, qui sacra et lucos et aras patriis amnibus dicaverint: quin ipsum Tiberim nolle prorsus accolis fluviis orbatum minore gloria fluere.

[79] Then it was dealt with in the senate by Arruntius and Ateius whether, for the moderating of the Tiber’s overflowings, the rivers and lakes through which it swells should be diverted; and the legations of the municipalities and colonies were heard, the Florentines praying that the Clanis, removed from its accustomed channel, not be transferred into the river Arno, and that this not bring ruin upon themselves. Consistent with these, the Interamnates argued that the most fecund fields of Italy would go to destruction, if the river Nar (for that was being prepared), divided into rills, should pond up above. Nor were the Reatines silent, refusing that Lake Velinus, where it pours into the Nar, be dammed, since it would burst forth into the adjacent lands; that Nature has taken the best counsel for mortal affairs, she who has given to rivers their own mouths, their own courses, and, as their origin, so their ends; that the religious scruples of the allies too must be regarded, who have dedicated rites and groves and altars to their native rivers: indeed that the Tiber itself is by no means willing, bereft of its neighboring rivers, to flow with lesser glory.

seu preces coloniarum seu difficultas operum sive superstitio valuit, ut in sententiam Pisonis concederetur, qui nil mutandum censuerat.

whether the petitions of the colonies or the difficulty of the works or superstition prevailed, so that it was yielded to the opinion of Piso, who had judged that nothing was to be changed.

[80] Prorogatur Poppaeo Sabino provincia Moesia, additis Achaia ac Macedonia. id quoque morum Tiberii fuit, continuare imperia ac plerosque ad finem vitae in isdem exercitibus aut iurisdictionibus habere. causae variae traduntur: alii taedio novae curae semel placita pro aeternis servavisse, quidam invidia, ne plures fruerentur; sunt qui existiment, ut callidum eius ingenium, ita anxium iudicium; neque enim eminentis virtutes sectabatur, et rursum vitia oderat: ex optimis periculum sibi, a pessimis dedecus publicum metuebat.

[80] The province of Moesia is prorogued to Poppaeus Sabinus, with Achaia and Macedonia added. This too was among the customs of Tiberius: to continue commands and to keep most men to the end of life in the same armies or jurisdictions. Various causes are handed down: some say that, from weariness of a new care, he maintained once-approved decisions as perpetual; certain others, out of envy, lest more might enjoy them; there are those who think that, as his nature was crafty, so his judgment was anxious; for he did not pursue eminent virtues, and in turn he hated vices: from the best he feared danger to himself, from the worst public disgrace.

qua haesitatione postremo eo provectus est ut mandaverit quibusdam provincias, quos egredi urbe non erat passurus.

by which hesitation at last he was carried to such a point that he entrusted provinces to certain men whom he was not going to allow to go out of the city.

[81] De comitiis consularibus, quae tum primum illo principe ac deinceps fuere, vix quicquam firmare ausim: adeo diversa non modo apud auctores, sed in ipsius orationibus reperiuntur. modo subtractis candidatorum nominibus originem cuiusque et vitam et stipendia descripsit ut qui forent intellegeretur; aliquando ea quoque significatione sub tracta candidatos hortatus ne ambitu comitia turbarent, suam ad id curam pollicitus est. plerumque eos tantum apud se professos disseruit, quorum nomina consulibus edidisset; posse et alios profiteri, si gratiae aut meritis confiderent: speciosa verbis, re inania aut subdola, quantoque maiore libertatis imagine tegebantur, tanto eruptura ad infensius servitium.

[81] About the consular comitia, which then for the first time under that princeps and thereafter were held, I scarcely dare to affirm anything: so different are the accounts not only among the authors, but found in his own orations. At one time, with the names of the candidates withdrawn, he described the origin of each, and life, and military stipendia, so that it might be understood who they were; at another time, with even that indication removed, he exhorted the candidates not to disturb the comitia by ambition (ambitus), pledging his own care to that end. For the most part he maintained that only those had declared before him whose names he had delivered to the consuls; that others too could declare themselves, if they trusted in favor (gratia) or merits: specious in words, in reality empty or underhand; and the greater the image of liberty under which they were covered, by so much the more were they going to break out into a more hostile servitude.