Tacitus: ANNALES

[1] Nihil intermissa navigatione hiberni maris Agrippina Corcyram insulam advehitur, litora Calabriae contra sitam. illic paucos dies componendo animo insumit, violenta luctu et nescia tolerandi. interim adventu eius audito intimus quisque amicorum et plerique militares, ut quique sub Germanico stipendia fecerant, multique etiam ignoti vicinis e municipiis, pars officium in principem rati, plures illos secuti, ruere ad oppidum Brundisium, quod naviganti celerrimum fidissimumque adpulsu erat.

[1] With the navigation of the wintry sea not at all intermitted, Agrippina is conveyed to the island Corcyra, set opposite the shores of Calabria. There she spends a few days in composing her spirit, violent in grief and unknowing how to endure. Meanwhile, her arrival being heard, each closest of the friends and the majority of the military—namely all who had done their stipend under Germanicus—and many even unknown from the neighboring municipal towns, some thinking it a duty toward the princeps, more following those men, rushed to the town of Brundisium, which for one sailing was the swiftest and most trustworthy for a landfall.

atque ubi primum ex alto visa classis, complentur non modo portus et proxima maris sed moenia ac tecta, quaque longissime prospectari poterat, maerentium turba et rogitantium inter se silentione an voce aliqua egredientem exciperent. neque satis constabat quid pro tempore foret, cum classis paulatim successit, non alacri, ut adsolet, remigio sed cunctis ad tristitiam compositis. postquam duobus cum liberis, feralem urnam tenens, egressa navi defixit oculos, idem omnium gemitus; neque discerneres proximos alienos, virorum feminarumve planctus, nisi quod comitatum Agrippinae longo maerore fessum obvii et recentes in dolore antibant.

And when at first the fleet was seen from the deep, not only the harbors and the places nearest the sea but the walls and roofs were filled, and, wherever one could look out farthest, with a throng of mourners and of people asking among themselves whether they should receive the one disembarking in silence or with some voice. Nor was it quite settled what would be fitting for the moment, when the fleet gradually drew in, not with the lively rowing, as is the custom, but with all things composed for sadness. After she, with her two children, holding the funereal urn, disembarked from the ship and fixed her eyes downward, the same groan rose from all; nor could you distinguish intimates from strangers, the laments of men or of women, save that those meeting them and fresh in grief outdid the escort of Agrippina, wearied by long mourning.

[2] Miserat duas pmetorias cohortis Caesar, addito ut magistratus Calabriae Apulique et Campani suprema erga memoriam filii sui munera fungerentur. igitur trlbunorum centurionumque umeris cineres portabantur; praecedebant incompta signa, versi fasces; atque ubi colonias transgrederentur, atrata plebes, trabeati equites pro opibus loci vestem odores aliaque funerum sollemnia cremabant. etiam quorum diversa oppida, tamen obvii et victimas atque aras dis Manibus statuentes lacrimis et conclamationibus dolorem testabantur.

[2] Caesar had sent two praetorian cohorts, with the addition that the magistrates of Calabria, Apulia, and Campania should perform the final duties toward the memory of his son. Accordingly, the ashes were carried on the shoulders of tribunes and centurions; unadorned standards went before, the fasces reversed; and whenever they crossed the colonies, the populace in black, the equestrians in trabeae, burned, according to the resources of the place, garments, perfumes, and other solemnities of funerals. Even those whose towns were off the route, nevertheless came to meet them and, setting up victims and altars to the divine Manes, with tears and conclamations attested their grief.

Drusus Tarracinam progressus est cum Claudio fratre liberisque Germanici, qui in urbe fuerant. consules M. Valerius et M. Aurelius (iam enim magistratum occeperant; et senatus ac magna pars populi viam complevere, dislecti et ut cuique libitum flentes; aberat quippe adulatio, gnaris omnibus laetam Tlberio Germanici mortem male dissimulari.

Drusus advanced to Tarracina with his brother Claudius and the children of Germanicus, who had been in the city. The consuls M. Valerius and M. Aurelius (for they had already entered upon the magistracy); and the senate and a great part of the populace filled the road, dispersed and weeping as it pleased each; for adulation was absent, since all knew that Tiberius’s joy at the death of Germanicus was poorly dissimulated.

[3] Tiberius atque Augusta publico abstinuere, inferius maiestate sua rati si palam lamentarentur, an ne omnium oculis vultum eorum scrutantibus falsi intellegerentur. matrem Antoniam non apud auctores rerum, non diurna actorum scriptura reperio ullo insigni officio functam, cum super Agrippinam et Drusum et Claudium ceteri quoque consanguinei nominatim perscripti sint, seu valetudine praepediebatur seu victus luctu animus magnitudinem mali perferre visu non toleravit. facilius crediderim Tiberio et Augusta, qui domo non excedebant, cohibitam, ut par maeror et matris exemplo avia quoque et patruus attineri viderentur.

[3] Tiberius and the Augusta abstained from the public, reckoning it beneath their majesty if they should lament openly, or lest, with all eyes scrutinizing their visage, they might be understood as insincere. The mother Antonia I do not find, either among the authors of events or in the daily record of the acta, to have performed any distinguished office, although, besides Agrippina and Drusus and Claudius, the other kinsmen also have been written down by name; whether she was hindered by valetudine, or her spirit, conquered by grief, did not tolerate to endure by sight the magnitude of the misfortune. I would more readily believe that, with Tiberius and the Augusta, who did not go forth from the house, she was restrained, so that equal mourning might be seen, and that, by the mother’s example, the grandmother also and the paternal uncle might appear to be detained.

[4] Dies quo reliquiae tumulo Augusti inferebantur modo per silentium vastus, modo ploratibus inquies; plena urbis itinera, conlucentes per campum Martis faces. illic miles cum armis, sine insignibus magistratus, populus per tribus concidisse rem publicam, nihil spei reliquum clamitabant, promptius apertiusque quam ut meminisse imperitantium crederes. nihil tamen Tiberium magis penetravit quam studia hominum accensa in Agrippinam, cum decus patriae, solum Augusti sanguinem, unicum antiquitatis specimen appellarent versique ad caelum ac deos integram illi subolem ac superstitem iniquorum precarentur.

[4] The day on which the remains were borne into the Tomb of Augustus was now vast with silence, now restless with wailings; the thoroughfares of the city were full, torches gleaming across the Campus Martius. There the soldiers with their arms, the magistrates without insignia, the people by tribes, kept shouting that the republic had collapsed, that nothing of hope remained—more promptly and more openly than you would have believed men mindful of those commanding would do. Nothing, however, pierced Tiberius more than the enthusiasms of men inflamed for Agrippina, when they called her the ornament of the fatherland, the sole blood of Augustus, the unique exemplar of antiquity; and, turning to heaven and the gods, they prayed that for her the offspring might be intact and survive the iniquitous.

[5] Fuere qui publici funeris pompam requirerent compararentque quae in Drusum patrem Germanici honora et magnifica Augustus fecisset. ipsum quippe asperrimo hiemis Ticinum usque progressum neque abscedentem a corpore simul urbem intravisse; circumfusas lecto Claudiorum Iuliorumque imagines; defletum in foro, laudatum pro rostris, cuncta a maioribus reperta aut quae posteri invenerint cumulata: at Germanico ne solitos quidem et cuicumque nobili debitos honores contigisse. sane corpus ob longinquitatem itinerum externis terris quoquo modo crematum: sed tanto plura decora mox tribui par fuisse quanto prima fors negavisset.

[5] There were those who demanded the pomp of a public funeral and compared what honors and magnificent observances Augustus had done for Drusus, the father of Germanicus. For indeed he himself, advancing as far as Ticinum in the harshest winter and not withdrawing from the corpse, entered the city together with it; the images of the Claudii and the Julii were gathered around the bier; he was wept for in the forum, praised before the rostra, all things discovered by the ancestors, or which posterity has devised, heaped up: but for Germanicus not even the customary honors, owed to any noble, befell. To be sure, the body, on account of the length of the journeys, was in foreign lands cremated in whatever manner: but it would have been fitting that so many more distinctions be soon bestowed in proportion as chance had denied the first.

non fratrem nisi unius diei via, non patruum saltem porta tenus obvium. ubi illa veterum instituta, propositam toro effigiem, meditata ad memoriam virtutis carmina et laudationes et lacrimas vel doloris imitamenta?

no brother beyond the journey of a single day, no paternal uncle at least to meet him as far as the gate. where are those institutions of the ancients, the effigy set forth on the bier, songs rehearsed for the memory of his virtue, and laudations and tears, or imitations of grief?

[6] Gnarum id Tiberio fuit; utque premeret vulgi sermones, monuit edicto multos inlustrium Romanorum ob rem publicam obisse, neminem tam flagranti desiderio celebratum. idque et sibi et cunctis egregium si modus adiceretur. non enim eadem decora principibus viris et imperatori popolo quae modicis domibus aut civitatibus.

[6] That was known to Tiberius; and, to check the talk of the crowd, he warned by edict that many illustrious Romans had died for the commonwealth, and that no one had been celebrated with so burning a longing. And this was excellent both for himself and for all, if a measure were added. For the same honors are not fitting for princely men and an imperial people as for modest households or cities.

convenisse recenti dolori luctum et ex maerore solacia; sed referendum iam animum ad firmitudinem, ut quondam divus Iulius amissa unica filia, ut divus Augustus ereptis nepotibus abstruserint tristitiam. nil opus vetustioribus exemplis, quotiens populus Romanus cladis exercituum, interitum ducum, funditus amissas nobilis familias constanter tulerit. principes mortalis, rem publicam aeternam esse.

mourning suited the recent dolor, and from grief, solaces; but now the mind must be referred back to firmness, as once the deified Julius, with his only daughter lost, and the deified Augustus, with his grandsons snatched away, thrust their sadness out of sight. no need of more ancient examples, as often as the Roman people have steadfastly borne the disasters of armies, the deaths of leaders, noble families utterly lost. princes are mortal; the commonwealth is eternal.

proin repeterent sollemnia, et quia ludorum Megalesium spectaculum suberat, etiam voluptates resumerent.

therefore let them resume the solemnities, and, because the spectacle of the Megalesian games was at hand, let them also resume pleasures.

[7] Tum exuto iustitio reditum ad munia, et Drusus Illyricos ad exercitus profectus est, erectis omnium animis petendae e Pisone ultionis et crebro questu, quod vagus interim per amoena Asiae atque Achaiae adroganti et subdola mora scelerum probationes subverteret. nam vulgatum erat missam, ut dixi, a Cn. Sentio famosam veneficiis Martinam subita morte Brundisii extinctam, venenumque nodo crinium eius occultatum nec ulla in corpore signa sumpti exitii reperta.

[7] Then, the justitium cast off, there was a return to duties, and Drusus set out to the Illyrian armies, the spirits of all uplifted for seeking vengeance from Piso, with frequent complaint that meanwhile he, wandering through the pleasant places of Asia and Achaia, by an arrogant and insidious delay was overturning the proofs of his crimes. For it had been bruited abroad that Martina, notorious for poisonings, who, as I said, had been sent by Gnaeus Sentius, was snuffed out by a sudden death at Brundisium, and that poison had been hidden in a knot of her hair, nor were any signs in the body found of a fatal draught having been taken.

[8] At Piso praemisso in urbem filio datisque mandatis per quae principem molliret ad Drusum pergit, quem haud fratris interitu trucem quam remoto aemulo acquiorem sibi sperabat. Tiberius quo integrum iudicium ostentaret, exceptum comiter iuvenem sueta erga filios familiarum nobilis liberalitate auget. Drusus Pisoni, si vera forent quae iacerentur, praecipuum in dolore suum locum respondit: sed malle falsa et inania nec cuiquam mortem Germanici exitiosam esse.

[8] But Piso, with his son sent on ahead into the city and with instructions given by which he might mollify the princeps, proceeds to Drusus, whom he hoped would be not so truculent because of his brother’s death as, with a rival removed, more favorable to himself. Tiberius, in order thereby to display an integral judgment, after receiving the youth courteously, augments him with the customary liberality toward the sons of noble houses. Drusus replied to Piso that, if the charges being hurled were true, his own place was foremost in grief; but that he preferred them false and empty, and that the death of Germanicus be ruinous to no one.

haec palam et vitato omni secreto; neque dubitabantur praescripta ei a Tiberio, cum incallidus alioqui et facilis iuventa senilibus tum artibus uteretur.

these things openly and with all secrecy avoided; nor was it doubted that instructions had been prescribed to him by Tiberius, since, otherwise unpracticed and pliant in youth, he was then employing senile arts.

[9] Piso Delmatico mari tramisso relictisque apud Anconam navibus per Picenum ac mox Flaminiam viam adsequitur legionem, quae e Pannonia in urbem, dein praesidio Africae ducebatur: eaque res agitata rumoribus ut in agmine atque itinere crebro se militibus ostentavisset. ab Narnia, vitandae suspicionis an quia pavidis consilia in incerto sunt, Nare ac mox Tiberi devectus auxit vulgi iras, quia navem tumulo Caesarum adpulerat dieque et ripa frequenti, magno clientium agmine ipse, feminarum comitatu Plancina et vultu alacres incessere. fuit inter inritamenta invidiae domus foro imminens festa ornatu conviviumque et epulae et celebritate loci nihil occultum.

[9] Piso, the Dalmatian sea having been crossed and the ships left at Ancona, through Picenum and soon the Flaminian Way overtakes the legion which from Pannonia into the city, then as a garrison for Africa, was being led: and this matter was bandied about in rumors—that in the column and on the march he had frequently displayed himself to the soldiers. From Narnia, whether to avoid suspicion or because to the fearful counsels are in uncertainty, being carried down the Nar and soon the Tiber, he increased the populace’s anger, because he had brought his ship up to the Tomb of the Caesars; and on a day and riverbank crowded, with a great line of clients, he himself, with a female retinue—Plancina—and with faces lively, they advanced. There was, among the irritants of envy, a house overhanging the forum with festive adornment, and a banquet and feasting; and, by the crowdedness of the place, nothing was concealed.

[10] Postera die Fuleinius Trio Pisonem apud consules postulavit. contra Vitellius ac Veranius ceterique Germanicum comitati tendebant, nullas esse partis Trioni; neque se accusatores sed rerum indices et testis mandata Germanici perlaturos. ille dimissa eius causae delatione, ut priorem vitam accusaret obtinuit, petitumque est a principe cognitionem exciperet.

[10] On the next day Fuleinius Trio demanded Piso before the consuls. In reply Vitellius and Veranius and the rest who had accompanied Germanicus were pressing that there was no part for Trio; nor were they accusers, but informers of the facts and witnesses who would carry out the mandates of Germanicus. He, dropping the delation of that charge, obtained leave to accuse his earlier life; and it was requested of the emperor that he take the hearing upon himself.

quod ne reus quidem abnuebat, studia populi et patrum metuens: contra Tiberium spernendis rumoribus validum et conscientiae matris innexum esse; veraque aut in deterius credita indice ab uno facilius discerni, odium et invidiam apud multos valere. haud fallebat Tiberium moles cognitionis quaque ipse fama distraheretur. igitur paucis familiarium adhibitis minas accusantium et hinc preces audit integramque causam ad senatum remittit.

which not even the defendant denied, fearing the partisanships of the people and the Fathers; contrariwise, that Tiberius was strong for spurning rumors and was entangled with his mother’s complicity; and that truths, or things believed in a worse sense, are more easily distinguished by a single informer, whereas hatred and envy prevail among many. It did not escape Tiberius—the mass of the inquiry and the ways in which he himself was torn by rumor. Therefore, with a few familiars admitted, he hears on the one hand the threats of the accusers and on the other the pleas, and he remits the entire cause to the senate.

[11] Atque interim Drusus rediens Illyrico, quamquam patres censuissent ob receptum Maroboduum et res priore aestate gestas ut ovans iniret, prolato honore urbem intravit. post quae reo L. Arruntium, P. Vinicium, Asinium Gallum, Aeserninum Marcellum, Sex. Pompeium patronos petenti iisque diversa excusantibus M'. Lepidus et L. Piso et Livineius Regulus adfuere, arrecta omni civitate, quanta fides amicis Germanici, quae fiducia reo; satin cohiberet ac premeret sensus suos Tiberius.

[11] And meanwhile Drusus, returning from Illyricum, although the Fathers had decreed that, on account of the reception of Maroboduus and the deeds accomplished the previous summer, he should enter with an ovation, entered the city with the honor deferred. After this, when the defendant was asking as patrons L. Arruntius, P. Vinicius, Asinius Gallus, Aeserninus Marcellus, and Sex. Pompeius, and as these were offering diverse excuses, M'. Lepidus and L. Piso and Livineius Regulus were present, the whole citizenry aroused—how great the loyalty to the friends of Germanicus, what confidence to the defendant; would Tiberius sufficiently restrain and press down his feelings?

haud alias intentior populus plus sibi in principem occultae vocis aut suspicacis silentii permisit.

At no other time was the populace more intent, nor did it permit itself more against the princeps by covert voice or by suspicious silence.

[12] Die senatus Caesar orationem habuit meditato temperamento. patris sui legatum atque amicum Pisonem fuisse adiutoremque Germanico datum a se auctore senatu rebus apud Orientem administrandis. illic contumacia et certaminibus asperasset iuvenem exituque eius laetatus esset an scelere extinxisset, integris animis diiudicandum.

[12] On the day of the senate Caesar delivered an oration with premeditated moderation. He declared that Piso had been his father's legate and friend, and that he had been given as a helper to Germanicus by himself, with the senate as author, for administering affairs in the East. Whether there by contumacy and contests he had exasperated the young man and rejoiced at his death, or had extinguished him by a crime, was to be adjudged with untainted minds.

'nam si legatus officii terminos, obsequium erga imperatorem exuit eiusdemque morte et luctu meo laetatus est, odero seponamque a domo mea et privatas inimicitias non vi principis ulciscar: sin facinus in cuiuscumque mortalium nece vindicandum detegitur, vos vero et liberos Germanici et nos parentes iustis solaciis adficite. simulque illud reputate, turbide et seditiose tractaverit exercitus Piso, quaesita sint per ambitionem studia militum, armis repetita provincia, an falsa haec in maius vulgaverint accusatores, quorum ego nimiis studiis iure suscenseo. nam quo pertinuit nudare corpus et contrectandum vulgi oculis permittere differrique etiam per externos tamquam veneno interceptus esset, si incerta adhuc ista et scrutanda sunt?

'for if the legate has overstepped the limits of duty, cast off obedience toward the emperor, and rejoiced at that same man’s death and at my mourning, I shall hate him and remove him from my household, and I will not avenge private enmities by the power of the princeps: but if a crime is uncovered that must be avenged in the killing of any mortal whatsoever, then do you furnish both the children of Germanicus and us his parents with just consolations. And at the same time reckon this: whether Piso handled the army turbulently and seditiously, whether the partisanships of the soldiers were sought through ambition, whether the province was resumed by arms, or whether the accusers have broadcast these falsehoods with exaggeration, at whose excessive zeal I am rightly incensed. For what was the point of stripping the body and permitting it to be handled to the gaze of the crowd, and even to be carried about among foreigners as though he had been intercepted by poison, if these matters are still uncertain and to be scrutinized?

defleo equidem filium meum semperque deflebo: sed neque reum prohibeo quo minus cuncta proferat, quibus innocentia eius sublevari aut, si qua fuit iniquitas Germanici, coargui possit, vosque oro ne, quia dolori meo causa conexa est, obiecta crimina pro adprobatis accipiatis. si quos propinquus sanguis aut fides sua patronos dedit, quantum quisque eloquentia et cura valet, iuvate periclitantem: ad eundem laborem, eandem constantiam accusatores hortor. id solum Germanico super leges praestiterimus, quod in curia potius quam in foro, apud senatum quam apud iudices de morte eius anquiritur: cetera pari modestia tractentur.

I do indeed bewail my son, and I shall always bewail him: but neither do I forbid the defendant from putting forward everything by which his innocence may be upheld, or, if there was any iniquity of Germanicus, it may be convicted; and I beg you not, because the case is connected with my grief, to accept the charges alleged as approved. If near blood or their own loyalty has given him any patrons, help the man in peril, each as far as he avails in eloquence and care: to the same effort, the same constancy, I exhort the accusers. This alone beyond the laws we shall have afforded to Germanicus: that inquiry concerning his death is made in the Curia rather than in the Forum, before the Senate rather than before judges: let the rest be handled with equal modesty.

nemo Drusi lacrimas, nemo maestitiam meam spectet, nec si qua in nos adversa finguntur.'

let no one look upon Drusus’s tears, let no one upon my sadness, nor, if any adverse things are being feigned against us.'

[13] Exim biduum criminibus obiciendis statuitur utque sex dierum spatio interiecto reus per triduum defenderetur. tum Fulcinius vetera et inania orditur, ambitiose avareque habitam Hispaniam; quod neque convictum noxae reo si recentia purgaret, neque defensum absolutioni erat si teneretur maioribus flagitiis. post quem Servaeus et Veranius et Vitellius consimili studio et multa eloquentia Vitellius obiecere odio Germanici et rerum novarum studio Pisonem vulgus militum per licentiam et sociorum iniurias eo usque conrupisse ut parens legionum a deterrimis appellaretur; contra in optimum quemque, maxime in comites et amicos Germanici saevisse; postremo ipsum devotionibus et veneno peremisse; sacra hinc et immolationes nefandas ipsius atque Plancinae, peritam armis rem publicam, utque reus agi posset, acie victum.

[13] Then a two-day period was fixed for bringing charges, and that, with a span of six days interposed, the defendant should be defended for three days. Then Fulcinius begins with old and empty matters—Spain administered ambitiously and avariciously; a point which neither convicted the defendant of guilt if he cleared himself of the recent charges, nor, if he were held on graver outrages, did its defense make for acquittal. After him Servaeus and Veranius and Vitellius, with like zeal and much eloquence, alleged that out of hatred of Germanicus and a zeal for new things Piso had corrupted the common soldiery by license and by injuries to the allies to such a degree that he was called “parent of the legions” by the worst men; that, conversely, he had raged against each of the best, especially the companions and friends of Germanicus; that, finally, he had destroyed him by devotions and by poison; hence the rites and nefarious immolations of himself and of Plancina, the commonwealth endangered by arms, and that, in order that he could be dealt with as a defendant, he had been defeated in battle.

[14] Defensio in ceteris trepidavit; nam neque ambitionem militarem neque provinciam pessimo cuique obnoxiam, ne contumelias quidem adversum imperatorem infitiari poterat: solum veneni crimen visus est diluisse, quod ne accusatores quidem satis firmabant, in convivio Germanici, cum super eum Piso discumberet, infectos manibus eius cibos arguentes. quippe absurdum videbatur inter aliena servitia et tot adstantium visu, ipso Germanico coram, id ausum; offerebatque familiam reus et ministros in tormenta flagitabat. sed iudices per diversa implacabiles erant, Caesar ob bellum provinciae inlatum, senatus numquam satis credito sine fraude Germanicum interisse.

[14] The defense in the rest faltered; for he could not deny military ambition nor that the province was made subject to the worst sort, not even the contumelies against the emperor: only the charge of poison he seemed to have diluted, which not even the accusers themselves substantiated sufficiently, alleging that at a banquet of Germanicus, when Piso reclined above him, the foods were infected by his hands. For it seemed absurd that, among alien servitudes and under the gaze of so many standing by, with Germanicus himself present, he had dared that; and the defendant offered his household and demanded that the attendants be put to torture. But the judges were implacable for different reasons: Caesar on account of the war brought upon the province, the Senate because it was never sufficiently credible that Germanicus had perished without fraud.

* * scripsissent expostulantes, quod haud minus Tiberius quam Piso abnuere. simul populi ante curiam voces audiebantur: non temperaturos manibus si patrum sententias evasisset. effigiesque Pisonis traxerant in Gemonias ac divellebant, ni iussu principis protectae repositaeque forent.

* * they had written remonstrating, which Tiberius no less than Piso refused. At the same time the voices of the people were being heard before the Curia: that they would not restrain their hands if he should evade the senators’ judgments. And they had dragged Pison’s effigies to the Gemonian Steps and were tearing them apart, had they not, by order of the emperor, been protected and put back.

igitur inditus lecticae et a tribuno praetoriae cohortis deductus est vario rumore custos saluti an mortis exactor sequeretur.

accordingly he was put into a litter and was conducted by a tribune of the praetorian cohort, amid varied rumor whether a guardian for his safety or an executor of death was following.

[15] Eadem Plancinae invidia, maior gratia; eoque ambiguum habebatur quantum Caesari in eam liceret. atque ipsa, donec mediae Pisoni spes, sociam se cuiuscumque fortunae et si ita ferret comitem exitii promittebat: ut secretis Augustae precibus veniam obtinuit, paulatim segregari a marito, dividere defensionem coepit. quod reus postquam sibi exitiabile intellegit, an adhuc experiretur dubitans, hortantibus filiis durat mentem senatumque rursum ingreditur; redintegratamque accusationem, infensas patrum voces, adversa et saeva cuncta perpessus, nullo magis exterritus est quam quod Tiberium sine miseratione, sine ira, obstinatum clausumque vidit, ne quo adfectu perrumperetur.

[15] The same envy was toward Plancina, but greater favor; and for that reason it was held ambiguous how much would be licit for Caesar against her. And she herself, so long as Piso’s hope was in the middle—i.e., still alive—was promising to be the associate of whatever fortune, and, if it so should bear, a companion of doom; but when by the secret entreaties of the Augusta she obtained pardon, she began little by little to segregate herself from her husband and to divide the defense. When the accused understood that this was fatal to himself, doubting whether he should still make trial, with his sons encouraging him he hardens his mind and enters the senate again; and having endured the renewed accusation, the hostile voices of the fathers, all things adverse and savage, he was terrified by nothing more than by the fact that he saw Tiberius without compassion, without anger, obstinate and closed, lest he be broken through by any emotion.

relatus domum, tamquam defensionem in posterum meditaretur, pauca conscribit obsignatque et liberto tradit; tum solita curando corpori exequitur. dein multam post noctem, egressa cubiculo uxore, operiri foris iussit; et coepta luce perfosso iugulo, iacente humi gladio, repertus est.

brought back home, as though he were meditating a defense for the future, he writes a few things, seals them, and hands them to a freedman; then he performs the things usual for tending his body. then, late at night, his wife having gone out of the bedroom, he ordered the doors to be closed; and with light begun he was found, his throat pierced, the sword lying on the ground.

[16] Audire me memini ex senioribus visum saepius inter manus Pisonis libellum quem ipse non vulgaverit; sed amicos eius dictitavisse, litteras Tiberii et mandata in Germanicum contineri, ac destinatum promere apud patres principemque arguere, ni elusus a Seiano per vana promissa foret; nec illum sponte extinctum verum immisso percussore. quorum neutrum adseveraverim: neque tamen occulere debui narratum ab iis qui nostram ad iuventam duraverunt. Caesar flexo in maestitiam ore suam invidiam tali morte quaesitam apud senatum . . . . . crebrisque interrogationibus exquirit qualem Piso diem supremum noctemque exegisset.

[16] I remember hearing from the elders that a little book was often seen in Piso’s hands which he himself had not published; but that his friends kept saying that letters of Tiberius and mandates against Germanicus were contained therein, and that he had intended to bring them forth before the Fathers and to accuse the princeps, if he had not been deluded by Sejanus through vain promises; and that he did not perish of his own accord but by an assassin sent in. Of which I would assert neither: nor yet ought I to have concealed what was narrated by those who endured down to our youth. Caesar, with his countenance bent into mourning, his own odium incurred by such a death before the senate . . . . . and with frequent interrogations he inquires how Piso spent his last day and night.

atque illo pleraque sapienter quaedam inconsultius respondente, recitat codicillos a Pisone in hunc ferme modum compositos: 'conspiratione inimicorum et invidia falsi criminis oppressus, quatenus veritati et innocentiae meae nusquam locus est, deos inmortalis testor vixisse me, Caesar, cum fide adversum te neque alia in matrem tuam pietate; vosque oro liberis meis consulatis, ex quibus Cn. Piso qualicumque fortunae meae non est adiunctus, cum omne hoc tempus in urbe egerit, M. Piso repetere Syriam dehortatus est. atque utinam ego potius filio iuveni quam ille patri seni cessisset. eo impensius precor ne meae pravitatis poenas innoxius luat.

and as he was responding to most things wisely, to some more inconsiderately, he read out little tablets by Piso composed in about this fashion: 'overwhelmed by the conspiracy of enemies and by the envy of a false charge, since there is nowhere any place for truth and my innocence, I call the immortal gods to witness that I have lived, Caesar, with good faith toward you and with the same pietas toward your mother; and I beg you to look out for my children, of whom Gnaeus (Cn.) Piso has not been attached to whatever my fortune was, since he has spent all this time in the city, and Marcus (M.) Piso dissuaded me from returning to Syria. And would that I had yielded rather to my young son than he to his old father. For that reason all the more earnestly I pray that the innocent not pay the penalties for my depravity.'

per quinque et quadraginta annorum obsequium, per collegium consulatus quondam divo Augusto parenti tuo probatus et tibi amicus nec quicquam post haec rogaturus salutem infelicis filii rogo.' de Plancina nihil addidit.

through forty-five years of obsequium, through the collegium of the consulship, formerly approved to the deified Augustus, your parent, and a friend to you, and intending to ask nothing after these things, I ask the safety of my unhappy son.' He added nothing about Plancina.

[17] Post quae Tiberius adulescentem crimine civilis belli purgavit, patris quippe iussa nec potuisse filium detrectare, simul nobilitatem domus, etiam ipsius quoquo modo meriti gravem cacum miseratus. pro Plancina cum pudore et flagitio disseruit, matris preces obtendens, in quam optimi cuiusque secreti questus magis ardescebant. id ergo fas aviae interfectricem nepotis adspicere, adloqui, eripere senatui.

[17] After which Tiberius cleared the young man of the charge of civil war, for indeed a son could not have refused the orders of his father, and at the same time he pitied the nobility of the house, and the heavy downfall of the man himself, however he had merited it. On behalf of Plancina he argued with shame and infamy, putting forward his mother’s prayers, against whom the secret complaints of every best man were the more inflamed. Was it then right that a grandmother should look upon the murderess of her grandson, address her, and snatch her from the senate?

quod pro omnibus civibus leges obtineant uni Germanico non contigisse. Vitellii et Veranii voce defletum Caesarem, ab imperatore et Augusta defensam Plancinam. proinde venena et artes tam feliciter expertas verteret in Agrippinam, in liberos eius, egregiamque aviam ac patruum sanguine miserrimae domus exsatiaret.

that what the laws secure for all citizens had not come to Germanicus, he alone being excluded. By the voice of Vitellius and Veranius Caesar was bewailed; Plancina was defended by the emperor and the Augusta. Accordingly, let him turn the poisons and the arts so felicitously tested against Agrippina, against her children, and let him satiate the distinguished grandmother and the uncle with the blood of the most miserable house.

biduum super hac imagine cognitionis absumptum urgente Tiberio liberos Pisonis matrem uti tuerentur. et cum accusatores ac testes certatim perorarent respondente nullo, miseratio quam invidia augebatur. primus sententiam rogatus Aurelius Cotta consul (nam referente Caesare magistratus eo etiam munere fungebantur) nomen Pisonis radendum fastis censuit, partem bonorum publicandam, pars ut Cn. Pisoni filio concederetur isque praenomen mutaret; M. Piso exuta dignitate et accepto quinquagies sestertio in decem annos relegaretur, concessa Plancinae incolumitate ob preces Augustae.

A two-day period was consumed over this semblance of an inquiry, Tiberius urging that Piso’s children should defend their mother. And while the accusers and witnesses delivered their perorations in rivalry, with no one replying, compassion rather than ill-will was being increased. First asked for his opinion, the consul Aurelius Cotta (for, with Caesar introducing the matter, the magistrates were discharging even that function) judged that the name of Piso should be scraped from the Fasti, that part of his goods should be confiscated to the state, and that part be granted to his son Cn. Piso, and that he change his praenomen; that M. Piso, stripped of his dignity and with 5,000,000 sesterces received, be relegated for ten years; and that safety be conceded to Plancina on account of the prayers of the Augusta.

[18] Multa ex ea sententia mitigata sunt a principe: ne nomen Pisonis fastis eximeretur, quando M. Antonii quid bellum patriae fecisset, Iulli Antonii qui domum Augusti violasset, manerent. et M. Pisonem ignominiae exemit concessitque ei paterna bona, satis firmus, ut saepe memoravi, adversum pecuniam et tum pudore absolutae Plancinae placabilior. atque idem, cum Valerius Messalinus signum aureum in aede Martis Vltoris, Caecina Severus aram ultioni statuendam censuissent, prohibuit, ob externas ea victorias sacrari dictitans, domestica mala tristitia operienda.

[18] Many points of that opinion were mitigated by the princeps: that the name of Piso not be removed from the Fasti, since M. Antonius, who had made war upon the fatherland, and Iullus Antonius, who had violated the house of Augustus, remained. And he exempted M. Piso from ignominy and granted him his paternal goods—quite firm, as I have often recalled, against money, and at that time more placable out of shame at Plancina’s acquittal. And this same man, when Valerius Messalinus had proposed a golden statue in the temple of Mars the Avenger, and Caecina Severus had proposed that an altar to Vengeance be set up, forbade it, repeatedly saying that such things were consecrated for foreign victories, while domestic ills ought to be shrouded in sadness.

addiderat Messalinus Tiberio et Augustae et Antoniae et Agrippinae Drusoque ob vindictam Germanici gratis agendas omiseratque Claudii mentionem. et Messalinum quidem L. Asprenas senatu coram ercontatus est an prudens praeterisset; ac tum demum nomen Claudii adscriptum est. mihi quanto plura recentium seu veterum revolvo tanto magis ludibria rerum mortalium cunctis in negotiis obversantur.

Messalinus had added that thanks were to be given to Tiberius and to Augusta and to Antonia and to Agrippina and to Drusus on account of the vindication of Germanicus, and he had omitted mention of Claudius. And L. Asprenas, indeed, questioned Messalinus openly in the senate whether he had passed him over deliberately; and only then was the name of Claudius inscribed. To me, the more of recent or ancient matters I revolve, the more the mockeries of mortal affairs present themselves in all business.

quippe fama spe veneratione potius omnes destinabantur imperio quam quem futurum principem fortuna in occulto tenebat.

for indeed by fame, hope, and veneration all were rather being destined for imperial rule than was the one whom fortune was keeping in concealment as the future princeps.

[19] Paucis post diebus Caesar auctor senatui fuit Vitellio atque Veranio et Servaeo sacerdotia tribuendi: Fulcinio suffragium ad honores pollicitus monuit ne facundiam violentia praecipitaret. is finis fuit ulciscenda Germanici morte, non modo apud illos homines qui tum agebant etiam secutis temporibus vario rumore iactata. adeo maxima quaeque ambigua sunt, dum alii quoquo modo audita pro compertis habent, alii vera in contrarium vertunt, et gliscit utrumque posteritate.

[19] A few days later the Caesar was the proposer to the senate for priesthoods to be granted to Vitellius and Veranius and Servaeus: to Fulcinius, having promised his suffrage toward honors, he admonished not to precipitate his eloquence into violence. That was the end of avenging Germanicus’s death; the matter was bandied about by variegated rumor not only among those men who were then engaged, but even in the times that followed. To such a degree are all the greatest things ambiguous, while some hold things heard in whatever way as ascertained, others turn truths into the contrary, and both swell with posterity.

at Drusus urbe egressus repetendis auspiciis mox ovans introiit. paucosque post dies Vipsania mater eius excessit, una omnium Agrippae liberorum miti obitu: nam ceteros manifestum ferro vel creditum est veneno aut fame extinctos.

But Drusus, having gone out from the city to renew the auspices, soon entered in an ovation. And a few days later his mother Vipsania passed away, the only one of all Agrippa’s children with a gentle death: for the rest were manifestly by the sword, or it was believed they were done to death by poison or by hunger.

[20] Eodem anno Tacfarinas, quem priore aestate pulsum a Camillo memoravi, bellum in Africa renovat, vagis primum populationibus et ob pernicitatem inultis, dein vicos excindere, trahere gravis praedas; postremo haud procul Pagyda flumine cohortem Romanam circumsedit. praeerat castello Decrius impiger manu, exercitus militia et illam obsidionem flagitii ratus. is cohortatus milites, ut copiam pugnae in aperto faceret aciem pro castris instruit.

[20] In the same year Tacfarinas, whom I have mentioned as having been driven off by Camillus the previous summer, renews the war in Africa—at first with wandering depredations, and, on account of his swiftness, unavenged; then he proceeds to raze villages and to drag off heavy spoils; finally, not far from the river Pagyda, he invested a Roman cohort. In command of the fort was Decrius, indefatigable in action, hardened by military service, and he judged that siege a disgrace. Having exhorted the soldiers to offer the opportunity of combat in the open, he draws up the battle-line before the camp.

primoque impetu pulsa cohorte promptus inter tela occursat fugientibus, increpat signiferos quod inconditis aut desertoribus miles Romanus terga daret; simul exceptat vulnera et quamquam transfosso oculo adversum os in hostem intendit neque proelium omisit donec desertus suis caderet.

and at the first onset, the cohort having been routed, prompt he runs amid the missiles to meet the fugitives, he rebukes the standard-bearers because the Roman soldier was giving his back to undisciplined men or to deserters; at the same time he receives wounds, and although an eye was pierced through he aimed his face full against the enemy and did not relinquish the battle until, deserted by his own, he fell.

[21] Quae postquam L. Apronio (nam Camillo successerat) comperta, magis dedecore suorum quam gloria hostis anxius, raro ea tempestate et e vetere memoria facinore decumum quemque ignominiosae cohortis sorte ductos fusti necat. tantumque severitate profectum ut vexillum veteranorum, non amplius quingenti numero, easdem Tacfarinatis copias praesidium cui Thala nomen adgressas fuderint. quo proelio Rufus Helvius gregarius miles servati civis decus rettulit donatusque est ab Apronio torquibus et hasta.

[21] After these things were learned by L. Apronius (for he had succeeded Camillus), anxious more at the disgrace of his own than at the glory of the enemy, by a deed rare in that season and from ancient memory, he kills every tenth man of the ignominious cohort, drawn by lot, with cudgels. And so much was effected by severity that the vexillum of the veterans, not more than five hundred in number, routed those same forces of Tacfarinas, which had attacked a garrison-post by the name Thala. In which battle Rufus Helvius, a rank-and-file soldier, carried off the distinction of a citizen saved and was endowed by Apronius with neck-rings and a spear.

Caesar addidit civicam coronam, quod non eam quoque Apronius iure proconsulis tribuisset questus magis quam offensus. sed Tacfarinas perculsis Numidis et obsidia aspernantibus spargit bellum, ubi instaretur cedens ac rursum in terga remeans. et dum ea ratio barbaro fuit, inritum fessumque Romanum impune ludificabatur: postquam deflexit ad maritimos locos, inligatus praeda stativis castris adhaerebat, missu patris Apronius Caesianus cum equite et cohortibus auxiliariis, quis velocissimos legionum addiderat, prosperam adversum Numidas pugnam facit pellitque in deserta.

Caesar added the civic crown, on the ground that Apronius had not likewise bestowed it by the right of a proconsul—complaining rather than taking offense. But Tacfarinas, with the Numidians struck and scorning sieges, scatters the war, yielding when pressed and then again returning upon the rear. And while that method was the barbarian’s, he was with impunity making sport of the Roman, ineffectual and wearied; but after he turned aside to the maritime places, entangled by booty he clung to stationary camps. At his father’s dispatch, Apronius Caesianus, with cavalry and auxiliary cohorts—to which he had added the swiftest of the legions—achieves a prosperous battle against the Numidians and drives them into the deserts.

[22] At Romae Lepida, cui super Aemiliorum decus L. Sulla et Cn. Pompeius proavi erant, defertur simulavisse partum ex P. Quirinio divite atque orbo. adiciebantur adulteria venena quaesitumque per Chaldaeos in domum Caesaris, defendente ream Manio Lepido fratre. Quirinius post dictum repudium ad huc infensus quamvis infami ac nocenti miserationem addiderat.

[22] But at Rome, Lepida—who, besides the renown of the Aemilii, had L. Sulla and Cn. Pompeius as great-grandfathers—is accused of having simulated a childbirth by P. Quirinius, a rich and childless man. Added to this were adulteries, poisons, and a consultation through Chaldaeans against the house of Caesar, with her brother Manius Lepidus defending the accused. Quirinius, after the pronounced divorce, though still embittered, had even shown compassion, although she was disreputable and guilty.

haud facile quis dispexerit illa in cognitione mentem principis: adeo vertit ac miscuit irae et clementiae signa. deprecatus primo senatum ne maiestatis crimina tractarentur, mox M. Servilium e consularibus aliosque testis inlexit ad proferenda quae velut reicere voluerat. idemque servos Lepidae, cum militari custodia haberentur, transtulit ad consules neque per tormenta interrogari passus est de iis quae ad domum suam pertinerent.

Not easily could one discern in that inquiry the mind of the emperor: to such a degree did he turn and mingle the signs of wrath and clemency. Having at first entreated the senate that charges of maiestas (treason) not be handled, soon he enticed M. Servilius from among the consulars and other witnesses to bring forward the very matters which he had seemed to wish to reject. And the same man transferred Lepida’s slaves, though they were held in military custody, to the consuls, nor did he allow them to be questioned under torture about those things which pertained to his own house.

exemit etiam Drusum consulem designatum dicendae primo loco sententiae; quod alii civile rebantur, ne ceteris adsentiendi necessitas fieret, quidam ad saevitiam trahebant: neque enim cessurum nisi damnandi officio.

He also exempted Drusus, the consul-designate, from the duty of giving his opinion first; which some judged civil, lest a necessity of assenting be made for the rest, while certain others were drawing it toward savagery: for he would not have yielded except to the office of condemning.

[23] Lepida ludorum diebus qui cognitionem intervenerant theatrum cum claris feminis ingressa, lamentatione flebili maiores suos ciens ipsumque Pompeium, cuius ea monimenta et adstantes imagines visebantur, tantum misericordiae permovit ut effusi in lacrimas saeva et detestanda Quirinio clamitarent, cuius senectae atque orbitati et obscurissimae domui destinata quondam uxor L. Caesari ac divo Augusto nurus dederetur. dein tormentis servorum patefacta sunt flagitia itumque in sententiam Rubelli Blandi a quo aqua atque igni arcebatur. huic Drusus adsensit quamquam alii mitius censuissent.

[23] During the days of the games which had intervened to interrupt the inquiry, Lepida, having entered the theater with illustrious women, by a tearful lamentation invoking her ancestors and Pompey himself, whose monuments and the images standing by were to be seen there, so moved mercy that, poured out in tears, they kept shouting savage and detestable things against Quirinius, to whose old age and childlessness and most obscure house a woman once destined as wife for L. Caesar and as daughter-in-law to the deified Augustus had been given. Then by the tortures of the slaves the flagitious deeds were laid open, and it was gone over to the opinion of Rubellius Blandus, by whom she was barred from water and fire. To this Drusus assented although others had judged more mildly.

mox Scauro, qui filiam ex ea genuerat, datum ne bona publicarentur. tum demum aperuit Tiberius compertum sibi etiam ex P. Quirinii servis veneno eum a Lepida petitum.

Soon it was granted to Scaurus, who had begotten a daughter by her, that her property not be confiscated. Then at last Tiberius disclosed that he had ascertained, even from the slaves of P. Quirinius, that he had been attacked with poison by Lepida.

[24] Inlustrium domuum adversa (etenim haud multum distanti tempore Calpurnii Pisonem, Aemilii Lepidam amiserant) solacio adfecit D. Silanus Iuniae familiae redditus. casum eius paucis repetam. ut valida divo Augusto in rem publicam fortuna ita domi improspera fuit ob impudicitiam filiae ac neptis quas urbe depulit, adulterosque earum morte aut fuga punivit.

[24] The adversities of illustrious houses (for at a time not much distant they had lost Calpurnius Piso, they had lost Aemilia Lepida) received solace from D. Silanus, restored to the Junian family. I will briefly recount his case. As the fortune of the Deified Augustus was strong in the commonwealth, so at home it was unprosperous, on account of the unchastity of his daughter and granddaughter, whom he expelled from the city, and he punished their adulterers with death or with flight.

nam culpam inter viros ac feminas vulgatam gravi nomine laesarum religionum ac violatae maiestatis appellando clementiam maiorum suasque ipse leges egrediebatur. sed aliorum exitus simul cetera illius aetatis memorabo si effectis in quae tetendi plures ad curas vitam produxero. D. Silanus in nepti Augusti adulter, quamquam non ultra foret saevitum quam ut amicitia Caesaris Tiberio imperitante deprecari senatum ac principem ausus est M. Silani fratris potentia, qui per insignem nobilitatem et eloquentiam praecellebat.

for by styling a fault common among men and women with the grave name of religions outraged and of majesty violated, he was overstepping the clemency of the ancestors and even his own laws. but I will at the same time recount the ends of others, together with the rest of that age, if, having achieved the things toward which I have aimed, I shall prolong my life to further cares. D. Silanus, adulter with the granddaughter of Augustus, although there had not been proceeded with to greater savagery than that, under Tiberius’s rule, he was excluded from the friendship of Caesar, yet, by the influence of his brother M. Silanus, who excelled by distinguished nobility and eloquence, dared to petition the senate and the princeps.

sed Tiberius gratis agenti Silano patribus coram respondit se quoque laetari quod frater eius e peregrinatione longinqua revertisset, idque iure licitum quia non senatus consulto non lege pulsus foret: sibi tamen adversus eum integras parentis sui offensiones neque reditu Silani dissoluta quae Augustus voluisset. fuit posthac in urbe eque honores adeptus est.

but Tiberius, in the presence of the Fathers, replied to Silanus as he was offering thanks, that he too rejoiced that his brother had returned from a long peregrination, and that this was licit by right, because he had been expelled neither by a decree of the Senate nor by law; nevertheless, for his own part, his father’s grievances against him remained intact, nor by Silanus’s return were those things dissolved which Augustus had willed. Thereafter he was in the city and likewise attained honors.

[25] Relatum dein de moderanda Papia Poppaea, quam senior Augustus post Iulias rogationes incitandis caelibum poenis et augendo aerario sanxerat. nec ideo coniugia et educationes liberum frequentabantur praevalida orbitate: ceterum multitudo periclitantium gliscebat, cum omnis domus delatorum interpretationibus subverteretur, utque antehac flagitiis ita tunc legibus laborabatur. ea res admonet ut de principiis iuris et quibus modis ad hanc multitudinem infinitam ac varietatem legum perventum sit altius disseram.

[25] Then a report was brought about moderating the Papia Poppaea, which the elder Augustus, after the Julian rogations, had sanctioned for inciting penalties upon the celibate and for augmenting the aerary. Nor for that reason were marriages and the upbringings of children frequented, with childlessness prevailing; but the multitude of those in peril was swelling, since every household was being overthrown by the interpretations of informers, and as previously men were burdened by scandals, so then by laws. This matter admonishes me to discourse more deeply on the principles of law and by what modes there has been a coming to this infinite multitude and variety of laws.

[26] Vetustissimi mortalium, nulla adhuc mala libidine, sine probro, scelere eoque sine poena aut coercitionibus agebant. neque praemiis opus erat cum honesta suopte ingenio peterentur; et ubi nihil contra morem cuperent, nihil per metum vetabantur. at postquam exui aequalitas et pro modestia ac pudore ambitio et vis incedebat, provenere dominationes multosque apud populos aeternum mansere.

[26] The most ancient of mortals, with no evil libido as yet, lived without reproach, without crime, and thus without penalty or coercions. Nor was there need of rewards, since honorable things were sought by their own nature; and when they desired nothing against custom, nothing was forbidden through fear. But after equality was stripped off, and, in place of modesty and pudor, ambition and force advanced, dominations sprang forth and among many peoples remained forever.

quidam statim aut postquam regum pertaesum leges maluerunt. hae primo rudibus hominum animis simplices erant; maximeque fama celebravit Cretensium, quas Minos, Spartanorum, quas Lycurgus, ac mox Atheniensibus quaesitiores iam et plures Solo perscripsit. nobis Romulus ut libitum imperitaverat: dein Numa religionibus et divino iure populum devinxit, repertaque quaedam a Tullo et Anco.

Some straightway, or after they had grown weary of kings, preferred laws. These at first were simple for the raw minds of men; and fame most celebrated those of the Cretans, which Minos (made), those of the Spartans, which Lycurgus (made), and soon for the Athenians, more elaborate now and more numerous, Solon wrote out. For us, Romulus had ruled as it pleased him: then Numa bound the people by religions and divine law, and certain things were discovered by Tullus and Ancus.

sed praecipuus Servius Tullius sanctor legum fuit quis etiam reges obtemperarent.

but the preeminent one was Servius Tullius, the sanctioner of laws, to which even kings would obey.

[27] Pulso Tarquinio adversum patrum factiones multa populus paravit tuendae libertatis et firmandae concordiae, creatique decemviri et accitis quae usquam egregia compositae duodecim tabulae, finis aequi iuris. nam secutae leges etsi aliquando in maleficos ex delicto, saepius tamen dissensione ordinum et apiscendi inlicitos honores aut pellendi claros viros aliaque ob prava per vim latae sunt. hinc Gracchi et Saturnini turbatores plebis nec minor largitor nomine senatus Drusus; corrupti spe aut inlusi per intercessionem socii.

[27] With Tarquin driven out, against the factions of the Fathers the people prepared many measures for guarding liberty and strengthening concord; and decemvirs were created, and, with whatever was outstanding anywhere having been summoned, the Twelve Tables were composed—the limit of equitable right. For the laws that followed, although sometimes against malefactors on account of a crime, more often, however, were carried by force through the dissension of the orders, for acquiring illicit honors or expelling renowned men, and other measures on account of abuses. Hence the Gracchi and the Saturnini, agitators of the plebs, and Drusus, no lesser a largitor under the name of the senate; the allies were corrupted by hope or mocked through an intercession.

ac ne bello quidem Italico, mox civili omissum quin multa et diversa sciscerentur, donec L. Sulla dictator abolitis vel conversis prioribus, cum plura addidisset, otium eius rei haud in longum paravit, statim turbidis Lepidi rogationibus neque multo post tribunis reddita licentia quoquo vellent populum agitandi. iamque non modo in commune sed in singulos homines latae quaestiones, et corruptissima re publica plurimae leges.

and not even during the Italian war, soon the civil one, was there any cessation from many and diverse measures being enacted, until L. Sulla, dictator, with the former measures abolished or converted, though he had added more, secured no long quiet in that affair; immediately through the turbulent bills of Lepidus, and not long after, the license was restored to the tribunes for agitating the people wherever they wished. and now inquiries were established not only in common but against individual men, and, with the republic most corrupt, very many laws.

[28] Tum Cn. Pompeius, tertium consul corrigendis moribus delectus et gravior remediis quam delicta erant suarumque legum auctor idem ac subversor, quae armis tuebatur armis amisit. exim continua per viginti annos discordia, non mos, non ius; deterrima quaeque impune ac multa honesta exitio fuere. sexto demum consulatu Caesar Augustus, potentiae securus, quae triumviratu iusserat abolevit deditque iura quis pace et principe uteremur.

[28] Then Gnaeus Pompeius, chosen as consul for the third time for the correction of morals, and heavier in remedies than the offenses were, and the same man both author and subverter of his own laws, what he was defending by arms he lost by arms. Thereafter, for twenty years, continuous discord—no custom, no law; the worst things with impunity, and many honorable things met destruction. At last, in his sixth consulship, Caesar Augustus, secure in his power, abolished what he had ordered in the triumvirate, and gave laws by which we might enjoy peace and a prince.

acriora ex eo vincla, inditi custodes et lege Papia Poppaea praemiis inducti ut, si a privilegiis parentum cessaretur, velut parens omnium populus vacantia teneret. sed altius penetrabnat urbemque et Italiam et quod usquam civium corripuerant, multorumque excisi status. et terror omnibus intentabatur ni Tiberius statuendo remedio quinque consularium, quinque e praetoriis, totidem e cetero senatu sorte duxisset apud quos exsoluti plerique legis nexus modicum in praesens levamentum fuere.

From that point the bonds were made harsher, guardians were appointed, and under the Lex Papia Poppaea, induced by rewards, so that, if there were a falling short from the privileges of parents, the People, as the parent of all, would hold the vacant estates. But they pushed deeper and had seized upon the city and Italy and whatever of the citizens anywhere, and the statuses of many were cut down. And a terror was being brandished against all, had not Tiberius, by setting up a remedy, drawn by lot five of the consulars, five from the praetorian rank, and as many from the rest of the senate; among whom very many, released from the bond of the law, were a modest alleviation for the present.

[29] Per idem tempus Neronem e liberis Germanici iam ingressum iuventam commendavit patribus, utque munere capessendi vigintiviratus solveretur et quinquennio maturius quam per leges quaesturam peteret non sine inrisu audientium postulavit. praetendebat sibi atque fratri decreta eadem petente Augusto. sed neque tum fuisse dubitaverim qui eius modi preces occulti inluderent: ac tamen initia fastigii Caesaribus erant magisque in oculis vetus mos, et privignis cum vitrico levior necessitudo quam avo adversum nepotem.

[29] At the same time he commended to the Fathers Nero, of the children of Germanicus, now entered upon youth, and he requested—not without the mockery of the hearers—that he be released from the duty of undertaking the vigintivirate, and that he be allowed to seek the quaestorship five years earlier than the laws permit. He was putting forward that the same dispensations had been decreed for himself and his brother at Augustus’s petition. Yet I would not doubt that even then there were those who covertly made sport of prayers of that sort: and nevertheless the beginnings of eminence were for the Caesars, and the old custom was more before men’s eyes, and the bond of step-sons with a stepfather is lighter than that of a grandfather toward a grandson.

additur pontificatus et quo primum die forum ingressus est congiarium plebi admodum laetae quod Germanici stirpem iam puberem aspiciebat. auctum dehinc gaudium nuptiis Neronis et Iuliae Drusi filiae. utque haec secundo rumore ita adversis animis acceptum quod filio Claudii socer Seianus destinaretur.

There is added the pontificate, and on the first day on which he entered the Forum a congiary was given to the plebs, very glad because it was beholding the stock of Germanicus now of age. Thereafter the joy was increased by the nuptials of Nero and Julia, the daughter of Drusus. And just as these things were received with favorable rumor, so with hostile minds was it taken that Sejanus was being destined as father-in-law to the son of Claudius.

polluisse nobilitatem familiae videbatur suspectumque iam nimiae spei Seianum ultra extulisse.

it seemed that the nobility of the family had been defiled, and that Sejanus, already suspect for excessive ambition, had been elevated beyond measure.

[30] Fine anni concessere vita insignes viri L. Volusius et Sallustius Crispus. Volusio vetus familia neque tamen praeturam egressa: ipse consulatum intulit, censoria etiam potestate legendis equitum decuriis functus, opumque quis domus illa immensum viguit primus adcumulator. Crispum equestri ortum loco C. Sallustius, rerum Romanarum florentissimus auctor, sororis nepotem in nomen adscivit.

[30] At the end of the year distinguished men departed this life, L. Volusius and Sallustius Crispus. Volusius was of an old family, yet one that had not passed beyond the praetorship: he himself attained the consulship, and also exercised censorial power for selecting the decuries of the equites, and was the first accumulator of the wealth by which that house flourished immensely. Crispus, sprung from the equestrian rank—Gaius Sallustius, the most flourishing author of Roman affairs, adopted his sister’s grandson into his name.

atque ille, quamquam prompto ad capessendos honores aditu, Maecenatem aemulatus sine dignitate senatoria multos triumphalium consulariumque potentia antiit, diversus a veterum instituto per cultum et munditias copiaque et affluentia luxu propior. suberat tamen vigor animi ingentibus negotiis par, eo acrior quo somnum et inertiam magis ostentabat. igitur incolumi Maecenate proximus, mox praecipuus, cui secreta imperatorum inniterentur, et interficiendi Postumi Agrippae conscius, aetate provecta speciem magis in amicitia principis quam vim tenuit.

and he, although with ready access to seize honors, emulating Maecenas, without senatorial dignitas outstripped many men of triumphal and consular potentia, at variance with the institution of the ancients, through cultivation and neatness and copiousness and affluence nearer to luxury. Yet there was underlying a vigor of spirit equal to enormous affairs, all the keener the more he ostentated sleep and inertia. Accordingly, with Maecenas still unscathed, he was next; soon he was preeminent, one on whom the emperors’ secrets relied, and privy to the killing of Agrippa Postumus; when age was advanced he held more the appearance in the emperor’s friendship than the power.

idque et Maecenati acciderat, fato potentiae raro sempiternae, an satias capit aut illos cum omnia tribuerunt aut hos cum iam nihil reliquum est quod cupiant.

and this too had befallen Maecenas, by the fate of power, rarely everlasting; or does satiety seize either those when they have bestowed everything, or these when now nothing remains that they may desire.

[31] Sequitur Tiberi quartus, Drusi secundus consulatus, patris atque filii collegio insignis. nam triennio ante Germanici cum Tiberio idem honor neque patruo laetus neque natura tam conexus fuerat. eius anni principio Tiberius quasi firmandae valetudini in Campaniam concessit, longam et continuam absentiam paulatim meditans, sive ut amoto patre Drusus munia consulatus solus impleret.

[31] Next follows for Tiberius the fourth, for Drusus the second consulship, distinguished by the collegium of father and son. For three years earlier, the same honor of Germanicus together with Tiberius had been neither welcome to the uncle nor so connected by nature. At the beginning of that year Tiberius withdrew into Campania, as if for the firming of his health, gradually meditating a long and continuous absence, or so that, with the father removed, Drusus might discharge the duties of the consulship alone.

ac forte parva res magnum ad certamen progressa praebuit iuveni materiem apiscendi favoris. Domitius Corbulo praetura functus de L. Sulla nobili iuvene questus est apud senatum quod sibi inter spectacula gladiatorum loco non decessisset. pro Corbulone aetas, patrius mos, studia seniorum erant: contra Mamercus Scaurus et L. Arruntius aliique Sullae propinqui nitebantur.

And by chance a small matter, advanced into a great contest, supplied the youth with material for acquiring favor. Domitius Corbulo, after discharging the praetorship, lodged a complaint before the senate against L. Sulla, a noble young man, because he had not yielded his place to him amid the spectacles of gladiators. On Corbulo’s side were his age, ancestral custom, and the partisanship of the seniors; against him, Mamercus Scaurus and L. Arruntius and other kinsmen of Sulla were striving.

certabantque orationibus et memorabantur exempla maiorum qui iuventutis inreverentiam gravibus decretis notavissent, donec Drusus apta temperandis animis disseruit; et satisfactum Corbuloni per Mamercum qui patruus simul ac vitricus Sullae et oratorum [EA] aetate uberrimus erat. idem Corbulo plurima per Italiam itinera fraude mancipum et incuria magistratuum interrupta et impervia clamitando, executionem eius negotii libens suscepit; quod haud perinde publice usui habitum quam exitiosum multis quorum in pecuniam atque famam damnationibus et hasta saeviebat.

and they were contending with orations, and examples were being recalled of the ancestors who had marked the irreverence of the youth with grave decrees, until Drusus discoursed things apt for tempering minds; and satisfaction was given to Corbulo through Mamercus, who was at once Sulla’s paternal uncle and stepfather, and was most copious among the orators of that [EA] age. The same Corbulo, shouting that very many roads throughout Italy had been broken and made impassable by the fraud of contractors and the negligence of magistrates, gladly undertook the execution of that business; which was held not so much as of public use as ruinous to many, against whose wealth and reputation condemnations and the auction-spear were savage.

[32] Neque multo post missis ad senatum litteris Tiberius motam rursum Africam incursu Tacfarinatis docuit, iudicioque patrum deligendum pro consule gnarum militiae, corpore validum et bello suffecturum. quod initium Sex. Pompeius agitandi adversus Marcum Lepidum odii nanctus, ut socordem, inopem et maioribus suis dedecorum eoque etiam Asiae sorte depellendum incusavit, adverso senatu qui Lepidum mitem magis quam ignavum, paternas ei angustias et nobilitatem sine probro actam honori quam ignominiae habendam ducebat.

[32] And not much later, with letters sent to the senate, Tiberius made known that Africa was stirred again by the incursion of Tacfarinas, and by the judgment of the fathers that there must be chosen as proconsul a man skilled in soldiery, strong in body, and sufficient for war. Seizing this as a beginning for stirring hatred against Marcus Lepidus, Sextus Pompeius accused him as sluggish, destitute, and a disgrace to his ancestors, and on that account to be driven even from the province of Asia by lot; but the senate was adverse, which considered Lepidus gentle rather than slothful, and held that his paternal straits and a nobility conducted without reproach were to be reckoned to honor rather than to ignominy.

igitur missus in Asiam et de Africa decretum ut Caesar legeret cui mandanda foret.

accordingly he was sent into Asia, and regarding Africa a decree [was passed] that Caesar should choose to whom it should be entrusted.

[33] Inter quae Severus Caecina censuit ne quem magistratum cui provincia obvenisset uxor comitaretur, multum ante repetito concordem sibi coniugem et sex partus enixam, seque quae in publicum statueret domi servavisse, cohibita intra Italiam, quamquam ipse pluris per provincias quadraginta stipendia explevisset. haud enim frustra placitum olim ne feminae in socios aut gentis externas traherentur: inesse mulierum comitatui quae pacem luxu, bellum formidine morentur et Romanum agmen ad similitudinem barbari incessus convertant. non imbecillum tantum et imparem laboribus sexum sed, si licentia adsit, saevum, ambitiosum, potestatis avidum; incedere inter milites, habere ad manum centuriones; praesedisse nuper feminam exercitio cohortium, decursu legionum.

[33] Among these matters Severus Caecina proposed that no magistrate to whom a province had fallen should be accompanied by a wife, having long before recalled that his own consort was concordant with him and had borne six births, and that he himself had observed at home what he was establishing for the public, with her restrained within Italy, although he himself had completed forty campaigns through several provinces. For not without cause had it once been decreed that women should not be dragged among allies or foreign nations: in the retinue of women there is that which delays peace by luxury, war by fear, and turns the Roman column to the likeness of a barbarian gait. Not only is the sex weak and unequal to labors, but, if license be present, savage, ambitious, greedy for power; to stride among the soldiers, to have centurions at hand; a woman had of late presided over the exercise of cohorts, the drill of legions.

cogitarent ipsi quotiens repetundarum aliqui arguerentur plura uxoribus obiectari: his statim adhaerescere deterrimum quemque provincialium, ab his negotia suscipi, transigi; duorum egressus coli, duo esse praetoria, pervicacibus magis et impotentibus mulierum iussis quae Oppiis quondam aliisque legius constrictae nunc vinclis exolutis domos, fora, iam et exercitus regerent.

let them themselves consider how often, whenever some were accused of extortions, more was being alleged against the wives: to these at once the worst of the provincials cling, by them negotiations are undertaken and transacted; the approaches of two are courted, there are two praetoria, and the commands of women, more obstinate and unbridled, prevail—who once were constrained by the Oppian and other laws, now, the bonds loosened, rule homes, the fora, now even armies.

[34] Paucorum haec adsensu audita: plures obturbabant neque relatum de negotio neque Caecinam dignum tantae rei censorem. mox Valerius Messalinus, cui parens Messala ineratque imago paternae facundiae, respondit multa duritiae veterum [IN] melius et laetius mutata; neque enim, ut olim, obsideri urbem bellis aut provincias hostilis esse. et pauca feminarum necessitatibus concidi quae ne coniugum quidem penatis, adeo socios non onerent; cetera promisca cum marito nec ullum in eo pacis impedimentum.

[34] These things were heard with the assent of a few: more were causing an uproar, saying that neither had the business been brought forward nor was Caecina a censor worthy of so great a matter. Soon Valerius Messalinus, in whom his father Messala was present and a likeness of paternal eloquence, replied that many elements of the severity of the ancients had been changed [IN] into a better and more cheerful condition; for neither, as once, is the city besieged by wars nor are the provinces hostile. And that a few provisions are conceded to the necessities of women, which burden not even the Penates of their husbands, much less the allies; the rest are held in common with the husband, and in that there is no impediment to peace.

bella plane accinctis obeunda: sed revertentibus post laborem quod honestius quam uxorium levamentum? at quasdam in ambitionem aut avaritiam prolapsas. quid?

wars are plainly to be undertaken by those girded: but for those returning after labor, what more honorable than uxorial alleviation? yet certain women have slipped into ambition or avarice. what of it?

ipsorum magistratuum nonne plerosque variis libidinibus obnoxios? non tamen ideo neminem in provinciam mitti. corruptos saepe pravitatibus uxorum maritos: num ergo omnis caelibes integros?

are not many of the magistrates themselves subject to various libidinous impulses? yet not on that account is no one sent into a province. husbands often are corrupted by the depravities of their wives: therefore are all celibates men of integrity?

placuisse quondam Oppias leges, sic temporibus rei publicae postulantibus: remissum aliquid postea et mitigatum, quia expedierit. frustra nostram ignaviam alia ad vocabula transferri: nam viri in eo culpam si femina modum excedat. porro ob unius aut alterius imbecillum animum male eripi maritis consortia rerum secundarum adversarumque.

once the Oppian laws found favor, thus the times of the commonwealth demanding: afterwards something was relaxed and mitigated, because it was expedient. in vain is our sloth shifted to other labels: for in this the blame is the men’s, if a woman exceeds the measure. moreover, on account of the feeble spirit of one or another, it is wrong that the consortship of prosperous and adverse affairs be snatched away from husbands.

simul sexum natura invalidum deseri et exponi suo luxu, cupidinibus alienis. vix praesenti custodia manere inlaesa coniugia: quid fore si per pluris annos in modum discidii oblitterentur? sic obviam irent iis quae alibi peccarentur ut flagitiorum urbis meminissent.

at the same time the sex, weak by nature, would be deserted and exposed to its own luxury, to others’ cupidities. scarcely do conjugal unions remain unharmed under present guardianship: what will be if, over more years, they are obliterated in the manner of a separation? thus let them go to meet those things which would be sinned elsewhere, that they may remember the city’s flagitious acts.

addidit pauca Drusus de matrimonio suo; nam principibus adeunda saepius longinqua imperii. quoties divum Augustum in Occidentem atque Orientem meavisse comite Livia! se quoque in Illyricum profectum et, si ita conducat, alias ad gentis iturum, haud semper aeque animo si ab uxore carissima et tot communium liberorum parente divelleretur.

Drusus added a few words about his matrimony; for princes the far reaches of the empire must be approached more often. How often the deified Augustus traveled to the West and to the East with Livia as companion! He too had set out to Illyricum and, if it so conduce, would go to other nations, not always with equal spirit if he were torn away from his dearest wife and the mother of so many children in common.

sic Caecinae sententia elusa.

thus Caecina’s proposal was eluded.

[35] Et proximo senatus die Tiberius per litteras, castigatis oblique patribus quod cuncta curarum ad principem reicerent, M'. Lepidum et Iunium Blaesum nominavit ex quis pro consule Africae legeretur. tum audita amborum verba, intentius excusante se Lepido, cum valetudinem corporis, aetatem liberum, nubilem filiam obtenderet, intellegereturque etiam quod silebat, avunculum esse Seiani Blaesum atque eo praevalidum. respondit Blaesus specie recusantis sed neque eadem adseveratione et consensu adulantium adiutus est.

[35] And on the next day of the senate Tiberius, by letter, after obliquely castigating the Fathers because they were referring all matters of concern to the princeps, named M'. Lepidus and Junius Blaesus, from whom the proconsul of Africa should be chosen. Then, when the words of both had been heard, Lepidus excusing himself the more intently—since he put forward ill-health of body, the age of his children, and a marriageable daughter—and it was understood also what he kept silent, that Blaesus was Sejanus’s maternal uncle and on that account very powerful. Blaesus replied with the appearance of refusing, but not with the same asseveration, and he was aided by the consensus of the flatterers.

[36] Exim promptum quod multorum intimis questibus tegebatur. incedebat enim deterrimo cuique licentia impune probra et invidiam in bonos excitandi arrepta imagine Caesaris: libertique etiam ac servi, patrono vel domino cum voces, cum manus intentarent, ultro metuebantur. igitur C. Cestius senator disseruit principes quidem instar deorum esse, sed neque a diis nisi iustas supplicum preces audiri neque quemquam in Capitolium aliave urbis templa perfugere ut eo subsidio ad flagitia utatur.

[36] Thereupon what had been veiled beneath the inmost complaints of many became plain. For license was advancing for every worst man to hurl insults with impunity and to stir up envy against the good, having seized upon the image of Caesar; and even freedmen and slaves, when they aimed their voices and their hands at their patron or master, were in turn feared. Therefore C. Cestius, a senator, argued that princes are indeed in the likeness of gods, but that neither by the gods are the prayers of suppliants heard unless just, nor should anyone take refuge in the Capitol or other temples of the city so as to use that aid for outrages.

abolitas leges et funditus versas, ubi in foro, in limine curiae ab Annia Rufilla, quam fraudis sub iudice damnavisset, probra sibi et minae intendantur, neque ipse audeat ius experiri ob effigiem imperatoris oppositam. haud dissimilia alii et quidam atrociora circumstrepebant, precabanturque Drusum daret ultionis exemplum, donec accitam convictamque attineri publica custodia iussit.

abolished laws and overthrown from the very foundations, when in the forum, on the threshold of the curia, by Annia Rufilla—whom he had condemned for fraud under a judge—insults and threats are aimed at him, nor does he himself dare to try the law because the effigy of the emperor is set up in opposition. Not dissimilar things, and some more atrocious, were clamoring round, and they implored Drusus to give an example of vengeance, until he ordered that she, having been summoned and convicted, be held in public custody.

[37] Et Considius Aequus et Caelius cursor equites Romani quod fictis maiestatis criminibus Magium Caecilianum praetorem petivissent auctore principe ac decreto senatus puniti. utrumque in laudem Drusi trahebatur: ab eo in urbe inter coetus et sermones hominum obversante secreta patris mitigari. neque luxus in iuvene adeo displicebat: huc potius intenderet, diem aedificationibus noctem conviviis traheret, quam solus et nullis voluptatibus avocatus maestam vigilantiam et malas curas exerceret.

[37] And Considius Aequus and Caelius Cursor, Roman knights, were punished—by the princeps as author and by decree of the senate—because they had prosecuted Magius Caecilianus, a praetor, on fictitious charges of majesty (treason). Both points were being drawn into the praise of Drusus: that, as he moved about the city amid gatherings and conversations of men, his father’s secretiveness was softened. Nor did luxury in the youth so greatly displease: let him rather aim at this—let him drag the day out with building-works, the night with banquets—than, alone and diverted by no pleasures, exercise gloomy wakefulness and evil cares.

[38] Non enim Tiberius, non accusatores fatiscebant. et Ancharius Priscus Caesium Cordum pro consule Cretae postulaverat repetundis, addito maiestatis crimine, quod tum omnium accusationum complementum erat. Caesar Antistium Veterem e primoribus Macedoniae, absolutum adulterii, increpitis iudicibus ad dicendam maiestatis causam retraxit, ut turbidum et Rhescuporidis consiliis permixtum, qua tempestate Cotye [fratre] interfecto bellum adversus nos volverat.

[38] For neither Tiberius nor the accusers were giving out. And Ancharius Priscus had prosecuted Caesius Cordus, proconsul of Crete, for repetundae (extortions), with the charge of maiestas added, which then was the complement of all accusations. Caesar, after rebuking the judges, recalled Antistius Vetus, one of the foremost men of Macedonia, who had been acquitted of adultery, for the pleading of a case of maiestas, as a turbulent man and enmeshed in the counsels of Rhescuporis, at which crisis, with Cotys [his brother] slain, he had set war in motion against us.

igitur aqua et igni interdictum reo, adpositumque ut teneretur insula neque Macedoniae neque Thraeciae opportuna. nam Thraecia diviso imperio in Rhoemetalcen et libetos Cotyis, quis ob infantiam tutor erat Trebellenus Rufus, insolentia nostri discors agebat neque minus Rhoemetalcen quam Trebellenum incusans popularium iniurias inultas sinere. Coelaletae Odrusaeque et Dii, validae nationes, arma cepere, ducibus diversis et paribus inter se per ignobilitatem; quae causa fuit ne in bellum atrox coalescerent.

therefore the defendant was interdicted from fire and water, and it was added that he be kept on an island opportune to neither Macedonia nor Thrace. For Thrace, the rule having been divided between Rhoemetalces and the children of Cotys—whose guardian, on account of their infancy, was Trebellenus Rufus—was behaving in discord through the insolence of our man, accusing Rhoemetalces no less than Trebellenus of allowing the injuries of the commons to go unavenged. The Coelaletae and the Odrysae and the Dii, strong nations, took up arms, with leaders diverse and equal among themselves through ignobility; which was the cause that they did not coalesce into an atrocious war.

pars turbant praesentia, alii montem Haemum transgrediuntur ut remotos populos concirent; plurimi ac maxime compositi regem urbemque Philippopolim, a Macedone Philippo sitam, circumsidunt.

some throw the present circumstances into turmoil, others transgress Mount Haemus to incite remote peoples; the majority, and those most well-composed, besiege the king and the city Philippopolis, situated by Philip the Macedonian.

[39] Quae ubi cognita P. Vellaeo (is proximum exercitum praesidebat), alarios equites ac levis cohortium mittit in eos qui praedabundi aut adsumendis auxiliis vagabantur, ipse robur peditum ad exolvendum obsidium ducit. simulque cuncta prospere acta, caesis populatoribus et dissensione orta apud obsidentis regisque opportuna eruptione et adventu legionis. neque aciem aut proelium dici decuerit in quo semermi ac palantes trucidati sunt sine nostro sanguine.

[39] When these things were learned by P. Vellaeus (he was commanding the nearest army), he sends the allied horse and the light-armed of the cohorts against those who were roaming for plunder or to take up auxiliaries, while he himself leads the strength of the infantry to unloose the siege. And at the same time all things were conducted prosperously: the devastators were cut down, and a dissension arose among the besiegers, and there was the king’s opportune sally and the advent of the legion. Nor would it be fitting to call it a battle-line or a battle, in which men half-armed and straggling were butchered without our blood.

[40] Eodem anno Galliarum civitates ob magnitudinem aeris alieni rebellionem coeptavere, cuius extimulator acerrimus inter Treviros Iulius Florus, apud Aeduos Iulius Sacrovir. nobilitas ambobus et maiorum bona facta eoque Romana civitas olim data, cum id rarum nec nisi virtuti pretium esset. ii secretis conloquiis, ferocissimo quoque adsumpto aut quibus ob egestatem ac metum ex flagitiis maxima peccandi necessitudo, componunt Florus Belgas, Sacrovir propiores Gallos concire.

[40] In the same year the communities of Gaul, on account of the magnitude of their debt, began a rebellion; its most keen instigator was Julius Florus among the Treveri, and among the Aedui Julius Sacrovir. Nobility belonged to both, and the good deeds of their ancestors—and for that reason Roman citizenship had once been granted to them, at a time when that was rare and a reward only for virtue. These men, in secret colloquies, admitting the fiercest as well, and those for whom, by reason of indigence and fear arising from their flagitious acts, there was the utmost compulsion to offend, arrange that Florus incite the Belgae, Sacrovir the nearer Gauls.

igitur per conciliabula et coetus seditiosa disserebant de continuatione tributorum, gravitate faenoris, saevitia ac superbia praesidentium, et discordare militem audito Germanici exitio. egregium resumendae libertati tempus, si ipsi florentes quam inops Italia, quam inbellis urbana plebes, nihil validum in exercitibus nisi quod externum, cogitarent.

accordingly, through meeting-places and seditious gatherings they were discoursing about the continuation of tributes, the gravity of usury, the savagery and arrogance of those presiding, and that the soldiery was at odds upon the report of Germanicus’s demise. an excellent time for resuming liberty, if they, flourishing, would consider how needy Italy was, how unwarlike the urban plebs, and that there was nothing strong in the armies except what was foreign.

[41] Haud ferme ulla civitas intacta seminibus eius motus fuit: sed erupere primi Andecavi ac Turoni. quorum Andecavos Acilius Aviola legatus excita cohorte quae Lugduni praesidium agitabat coercuit. Turoni legionario milite quem Visellius Varro inferioris Germaniae legatus miserat oppressi eodem Aviola duce et quibusdam Galliarum primoribus, qui tulere auxilium quo dissimularent defectionem magisque in tempore efferrent.

[41] Hardly any community was untouched by the seeds of that commotion: but the Andecavi and the Turoni erupted first. Of these, the Andecavi were restrained by the legate Acilius Aviola, with a cohort called out which was serving as a garrison at Lugdunum. The Turoni were crushed by the legionary soldiery which Visellius Varro, legate of Lower Germany, had sent, under the same leader Aviola, and by certain chieftains of Gaul, who brought aid in order to dissimulate their defection and to bring it out the more in due time.

spectatus et Sacrovir intecto capite pugnam pro Romanis ciens ostentandae, ut ferebat, virtutis: sed captivi ne incesseretur telis adgnoscendum se praebuisse arguebant. consultus super eo Tiberius aspernatus est indicium aluitque dubitatione bellum.

Sacrovir too was seen, with head uncovered, summoning battle for the Romans, for the display, as he asserted, of valor; but the captives argued that he had offered himself to be recognized, so that he might not be assailed with missiles. Consulted about this, Tiberius spurned the evidence and nourished the war by uncertainty.

[42] Interim Florus insistere destinatis, pellicere alam equitum, quae conscripta e Treviris militia disciplinaque nostra habebatur, ut caesis negotiatoribus Romanis bellum inciperet; paucique equitum corrupti, plures in officio mansere. aliud vulgus obaeratorum aut clientium arma cepit; petebantque saltus quibus nomen Arduenna, cum legiones utroque ab exercitu, quas Visellius et C. Silius adversis itineribus obiecerant, arcuerunt. praemissusque cum delecta manu Iulius Indus e civitate eadem, discors Floro et ob id navandae operae avidior, inconditam multitudinem adhuc disiecit.

[42] Meanwhile Florus persisted in his settled designs, and sought to entice an ala of cavalry, which, enrolled from the Treveri, was maintained under our military service and discipline, to begin the war by the slaughter of Roman merchants; and a few of the horsemen were corrupted, more remained in duty. Another crowd of debtors or clients took up arms; and they were making for the forest-passes that bear the name Ardenna, when the legions from both armies, which Visellius and Gaius Silius had thrown in their way by opposite routes, shut them off. And Julius Indus, from the same community, sent ahead with a chosen band—at odds with Florus and for that reason the more eager to render service—scattered the still unformed multitude.

Florum incertis latebris victores frustratus, postremo visis militibus, qui effugia insederant, sua manu cecidit. isque Trevirici tumultus finis.

Florus, having frustrated the victors by uncertain hiding-places, at last, at the sight of the soldiers who had occupied the escape-routes, fell by his own hand. And this was the end of the Treveran tumult.

[43] Apud Aeduos maior moles exorta quanto civitas opulentior et comprimendi procul praesidium. Augustodunum caput gentis armatis cohortibus Sacrovir occupaverat [ut] nobilissimam Galliarum subolem, liberalibus studiis ibi operatam, et eo pignore parentes propinquosque eorum adiungeret; simul arma occulte fabricata iuventuti dispertit. quadraginta milia fuere, quinta sui parte legionariis armis, ceteri cum venabulis et cultris quaeque alia venantibus tela sunt.

[43] Among the Aedui a greater mass of trouble arose, in proportion as the community was more opulent and the garrison for suppressing it was far away. Augustodunum, the head of the tribe, Sacrovir had occupied with armed cohorts, [so that] the most noble offspring of the Gauls, employed there in liberal studies, and by that pledge he might adjoin their parents and kinsmen; at the same time he distributed to the youth arms secretly fabricated. They were forty thousand, a fifth part of them with legionary arms, the rest with boar-spears and knives and whatever other weapons are for hunters.

adduntur e servitiis gladiaturae destinati quibus more gentico continuum ferri tegimen: cruppellarios vocant, inferendis ictibus inhabilis, accipiendis impenetrabilis. augebantur eae copiae vicinarum civitatum ut nondum aperta consensione, ita viritim promptis studiis, et certamine ducum Romanorum, quos inter ambigebatur utroque bellum sibi poscente. mox Varro invalidus senecta vigenti Silio concessit.

To these are added from the slave-ranks men destined for gladiatorial service, for whom, by national custom, there is a continuous covering of iron: they call them cruppellarii, unfit for delivering blows, impenetrable for receiving them. Those forces were augmented by the neighboring communities, and though not yet with an open consensus, yet with individuals promptly zealous, and by the rivalry of the Roman commanders, between whom it was in dispute, since each demanded the war for himself. Soon Varro, enfeebled by old age, yielded to the vigorous Silius.

[44] At Romae non Treviros modo et Aeduos sed quattuor et sexaginta Galliarum civitates descivisse, adsumptos in societatem Germanos, dubias Hispanias, cuncta, ut mos famae, in maius credita. optumus quisque rei publicae cura maerebat: multi odio praesentium et cupidine mutationis suis quoque periculis laetabantur increpabantque Tiberium quod in tanto rerum motu libellis accusatorum insumeret operam. an Sacrovirum maiestatis crimine reum in senatu fore?

[44] But at Rome it was believed that not the Treveri and the Aedui only, but sixty-four cities of Gaul had defected; that the Germans had been taken into alliance; that the Spains were doubtful—everything, as is the custom of rumor, credited on the greater side. The best men mourned from concern for the commonwealth; many, out of hatred of the present and a desire for change, were rejoicing even in their own dangers, and were reproaching Tiberius because, in so great a commotion of affairs, he was spending his effort on the charge-sheets of accusers. Was Sacrovir to be a defendant in the senate on a charge of lèse-majesté?

extitisse tandem viros qui cruentas epistulas armis cohiberent. miseram pacem vel bello bene mutari. tanto impensius in securitatem compositus, neque loco neque vultu mutato, sed ut solitum per illos dies egit, altitudine animi, an compererat modica esse et vulgatis leviora.

that at last there had arisen men who would restrain the bloody letters by arms. that a wretched peace could even well be exchanged for war. accordingly, he composed himself all the more intently to security, changing neither place nor countenance, but conducted himself as he was wont through those days—whether from loftiness of spirit, or because he had discovered that the matters were moderate and lighter than what had been bruited abroad.

[45] Interim Silius cum legionibus duabus incedens praemissa auxiliari manu vastat Sequanorum pagos qui finium extremi et Aeduis contermini sociique in armis erant. mox Augustodunum petit propero agmine, certantibus inter se signiferis, fremente etiam gregario milite, ne suetam requiem, ne spatia noctium opperiretur: viderent modo adversos et aspicerentur; id satis ad victoriam. duodecimum apud lapidem Sacrovir copiaeque patentibus locis apparuere.

[45] Meanwhile Silius, advancing with two legions, after sending ahead an auxiliary detachment, ravages the pagi of the Sequani, who were at the extremity of the borders and contiguous with the Aedui and allies in arms. Soon he makes for Augustodunum with a rapid column, the standard-bearers vying among themselves, and even the rank-and-file soldier roaring that there should be no waiting for the wonted rest, no waiting for the spans of the nights: let them only see the adversaries and be seen; that was enough for victory. At the twelfth milestone Sacrovir and his forces appeared in open ground.

in fronte statuerat ferratos, in cornibus cohortis, a tergo semermos. ipse inter primores equo insigni adire, memorare veteres Gallorum glorias quaeque Romanis adversa intulissent; quam decora victoribus libertas, quanto intolerantior servitus iterum victis.

in front he had stationed the iron-clad, on the wings the cohorts, at the rear the unarmed. he himself, among the foremost, on a remarkable horse, would approach and recall the ancient glories of the Gauls and the adversities they had brought upon the Romans; how decorous to victors is liberty, how much more intolerable is servitude to those conquered again.

[46] Non diu haec nec apud laetos: etenim propinquabat legionum acies, inconditique ac militiae nescii oppidani neque oculis neque auribus satis competebant. contra Silius, etsi praesumpta spes hortandi causas exemerat, clamitabat tamen pudendum ipsis quod Germaniarum victores adversum Gallos tamquam in hostem ducerentur. 'una nuper cohors rebellem Turonum, una ala Trevirum, paucae huius ipsius exercitus turmae profligavere Sequanos.

[46] Not for long were these things, nor among the cheerful: for the battle-line of the legions was approaching, and the townsmen, ill-ordered and unknowing of soldiery, were not sufficient with eyes nor with ears. On the other hand Silius, although the pre-assumed hope had removed the grounds for exhorting, nevertheless kept shouting that it was shameful to themselves that the victors of the Germanies were being led against the Gauls as though against an enemy. 'One cohort lately overthrew the rebel of the Turones, one ala the Treveri, a few squadrons of this very army crushed the Sequani.

quanto pecunia dites et voluptatibus opulentos tanto magis imbellis Aeduos evincite et fugientibus consulite.' ingens ad ea clamor et circumfudit eques frontemque pedites invasere, nec cunctatum apud latera. paulum morae attulere ferrati, restantibus lamminis adversum pila et gladios; set miles correptis securibus et dolabris, ut si murum perrumperet, caedere tegmina et corpora; quidam trudibus aut furcis inertem molem prosternere, iacentesque nullo ad resurgendum nisu quasi exanimes linquebantur. Sacrovir primo Augustodunum, dein metu deditionis in villam propinquam cum fidissimis pergit.

'as much as they are rich in money and opulent in pleasures, by so much the more vanquish the unwarlike Aedui, and look out for the fugitives.' A huge shout at this, and the cavalry enveloped them and the infantry attacked the front, nor was there delay at the flanks. A little delay was brought by the iron-plated, their plates holding out against javelins and swords; but the soldier, seizing axes and mattocks, as if he were breaking through a wall, began to hew the coverings and the bodies; some with poles or pitchforks to topple the inert mass, and, as they lay, with no effort to rise, they were left as if lifeless. Sacrovir first made for Augustodunum, then, from fear of surrender, proceeded with his most faithful into a nearby villa.

illic sua manu, reliqui mutuis ictibus occidere: incensa super villa omnis cremavit.

There, by his own hand; the rest fell by mutual blows: with the villa set ablaze besides, he cremated all.

[47] Tum demum Tiberius ortum patratumque bellum senatu scripsit; neque dempsit aut addidit vero, sed fide ac virtute legatos, se consiliis superfuisse. simul causas cur non ipse, non Drusus profecti ad id bellum forent, adiunxit, magnitudinem imperii extollens, neque decorum principibus, si una alterave civitas turbet * * omissa urbe, unde in omnia regimem. nunc quia non metu ducatur iturum ut praesentia spectaret componeretque.

[47] Then at last Tiberius wrote to the senate that the war had arisen and had been accomplished; nor did he take from or add to the truth, but that the legates in loyalty and valor, he in counsels, had been preeminent. At the same time he added the reasons why neither he himself nor Drusus had set out for that war, extolling the greatness of the empire, and that it was not decorous for princes, if one or the other city should be in turmoil, * * with the city abandoned, whence there is regimen into all things. Now, since he was not being led by fear, he would go to behold the present circumstances and to compose them.

decrevere patres vota pro reditu eius supplicationesque et alia decora. solus Dolabella Cornelius dum antire ceteros parat absurdam in adulationem progressus, censuit ut ovans e Campania urbem introiret. igitur secutae Caesaris litterae quibus se non tam vacuum gloria praedicabat ut post ferocissimas gentis perdomitas, tot receptos in iuventa aut spretos triumphos, iam senior peregrinationis suburbanae inane praemium peteret.

the senators decreed vows for his return and supplications and other honors. Cornelius Dolabella alone, while he was preparing to outstrip the rest, having advanced into absurd adulation, proposed that he enter the city in an ovation from Campania. accordingly, there followed Caesar’s letters, in which he proclaimed himself not so void of glory that, after the fiercest peoples had been thoroughly subdued, and so many triumphs received in youth or disdained, now as an older man he should seek the empty reward of a suburban peregrination.

[48] Sub idem tempus ut mors Sulpicii Quirini publicis exequiis frequentaretur petivit a senatu. nihil ad veterem et patriciam Sulpiciorum familiam Quirinius pertinuit, ortus apud municipium Lanuvium: sed impiger militiae et acribus ministeriis consulatum sub divo Augusto, mox expugnatis per Ciliciam Homonadensium castellis insignia triumphi adeptus, datusque rector G. Caesari Armeniam optinenti. Tiberium quoque Rhodi agentem coluerat: quod tunc patefecit in senatu, laudatis in se officiis et incusato M. Lollio, quem auctorem Gaio Caesari pravitatis et discordiarum arguebat.

[48] At about the same time he asked from the senate that the death of Sulpicius Quirinius be attended with public obsequies. Quirinius had nothing to do with the ancient and patrician Sulpician family, being born at the municipium of Lanuvium; but, energetic in military service and in sharp ministries, he obtained the consulship under the deified Augustus, and soon, the strongholds of the Homonadenses having been stormed through Cilicia, he gained the insignia of a triumph, and was given as rector to Gaius Caesar, who was holding Armenia. He had also cultivated Tiberius while he was living at Rhodes: which he then laid open in the senate, the services to himself being commended, and Marcus Lollius being accused, whom he was charging as the author to Gaius Caesar of depravity and dissensions.

sed ceteris haud laeta memoria Quirini erat ob intenta, ut memoravi, Lepidae pericula sordidamque et praepotentem senectam.

but to the others, the memory of Quirinius was not welcome, on account of the charges pressed, as I have recalled, against Lepida, and his sordid and over-mighty old age.

[49] Fine anni Clutorium Priscum equitem Romanum, post celebre carmen quo Germanici suprema defleverat, pecunia donatum a Caesare, corripuit delator, obiectans aegro Druso composuisse quod, si extinctus foret, maiore praemio vulgaretur. id Clutorius in domo P. Petronii socru eius Vitellia coram multisque inlustribus feminis per vaniloquentiam legerat. ut delator extitit, ceteris ad dicendum testimonium exterritis, sola Vitellia nihil se audivisse adseveravit.

[49] At the end of the year, Clutorius Priscus, a Roman knight, after the celebrated poem with which he had bewailed the last rites of Germanicus, having been presented with money by Caesar, was seized by an informer, alleging that he had composed it with Drusus sick, so that, if he were extinguished, it might be published for a greater reward. This Clutorius had read, in the house of Publius Petronius, before his mother-in-law Vitellia and many illustrious women, through vain-loquacity. When the informer emerged, the others, terrified from speaking testimony, Vitellia alone asserted that she had heard nothing.

sed arguentibus ad perniciem plus fidei fuit, sententiaque Haterii Agrippae consulis designati indictum reo ultimum supplicium.

but to those accusing for ruin there was more credence, and, by the judgment of Haterius Agrippa, consul-designate, the ultimate punishment was imposed upon the defendant.

[50] Contra M'. Lepidus in hunc modum exorsus est: 'si, patres conscripti, unum id spectamus, quam nefaria voce Clutorius Priscus mentem suam et auris hominum polluerit, neque carcer neque laqueus, ne serviles quidem cruciatus in eum suffecerint. sin flagitia et facinora sine modo sunt, suppliciis ac remediis principis moderatio maiorumque et vestra exempla temperat et vana a scelestis, dicta a maleficiis differunt, est locus sententiae per quam neque huic delictum impune sit et nos clementiae simul ac severitatis non paeniteat. saepe audivi principem nostrum conquerentem si quis sumpta morte misericordiam eius praevenisset.

[50] In reply Manius Lepidus began in this manner: 'if, Conscript Fathers, we look only at this one point—by how nefarious a voice Clutorius Priscus has polluted his own mind and the ears of men—neither prison nor noose, not even servile torments would suffice against him. But if outrages and crimes are to be handled with some measure, the moderation of the prince, with punishments and remedies, and the examples of the ancestors and yours, set a tempering; and empty things differ from the criminal, words from malefactions. There is room for a judgment by which neither shall this man’s offense go unpunished, and we shall not repent of clemency and severity at once. I have often heard our prince complaining whenever someone, by taking death upon himself, forestalled his mercy.'

vita Clutorii in integro est, qui neque servatus in periculum rei publicae neque interfectus in exemplum ibit. studia illi ut plena vaecordiae, ita inania et fluxa sunt; nec quicquam grave ac serium ex eo metuas qui suorum ipse flagitiorum proditor non virorum animis sed muliercularum adrepit. cedat tamen urbe et bonis amissis aqua et igni arceatur: quod perinde censeo ac si lege maiestatis teneretur.'

the life of Clutorius is intact; he will go neither preserved to the peril of the commonwealth nor put to death as an example. His pursuits, as full of witlessness, so are inane and fluxile; nor need you fear anything grave and serious from one who, himself a betrayer of his own flagitious deeds, creeps not into the spirits of men but of little women. Yet let him withdraw from the city, and, his goods lost, be barred from water and fire: which I judge just as if he were held under the law of treason.'

[51] Solus Lepido Rubellius Blandus e consularibus adsensit: ceteri sententiam Agrippae secuti, ductusque in carcerem Priscus ac statim exanimatus. id Tiberius solitis sibi ambagibus apud senatum incusavit, cum extolleret pietatem quamvis modicas principis iniurias acriter ulciscentium, deprecare tam praecipitis verborum poenas, laudaret Lepidum neque Agrippam argueret. igitur factum senatus consultum ne decreta patrum ante diem [decimum] ad aerarium deferrentur idque vitae spatium damnatis prorogaretur.

[51] Of the consulars, only Rubellius Blandus assented to Lepidus: the rest followed Agrippa’s opinion, and Priscus was led to prison and immediately executed. That action Tiberius, with his customary circumlocutions, censured before the senate; while he exalted the piety of those who sharply avenge even the slightest injuries of the princeps, he deprecated penalties for such headlong words, praised Lepidus and did not arraign Agrippa. Therefore a senatorial decree was passed that the decrees of the Fathers should not be delivered to the treasury before the [tenth] day, and that this span of life be extended to the condemned.

sed non senatui libertas ad paenitendum erat neque Tiberius interiectu temporis mitigabatur.

but the senate had no liberty to repent, nor was Tiberius mitigated by the interposition of time.

[52] C. Sulpicius D. Haterius consules sequuntur, inturbidus externis rebus annus, domi suspecta severitate adversum luxum qui immensum proruperat ad cuncta quis pecunia prodigitur. sed alia sumptuum quamvis graviora dissimulatis plerumque pretiis occultabantur; ventris et ganeae paratus adsiduis sermonibus vulgati fecerant curam ne princeps antiquae parsimoniae durius adverteret. nam incipiente C. Bibulo ceteri quoque aediles disseruerant, sperni sumptuariam legem vetitaque utensilium pretia augeri in dies nec mediocribus remediis sisti posse, et consulti patres integrum id negotium ad principem distulerant.

[52] Gaius Sulpicius and Decimus Haterius, consuls, follow: a year untroubled in external affairs, at home a severity was suspected against luxury, which had burst forth immeasurably, upon all things on which money is squandered. But other expenses, though graver, were for the most part hidden by prices being disguised; the provisioning for the belly and for banqueting, made public by incessant talk, had created concern lest the princeps, of ancient parsimony, should turn more harshly. For with Gaius Bibulus taking the initiative, the other aediles too had argued that the sumptuary law was being spurned, and that the forbidden prices of utensils were increasing by the day, nor could it be checked by moderate remedies; and the Fathers, when consulted, had deferred that whole business intact to the princeps.

sed Tiberius saepe apud se pensitato an coerceri tam profusae cupidines possent, num coercitio plus damni in rem publicam ferret, quam indecorum adtrectare quod non obtineret vel retentum ignominiam et infamiam virorum inlustrium posceret, postremo litteras ad senatum composuit quarum sententia in hunc modum fuit.

but Tiberius, having often weighed with himself whether such profuse cupidities could be coerced, whether the coercion would bring more damage to the republic than the indecorum of handling what he could not carry through, or, if persisted in, would exact ignominy and infamy upon illustrious men, finally composed a letter to the senate, the tenor of which was to this effect.

[53] 'Ceteris forsitan in rebus, patres conscripti, magis expediat me coram interrogari et dicere quid e re publica censeam: in hac relatione subtrahi oculos meos melius fuit, ne, denotantibus vobis ora ac metum singulorum qui pudendi luxus arguerentur, ipse etiam viderem eos ac velut deprenderem. quod si mecum ante viri strenui, aediles, consilium habuissent, nescio an suasurus fuerim omittere potius praevalida et adulta vitia quam hoc adsequi, ut palam fieret quibus flagitiis impares essemus. sed illi quidem officio functi sunt, ut ceteros quoque magistratus sua munia implere velim: mihi autem neque honestum silere neque proloqui expeditum, quia non aedilis aut praetoris aut consulis partis sustineo.

[53] 'Perhaps in other matters, Conscript Fathers, it is more expedient that I be questioned face to face and state what I judge to be for the commonwealth: in this report it was better that my eyes be withdrawn, lest, while you mark the faces and the fear of individuals who would be accused of shameful luxury, I myself also should see them and, as it were, catch them in the act. But if the valiant men, the aediles, had taken counsel with me beforehand, I know not whether I would have advised to leave alone rather the prevailing and full-grown vices than to attain this—that it become public by what disgraces we are unequal. Yet they have discharged their duty, so that I would wish the other magistrates also to fulfill their own functions: for me, however, it is neither honorable to be silent nor easy to speak out, because I do not sustain the part of an aedile or praetor or consul.

maius aliquid et excelsius a principe postulatur; et cum recte factorum sibi quisque gratiam trahant, unius invidia ab omnibus peccatur. quid enim primum prohibere et priscum ad morem recidere adgrediar? villarumne infinita spatia?

Something greater and more exalted is demanded from the princeps; and while each man draws to himself the credit for right deeds, on account of the envy of one, sin is committed by all. For what should I first set about to forbid and to reduce back to the pristine custom? the endless expanses of villas?

familiarum numerum et nationes? argenti et auri pondus? aeris tabularumque miracula?

the number of households and nations? the weight of silver and gold? the marvels of bronze and of panel‑paintings?

promiscas viris et feminis vestis atque illa feminarum propria, quis lapidum causa pecuniae nostrae ad externas aut hostilis gentis transferuntur?

the promiscuous garments for men and women, and those things proper to women, for whose stones our money is transferred to foreign or even hostile peoples?

[54] 'Nec ignoro in conviviis et circulis incusari ista et modum posci: set si quis legem sanciat, poenas indicat, idem illi civitatem verti, splendidissimo cuique exitium parari, neminem criminis expertem clamitabunt. atqui ne corporis quidem morbos veteres et diu auctos nisi per dura et aspera coerceas: corruptus simul et corruptor, aeger et flagrans animus haud levioribus remediis restinguendus est quam libidinibus ardescit. tot a maioribus repertae leges, tot quas divus Augustus tulit, illae oblivione, hae, quod flagitiosius est, contemptu abolitae securiorem luxum fecere.

[54] 'Nor am I unaware that at banquets and in circles these things are incriminated and a measure is demanded: but if anyone should sanction a law, indicate penalties, the same men will shout that the commonwealth is being overturned, that destruction is being prepared for each most splendid person, that no one is exempt from the charge. And yet not even the diseases of the body, old and long increased, do you coerce except through hard and rough measures: a spirit at once corrupt and a corrupter, sick and blazing, must be extinguished by remedies no lighter than the lusts with which it takes fire. So many laws discovered by our ancestors, so many which the deified Augustus carried, those abolished by oblivion, these—what is more scandalous—by contempt, have made luxury more secure.

nam si velis quod nondum vetitum est, timeas ne vetere: at si prohibita impune transcenderis, neque metus ultra neque pudor est. cur ergo olim parsimonia pollebat? quia sibi quisque moderabatur, quia unius urbis cives eramus; ne inritamenta quidem eadem intra Italiam dominantibus.

for if you should desire what is not yet forbidden, you fear lest it be forbidden; but if you have overstepped the prohibited with impunity, there is neither fear any further nor shame. why then did parsimony once prevail? because each man moderated himself, because we were citizens of a single city; nor indeed were the same incitements existent for those exercising dominion within Italy.

externis victoriis aliena, civilibus etiam nostra consumere didicimus. quantulum istud est de quo aediles admonent! quam, si cetera respicias, in levi habendum!

By external victories we have learned to consume what belongs to others; by civil ones, even what is our own. How very small is that matter about which the aediles admonish! How, if you look to the rest, it is to be held of slight account!

at hercule nemo refert quod Italia externae opis indiget, quod vita populi Romani per incerta maris et tempestatum cotidie volvitur. ac nisi provinciarum copiae et dominis et servitiis et agris subvenerint, nostra nos scilicet nemora nostraeque villae tuebuntur. hanc, patres conscripti, curam sustinet princeps; haec omissa funditus rem publicam trahet.

but, by Hercules, no one takes account that Italy is in need of external aid, that the life of the Roman people daily is tossed upon the uncertainties of the sea and of storms. And unless the supplies of the provinces come to the succor of both masters and slaves and fields, our own groves and our own villas, forsooth, will protect us. This care, Conscript Fathers, the princeps sustains; if this be omitted, it will drag the Republic utterly down.

reliquis intra animum medendum est: nos pudor, pauperes necessitas, divites satias in melius mutet. aut si quis ex magistratibus tantam industriam ac severitatem pollicetur ut ire obviam queat, hunc ego et laudo et exonerari laborum meorum partem fateor: sin accusare vitia volunt, dein, cum gloriam eius rei adepti sunt, simultates faciunt ac mihi relinquunt, credite, patres conscripti, me quoque non esse offensionum avidum; quas cum gravis et plerumque iniquas pro re publica suscipiam, inanis et inritas neque mihi aut vobis usui futuras iure deprecor.'

for the rest, the remedy must be within the mind: let shame reform us; necessity, the poor; satiety, the rich—for the better. Or if anyone of the magistrates promises such industry and severity that he can go to confront it, this man I both praise, and I acknowledge that a part of my labors is exonerated: but if they wish to accuse vices, then, when they have obtained the glory of that business, they create enmities and leave them to me, believe, Conscript Fathers, that I too am not avid for giving offense; which, though heavy and for the most part unjust, I undertake for the republic, I rightly beg off from the empty and ineffectual ones, which will be of no use either to me or to you.'

[55] Auditis Caesaris litteris remissa aedilibus talis cura; luxusque mensae a fine Actiaci belli ad ea arma quis Servius Galba rerum adeptus est per annos centum profusis sumptibus exerciti paulatim exolevere. causas eius mutationis quaerere libet. dites olim familiae nobilium aut claritudine insignes studio magnificentiae prolabebantur.

[55] Upon the hearing of Caesar’s letters, such oversight was remitted to the aediles; and the luxury of the table, from the end of the Actiac war to those arms by which Servius Galba attained control of affairs, having been exercised for a hundred years with profuse expenditures, gradually died out. I am minded to inquire into the causes of that change. In former times the wealthy households of the nobles or those distinguished by renown were carried headlong by a zeal for magnificence.

nam etiam tum plebem socios regna colere et coli licitum; ut quisque opibus domo paratu speciosus per nomen et clientelas inlustrior habebatur. postquam caedibus saevitum et magnitudo famae exitio erat, ceteri ad sapientiora convertere. simul novi homines e municipiis et coloniis atque etiam provinciis in senatum crebro adsumpti domesticam parsimoniam intulerunt, et quamquam fortuna vel industria plerique pecuniosam ad senectam pervenirent, mansit tamen prior animus.

for even then it was licit to court and to be courted by the plebs, the allies, and the kingdoms; and the more each man was showy in resources, household, and equipment, the more illustrious he was held through his name and clienteles. after savage violence had been wrought by slaughters, and greatness of fame was for ruin, the rest turned to wiser courses. at the same time, new men from the municipalities and colonies and even the provinces, frequently taken up into the Senate, imported domestic parsimony; and although by fortune or by industry the majority came to a moneyed old age, yet the earlier spirit remained.

sed praecipuus adstricti moris auctor Vespasianus fuit, antiquo ipse cultu victuque. obsequium inde in principem et aemulandi amor validior quam poena ex legibus et metus. nisi forte rebus cunctis inest quidam velut orbis, ut quem ad modum temporum vices ita morum vertantur; nec omnia apud priores meliora, sed nostra quoque aetas multa laudis et artium imitanda posteris tulit.

but the chief author of a constrained/austere custom was Vespasian, himself of ancient culture and victual. From that sprang compliance toward the princeps and a love of emulation, more puissant than punishment from laws and fear. Unless perhaps in all things there is a certain, as it were, orbit, so that, just as the turns of times, thus the manners are transformed; nor were all things among the former men better, but our own age too has borne forth many things of praise and of arts to be imitated by posterity.

verum haec nobis [in] maiores certamina ex honesto maneant.

but let these contests with our ancestors remain for us, contests arising from the honorable.

[56] Tiberius, fama moderationis parta quod ingruentis accusatores represserat, mittit litteras ad senatum quis potestatem tribuniciam Druso petebat. id summi fastigii vocabulum Augustus repperit, ne regis aut dictatoris nomen adsumeret ac tamen appellatione aliqua cetera imperia praemineret. Marcum deinde Agrippam socum eius potestatis, quo defuncto Tiberium Neronem delegit ne successor in incerto foret.

[56] Tiberius, having acquired a repute for moderation because he had checked the onrushing accusers, sends letters to the senate in which he was requesting the tribunician power for Drusus. That appellation of the highest fastigium Augustus had devised, so that he might not assume the name of king or dictator and yet by some appellation might pre-eminently stand over the other imperia. Marcus Agrippa he then made partner of that power; upon his death, he chose Tiberius Nero, lest the successor be in uncertainty.

sic cohiberi pravas aliorum spes rebatur; simul modestiae Neronis et suae magnitudini fidebat. quo tunc exemplo Tiberius Drusum summae rei admovit, cum incolumi Germanico integrum inter duos iudicium tenuisset. sed principio litterarum veneratus deos ut consilia sua rei publicae prosperarent, modica de moribus adulescentis neque in falsum aucta rettulit.

thus he supposed that the crooked hopes of others were being restrained; at the same time he trusted in Nero’s modesty and in his own magnitude. By which example then Tiberius brought Drusus near to the supreme affair, since, with Germanicus intact, he had kept the judgment whole between the two. But at the beginning of the letter he venerated the gods that his counsels for the commonwealth might prosper, and he reported moderate things about the morals of the adolescent, not amplified into falsehood.

esse illi coniugem et tres liberos eamque aetatem qua ipse quondam a divo Augusto ad capessendum hoc munus vocatus sit. neque nunc propere sed per octo annos capto experimento, compressis seditionibus, compositis bellis, triumphalem et bis consulem noti laboris participem sumi.

that he has a wife and three children, and that he is of that age at which he himself once was summoned by the deified Augustus to take up this office. nor now hastily, but after a trial taken over eight years, with seditions compressed, with wars composed, a triumphal and twice consul, a participant in noted labor, is being taken.

[57] Praeceperant animis orationem patres quo quaesitior adulatio fuit. nec tamen repertum nisi ut effigies principum, aras deum, templa et arcus aliaque solita censerent, nisi quod M. Silanus ex contumelia consulatus honorem principibus petivit dixitque pro sententia ut publicis privatisve monimentis ad memoriam temporum non consulum nomina praecriberentur, sed eorum qui tribuniciam potestatem gererent. at Q. Haterius cum eius diei senatus consulta aureis litteris figenda in curia censuisset deridiculo fuit senex foedissimae adulationis tantum infamia usurus.

[57] The senators had anticipated the oration in their minds, whereby the adulation was the more recherché. Nor, however, was anything found except that they should decree effigies of the principes, altars of the gods, temples and arches and other customary things, save that Marcus Silanus, as an affront to the consulship, sought an honor for the principes and said, as his proposal, that on public or private monuments, for the memory of the times, not the names of the consuls be set at the head, but those of the men who held tribunician power. But Quintus Haterius, when he had proposed that the senatorial decrees of that day be affixed in the Curia in golden letters, was a laughing-stock, an old man destined to enjoy only the infamy of most foul adulation.

[58] Inter quae provincia Africa Iunio Blaeso prorogata, Servius Maluginensis flamen Dialis ut Asiam sorte haberet postulavit, frustra vulgatum dictitans non licere Dialibus egredi Italia neque aliud ius suum quam Martialium Quirinaliumque flaminum: porro, si hi duxissent provincias, cur Dialibus id vetitum? nulla de eo populi scita, non in libris caerimoniarum reperiri. saepe pontifices Dialia sacra fecisse si flamen valetudine aut munere publico impediretur.

[58] Among which matters, the province of Africa was prorogated to Junius Blaesus; Servius Maluginensis, the flamen Dialis, petitioned to have Asia by lot, repeatedly asserting that the vulgar report was in vain—that it was not licit for the Diales to egress from Italy—and that his right was no other than that of the flamen of Mars and of Quirinus: furthermore, if these had led provinces, why was that forbidden to the Diales? There were no decrees of the people on that point, nor was anything found in the books of ceremonies. The pontiffs had often performed the Diale rites if the flamen were hindered by ill-health or by a public duty.

quinque et septuaginta annis post Cornelii Merulae caedem neminem suffectum neque tamen cessavisse religiones. quod si per tot annos possit non creari nullo sacrorum damno, quanto facilius afuturum ad unius anni proconsulare imperium? privatis olim simultatibus effectum ut a pontificibus maximis ire in provincias prohiberentur: nunc deum munere summum pontificum etiam summum hominum esse, non aemulationi, non odio aut privatis adfectionibus obnoxium.

seventy-five years after the killing of Cornelius Merula no one had been appointed in his stead, and yet the religious rites had not ceased. And if for so many years it can remain uncreated with no damage to the sacred rites, how much more easily will it be absent for the proconsular imperium of a single year? Formerly, through private rivalries, it was brought about that they were forbidden by the chief pontiffs to go into the provinces: now, by the gift of the gods, the highest of the pontiffs is also the highest of men, subject to neither emulation, nor hatred, nor private affections.

[59] Adversus quae cum augur Lentulus aliique varie dissererent, eo decursum est ut pontificis maximi sententiam opperirentur. Tiberius dilata notione de iure flaminis decretas ob tribuniciam Drusi potestatem caerimonias temperavit, nominatim arguens insolentiam sententiae aureasque litteras contra patrium morem. recitatae et Drusi epistulae quamquam ad modestiam flexae pro superbissimis accipiuntur.

[59] Against these things, as the augur Lentulus and others argued in various ways, it came to this, that they should await the opinion of the pontifex maximus. Tiberius, the consideration concerning the right of the flamen having been deferred, moderated the ceremonies decreed on account of the tribunician power of Drusus, explicitly arraigning the insolence of the proposal and the golden letters as contrary to ancestral custom. And the letters of Drusus, though inclined toward modesty, when read aloud are taken as most overbearing.

huc decidisse cuncta ut ne iuvenis quidem tanto honore accepto adiret urbis deos, ingrederetur senatum, auspicia saltem gentile apud solum inciperet. bellum scilicet aut diverso terrarum distineri, litora et lacus Campaniae cum maxime peragrantem. sic imbui rectorem generis humani, id primum e paternis consiliis discere.

that all things had fallen to this point, that not even the young man, though having received so great an honor, would approach the city’s gods, enter the senate, at least begin the gentile auspices upon his native soil. War, forsooth, or to be detained by opposite quarters of the earth—while he is just now traversing the shores and lakes of Campania to the utmost. Thus to be imbued the rector of the human race, to learn this first from paternal counsels.

sane gravaretur aspectum civium senex imperator fessamque aetatem et actos labores praetenderet: Druso quod nisi ex adrogantia impedimentum?

indeed, the old emperor might be burdened by the sight of the citizens and might put forward his weary age and the labors undergone as a pretext: but for Drusus, what impediment, unless from arrogance?

[60] Sed Tiberius, vim principatus sibi firmans, imaginem antiquitatis senatui praebebat postulata provinciarum ad disquisitionem patrum mittendo. crebrescebat enim Graecas per urbes licentia atque impunitas asyla statuendi; complebantur templa pessimis servitiorum; eodem subsidio obaerati adversum creditores suspectique capitalium criminum receptabantur, nec ullum satis validum imperium erat coercendis seditionibus populi flagitia hominum ut caerimonias deum protegentis. igitur placitum ut mitterent civitates iura atque legatos.

[60] But Tiberius, strengthening for himself the force of the principate, was presenting to the senate an image of antiquity by sending the petitions of the provinces to the fathers’ disquisition. For indeed throughout the Greek cities the license and impunity of establishing asylums were increasing; the temples were being filled with the worst of slave-gangs; by the same subsidy the debt-laden against their creditors and those suspected of capital crimes were being received, nor was there any authority strong enough for restraining the seditions of the populace, the flagitious acts of men cloaking themselves as the ceremonies of the gods. Therefore it was resolved that the communities should send their rights and envoys.

et quaedam quod falso usurpaverant sponte omisere; multae vetustis superstitionibus aut meritis in populum Romanum fidebant. magnaque eius diei species fuit quo senatus maiorum beneficia, sociorum pacta, regum etiam qui ante vim Romanam valuerant decreta ipsorumque numinum religiones introspexit, libero, ut quondam, quid firmaret mutaretve.

and some voluntarily gave up what they had falsely usurped; many were trusting in ancient superstitions or in their merits toward the Roman people. and great was the aspect of that day, on which the senate inspected the benefactions of the ancestors, the pacts of the allies, the decrees of kings too who had prevailed before Roman might, and the religions of the very divinities, in freedom, as once, what it should confirm or alter.

[61] Primi omnium Ephesii adiere, memorantes non, ut vulgus crederet, Dianam atque Apollinem Delo genitos: esse apud se Cenchreum amnem, lucum Ortygiam, ubi Latonam partu gravidam et oleae, quae tum etiam maneat, adnisam edidisse ea numina, deorumque monitu sacratum nemus, atque ipsum illic Apollinem post interfectos Cyclopas Iovis iram vitavisse. mox Liberum patrem, bello victorem, supplicibus Amazonum quae aram insiderant ignovisse. auctam hinc concessu Herculis, cum Lydia poteretur, caerimoniam templo neque Persarum dicione deminutum ius; post Macedonas, dein nos servavisse.

[61] The Ephesians were the first of all to approach, recounting that not, as the common crowd believed, were Diana and Apollo born at Delos: that there are among them the river Cenchrius and the Ortygian grove, where Latona, heavy with child and leaning upon an olive which even now remains, brought forth those divinities, and that by the monition of the gods the grove was consecrated; and that Apollo himself there, after the Cyclopes had been slain, evaded the wrath of Jove. Soon Father Liber, victor in war, pardoned the suppliant Amazons who had seated themselves upon the altar. From this, by the concession of Hercules, when he held Lydia, the ceremonial of the temple was augmented, nor under the dominion of the Persians was its right diminished; afterward the Macedonians, and then we, preserved it.

[62] Proximi hos Magnetes L. Scipionis et L. Sullae constitutis nitebantur, quorum ille Antiocho, hic Mithridate pulsis fidem atque virtutem Magnetum decoravere, uti Dianae Leucophrynae perfugium inviolabile foret. Aphrodisienses posthac et Strationicenses dictatoris Caesaris ob vetusta in partis merita et recens divi Augusti decretum adtulere, laudati quod Parthorum inruptionem nihil mutata in populum Romanum constantia pertulissent. sed Aphrodisiensium civitas Veneris, Stratonicensium Iovis et Triviae religionem tuebantur.

[62] Next to these the Magnesians relied on the enactments of L. Scipio and L. Sulla, of whom the former, with Antiochus driven back, the latter with Mithridates routed, honored the fidelity and valor of the Magnesians, so that the asylum of Diana Leucophryne should be inviolable. Thereafter the Aphrodisians and the Stratoniceans brought forward, on account of long-standing merits on the side of the dictator Caesar and the recent decree of the deified Augustus, that they had been praised because they endured the irruption of the Parthians with their constancy toward the Roman people not at all changed. But the city of the Aphrodisians was upholding the religion of Venus, and that of the Stratoniceans the religion of Jove and Trivia.

altius Hierocaesarienses exposuere, Persicam apud se Dianam, delubrum rege Cyro dicatum; et memorabantur Perpennae, Isaurici multaque alia imperatorum nomina qui non modo templo sed duobus milibus passuum eandem sanctitatem tribuerant. exim Cyprii tribus [de] delubris, quorum vetustissimum Paphiae Veneri auctor Aesrias, post filius eius Amathus Veneri Amathusiae et Iovi Salaminio Teucer, Telamonis patris ira profugus, posuissent.

more loftily the Hierocaesareans set forth that they had among them a Persian Diana, a shrine dedicated by King Cyrus; and there were recalled the names of imperators—Perpenna, Isauricus, and many others—who had granted the same sanctity not only to the temple but for two miles around. then the Cypriots about three [de] shrines, of which the most ancient, for Paphian Venus, Aesrias was the founder; afterward his son Amathus had set one for Venus Amathusia, and Teucer, a fugitive from the anger of his father Telamon, for Jupiter Salaminius, had established.

[63] Auditae aliarum quoque civitatium legationem. quorum copia fessi patres, et quia studiis certabatur, consulibus permisere ut perspecto iure, et si qua iniquitas involveretur, rem integram rursum ad senatum referrent. consules super eas civitates quas memoravi apud Pergamum Aesculapii compertum asylum rettulerunt: ceteros obscuris ob vetustatem initiis niti.

[63] The embassies of other cities also were heard. The Fathers, wearied by their multitude, and because there was rivalry of partisanship, permitted the consuls that, once the law had been examined, and if any iniquity were involved, they should refer the matter entire again to the senate. The consuls reported, concerning those cities which I have mentioned, that at Pergamum an asylum of Aesculapius had been ascertained: that the rest relied on beginnings obscure by reason of antiquity.

nam Zmyrnaeos oraculum Apollinis, cuius imperio Stratonicidi Veneri templum dicaverint, Tenios eiusdem carmen referre, quo sacrare Neptuni effigiem aedemque iussi sint. propiora Sardianos: Alexandri victoris id donum. neque minus Milesios Dareo rege niti; set cultus numinum utrisque Dianam aut Apollinem venerandi.

for the Smyrnaeans an oracle of Apollo, by whose command they dedicated a temple to Stratonicean Venus; the Tenians report a poem of the same, by which they were ordered to consecrate an effigy of Neptune and a temple. nearer, the Sardians: that as a gift of Alexander the victor. nor do the Milesians rely less upon King Darius; but the worship of the divinities for both consisted in venerating Diana or Apollo.

petere et Cretenses simulacro divi Augusti. factaque senatus consulta quis multo cum honore modus tamen praescribebatur. iussique ipsis in templis figere aera sacrandam ad memoriam, neu specie religionis in ambitionem delaberentur.

the Cretans too petitioned on behalf of the simulacrum of the deified Augustus. And senatorial decrees were passed, in which, with much honor, nevertheless a limit was prescribed. And they were ordered to fasten bronze tablets in the temples themselves, to be hallowed to memory, lest under the semblance of religion they should lapse into ambition.

[64] Sub idem tempus Iuliae Augustae valetudo atrox necessitudinem principi fecit festinati in urbem reditus, sincera adhuc inter matrem filiumque concordia sive occultis odiis. neque enim multo ante, cum haud procul theatro Marcelli effigiem divo Augusto Iulia dicaret, Tiberi nomen suo postscripserat, idque ille credebatur ut inferius maiestate principis gravi et dissimulata offensione abdidisse. set tum supplicia dis ludique magni ab senatu decernuntur, quos pontifices et augures et quindecimviri septemviris simul et sodalibus Augustalibus ederent.

[64] About the same time the savage ill-health of Julia Augusta made it a necessity for the princeps to hasten his return to the city, whether the concord between mother and son was still sincere, or their hatreds were concealed. For not long before, when, not far from the Theater of Marcellus, Julia was dedicating an effigy to the deified Augustus, she had postscripted Tiberius’s name after her own; and he was believed to have buried that, as beneath the majesty of the princeps, under a grave and dissimulated indignation. But then supplications to the gods and great games were decreed by the senate, to be presented by the pontifices and augures and quindecimviri together with the septemviri and the sodales Augustales.

censuerat L. Apronius ut fetiales quoque iis ludis praesiderent. contra dixit Caesar, distincto sacerdotiorum iure et repetitis exemplis: neque enim umquam fetialibus hoc maiestatis fuisse. ideo Augustalis adiectos quia proprium eius domus sacerdotium esset pro qua vota persolverentur.

Lucius Apronius had proposed that the Fetials also should preside at those games. Caesar spoke against it, the right of the priesthoods having been distinguished and the examples rehearsed: for this had never belonged to the majesty of the Fetials. For that reason the Augustales were added, because it was the proper priesthood of that house, for which vows were discharged.

[65] Exequi sententias haud institui nisi insignis per honestum aut notabili dedecore, quod praecipuum munus annalium reor ne virtutes sileantur utque pravis dictis factisque ex posteritate et infamia metus sit. ceterum tempora illa adeo infecta et adulatione sordida fuere ut non modo primores civitatis, quibus claritudo sua obsequiis protegenda erat, sed omnes consulares, magna pars eorum qui praetura functi multique etiam pedarii senatores certatim exsurgerent foedaque et nimia censerent. memoriae proditur Tiberium, quoties curia egrederetur, Graecis verbis in hunc modum eloqui solitum 'o homines ad servitutem paratos!' scilicet etiam illum qui libertatem publicam nollet tam proiectae servientium patientiae taedebat.

[65] I have not undertaken to set forth opinions except those remarkable either by honorable conduct or by notable disgrace, which I deem the chief function of annals: lest virtues be hushed, and that for crooked words and deeds there may be fear from posterity and infamy. Moreover, those times were so tainted and sordid with adulation that not only the foremost men of the state, whose own renown had to be protected by obsequious compliances, but all the ex-consuls, a great part of those who had performed the praetorship, and many even of the pedarian senators would spring up in rivalry and propose things foul and excessive. It is handed down to memory that Tiberius, whenever he left the Curia, was accustomed to speak in Greek words to this effect: “O men ready for servitude!” Evidently, even he who did not want public liberty was wearied by so abject a patience in the enslaved.

[66] Paulatim dehinc ab indecoris ad infesta transgrediebantur. C. Silanum pro consule Asiae repetundarum a sociis postulatum Mamercus Scaurus e consularibus, Iunius Otho praetor, Bruttedius Niger aedilis simul corripiunt obiectantque violatum Augusti numen, spretam Tiberii maiestatem, Mamercus antiqua exempla iaciens, L. Cottam a Scipione Africano, Servium Galbam a Catone censorio, P. Rutilium a M. Scauro accusatos. videlicet Scipio et Cato talia ulciscebantur aut ille Scaurus, quem proavum suum obprobrium maiorum Mamercus infami opera dehonestabat.

[66] Little by little thereafter they were passing from the unseemly to the hostile. Gaius Silanus, proconsul of Asia, having been indicted by the allies for extortions, is simultaneously seized upon by Mamercus Scaurus, of consular rank, Junius Otho, praetor, and Bruttedius Niger, aedile; and they allege a violation of Augustus’s divinity and a slighting of Tiberius’s majesty, Mamercus flinging down ancient exempla: that Lucius Cotta was accused by Scipio Africanus, Servius Galba by Cato the Censor, Publius Rutilius by Marcus Scaurus. As though Scipio and Cato avenged such things, or that Scaurus—that great‑grandfather of his—did so, whom Mamercus, by a shameful service, was degrading into a reproach of his forefathers.

Iunio Othoni litterarium ludum exercere vetus ars fuit: mox Seiani potentia senator obscura initia impudentibus ausis propolluebat. Bruttedium artibus honestis copiosum et, si rectum iter pergeret, ad clarissima quaeque iturum festinatio extimulabat, dum aequalis, dein superiores, postremo suasmet ipse spes antire parat: quod multos etiam bonos pessum dedit, qui spretis quae tarda cum securitate praematura vel cum exitio properant.

For Junius Otho, to run a literary school was an old craft; soon, by the power of Sejanus, as a senator he was propelling his obscure beginnings by impudent ventures. Haste spurred Bruttedius, abundant in honorable arts and, if he should proceed by the straight road, about to attain the most illustrious distinctions, while he prepares to outstrip equals, then superiors, and at last his very own hopes: a thing which has ruined many even good men, who, scorning what is slow with security, hurry to what is premature, or hasten on with destruction.

[67] Auxere numerum accusatorum Gellius Publicola et Paconius, ille quaestor Silani, hic legatus. nec dubium habebatur saevitiae captarumque pecuniarum teneri reum: sed multa adgerebantur etiam insontibus periculosa, cum super tot senatores adversos facundissimis totius Asiae eoque ad accusandum delectis responderet solus et orandi nescius, proprio in metu qui exercitam quoque eloquentiam debilitat, non temperante Tiberio quin premeret voce vultu, eo quod ipse creberrime interrogabat, neque refellere aut eludere dabatur, ac saepe etiam confitendum erat ne frustra quaesivisset. servos quoque Silani ut tormentis interrogarentur actor publicus mancipio acceperat.

[67] Gellius Publicola and Paconius increased the number of accusers, the former quaestor of Silanus, the latter his legate. Nor was it held in doubt that the defendant was liable for savagery and for seized monies; but many things were being heaped on, perilous even to the innocent, since, over against so many senators opposed, men most eloquent of all Asia and for that reason chosen to prosecute, he answered alone and was unskilled in oratory, in his own fear, which enfeebles even exercised eloquence, while Tiberius did not restrain himself from pressing him with voice and countenance, inasmuch as he himself was questioning most frequently, nor was it permitted to refute or to parry, and often even it had to be confessed, lest he should have inquired to no purpose. Silanus’s slaves also the public agent had taken by mancipation, that they might be interrogated under torture.

et ne quis necessariorum iuvaret periclitantem maiestatis crimina subdebantur, vinclum et necessitas silendi. igitur petito paucorum dierum interiectu defensionem sui deseruit, ausis ad Caesarem codicillis quibus invidiam et preces miscuerat.

and lest any of his intimates should aid the one in peril, charges of lèse‑majesté were being superadded—a fetter and a necessity of keeping silent. therefore, with an interval of a few days requested, he abandoned his own defense, and ventured to Caesar a letter, in which he had mingled odium and entreaties.

[68] Tiberius quae in Silanum parabat quo excusatius sub exemplo acciperentur, libellos divi Augusti de Voleso Messala eiusdem Asiae pro consule factumque in eum senatus consultum recitari iubet. tum L. Pisonem sententiam rogat. ille multum de clementia principis praefatus aqua atque igni Silano interdicendum censuit ipsumque in insulam Gyarum relegandum.

[68] Tiberius, the measures which he was preparing against Silanus, in order that they might be received more excusably under a precedent, orders the booklets of the deified Augustus about Volesus Messalla, proconsul of that same Asia, and the senatorial decree passed against him, to be read aloud. Then he asks Lucius Piso for his opinion. He, with much preface about the clemency of the princeps, judged that Silanus should be interdicted from fire and water and himself relegated to the island of Gyara.

eadem ceteri, nisi quod Cn. Lentulus separanda Silani materna bona, quippe Atia parente geniti, reddendaque filio dixit, adnuente Tiberio.

The same [said] the rest, except that Cn. Lentulus said that Silanus’s maternal goods, since he had been begotten of the parent Atia, were to be separated and returned to the son, Tiberius assenting.

[69] At Cornelius Dolabella dum adulationem longius sequitur increpitis C. Silani moribus addidit ne quis vita probrosus et opertus infamia provinciam sortiretur, idque princeps diiudicaret. nam a legibus delicta puniri: quanto fore mitius in ipsos, melius in socios, provideri ne peccaretur? adversum quae disseruit Caesar: non quidem sibi ignare quae de Silano vulgabantur, sed non ex rumore statuendum.

[69] But Cornelius Dolabella, while he pursued adulation too far, after upbraiding the morals of Gaius Silanus, added that no one disgraceful in life and covered over with infamy should obtain a province by lot, and that the princeps should adjudicate this. For delicts are punished by the laws: how much gentler would it be upon the men themselves, and better for the allies, to provide that there be no sinning? Against these things Caesar argued: that he was not indeed unaware of what was being bandied about concerning Silanus, but that a determination should not be made on the basis of rumor.

multos in provinciis contra quam spes aut metus de illis fuerit egisse: excitari quosdam ad meliora magnitudine rerum, hebescere alios. neque posse principem sua scientia cuncta complecti neque expedire ut ambitione aliena trahatur. ideo leges in facta constitui quia futura in incerto sint.

many in the provinces have conducted themselves contrary to what hope or fear about them had been; some are stirred to better things by the magnitude of the affairs, others grow blunt. nor can the princeps embrace everything by his own knowledge, nor is it expedient that he be drawn along by alien ambition. therefore laws are established with regard to deeds, because things to come are in uncertainty.

sic a maioribus institutum ut, si antissent delicta, poenae sequerentur. ne verterent sapienter reperta et semper placita: satis onerum principibus, satis etiam potentiae. minui iura quotiens gliscat potestas, nec utendum imperio ubi legibus agi possit.

thus it was instituted by the ancestors that, if delicts had gone before, punishments should follow. let them not overturn what was wisely discovered and ever approved: enough burdens for princes, enough also of power. rights are diminished whenever power swells, nor should authority be used where things can be done by laws.

quanto rarior apud Tiberium popularitas tanto laetioribus animis accepta. atque ille prudens moderandi, si propria ira non impelleretur, addidit insulam Gyarum immitem et sine cultu hominum esse: darent Iuniae familiae et viro quondam ordinis eiusdem ut Cythnum potius concederet. id sororem quoque Silani Torquatam, priscae sanctimoniae virginem, expetere.

The rarer popularity was with Tiberius, the more gladly it was received in their minds. And he, prudent in moderation—if only he were not driven by his own anger—added that the island of Gyarus was harsh and without the culture of men: let them grant to the Junian family and to a man formerly of the same order that he should retire rather to Cythnus. This too Torquata, the sister of Silanus, a virgin of ancient sanctimony, sought.

in hanc sententiam facta discessio.

A division was taken in favor of this opinion.

[70] Post auditi Cyrenenses et accusante Anchario Prisco Caesius Cordus repetundarum damnatur. L. Ennium equitem Romanum, maiestatis postulatum quod effigiem principis promiscum ad usum argenti vertisset, recipi Caesar inter reos vetuit, palam aspernante Ateio Capitone quasi per libertatem. non enim debere eripi patribus vim statuendi neque tantum maleficium impune habendum.

[70] Afterward the Cyrenaeans were heard, and, with Ancharius Priscus accusing, Caesius Cordus is condemned for extortions. L. Ennius, a Roman equestrian, arraigned on a charge of treason because he had turned the image of the princeps to common use on silver, the Caesar forbade to be admitted among the accused, with Ateius Capito openly protesting, as if on behalf of liberty. For he said that the power of determining ought not to be snatched from the Fathers, nor so great a maleficium to be held unpunished.

sane lentus in suo dolore esset: rei publicae iniurias ne largiretur. intellexit haec Tiberius, ut erant magis quam ut dicebantur, perstititque intercedere. Capito insignitior infamia fuit quod humani divinique iuris sciens egregium publicum et bonas domi artes dehonestavisset.

granted he might be slow in his own grief; let him not be lavish in dispensing injuries to the commonwealth. Tiberius understood these things as they were rather than as they were being spoken, and he persisted in interceding. Capito was more conspicuous in infamy because, being knowledgeable in human and divine law, he had dehonested the noble public interest and the good domestic arts.

[71] Incessit dein religio quonam in templo locandum foret donum quod pro valetudine Augustae equites Romani voverant equestri Fortunae: nam etsi delubra eius deae multa in urbe, nullum tamen tali cognomento erat. repertum est aedem esse apud Antium quae sic nuncuparetur, cunctasque caerimonias Italicis in oppidis templaque et numinum effigies iuris atque imperii Romani esse. ita donum apud Antium statuitur.

[71] Then a religious scruple arose as to in what temple the gift should be placed which, for the health of the Augusta, the Roman equites had vowed to Fortuna Equestris: for although there were many shrines of that goddess in the city, yet none with such a cognomen. It was found that there was a temple at Antium which was so named, and that all ceremonies in the Italian towns, and the temples and effigies of divinities, were under the right (ius) and imperium of the Roman state. Thus the gift is set up at Antium.

et quoniam de religionibus tractabatur, dilatum nuper responsum adversus Servium Maluginensem flaminem Dialem prompsit Caesar recitavitque decretum pontificum, quotiens valetudo adversa flaminem Dialem incessisset, ut pontificis maximi arbitrio plus quam binoctium abesset, dum ne diebus publici sacrificii neu saepius quam bis eundem in annum; quae principe Augusto constituta satis ostendebant annuam absentiam et provinciarum administrationem dialibus non concedi. memorabaturque L. Metelli pontificis maximi exemplum qui Aulum Postumium flaminem attinuisset. ita sors Asiae in eum qui consularium Maluginensi proximus erat conlata.

And since matters of religion were under discussion, Caesar produced the response lately deferred concerning Servius Maluginensis, the Flamen Dialis, and recited the decree of the pontiffs: that, whenever adverse health should have assailed the Flamen Dialis, by the judgment of the Pontifex Maximus he might be absent for more than a two‑night, provided that it not be on the days of public sacrifice nor more often than twice in the same year; which things, having been constituted under Princeps Augustus, sufficiently showed that an annual absence and the administration of provinces were not conceded to the Diales. And the example of L. Metellus, Pontifex Maximus, was recalled, who had held back Aulus Postumius, a flamen. Thus the lot of Asia was conferred upon the one who, among the consulars, was next to Maluginensis.

[72] Isdem diebus Lepidus ab senatu petivit ut basilicam Pauli, Aemilia monimenta, propria pecunia firmaret ornaretque. erat etiam tum in more publica munificentia; nec Augustus arcuerat Taurum, Philippum, Balbum hostilis exuvias aut exundantis opes ornatum ad urbis et posterum gloriam conferre. quo tum exemplo Lepidus, quamquam pecuniae modicus, avitum decus recoluit.

[72] In those same days Lepidus asked of the senate that he might strengthen and adorn, with his own money, the Basilica of Paulus, the Aemilian monuments. Public munificence was even then the custom; nor had Augustus debarred Taurus, Philippus, or Balbus from contributing, for the adornment of the city and the glory of posterity, trophies of enemies or the overflow of their wealth. By that example then Lepidus, although of modest means, renewed ancestral honor.

at Pompei theatrum igne fortuito haustum Caesar extructurum pollicitus est eo quod nemo e familia restaurando sufficeret, manente tamen nomine Pompei. simul laudibus Seianum extulit tamquam labore vigilantiaque eius tanta vis unum intra damnum stetisset; et censuere patres effigiem Seiano quae apud theatrum Pompei locaretur. neque multo post Caesar, cum Iunium Blaesum pro consule Africae triumphi insignibus attolleret, dare id se dixit honori Seiani, cuius ille avunculus erat.

but as the Theater of Pompey was consumed by accidental fire, Caesar promised he would reconstruct it, for the reason that no one from the family was sufficient for the restoration, with the name of Pompey nevertheless remaining. at the same time he exalted Sejanus with praises, as though by his labor and vigilance so great a force had been confined within a single loss; and the senators decreed an effigy of Sejanus to be placed at the Theater of Pompey. and not long after, when Caesar was exalting Junius Blaesus, proconsul of Africa, with the insignia of a triumph, he said that he was granting this to the honor of Sejanus, of whom Blaesus was the uncle.

ac tamen res Blaesi dignae decore tali fuere.

and yet the deeds of Blaesus were worthy of such a distinction.

[73] Nam Tacfarinas, quamquam saepius depulsus, reparatis per intima Africae auxiliis huc adrogantiae venerat ut legatos ad Tiberium mitteret sedemque ultro sibi atque exercitui suo postularet aut bellum inexplicabile minitaretur. non alias magis sua populique Romani contumelia indoluisse Caesarem ferunt quam quod desertor et praedo hostium more ageret. ne Spartaco quidem post tot consularium exercituum cladis inultam Italiam urenti, quamquam Sertorii atque Mithridatis ingentibus bellis labaret res publica, datum ut pacto in fidem acciperetur; nedum pulcherrimo populi Romani fastigio latro Tacfarinas pace et concessione agrorum redimeretur.

[73] For Tacfarinas, although more often driven off, with auxiliaries reconstituted through the inmost parts of Africa, had come to such arrogance that he sent envoys to Tiberius and, unprovoked, demanded a settlement for himself and for his army, or threatened an inexplicable war. They report that Caesar was at no other time more pained by the contumely to himself and to the Roman people than that a deserter and a brigand should act in the manner of enemies. Not even to Spartacus, after so many disasters of consular armies, as he was burning Italy unavenged—although the Republic was tottering under the huge wars of Sertorius and Mithridates—was it granted that he be received into faith by a pact; much less, at the most splendid pinnacle of the Roman people, should the bandit Tacfarinas be bought off by peace and a concession of fields.

dat negotium Blaeso ceteros quidem ad spem proliceret arma sine noxa ponendi, ipsius autem ducis quoquo modo poteretur. et recepti ea venia plerique. mox adversum artes Tacfarinatis haud dissimili modo belligeratum.

He gives Blaesus the commission to entice the rest indeed by the hope of laying down arms without harm, but to get possession of the leader himself by whatever means. And most were received under that indulgence. Soon warfare was waged against the stratagems of Tacfarinas in a not dissimilar mode.

[74] Nam quia ille robore exercitus impar, furandi melior, pluris per globos incursaret eluderetque et insidias simul temptaret, tres incessus, totidem agmina parantur. ex quis Cornelius Scipio legatus praefuit qua praedatio in Leptitanos et suffugia Garamantum; alio latere, ne Cirtensium pagi impune traherentur, propriam manum Blaesus filius duxit: medio cum delectis, castella et munitiones idoneis locis imponens, dux ipse arta et infensa hostibus cuncta fecerat, quia, quoquo inclinarent, pars aliqua militis Romani in ore, in latere et saepe a tergo erat; multique eo modo caesi aut circumventi. tunc tripertitum exercitum pluris in manus dispergit praeponitque centuriones virtutis expertae.

[74] For since he, unequal in the strength of an army, better at raiding, would charge in several masses and elude and at the same time try ambushes, three advances, just so many columns, are prepared. Of these the legate Cornelius Scipio was in command where the predation was upon the Leptitans and the refuges of the Garamantes; on another flank, lest the hamlets of the Cirtensians be dragged off with impunity, Blaesus’s son led a force of his own; in the middle, with picked men, planting small forts and fortifications in suitable places, the general himself had made everything narrow and hostile to the enemies, because, whichever way they inclined, some part of the Roman soldiery was in their face, on their flank, and often at their rear; and many in that way were cut down or surrounded. Then he disperses the three-part army into several bands and sets over them centurions of tried virtue.

nec, ut mos fuerat, acta aestate retrahit copias aut in hibernaculis veteris provinciae componit, sed ut in limine belli dispositis castellis per expeditos et solitudinum gnaros mutantem mapalia Tacfarinatem proturbabat, donec fratre eius capto regressus est, properantius tamen quam ex utilitate sociorum, relictis per quos resurgeret bellum. sed Tiberius pro confecto interpretatus id quoque Blaeso tribuit ut imperator a legionibus salutaretur, prisco erga duces honore qui bene gesta re publica gaudio et impetu victoris exercitus conclamabantur; erantque plures simul imperatores nec super ceterorum aequalitatem. concessit quibusdam et Augustus id vocabulum ac tunc Tiberius Blaeso postremum.

nor, as had been the custom, after the summer was spent does he draw back the forces or settle them in the winter-quarters of the old province, but, as on the threshold of war, with forts disposed, through light-armed troops and men knowing the solitudes he was driving off Tacfarinas, who kept shifting his mapalia huts, until, his brother having been captured, he returned—more hastily, however, than was to the advantage of the allies, leaving behind those by whom the war might rise again. but Tiberius, interpreting it as finished, granted this also to Blaesus, that he be saluted as Imperator by the legions, an ancient honor toward leaders who, with the republic’s affairs well conducted, were with the joy and impetuosity of a victorious army acclaimed; and there were several Imperatores at the same time, and not above the equality of the rest. Augustus also conceded that appellation to certain men, and then Tiberius to Blaesus, for the last time.

[75] Obiere eo anno viri inlustres Asinius Saloninus, Marco Agrippa et Pollione Asinio avis, fratre Druso insignis Caesarique progener destinatus, et Capito Ateius, de quo memoravi, principem in civitate locum studiis civilibus adsecutus, sed avo centurione Sullano, patre praetorio. consulatum ei adceleraverat Augustus ut Labeonem Antistium isdem artibus praecellentem dignatione eius magistratus antiret. namque illa aetas duo pacis decora simul tulit: sed Labeo incorrupta libertate et ob id fama celebratior, Capitonis obsequium dominantibus magis probabatur.

[75] In that year there died illustrious men: Asinius Saloninus, with Marcus Agrippa and Asinius Pollio as grandfathers, distinguished by his brother Drusus and marked out to be a son-in-law to Caesar; and Capito Ateius, of whom I have made mention, who attained the principal place in the state by civil studies—yet with a grandfather a Sullan centurion and a father of praetorian rank. Augustus had accelerated the consulship for him, so that Antistius Labeo, excelling in the same arts, might be outstripped in the dignity of that magistracy. For that age produced at once two ornaments of peace: but Labeo, with incorrupt liberty, and for that reason more celebrated in fame; the obsequium of Capito, however, was more approved by those in power.

illi quod praeturam intra stetit commendatio ex iniuria, huic quod consulatum adeptus est odium ex invidia oriebatur.

to the former, because he stopped short at the praetorship, commendation arose from the injury; to the latter, because he obtained the consulship, hatred arose from envy.

[76] Et Iunia sexagesimo quarto post Philippensem aciem anno supremum diem explevit, Catone avunculo genita, C. Cassii uxor, M. Bruti soror. testamentum eius multo apud vulgum rumore fuit, quia in magnis opibus cum ferme cunctos proceres cum honore nominavisset Caesarem omisit. quod civiliter acceptum neque prohibuit quo minus laudatione pro rostris ceterisque sollemnibus funus cohonestaretur.

[76] And Junia, in the sixty-fourth year after the Philippi battle-line, met her last day—born with Cato as her maternal uncle, wife of Gaius Cassius, sister of Marcus Brutus. Her testament was the subject of much rumor among the populace, because, though in great wealth and having named with honor almost all the nobles, she omitted Caesar. This was taken civilly, and he did not forbid that her funeral be embellished with a laudation from the Rostra and the other solemn observances.

viginti clarissimarum familiarum imagines antelatae sunt, Manlii, Quinctii aliaque eiusdem nobilitatis nomina. sed praefulgebant Cassius atque Brutus eo ipso quod effigies eorum non visebantur.

Twenty images of most illustrious families were borne in front, the Manlii, the Quinctii, and other names of the same nobility. But Cassius and Brutus shone forth all the more precisely because their effigies were not seen.