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THE REIGN OF TIBERIUS, OUT OF THE FIRST SIX ANNALS OF TACITUS;

T >> TACITUS >> THE REIGN OF TIBERIUS, OUT OF THE FIRST SIX ANNALS OF TACITUS;



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THE REIGN OF TIBERIUS, OUT OF THE FIRST SIX ANNALS OF TACITUS;
WITH HIS ACCOUNT OF GERMANY, AND LIFE OF AGRICOLA

TRANSLATED BY THOMAS GORDON,

AND EDITED BY ARTHUR GALTON.







"Alme Sol, curru nitido diem qui
Promis et celas, aliusque et idem
Nasceris, possis nihil urbe Roma
Visere maius."



CONTENTS


INTRODUCTION

THE ANNALS, BOOK I

THE ANNALS, BOOK II

THE ANNALS, BOOK III

THE ANNALS, BOOK IV

THE ANNALS, BOOK V

THE ANNALS, BOOK VI

A TREATISE OF THE SITUATION, CUSTOMS, AND PEOPLE OF GERMANY

THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA; WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE SITUATION, CLIMATE, AND
PEOPLE OF BRITAIN




INTRODUCTION


"I am going to offer to the publick the Translation of a work, which, for
wisdom and force, is in higher fame and consideration, than almost any
other that has yet appeared amongst men:" it is in this way, that Thomas
Gordon begins The Discourses, which he has inserted into his rendering of
Tacitus; and I can find none better to introduce this volume, which my
readers owe to Gordon's affectionate and laborious devotion. Caius
Cornelius Tacitus, the Historian, was living under those Emperors, who
reigned from the year 54 to the year 117, of the Christian era; but the
place and the date of his birth are alike uncertain, and the time of his
death is not accurately known. He was a friend of the younger Pliny, who
was born in the year 61; and, it is possible, they were about the same
age. Some of Pliny's letters were written to Tacitus: the most famous,
describes that eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which caused the death of old
Pliny, and overwhelmed the cities of Pompeii and of Herculaneum. The
public life of Tacitus began under Vespasian; and, therefore, he must have
witnessed some part of the reign of Nero: and we read in him, too, that he
was alive after the accession of the Emperor Trajan. In the year 77,
Julius Agricola, then Consul, betrothed his daughter to Tacitus; and they
were married in the following year. In 88, Tacitus was Praetor; and at the
Secular Games of Domitian, he was one of the _Quindecimviri_: these were
sad and solemn officers, guardians of the Sibylline Verse; and
intercessors for the Roman People, during their grave centenaries of
praise and worship.

_Quaeque Aventinum tenet Algidumque,
Quindecim Diana preces virorum
Curet; et vobis pueorum amicas
Applicet aures._

From a passage in "The Life of Agricola," we may believe that Tacitus
attended in the Senate; for he accuses himself as one of that frightened
assembly, which was an unwilling participator in the cruelties of
Domitian. In the year 97, when the Consul Virginius Rufus died, Tacitus'
was made _Consul Suffectus_; and he delivered the funeral oration of his
predecessor: Pliny says, that "it completed the good fortune of Rufus, to
have his panegyric spoken by so eloquent a man." From this, and from other
sayings, we learn that Tacitus was a famous advocate; and his "Dialogue
about Illustrious Orators" bears witness to his admirable taste, and to
his practical knowledge of Roman eloquence: of his own orations, however,
not a single fragment has been left. We know not, whether Tacitus had
children; but the Emperor Tacitus, who reigned in 275, traced his
genealogy to the Historian. "If we can prefer personal merit to accidental
greatness," Gibbon here observes, "we shall esteem the birth of Tacitus
more truly noble than that of Kings. He claimed his descent from the
philosophic historian, whose writings will instruct the last generations
of mankind. From the assiduous study of his immortal ancestor, he derived
his knowledge of the Roman Constitution and of human nature." This Emperor
gave orders, that the writings of Tacitus should be placed in all the
public libraries; and that ten copies should be taken annually, at the
public charge. Notwithstanding the Imperial anxiety, a valuable part of
Tacitus is lost: indeed we might argue, from the solicitude of the
Emperor, as well as from his own "distinction," that Tacitus could not be
generally popular; and, in the sixteenth century, a great portion of him
was reduced to the single manuscript, which lay hidden within a German
monastery. Of his literary works, five remain; some fairly complete, the
rest in fragments. Complete, are "The Life of Julius Agricola," "The
Dialogue on Orators," and "The Account of Germany": these are,
unfortunately, the minor works of Tacitus. His larger works are "The
History," and "The Annals." "The History" extended from the second
Consulship of Galba, in the year 69, to the murder of Domitian, in the
year 96; and Tacitus desired to write the happy times of Nerva, and of
Trajan: we are ignorant, whether infirmity or death prevented his design.
Of "The History," only four books have been preserved; and they contain
the events of a single year: a year, it is true, which, saw three civil
wars, and four Emperors destroyed; a year of crime, and accidents, and
prodigies: there are few sentences more powerful, than Tacitus'
enumeration of these calamities, in the opening chapters. The fifth book
is imperfect; it is of more than common interest to some people, because
Tacitus mentions the siege of Jerusalem by Titus; though what he says
about the Chosen People, here and elsewhere, cannot be satisfactory to
them nor gratifying to their admirers. With this fragment, about revolts
in the provinces of Gaul and Syria, "The History" ends. "The Annals" begin
with the death of Augustus, in the year 14; and they were continued until
the death of Nero, in 68. The reign of Tiberius is nearly perfect, though
the fall of Sejanus is missing out of it. The whole of Caligula, the
beginning of Claudius, and the end of Nero, have been destroyed: to those,
who know the style of Tacitus and the lives and genius of Caligula and
Nero, the loss is irreparable; and the admirers of Juvenal must always
regret, that from the hand of Tacitus we have only the closing scene, and
not the golden prime, of Messalina.

The works of Tacitus are too great for a Camelot volume; and, therefore, I
have undertaken a selection of them. I give entire, "The Account of
Germany" and "The Life of Agricola": these works are entertaining, and
should have a particular interest for English readers. I have added to
them, the greater portion of the first six books of "The Annals"; and I
have endeavoured so to guide my choice, that it shall present the history
of Tiberius. In this my volume, the chapters are not numbered: for the
omission, I am not responsible; and I can only lament, what I may not
control. But scholars, who know their Tacitus, will perceive what I have
left out; and to those others, who are not familiar with him, the omission
can be no affront. I would say briefly, that I have omitted some chapters,
which describe criminal events and legal tragedies in Rome: but of these,
I have retained every chapter, which preserves an action or a saying of
Tiberius; and what I have inserted is a sufficient specimen of the
remainder. I have omitted many chapters, which are occupied with wearisome
disputes between the Royal Houses of Parthia and Armenia: and I have
spared my readers the history of Tacfarinas, an obscure and tedious rebel
among the Moors; upon whose intricate proceedings Tacitus appears to have
relied, when he was at a loss for better material. To reject any part of
Tacitus, is a painful duty; because the whole of him is good and valuable:
but I trust, that I have maintained the unity of my selection, by
remembering that it is to be an history of Tiberius.

Tiberius Claudius Nero Caesar, the third master of the Roman world,
derived his origin, by either parent, from the Claudian race; the proudest
family, and one of the most noble and illustrious, in the ancient
Commonwealth: the pages of Livy exhibit the generosity, the heroism, and
the disasters, of the Claudii; who were of unequal fortune indeed, but
always magnificent, in the various events of peace and war. Suetonius
enumerates, among their ancestral honours, twenty-eight Consulships, five
Dictators, seven Censorial commissions, and seven triumphs: their
_cognomen_ of Nero, he says, means in the Sabine tongue "vigorous and
bold," _fortis et strenuus_; and the long history of the Claudian House
does not belie their gallant name. Immediately after the birth of
Tiberius, or perhaps before it, his mother Livia was divorced from
Claudius, and married by Augustus: the Empress is revealed mysteriously
and almost as a divine being, in the progress of "The Annals." The Emperor
adopted the offspring of Claudius: among the Romans, these legal adoptions
were as valid as descent by blood; and Tiberius was brought up to be the
son of Caesar. His natural parts were improved and strengthened, by the
training of the Forum and the camp. Tiberius became a good orator; and he
gained victory and reputation, in his wars against the savages of Germany
and Dalmatia: but his peculiar talent was for literature; in this, "he was
a great purist, and affected a wonderful precision about his words." He
composed some Greek poems, and a Latin Elegy upon Lucius Caesar: he also
wrote an account of his own life, an _Apologia_; a volume, which the
Emperor Domitian was never tired of reading. But the favourite pursuit of
Tiberius was Greek divinity; like some of the mediaeval Doctors, he
frequented the by-ways of religion, and amused his leisure with the more
difficult problems in theology: "Who was Hecuba's mother?" "What poetry
the Sirens chaunted?" "What was Achilles' name, when he lay hid among the
women?" The writings of Tiberius have all perished; and in these days, we
have only too much cause to regret, that nothing of his "precision" has
come down to us. The battles of Tiberius are celebrated in the Odes of
Horace: one of the Epistles is addressed to him; and in another, written
to Julius Florus, an officer with Tiberius, Horace enquires about the
learned occupations of the Imperial cohort.

_Quid studiosa Cohors operum struit? Hoc quoque curo._

It was from his commerce with the Ancients, as I always think, that George
Buchanan derived his opinion, strange to modern ears, that "a great
commander must of necessity have all the talents of an author." Velleius
Paterculus, who served with Tiberius in his campaigns, tells us of his
firm discipline, and of his kindness to the soldiers.

The Caesars Caius and Lucius, grandsons of Augustus, Marcellus his nephew,
and Drusus the brother of Tiberius, all died: they died young, rich in
promise, the darlings of the Roman People; "Breves et infaustos Populi
Romani amores;" and thus, in the procession of events, Tiberius became the
heir. "The Annals" open with his accession, and Tacitus has narrated the
vicissitudes of his reign. Velleius Paterculus has written its happier
aspects: he describes how the "Pax Augusta," the "Roman Peace," delivered
every quarter of the world from violence. He celebrates the return of
Justice and prosperity, of order, of mild and equable taxation, of
military discipline and magisterial authority. It is like the Saturnian
Reign, which Virgil sings in the Eclogue "Pollio." The first action of
Tiberius was to canonise his father, and Augustus was translated to the
banquet of the Gods:

_Quos inter Augustus recumbens,
Purpureo bibit ore nectar._

Augustus was his great example; "he not only called him, but considered
him, divine;" "non appelavit eum, sed facit Deum." The Latin of Paterculus
is here so elegant and happy, that, for the pleasure of the learned, I
transcribe it: for others, I have already given something of the sense.
"Revocata in forum fides; submota e foro seditio, ambitio campo, discordia
curia: sepultaeque ac situ obsitae, justitia, aequitas, industria,
civitati, redditae; accessit magistratibus auctoritas, senatui majestas,
judiciis gravitas; compressa theatralis seditio; recte faciendi, omnibus
aut incussa voluntas aut imposita necessitas. Honorantur recta, prava
puniuntur. Suspicit potentem humilis, non timet. Antecedit, non contemnit,
humiliorem potens. Quando annona moderatior? Quando pax laetior? Diffusa
in Orientis Occidentisque tractus, quidquid meridiano aut septentrione
finitur, Pax Augusta, per omnes terrarum orbis angulos metu servat
immunes. Fortuita non civium tantummodo, sed Urbium damna, Principis
munificentia vindicat. Restitutae urbes Asiae: vindictae ab injuriis
magistratuum provinciae. Honor dignis paratissimus: poena in malos sera,
sed aliqua. Superatur aequitate gratia, ambitio virtute: nam facere recte
cives suos, Princeps optimus faciendo docet; cumque sit imperio maximus,
exemplo major est."

Tiberius reigned from the year 14, to the year 37. He died in the villa of
Lucullus, and he was buried in the mausoleum of the Caesars. The manner of
his death is variously related: Tacitus gives one account; Suetonius,
another. According to the last writer, he died like George II., alone,
having just risen from his bed; and he was thus found by his attendants:
"Seneca cum scribit subito vocatis ministris, ac nemine respondente,
consurrexisse; nec procul a lectulo, deficientibus viribus, concidisse."
Tiberius was tall, and beautiful. Suetonius tells us of his great eyes,
which could see in the dark; of his broad shoulders, his martial bearing,
and the fine proportion of his limbs: he describes, too, the unusual
strength of his hands and fingers, especially of the left hand. His health
was good; because, from his thirtieth year, he was his own physician.
"Valetudine prosperrima usus est, tempore quidem principatus paene toto
prope illesa; quamvis a trigesimo aetatis anno arbitratu eam suo rexerit,
sine adjutamento consiliove medicorum." The Emperor Julian describes him
"severe and grim; with a statesman's care, and a soldier's frankness,
curiously mingled:" this was in his old age.

_Down the pale cheek, long lines of shadow slope;
Which years, and curious thought, and suffering give._

At Rome, is a sculpture of Tiberius; he is represented young, seated,
crowned with rays, exceedingly handsome and majestic: if the figure were
not known to be a Caesar, the beholder would say it was a God.

There is another personage in "The Annals," whose history there is
mutilated, and perhaps dissembled; of whose character my readers may like
to know something more, than Tacitus has told them: I mean Sejanus, a man
always to be remembered; because whatever judgment we may form about his
political career, and on this question the authorities are divided, yet it
is admitted by them all, that he introduced those reforms among the
Praetorian Cohorts, which made them for a long time, proprietors of the
throne, and the disposers of the Imperial office. To this minister,
Paterculus attributes as many virtues as he has bestowed upon Tiberius: "a
man grave and courteous," he says, "with 'a fine old-fashioned grace';
leisurely in his ways, retiring, modest; appearing to be careless, and
therefore gaining all his ends; outwardly polite and quiet, but an eager
soul, wary, inscrutable, and vigilant." Whatever he may have been in
reality, he was at one time valued by Tiberius. "The whole Senate," Bacon
says, "dedicated an altar to Friendship as to a Goddess, in respect of the
great Dearness of Friendship between them two:" and in the Essay "Of
Friendship," Bacon has many deep sentences about the favourites of Kings,
their "Participes Curarum." I would summon out of "The Annals," that
episode of Tiberius imprisoned within the falling cave, and shielded by
Sejanus from the descending roof. "Coelo Musa beat:" Sejanus has
propitiated no Muse; and although something more, than the "invida
taciturnitas" of the poet, lies heavy upon his reputation, he shall find
no apologist in me. But over against the hard words of Tacitus, it is only
fair to place the commendations of Paterculus, and even Tacitus remarks,
that after the fall of Sejanus, Tiberius became worse; like Henry VIII.,
after the fall of Wolsey. Livia and Sejanus are said by Tacitus, to have
restrained the worst passions of the Emperor. The two best authorities
contradict one another; they differ, as much as our political organs
differ, about the characters of living statesmen: and who are we, to
decide absolutely, from a distance of two thousand years, at our mere
caprice, and generally without sufficient evidence, that one ancient
writer is correct; and another, dishonest or mistaken? This is only less
absurd, than to prefer the groping style and thoughts of a modern pedant,
usually a German as well, to the clear words of an old writer, who may be
the sole remaining authority for the statements we presume to question; or
for those very facts, upon which our reasonings depend. And how easy it is
to misunderstand what we read in ancient histories, to be deceived by the
plainest records, or to put a sinister interpretation upon events, which
in their own time were passed over in silence or officially explained as
harmless! Let me take an illustration, of what I mean, from something
recent. Every one must remember the last hours of the Emperor Frederick:
the avenues to his palace infested by armed men; the gloom and secrecy
within; without, an impatient heir, and the posting to and fro of
messengers. We must own, that the ceremonials of the Prussian Court
departed in a certain measure from the ordinary mild usage of humanity;
but we attributed this to nothing more, than the excitement of a youthful
Emperor, or the irrepressible agitation of German officials. But if these
events should find a place in history, or if the annals of the Kings of
Prussia should be judged worth reading by a distant Age; who could blame
an historian for saying, that these precautions were not required for the
peaceful and innocent devolution of the crown from a father to his son.
Would not our historian be justified, if he referred to the tumults and
intrigues of a Praetorian election; if he compared these events to the
darkest pages in Suetonius, or reminded his readers of the most criminal
narratives in the authors of the "Augustan History"? From Sejanus and the
Emperor William, I return once more to Tiberius; from the present
_Kaiser_, to a genuine Caesar.

It is not my purpose here to abridge Tacitus, to mangle his translator,
nor to try and say what is better said in the body of the volume: but when
my readers have made themselves acquainted with Tiberius, they may be glad
to find some discussion about him, as he is presented to us in "The
Annals"; and among all the personages of history, I doubt if there be a
more various or more debated character. Mr. Matthew Arnold thus describes
him:

_Cruel, but composed and bland,
Dumb, inscrutable and grand;
So Tiberius might have sat,
Had Tiberius been a cat._

And these verses express the popular belief, with great felicity: I must
leave my readers, to make their own final judgment for themselves. Whether
Tacitus will have helped them to a decision, I cannot guess: he seems to
me, to deepen the mystery of Tiberius. At a first reading, and upon the
surface, he is hostile to the Emperor; there is no doubt, that he himself
remained hostile, and that he wished his readers to take away a very bad
impression: but, as we become familiar with his pages, as we ponder his
words and compare his utterances, we begin to suspect our previous
judgment; another impression steals upon us, and a second, and a third,
until there grows imperceptibly within us a vision of something different.
Out of these dim and floating visions, a clearer image is gradually
formed, with lineaments and features; and, at length, a new Tiberius is
created within our minds: just as we may have seen a portrait emerge under
the artist's hand, from the intricate and scattered lines upon an easel.
Then it dawns upon us, that, after all, Tacitus was not really an intimate
at Capri; that he never received the secret confidences of Tiberius, nor
attended upon his diversions. And at last it is borne in upon us, as we
read, that, if we put aside rumours and uncertain gossip, whatever
Tiberius does and says is unusually fine: but that Tacitus is not
satisfied with recording words and actions; that he supplies motives to
them, and then passes judgment upon his own assumptions: that the evidence
for the murder of Germanicus, for instance, would hardly be accepted in a
court of law; and that if Piso were there found guilty, the Emperor could
not be touched. At any rate, we find it stated in "The Annals," that
"Tiberius by the temptations of money was incorruptible;" and he refused
the legacies of strangers, or of those who had natural heirs. "He wished
to restore the people to severer manners," like many sovereigns; unlike
the most of them, "in his own household, he observed the ancient
parsimony." Besides the "severa paupertas" of Camillus and Fabricius, he
had something of their primitive integrity; and he declined, with scorn,
to be an accomplice in the proposed assassination of Arminius: "non fraude
neque occultis, sed palam et armatum, Populum Romanum hostes suos
ulcisci." He protected magistrates and poor suitors, against the nobles.
He refused to add to the public burdens, by pensioning needy Senators: but
he was charitable to poor debtors; and lavish to the people, whether
Romans or Provincials, in times of calamity and want. Not least admirable
was his quiet dignity, in periods of disturbance and of panic: he refused
to hurry to the mutinous legions, or to a mean rebellion in Gaul; and he
condescended to reason excellently about his behaviour, when his people
were sane enough to listen. He was both sensible and modest: he restrained
the worship of Augustus, "lest through being too common it should be
turned into an idle ceremony;" he refused the worship of himself, except
in one temple dedicated equally to the Senate and to the Emperor. Tiberius
could be pathetic, too: "I bewail my son, and ever shall bewail him," he
says of Germanicus; and again, "Eloquence is not measured by fortune, and
it is a sufficient honour, if he be ranked among the ancient orators."
"Princes are mortal;" he says again, "the Commonwealth, eternal." Then his
wit, how fine it was; how quick his humour: when he answered the tardy
condolences from Troy, by lamenting the death of Hector: when he advised
an eager candidate, "not to embarrass his eloquence by impetuosity;" when
he said of another, a low, conceited person, "he gives himself the airs of
a dozen ancestors," "videtur mihi ex se natus:" when he muttered in the
Senate, "O homines ad servitutem paratos:" when he refused to become a
persecutor; "It would be much better, if the Gods were allowed to manage
their own affairs," "Deorum injurias Dis curae." In all this; in his
leisured ways, in his dislike of parade and ceremonial, in his mockery of
flatterers and venal "patriots"; how like to Charles II., "the last King
of England who was a man of parts." And no one will deny "parts" to
Tiberius; he was equal to the burden of Imperial cares: the latest
researches have discovered, that his provincial administration was most
excellent; and even Tacitus admits, that his choice of magistrates "could
not have been better." He says, in another passage, "The Emperor's domains
throughout Italy, were thin; the behaviour of his slaves modest; the
freed-men, who managed his house, few; and, in his disputes with
particulars, the courts were open and the law equal." This resembles the
account of Antoninus Pius, by Marcus Aurelius; and it is for this modesty,
this careful separation between private and public affairs, that Tacitus
has praised Agricola. I am well contented, with the virtues of the
Antonines; but there are those, who go beyond. I have seen a book entitled
"The History of that Inimitable Monarch Tiberius, who in the xiv year of
his Reign requested the Senate to permit the worship of Jesus Christ; and
who suppressed all Opposition to it." In this learned volume, it is proved
out of the Ancients, that Tiberius was the most perfect of all sovereigns;
and he is shown to be nothing less than the forerunner of Saint Peter, the
first Apostle and the nursing-father of the Christian Church. The author
was a Cambridge divine, and one of their Professors of mathematics: "a
science," Goldsmith says, "to which the meanest intellects are equal."

Upon the other hand, we have to consider that view of Tiberius, which is
thus shown by Milton;

_This Emperor hath no son, and now is old;
Old and lascivious: and from Rome retired
To Capreae, an island small but strong,
On the Campanian shore; with purpose there,
His horrid lusts in private to enjoy._

This theme is enlarged by Suetonius, and evidently enjoyed: he represents
Tiberius, as addicted to every established form of vice; and as the
inventor of new names, new modes, and a new convenience, for unheard-of
immoralities. These propensities of the Emperor are handled by Tacitus
with more discretion, though he does not conceal them. I wish neither to
condemn nor to condone Tiberius: I desire, if it be possible, to see him
as he is; and whether he be good or bad, he is very interesting. I have
drawn attention to what is good in "The Annals," because Tacitus leans
with all his weight upon the bad; and either explains away what is
favourable, or passes over it with too light a stroke. At the end, I must
conclude, as I began, that the character of Tiberius is a mystery. It is a
commonplace, that no man is entirely good nor entirely evil; but the
histories of Tiberius are too contradictory, to be thus dismissed by a
platitude. It is not easy to harmonise Paterculus with Suetonius: it is
impossible to reconcile Tacitus with himself; or to combine the strong,
benevolent ruler with the Minotaur of Capri. The admirers of an almost
perfect prose, must be familiar with a story, which is not the highest
effort of that prose: they will remember a certain man with a double
nature, like all of us; but, unlike us, able to separate his natures, and
to personate at will his good or evil genius. Tiberius was fond of magic,
and of the curious arts: it may be, that he commanded the secrets of which
Mr. Stevenson has dreamed!

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