At this point there is a gap in the manuscript. It appears that only a few letters from the manuscript are missing, but it is evident that at some earlier stage in the copying process a large section of the narrative, covering almost two years, has been lost. The events described before the gap all belong to the early part of AD 29, after it to late AD 31, and these later events clearly belong to Book 6. Hence the assignment of the next six chapters to Book 5, made in the sixteenth century, is universally accepted as erroneous, but the resulting flawed chapter numbering has become hallowed by tradition.
The missing narrative would have contained the conviction of Drusus, son of Germanicus, and the death of his brother Nero, through the machinations of Sejanus. The downfall of Sejanus himself followed soon after, and the text resumes shortly after that momentous event.
[5] 6.… forty-four speeches* were delivered on that subject, a few from fear, more through the habit … ‘I thought* … would bring disgrace to me or resentment against Sejanus. There has been a change of fortunes, and the man who had accepted Sejanus as colleague and son-in-law* finds forgiveness for his own mistake; all the others, who earlier debased themselves supporting Sejanus, now wickedly attack him. Which is the more pitiful I cannot decide—being accused because of a friendship, or accusing a friend. I shall not put to the test anyone’s heartlessness or clemency; I shall head off the danger as a free man with my self-esteem intact. But I beg you to remember me with happiness, not sorrow, adding me to the list of those who, by a noble end, escaped the country’s misfortunes.’
[5] 7. After that he spent part of the day detaining or bidding farewell to individual visitors, as people were inclined to stay and talk with him. There was still a large company present, all of them gazing on his fearless expression, and believing that time still remained before the end, when he fell on a sword he had hidden in his clothing. And Tiberius levelled no accusations or abuse against the deceased, although he had made many shameful charges against Blaesus.*
[5] 8. Next came discussion of Publius Vitellius* and Pomponius Secundus.* In the case of Vitellius, informers claimed that he had offered the keys of the treasury* (which was in his charge), and the military fund, for revolutionary action. The charge against Pomponius—made by the ex-praetor Considius—was one of friendship with Aelius Gallus* who, after Sejanus’ punishment, had fled to Pomponius’ gardens, assuming that to be his safest haven. And the defendants’ only help in their predicament lay in the steadfast loyalty of their brothers, who put up bail for them. There were numerous deferments, and, under the stress of being suspended between hope and fear, Vitellius asked for a sharpener,* ostensibly for his literary studies, and, making a slight cut in his veins, ended his life in a state of depression. Pomponius, by contrast, a man of refined character and outstanding intellect, bore his misfortune with equanimity, and outlived Tiberius.
[5] 9. It was next decided that Sejanus’ remaining children* should face punishment (despite the fact that the anger of the plebs was subsiding, and that most people had been appeased by the earlier executions). They were therefore carried into prison, the son aware of what lay ahead, but the girl so naive as to repeatedly ask what she had done wrong, and where they were dragging her. She would not repeat her offence, she said, and could be corrected with the beating usually accorded a child. Contemporary authors record that, capital punishment for a virgin being unheard of, she was raped by the executioner, with the noose lying beside her. The two were then strangled and their bodies—at that tender age—thrown on the Gemonian Steps.
[5] 10. At about the same time there was consternation in Asia and Achaea over a rumour (which was rampant but not long-lived) that Germanicus’ son Drusus had been spotted in the Cyclades, and later on the mainland.* In fact, there was a young man, not much different from Drusus in age, who had been ‘recognized’ by a number of imperial freedmen; and when these joined him, knowing it was a hoax, some ignorant people began to be won over, thanks to the fame of Drusus’ name and the Greek propensity for the bizarre and the incredible. They fabricated a tale—and immediately believed it themselves—that Drusus had given his guards the slip, and was heading for his father’s army with the intention of invading Egypt and Syria. Already attracting crowds of young men, and winning support amongst the people, the boy was enjoying his immediate success and entertaining idle hopes, when news of the phenomenon reached Poppaeus Sabinus.* Sabinus was then preoccupied with Macedonia, but he also had charge of Achaea. He decided to head off danger, whether real or fictitious. He swiftly passed the gulfs of Torone and Thermae, then went on to Euboea, an island in the Aegean, and to Piraeus on the Attic coastline, fetching up at the shore of Corinth and the narrow isthmus; after that, sailing the other sea,* he entered the Roman colony of Nicopolis. There, finally, Sabinus learned that the man had been subjected to some careful cross-questioning on his identity, and had said that he was the son of Marcus Silanus, adding that, when many of his supporters slipped away, he had boarded a ship (intending, apparently, to head for Italy). Sabinus told Tiberius this by dispatch, and I have discovered nothing more on how the matter began or ended.*
[5] 11. At the end of the year a feud that had long been growing between the consuls finally erupted. Trio, with a knack for making enemies and with experience in court, had indirectly criticized Regulus* for being slow in crushing the agents of Sejanus. Regulus, who was cool-headed except when provoked, not only rebuffed his colleague’s attack but initiated a judicial inquiry against him for complicity in the plot. Though many of the senators begged them to lay aside animosities that were likely to end in their destruction, the two went on hating and threatening each other until they left office.
6. 1. When Gnaeus Domitius and Camillus Scribonianus commenced their consulship, Tiberius crossed the channel between Capreae and Surrentum and proceeded to skirt the Campanian coast.* He was either undecided about entering the city, or, having decided against it, was making a pretence of coming there. After frequent landings in the vicinity, and paying a visit to the gardens on the Tiber, he headed back once more to his rocks and lonely seascape, ashamed of his crimes and debaucheries. So uncontrollably inflamed with these had he become that, in the manner of a king, he was defiling free-born children with his lechery. Nor was it just good looks and shapely bodies that titillated his libido—in some cases it was a boy’s shyness, in others his ancestors’ portraits.* Then, too, previously unknown terms were invented: sellarii and spintriae, named respectively from the foul locations where they operated, and their wide range of pathic sexual activities.* Slaves were assigned the task of searching out and dragging in the victims, with gifts for the willing and threats for the reluctant; and if a relative or parent held them back they resorted to seizure by force and satisfied their own lusts on them, as though on prisoners of war.
2. In Rome, meanwhile, at the start of the year, savage motions were being put forward relating to Livilla’s statues and memory—as if her crimes had just come to light, and had not been punished long before. Sejanus’ property was also withdrawn from the public treasury for transfer to the imperial exchequer, as if it made any difference!* People like Scipio, Silanus, and Cassius were very earnestly supporting these proposals, in the same or slightly altered wording, when, suddenly, Togonius Gallus edged his undistinguished self into the company of the great names, and was listened to with derision. He begged the emperor to choose a number of senators, twenty of whom would assure his security whenever he entered the Curia, the men being drawn by lot and armed with swords. Togonius had evidently given credit to the letter in which Tiberius demanded one of the consuls as his bodyguard, so that he could safely make for the city from Capreae!
Nevertheless Tiberius, whose way it was to mix jest and earnest, expressed his thanks for the senators’ kindness; but who, he asked, could be passed over, and who chosen? Always the same individuals, or different ones in rotation? Those who had held office, or young men, and private citizens, or some of the magistrates? And what sort of figure would they cut, he then added, taking out their swords on the threshold of the Curia? His life was not worth so much to him if it needed to be protected by weapons!
Such was the response he made to Togonius, restraining his language, and asking nothing other than the withdrawal of the motion.
3. For Junius Gallio,* however, Tiberius had severe criticism. Gallio had proposed that members of the praetorian guard should, on the completion of their service,* gain the right to sit in the fourteen rows.* The emperor, as though addressing him face-to-face, asked what he had to do with the military, who had no right to take orders or rewards from anyone but the emperor. Gallio had clearly come across something that had escaped the deified Augustus’ foresight! Or was it a case of discord and sedition being fomented by a supporter of Sejanus, who wanted to use an apparent honour to drive simple minds into breaches of military discipline?
This was the prize Gallio won for his studied flattery: immediate expulsion from the Curia, and later from Italy. And then, because it was alleged that his exile would be easy, since he had chosen the famous and delightful island of Lesbos, he was brought back to the city and put under house arrest in various senators’ homes. In that same letter Tiberius also struck down Sextius Paconianus, much to the delight of the Senate; for Paconianus was a headstrong and evil man who ferreted out everybody’s secrets and had been chosen by Sejanus to help with the destruction of Gaius Caesar.* When this came to light, long-simmering hatreds erupted, and only his willingness to denounce others saved the man from the death penalty that was being passed on him.
4. When Tiberius proceeded to attack Latinius Latiaris, however, accuser and accused alike—being both hated—provided the most delightful spectacle. It was Latiaris (as I noted above*) who had been primarily responsible for the fraudulent conviction of Titius Sabinus, and he was then the first to pay the penalty. In the meantime Haterius Agrippa attacked the previous year’s consuls, asking them why they now remained silent after their rounds of mutual recrimination. Obviously, fear and complicity in guilt served as a bond between them, he said—but the senators must not remain silent about what they had heard. Regulus replied that he was waiting for the right moment for vengeance, and that he would follow the matter up before the emperor;* Trio said that any rivalry between colleagues, and any negative comments made in the heat of argument, were better forgotten. When Agrippa pressed the matter, the ex-consul Sanquinius Maximus* begged the Senate not to increase the anxieties of the emperor by stirring up further troubles— Tiberius was capable of finding the remedies himself. That meant salvation for Regulus, and a postponement of destruction for Trio.* Haterius was all the more hated because, languid from oversleeping or from nightly debaucheries though he was—and thus not needing to fear the emperor (no matter how cruel he was) because of his own indolence—he would plot the destruction of illustrious men* amidst his gluttony and lechery.
5. Next it was the turn of Cotta Messalinus, mover of all the most savage proposals, and so an object of long-standing hatred. As soon as an opportunity presented itself, he was accused of making numerous remarks about Gaius Caesar’s ‘dubious manhood’, and of referring to a banquet he attended with the priests on Augusta’s birthday as ‘a funeral dinner’.* There was also a charge that, when he was complaining about the power of Marcus Lepidus and Lucius Arruntius,* with whom he was in dispute over a financial matter, he had added that ‘They will be defended by the Senate, but I shall be defended by my little Tiberius.’
On all charges Cotta’s guilt was being exposed by leading men of the state, and as they kept up the pressure he appealed to the emperor. Not long afterwards a letter was brought, drafted like a defence oration, in which Tiberius recalled the early days of his friendship with Cotta and noted the man’s numerous services to him. He then demanded that words that had been malevolently twisted, or candid dinner conversations, not be made grounds for a criminal charge.
6. The opening of that letter from the emperor seemed particularly significant, beginning as he did with these words:* ‘May the gods damn me to worse punishment than I feel myself suffer every day if, at this time, I know what I should write to you, senators, how I should write it, and what I certainly should not write.’ So true was it that his own crimes and wickedness had turned into punishment for him. And what the leading man of philosophy used to claim* is not untrue: if the minds of tyrants were opened up, gashes and wounds would become visible, since the soul is torn apart by cruelty, lust, and evil designs, no less than the body is torn by beatings. For neither Tiberius’ fortune nor his isolation could keep him from confessing the torments in his breast, and the punishments he himself was suffering.
7. The members were granted authority* to decide the case of the senator Caesilianus, who had provided most of the evidence against Cotta, and their will was that he suffer the same penalty as Aruseius and Sangunnius, the accusers of Lucius Arruntius. No honour greater than that was ever paid to Cotta. He was a noble, it is true, but one impoverished through extravagance, and infamous for his vices; and now, in the vengeance with which he was honoured, he was being put on a level with Arruntius and his unblemished virtues.
Next was the trial of Quintus Servaeus and Minucius Thermus.* Servaeus was a former praetor who had once been a member of Germanicus’ retinue, and Minucius was of equestrian rank; they had been restrained in their friendship with Sejanus, and so they enjoyed greater sympathy. Tiberius, by contrast, censured them as being leaders in the criminal conspiracy and told the elder Gaius Cestius* to inform the Senate of the contents of the letter he had written to the emperor. Cestius then undertook the prosecution.
This was the most pernicious feature of that period: leading members of the Senate practising, some openly, and many covertly, the lowest forms of delation. And whether this involved outsiders or family-members, friends or strangers, whether recent acts or those from the dimly remembered past—there was no discernible difference. Whatever people had talked about, whether in the Forum or at dinner, furnished the basis for an accusation, with each man rushing to beat the others in finding someone to accuse, a number doing so from self-defence, more as if they had caught some contagious disease.
Minucius and Servaeus were condemned, and then they joined the ranks of the informers. Drawn into the same misfortune were Julius Africanus from the Gallic community of the Santoni, and Seius Quadratus (whose origin I have not discovered). I am not unaware that the dangers and punishments experienced by many people have been omitted by a number of historians, wearied by the numbers involved, or else fearing to inflict on potential readers the same ennui with what they themselves found to be an overabundance of depressing material. Numerous instances have come to my notice which I feel, though they are not recorded by others, do deserve to be known.
8. For example, at that time, when others had hypocritically disavowed their friendship with Sejanus, a Roman knight by the name of Marcus Terentius* had the courage to cling to it when tried on that account. He addressed the Senate thus:
‘In my circumstances, acknowledging the charge may perhaps be less expedient than denying it; but, no matter how things turn out, I am going to admit that I was a friend of Sejanus, that I actively sought to be so, and that I was happy to have attained that end. I had seen him commanding the praetorian cohorts as his father’s colleague, and then simultaneously discharging civil and military duties. His kinsmen and in-laws were honoured with magistracies; and closeness to Sejanus strengthened one’s friendship with the emperor, while those out of favour had to contend with fear and suppliant rags.* I cite no specific example. All of us who had no part in the man’s final plan I shall defend with risk only to myself.
‘For we were cultivating the friendship not of Sejanus of Vulsinii, but of a member of the Julian and Claudian families, into which he had entered by a marriage connection. He was your son-in-law, Tiberius, your colleague in the consulship, one performing your duties in the state. It is not for us to judge any man whom you raise above the others, and your reasons for doing so. To you the gods have granted supreme governance in all matters, and the glory of obeying you is what is left to us. Moreover, we see only what is put in our view—we see the man granted wealth and office by you, and those who are given the greatest power to help or harm. And no one could deny Sejanus had all of this. But an emperor’s inner thoughts, and what he is planning in secret—to seek that out is forbidden and dangerous. And one would not succeed, anyway.
‘Do not, senators, think about Sejanus’ last day; think of his sixteen years.* We even used to pay our respects to Satrius and Pomponius;* and becoming personally known to the man’s freedmen and doorkeepers was thought a splendid thing. So, is this line of defence to be offered to all indiscriminately and without reserve? No, of course not; there must be a clear dividing line. Plotting against the state and planning to assassinate the emperor should be punishable offences; but when it comes to friendship and its obligations, ending these at the same time as you must acquit you and us together, Tiberius.’
9. The courage of Terentius’ speech, and the fact that someone had been found to express what everybody was thinking, proved so effective that his accusers, when their earlier misdeeds were also taken into consideration, were punished with exile or execution.
Then came a letter from Tiberius targeting the ex-praetor Sextus Vistilius,*? whom the emperor had transferred into his own cohort because he was a close friend of his brother Drusus. What caused his displeasure with Vistilius was either the fact that he had been the author of some writings impugning Gaius Caesar for his immorality, or Tiberius’ mistaken belief that he had done so. Excluded from the emperor’s circle, Vistilius tried the knife with his ageing hand, but retied the veins. Then, after sending a letter begging for pardon and receiving a heartless reply, he opened them once more.
Following that, an entire group* was accused of treason: Annius Pollio, Appius Silanus, Scaurus Mamercus, Sabinus Calvisius, and also Vinicianus, and his father Pollio along with him. These men were from renowned families and had held the highest offices as well.
A shudder ran through the senators—how few were not related, by marriage or by friendship, to so many distinguished men? Then Celsus, tribune of one of the urban cohorts, and at that time one of the informers, came to the rescue of Appius and Calvisius. The emperor deferred the cases of Pollio, Vinicianus, and Scaurus for the moment so that he could personally look into them with the Senate, though he made some ominous hints against Scaurus.
10. Not even women* were out of danger. They could not be charged with trying to seize power, and so they were arraigned for their tears; and the old lady Vitia,* mother of Fufius Geminus, was put to death for weeping over the execution of her son.
Such were proceedings in the Senate. Cases were no different before the emperor. Vescularius Flaccus and Julius Marinus* were driven to their deaths, although the two were amongst Tiberius’ oldest friends, had gone with him to Rhodes, and been inseparable from him on Capreae. Vescularius had been his intermediary in the plot against Libo, and Marinus had participated in Sejanus’ crushing of Curtius Atticus. All the greater the satisfaction, then, that the examples had recoiled on their authors.
About this same time the pontiff Lucius Piso* succumbed to a natural death, a rare occurrence when a man was as famous as he. Piso never voluntarily produced a servile proposal, and whenever under pressure to agree he showed a prudent restraint. I noted above that his father had been a censor. He lived to his eightieth year, and had won triumphal honours in Thrace. But his greatest glory lay in the tact he showed as city prefect, an office only recently made permanent and thus much resented because people were unaccustomed to its authority.
11. In earlier days, in fact, to ensure that the city would not be without government when the kings (and later on the consuls) left home, a temporary official would be appointed to administer justice and cope with emergencies. Denter Romulius, they say, was assigned that position by Romulus, and later on so was Numa Marcius by Tullus Hostilius, and Spurius Lucretius by Tarquinius Superbus.* Then it was the consuls who made the choice, and a trace of the system remains in the consular duties an appointee is charged with taking on for the Latin Festival. In the civil wars Augustus gave Cilnius Maecenas,* who was of equestrian rank, authority over everything in Rome and Italy. Later, when he came to power, the size of the population and the slowness of legal redress led him to select one of the ex-consuls to restrain the slaves, as well as that section of the citizens who would be reckless and unruly without the threat of violent reprisals. Messala Corvinus* was the first to take on that responsibility, only to renounce it within a matter of days claiming ignorance of how to use it. Next, Taurus Statilius* did an excellent job, despite his advanced age, and after that Piso won equal approval, holding the office for twenty years, and was honoured with a state funeral by senatorial decree.
12. A motion relating to a book of the Sibyl* was then brought before the senators by the tribune Quintilianus.* The quindecimvir Caninius Gallus* had demanded the inclusion of this book amongst the others of the same prophetess, and ratification of it by senatorial decree. This passed on a division alone, and Tiberius sent a letter,* mildly rebuking the tribune’s ignorance of ancient custom, which he attributed to his youth. Gallus, however, he severely reprimanded: after long experience in the science of religious ceremonial he had, on dubious authority, brought the matter up in a poorly attended Senate, before the college had expressed an opinion, and when the verses had not been read and evaluated by the ‘masters’ (as was the usual procedure). He also reminded him that, because many spurious works were in circulation under that famous name, Augustus had set a date within which they should be brought before the urban praetor, and after which private ownership of them would be forbidden. Such a decree had also been passed by our ancestors, Tiberius added, after the burning of the Capitol in the Social War.* At that time verses of the Sibyl (whether there was one prophetess or more) were sought out in Samos, Ilium, and Erythrae, and even throughout Africa, Sicily, and the Italian colonies, and the priests were authorized with identifying, as far as was humanly possible, those that were genuine.
So, on this occasion, too, that book was submitted to the quindecimvirs for examination.
13. In the same consulship rioting almost broke out over the oppressively high price of grain,* and many demands, voiced in the theatre over a period of several days, were addressed to the emperor in unusually bold language. Upset at this, Tiberius criticized the magistrates and senators for not having used their official authority to restrain the people, and he also pointed out to them the provinces from which he was importing grain, noting how much greater the supply was than under Augustus. And so, to chasten the plebs, a senatorial decree of old-time severity was framed, and the consuls’ edict was no less stringent. Tiberius’ own silence in the matter was not seen as the appropriate response of an ordinary citizen, but as arrogance.
14. At the end of the year the Roman knights Geminius, Celsus, and Pompeius* succumbed to a charge of conspiracy. Of these, Geminius, because of his extravagance and effeminate ways, was a friend of Sejanus, but not party to any serious wrongdoing. When Julius Celsus, a tribune, was put in irons, he loosened his chain, wound it around him and, pulling it in different directions, broke his own neck. Rubrius Fabatus* was put under surveillance, suspected of despairing of the fortunes of Rome and intending to throw himself on the mercy of the Parthians. He was actually found close to the Straits of Sicily, and when he was brought back by a centurion he could provide no plausible reasons for his distant voyage. Even so he remained unharmed, forgotten rather than forgiven.
15. Tiberius had long been considering the choice of husbands for his granddaughters, and now, in the consulship of Servius Galba and Lucius Sulla, with the girls’ marriageable age approaching, he selected Lucius Cassius and Marcus Vinicius.* Vinicius came from a provincial town. Born at Cales, with a father and grandfather who had both been consuls (though otherwise his family was entirely equestrian), he was a man of gentle disposition and refined eloquence. Cassius was from a plebeian family in Rome, but one that was ancient and venerable. He was brought up under his father’s strict discipline, but was more often acclaimed for his congeniality than his industry. To these Tiberius engaged Germanicus’ daughters, Drusilla to Cassius and Julia to Vinicius, and he wrote a letter to the Senate on the matter, with some lukewarm tributes to the young men. Then, after giving some extremely vague reasons for his absence, he turned to more weighty matters, the animosities he had incurred on behalf of the state, and requested that the prefect Macro* and a few tribunes and centurions go with him whenever he entered the Curia. A broadly worded senatorial decree was passed with no restriction placed on the composition or numbers of the escort, but he never approached even the roofs of Rome, much less its deliberative council, though he would often go round his native city by circuitous routes, and avoid it.
16. Meanwhile a large body of informers rushed down on those who kept augmenting their fortunes by usury, breaching the legislation of the dictator Caesar, with its provisions concerning moneylending and property-possession within Italy. (In fact, this legislation had long been disregarded, because the public good comes second to private interests.) Moneylending was, to be sure, a long-standing blight on the city, and very often the cause of sedition and discord, so that there were efforts to check it even in days of old when morals were less corrupt. First there was the provision in the Twelve Tables* against lending at interest above one-twelfth,* whereas previously the rate was set at the whim of the rich; then, by a bill of the tribunes, the rate was lowered to one twenty-fourth; and finally interest was prohibited altogether.* And there were numerous plebiscites to counter the frauds that, though often suppressed, would keep rising again as a result of some amazing ingenuity.
On that occasion, the inquiry had fallen to the praetor Gracchus, and he was obliged by the large number of people in danger of prosecution to refer the matter to the Senate. The senators were alarmed*— none was free from guilt of this sort—and asked the emperor for a pardon. Tiberius granted it, and the following year and six months were granted as the period within which they were all to settle their personal finances to comply with the legal prescriptions.
17. This led to a shortage of ready money*—debts were simultaneously called in, and the cash that was raised after so many were condemned, and their property sold, was kept locked away in the imperial chest or public treasury. To meet this situation, the Senate had regulated that every creditor should invest two-thirds of his capital in land in Italy. The creditors, however, called in the full amount, and the debtors were honour-bound not to break faith. And so, at first, there was a great scramble and entreaties, and then uproar at the praetor’s tribunal; and the measures that had been devised as a remedy—the sales and purchases—had the opposite effect, because the moneylenders had invested all their money in buying land. The large number of sales was followed by depressed prices, and the more indebted a man was the greater the difficulty he had in selling, so that many people were stripped of their wealth. The destruction of the family fortune began to hurl down rank and reputation, but then Tiberius brought aid by distributing a hundred million sesterces among the banks,* and also by providing opportunities for interest-free loans over a three-year period if the borrower gave the people security in land for double the amount borrowed. Credit was restored by these measures, and gradually private lenders were also found. The purchase of land, however, was not conducted in conformity with the senatorial decree, the energy of the early stages being followed, as usual, by final indifference.
18. After this, the earlier fears returned, with Considius Proculus* being prosecuted for treason. He was celebrating his birthday, fearing nothing, when he was rushed into the Curia and no sooner convicted than executed! (His sister Sancia, too, who was prosecuted by Quintus Pomponius,* was deprived of water and fire. Pomponius was a restless character who claimed that his motive for this and other such acts was to ingratiate himself with the emperor and thereby help his brother Pomponius Secundus in the perils he was facing.) A sentence of exile was even passed on Pompeia Macrina, whose husband Argolicus and father-in-law Laco—leading Achaeans—the emperor had destroyed. Macrina’s father, too, who was an illustrious knight, and her brother, an ex-praetor, committed suicide when faced with conviction. The charge against these was that Gnaeus Magnus* had counted amongst his friends their great-grandfather, Theophanes of Mytilene,* and that on Theophanes’ death the sycophantic Greeks had accorded him divine honours.
19. Following these, the richest man in the Spanish provinces, Sextus Marius, was denounced for having had incestuous relations with his daughter, and he was thrown down from the Tarpeian Rock. And to leave no doubt that it was really the extent of the man’s wealth that had brought about his downfall, Tiberius set aside his gold and silver mines for himself, although they were state confiscations. Excited now by the executions, he ordered all imprisoned on charges of complicity with Sejanus to be put to death. The carnage was enormous,* with bodies lying around—both sexes, all ages, the famous and the unknown, all scattered about or heaped together. Neither relatives nor friends were permitted to stand close to them, to shed tears, or even to look on them for any length of time. Guards were posted around the area, noting each person’s grief; and they accompanied the putrefying corpses until they were dragged to the Tiber. There they floated around or were pushed to the banks by the current, and nobody cremated them or touched them. Ordinary human interaction had been destroyed by the power of fear, and with the growth of the savagery came the exclusion of pity.
20. About this same time Gaius Caesar, who had attended his grandfather when he left for Capreae, married Marcus Silanus’ daughter Claudia.* Gaius concealed a monstrous personality beneath a deceitful veneer of moderation, and had uttered not a word at his mother’s condemnation or his brothers’ ruin.* Whatever Tiberius’ mood for the day seemed to be, he would adopt the same, using language little different from his. Hence the ingenious comment of the orator Passienus,* which gained currency later on, that ‘never had there been a better slave, or a worse master’.
I should not omit the prophecy of Tiberius concerning Servius Galba, consul at the time. After summoning him and sounding him out on various topics, Tiberius finally made a comment in Greek, along these lines: ‘You, too, Galba, will at some point taste command,’ a reference to Galba’s power, which arrived late and was short-lived. This came from Tiberius’ knowledge of the art of the Chaldeans,* acquired during his retirement at Rhodes. There he had as his teacher Thrasyllus,* whose expertise he had put to the test in the following way.
21. Whenever Tiberius was making this sort of consultation, he employed the top of the house, and had one sole freedman as his confidant. The freedman, who was illiterate but physically strong, would proceed along a wild and precipitous path (for the house was perched on a cliff) ahead of the man whose astrological skill Tiberius had decided to put to the test. On the return journey, the freedman, if any suspicion had arisen that the man had no ability or was a fraud, would hurl him down into the sea below, so he should not survive as witness to Tiberius’ secret.
Now, Thrasyllus had been led along the same rocky path, and he had impressed Tiberius, when he questioned him, by cleverly revealing his forthcoming reign and events in the future. He was then asked if he had discovered the hour of his own birth, and what sort of year, and what kind of day, he was then having. Thrasyllus calculated the positions and distances of the planets, and first of all hesitated, but then grew fearful. The more he looked into the matter, the more agitated he became in his surprise and fear, until he finally cried out that he was threatened with a situation that was dangerous and virtually fatal. At that Tiberius threw his arms around him and congratulated him on his foreknowledge of his dangers, which he would now avoid. The emperor took predictions he had made as having oracular authority, and he kept Thrasyllus as one of his closest friends.
22. When I listen to this and other such stories, I am undecided whether the affairs of human beings evolve by fate, and an immutable inevitability, or by chance. Indeed, you will find disagreement on this amongst the greatest sages of antiquity and the adherents of their schools.* Many have the belief ingrained in them that our beginnings and our end, and, in fact, humankind in general, are of no concern to the gods, and that this explains why misfortune frequently comes upon the good, while the worse sort enjoy prosperity. Others, by contrast, think that fate accords with events, but that it is not influenced by wandering stars, that rather it follows the principles and sequences of natural causation. These people do, however, leave us free to choose our lives—but the choice once made, there is a fixed order for future events. They also disagree with the common interpretation of bad and good. Many who seem to be struggling with misfortune are happy, they contend, whereas some people are absolutely miserable in the midst of great wealth—the result of courage in bearing hardship in the former case, and foolishness in the use of prosperity in the latter.
However, the notion that a person’s future is marked out at the moment of birth cannot be dispelled from the minds of most human beings. They believe that things turning out differently from what was predicted is due to the chicanery of false prophets, and that this is the reason for the loss of confidence in an art for whose validity both antiquity and our own day provide clear proof. For the prediction of Nero’s reign* that was made by this same Thrasyllus’ son* will be related in due course, so that I do not at this time digress too far from my subject.
23. In this same consulship news spread of the death of Asinius Gallus.* That he died from starvation was not in doubt; what was thought uncertain was whether it was voluntary or forced on him. When asked if he would allow burial for him, the emperor did not blush to grant his permission—nor indeed to deplore the circumstances that had taken the defendant off before he could be convicted in his presence! Naturally, there had not been enough time in the past three years for this aged ex-consul, father of numerous ex-consuls, to be brought to trial!
Drusus’ death* came next; he had kept himself alive for eight days on a wretched diet, eating the stuffing from his bed. Some have recorded that Macro had been given orders, in the event of an armed uprising being attempted by Sejanus, to take the young man out of detention—he was being held in the Palatium—and set him up as the people’s leader. Presently, as a rumour spread of the emperor’s forthcoming reconciliation with his daughter-in-law and grandson, he chose brutality over a change of heart.
24. Tiberius went further and cast slurs on the dead man, charging him with sexual perversions and planning murder within his family and treason towards the state. He also ordered the daily record that had been kept of Drusus’ actions and words to be read out, and that seemed the cruellest stroke of all. That men had been at Drusus’ side for so many years to take note of his expression, his sighs, and even a suppressed murmur, and that his grandfather could have heard all this, and read it and made it public—it simply beggared belief. But it was borne out by the letters of the centurion Attius and the freedman Didymus, which gave the names of all the slaves who had beaten and terrorized Drusus whenever he tried to leave his bedroom. The centurion had even subjoined, as something creditable, his own remarks at the time, which were full of savagery, along with Drusus’ dying words. At first Drusus had begun to aim some maledictions against Tiberius, apparently in a fit of madness, but then, as he lost hope of remaining alive, his curses became studied and carefully worded. Just as Tiberius had murdered his daughter-in-law, his brother’s son, and his grandchildren, and had filled his entire house with carnage, so, Drusus prayed, may he too pay the penalty to their ancestors’ name and family-line, and to posterity.
There were repeated remonstrations from the senators, seemingly to ward off the curse, but in reality fear and amazement were sinking into their hearts. This man had earlier been cunning and secretive in the concealment of his crimes, they thought; but now he had reached such a pitch of confidence as to take away the walls, so to speak, revealing his grandson beneath a centurion’s whip, and facing punches from slaves, as he begged in vain for the final necessities of life!
25. That painful episode had not yet faded when news came of Agrippina.* After Sejanus’ death I think she had lived on buoyed by hope, and then, as there was no let-up in Tiberius’ savagery, she took her own life—unless perhaps she was refused food to produce a death that could be taken for suicide. Tiberius, it is true, flared up with the foulest reproaches against her, charging her with moral turpitude,* with Asinius Gallus as her lover, and claiming that it was Gallus’ death that had made her tired of life. (In fact, Agrippina, intolerant of equality and yearning for power, had thrown off female weaknesses and developed masculine ambitions.) Tiberius added that she had died on the same day that Sejanus had paid his penalty two years earlier, and that this was something that should be recorded. He also congratulated himself on the fact that she had not been strangled and thrown on the Gemonian Steps. Official thanks were given to him for that, and a decree was passed authorizing the consecration of an offering to Jupiter every year on 18 October, the anniversary of the two deaths.
26. Not much later Cocceius Nerva, a constant companion of the emperor, and an expert in all divine and secular law, took the decision to die, though his position was secure and he was in good health. When Tiberius learned of it, he sat at Nerva’s bedside, asked his reasons, added entreaties, and finally admitted that it would be hard on his conscience, and hard on his reputation, if his closest friend should run away from life when he had no reasons for dying. Nerva refused to converse and persisted in abstaining from food. Those familiar with his thought processes claimed that anger and fear, arising from the closer view he had of the ills of the state, had made him wish for an honourable end, while he was still safe and not yet under attack.
Barely credible though it is, the destruction of Agrippina dragged Plancina* in its wake. She had once been married to Gnaeus Piso, and had openly shown pleasure over Germanicus’ death; and during Piso’s downfall her protection had come from Augusta’s pleas for her, and no less from the antipathy of Agrippina. When hatred and influence ceased to act, justice prevailed. Arraigned for crimes that were well known,* she paid with her own hand a penalty that was late in coming rather than undeserved.
27. While the city mourned so many grievous events, a part of its sorrow was for the marriage of Drusus’ daughter Julia,* formerly wife of Nero, into the house of Rubellius Blandus, whose grandfather many remembered as a Roman knight from Tibur.
At the year’s end, the death of Aelius Lamia* who, finally released from his chimerical governorship of Syria, had become city prefect, was honoured with a censor’s funeral. He had a famous family, and an active old age, and not being allowed to administer the province had added to his stature. Then, on the death of Flaccus Pomponius,* propraetor of Syria, a letter from the emperor was read out in which Tiberius complained that all the finest men who were fit to command armies declined the office. He was thus, out of necessity, driven to entreaties, he said, in the hope that some of the former consuls might be pushed into taking on provinces. He was evidently forgetting that it was now the tenth year that Arruntius was being held back* from proceeding to Spain.
That year also saw the death of Marcus Lepidus,* to whose judicious and discerning character I have assigned sufficient space in earlier books. Nor does his noble background require further elucidation: the family of the Aemilii has produced good citizens in abundance, and even the corrupt characters from that family still enjoyed outstanding fortunes.
28. In the consulship of Paulus Fabius and Lucius Vitellius,* the phoenix* came to Egypt, after a long cycle that lasted centuries, and this offered the greatest scholars of the native Egyptians and the Greeks scope for lengthy treatises on that miraculous phenomenon. My aim here is to present particulars on which they agree, as well as a greater number that are controversial but not too far-fetched for notice.
That the phoenix is a creature sacred to the sun, and one differing from all other birds in the shape of its beak and the peculiarities of its plumage, is something agreed upon by all who have described its features. On the number of years between its appearances, accounts vary. The most common is a period of five hundred years, but some insist on an interval of 1,461 years. These claim that the earlier birds first flew to the city called Heliopolis during the reign of Sesosis,* then in that of Amasis, and afterwards in that of Ptolemy (the third Ptolemy of the Macedonian dynasty). The phoenix, they claim, was then attended by a large flock of birds of all the other species, which were astonished by its strange appearance. What happened in antiquity is unclear; but between Ptolemy and Tiberius was a period of less than two hundred and fifty years. Some people have for this reason believed that the bird in this case was a false phoenix, one not originating in the lands of the Arabs, and that it did none of the things that ancient tradition claims for it, which are as follows. After it has completed the sum of its years and death is approaching, it builds a nest in its own lands and pours over it a procreative force, from which arises its offspring. The young bird’s first concern, when grown, is to bury its father, which is not done without great care. It picks up a load of myrrh, and tries out its strength carrying it on a long journey; when it is equal to its burden and equal to its journey, it picks up the father’s body and takes it to the altar of the sun and cremates it. These particulars are uncertain and exaggerated by mythical elements; but there is no doubt about the bird’s occasional appearance in Egypt.
29. In Rome the slaughter went on. Pomponius Labeo, whom I mentioned above* as governor of Moesia, cut open his veins and let out his lifeblood, and his wife Paxaea followed his example. (Fear of the executioner occasioned the ready acceptance of such deaths, as also did the fact that condemned men had their property confiscated and were forbidden burial—those taking the initiative themselves received burial of their bodies, and the continued validity of their wills, as a reward for expediting matters.) Tiberius, however, in a letter to the Senate, observed that it had been their ancestors’ custom to forbid a person entry to their home whenever they broke off friendships, and that this gesture ended the amicable relations. That is what he had tried to do in Labeo’s case, he said. Labeo, however, charged with malfeasance in his province and other crimes, had tried to cover up his own guilt by fomenting resentment against him, and had needlessly frightened his wife, who faced no danger, guilty though she was.
Then Mamercus Scaurus was arraigned for a second time, a man who was distinguished for his noble background and forensic oratory, but dissolute in his personal life. His downfall had nothing to do with Sejanus’ friendship, but rather with the hatred of Macro, which was just as deadly (for he practised the same arts, but with greater secrecy). Macro had laid information regarding the plot of a tragedy that Scaurus had written, but he had also specified in the accusation some verses* that could be applied to Tiberius. However, the charges brought against Scaurus by the informers Servilius and Cornelius were adultery with Livilla* and magical rites. Scaurus, in a manner befitting the Aemilii of old, forestalled his condemnation, egged on by his wife Sextia, who encouraged, and shared, his death.
30. And yet accusers were also punished, if an opportunity arose. Servilius and Cornelius, infamous for ruining Scaurus, were removed to islands and ‘forbidden fire and water’ for having accepted payment from Varius Ligus to drop a denunciation. Then there was the former aedile Abudius Ruso. He was actually threatening to bring a charge against Lentulus Gaetulicus* (under whom he had commanded a legion) for having intended to make Sejanus’ son his son-in-law, when he was himself condemned and banished from the city.
At that time Gaetulicus was commander of the legions in Upper Germany, and he had gained his men’s affection to a remarkable degree for his excessive clemency and his tempered discipline. Through his father-in-law Lucius Apronius* he was also popular with the neighbouring army. Hence the persistent rumour that he dared to send a letter to the emperor noting that his relationship with Sejanus had not been his idea but one suggested by Tiberius. It was as easy for him to be duped as Tiberius, he reportedly argued, and for the same mistake not to harm the emperor but to prove deadly for others was wrong. His loyalty was intact and would remain so, if he were not the target of plotting—but a successor he would accept as indicating a death sentence. They should strike a treaty, as it were, whereby the emperor would remain in control of everything else while Gaetulicus retained his province.
This is an amazing story, but it gained credibility from the fact that Gaetulicus was the only person connected with Sejanus to remain unharmed and in high regard; for Tiberius reflected on the hatred the people felt for him, his very advanced age, and the fact that his position now rested more on reputation than actual strength.
31. In the consulship of Gaius Cestius and Marcus Servilius, some Parthian noblemen came to Rome without King Artabanus’ knowledge.* Fear of Germanicus had kept Artabanus loyal to the Romans, and fair in his dealings with his own people, but presently he began to exhibit arrogance towards us and brutality towards his countrymen. His confidence came from success in his wars with the surrounding peoples, but he was also contemptuous of the aged Tiberius,* whom he considered incapable of fighting. Furthermore, he coveted Armenia, over which he had installed the eldest of his children, Arsaces, on the death of its king Artaxias (adding the insult of sending men to reclaim the treasure left by Vonones in Syria and Cilicia). At the same time he would boast about the ancient boundaries of Persia and Macedonia, and make blustering threats about invading the territories held first by Cyrus and later by Alexander.
Amongst the Parthians the strongest proponent of this secret mission was Sinnaces, famed for his family and wealth alike, and next after him was Abdus, a man who had been castrated (a condition not looked down upon amongst barbarians, and which actually confers authority). Other leading Parthians were also enlisted, and because they were unable to put any member of the Arsacid family on the throne, most having been put to death by Artabanus, or not yet grown to manhood, they urgently requested that Phraates, son of King Phraates, be sent from Rome. There was need only of a name and the authorization, they said, for an Arsacid descendant to be seen on the bank of the Euphrates, if such was Tiberius’ will.
32. That was what Tiberius wanted. He gave Phraates the insignia and assistance needed to assume his father’s high position, thus maintaining his policy of transacting foreign affairs by strategic planning and intrigue,* and avoiding armed confrontation. Artabanus, meanwhile, had discovered the plot. He was at one moment held back by fear, and at the next he was aflame with desire for revenge; and in the eyes of barbarians hesitation is a servile reaction, and immediate response a kingly quality. However, pragmatism prevailed. Inviting Abdus to dinner under the pretence of friendship, Artabanus caught him in his trap with a slow-working poison, while he delayed Sinnaces with deception and gifts, and also by keeping him occupied. Moreover, in Syria, Phraates abandoned the Roman lifestyle, to which he had been habituated for many years, and adopted Parthian customs, but he was insufficiently robust for his ancestral regime, and he died from a disease.
Tiberius, however, did not abandon his plans. He selected Tiridates (a member of the same family) to be Artabanus’ rival; and for the recovery of Armenia he chose the Iberian Mithridates, effecting a reconciliation for him with his brother Pharasmanes, who was the sovereign in their country. He made Lucius Vitellius overall supervisor of the operations in the East.
As regards Vitellius, I am not unaware of his sinister reputation in Rome, and the many unsavoury stories told about him, but his provincial administration was characterized by old-time integrity. After his return, out of fear of Gaius Caesar and then because of friendship with Claudius, he lapsed into a disgusting servility, to become for following generations an example of shameful sycophancy.
His early career is overshadowed by its end, the noble actions of his youth wiped out by the scandals of his old age.
33. Of the petty kings, Mithridates moved first, inducing Pharasmanes to support his efforts with trickery and force, and men were found to bribe Arsaces’ attendants (with a large amount of gold) to commit the crime.* At the same time the Iberi invaded Armenia with a powerful force and took possession of the town of Artaxata. When news of this was brought to Artabanus, he equipped his son Orodes* to exact his revenge, giving him Parthian troops and sending men to hire auxiliary forces. Pharasmanes’ response was to make an alliance with the Albani and send for help from the Sarmatians—whose satraps then followed their national policy of accepting gifts from the two parties and supporting both sides of the conflict. The Iberi, however, had the territorial advantage, and they swiftly sent their Sarmatians pouring into Armenia by the Caspian route. Those coming to the aid of the Parthians were easily repulsed, however. The enemy had blocked all approaches apart from the one between the sea and the outermost Albanian mountains, and that was impassable in summer because the shallows are flooded by the Etesian gales. (In winter, the south wind rolls back the waves and with the consequent receding of the sea a narrow strip of shoreline is left exposed.)
34. Orodes was thus short of allies. Pharasmanes, strengthened now with his reinforcements, proceeded to challenge him to engage and, when he refused battle, to harass him, riding up to his camp and plundering his sources of forage. Often he would surround him with outposts, as though blockading him, until the Parthians, unused to such insults, crowded around their king and demanded battle.
The Parthians had strength only in their cavalry; Pharasmanes also had powerful infantry. For, living as they did in forested areas, the Iberi and Albani had become more attuned to a life of hardship and endurance. They claim also to be descended from the Thessalians, this dating back to when Jason, some time after he had taken Medea away and had children by her, returned to the empty palace of Aeetes and Colchis, which now lacked a king. They celebrate the name of Jason in many ways and maintain an oracle of Phrixus,* where nobody would sacrifice a ram since it is believed that it was a ram—whether a real animal or the figurehead of his ship—that brought Phrixus there.
When the battle-lines had been deployed on both sides, the Parthian king addressed his men on their empire in the East, and the fame of the Arsacids, which he contrasted with the unknown Iberi and their mercenary forces. Pharasmanes for his part declared that his people were free from Parthian domination. The greater their aims, the more glorious would be their victory, he said; but should they turn to flight, the greater would be their disgrace and peril. At the same time he pointed out to them their own menacing battle-line, and the gold-embroidered columns of the Medes—men on this side, he said, booty on that.
35. In fact, the leader’s voice was not the only one to be heard amongst the Sarmatians; they were all encouraging one another, saying they should not let it become a battle of arrows—better to anticipate that by charging and fighting at close quarters! As a result, the battle took on a variety of forms. The Parthians, practised in pursuing and retreating with equal skill, spaced out their squadrons, seeking space for discharging arrows; the Sarmatians put aside the bow (theirs had a shorter range) and charged with lances and swords. At one moment it resembled a cavalry battle, with attacks from front and rear in turn. At other times, when the two lines came together, men drove forward, or were driven back, using their bodily force and thrusting their weapons.
By now the Albani and Iberi were also grappling with their enemy, unseating the riders and so making it a twofold battle for them, since they had the cavalry attacking from above and the infantry inflicting wounds at closer range.
Meanwhile Pharasmanes and Orodes stood out prominently as they brought support to the valiant and assistance to the irresolute, and the two recognized each other. With a shout, with weapons poised and with horses galloping, they clashed, but Pharasmanes with greater force, for he inflicted a wound on his adversary through his helmet. He could not repeat the action as he was swept ahead by his horse, and the bravest of his enemy’s bodyguards offered protection to the wounded man. Nevertheless, a false report that Orodes had been killed was believed, and this terrified the Parthians, who conceded victory.
36. Shortly afterwards, Artabanus threw all his kingdom’s resources into seeking revenge. The fighting favoured the Iberi, because of their knowledge of the region, but Artabanus was not, even so, ready to withdraw. Vitellius, however, brought his legions together and circulated a rumour that he was about to invade Mesopotamia, thus raising fears of a war with Rome. Armenia was then abandoned, and Artabanus’ fortunes reversed, since Vitellius enticed the Parthians to abandon a king who was merciless in peace, and a disastrous failure in war. And so Sinnaces (whose earlier hostility I have already mentioned) drew into revolt his father Abdagaeses, along with others who had been secretly contemplating it, and who were then readier after the incessant Parthian defeats. Others gradually joined the movement, too, people who had been held in subjection through fear rather than goodwill, and who had plucked up courage when leaders were found.
Artabanes was now left with nothing other than some foreigners who formed his bodyguard—all of them exiles from their own homes, who had no understanding of decency, and no scruples about evildoing, men who are kept and paid as abetters in crime. Taking these along, he made a hurried flight into the distant areas next to Scythia, hoping to find help there because he had marriage ties with the Hyrcanians and Carmanians. He thought, too, that the Parthians, ever sympathetic towards the absent and fickle towards those present, could change and regret their actions.
37. With Artabanus in flight, and the attention of his countrymen turned towards a new king, Vitellius urged Tiridates to seize the opportunity offered him, and led the core of the legionary and allied troops to the bank of the Euphrates. There they sacrificed, Vitellius making the traditional Roman offering of the suovetaurilia,* while Tiridates adorned a horse for placating the river. During the ceremony the local people reported to them that, although there had been no heavy rainfall, the Euphrates was spontaneously rising to an extraordinary height, and that it was forming circles of white foam in the shape of a diadem, which was an omen of a successful crossing. Others were more ingenious in their interpretation, arguing that the initial stages of the operation would be successful but success would be short-lived. Portents coming from the earth or sky were more reliable, they said, whereas the changeable character of rivers meant that they revealed, and then swept away, the omens.
A pontoon bridge was constructed and the army taken over. The first to come to their camp, at the head of several thousand cavalry, was Ornospades, a former exile who had assisted Tiberius, not without glory, during his mopping up of the Dalmatian war,* for which he had been awarded Roman citizenship. Subsequently, he had regained his king’s friendship and was held in great honour by him, being made governor of the plains that were given the name ‘Mesopotamia’ because they are enclosed by the famous Euphrates and Tigris rivers.
Shortly afterwards Sinnaces augmented their troops, and Abdagaeses, the pillar of their side, contributed his royal treasure and appurtenances. Vitellius considered it sufficient just to have made a display of Roman arms, and he left Tiridates and the leading noblemen of his force with a word of advice. Tiridates should keep in mind his grandfather Phraates and his foster-father Tiberius, and the fine qualities of the two men, he said; and the others should maintain their obedience to their king, their respect for us, and their individual honour and loyalty. With that, Vitellius returned to Syria with his legions.
38. I have here put together the events of two summers so that the reader’s mind can have some respite from domestic tragedies. For in Tiberius’ case, despite three years having passed since Sejanus’ killing, the things that normally soften other people—time, entreaties, saturation—did not appease him, and stop him inflicting punishment in cases that were dubious, or far in the past, as though they were extremely serious and of recent date. From fear of this, Fulcinius Trio* refused to await the threats of his accusers, and in his will he put together numerous vicious attacks on Macro and the leading imperial freedmen. Tiberius himself he charged with being mentally decrepit from senility, and virtually living in exile with his continuous absence. These allegations were covered up by Trio’s heirs, but Tiberius ordered them read out—parading his tolerance of others’ freedom of expression, and showing indifference to his own bad reputation. Or perhaps, after his long ignorance of Sejanus’ crimes, he preferred to have remarks about him made public, no matter what was said, and so become informed, even through insults, of the truth that flattery impedes.
During those same days a senator, Granius Marcianus, who had been arraigned for treason by Gaius Gracchus, violently ended his own life, and an ex-praetor, Tarius Gratianus, was condemned to capital punishment under the same law.
39. The deaths of Trebellenus Rufus and Sextius Paconianus were not dissimilar from these. Trebellenus fell by his own hand, and Paconianus was strangled in prison for verses that he composed there against the emperor. Tiberius received news of these cases, not when he was cut off by the sea, as he had been earlier, nor through messengers travelling from afar. He had taken up a position near the city,* so that, on that same day, or after the interval of a night, he could answer the letters of the consuls, while he was virtually looking upon the private homes awash with blood, and the work of his executioners.
At the year’s end Poppaeus Sabinus left this life. He was a man of humble background who, through his friendship with emperors, had gained the consulship and triumphal honours and had, over a period of twenty-four years, been put in command of the most important provinces. This was not through outstanding ability on his part, but simply through being up to the task and no more.
40. The consulship of Quintus Plautius and Sextus Papinius followed. That year neither the fact that Lucius Aruseius* <…> were put to death was regarded as frightful, since people were habituated to misery, but what did cause terror was the fate of Vibullius Agrippa, a Roman knight. Right in the Curia, when his accusers had finished their summing up, he drew poison from a fold in his clothing and drained it. Collapsing, he was, in his death throes, rushed off to prison by the swift hands of the lictors, and there was strangled with the noose, although he was already dead. Even Tigranes,* former ruler of Armenia and then facing trial, was not saved by his royal title from the punishments faced by citizens. The ex-consul Gaius Galba,* however, and the two Blaesi* died by suicide, Galba because he had been kept from the sortition for his province by a grim letter from the emperor. In the case of the Blaesi, priesthoods had been earmarked for them when their family was intact, but Tiberius had suspended them after its collapse, and then conferred them on others as though they were vacant. This they took as a death sentence, which they executed. Then there was Aemilia Lepida,* whom I have mentioned as the wife of the young Drusus. She had tormented her husband with repeated accusations and, detestable though she was, she went on living unpunished while her father Lepidus survived. Later she was attacked by informers for adultery with a slave, and there was no doubt about her guilt. She therefore abandoned her defence and ended her life.
41. At about the same time as this, the Cietae, a tribe subject to Archelaus of Cappadocia,* withdrew to the heights of the Taurus range because they were being forced to follow our system of returning census figures and submitting to tribute payment. There, because of the nature of the terrain, they successfully defended themselves against the feeble troops of the king, until the legate Marcus Trebellius was sent by Vitellius, governor of Syria, with four thousand legionaries and some elite auxiliary troops. Trebellius threw earthworks around the two hills that the barbarians had occupied (the smaller called Cadra, the other Davara), and forced them to capitulate— those daring to make a sortie, with the sword, the others, by thirst.
Tiridates* meanwhile, with the agreement of the Parthians, took possession of Nicephorium, Anthemusias, and the other cities which, though founded by the Macedonians, have Greek names. He also took over the Parthian towns of Halus and Artemita. And the inhabitants of these places were overjoyed: Artabanus, brought up amongst the Scythians, they had hated for his ruthlessness, and now they hoped to find in Tiridates a good nature that derived from Roman culture.
42. The greatest show of sycophancy came from the people of Seleucia, a powerful, walled city which had not declined into barbarism but retained the character of its founder Seleucus. Three hundred men, selected for their wealth or wisdom, form their Senate, and the people have their own political prerogative. Whenever the two are agreed, no attention is paid to the Parthian; when they are at odds, each side calls for assistance against the opposition, and the Parthian, being invited to help one of the two parties, dominates the entire population. This had happened recently when Artabanus was king. He, serving his own interests, had delivered the common people up to the nobles; for the dominance of the people is close to freedom, while the ascendancy of the few is closer to the arbitrary rule of a king.
On this occasion, when Tiridates arrived the people of Seleucia heaped on him the honours paid to their kings of old, and others more lavish that were recent inventions. At the same time they poured insults on Artabanus—an Arsacid on his mother’s side, but in all else degenerate! Tiridates transferred the government of Seleucia to the people. He next considered the date for his coronation ceremony, but meanwhile he received a letter from Phraates and Hiero, who held the strongest provinces,* requesting a short postponement.
He decided to wait for these very powerful men, and in the meantime headed for the imperial capital, Ctesiphon. But as they continued to procrastinate, the Surena* bound Tiridates’ head with the royal diadem, in traditional manner, before a large and appreciative crowd.
43. Had Tiridates now marched on the other tribes in the interior, the misgivings of the reluctant would have been crushed, and the whole population would have passed exclusively into his hands. But by besieging a fortress where Artabanus had stored his money and his concubines, he allowed time for the breaking of pacts. For Phraates and Hiero, and all the others who had not attended the coronation day celebrations, went over to Artabanus, some from fear, and some from jealousy of Abdagaeses, who now had the court and the new king under his control. Artabanus was discovered amongst the Hyrcanians, covered with filth, his bow providing his food.
At first he feared it was a trap; but when assured that the aim of the visit was the restoration of his rule, he was relieved and asked the reason for the sudden change. Hiero then railed against the immaturity of Tiridates. The kingship did not now belong to an Arsacid, he said. An empty title lay with a weakling softened by foreigners, and the power was really in the house of Abdagaeses.
44. With his long experience of ruling, Artabanus realized that, false in affection though they were, they were not faking their hatred. He delayed no longer than it took to muster Scythian auxiliaries, and then set off at a rapid pace, not giving his enemies time for tricks, or his friends time to change their minds. Nor had he altered his filthy appearance, hoping to win over the common people with pity. Nothing was left untried, not trickery and not entreaties, to entice the wavering and encourage the willing.
As Artabanus approached the environs of Seleucia with a large force, Tiridates, shaken by the report of his coming, and simultaneously by the man’s presence, was torn by doubts. Should he march against him or protract the war by delay? Those who favoured battle and a speedy decision claimed that Artabanus’ men were dispersed and exhausted from their lengthy march, and had not even united in spirit to obey him—they were, just recently, traitors and enemies to the very man they were once again supporting. Abdagaeses, however, advocated returning to Mesopotamia. There, using the river as a barrier, they could meanwhile call to their aid the Armenians, the Elymaeans?* and the other tribes to their rear. They could then put fortune to the test when they were reinforced by these allied troops, and any that the Roman commander might send. That was the suggestion that prevailed, since Abdagaeses wielded the greatest authority amongst them, and Tiridates was a coward in the face of danger. But their departure resembled a flight. It started with the tribe of Arabs,* but then the others also left for their homes or the camp of Artabanus, until Tiridates* returned to Syria with a few men and so relieved them all of any shame over deserting him.
45. That same year brought a serious fire upon the city, with a section of the Circus bordering the Aventine being burned down, along with the Aventine itself; but the emperor turned the loss into self-promotion by covering the costs of the houses and apartment buildings affected. A hundred million sesterces* were spent on that magnanimous act, and this was all the more gratifying to the people in that he was sparing with buildings of his own.* Even on behalf of the state he erected only two works, a temple to Augustus and the stage of the theatre of Pompey (and when these were completed he did not dedicate them, either disdaining popularity or from old age). Four of Tiberius’ grandsons-in-law were appointed to assess each person’s loss—Gnaeus Domitius, Cassius Longinus, Marcus Vinicius, and Rubellius Blandus—with Publius Petronius* added to the list as a nominee of the consuls. And, the result of individual creativity, various honours were devised and decreed for the emperor. Which ones he refused or accepted was unclear because the end of his life was near.
For not long afterwards the last consuls of Tiberius’ reign, Gnaeus Acerronius and Gaius Pontius, took office, at a time when Macro was excessively powerful. Macro had never neglected Gaius Caesar’s favour, but now he was courting it with greater enthusiasm every day. In fact, after the death of Claudia (whose marriage to Gaius I have mentioned*), Macro had pushed his own wife Ennia* into leading the young man on by feigning love for him, and then binding him to a promise of marriage. And Gaius would refuse nothing provided that he could gain power; for despite his mercurial temper he had nevertheless learned the arts of dissimulation in his grandfather’s lap.
46. This was known to the emperor, and it made him hesitate over the transfer of the state. He wavered first between his grandchildren. Drusus’ son* was closer to him in blood and in terms of affection, but he had not yet entered puberty. Germanicus’ son had a young man’s strength, and the enthusiastic support of the people, which for his grandfather was a reason for hatred. Tiberius even considered Claudius, because he was at a settled age and had a keen interest in the liberal arts, but his diminished mental capacity stood in the way. If, however, a successor were sought outside the family, he feared that the memory of Augustus and the name of the Caesars would be open to ridicule and insult—for Tiberius was less concerned with popularity of the moment than with winning the approval of posterity. Subsequently his indecision and failing health left to fate the choice he could not make. He did, however, throw out some remarks to let it be understood that he had some insight into the future. His reproach to Macro that he was leaving a setting sun to look at one that was rising* was no abstruse riddle. And when Gaius was mocking Lucius Sulla in some casual conversation, Tiberius made the prediction that he would have all Sulla’s vices and none of his virtues. On the same occasion, he embraced the younger of his grandsons with floods of tears and, seeing the other’s grim expression, said: ‘You will kill him, and another will kill you.’*
However, though his health was declining, Tiberius did not relax his debaucheries in any way, faking good health in his suffering. And he constantly ridiculed the physicians’ skills and those people who, after the thirtieth year of their life, needed a stranger’s advice in distinguishing what was good from what was harmful for their own bodies.
47. In Rome, meanwhile, the seeds were being sown even for post Tiberian killings. Laelius Balbus had arraigned Acutia, former wife of Publius Vitellius, on a charge of treason. When she was found guilty, and the reward was being decreed to her accuser, the plebeian tribune, Junius Otho, used his veto, which precipitated hatred between the two men, and soon afterwards destruction for Otho. Then there was Albucilla,* notorious for her affairs with many men and once married to Satrius Secundus, who had disclosed the conspiracy. She was denounced for impiety towards the emperor, and linked with her in the charge as accomplices and as her lovers were Gnaeus Domitius, Vibius Marsus, and Lucius Arruntius. Of the distinction of Domitius I have spoken above; Marsus, too, was a man with ancestral honours and renowned for his learning. But records* sent to the Senate indicated that Macro had overseen the examination of witnesses and the torture of slaves. And the fact that there was no letter from the emperor against the men raised the suspicion— given Macro’s well-known antagonism towards Arruntius—that much of the evidence had been made up when Tiberius was sick and, possibly, unaware of the facts.
48. The result was that Domitius and Marsus prolonged their lives, Domitius preparing his defence, and Marsus apparently determined to starve himself. Arruntius, when friends urged procrastination and delay, replied that the same course was not honourable for everybody. His life had been long enough, he said, and he had no regrets, apart from having tolerated an old age plagued by anxiety, and facing ridicule and danger. Long hated by Sejanus, he was now hated by Macro—it was always by one of the powerful—and not from any fault of his own, but from his intolerance of iniquity. Certainly, avoiding death was possible for the few days up to the emperor’s last moments—but how would he escape the youth of the man waiting in the wings? After all his experience, Tiberius was still shaken and transformed by the force of absolute power, he said. Would Gaius Caesar, his boyhood barely at an end, and totally ignorant, or else brought up on evil, take a better course, with Macro as his guide? Macro, who was chosen to crush Sejanus because he was worse than him, and who had inflicted more crimes on the state than Sejanus! Now he could foresee a harsher servitude, he said, and so he wanted to escape the ills of the past and those to come. Uttering these words in prophetic manner, he opened his veins.
That Arruntius did well in choosing death will be demonstrated by what followed. Albucilla, after dealing herself a wound that proved unsuccessful, was carried off to prison by order of the Senate. The sentencing in the case of those who abetted her promiscuity was that the ex-praetor Carsidius Sacerdos* was to be deported to an island; Pontius Fregellanus was to lose his senatorial rank; and the same punishment was decreed for Laelius Balbus. (The last of these sentences, at least, was delivered with rejoicing, because Balbus was seen as possessing a ferocious eloquence, and was ready to attack the innocent.)
49. During those same days Sextus Papinius,* who came from a consular family, chose a sudden and frightful end by throwing himself down from a height. The motivation for this was attributed to his mother. She had been divorced some time before and, by indulging him in his extravagant ways, had driven the young man into an impasse from which death was the only escape. She therefore stood accused in the Senate, where she grovelled before the members’ knees and made a lengthy plea, appealing to the grief that all humans shared and the weaker spirit of women in such circumstances, and adding other sad and doleful remarks in the same pitiful strain. She was, nevertheless, banished from the city for ten years, to allow time for her younger son to exit from the slippery years of youth.
50. By now Tiberius’ body and strength were failing him, though not yet his dissimulation. His inflexible will was unaltered; and, firmly controlling his conversation and looks, he would sometimes try to conceal his evident decline with contrived affability. After numerous changes of residence,* he finally settled in a villa which Lucius Lucullus had once owned, on the promontory of Misenum. There the fact that he was nearing the end was discovered in the following manner.
There was a doctor called Charicles who was well known for his skill and who, while not regularly employed in treating the emperor’s illnesses, made himself available to him for consultation. When Charicles was leaving, ostensibly to conduct some private business, he grasped Tiberius’ hand as a mark of respect and felt his pulse, though he did not fool him in doing so. For Tiberius, possibly offended and so concealing his anger all the more, ordered the banquet to be renewed and reclined at the table longer than he usually did, as if to honour his departing friend. Charicles even so assured Macro that Tiberius’ breathing was failing and that he would last no more than two days. All arrangements were then accelerated, with discussions held amongst those present, and messages sent to legates and armies. On 16 March his breathing failed, and he was thought to have ended his mortal existence; and, surrounded by a large crowd of well-wishers, Gaius Caesar was going out to initiate his reign when, suddenly, word came that Tiberius’ voice and vision were returning and that people were being called on to bring food to revive him after his fainting spell. At this there was total panic, and all fled in various directions, everyone feigning grief or ignorance—all but Gaius. Frozen in silence, he was now, after the highest hopes, anticipating the worst. Undaunted, Macro gave orders for the old man to be smothered by piling bedclothes on him,* and for people to leave the doorway. Thus, in the seventy-eighth* year of his life, Tiberius met his end.
51. His father was Nero, and on both sides he was descended from the Claudian house, although his mother, by various adoptions, passed into the Livian and then the Julian family. From earliest infancy he experienced the vicissitudes of fortune. His father was proscribed, and he went with him into exile. When he entered Augustus’ house as a stepson, he faced competition from numerous rivals during the entire time that Marcellus and Agrippa, and then Gaius and Lucius Caesar, were figures of importance. Even his brother Drusus enjoyed greater popularity with the citizens. But he was on a particularly slippery path when he married Julia, and put up with, or avoided, his wife’s promiscuity. Then, on his return from Rhodes, he occupied for twelve years the emperor’s house that was now without heirs, and subsequently took control of the Roman empire for almost twenty-three years.
His character also saw different phases. The period he spent as a private citizen, or holding various commands under Augustus, was, both for his life and his reputation, a noble one. The interval while Germanicus and Drusus remained alive was one of secrecy and hypocrisy as he affected virtue. While his mother still lived he was a mixture of good and bad. He was atrocious in his brutality, but his lechery was kept hidden while he loved, or feared, Sejanus. In the end, he erupted into an orgy of crime and ignominy alike, when, with all shame and fear removed, he simply followed his own inclinations.