Tacitus:
Annales 11
Translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
(and edited by P. Swarney
2007)
A.D. 47, 48
1.
Messalina believed that Valerius Asiaticus, who had been twice consul,
was one of Poppaea's old lovers. At the same time she was looking
greedily at the gardens which Lucullus had begun and which Asiaticus
was now adorning with singular magnificence, and so she suborned
Suilius to accuse both him and Poppaea. With Suilius was associated
Sosibius, tutor to Britannicus, who was to give Claudius an apparently
friendly warning to beware of a power and wealth which threatened the
throne. Asiaticus, he said, had been the ringleader in the murder of a
Caesar, and then had not feared to face an assembly of the Roman
people, to own the deed, and challenge its glory for his own. Thus
grown famous in the capital, and with a renown widely spread through
the provinces, he was planning a journey to the armies of
Germany.
Born at
Vienna,
and supported by numerous and powerful connections, he would find it
easy to rouse nations allied to his house. Claudius made no further
inquiry, but sent Crispinus, commander of the Praetorians, with troops
in hot haste, as though to put down a revolt. Crispinus found him at
Baiae, loaded him with chains, and hurried him to
Rome.
2.
No
hearing before the Senate was granted him. It was in the emperor's
chamber, in the presence of Messalina, that he was heard. There
Suilius accused him of corrupting the troops, of binding them by
bribes and indulgences to share in every crime, of adultery with
Poppaea, and finally of unmanly vice. It was at this last that the
accused broke silence, and burst out with the words, "Question thy own
sons, Suilius;they will own my manhood." Then he entered on his
defence. Claudius he moved profoundly, and he even drew tears from
Messalina. But as she left the chamber to wipe them away, she warned
Vitellius not to let the man escape. She hastened herself to effect
Poppaea's destruction, and hired agents to drive her to suicide by the
terrors of a prison. Caesar meanwhile was so unconscious that a few
days afterwards he asked her husband Scipio, who was dining with him,
why he sat down to table without his wife, and was told in reply that
she had paid the debt of nature.
3.
When
Claudius began to deliberate about the acquittal of Asiaticus,
Vitellius, with tears in his eyes, spoke of his old friendship with
the accused, and of their joint homage to the emperor's mother,
Antonia. He then briefly reviewed the services of Asiaticus to the
State, his recent campaign in the invasion of
Britain,
and everything else which seemed likely to win compassion, and
suggested that he should be free to choose his death. Claudius's reply
was in the same tone of mercy. Some friends urged on Asiaticus the
quiet death of self-starvation, but he declined it with thanks. He
took his usual exercise, then bathed and dined cheerfully, and saying
that he had better have fallen by the craft of Tiberius or the fury of
Caius Caesar than by the treachery of a woman and the shameless mouth
of Vitellius, he opened his veins, but not till he had inspected his
funeral pyre, and directed its removal to another spot, lest the smoke
should hurt the thick foliage of the trees. So complete was his
calmness even to the last.
4.
The
senators were then convoked, and Suilius proceeded to find new victims
in two knights of the first rank who bore the surname of
Petra.
The real cause of their destruction was that they had lent their house
for the meetings of Mnester and Poppaea. But it was a vision of the
night that was the actual charge against one of them. He had, it was
alleged, beheld Claudius crowned with a garland of wheat, the ears of
which were turned downwards, and, from this appearance, he foretold
scanty harvests. Some have said that it was a vine-wreath, of which
the leaves were white, which he saw, and that he interpreted it to
signify the death of the emperor after the turn of autumn. It is,
however, beyond dispute that in consequence of some dream, whatever it
was, both the man and his brother perished.
Fifteen
hundred thousand sesterces and the decorations of the praetorship were
voted to Crispinus. Vitellius bestowed a million on Sosibius, for
giving Britannicus the benefit of his teaching and Claudius that of
his counsels. I may add that when Scipio was called on for his
opinion, he replied, "As I think what all men think about the deeds of
Poppaea, suppose me to say what all men say." A graceful compromise
this between the affection of the husband and the necessities of the
senator.
5.
Suilius
after this plied his accusations without cessation or pity, and his
audacity had many rivals. By assuming to himself all the functions of
laws and magistrates, the emperor had left exposed everything which
invited plunder, and of all articles of public merchandise nothing was
more venal than the treachery of advocates. Thus it happened that one
Samius, a Roman knight of the first rank, who had paid four hundred
thousand sesterces to Suilius, stabbed himself in the advocate's
house, on ascertaining his collusion with the adversary. Upon this,
following the lead of Silius, consul-elect, whose elevation and fall I
shall in due course relate, the senators rose in a body, and demanded
the enforcement of the Cincian law, an old enactment, which forbade
any one to receive a fee or a gift for pleading a cause.
6.
When the
men, at whom this strong censure was levelled, loudly protested,
Silius, who had a quarrel with Suilius, attacked them with savage
energy. He cited as examples the orators of old who had thought fame
with posterity the fairest recompense of eloquence. And, "apart from
this," he said, "the first of noble accomplishments was debased by
sordid services, and even good faith could not be upheld in its
integrity, when men looked at the greatness of their gains. If law
suits turned to no one's profit, there would be fewer of them. As it
was, quarrels, accusations, hatreds and wrongs were encouraged, in
order that, as the violence of disease brings fees to the physician,
so the corruption of the forum might enrich the advocate. They should
remember Caius Asinius and Messala, and, in later days, Arruntius and
Aeserninus, men raised by a blameless life and by eloquence to the
highest honours."
So spoke
the consul-elect, and others agreed with him. A resolution was being
framed to bring the guilty under the law of extortion, when Suilius
and Cossutianus and the rest, who saw themselves threatened with
punishment rather than trial, for their guilt was manifest, gathered
round the emperor, and prayed forgiveness for the past.
7.
When he
had nodded assent, they began to plead their cause. "Who," they asked,
"can be so arrogant as to anticipate in hope an eternity of renown? It
is for the needs and the business of life that the resource of
eloquence is acquired, thanks to which no one for want of an advocate
is at the mercy of the powerful. But eloquence cannot be obtained for
nothing; private affairs are neglected, in order that a man may devote
himself to the business of others. Some support life by the profession
of arms, some by cultivating land. No work is expected from any one of
which he has not before calculated the profits. It was easy for
Asinius and Messala, enriched with the prizes of the conflict between
Antony
and Augustus, it was easy for Arruntius and Aeserninus, the heirs of
wealthy families, to assume grand airs. We have examples at hand. How
great were the fees for which Publius Clodius and Caius Curio were
wont to speak! We are ordinary senators, seeking in the tranquillity
of the State for none but peaceful gains. You must consider the
plebeian, how he gains distinction from the gown. Take away the
rewards of a profession, and the profession must perish." The emperor
thought that these arguments, though less noble, were not without
force. He limited the fee which might be taken to ten thousand
sesterces, and those who exceeded this limit were to be liable to the
penalties of extortion.
8.
About
this same time Mithridates, of whom I have before spoken as having
ruled Armenia, and having been imprisoned by order of Caius Caesar,
made his way back to his kingdom at the suggestion of Claudius and in
reliance on the help of Pharasmanes. This Pharasmanes, who was king of
the Iberians and Mithridates' brother, now told him that the Parthians
were divided, and that the highest questions of empire being
uncertain, lesser matters were neglected. Gotarzes, among his many
cruelties, had caused the death of his brother Artabanus, with his
wife and son. Hence his people feared for themselves and sent for
Vardanes. Ever ready for daring achievements, Vardanes traversed 375
miles in two days, and drove before him the surprised and terrified
Gotarzes. Without moment's delay, he seized the neighbouring
governments,
Seleucia
alone refusing his rule. Rage against the place, which indeed had also
revolted from his father, rather than considerations of policy, made
him embarrass himself with the siege of a strong city, which the
defence of a river flowing by it, with fortifications and supplies,
had thoroughly secured. Gotarzes meanwhile, aided by the resources of
the Dahae and Hyrcanians, renewed the war; and Vardanes, compelled to
raise the siege of Seleucia, encamped on the plains of
Bactria.
9.
Then it
was that while the forces of the East were divided, and hesitated
which side they should take, the opportunity of occupying Armenia was
presented to Mithridates, who had the vigorous soldiers of Rome to
storm the fortified heights, while his Iberian cavalry scoured the
plain. The Armenians made no resistance after their governor, Demonax,
had ventured on a battle and had been routed. Cotys, king of Lesser
Armenia, to whom some of the nobles inclined, caused some delay, but
he was stopped by a despatch from Claudius, and then everything passed
into the hands of Mithridates, who showed more cruelty than was wise
in a new ruler. The Parthian princes however, just when they were
beginning battle, came to a sudden agreement, on discovering a plot
among their people, which Gotarzes revealed to his brother. At first
they approached each other with hesitation; then, joining right hands,
they promised before the altars of their gods to punish the treachery
of their enemies and to yield one to the other. Vardanes seemed more
capable of retaining rule. Gotarzes, to avoid all rivalry, retired
into the depths of Hyrcania. When Vardanes returned,
Seleucia
capitulated to him, seven years after its revolt, little to the credit
of the Parthians, whom a single city had so long defied.
10.
He then
visited the strongest governments, and was eager to recover
Armenia,
but was stopped by Vibius Marsus, governor of
Syria,
who threatened war. Meanwhile Gotarzes, who repented of having
relinquished his throne, at the solicitation of the nobility, to whom
subjection is a special hardship in peace, collected a force. Vardanes
marched against him to the river Charinda; a fierce battle was fought
over the passage, Vardanes winning a complete victory, and in a series
of successful engagements subduing the intermediate tribes as far as
the river Sindes, which is the boundary between the Dahae and the
Arians. There his successes terminated. The Parthians, victorious
though they were, rebelled against distant service. So after erecting
monuments on which he recorded his greatness, and the tribute won from
peoples from whom no Arsacid had won it before, he returned covered
with glory, and therefore the more haughty and more intolerable to his
subjects than ever. They arranged a plot, and slew him when he was off
his guard and intent upon the chase. He was still in his first youth,
and might have been one of the illustrious few among aged princes, had
he sought to be loved by his subjects as much as to be feared by his
foes.
The
murder of Vardanes threw the affairs of
Parthia
into confusion, as the people were in doubt who should be summoned to
the throne. Many inclined to Gotarzes, some to Meherdates, a
descendant of Phraates, who was a hostage in our hands. Finally
Gotarzes prevailed. Established in the palace, he drove the Parthians
by his cruelty and profligacy to send a secret entreaty to the Roman
emperor that Meherdates might be allowed to mount the throne of his
ancestors.
11.
It was
during this consulship, in the eight hundredth year after the
foundation of
Rome
and the sixty-fourth after their celebration by Augustus that the
secular games were exhibited. I say nothing of the calculations of the
two princes, which I have sufficiently discussed in my history of the
emperor Domitian; for he also exhibited secular games, at which
indeed, being one of the priesthood of the Fifteen and praetor at the
time, I specially assisted. It is in no boastful spirit that I mention
this, but because this duty has immemorially belonged to the College
of the Fifteen, and the praetors have performed the chief functions in
these ceremonies. While Claudius sat to witness the games of the
circus, some of the young nobility acted on horseback the battle of
Troy.
Among them was Britannicus, the emperor's son, and Lucius Domitius,
who became soon afterwards by adoption heir to the empire with the
surname of Nero. The stronger popular enthusiasm which greeted him was
taken to presage his greatness. It was commonly reported that snakes
had been seen by his cradle, which they seemed to guard, a fabulous
tale invented to match the marvels of other lands. Nero, never a
disparager of himself, was wont to say that but one snake, at most,
had been seen in his chamber.
12.
Something however of popular favour was bequeathed to him from the
remembrance of Germanicus, whose only male descendant he was, and the
pity felt for his mother Agrippina was increased by the cruelty of
Messalina, who, always her enemy, and then more furious than ever, was
only kept from planning an accusation and suborning informers by a new
and almost insane passion. She had grown so frantically enamoured of
Caius Silius, the handsomest of the young nobility of
Rome,
that she drove from his bed Junia Silana, a high-born lady, and had
her lover wholly to herself. Silius was not unconscious of his
wickedness and his peril; but a refusal would have insured
destruction, and he had some hope of escaping exposure; the prize too
was great, so he consoled himself by awaiting the future and enjoying
the present. As for her, careless of concealment, she went continually
with a numerous retinue to his house, she haunted his steps, showered
on him wealth and honours, and, at last, as though empire had passed
to another, the slaves, the freedmen, the very furniture of the
emperor were to be seen in the possession of the paramour.
13.
Claudius
meanwhile, who knew nothing about his wife, and was busy with his
functions as censor, published edicts severely rebuking the
lawlessness of the people in the theatre, when they insulted Caius
Pomponius, an ex-consul, who furnished verses for the stage, and
certain ladies of rank. He introduced too a law restraining the cruel
greed of the usurers, and forbidding them to lend at interest sums
repayable on a father's death. He also conveyed by an aqueduct into
Rome
the waters which flow from the hills of Simbrua. And he likewise
invented and published for use some new letters, having discovered, as
he said, that even the Greek alphabet had not been completed at once.
14.
It was
the Egyptians who first symbolized ideas, and that by the figures of
animals. These records, the most ancient of all human history, are
still seen engraved on stone. The Egyptians also claim to have
invented the alphabet, which the Phoenicians, they say, by means of
their superior seamanship, introduced into Greece, and of which they
appropriated the glory, giving out that they had discovered what they
had really been taught. Tradition indeed says that Cadmus, visiting
Greece
in a Phoenician fleet, was the teacher of this art to its yet
barbarous tribes. According to one account, it was Cecrops of
Athens
or Linus of
Thebes,
or Palamedes of
Argos
in Trojan times who invented the shapes of sixteen letters, and
others, chiefly Simonides, added the rest. In
Italy
the Etrurians learnt them from Demaratus of
Corinth,
and the Aborigines from the Arcadian Evander. And so the Latin letters
have the same form as the oldest Greek characters. At first too our
alphabet was scanty, and additions were afterwards made. Following
this precedent Claudius added three letters, which were employed
during his reign and subsequently disused. These may still be seen on
the tablets of brass set up in the squares and temples, on which new
statutes are published.
15.
Claudius
then brought before the Senate the subject of the college of "haruspices,"
that, as he said, "the oldest of Italian sciences might not be lost
through negligence. It had often happened in evil days for the State
that advisers had been summoned at whose suggestion ceremonies had
been restored and observed more duly for the future. The nobles of
Etruria,
whether of their own accord or at the instigation of the Roman Senate,
had retained this science, making it the inheritance of distinct
families. It was now less zealously studied through the general
indifference to all sound learning and to the growth of foreign
superstitions. At present all is well, but we must show gratitude to
the favour of Heaven, by taking care that the rites observed during
times of peril may not be forgotten in prosperity." A resolution of
the Senate was accordingly passed, charging the pontiffs to see what
should be retained or reformed with respect to the "haruspices."
16.
It was
in this same year that the Cherusci asked Rome
for a king. They had lost all their nobles in their civil wars, and
there was left but one scion of the royal house, Italicus by name, who
lived at
Rome.
On the father's side he was descended from Flavus, the brother of
Arminius; his mother was a daughter of Catumerus, chief of the Chatti.
The youth himself was of distinguished beauty, a skilful horseman and
swordsman both after our fashion and that of his country. So the
emperor made him a present of money, furnished him with an escort, and
bade him enter with a good heart on the honours of his house. "Never
before," he said, "had a native of
Rome,
no hostage but a citizen, gone to mount a foreign throne." At first
his arrival was welcome to the Germans, and they crowded to pay him
court, for he was untainted by any spirit of faction, and showed the
same hearty goodwill to all, practising sometimes the courtesy and
temperance which can never offend, but oftener those excesses of wine
and lust in which barbarians delight. He was winning fame among his
neighbours and even far beyond them, when some who had found their
fortune in party feuds, jealous of his power, fled to the tribes on
the border, protesting that Germany was being robbed of her ancient
freedom, and that the might of Rome was on the rise. "Is there
really," they said, "no native of this country to fill the place of
king without raising the son of the spy Flavus above all his fellows?
It is idle to put forward the name of Arminius. Had even the son of
Arminius come to the throne after growing to manhood on a hostile
soil, he might well be dreaded, corrupted as he would be by the bread
of dependence, by slavery, by luxury, by all foreign habits. But if
Italicus had his father's spirit, no man, be it remembered, had ever
waged war against his country and his home more savagely than that
father."
17.
By these
and like appeals they collected a large force. No less numerous were
the partisans of Italicus. "He was no intruder," they said, "on an
unwilling people; he had obeyed a call. Superior as he was to all
others in noble birth, should they not put his valour to the test, and
see whether he showed himself worthy of his uncle Arminius and his
grandfather Catumerus? He need not blush because his father had never
relinquished the loyalty which, with the consent of the Germans, he
had promised to
Rome.
The name of liberty was a lying pretext in the mouths of men who, base
in private, dangerous in public life, had nothing to hope except from
civil discord."
The
people enthusiastically applauded him. After a fierce conflict among
the barbarians, the king was victorious. Subsequently, in his good
fortune, he fell into a despot's pride, was dethroned, was restored by
the help of the Langobardi, and still, in prosperity or adversity, did
mischief to the interests of the Cheruscan nation.
18.
It was
during the same period that the Chauci, free, as it happened, from
dissension at home and emboldened by the death of Sanquinius, made,
while Corbulo was on his way, an inroad into Lower Germany,
under the leadership of Gannascus. This man was of the tribe of the
Canninefates, had served long as our auxiliary, had then deserted,
and, getting some light vessels, had made piratical descents specially
on the coast of Gaul, inhabited, he knew, by a wealthy and unwarlike
population. Corbulo meanwhile entered the province with careful
preparation and soon winning a renown of which that campaign was the
beginning, he brought his triremes up the channel of the
Rhine
and the rest of his vessels up the estuaries and canals to which they
were adapted. Having sunk the enemy's flotilla, driven out Gannascus,
and brought everything into good order, he restored the discipline of
former days among legions which had forgotten the labours and toils of
the soldier and delighted only in plunder. No one was to fall out of
the line; no one was to fight without orders. At the outposts, on
guard, in the duties of day and of night, they were always to be under
arms. One soldier, it was said, had suffered death for working at the
trenches without his sword, another for wearing nothing as he dug, but
his poniard. These extreme and possibly false stories at least had
their origin in the general's real severity. We may be sure that he
was strict and implacable to serious offences, when such sternness in
regard to trifles could be believed of him.
19.
The fear
thus inspired variously affected his own troops and the enemy. Our men
gained fresh valour; the barbarians felt their pride broken. The
Frisians, who had been hostile or disloyal since the revolt which had
been begun by the defeat of Lucius Apronius, gave hostages and settled
down on territories marked out by Corbulo, who, at the same time, gave
them a senate, magistrates, and a constitution. That they might not
throw off their obedience, he built a fort among them, while he sent
envoys to invite the Greater Chauci to submission and to destroy
Gannascus by stratagem. This stealthy attempt on the life of a
deserter and a traitor was not unsuccessful, nor was it anything
ignoble. Yet the Chauci were violently roused by the man's death, and
Corbulo was now sowing the seeds of another revolt, thus getting a
reputation which many liked, but of which many thought ill. "Why," men
asked, "was he irritating the foe? His disasters will fall on the
State. If he is successful, so famous a hero will be a danger to
peace, and a formidable subject for a timid emperor." Claudius
accordingly forbade fresh attacks on Germany, so emphatically as to
order the garrisons to be withdrawn to the left bank of the
Rhine.
20.
Corbulo
was actually preparing to encamp on hostile soil when the despatch
reached him. Surprised, as he was, and many as were the thoughts which
crowded on him, thoughts of peril from the emperor, of scorn from the
barbarians, of ridicule from the allies, he said nothing but this,
"Happy the Roman generals of old," and gave the signal for retreat. To
keep his soldiers free from sloth, he dug a canal of twenty-three
miles in length between the
Rhine
and the
Meuse,
as a means of avoiding the uncertain perils of the ocean. The emperor,
though he had forbidden war, yet granted him triumphal distinctions.
Soon
afterwards Curtius Rufus obtained the same honour. He had opened mines
in the territory of the Mattiaci for working certain veins of silver.
The produce was small and soon exhausted. The toil meanwhile of the
legions was only to a loss, while they dug channels for water and
constructed below the surface works which are difficult enough in the
open air. Worn out by the labour, and knowing that similar hardships
were endured in several provinces, the soldiers wrote a secret
despatch in the name of the armies, begging the emperor to give in
advance triumphal distinctions to one to whom he was about to entrust
his forces.
21.
Of the
birth of Curtius Rufus, whom some affirm to have been the son of a
gladiator, I would not publish a falsehood, while I shrink from
telling the truth. On reaching manhood he attached himself to a
quaestor to whom Africa had been allotted, and was walking alone at
midday in some unfrequented arcade in the town of Adrumetum, when he
saw a female figure of more than human stature, and heard a voice,
"Thou, Rufus, art the man who will one day come into this province as
proconsul." Raised high in hope by such a presage, he returned to
Rome, where, through the lavish expenditure of his friends and his own
vigorous ability, he obtained the quaestorship, and, subsequently, in
competition with well-born candidates, the praetorship, by the vote of
the emperor Tiberius, who threw a veil over the discredit of his
origin, saying, "Curtius Rufus seems to me to be his own ancestor."
Afterwards, throughout a long old age of surly sycophancy to those
above him, of arrogance to those beneath him, and of moroseness among
his equals, he gained the high office of the consulship, triumphal
distinctions, and, at last, the province of
Africa.
There he died, and so fulfilled the presage of his destiny.
22.
At Rome
meanwhile, without any motive then known or subsequently ascertained,
Cneius Nonius, a Roman knight, was found wearing a sword amid a crowd
who were paying their respects to the emperor. The man confessed his
own guilt when he was being torn in pieces by torture, but gave up no
accomplices, perhaps having none to hide.
During
the same consulship, Publius Dolabella proposed that a spectacle of
gladiators should be annually exhibited at the cost of those who
obtained the quaestorship. In our ancestors' days this honour had been
a reward of virtue, and every citizen, with good qualities to support
him, was allowed to compete for office. At first there were no
distinctions even of age, which prevented a man in his early youth
from becoming a consul or a dictator. The quaestors indeed were
appointed while the kings still ruled, and this the revival by Brutus
of the lex curiata plainly shows. The consuls retained the power of
selecting them, till the people bestowed this office as well as
others. The first so created were Valerius Potitus and Aemilius
Mamercus sixty-three years after the expulsion of the Tarquins, and
they were to be attached to the war-department. As the public business
increased, two more were appointed to attend to affairs at Rome. This
number was again doubled, when to the contributions of Italy was added
the tribute of the provinces. Subsequently Sulla, by one of his laws,
provided that twenty should be elected to fill up the Senate, to which
he had intrusted judicial functions. These functions the knights
afterwards recovered, but the quaestorship was obtained, without
expense, by merit in the candidates or by the good nature of the
electors, till at Dolabella's suggestion it was, so to speak, put up
to sale.
23.
In the
consulship of Aulus Vitellius and Lucius Vipstanus the question of
filling up the Senate was discussed, and the chief men of Gallia
Comata, as it was called, who had long possessed the rights of allies
and of Roman citizens, sought the privilege of obtaining public
offices at Rome. There was much talk of every kind on the subject, and
it was argued before the emperor with vehement opposition. "Italy,"
it was asserted, "is not so feeble as to be unable to furnish its own
capital with a senate. Once our native-born citizens sufficed for
peoples of our own kin, and we are by no means dissatisfied with the
Rome
of the past. To this day we cite examples, which under our old customs
the Roman character exhibited as to valour and renown. Is it a small
thing that Veneti and Insubres have already burst into the
Senate-house, unless a mob of foreigners, a troop of captives, so to
say, is now forced upon us? What distinctions will be left for the
remnants of our noble houses, or for any impoverished senators from
Latium?
Every place will be crowded with these millionaires, whose ancestors
of the second and third generations at the head of hostile tribes
destroyed our armies with fire and sword, and actually besieged the
divine Julius at Alesia. These are recent memories. What if there were
to rise up the remembrance of those who fell in
Rome's
citadel and at her altar by the hands of these same barbarians! Let
them enjoy indeed the title of citizens, but let them not vulgarise
the distinctions of the Senate and the honours of office."
24.
These
and like arguments failed to impress the emperor. He at once addressed
himself to answer them, and thus harangued the assembled Senate. "My
ancestors, the most ancient of whom was made at once a citizen and a
noble of
Rome,
encourage me to govern by the same policy of transferring to this city
all conspicuous merit, wherever found. And indeed I know, as facts,
that the Julii came from Alba, the Coruncanii from Camerium, the
Porcii from Tusculum, and not to inquire too minutely into the past,
that new members have been brought into the Senate from Etruria and
Lucania and the whole of Italy, that Italy itself was at last extended
to the Alps, to the end that not only single persons but entire
countries and tribes might be united under our name. We had unshaken
peace at home; we prospered in all our foreign relations, in the days
when Italy beyond the Po was admitted to share our citizenship, and
when, enrolling in our ranks the most vigorous of the provincials,
under colour of settling our legions throughout the world, we
recruited our exhausted empire. Are we sorry that the Balbi came to us
from
Spain,
and other men not less illustrious from Narbon Gaul? Their descendants
are still among us, and do not yield to us in patriotism.
"What
was the ruin of Sparta
and
Athens,
but this, that mighty as they were in war, they spurned from them as
aliens those whom they had conquered? Our founder Romulus, on the
other hand, was so wise that he fought as enemies and then hailed as
fellow-citizens several nations on the very same day. Strangers have
reigned over us. That freedmen's sons should be intrusted with public
offices is not, as many wrongly think, a sudden innovation, but was a
common practice in the old commonwealth. But, it will be said, we have
fought with the Senones. I suppose then that the Volsci and Aequi
never stood in array against us. Our city was taken by the Gauls.
Well, we also gave hostages to the Etruscans, and passed under the
yoke of the Samnites. On the whole, if you review all our wars, never
has one been finished in a shorter time than that with the Gauls.
Thenceforth they have preserved an unbroken and loyal peace. United as
they now are with us by manners, education, and intermarriage, let
them bring us their gold and their wealth rather than enjoy it in
isolation. Everything, Senators, which we now hold to be of the
highest antiquity, was once new. Plebeian magistrates came after
patrician; Latin magistrates after plebeian; magistrates of other
Italian peoples after Latin. This practice too will establish itself,
and what we are this day justifying by precedents, will be itself a
precedent."
25.
The
emperor's speech was followed by a decree of the Senate, and the Aedui
were the first to obtain the right of becoming senators at
Rome.
This compliment was paid to their ancient alliance, and to the fact
that they alone of the Gauls cling to the name of brothers of the
Roman people.
About
the same time the emperor enrolled in the ranks of the patricians such
senators as were of the oldest families, and such as had had
distinguished ancestors. There were now but scanty relics of the
Greater Houses of Romulus and of the Lesser Houses of Lucius Brutus,
as they had been called, and those too were exhausted which the
Dictator Caesar by the Cassian and the emperor Augustus by the Saenian
law had chosen into their place. These acts, as being welcome to the
State, were undertaken with hearty gladness by the imperial censor.
Anxiously considering how he was to rid the Senate of men of notorious
infamy, he preferred a gentle method, recently devised, to one which
accorded with the sternness of antiquity, and advised each to examine
his own case and seek the privilege of laying aside his rank.
Permission, he said, would be readily obtained. He would publish in
the same list those who had been expelled and those who had been
allowed to retire, that by this confounding together of the decision
of the censors and the modesty of voluntary resignation the disgrace
might be softened.
For
this, the consul Vipstanus moved that Claudius should be called
"Father of the Senate." The title of "Father of the Country" had, he
argued, been indiscriminately bestowed; new services ought to be
recognized by unusual titles. The emperor, however, himself stopped
the consul's flattery, as extravagant. He closed the lustrum, the
census for which gave a total of 5,984,072 citizens. Then too ended
his blindness as to his domestic affairs. He was soon compelled to
notice and punish his wife's infamies, till he afterwards craved
passionately for an unhallowed union.
26.
Messalina, now grown weary of the very facility of her adulteries, was
rushing into strange excesses, when even Silius, either through some
fatal infatuation or because he imagined that, amid the dangers which
hung over him, danger itself was the best safety, urged the breaking
off of all concealment. "They were not," he said, "in such an
extremity as to have to wait for the emperor's old age. Harmless
measures were for the innocent. Crime once exposed had no refuge but
in audacity. They had accomplices in all who feared the same fate. For
himself, as he had neither wife nor child, he was ready to marry and
to adopt Britannicus. Messalina would have the same power as before,
with the additional advantage of a quiet mind, if only they took
Claudius by surprise, who, though unsuspicious of treachery, was hasty
in his wrath."
The
suggestion was coldly received, not because the lady loved her
husband, but from a fear that Silius, after attaining his highest
hopes, would spurn an adulteress, and soon estimate at its true value
the crime which in the midst of peril he had approved. But she craved
the name of wife, for the sake of the monstrous infamy, that last
source of delight to the reckless. She waited only till Claudius set
out for Ostia to perform a sacrifice, and then celebrated all the
solemnities of marriage.
27.
I am
well aware that it will seem a fable that any persons in the world
could have been so obtuse in a city which knows everything and hides
nothing, much more, that these persons should have been a consul-elect
and the emperor's wife; that, on an appointed day, before witnesses
duly summoned, they should have come together as if for the purpose of
legitimate marriage; that she should have listened to the words of the
bridegroom's friends, should have sacrificed to the gods, have taken
her place among a company of guests, have lavished her kisses and
caresses, and passed the night in the freedom which marriage permits.
But this is no story to excite wonder; I do but relate what I have
heard and what our fathers have recorded.
28.
The
emperor's court indeed shuddered, its powerful personages especially,
the men who had much to fear from a revolution. From secret
whisperings they passed to loud complaints. "When an actor," they
said, "impudently thrust himself into the imperial chamber, it
certainly brought scandal on the State, but we were a long way from
ruin. Now, a young noble of stately beauty, of vigorous intellect,
with the near prospect of the consulship, is preparing himself for a
loftier ambition. There can be no secret about what is to follow such
a marriage." Doubtless there was thrill of alarm when they thought of
the apathy of Claudius, of his devotion to his wife and of the many
murders perpetrated at Messalina's bidding. On the other hand, the
very good nature of the emperor inspired confident hope that if they
could overpower him by the enormity of the charge, she might be
condemned and crushed before she was accused. The critical point was
this, that he should not hear her defence, and that his ears should be
shut even against her confession.
29.
At first
Callistus, of whom I have already spoken in connection with the
assassination of Caius Caesar, Narcissus, who had contrived the death
of Appius, and Pallas, who was then in the height of favour, debated
whether they might not by secret threats turn Messalina from her
passion for Silius, while they concealed all else. Then fearing that
they would be themselves involved in ruin, they abandoned the idea,
Pallas out of cowardice, and Callistus, from his experience of a
former court, remembering that prudent rather than vigorous counsels
insure the maintenance of power. Narcissus persevered, only so far
changing his plan as not to make her aware beforehand by a single word
what was the charge or who was the accuser. Then he eagerly watched
his opportunity, and, as the emperor lingered long at Ostia, he sought
two of the mistresses to whose society Claudius was especially
partial, and, by gifts, by promises, by dwelling on power increased by
the wife's fall, he induced them to undertake the work of the
informer.
30.
On this,
Calpurnia (that was the woman's name), as soon as she was allowed a
private interview, threw herself at the emperor's knees, crying out
that Messalina was married to Silius. At the same time she asked
Cleopatra, who was standing near and waiting for the question, whether
she knew it. Cleopatra nodding assent, she begged that Narcissus might
be summoned. Narcissus entreated pardon for the past, for having
concealed the scandal while confined to a Vettius or a Plautius. Even
now, he said, he would not make charges of adultery, and seem to be
asking back the palace, the slaves, and the other belongings of
imperial rank. These Silius might enjoy; only, he must give back the
wife and annul the act of marriage. "Do you know," he said "of your
divorce? The people, the army, the Senate saw the marriage of Silius.
Act at once, or the new husband is master of Rome."
31.
Claudius
then summoned all his most powerful friends. First he questioned
Turranius, superintendent of the corn market; next, Lusius Geta, who
commanded the praetorians. When they confessed the truth, the whole
company clamoured in concert that he must go to the camp, must assure
himself of the praetorian cohorts, must think of safety before he
thought of vengeance. It is quite certain that Claudius was so
overwhelmed by terror that he repeatedly asked whether he was indeed
in possession of the empire, whether Silius was still a subject.
Messalina meanwhile, more wildly profligate than ever, was celebrating
in mid-autumn a representation of the vintage in her new home. The
presses were being trodden; the vats were overflowing; women girt with
skins were dancing, as Bacchanals dance in their worship or their
frenzy. Messalina with flowing hair shook the thyrsus, and Silius at
her side, crowned with ivy and wearing the buskin, moved his head to
some lascivious chorus. It is said that one Vettius Valens climbed a
very lofty tree in sport, and when they asked him what he saw,
replied, "A terrible storm from Ostia." Possibly such appearance had
begun; perhaps, a word dropped by chance became a prophecy.
32.
Meanwhile no mere rumour but messengers from all parts brought the
news that everything was known to Claudius, and that he was coming,
bent on vengeance. Messalina upon this went to the gardens of Lucullus;
Silius, to conceal his fear, to his business in the forum. The other
guests were flying in all directions when the centurions appeared and
put every one in irons where they found them, either in the public
streets or in hiding. Messalina, though her peril took away all power
of thought, promptly resolved to meet and face her husband, a course
in which she had often found safety; while she bade Britannicus and
Octavia hasten to embrace their father. She besought Vibidia, the
eldest of the Vestal Virgins, to demand audience of the supreme
pontiff and to beg for mercy. Meanwhile, with only three companions,
so lonely did she find herself in a moment, she traversed the whole
length of the city, and, mounting on a cart used to remove garden
refuse, proceeded along the road to Ostia; not pitied, so
overpoweringly hideous were her crimes, by a single person.
33.
There
was equal alarm on the emperor's side. They put but little trust in
Geta, who commanded the praetorians, a man swayed with good case to
good or evil. Narcissus in concert with others who dreaded the same
fate, declared that the only hope of safety for the emperor lay in his
transferring for that one day the command of the soldiers to one of
the freedmen, and he offered to undertake it himself. And that
Claudius might not be induced by Lucius Vitellius and Largus Caecina
to repent, while he was riding into Rome,
he asked and took a seat in the emperor's carriage.
34.
It was
currently reported in after times that while the emperor broke into
contradictory exclamations, now inveighing against the infamies of his
wife, and now, returning in thought to the remembrance of his love and
of his infant children, Vitellius said nothing but, "What audacity!
what wickedness!" Narcissus indeed kept pressing him to clear up his
ambiguities and let the truth be known, but still he could not prevail
upon him to utter anything that was not vague and susceptible of any
meaning which might be put on it, or upon Largus Caecina, to do
anything but follow his example. And now Messalina had presented
herself, and was insisting that the emperor should listen to the
mother of Octavia and Britannicus, when the accuser roared out at her
the story of Silius and her marriage. At the same moment, to draw
Caesar's eyes away from her, he handed him some papers which detailed
her debaucheries. Soon afterwards, as he was entering
Rome,
his children by Messalina were to have shown themselves, had not
Narcissus ordered their removal. Vibidia he could not repel, when,
with a vehemently indignant appeal, she demanded that a wife should
not be given up to death without a hearing. So Narcissus replied that
the emperor would hear her, and that she should have an opportunity of
disproving the charge. Meanwhile the holy virgin was to go and
discharge her sacred duties.
35.
All
throughout, Claudius preserved a strange silence; Vitellius seemed
unconscious. Everything was under the freedman's control. By his
order, the paramour's house was thrown open and the emperor conducted
thither. First, on the threshold, he pointed out the statue of
Silius's father, which a decree of the Senate had directed to be
destroyed; next, how the heirlooms of the Neros and the Drusi had been
degraded into the price of infamy. Then he led the emperor, furious
and bursting out in menace, into the camp, where the soldiers were
purposely assembled. Claudius spoke to them a few words at the
dictation of Narcissus. Shame indeed checked the utterance even of a
righteous anger. Instantly there came a shout from the cohorts,
demanding the names of the culprits and their punishment. Brought
before the tribunal, Silius sought neither defence nor delay, but
begged that his death might be hastened. A like courage made several
Roman knights of the first rank desirous of a speedy doom. Titius
Proculus, who had been appointed to watch Messalina and was now
offering his evidence, Vettius Valens, who confessed his guilt,
together with Pompeius Urbicus and Saufellus Trogus from among her
accomplices, were ordered to execution. Decius Calpurnianus too,
commander of the watch, Sulpicius Rufus, who had the charge of the
Games, and Juncus Virgilianus, a senator, were similarly punished.
36.
Mnester
alone occasioned a pause. Rending off his clothes, he insisted on
Claudius looking at the scars of his stripes and remembering his words
when he surrendered himself, without reserve, to Messalina's bidding.
The guilt of others had been the result of presents or of large
promises; his, of necessity. He must have been the first victim had
Silius obtained empire.
Caesar
was touched by his appeal and inclined to mercy, but his freedmen
prevailed on him not to let any indulgence be shown to a player when
so many illustrious citizens had fallen. "It mattered not whether he
had sinned so greatly from choice or compulsion." Even the defence of
Traulus Montanus, a Roman knight, was not admitted. A young man of
pure life, yet of singular beauty, he had been summoned and dismissed
within the space of one night by Messalina, who was equally capricious
in her passions and dislikes. In the cases of Suilius Caesoninus and
Plautius Lateranus, the extreme penalty was remitted. The latter was
saved by the distinguished services of his uncle; the former by his
very vices, having amid that abominable throng submitted to the worst
degradation.
37.
Messalina meanwhile, in the gardens of Lucullus, was struggling for
life, and writing letters of entreaty, as she alternated between hope
arid fury. In her extremity, it was her pride alone which forsook her.
Had not Narcissus hurried on her death, ruin would have recoiled on
her accuser. Claudius had returned home to an early banquet; then, in
softened mood, when the wine had warmed him, he bade some one go and
tell the "poor creature" (this is the word which they say he used) to
come the morrow and plead her cause. Hearing this, seeing too that his
wrath was subsiding and his passion returning, and fearing, in the
event of delay, the effect of approaching night and conjugal
recollections, Narcissus rushed out, and ordered the centurions and
the tribunes, who were on guard, to accomplish the deed of blood.
Such, he said, was the emperor's bidding. Evodus, one of the freedmen,
was appointed to watch and complete the affair. Hurrying on before
with all speed to the gardens, he found Messalina stretched upon the
ground, while by her side sat Lepida, her mother, who, though
estranged from her daughter in prosperity, was now melted to pity by
her inevitable doom, and urged her not to wait for the executioner.
"Life," she said, "was over; all that could be looked for was honour
in death." But in that heart, utterly corrupted by profligacy, nothing
noble remained. She still prolonged her tears and idle complaints,
till the gates were forced open by the rush of the new comers, and
there stood at her side the tribune, sternly silent, and the freedman,
overwhelming her with the copious insults of a servile tongue.
38.
Then for
the first time she understood her fate and put her hand to a dagger.
In her terror she was applying it ineffectually to her throat and
breast, when a blow from the tribune drove it through her. Her body
was given up to her mother. Claudius was still at the banquet when
they told him that Messalina was dead, without mentioning whether it
was by her own or another's hand. Nor did he ask the question, but
called for the cup and finished his repast as usual. During the days
which followed he showed no sign of hatred or joy or anger or sadness,
in a word, of any human emotion, either when he looked on her
triumphant accusers or on her weeping children. The Senate assisted
his forgetfulness by decreeing that her name and her statues should be
removed from all places, public or private. To Narcissus were voted
the decorations of the quaestorship, a mere trifle to the pride of one
who rose in the height of his power above Pallas and Callistus.