Tacitus: Annals: Book 2 [80]

The Works of Tacitus

tr. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb

[1864-1877]

Tacitus: Annals Book 2 [80]

80. Piso, too, though his first attempts were unsuccessful, did not omit the
safest precautions under present circumstances, but occupied a very strongly
fortified position in Cilicia, named, Celenderis. He had raised to the strength
of a legion the Cilician auxiliaries which the petty kings had sent, by mixing
with them some deserters, and the lately intercepted recruits with his own and
Plancina’s slaves. And he protested that he, though Caesar’s legate, was kept
out of the province which Caesar had given him, not by the legions (for he had
come at their invitation) but by Sentius, who was veiling private animosity
under lying charges. “Only,” he said, “stand in battle array, and the soldiers
will not fight when they see that Piso whom they themselves once called ‘father,’
is the stronger, if right is to decide; if arms, is far from powerless.” He
then deployed his companies before the lines of the fortress on a high and precipitous
hill, with the sea surrounding him on every other side. Against him were the
veteran troops drawn up in ranks and with reserves, a formidable soldiery on
one side, a formidable position on the other. But his men had neither heart
nor hope, and only rustic weapons, extemporised for sudden use. When they came
to fighting, the result was doubtful only while the Roman cohorts were struggling
up to level ground; then, the Cilicians turned their backs and shut themselves
up within the fortress.

81. Meanwhile Piso vainly attempted an attack on the fleet which waited at
a distance; he then went back, and as he stood before the walls, now smiting
his breast, now calling on individual soldiers by name, and luring them on by
rewards, sought to excite a mutiny. He had so far roused them that a standard
bearer of the sixth legion went over to him with his standard. Thereupon Sentius
ordered the horns and trumpets to be sounded, the rampart to be assaulted, the
scaling ladders to be raised, all the bravest men to mount on them, while others
were to discharge from the engines spears, stones, and brands. At last Piso’s
obstinacy was overcome, and he begged that he might remain in the fortress on
surrendering his arms, while the emperor was being consulted about the appointment
of a governor to Syria. The proposed terms were refused, and all that was granted
him were some ships and a safe return to Rome.

82. There meantime, when the illness of Germanicus was universally known,
and all news, coming, as it did, from a distance, exaggerated the danger, there
was grief and indignation. There was too an outburst of complaint. “Of course
this was the meaning,” they said, “of banishing him to the ends of the earth,
of giving Piso the province; this was the drift of Augusta’s secret interviews
with Plancina. What elderly men had said of Drusus was perfectly true, that
rulers disliked a citizen-like temper in their sons, and the young princes had
been put out of the way because they had the idea of comprehending in a restored
era of freedom the Roman people under equal laws.” This popular talk was so
stimulated by the news of Germanicus’s death that even before the magistrate’s
proclamation or the Senate’s resolution, there was a voluntary suspension of
business, the public courts were deserted, and private houses closed. Everywhere
there was a silence broken only by groans; nothing was arranged for mere effect.
And though they refrained not from the emblems of the mourner, they sorrowed
yet the more deeply in their hearts. It chanced that some merchants who left
Syria while Germanicus was still alive, brought more cheering tidings about
his health. These were instantly believed, instantly published. Every one passed
on to others whom he met the intelligence, ill-authenticated as it was, and
they again to many more, with joyous exaggeration. They ran to and fro through
the city and broke open the doors of the temples. Night assisted their credulity,
and amid the darkness confident assertion was comparatively easy. Nor did Tiberius
check the false reports till by lapse of time they died away.

83. And so the people grieved the more bitterly as though Germanicus was
again lost to them. New honours were devised and decreed, as men were inspired
by affection for him or by genius. His name was to be celebrated in the song
of the Salii; chairs of state with oaken garlands over them were to be set up
in the places assigned to the priesthood of the Augustales; his image in ivory
was to head the procession in the games of the circus; no flamen or augur, except
from the Julian family, was to be chosen in the room of Germanicus. Triumphal
arches were erected at Rome, on the banks of the Rhine, and on mount Amanus
in Syria, with an inscription recording his achievements, and how he had died
in the public service. A cenotaph was raised at Antioch, where the body was
burnt, a lofty mound at Epidaphna, where he had ended his life. The number of
his statues, or of the places in which they were honoured, could not easily
be computed. When a golden shield of remarkable size was voted him as a leader
among orators, Tiberius declared that he would dedicate to him one of the usual
kind, similar to the rest, for in eloquence, he said, there was no distinction
of rank, and it was a sufficient glory for him to be classed among ancient writers.
The knights called the seats in the theatre known as “the juniors,” Germanicus’s
benches, and arranged that their squadrons were to ride in procession behind
his effigy on the fifteenth of July. Many of these honours still remain; some
were at once dropped, or became obsolete with time.

84. While men’s sorrow was yet fresh, Germanicus’s sister Livia, who was
married to Drusus, gave birth to twin sons. This, as a rare event, causing joy
even in humble homes, so delighted the emperor that he did not refrain from
boasting before the senators that to no Roman of the same rank had twin offspring
ever before been born. In fact, he would turn to his own glory every incident,
however casual. But at such a time, even this brought grief to the people, who
thought that the increase of Drusus’s family still further depressed the house
of Germanicus.

85. That same year the profligacy of women was checked by stringent enactments,
and it was provided that no woman whose grandfather, father, or husband had
been a Roman knight should get money by prostitution. Vistilia, born of a praetorian
family, had actually published her name with this object on the aedile’s list,
according to a recognised custom of our ancestors, who considered it a sufficient
punishment on unchaste women to have to profess their shame. Titidius Labeo,
Vistilia’s husband, was judicially called on to say why with a wife whose guilt
was manifest he had neglected to inflict the legal penalty. When he pleaded
that the sixty days given for deliberation had not yet expired, it was thought
sufficient to decide Vistilia’s case, and she was banished out of sight to the
island of Seriphos. There was a debate too about expelling the Egyptian and
Jewish worship, and a resolution of the Senate was passed that four thousand
of the freedmen class who were infected with those superstitions and were of
military age should be transported to the island of Sardinia, to quell the brigandage
of the place, a cheap sacrifice should they die from the pestilential climate.
The rest were to quit Italy, unless before a certain day they repudiated their
impious rites.

86. Next the emperor brought forward a motion for the election of a Vestal
virgin in the room of Occia, who for fifty-seven years had presided with the
most immaculate virtue over the Vestal worship. He formally thanked Fonteius
Agrippa and Domitius Pollio for offering their daughters and so vying with one
another in zeal for the commonwealth. Pollio’s daughter was preferred, only
because her mother had lived with one and the same husband, while Agrippa had
impaired the honour of his house by a divorce. The emperor consoled his daughter,
passed over though she was, with a dowry of a million sesterces.

87. As the city populace complained of the cruel dearness of corn, he fixed
a price for grain to be paid by the purchaser, promising himself to add two
sesterces on every peck for the traders. But he would not therefore accept the
title of “father of the country” which once before too had been offered him,
and he sharply rebuked those who called his work “divine” and himself “lord.”
Consequently, speech was restricted and perilous under an emperor who feared
freedom while he hated sycophancy.

88. I find it stated by some writers and senators of the period that a letter
from Adgandestrius, chief of the Chatti, was read in the Senate, promising the
death of Arminius, if poison were sent for the perpetration of the murder, and
that the reply was that it was not by secret treachery but openly and by arms
that the people of Rome avenged themselves on their enemies. A noble answer,
by which Tiberius sought to liken himself to those generals of old who had forbidden
and even denounced the poisoning of king Pyrrhus. Arminius, meanwhile, when
the Romans retired and Maroboduus was expelled, found himself opposed in aiming
at the throne by his countrymen’s independent spirit. He was assailed by armed
force, and while fighting with various success, fell by the treachery of his
kinsmen. Assuredly he was the deliverer of Germany, one too who had defied Rome,
not in her early rise, as other kings and generals, but in the height of her
empire’s glory, had fought, indeed, indecisive battles, yet in war remained
unconquered. He completed thirty-seven years of life, twelve years of power,
and he is still a theme of song among barbarous nations, though to Greek historians,
who admire only their own achievements, he is unknown, and to Romans not as
famous as he should be, while we extol the past and are indifferent to our own
times.

Next: Book 3 [1]