The Works of Tacitus
tr. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
[1864-1877]
Tacitus: Annals Book 5 [1]
A.D. 29-31
1. IN the consulship of Rubellius and Fufius, both of whom had the surname Geminus,
died in an advanced old age Julia Augusta. A Claudia by birth and by adoption
a Livia and a Julia, she united the noblest blood of Rome. Her first marriage,
by which she had children, was with Tiberius Nero, who, an exile during the
Perusian war, returned to Rome when peace had been concluded between Sextus
Pompeius and the triumvirs. After this Caesar, enamoured of her beauty, took
her away from her husband, whether against her wish is uncertain. So impatient
was he that he brought her to his house actually pregnant, not allowing time
for her confinement. She had no subsequent issue, but allied as she was through
the marriage of Agrippina and Germanicus to the blood of Augustus, her great-grandchildren
were also his. In the purity of her home life she was of the ancient type, but
was more gracious than was thought fitting in ladies of former days. An imperious
mother and an amiable wife, she was a match for the diplomacy of her husband
and the dissimulation of her son. Her funeral was simple, and her will long
remained unexecuted. Her panegyric was pronounced from the Rostra by her great-grandson,
Caius Caesar, who afterwards succeeded to power.
2. Tiberius however, making no change in his voluptuous life, excused himself
by letter for his absence from his last duty to his mother on the ground of
the pressure of business. He even abridged, out of moderation, as it seemed,
the honours which the Senate had voted on a lavish scale to her memory, allowing
only a very few, and adding that no religious worship was to be decreed, this
having been her own wish. In a part of the same letter he sneered at female
friendships, with an indirect censure on the consul Fufius, who had risen to
distinction through Augusta’s partiality. Fufius was indeed a man well fitted
to win the affection of a woman; he was witty too, and accustomed to ridicule
Tiberius with those bitter jests which the powerful remember so long.
3. This at all events was the beginning of an unmitigated and grinding despotism.
As long indeed as Augusta lived, there yet remained a refuge, for with Tiberius
obedience to his mother was the habit of a life, and Sejanus did not dare to
set himself above a parent’s authority. Now, so to say, they threw off the reins
and let loose their fury. A letter was sent, directed against Agrippina and
Nero, which was popularly believed to have been long before forwarded and to
have been kept back by Augusta, as it was publicly read soon after her death.
It contained expressions of studied harshness, yet it was not armed rebellion
or a longing for revolution, but unnatural passions and profligacy which the
emperor imputed to his grandson. Against his daughter-in-law he did not dare
to invent this much; he merely censured her insolent tongue and defiant spirit,
amid the panic-stricken silence of the Senate, till a few who had no hope from
merit (and public calamities are ever used by individuals for interested purposes)
demanded that the question should be debated. The most eager was Cotta Messalinus,
who made a savage speech. Still, the other principal senators, and especially
the magistrates, were perplexed, for Tiberius, notwithstanding his furious invective,
had left everything else in doubt.
4. There was in the Senate one Junius Rusticus, who having been appointed
by the emperor to register its debates was therefore supposed to have an insight
into his secret purposes. This man, whether through some fatal impulse (he had
indeed never before given any evidence of courage) or a misdirected acuteness
which made him tremble at the uncertain future, while he forgot impending perils,
attached himself to the waverers, and warned the consuls not to enter on the
debate. He argued that the highest issues turned on trivial causes, and that
the fall of the house of Germanicus might one day move the old man’s remorse.
At the same moment the people, bearing the images of Agrippina and Nero, thronged
round the Senate-house, and, with words of blessing on the emperor, kept shouting
that the letter was a forgery and that it was not by the prince’s will that
ruin was being plotted against his house. And so that day passed without any
dreadful result. Fictitious speeches too against Sejanus were published under
the names of ex-consuls, for several persons indulged, all the more recklessly
because anonymously, the caprice of their imaginations. Consequently the wrath
of Sejanus was the more furious, and he had ground for alleging that the Senate
disregarded the emperor’s trouble; that the people were in revolt; that speeches
in a new style and new resolutions were being heard and read. What remained
but to take the sword and chose for their generals and emperors those whose
images they had followed as standards.
5. Upon this the emperor, after repeating his invectives against his grandson
and his daughter-in-law and reprimanding the populace in an edict complained
to the Senate that by the trick of one senator the imperial dignity had been
publicly flouted, and he insisted that, after all, the whole matter should be
left to his exclusive decision. Without further deliberation, they proceeded,
not indeed to pronounce the final sentence (for this was forbidden), but to
declare that they were prepared for vengeance, and were restrained only by the
strong hand of the sovereign.
(The remainder of the fifth book and the beginning of the sixth, recounting
Sejanus’ marriage and fall and covering a space of nearly three years, are lost.
Newer editions of Tacitus mark the division between the fifth and sixth books
at this point rather than at the end of section 11; but references are regularly
made to the older numbering, and so it has been retained here. The beginning
of section 6 is obviously fragmentary.)
6. …. forty-four speeches were delivered on this subject, a few of which
were prompted by fear, most by the habit of flattery…. “There is now a change
of fortune, and even he who chose Sejanus to be his colleague and his son-in-law
excuses his error. As for the rest, the man whom they encouraged by shameful
baseness, they now wickedly revile. Which is the most pitiable, to be accused
for friendship’s sake or to have to accuse a friend, I cannot decide. I will
not put any man’s cruelty or compassion to the test, but, while I am free and
have a clear conscience, I will anticipate peril. I implore you to cherish my
memory with joy rather than with sorrow, numbering me too with those who by
noble death have fled from the miseries of our country.”
7. Then detaining those of his friends who were minded to stay with him and
converse, or, if otherwise, dismissing them, he thus spent part of the day,
and with a numerous circle yet round him, all gazing on his fearless face, and
imagining that there was still time to elapse before the last scene, he fell
on a sword which he had concealed in his robe. The emperor did not pursue him
after his death with either accusation or reproach, although he had heaped a
number of foul charges on Blaesus.
8. Next were discussed the cases of Publius Vitellius and Pomponius Secundus.
The first was charged by his accusers with having offered the keys of the treasury,
of which he was prefect, and the military chest in aid of a revolution. Against
the latter, Considius, an ex-praetor, alleged intimacy with Aelius Gallus, who,
after the punishment of Sejanus, had fled to the gardens of Pomponius, as his
safest refuge. They had no resource in their peril but in the courageous firmness
of their brothers who became their sureties. Soon, after several adjournments,
Vitellius, weary alike of hope and fear, asked for a penknife, avowedly, for
his literary pursuits, and inflicted a slight wound in his veins, and died at
last of a broken heart. Pomponius, a man of refined manners and brilliant genius,
bore his adverse fortune with resignation, and outlived Tiberius.
9. It was next decided to punish the remaining children of Sejanus, though
the fury of the populace was subsiding, and people generally had been appeased
by the previous executions. Accordingly they were carried off to prison, the
boy, aware of his impending doom, and the little girl, who was so unconscious
that she continually asked what was her offence, and whither she was being dragged,
saying that she would do so no more, and a childish chastisement was enough
for her correction. Historians of the time tell us that, as there was no precedent
for the capital punishment of a virgin, she was violated by the executioner,
with the rope on her neck. Then they were strangled and their bodies, mere children
as they were, were flung down the Gemoniae.
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