The Works of Tacitus
tr. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
[1864-1877]
Tacitus: Annals Book 12 [20]
20. Claudius, though merciful to foreign princes, was yet in doubt whether it
were better to receive the captive with a promise of safety or to claim his
surrender by the sword. To this last he was urged by resentment at his wrongs,
and by thirst for vengeance. On the other hand it was argued that it would be
undertaking a war in a country without roads, on a harbourless sea, against
warlike kings and wandering tribes, on a barren soil; that a weary disgust would
come of tardy movements, and perils of precipitancy; that the glory of victory
would be small, while much disgrace would ensue on defeat. Why should not the
emperor seize the offer and spare the exile, whose punishment would be the greater,
the longer he lived in poverty? Moved by these considerations, Claudius wrote
to Eunones that Mithridates had certainly merited an extreme and exemplary penalty,
which he was not wanting in power to inflict, but it had been the principle
of his ancestors to show as much forbearance to a suppliant as they showed persistence
against a foe. As for triumphs, they were won over nations and kings hitherto
unconquered.
21. After this, Mithridates was given up and brought to Rome by Junius Cilo,
the procurator of Pontus. There in the emperor’s presence he was said to have
spoken too proudly for his position, and words uttered by him to the following
effect became the popular talk: “I have not been sent, but have come back to
you; if you do not believe me, let me go and pursue me.” He stood too with fearless
countenance when he was exposed to the people’s gaze near the Rostra, under
military guard. To Cilo and Aquila were voted, respectively, the consular and
praetorian decorations.
22. In the same consulship, Agrippina, who was terrible in her hatred and
detested Lollia, for having competed with her for the emperor’s hand, planned
an accusation, through an informer who was to tax her with having consulted
astrologers and magicians and the image of the Clarian Apollo, about the imperial
marriage. Upon this, Claudius, without hearing the accused, first reminded the
Senate of her illustrious rank, that the sister of Lucius Volusius was her mother,
Cotta Messalinus her granduncle, Memmius Regulus formerly her husband (for of
her marriage to Caius Caesar he purposely said nothing), and then added that
she had mischievous designs on the State, and must have the means of crime taken
from her. Consequently, her property should be confiscated, and she herself
banished from Italy. Thus out of immense wealth only five million sesterces
were left to the exile. Calpurnia too, a lady of high rank, was ruined, simply
because the emperor had praised her beauty in a casual remark, without any passion
for her. And so Agrippina’s resentment stopped short of extreme vengeance. A
tribune was despatched to Lollia, who was to force her to suicide. Next on the
prosecution of the Bithynians, Cadius Rufus, was condemned under the law against
extortion.
23. Narbon Gaul, for its special reverence of the Senate, received a privilege.
Senators belonging to the province, without seeking the emperor’s approval,
were to be allowed to visit their estates, a right enjoyed by Sicily. Ituraea
and Judaea, on the death of their kings, Sohaemus and Agrippa, were annexed
to the province of Syria. It was also decided that the augury of the public
safety, which for twenty-five years had been neglected, should be revived and
henceforth observed. The emperor likewise widened the sacred precincts of the
capital, in conformity with the ancient usage, according to which, those who
had enlarged the empire were permitted also to extend the boundaries of Rome.
But Roman generals, even after the conquest of great nations, had never exercised
this right, except Lucius Sulla and the Divine Augustus.
24. There are various popular accounts of the ambitious and vainglorious
efforts of our kings in this matter. Still, I think, it is interesting to know
accurately the original plan of the precinct, as it was fixed by Romulus. From
the ox market, where we see the brazen statue of a bull, because that animal
is yoked to the plough, a furrow was drawn to mark out the town, so as to embrace
the great altar of Hercules; then, at regular intervals, stones were placed
along the foot of the Palatine hill to the altar of Consus, soon afterwards,
to the old Courts, and then to the chapel of Larunda. The Roman forum and the
Capitol were not, it was supposed, added to the city by Romulus, but by Titus
Tatius. In time, the precinct was enlarged with the growth of Rome’s fortunes.
The boundaries now fixed by Claudius may be easily recognized, as they are specified
in the public records.
25. In the consulship of Caius Antistius and Marcus Suilius, the adoption
of Domitius was hastened on by the influence of Pallas. Bound to Agrippina,
first as the promoter of her marriage, then as her paramour, he still urged
Claudius to think of the interests of the State, and to provide some support
for the tender years of Britannicus. “So,” he said, “it had been with the Divine
Augustus, whose stepsons, though he had grandsons to be his stay, had been promoted;
Tiberius too, though he had offspring of his own, had adopted Germanicus. Claudius
also would do well to strengthen himself with a young prince who could share
his cares with him.” Overcome by these arguments, the emperor preferred Domitius
to his own son, though he was but two years older, and made a speech in the
senate, the same in substance as the representations of his freedman. It was
noted by learned men, that no previous example of adoption into the patrician
family of the Claudii was to be found; and that from Attus Clausus there had
been one unbroken line.
26. However, the emperor received formal thanks, and still more elaborate
flattery was paid to Domitius. A law was passed, adopting him into the Claudian
family with the name of Nero. Agrippina too was honoured with the title of Augusta.
When this had been done, there was not a person so void of pity as not to feel
keen sorrow at the position of Britannicus. Gradually forsaken by the very slaves
who waited on him, he turned into ridicule the ill-timed attentions of his stepmother,
perceiving their insincerity. For he is said to have had by no means a dull
understanding; and this is either a fact, or perhaps his perils won him sympathy,
and so he possessed the credit of it, without actual evidence.
27. Agrippina, to show her power even to the allied nations, procured the
despatch of a colony of veterans to the chief town of the Ubii, where she was
born. The place was named after her. Agrippa, her grandfather, had, as it happened,
received this tribe, when they crossed the Rhine, under our protection. During
the same time, there was a panic in Upper Germany through an irruption of plundering
bands of Chatti. Thereupon Lucius Pomponius, who was in command, directed the
Vangiones and Nemetes, with the allied cavalry, to anticipate the raid, and
suddenly to fall upon them from every quarter while they were dispersed. The
general’s plan was backed up by the energy of the troops. These were divided
into two columns; and those who marched to the left cut off the plunderers,
just on their return, after a riotous enjoyment of their spoil, when they were
heavy with sleep. It added to the men’s joy that they had rescued from slavery
after forty years some survivors of the defeat of Varus.
28. The column which took the right-hand and the shorter route, inflicted
greater loss on the enemy who met them, and ventured on a battle. With much
spoil and glory they returned to Mount Taunus, where Pomponius was waiting with
the legions, to see whether the Chatti, in their eagerness for vengeance, would
give him a chance of fighting. They however fearing to be hemmed in on one side
by the Romans, on the other by the Cherusci, with whom they are perpetually
at feud, sent envoys and hostages to Rome. To Pomponius was decreed the honour
of a triumph; a mere fraction of his renown with the next generation, with whom
his poems constitute his chief glory.
29. At this same time, Vannius, whom Drusus Caesar had made king of the Suevi,
was driven from his kingdom. In the commencement of his reign he was renowned
and popular with his countrymen; but subsequently, with long possession, he
became a tyrant, and the enmity of neighbours, joined to intestine strife, was
his ruin. Vibillius, king of the Hermunduri, and Vangio and Sido, sons of a
sister of Vannius, led the movement. Claudius, though often entreated, declined
to interpose by arms in the conflict of the barbarians, and simply promised
Vannius a safe refuge in the event of his expulsion. He wrote instructions to
Publius Atellius Hister, governor of Pannonia, that he was to have his legions,
with some picked auxiliaries from the province itself, encamped on the riverbank,
as a support to the conquered and a terror to the conqueror, who might otherwise,
in the elation of success, disturb also the peace of our empire. For an immense
host of Ligii, with other tribes, was advancing, attracted by the fame of the
opulent realm which Vannius had enriched during thirty years of plunder and
of tribute. Vannius’s own native force was infantry, and his cavalry was from
the Iazyges of Sarmatia; an army which was no match for his numerous enemy.
Consequently, he determined to maintain himself in fortified positions, and
protract the war.
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