The Works of Tacitus
tr. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
[1864-1877]
Tacitus: History Book 1 [10]
10. In the East there was as yet no movement. Syria and its four legions were
under the command of Licinius Mucianus, a man whose good and bad fortune were
equally famous. In his youth he had cultivated with many intrigues the friendship
of the great. His resources soon failed, and his position became precarious,
and as he also suspected that Claudius had taken some offence, he withdrew into
a retired part of Asia, and was as like an exile, as he was afterwards like
an emperor. He was a compound of dissipation and energy, of arrogance and courtesy,
of good and bad qualities. His self-indulgence was excessive, when he had leisure,
yet whenever he had served, he had shown great qualities. In his public capacity
he might be praised; his private life was in bad repute. Yet over subjects,
friends, and colleagues, he exercised the influence of many fascinations. He
was a man who would find it easier to transfer the imperial power to another,
than to hold it for himself. Flavius Vespasian, a general of Nero’s appointment,
was carrying on the war in Judaea with three legions, and he had no wish or
feeling adverse to Galba. He had in fact sent his son Titus to acknowledge his
authority and bespeak his favour, as in its proper place I shall relate. As
for the hidden decrees of fate, the omens and the oracles that marked out Vespasian
and his sons for imperial power, we believed in them only after his success.
11. Ever since the time of the Divine Augustus Roman Knights have ruled Egypt
as kings, and the forces by which it has to be kept in subjection. It has been
thought expedient thus to keep under home control a province so difficult of
access, so productive of corn, ever distracted, excitable, and restless through
the superstition and licentiousness of its inhabitants, knowing nothing of laws,
and unused to civil rule. Its governor was at this time Tiberius Alexander,
a native of the country. Africa and its legions, now that Clodius Macer was
dead, were disposed to be content with any emperor, after having experienced
the rule of a smaller tyrant. The two divisions of Mauritania, Rhaetia, Noricum
and Thrace and the other provinces governed by procurators, as they were near
this or that army, were driven by the presence of such powerful neighbours into
friendship or hostility. The unarmed provinces with Italy at their head were
exposed to any kind of slavery, and were ready to become the prize of victory.
Such was the state of the Roman world, when Servius Galba, consul for the second
time, with T. Vinius for his colleague, entered upon a year, which was to be
the last of their lives, and which well nigh brought the commonwealth to an
end.
12. A few days after the 1st of January, there arrived from Belgica despatches
of Pompeius Propinquus, the Procurator, to this effect; that the legions of
Upper Germany had broken through the obligation of their military oath, and
were demanding another emperor, but conceded the power of choice to the Senate
and people of Rome, in the hope that a more lenient view might be taken of their
revolt. These tidings hastened the plans of Galba, who had been long debating
the subject of adoption with himself and with his intimate friends. There was
indeed no more frequent subject of conversation during these months, at first
because men had liberty and inclination to talk of such matters, afterwards
because the feebleness of Galba was notorious. Few had any discrimination or
patriotism, many had foolish hopes for themselves, and spread interested reports,
in which they named this or that person to whom they might be related as friend
or dependant. They were also moved by hatred of T. Vinius, who grew daily more
powerful, and in the same proportion more unpopular. The very easiness of Galba’s
temper stimulated the greedy cupidity which great advancement had excited in
his friends, because with one so weak and so credulous wrong might be done with
less risk and greater gain.
13. The real power of the Empire was divided between T. Vinius, the consul,
and Cornelius Laco, prefect of the Praetorian Guard. Icelus, a freedman of Galba,
was in equal favour; he had been presented with the rings of knighthood, and
bore the Equestrian name of Martianus. These men, being at variance, and in
smaller matters pursuing their own aims, were divided in the affair of choosing
a successor, into two opposing factions. T. Vinius was for Marcus Otho, Laco
and Icelus agreed, not indeed in supporting any particular individual, but in
striving for some one else. Galba indeed was aware of the friendship between
Vinius and Otho; the gossip of those who allow nothing to pass in silence had
named them as father-in-law and son-in-law, for Vinius had a widowed daughter,
and Otho was unmarried. I believe that he had also at heart some care for the
commonwealth, in vain, he would think, rescued from Nero, if it was to be left
with Otho. For Otho’s had been a neglected boyhood and a riotous youth, and
he had made himself agreeable to Nero by emulating his profligacy. For this
reason the Emperor had entrusted to him, as being the confidant of his amours,
Poppaea Sabina, the imperial favourite, until he could rid himself of his wife
Octavia. Soon suspecting him with regard to this same Poppaea, he sent him out
of the way to the province of Lusitania, ostensibly to be its governor. Otho
ruled the province with mildness, and, as he was the first to join Galba’s party,
was not without energy, and, while the war lasted, was the most conspicuous
of the Emperor’s followers, he was led to cherish more and more passionately
every day those hopes of adoption which he had entertained from the first. Many
of the soldiers favoured him, and the court was biassed in his favour, because
he resembled Nero.
14. When Galba heard of the mutiny in Germany, though nothing was as yet
known about Vitellius, he felt anxious as to the direction which the violence
of the legions might take, while he could not trust even the soldiery of the
capital. He therefore resorted to what he supposed to be the only remedy, and
held a council for the election of an emperor. To this he summoned, besides
Vinius and Laco, Marius Celsus, consul elect, and Ducennius Geminus, prefect
of the city. Having first said a few words about his advanced years, he ordered
Piso Licinianus to be summoned. It is uncertain whether he acted on his own
free choice, or, as believed by some, under the influence of Laco, who through
Rubellius Plautus had cultivated the friendship of Piso. But, cunningly enough,
it was as a stranger that Laco supported him, and the high character of Piso
gave weight to his advice. Piso, who was the son of M. Crassus and Scribonia,
and thus of noble descent on both sides, was in look and manner a man of the
old type. Rightly judged, he seemed a stern man, morose to those who estimated
him less favourably. This point in his character pleased his adopted father
in proportion as it raised the anxious suspicions of others.
15. We are told that Galba, taking hold of Piso’s hand, spoke to this effect:
“If I were a private man, and were now adopting you by the Act of the Curiae
before the Pontiffs, as our custom is, it would be a high honour to me to introduce
into my family a descendant of Cn. Pompeius and M. Crassus; it would be a distinction
to you to add to the nobility of your race the honours of the Sulpician and
Lutatian houses. As it is, I, who have been called to the throne by the unanimous
consent of gods and men, am moved by your splendid endowments and by my own
patriotism to offer to you, a man of peace, that power, for which our ancestors
fought, and which I myself obtained by war. I am following the precedent of
the Divine Augustus, who placed on an eminence next to his own, first his nephew
Marcellus, then his son-in-law Agrippa, afterwards his grandsons, and finally
Tiberius Nero, his stepson. But Augustus looked for a successor in his own family,
I look for one in the state, not because I have no relatives or companions of
my campaigns, but because it was not by any private favour that I myself received
the imperial power. Let the principle of my choice be shown not only by my connections
which I have set aside for you, but by your own. You have a brother, noble as
yourself, and older, who would be well worthy of this dignity, were you not
worthier. Your age is such as to be now free from the passions of youth, and
such your life that in the past you have nothing to excuse. Hitherto, you have
only borne adversity; prosperity tries the heart with keener temptations; for
hardships may be endured, whereas we are spoiled by success. You indeed will
cling with the same constancy to honor, freedom, friendship, the best possessions
of the human spirit, but others will seek to weaken them with their servility.
You will be fiercely assailed by adulation, by flattery, that worst poison of
the true heart, and by the selfish interests of individuals. You and I speak
together to-day with perfect frankness, but others will be more ready to address
us as emperors than as men. For to urge his duty upon a prince is indeed a hard
matter; to flatter him, whatever his character, is a mere routine gone through
without any heart.
16. “Could the vast frame of this empire have stood and preserved its balance
without a directing spirit, I was not unworthy of inaugurating a republic. As
it is, we have been long reduced to a position, in which my age confer no greater
boon on the Roman people than a good successor, your youth no greater than a
good emperor. Under Tuberous, Chairs, and Claudius, we were, so to speak, the
inheritance of a single family. The choice which begins with us will be a substitute
for freedom. Now that the family of the Julii and the Claudii has come to an
end, adoption will discover the worthiest successor. To be begotten and born
of a princely race is a mere accident, and is only valued as such. In adoption
there is nothing that need bias the judgment, and if you wish to make a choice,
an unanimous opinion points out the man. Let Nero be ever before your eyes,
swollen with the pride of a long line of Caesars; it was not Vindex with his
unarmed province, it was not myself with my single legion, that shook his yoke
from our necks. It was his own profligacy, his own brutality, and that, though
there had been before no precedent of an emperor condemned by his own people.
We, who have been called to power by the issues of war, and by the deliberate
judgment of others, shall incur unpopularity, however illustrious our character.
Do not however be alarmed, if, after a movement which has shaken the world,
two legions are not yet quiet. I did not myself succeed to a throne without
anxiety; and when men shall hear of your adoption I shall no longer be thought
old, and this is the only objection which is now made against me. Nero will
always be regretted by the thoroughly depraved; it is for you and me to take
care, that he be not regretted also by the good. To prolong such advice, suits
not this occasion, and all my purpose is fulfilled if I have made a good choice
in you. The most practical and the shortest method of distinguishing between
good and bad measures, is to think what you yourself would or would not like
under another emperor. It is not here, as it is among nations despotically ruled,
that there is a distinct governing family, while all the rest are slaves. You
have to reign over men who cannot bear either absolute slavery or absolute freedom.”
This, with more to the same effect, was said by Galba; he spoke to Piso as if
he were creating an emperor; the others addressed him as if he were an emperor
already.
17. It is said of Piso that he betrayed no discomposure or excessive joy,
either to the gaze to which he was immediately subjected, or afterwards when
all eyes were turned upon him. His language to the Emperor, his father, was
reverential; his language about himself was modest. He shewed no change in look
or manner; he seemed like one who had the power rather than the wish to rule.
It was next discussed whether the adoption should be publicly pronounced in
front of the Rostra, in the Senate, or in the camp. It was thought best to go
to the camp. This would be a compliment to the soldiery, and their favour, base
as it was to purchase it by bribery or intrigue, was not to be despised if it
could be obtained by honourable means. Meanwhile the expectant people had surrounded
the palace, impatient to learn the great secret, and those who sought to stifle
the ill-concealed rumour did but spread it the more.
18. The 10th of January was a gloomy, stormy day, unusually disturbed by
thunder, lightning, and all bad omens from heaven. Though this had from ancient
time been made a reason for dissolving an assembly, it did not deter Galba from
proceeding to the camp; either because he despised such things as being mere
matters of chance, or because the decrees of fate, though they be foreshewn,
are not escaped. Addressing a crowded assembly of the soldiers he announced,
with imperial brevity, that he adopted Piso, following the precedent of the
Divine Augustus, and the military custom by which a soldier chooses his comrade.
Fearing that to conceal the mutiny would be to make them think it greater than
it really was, he spontaneously declared that the 4th and 18th legions, led
by a few factious persons, had been insubordinate, but had not gone beyond certain
words and cries, and that they would soon return to their duty. To this speech
he added no word of flattery, no hint of a bribe. Yet the tribunes, the centurions,
and such of the soldiers as stood near, made an encouraging response. A gloomy
silence prevailed among the rest, who seemed to think that they had lost by
war that right to a donative which they had made good even in peace. It is certain
that their feelings might have been conciliated by the very smallest liberality
on the part of the parsimonious old man. He was ruined by his old-fashioned
inflexibility, and by an excessive sternness which we are no longer able to
endure.
19. Then followed Galba’s speech in the Senate, which was as plain and brief
as his speech to the soldiery. Piso delivered a graceful oration and was supported
by the feeling of the Senate. Many who wished him well, spoke with enthusiasm;
those who had opposed him, in moderate terms; the majority met him with an officious
homage, having aims of their own and no thought for the state. Piso neither
said nor did anything else in public in the following four days which intervened
between his adoption and his death. As tidings of the mutiny in Germany were
arriving with daily increasing frequency, while the country was ready to receive
and to credit all intelligence that had an unfavourable character, the Senate
came to a resolution to send deputies to the German armies. It was privately
discussed whether Piso should go with them to give them a more imposing appearance;
they, it was said, would bring with them the authority of the Senate, he the
majesty of the Caesar. It was thought expedient to send with them Cornelius
Laco, prefect of the Praetorian Guard, but he thwarted the design. In nominating,
excusing, and changing the deputies, the Senate having entrusted the selection
to Galba, the Emperor shewed a disgraceful want of firmness, yielding to individuals,
who made interest to stay or to go, as their fears or their hopes prompted.
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