The Works of Tacitus
tr. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
[1864-1877]
Tacitus: Annals Book 2 [50]
50. Meantime the law of treason was gaining strength. Appuleia Varilia, grand-niece
of Augustus, was accused of treason by an informer for having ridiculed the
Divine Augustus, Tiberius, and Tiberius’s mother, in some insulting remarks,
and for having been convicted of adultery, allied though she was to Caesar’s
house. Adultery, it was thought, was sufficiently guarded against by the Julian
law. As to the charge of treason, the emperor insisted that it should be taken
separately, and that she should be condemned if she had spoken irreverently
of Augustus. Her insinuations against himself he did not wish to be the subject
of judicial inquiry. When asked by the consul what he thought of the unfavourable
speeches she was accused of having uttered against his mother, he said nothing.
Afterwards, on the next day of the Senate’s meeting, he even begged in his mother’s
name that no words of any kind spoken against her might in any case be treated
as criminal. He then acquitted Appuleia of treason. For her adultery, he deprecated
the severer penalty, and advised that she should be removed by her kinsfolk,
after the example of our forefathers, to more than two hundred miles from Rome.
Her paramour, Manlius, was forbidden to live in Italy or Africa.
51. A contest then arose about the election of a praetor in the room of Vipstanus
Gallus, whom death had removed. Germanicus and Drusus (for they were still at
Rome) supported Haterius Agrippa, a relative of Germanicus. Many, on the other
hand, endeavoured to make the number of children weigh most in favour of the
candidates. Tiberius rejoiced to see a strife in the Senate between his sons
and the law. Beyond question the law was beaten, but not at once, and only by
a few votes, in the same way as laws were defeated even when they were in force.
52. In this same year a war broke out in Africa, where the enemy was led
by Tacfarinas. A Numidian by birth, he had served as an auxiliary in the Roman
camp, then becoming a deserter, he at first gathered round him a roving band
familiar with robbery, for plunder and for rapine. After a while, he marshalled
them like regular soldiers, under standards and in troops, till at last he was
regarded as the leader, not of an undisciplined rabble, but of the Musulamian
people. This powerful tribe, bordering on the deserts of Africa, and even then
with none of the civilisation of cities, took up arms and drew their Moorish
neighbours into the war. These too had a leader, Mazippa. The army was so divided
that Tacfarinas kept the picked men who were armed in Roman fashion within a
camp, and familiarised them with a commander’s authority, while Mazippa, with
light troops, spread around him fire, slaughter, and consternation. They had
forced the Ciniphii, a far from contemptible tribe, into their cause, when Furius
Camillus, proconsul of Africa, united in one force a legion and all the regularly
enlisted allies, and, with an army insignificant indeed compared with the multitude
of the Numidians and Moors, marched against the enemy. There was nothing however
which he strove so much to avoid as their eluding an engagement out of fear.
It was by the hope of victory that they were lured on only to be defeated. The
legion was in the army’s centre; the light cohorts and two cavalry squadrons
on its wings. Nor did Tacfarinas refuse battle. The Numidians were routed, and
after a number of years the name of Furius won military renown. Since the days
of the famous deliverer of our city and his son Camillus, fame as a general
had fallen to the lot of other branches of the family, and the man of whom I
am now speaking was regarded as an inexperienced soldier. All the more willingly
did Tiberius commemorate his achievements in the Senate, and the Senators voted
him the ornaments of triumph, an honour which Camillus, because of his unambitious
life, enjoyed without harm.
53. In the following year Tiberius held his third, Germanicus his second,
consulship. Germanicus, however, entered on the office at Nicopolis, a city
of Achaia, whither he had arrived by the coast of Illyricum, after having seen
his brother Drusus, who was then in Dalmatia, and endured a stormy voyage through
the Adriatic and afterwards the Ionian Sea. He accordingly devoted a few days
to the repair of his fleet, and, at the same time, in remembrance of his ancestors,
he visited the bay which the victory of Actium had made famous, the spoils consecrated
by Augustus, and the camp of Antonius. For, as I have said, Augustus was his
great-uncle, Antonius his grandfather, and vivid images of disaster and success
rose before him on the spot. Thence he went to Athens, and there, as a concession
to our treaty with an allied and ancient city, he was attended only by a single
lictor. The Greeks welcomed him with the most elaborate honours, and brought
forward all the old deeds and sayings of their countrymen, to give additional
dignity to their flattery.
54. Thence he directed his course to Euboea and crossed to Lesbos, where
Agrippina for the last time was confined and gave birth to Julia. He then penetrated
to the remoter parts of the province of Asia, visited the Thracian cities, Perinthus
and Byzantium; next, the narrow strait of the Propontis and the entrance of
the Pontus, from an anxious wish to become acquainted with those ancient and
celebrated localities. He gave relief, as he went, to provinces which had been
exhausted by internal feuds or by the oppressions of governors. In his return
he attempted to see the sacred mysteries of the Samothracians, but north winds
which he encountered drove him aside from his course. And so after visiting
Ilium and surveying a scene venerable from the vicissitudes of fortune and as
the birth-place of our people, he coasted back along Asia, and touched at Colophon,
to consult the oracle of the Clarian Apollo. There, it is not a woman, as at
Delphi, but a priest chosen from certain families, generally from Miletus, who
ascertains simply the number and the names of the applicants. Then descending
into a cave and drinking a draught from a secret spring, the man, who is commonly
ignorant of letters and of poetry, utters a response in verse answering to the
thoughts conceived in the mind of any inquirer. It was said that he prophesied
to Germanicus, in dark hints, as oracles usually do, an early doom.
55. Cneius Piso meanwhile, that he might the sooner enter on his design,
terrified the citizens of Athens by his tumultuous approach, and then reviled
them in a bitter speech, with indirect reflections on Germanicus, who, he said,
had derogated from the honour of the Roman name in having treated with excessive
courtesy, not the people of Athens, who indeed had been exterminated by repeated
disasters, but a miserable medley of tribes. As for the men before him, they
had been Mithridates’s allies against Sulla, allies of Antonius against the
Divine Augustus. He taunted them too with the past, with their ill-success against
the Macedonians, their violence to their own countrymen, for he had his own
special grudge against this city, because they would not spare at his intercession
one Theophilus whom the Areopagus had condemned for forgery. Then, by sailing
rapidly and by the shortest route through the Cyclades, he overtook Germanicus
at the island of Rhodes. The prince was not ignorant of the slanders with which
he had been assailed, but his good nature was such that when a storm arose and
drove Piso on rocks, and his enemy’s destruction could have been referred to
chance, he sent some triremes, by the help of which he might be rescued from
danger. But this did not soften Piso’s heart. Scarcely allowing a day’s interval,
he left Germanicus and hastened on in advance. When he reached Syria and the
legions, he began, by bribery and favouritism, to encourage the lowest of the
common soldiers, removing the old centurions and the strict tribunes and assigning
their places to creatures of his own or to the vilest of the men, while he allowed
idleness in the camp, licentiousness in the towns, and the soldiers to roam
through the country and take their pleasure. He went such lengths in demoralizing
them, that he was spoken of in their vulgar talk as the father of the legions.
Plancina too, instead of keeping herself within the proper limits of a woman,
would be present at the evolutions of the cavalry and the manoeuvres of the
cohorts, and would fling insulting remarks at Agrippina and Germanicus. Some
even of the good soldiers were inclined to a corrupt compliance, as a whispered
rumour gained ground that the emperor was not averse to these proceedings. Of
all this Germanicus was aware, but his most pressing anxiety was to be first
in reaching Armenia.
56. This had been of old an unsettled country from the character of its people
and from its geographical position, bordering, as it does, to a great extent
on our provinces and stretching far away to Media. It lies between two most
mighty empires, and is very often at strife with them, hating Rome and jealous
of Parthia. It had at this time no king, Vonones having been expelled, but the
nation’s likings inclined towards Zeno, son of Polemon, king of Pontus, who
from his earliest infancy had imitated Armenian manners and customs, loving
the chase, the banquet, and all the popular pastimes of barbarians, and who
had thus bound to himself chiefs and people alike. Germanicus accordingly, in
the city of Artaxata, with the approval of the nobility, in the presence of
a vast multitude, placed the royal diadem on his head. All paid him homage and
saluted him as King Artaxias, which name they gave him from the city. Cappadocia
meanwhile, which had been reduced to the form of a province, received as its
governor Quintus Veranius. Some of the royal tributes were diminished, to inspire
hope of a gentler rule under Rome. Quintus Servaeus was appointed to Commagene,
then first put under a praetor’s jurisdiction.
57. Successful as was this settlement of all the interests of our allies,
it gave Germanicus little joy because of the arrogance of Piso. Though he had
been ordered to march part of the legions into Armenia under his own or his
son’s command, he had neglected to do either. At length the two met at Cyrrhus,
the winterquarters of the tenth legion, each controlling his looks, Piso concealing
his fears, Germanicus shunning the semblance of menace. He was indeed, as I
have said, a kind-hearted man. But friends who knew well how to inflame a quarrel,
exaggerated what was true and added lies, alleging various charges against Piso,
Plancina, and their sons. At last, in the presence of a few intimate associates,
Germanicus addressed him in language such as suppressed resentment suggests,
to which Piso replied with haughty apologies. They parted in open enmity. After
this Piso was seldom seen at Caesar’s tribunal, and if he ever sat by him, it
was with a sullen frown and a marked display of opposition. He was even heard
to say at a banquet given by the king of the Nabataeans, when some golden crowns
of great weight were presented to Caesar and Agrippina and light ones to Piso
and the rest, that the entertainment was given to the son of a Roman emperor,
not of a Parthian king. At the same time he threw his crown on the ground, with
a long speech against luxury, which, though it angered Germanicus, he still
bore with patience.
58. Meantime envoys arrived from Artabanus, king of the Parthians. He had
sent them to recall the memory of friendship and alliance, with an assurance
that he wished for a renewal of the emblems of concord, and that he would in
honour of Germanicus yield the point of advancing to the bank of the Euphrates.
He begged meanwhile that Vonones might not be kept in Syria, where, by emissaries
from an easy distance, he might draw the chiefs of the tribes into civil strife.
Germanicus’ answer as to the alliance between Rome and Parthia was dignified;
as to the king’s visit and the respect shown to himself, it was graceful and
modest. Vonones was removed to Pompeiopolis, a city on the coast of Cilicia.
This was not merely a concession to the request of Artabanus, but was meant
as an affront to Piso, who had a special liking for Vonones, because of the
many attentions and presents by which he had won Plancina’s favour.
59. In the consulship of Marcus Silanus and Lucius Norbanus, Germanicus set
out for Egypt to study its antiquities. His ostensible motive however was solicitude
for the province. He reduced the price of corn by opening the granaries, and
adopted many practices pleasing to the multitude. He would go about without
soldiers, with sandalled feet, and apparelled after the Greek fashion, in imitation
of Publius Scipio, who, it is said, habitually did the same in Sicily, even
when the war with Carthage was still raging. Tiberius having gently expressed
disapproval of his dress and manners, pronounced a very sharp censure on his
visit to Alexandria without the emperor’s leave, contrary to the regulations
of Augustus. That prince, among other secrets of imperial policy, had forbidden
senators and Roman knights of the higher rank to enter Egypt except by permission,
and he had specially reserved the country, from a fear that any one who held
a province containing the key of the land and of the sea, with ever so small
a force against the mightiest army, might distress Italy by famine.
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