Tacitus: Annals: Book 3 [30]

The Works of Tacitus

tr. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb

[1864-1877]

Tacitus: Annals Book 3 [30]

30. Two remarkable men died at the end of the year, Lucius Volusius and Sallustius
Crispus. Volusius was of an old family, which had however never risen beyond
the praetorship. He brought into it the consulship; he also held the office
of censor for arranging the classes of the knights, and was the first to pile
up the wealth which that house enjoyed to a boundless extent. Crispus was of
equestrian descent and grandson of a sister of Caius Sallustius, that most admirable
Roman historian, by whom he was adopted and whose name he took. Though his road
to preferment was easy, he chose to emulate Maecenas, and without rising to
a senator’s rank, he surpassed in power many who had won triumphs and consulships.
He was a contrast to the manners of antiquity in his elegance and refinement,
and in the sumptuousness of his wealth he was almost a voluptuary. But beneath
all this was a vigorous mind, equal to the greatest labours, the more active
in proportion as he made a show of sloth and apathy. And so while Maecenas lived,
he stood next in favour to him, and was afterwards the chief depository of imperial
secrets, and accessory to the murder of Postumus Agrippa, till in advanced age
he retained the shadow rather than the substance of the emperor’s friendship.
The same too had happened to Maecenas, so rarely is it the destiny of power
to be lasting, or perhaps a sense of weariness steals over princes when they
have bestowed everything, or over favourites, when there is nothing left them
to desire.

31. Next followed Tiberius’s fourth, Drusus’s second consulship, memorable
from the fact that father and son were colleagues. Two years previously the
association of Germanicus and Tiberius in the same honour had not been agreeable
to the uncle, nor had it the link of so close a natural tie. At the beginning
of this year Tiberius, avowedly to recruit his health, retired to Campania,
either as a gradual preparation for long and uninterrupted seclusion, or in
order that Drusus alone in his father’s absence might discharge the duties of
the consulship. It happened that a mere trifle which grew into a sharp contest
gave the young prince the means of acquiring popularity. Domitius Corbulo, an
ex-praetor, complained to the Senate that Lucius Sulla, a young noble, had not
given place to him at a gladiatorial show. Corbulo had age, national usage and
the feelings of the older senators in his favour. Against him Mamercus Scaurus,
Lucius Arruntius and other kinsmen of Sulla strenuously exerted themselves.
There was a keen debate, and appeal was made to the precedents of our ancestors,
as having censured in severe decrees disrespect on the part of the young, till
Drusus argued in a strain calculated to calm their feelings. Corbulo too received
an apology from Mamercus, who was Sulla’s uncle and stepfather, and the most
fluent speaker of that day. It was this same Corbulo, who, after raising a cry
that most of the roads in Italy were obstructed or impassable through the dishonesty
of contractors and the negligence of officials, himself willingly undertook
the complete management of the business. This proved not so beneficial to the
State as ruinous to many persons, whose property and credit he mercilessly attacked
by convictions and confiscations.

32. Soon afterwards Tiberius informed the Senate by letter that Africa was
again disturbed by an incursion of Tacfarinas, and that they must use their
judgment in choosing as proconsul an experienced soldier of vigorous constitution,
who would be equal to the war. Sextus Pompeius caught at this opportunity of
venting his hatred against Lepidus, whom he condemned as a poor-spirited and
needy man, who was a disgrace to his ancestors, and therefore deserved to lose
even his chance of the province of Asia. But the Senate were against him, for
they thought Lepidus gentle rather than cowardly, and that his inherited poverty,
with the high rank in which he had lived without a blot, ought to be considered
a credit to instead of a reproach. And so he was sent to Asia, and with respect
to Africa it was decided that the emperor should choose to whom it was to be
assigned.

33. During this debate Severus Caecina proposed that no magistrate who had
obtained a province should be accompanied by his wife. He began by recounting
at length how harmoniously he had lived with his wife, who had borne him six
children, and how in his own home he had observed what he was proposing for
the public, by having kept her in Italy, though he had himself served forty
campaigns in various provinces. “With good reason,” he said, “had it been formerly
decided that women were not to be taken among our allies or into foreign countries.
A train of women involves delays through luxury in peace and through panic in
war, and converts a Roman army on the march into the likeness of a barbarian
progress. Not only is the sex feeble and unequal to hardship, but, when it has
liberty, it is spiteful, intriguing and greedy of power. They show themselves
off among the soldiers and have the centurions at their beck. Lately a woman
had presided at the drill of the cohorts and the evolutions of the legions.
You should yourselves bear in mind that, whenever men are accused of extortion,
most of the charges are directed against the wives. It is to these that the
vilest of the provincials instantly attach themselves; it is they who undertake
and settle business; two persons receive homage when they appear; there are
two centres of government, and the women’s orders are the more despotic and
intemperate. Formerly they were restrained by the Oppian and other laws; now,
loosed from every bond, they rule our houses, our tribunals, even our armies.”

34. A few heard this speech with approval, but the majority clamorously objected
that there was no proper motion on the subject, and that Caecina was no fit
censor on so grave an issue. Presently Valerius Messalinus, Messala’s son, in
whom the father’s eloquence was reproduced, replied that much of the sternness
of antiquity had been changed into a better and more genial system. “Rome,”
he said, “is not now, as formerly, beset with wars, nor are the provinces hostile.
A few concessions are made to the wants of women, but such as are not even a
burden to their husbands homes, much less to the allies. In all other respects
man and wife share alike, and this arrangement involves no trouble in peace.
War of course requires that men should be unincumbered, but when they return
what worthier solace can they have after their hardships than a wife’s society?
But some wives have abandoned themselves to scheming and rapacity. Well; even
among our magistrates, are not many subject to various passions? Still, that
is not a reason for sending no one into a province. Husbands have often been
corrupted by the vices of their wives. Are then all unmarried men blameless?
The Oppian laws were formerly adopted to meet the political necessities of the
time, and subsequently there was some remission and mitigation of them on grounds
of expediency. It is idle to shelter our own weakness under other names; for
it is the husband’s fault if the wife transgresses propriety. Besides, it is
wrong that because of the imbecility of one or two men, all husbands should
be cut off from their partners in prosperity and adversity. And further, a sex
naturally weak will be thus left to itself and be at the mercy of its own voluptuousness
and the passions of others. Even with the husband’s personal vigilance the marriage
tie is scarcely preserved inviolate. What would happen were it for a number
of years to be forgotten, just as in a divorce? You must not check vices abroad
without remembering the scandals of the capital.” Drusus added a few words on
his own experience as a husband. “Princes,” he said, “must often visit the extremities
of their empire. How often had the Divine Augustus travelled to West and to
the East accompanied by Livia? He had himself gone to Illyricum and, should
it be expedient, he would go to other countries, not always however with a contented
mind, if he had to tear himself from a much loved wife, the mother of his many
children.”

35. Caecina’s motion was thus defeated. At the Senate’s next meeting came
a letter from Tiberius, which indirectly censured them for throwing on the emperor
every political care, and named Marcus Lepidus and Junius Blaesus, one of whom
was to be chosen pro-consul of Africa. Both spoke on the subject, and Lepidus
begged earnestly to be excused. He alleged ill-health, his children’s tender
age, his having a daughter to marry, and something more of which he said nothing,
was well understood, the fact that Blaesus was uncle of Sejanus and so had very
powerful interest. Blaesus replied with an affectation of refusal, but not with
the same persistency, nor was he backed up by the acquiescence of flatterers.

36. Next was exposed an abuse, hitherto the subject of many a whispered complaint.
The vilest wretches used a growing freedom in exciting insult and obloquy against
respectable citizens, and escaped punishment by clasping some statue of the
emperor. The very freedman or slave was often an actual terror to his patron
or master whom he would menace by word and gesture. Accordingly Caius Cestius,
a senator, argued that “though princes were like deities, yet even the gods
listened only to righteous prayers from their suppliants, and that no one fled
to the Capitol or any other temple in Rome to use it as an auxiliary in crime.
There was an end and utter subversion of all law when, in the forum and on the
threshold of the Senate House, Annia Rufilla, whom he had convicted of fraud
before a judge, assailed him with insults and threats, while he did not himself
dare to try legal proceedings, because he was confronted by her with the emperor’s
image.” There rose other clamorous voices, with even more flagrant complaints,
and all implored Drusus to inflict exemplary vengeance, till he ordered Rufilla
to be summoned, and on her conviction to be confined in the common prison.

37. Considius Aequus too and Coelius Cursor, Roman knights, were punished
on the emperor’s proposal, by a decree of the Senate, for having attacked the
praetor, Magius Caecilianus, with false charges of treason. Both these results
were represented as an honour to Drusus. By moving in society at Rome, amid
popular talk, his father’s dark policy, it was thought, was mitigated. Even
voluptuousness in one so young gave little offence. Better that he should incline
that way, spend his days in architecture, his nights in banquets, than that
he should live in solitude, cut off from every pleasure, and absorbed in a gloomy
vigilance and mischievous schemes.

38. Tiberius indeed and the informers were never weary. Ancharius Priscus
had prosecuted Caesius Cordus, proconsul of Crete, for extortion, adding a charge
of treason, which then crowned all indictments. Antistius Vetus, one of the
chief men of Macedonia, who had been acquitted of adultery, was recalled by
the emperor himself, with a censure on the judges, to be tried for treason,
as a seditious man who had been implicated in the designs of Rhescuporis, when
that king after the murder of his brother Cotys had meditated war against us.
The accused was accordingly outlawed, with the further sentence that he was
to be confined in an island from which neither Macedonia nor Thrace were conveniently
accessible. As for Thrace, since the division of the kingdom between Rhoemetalces
and the children of Cotys, who because of their tender age were under the guardianship
of Trebellienus Rufus, it was divided against itself, from not being used to
our rule, and blamed Rhoemetalces no less than Trebellienus for allowing the
wrongs of his countrymen to go unpunished. The Coelaletae, Odrusae and Dii,
powerful tribes, took up arms, under different leaders, all on a level from
their obscurity. This hindered them from combining in a formidable war. Some
roused their immediate neighbourhood; others crossed Mount Haemus, to stir up
remote tribes; most of them, and the best disciplined, besieged the king in
the city of Philippopolis, founded by the Macedonian Philip.

39. When this was known to Publius Vellaeus who commanded the nearest army,
he sent some allied cavalry and light infantry to attack those who were roaming
in quest of plunder or of reinforcements, while he marched in person with the
main strength of the foot to raise the siege. Every operation was at the same
moment successful; the pillagers were cut to pieces; dissensions broke out among
the besiegers, and the king made a well-timed sally just as the legion arrived.
A battle or even a skirmish it did not deserve to be called, in which merely
half-armed stragglers were slaughtered without bloodshed on our side.

Next: Book 3 [40]