The Works of Tacitus
tr. by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
[1864-1877]
Tacitus: Agricola Book 1 [40]
40. For Agricola was still the governor of Britain. Accordingly the Emperor
ordered that the usual triumphal decorations, the honour of a laurelled statue,
and all that is commonly given in place of the triumphal procession, with the
addition of many laudatory expressions, should be decreed in the senate, together
with a hint to the effect that Agricola was to have the province of Syria, then
vacant by the death of Atilius Rufus, a man of consular rank, and generally
reserved for men of distinction. It was believed by many persons that one of
the freedmen employed on confidential services was sent to Agricola, bearing
a despatch in which Syria was offered him, and with instructions to deliver
it should he be in Britain; that this freedman in crossing the straits met Agricola,
and without even saluting him made his way back to Domitian; though I cannot
say whether the story is true, or is only a fiction invented to suit the Emperor’s
character.
Meanwhile Agricola had handed over his province in peace and safety
to his successor. And not to make his entrance into Rome conspicuous by the
concourse of welcoming throngs, he avoided the attentions of his friends by
entering the city at night, and at night too, according to orders, proceeded
to the palace, where, having been received with a hurried embrace and without
a word being spoken, he mingled in the crowd of courtiers. Anxious henceforth
to temper the military renown, which annoys men of peace, with other merits,
he studiously cultivated retirement and leisure, simple in dress, courteous
in conversation, and never accompanied but by one or two friends, so that the
many who commonly judge of great men by their external grandeur, after having
seen and attentively surveyed him, asked the secret of a greatness which but
few could explain.
41. During this time he was frequently accused before Domitian in his absence,
and in his absence acquitted. The cause of his danger lay not in any crime,
nor in any complaint of injury, but in a ruler who was the foe of virtue, in
his own renown, and in that worst class of enemies–the men who praise. And
then followed such days for the commonwealth as would not suffer Agricola to
be forgotten; days when so many of our armies were lost in Moesia, Dacia, Germany,
and Pannonia, through the rashness or cowardice of our generals, when so many
of our officers were besieged and captured with so many of our auxiliaries,
when it was no longer the boundaries of empire and the banks of rivers which
were imperilled, but the winter-quarters of our legions and the possession of
our territories. And so when disaster followed upon disaster, and the entire
year was marked by destruction and slaughter, the voice of the people called
Agricola to the command; for they all contrasted his vigour, firmness, and experience
in war, with the inertness and timidity of other generals. This talk, it is
quite certain, assailed the ears of the Emperor himself, while affection and
loyalty in the best of his freedmen, malice and envy in the worst, kindled the
anger of a prince ever inclined to evil. And so at once, by his own excellences
and by the faults of others, Agricola was hurried headlong to a perilous elevation.
42. The year had now arrived in which the proconsulate of Asia or Africa
was to fall to him by lot, and, as Civica had been lately murdered, Agricola
did not want a warning, or Domitian a precedent. Persons well acquainted with
the Emperor’s feelings came to ask Agricola, as if on their own account, whether
he would go. First they hinted their purpose by praises of tranquillity and
leisure; then offered their services in procuring acceptance for his excuses;
and at last, throwing off all disguise, brought him by entreaties and threats
to Domitian. The Emperor, armed beforehand with hypocrisy, and assuming a haughty
demeanour, listened to his prayer that he might be excused, and having granted
his request allowed himself to be formally thanked, nor blushed to grant so
sinister a favour. But the salary usually granted to a proconsul, and which
he had himself given to some governors, he did not bestow on Agricola, either
because he was offended at its not having been asked, or was warned by his conscience
that he might be thought to have purchased the refusal which he had commanded.
It is, indeed, human nature to hate the man whom you have injured; yet the Emperor,
notwithstanding his irascible temper and an implacability proportioned to his
reserve, was softened by the moderation and prudence of Agricola, who neither
by a perverse obstinacy nor an idle parade of freedom challenged fame or provoked
his fate. Let it be known to those whose habit it is to admire the disregard
of authority, that there may be great men even under bad emperors, and that
obedience and submission, when joined to activity and vigour, may attain a glory
which most men reach only by a perilous career, utterly useless to the state,
and closed by an ostentatious death.
43. The end of his life, a deplorable calamity to us and a grief to his friends,
was regarded with concern even by strangers and those who knew him not. The
common people and this busy population continually inquired at his house, and
talked of him in public places and in private gatherings. No man when he heard
of Agricola’s death could either be glad or at once forget it. Men’s sympathy
was increased by a prevalent rumour that he was destroyed by poison. For myself,
I have nothing which I should venture to state for fact. Certainly during the
whole of his illness the Emperor’s chief freedmen and confidential physicians
came more frequently than is usual with a court which pays its visits by means
of messengers. This was, perhaps, solicitude, perhaps espionage. Certain it
is, that on the last day the very agonies of his dying moments were reported
by a succession of couriers, and no one believed that there would be such haste
about tidings which would be heard with regret. Yet in his manner and countenance
the Emperor displayed some signs of sorrow, for he could now forget his enmity,
and it was easier to conceal his joy than his fear. It was well known that on
reading the will, in which he was named co-heir with Agricola’s excellent wife
and most dutiful daughter, he expressed delight, as if it had been a complimentary
choice. So blinded and perverted was his mind by incessant flattery, that he
did not know that it was only a bad Emperor whom a good father would make his
heir.
44. Agricola was born on the 13th of June, in the third consulate of Caius
Car; he died on the 23rd of August, during the consulate of Collega and Priscus,
being in the fifty-sixth year of his age. Should posterity wish to know something
of his appearance, it was graceful rather than commanding. There was nothing
formidable in his appearance; a gracious look predominated. One would easily
believe him a good man, and willingly believe him to be great. As for himself,
though taken from us in the prime of a vigorous manhood, yet, as far as glory
is concerned, his life was of the longest. Those true blessings, indeed, which
consist in virtue, he had fully attained; and on one who had reached the honours
of a consulate and a triumph, what more had fortune to bestow? Immense wealth
had no attractions for him, and wealth he had, even to splendour. As his daughter
and his wife survived him, it may be thought that he was even fortunate–fortunate,
in that while his honours had suffered no eclipse, while his fame was at its
height, while his kindred and his friends still prospered, he escaped from the
evil to come. For, though to survive until the dawn of this most happy age and
to see a Trajan on the throne was what he would speculate upon in previsions
and wishes confided to my ears, yet he had this mighty compensation for his
premature death, that he was spared those later years during which Domitian,
leaving now no interval or breathing space of time, but, as it were, with one
continuous blow, drained the life-blood of the Commonwealth.
45. Agricola did not see the senate-house besieged, or the senate hemmed
in by armed men, or so many of our consulars falling at one single massacre,
or so many of Rome’s noblest ladies exiles and fugitives. Carus Metius had as
yet the distinction of but one victory, and the noisy counsels of Messalinus
were not heard beyond the walls of Alba, and Massa Bius was then answering
for his life. It was not long before our hands dragged Helvidius to prison,
before we gazed on the dying looks of Manricus and Rusticus, before we were
steeped in Senecio’s innocent blood. Even Nero turned his eyes away, and did
not gaze upon the atrocities which he ordered; with Domitian it was the chief
part of our miseries to see and to be seen, to know that our sighs were being
recorded, to have, ever ready to note the pallid looks of so many faces, that
savage countenance reddened with the hue with which he defied shame.
Thou wast indeed fortunate, Agricola, not only in the splendour of thy life,
but in the opportune moment of thy death. Thou submittedst to thy fate, so they
tell us who were present to hear thy last words, with courage and cheerfulness,
seeming to be doing all thou couldst to give thine Emperor full acquittal. As
for me and thy daughter, besides all the bitterness of a father’s loss, it increases
our sorrow that it was not permitted us to watch over thy failing health, to
comfort thy weakness, to satisfy ourselves with those looks, those embraces.
Assuredly we should have received some precepts, some utterances to fix in our
inmost hearts. This is the bitterness of our sorrow, this the smart of our wound,
that from the circumstance of so long an absence thou wast lost to us four years
before. Doubtless, best of fathers, with that most loving wife at thy side,
all the dues of affection were abundantly paid thee, yet with too few tears
thou wast laid to thy rest, and in the light of thy last day there was something
for which thine eyes longed in vain.
46. If there is any dwelling-place for the spirits of the just; if, as the
wise believe, noble souls do not perish with the body, rest thou in peace; and
call us, thy family, from weak regrets and womanish laments to the contemplation
of thy virtues, for which we must not weep nor beat the breast. Let us honour
thee not so much with transitory praises as with our reverence, and, if our
powers permit us, with our emulation. That will be true respect, that the true
affection of thy nearest kin. This, too, is what I would enjoin on daughter
and wife, to honour the memory of that father, that husband, by pondering in
their hearts all his words and acts, by cherishing the features and lineaments
of his character rather than those of his person. It is not that I would forbid
the likenesses which are wrought in marble or in bronze; but as the faces of
men, so all similitudes of the face are weak and perishable things, while the
fashion of the soul is everlasting, such as may be expressed not in some foreign
substance, or by the help of art, but in our own lives. Whatever we loved, whatever
we admired in Agricola, survives, and will survive in the hearts of men, in
the succession of the ages, in the fame that waits on noble deeds. Over many
indeed, of those who have gone before, as over the inglorious and ignoble, the
waves of oblivion will roll; Agricola, made known to posterity by history and
tradition, will live for ever.
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