34 1 Meanwhile Orodes was devoid of allies; and Pharasmanes, strong in his reinforcements, began to challenge him to engage and to harass him as he drew off, to ride up to his encampments and to ravage the foraging grounds. Frequently he encircled him with outposts almost in the manner of a formal siege; till the Parthians, unaccustomed to these insolences, surrounded the king and demanded battle. Their one strength lay in the cavalry: Pharasmanes was formidable also in infantry, for life in a highland district has trained the Iberians and Albanians to superior hardiness and endurance. They claim to have originated from Thessaly, at the time when Jason, after the departure of Medea with the children she had borne him, retraced his steps, a little later, to the empty palace of Aeëtes and the kingless realm of Colchis. His name survives in many of their institutions, which include an oracle of Phrixus; and, as the belief is held that Phrixus was carried by a ram (whether the word denotes the animal or the figurehead of a ship), it is inadmissible to offer one in sacrifice.
However, when the line of battle had been drawn up on either side, the Parthian dilated on the empire of the East and the lustre of the Arsacian house, as contrasted with the obscure Iberian and his hired soldiery: Pharasmanes called on his troops to remember that they had never felt the Parthian yoke; that the higher their emprize, the greater the honour they would reap from victory, the greater their disgrace and danger if they turned their backs. At the same time, he pointed to his own grim host and to the Median columns in their embroidery of gold—”men on the one hand, booty on the other.”
35 1 In the Sarmatian ranks, however, speech was not limited to a leader: man encouraged man not to permit a battle of archers; better to anticipate matters by a charge and a hand-to-hand struggle! The encounter, in consequence, wore a variety of aspects. For the Parthians, habituated to pursue or flee with equal art, spread out their squadrons and manoeuvred for room for their flights of missiles: the Sarmatians, ignoring their shorter-ranged bows, rushed on with pike and sword. At times, advance and retreat alternated in the traditional style of a cavalry engagement: then, as though in a locked line of battle, the combatants struggled breast to breast, with a clash of steel, repulsing and repulsed. Then came the Albanians and Iberians, gripping the enemy, unsaddling him, and placing him in double jeopardy between the horsemen striking from above and the infantry dealing closer wounds below. In the meantime, Pharasmanes and Orodes were carrying support to the resolute or succour to the wavering. Conspicuous figures, they recognized each other: a shout, an challenge of javelins, and they spurred to the charge — Pharasmanes with the greater fury, as he wounded his opponent through the helmet. He failed to repeat the blow, his horse carrying him too far past while the bravest of his guards interposed to protect the wounded prince. Still, a falsely credited report of his death demoralized the Parthians, and they conceded the victory.
36 1 It was not before Artabanus sought his revenge with the full powers of his empire. The Iberians, with their knowledge of the country, had the better of the campaign; but, in spite of that fact, he showed no signs of withdrawal, had not Vitellius, by assembling the legions and circulating a report that he was on the point of invading Armenia, inspired him with fears of a Roman war. There followed the evacuation of Armenia and the collapse of Artabanus’ fortunes, Vitellius tempting his subjects to abandon a king merciless in peace and fatally unfortunate in the field. Sinnaces, therefore, whose hostility, as I have mentioned, was of earlier date, induced his father Abdagaeses, to revolt, along with others, accessory to the project, and now the readier for action owing to the series of reverses; and these were joined by a gradual stream of recruits, whose submission had been due more to fear than to goodwill, and whose spirit had risen with the discovery of responsible leaders. Nothing now remained to Artabanus but the few foreigners acting as his body-guard — homeless and landless men, members of a class neither comprehending good nor regarding evil but feed and fed as the agents of crime. Taking these with him, he hurriedly fled to the remote districts adjoining Scythia; where he hoped that his marriage connections with the Hyrcanians and Carmanians would find him allies: in the interval, the Parthians, tolerant of princes when absent and fickle to them when present, might turn to the ways of penitence.
37 1 But Vitellius, now that Artabanus was in flight and the sentiments of his countrymen were inclining to a change of sovereigns, advised Tiridates to embrace the opportunity presented, and marched the flower of his legions and auxiliaries to the bank of the Euphrates. During the sacrifice, while the Roman was paying the national offering to Mars and the Parthian had prepared a horse to placate the river, word was brought by the people of the neighbourhood that, without any downpour of rain, the Euphrates was rising spontaneously and to a remarkable height: at the same time, the whitening foam was wreathing itself into circles after the fashion of a diadem — an omen of a happy crossing. Others gave a more skilled interpretation: the first results of the venture would be favourable, but fleeting; for the presages given by the earth or the sky had a surer warranty, but rivers, unstable by nature, exhibited an omen, and in the same instant swept it away.
However, when a bridge of boats had been constructed and the army taken over, the first man to appear in the camp was Ornospades at the head of several thousand cavalry. Once an exile and a not inglorious coadjutor of Tiberius when he was stamping out the Dalmatic war, he had been rewarded by a grant of Roman citizenship: later, he had regained the friendship of the king, stood high in his favour, and held the governorship of the plains, which, encircled by the famous streams of Tigris and Euphrates, have received the name of Mesopotamia. Before long, Tiridates’ forces were augmented by Sinnaces; and Abdagaeses, the pillar of his cause, added the treasure and appurtenances of the crown. Vitellius, persuaded that to have displayed the Roman arms was enough, bestowed his advice on Tiridates and the nobles: the former was to remember his grandfather Phraates, his foster-father the Caesar, and the great qualities of both; the latter, to retain their obedience to the king, their respect to ourselves, their personal honour and good faith. He then returned with the legions to Syria.
38 1 I have conjoined the events of two summers, in order to allow the mind some respite from domestic horrors. For, notwithstanding the three years elapsed since the execution of Sejanus, not time nor prayers nor satiety, influences that soften other breasts, could mollify Tiberius or arrest his policy of avenging half-proved or forgotten delinquencies as heinous and freshly committed crimes. This alarmed Fulcinius Trio; and, instead of awaiting passively the imminent assault of the accusers, he drew up in his last will a long and appalling indictment of Macro and the chief imperial freedmen, and taunted their master with the mental decrepitude of age and the virtual exile of his continuous absence. The heirs would have suppressed the passage: Tiberius commanded to be read, in token of his tolerance of freedom in others and in contempt of his own ill fame; unless, possibly, he had so long been unaware of the crimes of Sejanus that he now preferred to have publicity given to attacks, however worded, and by insult, if not otherwise, to become acquainted with that truth which adulation stifles. — In these same days, the senator Granius Marcianus, accused of treason by Gaius Gracchus, took his own life; and Tarius Gratianus, who had held the praetorship, was sentenced under the same law to the final penalty.
39 1 Trebellenus Rufus and Sextius Paconianus made not dissimilar endings: for Trebellenus fell by his own hand; Paconianus was strangled in prison for verses which he had there indited against the sovereign. — These tidings Tiberius now received, not as formerly across the dividing sea nor by messengers from afar, but hard under the walls of Rome, where, on the same day or with the interval of a night, he could pen his answer to the consular reports and all but rest his eyes upon the blood that streamed in the houses of his victims, or upon the handiwork of his executioners.
At the close of the year, Poppaeus Sabinus breathed his last. Of modest origin, he had by the friendship of emperors attained a consulate and triumphal honours
, and for twenty-four years had governed the great provinces, thanks to no shining ability but to the fact that he was adequate to his business, and no more.
40 1 There followed the consulate of Quintus Plautius and Sextus Papinius. In this year, the horrors had become too familiar for either the
41 1 About this date, the Cietae, a tribe subject to Archelaus of Cappadocia, pressed to conform with Roman usage by making a return of their property and submitting to a tribute, migrated to the heights of the Tauric range, and, favoured by the nature of the country, held their own against the unwarlike forces of the king; until the legate Marcus Trebellius, despatched by Vitellius from his province of Syria with four thousand legionaries and a picked force of auxiliaries, drew his lines round the two hills which the barbarians had occupied (the smaller is known as Cadra, the other as Davara) and reduced them to surrender — those who ventured to make a sally, by the sword, the others by thirst.
Meanwhile, with the acquiescence of the Parthians, Tiridates took over Nicephorium, Anthemusias, and the other cities of Macedonian foundation, carrying Greek names, together with the Parthic towns of Halus and Artemita; enthusiasm running high, as Artabanus, with his Scythian training, had been execrated for his cruelty and it was hoped that Roman culture had mellowed the character of Tiridates.
42 1 The extreme of adulation was shown by the powerful community of Seleucia, a walled town which, faithful to the memory of its founder Seleucus, has not degenerated into barbarism. Three hundred members, chosen for wealth or wisdom, form a senate: the people has its own prerogatives. So long as the two orders are in unison, the Parthian is ignored: if they clash, each calls in aid against its rival; and the alien, summoned to rescue a part, overpowers the whole. This had happened lately in the reign of Artabanus, who consulted his own ends by sacrificing the populace to the aristocrats: for supremacy of the people is akin to freedom; between the domination of a minority and the whim of a monarch the distance is small. They now celebrated the arrival of Tiridates with the honours paid to the ancient kings, along with the innovations of which a later age has been more lavish: at the same time, they poured abuse on Artabanus as an Arsacid on the mother’s side, but otherwise of ignoble blood. — Tiridates handed over the government of Seleucia to the democracy; then, as he was debating what day to fix for his formal assumption of sovereignty, he received letters from Phraates and Hiero, holders of the two most important satrapies, asking for a short postponement. It was decided to wait for men of their high importance, and in the interval a move was made to the seat of government at Ctesiphon. However, as day after day found them still procrastinating, the Surena, before an applauding multitude, fastened, in the traditional style, the royal diadem upon the brows of Tiridates.
43 1 And, had he marched at once upon the interior and the remaining tribes, he must have overborne the doubts of the hesitant, and the nation would have been his own; but, by investing the fortress in which Artabanus had bestowed his money and his harem, he allowed a breathing-space in which agreements could be repudiated. For Phraates and Hiero, with others who had taken no share in the solemnities of the day fixed for the assumption of the diadem, some in fear, a few in jealousy of Abdagaeses (now master of the court and the newly crowned king), passed over to Artabanus; who was discovered in Hyrcania, a filth-covered figure, procuring his daily bread by his bow. His first terrified expectation of treachery gave way to relief on a solemn assurance that they had come to restore him to his throne, and he inquired the reason for the sudden change. Hiero then inveighed against the boyish years of Tiridates:—”It was no Arsacid that held sway: the unsubstantial title was borneº by a weakling whose foreign effeminacy unfitted him for the sword; the power was vested in the house of Abdagaeses.”
44 1 The veteran monarch realized that, if they were false in love, they were not hypocritical in their hatreds. Waiting only to collect auxiliaries in Scythia, he took the field with a speed that baffled the machinations of his foes and the vacillation of his friends: his squalor he retained as likely to attract the multitude through their sympathies. Neither fraud nor entreaty — nothing that could entice the doubtful or confirm the resolute — was neglected. He was already nearing the outskirts of Seleucia at the head of a numerous force, when Tiridates, unnerved at once by news of Artabanus and by Artabanus in person, began to waver between the two plans of a counter-advance or a strategy of delay. The partisans of battle and a quick decision of their fate argued that not even in thought had those scattered and wayworn bands coalesced into a loyal whole, betrayers and enemies as they had been but yesterday of the very prince whose cause they were again espousing. Abdagaeses, however, advised a return to Mesopotamia; where, behind the barrier of the river, they might in the interval raise the Armenians, Elymaeans and other nations in their rear; then, reinforced by the contingents of their allies and by any which the Roman commander might have despatched, submit their fortunes to the test. This view prevailed, as the dominant influence was that of Abdagaeses and Tiridates had little appetite for danger. But the withdrawal was effected in the style of a flight, and, with the Arabian tribesmen setting the example, the rest left for their homes or the camp of Artabanus; till at last Tiridates with a few attendants retraced his way to Syria and freed all from the disgrace of desertion.
45 1 The same year saw the capital visited by a serious fire, the part of the Circus adjoining the Aventine being burnt down along with the Aventine itself: a disaster which the Caesar converted to his own glory by paying the full value of the mansions and tenement-blocks destroyed. One hundred million sesterces were invested in this act of munificence, which came the more acceptably to the multitude that he was far from extravagant in building on his own behalf; whilst, even on the public account, the only two works he erected were the temple of Augustus and the stage of Pompey’s theatre, and in each case he was either too scornful of popularity or too old to dedicate them after completion. To estimate the losses of the various claimants, four husbands of the Caesar’s grand-daughters were appointed: Gnaeus Domitius, Cassius Longinus, Marcus Vinicius, and Rubellius Blandus. Publius Petronius was added by nomination of the consuls. Honours varying with the ingenuity of their authors were invented and voted to the sovereign. Which of these he rejected or accepted remained unknown, since the end of his days was at hand.
For shortly afterwards the last consuls of Tiberius, Gnaeus Acerronius and Gaius Petronius, inaugurated their term of office. By this time the influence of Macro exceeded all bounds. Never careless of the good graces of Gaius Caesar, he was now courting them with daily increasing energy; and after the death of Claudia, whose espousal to the prince has been mentioned earlier, he had induced his wife Ennia to captiva
te the youth by a mockery of love and to bind him by a promise of marriage. Caligula objected to no conditions, provided that he could reach the throne: for, wild though his temper was, he had none the less, at his grandfather’s knee, mastered in full the arts of hypocrisy.
46 1 This the emperor knew; and he hesitated therefore with regard to the succession — first between his grandchildren. Of these, the issue of Drusus was the nearer to him in blood and by affection, but had not yet entered the years of puberty: the son of Germanicus possessed the vigour of early manhood, but also the affections of the multitude — and that, with his grandsire, was a ground of hatred. Even Claudius with his settled years and aspirations to culture came under consideration: the obstacle was his mental instability. Yet, if a successor were sought outside the imperial family, he dreaded that the memory of Augustus — the name of the Caesars — might be turned to derision and to contempt. For the care of Tiberius was not so much to enjoy popularity in the present as to court the approval of posterity. Soon, mentally irresolute, physically outworn, he left to fate a decision beyond his competence; though remarks escaped him which implied a foreknowledge of the future. For, with an allusion not difficult to read, he upbraided Macro with forsaking the setting and looking to the rising sun; and to Caligula, who in some casual conversation was deriding Lucius Sulla, he made the prophecy that he would have all the vices of Sulla with none of the Sullan virtues. At the same time, with a burst of tears, he embraced the younger of his grandsons; then, at the lowering looks of the other:—”Thou wilt slay him,” he said, “and another thee.” Yet, in defiance of his failing health, he relinquished no detail of his libertinism: he was striving to make endurance pass for strength; and he had always had a sneer for the arts of the physicians, and for men who, after thirty years of life, needed the counsel of a stranger in order to distinguish things salutary to their system from things deleterious.
Complete Works of Tacitus (Delphi Classics) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 24) Page 70