The Twelve Caesars

by Robert Graves

  At the age of nine Tiberius mounted on the Rostra to deliver his father’s funeral eulogy, and four or five years later took part in Augustus’s Egyptian triumph after Actium, mounted on the left trace-horse of his decorated chariot, while Marcellus, Octavia’s son, rode the right. He also presided at the City Festival—originally celebrated at Athens in honour of Dionysus—and led the detachment of elder boys in the Troy Game at the Circus.

  7. The principal events between Tiberius’s coming of age and his accession to the throne may be summarized as follows. He staged a gladiatorial contest in memory of his father Nero, and another in memory of his grandfather Drusus. The first took place in the Forum, the second in the amphitheatre; and he persuaded some retired gladiators to appear with the rest, by paying them 1,000 gold pieces each. There were theatrical performances, too, but Tiberius did not attend them. Livia and Augustus financed these lavish entertainments.

  Tiberius married Vipsania Agrippina, daughter of Augustus’s admiral Marcus Agrippa and grand-daughter of Caecilius Atticus, the Roman knight to whom Cicero addressed many of his letters. It proved a happy marriage; but when Vipsania had already borne him a son, Drusus, whose paternity he acknowledged, and found herself pregnant again, he was required to divorce her and hurriedly marry Augustus’s daughter Julia. Tiberius took this very ill. He loved Vipsania and strongly disapproved of Julia, realizing, like everyone else, that she had felt an adulterous passion for him while still married to his father-in-law Agrippa. Tiberius continued to regret the divorce so heartily that when, one day, he accidentally caught sight of Vipsania and followed her with tears in his eyes and intense unhappiness written on his face, precautions were taken against his ever seeing her again.

  At first he lived on good terms with Julia and dutifully reciprocated her love; but gradually conceived such a loathing for her that, after their child had died in infancy at Aquileia, he broke off marital relations. On the death in Germany of his brother Drusus, Tiberius brought the body back to Rome, walking in front of the coffin all the way.

  8. Tiberius’s civil career began with his defence, against various charges, of the Jewish King Archelaus, also the Trallians and the Thessalians, at a court presided over by Augustus. Next, he appeared before the Senate as advocate of the Laodiceans, Thyatirans, and Chians who had appealed for relief, because of losses incurred in an earthquake. When Fannius Caepio plotted against Augustus with Varro Murena, Tiberius acted as public prosecutor and secured their condemnation on a charge of high treason. Meanwhile he had undertaken two special commissions: to reorganize the defective grain supply and to inquire into the state of slave barracks throughout Italy—the owners having made a bad name for themselves by confining lawful travellers in them, and by harbouring men who would rather pass as slaves than be drafted for military service.

  9. His first campaign was fought against the Cantabrians, as an infantry colonel; next, he took an army to Armenia, where he restored King Tigranes, personally crowning him on his throne of judgement; then he proceeded to collect at the Parthian Court the standards, captured from Marcus Crassus at Carrhae44 and from Mark Antony’s lieutenants in a later war,45 which Augustus had required him to surrender. For a year or so after this Tiberius governed the ‘Long-Haired’ province of Transalpine Gaul, where barbarian raids and feuds between the Gallic chieftains had caused considerable unrest. After that he fought consecutively in the Alps, Pannonia, and Germany. The first of these campaigns brought about the subjugation of the Raetians and Vindelicans; the second that of the Breucians and Dalmatians; and in the third he took some 40,000 German prisoners, whom he brought across the Rhine and settled in new homes on the Gallic bank. Tiberius’s exploits were rewarded with an ovation, followed by a regular triumph46; and it seems that what was then a novel honour had previously been conferred on him, namely triumphal regalia. He became in turn quaestor, praetor, and Consul, and always before he was old enough to qualify officially as a candidate. A few years later he held another consulship, and was given the tribunicial power for a five-year period.

  10. Yet, though in the prime of life, in excellent health, and at the height of his career, Tiberius suddenly decided to retire as completely as possible from state affairs. His motive may have been an inveterate dislike of Julia, whom he dared not charge with adultery or divorce on any other grounds; or it may have been a decision not to bore his fellow-countrymen by remaining too long in the public eye—perhaps he even hoped to increase his reputation by a prolonged absence from Rome, so that if the need of his services were ever felt he would be recalled. Another view is that since Augustus’s grandchildren Gaius and Lucius, now also his adopted sons, had recently come of age, Tiberius voluntarily resigned his established position as second man in the Empire and left the political field open for them. This was, in fact, the reason which he afterwards gave, and their father Agrippa had done much the same when Augustus’s nephew Marcellus began his official career—retiring to the island of Mytilene so as not to overshadow Marcellus by his great reputation, or be mistaken for a rival. At the time, however, Tiberius applied for leave of absence merely on the ground that he was weary of office and needed a rest; nor would he consider either Livia’s express pleas for him to stay, or Augustus’s open complaints in the Senate that this was an act of desertion. On the contrary, he defeated their vigorous efforts to blunt his resolution, by a four days’ hunger-strike. In the end he sailed off: and leaving Julia and Drusus, his son by Vipsania, behind at Rome, hurried down to Ostia without saying a word to any of the friends who came to say goodbye, and kissing only very few of them before he went aboard his ship.

  11. As Tiberius coasted past Campania, news reached him that Augustus was ill; so he cast anchor for awhile. But when tongues began to wag, accusing him of standing by in the hope of seizing the throne, he at once made the best of his way to Rhodes, though the wind was almost dead against him. He had cherished pleasant memories of that beautiful and healthy island since touching there, during his return voyage from Armenia, many years before; and contented himself with a modest town house and a near-by country villa which was not on a grand scale either. Here he behaved most unassumingly: after dismissing his lictors and runners he would often stroll about the gymnasium where he greeted and chatted with simple Greeks almost as if they were his social equals.

  It happened once that, in arranging the next day’s programme, he had expressed a wish to visit the local sick. His staff misunderstood him. Orders went out that all the patients in town should be carried to a public cloister and there arranged in separate groups according to their ailments. Tiberius was shocked; for awhile he stood at a loss, but at last went to see the poor fellows, apologizing even to the humblest and least important for the inconvenience he had caused them.

  In Rhodes he exercised his tribunicial power on a single recorded occasion only. It should be explained that he constantly attended the schools and halls where professors of philosophy lectured, and listened to the ensuing discussions. Once, when two sophists had started a violent argument, an impudent member of the audience dared abuse him for joining in and appearing to support one sophist at the expense of the other. Tiberius slowly retired to his house, from which he all at once reappeared with a group of lictors; then, instructing a herald to summon the scurrilous wretch before his tribunal, presently ordered him off to gaol.

  Soon afterwards, Tiberius learned that Julia had been banished for immoral and adulterous behaviour, and that his name had been used by Augustus on the bill of divorce sent her. The news delighted him, but he felt obliged to send a stream of letters urging a reconciliation between Augustus and her; and though well aware that Julia deserved all she got, allowed her to keep whatever presents she had at any time received from him. When the term of his tribunicial power expired he asked Augustus’s leave to return and visit his family, whom he greatly missed; and confessed at last that he had settled in Rhodes only because he wished to avoid the suspicion of rivalry with Gaius and Lucius. Now that
both were fully grown and the acknowledged heirs to the throne, he explained, his reasons for keeping away from Rome were no longer valid. Augustus, however, turned down the plea, telling him to abandon all hope of visiting his family, whom he had been so eager to desert.

  12. Thus Tiberius remained, most unwillingly, in Rhodes; and could hardly persuade Livia to wheedle him the title of ambassador from Augustus, as an official cloak for his disfavour.

  His days were now clouded with anxiety. Although he lived a quiet private life in the country, avoiding contact with all important men who landed, unwelcome attentions continued to be paid him; because no general or magistrate sailing along the southern coast of Asia Minor ever failed to break his journey at Rhodes. The anxiety was well founded. When Tiberius had visited Samos to greet his step-son Gaius Caesar, Governor of the East, the slanders spread by Marcus Lollius, Gaius’s guardian, ensured him a chilly welcome. Again, some centurions of Tiberius’s creation, who had returned to camp from leave, were said to have circulated mysterious messages, apparently incitements to treason, emanating from him. When Augustus informed Tiberius of this suspicion, he answered with reiterated demands that some responsible person, of whatever rank, should be detailed to visit Rhodes and there keep unceasing watch on what he did and said.

  13. Tiberius discontinued his usual exercise on horseback and on foot in the parade ground; wore a Greek cloak and slippers instead of the Roman dress suitable to a man of his standing; and for two years, or longer, grew daily more despised and shunned—until the people of Nîmes, whom he had once governed, were encouraged to overturn his statues and busts. One day, at a private dinner party attended by Gaius Caesar, Tiberius’s name cropped up, and a guest rose to say that if Gaius gave the order he would sail straight to Rhodes and ‘fetch back the Exile’s head’—for he had come to be known simply as ‘the Exile’. This incident brought home to Tiberius the extreme danger of his situation, and he pleaded most urgently for a recall to Rome; Livia supported him with equal warmth, and Augustus at last gave way. But this was partly due to a fortunate chance: Augustus had left the final decision on Tiberius’s case to Gaius, who happened at the time to be on rather bad terms with Lollius, and therefore did as Augustus wished, though stipulating that Tiberius should take no part, and renounce all interest, in politics.

  14. So Tiberius returned to Rome after an absence of more than seven years, with the same unshaken belief in a glorious future that certain presages and prophecies had fixed in his mind since early childhood. Just before his birth, for instance, Livia had tried various means of foretelling whether her child would be male or female; one was to take an egg from underneath a broody hen and warm it alternately in her own hands and in those of her women—and she successfully hatched a cock-chick which already had a fine comb. Also, while Tiberius was a mere infant, Scribonius the astrologer prophesied for him an illustrious career and a crownless kingship—though, of course, nobody in those days knew that the Caesars would soon become kings in all but name. Again, when he first commanded an army,47 and was marching through Macedonia into Syria, the altars consecrated by the victorious Caesareans at Philippi, twenty-two years previously, were suddenly crowned with spontaneous fires. Later, on his way to Illyricum, he stopped near Padua to visit Geryon’s oracle; there he drew a lot which advised him to throw golden dice into the fountain of Aponus, if he wished his inquiries to be answered. He did so, and made the highest possible cast; one can still see the same dice shining through the water. Finally, a few days before the letter arrived recalling him from Rhodes, an eagle—a bird never previously seen in the island—perched upon the roof of his house; and on the very eve of this welcome news the tunic into which he was changing seemed to be ablaze. When the ship hove in sight Tiberius happened to be strolling along the cliffs with Thrasyllus the learned astrologer, whom he had made a member of his household. Now, Tiberius was losing faith in Thrasyllus’s powers of divination, and regretted having rashly confided secrets to him; for, despite his rosy predictions, everything seemed to be going wrong. Thrasyllus was, indeed, in immediate danger of being pushed over the cliff when he pointed out to sea and announced that the distant ship brought good news; a lucky stroke which persuaded Tiberius of his trustworthiness.

  15. On his return to Rome Tiberius introduced his son Drusus to public life, but immediately afterwards moved from the Pompeian House in the ‘Keels’ to another residence in the Gardens of Maecenas (also on the Esquiline Hill) where he lived in strict retirement. Before three years had passed, however, Gaius and Lucius Caesar were both dead; Augustus then adopted Tiberius as a son, along with Agrippa Postumus, their only surviving brother; and Tiberius was himself obliged to adopt his nephew Germanicus. He thereupon ceased to act as the head of the Claudian family, surrendering all the privileges which this position entailed; and, because now theoretically in pupillage to his adoptive father Augustus, made no more gifts, freed no more slaves, and even refunded all inheritances and legacies which could not be entered to a private savings account. Yet Augustus did everything possible to advance Tiberius’s reputation, especially after having to disown Agrippa Postumus; for by this time it had become pretty clear who the next Emperor must be.

  16. Tiberius was given another three years of tribunicial power, with the task of pacifying Germany; and the Parthian envoys who visited Augustus at Rome, with messages from their King, were instructed to present themselves before Tiberius, too, in Germany. There followed the Illyrian revolt, which he was sent to suppress, and which proved to be the most bitterly fought of all foreign wars since Rome had defeated Carthage. Tiberius conducted it for three years at the head of fifteen regular legions and a correspondingly large force of auxiliaries. Supplies were always short, and conditions arduous; but, though often called back to Rome, he never allowed the powerful and active enemy forces to assume the offensive. Tiberius was well paid for his stubbornness, by finally reducing the whole of Illyricum—an enormous stretch of country enclosed by Northern Italy, Noricum, the Danube, Thrace, Macedonia, and the Adriatic Sea—to complete submission.

  17. This feat appeared in a still more glorious light when Quinctilius Varus fell in Germany with his three legions: but for the timely conquest of Illyricum, most people realized, the victorious Germans would have made common cause with the Pannonians. Tiberius was therefore voted a triumph and many other distinctions. Proposals were made for decreeing him the surname Pannonicus, or ‘the Unconquered’, or ‘the Devoted’; but Augustus vetoed all these in turn, promising on each occasion that Tiberius would be satisfied with that of ‘Augustus’, which he intended to bequeath him. Tiberius himself postponed his triumph because of the public mourning for Varus; but entered Rome dressed in a senatorial gown and wreathed with laurel. A tribunal had been built in the Enclosure; on it were four chairs of state, behind which the Senate stood, ranged in a semicircle. Tiberius mounted the steps and took his seat at Augustus’s side, the two outer chairs being occupied by the Consuls. From this place of honour he acknowledged the popular cheers, and was then escorted around the appropriate temples.

  18. In the following year Tiberius visited Germany and, finding that the disaster there had been due to Varus’s rashness and neglect of precautions against surprise, refrained from taking any strategic decisions without the assent of his general staff. This was a notable departure from habit; hitherto he had always had complete confidence in his own judgement, but was now relying on a large military council. His attention to detail increased. At every crossing of the Rhine he strictly limited the amount of permissible baggage, and would not signal the advance unless he had first inspected every transport wagon, to make sure that none carried anything but necessities. Once across the river, he made it his practice to eat on the bare turf, slept in the open as often as not, and always committed his Daily and Emergency Orders to writing. Moreover, any officer who did not understand his instructions was required to consult him personally at any hour of the day or night.

  19. Tiberi
us imposed the severest discipline on his men: reviving obsolete methods of punishment or branding them with ignominy for misbehaviour. He even degraded a general because he had sent a few soldiers across the river as escort for one of his freedmen who was hunting there. Although leaving so little to chance, Tiberius would enter a battle with far greater confidence if, on the previous night, the lamp by which he was working went out inexplicably all of a sudden; he used to say that he and his fighting ancestors had always found this a reliable omen of good luck. At the conclusion of his campaign a Bructerian assassin gained admittance to headquarters, disguised as an attendant, but betrayed himself by nervousness and confessed under torture.

  20. Two years after going to Germany Tiberius returned and celebrated the postponed Illyrian triumph; and with him went those generals whom he had recommended for triumphal regalia. Yet he broke his progress through the City at the Triumphal Gate where Augustus, who was presiding over the ceremonies, waited for him at the head of the Senate. He then dismounted and knelt at the feet of his adoptive father before proceeding up the Capitoline Hill to the Temple of Juppiter. Tiberius showed gratitude to the Pannonian leader Bato, who had chivalrously allowed the Roman army to escape when trapped in a gorge, by giving him rich presents and a home at Ravenna—instead of having him strangled, as the triumphal tradition demanded. Then he provided a thousand-table public banquet, and gave three gold pieces to every male guest. The money fetched by the sale of his spoils went to restore the Temple of Concord and that of the Heavenly Twins; both buildings being rededicated in his own name and that of his dead brother Drusus.

  21. Soon afterwards the Consuls introduced a measure which gave Tiberius joint control of the provinces with Augustus, and the task of assisting him to carry out the next five-year census. When the usual purificatory sacrifices had completed the census48 Tiberius set off for Illyricum; but was immediately recalled by Augustus, whom he found in the throes of his last illness. They spent a whole day together in confidential talk. I am well aware of the story that, when Tiberius finally took his departure, Augustus gasped to his attendants: ‘Poor Rome, doomed to be masticated by those slow-moving jaws!’ I am also aware that, according to some writers, he so frankly disliked Tiberius’s dour manner as to interrupt his own careless chatter whenever he entered; and that, when begged by Livia to adopt her son, he is suspected of having agreed the more readily because he foresaw that, with a successor like Tiberius, his death would be increasingly regretted as the years went by. Yet how could so prudent and far-sighted an Emperor have acted as blindly as this in a matter of such importance? My belief is that Augustus weighed Tiberius’s good qualities against the bad, and decided that the good tipped the scale; he had, after all, publicly sworn that his adoption of Tiberius was in the national interest, and had often referred to him as an outstanding general and the only one capable of defending Rome against her enemies. In support of my contention let me quote the following passages from Augustus’s correspondence: