The Twelve Caesars

by Robert Graves

  …Goodbye, my very dear Tiberius, and the best of luck go with you in your battles on my behalf—and the Muses! Goodbye, dearest and bravest of men and the most conscientious general alive! If anything goes wrong with you, I shall never smile again!

  ***

  …Your summer campaigns, dear Tiberius, deserve my heartiest praise; I am sure that no other man alive could have conducted them more capably than yourself in the face of so many difficulties and the war-weariness of the troops. All those who served with you agree with me that Ennius’s well-known line about Quintus Fabius Cunctator should be amended in your favour, from: Alone he saved us by his cautious ways, to: Alone he saved us by his watchful eye.

  ***

  …If any business comes up that demands unusually careful thought, or that annoys me, I swear by the God of Truth that I miss my dear Tiberius more than I can say. And the Homeric tag runs in my head:

  If he came with me, such his wisdom is,

  We should escape the fury of the fire.

  ***

  …When people tell me, or I read, that constant campaigning is wearing you out, damnation take me if I don’t get gooseflesh in sympathy! I beg you to take things easy, because if you were to fall ill the news would kill your mother and me, and the whole country would be endangered by doubts about the succession.

  ***

  …My state of health is of little importance compared with yours. I pray that the Gods will always keep you safe and sound for us, if they have not taken an utter aversion to Rome.

  22. Tiberius revealed Augustus’s death only after getting rid of young Agrippa Postumus, whom the colonel appointed to guard him in the prison island had received a written order to execute. So much is known, but some doubt remains whether this order was left by Augustus to be acted on when he died; or whether Livia wrote it in his name; or whether, if so, Tiberius knew anything of the matter. At all events, when the colonel arrived to report that he had done his duty, Tiberius disowned the order and threatened to make him answerable for this unauthorized execution. Tiberius was, it seems, trying merely to avoid immediate unpopularity; for he shelved the inquiry and allowed the incident to be forgotten.

  23. With Agrippa out of the way, Tiberius used his tribunicial power to convene the Senate and break the news of Augustus’s death. After reading a few words of a prepared speech, he suddenly groaned aloud and, protesting that grief had robbed him of his voice and that he wished his life would also be taken, handed the scroll to his son Drusus, who finished the task. A freedman then read Augustus’s will aloud; all senators present who had witnessed the document being first called upon to acknowledge their seals—witnesses of lower rank would presently do the same outside the House. The preamble to the will ran as follows: ‘Since fate has cruelly carried off my sons Gaius and Lucius, Tiberius must inherit two-thirds of my property…’ This ungracious wording strengthened the suspicion that Augustus had nominated Tiberius as his successor only for want of any better choice.

  24. Tiberius did not hesitate to exercise imperial power immediately by calling on the Praetorians to provide him with a bodyguard; which was to be emperor in fact and in appearance. Yet a long time elapsed before he assumed the title of Emperor. When his friends urged him to accept it he went through the farce of scolding them for the suggestion, saying that they did not realize what a monstrous beast the monarchy was; and kept the Senate guessing by his carefully evasive answers and hesitations, even when they threw themselves at his feet imploring him to change his mind. This made some of them lose patience, and in the confusion a voice was heard shouting: ‘Oh, let him either take it or leave it!’ And another senator openly taunted him with: ‘Some people are slow to do what they promise; you are slow to promise what you have already done.’ Finally, with a great show of reluctance, and complaints that they were forcing him to become a miserable and overworked slave, Tiberius accepted the title of Emperor; but hinted that he might later resign it. His actual words were: ‘Until I grow so old that you may be good enough to grant me a respite.’

  25. His hesitation was caused by threats of danger from many quarters. One Clemens had recruited a fairly large force of fellow-slaves, sworn to avenge their dead master Agrippa Postumus; Lucius Scribonius Liber, a nobleman, was planning a revolt; and camp mutinies now broke out in Illyricum and Germany. Both bodies of mutineers demanded very large concessions—particularly that they should be paid at the same rate as the Praetorians. The army in Germany also refused to acknowledge an Emperor whom they had not chosen themselves, and did all they could to make their Commander-in-chief, Germanicus, accept the title despite his flat refusal. A fear that they might succeed was the main reason for Tiberius’s plea to the Senate: ‘Pray assign me any part in the government you please; but remember that no single man can bear the whole burden of Empire—I need a colleague, or perhaps several colleagues.’ He then gave out that he was dangerously ill, so that Germanicus would wait for his death before agreeing to become Emperor and meanwhile be satisfied to act as his colleague. However, both mutinies were suppressed; Tiberius tricked Clemens into surrender; and in the following year he dared bring Libo in front of a Senatorial Court—though hitherto he had merely kept on his guard, not feeling powerful enough to take active measures against him. Thus, when Libo took part in a pontifical sacrifice, Tiberius, who was with him, had substituted a leaden knife for the sharp double-bladed steel one which Libo would use; and later refused his plea for a private audience unless Drusus were present, and even then pretended to need the support of Libo’s arm as they walked up and down together, and clung tightly to it.

  26. These immediate anxieties past, Tiberius at first behaved with great discretion, and almost as modestly as if he had never held public office. Of the many high honours voted him, he accepted none but a few unimportant ones, and could hardly be persuaded to let his birthday, which fell on the day of the Plebeian Games, be honoured by the addition of a two-horse chariot to the state procession in the Circus. He vetoed all bills for the dedication of temples and priests to his divinity, and reserved the right to sanction even the setting up of his statues and busts—which might not be placed among the images of the gods, but used only to decorate private houses. Proposals that all citizens should swear to approve his past and future actions, and that the months of September and October should be renamed respectively ‘Tiberius’ and ‘Livius’ (after his mother) met with his veto. He also declined to set the title ‘Emperor’ before his name, or ‘Father of His Country’ after; or to let the Civic Crown—which had been voted to Augustus for preserving the lives of his fellow-citizens—be fixed above his own palace door; and even refrained from using the title ‘Augustus’, though his by right of inheritance, in any letters except those addressed to foreign monarchs. On becoming Emperor, he held no more than three consulships49: one for a few days, the next for three months, and the third—during his absence in Capri—from New Year until 15 May.

  27. Such was his hatred of flatterers that he refused to let senators approach his Utter, whether in greeting or on business; and one day, when an ex-Consul came to apologize for some fault and tried to embrace his knees in suppliant fashion Tiberius retreated so hurriedly that he tumbled over backwards. And if anyone, either in conversation or a speech, spoke of him in too fulsome terms, Tiberius would interrupt and sternly correct the phrase. Once, when addressed as ‘My Lord and Master’, he gave warning that no such insult must ever again be thrown at him. Another man referred to ‘your sacred occupations’, and a third said that he had ‘approached the Senate by the Emperor’s authority’; Tiberius made them change these words to ‘your laborious occupations’ and ‘at the Emperor’s instance’.

  28. He was, moreover, quite unperturbed by abuse, slander, or lampoons on himself and his family, and would often say that liberty to speak and think as one pleases is the test of a free country. When the Senate asked that those who had offended in this way should be brought to book, he replied: ‘We cannot spare the
time to undertake any such new enterprise. Open that window, and you will let in such a rush of denunciations as to waste your whole working day; everyone will take this opportunity of airing some private feud.’ A remarkably modest statement of his is recorded in the Proceedings of the Senate: ‘If So-and-so challenges me, I shall lay before you a careful account of what I have said and done; if that does not satisfy him, I shall reciprocate his dislike of me.’

  29. Tiberius showed an almost excessive courtesy when addressing individual senators, and the House as a body. Once, on the floor of the House, he found himself disagreeing with Quintus Haterius, and said: ‘You will, I hope, forgive me if I trespass on my rights as a senator by speaking rather more plainly than I should.’ Then he turned to the House with: ‘Let me repeat, my lords, that a right-minded and true-hearted statesman who has had as much sovereign power placed in his hands as you have placed in mine, should regard himself as the servant of the Senate; and often of the people as a whole; and sometimes of private citizens, too. I do not regret this view, because I have always found you to be generous, just, and indulgent masters.’

  30. He even made a pretence at restoring popular liberties by seeing that the Senate and magistrates enjoyed their former dignities; and by referring all public business, however important or unimportant, to the House, asking for advice in every matter that concerned the national revenue, the allocation of monopolies, and the construction or repair of public buildings. He actually consulted them about the drafting or disbanding of troops, the stationing of legions and auxiliaries, the extension of military commands, the choice of generals to conduct particular campaigns, and how to answer letters from foreign potentates. When a cavalry general was accused of robbery with violence, Tiberius did not take summary action but ordered him to plead his case before the Senate. He always entered the House unattended, except for one day when he was sick and carried in on a litter; and even then he dismissed his bearers immediately.

  31. If decrees were passed in defiance of his wishes, he abstained from complaint: for example, when he had insisted that City magistrates should stay at home and transact their official business, but the Senate allowed a praetor-elect to travel overseas, with use of the diplomatic bag. And on expressing the opinion that a road could rightfully be made at Trebia with a legacy bequeathed the City towards the building of a new theatre, he was overruled and the testator’s intentions were respected. Once it happened that the Senate put a motion to the vote; Tiberius went into the minority lobby and not a soul followed him.

  He left a great deal of public business to the magistrates and the ordinary processes of law; and the Consuls grew so important again that an African embassy came before them, complaining that they could make no headway with Caesar, to whom they had been sent. Nor was this at all remarkable; everyone knew that he even stood up when the Consuls appeared, and made way on meeting them in the streets.

  32. Some governors-general of consular rank earned a rebuff by addressing their despatches to Tiberius rather than the Senate and asking him to approve awards of military honours as though they were not entitled to give these at their own discretion. He also congratulated a praetor who, when he assumed office, revived the ancient custom of publicly eulogizing his own ancestors; and he attended the funerals of important citizens, to the extent of witnessing their cremation. Tiberius never presumed on his position by riding rough-shod over men of lesser rank. He summoned to Rome the Rhodian magistrates who had sent him a public report without adding the usual complimentary formula of prayers for his health, yet did not reprimand them when they appeared; merely instructing them to repair the omission, and sending them home again. During his stay at Rhodes a professor of literature named Diogenes used to lecture every ‘Sabbath’—and, when Tiberius wanted to hear him some other day of the week, sent a slave out to say: ‘Come back on the seventh day!’ Diogenes now turned up at Rome and waited at the Palace door to pay Tiberius his respects; Tiberius’s only revenge was a mild message: ‘Come back in the seventh year.’ He answered some governors who had written to recommend an increase in the burden of provincial taxation, with: ‘A good shepherd shears his flock; he does not flay them.’

  33. Very gradually Tiberius showed that he was the real ruler of the Empire, and though at first his policy was not always consistent, he nevertheless took considerable pains to further the national interest. At first, too, he intervened in matters of state only when abuses had to be checked; revoking certain orders published by the Senate, and sometimes offering to sit on the tribunal beside the magistrates, or at one end of the curved dais, in an advisory capacity. And if it came to his ears that influence was being used to acquit a criminal in some court or other, he would suddenly appear and address the jury either from the floor or from the tribunal; asking them to remember the sanctity of the Law and their oath to uphold it, and the serious nature of the crime on which their verdict was required. He also undertook to arrest any decline in public morality due to negligence or licence.

  34. Tiberius cut down the expenses of public entertainments by lowering the pay of actors and setting a limit to the number of gladiatorial combats on any given festival. Once he protested violently against an absurd rise in the cost of Corinthian bronze statues, and of high quality fish—three mullets had been offered for sale at 100 gold pieces each! His proposal was that a ceiling should be imposed on the prices of household furniture, and that market values should be annually regulated by the Senate. At the same time the aediles were to restrict the amount of food offered for sale in cookshops and eating-houses; even banning breadstuffs. And to set an example in his campaign against waste he often served, at formal dinner parties, half-eaten dishes left over from the day before—or only one side of a wild boar, sliced down the backbone—which, he said, contained everything that the other side did.

  He issued an edict against promiscuous kissing and the giving of good-luck gifts at New Year. On the receipt of such a gift he had formerly always returned one four times as valuable, and presented it personally; but he discontinued this practice when he found the whole of January becoming spoilt by a stream of gift-givers who had been denied an audience on New Year’s Day.

  35. An ancient Roman custom revived by Tiberius was the punishment of married women guilty of improprieties, by the decision of a family council; so long as a public prosecutor had not intervened. When one Roman knight had sworn that he would never divorce his wife whatever she did, but found her in bed with his son, Tiberius absolved him from his oath. Married women of good family but bad reputation were beginning to ply openly as prostitutes, and to escape punishment for their adulteries by renouncing the privileges of their class; and wastrels of both the Senatorial and Equestrian Orders purposely got themselves reduced in rank so as to evade the law forbidding their appearance on the stage or in the arena. All such offenders were now exiled, which discouraged any similar sheltering behind the letter of the law. Tiberius degraded a senator on hearing that he had left Rome for the country at the end of June, 1 July being moving-day, in order to secure a house at a cheaper rental later on, when there would be less demand. He cancelled the quaestorship of another man who had married a woman the day before he cast lots for a province, but divorced her the next day because he had not drawn the one he wanted.

  36. He abolished foreign cults at Rome, particularly the Egyptian and Jewish, forcing all citizens who had embraced these superstitious faiths to burn their religious vestments and other accessories. Jews of military age were removed to unhealthy regions, on the pretext of drafting them into the army; those too old or too young to serve—including non-Jews who had adopted similar beliefs—were expelled from the City and threatened with slavery if they defied the order. Tiberius also banished all astrologers except such as asked for his forgiveness and undertook to make no more predictions.

  37. Tiberius safeguarded the country against banditry and local revolts by decreasing the distance between police posts; and at Rome provided the Praetori
an Guards, who had hitherto been billeted in scattered City lodging houses, with regular barracks and a fortified camp. He also discountenanced City riots, and if any broke out, crushed them without mercy. The theatre audience had formed factions in support of rival actors, and once when their quarrels ended in bloodshed, Tiberius exiled not only the faction leaders but the actors who had been the occasion of the riot; nor would he ever give way to popular entreaties by recalling them. Trouble occurred in Pollentia, a Ligurian town at the northern foot of the Apennines, where the townsfolk would not let the corpse of a leading centurion be removed from the market-place until his heirs had agreed to meet their importunate demands for a free gladiatorial show. Tiberius detached one armed company from Rome, and another from the Cottian Alps, to converge on Pollentia, after disguising their destination. They had orders to enter the town simultaneously by opposite gates, suddenly display their weapons, blow trumpets, and arrest most of the inhabitants and all the magistrates—whom he then sentenced to life-imprisonment.