by Allan Massie
He pushed back a lock of hair that had fallen over his eyes, and smiled.
"I'm not sure that I dare." "What do you mean?"
"Look," he said, "I owe everything to you. I'm very conscious of that. And I know you have an affection for me, and I'm utterly loyal to you. I've got to be, apart from anything else, for I am committed to you. You understand that, don't you?"
"I look on you as a son and my dearest friend."
"That's just as well," he said, "because if I had any doubt about your feeling for me, I would be afraid to express my opinion, even though it is my duty to do so. I believe that Germanicus and Agrippina are playing the part of Caesar, and have cast you as Pompey. They think that if they can attach the legions to themselves, personally, they can defy you, and even seize the throne."
"I don't like that word," I said.
"Very well, then, power…"
"But why should they…?"
I broke off. He smiled again.
"You don't mean that," he said. "You know better…" I could not meet his eye.
"I am grateful," I said. "Grateful and terrified…"
"I accept the gratitude. Remember this. Augustus had you adopt Germanicus as your heir, but you have your own son Drusus. Your nephew can't forget that…"
Sejanus had used a potent word to waken my fears: the name of Caesar terrifies all Romans. Caesar, the destroyer of liberty, the man who unleashed civil war on Rome. Of course Caesar was, in reality, more than that and less than that. He was perhaps an instrument of history, for, in the circumstances, there would have been civil war even without his ambition. And that ambition, one may say now, was not entirely selfish (though my mother would disagree). It is even possible to maintain that Caesar had some sort of vision of regeneration, that, in some sense, he perceived, even if only dimly, how the state had to be reformed. Nevertheless, whatever one grants him, and none denies him genius, Caesar the wolf, the destroyer, the rebel who would make himself king, is still the figure who fills one's eye.
Rome has never recovered from the catastrophe into which his ambition plunged the state. I who now, by a stroke of irony, find myself his heir, know that better than anyone. I am the most unfortunate of men: a reluctant ruler who despises those he rules. Caesar let slip the dogs of war, of civil war, the worst of wars; his murderers and his heirs fought another, a bloody and divisive series of wars. Augustus emerged sole victor, and set himself to repair the state. Sometimes he deceived himself that he had in fact done so. In his heart he knew better, as Livia knows, and as I try all too often to hide from myself. Behind the facade of Republican respectability which he erected, he established the ultimate reality: power breeding fear. And I have inherited that reality, that power and that fear. I hoped to reanimate the Republican spirit, and found it corrupted by fear.
On the surface things are different. We debate in the Senate with a degree of freedom. The law-courts operate according to ancient practice. Elections are held. Armies are banished from Italy (except for the Praetorians). Trade flourishes. Men go about their business in ease and safety. The harvests come and go, gathered and fruitful. Italy basks in sunlight. Wealth accumulates. The pleasures of art, of the theatre and of the circus are widely enjoyed. Everything has been, to use a favourite word of Augustus', consolidated.
And yet the basic question should be asked, though I dare only to put it in the silence of my own mind: why are people behaving in the way they do? Why do they do all these things, which, taken together, give the impression that we have achieved a united society, giving happy and willing support to a benevolent government? Any wise man must find the answer self-evident: they are driven to this simulation of content by fear. We are dominated by fear: fear of the barbarians without and within. It is fear which compels men, even of great family, to perform degrading acts of self-criticism and self-abnegation, fear which informs the insincerity of our public life. It is fear which prevents men, even senators — perhaps most of all senators — from saying what they think, even in private; they are afraid someone might inform against them.
Of course this is no ordinary fear. We are not all shaking with daily terror. On the contrary, the surface of our life is just what it seems; look at the Senate and you see rich, happy, self-confident citizens. No, we can take nothing for granted, not even love, affection, the loyalty of one's own family and friends. Rome throbs with a pervasive anxiety. There is no one who is not vulnerable.
Not even the emperor. It was fear that drove Augustus to turn so savagely on his daughter and her lovers; fear for his own creation that caused him to arrange the murder of his grandson Agrippa Postumus, so that, as a result of his prudence, I inherited a legacy of blood. And Agrippina, Sejanus assures me, holds me responsible for her brother's death, which she ascribes to my order, rather than her grandfather's.
"She is, according to Friso," Sejanus said, "forever hinting to Germanicus that you are the enemy of her branch of the family, and persuading him that he cannot trust you."
So the corrupting fear infects even what men have started to call the imperial family.
The fear is widespread. Hardly a day passes that I am not assailed by anonymous and scurrilous verses. Daily, while I resided in Rome, informers found means to approach me with evidence of seditious talk and plotting. For the most part I paid no attention. When I was told that a man had been speaking against me, I replied that the ability to think and speak as one wished was the test of a free country. What was the result of my enunciation of this impeccably Republican sentiment? According to Romanius Hispo, a man of obscure birth but some merit whom I found useful on account of the store of information he habitually collected, men saw my reply as a sign of dissimulation. I was encouraging free speech, they said, in order to be able to identify my enemies. It was a lure to encourage them to betray themselves. Such was the demoralising effect of fear. But is it any wonder, in these circumstances, if I too began to see enemies on every side?
Of course people were ready to use the treason laws for their own advantage, hoping either simply to ruin those they disliked or envied, or to profit from the rewards which the law decreed should go to informers. Some of the accusations brought were in themselves trivial. For instance, a charge was brought against one Falanius, a member of the equestrian order, of insulting the divinity of Augustus. He had, it was said, admitted among the worshippers of Augustus a certain actor in musical comedies named Cassius, who was, notoriously, also a male prostitute, and he was accused, secondly, of disposing of a statue of Augustus, when selling some garden property. At the same time a friend of his, Rubrius, was charged with blasphemy against the divinity of Augustus.
I deprecated such charges, and informed the consuls, who were considering them, that in my opinion Augustus had not been voted divine honours in order to ruin Roman citizens. I pointed out that Cassius, however deplorable his private life, was an accomplished actor, who had taken part in the games organised by my mother, the Augusta, in her late husband's honour. As for the blasphemy, I said, the gods must see to their own wrongs.
Could anyone take exception to my common sense? Of course they could. I was accused of displaying jealousy of Augustus. Tiberius would be a damned sight quicker to avenge insults to his own honour, they said.
In fact I wasn't. Romanius Hispo informed me that the senator Marcus Granius Marcellus was spreading the rumour that I had dismissed the charges against Falanius merely because Cassius was my own catamite. He added that Marcellus had placed his own effigy above that of Augustus and myself and was saying that I had prepared a plan to send leading senators such as Scaurus and Gallus into exile. Though I demurred, Romanius insisted on bringing a charge of treason against Marcellus. I announced that I would hear the evidence in the Senate, and, on this occasion, vote openly and on oath, for I hoped that such a statement would check merely malicious accusations by exposing those who brought them to public obloquy. What happened? My friend Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso exposed the hypocrisy of the Senate in
a couple of sentences. "Caesar," he said, "will you vote first or last? If first, I shall have your lead to follow. If last, I am afraid that I may inadvertently vote against you." I was grateful to him for his intervention; it convinced me that it was impossible that the Senate should give a fair trial to anyone accused of treason. Fear would hold them back from expressing their true opinions. In disgust, I voted that Marcellus be acquitted of treason, though, technically, he was guilty.
These were all minor worries, though symptomatic of the disease which gripped the state, when compared with the problem that Germanicus posed me. His victories in Germany secured no solid or enduring advantage, though to do him honour and enhance his reputation I was prepared to exaggerate their value, and so decreed him a triumph. I hoped also, I confess, that so public a statement of my regard might reconcile him and Agrip-pina to me, and at least dilute the suspicion with which they regarded me. Vain hope.
I had another reason however. My nephew was eager to prosecute the war further and launch another expedition — his fourth — against the Germans. There was no prospect that he would meet with substantial success. His campaigns to date had fortified me in the opinion at which Augustus and I had independently arrived: that the prudent limits of empire had been attained, and that plans for further expansion should be abandoned. Now the ardour of an impetuous youth was calling our judgment into question. It was intolerable, and could not be permitted.
Livia was for a sharp response. "He must be put in his place, compelled to understand that his position is subsidiary. How dare this callow youth set his opinion up against yours… — .?"
She sat upright in her chair, and rapped the ferrule of her ebony cane on the floor. Her knuckles gleamed white, her head, more than ever like that of a noble bird of prey, quivered. That, and a certain tremor in her voice, betrayed her age.
"Germanicus has friends, admirers, supporters," I said. "He may also have secured the personal allegiance of his soldiers."
"That itself is treason."
"I do not say he has done so formally by extracting a personal oath. But it has amounted to that."
"Your father would never have permitted it."
Perhaps not, but Livia now lived in the imagination, where all things are possible and difficulties dissolve of their own accord, or are dispelled by an act of will. I f only, I thought, I understood Germanicus as well as I understood my mother. But I had no difficulty in understanding Agrippina: she was filled with implacable hostility towards me.
I poured out honours upon the young man. I caused an arch to be dedicated beside the Temple of Saturn, in celebration of the recapture, under his leadership and my auspices, of the eagles lost with Varus. I arranged that his triumph should be celebrated the following May with unrivalled splendour. The procession included spoils, prisoners, and pictures of mountains, rivers and battles. To my displeasure, Agrippina insisted on accompanying her husband in his chariot; everyone commented on the noble sight they presented surrounded by their five children, smiling to be the centre of such adulation. In my nephew's name I distributed three hundred sesterces a head to the population, and Rome rang that evening with wine and song. I announced that to do the young man further honour, I myself would share his consulship.
Germanicus was flattered by all this attention; he revelled in his popularity. Everyone fawned upon him, and he believed they meant what they said. Some did, of course; but the generality was prompted by fear. People thought he was the coming man. They were awed by the power which they believed he could deploy.
But, though flattered, he was not diverted from his argument that the German war should be renewed. Agrippina urged this course, feeding his vanity. She gave dinner-parties at which she strove to seduce senators into agreement. She did not do so by the charm of her person. Her features were sharp and her voice harsh; she had none of her mother's sensual nature. She was indeed ostentatiously faithful to her husband, and cruelly critical of ladies who lapsed from monogamous chastity. The truth is, she was a prig.
I did all I could to appease the hostility of the young couple. I consulted Germanicus' mother, Antonia, with whom I had always been on good terms, a woman of exemplary sense and virtue. She confessed to me that she found her daughter-in-law "difficult".
"I know," she said, "that you have acted fairly, and indeed with great generosity towards my son. It wasn't easy for you to accept Augustus' will and favour him above your own boy, Drusus. Believe me, my dear Tiberius, I am grateful for your even-handedness in this matter, and I understand that the only dispute between the two of you is over a matter of public policy, in which it is likely that a man of your experience judges more wisely than a youth, however brilliant. I trust your love for Germanicus as I trusted your love for your brother, my dear husband Drusus."
Antonia then proposed that we should publicly display our concord by arranging a marriage between my son Drusus and her elder daughter Julia Livilla, who, as a little girl, had been betrothed to Gaius Caesar.
"She is a few years older than the dear boy," she said, "but I never think that a bad thing. Surely such a marriage will convince my son that you feel nothing but benevolence for our part of the family."
I agreed. The marriage was arranged and celebrated. What was the result? Agrippina at once began telling anyone who would listen that this was all part of my scheme to displace Germanicus, and ensure that Drusus succeeded me. What could you do with such a woman?
"You could stop her mouth," Sejanus suggested, laughing at the idea. "You could remind her there are islands in the sea reserved for the female members of her family."
He was not serious. Germanicus' position alone would have made it impossible for me to serve his wife as Augustus had served her mother and her elder sister; the latter, named Julia like her mother, had suffered the same sentence for similar offences. The scurrilous poet Ovid, it may be remembered, was among those who shared her crimes and her disgrace.
4
Fortunately, developments elsewhere offered a temporary solution to the problems Germanicus raised. I had been compelled to arraign the aged King of Cappadocia, Archelaus, before the Senate, and it had been decided to incorporate his kingdom within the empire, so that it came under direct rule. This did not displease me, for Archelaus had insulted me during my residence at Rhodes, when he felt himself safe to do so, on account of what he conceived to be my own fall from favour. The supervision of the transformation of Cappadocia from one status to another was important work, and I judged that Germanicus would acquit himself excellently in the role required.
I had already made this decision when news arrived that King Vonones of Armenia had been expelled by a faction that favoured Parthia to Rome. Since the strategic importance of Armenia is so great, this was a situation fraught with peril. I therefore resolved that Germanicus should assume supreme authority over the Eastern provinces of the empire, and proposed to ask the Senate to grant him maius imperium. I could not have expressed my confidence in his abilities more fully. Even so, Agrippina found cause for complaint, though Germanicus seemed pleased enough. She, however, let it be known that he was being denied glory in Germany, and persisted in describing the arduous task to which I had called him as "a mere police action".
She also criticised my decision at the same time to appoint Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso Governor of Syria. Yet this seemed to me prudent. Piso was a man I had trusted, of vast experience and, hitherto, distinguished for common sense and virtue. Syria was a responsible position, since the Governor there commanded four legions. It was necessary, given the instability in the East, that the Governorship be held by a man capable of independent action. Agrippina let it be known that I had appointed Piso to act as my "spy" — she actually used that word. In fact, I had done no more than suggest that he might find it necessary to act as a brake on Germanicus' noble impetuosity. I was afraid that the young man's lust for military glory might embroil us in a full-scale war with Parthia…
So, before he set out, I sa
id to Piso, "Your task, my friend, is to hold yourself ready to bridle the colt."
That was the limit of my instructions.
Germanicus' progress towards Armenia resembled that of a candidate for office, rather than a general. He visited Drusus in Dalmatia, and spoke to him, "in confidence, of course, brother", in a manner which my son later described as "approaching the borders of sedition". He told Drusus that my judgment was failing, and the day might not be far off when they would have to declare me incompetent to rule. "He said it with that laugh of his, you know, so that it could be passed off as a joke if necessary. But I don't think he intended it as a jest."
He proceeded down the Dalmatian coast, through Albania and into Greece, till he reached the gulf of Nicepolis. There he surveyed the scene of Actium, and reminded me in a letter that it must arouse mixed emotions in his breast, since he was the grand-nephew of Augustus (and married to his grand-daughter) but also the grandson of Antony. "I am proud to think," he wrote to me, "that in my children the feud between those two great men is reconciled."
He visited Athens, ostentatiously approaching the city with only a single attendant, out of regard for our ancient treaty of alliance. The Athenians, always delighted, in their giddy-headed manner, with something new, received him with rapture; they scattered flowers before him, and regaled him with feats of oratory, which he bore with an equanimity that was not perhaps entirely insincere. His subsequent progress through Asia was slow: judging from his letters he was travelling as a tourist rather than a man on an urgent mission. I received three pages of vapid but euphoric descriptions of the site of Troy, which I had in any case visited myself. At Clarus he consulted the oracle of Apollo, where the priest, though illiterate and ignorant of metre, is accustomed to emerge from a cave, where he has drunk from a sacred spring, with a set of appropriate verses. Since neither Germanicus nor Agrippina broadcast their import, they cannot have pleased the young couple.