LXXXIII
While Antony was making preparations for war, Plancus, not from a belief that he was choosing the right side, or from love of Cæsar or of the Commonwealth, for to both he was ever a foe, but from being infected with treason as a disorder, (having previously been the meanest flatterer of the queen, more obsequious than any slave, the letter-carrier of Antony, the prompter and actor of the vilest obscenities, venal to all men and for all purposes, and having at a banquet represented Glaucus in a dance, naked and painted green, carrying on his head a chaplet of reeds, dragging a tail after him, and crawling on his knees,) formed the resolution, on being coldly regarded by Antony, because of certain plain proofs of his dishonesty, to desert to Cæsar. He afterwards construed the clemency of the conqueror into a proof of his own merit, alleging that Cæsar had approved what he had only pardoned. Titius soon followed the example of this uncle of his. One day, when Plancus, in the senate, charged Antony in his absence, whom he had but recently deserted, with many foul enormities, Coponius, who had been prætor, and was a man of high character, observed with some humour, “Surely Antony did a great many things the day before you left him.”
LXXXIV
Soon after, in the consulate of Cæsar and Messala Corvinus, the decisive contest was fought at Actium, where, long before the engagement, the victory of the Julian party was certain. On one side, both the soldiers and the commander were full of energy; on the other, everything showed want of spirit; on the one, the seamen were in full strength; on the other, they were greatly weakened by want of provisions; on the one, the ships were moderate in size and active; on the opposite, more formidable only in appearance. From the one side not a man deserted to Antony; from the other, deserters came daily to Cæsar. Besides, in the very presence and view of Antony’s fleet, Leucas was stormed by Marcus Agrippa, Patræ taken, Corinth seized, and the enemy’s fleet worsted twice before the final decision. King Amyntas68, adopting the better and more profitable side, (for Dellius69, adhering to his usual practice * * * *,) and Cnæus Domitius, a man highly esteemed, and the only one of Antony’s party who never addressed the queen but by her name70, came over to Cæsar through great and imminent dangers.
LXXXV
At length arrived the day of the great struggle, when Cæsar and Antony, with their fleets drawn up, came to a general engagement; one fighting to save, the other to ruin the world. The right wing of Cæsar’s fleet was intrusted to Marcus Lurius, the left to Aruntius; to Agrippa was committed the management of the whole action. Cæsar himself, ready to go wherever he should be called by fortune, might be said to be present everywhere. On Antony’s side, the direction of the fleet was given to Publicola and Sosius. Of the troops stationed on the land, Taurus commanded Cæsar’s, and Canidius Antony’s. When the engagement began, there was everything ready on one side, the commander, the seamen, the soldiers; on the other, nothing but the soldiers. Cleopatra first began the flight, and Antony chose rather to be the companion of a flying queen than of a fighting soldiery; and the general, whose duty it had been to punish deserters, became a deserter from his own army. The courage of his men, though deprived of their head, held out a long time in a most determined struggle; despairing of victory, they sought death in the conflict. Cæsar, wishing to soothe with words those whom he might have slain with the sword, and calling and pointing out that Antony had fled, asked them for whom, and against whom, they were fighting. At last, after a long effort in favour of their absent leader, they reluctantly laid down their arms, and yielded the victory; and Cæsar granted them life and pardon more readily than they could be persuaded to ask them of him. It was universally allowed, that the soldiery acted the part of an excellent commander, and the commander that of a most dastardly soldier. Who can doubt, therefore, whether he who took to flight at the will of Cleopatra, would, in case of success, have regulated his conduct by her will or his own? The army on land submitted in like manner, Canidius having precipitately fled to join Antony.
LXXXVI
What blessings that day procured to the world, what an improvement it produced in the state of the public welfare, who would attempt to recount in such a hasty narrative as this abridgment? The victory was attended with the greatest clemency; only a few were put to death; and these were such as would not deign to sue for mercy. From this lenity of the leader, a judgment may be formed of the limits which he would have prescribed to himself in success, had he been allowed, both at the beginning of his triumvirate and in the plains of Philippi. The faithful friendship of Lucius Aruntius, a man remarkable for integrity like that of old, was the means of saving the life of Sosius, though Cæsar had a long struggle against his inclination to spare him. Let us not pass unnoticed the memorable conduct and language of Asinius Pollio. Having, after the peace of Brundisium, stayed at home in Italy, having never seen the queen, nor, after Antony’s mind was enervated by his passion for her, ever interfered in the business of his party, he replied to a request from Cæsar to accompany him to the battle at Actium, “My services to Antony are too great; his kindnesses to me are too notorious; I will therefore keep aloof from your contest, and be the prey of the conqueror.”
LXXXVII
In the next year, Cæsar, pursuing the queen and Antony to Alexandria, brought the civil wars to a conclusion. Antony killed himself courageously enough, so as to compensate by his death for many faults of effeminacy. Cleopatra, eluding the vigilance of her guards, and causing an asp to be brought in to her, put an end to her life by its bite, showing no signs of womanish fear. It reflected honour on Cæsar’s successes, and his merciful disposition, that not one of those who had borne arms against him was put to death by him. The cruelty of Antony took off Decimus Brutus; and the same Antony deprived Sextus Pompey of life, though, on conquering him, he had pledged his honour to secure to him even his rank. Brutus and Cassius died voluntary deaths, without waiting to make trial of the disposition of the conquerors. The end of Antony and Cleopatra I have just related. Canidius died in a more cowardly manner than was consistent with his frequent professions. Of the murderers of Cæsar, Cassius Parmensis was the last victim of vengeance, as Trebonius had been the first.
LXXXVIII
While Cæsar was employed in putting the last hand to the Actian and the Alexandrine wars, Marcus Lepidus, a young man more amiable in person than in mind, son of that Lepidus who had been triumvir for regulating the government, by Junia a sister of Brutus, formed a plot to assassinate Cæsar, as soon as he should return to Rome. The guardianship of the city was then in the hands of Caius Mæcenas, who was of equestrian rank, but of a highly honourable family; a man who, when any affair demanded vigilance, showed the greatest alacrity, foresight, and judgment, but who, when relaxation from business could be obtained, indulged himself in indolence and pleasure to an excess of effeminacy. He was no less beloved by Cæsar, than was Agrippa, but he was not so highly promoted, because, through life, he was fully contented with the narrow purple71; he might have obtained equal preferment, but he had not equal desire for it. On this occasion, making not the least stir, but dissembling his knowledge of the matter, he watched the proceedings of this hot-headed young man, and then crushing him with wonderful despatch, and without any disturbance either of men or business, he stifled the direful seeds of a new and fast reviving civil war, the author meeting the punishment due to his criminal purposes. Here we may produce an instance of conjugal affection parallel to that of Calpurnia, wife of Antistius, whom we have mentioned above72; Servilia, the wife of Lepidus, swallowed burning coals, and thus gained immortal fame as a compensation for a premature death.
LXXXIX
How great the concourse was, and how ardent the welcome from men of all ages and ranks, with which Cæsar was met on his return to Italy and Rome; how magnificent, too, were his triumphs and donations, cannot be fully related even in the compass of a regular history, much less in so brief a work as this. There is no good which men can desire of the gods, none that the gods can bestow on men, none
that can be conceived in wishes, none that can be comprised in perfect good fortune, which Augustus on his return did not realise to the state, to the Roman people, and to the world. The civil wars, which had lasted twenty years, were ended, foreign wars were suppressed, peace was recalled, the fury of arms everywhere laid asleep, energy was restored to the laws, authority to the courts of justice, and majesty to the senate; the power of the magistrates was confined within its ancient limits, only two prætors being appointed in addition to the former eight; the old and original form of the Commonwealth was re-established; the culture of the lands was revived; reverence was restored to religion, security to men’s persons, and to every man safe enjoyment of his property; the old laws received useful emendations, and others of a salutary nature were introduced; and the senate was chosen without severity, though not without strictness. The principal men, who had enjoyed triumphs and the highest honours, were induced by the encouragement of the prince to add to the decorations of the city. He himself could only be persuaded to accept of the consulship, which he was prevailed upon to hold, though he made many endeavours to prevent it, for eleven years; the dictatorship, which the people resolutely pressed upon him, he as resolutely refused. A recital of the wars waged under his command, of his victories that gave peace to the world, and of his numerous works both in Italy and abroad, would give full employment to a writer, who should dedicate the whole of his life merely to those subjects. Mindful of our declared purpose, we have laid before our readers only a general view of his administration.
XC
When the civil wars were composed, as we have said, and the parts of the state, which a long succession of contests had lacerated, began to coalesce, Dalmatia, which had continued rebellious for two hundred and twenty years, was reduced to make a full acknowledgment of the Roman supremacy. The Alps, inhabited by fierce and barbarous nations, were entirely subdued. Spain, after much fighting with various success, was completely subjugated, partly by Cæsar in person, and partly by Agrippa, whom the friendship of the prince raised to a third consulship, and afterwards to be his colleague in the tribunitial power. Into this province a Roman army was first sent in the consulship of Scipio and Sempronius Longus, in the first year of the second Punic War, and two hundred and fifty years from the present time, under the command of Scipio, the uncle of Africanus; and a war was maintained there for two hundred years, with so much bloodshed on both sides, that, while Rome lost several armies and generals, the struggle was often attended with dishonour, and sometimes even with danger, to her empire. This province brought death to the Scipios; this province employed our forefathers in a disgraceful contest of twenty years with the general Viriathus; this province shook Rome itself with the terror of the Numantine war. In this province was made the scandalous treaty of Quintus Pompeius, and the more scandalous one of Mancinus, which the senate rescinded by delivering up that commander with ignominy. This province caused the loss of many generals of consular and prætorian rank, and, in the time of our fathers, exalted Sertorius to such power in arms, that during five years it was impossible to judge whether the Romans or the Spaniards were the stronger in the field, or which nation was destined to obey the other. This province, then, so extensive, so populous, and so warlike, Augustus Cæsar, about fifty years ago, reduced to such a state of pacification, that the country, which had never been free from most violent wars, was thenceforward, first under Caius Antistius, then under Publius Silius, and afterwards under other governors, perfectly exempt from the disturbances even of marauders.
XCI
While means were employed for establishing peace in the west, the Roman standards which Orodes had taken when Crassus was cut off, and those which his son Phraates had captured when Antony was driven from the country, were sent back from the east, by the king of the Parthians, to Augustus, the name which the general voice of the senate and people of Rome had, on the motion of Plancus, conferred upon Cæsar. Yet there were some who felt dissatisfied with this most happy state of affairs. Lucius Murena and Fannius Cæpio, men of different character, (for Murena, setting aside his present misconduct, might be esteemed a good man; Cæpio, even before this, had shown himself one of the worst,) formed a plot to assassinate Cæsar, but, being found guilty on a public trial, they suffered from justice that which they had intended to inflict on another by violence. Not long after, Rufus Egnatius, a man, who, in every respect, was more like a gladiator than a senator, but who, in the office of ædile, had acquired a considerable share of popularity, which he had increased by occasionally extinguishing fires with the aid of his own servants; so that from that office he succeeded to the prætorship, and afterwards had the assurance to stand for the consulate, though he was conscious of being sunk in every kind of vice and infamy; nor was his property in better condition than his mind; this man, I say, having collected a number of accomplices like himself, resolved to effect Cæsar’s death, being willing to die himself, if he could but cut off the man during whose life he could not hope to prosper. For it is frequently the case, that a desperate man chooses to fall amidst public ruin, rather than to sink by himself, and desires, if he must perish, to escape notice among a multitude. But he was not more successful in keeping the secret than the former conspirators; for being thrown into prison, he suffered, with his accomplices, the death best suited to his life.
XCII
Let us not defraud of due commemoration the very meritorious conduct of an excellent man, Caius Sentius Saturninus, who was consul at this time. Cæsar was absent, being employed in regulating the affairs of Asia, and of the east, and dispensing by his presence to every part of the world the blessings of that peace, of which he was the author. Sentius, in Cæsar’s absence, happened to be sole consul; and, after giving other instances of conduct distinguished by primitive strictness and the greatest firmness of mind73, such as dragging into light the frauds of the revenue farmers, punishing their avarice, and replacing the public money in the treasury, he also, when presiding at the elections, supported the character of consul with extraordinary dignity; for whatever persons he judged unworthy to stand for the quæstorship, he forbade to declare themselves candidates for it; and, if they persisted in doing so, he threatened to make them feel the power of a consul, should they appear in the Campus Martius. And when Egnatius, elated by his popularity, conceived hopes, that as he had advanced immediately from the office of ædile to that of prætor, so he would proceed from the prætorship to the consulate, he ordered him to withdraw from the field, and, on failing to obtain compliance from him, he assured him with an oath, that even if he should be elected by the votes of the people, he would not return him. Such conduct I think comparable to any of the celebrated acts of the early consuls; but such is our nature, that we more readily bestow praise on action of which we hear, than on those which we see; we view present merit with envy, and past with veneration; thinking ourselves obscured by the one, but stimulated by the other.
XCIII
Three years before the discovery of the plot of Egnatius, about the time of the conspiracy of Murena and Cæpio, fifty years from the present time, Marcus Marcellus, son of Octavia, the sister of Augustus, (whom people generally supposed, if Cæsar should die, to be likely to succeed to his station, but suspected that that dignity would not be conferred on him without opposition from Marcus Agrippa,) died very young, after having, in the office of ædile, exhibited games with the greatest magnificence. He is said to have been a youth of excellent natural qualities, happy in temper and ability, and capable of filling the high station for which he was educated. After his death, Agrippa, who had gone to Asia under pretence of acting as deputy to the prince, but, as fame says, choosing to be out of the way during the present state of affairs, on account of private misunderstandings between him and Marcellus, returned home and married Cæsar’s daughter Julia, who had been the wife of Marcellus, a woman whose offspring promoted neither her own nor her country’s happiness.
XCIV
During this period
, Tiberius Claudius Nero, (who, as we have said, was three years old when Livia, daughter of Claudianus Drusus, became the wife of Cæsar, being contracted to him by Nero her former husband,) a youth who had been trained in the noblest principles, who possessed in the highest degree birth, beauty, dignity of mien, valuable knowledge, and superior capacity, and who from the beginning gave hopes of becoming the great man that he now is, and by his look announced himself a prince, began to act in a public character, being made quæstor in his nineteenth year; and, under the direction of his stepfather, took such judicious measures, both in Rome and at Ostia, to remedy the exorbitant price of provisions and the scarcity of corn, that from what he did on that occasion, it plainly appeared how great he was to become. Not long after, being sent with an army, under a commission also from his stepfather, to inspect and regulate the provinces in the east, he displayed in those countries instances of every kind of virtue; and, having marched his legions into Armenia, and reduced it under the power of the Roman people, he bestowed the government of it, [which had been taken from] Artavasdes74, on [Tigranes.] Even the king of the Parthians, awed by the fame of his great character, sent his own sons as hostages to Cæsar.
Complete Works of Velleius Paterculus Page 11