XCV
When Nero returned from those parts, Cæsar determined to try his abilities in supporting the weight of a difficult war, giving him, as an assistant in the business, his own brother Claudius Drusus, whom Livia had borne in the house of Cæsar. The two brothers attacked the Rhætians and Vindelicians on different sides, and having accomplished the sieges of many cities and forts, as well as some successful actions in the field, they completely subdued those nations, (though strongly protected by the nature of the country, difficult of access, abounding in numbers, and of savage fierceness,) with more danger than loss on the side of the Romans, but with great bloodshed on that of the enemy.
Some time before this, the censorship of Plancus and Paulus was spent in quarrelling with each other, producing neither honour to themselves nor advantage to the public; for one of them wanted the requisite capacity, the other the requisite character, for a censor. Paulus could hardly fill the office; and Plancus ought to have shrunk from it; for he could not charge young men, or hear others charge them, with any crime of which he in his old age was not guilty.
XCVI
Soon after, the death of Agrippa, who had ennobled his original obscurity by many honours, and had advanced so far as to become father-in-law to Nero, whose sons the emperor Augustus, being his own grandsons, had adopted, prefixing the names Caius and Lucius to their own, brought Nero into closer connexion with Cæsar, for Julia, Cæsar’s daughter, who had been the wife of Agrippa, married Nero. The war in Pannonia, which had commenced in the consulate of Agrippa and Marcus Vinicius your grandfather, and which, raging with great fury, threatened Italy with imminent danger, was then conducted by Nero. The Pannonian nations, the tribes of the Dalmatians, the situations of the countries and rivers, the numbers of their people and the extent of their strength, the numerous and most glorious victories gained in that war by this consummate general, we shall describe in another place. Let this work preserve its character. In consequence of this success Nero enjoyed the honour of an ovation.
XCVII
But while all things on this side of the empire were conducted with the greatest success, a severe loss was sustained by the troops in Germany, under the command of the lieutenant-general Marcus Lollius, a man who was always more anxious to get money than to discharge his duty, and, while he carefully concealed his vices, was extremely profligate. The loss of the eagle of the fifth legion called Cæsar from the city into Gaul. The change and management of the German war was then delegated to Claudius Drusus the brother of Nero, a youth of as many and as great virtues as human nature can cherish, or industry acquire; and of whose genius it is doubtful whether it was better adapted for the arts of war or of peace. His sweet and engaging manners, his courteous and unassuming demeanour75 towards his friends, are said to have been inimitable. The comeliness of his person approached very near to that of his brother. But, when he had conquered a great part of Germany, after shedding a profusion of the blood of the inhabitants in various parts, the cruelty of the fates snatched him from the world while he was consul, and in the thirtieth year of his age. The burden of the war then devolved on Nero, who executed it with his usual valour and success; and, carrying his victorious arms over every part of Germany, without any loss of the troops committed to his charge, (an object always of great solicitude with this commander,) he subdued it so effectually as to reduce it nearly to the state of a tributary province. Another triumph, and another consulship, were in consequence conferred upon him.
XCVIII
While the transactions which we have mentioned passed in Pannonia and Germany, the military exertions of Lucius Piso, whom we behold at present the mildest guardian of the city’s safety, suppressed a furious war that broke out in Thrace, where all the tribes of the nation had arisen in arms. As lieutenant-general to Cæsar, he carried on the war against them for three years; and partly by engagements in the field, partly by taking their towns, with great destruction on their side, he reduced those ferocious people to submission on the former terms of peace; by which achievement he restored security to Asia, and peace to Macedonia. Of this man, every one must think and acknowledge that his character is a composition of vigour and gentleness, and that it is hard to find any person, either more fond of ease, more ready to undergo the fatigue of business, or more anxious to despatch what is required of him, without any display of activity.
XCIX
Not long after, Tiberius Nero, having now enjoyed two consulships, and as many triumphs, having been raised to an equality with Augustus in the partnership of the tribunitian power, having become the most eminent of all his countrymen excepting one, and being inferior to him only because he wished to be so; the greatest of commanders, the most distinguished in fame and fortune, the second luminary and head of the Commonwealth, requested (out of a surprising, incredible, and unspeakable effort of affection, the causes of which were afterwards discovered, as he considered that Caius Cæsar had already assumed the manly gown, and that Lucius was now grown up to manhood, and apprehended that his own splendour might obstruct the progress of the rising youths,) leave of absence from his father-in-law and stepfather, that he might rest from a continual course of labours, but without discovering the true reasons for such a resolution. An account of the sentiments of the people on this occasion, of the feelings of individuals, of the tears shed by every one on taking leave of this great man, and how near his country was to insisting on his stay, must be reserved for my history at large. But one thing must be mentioned even in this hasty narration; that he spent seven years at Rhodes in such a manner, that all proconsuls and legates going into the transmarine provinces waited on him there with compliments, lowering their fasces to him always even in his private character, (if such majesty was ever private,) and acknowledging his retirement more to be respected than their high employments.
C
The whole world was sensible that Nero had withdrawn from the guardianship of the city. Not only the Parthians, renouncing their alliance of Rome, laid their hands on Armenia; but Germany, when the eyes of its conqueror were turned away, rose up in rebellion. But in the city, in that same year, (thirty from the present time,) in which the emperor Augustus, being consul with Caninius Gallus, gratified the eyes and minds of the Roman people, on occasion of dedicating a Temple to Mars, with most magnificent spectacles of gladiators and a sea-fight, a calamity disgraceful to mention, and dreadful to call to mind, fell upon his own house. His daughter Julia, utterly regardless of the dignity of her father and husband, indulged in every excess which a woman can practice or allow at the instigation of luxury and libidinousness, measuring her license to be vicious by the eminence of her station, and pronouncing everything lawful that gratified her desires. On this occasion Julius Antonius76, who from being a conspicuous example of Cæsar’s mercy became a violator of his house, was himself the avenger of his own guilt. To this man, after the overthrow of his father, Cæsar had granted not only life, but a priest’s office, a prætorship, a consulate, and the government of provinces, and had even admitted him to the closest affinity, by giving him in marriage the daughter of his own sister. And Quintius Crispinus, who covered exorbitant wickedness under a morose austerity of countenance, with Appius Claudius, Sempronius Gracchus, Scipio, and others of less note, of both orders, suffered only such punishment as they would have incurred for corrupting any ordinary person’s wife; though they had defiled the daughter of Cæsar, and wife of Nero. Julia was banished to the island [of Pandataria], and thus removed from the sight of her country and her parents; though, indeed, her mother Scribonia accompanied her, and remained a voluntary sharer in her exile.
CI
A short time had intervened, when Caius Cæsar, after making a progress through other provinces to inspect their condition, was sent to Syria, and made, on his way, a visit to Tiberius Nero, paying every mark of respect to him as to a superior; but, during his stay in the province, his conduct was so variable, that neither would abundant matter be wanting to him who
would praise it, nor a sufficiency to him who would censure it. This noble youth had an interview with the king of the Parthians in an island of the Euphrates, each having an equal number of attendants. This grand and memorable spectacle, of the Roman army standing on one side, and the Parthian on the other, while the most illustrious heads of the greatest empires in the world held their meeting, I had the good fortune to behold, soon after my entrance into the army, being then a military tribune. This rank I attained, Marcus Vinicius, while serving under your father and Publius Silius in Thrace and Macedonia; and having since seen Achaia, Asia, all the provinces in the east, and the mouth and both shores of the Pontic sea, I now receive much pleasure from the recollection of so many events, places, nations, and cities. The Parthian was first entertained at a banquet by Caius, on our bank; then Caius by the king, on the bank opposite.
CII
On this occasion, some treacherous schemes, full of artifice and deceit, which had been formed by Marcus Lollius, whom Augustus had chosen director of the youth of his son, were revealed to Cæsar by the Parthian prince; and they were afterwards made public by common fame. Whether Lollius’s death, which followed in a few days, was fortuitous or voluntary, I have not discovered; but the joy, which people felt at his decease, was counterbalanced by their grief for the loss of Censorinus, who died soon after in the same province, a man formed by nature to captivate the affections of mankind. Caius then marched into Armenia, and, at the beginning, conducted nearly everything well; but afterwards, in a conference near Artigera, where he had rashly exposed himself, being severely wounded by a man named Adduus, he became, in consequence, less active in body, and mentally less capable of benefiting the public. He had about him, also, a crowd of courtiers, who encouraged his vices by adulation; for flattery is always attendant on high station, and, by this means, he was so far perverted, that he wished to spend his life in the most retired and distant corner of the globe, rather than return to Rome. However, after many struggles he consented, and having reluctantly set out for Italy, he fell sick and died at a town in Lycia, which they called Limyra. His brother, Lucius Cæsar, had died a year before at Marseilles, as he was going to Spain.
CIII
But Fortune, though she had frustrated the hopes entertained of those illustrious names, had already restored to the republic its own peculiar safeguard. For before the death of either, Tiberius Nero coming home from Rhodes, in the consulate of Publius Vicinius, your father, had filled his country with incredible joy. Augustus Cæsar did not long hesitate as to his adoption; not having to seek one whom he might elect, but to elect him who was most worthy. What he had purposed, therefore, after the death of Lucius, while Caius was yet alive, but had been diverted from doing by the earnest opposition of Nero, he, on the decease of the two young men, determined to execute; and accordingly constituted Nero his partner in the tribunician power, though the latter used many arguments against the measure, both at home and in the senate; and moreover, in the consulship of Ælius Catus and Sentius, seven hundred and fifty-seven years after the building of the city, twenty-seven from the present time, and on the twenty-seventh of June, he adopted him as his son. The joy of that day, the concourse of all ranks of men, the prayers offered by people stretching their hands, as it were, up to heaven itself, and the hopes then conceived of perpetual security, and of the eternal duration of the Roman empire, we shall scarcely be able to represent fully in our large work, much less can we attempt to do justice to them here. I must be content with observing that he was all in all to every one77. Then shone forth to parents a certain hope of security for their children, to husbands of provision for their wives, to landowners of retaining their patrimony, and to all men, of safety, quiet, peace, and tranquillity; so that nothing further could be hoped, nor could hope have a happier prospect of fulfilment.
CIV
On the same day he adopted Marcus Agrippa, of whom Julia was delivered after Agrippa’s death. But in the adoption of Nero an addition was made to the formula in these very words of Cæsar: “This I do for the good of the Commonwealth.” His country did not long detain in the city the champion and guardian of its empire, but speedily sent him into Germany, where a most violent war had broken out three years before, when Marcus Vinicius, your grandfather, a man of the highest reputation, was governor there, who had engaged the enemy in some places, and in others had made an honourable defence; for which merits triumphal ornaments were decreed him, with a noble inscription reciting his performances. This year made me a soldier in the camp of Tiberius Cæsar, having previously held the office of tribune. For shortly after his adoption, being sent with him into Germany in the post of præfect of cavalry, succeeding my father in that office, I was, for nine successive years, either as præfect, or lieutenant-general, a spectator, and, as far as the mediocrity of my ability allowed, an assistant in his glorious achievements. Nor do I think that any human being can have an opportunity of enjoying another spectacle like that which I enjoyed, when, throughout the most populous part of Italy, and the whole length of the Gallic provinces, the people, on seeing again their former commander, who in merit and power was Cæsar, before he was so in name, congratulated themselves even more warmly than they congratulated him. At the very sight of him, tears of joy sprung from the eyes of the soldiers, and there appeared in their salutations an unusual degree of spirit, a kind of exultation, and an eager wish to touch his hand. Nor could they restrain themselves from adding, “General, we see you, we once more receive you in safety;” and again, “General, I was with you in Armenia,” “I in Rhætia,” “I was rewarded by you in Vindelicia,” “I in Pannonia,” “I in Germany;” all this cannot be described in words, and perhaps will scarcely gain belief.
CV
Germany was entered without delay; the Caninefates, the Attuarii, the Bructeri, were subdued; the Cherusci were again received into submission; the river Visurgis, afterwards rendered remarkable by a disaster of our troops, was crossed; the parts beyond it were penetrated; while Cæsar assumed to himself all the most laborious and dangerous parts of the war, employing, in those which were attended with less hazard, the services of Sentius Saturninus, who was then his father’s deputy in Germany; a man of manifold virtues, diligent, active, provident, able to sustain military duties, as well as eminently skilled in them; but who, when business gave place to leisure, wasted his time in expensive indulgences, yet in such a manner, that he might rather be called splendid and gay, than luxurious or indolent. Of his meritorious and celebrated consulship we have already spoken. The campaign of that year was protracted to the month of December, and rewarded our exertions with abundant success. His filial affection drew Cæsar to Rome, though the Alps were rendered almost impassable by the winter; but in the beginning of spring the necessity of protecting the empire recalled him to Germany, in the heart of which country, at the source of the river Lupia78, the general at his departure had fixed his winter quarters.
CVI
Good gods! For how large a volume did we achieve sufficient exploits in the following summer, under the command of Tiberius Cæsar! The whole extent of Germany was traversed by our army; nations were conquered that were almost unknown to us even in name. The tribes of the Cauchians were reduced to submission; all their youth, infinite in number, gigantic in size, strongly guarded by the nature of the country, delivered up their weapons, and, with their leaders, surrounded by troops of our soldiers glittering in arms, prostrated themselves before the general’s tribunal. The Longobardi, a nation exceeding even the Germans in fierceness, were crushed. In fine, what had never before been hoped, much less attempted, the Roman army carried its standards to the distance of four hundred miles from the Rhine, as far as the Elbe, which flows along the borders of the Semnones and Hermunduri; and, by singular good fortune, the care of the general, and a proper attention to the seasons, a fleet which had sailed round the bays of the Ocean, came from a sea, previously unheard of and unknown, up the Elbe to the same place, and, crowned with vict
ory over many nations, and supplied with a vast abundance of all things, joined Cæsar and his army.
CVII
I cannot forbear inserting the following incident, whatever may be thought of it, among affairs of so much greater magnitude. While we were encamped on the hither bank of the last-mentioned river, and while the farther bank glittered with the armour of the enemy’s troops, who, be it observed, one of the barbarians, far advanced in years, of extraordinary stature, and, as his dress indicated, of the highest dignity, embarked in a canoe formed of a tree hollowed out, such as is common among those nations; and, managing this vessel alone, he advanced as far as the middle of the stream, requesting to be allowed, without danger to himself, to land on the bank which we occupied with our army, and to see Cæsar. This request was granted. Having then brought his canoe to the shore, and contemplated Cæsar a long time in silence, he said, “Our young men are certainly mad; they worship your divinity in your absence; yet, in you presence, choose rather to dread your arms, than to trust your faith. For my part, Cæsar, I have this day, by your permission and favour, seen the gods, of whom I had before only heard, and I never in my life either wished for, or experienced, a day of greater happiness.” Then, having obtained leave to touch his hand, he re-embarked in his little vessel, and continually looking back at Cæsar, sailed away to the bank occupied by his countrymen. Victorious over every nation and place that he had approached, Cæsar, with his army safe and unimpaired, for it had been only once attacked, and then by a stratagem on the part of the enemy, and with great loss to themselves, led back his legions to winter quarters, and returned to Rome with as much haste as he had used in the preceding year.
Complete Works of Velleius Paterculus Page 12