CXIX
The circumstances of this most dreadful calamity, than which none more grievous ever befel the Romans in a foreign country, since the destruction of Crassus in Parthia, I will endeavour to relate in my larger history, as has been done by others. At present we can only lament the whole. An army unrivalled in bravery, the flower of the Roman troops in discipline, vigour, and experience in war, was brought, through the supineness of its leader, the perfidy of the enemy, and the cruelty of Fortune, into a situation utterly desperate, (in which not even an opportunity was allowed the men of extricating themselves by fighting, as they wished, some being even severely punished by the general, for using Roman arms with Roman spirit,) and, hemmed in by woods, lakes, and bodies of the enemy in ambush, was entirely cut off by those foes whom they had ever before slaughtered like cattle, and of whose life and death the mercy or severity of the Romans had always been the arbitrator. The leader showed some spirit in dying, though none in fighting; for, imitating the example of his father and grandfather, he ran himself through with his sword. Of two prefects of the camp, Lucius Eggius gave as honourable an example of valour as Ceionius gave of baseness; for, after the sword had destroyed the greater part of the army, Ceionius advised a surrender, choosing to die by the hand of an executioner rather than in battle. Numonius Vala, a lieutenant-general under Varus, who in other cases conducted himself as a modest and well-meaning man, was, on this occasion, guilty of abominable treachery; for, leaving the infantry uncovered by the cavalry, he fled with the horse of the allies, and attempted to reach the Rhine. But Fortune took vengeance on his misdeed; for he did not survive his deserted countrymen, but perished in the act of desertion. The savage enemy mangled the half-burnt body of Varus; his head was cut off, and brought to Maroboduus, and being sent by him to Cæsar, was at length honoured with burial in the sepulchre of his family.
CXX
On receiving this intelligence, Cæsar hurried home to his father; and the constant patron of the Roman empire undertook its cause as usual. He was despatched to Germany, he secured the peace of Gaul, arranged the troops, fortified garrisons, and estimating himself by his own greatness, not by the confidence of the enemy who threatened Italy with an invasion like that of the Cimbri and Teutones, crossed the Rhine with his army. He thus made war upon a nation whom his father and his country would have been satisfied with keeping at a distance; he penetrated into the interior, opened roads, wasted the lands, burned the houses, overthrew all opposition, and then, with abundance of glory, and without losing a man of those who crossed the river, returned to winter quarters. Let due credit be given to Lucius Asprenas, who, serving as lieutenant-general under his uncle Varus, saved, by his manly and active exertions, a body of two legions which he commanded, from sharing in that dreadful calamity; and by going down speedily to the lower winter quarters, confirmed the allegiance of the nations on the hither side of the Rhine, which had now begun to waver. But some people, while they allow that he saved the living, are still of opinion, that he dishonestly possessed himself of the property of those slain with Varus, and, as far as he pleased, made himself the heir of the slaughtered army. The bravery of a prefect of the camp, too, named Lucius Cæditius, and of a party with him who were surrounded by a vast multitude of Germans at Alison, is much to be praised; for, by forming their plans with judgment, using vigilant foresight, and watching their opportunity, they surmounted difficulties which want rendered insupportable, and the force of the enemy almost insuperable, and opened for themselves with the sword a passage to their friends. Hence it is evident, that Varus, in other cases certainly a man of character and of good intentions, lost himself, and that noble army, rather through want of conduct in the commander, than through deficiency of courage in the soldiery. While the Germans were venting their rage on the prisoners, an act deserving of renown was performed by Cælius Caldus, a youth who did credit to his ancient family; he took hold of a part of the chains with which he was bound, and dashed it against his head with such force, that his blood and brains gushed out together, and he immediately expired.
CXXI
The same courage and good fortune which had animated Tiberius at the beginning of his command, still continued to attend him. After he had broken down the force of the enemy in various expeditions by land and sea, and had settled important affairs in Gaul, and composed, by coercion more than by punishment, the most violent commotions of the populace at Vienne; and after the senate and people of Rome, on a request being made by his father, that he might be invested with authority equal to his own in all the provinces and armies, had passed a decree to that effect, (for it would indeed have been unreasonable, if what he had secured should not be under his command, and if he, who was the first to bring succour, should not be thought entitled to a share of the honour,) he returned to Rome, and celebrated his triumph over Pannonia and Dalmatia, which had been long due to him, but had been deferred on account of the continuance of the wars. His triumph was magnificent, but who can be surprised at magnificence in a Cæsar? Who, however, will not admire the kindness of Fortune in this, that fame did not tell us, as was usual, that all the greatest leaders of the enemy were slain, but that the triumph displayed them to us in chains? On this occasion my brother and I had the happiness of accompanying him, among the most eminent personages, and those honoured with the principal distinctions.
CXXII
Among other instances in which the singular moderation of Tiberius Cæsar shines forth conspicuously, this claims our admiration, that although, beyond all doubt, he merited seven triumphs, he was yet satisfied with three. For who can doubt that, for reducing Armenia, fixing a king on its throne, (on whose head he placed the diadem with his own hand,) and for regulating the affairs of the east, he ought to have enjoyed a triumph? Or that, for his victories over the Rhæti and Vindelici, he deserved to enter the city in a triumphal car? And when, after his adoption, he exhausted the strength of Germany in three years of continued war, the same honour ought to have been offered him, and accepted by him. Again, after the disaster of the army of Varus, the rapid subjugation of the same Germany ought to have furnished a triumph for the same consummate general. But with respect to him you can hardly determine whether you should admire more his extraordinary exertions amid toil and danger, or his moderation with regard to honours.
CXXIII
We have now arrived at a period in which very great apprehension prevailed. For Augustus Cæsar, having sent his grandson Germanicus to finish the remainder of the war in Germany, and intending to send his son Tiberius into Illyricum, to settle in peace what he had subdued in war, proceeded with the latter into Campania, with the design of escorting him, and at the same time to be present at the exhibition of athletic sports, which the Neapolitans had resolved to give in honour of him. Although he had before this felt symptoms of debility and declining health, yet, as the vigour of his mind withstood them, he accompanied his son, and, parting from him at Beneventum, proceeded to Nola; where, finding that his health grew worse every day, and well knowing whose presence was requisite to the accomplishment of his wish to leave all things in safety after him, he hastily recalled his son, who hurried back to the father of his country, and arrived earlier than was expected. Augustus then declared that his mind was at ease; and being folded in the embrace of Tiberius, to whom he recommended the accomplishment of his father’s views and his own, he resigned himself to die whenever the fates should ordain. He was in some degree revived by the sight and conversation of the person most dear to him; but the destinies soon overpowering every effort for his recovery, and his body resolving itself into its first principles, he restored to heaven his celestial spirit, in the seventy-sixth year of his age, and in the consulate of Pompey and Apuleius.
CXXIV
The universal apprehensions excited by this event; the alarm of the senate, the consternation of the people, the fears of the world, and the narrow line between safety and destruction on which we stood on that occasion, I have ne
ither leisure to describe in this hasty narrative, nor can he, who has leisure, describe satisfactorily. One thing I can join with the voice of the public in declaring, that whereas we had dreaded the total ruin of the world, we did not perceive that it felt the slightest shock; and so powerful was the majesty of one man, that there was no occasion for arms, either to protect the good, or restrain the bad. Yet there was one struggle, as it may be called, in the state, between the senate and people of Rome on the one side, insisting on Cæsar’s assuming his father’s station, and himself on the other, desiring leave to stand on a level with his countrymen, instead of acting in the exalted character of a prince. At length he was overcome by reason, not by the attractions of honour; because he saw that whatever he did not take under his care would be lost. His case was singular in this, that he refused the sovereignty almost as long as others fought to obtain it. After he had seen his father restored to heaven, and had paid respect to his body with human, and to his name with Divine honours, the first act of his administration was the regulation of the elections, on a plan left by the deified Augustus in his own handwriting. At this time, my brother and I had the honour, as Cæsar’s candidates95, of being elected prætors, in the places next to men of the highest rank, and the priests; and we were remarkable in being the last recommended by Augustus, and the first by Tiberius Cæsar.
CXXV
The Commonwealth quickly reaped the fruit of its determination and its wish; and we soon learned what we must have suffered if that wish had not been complied with, and how greatly we had gained by its being fulfilled. For the army which was serving in Germany under the command of Germanicus, and the legions which were in Illyricum, being both seized at the same time with a kind of outrageous fury, and a violent passion for spreading universal disorder, demanded a new leader, a new constitution, a new republic; they even had the confidence to threaten that they would give laws to the senate, and to the prince; and they attempted to fix the amount of their pay, and the period of their service. They proceeded even to use their arms; the sword was drawn; and the impunity which was allowed them broke forth almost into the extremity of violence. They wanted, indeed, a head, to lead them against their country, but there were numbers ready to follow. However, the mature wisdom of the veteran emperor, who, refusing most of their demands, promised some indulgences without lowering his dignity, soon allayed and suppressed all these outrageous proceedings; severe vengeance being inflicted on the authors of the mutiny, and milder punishment on the rest. On this occasion, as Germanicus exerted his usual activity, so Drusus, who was sent by his father expressly to extinguish the flame of this military tumult, blazing, as it was, with enormous fury, enforced the ancient and primitive discipline, and by strong measures, though not without danger to himself96, put a stop to those excesses, so pernicious both in the act and in the example; and reduced to obedience the soldiers that pressed around him, by the aid of the very swords with which he was beset. In these efforts he found an excellent assistant in Junius Blæsus, a man of whom it is difficult to decide whether his services were greater in the camp or in the camp. A few years after, being proconsul in Africa, he gained triumphal decorations, and the title of imperator. And being entrusted with the presidency of Spain, and the command of the army there, he was able, by his excellent abilities, and with the reputation which he had gained in the war with Illyricum, to keep the province in perfect peace and tranquillity; for while his fidelity to the emperor led him to adopt the most salutary measures, he had likewise ample authority to carry into execution what he planned. His care and fidelity were closely copied by Dolabella, a man of the noblest simplicity of character, when he commanded on the coast of Illyricum.
CXXVI
Of the transactions of the last sixteen years, which have passed in the view, and are fresh in the memory of all, who shall presume to give a full account? Cæsar deified his parent, not by arbitrary authority, but by paying a religious respect to his character. He did not call him a divinity, but made him one. In that time, credit has been restored to mercantile affairs, sedition has been banished from the forum, corruption from the Campus Martius, and discord from the senate-house; justice, equity, and industry, which had long lain buried in neglect, have been revived in the state; authority has been given to the magistrates, majesty to the senate, and solemnity to the courts of justice; the dissensions in the theatre97 have been suppressed, and all men have either had a desire excited in them, or a necessity imposed on them, of acting with integrity. Virtuous acts are honoured, wicked deeds are punished. The humble respects the powerful, without dreading him; the powerful takes precedence of the humble without contemning him. When were provisions more moderate in price? When were the blessings of peace more abundant? Augustan peace, diffused over all the regions of the east and the west, and all that lies between the south and north, preserves every corner of the world free from all dread of predatory molestation. Fortuitous losses, not only of individuals, but of cities, the munificence of the prince is ready to relieve. The cities of Asia have been repaired; the provinces have been secured from the oppression of their governors. Honour promptly rewards the deserving, and the punishment of the guilty, if slow, is certain98. Interest gives place to justice, solicitation to merit. For the best of princes teaches his countrymen to act rightly by his own practice; and while he is the greatest in power, is still greater in example.
CXXVIII
It is seldom that men who have arrived at eminence, have not had powerful coadjutors in steering the course of their fortunes; thus the two Scipios had the two Lælii, whom they set in every respect on a level with themselves; thus the emperor Augustus had Marcus Agrippa, and after him Statilius Taurus. The newness of these men’s families proved no obstruction to their attainment of many consulships and triumphs, and of sacerdotal offices in great numbers. For great affairs demand great co-operators; (in small matters99, the smallness of assistance does not mar the proceedings;) and it is for the interest of the public, that what is necessary for business should be eminent in dignity, and that usefulness should be fortified with influence. In conformity with these examples, Tiberius Cæsar has had, and still has, Ælius Sejanus, a most excellent coadjutor in all the toils of government, a man whose father was chief of the equestrian order, and who on his mother’s side is connected with some of the most illustrious and ancient families, ennobled by high preferments; who has brothers, cousins, and an uncle, of consular rank; who is remarkable for fidelity in the discharge of his duties, and for ability to endure fatigue, the constitution of his body corresponding with the vigour of his mind; a man of pleasing gravity, and of unaffected cheerfulness; appearing, in the despatch of business, like a man quite at ease; assuming nothing to himself, and hence receiving every honour; always deeming himself inferior to other men’s estimation of him; calm in looks and conversation, but in mind indefatigably vigilant.
CXXVIII
In esteem for Sejanus’s virtues, the judgment of the public has long vied with that of the prince. Nor is it at all new with the senate and people of Rome, to consider the most meritorious as the most noble. The man of old, before the first Punic war, three hundred years ago, exalted to the summit of dignity Titus Coruncanius, a man of no family, bestowing on him, beside other honours, the office of chief pontiff; they promoted Spurius Carvilius, a man of equestrian birth, and afterwards Marcus Cato, another new man, (not a native citizen, but born at Tusculum,) as well as Mummius Achaicus, to consulships, censorships, and triumphs. And they who considered Caius Marius, a man of the most obscure origin, as unquestionably the first in the Roman nation, before his sixth consulship; who had so high an esteem for Marcus Tullius, that he could obtain, almost by his sole recommendation, the highest offices for whomsoever he chose; and who refused nothing to Asinius Pollio, which men of the noblest birth had to obtain with infinite labour, were certainly of opinion that he who possessed the greatest virtues, was entitled to the greatest honours. The natural imitation of other men’s examples
led Cæsar to make trial of Sejanus, and occasioned Sejanus to bear a share of the burdens of the prince; and induced the senate and people of Rome cheerfully to call to the guardianship of their safety him whom they saw best qualified for the charge.
Complete Works of Velleius Paterculus Page 14