Complete Works of Velleius Paterculus

by Velleius Paterculus

  [87] (1) The following year Caesar followed Cleopatra and Antony to Alexandria and there put the finishing touch upon the civil wars. Antony promptly ended his life, thus by his death redeeming himself from the many charges of lack of manhood. As for Cleopatra, baffling the vigilance of her guards she caused an asp to be smuggled in to her, and ended her life by its venomous sting untouched by a woman’s fears. (2) It was in keeping with Caesar’s fortune and his clemency that not one of those who had borne arms against him was put to death by him, or by his order. It was the cruelty of Antony that ended the life of Decimus Brutus. In the case of Sextus Pompey, though Caesar was his conqueror, it was likewise Antony who deprived him of his life, even though he had given his word that he would not degrade him from his rank. (3) Brutus and Cassius, without waiting to discover the attitude of their conquerors, died voluntary deaths. Of the end of Antony and Cleopatra we have already told. As for Canidius, he showed more fear in the face of death than was consistent with his lifelong utterances. The last of Caesar’s assassins to pay the penalty of death was Cassius of Parma, as Trebonius had been the first.

  LXXXVIII

  Dum bello Actiaco Alexandrinoque Caesar imponit ultimam manum, M. Lepidus, iuvenis forma quam mente melior, Lepidi eius, qui triumvir fuerat rei publicae constituendae, filius, Iunia Bruti sorore natus, interficiendi, simul in urbem revertisset, Caesaris consilia inierat. Erat tunc urbis custodiis praepositus C. Maecenas equestri, sed splendido genere natus, vir, ubi res vigiliam exigeret, sane ex omnis, providens atque agendi sciens, simul vero aliquid ex negotio remitti posset, otio ac mollitiis paene ultra, feminam fluens, non minus Agrippa Caesari carus, sed minus honoratus (quippe vixit angusti clavi plene contentus), nec minora consequi potuit, sed non tam concupivit. Hic speculatus est per summam quietem ac dissimulationem praecipitis consilia iuvenis et mira celeritate nullaque cum perturbatione aut rerum aut hominum oppresso Lepido inmane novi ac resurrecturi belli civilis restinxit initium. Et ille quidem male consultorum poenas exsolvit. Aequetur praedictae iam Antistü Servilia Lepidi uxor, quae vivo igni devorato praematura morte immortalem nominis sui pensavit memoriam.

  [88] (1) While Caesar was engaged in giving the finishing touch to the war at Actium and Alexandria, Marcus Lepidus, a young man whose good looks exceeded his prudence — son of the Lepidus who had been one of the triumvirs for the re-establishment of order in the state and of Junia the sister of Brutus — had formed plans for the assassination of Caesar as soon as he should return to the city. (2) The guards of the city were at that time under the charge of Gaius Maecenas, of equestrian rank, but none the less of illustrious lineage, a man who was literally sleepless when occasion demanded, and quick to foresee what was to be done and skilful in doing it, but when any relaxation was allowed him from business cares would almost outdo a woman in giving himself up to indolence and soft luxury. He was not less loved by Caesar than Agrippa, though he had fewer honours heaped upon him, since he lived thoroughly content with the narrow stripe of the equestrian order. He might have achieved a position no less high than Agrippa, but had not the same ambition for it. (3) Quietly and carefully concealing his activity he unearthed the plans of the hot-headed youth, and by crushing Lepidus with wonderful swiftness and without causing disturbance to either men or things he extinguished the portentous beginnings of a new and reviving civil war. Lepidus himself paid the penalty for his ill-advised plot. Servilia his wife must be placed on a parity with the wife of Antistius already mentioned, for by swallowing live coals she compensated for her untimely death by the lasting memory of her name.

  LXXXIX

  Caesar autem reversus in Italiam atque urbem quo occursu, quo favore hominum omnium generum, aetatum, ordinum exceptus sit, quae magnificentia triumphorum eius, quae fuerit munerum, ne in operis quidem iusti materia, nedum huius tam recisi digne exprimi potest. Nihil deinde optare a dis homines, nihil dii hominibus praestare possunt, nihil voto concipi, nihil felicitate consummari, quod non Augustus post reditum in urbem rei publicae populoque Romano terrarumque orbi repraesentaverit. Finita vicesimo anno bella civilia, sepulta externa, revocata pax, sopitus ubique armorum furor, restituta vis legibus, iudiciis auctoritas, senatui maiestas, imperium magistratuum ad pristinum redactum modum, tantummodo octo praetoribus adlecti duo. Prisca illa et antiqua rei publicae forma revocata. Rediit cultus agris, sacris honos, securitas hominibus, certa cuique rerum suarum possessio; leges emendatae utiiiter, latae salubriter; senatus sine asperitate nec sine severitate lectus. Principes viri triumphisque et amplissimis honoribus functi adhortatu principis ad ornandam urbem inlecti sunt. Consulatus tantummodo usque ad undecimum quin continuaret Caesar, cum saepe obnitens repugnasset, impetrare non potuit: nam dictaturam quam pertinaciter ei deferebat populus, tam constanter repulit. Bella sub imperatore gesta pacatusque victoriis terrarum orbis et tot extra Italiam domique opera omne aevi sui spatium impensurum in id solum opus scriptorem fatigarent: nos memores professionis universam imaginem principatus eius oculis animisque subiecimus.

  [89] (1) As for Caesar’s return to Italy and to Rome — the procession which met him, the enthusiasm of his reception by men of all classes, ages, and ranks, and the magnificence of his triumphs and of the spectacles which he gave — all this it would be impossible adequately to describe even within the compass of a formal history, to say nothing of a work so circumscribed as this. There is nothing that man can desire from the gods, (2) nothing that the gods can grant to a man, nothing that wish can conceive or good fortune bring to pass, which Augustus on his return to the city did not bestow upon the republic, the Roman people, and the world. (3) The civil wars were ended after twenty years, foreign wars suppressed, peace restored, the frenzy of arms everywhere lulled to rest; validity was restored to the laws, authority to the courts, and dignity to the senate; the power of the magistrates was reduced to its former limits, with the sole exception that two were added to the eight existing praetors. The old traditional form of the republic was restored. (4) Agriculture returned to the fields, respect to religion, to mankind freedom from anxiety, and to each citizen his property rights were now assured; old laws were usefully emended, and new laws passed for the general good; the revision of the senate, while not too drastic, was not lacking in severity. The chief men of the state who had won triumphs and had held high office were at the invitation of Augustus induced to adorn the city. In the case of the consulship only, Caesar was not able to have his way, (5) but was obliged to hold that office consecutively until the eleventh time in spite of his frequent efforts to prevent it; but the dictatorship which the people persistently offered him, he as stubbornly refused. To tell of the wars waged under his command, of the pacification of the world by his victories, (6) of his many works at home and outside of Italy would weary a writer intending to devote his whole life to this one task. As for myself, remembering the proposed scope of my work, I have confined myself to setting before the eyes and minds of my readers a general picture of his principate.

  XC

  Sepultis, ut praediximus, bellis civilibus coalescentibusque rei publicae membris, et coaluere quae tam longa armorum series laceraverat. Dalmatia, annos viginti et ducentos rebellis, ad certam confessionem pacata est imperii. Alpes feris incultisque nationibus celebres perdomitae. Hispaniae nunc ipsius praesentia, nunc Agrippae, quem usque in tertium consulatum et mox collegium tribuniciae potestatis amicitia principis evexerat, multo varioque Marte pacatae. In quas provincias cum initio Scipione et Sempronio Longo consulibus primo anno secundi belli Punici abhinc annos quinquaginta et ducentos Romani exercitus missi essent duce Cn. Scipione, Africani patruo, per annos ducentos in iis multo mutuoque ita certatum est sanguine, ut amissis populi Romani imperatoribus exercitibusque saepe contumelia, nonnumquam etiam periculum Romano inferretur imperio. Illae enim provinciae Scipiones consumpserunt; illae contumelioso decem annorum bello sub duce Viriatho maiores nostros exercuerunt; illae terrore Numantini belli populum Romanum concusserunt; in illis turpe Q.Pompei foedus turpiusque Mancini senatus cum ignomi
nia dediti imperatoris rescidit; illa tot consulares, tot praetorios absumpsit duces, patrumque aetate in tantum Sertorium armis extulit, ut per quinquennium diiudicari non potuerit, Hispanis Romanisne in armis plus esset roboris et uter populus alteri pariturus foret. Has igitur provincias tam diffusas, tam frequentis, tam feras ad eam pacem abhinc annos ferme quinquaginta perduxit Caesar Augustus, ut quae maximis bellis numquam vacaverant, eae sub C.Antistio ac deinde P. Silio legato ceterisque postea etiam latrociniis vacarent.

  [90] (1) When the civil wars had been extinguished, as we have already told, and the rent limbs of the state itself began to heal, the provinces, also, torn asunder by the long series of wars began to knit together. Dalmatia, in rebellion for one hundred and twenty years, was pacified to the extent of definitely recognizing the sovereignty of Rome. The Alps, filled with wild and barbarous tribes, were subdued. The provinces of Spain were pacified after heavy campaigns conducted with varied success now by Caesar in person, now by Agrippa, whom the friendship of the emperor had raised to a third consulship and soon afterwards to a share in the emperor’s tribunician power. (2) Roman armies had been sent into these provinces for the first time in the consulship of Scipio and Sempronius Longus, in the first year of the Second Punic war, two hundred and fifty years ago, under the command of Gnaeus Scipio, the uncle of Africanus. For a period of two hundred years the struggle was kept up with so much bloodshed on both sides that the Roman people, by the loss of its commanders and armies, often suffered disgrace, and sometimes its empire was really endangered. (3) These, namely, were the provinces that brought death to the Scipios; that taxed the endurance of our ancestors in the disgraceful ten years’ war under Viriathus; that shook the Roman people with the panic of the Numantine war; here occurred the disgraceful surrender of Quintus Pompeius, whose terms the senate disavowed, and the more shameful capitulation of Mancinus, which was also disavowed, and its maker ignominiously handed over to the enemy; it was Spain that destroyed so many commanders who were consulars or praetorians, and which in the days of our fathers raised Sertorius to such a height of power that for a period of five years it was not possible to decide whether there was greater strength in the arms of the Spaniard or the Roman, and which of the two peoples was destined to obey the other. (4) These, then, were the provinces, so extensive, so populous, and so warlike, which Caesar Augustus, about fifty years ago, brought to such a condition of peace, that whereas they had never before been free from serious wars, they were now, under the governorship of Gaius Antistius and then of Publius Silius and of their successors, exempt even from brigandage.

  XCI

  Dum pacatur occidens, ab oriente ac rege Parthorum signa Romana, quae Crasso oppresso Orodes, quae Antonio pulso filius eius Phraates ceperant, Augusto remissa sunt. Quod cognomen illi iure Planci sententia consensus universi senatus populique Romani indidit. Erant tamen qui hunc felicissimum statum odissent: quippe L. Murena et Fannius Caepio diversis moribus (nam Murena sine hoc facinore potuit videri bonus, Caepio et ante hoc erat pessimus) cum iniissent occidendi Caesaris consilia, oppressi auctoritate publica, quod vi facere voluerant, iure passi sunt. Neque multo post Rufus Egnatius, per omnia gladiatori quam senatori propior, collecto in aedilitate favore populi, quem extinguendis privata familia incendiis in dies auxerat, in tantum quidem, ut ei praeturam continuaret, mox etiam consulatum petere ausus, cum esset omni flagitiorum scelerumque conscientia mersus nec melior illi res familiaris quam mens foret, adgregatis simillimis sibi interimere Caesarem statuit, ut quo salvo salvus esse non poterat, eo sublato moreretur. Quippe ita se mores habent, ut publica quisque ruina malit occidere quam sua proteri et idem passurus minus conspici. Neque hic prioribus in occultando felicior fuit, abditusque carceri cum consciis facinoris mortem dignissimam vita sua obiit.

  [91] (1) While the pacification of the west was going on, in the east the Parthian king restored to Augustus the Roman standards which Orodes had taken at the time of Crassus’ disaster, and those which his son Phraates had captured on the defeat of Antony. This title of Augustus was deservedly given him on the motion of Plancus with the unanimous acclaim of the entire senate and the Roman people. (2) Yet there were those who did not like this prosperous state of affairs. For example, Lucius Murena and Fannius Caepio had entered into a plot to assassinate Caesar, but were seized by state authority and themselves suffered by law what they had wished to accomplish by violence. They were two men quite diverse in character, for Murena, apart from this act, might have passed as a man of good character, while Caepio, even before this, had been of the worst. (3) Shortly afterwards a similar attempt was made by Rufus Egnatius, a man who in all respects resembled a gladiator rather than a senator. Securing the favour of the people in his aedileship by putting out fires with his own gang of slaves, he increased it daily to such an extent that the people gave him the praetorship immediately after the aedileship. It was not long before he dared to become a candidate for the consulship, but he was overwhelmed by the general knowledge of his shameless deeds and crimes, and the state of his property came to be as desperate as his mind. Therefore, collecting about him men of his own kind, he resolved to assassinate Caesar in order that he might die after getting rid of him whose existence was not compatible with his own. (4) Such men are so constituted that each would prefer to fall in a general cataclysm than to perish alone, and, though suffering the same fate in the end, to be less conspicuous in dying. He, however, was not more successful than the rest in concealing his designs, and after being thrust into prison with his fellow conspirators, died the death his life richly deserved.

  XCII

  Praeclarum excellentis viri factum C. Sentii Saturnini circa ea tempora consulis ne fraudetur memoria. Aberat ordinandis Asiae Orientisque rebus Caesar, circumferens terrarum orbi praesentia sua pacis suae bona. Tum Sentius, forte et solus et absente Caesare consul, cum alia prisca severitate, summaque constantia, vetere consulum more ac severitate, gessisset, protraxisset publicanorum fraudes, punisset avaritiam, regessisset in aerarium pecunias publicas, tum in comitiis habendis praecipuum egit consulem: nam et quaesturam petentes, quos indignos iudicavit, profiteri vetuit, et, cum id facturos se perseverarent, consularem, si in campum descendissent, vindictam minatus est, et Egnatium florentem favore publico sperantemque ut praeturam aedilitati, ita consulatum praeturae se iuncturum, profiteri vetuit, et cum id non obtinuisset, iuravit, etiam si factus esset consul suffragiis populi, tamen se eum non renuntiaturum. Quod ego factum cuilibet veterum consulum gloriae comparandum reor, nisi quod naturaliter audita visis laudamus libentius et praesentia invidia, praeterita veneratione prosequimur et his nos obrui, illis instrui credimus.

  [92] (1) The remarkable conduct of an excellent man, Gaius Sentius Saturninus, who was consul about this time, must not be cheated of its due record. Caesar was absent from the city engaged in regulating the affairs of Asia and of the orient, (2) and in bringing to the countries of the world by his personal presence the blessings of Augustan peace. On this occasion Sentius, chancing thus to be sole consul with Caesar absent, adopting the rigorous regime of the older consuls, pursued a general policy of old-fashioned severity and great firmness, bringing to light the fraudulent tricks of the tax-collectors, punishing their avarice, and getting the public moneys into the treasury. But it was particularly in holding the elections that he played the consul. (3) For in the case of candidates for the quaestorship whom he thought unworthy, he forbade them to offer their names, and when they insisted upon doing so, he threatened them with the exercise of his consular authority if they came down to the Campus Martius. (4) Egnatius, who was now at the height of popular favour, and was expecting to have his consulship follow his praetorship as his praetorship had followed his aedileship, he forbade to become a candidate, and failing in this, he swore that, even if Egnatius were elected consul by the votes of the people, he would refuse to report his election. (5) This conduct I consider as comparable with any of the celebrated acts of the consuls of the olden days. But we are naturally more inclined t
o praise what we have heard than what has occurred before our eyes; we regard the present with envy, the past with veneration, and believe that we are eclipsed by the former, but derive instruction from the latter.

  XCIII

  Ante triennium fere, quam Egnatianum scelus erumperet, circa Murenae Caepionisque coniurationis tempus ,abhinc annos quinquaginta, M. Marcellus, sororis Augusti Octaviae filius, quem homines ita, si quid accidisset Caesari, successorem potentiae eius arbitrabantur futurum, ut tamen id per M. Agrippam securo ei posse contingere non existimarent, magnificentissimo munere aedilitatis edito decessit admodum iuvenis, sane, ut aiunt, ingenuarum virtutum laetusque animi et ingenii fortunaeque, in quam alebatur, capax. Post cuius obitum Agrippa, qui sub specie ministeriorum principalium profectus in Asiam, ut fama loquitur, ob tacitas cum Marcello offensiones praesenti se subduxerat tempori, reversus inde filiam Caesaris Iuliam, quam in matrimonio Marcellus habuerat, duxit uxorem, feminam neque sibi neque rei publicae felicis uteri.