daughter of Agrippa, by his first wife, and marry Julia, who, notwithstanding of her previous marriages, was one of the most infamous females of Rome. He was, at the time same, required, although he had a son of his own, to adopt Drusus Germanicus, the eldest son of his diseased brother Drusus. The sons of Agrippa were adopted into the imperial family, and intrusted with offices in the state before the legal age. They were soon discovered to be proud of their rank, and roused the jealousy of Tiberius and the hatred of Livia, his mother. Though he, therefore, had risen high in fame as a warrior, and was rewarded by great honour, yet he avowed his determination to retire from public life. His mother opposed this with tears, and Augustus would not consent till he found it impossible to change the mind of Tiberius, who, in sullen grief, had shut himself up, and abstained from food four successive days. He withdrew to Rhodes, under pretence of spending his time in study: and so provoked the emperor, that all his own or his friends' efforts failed for seven years to procure him liberty to return to Rome. To deprive the emperor of the society of his grandsons, Caius and Lucius, and, perhaps, secretly to destroy them, Livia prevailed on him to give them foreign appointments. Caius was made governor of Syria, and Lucius of Spain. The latter died suddenly at Marseilles, from poison administered by the emissaries of Livia; this, at least, is the report of some Roman writers. His body was carried in state to Rome, and magnificently interred in Augustus' own mausoleum. His brother was wounded in battle, in Armenia; and though the wound was not fatal, yet he never recovered health. He died in Lycia, it was imagined from the diabolical arts of Livia. The loss of these youths within eighteen months overwhelmed the spirit of the emperor; but Livia and Tiberius were unwearied in their services to administer to him consolation. From this time Tiberius rapidly rose to dignity and authority in the state, and at the head of great armies made the power of Rome to be felt in Germany, from the Rhine to the Elbe, and in the regions of Dalmatia, Pannonia, and Illyricum. In the wars in these countries, his adopted son, Drusus Germanicus, acquired still more celebrity. The triumphant return of both generals diffused gladness and exultation among all ranks. Soon after the supression of the most alarming revolt of the Germans, conducted by the famous Arminius, who almost cut off all the Roman legions, Augustus requested the senate to pass and proclaim the decree, which constituted Tiberius his equal. It run thus: "At the request of the people of Rome, we grant Caius Julius Cesar Tiberius the same authority over the provinces, and all the armies of the Roman state, which Augustus has held, which he still retains, aud which we pray the gods he may long enjoy." The emperor scarcely survived this decree two years; and, as we have formerly noticed, his life was believed to be shortened by Livia, lest he should change his mind, and leave the crown to Agrippa Posthumus, in preference to Tiberius, whose ascent to the throne, in his fifty-sixth year, gave pleasure to no class of the community. While Tiberius, with his usual dissimulation, publicly lamented that he was left alone to bear the burden of government, and consoled himself that many illustrious Romans remained to assist him, he instantly assumed the entire power of government, and ordered the murder of the only rival whom he dreaded, Agrippa Posthumous, who had been, from some imprudent acts, placed in a state of confinement. Germanicus would have been a more powerful rival, but his loyalty, integrity, and disinterestedness, were too well known to the emperor, his uncle and father by adoption, to occasion him, at this time, much uneasiness. He, however, very soon viewed him with suspicion; for he apprehended that he would have yielded to the temptation presented him on discovering the army were solicitous to exalt him to the throne. Besides, no one was more beloved than Germanicus by the Roman people, partly from their grateful recollection of his noble father, and partly on account of his own personal worth, and of the superior rank and excellence of his mother, Agrippina, the admired daughter of Agrippa and Julia, the wretched daughter of Augustus. The large army sta tioned on the Rhine were commanded by Germanicus, at the period of Augustus's death. They no sooner heard of this event than they invited their leader to assume the sovereignty of the empire. He declined the honour; and when some of the soldiers would have forced him to accept the honour, he hastily withdrew from them, exclaiming, "My duty to the emperor is more precious than my life." Nor was he satisfied in merely retaining his loyal fidelity'; he allayed the passions of the soldiers for revolt, and employed them in spreading the fame of the Roman arms and consolidating the empire in the North. His growing popularity alarmed the tyrant; and he resolved to remove him from his position in Germany to the command of the troops in the East. In compliance with the most flattering invitation of Tiberius, which was the usual indication that he premeditated evil against the object of his flattery, Ger. manicus left Germany. "On his arrival in Italy, only two cohorts or battalions were sent from Rome to receive him. But every cir cumstance tended to augment the jealousy of the emperor; the greater part of the prætorian bands, mingled with multitudes of the people of every sex, condition, and age, advanced of their own ac cord some miles from the city, and received him with uncommon acclamations of joy. Having made his entry, as had been proposed, in triumph, he was, with the emperor himself, put in nomination for the consulate of the following year. The popularity of which Germanicus now appeared to be possessed in the city, was no less mortifying to the emperor, than his power in the army was supposed to be dangerous. His presence, if it did not obscure the lustre of the emperor himself, seemed to place him in a continual state of competition with the other son of Tiberius; and the interests of these two princes, the one by adoption, the other by birth, the sons of the emperor, though supposed to be on the best terms with each other, had divided the court. Agrippina, the wife of Germanicus, inheriting the blood, of Augustus, and ever carrying in her haughty looks the pretensions of the Cesarian family, was become to Livia, whom she considered as a stepmother, no less an object of animosi ty than she was to the emperor himself. Under these circumstances, the resolution to separate Germanicus from the German armies, and to place him in the command of the eastern provinces, a situa tion apparently honourable, but in which he should be surrounded ith persons who might serve as a restraint, or as spies on his con. was now carried into execution. He was vested with a com. mission to restore the tranquillity of Asia, that was disturbed by some disputes which had arisen on the succession to the kingdoms of Cappadocia and Armenia." He left Rome for the East, in the end of the third year of Tiberius. Being placed over several provinces through which he was to pass, from the sea of Ionia to the extre mities of Egypt and of Syria, he visited, as chief in command, the cities of Greece, still revered as the principal seminaries of philosophy and literature; and upon his entry into Asia, proceeded to execute the commis-ion on which he was sent. He reduced Cappadocia and Commagene to the form of Roman provinces, making some abatement of the taxes formerly paid to their own princes, and settled Zeuo, son to the king of Pontus, on the throne of Armenia. He afterwards ventured to continue his progress into Egypt, though contrary to an edict of the late emperor, which was still in force. On his return from thence he was taken ill, and died at Antioch in the thirty-fourth year of his age, with some suspicions of having been poisoned by Cn. Piso, the præfect of Syria, not without the connivance or the direction of Tiberius himself. Whatever occasioned the death of Germanicus, it appears to have had a remarkable influence on the future conduct of Tiberius; for historians assert, that from this time he continued to discover, without disguise, the almost incredible malignancy of his nature. Hitherto, like a wild beast caught in the toils, his circumstances chained his mischievous propensities. The chief obj ct of his fu ture days seemed to be, to experiment on the diabolical power of man to inflict misery on his fellows. His personal appearance, till disfigured by age, débauchery, and disease, was commanding, and his mental capacities strong and somewhat improved by education; but his look and manner had always been repulsive, and he had often acted so as excite in all ranks, suspicion that he was destitute of humanity, even when he performed the most generous deeds. It was, perhaps, in imitation of the policy of Augustus, that while Germanicus lived, he ostentatiously showed the greatest deference for the republican institutions of Rome. "He declined the extravagant honours which were offered to him; was easy of access; affected to live like a private citizen; returned visits, and accepted invitations to entertainments and feasts; visited the sick, attended funerals, and delivered orations in praise of the dead. He treated the titular magistrates of Rome with the same ceremonious respect that used to be observed in the times of the republic; rose, and stood, in the presence of the consul; took his place in the senate as a private member; was frequently seen in the courts of justice as an assessor, as an advocate, as an evidence, or as a spectator. To a person who saluted him with the title of master, Iusult me not,' he said, with that odious appellation. I am the master of my slaves, general of the army, and no more than prince, or first in the rolls of the senate and people.' He took the tile of Augustus only in his correspondence with foreign powers. In all his addresses, whether to particular members of the senate, or to this body at large, he was in the highest degree respectful and courteous. When en gaged in debate, he endeavoured to qualify contradiction or difference of opinion with respect and regret. To a senator, named Haterius, on some such occasion, he said, 'I hope you will forgive me, if, in my duty as a senator, I differ from vou somewhat too freely. At a meeting of the senate, in referring some matter to their decision, he concluded with these words, I have formerly said, and now say, that it becomes the person you have intrusted with so large a share of the public affairs, to consider himself as the servant of this assembly, as the servant of the people, and of every individual; nor do 1 repent me of this saying; for I have found you, and still find you candid, indulgent, and kind masters.' He affected a continual deference to their judgment on every subject, whether of policy, revenue, or foreign correspondence; even seemed to wait for their orders in what concerned the command of the army, and pretended to be displeased when officers, employed in the provinces, made their report directly to himself, without communicating With these pothe subject of their despatches first to the senate. pular arts, which the senators indeed did not mistake for a real acknowledgment of their authority, he joined an administration in many things worthy of a wise and exemplary prince, indulged the people in the freedom of speech to which they had been accustomed, saying, that in a free country, the mind and the tongue should be free. To those who brought him information of any slander spoken of himself he affected indifference. If you mind such accusations as these,' he would say, there will be no end of them.' He gave a ready hearing and redress to all the complaints that were made to him from the provinces, and carefully limited the exactions of his officers within the bounds of established and ordinary fees. To per sons suffering by fire, earthquakes, or other public calamities, to the families of decayed senators, to the children of those who had bequeathed him their estates by will, he was munificent and liberal; took effectual measures to suppress the banditti which, from the time of the civil wars, still infested the country; and endeavoured to diminish that constant source of corruption, the idleness which the people contracted in the too frequent repetition of shows and of public entertainments. He gave an abatement of some taxes which had been imposed by the late emperor, and, in particular, mitigated the penalties which had been erroneously inflicted on celibacy." But with all this affectation of respect for public opinion and desire to promote the general welfare of the community, from the moment that he obtained supreme authority,his conduct proved that he was determined to divide the imperial power with no one, and to make every personal enemy feel his vengeance. "Among the first discoveries which were made of his temper, it appeared that even his mother Livia had mistaken his disposition, or over-rated her own ascendency over him. In procuring the empire to her son, she had joined to the zeal of a mother a high degree of ambition, and a desire to emerge from a species of obscurity, in which she had lived in the reign of her husband. She flattered herself, that upon the accession of Tiberius, she was to possess a great part of the imperial power, or to exercise the whole in his name. Trusting to the deference, which he had hitherto affected for all her opinions, or to the gratitude which he owed to her for the high obligations she had conferred upon him, she instantly assumed all the consequence she expected to reap from his greatness, laid aside the caution and reserve which she had ever preserved in the reign of gustus, advanced into public view, and, as if she had taken pos session of the empire for herself, under pretence of bestowing it upon her son, took a principal part in all matters of state, and ap. peared on solemn occasions with her lictors, and all the other ensigns or formalities of a public station. The senate, trusting to the mother's supposed knowledge of her son's inclinations, yielded to her in all the prerogatives she was pleased to assume, inserted her name with that of the emperor in all public acts, and, in the titles of Tiberius, styled him the son of Augusta as well as of Cesar. They were not, however, suffered long to remain in this error. They were told by the emperor, with an alarming coldness of manner, which left no doubt of his sincerity, That the ambition of women should be kept within proper bounds, and that he should always endeavour to prescribe such bounds to his own.' From the time in which this declaration was made by the emperor, it appears that Livia entirely dropt her pretensions to any part in the government, and became no less reserved in the reign of her son than she had been in that of her husband." Tiberius, although provoked by the infidelity of Julia, whom, from policy, he had married, pretended deeply to compassionate her when her royal father banished her, and even often solicited him to restore her to her home; it was soon plain that all this tenderness was feigned, doubtless to ingratiate himself into the favour of the afflicted father. Accordingly, among the first acts of his reign, he revenged himself on Julia, by ordering that she should never leave the house in which she was contined, in the city of Rhegium, nor converse with any of the citizens. He also, it is said, withdrew the pension allowed her by her father, and slowly starved her to death. One of Julia's chief favourites was Sempronius Gracchus, who belonged to one of the first families of Rome. Augustus had exiled him to the island of Cercina. He had endured great misery fourteen years. A band of assassins were, by the secret order of the savage emperor, sent by Asprenas, proconsul of Africa, to put him to death. Tiberius neglected no art to ensnare those whom he hated or feared; but he generally attempted to destroy them under the form of law. In order to this, he demanded the enforcement of the law of majesty or treason, in relation to libels or words. Tacitus remarks," that in the times of the republic, actions, and not words, were punished." Augustus first called the Romans to account for their words, and Tiberius and his successors brought multitudes to death for daring to speak disrespectfully of the sovereign. Nor is one surprised who knows the freedom of speech of the Romans, especially the poets, that the profligate emperors should exert their power to restrain their subjects from uttering their thoughts. Of the severity of reproof administered by poets, an idea may be formed from one specimen of the satirical verses dispersed in Rome and Italy, descriptive of Tiberius: "Rough and inhuman! much in brief exprest, No knight art thou: thy fortune won't suffice. |