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After he became emperor, likewise, he wrote several things which he was careful to
have recited to his friends by a reader. He commenced his history from the death of the
dictator Caesar; but afterwards he took a later period, and began at the conclusion of the
civil wars; because he found he could not speak with freedom, and a due regard to truth,
concerning the former period, having been often taken to task both by his mother and
grandmother. Of the earlier history he left only two books, but of the latter, one and
forty. He compiled likewise the " History of his Own Life," in eight
books, full of absurdities, but in no bad style; also, "A Defense of Cicero against
the Books of Asinius Gallus," which exhibited a considerable degree of learning. He
besides invented three new letters, and added them to the former alphabet, as highly
necessary. He published a book to recommend them while he was yet only a private person;
but on his elevation to imperial power he had little difficulty in introducing them into
common use; and these letters are still extant in a variety of books, registers, and
inscriptions upon buildings.
42. He applied himself with no less attention to the study of Greek literature,
asserting upon all occasions his love of that language, and its surpassing excellency. A
stranger once holding a discourse both in Greek and Latin, he addressed him thus: "
Since you are skilled in both our tongues." And recommending Achaia to the favour of
the senate, he said, " I have a particular attachment to that province, on account of
our common studies." In the senate he often made long replies to ambassadors in that
language. On the tribunal he frequently quoted the verses of Homer. When at any time
he had taken vengeance on an enemy or a conspirator, he scarcely ever gave to the tribune
on guard, who, according to custom, came for the word, any other than this:—
Tis time to
strike when wrong demands the blow.
[Homer's Iliad]
To conclude, he wrote some histories likewise in Greek,
namely, twenty books on Tuscan affairs, and eight on the Carthaginian; in consequence of
which another museum was founded at Alexandria, in addition to the old one, and called
after his name; and it was ordered, that, upon certain days in every year, his Tuscan
history should be read over in one of these, and his Carthaginian in the other, as in a
school; each history being read through by persons who took it in turn.
43. Towards the close of his life, he gave some manifest indications that he repented
of his marriage with Agrippina, and his adoption of Nero. For some of his freedmen
noticing with approbation his having condemned, the day before, a woman accused of
adultery, he remarked, " It has been my misfortune to have wives who have been
unfaithful to my bed; but they did not escape punishment." Often, when he happened to
meet Britannicus, he would embrace him tenderly, and express a desire " that he might
grow apace, and receive from him an account of all his actions:" using the Greek
phrase, “He who has wounded will also heal." And intending to give him the
manly habit, while he was under age and a tender youth, because his stature would allow of
it, he added, " I do so, that the Roman people may at last have a real Caesar."
44. Soon afterwards he made his will, and had it signed by all the magistrates as
witnesses. But he was prevented from proceeding further by Agrippina, accused by her own
guilty conscience, as well as by informers, of a variety of crimes. It is agreed that he
was taken off by poison; but where, and by whom administered, remains in uncertainty. Some
authors say that it was given him as he was feasting with the priests in the Capitol, by
the eunuch Halotus, his taster. Others say by Agrippina, at his own table, in mushrooms, a
dish of which he was very fond. The accounts of what followed likewise differ. Some
relate that he instantly became speechless, was racked with pain through the night, and
died about daybreak; others, that at first he fell into a sound sleep, —and
afterwards, his food rising, he threw up the whole; but had another dose given him;
whether in water-gruel, under presence of refreshment after his exhaustion, or in a
clyster, as if designed to relieve his bowels, is likewise uncertain.
45. His death was kept secret until everything was settled relative to his successor.
Accordingly, vows were made for his recovery, and comedians were called to amuse him, as
it was pretended, by his own desire. He died upon the third of the ides of October [I3th
October], in the consulship of Asinius Marcellus and Acilius Aviola, in the sixty-fourth
year of his age, and the fourteenth of his reign. His funeral was celebrated with
the customary imperial pomp, and he was ranked amongst the gods. This honour was taken
from him by Nero, but restored by Vespasian.
46. The chief presages of his death were, the appearance of a comet, his
father Drusus's monument being struck by lightning, and the death of many magistrates of
all ranks that year. It appears from several circumstances, that he was sensible of his
approaching dissolution, and made no secret of it. For when he nominated the consuls, he
appointed no one to fill the office beyond the month in which he died. At the last
assembly of the senate in which he made his appearance, he earnestly exhorted his two sons
to unity with each other, and with earnest entreaties commended to the senators the care
of their tender years. And in the last cause he heard from the tribunal, he repeatedly
declared in open court, " That he was now arrived at the last stage of mortal
existence; " whilst all who heard it shrunk at hearing these ominous words.
Source:
The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, C. Tranquillus Suetonius
Translation by Alexander Thomson, R. Worthington, New York (1883) |
