Plot
Outline
Cast
Homework
Timeline
Audio and Video
Suetonius
Links
Guestbook
Email
Download
Search
Home |
Then as time went on it was honoured with twenty-eight consulships, five dictatorships,
seven censorships, six triumphs, and two ovations. While the members of the family were
known by various forenames and surnames, they discarded the forename "Lucius" by
common consent after two of the family who bore it had been found guilty, the one of
highway robbery, and the other of murder. To their surnames, on the other hand, they added
that of Nero, which in the Sabine tongue means "strong and valiant." II..
There are on record many distinguished services of the Claudii to their country, as well
as many deeds of the opposite character. But to mention only the principal instances,
Appius Caecus [ "the Blind"] advised [280 B.C.] against forming an alliance with
King Pyrrhus as not at all expedient. Claudius Caudex was the first to cross the straits
with a fleet [264 B.C.], and drove the Carthaginians from Sicily. Tiberius Nero crushed
Hasdrubal, on his arrival from Spain with a vast army [207 B.C.] before he could unite
with his brother Hannibal. On the other hand, Claudius Regillianus, decemvir for codifying
the laws, through his lawless attempt to enslave a freeborn maid, to gratify his passion
for her, was the cause of the second secession of the plebeians from the patricians [449
B.C.]. Claudius Russus, having set up his statue at Forum Appi with a crown upon its head,
tried to take possession of Italy through his dependents. Claudius Pulcher began a
sea-fight off Sicily [249 B.C.], though the sacred chickens would not eat when he took the
auspices, throwing them into the sea in defiance of the omen, and saying that they might
drink, since they would not eat. He was defeated, and on being bidden by the Senate to
appoint a dictator, he appointed his messenger Glycias, as if again making a jest of his
country's peril. The women also have records equally diverse, since both the famous
Claudias belonged to that family: the one who drew the ship with the sacred properties of
the Idaean Magna Mater from the shoal in the Tiber on which it was stranded, after first
publicly praying that it might yield to her efforts only if her chastity were beyond
question [204 B.C.]; and the one who was tried by the people for treason [246 B.C.], an
unprecedented thing in the case of a woman, because when her carriage made but slow
progress through the throng, she openly gave vent to the wish that her brother Pulcher
might come to life and lose another fleet, to make less of a crowd in Rome. It is
notorious besides that all the Claudii were aristocrats and staunch upholders of the
prestige and influence of the patricians, with the sole exception of Publius Clodius, who
for the sake of driving Cicero from the city had himself adopted by a plebeian [60 B.C.]
and one too who was younger than himself. Their attitude towards the commons was so
headstrong and stubborn that not even when on trial for his life before the people did any
one of them deign to put on mourning or beg for mercy; and some of them during bickerings
and disputes struck the tribunes of the commons. Even a Vestal virgin mounted her
brother's chariot with him [143 B.C.], when he was celebrating a triumph without the
sanction of the people, and attended him all the way to the Capitol, in order to make it
an act of sacrilege for any one of the tribunes to forbid him or interpose his veto.
III. Such was the stock from which Tiberius Caesar derived his origin, and that too on
both sides: on his father's from Tiberius Nero; on his mother's from Appius Pulcher, both
of whom were sons of Appius Caecus. He was a member also of the family of the Livii,
through the adoption into it of his maternal grandfather. This family too, though of
plebeian origin, was yet of great prominence and had been honoured with eight consulships,
two censorships, and three triumphs, as well as with the offices of dictator and master of
the horse. It was made illustrious too by distinguished members, in particular Salinator
and the Drusi. The former in his censorship put the brand on all the tribes [204 B.C.] the
charge of fickleness, because having convicted and fined him after a previous consulship,
they made him consul a second time and censor as well. Drusus gained a surname for himself
and his descendants by slaying Drausus, leader of the enemy, in single combat. It is also
said that when propraetor he brought back from his province of Gaul the gold which was
paid long before to the Senones, when they beleaguered the Capitol [390 B.C.], and that
this had not been wrested from them by Camillus, as tradition has it. His grandson's
grandson, called "Patron of the Senate" because of his distinguished services
against the Gracchi, left a son who was [122 B.C.] treacherously slain by the party of his
opponents, while he was busily agitating many plans during a similar dissension [91 B.C.].
IV. Nero, the father of Tiberius, as a quaestor of Julius Caesar during the Alexandrian
War [48-47 B.C.] and commander of a fleet, contributed materially to the victory. For this
he was made pontiff in place of Publius Scipio and sent to conduct colonies to Gaul, among
them Narbo and Arelate. Yet, after the murder of Caesar, when all the others voted for an
amnesty through fear of mob violence, he even favoured a proposal for rewarding the
tyrannicides. Later on, having held the praetorship, since a dispute arose among the
triumvirs at the close of his term, he retained the badges of his rank beyond the
legitimate time and followed Lucius Antonius, consul [41 B.C.] and brother of the
triumvir, to Perusia. When the others capitulated, he alone held to his allegiance and got
away first to Praeneste and then to Naples; and after vainly trying to enlist the slaves
by a promise of freedom, he took refuge in Sicily. Piqued however because he was not at
once given an audience with Sextus Pompeius, and was denied the use of the fasces,
he crossed to Achaia and joined Marcus Antonius. With him he shortly returned to Rome, on
the conclusion of a general peace, and gave up to Augustus at his request his wife Livia
Drusilla, who was pregnant at the time and had already borne him a son. Not long afterward
he died, survived by both his sons, Tiberius Nero and Drusus Nero.
V. Some have supposed that Tiberius was born at Fundi, on no better evidence than that
his maternal grandmother was a native of that place, and that later a statue of Good
Fortune was set up there by decree of the Senate. But according to the most numerous and
trustworthy authorities, he was born at Rome, on the Palatine, the sixteenth day before
the Kalends of December, in the consulship of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and Lucius Munatius
Plancus (the former for the second time) while the war of Philippi was going on [November
16, 42 B.C.]. In fact it is so recorded both in the calendar and in the public gazette.
Yet in spite of this some write that he was born in the preceding year, that of Hirtius
and Pansa, and others in the following year, in the consulate of Servilius Isauricus and
Lucius Antonius.
VI. He passed his infancy and his youth amid hardship and tribulation, since he was
everywhere the companion of his parents in their flight; at Naples indeed he all but
betrayed them twice by his crying, as they were secretly on their way to a ship just as
the enemy burst into the town, being suddenly torn from his nurse's breast and again from
his mother's arms by those who tried to relieve the poor women of their burdens because of
the imminent danger. After being taken all over Sicily also and Achaia, and consigned to
the public care of the Lacedaemonians, because they were dependents of the Claudii, he
almost lost his life as he was leaving there by night, when the woods suddenly caught fire
all about them, and the flames so encircled the whole company that part of Livia's robe
and her hair were scorched. The gifts which were given him in Sicily by Pompeia, sister of
Sextus Pompeius, a cloak and clasp, as well as studs of gold, are still kept and exhibited
at Baiae. Being adopted, after his return to the city, in the will of Marcus Gallius, a
senator, he accepted the inheritance, but soon gave up the name, because Gallius had been
a member of the party opposed to Augustus. At the age of nine he delivered a eulogy of his
dead father from the rostra. Then, just as he was arriving at puberty, he accompanied the
chariot of Augustus in his triumph after Actium [31 B.C.], riding the left trace-horse,
while Marcellus, son of Octavia, rode the one on the right. He presided, too, at the city
festival, and took part in the game of Troy during the performances in the circus, leading
the band of older boys.
VII. The principal events of his youth and later life, from the assumption of the gown
of manhood to the beginning of his reign, were these. He gave a gladiatorial show in
memory of his father, and a second in honor of his grandfather Drusus, at different times
and in different places, the former in the Forum and the latter in the amphitheatre,
inducing some retired gladiators to appear with the rest by the payment of a hundred
thousand sesterces to each. He also gave stage-plays, but without being present in person.
All these were on a grand scale, at the expense of his mother and his stepfather.
He married Agrippina, daughter of Marcus Agrippa, and granddaughter of Caecilius
Atticus, a Roman knight, to whom Cicero's letters are addressed; but after he had
acknowledged a son from her, Drusus, although she was thoroughly congenial and was a
second time with child, he was forced to divorce her [1l B.C.] and to contract a hurried
marriage with Julia, daughter of Augustus. This caused him no little distress of mind, for
he was living happily with Agrippina, and disapproved of Julia's character, having
perceived that she had a passion for him even during the lifetime of her former husband,
as was in fact the general opinion. But even after the divorce he regretted his separation
from Agrippina, and the only time that he chanced to see her, he followed her with such an
intent and tearful gaze that care was taken that she should never again come before his
eyes. With Julia he lived in harmony at first, and returned her love; but he soon grew
cold, and went so far as to cease to live with her at all, after the severing of the tie
formed by a child which was born to them, but died at Aquileia in infancy. He lost his
brother Drusus in Germania [9 B.C.] and conveyed his body to Rome, going before it on foot
all the way.
VIII. He began his civil career by a defence of king Archelaus, the people of Tralles,
and those of Thessaly, before the judgment seat of Augustus, the charge in each case being
different. He made a plea to the Senate in behalf of the citizens of Laodicea, Thyatira
and Chios, who had suffered loss from an earthquake and begged for help. Fannius Caepio,
who had conspired with Varro Murena against Augustus [23 B.C.], he arraigned for high
treason and secured his condemnation. In the meantime he undertook two public charges:
that of the grain supply, which, as it happened, was deficient; and the investigation of
the slave-prisons throughout Italy, the owners of which had gained a bad reputation; for
they were charged with holding in durance not only travellers, but also those whom dread
of military service had driven to such places of concealment.
IX. His first military service was as tribune of the soldiers in the campaign against
the Cantabrians [25 B.C.]; then he led an army to the Orient and restored the throne of
Armenia to Tigranes, crowning him on the tribunal. He besides recovered the standards
which the Parthians had taken from Marcus Crassus. Then for about a year he was governor
of Gallia Comata [Transalpine Gaul], which was in a state of unrest through the inroads of
the barbarians and the dissensions of its chiefs. Next he carried on war with the Raeti
and Vindelici, then in Pannonia, and finally in Germania. In the first of these wars he
subdued the Alpine tribes, in the second the Breuci and Dalmatians, and in the third he
brought forty thousand prisoners of war over into Gaul and assigned them homes near the
bank of the Rhine. Because of these exploits he entered the city both in an ovation [7
B.C.] and riding in a chariot [9 B.C.], having previously, as some think, been honoured
with the triumphal regalia, a new kind of distinction never before conferred upon anyone.
He entered upon the offices of quaestor, praetor, and consul before the usual age, and
held them almostwithout an interval; then after a time he was made consul again [6 B.C.],
at the same time receiving the tribunicial power for five years.
X. At the flood-tide of success, though in the prime of life and health, he suddenly
decided to go into retirement and to withdraw as far as possible from the centre of the
stage; perhaps from disgust at his wife, whom he dared neither accuse nor put away, though
he could no longer endure her; or perhaps, avoiding the contempt born of familiarity, to
keep up his prestige by absence, or even add to it, in case his country should ever need
him. Some think that, since the children of Augustus were now of age, he voluntarily gave
up the position and the virtual assumption of the second rank which he had long held, thus
following the example of Marcus Agrippa, who withdrew to Mytilene when Marcellus began his
public career, so that he might not seem either to oppose or belittle him by his presence.
This was, in fact, the reason which Tiberius himself gave, but afterwards. At the time he
asked for leave of absence on the ground of weariness of office and a desire to rest; and
he would not give way either to his mother's urgent entreaties or to the complaint which
his step-father openly made in the Senate, that he was being forsaken. On the contrary,
when they made more strenuous efforts to detain him, he refused to take food for four
days. Being at last allowed to depart, he left his wife and son in Rome and went down to
Ostia in haste, without saying a single word to any of those who saw him off, and kissing
only a very few when he left.
XI. From Ostia he coasted along the shore of Campania, and learning of an indisposition
of Augustus, he stopped for a while. But since gossip was rife that he was lingering on
the chance of realizing his highest hopes, although the wind was all but dead ahead, he
sailed directly to Rhodes, for he had been attracted by the charm and healthfulness of
that island ever since the time when he put in there on his return from Armenia. Content
there with a modest house and a villa in the suburbs not much more spacious, he adopted a
most unassuming manner of life, at times walking in the gymnasium without a lictor or a
messenger, and: exchanging courtesies with the good people of Greece with almost the air
of an equal. It chanced one morning in arranging his program for the day, that he had
announced his wish to visit whatever sick folk there were in the city. This was
misunderstood by his attendants, and orders were given that all the sick should be taken
to a public colonnade and arranged according to the nature of their complaints. Whereupon
Tiberius, shocked at this unexpected sight, and in doubt for some time what to do, at last
went about to each one, apologizing for what had happened even to the humblest and most
obscure of them. Only one single instance was noticed of a visible exercise of the rights
of the tribunicial authority. He was a constant attendant at the schools and lecture-rooms
of the professors of philosophy, and once when a hot dispute had arisen among rival
sophists, a fellow had the audacity to ply him with abuse when he took part and appeared
to favour one side. Thereupon he gradually backed away to his house, and then suddenly
coming out with his lictors and attendants, and bidding his crier to summon the
foul-mouthed fellow before his tribunal, he had him taken off to prison. Shortly after
this he learned that his wife Julia had been banished because of her immorality and
adulteries, and that a bill of divorce had been sent her in his name by authority of
Augustus; but welcome as this news was, he yet considered it his duty to make every
possible effort in numerous letters to reconcile the father to his daughter; and
regardless of her deserts, to allow her to keep any gifts which he had himself made her at
any time. Moreover, when the term of his tribunician power was at an end, at last
admitting that the sole object of his retirement had been to avoid the suspicion of
rivalry with Gaius and Lucius, he asked that inasmuch as he was free from care in that
regard, since they were now grown up and had an undisputed claim on the succession, he be
allowed to visit his relatives, whom he sorely missed. But his request was denied and he
was besides admonished to give up all thought of his kindred, whom he had so eagerly
abandoned.
XII. Accordingly he remained in Rhodes against his will, having with difficulty through
his mother's aid secured permission that, while away from Rome, he should have the title
of legatus of Augustus, so as to conceal his disgrace. Then in very truth he lived
not only in private, but even in danger and fear, secluded in his country away from the
sea, and shunning the attentions of those that sailed that way; these, however, were
constantly thrust on him, since no general or magistrate who was on his way to any
province failed to put in at Rhodes. He had besides reasons for still greater anxiety; for
when he had crossed to Samos to visit his stepson Gaius, who had been made governor of the
Orient, he found him somewhat estranged through the slanders of Marcus Lollius, a member
of Gaius' staff and his guardian. He also incurred the suspicion of having through some
centurions of his appointment, who were returning to camp after a furlough, sent messages
to several persons which were of an ambiguous character and apparently designed to incite
them to revolution. On being informed by Augustus of this suspicion, he unceasingly
demanded the appointment of someone, of any rank whatsoever, to keep watch over his
actions and words.
XIII. He also gave up his usual exercises with horses and arms, and laying aside the
garb of his country, took to the cloak and slippers; and in this state he continued for
upwards of two years, becoming daily an object of greater contempt and aversion. This went
so far that the citizens of Nemausus threw down his statues and busts, and when mention
was once made of him at a private dinner party, a man got up and assured Gaius that if he
would say the word, he would at once take ship for Rhodes and bring back the head of
"the exile," as he was commonly called. It was this act especially, which made
his position no longer one of mere fear but of actual peril, that drove Tiberius to sue
for his recall with most urgent prayers, in which his mother joined; and he obtained it,
although partly owing to a fortunate chance. Augustus had resolved to come to no decision
of the question which was not agreeable to his elder son, who, as it happened, was at the
time somewhat at odds with Marcus Lollius, and accordingly ready to lend an ear to his
stepfather's prayers. With his consent therefore Tiberius was recalled, but on the
understanding that he should take no part or active interest in public affairs.
XIV. So he returned in the eighth year after his retirement [2 A.D.], with that strong
and unwavering confidence in his destiny, which he had conceived from his early years
because of omens and predictions. When Livia was with child with him, and was trying to
divine by various omens whether she would bring forth a male, she took an egg from under a
setting-hen, and when she had warmed it in her own hand and those of her attendants in
turn, a cock with a fine crest was hatched. In his infancy the astrologer Scribonius
promised him an illustrious career and even that he would one day be king, but without the
crown of royalty; for at that time of course the rule of the Caesars was as yet unheard
of. Again, on his first campaign, when he was leading an army through Macedonia into
Syria, it chanced that at Philippi the altars consecrated in bygone days by the victorious
legions gleamed of their own accord with sudden fires. When later, on his way to
Illyricum, he visited the oracle of Geryon near Patavium, and drew a lot which advised him
to seek an answer to his inquiries by throwing golden dice into the fount of Aponus, it
came to pass that the dice which he threw showed the highest posssible number; and those
dice may be seen today under the water. A few days before his recall an eagle, a bird
never before seen in Rhodes, perched upon the roof of his house; and the day before he was
notified that he might return, his tunic seemed to blaze as he was changing his clothes.
It was just at this time that he was convinced of the powers of the astrologer Thrasyllus,
whom he had attached to his household as a learned man; for as soon as he caught sight of
the ship, Thrasyllus declared that it brought good news---this too at the very moment when
Tiberius had made up his mind to push the man off into the sea as they were strolling
together, believing him a false prophet and too hastily made the confidant of his secrets,
because things were turning out adversely and contrary to his predictions.
XV. On his return to Rome, after introducing his son Drusus to public life, he at once
moved from the Carinae [the western end of the southern slope of the Esquiline] and the
house of the Pompeys to the gardens of Maecenas on the Esquiline, where he led a very
retired life, merely attending to his personal affairs and exercising no public functions.
When Gaius and Lucius died within three years, he was adopted by Augustus along with their
brother Marcus Agrippa, being himself first compelled to adopt his nephew Germanicus. And
from that time on he ceased to act as the head of a family, or to retain in any particular
the privileges which he had given up. For he neither made gifts nor freed slaves, and he
did not even accept an inheritance or any legacies, except to enter them as an addition to
his personal property. From this time on nothing was left undone which could add to his
prestige, especially after the disowning and banishment of Agrippa made it clear that the
hope of the succession lay in him alone.
XVI. He was given the tribunician power for a second term of three years, the duty of
subjugating Germania was assigned him, and the envoys of the Parthians, after presenting
their instructions to Augustus in Rome, were bidden to appear also before him in his
province. But when the revolt of Illyricum was reported, he was transferred to the charge
of a new war, the most serious of all foreign wars since those with Carthage, which he
carried on for three years with fifteen legions and a corresponding force of auxiliaries,
amid great difficulties of every kind and the utmost scarcity of supplies. But though he
was often recalled, he nonetheless kept on, for fear that the enemy, who were close at
hand and very strong, might assume the offensive if the Romans gave ground. He reaped an
ample reward for his perseverance, for he completely subdued and reduced to submission the
whole of Illyricum, which is bounded by Italy and the kingdom of Noricum, by Thrace and
Macedonia, by the Danube, and by the Adriatic sea.
XVII. Circumstances gave this exploit a larger and crowning glory; for it was at just
about that time that Quintilius Varus perished with three legions in Germania, and no one
doubted that the victorious Germans would have united with the Pannonians, had not
Illyricum been subdued first. Consequently a triumph was voted him and many high honours.
Some also recommended that he be given the surname of Pannonicus, others of Invictus,
others of Pius. Augustus however vetoed the surname, reiterating the promise that Tiberius
would be satisfied with the one which he would receive at his father's death. Tiberius
himself put off the triumph, because the country was in mourning for the disaster to
Varus; but he entered the city clad in the purple-bordered toga and crowned with laurel,
and mounting a tribunal which had been set up in the Saepta, while the Senate stood
alongside, he took his seat beside Augustus between the two consuls. Having greeted the
people from this position, he was escorted to the various temples.
XVIII. The next year he returned to Germania, and realising that the disaster to Varus
was due to that general's rashness and lack of care, he took no step without the approval
of a council; while he had always before been a man of independent judgment and
self-reliance, then contrary to his habit he consulted with many advisers about the
conduct of the campaign. He also observed more scrupulous care than usual. When on the
point of crossing the Rhine, he reduced all the baggage to a prescribed limit, and would
not start without standing on the bank and inspecting the loads of the wagons, to make
sure that nothing was taken except what was allowed or necessary. Once on the other side,
he adopted the following manner of life: he took his meals sitting on the bare turf, often
passed the night without a tent, and gave all his orders for the following day, as well as
notice of any sudden emergency, in writing; adding the injunction that if anyone was in
doubt about any matter, he was to consult him personally at any hour whatsoever, even of
the night.
XIX. He required the strictest discipline, reviving bygone methods of punishment and
ignominy, and even degrading the commander of a legion for sending a few soldiers across
the river to accompany one of his freedmen on a hunting expedition. Although he left very
little to fortune and chance, he entered battles with considerably greater confidence
whenever it happened that, as he was working at night, his lamp suddenly and without human
agency died down and went out; trusting, as he used to say, to an omen in which he had
great confidence, since both he and his ancestors had found it trustworthy in all of their
campaigns. Yet in the very hour of victory he narrowly escaped assassination by one of the
Bructeri, who got access to him among his attendants, but was detected through his
nervousness; whereupon a confession of his intended crime was wrung from him by torture.
|
