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XXI. Since the consuls caused a law to be passed soon after this that he should
govern the provinces jointly with Augustus and hold the census with him, he set out for
Illyricum on the conclusion of the lustral ceremonies; but he was at once recalled, and
finding Augustus in his last illness but still alive, he spent an entire day with him in
private. I know that it is commonly believed, that when Tiberius left the room after this
confidential talk, Augustus was overheard by his chamberlains to say: "Alas for the
Roman people, to be ground by jaws that crunch so slowly!" I also am aware that some
have written that Augustus so openly and unreservedly disapproved of his austere manners,
that he sometimes broke off his freer and lighter conversation when Tiberius appeared; but
that overcome by his wife's entreaties he did not reject his adoption, or perhaps was even
led by selfish considerations, that with such a successor he himself might one day be more
regretted. But after all I cannot be led to believe that an emperor of the utmost prudence
and foresight acted without consideration, especially in a matter of so great moment. It
is my opinion that after weighing the faults and the merits of Tiberius, he decided that
the latter preponderated, especially since he took oath before the people that he was
adopting Tiberius for the good of the country, and alludes to him in several letters as a
most able general and the sole defence of the Roman people. In illustration of both these
points, I append a few extracts from these letters:
"Fare thee well, Tiberius, most charming of men, and success go with you, as you
war for me and for the Muses. Fare thee well, most charming and valiant of men and most
conscientious of generals, or may I never know happiness."
"I have only praise for the conduct of your summer campaigns, dear Tiberius, and I
am sure that no one could have acted with better judgment than you did amid so many
difficulties and such apathy of your army. All who were with you agree that the well-known
line could be applied to you: 'One man alone by his foresight has saved our dear country
from ruin.'"
"If anything comes up that calls for careful thought, or if I am vexed at
anything, I long mightily, so help me Heaven, for my dear Tiberius, and the lines of Homer
come to my mind: 'Let him but follow and we too, though flames round about us be raging,
Both may return to our homes, since great are his wisdom and knowledge.'"
"When I hear and read that you are worn out by constant hardships, may the Gods
confound me if my own body does not wince in sympathy; and I beseech you to spare
yourself, that the news of your illness may not kill your mother and me, and endanger the
Roman people in the person of their future ruler."
"It matters not whether I am well or not, if you are not well."
"I pray the Gods to preserve you to us and to grant you good health now and
forever, if they do not utterly hate the people of Rome."
XXII. Tiberius did not make the death of Augustus public until the young Agrippa had
been disposed of. The latter was slain by a tribune of the soldiers appointed to guard
him, who received a letter in which he was bidden to do the deed; but it is not known
whether Augustus left this letter when he died, to remove a future source of discord, or
whether Livia wrote it herself in the name of her husband; and in the latter case, whether
it was with or without the connivance of Tiberius. At all events, when the tribune
reported that he had done his bidding, Tiberius replied that he had given no such order,
and that the man must render an account to the Senate; apparently trying to avoid odium at
the time, for later his silence consigned the matter to oblivion.
XXIII. When, however, by virtue or his tribunicial power, he had convened the Senate
and had begun to address it, he suddenly groaned aloud, as if overcome by grief, and with
the wish that not only his voice, but his life as well might leave him, handed the written
speech to his son Drusus to finish. Then bringing in the will of Augustus, he had it read
by a freedman, admitting of the signers only such as were of the senatorial order, while
the others acknowledged their seals outside the House. The will began thus: "Since a
cruel fate has bereft me of my sons Gaius and Lucius, be Tiberius Caesar heir to
two-thirds of my estate." These words in themselves added to the suspicion of those
who believed that he had named Tiberius his successor from necessity rather than from
choice, since he allowed himself to write such a preamble.
XXIV. Though Tiberius did not hesitate at once to assume and to exercise the imperial
authority, surrounding himself with a guard of soldiers, that is, with the actual power
and the outward sign of sovereignty, yet he refused the title for a long time, with
barefaced hypocrisy now upbraiding his fiiends who urged him to accept it, saying that
they did not realise what a monster the empire was, and now by evasive answers and
calculating hesitancy keeping the Senators in suspense when they implored him to yield,
and fell at his feet. Finally, some lost patience, and one man cried out in the confusion:
"Let him take it or leave it!" Another openly voiced the taunt that others were
slow in doing what they promised, but that he was slow to promise what he was already
doing. At last, as though on compulsion, and complaining that a wretched and burdensome
slavery was being forced upon him, he accepted the empire, but in such fashion as to
suggest the hope that he would one day lav it down. His own words are: "Until I come
to the time when it may seem right to you to grant an old man some repose."
XXV. The cause of his hesitation was fear of the dangers which threatened him on every
hand, and often led him to say that he was holding a wolf by the ears. For a slave of
Agrippa, Clemens by name had collected a band of no mean size to avenge his master; Lucius
Scribonius Libo, one of the nobles was secretly plotting a revolution; and a mutiny of the
soldiers broke out in two places, Illyricum and Germania. Both armies demanded numelous
special privileges-above all, that they should receive the same pay as the praetorians.
The army in Germania was, besides, reluctant to accept an emperor who was not its own
choice, and with the greatest urgency besought Germanicus, their commander at the time, to
assume the purple, in spite of his positive refusal. Fear of this possibility in
particular led Tiberius to ask the Senate for any part in the administration that it might
please them to assign him, saying that no one man could bear the whole burden without a
colleague, or even several colleagues. He also feigned ill-health, to induce Germanicus to
wait with more patience for a speedy succession, or at least for a share in the
sovereignty. The mutinies were put down, and he also got Clemens into his power,
outwitting him by stratagem. Not until his second year did he finally arraign Libo in the
Senate, fearing to take any severe measures before his power was secure, and satisfied in
the meantime merely to be on his guard. Thus, when Libo was offering sacrifice with him
among the pontiffs, he had a leaden knife substituted for the usual one, and when he asked
for a private interview, Tiberius would not grant it except with his son Drusus present,
and as long as the conference lasted he held fast to Libo's right arm, under pretence of
leaning on it as they walked together.
XXVI. Once relieved of fear, he at first played a most unassuming part, almost humbler
than that of a private citizen. Of many high honours he accepted only a few of the more
modest. He barely consented to allow his birthday, which came at the time of the Plebeian
games in the Circus, to be recognized by the addition of a single two-horse chariot. He
forbade the voting of temples, flamens, and priests in his honour, and even the setting up
of statues and busts without his permission; and this he gave only with the understanding
that they were not to be placed among the likenesses of the gods, but among the adornments
of the temples. He would not allow an oath to be taken ratifying his acts nor the name
"Tiberius" to be given to the month of September, or that of Livia to October.
He also declined the forename "Imperator," the surname of "Father of his
Country," and the placing of the civic crown at his door; and he did not even use the
title of "Augustus" in any letters except those to kings and potentates,
although it was his by inheritance. He held but three consulships after becoming
emperor---one for a few days [18 A.D.], a second for three months [21 A.D.], and a third,
during his absence from the city, until the Ides of May [31 A.D.]
XXVII. He so loathed flattery that he would not allow any Senator to approach his
litter, either to pay his respects or on business, and when an ex-consul in apologizing to
him attempted to embrace his knees, he drew back in such haste that he fell over backward.
In fact, if anyone in conversation or in a set speech spoke of him in too flattering
terms, he did not hesitate to interrupt him, to take him to task, and to correct his
language on the spot. Being once called Dominus [ "Lord"] he warned the
speaker not to address him again in an insulting fashion. When another spoke of his
"sacred duties," and still another said that he appeared before the Senate
"by the emperor's authority," he forced them to change their language,
substituting "advice" for "authority" and "laborious" for
"sacred."
XXVIII. More than that, he was self-contained and patient in the face of abuse and
slander, and of lampoons on himself and his family, often asserting that in a free country
there should be free speech and free thought. When the Senate on one occasion demanded
that cognizance be taken of such offences and those guilty of them, he said: "We have
not enough spare time to warrant involving ourselves in more affairs; if you open this
loophole you will find no time for any other business; it will be an excuse for laying
everybody's quarrels before you." A most unassuming remark of his in the Senate is
also a matter of record: "If so and so criticizes me I shall take care to render an
account of my acts and words; if he persists, our enmity wil1 be mutual."
XXIX. All this was the more noteworthy, because in addressing and in paying his
respects to the Senators individually and as a body he himself almost exceeded the
requirements of courtesy. In a disagreement with Quintus Haterius in the House, he said:
"I crave your pardon, if in my capacity as Senator I use too free language in
opposing you." Then addressing the whole body: "I say now and have often said
before, Fathers of the Senate, that a well-disposed and helpful prince, to whom you have
given such great and unrestrained power, ought to be the servant of the Senate, often of
the citizens as a whole, and sometimes even of individuals. I do not regret my words, but
I have looked upon you as kind, just, and indulgent masters, and still so regard
you."
XXX. He even introduced a semblance of free government by maintaining the ancient
dignity and powers of the Senate and the magistrates; for there was no matter of public or
private business so small or so great that he did not lay it before the Senators,
consulting them about revenues and monopolies, constructing and restoring public
buildings, and even about levying and disbanding the soldiers, and the disposal of the
legionaries and auxiliaries; finally about the extension of military commands and
appointments to the conduct of wars, and the form and content of his replies to the
letters of kings. He forced the commander of a troop of horse, when charged with violence
and robbery, to plead his cause before the Senate. He always entered the House alone; and
when he was brought in once in a litter because of illness, he dismissed his attendants.
XXXI. When certain decrees were passed contrary to his expressed opinion, he did not
even remonstrate. Although he declared that those who were elected to office ought to
remain in the city and give personal attention to their duties, a praetor elect obtained
permission to travel abroad with the privileges of an ambassador. On another occasion when
he recommended that the people of Trebia be allowed to use, in making a road, a sum of
money which had been left them for the construction of a new theatre, he could not prevent
the wish of the testator from being carried out. When it happened that the Senate passed a
decree by division and he went over to the side of the minority, not a man followed him.
Other business as well was done solely through the magistrates and the ordinary process of
law, while the importance of the consuls was such that certain envoys from Africa
presented themselves before them with the complaint that their time was being wasted by
Caesar, to whom they had been sent. And this was not surprising, for it was plain to all
that he himself actually arose in the presence of the consuls, and made way for them on
the street.
XXXII. He rebuked some ex-consuls in command of armies, because they did not write
their reports to the Senate, and for referring to him the award of some military prizes,
as if they had not themselves the right to bestow everything of the kind. He highly
complimented a praetor, because on entering upon his office he had revived the custom of
eulogizing his ancestors before the people. He attended the obsequies of certain
distinguished men, even going to the funeral-pyre. He showed equal modesty towards persons
of lower rank and in matters of less moment. When he had summoned the magistrates of
Rhodes, because they had written him letters on public business without the concluding
formula, he uttered not a word of censure, but merely dismissed them with orders to supply
the omission. The grammarian Diogenes, who used to lecture every Saturday at Rhodes, would
not admit Tiberius when he came to hear him on a different day, but sent a message by a
common slave of his, putting him off to the seventh day. When this man waited before the
Emperor's door at Rome to pay his respects, Tiberius took no further revenge than to bid
him return seven years later. To the governors who recommended burdensome taxes for his
provinces, he wrote in answer that it was the part of a good shepherd to shear his flock,
not skin it.
XXXIII. Little by little he unmasked the ruler, and although for some time his conduct
was variable, yet he more often showed himself kindly and devoted to the public weal. His
intervention too was at first limited to the prevention of abuses. Thus he revoked some
regulations of the Senate and sometimes offered the magistrates his services as adviser,
when they sat in judgment on the tribunal, taking his place beside them or opposite them
at one end of the platform; and if it was rumoured that any of the accused were being
acquitted through influence, he would suddenly appear, and either from the floor or from
the judge's a tribunal remind the jurors of the laws and of their oath, as well as of the
nature of the crime on which they were sitting in judgment. Moreover, if the public morals
were in any way affected by laziness or bad habits he undertook to reform them.
XXXIV. He reduced the cost of the games and shows by cutting down the pay of the actors
and limiting the pairs of gladiators to a fixed number. Complaining bitterly that the
prices of Corinthian bronzes had risen to an immense figure and that three mullets had
been sold for thirty thousand sesterces, he proposed that a limit be set to household
furniture and that the prices in the market should be regulated each year at the
discretion of the Senate, while the aediles were instructed to put such restrictions on
cook-shops and eating-houses as not to allow even pastry to be exposed for sale.
Furthermore, to encourage general frugality by his personal example, he often served at
formal dinners meats left over from the day before and partly consumed, or the half of a
boar, declaring that it had all the qualities of a whole one. He issued an edict
forbidding general kissing, as well as the exchange of New Year's gifts after the Kalends
of January. It was his custom to return a gift of four-fold value, and in person; but
annoyed at being interrupted all through the month by those who did not have access to him
on the holiday, he did not continue it.
XXXV. He revived the custom of our forefathers, that in the absence of a public
prosecutor matrons of ill-repute be punished according to the decision of a council of
their relatives. He absolved a Roman knight from his oath and allowed him to put away his
wife, who was taken in adultery with her son-in-law, even though he had previously sworn
that he would never divorce her. Notorious women had begun to make an open profession of
prostitution, to avoid the punishment of the laws by giving up the privileges and rank of
matrons, while the most profligate young men of both orders voluntarily incurred
degradation from their rank, so as not to be prevented by the decree of the Senate from
appearing on the stage and in the arena. All such men and women he punished with exile, to
prevent anyone from shielding himself by such a device. He deprived a Senator of his broad
stripe on learning that he had moved to his gardens just before the Kalends of July [the
first of July was the date for renting and hiring houses and rooms--hence "moving
day"], with the design of renting a house in the city at a lower figure after that
date. He deposed another from his quaestorship, because he had taken a wife the day before
casting lots [to determine his province or sphere of duty] and divorced her the day after.
XXXVI. He abolished foreign cults, especially the Egyptian and the Jewish rites,
compelling all who were addicted to such superstitions to burn their religious vestments
and all their paraphernalia. Those of the Jews who were of military age he assigned to
provinees of less healthy climate, ostensibly to serve in the army; the others of that
same race or of similar beliefs he banished from the city, on pain of slavery for life if
they did not obey. He banished the astrologers as well, but pardoned such as begged for
indulgence and promised to give up their art.
XXXVII. He gave special attention to securing safety from prowling brigands and lawless
outbreaks, He stationed garrisons of soldiers nearer together than before throughout
Italy, while at Rome he established a camp for the barracks of the praetorian cohorts,
which before that time had been quartered in isolated groups in divers lodging houses. He
took great pains to prevent outbreaks of the populace and punished such as occurred with
the utmost severity. When a quarrel in the theatre ended in bloodshed, he banished the
leaders of the factions, as well as the actors who were the cause of the dissension; and
no entreaties of the people could ever induce him to recall them. When the populace of
Pollentia would not allow the body of a chief centurion to be taken from the forum until
their violence had extorted money from his heirs for a gladiatorial show, he dispatched
one cohort from the city and another from the kingdom of Cottius, concealing the reason
for the move, sent them into the city by different gates, suddenly revealing their arms
and sounding their trumpets, and consigned the greater part of the populace and of the
decurions to life imprisonment. He abolished the customary right of asylum in all parts of
the empire. Because the people of Cyzicus ventured to commit acts of special lawlessness
against Roman citizens, he took from them the freedom which they had earned in the war
with Mithridates. He undertook no campaign after his accession, but quelled outbreaks of
the enemy through his generals; and even this he did only reluctantly and of necessity.
Such kings as were disaffected and objects of his suspicion he held in check rather by
threats and remonstrances than by force; some he lured to Rome by flattering promises and
detained there, such as Marobodus the German, Rhascuporis the Thracian, and Archelaus of
Cappadocia, whose realm he also reduced to the form of a province.
XXXVIII. For two whole years after becoming emperor he did not set foot outside the
gates; after that he went nowhere except to the neighbouring towns, at farthest to Antium,
and even that very seldom and for a few days at a time. Yet he often gave out that he
would revisit the provinces too and the armies, and nearly every year he made preparations
for a journey by chartering carriages and arranging for supplies in the free towns and
colonies. Finally he allowed vows to be put up for his voyage and return, so that at last
everybody jokingly gave him the name of Callippides, who was proverbial among the Greeks
for running without getting ahead a cubits length.
XXXIX. But after being bereft of both his sons---Germanicus had died in Syria and
Drusus at Rome----he retired to Campania, and almost everyone firmly believed and openly
declared that he would never come back, but would soon die there. And both predictions
were all but fulfilled; for he did not return again to Rome, and it chanced a few days
later that as he was dining near Tarracina in a villa called the Grotto, many huge rocks
fell from the ceiling and crushed a number of the guests and servants, while the emperor
himself had a narrow escape.
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