Part 5 (2/2)

xxxVIII He never set foot outside the gates of Roether, from the time he assumed the supreme power; and after that period, went no farther fro towns; his farthest excursion being to Antiuh he often gave out that he would visit the provinces and armies, andup carriages, and ordering provisions for his retinue in the municipia and colonies At last he suffered vows to be put up for his good journey and safe return, insomuch that he was called jocosely by the na in a great hurry to go forward, but without ever advancing a cubit

xxxIX But after the loss of his two sons, of whom Germanicus died in Syria, and Drusus at Rome, he withdrew into Campania 339; at which tieneral, that he never would return, and would die soon And both nearly turned out to be true For indeed he neverit, when he was at a villa of his called the Cave, near Terracina 340, during supper a great e stones fell frouests and attendants; but he alone round Campania, and dedicated the capitol at Capua, and a teustus at Nola 341, which he(218) greatly delighted with the island, because it was accessible only by a narrow beach, being on all sides surrounded with rugged cliffs, of a stupendous height, and by a deep sea But i extremely clamorous for his return, on account of a disaster at Fidenae 342, where upwards of twenty thousand persons had been killed by the fall of the aladiators, he crossed over again to the continent, and gave all people free access to him; so much the more, because, at his departure from the city, he had caused it to be proclai any persons to his presence, on the journey

XLI Returning to the island, he so far abandoned all care of the governhts, never changed any overnors of provinces, and kept Spain and Syria for several years without any consular lieutenants He likewise suffered Armenia to be seized by the Parthians, Moesia by the Dacians and Sarreat disgrace, and no less danger, of the ee of privacy, and being remote from the observation of the people of Rome, he abandoned hi but iive a particular account fro soldier in the camp, he was so remarkable for his excessive inclination to wine, that, for Tiberius, they called him Biberius; for Claudius, Caldius; and for Nero, Mero And after he succeeded to the e the ht and two days together in feasting and drinking with Pomponius Flaccus and Lucius Piso; to one of whoave the province of Syria, and to the other the prefecture of the city; declaring them, in his letters-patent, to be ”very pleasant companions, and friends fit for all occasions” He made an appointal old felloho had been disgraced by Augustus, and reprimanded by himself but a few days before in the senate-house; upon condition that he should not recede in the least from his usual method of entertainirls He preferred a very obscure candidate for the quaestorshi+p, before thehiht 343 He presented Asellius Sabinus with two hundred thousand sesterces, for writing a dialogue, in the way of dispute, betwixt the truffle and the fig-pecker, the oyster and the thrush He likewise instituted a new office to administer to his voluptuousness, to which he appointed titus Caesonius Priscus, a Roht

XLIII In his retreat at Capri 344, he also contrived an apart couches, and adapted to the secret practice of aboirls and catamites, and assembled from all quarters inventors of unnatural copulations, whom he called Spintriae, who defiled one another in his presence, to inflauid appetite He had several chambers set round with pictures and statues in the most lascivious attitudes, and furnished with the books of Elephantis, that none ht want a pattern for the execution of any lewd project that was prescribed hiroves for the gratification of lust, where young persons of both sexes prostituted theuise of little Pans and Nymphs 345 So that he was publicly and commonly called, by an abuse of the name of the island, Caprineus 346 XLIV But he was still more infamous, if possible, for an (220) abomination not fit to be mentioned or heard, much less credited 347 ---------When a picture, painted by Parrhasius, in which the artist had represented Atalanta in the act of suber's lust in a most unnatural as bequeathed to him, with this proviso, that if the subject was offensive to hiht receive in lieu of it ait up in his bed-cha a sacrifice, he was so captivated with the forious rites ell over, he took him aside and abused hi the flute; and soon afterwards broke the legs of both of the one another with their shauilty of a most foul intercourse omen even of the first quality 348, appeared very plainly by the death of one Mallonia, who, being brought to his bed, but resolutely refusing to coave her up to the common informers Even when she was upon her trial, he frequently called out to her, and asked her, ”Do you repent?” until she, quitting the court, went ho the vile old lecher for his gross obscenity 349 Hence there was an allusion to him in a farce, which was acted at the next public sports, and was received with great applause, and becaoat---- XLVI He was so niggardly and covetous, that he never allowed to his attendants, in his travels and expeditions, any salary, but their diet only Once, indeed, he treated theation of his step-father, when, dividing theave the (221) first six, the second four, and the third two, hundred thousand sesterces, which last class he called not friends, but Greeks

XLVII During the whole tioverns he did undertake, na Pompey's Theatre, he left at last, after many years, unfinished Nor did he ever entertain the people with public spectacles; and he was seldo of that kind should be requested of hiive freedo relieved the poverty of a few senators, to avoid further demands, he declared that he should for the future assist none, but those who gave the senate full satisfaction as to the cause of their necessity Upon this, most of the needy senators, frost these was Hortalus, grandson to the celebrated orator Quintus Hortensius, who [ht up four children upon a very small estate

XLVIII He displayed only two instances of public ratis, for three years, a hundred millions of sesterces to those anted to borrow; and the other, when, so burnt down upon Mount Caelius, he indemnified the owners To the former of these he was coreat scarcity ofall money-lenders to advance two-thirds of their capital on land, and the debtors to pay off at once the same proportion of their debts, and it was found insufficient to reree the pressure of the times But his benefaction to the sufferers by fire, he estih a rate, that he ordered the Caelian Hill to be called, in future, the Augustan To the soldiery, after doubling the legacy left the, except a thousand denarii athe party of Sejanus; and soions in Syria, because they alone had not paid reverence to the effigies of Sejanus aes to the veteran soldiers, calculating (222) on their deaths fro rid of them, in the way of rewards or pensions Nor did he ever relieve the provinces by any act of generosity, excepting Asia, where some cities had been destroyed by an earthquake

XLIX In the course of a very short time, he turned his mind to sheer robbery It is certain that Cneius Lentulus, the augur, a man of vast estate, was so terrified and worried by his threats and ied to make him his heir; and that Lepida, a lady of a very noble faratify Quirinus, a man of consular rank, extremely rich, and childless, who had divorced her twenty years before, and now charged her with an old design to poison him Several persons, likewise, of the first distinction in Gaul, Spain, Syria, and Greece, had their estates confiscated upon such despicably trifling and shae was preferred, than that they held large sums of ready hts oftolls, were taken fro of the Parthians, who had been driven out of his dominions by his own subjects, and fled to Antioch with a vast treasure, clai the protection of the Roman people, his allies, was treacherously robbed of all his money, and afterwards murdered

L He first manifested hatred towards his own relations in the case of his brother Drusus, betraying him by the production of a letter to hiustus should be forced to restore the public liberty In course of tiard to the rest of his fa any office of kindness or humanity to his wife, when she was banished, and, by her father's order, confined to one town, that he forbad her to stir out of the house, or converse with any iven her by her father, and of her yearly allowance, by a quibble of law, because Augustus hadharassed by his overn her, and all long and private conferences with her, lest it should be thought that he was governed by her counsels, which, notwithstanding, he so He was much offended at the senate, when they proposed to add to his other titles that of the Son of Livia, as well as Augustus He, therefore, would not suffer her to be called ”the Mother of her Country,” nor to receive any extraordinary public distinction Nay, he frequently adhty affairs, and such as did not suit her sex;” especially when he found her present at a fire which broke out near the Te the people and soldiers to use their utmost exertions, as she had been used to do in the time of her husband

LI He afterwards proceeded to an open rupture with her, and, as is said, upon this occasion She having frequently urged hies a person who had been made free of the city, he refused her request, unless she would allow it to be inscribed on the roll, ”That the appointed at this, Livia brought forth fro of the sourness and insolence of Tiberius's temper, and these she read So , and now produced with so ainst him, that so into seclusion, if not the principal reason for his so doing In the (224) whole years she lived during his retirement, he saw her but once, and that for a few hours only When she fell sick shortly afterwards, he was quite unconcerned about visiting her in her illness; and when she died, after pro for several days, so that the corpse was in a state of decay and putrefaction before the inter paid to her, pretending that he acted according to her own directions He likewise annulled her will, and in a short ti those to whom, on her death-bed, she had reco one of them, a man of equestrian rank, to the treadmill 352 LII He entertained no paternal affection either for his own son Drusus, or his adopted son Germanicus Offended at the vices of the former, as of a loose disposition and led a dissolute life, he was not much affected at his death; but, almost immediately after the funeral, resumed his attention to business, and prevented the courts froer closed The a rather late to offer their condolence, he said to them by way of banter, as if the affair had already faded from his memory, ”And I heartily condole with you on the loss of your renowned countryman, Hector” He so much affected to depreciate Gernificant, and railed at hisof hi to Alexandria without his knowledge, upon occasion of a great and sudden famine at Rome It was believed that he took care to have him dispatched by Cneius Piso, his lieutenant in Syria This person was afterwards tried for the murder, and would, as was supposed, have produced his orders, had they not been contained in a private and confidential dispatch The folloords therefore were posted up in ht: ”Give us back our Germanicus” This suspicion was afterwards confirmed by the barbarous treathter-in-law Agrippina, after the death of her husband, co upon some occasion with more than ordinary freedom, he took her by the hand, and addressed her in a Greek verse to this effect: ”My dear child, do you think yourself injured, because you are not eain Upon her refusing once at supper to taste so her to his table, pretending that she in effect charged hin to poison her; whereas the whole was a contrivance of his own He was to offer the fruit, and she to be privately cautioned against eating ould infallibly cause her death At last, having her accused of intending to flee for refuge to the statue of Augustus, or to the army, he banished her to the island of Pandataria 353 Upon her reviling him for it, he caused a centurion to beat out one of her eyes; and when she resolved to starve herself to death, he ordered her mouth to be forced open, andin her resolution, and dying soon afterwards, he persecuted her memory with the basest aspersions, and persuaded the senate to put her birth-day ast the number of unlucky days in the calendar He likewise took credit for not having caused her to be strangled and her body cast upon the Gemonian Steps, and suffered a decree of the senate to pass, thanking hiold to be made to Jupiter Capitolinus on the occasion

LIV He had by Gerrandsons, Nero, Drusus, and Caius; and by his son Drusus one, named Tiberius Of these, after the loss of his sons, he commended Nero and Drusus, the two eldest sons of Ger sole the people But when he found that on entering upon the new year they were included in the public vows for his oelfare, he told the senate, ”that such honours ought not to be conferred but upon those who had been proved, and were of s towards them, he exposed the many artifices to provoke (226) theht be furnished with a pretence to destroy theed the them, in the bitterest ter declared enemies by the senate, he starved them to death; Nero in the island of Ponza, and Drusus in the vaults of the Palatiuht by some, that Nero was driven to a voluntary death by the executioner's shewing him some halters and hooks, as if he had been sent to him by order of the senate Drusus, it is said, was so rabid with hunger, that he attempted to eat the chaff hich his mattress was stuffed The relics of both were so scattered, that it ith difficulty they were collected

LV Besides his old friends and intimate acquaintance, he required the assistance of twenty of the most eminent persons in the city, as counsellors in the administration of public affairs Out of all this nue disposition All the rest he destroyed upon one pretence or another; and a them Aelius Sejanus, whose fall was attended with the ruin of hest pitch of grandeur, not so ard for hiht ruin the children of Gerrandson by Drusus

LVI He treated with no greater leniency the Greeks in his fa asked one Zeno, upon his using some far-fetched phrases, ”What uncouth dialect is that?” he replied, ”The Doric” For this answer he banished hi that he taunted him with his former residence at Rhodes, where the Doric dialect is spoken It being his custo out of what he had been reading in the day, and finding that Seleucus, the grammarian, used to inquire of his attendants what authors he was then studying, and so came prepared for his enquiries-he first turned him out of his fa violent hands upon himself

(227) LVII His cruel and sullen temper appeared when he was still a boy; which Theodorus of Gadara 355, his master in rhetoric, first discovered, and expressed by a very apposite si him sometimes, when he chid him, ”Mud mixed with blood” But his disposition shewed itself stillthe i of his adain the popular favour, by affectingcalled out to the dead acies he bequeathed to the people are not yet paid” The ht before him, he ordered that he should receive as due to hiht deliver theafterwards, when one Po he proposed in the senate, he threatened to put him in prison, and told him, ”Of a Pompey I shallupon the man's name, and the ill-fortune of his party

LVIII About the same time, when the praetor consulted him, whether it was his pleasure that the tribunals should take cognizance of accusations of treason, he replied, ”The laws ought to be put in execution;” and he did put them in execution ustus from one of his statues, and replaced it by another 356 The ht before the senate, and because the case was not clear, the witnesses were put to the torture The party accused being found guilty, and conde was carried so far, that it becae his clothes, near the statue of Augustus; to carry his head sta, into a necessary house, or the stews; or to reflect upon anything that had been either said or done by hi some honours to be decreed to him in the colony where he lived, upon the saustus

(228) LIX He was besides guilty of many barbarous actions, under the pretence of strictness and refore disposition Some verses were published, which displayed the present calan, and anticipated the future 357 Asper et immitis, breviter vis omnia dicam?

Dispeream si te mater amare potest

Non es eques, quare? non sunt tibi millia centum?

Omnia si quaeras, et Rhodos exsilium est

Aurea mutasti Saturni saecula, Caesar: Incolumi nam te, ferrea semper erunt

Fastidit vinum, quia jam sit it iste cruorem: Tam bibit hunc avide, quam bibit ante merum

Adspice felicem sibi, non tibi, Romule, Sullam: Et Marium, si vis, adspice, sed reducem

Nec non Antoni civilia bella moventis Nec semel infectas adspice caeda uine num quisquis venit ab exsilio

Obdurate wretch! too fierce, too fell to s of ano estate; Long suffered'st thou in Rhodes an exile's fate, No e we see; The Iron's come, and sure to last with thee

Instead of wine he thirsted for before, Hein floods of huore

Reflect, ye Romans, on the dreadful times, Made such by Marius, and by Sylla's crie Twice scar'd with horror a distracted age, And say, Alas! Rome's blood in streams will flow, When banish'd miscreants rule this world below

At first he would have it understood, that these satirical verses were drawn forth by the resentment of those ere impatient under the discipline of reformation, rather than that they spoke their real senti as they do but approve th, however, his behaviour showed that he was sensible they were too well founded

(229) LX A few days after his arrival at Capri, a fisher up to him unexpectedly, when he was desirous of privacy, and presenting hie mullet, he ordered theterrified at the thought of his having been able to creep upon hied and steep rocks Thehis joy that he had not likewise offered hie crab which he had also taken, he ordered his face to be farther lacerated with its claws He put to death one of the pretorian guards, for having stolen a peacock out of his orchard In one of his journeys, his litter being obstructed by some bushes, he ordered the officer whose duty it was to ride on and examine the road, a centurion of the first cohorts, to be laid on his face upon the ground, and scourged almost to death

LXI Soon afterwards, he abandoned hi occasions of one kind or another, to serve as a pretext He first fell upon the friends and acquaintance of his hter-in-law, and lastly those of Sejanus; after whose death he became cruel in the extreated by Sejanus, as supplied with occasions of gratifying his savage teh in a short memoir which he composed of his own life, he had the effrontery to write, ”I have punished Sejanus, because I found him bent upon the destruction of the childr