Part 22 (2/2)
Drusus was sent thither to contrive the destruction of both leaders, which he seems to have effected, since Marboduus was driven to seek protection from the Romans, while the brave Arminius was soon after slain by the hands of his fellow-Germans.
Germanicus, in A.D. 18, visited Athens, sailed up the Nile the same year, and then, having returned to Syria, died of poison administered to him by Cn. Piso, a friend of the Empress Livia. His death excited great grief at Rome, where he was buried with solemnity in A.D. 20. Piso, meanwhile, being tried before the Senate, and finding himself about to be condemned, sought a voluntary death.
Tiberius was cold and unpopular in his manners, awkward and even timid in his carriage, but a master of dissimulation. The only person of whom he stood in awe was his mother Livia; but he lived in constant fear of insurrection. The Lex Majestas, which he enlarged and enforced with unusual severity, was now the source of great evil to his country. This law defined treason against the emperor. Tiberius made it include words as well as acts, and thus he who spoke lightly of the emperor's person or authority might be punished with death.
From this law grew up the Delatores, or informers, persons who made it their chief occupation to denounce those who were obnoxious to the emperor. The informers soon grew numerous: some of them were persons of high rank, who sought to display their eloquence, and to win the favor of the emperor, by denouncing his opponents in envenomed rhetoric, while others were common spies. No man's life was safe at Rome from this moment, and the purest and wisest citizens were exposed to the attacks of an infinite number of delators. Tiberius encouraged the informers.
aelius Saturninus was flung from the Tarpeian Rock for a libel upon the emperor. Sila.n.u.s was banished for ”disparaging the majesty of Tiberius.”
Tiberius, who professed to imitate the policy of Augustus in every particular, seems to have governed with firmness and ability. He improved the condition of the provinces, restrained the avarice of the provincial governors, maintained good order in the capital, and strove to check the growth of luxury; but the morals of the capital were now hopelessly depraved, and the vice and corruption of the whole world flowed into the streets of Rome.
aelius Seja.n.u.s, the Praefect of the Praetorians, had long been the friend and chief adviser of the emperor. He was cruel, unscrupulous, and ambitious--the proper instrument of a tyrant. In A.D. 21 an insurrection broke out in Gaul, which was scarcely subdued when the Germans rose against the Romans. The Gauls, too, led by Sacrovir, a Druid, who exercised a superst.i.tious influence over his countrymen, once more rebelled. Drusus, who had been made Consul with his father, was sent against them, and reduced them to subjection. The Druid Sacrovir burned himself in a house to which he had fled. In A.D. 22 Drusus received the tribunitian power. He was the only son of Tiberius, and was married to Livia, or Livilla, as she was sometimes called.
Seja.n.u.s had now conceived a design which led him to resolve upon the destruction of all the imperial family, since he himself began to aspire to the throne; and the elevation of Drusus filled him with disgust. In A.D. 23 he prevailed upon Tiberius to remove all the Praetorian Guards, about nine or ten thousand in number, to a camp near the city. He appointed their officers, won the soldiers with bribes and flatteries, and thus believed he had gained a sure support.
Drusus stood in his path, and he resolved to destroy him. He won the affections of Livilla, and prevailed upon her to poison her husband. The unhappy prince died in 23. Tiberius received the news of his son's death with a composure almost incredible. He told the Senate, who put on mourning robes, that he had given himself to his country. A splendid funeral procession was prepared for Drusus, in which the statues of Attus Clausus, the Sabine chief, the founder of the Claudian Gens, and of aeneas, and the Alban kings, were carried side by side, thus recalling the memories of the early regal dynasty, as well as of the severe founders of the Republic.
Agrippina, the widow of Germanicus, together with her numerous family, next aroused the hostility of Seja.n.u.s, and he resolved upon their destruction. In A.D. 25 he proposed for the hand of Livilla, but Tiberius refused to sanction the connection. In A.D. 26 eleven cities contended for the privilege of making Tiberius their tutelar deity, but he declined this honor. Soon after, the emperor, as if anxious to escape from the sarcasms and the scandal of Rome, retired from the city, accompanied by a single Senator, Cocceius Nerva, and at length, in A.D.
27, hid himself in the island of Capreae, on the coast of Campania. Here he built twelve villas in different parts of the island, and lived with a few companions, shut out from mankind. No one was allowed to land upon the sh.o.r.es of Capreae, and even fishermen who broke this rule through ignorance were severely punished. Every day, however, dispatches were brought from the continent, and he still continued to direct the affairs of his vast empire.
Seja.n.u.s was left to govern Rome, but frequently visited the Emperor at his island. In A.D. 29, Livia, the widow of Augustus, died, at the age of eighty-six years, having retained her powerful intellect and her love of political intrigue to the close of her life. It is said that her private charities were great, and that she remained faithful to the memory of her imperial husband. The family of Germanicus, meanwhile, were crushed by the arts of Seja.n.u.s. In A.D. 29 Tiberius directed the Senate to banish Agrippina and her son Nero, and they were confined separately upon two barren islands. Drusus, the second son, was soon after imprisoned; while Caius, the youngest, by his flatteries and caresses, preserved the favor of Tiberius, and was admitted into Capreae.
The emperor now began to doubt the fidelity of his chosen friend Seja.n.u.s, although their statues had been placed together in the Temple of Friends.h.i.+p on the island; and he sent a letter to the Senate in which he denounced him as a traitor. Such was the end of a guilty friends.h.i.+p.
Seja.n.u.s was flung into the Mamertine Prison, and there strangled. The people threw his body into the Tiber, A.D. 31. Great numbers of his friends or relatives perished with him, and a general ma.s.sacre filled Rome with terror. He was succeeded in his power by Sertorius Macro, who had aided in his destruction.
Tiberius, meanwhile, seems to have become a raging madman. He put to death his niece Agrippina, with her two children, and ruled over the Senate with pitiless cruelty. His companion, Cocceius Nerva, filled with melancholy at the misfortunes of his country, resolved upon suicide; nor could all the entreaties or commands of Tiberius prevail upon him to live. In A.D. 35 Tiberius made his will, dividing his estate between Caius, the youngest son of Germanicus, and Tiberius Gemellus, the son of the second Drusus. Macro, probably fearing the fate of Seja.n.u.s, had formed a close intimacy with Caius, and they now planned the death of the emperor, whose feeble health, however, since he was near seventy-seven years of age, promised Rome a speedy deliverance. Tiberius died March 16, A.D. 37, Macro, it is said, having smothered him with a pillow.
If we may trust the account of the Jew Philo, he left the empire in a prosperous condition. His cruelty, in fact, seems to have been exercised upon the great and the rich, while the people lived in security. His administration may be said to have been a fortunate one. His character and his crimes disgrace human nature.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Reverses of Roman bra.s.s Coins, showing Galleys.]
REIGN OF CAIUS CALIGULA, A.D. 37-41.--Caius Caesar, known as Caligula, was the son of Germanicus and Agrippina, and men fondly hoped that he had inherited the virtues of his father, whom he resembled in his personal appearance. The soldiers proclaimed him emperor, and the Senate and the people acknowledged him with unfeigned joy. He was now twenty-five years of age, and his first acts were generous and humane.
He recalled many exiles, abolished various taxes, and gratified the people with spectacles and gifts. He also buried the remains of his mother and brother, who had died in exile, with decent solemnity.
But, having been seized with a severe illness after he had reigned eight months, upon his recovery his mind seemed to have been fatally injured.
He abandoned himself to cruelty and l.u.s.t; he surpa.s.sed the vices of Tiberius; and at length, declaring himself to be a G.o.d, would often go through the streets of Rome dressed as Bacchus, Venus, or Apollo: he compelled the people to wors.h.i.+p him, and made the wealthiest citizens his priests. He even conferred the consuls.h.i.+p on his favorite horse.
His boundless wastefulness soon consumed the public treasures, and he was forced to resort to every kind of extortion to obtain money. Having exhausted Rome and Italy, in A.D. 39 he led a large army across the Alps for the purpose of plundering Gaul, where the richest citizens were put to death and their property confiscated. He was a.s.sa.s.sinated in his palace January 24, A.D. 41.
REIGN OF TIBERIUS CLAUDIUS DRUSUS NERO, A.D. 41-54.--The Emperor Claudius was the son of Drusus and Antonia, and the brother of Germanicus. He was fifty-one years old when, after the murder of Caligula, the Praetorian Guard raised him to the throne. His health had always been delicate, his mind feeble, and he had never taken any part in public affairs. His first acts were popular and mild, but, having fallen under the control of his wife Messalina, who was a monster of wickedness, he put to death many of the best of the Romans. When, however, Messalina ventured to marry C. Silius, a young Roman knight, Claudius directed her execution. He then married his niece Agrippina, who prevailed upon him to set aside his son Britannicus, and to adopt her own son Nero, who was now destined for the throne. Nero was educated by the philosopher Seneca, together with Burrus Afranius, praefect of the Praetorians. Claudius, however, becoming suspicious of the designs of his wife, she resolved upon his death. Locusta, a noted poisoner, was hired to prepare a dish of poisoned mushrooms, of which Claudius ate: but the poison not proving fatal, the physician Xenophon forced a larger quant.i.ty into his throat, and he died October 13, A.D. 54.
Claudius was fond of letters, and wrote memoirs of his own time and histories in Greek of Etruria and of Carthage. He also made various useful laws, and carried out several public works of importance. He completed the Claudian aqueduct, begun by Caligula, and built a fort and light-house at Ostia, and a tunnel from Lake Lucinus to the River Liris.
_Colonia Agrippina_ (Cologne) was raised by his orders to the most important military station in Lower Germany.
In A.D. 43 a Roman army invaded Britain. Claudius himself entered that country soon after, and returned to Rome to triumph. But Vespasian, afterward emperor, together with his son t.i.tus, overran Britain, defeated Caractacus, the brave British chieftain, and sent him and his family prisoners to Rome. Claudius, pleased with his manly conduct, gave him his liberty.
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