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19 - Roman History- The Early Empire by William Wolfe Capes · Roman History- The Early Empire

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Speaker 1: Section nineteen of Roman History The Early Empire by William
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Speaker 1: wolf Capes. This librovox recording is in the public domain
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Speaker 1: recording by Pamelinagami, Chapter ten Titus A. D. Seventy nine
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Speaker 1: to eighty one. Titus was born in the tiny cell
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Speaker 1: of a poor house at Rome, when his father was
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Speaker 1: struggling on with straitened means. But when Vespasian caught the
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Speaker 1: eye of the favorite Narcissus and was sent to serve
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Speaker 1: in the High Command in Britain, his young son was
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Speaker 1: taken to court to be brought up with Britannicus and
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Speaker 1: share his pursuits as schoolfellow and playmate. His powers of
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Speaker 1: mind and body ripened rapidly, and he gave promise of
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Speaker 1: a brilliant future till his early career at court was
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Speaker 1: cut short by the murder of Britannicus. He was set
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Speaker 1: even to have touched with his lips the poisoned cup,
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Speaker 1: and to have long suffered from the potion. Little told
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Speaker 1: us of the years that followed, save that he served
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Speaker 1: with credit in campaigns in Germany and Britain, and gave
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Speaker 1: some time to legal studies till his father took the
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Speaker 1: command of the army in the Jewish War and the
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Speaker 1: prospects of civil strife opened a wider horizon to his
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Speaker 1: ambitious hopes. The memories of his early years spent in
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Speaker 1: the Palace may well have fired his fancy, and his
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Speaker 1: adventurous spirit probably outstripped the slow caution of Aspasian. It
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Speaker 1: was Titus who intrigued with Mucianus, who went to and
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Speaker 1: fro between Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, who plotted and schemed
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Speaker 1: with Berenice in the intervals of gayer moods, who compromised
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Speaker 1: his father's name and drove him to come forward as
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Speaker 1: a candidate for empire. When all was won and Vespasian's
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Speaker 1: strong hand was needed in the capital, Titus was left
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Speaker 1: to close the war in Palestine and to pacify the East.
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Speaker 1: The struggle dragged slowly on, in spite of his impatience
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Speaker 1: to return. His personal gallantry and skill in the conduct
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Speaker 1: of the siege won the trust and affection of his soldiers,
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Speaker 1: but his merciless cruelty to the conquered left the lasting
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Speaker 1: stain upon his name. The winter months were spent by
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Speaker 1: him with royal pomp in the great towns of Syria,
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Speaker 1: where the Eastern princes flocked to do him honor, and
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Speaker 1: alarming rumors spread at Rome of the sovereign heirs which
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Speaker 1: he put on, of the ominous influence of Berenice, of
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Speaker 1: his unbounded popularity with the army of the East. Men
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Speaker 1: began to fear that he would not be content to
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Speaker 1: wait and share the empire, but would render it asunder
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Speaker 1: in a parricidal war. Such fears were soon put to
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Speaker 1: rest when in early spring he left his train to
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Speaker 1: follow as it could, and hurried with all speed to
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Speaker 1: greet Vespasian with the simple words, see father, here I am.
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Speaker 1: From that time he shared in full the titles and
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Speaker 1: reality of empire, assuming in his thirtieth year the tribunition
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Speaker 1: dignity which his father had till this time modestly declined,
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Speaker 1: and dazzling Roman eyes with the pomp and magnificence of
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Speaker 1: the triumphal shows. For Titus felt perhaps that Vespasian's homely
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Speaker 1: vulgarity was out of place in the founder of a
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Speaker 1: new dynasty, and that to balance the traditions of the
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Speaker 1: Caesars and the profusion of a nero, it would be
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Speaker 1: prudent for the new rulers to do something to make
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Speaker 1: themselves admired or feared. He had himself a princely bearing
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Speaker 1: and a ready flow of graceful words. He excelled in
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Speaker 1: manly exercises, and was the lover of the fine arts.
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Speaker 1: He keenly felt the ridicule that clung to some of
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Speaker 1: his father's ways of raising money, and urged him to
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Speaker 1: think more of appearances. But in this Vespasian was not
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Speaker 1: to be moved. He even bantered Titus on his delicate nerves,
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Speaker 1: askedeing if he disliked the smell of the coins that
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Speaker 1: were paid as the impost do on savory matter. But
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Speaker 1: in other things he was more yielding. He was willing
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Speaker 1: to follow the imperial traditions and to spend largely on
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Speaker 1: the great works which Titus raised to dignify the Flavian
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Speaker 1: name or to eclipse the memory of Nero. The parks
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Speaker 1: and woods included in the circuit of the Golden House
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Speaker 1: were given back to their earlier uses. The palace itself
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Speaker 1: was in part pulled down, and the baths of Titus
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Speaker 1: swallowed up the rest, while the Temple of Peace was
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Speaker 1: built to hold the works of art which had been
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Speaker 1: stored within it. The bronze colossus of the Emperor, founded
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Speaker 1: for Nero by Xanodorus, was changed into a statue of
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Speaker 1: the Sun, and gave probably its name to the Flavian Amphitheater,
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Speaker 1: which still survives in ruins. In after years, a triumphal
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Speaker 1: arch was planned and finished, on which we can still
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Speaker 1: see the solemn pageant, and note the Great candle stick
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Speaker 1: and other national trophies of which the temple at Jerusalem
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Speaker 1: had been despoiled. Besides such tokens of imperial grandeur, Titus relied,
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Speaker 1: it seems, on sterner action, but in this he took
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Speaker 1: his measures without concert with his father. He had managed
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Speaker 1: to win his consent to the death of Helvidius Priscus,
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Speaker 1: but Vespasian would be no party to a reign of terror.
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Speaker 1: His son took the unusual step of becoming Prefect of
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Speaker 1: the Prietorian Guards, an office filled commonly by knights. The
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Speaker 1: soldiers were convenient agents who asked no questions but acted
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Speaker 1: at a word, and if anyone at Rome was too
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Speaker 1: outspoken in his criticism more likely to be dangerous, he
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Speaker 1: was easily removed in a hasty riot or a soldier's brawl,
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Speaker 1: or a cry would be got up in the theater
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Speaker 1: or in the camp, and the traders had be called for.
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Speaker 1: In one case, it is true treasonable letters were found
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Speaker 1: to prove the guilt of a noble who was seized
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Speaker 1: as he left the palace where he had been dining.
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Speaker 1: But then it was remembered that Titus had a strange
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Speaker 1: facility for copying handwriting, and boasted that he could have
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Speaker 1: been a first rate forger if he would. If it
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Speaker 1: was his wish to inspire terror, he succeeded, for men
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Speaker 1: already began to whisper to each other about his cruelty,
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Speaker 1: and to fear that they would see another Nero on
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Speaker 1: the throne. Still more unpopular were his relations with Berenice,
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Speaker 1: which might end, it was thought, in marriage, had she
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Speaker 1: not already, like another Cleopatra, bound his fancy to her
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Speaker 1: by her Eastern spells, And would he not probably go
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Speaker 1: on to seat the hated Jewish paramour upon his throne.
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Speaker 1: The populace of Rome, which had borne with Caligula's mad
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Speaker 1: antics and Nero's monstrous orgies, were stirred with inexplicable loathing
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Speaker 1: at the thought. Titus tried to silence the outcry with
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Speaker 1: harsh measures, and had one bold cavalier beaten with rods
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Speaker 1: for a rude jest. But the storm grew louder. He
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Speaker 1: saw at last that he must yield, and reluctantly consented
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Speaker 1: to dismiss her. This was not all that men had
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Speaker 1: to say against him. There were ugly stories of rapacious greed,
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Speaker 1: of debauches carried far into the night, of sensual excesses
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Speaker 1: better left unnamed. Such was his character at Rome when
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Speaker 1: Vespasian's death left him sole occupant of the imperial office,
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Speaker 1: and from that moment a change passed over the spirit
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Speaker 1: of his life. Like Octavius he had been feared, he would, now,
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Speaker 1: like Augustus, win his people's love. The boon companions that
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Speaker 1: had cheered his midnight parties, the unworthy favorites whose hands
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Speaker 1: were tingling for the money bags which Vespasian had filled,
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Speaker 1: the informers who had tasted blood and thought the chief
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Speaker 1: hindrance in their way had been removed by death. All
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Speaker 1: these vanished at once, like birds of night when dawnas come,
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Speaker 1: and were driven even from the city. He was full
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Speaker 1: of tenderness and courtesy for every class, sanctioned by one
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Speaker 1: stroke of the pen, all the concessions made by earlier monarchs,
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Speaker 1: and it was not a princely thing to let any
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Speaker 1: suitor leave him in sadness with his boon. Ungranted and
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Speaker 1: complained that he had lost a day in which he
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Speaker 1: blessed no man with a favor. So scrupulous was he
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Speaker 1: of any show of greed, that he would hardly receive
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Speaker 1: the customary presence, So fearful of staining the sanctity of
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Speaker 1: his reputation, that he aimed at universal clemency, and pardoned
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Speaker 1: two young conspirators with a graceful tenderness for their mother's
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Speaker 1: anxious feelings, which made the mercy doubly precious. His father's
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Speaker 1: strict economy had left the treasury full, and Titus could
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Speaker 1: enjoy a while in safety, the pleasure of giving freely
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Speaker 1: and the luxury of beathing being loved. For the people
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Speaker 1: who had feared a tyrant thought that the golden age
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Speaker 1: was come at last, and soon began to idolize a
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Speaker 1: ruler who refused them nothing, who spoke with such a
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Speaker 1: royal grace and spent so freely on their pleasures. They
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Speaker 1: did not ask if it could last, or if the
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Speaker 1: revenue could bear the constant strain. They did not think
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Speaker 1: that their ruler's character might change again when he had
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Speaker 1: to face the trial of an empty treasury and a
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Speaker 1: disappointed people. Happily, perhaps for the memory of Titus, His
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Speaker 1: career upon the throne was short. He had little more
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Speaker 1: than two short ears of absolute power when Rome heard
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Speaker 1: with a genuine outburst of universal grief that its beloved
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Speaker 1: ruler had caught a fever on his way to his
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Speaker 1: villa on the Sabine Hills, and died, complaining that it
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Speaker 1: was hard to be robbed of life so soon, when
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Speaker 1: he had only a single crime upon his conscience. What
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Speaker 1: that crime was, no one knew. Posterity perhaps might think
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Speaker 1: that his one crime as sovereign was the leaving the
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Speaker 1: legacy of empire to Domitian, his brother, whose vices he
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Speaker 1: had clearly read and weakly pardoned. Some great disasters mark
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Speaker 1: and somber colors the annals of his rule. In all
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Speaker 1: he had shown for the sufferer's unstinted sympathy and bounty.
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Speaker 1: A great fire rage three days and nights through Rome,
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Speaker 1: A terrible plague spread its ravages through Italy. And lastly,
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Speaker 1: the world was startled by the horrors of a story
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Speaker 1: so unparalleled in history. As to tempt us to dwell
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Speaker 1: longer on details. The volcanic energies had been slumbering for
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Speaker 1: ages beneath Vesuvius, or had found event perhaps here and there,
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Speaker 1: in spots higher up along the coast, that were full
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Speaker 1: of horror to the ancients, but seem harmless now to
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Speaker 1: modern eyes. A few years earlier, they had given tokens
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Speaker 1: of their power by shaking to the ground the buildings
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Speaker 1: of Pompeii, a city peopled by industrious traders. The Roman Senate,
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Speaker 1: warned by the disaster, thought of removing the city to
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Speaker 1: a safer spot, but the Pompeiians clung to their old
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Speaker 1: neighborhood and repaired in haste their ruined dwellings. The old
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Speaker 1: town was swept away, with its distinctive Oscan features that
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Speaker 1: told of times before Greeks or Romans set the local fashions,
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Speaker 1: and a copy of the capital upon a humble scale,
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Speaker 1: with forum, theaters and temples, took its place. Some of
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Speaker 1: the well to do migrated, probably to distant homes, and
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Speaker 1: left their houses to be hastily annexed to those of neighbors,
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Speaker 1: who soon adapted them, though on different levels, to their
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Speaker 1: own use. But scarcely was the work of restoration over.
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Speaker 1: When the great catastrophe came upon them. The little cloud
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Speaker 1: that rests always on the mountain top expanded it suddenly
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Speaker 1: to unwonted size. The credulous fancy of dion Cassius pictures
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Speaker 1: to us phantom shapes of an unearthly grandeur, like the
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Speaker 1: giants that the poets sing of, riding in the air
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Speaker 1: before the startled eyes of men. But the younger Pliny,
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Speaker 1: who was a distant eye witness, describes the scene in
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Speaker 1: simpler terms. He was with his uncle, the great naturalist,
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Speaker 1: who was in command of the fleet, then stationed at Mycenum.
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Speaker 1: Suddenly they were called upon to note the unusual appearance
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Speaker 1: of Vesuvius, where the cloud took to their eyes the
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Speaker 1: form of an enormous pine tree. The elder Pliny, who
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Speaker 1: never lost a chance of learning, resolved to start at
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Speaker 1: once to study the new marvel, and asked his nephew
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Speaker 1: to go with him. But the young student, who even
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Speaker 1: in later life cared more for books than nature, had
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Speaker 1: a task to finish and decline to go. As the
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Speaker 1: admiral was starting, he received pressing messages from friends at Stabii,
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Speaker 1: beneath the mountain to help them to take refuge on shipboard,
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Speaker 1: as the way round by land was long to take
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Speaker 1: under the fiery hail that was fast falling the fleet
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Speaker 1: near the shore where the frightened families had piled their
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Speaker 1: baggage ready to embark. But the hot ashes fell upon
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Speaker 1: the decks, thicker and hotter every moment, and stranger still.
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Speaker 1: The water seemed to retire from the beach and to
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Speaker 1: grow too shallow to allow them to reach the poor fugitives,
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Speaker 1: who strained their eyes only to see the ships move
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Speaker 1: off and with them, seemingly all hope of succor. The
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Speaker 1: volcanic force was doubtless raising the whole beach and making
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Speaker 1: the sea recede before it. But Pliny was not to
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Speaker 1: be discouraged, and landed finally at another point, where a
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Speaker 1: friend had a villa on the coast. Here he bathed
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Speaker 1: tranquility and supped and slept till the hot showers threatened
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Speaker 1: to block up the doors, and the rocking earth loosened
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Speaker 1: the walls within which they rested. So they made their
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Speaker 1: way out onto the open beach with cushions bound upon
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Speaker 1: their heads for shelter from the ashes, and waited vainly
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Speaker 1: for a fair wind to take them. Thence Pliny lay
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Speaker 1: down to rest beside the water, while the sky was
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Speaker 1: red with fire and the air loaded with sulfurious gases.
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Speaker 1: And when his slaves tried at last to lift him up,
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Speaker 1: he rose, only to fall and die a d. Seventy nine.
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Speaker 1: By a curious irony of fortune. The student, whose great
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Speaker 1: work as a sort of encyclopedia of the knowledge which
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Speaker 1: men had gathered about nature, chose the unhealthiest spot, in
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Speaker 1: the worst posture for his resting place, while his ignorant
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Speaker 1: servants managed to escape, For the waves were charged with
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Speaker 1: sulfur that escaped from the fissures of the rocks, and
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Speaker 1: the heavy gas moving along the surface of the earth
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Speaker 1: was most fatal to those who stooped the lowest meantime.
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Speaker 1: At Pompeii, the citizens first learned their danger as they
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Speaker 1: they were seated at the theater and keeping holiday. The
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Speaker 1: lurid sky and falling showers drove them to their homes.
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Speaker 1: Some hurried thither to seize their valuables, and hastened to
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Speaker 1: be gone out of the reach of further risk. Some
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Speaker 1: felt the ground rock beneath them as they went, and
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Speaker 1: were crushed beneath the falling pillars. Others sought a refuge
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Speaker 1: in their cellars and found the Scory Eye piled around
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Speaker 1: their dwellings. Hot dust was wafted through every crevice. Noxious
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Speaker 1: gases were spread around them, and thus their hiding place
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Speaker 1: became their tomb. Hour after hour, the fiery showers fell
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Speaker 1: and piled their heaps higher and higher over the doomed city,
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Speaker 1: while a pall of darkness was spread over the earth.
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Speaker 1: Then the hot rain came pouring down as the sea waters,
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Speaker 1: finding their way through fissured rocks into the boiling mass,
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Speaker 1: were belched forth again in vapor, which condensing fell in rain.
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Speaker 1: The rain, mingling with the scory Eye, formed streams of
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Speaker 1: mud which grew almost into torrents on the steep hillsides,
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Speaker 1: and poured through the streets of Herculaneum, choked up the
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Speaker 1: houses as they passed, then rose over the walls, till
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Speaker 1: an indistinguishable mass was left at last to hide the
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Speaker 1: place where once a fair city stood. Weeks after, when
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Speaker 1: the volcano had spent its force, some of the citizens
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Speaker 1: of Pompey who had escaped came back to see the
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Speaker 1: scene of desolation, guessed as best they could the sight
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Speaker 1: of their old homes, dug their way here and there
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Speaker 1: through any hole which they could make into the rooms,
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Speaker 1: and carried off all the articles they prized, and then
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Speaker 1: they left the place forever. Time after time Since then,
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Speaker 1: the struggling forces have burst forth from the mountain, and
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Speaker 1: the volcanic showers have fallen and covered the old city
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Speaker 1: with a thicker crust, till all trace of it was
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Speaker 1: lost to sight and memory. After many centuries it was
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Speaker 1: discovered by accident, and the work of clearance has been
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Speaker 1: slowly going forward, constantly enriching the great Museum at Naples
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Speaker 1: with stores to illustrate the industrial arts of ancient times,
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Speaker 1: and restoring to our eyes a perfectly unique example of
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Speaker 1: the country town of classical antiquity and all its characteristic features.
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Speaker 1: At Herculaneum, there has been less done, and there is
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Speaker 1: more perhaps to be looked for. It was a resort
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Speaker 1: of fashion rather than a market town, was more under
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Speaker 1: Greek influence, and therefore had a higher taste for the
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Speaker 1: fine arts than Pompeii. And above all, it does not
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Speaker 1: seem to have been rifled by its old inhabitants, from
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Speaker 1: whose eyes it was hidden, probably by thick coats of
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Speaker 1: hardened mud. End of Section nineteen