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28 - Works of Tacitus by Thomas Gordon, Publius Cornelius Tacitus · Works of Tacitus

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Speaker 1: Introduction to the Complete Works of Tacitus, edited by Thomas Gordon.
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Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, visit
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Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recorded by Father Zilee of Detroit, Michigan,
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Speaker 1: recorded November two thousand seven. The Complete Works of Tacitus,
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Speaker 1: to which are prefixed political discourses upon that author, Edited
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Speaker 1: and translated by Thomas Gordon, with introductory essays by Thomas Gordon.
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Speaker 1: Volume one the Annals, Book three, Part three. Tiberius pleads
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Speaker 1: with the Senate. The same year, the cities of Gaul,
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Speaker 1: stimulated by their excessive debts, began a rebellion. The most
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Speaker 1: vehement incendiaries were Julius Flores and Julius Sacrovir, the first
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Speaker 1: amongst those of tribes the u S, second amongst the Edwins.
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Speaker 1: They were both of distinguished nobility. Both descended from ancestors
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Speaker 1: who had done signal services to the Roman state, and
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Speaker 1: thence acquired of old the right of Roman citizens, a
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Speaker 1: privilege rare in those days, and only the prize of
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Speaker 1: virtue when by secret meetings they had gained. Those who
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Speaker 1: were most prompt to rebel with such as were desperate enough,
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Speaker 1: through indigence or from guilt of past crimes, forced to
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Speaker 1: commit more, they agreed that Florus should begin the insurrection
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Speaker 1: in Belgia Sacrovir among the neighboring Gauls. They therefore had
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Speaker 1: many consultations and cabals, where they spared no topic of sedition.
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Speaker 1: Quotes opened their tribute without end their devouring usury, the
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Speaker 1: pride and cruelty of their governors, the discord that had
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Speaker 1: seized the Roman soldiery since the report of the murder
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Speaker 1: of Germanicus, a glorious conjecture for redeeming their liberty, if
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Speaker 1: they would only consent their own happiness and strength. While
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Speaker 1: Italy was poor and exhausted, the Roman populace weak and unwarlike,
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Speaker 1: the Roman armies destitute of all vigor but that derived
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Speaker 1: from foreigners. Scarce. One city remained untainted with the seeds
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Speaker 1: of this rebellion, but it first broke out at Anjier's
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Speaker 1: and Tour. The former were reduced by Achillius Aviola, a legate,
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Speaker 1: with the assistance of a cohort drawn from the garrison
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Speaker 1: at Lyons. Those of Tours were suppressed by the same
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Speaker 1: Aviola assisted with a detachment sent from the legions by
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Speaker 1: Viselius Varro, lieutenant governor of Lower Germany. Some of the
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Speaker 1: chiefs of the Gauls had likewise joined him with succors,
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Speaker 1: the better to disguise their defection and to push it
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Speaker 1: with more effect. Hereafter, even Sacrovir was beheld engaged in
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Speaker 1: fight for the Romans, with his head bare a demonstration.
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Speaker 1: He pretended of his bravery, but the prisoners of erred
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Speaker 1: Quotes opened, that he did it to be known to
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Speaker 1: his countrymen and to escape their darts. Quotes closed. An
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Speaker 1: account of all this was laid before Tiberius, who slighted
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Speaker 1: it and by hesitation fostered the war. Florus the while
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Speaker 1: pushed his designs and tried to persuade a regiment of
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Speaker 1: horse levied at Treves and kept under our pay and
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Speaker 1: discipline to begin the war by putting to the sword.
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Speaker 1: The Roman merchants and some few were corrupted by him,
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Speaker 1: but the body remained in their allegiance. A rabble, however,
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Speaker 1: of his followers and desperate debtors took arms and were
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Speaker 1: making to the force of Arden, when the legions sent
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Speaker 1: from both armies by Visellius and Caius Silius through different
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Speaker 1: routes to intercept them, marred their march. Julius Indus, too,
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Speaker 1: one of the same country with Florus, at enmity with him,
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Speaker 1: and therefore more eager to engage him, was dispatched forward
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Speaker 1: with a chosen band and broke the ill appointed multitude. Florus,
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Speaker 1: by lurking from place to place, frustrated the search of
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Speaker 1: the conquerors. At last, when he saw all the passes
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Speaker 1: beset with soldiers, he fell by his own hands. This
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Speaker 1: was the issue of the insurrection at Treves. Amongst the Eduans.
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Speaker 1: The revolt was much stronger, as the state was more opulent,
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Speaker 1: and the forces to suppress it were to be brought
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Speaker 1: from Afar. Augusta Dunam, the capital of the nation, was
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Speaker 1: seized by Sacravir, and in it all the noble youth
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Speaker 1: of Gaul, who were there instructed in the liberal arts.
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Speaker 1: By securing these pledges, he aimed to bind in his
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Speaker 1: interest their parents and relations, and at the same time
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Speaker 1: distributed to the young man the arms which he had
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Speaker 1: caused to be secretly made. He had forty thousand men,
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Speaker 1: the fifth part armed like our legions, the rest with poles,
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Speaker 1: hangars and other weapons used by hunters. To the number
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Speaker 1: were added such of the slaves as had been appointed
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Speaker 1: to be gladiators, covered after the fashion of the country
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Speaker 1: with a continued armour of iron, and styled croupellari e,
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Speaker 1: a sort of militia, unwieldly at exercising their own weapons
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Speaker 1: and impenetrable by those of others. These forces were still
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Speaker 1: increased by volunteers from the neighboring cities, where though the
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Speaker 1: public body did not hitherto avow the revolt, yet the
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Speaker 1: zeal of particulars was manifest. They had likewise leisure to
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Speaker 1: increase from the contention of the two Roman generals, a
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Speaker 1: contention for some time undecided, while each demanded the command
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Speaker 1: in that war. At length, varro old and infirm yielded
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Speaker 1: to the superior Vigor of Silius. Now at Rome, quotes
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Speaker 1: opened not only the insurrection of Treves and that of
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Speaker 1: the Eduans, but likewise that three score and four cities
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Speaker 1: of Gaul had revolted, that the Germans had joined in
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Speaker 1: the revolt, and that Spain fluctuated. Quotes closed were reports,
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Speaker 1: all believed, with the usual aggravations of fame. The best
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Speaker 1: men grieved in sympathy for their country. Many, from hatred
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Speaker 1: of the present government and thirst of change, rejoiced in
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Speaker 1: their own perils. They inveighed against Tiberius, quotes open, that
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Speaker 1: in such a mighty uproar of rebellion, he was only
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Speaker 1: employed in perusing the informations of the state accusers. Quotes closed.
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Speaker 1: They asked, quotes open, did he mean to surrender Julius
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Speaker 1: sacrovir to the Senate to try him for treason? Quotes closed.
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Speaker 1: They exalted, quotes open that there were at last found
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Speaker 1: men who would with arms restrain his bloody letters to
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Speaker 1: the Senate, continually demanding condemnations and executions. Quotes closed, and
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Speaker 1: declared quotes open that even war was a happy chanes
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Speaker 1: change for a most wretched and calamitous peace. Quotes closed.
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Speaker 1: So much the more for this Tiberius affected to appear
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Speaker 1: wrapped up in security and unconcerned. He neither changed place
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Speaker 1: nor countenance, but behaved himself at that time as at
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Speaker 1: other times, whether from elevation of mind or whether he
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Speaker 1: had learnt that the state of things was not alarming
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Speaker 1: and only heightened by vulgar representation. Silius, while sending forward
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Speaker 1: a band of auxiliaries marched with two legions and ravaged
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Speaker 1: the villages of the Sequanians, next neighbours to the Eduans
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Speaker 1: and their associates in arms. He then advanced towards Augusta Dunum,
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Speaker 1: a hasty march, the standard bearers mutually vying in expedition,
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Speaker 1: and the common men breathing ardor and eagerness. Quotes open,
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Speaker 1: that no time might be wasted even in the usual refreshments.
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Speaker 1: None of their knights in sleep, let them on see
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Speaker 1: and confront the foe. They wanted no more to be victorious,
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Speaker 1: Quotes closed. Twelve miles from Augusta Dunum, Sacravar appeared with
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Speaker 1: his forces upon the Plains. In the front. He had
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Speaker 1: placed the iron troop, his cohorts in the wings, the
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Speaker 1: half armed in the rear. He himself upon a fine horse,
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Speaker 1: attended by the other chiefs, addressing himself to them from
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Speaker 1: rank to rank, reminded them quotes open of the glorious
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Speaker 1: achievements of the ancient Gauls, of the victorious mischiefs they
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Speaker 1: had brought upon the Romans of the liberty and renown,
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Speaker 1: attending victory of their redoubled and intolerable servitude if once
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Speaker 1: more vanquished. Quotes closed, a short speech and disheartened audience.
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Speaker 1: Four the embattled legions approached, and the crowd of townsmen,
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Speaker 1: ill appointed and novices in war stood astonished, bereft of
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Speaker 1: the present use of eyes and hearing on the other side. Sillius,
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Speaker 1: though he presumed the victory and thence might have spared exhortations,
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Speaker 1: yet called to his men quotes open, that they might
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Speaker 1: be with reason ashamed that they, the conquerors of Germany,
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Speaker 1: should be thus led against a rabble of Gauls, as
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Speaker 1: against an equal enemy. One cohort had newly defeated the
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Speaker 1: rebels of Tour, one regiment of horse, those of Trebes.
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Speaker 1: A handful of this very army had routed the Sequanians.
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Speaker 1: The present Eduans, the more they abound in wealth, the
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Speaker 1: more they wallow in voluptuousness, are so much the more
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Speaker 1: soft and unwarlike. This is what you are now to prove,
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Speaker 1: and your task to prevent their escape. Quotes closed. His
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Speaker 1: words were returned with a mighty cry. Instantly the horse
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Speaker 1: surrounded the foe, the foot attacked their front, and the
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Speaker 1: wings were presently routed. The iron band gave some short
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Speaker 1: obstruction as the bars of their coats, which stood the
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Speaker 1: strokes of sword and pike. But the soldiers had recourse
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Speaker 1: to their hatchets and pick axes, and as if they
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Speaker 1: had battered a wall, hewed their bodies in armor. Others
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Speaker 1: with clubs, and some with forks, beat down the helpless lumps, who,
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Speaker 1: as they lay stretched along, without one struggle to rise,
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Speaker 1: were left for dead. Sacrovir fled first to Augusta Dunum,
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Speaker 1: thence fearful of being surrendered, to a neighboring town, accompanied
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Speaker 1: by his most faithful adherents. There he slew himself and
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Speaker 1: the rest one another, having first set the town on fire,
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Speaker 1: by which they were all consumed. Now at last Tiberius
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Speaker 1: wrote to the Senate about this war, and at once
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Speaker 1: acquainted them with its rise and conclusion, neither aggravating facts
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Speaker 1: nor lessening them, but added quotes open, that it was
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Speaker 1: conducted by the fidelity and bravery of his lieutenants, guided
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Speaker 1: by his councils. Quotes closed. He likewise assigned the reasons
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Speaker 1: why neither he nor Drusus went to that war, Quotes open,
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Speaker 1: that the empire was an immense body, and it became
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Speaker 1: not the dignity of a prince upon the revolt of
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Speaker 1: one or two communities to desert the capital, whence motion
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Speaker 1: was derived to the whole. But now, since he could
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Speaker 1: not be thought conducted by any dread of those nations,
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Speaker 1: he would take a progress to visit and settle them.
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Speaker 1: Quotes closed. The Senate decreed vows and supplications for his return,
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Speaker 1: with other customary honors. Only Cornelius Dolabella, while he strove
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Speaker 1: to outdo others, fell into ridiculous sycophancy by proposing quotes open,
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Speaker 1: that returning from Campania, he should enter Rome through the
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Speaker 1: triumph of ovation. Quotes closed. This occasioned a letter from Tiberius,
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Speaker 1: in which he declared, quotes open, that he was not
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Speaker 1: so destitute of glory, that, after having in his youth
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Speaker 1: subdued the fiercest nations and enjoyed or slighted so many triumphs,
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Speaker 1: he should now, in his old age, seek empty honors
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Speaker 1: from a short progress about the suburbs of Rome. Quotes closed.
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Speaker 1: About the same time he desired of the Senate that
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Speaker 1: quotes open, the core of Sulpitius Squirinus might be distinguished
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Speaker 1: with a public funeral. Quotes closed. Quirinus was born at Lenuvium,
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Speaker 1: a municipal town and nowise related to the ancient patrician
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Speaker 1: family of the Sulpedie, but being a brave soldier, was
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Speaker 1: for his vigorous military services to Augustus rewarded with the consulship,
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Speaker 1: and soon after with a triumph for driving the Homenades
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Speaker 1: out of their strongholds in Celicia. Next, when the young
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Speaker 1: Caius Caesar was sent to settle the affairs of Armenia,
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Speaker 1: Quirinus was appointed his governor, and at the same time
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Speaker 1: paid all court to Tiberius, then in his retirement at Rhodes.
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Speaker 1: This the Emperor represented now to the Senate, extolled the
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Speaker 1: kind offices of Quirinus, and branded Marcus Lolius as the
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Speaker 1: author of the perverse behavior of Caius Caesar to himself
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Speaker 1: and of all the jarring between them. In other instances,
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Speaker 1: the memory of Quirinus was not acceptable to the Senate,
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Speaker 1: for his deadly persecution against Lepida above recited, and for
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Speaker 1: his prevailing power and avarice in his old age. At
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Speaker 1: the end of the year, Caius Liutorius Priscus, a Roman knight,
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Speaker 1: who had composed a celebrated poem bewailing the death of Germanicus,
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Speaker 1: and received a reward from Tiberius. Was attacked by an informer.
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Speaker 1: His charge was quotes open that during an illness of Drusus,
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Speaker 1: he had composed another, which, if the distemper proved mortal,
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Speaker 1: he hoped to publish with a reward still greater. Quotes closed.
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Speaker 1: This poem Liutorius had, in the fullness of vanity and ostentation,
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Speaker 1: rehearsed at the house of Publius Petronius, in the presence
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Speaker 1: of Vitelia, mother in law to Petronius, and of other
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Speaker 1: ladies of quality, who were all summoned by the impleader,
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Speaker 1: and all except Vitelia were terrified into a confession. She
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Speaker 1: alone persisted that she had heard nothing, but the evidence
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Speaker 1: tending to destroy him had most credit, and it was
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Speaker 1: the sentence of Haterius Agrippa, consul elect, that death should
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Speaker 1: be his punishment. This was opposed by m Lepidus, who
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Speaker 1: spoke on this wise quotes open conscript Fathers, if we
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Speaker 1: only regard with what abominable effusions Loutorius Priscus has defiled
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Speaker 1: his own soul and the ears of ben Neither dungeon
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Speaker 1: nor rope, nor indeed the punishments peculiar to slaves are
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Speaker 1: sufficient for him. But though wickedness and enormities abound without measure, Yet,
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Speaker 1: since in coercions and penalties we must observe the limits
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Speaker 1: set by the moderation of the Prince, set by precedence
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Speaker 1: made by our ancestors and yourselves, and since we must
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Speaker 1: distinguish the vanity of the head from the malignity of
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Speaker 1: the heart, and words from evil doings, there is room
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Speaker 1: left for a middle judgment, by which neither his offense
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Speaker 1: need escape unpunished, nor we repent of our tenderness or severity.
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Speaker 1: I have often heard our Prince complain when any criminal had,
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Speaker 1: by a desperate death, prevented his mercy. The life of
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Speaker 1: Lutorius is still untouched. To save it will no wise
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Speaker 1: endanger the state, nor will the taking it away have
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Speaker 1: any influence upon others. His studies, as they are full
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Speaker 1: of wildness, are likewise empty and perishing. Neither is ought
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Speaker 1: important or terrible to be apprehended from one who thus
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Speaker 1: betrays his own follies, and makes his court not to
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Speaker 1: the minds of men, but to the imaginations of women.
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Speaker 1: Let him, however, be expelled, Rome interdited from fire and water,
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Speaker 1: and his estate be forfeited, which judgment of mind is
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Speaker 1: the same as if he were charged with high treason.
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Speaker 1: Quotes closed. Of all the counsulors, only rebellious Blandus assented
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Speaker 1: to this opinion of Lepidus. The rest voted with Agrippa.
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Speaker 1: Priscus was led to the dungeon and instantly put to death. Tiberius,
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Speaker 1: in a letter to the Senate, discanted upon the proceeding,
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Speaker 1: with his usual doubles and nay ambiguities, magnified quotes open,
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Speaker 1: their tenderness and zeal in avenging, thus with severity even
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Speaker 1: such slight injuries done to the prince quotes closed. Entreated
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Speaker 1: them quotes open, not to be sudden in punishing for
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Speaker 1: words quotes closed. He praised Lepidus and censured not Agrippa.
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Speaker 1: Hence an order was made quotes open, that the decrees
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Speaker 1: of Senate should not in less than ten days be
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Speaker 1: carried to the exchequer, and to the condemned, so much
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Speaker 1: time should be granted. Quotes closed. But to the Senate
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Speaker 1: remained no liberty of revisal or a nulling. Nor was
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Speaker 1: Tiberius ever softened by time. Caius Sulpitius and Decimus Haterius
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Speaker 1: were the following consuls. Their year was exempt from disturbances abroad,
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Speaker 1: but at home, some severe blow was apprehended against luxury,
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Speaker 1: which prevailed mand monstrously in all things that create a
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Speaker 1: profusion of money. But as the more pernicious articles of
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Speaker 1: expense were covered by concealing their prices, therefore from the
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Speaker 1: excesses of the table, which were become the common subject
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Speaker 1: of daily animadversion, apprehensions were raised of some rigid correction
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Speaker 1: from a prince who observed himself the ancient parsimony for
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Speaker 1: Caius bibulous. Having begun the complaint, the other edyles took
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Speaker 1: it up and argued quotes open, that the sumptuary laws
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Speaker 1: were despised, the pomp and expense of plate and entertainments,
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Speaker 1: in spite of restraints, increased daily and by moderate penalties,
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Speaker 1: were not to be stopped Quotes closed. This grievance, thus
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Speaker 1: represented to the Senate, was then referred entire to the Emperor, Tiberius,
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Speaker 1: having long weighed with himself whether such an abandoned propensity
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Speaker 1: to prodigality could be stemmed, whether the stemming it would
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Speaker 1: not bring heavier evils upon the public. How dishonorable it
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Speaker 1: would be to attempt what could not be effected, or
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Speaker 1: at least effected, by the disgrace of the nobility, and
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Speaker 1: by the subjecting illustrious men to infamous punishments. Wrote at
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Speaker 1: last to the Senate in this manner, quotes open in
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Speaker 1: other matters, conscript fathers. Perhaps it might be more expedient
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Speaker 1: for you to consult me in the Senate, and for
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Speaker 1: me to declare there what I judge for the public weal.
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Speaker 1: But in the debate of this affair, it was best
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Speaker 1: that my eyes were withdrawn, lest while you mark countenances
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Speaker 1: and terror of particulars charged with scandalous luxury, I too
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Speaker 1: should have observed them, and, as it were, caught them
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Speaker 1: in it. Had the vigilant eedles first asked counsel of me.
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Speaker 1: I know not whether I should not have advised them
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Speaker 1: rather to have passed by potent and inveterate eruptions, than
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Speaker 1: only make it manifest what enormal are an overmatch for us.
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Speaker 1: But they, in truth have done their duty, as I
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Speaker 1: would have all other magistrates fulfill theirs. But for myself
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Speaker 1: it is neither commendable to be silent, Nor does it
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Speaker 1: belong to my station to speak out. Since I neither
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Speaker 1: bear the character of an e dial, nor of a praytur,
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Speaker 1: nor of a council. Something still greater and higher is
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Speaker 1: required of a prince. Everyone is ready to assume to
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Speaker 1: himself the credit of whatever is well done, while upon
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Speaker 1: the prince alone are thrown the miscarriages of all. But
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Speaker 1: what is it that I am first to prohibit? What
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Speaker 1: excess retrench to the ancient standard? Am I to begin
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Speaker 1: with that of our country seats spacious without bounds, and
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Speaker 1: with the number of domestics, a number distributed intonations in
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Speaker 1: private families, or with the quantity of plate, silver and gold,
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Speaker 1: or with pictures and the work and statues of brass,
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Speaker 1: the wonders of art, or with the gorgeous vestments promiscuously
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Speaker 1: worn by men and women, or with what is peculiar
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Speaker 1: to the women, those precious stones for the purchase of
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Speaker 1: which our coin is carried into foreign and hostile nations.
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Speaker 1: I am not ignorant that at entertainments and in conversations
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Speaker 1: these excesses are censured, and a regulation is required. Yet,
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Speaker 1: if an equal law were made, if equal penalties were prescribed.
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Speaker 1: These very censures would loudly complain that the state was
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Speaker 1: utterly overturned, that snares and destruction were prepared for every
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Speaker 1: illustrious house, that no man could be guiltless, and all
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Speaker 1: men would be the prey of informers. And yet bodily
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Speaker 1: diseases grow inveterate and strengthened by time, cannot be checked
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Speaker 1: but by medicines rigid and violent. It is the same
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Speaker 1: with the soul, the sick and raging soul, itself corrupted
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Speaker 1: in scattering. Its corruption is not to be qualified by
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Speaker 1: remedies equally strong with its own flaming lusts. So many
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Speaker 1: laws made by our ancestors, so many added by the
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Speaker 1: deified Augustus, the former being lost in oblivion, and which
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Speaker 1: is more heinous, the latter in contempt, have only served
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Speaker 1: to render luxury more secure. When we covet a thing
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Speaker 1: yet unforbidden, we are apt to fear that it may
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Speaker 1: be forbidden. But when once we can, with impunity and
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Speaker 1: defiance overleap prohibited bounds, there remain afterwards, nor fear nor shame.
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Speaker 1: How therefore did parsimony prevail of old, It was because
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Speaker 1: everyone was a law to himself. It was because we
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Speaker 1: were then only masters of one city, Nor afterwards, while
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Speaker 1: our dominion was confined only to Italy, had we found
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Speaker 1: the same instigations to voluptuousness. By foreign conquests. We learned
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Speaker 1: to waste the property of others, and in the civil war,
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Speaker 1: to consume our own. What a mighty matter is it
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Speaker 1: that the eediles remonstrate, how little to be weighed in
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Speaker 1: the balance with others. It is wonderful that nobody represents
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Speaker 1: that Italy is in constant want of foreign supplies, that
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Speaker 1: the lives of the Roman people are daily at the
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Speaker 1: mercy of uncertain sees and of tempests. Were it not
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Speaker 1: for our opponents from the provinces supports by which the
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Speaker 1: masters and their slaves and their estates are maintained, would
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Speaker 1: our own groves and villas maintain us This care therefore,
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Speaker 1: conscript fathers is the business of the Prince, and by
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Speaker 1: the neglect of this care, the foundations of the state
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Speaker 1: would be dissolved. The cure of other defects depends upon
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Speaker 1: our own private spirits. Some of us shame will reclaim necessity,
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Speaker 1: will mend the poor setiety the rich, or if any
23:59
Speaker 1: of the magistrates, from a confidence of his own firmness
24:02
Speaker 1: and perseverance, will undertake to stem the progress of so
24:06
Speaker 1: great an evil. He has both my praises and my
24:10
Speaker 1: acknowledgment that he discharges me of part of my fatigues.
24:14
Speaker 1: But if such will only impede corruptions, and when they
24:18
Speaker 1: have gained the glory, would leave upon me the indignation,
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Speaker 1: indignation of their own raising. Believe me, conscript fathers, I
24:26
Speaker 1: am not fond of bearing resentments. I already suffer many
24:30
Speaker 1: for the commonwealth, many that are grievous, and almost all unjust.
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Speaker 1: And therefore with reason I intent that I may not
24:38
Speaker 1: be loaded with such as are wantonly and vainly raised,
24:42
Speaker 1: and promise no advantage to you nor to me. Quotes
24:46
Speaker 1: closed The Senate, upon reading the Emperor's letter, released the
24:52
Speaker 1: ediles from this pursuit, and the luxury of the table,
24:56
Speaker 1: which from the Battle of Actium till the revolution made
24:59
Speaker 1: by Galba flowed for the space of an hundred years
25:02
Speaker 1: in all profusion, at last gradually declined. The causes of
25:07
Speaker 1: this change are worth knowing. Formerly, the great families signal
25:11
Speaker 1: for nobility or for riches, were carried away with a
25:15
Speaker 1: passion for magnificence. For in those days it was allowed
25:19
Speaker 1: to court the good graces of the Roman people with
25:22
Speaker 1: the favor of kings and confederate nations, and to be
25:26
Speaker 1: courted by them, so that each was distinguished by the
25:29
Speaker 1: luster of popularity and dependencies in proportion to his affluence,
25:35
Speaker 1: the splendor of his house, and the figure which he made.
25:39
Speaker 1: But after imperial fury had for some time raged in
25:42
Speaker 1: the slaughter of the grandees, and great reputation brought shore destruction,
25:48
Speaker 1: the rest grew wiser. Besides, new men frequently chosen senators
25:53
Speaker 1: from the municipal towns, from the colonies, and even from
25:56
Speaker 1: the provinces, brought with them their own domestic parson And
26:01
Speaker 1: though by fortune or industry, many of them grew wealthy
26:03
Speaker 1: as they grew old, yet their former frugal spirit continued.
26:08
Speaker 1: But above all Vespasian proved the promoter of moderation and frugality,
26:13
Speaker 1: being himself the pattern of ancient economy in his person
26:17
Speaker 1: and table. Hence, the compliance of the public with the
26:21
Speaker 1: manners of the prince, and an emulation to practice them,
26:25
Speaker 1: an incitement more prevalent than the terrors of laws and
26:28
Speaker 1: all their penalties or perhaps all human things go a
26:32
Speaker 1: certain round. As there are revolutions of time, there are
26:36
Speaker 1: also vicissitudes in manners. No, indeed, have our ancestors excelled
26:41
Speaker 1: us in all these things. Our own age has produced
26:45
Speaker 1: many excellencies worthy of praise and the imitation of posterity.
26:50
Speaker 1: Let Us still preserve this strife in virtue with our forefathers. Tiberius,
26:58
Speaker 1: having gained the fame of moderation because by rejecting the
27:01
Speaker 1: prophet for reforming luxury, he had disarmed the growing hopes
27:05
Speaker 1: of the accusers, wrote to the Senate to desire the
27:08
Speaker 1: tribunucial power for Drusus. Augustus had devised this title as
27:14
Speaker 1: best suiting the supreme power, while avoiding the odious name
27:17
Speaker 1: of king or dictator. Yet he wanted some particular appellation
27:22
Speaker 1: under it to control all powers in the state. He
27:26
Speaker 1: afterwards assumed Marcus Agrippa into fellowship in it, and upon
27:31
Speaker 1: his death Tiberius that none might doubt who was to
27:35
Speaker 1: be his successor. By this means, he conceived he should
27:39
Speaker 1: defeat the aspiring views of others. Besides, he confided in
27:43
Speaker 1: the moderation of Tiberius and in the mightiness of his
27:46
Speaker 1: own authority. By his example, Tiberius now advanced Drusus into
27:51
Speaker 1: a participation of the supreme majesty, whereas while Germanicus yet lived,
27:56
Speaker 1: he acted without distinction towards both. In the beginning of
28:00
Speaker 1: his letter, he besought the Greeks quotes open, that by
28:04
Speaker 1: his counsels the Republic might prosper quotes closed. Then added
28:09
Speaker 1: a modest testimony concerning the qualities and behavior of the
28:13
Speaker 1: young prince, without aggravation or false embellishments. Quotes open, that
28:18
Speaker 1: he had a wife and three children, and was of
28:21
Speaker 1: the same age with himself when called by the deified
28:25
Speaker 1: Augustus to that office. That Drusus was not now by
28:29
Speaker 1: him adopted a partner in the toils of government precipitately,
28:34
Speaker 1: But after eight years experience made of his qualifications. After
28:39
Speaker 1: seditions suppressed, wars concluded, the honour of triumph and two
28:43
Speaker 1: consulships quotes closed. The senators had foreseen this address, hence
28:50
Speaker 1: they received it with the more elaborate adelation. However, they
28:55
Speaker 1: could devise nothing to decree but quotes open, statutes to
28:59
Speaker 1: the ties two princes, altars to the two gods, triumphal arches,
29:03
Speaker 1: quotes closed, and other usual honors, only that Marcus Sellanus
29:08
Speaker 1: strove to honor the princes by the disgrace of the consulship.
29:13
Speaker 1: He proposed quotes open, that all records, public and private,
29:17
Speaker 1: should for their date be inscribed no more with the
29:20
Speaker 1: names of the consuls, but of those who exercised the
29:24
Speaker 1: tribuncial power. Quotes closed. But Haterius Agrippa, by moving to
29:28
Speaker 1: have quotes open, the decrees of that day engraved in
29:32
Speaker 1: letters of gold and hung up in the Senate quotes closed,
29:35
Speaker 1: became an object of derision, for that, as he was
29:39
Speaker 1: an ancient man, he could reap from his most abominable
29:42
Speaker 1: flattery no other fruit but that of infamy. End of
29:48
Speaker 1: Section twenty seven of Tacitus The Annals, Book three, Part three,