Latest / A History of the Roman Empire From Augustus to Aurelius / 35 - A History of the Roman Empire From Augustus to Aurelius by John Bagnell Bury
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- 0:00Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen, Sections five and six of J. B. Bury's
- 0:04Speaker 1: The Student's Roman Empire, Part one. This is a LibriVox recording.
- 0:09Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
- 0:12Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. The
- 0:17Speaker 1: Student's Roman Empire, Part one by John Bagnellbury, Chapter seventeen,
- 0:22Speaker 1: The Principate of Nero fifty four to sixty eight a d.
- 0:26Speaker 1: Sections five and six, Section five, The Revolt of Bindex
- 0:31Speaker 1: and Fall of Nero. The events which led to the
- 0:35Speaker 1: fall of Nero began in Gaul, although it was not
- 0:38Speaker 1: from Gaul that the final blow was to come. C.
- 0:41Speaker 1: Julius Bindex, Sprung of a noble Celtic family, but thoroughly
- 0:45Speaker 1: Romanized and adopted into the Imperial gens, was governor of
- 0:49Speaker 1: Gallia Lugudunensis at the beginning of sixty eight a d.
- 0:54Speaker 1: He raised the standard of revolt. It is not quite
- 0:57Speaker 1: clear what his ultimate intentions were, but he seems to
- 1:00Speaker 1: have conceived the idea of a kingdom of Gaul ruled
- 1:03Speaker 1: by himself, nominally perhaps dependent on the Empire, like the
- 1:07Speaker 1: former kingdom of Mauritania, but it was practically an attempt
- 1:11Speaker 1: to throw off the Roman yoke. Bndex may be regarded
- 1:15Speaker 1: as a successor of Versingatorix and Sacravir. He collected from
- 1:20Speaker 1: various parts of Gaul a force of about one hundred
- 1:23Speaker 1: thousand men. The districts of the Arverni and the Sequani
- 1:27Speaker 1: joined in the movement, and the town of Vienna on
- 1:29Speaker 1: the Rhone was a sort of center for the rebellion.
- 1:33Speaker 1: But Lugadunum, the capital of the three provinces, held aloof,
- 1:37Speaker 1: as did the Lingones and the Treverri on the borders
- 1:40Speaker 1: of Germany. The troops which Bindex gathered were ill disciplined
- 1:44Speaker 1: and ill armed. The enterprise was hopeless unless he could
- 1:47Speaker 1: induce some of the Western armies to take part in it.
- 1:50Speaker 1: His attempts to win the armies of the Rhine were fruitless,
- 1:54Speaker 1: but he was more successful in hither Spain. We have
- 1:57Speaker 1: already met Galba, the governor of that province. He had
- 2:01Speaker 1: distinguished himself slightly both on the Rhine and in Africa.
- 2:05Speaker 1: He was already in his seventy third year, and in
- 2:08Speaker 1: his childhood had seen Augustus, who had said to him,
- 2:11Speaker 1: according to report quote, thou shalt one day taste our
- 2:15Speaker 1: empire end quote. It is probable that Galba had already
- 2:19Speaker 1: thought of rebellion before he received the overtures from Vindex.
- 2:23Speaker 1: Oracles were afloat that an emperor was to arise from Spain.
- 2:27Speaker 1: The revolt of Vindex and the pressure of his lieutenant
- 2:30Speaker 1: t Vinius decided the old man, and as he belonged
- 2:34Speaker 1: to the Senatorial party, his declaration of rebellion took the
- 2:38Speaker 1: form of declaring himself to be the servant of the Senate.
- 2:41Speaker 1: After considerable hesitation, on April second, he named himself the
- 2:46Speaker 1: Legatus Senatus popolic Romani in a speech delivered from his tribunal,
- 2:51Speaker 1: and made preparations for war in Spain. He was supported
- 2:55Speaker 1: by Otho, Legatus of Lusitania and Cesena chriest Her of Baetica,
- 3:01Speaker 1: but their adherents was of little consequence if the legions
- 3:04Speaker 1: of the Rhine and Clodius Macer, Governor of Africa held
- 3:07Speaker 1: aloof In the meantime, the issue of the revolt of
- 3:11Speaker 1: Vindex had been decided. When the news was brought Nero
- 3:15Speaker 1: returned to Rome and took measures for its suppression. Those
- 3:18Speaker 1: troops which were already on their march from Germany and
- 3:21Speaker 1: Britain to prosecute a war against the Sarmatians received orders
- 3:25Speaker 1: to return, But the quelling of the rebellion was due
- 3:28Speaker 1: to Virginus Rufus, the legatus of Upper Germany, who resisted
- 3:32Speaker 1: all the endeavors of Vindex to gain him over Alarmed
- 3:36Speaker 1: by the national character of the movement, Virginius advanced with
- 3:40Speaker 1: his own legions, reinforced by a division from the lower
- 3:43Speaker 1: province to Vesontio, which was threatened by the Gallic militia
- 3:47Speaker 1: of the rebel Vassontio, whose name has become Vesanson, was
- 3:52Speaker 1: a very important place for at it the roads from
- 3:55Speaker 1: Lower Germany and northwestern Gaul, from the Rhine and from
- 3:58Speaker 1: the Jura mountains met Here. A great battle took place.
- 4:03Speaker 1: The legions were completely victorious and Vindex was slain. It
- 4:07Speaker 1: was not loyalty to Nero that had influenced the Germanic
- 4:10Speaker 1: army to repel the advances of Vindex. It was rather
- 4:13Speaker 1: the Gallic character of the revolt. This is shown by
- 4:16Speaker 1: the fact that after the victory they proclaimed their general
- 4:20Speaker 1: imperat but he resisted the temptation. He was a man
- 4:24Speaker 1: of lowly birth, and perhaps thought he had no chance
- 4:26Speaker 1: of being accepted by the nobility of Rome. In the
- 4:30Speaker 1: inscription for his tomb, which he composed before his death,
- 4:33Speaker 1: he mentions as the two preditable actions of his life,
- 4:36Speaker 1: the victory over Vindex and his refusal of the empire.
- 4:42Speaker 1: After the failure of the revolt in Gaul, the situation
- 4:45Speaker 1: of Galba seemed hopeless, and he despaired himself, but he
- 4:48Speaker 1: was saved by the Emperor's want of resolution and the
- 4:51Speaker 1: treachery of the ministers. When the news of the defection
- 4:55Speaker 1: in Spain arrived in Rome, Nero confiscated Galba's property and
- 4:59Speaker 1: himself health assumed the consulship. He made preparations for an
- 5:03Speaker 1: expedition against Galba and appointed Petronius Terpiolanus as the commander.
- 5:09Speaker 1: A new legion was organized from the troops of the
- 5:11Speaker 1: fleet and called Leggio Classica, but the praetorian guards, who
- 5:16Speaker 1: were devoted to the Julian house seemed to have remained
- 5:19Speaker 1: quietly in their camp instead of taking the field as
- 5:22Speaker 1: we should have expected. The prefect to Jolinus vanishes from
- 5:26Speaker 1: the scene and plays no part in the catastrophe of
- 5:29Speaker 1: his master. His fall was probably due to the intrigues
- 5:33Speaker 1: of Nimphidius Sabinus, the other prefect, who nominally embraced the
- 5:37Speaker 1: cause of Galba but was really aiming at securing the
- 5:40Speaker 1: empire for himself. If Nero had not utterly lost his head,
- 5:45Speaker 1: he was secure in the loyalty of the Praetorian Guards,
- 5:48Speaker 1: notwithstanding the aspirations of the prefect. But he was a coward,
- 5:52Speaker 1: and his irresolution drove his supporters away. Dulda's satisfaction prevailed.
- 5:57Speaker 1: In Rome, corn was dear, and when a ship arrived
- 6:00Speaker 1: from Egypt which proved to be laden not with corn
- 6:03Speaker 1: but with sand for the emperor's arena, the discontent became acute.
- 6:08Speaker 1: It was reported that Nero entertained the idea of abandoning
- 6:11Speaker 1: Rome and sailing to Alexandria to make that city the
- 6:15Speaker 1: capital of an Eastern empire, the idea which Antonius had
- 6:19Speaker 1: almost realized. The Senate was naturally eager to overthrow the tyrant,
- 6:24Speaker 1: who hated it in favor of Galba, but feared to
- 6:27Speaker 1: compromise itself until the Praetorian guards had declared themselves. In
- 6:31Speaker 1: order to draw them from their devotion to Nero, Nimphidius
- 6:34Speaker 1: resorted to an artifice. He persuaded the emperor, who was
- 6:38Speaker 1: distracted with fear, to repair from the palace to the
- 6:41Speaker 1: civilian gardens, which lay close to the Tiber on the
- 6:44Speaker 1: road to Ostia. He then went to the camp and
- 6:47Speaker 1: informed the soldiers that Nero had deserted them and left Rome.
- 6:52Speaker 1: They were easily convinced that it was their interest to
- 6:55Speaker 1: support Galba, and the wily prefect promised them, in Galba's name,
- 6:59Speaker 1: a donative of thirty thousand satterces each. He knew that
- 7:03Speaker 1: Galbo would never fulfill the promise, and he hoped, by
- 7:06Speaker 1: means of the consequent dissatisfaction, to secure his own ends. Meanwhile,
- 7:11Speaker 1: in the civilian gardens, the emperor was devising councils of despair.
- 7:16Speaker 1: He was gradually deserted by his courtiers and most of
- 7:19Speaker 1: his slaves and freedmen, and the praetorian cohort, which was
- 7:23Speaker 1: keeping guard at the palace, left its post at midnight.
- 7:26Speaker 1: At length, he determined to flee from Rome, but could
- 7:29Speaker 1: induce no friend to share his danger except a few freedmen.
- 7:34Speaker 1: One officer scornfully quoted Virgil, is it so hard to die?
- 7:39Speaker 1: One of the imperial freedmen, named Phaon offered his master
- 7:43Speaker 1: the refuge of a villa about four miles northeast of
- 7:46Speaker 1: Rome on the Via Patinaria, a cross road connecting the
- 7:50Speaker 1: Via Salaria and the Via Nomentana. Thither he started by night,
- 7:54Speaker 1: accompanied by Peon Epaphroditis and two other freedmen. The historians
- 7:59Speaker 1: have not failed to invest the night ride and the
- 8:02Speaker 1: last scene of Nero's life with dramatic coloring. The Via
- 8:06Speaker 1: Nomentana went close to the Praetorian camp, and shouts in
- 8:10Speaker 1: honor of Galba reached the ears of the fugitives as
- 8:12Speaker 1: they passed. The night was wild with lightning and earthquakes.
- 8:17Speaker 1: Nero crept into the villa by a narrow entrance at
- 8:19Speaker 1: the back, in order not to arouse the suspicions of
- 8:22Speaker 1: the slaves. There he lay on straw for hours, unable
- 8:26Speaker 1: to make up his mind to die. What an artist
- 8:29Speaker 1: I am to perish, he said. But when a slave
- 8:32Speaker 1: of Phaeon arrived with the news that the Senate had
- 8:35Speaker 1: condemned him to death more Mayorum, and that he was
- 8:38Speaker 1: being sought for everywhere, he made up his mind to
- 8:41Speaker 1: escape a cruel execution. The tramp of horses feet was
- 8:45Speaker 1: heard in the distance when he pressed a dagger to
- 8:47Speaker 1: his throat, and it was driven home by epaphroditis. As
- 8:51Speaker 1: he was dying, a centurion entered and pretended that he
- 8:54Speaker 1: had come to help him too late. That was fidelity.
- 8:58Speaker 1: Indeed were Nero's last. He perished on June nine, sixty
- 9:03Speaker 1: eight a d His body was burnt and the ashes
- 9:06Speaker 1: were buried honorably in the sepulcher of the Domitian gens
- 9:09Speaker 1: on the Pincian Hill. At first, the tidings of his
- 9:13Speaker 1: fall caused universal joy. The Senate, who, as soon as
- 9:17Speaker 1: the decision of the Praetorian Guards was known, had hastened
- 9:20Speaker 1: to sentence him to a punishment which was almost obsolete,
- 9:23Speaker 1: condemned his memory and ordered his statues to be overthrown.
- 9:27Speaker 1: The intense hatred which the Senatorial party felt towards Nero
- 9:31Speaker 1: is most clearly seen in literature, but among the mass
- 9:35Speaker 1: of the people a reaction soon set in. Many people
- 9:38Speaker 1: doubted the reality of his death and looked for his reappearance,
- 9:42Speaker 1: and under succeeding emperors, three false Neroes arose and obtained
- 9:46Speaker 1: a following king. Vologises of Parthia sent an embassy requesting
- 9:51Speaker 1: the Senate and the new princeps to hold the memory
- 9:53Speaker 1: of Nero in honour. Christians saw in Nero the Antichrist
- 9:58Speaker 1: and thought that as such he would come again. Nero
- 10:01Speaker 1: was the last of the true Caesars, the last, we
- 10:04Speaker 1: may say, of the Julian mine. Strictly he belonged by
- 10:08Speaker 1: adoption to the Cloudie. Yet the Claudian and Julian houses
- 10:11Speaker 1: had been so closely connected since the union of Augustus
- 10:14Speaker 1: with Libya that politically little distinction was made between them.
- 10:19Speaker 1: Nero was not only the adopted son of Claudius, he
- 10:22Speaker 1: was also, through his mother, the great great grandson of
- 10:26Speaker 1: Augustus and the grandson of Germanicus, who belonged by adoption
- 10:30Speaker 1: to the Julian gens. Thus it was felt, when Nero
- 10:33Speaker 1: perished without an air, that the line of the great
- 10:36Speaker 1: dictator had come to an end and a new epoch
- 10:39Speaker 1: was beginning. The features of Nero were handsome, but his
- 10:43Speaker 1: expression was not pleasant. His face wore a sort of scowl,
- 10:47Speaker 1: perhaps due to his defective sight. His body was ill made.
- 10:51Speaker 1: He had a prominent stomach and thin legs. In his
- 10:54Speaker 1: later years his skin was blotched from excesses, but his
- 10:57Speaker 1: health was good As a profession singer. He was very
- 11:01Speaker 1: careful about his voice. His effeminacy was shown in the
- 11:04Speaker 1: arrangement of his hair and in the looseness of the
- 11:07Speaker 1: cincture which bound his dress when he appeared in public.
- 11:11Speaker 1: His capricious tyranny recalls in many respects the extravagances of Gaeus.
- 11:16Speaker 1: Like Gaius, he was a lover of the incredible. But
- 11:20Speaker 1: while the mad Gaius had almost a genius for devising
- 11:22Speaker 1: absurdities on a colossal scale, Nero was merely extravagant on
- 11:27Speaker 1: the beaten tracks of luxury. He gave immense presents to
- 11:30Speaker 1: his favorites and tried to outdo his predecessors in the
- 11:33Speaker 1: spaciousness of his buildings. He projected a canal from Puteoli
- 11:38Speaker 1: to Rome, as well as the cutting of the Isthmus.
- 11:41Speaker 1: He did not aspire to divinity like Gaius, but rather
- 11:44Speaker 1: at being preeminent among men and receiving their admiration. He
- 11:48Speaker 1: was vain rather than proud. He adopted superstitions from the
- 11:52Speaker 1: East and practiced magic. In his later years. The Senator
- 11:57Speaker 1: seemed to have kept quite aloof from his court, and
- 12:00Speaker 1: he hated them cordially. No flattery pleased him more than
- 12:03Speaker 1: when a courtier said, I hate you Nero, because you
- 12:06Speaker 1: are a senator. Section six. Nero's administration. The peculiarity of
- 12:14Speaker 1: Nero's principate was that it was marked by good government
- 12:17Speaker 1: under a bad emperor. Nero himself was devoid of political
- 12:21Speaker 1: insight and spent no care on the administration. Yet in
- 12:25Speaker 1: general policy and in the conduct of military affairs, there
- 12:28Speaker 1: is little to blame if there is little to praise
- 12:31Speaker 1: in his government in the early years of his reign.
- 12:34Speaker 1: This was not due to the princeps. It was partly
- 12:37Speaker 1: due to well trained ministers, to Seneca and Buris especially,
- 12:41Speaker 1: but it was also due to the excellence of the
- 12:43Speaker 1: machine which Caesar the Dictator and Augustus had set going.
- 12:48Speaker 1: It is perhaps as well that the political views of
- 12:50Speaker 1: the ministers were strictly limited by the system of Augustus.
- 12:54Speaker 1: They did not introduce any new idea into the government.
- 12:58Speaker 1: It was a more serious defect that their activity was
- 13:01Speaker 1: mainly confined to the interests of the capital. They concerned
- 13:05Speaker 1: themselves less with the welfare of the provinces. It must
- 13:08Speaker 1: be admitted, however, that they appointed able officers to the
- 13:12Speaker 1: commands on the frontiers. The revival of the power of
- 13:16Speaker 1: the Senate in Nero's early years has been already noticed.
- 13:19Speaker 1: In fifty six a d. The management of the Errarium
- 13:23Speaker 1: was transferred from the quoisters to two prefects of praetorian standing,
- 13:27Speaker 1: who were to be appointed by the Emperor and hold
- 13:29Speaker 1: office for three years. This perhaps served to give the
- 13:33Speaker 1: Emperor more control over the money which the fisk advanced
- 13:36Speaker 1: to the Errarium. In the same year, the tribunes were
- 13:40Speaker 1: deprived of their rights of intercession and inflicting fines. It
- 13:44Speaker 1: was probably in this reign that the independence of the
- 13:47Speaker 1: Senate was diminished by the emperor's extension of the right
- 13:50Speaker 1: of condemnation to the Consulate, which had hitherto been exempted
- 13:53Speaker 1: from this influence. But the most serious aggression of Nero
- 13:57Speaker 1: against the Senate was his appropriate of the right of
- 14:00Speaker 1: issuing copper coinage, which had hitherto been reserved for the Senate.
- 14:05Speaker 1: He also entertained the idea of abolishing the senatorial privilege
- 14:09Speaker 1: of holding the high commands in the provinces and armies,
- 14:12Speaker 1: in fact of abolishing the Senate altogether, and carrying on
- 14:15Speaker 1: the business of the state by means of the knights
- 14:18Speaker 1: and freedmen. In the field of civil legislation, several useful
- 14:22Speaker 1: measures were passed, among which may be mentioned that which
- 14:25Speaker 1: forbade the exhibitions of gladiators and beasts in the provinces.
- 14:30Speaker 1: In provincial administration. The reign of Nero was marked by
- 14:34Speaker 1: numerous processes for extortion, both in senatorial and in imperial provinces,
- 14:39Speaker 1: instituted by the subjects against their governors. Cestius Proculus, accused
- 14:44Speaker 1: by the Cretans, was acquitted. Peace Seller Proconsul of Asia,
- 14:49Speaker 1: died before his case was decided. Tarquitius Priscus, accused by Bithynia,
- 14:55Speaker 1: was condemned, and Pettious Blasis, accused by Syrinaika, was degraded
- 15:00Speaker 1: from the Senate. In the imperial provinces, Kosutianus Capito was
- 15:06Speaker 1: prosecuted by Celesia and condemned, but pardoned by Nero owing
- 15:10Speaker 1: to the influence of his father in law. To Jolinus
- 15:14Speaker 1: Sardinia accused Vispanius Linus and obtained his condemnation, but Epirius Marcellus,
- 15:21Speaker 1: accused by Lysia, was acquitted. Some of these processes came
- 15:25Speaker 1: before the Senate, others before the Emperor In fifty seven,
- 15:29Speaker 1: a d An edict was issued forbidding provincial governors and
- 15:33Speaker 1: procurators to exhibit spectacles. Many had been in the habit
- 15:37Speaker 1: of doing this in order to reconcile the people to
- 15:40Speaker 1: their unjust administration. These facts proved that the subjects were
- 15:44Speaker 1: still exposed to injustice from their governors, and also that
- 15:47Speaker 1: under Nero they were encouraged to complain. A new procuratorial
- 15:52Speaker 1: province was created, Pontes Polomaniacus and Alpus Cotier was placed
- 15:57Speaker 1: under procurators. The district of the Catian and Maritime Alps
- 16:02Speaker 1: had been Romanized since their pacification under Augustus and now
- 16:06Speaker 1: received the Ayus Latinum. Possibly the Pennine Alps also became
- 16:10Speaker 1: a procuratorial province. As early as Nero, the preservation of
- 16:15Speaker 1: the Latin nationality occupied the serious attention of the government.
- 16:19Speaker 1: New blood was imported into Italy from the provinces, and
- 16:23Speaker 1: a considerable number of towns were colonized, including Antium, Beneventum, Capua, Tarentum,
- 16:28Speaker 1: nu Seria Puteoli. The process of Roman civilization in Spain
- 16:33Speaker 1: is shown by the fact that the three legions placed
- 16:36Speaker 1: there by Augustus were reduced under Nero to two. It
- 16:39Speaker 1: has been already mentioned that Nero gave the Greeks their freedom.
- 16:43Speaker 1: As this act deprived the Senate of a province, he
- 16:46Speaker 1: made up the loss to the Erarium by transferring to
- 16:49Speaker 1: the Senate the imperial province of Sardinia and Corsica. In
- 16:54Speaker 1: the middle of Nero's reign, an important colonization took place
- 16:57Speaker 1: in an important and colonization took place in Moesia, which
- 17:03Speaker 1: was constantly threatened by invasions of barbarians from the north
- 17:06Speaker 1: and seems to have suffered from depopulation. The Legatus Tiberius
- 17:11Speaker 1: Plautius Sylvanus Alienus settled one hundred thousand inhabitants of the
- 17:16Speaker 1: land beyond the Danube in the Moesian territory. They were
- 17:19Speaker 1: obliged to pay a certain tribute and also doubtless to
- 17:22Speaker 1: perform military service in case of need. He also extended
- 17:26Speaker 1: the sphere of the Roman influence on the north shore
- 17:29Speaker 1: of the Euxine by annexing to the Empire the town
- 17:32Speaker 1: of Liras the advance of Roman arms in Britain has
- 17:36Speaker 1: already been related, the War for Armenia and the rebellion
- 17:40Speaker 1: in Judea will be described in subsequent chapters. The project
- 17:45Speaker 1: of an overland water route from the Mediterranean to the
- 17:48Speaker 1: North Sea was proposed by Lucius Vedas, the Legatus of
- 17:52Speaker 1: Upper Germany fifty five to fifty six a d. It
- 17:55Speaker 1: was merely required to cut a canal connecting the Arar
- 17:58Speaker 1: the seOne with the Mosella. Thus ships might sail up
- 18:03Speaker 1: the Rhone, turn into the Arrar at Lagudunum, reached the
- 18:06Speaker 1: Mosella by the projected channel, and descend the Mosella into
- 18:10Speaker 1: the Rhine. But the jealousy of Alias Grassilis, the Legatus
- 18:14Speaker 1: of Belgica, frustrated the execution of this plan, which would
- 18:18Speaker 1: have necessitated the bringing of the legions of Germany into Belgica.
- 18:22Speaker 1: Grassilus frightened Vetus by suggesting that the Emperor would be
- 18:25Speaker 1: annoyed at the undertaking of such a large work by
- 18:28Speaker 1: a subject in the lower province. Some trouble was caused
- 18:33Speaker 1: by the Eastern Frisians, who were independent, whereas the Western
- 18:36Speaker 1: Frisians were tributary. Emboldened by the long peace, they migrated
- 18:41Speaker 1: with all their people to the bank of the Old
- 18:43Speaker 1: Rhine and established themselves in unoccupied lands reserved for pasturing.
- 18:47Speaker 1: The beasts, which supplied the Roman troops with food. Their leaders,
- 18:51Speaker 1: we cannot properly speak of kings, were Veritus and Malarics.
- 18:56Speaker 1: They had built their houses, sowed the fields, and were
- 18:59Speaker 1: using the soil as their own, when the legatus dubious
- 19:02Speaker 1: Avitus threatened to attack them unless they either returned to
- 19:06Speaker 1: their old abodes or obtained from the emperor a grant
- 19:09Speaker 1: of land. Veritus and Malaics preferred the second alternative and
- 19:14Speaker 1: went themselves to Rome to beg Caesar for the boon.
- 19:17Speaker 1: They were obliged to wait some days on Nero's pleasure,
- 19:20Speaker 1: and spent the time in seeing the sights of Rome.
- 19:23Speaker 1: They were shown Pompey's theater in order that they might
- 19:26Speaker 1: apprehend the greatness of the people. They took their seats
- 19:29Speaker 1: among the general public, and as they could not appreciate
- 19:32Speaker 1: the entertainment, they asked questions about the places assigned to
- 19:35Speaker 1: the various ranks, the fourteen benches of the knights, and
- 19:39Speaker 1: the orchestra where the senators sat. Observing some persons in
- 19:43Speaker 1: foreign dress among the senators, and learning that they were
- 19:46Speaker 1: the envoys of nations who were distinguished by their bravery
- 19:49Speaker 1: and friendship to Rome, They exclaimed that the Germans were
- 19:52Speaker 1: excelled by none in valor or loyalty, and took their
- 19:55Speaker 1: seats among the senators. The incident was good naturedly received
- 19:59Speaker 1: by the spectators, who regarded it as an example of
- 20:02Speaker 1: old fashioned impulsiveness. The result of the embassy was that
- 20:06Speaker 1: the two chieftains received Roman citizenship, but their nation was
- 20:10Speaker 1: commanded to evacuate the territory which they had occupied. They
- 20:14Speaker 1: refused to obey, and it was necessary for some auxiliary
- 20:18Speaker 1: cavalry to drive them out. But no sooner were the
- 20:22Speaker 1: Frisians ejected than the same lands were seized by another
- 20:25Speaker 1: and more powerful people, the Amsavari, who lived in the
- 20:28Speaker 1: neighborhood of the Emesia, and were driven out of their
- 20:31Speaker 1: territory by the Chauci. The cause of these homeless exiles
- 20:35Speaker 1: seeking a new habitation was pleaded by Boeocolus, an old
- 20:39Speaker 1: man who was influential among these nations and loyal to Rome.
- 20:44Speaker 1: On the occasion of the Cheruscan revolt in the disastrous
- 20:47Speaker 1: year nine a d. He had been imprisoned by Armenius
- 20:51Speaker 1: and had since then served under Tiberius and Germanicus. But
- 20:55Speaker 1: Avetus refused to accede to the request, and the Abserverians
- 20:59Speaker 1: called on the Bruk Terry, tank Terry and other tribes
- 21:02Speaker 1: to help them to take by force what the Romans
- 21:04Speaker 1: refused to give. Avetus sent a message to Cotilius Mancia,
- 21:09Speaker 1: who had succeeded Vetis as legatus of Upper Germany, requesting
- 21:13Speaker 1: him to make a hostile demonstration beyond the Rhine, and
- 21:16Speaker 1: he himself promptly invaded the land of the tank Terry
- 21:20Speaker 1: and threatened to exterminate them if they associated themselves with
- 21:23Speaker 1: the Ambseverarians. The Broupe Terry were scared in the same way,
- 21:27Speaker 1: and the Ambseverians were then isolated and forced to retreat,
- 21:32Speaker 1: wandering as outcasts from one territory to another, received now
- 21:36Speaker 1: as friends and now as foes. Their entire youth was
- 21:39Speaker 1: finally slain, and those who could not fight were divided
- 21:42Speaker 1: as booty. End of Chapter seventeen.