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

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty of The Complete Works of Tacitus, edited by
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  Speaker 1: Thomas Gordon. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
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  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
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  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Recorded by Claude Banta. The
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  Speaker 1: Complete Works of Tacitus, to which are prefixed political discourses
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  Speaker 1: upon that author, Edited and translated by Thomas Gordon, with
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  Speaker 1: introductory essays by Thomas Gordon, Volume one, The Annals, Book two,
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  Speaker 1: Part two, Libo's Rebellion. The summer now declining, some of
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  Speaker 1: the legions were sent back into winter quarters by land
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  Speaker 1: More were embarked with Germanicus upon the River Amesia, to
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  Speaker 1: go from thence by the ocean. The sea at first
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  Speaker 1: was serene, no sound or agitation except from the oars
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  Speaker 1: or sails of a thousand ships. But suddenly a black
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  Speaker 1: host of clouds poured a storm of hail. Furious winds
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  Speaker 1: roared on every side, and the tempest darkened the deep,
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  Speaker 1: so that all prospect was lost and it was impossible
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  Speaker 1: to steer. The soldiers, too unaccustomed to the terrors of
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  Speaker 1: the sea, in the hurry of fear, disordered the mariners
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  Speaker 1: or interrupted the skillful by unskillful help. At last, the
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  Speaker 1: south wind, mastering all the rest, drove the ocean and
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  Speaker 1: the sky. The tempest drived new force from the windy
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  Speaker 1: mountains and swelling rivers of Germany, as well as from
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  Speaker 1: an immense train of clouds, and contracting with all fresh
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  Speaker 1: vigor from the boisterous neighborhood of the North. It hurled
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  Speaker 1: the ships and tossed them into the open ocean, or
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  Speaker 1: against islands shored with deep rocks or dangerously beset with
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  Speaker 1: covered shoals. The ships, by degrees, with great labor and
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  Speaker 1: the change of the tide, were relieved from the rocks
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  Speaker 1: and sands, but remained at the mercy of the winds.
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  Speaker 1: Their anchors could not hold them. They were full of water,
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  Speaker 1: nor could all the pumps discharge it. Hence to lighten
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  Speaker 1: and raise. The vessels, Swallowing at their decks the invading waves.
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  Speaker 1: The horses, beasts, baggage, and even the arms were cast
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  Speaker 1: into the deep. By how much the German ocean is
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  Speaker 1: more outrageous than the rest of the sea, and the
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  Speaker 1: German climate excels in vigor by so much this ruin
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  Speaker 1: was reckoned to exceed in greatness and novelty. They were
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  Speaker 1: engaged in a tempestuous sea, believed deep without bottom, vast
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  Speaker 1: without bounds, no shores near but hostile shores. Part of
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  Speaker 1: the fleet were swallowed up. Many were driven upon remote
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  Speaker 1: islands void of human culture, where the men perished through famine,
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  Speaker 1: or were kept alive by the carcase of horses cast
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  Speaker 1: in by the flood. Only the galley of Germanicus landed
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  Speaker 1: upon the coast of the Chassians, where, wandering sadly day
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  Speaker 1: and night upon the rocks and prominent shore, and incessantly
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  Speaker 1: accusing himself as the author of such mighty destruction, he
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  Speaker 1: was hardly restrained by his friends from casting himself desperately
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  Speaker 1: into the same hostile floods. At last, with the returning
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  Speaker 1: tide and in assisting gale, the ships began to return.
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  Speaker 1: All maimed, almost destitute of oars or with coats spread
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  Speaker 1: for sails, and some utterly disabled, were dragged by those
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  Speaker 1: that were less. He repaired them hastily and despatched them
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  Speaker 1: to search the islands. And by this care many men
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  Speaker 1: were gleamed up. Many were by the Angrivarians. Our new
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  Speaker 1: subjects redeemed from their maritime neighbours and restored, and some
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  Speaker 1: driven into Great Britain, where sent back by the Little
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  Speaker 1: British King. Those who had come from Afar recounted wonders
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  Speaker 1: at their return, the impetuosity of whirlwinds, wonderful birds, sea
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  Speaker 1: monsters of ambiguous forms between man and beast, strange flights,
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  Speaker 1: or the effects of imagination and fear. The noise of
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  Speaker 1: this wreck, as it animated the Germans with hopes of
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  Speaker 1: renewing the war, awakened Germanicus also to restrain. He commanded
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  Speaker 1: Caius Silius, with thirty thousand foot and three thousand horse,
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  Speaker 1: to march against the Caatians. He himself, with a greater force,
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  Speaker 1: invaded the Marcians, where he learnt from Malovenus, their general
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  Speaker 1: lately taken into our subjection that the eagle of one
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  Speaker 1: of Varus legions was hid underground in a neighboring grove
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  Speaker 1: and kept by a slender guard. Instantly, two parties were dispatched,
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  Speaker 1: one to face the enemy and provoke them from their post,
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  Speaker 1: the other to beset their rear and dig up the eagle.
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  Speaker 1: And success attended both. Hence Germanicus advanced with greater alacrity,
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  Speaker 1: laid waste the country and smote the foe, either not
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  Speaker 1: daring to engage, or wherever they engaged, suddenly defeated, Nor,
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  Speaker 1: as we learnt from the prisoners, were they ever seized
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  Speaker 1: with greater dismay. The Roumans, they cried, are invincible. No
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  Speaker 1: calamities can subdue them. They have wrecked their fleet, their
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  Speaker 1: arms are lost, or shores are covered with the bodies
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  Speaker 1: of their horses and men. Yet they attack us with
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  Speaker 1: their usual ferocity, with the same firmness, and with numbers
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  Speaker 1: as it were increased. The army was from thence led
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  Speaker 1: back into winter quarters, full of joy to have balanced
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  Speaker 1: by this prosperous expedition their late misfortune at sea, and
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  Speaker 1: by the bounty of Germanicus. Their joy was heightened since
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  Speaker 1: to each sufferer he caused to be paid as much
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  Speaker 1: as he declared he had lost. Neither was it doubted,
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  Speaker 1: but the enemy were humbled and concerting measures for obtaining peace,
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  Speaker 1: and that the next summer would terminate the war. But Tiberius,
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  Speaker 1: by frequent letters, urged him to come home there to
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  Speaker 1: celebrate the triumph already decree him. He had already tried
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  Speaker 1: enough of events and tempted abundant hazards. He had indeed
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  Speaker 1: fought great and successful battles, but he must likewise remember
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  Speaker 1: his losses and calamities, which, however, owing to wind and
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  Speaker 1: waves and no fault of the general, were yet great
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  Speaker 1: and grievous. He himself had been sent nine times into
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  Speaker 1: Germany by Augustus, and affected much more by policy than arms.
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  Speaker 1: It was thus he had brought the Segumbrians into subjection,
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  Speaker 1: thus drawn the Swavians and King Mara Buddhas under the
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  Speaker 1: bonds of peace. The Shruscans too, and the other hostile nations,
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  Speaker 1: now the Roman vengeance was satiated, might be left to
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  Speaker 1: pursue their own national feuds. Germanicus besought one year to
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  Speaker 1: accomplish his conquest, but Tiberius assailed his modesty with a
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  Speaker 1: new bait and fresh importunity, by offering him another consulship
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  Speaker 1: for the administration of which he was to attend in
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  Speaker 1: person at Rome. He added that if the war was
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  Speaker 1: still to be prosecuted, Germanicus should leave the field of
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  Speaker 1: glory to his brother Drusus, to whom there now remained
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  Speaker 1: no other, since the Empire had nowhere a war to maintain.
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  Speaker 1: But in Germany, and thence only Drusus could acquire the
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  Speaker 1: title of Imperator and merit the triumphal Laurel Germanicus persisted
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  Speaker 1: no longer, though he knew that this was all feigned
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  Speaker 1: in hollow, and saw himself in viduously torn away from
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  Speaker 1: a harvest of ripe glory. About this time Libo Drusus,
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  Speaker 1: of this Gribonian family was arraigned for meditating attempts against
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  Speaker 1: the state. And because then first were devised those pestilent
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  Speaker 1: arts and impeachments which for so many years devoured the commonwealth,
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  Speaker 1: I will lay open with more exactness the beginning, progress
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  Speaker 1: and issue of this affair. Fermius Catus, the Senator, a
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  Speaker 1: close confidant of Libo, treacherously misled that youth, unwary as
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  Speaker 1: he was and easy to be ensnared with specious delusions,
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  Speaker 1: engaged him to try the predictions of the Chaldeans, the
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  Speaker 1: superstitious rites of the magicians, and the interpreters of dreams,
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  Speaker 1: and to flatter his hopes and ambition was incessantly magnifying
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  Speaker 1: the nobility of his race. For that Pompeii was his
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  Speaker 1: great grandfather. Scribonia, once the wife of Augustus, his aunt,
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  Speaker 1: the Caesars, his kinsmen, and his house full of images,
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  Speaker 1: tempted him to luxury and borrowing, was associated with him
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  Speaker 1: in his debouches, cerrity for his debts, and all to
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  Speaker 1: accumulate more matter for crimes and evidence. When he found
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  Speaker 1: himself furnished with store of witnesses, and amongst them some
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  Speaker 1: of Libo's slaves, who were also privy to the obnoxious
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  Speaker 1: conduct of their master, he sought admittance to the Emperor, Having,
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  Speaker 1: first by Flaccus Vescalarius, a Roman knight intimate with Tiberius,
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  Speaker 1: represented to him Libo as a criminal, as also a
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  Speaker 1: detail of his crimes. Tiberius slighted not his information, but
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  Speaker 1: denied him access for that the communication, he said, might
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  Speaker 1: still be managed by the same Flaccus. In the meantime,
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  Speaker 1: he preferred Libo to the pratership, entertained him at his table,
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  Speaker 1: shewed no strangeness in his countenance, no resentment in his words.
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  Speaker 1: So deeply had he smothered his vengeance, And when he
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  Speaker 1: might have restrained all the dangerous speeches and practices of Libo,
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  Speaker 1: he chose rather to permit them, in order to know
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  Speaker 1: and punish them. Nor were they checked or made public,
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  Speaker 1: till one junior, who was dealt with to call up
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  Speaker 1: by charms the infernal shades, discovered this to fulcineous Trio,
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  Speaker 1: a distinguished accuser, one greedy of renown in wickedness. Instantly
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  Speaker 1: Trio marked out the doom of the accused, hastened to
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  Speaker 1: the consuls, and one of them demanded that the Senate
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  Speaker 1: might meet and adjudge him. This the fathers were forthwith summoned,
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  Speaker 1: and even prized that upon an affair of mighty moment
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  Speaker 1: and horrible tendency to the state, they were to deliberate. Libo,
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  Speaker 1: the while having changed his dress, went covered with mourning
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  Speaker 1: from house to house, accompanied by ladies of the noblest rank,
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  Speaker 1: and implored the mediation of his kindred that they would
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  Speaker 1: protect him against impending ruin and speak in his behalf.
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  Speaker 1: But every one of them declined his suit, each upon
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  Speaker 1: a different pretense, yet in reality all from the same fear.
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  Speaker 1: The day the Senate sat for his trial, vanquished with
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  Speaker 1: dread and sinking under sickness, or as some relate feigning it,
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  Speaker 1: he was born in a litter to the court, and
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  Speaker 1: leaning upon his brother with supplicant hands, and words he
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  Speaker 1: accosted and strove to soften Tiberius, who received him with
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  Speaker 1: a countenance perfectly unmoved. It was the emperor who next
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  Speaker 1: recited the charge against him and the authors of the charge,
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  Speaker 1: but with such weary moderation that he might seem neither
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  Speaker 1: to soften nor sharpen his crimes. Tutrio and Catas. Two
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  Speaker 1: other accusers, Panteus Agrippa and chaus Vibius, joined themselves and
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  Speaker 1: strove who should have the right to implead the accused.
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  Speaker 1: At last, when neither would yield, and Libo was come
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  Speaker 1: unprovided with a pleader, Vibius undertook to maintain distinctly the
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  Speaker 1: several heads of the charge, and produced articles so extravagant
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  Speaker 1: that amongst the rest, it was won how Libo had
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  Speaker 1: consulted the fortune tellers whether he should ever be master
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  Speaker 1: of opulence sufficient to cover the great Appian road with
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  Speaker 1: money as far as Brundusium. There were other accusers of
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  Speaker 1: the same kind, foolish, chimerical, or taken in tenderer sense,
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  Speaker 1: deserving pity. But there was one article formed upon a
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  Speaker 1: paper containing the names of the caesars, as well as
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  Speaker 1: those of some senators with mysterious characters and malignant notes
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  Speaker 1: joined to them. This the accused urged against Libo, as
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  Speaker 1: written in his own hand. Libo denied it, and hence
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  Speaker 1: it was proposed to examine by torture his conscious slaves. But,
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  Speaker 1: seeing it was forbid by an ancient law of the
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  Speaker 1: senate to put the servants to the question in a
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  Speaker 1: trial touching the life of their master, the crafty Tiberius
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  Speaker 1: invented a new law to elude the old, and ordered
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  Speaker 1: these slaves to be sold to the public. Stuart that
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  Speaker 1: by this expedient evidence against the libel might be racked
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  Speaker 1: from his servants without violating the law. In this state
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  Speaker 1: of despondency, Libo requested respite till the next day, and
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  Speaker 1: then returning to his own house, transmitted by his kinsman
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  Speaker 1: Publius Carenus, his last prayers to the Emperor, who replied
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  Speaker 1: that he must make his request to the sonate. His
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  Speaker 1: house was, in the meantime encompassed with a band of soldiers, who,
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  Speaker 1: with studied noise and terror, were filling all the court
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  Speaker 1: on purpose to create certain attention and alarm. Just when
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  Speaker 1: Libo sat down to the banquet, which as the ultimate
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  Speaker 1: pleasure of his life he had prepared. But then, feeling
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  Speaker 1: agonies instead of pleasure, he called for a minister of death.
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  Speaker 1: Successively grasped the hands of his slaves and into them
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  Speaker 1: by turns strove to squeeze a sword. But they as
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  Speaker 1: they trembled and shunned the sad task through the hurry
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  Speaker 1: of fear and flight, overturning the lamp that illuminated the
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  Speaker 1: table in this ominous and tragical darkness, he gave himself
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  Speaker 1: two deadly stabs in the bowels. As he groaned and fell,
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  Speaker 1: his freedmen sprang in, and the soldiers, seeing the slaughter perpetrated, retired.
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  Speaker 1: The charge against him, however, was pushed in the Senate
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  Speaker 1: with the same unrelenting eagerness. Yet Tiberius vowed that he
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  Speaker 1: would have interceded for his life, notwithstanding his treason, if
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  Speaker 1: he had not thus hastily died by his own hands.
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  Speaker 1: His estate was divided amongst his accusers, and those of
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  Speaker 1: them who bore the rank of senators were without the
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  Speaker 1: regular way of election preferred to praetorships. Then, Cota Messalinus
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  Speaker 1: proposed that the image of Libo might not accompany the
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  Speaker 1: funerals of his posterity Neus Lentilus, that none of the
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  Speaker 1: Scruboni should henceforth assume the surname of Drusus, and at
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  Speaker 1: the motion of Pompeius Flaccus, days of thanksgiving were appointed,
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  Speaker 1: that gifts should be prepared to Jupiter, to Mars, and
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  Speaker 1: to the godness concord, and that the thirteenth of September,
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  Speaker 1: the day on which Libo slew himself, should be an
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  Speaker 1: established festival, where the votes of Lucius Publius A, Vicinius Gallus,
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  Speaker 1: of Papius Motilius, and of Lucius Apronius I have related.
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  Speaker 1: The votes and psychomphacy of these men to shew that
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  Speaker 1: adulation is an inveterate evil in the state. Decrees of
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  Speaker 1: the Senate were likewise made for driving astrologers and magicians
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  Speaker 1: out of Italy, and one of the herd, Lucius Pituanius,
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  Speaker 1: was precipitated from the Tarpeitian rock Publius Marcius. Another was
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  Speaker 1: by judgment of the consuls at the sound of trumpet
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  Speaker 1: executed without the escaline gait according to the ancient form
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  Speaker 1: end of Section twenty