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

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty of Roman History The Early Empire by William
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  Speaker 1: wolf Capes. This librovox recording is in the public domain
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  Speaker 1: recording by Pamel Nagami, Chapter eleven, Domitian a. D. Eighty
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  Speaker 1: one to ninety six. During Domitian's early years, his father
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  Speaker 1: Vespasian was hiding in disgrace. He lived in a little
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  Speaker 1: house at Rome, so meanly furnished that it had not
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  Speaker 1: a single piece of silver plate, and his straitened means
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  Speaker 1: may possibly have tempted him to vice, as the scandalous
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  Speaker 1: stories of later days asserted. He first attracted public notice
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  Speaker 1: when his father headed the movement in the east, but
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  Speaker 1: Vitelius still left him unmolested. There was danger, however, from
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  Speaker 1: the fury of the soldiers, and he took refuge with
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  Speaker 1: his uncle Sabinus on the capital, to see the fortress
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  Speaker 1: stormed and the defenders slain. He escaped from the massacre
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  Speaker 1: in disguise and worked for a while in the house
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  Speaker 1: of a poor friend in a mean quarter of the town.
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  Speaker 1: But succor was near at hand, and the vanguard of
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  Speaker 1: his father's army not only brought him safety, but raised
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  Speaker 1: him suddenly to unlooked for greatness. The change was fatal
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  Speaker 1: to his modesty and self control. He aired at once
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  Speaker 1: all the insolence of absolute power, gave the rein to
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  Speaker 1: his sensual desires, and bestowed all the offices of stated
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  Speaker 1: his caprice. Vespasian even wrote in irony to thank him
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  Speaker 1: for not appointing a successor to himself. The arrival of Mucianus,
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  Speaker 1: the vice regent of the emperor, put some check upon
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  Speaker 1: his license, but it needed all the statesman's authority intact
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  Speaker 1: to temper the arrogance of the headstrong youth. The crisis
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  Speaker 1: on the Rhine was pressing, and they set out together
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  Speaker 1: for the seat of war, but all was over before
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  Speaker 1: they reached Lugdunham, and Omiticion detained from going further, is
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  Speaker 1: said to have sent fruit less messages to tamper with
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  Speaker 1: the fidelity of Carrialis. If he had ever seriously hoped
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  Speaker 1: to raise himself to the level of his brother, he
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  Speaker 1: had quite failed, and he had gone too far to
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  Speaker 1: meet his father's eye. Without misgiving to disarm the anger
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  Speaker 1: that he dreaded, he feigned even folly and took to
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  Speaker 1: hunting flies for the off quoted jest of Vibrious Crispus
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  Speaker 1: that there was no one, not even a fly with
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  Speaker 1: Caesar belongs more probably to this than to a later time.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks to his father's tenderness or the entreaties of his brother,
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  Speaker 1: he suffered nothing worse than warning words, But Vespasian watched
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  Speaker 1: him narrowly, henceforth kept him always by his side, trusted
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  Speaker 1: him with no public functions, and flatly refused to let
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  Speaker 1: him lead the forces which the Parthian king had sent
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  Speaker 1: to beg for in return for his own profits of support.
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  Speaker 1: But by this time Domitian had learned to bide his
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  Speaker 1: time and to be patient. He hid his sugar grin
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  Speaker 1: at being kept thus in the leading strings of childhood,
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  Speaker 1: and took to poetry coquetting with the muses in default
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  Speaker 1: of graver duties. At Vespasian's death, however, the old temper
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  Speaker 1: broke out afresh. At first, he thought of out bidding
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  Speaker 1: Titus by offering the soldiers a bounty twice as large,
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  Speaker 1: but wanted Nerve to appeal to force. Then he complained
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  Speaker 1: that he was kept out of his rights, as his
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  Speaker 1: father's will had named him partner to the imperial power.
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  Speaker 1: And to the last he tried the long suffering tenderness
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  Speaker 1: of Titus, by moody, sullenness and discontent, and possibly even
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  Speaker 1: by plots against his life. His brother's death soon removed
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  Speaker 1: the only obstacle to his ambition and the only restraint
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  Speaker 1: upon his will. But strange to say, wanton and headstrong
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  Speaker 1: as he had been before, he now exerted a rare
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  Speaker 1: faculty of self restraint, as if he were weighted with
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  Speaker 1: the responsibility of power and wished to win and to
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  Speaker 1: desert of the popularity of Titus. He spent some time
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  Speaker 1: in quiet every morning to think over his course of
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  Speaker 1: action and to school himself for the duties of the day.
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  Speaker 1: He saw that justice was the first requisite of social
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  Speaker 1: well being, and he spared no effort to secure it.
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  Speaker 1: In the law courts, he was often to be seen
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  Speaker 1: listening to the pleadings and the sentence given. The judges
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  Speaker 1: knew that his eye was on them, and that it
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  Speaker 1: was dangerous to take a bribe or to show caprice.
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  Speaker 1: Even in distant provinces. The governors said that they were
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  Speaker 1: closely watched, and never, it is said, did they show
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  Speaker 1: more equity and self restraint than in this opening period
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  Speaker 1: of Domitian's rule. His treatment of another class showed a
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  Speaker 1: like spirit. The rise and fall of the informers had
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  Speaker 1: been a sort of weather gage of the moral atmosphere around.
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  Speaker 1: Since Nero's death, the bolder spirits and the Senate had tried,
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  Speaker 1: under each emperor in turn to bring the false accusers
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  Speaker 1: to the bar of justice. The leading stoics had come forward,
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  Speaker 1: smarting with the memory of the friends whom they had lost,
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  Speaker 1: full of indignant eloquence against the bloodhounds who had hunted
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  Speaker 1: them to death. The infamous names of Marcellus, Crispus, Regulus
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  Speaker 1: called out an explosion of revengeful sentiment. The Senate even
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  Speaker 1: went so far as to ask that the old notebooks
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  Speaker 1: of the emperors might be produced to furnish evidence against
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  Speaker 1: the men they hated. But little had been really done,
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  Speaker 1: and men thought they traced the malign influence of Mucianus
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  Speaker 1: in screening the criminals from attack. Titus had driven them
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  Speaker 1: away in disgrace, But now perhaps they were creeping, like
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  Speaker 1: unclean things, out of their hiding places to study the
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  Speaker 1: new sovereign's temper. They could not be encouraged by the
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  Speaker 1: words that dropped from him. The prince who fails to
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  Speaker 1: chastise informers wets their zeal, nor by the penalty of
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  Speaker 1: exile fixed for the accuser who brought a charge of
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  Speaker 1: defare brought in the treasury or privy purse and failed
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  Speaker 1: to make it good. He tried next to meet a
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  Speaker 1: growing evil of the times that was significant of misrule.
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  Speaker 1: He announced that he would receive no legacies save from
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  Speaker 1: the childless, and quashed the wills made out of vanity
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  Speaker 1: or ostentation to the prejudice of the natural errors. Not
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  Speaker 1: content with such reforms, he tried to give a higher
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  Speaker 1: moral tone to the social life of the great city,
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  Speaker 1: to check the license of the theaters, to discourage indecent pasquinades,
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  Speaker 1: and raise the respect for chastity and moral ties. Had
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  Speaker 1: he only ruled as short a time as Titus, he
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  Speaker 1: would have borne as fair a character in history, and
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  Speaker 1: he would seemingly have deserved it better, for he grasped
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  Speaker 1: the reins with a firmer hand and wished to merit
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  Speaker 1: rather than to win his subject's love. How was it
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  Speaker 1: that so fair an opening was so sadly clouded? Or
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  Speaker 1: whence the change that came over the spirit of his rule?
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  Speaker 1: In the meager account of ancient writers. We find no
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  Speaker 1: attempt made to solve the problem, but we may see
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  Speaker 1: perhaps some explanation in the events that happened at the time.
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  Speaker 1: One thing was wanting still the Laurel crown of Victory,
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  Speaker 1: to raise Omission to the level of his brother. In
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  Speaker 1: an evil hour, he coveted military glory and set out
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  Speaker 1: for Germany, where a pretext for war was never wanting
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  Speaker 1: but high as was the order of his talents, he
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  Speaker 1: had neither the general's eye nor the soldier's courage, and
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  Speaker 1: his heart failed them when he drew nearer to the enemy.
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  Speaker 1: The German expedition of eight eighty four ended as it began,
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  Speaker 1: in plundering a few poor villages and in pompous proclamations
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  Speaker 1: to the army and the Senate. But far away, toward
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  Speaker 1: the Danube, there was the sound of a real crash
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  Speaker 1: of war. Desebalis at the head of his dation Hordes,
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  Speaker 1: was an enemy worthy of the most skillful generals of Rome. Bold,
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  Speaker 1: fertile in resource, and skilled in all the fence of war.
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  Speaker 1: He had drilled and organized a formidable power which for
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  Speaker 1: years tried the metal of the Roman armies. Hither also
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  Speaker 1: came Domicion to gain his laurels, and here too his
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  Speaker 1: courage failed him. He stayed at the rear, away from
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  Speaker 1: all the fighting, while his legions, badly led, were driven
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  Speaker 1: backward in disgrace. Unwilling to return without striking a blow
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  Speaker 1: to retrieve his tarnished fame, he hurried to Pannonia to
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  Speaker 1: chastise the Markomanni for neglecting to send him succor in
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  Speaker 1: the war. But thither also he was followed by his
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  Speaker 1: evil star. Instead of the submission that he looked for,
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  Speaker 1: he found a vigorous defense, and he was ensnared and
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  Speaker 1: routed by an enemy whom he had thought to find
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  Speaker 1: an easy prey. Sick of war and of its dangers,
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  Speaker 1: he came to Termins with Desabalus without delay, and rare
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  Speaker 1: as it was for a Roman leader to conclude a
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  Speaker 1: war after defeat, he was glad to purchase peace at
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  Speaker 1: any cost, and to give not money only, but tools
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  Speaker 1: and workmen to teach the Dacian tribes the arts of
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  Speaker 1: civilized life. He could not face his people with the
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  Speaker 1: confession of his failure, so lying bulletins went homeward to
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  Speaker 1: the Senate to tell the victories never won, and to
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  Speaker 1: disguise the history of the campaigns, honors and thanksgivings were
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  Speaker 1: voted in profusion. The imperial city and the provincial towns
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  Speaker 1: accepted the official story and raised, with dutiful joy, triumphal
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  Speaker 1: statues to their prince, But the truth leaked out, of course,
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  Speaker 1: and the mission returned to Rome an altered man. He
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  Speaker 1: read mockery in the eyes of all he met, detested
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  Speaker 1: their praises as gross flattery, yet resented silence as a censure.
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  Speaker 1: He gave costly entertainments to the people, but with a
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  Speaker 1: gaiety so forced and a means so changed that men
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  Speaker 1: spoke of them currently as funeral feasts, till at last
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  Speaker 1: he took them at, inviting the senators to a strange
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  Speaker 1: parody of a supper in the tombs, and played with
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  Speaker 1: grim humor on their fears. While he was in this
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  Speaker 1: capricious mood, another event served yet further to embitter him,
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  Speaker 1: and Tonius, a governor upon the Rhine, began once more
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  Speaker 1: the fatal game of civil war. Though he was soon
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  Speaker 1: crushed and slain, and as notebooks burnt, to compromise no partisans.
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  Speaker 1: Yet the suspicious fears of Domitian were not to be
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  Speaker 1: lulled so easily, and he fancied universal treachery around him.
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  Speaker 1: The plot was the motive or excuse for an outburst
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  Speaker 1: of vindictive feeling, which would not stay to wait for proofs,
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  Speaker 1: but grew ever more relentless the faster his victims fell.
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  Speaker 1: Like some half tamed animals we read of. He needed
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  Speaker 1: to taste blood to reveal to himself and others the
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  Speaker 1: ferocity of his feline nature. One further cause, perhaps there
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  Speaker 1: was a frequent one with vicious rulers, to tempt him
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  Speaker 1: to yet further evil. This was simply want of money.
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  Speaker 1: The fruitless expense of the wars, the heavy price he
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  Speaker 1: paid for peace, the lavish outlay to keep up the
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  Speaker 1: force and put the populace in good humor. These had
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  Speaker 1: drained the coffers which Vespasian had filled, and which the
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  Speaker 1: easy prodigality of Titus had already emptied. At first, he
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  Speaker 1: was minded to economize by reducing the strength or number
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  Speaker 1: of the legions, But he feared to weaken the thin
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  Speaker 1: line of border armies, and in his present mood, he
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  Speaker 1: saw a readier way to fill his treasury. The old
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  Speaker 1: old story of these evil times, fines, confiscations, and judicial
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  Speaker 1: murders became once more the order of the day, colored
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  Speaker 1: at times by various pleas, but often too by none
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  Speaker 1: at all. He talked of conspiracies and treasons till his
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  Speaker 1: morbid fancy saw traders everywhere around him. His suspicious fears
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  Speaker 1: settled at last into general mistrust. As the hatred of
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  Speaker 1: the world grew more intense. The philosophers were among the
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  Speaker 1: first to suffer. Rusticus and Senecchio died for their outspoken
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  Speaker 1: reverence for the great martyrs of their Stoic creed, and
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  Speaker 1: many another suffered with them, till by one sweeping edict,
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  Speaker 1: all were banished from the city and from Italy. Philosophy
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  Speaker 1: did not indeed make conspirators, but he feared its habits
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  Speaker 1: of bold speech and criticism, as modern despots are intolerant
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  Speaker 1: of a free press, and he looked with an evil
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  Speaker 1: eye at men who would not stoop to Caesar worship,
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  Speaker 1: as persecuting churches would trample out descent. Among those who
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  Speaker 1: were brought before him at this time and banished with
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  Speaker 1: the rest, one name is mentioned that may stand apart
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  Speaker 1: that of Apollonius of Tiana. He was, it seems, a
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  Speaker 1: wandering sage, so renowned for sanctity and wisdom, that a
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  Speaker 1: band of admiring scholars grouped themselves around him and were
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  Speaker 1: glad to follow him from land. Strange legends of his
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  Speaker 1: uncanny power gathered in time about his name, and words
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  Speaker 1: of more than human insight were reported to feed the
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  Speaker 1: credulous fancy of the world. In the last phase of
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  Speaker 1: the struggle between Pagan and Christian thought, the figure of
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  Speaker 1: Apollonius was chosen as a rival to the Jesus of
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  Speaker 1: the Gospels, and his life was written by Philostratus to
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  Speaker 1: prove that the religious philosophy of Heathenism could show its sermons,
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  Speaker 1: miracles and inspiration. These were hard times for earnest thinkers.
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  Speaker 1: They were not encouraging for men of action. Military prowess
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  Speaker 1: and success were too marked to contrast to the humbling
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  Speaker 1: disasters on the Danube to meet with much favor from
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  Speaker 1: the emperor. But there were few generals of renown to
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  Speaker 1: try his temper. Julius Agricola is prominent among them, because
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  Speaker 1: the skillful pen of Tacitus, his son in law, has
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  Speaker 1: written for us the story of his life, his just,
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  Speaker 1: firm rule as governor of Britain. The promptitude with which
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  Speaker 1: he swept away the abuses of the past, the courage
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  Speaker 1: with which he pushed his arms into the far north
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  Speaker 1: and brought Caledonia within the limits of his province form
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  Speaker 1: upright page in the Annals of this period eighty eighty five.
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  Speaker 1: But they gave little pleasure to his jealous sovereign, who
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  Speaker 1: eyed him coldly on his return to Rome, and gave
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  Speaker 1: him no further chance of service or glory. He lived
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  Speaker 1: a few years more in modest dignity, without a word
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  Speaker 1: of flattery, yet not desirous to court a useless death
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  Speaker 1: by offensive speech. When he died, men whispered their suspicions
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  Speaker 1: of foul play, but the emperor, who was named among
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  Speaker 1: his heirs, accepted gladly the token of his respect forgetting
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  Speaker 1: his own earlier principles, or that, as the historian tells us,
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  Speaker 1: only a bad prince is left a legacy in a
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  Speaker 1: good father's will. But though he feared serious thought and action,
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  Speaker 1: the life lighter charms of literature might perhaps have soothed
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  Speaker 1: the moody prince. In earlier days he had turned to
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  Speaker 1: poetry for solace, and the sad muses whom he had
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  Speaker 1: courted in retirement, had, as Juvenile tells us, no patron
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  Speaker 1: else to look to than the domician who had just
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  Speaker 1: risen to the throne. But the Emperor read little else
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  Speaker 1: himself besides the memoirs of Tiberius, and the writers of
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  Speaker 1: his day, had but scant cause to bless his princely bounties. Marshal,
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  Speaker 1: with all his ready flow of sparkling verse, his pungent
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  Speaker 1: epigram and witty sallies, had a hard life of it
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  Speaker 1: enough at Rome, and was reduced to cringe and flatter
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  Speaker 1: for the gift of a new toga or a paltry dole. Stacius,
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  Speaker 1: well read and highly gifted as he was, with fluency
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  Speaker 1: and fancy, found it easy to win loud applause when
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  Speaker 1: he read his Thebaiod in public, but gained little for
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  Speaker 1: his ingenious compliments and conceits as poet laureate of the court,
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  Speaker 1: and had not means enough at last to find a
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  Speaker 1: marriage portion for his daughter. Juvenile's appeal in favor of
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  Speaker 1: the starving muses met seemingly with no response, and disappointment
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  Speaker 1: may have added to his high toned vehemence and studied scorn.
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  Speaker 1: It was no time certainly, for Tacitus to write without
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  Speaker 1: partiality or fear, and the condensed vigor of his style,
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  Speaker 1: its vivid portraiture and power of moral indignation, might have
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  Speaker 1: been lost wholly to the world had not another emperor
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  Speaker 1: come at last to combine monarchy with freedom. Meantime, Rome
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  Speaker 1: had grown weary of the bloodthirsty mania of its ruler,
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  Speaker 1: who loved to pounce with stealthy suddenness upon his victims,
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  Speaker 1: and to talk of mercy when he meant to slay.
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  Speaker 1: It was the rich, the noble, the large hearted who
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  Speaker 1: suffered most in his reign of terror, and it was
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  Speaker 1: left to his wife and friedman to cut it short. Finding,
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  Speaker 1: it is said, a note book in his bed, and
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  Speaker 1: in it their own names marked down for death. They
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  Speaker 1: formed their plans with ather delay. It was in Vain
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  Speaker 1: that Domitian was haunted by his warning fears that he
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  Speaker 1: had his porticoes inlaid with polished stone to reflect the
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  Speaker 1: assassin's dagger. In Vain, he sent for astrologers and soothsayers
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  Speaker 1: to read the future. He could not be always armed
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  Speaker 1: against the enemies of his own household. The conspirators surprised
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  Speaker 1: him alone in an unguarded moment and despatched him with
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  Speaker 1: many wounds, though he struggled fiercely to the last end
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  Speaker 1: of Section twenty