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

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty six of the Complete Works of Tacitus, edited
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  Speaker 1: by Thomas Gordon, Volume one. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, visit LibriVox dot org. Recorded by
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  Speaker 1: Claude Banta. The Complete Works of Tacitus, to which are
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  Speaker 1: prefixed political discourses upon that author, Edited and translated by
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  Speaker 1: Thomas Gordon, Volume one. The Annals, Book three, Part two,
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  Speaker 1: The Disgrace of Piso. A few days after Vitellius, Veranius
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  Speaker 1: and Severus were by the Senate preferred to the honors
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  Speaker 1: of the priesthood at the motion of Tiberius to Vulcinius,
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  Speaker 1: he promised his interest in suffrage towards preferment, but advised
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  Speaker 1: him not to embarrass his eloquence by n ppetuosity. This
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  Speaker 1: was the end of revenging the death of Germanicus, an
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  Speaker 1: affair ambiguously related not by those only who then lived
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  Speaker 1: and interested themselves in it, but likewise in following times.
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  Speaker 1: So dark and intricate are all the highest transactions. While
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  Speaker 1: some hold for certain facts the most precarious hearsays, others
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  Speaker 1: turn facts into falsehood, and both are swallowed and improved
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  Speaker 1: by the credulity of posterity. Jesus went now without the
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  Speaker 1: city there to renew the ceremony of the auspices, and
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  Speaker 1: presently re entered in the triumph of ovation. A few
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  Speaker 1: days after died Vespania, his mother of all the children
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  Speaker 1: of Agrippa, the only one who made a pacific end.
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  Speaker 1: The rest manifestly perished, or are believed to have perished
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  Speaker 1: by the sword, poison and famine. The same year, Takfaranas,
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  Speaker 1: whom I have mentioned to have been the former summer
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  Speaker 1: defeated by Camillus, renewed the war in Africa, first by
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  Speaker 1: roving devastations so sudden that they unescaped unchastised. Next he
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  Speaker 1: sacked towns and bore away mighty plunder. At last he
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  Speaker 1: bajurked a Roman cohort a small distance from the river Pajida.
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  Speaker 1: It was a fort commanded by Decreus, a brave soldier
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  Speaker 1: exercised in war and now touched with the ignomity of
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  Speaker 1: such a siege. Encouraging therefore his men to offer open battle,
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  Speaker 1: he drew them up without the walls. At the first shock,
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  Speaker 1: the cohort was repulsed, but the resolute Decreus braved the
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  Speaker 1: enemy's darts, opposed the runaways, and upbraided the standard bearers.
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  Speaker 1: That upon vagabonds and undisciplined robbers, the Roman soldiers turned
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  Speaker 1: their backs. He had already received several wounds, and his
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  Speaker 1: eye was speed out, but still faced the foe, nor
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  Speaker 1: ceased fighting till wholly deserted by his men, he at
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  Speaker 1: last was slain. Lucius Apronius had succeeded Camillus as soon
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  Speaker 1: as he learnt this defeat. Piqued rather by the infamy
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  Speaker 1: of his own men than by the glory of the enemy,
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  Speaker 1: he practiced an exemplary severity, at this time rare but
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  Speaker 1: agreeable to ancient discipline, by executing with a club every
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  Speaker 1: tenth man of that agnonomous cohort drawn by lot. Such
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  Speaker 1: too was the effect of this rigor, that those very
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  Speaker 1: forces of Tacfarinas, as they besieged the fortress of Thala,
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  Speaker 1: were routed by a squadron of five hundred veterans. In
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  Speaker 1: this battle, Rufus Helvius, a common soldier, acquired the glory
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  Speaker 1: of saving a citizen, and was by a Pronius presented
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  Speaker 1: with the spear and collar. Tiberius added the civic crown, complaining,
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  Speaker 1: rather than resenting, that a Pronius had not, in right
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  Speaker 1: of proconsul, granted that also tac foreignas Now his Numidians
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  Speaker 1: were dismayed and bent against Sieges made a desultory war,
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  Speaker 1: flying when attacked and upon a retreat assaulting the rear.
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  Speaker 1: As long as the African observed this method, he, with
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  Speaker 1: impunity to himself, mocked and harassed the Romans. But after
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  Speaker 1: he drew down to the maritime places, the allurements and
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  Speaker 1: quantities of plunder confined him to his camp. Hither a
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  Speaker 1: Pronius Asanius was by his father dispatched with the cavalry
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  Speaker 1: and auxiliary cohorts, to which was added a detachment of
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  Speaker 1: the best legionary foot, and having successfully fought the Numidians,
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  Speaker 1: drove them back to the desarts at Rome. The while
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  Speaker 1: Emilie Lepida, who besides the nobleness of the Aemilian family
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  Speaker 1: was grew great granddaughter to Pompeii and Cela, was charged
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  Speaker 1: with imposing a false birth upon Publius Corinius, her husband,
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  Speaker 1: a man rich and childless. The charge was swelled with
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  Speaker 1: adulterex poisonings and treasonable dealings with the Chaldeans, about the
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  Speaker 1: fate and continuance of the imperial house. Her brother Mannius Lepidus,
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  Speaker 1: defended her, and guilty and infamous as she was. The
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  Speaker 1: persecution from her husband continued after their divorce. Drew compassion
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  Speaker 1: upon her. In the trial, it was no easy matter
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  Speaker 1: to discover the heart of Tiberius. With such subtlety he
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  Speaker 1: mixed and shifted the symptoms of indignation and clemency. At first,
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  Speaker 1: he besought the Senate not to muddle with the articles
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  Speaker 1: of treason, and presently engaged Marcus Servilius, once Consul, and
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  Speaker 1: the other witnesses to produce the very evidences of treason
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  Speaker 1: which he would have appeared desirous to suppress. Yet he
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  Speaker 1: took the slaves of Lepida from the guard of soldiers
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  Speaker 1: and surrendered them to the consuls, nor would he suffer
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  Speaker 1: them to be examined by torture, as to her practiced
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  Speaker 1: against himself. He even excused Drusus from voting first as
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  Speaker 1: consul elect. This some understood as an instance of complaisance,
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  Speaker 1: that the rest might not be obliged to follow the
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  Speaker 1: example of Drusus. Some ascribe it to cruelty, for that
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  Speaker 1: only with design to have her condemned, that concession was made.
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  Speaker 1: The public games interrupted the trial, and in the recess Lepida,
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  Speaker 1: accompanied with other ladies of great quality, entered the Theatra.
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  Speaker 1: There with doleful lamentations, invoking her illustrious ancestors, especially the
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  Speaker 1: Great Pompeii, whose statues stood round in view the Theatra
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  Speaker 1: itself a monument of his raising. She excited such universal
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  Speaker 1: commiseration that the spectators burst into tears and uttering cruel
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  Speaker 1: and direful imprecations against Corinius declared their indignation that to
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  Speaker 1: his childless old age and mean blood should be given
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  Speaker 1: a lady once designed for the wife of Lucius Caesar
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  Speaker 1: and for the daughter in law of the deified Augustus.
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  Speaker 1: At last, by racking her slaves, her crimes were made manifest,
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  Speaker 1: and the judgment of rebellious Blondis prevailed for interdicting her
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  Speaker 1: from fire and water. To this judgment, Jusus assented, though
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  Speaker 1: others had proposed a milder that her estate should not
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  Speaker 1: be forfeited, was granted to Scaurus, who by her had
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  Speaker 1: had a daughter. And now, after condemnation, Tiberius advertised the
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  Speaker 1: Senate that from the slaves too of Corineus, she had
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  Speaker 1: learnt her attempts to poison him as a consolation to
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  Speaker 1: the illustrious families of Rome for their late calamities. For
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  Speaker 1: the Calpurnian house had suffered the loss of Piso, and
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  Speaker 1: just after the Amilian house, that of Lepida Decius. Silanus
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  Speaker 1: was now restored to the Junian family. I will briefly
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  Speaker 1: recite his disgrace as against the republic. The fortune of
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  Speaker 1: Augustus was prevalent, so in his family it was unhappy
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  Speaker 1: by the lewdness of his daughter and granddaughter, whom he
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  Speaker 1: turned out of Rome, and with death or exile, punished
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  Speaker 1: their adulterers. For to a fault common between men and women.
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  Speaker 1: He gave the heinous name of sacrilege and treason, and
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  Speaker 1: thence had a color for departing from the tenderness of
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  Speaker 1: our ancestors, and for violating his own laws. But I
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  Speaker 1: shall hereafter relate the fate of others from this his severity,
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  Speaker 1: as also the other transactions of that time, If having
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  Speaker 1: finished my present undertaking, life remains for other studies. Silanus,
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  Speaker 1: who had viciated the the granddaughter of Augustus, though he
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  Speaker 1: felt no higher indignation than to be excluded from the
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  Speaker 1: friendship and presence of the Emperor, yet understood this as
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  Speaker 1: a denunciation of banishment nor dursty till the reign of
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  Speaker 1: Tiberius supplicates the Prince and Senate for leave to return,
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  Speaker 1: and then only trusted to the prevailing credit of his
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  Speaker 1: brother Marcus Sillanus, distinguished by his illustrious quality and eminent
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  Speaker 1: for his great eloquence, Marcus, having returned thanks to Tiberius,
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  Speaker 1: had this answer before the Senate, that he himself also
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  Speaker 1: rejoiced that his brother was returned from travels so long
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  Speaker 1: and remote, that his return home was perfectly unexceptionable, since
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  Speaker 1: neither by decree of Senate, nor by any sentence of
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  Speaker 1: law had he been driven. Thence that to himself, however,
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  Speaker 1: still remained entire the resentments of his father towards him,
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  Speaker 1: nor by the return of Selinus were the purposes of
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  Speaker 1: Augustus vill related. Thenceforward he remained in Rome, but distinguished
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  Speaker 1: by no preferment in the state. The qualifying of the
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  Speaker 1: law Popia Popea was afterwards proposed a law which to
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  Speaker 1: enforce those of Julius Caesar Augustus had made when he
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  Speaker 1: was old, for punishing celibacy and enriching the exchequer. Nor
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  Speaker 1: even by this means had marriages and children multiplied, while
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  Speaker 1: a passion to live single and childless still prevailed. But
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  Speaker 1: in the meantime the numbers threatened, and in danger by
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  Speaker 1: it increased daily, while by the glosses and shickning of
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  Speaker 1: the impleaders, every family was undone, so that, as before
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  Speaker 1: the city labored under the weight of crimes, so now
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  Speaker 1: under the pest of laws. From this thought I am
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  Speaker 1: led backwards to the first rise of laws, and to
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  Speaker 1: open the steps and causes by which we are arrived
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  Speaker 1: to the present number and excess, a number infinite and perplexed.
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  Speaker 1: The first race of men, free as yet from every
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  Speaker 1: depraved passion, lived without guile and crimes, and therefore without
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  Speaker 1: chastisements and restraints, nor was there occasion for rewards. When
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  Speaker 1: of their own accord they pursued righteousness, and as they
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  Speaker 1: courted nothing contrary to justice, they were debarred from nothing
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  Speaker 1: by terrors. But after they had abandoned their original equality,
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  Speaker 1: and for modesty and shame to do evil, proceeded to
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  Speaker 1: ambition and violence. Lordly dominion was introduced, and arbitrary rule
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  Speaker 1: and in many nations grew perpetual, some either from the
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  Speaker 1: beginning or after they were surfeited with kings preferred the
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  Speaker 1: sovereignty of laws, which agreeably to the artless minds of men,
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  Speaker 1: were at first short and simple. The laws and most
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  Speaker 1: renown were those framed for the Cretians by Minos, for
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  Speaker 1: the Spartans by like Kurgus, and afterwards such as slone
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  Speaker 1: delivered to the Athenians, now greater in number and more
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  Speaker 1: exquisitely composed to the Romans. Justice was administered by Romulus
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  Speaker 1: according to his pleasure. After him, Numa managed the people
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  Speaker 1: by religious devices and laws divine. Some institutions were made
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  Speaker 1: by Tolius Hostilius, some by Ancus Martinus, but above all
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  Speaker 1: our laws were those founded by Servius Tullius. Such laws
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  Speaker 1: as even our kings were bound to obey. Upon the
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  Speaker 1: expulsion of Barkowin, the people for the security of their
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  Speaker 1: freedom against the encroachment and factions of the Senate, and
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  Speaker 1: for binding the public concord prepared many ordinances, hence were
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  Speaker 1: created the DISSEMVII, and by them were composed the twelve Tables,
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  Speaker 1: out of a collection of the most excellent institutions found abroad.
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  Speaker 1: This was the period of all upright and impartial laws.
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  Speaker 1: What laws followed, though sometimes made against crimes and offenders,
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  Speaker 1: were yet chiefly made by violence, through the animosity of
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  Speaker 1: the two estates, and for seizing unjustly withholden offices, or
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  Speaker 1: for banishing illustrious patriots and other wicked ends. Hence the
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  Speaker 1: gracchi and saturnity inflamers of the people, and hence Liviustrusus
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  Speaker 1: vying on behalf of the Senate in popular concessions with
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  Speaker 1: these inflamers. Whence our Italian allies were first corrupted and
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  Speaker 1: animated with fair promises, then by the opposition of other
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  Speaker 1: demagogues disappointed and deceived. Neither during the War of Italy,
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  Speaker 1: nor during the Civil War was the making of regulations discontinued.
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  Speaker 1: Many and contradictory were even then made. At last, Scilla,
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  Speaker 1: the dictator, changing or abolishing the past, added many of
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  Speaker 1: his own, and procured some respit in this matter, But
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  Speaker 1: not long for presently followed the turbulent pursuits and proposals
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  Speaker 1: of Lepidus, and soon after were the tribunes restored to
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  Speaker 1: their licentious authority of throwing the people into combustions. At pleasure,
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  Speaker 1: and now laws were not made for the public only,
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  Speaker 1: but for particular men, particular laws and corruption abounding in
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  Speaker 1: the commonwealth. The commonwealth abounded in laws. Pompey was now
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  Speaker 1: in his third consulship, chosen to correct the public enormities,
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  Speaker 1: and his remedies proved to the state more grievous than
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  Speaker 1: its distempers. He made laws such as suited his ambition,
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  Speaker 1: and broke them when they thwarted his will, and lost
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  Speaker 1: by arms the regulations which by arms he had procured. Henceforward,
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  Speaker 1: for twenty years, civil discord raged, and there was neither
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  Speaker 1: law nor settlement. The most wicked found impunity in the
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  Speaker 1: excess of their wicked, and many virtuous men, in their uprightness,
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  Speaker 1: met destruction at length. Augustus Caesar, in his sixth consulship,
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  Speaker 1: then confirmed in power without arrival, abolished the orders which
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  Speaker 1: during the triumvirate he had established, and gave us laws
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  Speaker 1: proper for peace and a single ruler. These laws had
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  Speaker 1: sanctioned severe than any heretofore known as their guardians, informers
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  Speaker 1: were appointed who, by the law Papia Popea were encouraged
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  Speaker 1: with rewards to watch such as neglected the privileges annexed
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  Speaker 1: to marriage and fatherhood, and consequently could claim no legacy
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  Speaker 1: or inheritance, the same as vacant belonging to the Roman
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  Speaker 1: people who were the public parents. But these informers struck
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  Speaker 1: much deeper by them. The whole city, all Italy, and
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  Speaker 1: the Roman citizens in every part of the Empire were
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  Speaker 1: infested and persecuted. Numbers were stripped of their entire fortune,
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  Speaker 1: and terror had seized all when Tiberius, for it, checked
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  Speaker 1: this evil, chose twenty noblemen, five who were formerly consuls,
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  Speaker 1: five who were formerly praetors, with ten other senators to
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  Speaker 1: review that law. By them, many of its intricacies were explained,
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  Speaker 1: its strictness qualified, and hence some present alleviation was yielded. Tiberius,
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  Speaker 1: about this time recommended to the Senate Nero, one of
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  Speaker 1: the sons of Germanicus, now seventeen years of age, and
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  Speaker 1: desired that he might be exempted from executing the office
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  Speaker 1: of the vision Tiferate, and have leave to sue for
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  Speaker 1: the cloister ship five years sooner than the laws directed.
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  Speaker 1: A piece of mockery this request to all who heard it,
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  Speaker 1: But Tiberius pretended though the same concussions had been decreed
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  Speaker 1: to himself and his brother Drusus at the request of Augustus.
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  Speaker 1: Nor do I doubt, but there were then such who
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  Speaker 1: secretly ridiculed that sort of petitions from Augustus. Such policy was, however,
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  Speaker 1: natural to that prince then laying the foundations of the
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  Speaker 1: imperial power, and while the republic and its laws were
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  Speaker 1: still fresh in the minds of men. Besides, the relation
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  Speaker 1: was lighter between the Augustus and his wife's sons than
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  Speaker 1: between a grandfather and his grandsons. To the grant of
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  Speaker 1: the quaister ship was added a seat in the College
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  Speaker 1: of Pontiffs, and the first day he entered the forum
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  Speaker 1: in his manly robe, a donative of corn and money
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  Speaker 1: was distributed to the populace, who exulted to behold the
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  Speaker 1: son of Germanicus, now of age. Their joy was soon
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  Speaker 1: heightened by his marriage with Julia, the daughter of Drusus.
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  Speaker 1: But as these transactions were attended with public applauses, so
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  Speaker 1: the intended marriage of the daughter of Sejanus with the
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  Speaker 1: son of Claudius was received with popaspular indignation. By this alliance,
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  Speaker 1: the nobility of the Claudian house seemed stained, and by
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  Speaker 1: its Sijanus, already suspected of aspiring views, was exalted still higher.
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  Speaker 1: At the end of this year died two great and
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  Speaker 1: eminent men, Lucius Velusius and Celestius Crispus. The family of
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  Speaker 1: the Lucius was ancient, but in the exercise of public
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  Speaker 1: office rose never higher than the pratership. It was he
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  Speaker 1: who honored it with a consulship. He was likewise created
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  Speaker 1: censor for modeling the classes of the Equestrian order, and
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  Speaker 1: first accumulated the wealth which raised that family beyond all measure.
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  Speaker 1: Crispus was born of an Equestrian house, great nephew by
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  Speaker 1: a sister Tacius Celestius, the renowned Roman historian, and by
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  Speaker 1: him adopted. The way to the great offices was open
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  Speaker 1: to him. But in imitation of Macnus, he lived without
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  Speaker 1: the dignity of senator. Yet outwent in power many who
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  Speaker 1: were distinguished with consulships and triumphs. His manner of living,
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  Speaker 1: his dress, and daintiness, were different from the ways of antiquity,
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  Speaker 1: and in expense and affluence he bordered rather upon luxury.
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  Speaker 1: He possessed, however, a vigor of spirit equal to great affairs,
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  Speaker 1: and exerted the greater promptness. For that he hid it
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  Speaker 1: in his shoe of indolence and sloth. He was therefore
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  Speaker 1: in the lifetime of Mycenus the next in favor, afterwards
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  Speaker 1: chief confidant in all the secret councils of Augustus and Tiberius,
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  Speaker 1: and assenting to the order for slaying a grip aposthumous
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  Speaker 1: in his old age, he preserved with the prince rather
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  Speaker 1: the outside than the vitals of authority. The same had
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  Speaker 1: happened to Macenus. Such is the lot of power rarely perpetual,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps from sachiity on both sides, when princes have no
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  Speaker 1: more to grant and ministers no more to crave. Next
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  Speaker 1: followed the consulship of Tiberius and Drusus, to Tiberius the
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  Speaker 1: fourth to Drusus the second, a consulship remarkable for that
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  Speaker 1: in it the father and son were colleagues. There was
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  Speaker 1: indeed the same fellowship between Tiberius and Germanicus two years before,
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  Speaker 1: But besides the distastes of jealousy and the uncle, the
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  Speaker 1: ties of blood were not so near. In the beginning
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  Speaker 1: of the year, Tiberius, on pretense of his health retired
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  Speaker 1: to Campagna, either already meditating a long and perpetual retirement,
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  Speaker 1: or to leave to Drusus in his father's absence the
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  Speaker 1: honor of executing the consulship alone. And there happened a
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  Speaker 1: thing which small in itself, yet as it produced mighty contestation,
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  Speaker 1: furnished the young consul with matter of popular affection. Domicius Corbulo,
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  Speaker 1: formerly praetor, complained to the Senate of Lucius Cilla, a
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  Speaker 1: noble youth, that in the shoe of gladiators, Scilla would
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  Speaker 1: not yield him place age domestic custom, and the ancient
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  Speaker 1: men were for Corbelo, Mamercus Scaurus, Lucius Aruntius, and others
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  Speaker 1: labored for their Kinsmen Cilla. Warm speeches were made, and
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  Speaker 1: the examples of our ancestors were urged, who by severe
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  Speaker 1: decrees and censured and restrained the irreverence of youth. Drusus
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  Speaker 1: interposed with arguments proper for calming animosities, and Corbelo had
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  Speaker 1: satisfaction made him by Scourus, who was both father in
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  Speaker 1: law and uncle to Cila, and the most copious orator
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  Speaker 1: of that age. The same Corbelo, exclaiming against the condition
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  Speaker 1: of most of the roads through it. Iay that through
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  Speaker 1: the fraud of the undertakers and negligence of the civil officers,
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  Speaker 1: they were broken and unpassable. Undertook of his own accord
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  Speaker 1: the cure of that abuse, an undertaking which he executed
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  Speaker 1: not so much to the advantage of the public as
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  Speaker 1: to the ruin of many private men in their fortunes
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  Speaker 1: and reputation by his violent mulks and unjust judgments and forfeitures.
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  Speaker 1: Soon after Tiberius by letter acquainted, the Senate thought, by
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  Speaker 1: the incursions of Tacforonos, there were fresh commotions in Africa,
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  Speaker 1: and that they must choose a proconsul, one of a
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  Speaker 1: military experience, vigorous and equal to that war. Sextus Pompeius,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: taking this occasion to discharge his hate against Marcus Lepidus,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: reproached him as dastardly indigent, a scandal to his ancestors,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: and therefore to be divested even of the government of Asia,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: his province. By lot. The Senate opposed him. They thought
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Lepidus a man rather mild than slothful, and that as
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: in his narrow fortune bequeathed to him but not impaired
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: by him, he supported his quality without blemish. He merited
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: honor rather than contumely. He was therefore sent to Asia.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Concerning Africa, it was decreed that the appointment of a
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: governor should be left to the emperor. During these transactions,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Cesina Severus proposed that no magistrate should go into any
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: province accompanied by his wife. He introduced this motion with
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: a long preface, that he lived with his own in
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: perfect concord by her, he had six children, and what
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: he offered to the public he had practiced himself, having
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: during forty years service left or still behind him. Confined
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: to Italy, it was not, indeed, without cause established of
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: old that women should neither be carried by their husbands
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: into confederate nations, nor into foreign A train of women
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: introduced luxury and peace by their fears, retarded war, and
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: made a Roman army resemble in their march a mixed
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: host of barbarians. The sex was not tender only and
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: unfit for travel, but if suffered cruel and aspiring and
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: greedy of authority, they even marched amongst the soldiers, and
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: were obeyed by the officers. A woman had lately presided
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: at the exercises of the troops and at the decursions
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: of the legions. The Senate themselves might remember that as
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: often as many of the magistrates were charged with plundering
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: the provinces, their wives were always charged with much guilt
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: to the ladies, the most profligate in the province, ever
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: applied by them. All affairs were undertaken by them. Transacted
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: at home, two distinct courts were kept, and abroad the
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: wife had her distinct train and attendants. The ladies too
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: issued distinct orders, but more imperious and better obeyed. Such
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: feminine excesses were formerly restrained by the Appian and other laws,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: but now these restraints were violated. Women ruled all things,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: their families, the form and tribunals, and even the armies.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: This speech was heard by few with approbation, and many
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: proclaimed their descent for that. Neither was that the point
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: in debate, nor was Cesena considerable enough to censor so
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: weighty an affair. He was presently answered by Valerious Massalinas,
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: who was the son of Massala and inherited a sparkling
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: of his father's eloquence. That many rigorous institutions of the
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: ancients were softened and changed for the better. For neither
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: was Rome now as of old, beset with wars, nor
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Italy with hostile provinces. Hence a few concessions were made
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: to the conveniences of women, who were so far from
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: burdening the provinces that to their own husbands there they
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: were no burden. As to honors, attendants, and expense. They
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: enjoyed them in common with their husbands, who could receive
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: no embarrassment from their company. In time of peace. To war, indeed,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: we must go equipped and unencumbered. But after the fatigues
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: of war, what was more allowable than the consolations of
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: a wife. But it seemed the wives of some magistrates
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: had given a loose to ambition endavarice. And were the
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: magistrates themselves free from these excesses? Were not most of
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: them governed by many exorbitant appetites. Did we therefore send
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: none into the provinces. It was added that the husbands
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: were corrupted by their courtrupt wives, were therefore all single
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: men uncorrupt. The oppian laws were once thought necessary because
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: the exigencies of the state required their severity. They were
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: afterwards relaxed and mollified, because that too was expedient for
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: the state in vain, we covered our own sloth with
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: borrowed names. If the wife broke bounds, the husband ought
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: to bear the blame. It was moreover unjustly judged for
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: the weak and luxorious spirit of one or a few
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: to bereave all others of the fellowship of their wives,
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: the natural partners of their prosperity and distress. Besides, the
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: sex weak by nature, would be left defenseless, exposed to
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: the luxurious bent of their native passions, and to the
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: seduction of adulterers. Scarce under the eye and restraint of
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: the husband was the marriage bed preserved inviolate. What must
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: be the consequence when, by an absence of many years,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: the ties of marriage would be forgot, as it were
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: in a divorce. It became them therefore, so to cure
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: the evils abroad, as not to forget the enormities at Rome.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: To this, Jusus added somewhat concerning his own wedlock. Princes,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: he said, were frequently obliged to visit the remote parts
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: of the empire. How often did the deified Augustus travel
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: to the east, how often to the west, still accompanied
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: with Livia. He himself too had taken a progress to
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: a lericum, and if it were expedient, was ready to
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: visit other nations, but not always with an easy spirit,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: if he were to be torn from his dear wife,
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: her by whom he had so many children. Thus was
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: Cesena's motion eluded. When the Senate met next, they had
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: a letter from Tiberius. In it, he affected indirectly to
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: chide the father lot upon whom that cost all public cares,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: and named them m Lepidus and Junius bless Us to
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: choose either for proconsul of Africa. They were then both
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: heard as to this nomination, and Lepidus excused himself with earnestness,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: pleaded his bodily frailty, the tender age of his children,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: and a daughter fit for marriage. There was another reason, too,
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: of which he said nothing, But it was easily understood
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: even that Blesus was uncle decision Us, and therefore had
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: the prevailing interest. Blisus too made a shoe of refusing,
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: but not with a like positiveness, and moreover was heard
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: with partiality by the flatterers of power. Now at last
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: broke out a grievance which had lain hitherto smothered in
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: the uneasy minds of men. The statues of the Emperor
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: were become sanctuaries to every profligate, who, by laying hold
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: of these statues had assumed the insolence of venting with
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: impunity their invectives and hatred against worthy men. Even slaves
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: and freedmen were thence grown terrible to their masters, and
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: wantonly insulted and threatened them. Against this abuse, it was
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: argued by Caiusstius the Senator, that princes were indeed the
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: representatives of the gods, but by the gods just petitions
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: only were heard. Nor did any one betake himself to
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: the capital or to the other temples of Rome, that
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: under their sacred shelter he might exercise villanies. The laws
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: were abolished and finally overturned, if a criminal convict could,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: in the public forum, nay, at the door of the Senate,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: assault or prosecutor with invectives and menaces. Yet thus had
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: Ana Ruphila assaulted him, she whom Mea got judicially condemned
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: for forgery, neither dursty seek relief from the law for
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: that she protected herself with the Emperor's statue. Much the
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: same reasoning was offered by others, some aggravated the offense
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: with greater bitterness, and besought Drusus to shew an exemplary
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: instance of vengeance, so that she was summoned, convicted of
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: the charge, and by his command committed to the common prison.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: Considious ECUs too and Silius Cursor. Roman knights were, at
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: the motion of Drusus, punished by a decree of senate
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: for forging a charge of treason against the praetor Maggia Sicilianus.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: From this their punishment and that of Rupheila, Drusus reaped
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: popular praise that by him living thus sociably at Rome
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: and frequenting the public assemblies, the dark spirit and designs
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: of his father were softened. Neither did the luxury in
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: which the young prince lived give much offense. Let him,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: it was said, be rather thus employed his days in
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: shoes and acts of popularity, his knights in banqueting, than
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: in dismal solitude, withdrawn from public aiety worried with incessant
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: distrusts and fostering black designs. For neither was Tiberius nor
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: the impleaders yet tired with accusations. On Carius Priscus had
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: accused Cesius Cordus, proconsul of Crete of robbing the public
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: with an additional charge of high treason, a charge which
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: at the time was the main bulwark of all accusations.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: Antisteus Vitus, a noble man of the first rank in Macedonia,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: had been tried for adultery and absolved. This offended Tiberius,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: who reproached the judges and recalled him to be tried
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: for treason as a disturber of the public and confederate
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: with the late king Rescuporis, when having slain his brother Cotis,
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: he meditated did war against us, so that Vetus was
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: condemned and interdicted from fire and water. To this sentence,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: it was added that he should be confined to an island,
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: neither in the neighborhood of Macedon nor of Thrace. For
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: upon the division of that kingdom between Ramatocles and the
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: sons of Coetis, who, being children, had for their guardian
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: Trebellinus Rufus, the Thracians not used to our government, waxed, discontented,
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: and tumultuous, nor did they less censor Remetocles than Trebellinus,
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: for leaving unpunished the violence is done them. The Colathians, Odracians,
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: and other very powerful nations took arms under distinct captains,
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: but all equal in meanness and in capacity. For this reason,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: their armies were not united, nor the war terrible. Some
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: committed ravages at home, others traversed Mount Hamus to engage
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: in the insurrection the day and provinces. The greatest part
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: and best appointed besieged Philipopolis, a city founded by Philip
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: of Macedon, and in it King Ramatocles Publius Vilius, who
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: commanded the army in the neighboring province, when he heard
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: of these commotions, dispatched parties of horse and light foot,
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: some against those who roamed about for plunder, some against
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: such as rambled from place to place to solicit succors.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: He himself led the body of the infantry to raise
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: the siege. These several enterprises were at once successfully executed.
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: The rovers were cut off, Divisions arose amongst the besiegers,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: and the king fortunately sallied just as the Roman forces arrived.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: This gang of Thracians deserved not the name of an army,
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: nor this route to be called a battle where vagabonds,
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: half armed or slaughtered without blood on our side. End
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: of Section twenty six