XXI.
Quotiens super tali negotio consultaret, edita domus parte ac liberti unius conscientia utebatur. is litterarum ignarus, corpore valido, per avia ac derupta (nam saxis domus imminet) praeibat eum cuius artem experiri Tiberius statuisset et regredientem, si vanitatis aut fraudum suspicio incesserat, in subiectum mare praecipitabat ne index arcani existeret. igitur Thrasullus isdem rupibus inductus postquam percontantem commoverat, imperium ipsi et futura sollerter patefaciens, interrogatur an suam quoque genitalem horam comperisset, quem tum annum, qualem diem haberet. ille positus siderum ac spatia dimensus haerere primo, dein pavescere, et quantum introspiceret magis ac magis trepidus admirationis et metus, postremo exclamat ambiguum sibi ac prope ultimum discrimen instare. tum complexus eum Tiberius praescium periculorum et incolumem fore gratatur, quaeque dixerat oracli vice accipiens inter intimos amicorum tenet.
21.
When seeking advice on astrological matters, Tiberius made use of the upper part of the palace and of a single freedman in whom he had complete trust. This servant, an illiterate but very strong man, would lead to him over pathless terrain bordering the sheer wall of cliffs (for the palace stood on the edge of a precipice) the person whose divining skills Tiberius wanted to test. On the way back from the interview, if the astrologer had given signs of incompetence or fraud, the servant would precipitate him into the sea far below, to eliminate any witness of these secret practices. Thrasyllus was introduced to Tiberius by the same path as the others and, after impressing the prince by revealing the empire and other future events, he was asked if he knew what the prediction was about himself for the current year and day. Thrasyllus calculated the position and distance of the stars, then wavered and showed signs of fear. The more he searched the skies the greater became his surprise and alarm. Finally, he exclaimed that he was threatened by a danger he could not identify, a danger perhaps fatal to him. At that, Tiberius embraced him, congratulating him for his accurate divination and reassuring him that he would escape the impending menace. Thrasyllus became one of Tiberius’ intimate friends; his prognostications were regarded by the prince as nothing less than oracular.
XXII.
Sed mihi haec ac talia audienti in incerto iudicium est fatone res mortalium et necessitate immutabili an forte volvantur. quippe sapientissimos veterum quique sectas eorum aemulantur diversos reperies, ac multis insitam opinionem non initia nostri, non finem, non denique homines dis curae; ideo creberrime tristia in bonos, laeta apud deteriores esse. contra alii fatum quidem congruere rebus putant, sed non e vagis stellis, verum apud principia et nexus naturalium causarum; ac tamen electionem vitae nobis relinquunt, quam ubi elegeris, certum imminentium ordinem. neque mala vel bona quae vulgus putet: multos qui conflictari adversis videantur beatos, at plerosque quamquam magnas per opes miserrimos, si illi gravem fortunam constanter tolerent, hi prospera inconsulte utantur. ceterum plurimis mortalium non eximitur quin primo cuiusque ortu ventura destinentur, sed quaedam secus quam dicta sint cadere fallaciis ignara dicentium: ita corrumpi fidem artis cuius clara documenta et antiqua aetas et nostra tulerit. quippe a filio eiusdem Thrasulli praedictum Neronis imperium in tempore memorabitur, ne nunc incepto longius abierim.
22.
I for one am uncertain what to think when I hear these and similar stories. Are human affairs kept moving by fate and necessity or by pure chance? Indeed, you will find that even the wisest among the ancients, and those who followed in their steps, differ in their views. For many, the gods have nothing to do with men and their lives and deaths. The proof of this is the fact that very frequently suffering is the lot of good people, while the wicked thrive happily. Others believe instead that things occur in harmony with fate, not as a result of the movement of stars, but in keeping with the principles and the relations of natural causes. Yet they affirm that we have freedom of choice, but that these choices, once made, entrain a series of inevitable consequences, which in themselves are neither good nor bad, as generally people think they are. Many who seem pursued by adversity are happy and many are miserable in the midst of plenty, depending on whether the ones bear their misfortunes patiently or the latter squander their prosperity unwisely. The great majority of men, however, cling stubbornly to the belief that their lives are determined at birth, and that, if the predictions that are made about them do not match the reality of things, the fault lies with the ignorant charlatans who give a bad name to a science proven to be true by extraordinary corroborations furnished not only in ancient times, but in our own days. Evidence of this is the accurate prediction of Nero’s empire made by no other than the son of Thrasyllus himself, as I will relate later, for now I must return to my subject.
XXIII.
Isdem consulibus Asinii Galli mors vulgatur, quem egestate cibi peremptum haud dubium, sponte vel necessitate incertum habebatur. consultusque Caesar an sepeliri sineret, non erubuit permittere ultroque incusare casus qui reum abstulissent antequam coram convinceretur: scilicet medio triennio defuerat tempus subeundi iudicium consulari seni, tot consularium parenti. Drusus deinde extinguitur, cum se miserandis alimentis, mandendo e cubili tomento, nonum ad diem detinuisset. tradidere quidam praescriptum fuisse Macroni, si arma ab Seiano temptarentur, extractum custodiae iuvenem (nam in Palatio attinebatur) ducem populo imponere. mox, quia rumor incedebat fore ut nuru ac nepoti conciliaretur Caesar, saevitiam quam paenitentiam maluit.
23.
Under the same consuls the death of Asinius Gallus was made public. There can be no doubt that he died of starvation, but cannot be said for certain whether he died of his own will or coerced. Tiberius, on being asked if he would allow his burial, did not show any embarrassment that such permission should be applied for, and even complained that death had removed the defendant before his guilt could be exposed before himself, another way of saying that the space of three years had not been sufficient to bring an aged ex-consul and the father of consular men to trial. Then Drusus died, after sustaining life by chewing the padding of the mattress, dreadful sustenance on which he lingered for more than eight days. Some writers have asserted that Macro had received orders, in case Sejanus would have initiated a revolt, to free the young man from detention on the Palatine hill and to place him at the head of the people. Soon later, the rumor gaining strength that Caesar was about to reconcile himself with his daughter-in-law and with her son, he chose to remain implacable rather than relent.
XXIV.
Quin et invectus in defunctum probra corporis, exitiabilem in suos, infensum rei publicae animum obiecit recitarique factorum dictorumque eius descripta per dies iussit, quo non aliud atrocius visum: adstitisse tot per annos, qui vultum, gemitus, occultum etiam murmur exciperent, et potuisse avum audire, legere, in publicum promere vix fides, nisi quod Attii centurionis et Didymi liberti epistulae servorum nomina praeferebant, ut quis egredientem cubiculo Drusum pulsaverat, exterruerat. etiam sua verba centurio saevitiae plena, tamquam egregium, vocesque deficientis adiecerat, quis primo [alienationem mentis simulans] quasi per dementiam funesta Tiberio, mox, ubi exspes vitae fuit, meditatas compositasque diras imprecabatur, ut, quem ad modum nurum filiumque fratris et nepotes domumque omnem caedibus complevisset, ita poenas nomini generique maiorum et posteris exolveret. obturbabant quidem patres specie detestandi: sed penetrabat pavor et admiratio, callidum olim et tegendis sceleribus obscurum huc confidentiae venisse ut tamquam dimotis parietibus ostenderet nepotem sub verbere centurionis, inter servorum ictus extrema vitae alimenta frustra orantem.
24.
Even after Drusus’ death he dogged him with accusations of monstruous depravities, of nursing murderous sentiments against the family and of treasonable designs against the state. Tiberius’ injunction to have a daily record kept of each of Drusus’ actions and words, while he lived, seemed the ultimate cruelty. It was nearly impossible to believe that for years spies had been placed near Drusus for the purpose of registering every look and every moan, even his most secret mumblings, and that his grandfather would hear, read, and make public everything for the whole world to know, had not the centurion Attius and the ex-slave Didymus set down in their reports even the names of the slaves who had pushed Drusus back and threatened him if he ever tried to leave his room. The centurion even boasted of the offensive language and brutality he himself had used, as if such conduct were praiseworthy. Duly noted were also the expressions of despair the enfeebled man had given voice to against Tiberius, at first as in a delirium, pretending insanity, then, having lost all hopes of life, the deliberate, conscious maledictions, the dire wish that, just as Tiberius had driven his daughter-in-law, the son of his brother, and his own grandchildren to ruin and filled his own house with murders, so he would also meet the retribution that was owed to the dignity and grandeur of his ancestors and to his descendants. The senate members, forced to hear such dreadful vows, of course loudly protested, shamming indignation, but what in fact disturbed and worried them was that a man, once so cunningly given to secretly concealing his crimes, had arrived at such a degree of shamelessness as to remove, in a manner of speaking, the very walls of the prison to show his grandson being corrected by a cudgel-yielding centurion, beaten by slaves, and vainly imploring a little food to sustain his last hours of life.
XXV.
Nondum is dolor exoleverat, cum de Agrippina auditum, quam interfecto Seiano spe sustentatam provixisse reor, et postquam nihil de saevitia remittebatur, voluntate extinctam, nisi si negatis alimentis adsimulatus est finis qui videretur sponte sumptus. enimvero Tiberius foedissimis criminationibus exarsit, impudicitiam arguens et Asinium Gallum adulterum, eiusque morte ad taedium vitae compulsam. sed Agrippina aequi impatiens, dominandi avida, virilibus curis feminarum vitia exuerat. eodem die defunctam, quo biennio ante Seianus poenas luisset, memoriaeque id prodendum addidit Caesar iactavitque quod non laqueo strangulata neque in Gemonias proiecta foret. actae ob id grates decretumque ut quintum decimum kal. Novembris, utriusque necis die, per omnis annos donum Iovi sacraretur.
25.
This tragic event was still much on people’s minds when news arrived that Agrippina had died. I am inclined to think that after the death of Sejanus she continued to live sustained by hope, then, faced with the implacable enmity of Tiberius, had left herself die, unless she was starved to simulate a death that was generally believed to be voluntary. Certain it is that there was a burst of violent invective on Tiberius’ part, who denounced her as a lascivious woman who had Asinius Gallus as a lover and was led to hate life because of his death. Yet, Agrippina, who could not suffer equals and had a domineering temper, had discarded woman’s weaknesses and embraced men’s passions. She died on the same day on which, two years earlier, Sejanus had been executed, a fact that should be transmitted to posterity, Tiberius said, who claimed credit for not having either strangled Agrippina and thrown her down the Gemonian steps. For this the senate voted him thanks and it was decreed that on the 18th of October, the date on which both had died, a gift would be offered to Jupiter.
XXVI.
Haud multo post Cocceius Nerva, continuus principi, omnis divini humanique iuris sciens, integro statu, corpore inlaeso, moriendi consilium cepit. quod ut Tiberio cognitum, adsidere, causas requirere, addere preces, fateri postremo grave conscientiae, grave famae suae, si proximus amicorum nullis moriendi rationibus vitam fugeret. aversatus sermonem Nerva abstinentiam cibi coniunxit. ferebant gnari cogitationum eius, quanto propius mala rei publicae viseret, ira et metu, dum integer, dum intemptatus, honestum finem voluisse. Ceterum Agrippinae pernicies, quod vix credibile, Plancinam traxit. nupta olim Cn. Pisoni et palam laeta morte Germanici, cum Piso caderet, precibus Augustae nec minus inimicitiis Agrippinae defensa erat. ut odium et gratia desiere, ius valuit; petitaque criminibus haud ignotis sua manu sera magis quam immerita supplicia persolvit.
26.
Soon after, Cocceius Nerva, Tiberius’ inseparable companion, a man deeply versed in law, both human and divine, enjoying unassailable good fortune and sound health, decided to die. Informed of such design, Tiberius stayed by his side trying to understand his motives, imploring him to change his mind, and in the end confessing that his death would be a heavy blow to his own self-esteem and reputation, if his most intimate friend, without any reason, chose to abandon life. Nerva would not answer and continued to refuse nourishment. Those who knew him well said that, being able to see more clearly than anyone the maladies of the empire, he had opted, either in anger or in fear, for a dignified exit while his honor was still intact and untainted by accusations. On a different note, though it seems hardly credible, Agrippina’s downfall dragged Plancina down as well. Once the wife of Gnaeus Piso and openly rejoicing over Germanicus’ death, after Piso’s suicide she was protected by Augusta’s good offices and not less by Agrippina’s enmity. As soon as her friend and her enemy had passed away, justice took its course. Indicted for crimes well known to the world, she meted out to herself a death that was both merited and overdue.
XXVII.
Tot luctibus funesta civitate pars maeroris fuit quod Iulia Drusi filia, quondam Neronis uxor, denupsit in domum Rubellii Blandi, cuius avum Tiburtem equitem Romanum plerique meminerant. extremo anni mors Aelii Lamiae funere censorio celebrata, qui administrandae Syriae imagine tandem exolutus urbi praefuerat. genus illi decorum, vivida senectus; et non permissa provincia dignationem addiderat. exim Flacco Pomponio Syriae pro praetore defuncto recitantur Caesaris litterae, quis incusabat egregium quemque et regendis exercitibus idoneum abnuere id munus seque ea necessitudine ad preces cogi per quas consularium aliqui capessere provincias adigerentur, oblitus Arruntium ne in Hispaniam pergeret decimum iam annum attineri. obiit eodem anno et M’. Lepidus de cuius moderatione atque sapientia in prioribus libris satis conlocavi. neque nobilitas diutius demonstranda est: quippe Aemilium genus fecundum bonorum civium, et qui eadem familia corruptis moribus, inlustri tamen fortuna egere.
27.
In a city in mourning on account of so many deaths, an event contributing to the general sadness was the marriage of Julia, the daughter of Drusus and the first wife of Nero. She remarried into the [humble] family of Rubellus Blandus, whose grandfather many remembered as nothing more than a Roman knight from Tibur. The death of Aemilius Lamia towards the end of the year was honored with a state funeral. When he was finally exempted from carrying on the semblance of being the governor of Syria, he had become the prefect of Rome. He came of a noble family and though on in years he was an energetic man. The fact of not being allowed to enter his province added much to his renown. Afterwards, when Pomponius Flaccus, the propraetorian governor of Syria, [who had succeeded Lamia], died, a message from Tiberius was read in the senate, in which he fretted that the men capable and suitable for military command declined such posts and added that entreaties were required to convince some of the ex-consuls to accept a province. He had obviously forgotten Arruntius, who had then been kept in Rome for ten years, to prevent him from going to Spain. In the same year Marcus Lepidus also died. His fairness and sagacity I have mentioned often enough in the preceding books. His noble descent needs no demonstration, since the Aemilian gens has given the country many good citizens and even its members of questionable morals have yet made their way with success.
XXVIII.
Paulo Fabio L. Vitellio consulibus post longum saeculorum ambitum avis phoenix in Aegyptum venit praebuitque materiem doctissimis indigenarum et Graecorum multa super eo miraculo disserendi. de quibus congruunt et plura ambigua, sed cognitu non absurda promere libet. sacrum Soli id animal et ore ac distinctu pinnarum a ceteris avibus diversum consentiunt qui formam eius effinxere: de numero annorum varia traduntur. maxime vulgatum quingentorum spatium: sunt qui adseverent mille quadringentos sexaginta unum interici, prioresque alites Sesoside primum, post Amaside dominantibus, dein Ptolemaeo, qui ex Macedonibus tertius regnavit, in civitatem cui Heliopolis nomen advolavisse, multo ceterarum volucrum comitatu novam faciem mirantium. sed antiquitas quidem obscura: inter Ptolemaeum ac Tiberium minus ducenti quinquaginta anni fuerunt. unde non nulli falsum hunc phoenicem neque Arabum e terris credidere, nihilque usurpavisse ex his quae vetus memoria firmavit. confecto quippe annorum numero, ubi mors propinquet, suis in terris struere nidum eique vim genitalem adfundere ex qua fetum oriri; et primam adulto curam sepeliendi patris, neque id temere sed sublato murrae pondere temptatoque per longum iter, ubi par oneri, par meatui sit, subire patrium corpus inque Solis aram perferre atque adolere. haec incerta et fabulosis aucta: ceterum aspici aliquando in Aegypto eam volucrem non ambigitur.
28.
In the consulate of Paulus Fabius and Lucius Vitellius, after a period of many centuries, the phoenix reappeared in Egypt, lending material for unending debate about the prodigious bird to the most learned of that country and of Greece. I propose to give here the facts on which they are in agreement and many that are ambiguous, but still worthy of consideration. The animal is sacred to the Sun and differs from other birds by the shape of the head and the colors of its feathers. On this there is consensus among those who have described it. As to its lifespan, opinion varies: the commonest view is five hundred years, but some contend that it reappears every one thousand four hundred and sixty-one years and that its last three appearances were so spread that the first occurred in the reign of Sesosis, the second in that of Amasis, and the last in that of Ptolemy, who ruled as the third of the Macedonian kings. All three times, they say, the bird flew to the city named Heliopolis, escorted by a multitude of other kinds of birds, all gazing in wonderment at the unfamiliar creature. Perhaps the bird’s early visits, dating back to an obscure past, may not be reliable, since the interval between Ptolemy and Tiberius is less than two hundred and fifty years. Some believe that the bird sighted was a false phoenix that had not flown in from Arabia and had none of the behavioral peculiarities that ancient tradition attributes to the real phoenix. In fact, at the completion of its cycle of years, the phoenix builds a nest in its native land and infuses it with a vital force from which springs a new bird. The first task upon reaching full growth is the burial of the parent, one not performed casually, but by first lifting a load of myrrh and testing its own endurance in a long flight. Once it is sure of its abilities to carry the weight and to last the voyage, it takes the body upon itself, flies to the altar of the Sun and burns it. All this is anything but certain, enriched as it is by the flavor of legend. There is, however, a foundation of truth, in that such a bird does appear from time to time in Egypt.
XXIX.
At Romae caede continua Pomponius Labeo, quem praefuisse Moesiae rettuli, per abruptas venas sanguinem effudit; aemulataque est coniunx Paxaea. nam promptas eius modi mortes metus carnificis faciebat, et quia damnati publicatis bonis sepultura prohibebantur, eorum qui de se statuebant humabantur corpora, manebant testamenta, pretium festinandi. sed Caesar missis ad senatum litteris disseruit morem fuisse maioribus, quoties dirimerent amicitias, interdicere domo eumque finem gratiae ponere: id se repetivisse in Labeone, atque illum, quia male administratae provinciae aliorumque criminum urgebatur, culpam invidia velavisse, frustra conterrita uxore, quam etsi nocentem periculi tamen expertem fuisse. Mamercus dein Scaurus rursum postulatur, insignis nobilitate et orandis causis, vita probrosus. nihil hunc amicitia Seiani, sed labefecit haud minus validum ad exitia Macronis odium, qui easdem artes occultius exercebat detuleratque argumentum tragoediae a Scauro scriptae, additis versibus qui in Tiberium flecterentur: verum ab Servilio et Cornelio accusatoribus adulterium Liviae, magorum sacra obiectabantur. Scaurus, ut dignum veteribus Aemiliis, damnationem antiit, hortante Sextia uxore, quae incitamentum mortis et particeps fuit.
29.
In the city, in the meantime, there was no respite in the killings. Pomponius Labeo, the governor of Moesia, as I mentioned earlier, drained his blood by cutting his veins and his wife Paxaea followed his example. What encouraged this kind of death was first horror of the hangman and then the fact that convicted men were denied burial in addition to the confiscation of their estate. Those who chose to end their lives secured the right to a proper funeral and after death the observance of their final decisions, a sort of recompense for their grim alacrity. But Tiberius, in a letter to the senate, wrote that it was the practice of our ancestors, whenever they wanted to terminate a relationship, to bar the doors of their house to the person no longer welcome, thereby ending the friendship. He said he had availed himself of the same custom in the case of Labeo, who, fearing accusations of mismanagement of his province and of other crimes, had escaped responsibility by ascribing the blame for his death to the emperor’s cruelty and unnecessarily frightening his wife, who had nothing to fear, though by no means innocent. Next, Mamercus Scaurus was again indicted. What drove this distinguished but dissolute aristocrat and gifted forensic debater to his ruin was not the friendship of Sejanus, but the hatred of Macro, an even more devious practitioner of the same arts. He had denounced the story line of a tragedy written by Scaurus and pointed to the verses that might be construed as referring to Tiberius. Yet, the actual charges brought by the accusers Servilius and Cornelius had to do with Scaurus’ alleged adultery with Livia and with magical practices. The accused, with an act worthy of the ancient members of the Aemilian gens, anticipated the verdict, on the advice of his wife Sextia, who elected to join him in death.
XXX.
Ac tamen accusatores, si facultas incideret, poenis adficiebantur, ut Servilius Corneliusque perdito Scauro famosi, quia pecuniam a Vario Ligure omittendae delationis ceperant, in insulas interdicto igni atque aqua demoti sunt. et Abudius Ruso functus aedilitate, dum Lentulo Gaetulico, sub quo legioni praefuerat, periculum facessit quod is Seiani filium generum destinasset, ultro damnatur atque urbe exigitur. Gaetulicus ea tempestate superioris Germaniae legiones curabat mirumque amorem adsecutus erat, effusae clementiae, modicus severitate et proximo quoque exercitui per L. Apronium socerum non ingratus. unde fama constans ausum mittere ad Caesarem litteras, adfinitatem sibi cum Seiano haud sponte sed consilio Tiberii coeptam; perinde se quam Tiberium falli potuisse, neque errorem eundem illi sine fraude, aliis exitio habendum. sibi fidem integram et, si nullis insidiis peteretur, mansuram; successorem non aliter quam indicium mortis accepturum. firmarent velut foedus, quo princeps ceterarum rerum poteretur, ipse provinciam retineret. haec, mira quamquam, fidem ex eo trahebant quod unus omnium Seiani adfinium incolumis multaque gratia mansit, reputante Tiberio publicum sibi odium, extremam aetatem magisque fama quam vi stare res suas.
30.
Nevertheless, if circumstances were favorable, the informers themselves were punished. A case in point was that of Servilius and Cornelius, notorious in the wake of Scaurus’ incrimination, who were banished to some islands for accepting money from Varius Ligur in exchange for withdrawing their accusations against him. Furthermore, Abudius Ruso, an ex-aedile, was condemned for attempting to ruin Lentulus Gaetulicus, under whom he had served as legion commander, asserting that Gaetulicus had chosen as son-in-law one of Sejanus’ sons. The prosecution failed and Ruso was himself condemned and banished from Rome. Gaetulicus was then at the head of the army of Upper Germany and was uncommonly popular with the troops, being a man of blameless civility, moderate severity, and a favorite even with the neighboring army led by his father-in-law Lucius Apronius. From here, the rumor originated of a daring letter written by Gaetulicus to Tiberius, wherein he submitted that, if he had entered into an alliance with Sejanus, it was not on his own initiative, but at the suggestion of the emperor himself and that he could be deceived as well as he. The same error could not be without consequences for one and the cause of ruin for another. His loyalty, unimpeachable until then, would remain so forever, unless he was conspired against. If he were to be replaced, he would interpret it as a death sentence. He concluded by proposing a compact: that Tiberius would rule everywhere else and he, Gaetulicus, would retain the governorship of the province. This account, incredible as it might appear, is corroborated by the fact that Gaetulicus alone, of all Sejanus’ relatives conserved both life and great favor. Tiberius must have reflected that, old and hated as he was, his power rested more on the authority of the office he held, than on any real strength of his own.