Tiberius (Suetonius)

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	Tiberius Author: Suetonius	Translator: Alexander Thomson
43	secessu uero Caprensi etiam sellaria excogitauit , sedem arcanarum libidinum , in quam undique conquisiti puellarum et exoletorum greges monstrosique concubitus repertores , quos spintrias appellabat , triplici serie conexi , in uicem incestarent coram ipso , ut aspectu deficientis libidines excitaret . cubicula plurifariam disposita tabellis ac sigillis lasciuissimarum picturarum et figurarum adornauit librisque Elephantidis instruxit , ne cui in opera edenda exemplar imperatae schemae deesset . in siluis quoque ac nemoribus passim Venerios locos commentus est prostantisque per antra et cauas rupes ex utriusque sexus pube Paniscorum et Nympharum habitu , quae palam iam et uulgo nomine insulae abutentes ' Caprineum ' dictitabant .	In his retreat at Capri, he also contrived an apartment containing couches, and adapted to the secret practice of lewdness, where he entertained companies of disreputable girls. He had several chambers set round with pictures and statues in the most suggestive attitudes, and furnished with the books of Elephantis, that none might want a pattern for the execution of any project that was prescribed him. He likewise contrived recesses in woods and groves for the gratification of young persons of both sexes, in caves and hollow rocks. So that he was publicly and commonly called, by an abuse of the name of the island, Caprineus.
44	Maiore adhuc ac turpiore infamia flagrauit , uix ut referri audiriue , nedum credi fas sit , quasi pueros primae teneritudinis , quos pisciculos uocabat , institueret , ut natanti sibi inter femina uersarentur ac luderent lingua morsuque sensim adpetentes ; atque etiam quasi infantes firmiores , necdum tamen lacte depulsos , inguini ceu papillae admoueret , pronior sane ad id genus libidinis et natura et aetate . quare Parrasi quoque tabulam , in qua Meleagro Atalanta ore morigeratur , legatam sibi sub condicione , ut si argumento offenderetur decies pro ea sestertium acciperet , non modo praetulit , sed et in cubiculo dedicauit . fertur etiam in sacrificando quondam captus facie ministri acerram praeferentis nequisse abstinere , quin paene uixdum re diuina peracta ibidem statim seductum constupraret simulque fratrem eius tibicinem ; atque utrique mox , quod mutuo flagitium exprobrarant , crura fregisse .	But he was still more infamous, if possible, for an abomination not fit to be mentioned or heard, much less credited. When a picture, painted by Parrhasius, in which the artist had represented Atalanta in the act of submitting to Meleager's lust in the most unnatural way, was bequeathed to him, with this proviso, that if the subject was offensive to him, he might receive in lieu of it a million sesterces, he not only chose the picture, but hung it up in his bed-chamber.
45	feminarum quoque , et quidem illustrium , capitibus quanto opere solitus sit inludere , euidentissime apparuit Malloniae cuiusdam exitu , quam perductam nec quicquam amplius pati constantissime recusantem delatoribus obiecit ac ne ream quidem interpellare desiit , ' ecquid paeniteret '; donec ea relicto iudicio domum se abripuit ferroque transegit , obscaenitate oris hirsuto atque olido seni clare exprobrata . unde mora in Atellanico exhodio proximis ludis adsensu maximo excepta percrebruit , ' hircum uetulum capreis naturam ligurire .'	How much he was guilty of a most foul intercourse with women even of the first quality, appeared very plainly by the death of one Mallonia, who, being brought to his bed, but resolutely refusing to comply with his lust, he gave her up to the common informers. Even when she was upon her trial, he frequently called out to her, and asked her, "Do you repent?" until she, quitting the court, went home, and stabbed herself; openly upbraiding the vile old lecher for his gross obscenity; hence there was an allusion to him in a farce, which was acted at the next public sports, and was received with great applause, and became a common topic of ridicule: that the old goat
46	Pecuniae parcus ac tenax comites peregrinationum expeditionumque numquam salario , cibariis tantum sustentauit , una modo liberalitate ex indulgentia uitrici prosecutus , cum tribus classibus factis pro dignitate cuiusque , primae sescenta sestertia , secundae quadringenta distribuit , ducenta tertiae , quam non amicorum sed Graecorum appellabat .	He was so niggardly and covetous, that he never allowed to his attendants, in his travels and expeditions, any salary, but their diet only. Once, indeed, he treated them liberally, at the instigation of his step-father, when, dividing them into three classes, according to their rank, he gave the first six, the second four, and the third two, hundred thousand sesterces, which last class he called not friends, but Greeks.
47	Princeps neque opera ulla magnifica fecit — nam et quae sola susceperat , Augusti templum restitutionemque Pompeiani theatri , imperfecta post tot annos reliquit — neque spectacula omnino edidit ; et iis , quae ab aliquo ederentur , rarissime interfuit , ne quid exposceretur , utique postquam comoedum Actium coactus est manumittere . paucorum senatorum inopia sustentata , ne pluribus opem ferret , negauit se aliis subuenturum , nisi senatui iustas necessitatium causas probassent . quo pacto plerosque modestia et pudore deterruit , in quibus Hortalum , Quinti Hortensi oratoris nepotem , qui permodica re familiari auctore Augusto quattuor liberos tulerat .	During the whole time of his government, he never erected any noble edifice; for the only things he did undertake, namely, building the temple of Augustus, and restoring Pompey's Theatre, he left at last, after many years, unfinished. Nor did he ever entertain the people with public spectacles; and he was seldom present at those which were given by others, lest any thing of that kind should be requested of him; especially after he was obliged to give freedom to the comedian Actius. Having relieved the poverty of a few senators, to avoid further demands, he declared that he should for the future assist none, but those who gave the senate full satisfaction as to the cause of their necessity. Upon this, most of the needy senators, from modesty and shame, declined troubling him. Amongst these was Hortalus, grandson to the celebrated orator Quintus Hortensius, who [marrying], by the persuasion of Augustus, had brought up four children upon a very small estate.
48	Publice munificentiam bis omnino exhibuit , pro posito milies sestertium gratuito in trienni tempus et rursus quibusdam dominis insularum , quae in monte Caelio deflagrarant , pretio restituto . quorum alterum magna difficultate nummaria populo auxilium flagitante coactus est facere , cum per senatus consultum sanxisset , ut faeneratores duas patrimonii partes in solo collocarent , debitores totidem aeris alieni statim soluerent , nec res expediretur ; alterum ad mitigandam temporum atrocitatem . quod tamen beneficium tanti aestimauit , ut montem Caelium appellatione mutata uocari Augustum iusserit . militi post duplicata ex Augusti testamento legata nihil umquam largitus est , praeterquam singula milia denariorum praetorianis , quod Seiano se non accommodassent , et quaedam munera Syriacis legionibus , quod solae nullam Seiani imaginem inter signa coluissent . atque etiam missiones ueteranorum rarissimas fecit , ex senio mortem , ex morte compendium captans . ne prouincias quidem liberalitate ulla subleuauit , excepta Asia , disiectis terrae motu ciuitatibus .	He displayed only two instances of public munificence. One was an offer to lend gratis, for three years, a hundred millions of sesterces to those who wanted to borrow; and the other, when, some large houses being burnt down upon Mount Coelius, he indemnified the owners. To the former of these he was compelled by the clamours of the people, in a great scarcity of money, when he had ratified a decree of the senate obliging all money-lenders to advance two-thirds of their capital on land, and the debtors to pay off at once the same proportion of their debts, and it was found insufficient to remedy the grievance. The other he did to alleviate in some degree the pressure of the times. But his benefaction to the sufferers by fire, he estimated at so high a rate, that he ordered the Coelian Hill to be called, in future, the Augustan. To the soldiery, after doubling the legacy left them by Augustus, he never gave any thing, except a thousand denarii a man to the pretorian guards, for not joining the party of Sejanus; and some presents to the legions in Syria, because they alone had not paid reverence to the effigies of Sejanus among their standards. He seldom gave discharges to the veteran soldiers, calculating on their deaths from advanced age, and on what would be saved by thus getting rid of them, in the way of rewards or pensions. Nor did he ever relieve the provinces by any act of generosity, excepting Asia, where some cities had been destroyed by an earthquake.
49	Procedente mox tempore etiam ad rapinas conuertit animum . satis constat , Cn . Lentulum Augurem , cui census maximus fuerit , metu et angore ad fastidium uitae ab eo actum et ut ne quo nisi ipso herede moreretur ; condemnatam et generosissimam feminam Lepidam in gratiam Quirini consularis praediuitis et orbi , qui dimissam eam e matrimonio post uicensimum annum ueneni olim in se comparati arguebat ; praeterea Galliarum et Hispaniarum Syriaeque et Graeciae principes confiscatos ob tam leue ac tam inpudens calumniarum genus , ut quibusdam non aliud sit obiectum , quam quod partem rei familiaris in pecunia haberent ; plurimis etiam ciuitatibus et priuatis ueteres immunitates et ius metallorum ac uectigalium adempta ; sed et Vononem regem Parthorum , qui pulsus a suis quasi in fidem p . R . cum ingenti gaza Antiochiam se receperat . spoliatum perfidia et occisum .	In the course of a very short time, he turned his mind to sheer robbery. It is certain that Cneius Lentulus, the augur, a man of vast estate, was so terrified and worried by his threats and importunities, that he was obliged to make him his heir; and that Lepida, a lady of a very noble family, was condemned by him, in order to gratify Quirinus, a man of consular rank, extremely rich, and childless, who had divorced her twenty years before, and now charged her with an old design to poison him. Several persons, likewise, of the first distinction in Gaul, Spain, Syria, and Greece, had their estates confiscated upon such despicably trifling and shameless pretences, that against some of them no other charge was preferred, than that they held large sums of ready money as part of their property. Old immunities, the rights of mining, and of levying tolls, were taken from several cities and private persons. And Vonones, king of the Parthians, who had been driven out of his dominions by his own subjects, and fled to Antioch with a vast treasure, claiming the protection of the Roman people, his allies, was treacherously robbed of all his money, and afterwards murdered.
50	Odium aduersus necessitudines in Druso primum fratre detexit , prodita eius epistula , qua secum de cogendo ad restituendam libertatem Augusto agebat , deinde et in reliquis . Iuliae uxori tantum afuit ut relegatae , quod minimum est , offici aut humanitatis aliquid impertiret , ut ex constitutione patris uno oppido clausam domo quoque egredi et commercio hominum frui uetuerit ; sed et peculio concesso a patre praebitisque annuis fraudauit , per speciem publici iuris , quod nihil de his Augustus testamento cauisset . matrem Liuiam grauatus uelut partes sibi aequas potentiae uindicantem , et congressum eius assiduum uitauit et longiores secretioresque sermones , ne consiliis , quibus tamen interdum et egere et uti solebat , regi uideretur . tulit etiam perindigne actum in senatu , ut titulis suis quasi Augusti , ita et ' Liuiae filius ' adiceretur . quare non ' parentem patriae ' appellari , non ullum insignem honorem recipere publice passus est ; sed et frequenter admonuit , maioribus nec feminae conuenientibus negotiis abstineret , praecipue ut animaduertit incendio iuxta aedem Vestae et ipsam interuenisse populumque et milites , quo enixius opem ferrent , adhortatam , sicut sub marito solita esset .	He first manifested hatred towards his own relations in the case of his brother Drusus, betraying him by the production of a letter to himself, in which Drusus proposed that Augustus should be forced to restore the public liberty. In course of time, he shewed the same disposition with regard to the rest of his family. So far was he from performing any office of kindness or humanity to his wife, when she was banished, and, by her father's order, confined to one town, that he forbad her to stir out of the house, or converse with any men. He even wronged her of the dowry given her by her father, and her yearly allowance, by a quibble of law, because Augustus had made no provision for them on her behalf in his will. Being harassed by his mother, Livia, who claimed an equal share in the government with him, he frequently avoided seeing her, and all long and private conferences with her, lest it should be thought that he was governed by her counsels, which, notwithstanding, he sometimes sought, and was in the habit of adopting. He was much offended at the senate, when they proposed to add to his other titles that of the Son of Livia, as well as Augustus. He, therefore, would not suffer her to be called " the Mother of her country," nor to receive any extraordinary public distinction. Nay, he frequently admonished her " not to meddle with weighty affairs, and such as did not suit her sex;" especially when he found her present at a fire which broke out near the Temple of Vesta, and encouraging the people and soldiers to use their utmost exertions, as she had been used to do in the time of her husband.
51	dehinc ad simultatem usque processit hac , ut ferunt , de causa . instanti saepius , ut ciuitate donatum in decurias adlegeret , negauit alia se condicione adlecturum , quam si pateretur ascribi albo extortum id sibi a matre . at illa commota ueteres quosdam ad se Augusti codicillos de acerbitate et intolerantia morum eius e sacrario protulit atque recitauit . hos et custoditos tam diu et exprobratos tam infeste adeo grauiter tulit , ut quidam putent inter causas secessus hanc ei uel praecipuam fuisse . toto quidem triennio , quo uiuente matre afuit , semel omnino eam nec amplius quam uno die paucissimis uidit horis ; ac mox neque aegrae adesse curauit defunctamque et , dum aduentus sui spem facit , complurium dierum mora corrupto demum et tabido corpore funeratam prohibuit consecrari , quasi id ipsa mandasset . testamentum quoque eius pro irrito habuit omnisque amicitias et familiaritates , etiam quibus ea funeris sui curam moriens demandauerat , intra breue tempus afflixit , uno ex iis , equestris ordinis uiro , et in antliam condemnato .	He afterwards proceeded to an open rupture with her, and, as is said, upon this occasion. She having frequently urged him to place among the judges a person who had been made free of the, city, he refused her request, unless she would allow it to be inscribed on the roll, "That the appointment had been extorted from him by his mother." Enraged at this, Livia brought forth from her chapel some letters from Augustus to her, complaining of the sourness and insolence of Tiberius's temper, and these she read. So much was he offended at these letters having been kept so long, and now produced with so much bitterness against him, that some considered this incident as one of the causes of his going into seclusion, if not the principal reason for so doing. In the whole years he lived during his retirement, he saw her but once, and that for a few hours only. When she fell sick shortly afterwards, he was quite unconcerned about visiting her in her illness; and when she died, after promising to attend her funeral, he deferred his coming for several days, so that the corpse was in a state of decay and putrefaction before die interment; and he then forbad divine honours being paid to her, pretending that he acted according to her own directions. He likewise annulled her will, and in a short time ruined all her friends and acquaintance; not even sparing those to whom, on her death-bed, she had recommended the care of her funeral, but condemning one of them, a man of equestrian rank, to the tread-mill.
52	Filiorum neque naturalem Drusum neque adoptiuum Germanicum patria caritate dilexit , alterius uitiis infensus . nam Drusus fluxioris remissiorisque uitae erat . itaque ne mortuo quidem perinde adfectus est , sed tantum non statim a funere ad negotiorum consuetudinem rediit iustitio longiore inhibito . quin et Iliensium legatis paulo serius consolantibus , quasi obliterata iam doloris memoria , irridens se quoque respondit uicem eorum dolere , quod egregium ciuem Hectorem amisissent . Germanico usque adeo obtrectauit , ut et praeclara facta eius pro superuacuis eleuarit et gloriosissimas uictorias ceu damnosas rei p . increparet . quod uero Alexandream propter immensam et repentinam famem inconsulto se adisset , questus est in senatu . etiam causa mortis fuisse ei per Cn . Pisonem legatum Syriae creditur , quem mox huius criminis reum putant quidam mandata prolaturum , nisi ea secreto ostentant quae multifariam inscriptum et per noctes celeberrime adclamatum est : ' redde Germanicum !' quam suspicionem confirmauit ipse postea coniuge etiam ac liberis Germanici crudelem in modum afflictis .	He entertained no paternal affection either for his own son Drusus, or his adopted son Germanicus. Offended at the vices of the former, who was of a loose disposition and led a dissolute life, he was not much affected at his death; but, almost immediately after the funeral, resumed his attention to business, and prevented the courts from being longer closed. The ambassadors from the people of Ilium coming rather late to offer their condolence, he said to them by way of banter, as if the affair had already faded from his memory, "And I heartily condole with you on the loss of your renowned countryman Hector." He so much affected to depreciate Germanicus, that he spoke of his achievements as utterly insignificant, and railed at his most glorious victories as ruinous to the state; complaining of him also to the senate for going to Alexandria without his knowledge, upon occasion of a great and sudden famine at Rome. It was believed that he took care to have him dispatched by Cneius Piso, his lieutenant in Syria. This person was afterwards tried for the murder, and would, as was supposed, have produced his orders, had they not been contained in a private and confidential dispatch. The follo-ring words therefore were posted up in many placez, and frequently shouted in the night: "Give us back our Germanicus." This suspicion was afterwards confirmed by the barbarous treatment of his wife and children.
53	Nurum Agrippinam post mariti mortem liberius quiddam questam manu apprehendit Graecoque uersu : ' si non dominaris ,' inquit , ' filiola , iniuriam te accipere existimas ?' nec ullo mox sermone dignatus est . quondam uero inter cenam porrecta a se poma gustare non ausam etiam uocare desiit , simulans ueneni se crimine accersi ; cum praestructum utrumque consulto esset , ut et ipse temptandi gratia offerret et illa quasi certissimum exitium caueret . nouissime calumniatus modo ad statuam Augusti modo ad exercitus confugere uelle , Pandatariam relegauit conuiciantique oculum per centurionem uerberibus excussit . rursus mori inedia destinanti per uim ore diducto infulciri cibum iussit . sed et perseuerantem atque ita absumptam criminosissime insectatus , cum diem quoque natalem eius inter nefastos referendum suasisset , imputauit etiam , quod non laqueo strangulatam in Gemonias abiecerit : proque tali clementia interponi decretum passus est , quo sibi gratiae agerentur et Capitolino Ioui donum ex auro sacraretur .	His daughter-in-law Agrippina, after the death of her husband, complaining upon some occasion with more than ordinary freedom, he took her by the hand, and addressed her in a Greek verse to this effect: "My dear child, do you think yourself injured, because you are not empress?" Nor did he ever vouchsafe to speak to her again. Upon her refusing once at supper to taste some fruit which he presented to her, he declined inviting her to his table, pretending that she in effect charged him with a design to poison her; whereas the whole was a contrivance of his own. He was to offer the fruit, and she to be privately cautioned against eating what would infallibly cause her death. At last, having her accused of intending to flee for refuge to the statue of Augustus, or to the army, he banished her to the island of Pandataria. Upon her reviling him for it, he caused a centurion to beat out one of her eyes; and when she resolved to starve herself to death, he ordered her mouth to be forced open, and meat to be crammed down her throat. But she persisting in her resolution, and dying soon afterwards, he persecuted her memory with the basest aspersions, and persuaded the senate to put her birth-day amongst the number of unlucky days in the calendar. He likewise took credit for not having caused her to be strangled and her body cast upon the Gemonian Steps, and suffered a decree of the senate to pass, thanking him for his clemency, and an offering of gold to be made to Jupiter Capitolinus on the occasion.
54	Cum ex Germanico tres nepotes , Neronem et Drusum et Gaium , ex Druso unum Tiberium haberet , destitutus morte liberorum maximos natu de Germanici filiis , Neronem et Drusum , patribus conscriptis commendauit diemque utriusque tirocinii congiario plebei dato celebrauit . sed ut comperit ineunte anno pro eorum quoque salute publice uota suscepta , egit cum senatu , non debere talia praemia tribui nisi expertis et aetate prouectis . atque ex eo patefacta interiore animi sui nota omnium criminationibus obnoxios reddidit uariaque fraude inductos , ut et concitarentur ad conuicia et concitati proderentur , accusauit per litteras amarissime congestis etiam probris et iudicatos hostis fame necauit , Neronem in insula Pontia , Drusum in ima parte Palatii . putant Neronem ad uoluntariam mortem coactum , cum ei carnifex quasi ex senatus auctoritate missus laqueos et uncos ostentaret , Druso autem adeo alimenta subducta , ut tomentum e culcita temptauerit mandere ; amborum sic reliquias dispersas , ut uix quandoque colligi possent .	He had by Germanicus three grandsons, Nero, Drusus, and Caius; and by his son Drusus one, named Tiberius. Of these, after the loss of his sons, he commended Nero and Drusus, the two eldest sons of Germanicus, to the senate; and at their being solemnly in troduced into the forum, distributed money among the people. But when he found that on entering upon the new year they were included in the public vows for his own welfare, he told the senate, " that such honours ought not to be conferred but upon those who had been proved, and were of more advanced years." By thus betraying his private feelings towards them,' he exposed them to all sorts of accusations; and after practising many artifices to provoke them to rail at and abuse him, that he might be furnished with a pretence to destroy them, he charged them with it in a letter to the senate: and at the same time accusing them, in the bitterest terms, of the most scandalous vices. Upon their being declared enemies by the senate, he starved them to death; Nero in the island of Ponza, and Drusus in the vaults of the Palatium. It is thought by some that Nero was driven to a voluntary death by the executioner's shewing him some halters and hooks, as if he had been sent to him by order of the senate. Drusus, it is said, was so rabid with hunger, that he attempted to eat the chaff with which his mattress was stuffed. The relics of both were so scattered, that it was with difficulty they were collected.
55	Super ueteres amicos ac familiares uiginti sibi e numero principum ciuitatis depoposcerat uelut consiliarios in negotiis publicis . horum omnium uix duos anne tres incolumis praestitit , ceteros alium alia de causa perculit , inter quos cum plurimorum clade Aelium Seianum ; quem ad summam potentiam non tam beniuolentia prouexerat , quam ut esset cuius ministerio ac fraudibus liberos Germanici circumueniret , nepotemque suum ex Druso filio naturalem ad successionem imperii confirmaret .	Besides his old friends and intimate acquaintance, he required the assistance of twenty of the most eminent persons in the city, as counsellors in the administration of public affairs. Out of all this number, scarcely two or three escaped the fury of his savage disposition. All the rest he destroyed upon one pretence or another; and among them AFlius Sejanus, whose fall was attended with the ruin of many others. He had advanced this minister to the highest pitch of grandeur, not so much from any real regard for him, as that by his base and sinister contrivances he might ruin the children of Germani cus, and thereby secure the succession to his own grandson by Drusus.
56	Nihilo lenior in conuictores Graeculos , quibus uel maxime adquiescebat , Xenonem quendam exquisitius sermocinantem cum interrogasset , quaenam illa tam molesta dialectos esset , et ille respondisset Doridem , relegauit Cinariam , existimans exprobratum sibi ueterem secessum , quod Dorice Rhodii loquantur . item cum soleret ex lectione cotidiana quaestiones super cenam proponere comperissetque Seleucum grammaticum a ministris suis perquirere , quos quoque tempore tractaret auctores , atque ita praeparatum uenire , primum a contubernio remouit , deinde etiam ad mortem compulit .	He treated with no greater leniency the Greeks in his family, even those with whom he was most pleased. Having asked one Zeno, upon his using some far-fetched phrases, "What uncouth dialect is that ?" he replied, " The Doric." For this answer he banished him to Cinara, suspecting that he taunted him with his former residence at Rhodes, where the Doric dialect is spoken. It being his custom to start questions at supper, arising out of what he had been reading in the day, and finding that Seleucus, the grammarian, used to inquire of his attendants what authors he was then studying, and so came prepared for his inquiries-he first turned him out of his family, and then drove him to the extremity of laying violent hands upon himself.