THE HISTORIANS OF ANCIENT ROME SECOND EDITION EDITED BY Ronald Mellor ROUTLEDGE New York and London 426 SUETONIUS [28 B.C.E.] between the Via Flaminia and the bank of the Tiber, and at the same time opened to the public the groves and walks by which it was sur­ rounded. 101. He had made a will in the consulship of Lucius Plancus and Gaius Silius on the third day before the Nones of April [April 3, 13 A.D.], a year TACITUS* and four months before he died, in two note-books, written in part in his own hand and in part in that of his freedmen Polybius and Hilarion. These the Vestal virgins, with whom they had been deposited, now produced, together with three rolls, which were sealed in the same way. All these were opened and read in the Senate. He appointed as his chief heirs Tiberius, to receive two-thirds of the estate, and Livia, one-third; these he also bade assume his name. His heirs in the second degree were Drusus, son of Tiberius, for one-third, and for the rest Germanicus and his three male chil­ dren. In the third grade he mentioned many of his relatives and friends. He left to the Roman people 40,000,000 sesterces; to the tribes 3,500,000; to the soldiers of the praetorian guard a 1,000 each; to the city cohorts 500; Life and to the legionaries 300. This sum he ordered to be paid at once, for he had always kept the amount at hand and ready for the purpose. He gave Cornelius Tacitus was born about 55 c.E. in southern Gaul to a highly other legacies to various individuals, some amounting to as much as 20,000 romanized family; his father was an imperial tax official. His outstanding sesterces, and provided for the payment of these a year later, giving as his oratoricalability, and his favorable marriage to the daughter of the Gallic excuse for the delay the small amount of his property, and declaring that senator Julius Agricola, allowed Tacitus to advance rapidly to high office not more than a 150,000,000 would come to his heirs; for though he had under the Flavian emperors.He waspraetor under Domitian, but withdrew received 1,400,000,000 during the last twenty years from the wills of his from Rome during the worstperiod of the emperor'sterror. After the assassi­ friends, he said that he had spent nearly all ,of it, as well as his two paternal nation of Domitian in 96, Tacitus served as consul for 97 and was on estates and his other inheritances, for the benefit of the State. He gave friendly terms with the emperorsNerva (96-98) and Trajan (98-n7 ). He orders that his daughter and his granddaughter Julia should not be put in probably died in n7. his Mausoleum, if anything befell them. In one of the three rolls he Tacitus'strong political views wereformed under Domitian, and it is the included directions for his funeral; in the second, an account of what he tyrant Domitian that we find projected back into the portrait of Tiberius. had accomplished, which he desired to have cut upon bronze tablets and Though the historian bemoans the loss of liberty and free speechunder the set up at the entrance to the Mausoleum; in the third, a summary of the emperors,he cannot be calleda "republican"since he well understoodthe dan­ condition of the whole empire; how many soldiers there were in active ser­ gers of civil war and would detest "mobrule" by the plebeians. vice in all parts of it, how much money there was in the public treasury His first books,the Agricola and the Germania, werepublished in 98 and and in the privy-purse, and what revenues were in arrears. He added, were trial runs for his great narrative histories. The Germania is an ethno­ besides, the names of the freedmen and slaves from whom the details could graphic and geographicmonograph which shows a certain admiration for be demanded. Rome'sGerman enemies. The book allows Tacitusto criticize the social and moral decline of his own day. With his Histories and Annals Tacitusbecame the greatesthistorian that Rome everproduced. He wrote history to pass moral and politicaljudgments on the past and therebyaffect thefature. In these books Tacituscreates a psy­ chologicalportrait of the tyrant and hisflatterers. The historianhas no interest in sociologicalor economicexplanations; he is concernedwith political life, the lossof liberty,and the pathologyof power. * The Worksof Tacitus.A.J. Church and W.J.Brodribb (London, 1886). 428 TACITUS Life of Agricola 429 Tacitus took the intense, asymmetricalstyle of Sallust and honed it to a banished the teachers of philosophy, and exiled every noble pursuit, that knife-edge.His wordsanalyze and reveal they do not conceal Though he draws nothing good might anywhere confront them. Certainly we showed a mag­ on suchpoets as Vergiland Lucan, the biting wit and devastatingepigrams are nificent example of patience; as a former age had witnessed the extreme of uniquely Tacitean.His rhetoricaltraining is obviousthroughout. Characteriza­ liberty, so we witnessed the extreme of servitude, when the informer robbed tions of tyrants,victims, and martyrsoften relyon descriptionsof type-characters us of the interchange of speech and hearing. We should have lost memory known ftom schoolexercises. But Tacitusgoes far beyondthis in his great, subtle as well as voice, had it been as easy to forget as to keep silence. portraits of Nero and Tiberius as well as the wonderful vignettes scattered 3. Now at last our spirit is returning. And yet, though at the dawn of through the books:Petronius, Galba, Messalina, and Agrippina. a most happy age Nerva Caesar blended things once irreconcilable, sover­ eignty and freedom, though Nerva Trajan is now daily augmenting the prosperity of the time, and though the public safety has not only our hopes and good wishes, but has also the certain pledge of their fulfillment, still, THE LIFE OF AGRICOLA from the necessary condition of human frailty, the remedy works less quickly than the disease. As our bodies grow but slowly, perish in a moment, The biography of Tacitus'father-in-law Agricola is a highly personal so it is easier to crush than to revive genius and its pursuits. Besides, the work. In addition to family eulogy, the apprentice historian includes charm of indolence steals over us, and the idleness which at first we loathed, material on the wars in Britain and an ethnography of that island. we afterwards love. What if during those fifteen years, a large portion of It also contains Tacitus' vivid recollections of the years of Domitian's human life, many were cut off by ordinary casualties, and the ablest fell tyranny between 8I and 96 C.E. victims to the Emperor's rage, if a few of us survive, I may almost say, not only others but ourselves, survive, though there have been taken from the 1. To bequeath to posterity a record of the deeds and characters of dis­ midst of life those many years which brought the young in dumb silence tinguished men is an ancient practice which even the present age, careless to old age, and the old almost to the very verge and end of existence! Yet as it is of its own sons, has not abandoned whenever some great and con­ we shall not regret that we have told, though in language unskillful and spicuous excellence has conquered and risen superior to that failing, unadorned, the story of past servitude, and borne our testimony to present common to petty and to great states, blindness and hostility to goodness. happiness. Meanwhile this book, intended to do honor to Agricola, my But in days gone by, as there was a greater inclination and a more open father-in-law, will, as an expression of filial regard, be commended, or at path to the achievement of memorable actions, so the man of highest least excused. genius was led by the simple reward of a good conscience to hand on 4. Cn. Julius Agricola was born at the ancient and famous colony of without partiality or self-seeking the remembrance of greatness. Many too Forum Julii. Each of his grandfathers was an Imperial procurator, that is, thought that to write their own lives showed the confidence of integrity of the highest equestrian rank. His father, Julius Graecinus, a member of rather than presumption. Of Rutilius and Scaurus no one doubted the hon­ the Senatorial order, and distinguished for his pursuit of eloquence and phi­ esty or questioned the motives. So true is it that merit is best appreciated losophy, earned for himself by these very merits the displeasure of by the age in which it thrives most easily. But in these days, I, who have to C. Caesar. He was ordered to impeach Marcus Silanus, and because he record the life of one who has passed away, must crave an indulgence, which refused was put to death. His mother was Julia Procilla, a lady of singular I should not have had to ask had I only to inveigh against an age so cruel, virtue. Brought up by her side with fond affection, he passed his boyhood so hostile to all virtue. and youth in the cultivation of every worthy attainment. He was guarded 2. We have read that the panegyrics pronounced by Amlenus Rusticus from the enticements of the profligate not only by his own good and on Paetus Thrasea, and by Herennius Senecio on Priscus Helvidius, were straightforward character, but also by having, when quite a child, for the made capital crimes, that not only their persons but their very books were scene and guide of his studies, Massilia, a place where refinement and objects of rage, and that the triumvirs were commissioned to burn in the provincial frugality were blended and happily combined.