174
ACCESSION OF TIBEEIUS.
and thwarted the hopes which the Germans entertained in re-
gard to the results of their victory over Varus. On the 19th
of August, A.D. 19, Augustus died at Nola, whither Tiberius,
who was on his way to Illyricum, was hastily called back by a
messenger of his mother. Augustus had made a regular will,
in which he had appointed Tiberius the heir of two-thirds of
his property, whereas with his usual dissimulation he had made
no provision respecting the government, as if he had had
nothing to decide on that point. However, all the necessary
precautions had been taken to secure the succession to Tiberius,
and the praetorian cohorts were immediately called upon to
take their oath of allegiance to him. He was cautious in the
exercise of his tribunician authority, which was the symbol of
the highest power, and by which he could assemble the senate,
stop its proceedings and, in fact, exercise a complete command
over it. After the body of Augustus had been carried to Rome
and deposited in the Mausoleum, and Tiberius and his son
Drusus had delivered the funeral orations, there remained for
him but one more step to take, that is, to put himself in pos-
session of the sovereignty. He was now in his fifty-sixth year,
or at least at the close of the fifty-fifth. His conduct on that
occasion shews us at once that remarkable dissimulation and
cunning, which had been fostered by his fear of being plotted
against. He was not timid on the field of battle; but he
trembled at the thought of a secret enemy. He had by this
time acquired a perfect mastery in dissembling his lusts, and
his mistrust. He does not resemble Cromwell in other respects ;
but he was, like him, one of those characters who never express
their real sentiments, for fear of being betrayed, or of saying
more than they want to say. He was anxious to appear as a
moral man, while in secret he abandoned himself to lusts and
debaucheries of every kind. Fortunately such characters are
met with oftener in ordinary life than among men of power
and influence. In accordance with this character, Tiberius now
played the farce which is so admirably but painfully described
by Tacitus7: he declined accepting the imperium, and made
the senate beg and intreat him to accept it for the sake of the
public good. In the end Tiberius yielded, inasmuch as he
compelled the senate to oblige him to undertake the govern-
ment. This painful scene forms the beginning of Tacitus’ Annals.
7 Annal, i. 11, foil.
BEGINNING OE THE REIGN OF TIBERIUS.
175
The early part of his reign is marked by insurrections among
the troops in Pannonia and on the Ehine. Augustus had es-
tablished regular garrisons in fortified camps on the frontiers
of the empire, where the soldiers were stationed winter and
summer, until they were old men. After having been in a
legion for a certain number of years, they were to remain for a
time under the υexilla as a sort of reserve, and then they were
to become free. According to the system of Augustus, the old
legion was then broken up, the men received settlements as
military colonists, and a new legion was formed. This system
was a great hardship both for the provinces and the soldiers,
but was nevertheless admirable, inasmuch as it kept the men
always in a condition to fight; but they were a terror to the
provinces, which were plundered and ransacked by the officers
as well as by the soldiers. Now those legions had been obliged
to serve longer than the law required. This led them to break
out in an open rebellion, which is beautifully described by
Tacitus8, to whose work I refer you. Drusus quelled the in-
surrection in Illyricum, and Germanicus that on the Rhine;
but, notwithstanding this, it was in reality the government
that was obliged to yield. The soldiers obtained favourable
terms; the hardships of the service were lightened, and the
advantages which they were to have as reserves were secured
to them, although in after-times this last promise was often
violated; their leaders, however, were put to death.
LECTURE CXIL
The elections of magistrates had until then been held in the
ancient forms, although those proceedings were a mere farce :
but at the beginning of the reign of Tiberius they were trans-
ferred to the senate, which elected the candidates in perfect
conformity with the wishes of the sovereign ; and popular elec-
tions ceased altogether. This measure produced in reality so
little change, that Tacitus gives to it scarcely a passing tvord;
for the Roman people consisted of a small number of persons
8 Annal, i. 16, foil.