The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose Volume II - Rome Part 11

Forty thousand armed men had poured into it. The number of drudges and camp-followers was still greater, and more abandoned to l.u.s.t and cruelty. Neither age nor dignity served as a protection; deeds of l.u.s.t were perpetrated amidst scenes of carnage, and murder was added to rape. Aged men and women that had pa.s.sed their prime, and who were useless as booty, were made the objects of brutal sport. If a mature maiden, or any one of comely appearance, fell in their way, after being torn piecemeal by the rude hands of contending ruffians, they at last were the occasion of their turning their swords against each other. While eagerly carrying off money or ma.s.sy gold from the temples, they were butchered by others stronger than themselves. Not content with the treasures that lay open to their view, some forced the owners to discover their hidden wealth, and dig up their buried riches. Numbers carried flaming torches, and, as soon as they had brought forth their booty, in their wanton sport set the gutted houses and plundered temples on fire. In an army differing in language and manners, composed of Roman citizens, allies, and foreign auxiliaries, all the diversities of pa.s.sions were exhibited. Each had his separate notions of right and wrong; nor was anything unlawful. Four days did Cremona minister to their rapacity. When everything else, sacred and profane, was leveled in the conflagration, the temple of Memphitis alone remained standing, outside of the walls; saved either by its situation, or the influence of the deity.

Such was the fate of Cremona, two hundred and eighty-six years from its foundation. It was built during the consuls.h.i.+p of Tiberius Semp.r.o.nius and Publius Cornelius, at the time when Hannibal threatened an irruption into Italy, as a bulwark against the Gauls inhabiting beyond the Po, or any other power that might break in over the Alps.

The colony, as might be expected, grew and flourished in the number of its settlers, from the contiguity of rivers, the fertility of its soil, from alliances and intermarriages with the neighboring people; never having suffered from foreign wars, but a sad sufferer from civil dissensions. Antonius, shrinking from the infamy of this horrible transaction (for the detestation it excited was increasing), issued an edict forbidding all manner of persons to detain the citizens of Cremona as prisoners of war. At the same time the booty was rendered valueless by a resolution adopted throughout Italy, not to purchase the captives taken on that occasion. The soldiers then began to murder them. However, when this was known, the prisoners were eagerly ransomed by their friends and relations. The survivors in a short time returned to Cremona. The temples and public places were rebuilt, at the recommendation of Vespasian, by the munificence of the burgesses.

VII

AGRICOLA[132]

Cnaeus Julius Agricola was born at the ancient and ill.u.s.trious colony of Forum Julii. Both his grandfathers were imperial procurators, an office which confers the rank of equestrian n.o.bility. His father, Julius Graecinus, of the senatorian order, was famous for the study of eloquence and philosophy; and by these accomplishments he drew on himself the displeasure of Caius Caesar,[133] for, being commanded to undertake the accusation of Marcus Sila.n.u.s--on his refusal, he was put to death. His mother was Julia Procilla, a lady of exemplary chast.i.ty. Educated with tenderness in her bosom, he pa.s.sed his childhood and youth in the attainment of every liberal art. He was preserved from the allurements of vice, not only by a naturally good disposition, but by being sent very early to pursue his studies at Ma.s.silia;[134] a place where Grecian politeness and provincial frugality are happily united. I remember he was used to relate, that in his early youth he should have engaged with more ardor in philosophical speculation than was suitable to a Roman and a senator, had not the prudence of his mother restrained the warmth and vehemence of his disposition: for his lofty and upright spirit, inflamed by the charms of glory and exalted reputation, led him to the pursuit with more eagerness than discretion. Reason and riper years tempered his warmth; and from the study of wisdom, he retained what is most difficult to compa.s.s--moderation.

He learned the rudiments of war in Britain, under Suetonius Paulinus, an active and prudent commander, who chose him for his tent companion, in order to form an estimate of his merit. Nor did Agricola, like many young men, who convert military service into wanton pastime, avail himself licentiously or slothfully of his tribunitial t.i.tle, or his inexperience, to spend his time in pleasures and absences from duty; but he employed himself in gaining a knowledge of the country, making himself known to the army, learning from the experienced, and imitating the best; neither pressing to be employed through vainglory, nor declining it through timidity; and performing his duty with equal solicitude and spirit. At no other time in truth was Britain more agitated or in a state of greater uncertainty. Our veterans slaughtered, our colonies burned, our armies cut off--we were then contending for safety, afterward for victory. During this period, altho all things were transacted under the conduct and direction of another, and the stress of the whole, as well as the glory of recovering the province, fell to the general's share, yet they imparted to the young Agricola skill, experience, and incentives; and the pa.s.sion for military glory entered his soul; a pa.s.sion ungrateful to the times, in which eminence was unfavorably construed, and a great reputation was no less dangerous than a bad one.

Departing thence to undertake the offices of magistracy in Rome, he married Domitia Decidiana, a lady of ill.u.s.trious descent, from which connection he derived credit and support in his pursuit of greater things. They lived together in admirable harmony and mutual affection; each giving the preference to the other; a conduct equally laudable in both, except that a greater degree of praise is due to a good wife, in proportion as a bad one deserves the greater censure. The lot of questors.h.i.+p gave him Asia for his province, and the proconsul Salvius t.i.tia.n.u.s[135] for his superior; by neither of which circ.u.mstances was he corrupted, altho the province was wealthy and open to plunder, and the proconsul, from his rapacious disposition, would readily have agreed to a mutual concealment of guilt. His family was there increased by the birth of a daughter, who was both the support of his house, and his consolation; for he lost an elder-born son in infancy....

On his return from commanding the legion he was raised by Vespasian to the patrician order, and then invested with the government of Aquitania, a distinguished promotion, both in respect to the office itself, and the hopes of the consulate to which it destined him. It is a common supposition that military men, habituated to the unscrupulous and summary processes of camps, where things are carried with a strong hand, are deficient in the address and subtlety of genius requisite in civil jurisdiction. Agricola, however, by his natural prudence, was enabled to act with facility and precision even among civilians. He distinguished the hours of business from those of relaxation. When the court or tribunal demanded his presence, he was grave, intent, awful, yet generally inclined to lenity. When the duties of his office were over, the man of power was instantly laid aside. Nothing of sternness, arrogance, or rapaciousness appeared; and, what was a singular felicity, his affability did not impair his authority, nor his severity render him less beloved. To mention integrity and freedom from corruption in such a man, would be an affront to his virtues. He did not even court reputation, an object to which men of worth frequently sacrifice, by ostentation or artifice: equally avoiding compet.i.tion with his colleagues, and contention with the procurators.

To overcome in such a contest he thought inglorious; and to be put down, a disgrace. Somewhat less than three years were spent in this office, when he was recalled to the immediate prospect of the consulate; while at the same time a popular opinion prevailed that the government of Britain would be conferred upon him; an opinion not founded upon any suggestions of his own, but upon his being thought equal to the station. Common fame does not always err, sometimes it even directs a choice. When Consul,[136] he contracted his daughter, a lady already of the happiest promise, to myself, then a very young man; and after his office was expired I received her in marriage. He was immediately appointed governor of Britain, and the pontificate was added to his other dignities....

His decease was a severe affliction to his family, a grief to his friends, and a subject of regret even to foreigners, and those who had no personal knowledge of him. The common people too, and the cla.s.s who little interest themselves about public concerns, were frequent in their inquiries at his house during his sickness, and made him the subject of conversation at the forum and in private circles; nor did any person either rejoice at the news of his death, or speedily forget it. Their commiseration was aggravated by a prevailing report that he was taken off by poison. I can not venture to affirm anything certain of this matter; yet, during the whole course of his illness, the princ.i.p.al of the imperial freedmen and the most confidential of the physicians was sent much more frequently than was customary with a court whose visits were chiefly paid by messages; whether that was done out of real solicitude, or for the purposes of state inquisition.

On the day of his decease, it is certain that accounts of his approaching dissolution were every instant transmitted to the emperor by couriers stationed for the purpose; and no one believed that the information, which so much pains was taken to accelerate, could be received with regret. He put on, however, in his countenance and demeanor, the semblance of grief: for he was now secured from an object of hatred, and could more easily conceal his joy than his fear.

It was well known that on reading the will, in which he was nominated co-heir with the excellent wife and most dutiful daughter of Agricola, he exprest great satisfaction, as if it had been a voluntary testimony of honor and esteem: so blind and corrupt had his mind been rendered by continual adulation, that he was ignorant none but a bad prince could be nominated heir to a good father.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 101: "If by eloquence is meant the ability to persuade, then Tacitus," according to Cruttwell, "is the most eloquent historian that ever existed." His portraits, especially those of Tiberius and Nero, have been severely criticized by French and English writers, but while his verdicts have been shaken, they have not been reversed. The world still fails to doubt their substantial reality. Tacitus, adds Cruttwell, has probably exercised upon readers a greater power than any other writer of prose whom Rome produced.]

[Footnote 102: From Book I of the "Annals." The Oxford translation revised.]

[Footnote 103: Marcellus was the son of Octavia by her husband C.

Claudius Marcellus. He married Julia, a daughter of Augustus.]

[Footnote 104: Agrippa was the leading administrative mind under Augustus, with whom he had served in the Civil War and in the battle Actium. The Pantheon, the only complete building of Imperial Rome that still survives, was finished and dedicated by him. He married as his third wife Julia, the widow of Marcellus.]

[Footnote 105: Nola lay sixteen miles northeast of Naples. The reference is to Drusus, son of Tiberius, and to Germanicus, at that time commanding on the Rhine.]

[Footnote 106: From Book III of the "Annals." The Oxford translation revised.]

[Footnote 107: This Agrippina was the daughter of Agrippa and Julia.

She married Germanicus, became the mother of Caligula, and was a woman of lofty character, who died by voluntary starvation after having been exiled by Tiberius.]

[Footnote 108: It has been conjectured that the two children of Germanicus here referred to were Caligula, who had gone to the East with his father, and Julia, who was born in Lesbos.]

[Footnote 109: These children were Nero, Drusus, Agrippina and Drusilla.]

[Footnote 110: Not the Emperor of that name, who was not born until 121 A.D.]

[Footnote 111: Mother of Tiberius by a husband whom she had married before she married Augustus.]

[Footnote 112: Julia, daughter of Julius Caesar by his wife Cornelia.]

[Footnote 113: From Book XV of the "Annals." The Oxford translation revised.]

[Footnote 114: Caius Piso, lender of an unsuccessful conspiracy against Nero in 65. Other famous Romans of the name of Piso are Lucius, censor, consul and author; another Lucius whose daughter was married to Julius Caesar; and Cneius, governor of Syria, who was accused of murdering Germanicus.]

[Footnote 115: Poppaea Sabina, who once was the wife of Otho and mistress of Nero. She was afterward divorced from Otho and married to Nero in 62 A.D. She died from the effects of a kick given by Nero.]

[Footnote 116: From Book XV at the "Annals." The Oxford translator revised.]

[Footnote 117: Nero.]

[Footnote 118: Suetonius relates that, when some one repeated to Nero the line "When I am dead, let fire devour the world," he replied, "Let it be whilst I am living." That author a.s.serts that Nero's purpose sprung in part from his dislike of old buildings and narrow streets.

During the progress of the fire several men of consular rank met Nero's domestic servants with torches and combustibles which they were using to start fires, but did not dare to stay their hands. Livy a.s.serts that, after it was destroyed by the Gauls, Rome had been rebuilt with narrow winding streets.]

[Footnote 119: A city in the central Apennines, six miles from Lake Fucinus.]

[Footnote 120: Near the Esquiline.]

[Footnote 121: The house, gardens, baths and the Pantheon of Agrippa are here referred to. Nero's gardens were near the Vatican.]

[Footnote 122: The palace of Numa, on the Palatine hill, had been the mansion of Augustus.]

[Footnote 123: Carlyle, in his essay on Voltaire, refers to this pa.s.sage as having been "inserted as a small, transitory, altogether trifling circ.u.mstance, in the history of such a potentate as Nero"; but it has become "to us the most earnest, sad and sternly significant pa.s.sage that we know to exist in writing."]

[Footnote 124: Claudius already had expelled the Jews from Rome and included in their number the followers of Christ. But his edict was not specifically directed against the Christians. Nero was the first emperor who persecuted them as professors of a new faith.]

[Footnote 125: From Book III of the "History." The Oxford translation revised. Pliny, Josephus and Dio all agree that the Capitol was set on fire by the followers of Vitellius.]

[Footnote 126: Porsena did not actually get into Rome, being induced to raise the siege when only at its gates.]

[Footnote 127: The capture of Rome by the Gauls under Brennus took place in 390 B.C. The destruction of the Capitol in the first Civil War occurred in 83 B.C., during the consuls.h.i.+p of Lucius Scipio and Caius Norbaius. The fire was not started as an act of open violence, however, but by clandestine incendiaries.]

[Footnote 128: From Book III of the "History." The Oxford translation revised. Near Cremona had been fought the first battle of Bedriac.u.m by the armies of Vitellius and Otho, rivals for the imperial throne, Otho being defeated. A few months later on the same field the army of Vitellius was overthrown by Vespasian, who succeeded him as emperor.

Vitellius retired to Cremona, which was then placed under siege by Vespasian, and altho strongly fortified, captured.]

[Footnote 129: Antonius Primus, the chief commander of Vespasian's forces.]

[Footnote 130: The modern Brescia.]

[Footnote 131: According to Josephus 30,000 of the Vitellians perished and 4,500 of the followers of Vespasian.]

[Footnote 132: From the Oxford translation revised.]

[Footnote 133: Caligula, not Caius Julius Caesar, is here referred to, he also having borne the name of Caius.]

[Footnote 134: Now Ma.r.s.eilles, founded by Phoenicians, who introduced, there a degree of Greek culture which long made the city famous.]