The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus Part 12

[109] The Rhine.

[110] This extraordinary expedition, according to Dio, set out from the western side of the island. They therefore must have coasted all that part of Scotland, must have pa.s.sed the intricate navigation through the Hebrides, and the dangerous strait of Pentland Firth, and, after coming round to the eastern side, must have been driven to the mouth of the Baltic Sea, Here they lost their s.h.i.+ps; and, in their attempt to proceed homeward by land, were seized as pirates, part by the Suevi, and the rest by the Frisii.

[111] The year of Rome 837, A.D. 84.

[112] The scene of this celebrated engagement is by Gordon (Itin.

Septent.) supposed to be in Strathern, near a place now called the Kirk of Comerie, where are the remains of two Roman camps. Mr. Pennant, however, in his Tour in 1772, part ii. p. 96, gives reasons which appear well founded for dissenting from Gordon's opinion.

[113] The more usual spelling of this name is Galgacus; but the other is preferred as of better authority.

[114] "Peace given to the world" is a very frequent inscription on the Roman medals.

[115] It was the Roman policy to send the recruits raised in the provinces to some distant country, for fear of their desertion or revolt.

[116] How much this was the fate of the Romans themselves, when, in the decline of the empire, they were obliged to pay tribute to the surrounding barbarians, is shown in lively colors by Salvian:--"We call that a gift which is a purchase, and a purchase of a condition the most hard and miserable. For all captives, when they are once redeemed, enjoy their liberty: we are continually paying a ransom, yet are never free."--De Gubern. Dei, vi.

[118] The expedition of Claudius into Britain was in the year of Rome 796, from which to the period of this engagement only forty-two years were elapsed. The number fifty therefore is given oratorically rather than accurately.

[119] The Latin word used here, _covinarius_, signifies the driver of a _covinus_, or chariot, the axle of which was bent into the form of a scythe. The British manner of fighting from chariots is particularly described by Caesar, who gives them the name of _esseda_:--"The following is the manner of fighting from _essedae_: They first drive round with them to all parts of the line, throwing their javelins, and generally disordering the ranks by the very alarm occasioned by the horses, and the rattling of the wheels: then, as soon as they have insinuated themselves between the troops of horse, they leap from their chariots and fight on foot. The drivers then withdraw a little from the battle, in order that, if their friends are overpowered by numbers, they may have a secure retreat to the chariots. Thus they act with the celerity of horse, and the stability of foot; and by daily use and exercise they acquire the power of holding up their horses at full speed down a steep declivity, of stopping them suddenly, and turning in a short compa.s.s; and they accustom themselves to run upon the pole, and stand on the cross-tree, and from thence with great agility to recover their place in the chariot."--Bell.

Gall. iv. 33.

[120] These targets, called _cetrae_, in the Latin, were made of leather.

The broad sword and target were till very lately the peculiar arms of the Highlanders.

[121] Several inscriptions have been found in Britain commemorating the Tungrian cohorts.

[122] The great conciseness of Tacitus has rendered the description of this battle somewhat obscure. The following, however, seems to have been the general course of occurrences in it:--The foot on both sides began the engagement. The first line of the Britons which was formed on the plain being broken, the Roman auxiliaries advanced up the hill after them. In the meantime the Roman horse in the wings, unable to withstand the shock of the chariots, gave way, and were pursued by the British chariots and horse, which then fell in among the Roman infantry, These, who at first had relaxed their files to prevent their being out-fronted, now closed, in order better to resist the enemy, who by this means were unable to penetrate them. The chariots and horse, therefore, became entangled amidst the inequalities of the ground, and the thick ranks of the Romans; and, no longer able to wheel and career as upon the open plain, gave not the least appearance of an equestrian skirmish: but, keeping their footing with difficulty on the declivity, were pushed off, and scattered in disorder over the field.

[123] People of Fifes.h.i.+re.

[124] Where this was does not appear. Brotier calls it Sandwich, making it the same as _Rutupium_: others Plymouth or Portsmouth. It is clear, however, this cannot be the case, from the subsequent words.--_White_.

[125] This circ.u.mnavigation was in a contrary direction to that of the Usipian deserters, the fleet setting out from the Firth of Tay on the eastern coast, and sailing round the northern, western, and southern coasts, till it arrived at the port of Sandwich in Kent. After staying here some time to refit, it went to its former station, in the Firth of Forth, or Tay.

[126] It was in this same year that Domitian made his pompous expedition into Germany, from whence he returned without ever seeing the enemy.

[127] Caligula in like manner got a number of tall men with their hair dyed red to give credit to a pretended victory over the Germans.

[128] Thus Pliny, in his Panegyric on Trajan, xlviii., represents Domitian as "ever affecting darkness and secrecy, and never emerging from his solitude but in order to make a solitude."

[129] Not the triumph itself, which, after the year of Rome 740 was no longer granted to private persons, but reserved for the imperial family.

This new piece of adulation was invented by Agrippa in order to gratify Augustus. The "triumphal ornaments" which were still bestowed, were a peculiar garment, statue, and other insignia which had distinguished the person of the triumphing general.

[130] Of Dover.

[131] Domitian, it seems, was afraid that Agricola might refuse to obey the recall he forwarded to him, and even maintain his post by force. He therefore despatched one of his confidential freedmen with an autograph letter, wherein he was informed Syria was given to him as his province.

This, however, was a mere ruse: and hence it was not to be delivered as Agricola had already set out on his return. In compliance with these instructions, the freedman returned at once to Domitian, when he found Agricola on his pa.s.sage to Rome According to Dion (liii.), the emperor's lieutenants were required to leave their province immediately upon the arrival of their successor, and return to Rome within three months.-- _White_.

[132] Agricola's successor in Britain appears to have been Sall.u.s.tius Lucullus, who, as Suetonius informs us, was put to death by Domitian because he, permitted certain lances of a new construction to be palled Lucullean.--Life of Domitian, s. 10.

[133] Of this worst kind of enemies, who praise a man in order to render him obnoxious, the emperor Julian, who had himself suffered greatly by them, speaks feelingly in his 12th epistle to Basilius;--"For we live together not in that state of dissimulation, which, I imagine, you have hitherto experienced: in which those who praise you, hate you with a more confirmed aversion than your most inveterate enemies,"

[134] These calamitous events are recorded by Suetonius in his Life of Domitian.

[135] The Rhine and Danube.

[136] The two senior consulars cast lots for the government of Asia and Africa.

[137] Suetonius relates that Civica Cerealis was put to death in his proconsulate of Asia, on the charge of meditating a revolt. (Life of Domitian, s. 10.)

[138] Obliging persons to return thanks for an injury was a refinement in tyranny frequently practised by the worst of the Roman emperors. Thus Seneca informs us, that "Caligula was thanked by those whose children had been put to death, and whose property had been confiscated." (De Tranquil, xiv.) And again;--"The reply of a person who had grown old in his attendance on kings, when he was asked how he had attained a thing so uncommon in courts as old age? is well known. It was, said he, by receiving injuries, and returning thanks."--De Ira, ii. 33.

[139] From a pa.s.sage in Dio, lxxviii. p. 899, this sum appears to have been _decies sestertium_, about 9,000_l._ sterling.

[140] Thus Seneca: "Little souls rendered insolent by prosperity have this worst property, that they hate those whom they have injured."--De Ira, ii.

33.

[141] Several who suffered under Nero and Domitian erred, though n.o.bly, in this respect.

[142] A Greek epigram still extant of Antiphilus, a Byzantine, to the memory of a certain Agricola, is supposed by the learned to refer to the great man who is the subject of this work. It is in the Anthologia, lib.

i. t.i.t. 37.

[143] Dio absolutely affirms it; but from the manner in which Tacitus, who had better means of information, speaks of it, the story was probably false.

[144] It appears that the custom of making the emperor co-heir with the children of the testator was not by any means uncommon. It was done in order to secure the remainder to the family. Thus Prasutagus, king of the Iceni in Britain, made Nero co-heir with his two daughters. Thus when Lucius Vetus was put to death by Nero, his friends urged him to leave part of his property to the emperor, that his grandsons might enjoy the rest.

(Ann. xvi. 11.) Suetonius (viii. 17) mentions that Domitian used to seize the estates of persons the most unknown to him, if any one could be found to a.s.sert that the deceased had expressed an intention to make the emperor his heir.--_White_.

[145] Caligula. This was A.D. 40, when he was sole consul.

[146] According to this account, the birth of Agricola was on June 13th, in the year of Rome 793, A.D. 40; and his death on August 23d, in the year of Rome 846 A.D. 93: for this appears by the Fasti Consulares to have been the year of the consulate of Collega and Priscus. He was therefore only in his fifty-fourth year when he died; so that the copyists must probably have written by mistake LVI. instead of LIV.

[147] From this representation, Dio appears to have been mistaken in a.s.serting that Agricola pa.s.sed the latter part of his life in dishonor and penury.

[148] Juvenal breaks out in a n.o.ble strain of indignation against this savage cruelty, which distinguished the latter part of Domitian's reign:

Atque utinam his potius nugis tota illa dedisset Tempora saevitiae: claras quibus abstulit Urbi Ill.u.s.tresque animas impune, et vindice nullo.

Sed periit, postquam cerdonibus esse timendus Coeperat: hoc nocuit Lamiarum, caede madenti.--Sat. iv. 150.

"What folly this! but oh! that all the rest Of his dire reign had thus been spent in jest!

And all that time such trifles had employ'd In which so many n.o.bles he destroy'd!

He safe, they unrevenged, to the disgrace Of the surviving, tame, patrician race!

But when he dreadful to the rabble grew, Him, who so many lords had slain, they slew."--DUKE.

[149] This happened in the year of Rome 848.

[150] Carus and Ma.s.sa, who were proverbially infamous as informers, are represented by Juvenal as dreading a still more dangerous villain, Heliodorus.

--Quem Ma.s.sa timet, quem munere palpat Carus.--Sat. i. 35.