The patrician family of the Claudii (for there was a plebeian family of the same
					name, no way inferior to the other either in power or dignity) came originally
					from Regilli, a town of the Sabines. They removed thence to Rome soon after the building of the city, with
					a great body of their dependants, under Titus Tatius, who reigned jointly with
						 Romulus in the kingdom; or,
					perhaps, what is related upon better authority, under Atta Claudius, the head of
					the family, who was admitted by the senate into the patrician order six years
					after the expulsion of the Tarquins. They likewise received from the state,
					lands beyond the Anio for their followers, and a burying place for themselves
					near the capitol. After this period, in process of time, the
					family had the honour of twenty-eight consulships, five dictatorships, seven
					censorships, seven triumphs, and two ovations. Their descendants were
					distinguished by various praenomina and
						 cognomina , but rejected by common consent the praenomen of
						 Lucius , when, of the two races who
					bore it, one individual had been convicted of robbery, and another of murder.
					Amongst other cognomina, they assumed that of Nero , which in the Sabine language signifies strong and valiant.

It appears from record, that many of the Claudii have performed signal services
					to the state, as well as committed acts of delinquency. To mention the most
					remarkable only, Appius Caecus dissuaded the senate from agreeing to an alliance
					with Pyrrhus, as prejudicial to the republic. Claudius Candex first passed the straits of Sicily with a fleet, and drove the
					Carthaginians out of the island. Claudius
					Nero cut off Hasdrubal with a vast army upon his arrival in Italy from Spain , before he could form a junction with his brother
						Annibal. On the other hand, Claudius
					Appius Regillanus, one of the Decemvirs, made a violent attempt to have a free
					virgin, of whom he was enamoured, adjudged a slave; which caused the people to
					secede a second time from the senate. 
					Claudius Drusus erected a statue of himself wearing a crown at Appii Forum, and endeavoured, by means of his
					dependants, to make himself master of Italy . Claudius Pulcher, when, off the coast of Sicily , 
					the pullets used for taking augury would not eat, in contempt of the omen threw
					them overboard, as if they should drink at least, if they would not eat; and
					then engaging the enemy, was routed. After his defeat, when he was ordered by
					the senate to name a dictator, making a sort of jest of the public disaster, he
					named Glycias, his apparitor. 
				 The women of this family, likewise, exhibited characters equally opposite to each
					other. For both the Claudias belonged to it; she, who, when the ship freighted
					with things sacred to the Idaean Mother of the Gods, stuck fast in the shallows of the Tiber , got it off, by praying to the Goddess
					with a loud voice, "Follow me, if I am chaste;" and she also, who, contrary to
					the usual practice in the case of women, was brought to trial by the people for
					treason; because, when her litter was stopped by a great crowd in the streets,
					she openly exclaimed, "I wish my brother Pulcher was alive now, to lose another
					fleet, that Rome might be less
					thronged." Besides, it is well known, that all the Claudii, except Publius
					Claudius, who, to effect the banishment of Cicero, procured himself to be
					adopted by a plebeian, and one younger
					than himself, were always of the patrician party, as well as great sticklers for
					the honour and power of that order; and so violent and obstinate in their
					opposition to the plebeians, that not one of them, even in the case of a trial
					for life by the people, would ever condescend to put on mourning, according to
					custom, or make any supplication to them for favour; and some of them in their
					contests, have even proceeded to lay hands on the tribunes of the people. A
					Vestal Virgin likewise of the family, when her brother was resolved to have the
					honour of a triumph contrary to the will of the people, mounted the chariot with
					him, and attended him into the capitol, that it might not be lawful for any of
					the tribunes to interfere and forbid it.

From this family Tiberius Caesar is descended; indeed both by the father and
					mother's side; by the former from Tiberius Nero, and by the latter from Appius
					Pulcher, who were both sons of Appius Caecus. He likewise belonged to the family
					of the Livii, by the adoption of his mother's grandfather into it; which family
					although plebeian, made a distinguished figure, having had the honour of eight
					consulships, two censorships, three triumphs, one dictatorship, and the office
					of master of the horse; and was famous for eminent men, particularly, Salinator
					and the Drusi. Salinator, in his censorship, branded all the tribes, for their inconstancy in having made him
					consul a second time, as well as censor, although they had condemned him to a
					heavy fine after his first consulship. Drusus procured for himself and his
					posterity a new surname, by killing in single combat Drausus, the enemy's chief.
					He is likewise said to have recovered, when pro-praetor in the province of
						 Gaul , the gold which was formerly
					given to the Senones , at the siege of
					the capitol, and had not, as is reported, been forced from them by Camillus. His
					great-great-grandson, who, for his extraordinary services against the Gracchi,
					was styled the "Patron of the Senate," left a son, who, while plotting in a
					sedition of the same description, was treacherously murdered by the opposite
						party.

But the father of Tiberius Caesar, being quaestor to Caius Caesar, and commander
					of his fleet in the war of Alexandria , contributed greatly to its success. He was
					therefore made one of the high-priests in the room of Publius Scipio; and was sent to settle some colonies in
						 Gaul , and amongst the rest, those
					of Narbonne and Arles . 
					After the assassination of Caesar, however, when the rest of the senators, for
					fear of public disturbances, were for having the affair buried in oblivion, he
					proposed a resolution for rewarding those who had killed the tyrant. Having
					filled the office of praetor, and at the
					end of the year a disturbance breaking out amongst the triumviri, he kept the
					badges of his office beyond the legal time; and following Lucius Antonius the
					consul, brother of the triumvir, to Perusia , though the rest
					submitted, yet he himself continued firm to the party, and escaped first to
						 Praeneste , and then to
						 Naples ; whence, having in vain
					invited the slaves to liberty, he fled over to Sicily . But resenting his not being immediately admitted into
					the presence of Sextus Pompey, and being also prohibited the use of the fasces,
					he went over into Achaia to Mark Antony; with whom, upon a reconciliation soon
					after brought about amongst the several contending parties, he returned to
						 Rome ; and, at the request of
					Augustus, gave up to him his wife Livia Drusilla, although she was then big with
					child, and had before borne him a son. He died not long after; leaving behind
					him two sons, Tiberius and Drusus Nero.

Some have imagined that Tiberius was born at Fundi , but there is only this trifling foundation for the
					conjecture, that his mother's grandmother was of Fundi , and that the image of Good Fortune was, by a decree of
					the senate, erected in a public place in that town. But according to the
					greatest number of writers, and those too of the best authority, he was born at
						 Rome , in the Palatine quarter, upon the sixteenth of the
					calends of December [16th Nov.], when Marcus AEmilius Lepidus was second time
					consul, with Lucius Munatius Plancus, after the battle of Philippi ; for so it is registered in the
					calendar, and the public acts. According to some, however, he was born in the
					preceding year, in the consulship of Hirtius and Pansa; and others say, in the
					year following, during the consulship of Servilius Isauricus and Antony.

His infancy and childhood were spent in the midst of danger and trouble; for he
					accompanied his parents everywhere in their flight, and twice at Naples nearly betrayed them by his crying,
					when they were privately hastening to a ship, as the enemy rushed into the town;
					once, when he was snatched from his nurse's breast, and again, from his mother's
					bosom, by some of the company, who on the sudden emergency wished to relieve the
					women of their burden. Being carried through Sicily and Achaia , and
					entrusted for some time to the care of the Lacedaemonians, who were under the
					protection of the Claudian family, upon his departure thence when travelling by
					night, he ran the hazard of his life, by a fire which, suddenly bursting out of
					a wood on all sides, surrounded the whole party so closely, that part of Livia's
					dress and hair was burnt. The presents which were made him by Pompeia, sister to
					Sextus Pompey, in Sicily , namely, a
					cloak, with a clasp, and bullae of gold, are still in existence, and shewn at
						 Baiae to this day. After his
					return to the city, being adopted by Marcus Gallius, a senator, in his will, he
					took possession of the estate; but soon afterwards declined the use of his name,
					because Gallius had been of the party opposed to Augustus. When only nine years
					of age, he pronounced a funeral oration in praise of his father upon the rostra;
					and afterwards, when he had nearly attained the age of manhood, he attended the
					chariot of Augustus, in his triumph for the victory at Actium , riding on the left-hand horse, whilst
					Marcellus, Octavia's son, rode that on the right. He likewise presided at the
					games celebrated on account of that victory; and in the Trojan games intermixed
					with the Circensian, he commanded a troop of the biggest boys.

After assuming the manly habit, he spent his youth, and the rest of his life
					until he succeeded to the government, in the following manner: he gave the
					people an entertainment of gladiators, in memory of his father, and another for
					his grandfather Drusus, at different times and in different places: the first in
					the forum, the second in the amphitheatre; some gladiators who had been
					honourably discharged, being induced to engage again, by a reward of a hundred
					thousand sesterces. He likewise exhibited public sports, at which he was not
					present himself. All these he performed with great magnificence, at the expense
					of his mother and father-in-law. He married Agrippina, the daughter of Marcus
					Agrippa, and granddaughter of Caecilius Atticus, a Roman knight, the same person
					to whom Cicero has addressed so many epistles. After having by her his son
					Drusus, he was obliged to part with her, 
					though she retained his affection, and was again pregnant, to make way for
					marrying Augustus's daughter Julia. But this he did with extreme reluctance;
					for, besides having the warmest attachment to Agrippina, he was disgusted with
					the conduct of Julia, who had made indecent advances to him during the lifetime
					of her former husband; and that she was a woman of loose character, was the
					general opinion. At divorcing Agrippina he felt the deepest regret; and upon
					meeting her afterwards, he looked after her with eyes so passionately expressive
					of affection, that care was taken she should never again come in his sight. At
					first, however, he lived quietly and happily with Julia; but a rupture soon
					ensued, which became so violent, that after the loss of their son, the pledge of
					their union, who was born at Aquileia 
					and died in infancy, he never would sleep
					with her more. He lost his brother Drusus in Germany , and brought his body to Rome , travelling all the way on foot before it.

When he first applied himself to civil affairs, he defended the several causes of
					king Archelaus, the Trallians, and the Thessalians, before Augustus, who sat as
					judge at the trials. He addressed the senate on behalf of the Laodiceans, the
					Thyatireans, and Chians, who had suffered greatly by an earthquake, and implored
					relief from Rome . He prosecuted
					Fannius Caepio, who had been engaged in a conspiracy with Varro Mursena against
					Augustus, and procured sentence of condemnation against him. Amidst all this, he
					had besides to superintend two departments of the administration, that of
					supplying the city with corn, which was then very scarce, and that of clearing
					the houses of correction throughout Italy , the masters of which had fallen under the odious
					suspicion of seizing and keeping confined, not only travellers, but those whom
					the fear of being obliged to serve in the army had driven to seek refuge in such
					places.

He made his first campaign, as a military tribune, in the Cantabrian war. Afterwards he led an army into the
						East, where he restored the kingdom
					of Armenia to Tigranes; and seated on a
					tribunal, put a crown upon his head. He likewise recovered from the Parthians
					the standards which they had taken from Crassus. He next governed, for nearly a
					year, the province of Gallia Comata, which was then in great disorder, on
					account of the incursions of the barbarians, and the feuds of the chiefs. He
					afterwards commanded in the several wars against the Rhaetians, Vindelicians,
					Pannonians, and Germans. In the Rhaetian and Vindelician wars, he subdued the
					nations in the Alps ; and in the
					Pannonian wars the Bruci, and the Dalmatians. In the German war, he transplanted
					into Gaul forty thousand of the enemy
					who had submitted, and assigned them lands near the banks of the Rhine . For these actions, he entered the city
					with an ovation, but riding in a chariot, and is said by some to have been the
					first that ever was honoured with this distinction. He filled early the
					principal offices of state; and passed through the quaestorship, praetorship, and consulates almost
					successively. After some interval, he was chosen consul a second time, and held
					the tribunitian authority during five years.

Surrounded by all this prosperity, in the prime of life and in excellent health,
					he suddenly formed the resolution of withdrawing to a greater distance from
						 Rome . It is uncertain whether this was the result of disgust for his
					wife, whom he neither durst accuse nor divorce, and the connection with whom
					became every day more intolerable; or to prevent that indifference towards him,
					which his constant residence in the city might produce; or in the hope of
					supporting and improving by absence his authority in the state, if the public
					should have occasion for his service. Some are of opinion, that as Augustus's
					sons were now grown up to years of maturity, he voluntarily relinquished the
					possession he had long enjoyed of the second place in the government, as Agrippa
					had done before him; who, when M. Marcellus was advanced to public offices,
					retired to Mitylene , that he might not
					seem to stand in the way of his promotion, or in any respect lessen him by his
					presence. The same reason likewise Tiberius gave afterwards for his retirement;
					but his pretext at this time was, that he was satiated with honours, and
					desirous of being relieved from the fatigue of business; requesting therefore
					that he might have leave to withdraw. And neither the earnest entreaties of his
					mother, nor the complaint of his father-in-law made even in the senate, that he
					was deserted by him, could prevail upon him to alter his resolution. Upon their
					persisting in the design of detaining him, he refused to take any sustenance for
					four days together. At last, having obtained permission, leaving his wife and
					son at Rome , he proceeded to
						 Ostia , without exchanging a word
					with those who attended him, and having enbraced but very few persons at
					parting.

From Ostia , journeying along the coast
					of Campania , he halted awhile on
					receiving intelligence of Augustus's being taken ill, but this giving rise to a
					rumour that he stayed with a view to something extraordinary, he sailed with the
					wind almost full against him, and arrived at Rhodes , having been struck with the pleasantness and
					healthiness of the island at the time of his landing there in his return from
						 Armenia . Here contenting himself
					with a small house, and a villa not much larger, near the town, he led entirely
					a private life, taking his walks sometimes about the Gymnasia, without any lictor or other attendant, and
					returning the civilities of the Greeks with almost as much complaisance as if he
					had been upon a level with them. One morning, in settling the course of his
					daily excursion, he happened to say, that he should visit all the sick people in
					the town. This being not rightly understood by those about him, the sick were
					brought into a public portico, and ranged in order, according to their several
					distempers. Being extremely embarrassed by this unexpected occurrence, he was
					for some time irresolute how he should act; but at last he determined to go
					round them all, and make an apology for the mistake, even to the meanest amongst
					them, and such as were entirely unknown to him. One instance only is mentioned,
					in which he appeared to exercise his tribunitian authority. Being a constant
					attendant upon the schools and lecture-rooms of the professors of the liberal
					arts, on occasion of a quarrel amongst the wrangling sophists, in which he
					interposed to reconcile them, some person took the liberty to abuse him as an
					intruder, and partial in the affair. Upon this, withdrawing privately home, he
					suddenly returned attended by his officers, and summoning his accuser before his
					tribunal, by a public crier, ordered him to be taken to prison. Afterwards he
					received tidings that his wife Julia had been condemned for her lewdness and
					adultery, and that a bill of divorce had been sent to her in his name, by the
					authority of Augustus. Though he secretly rejoiced at this intelligence, he
					thought it incumbent upon him, in point of decency, to interpose in her behalf
					by frequent letters to Augustus, and to allow her to retain the presents which
					he had made her, notwithstanding the little regard she merited from him. When
					the period of his tribunitian authority expired, declaring at last that he had no other object in his retirement
					than to avoid all suspicion of rivalship with Caius and Lucius, he petitioned
					that, since he was now secure in that respect, as they were come to the age of
					manhood, and would easily maintain themselves in possession of the second place
					in the state, he might be permitted to visit his friends, whom he was very
					desirous of seeing. But his request was denied; and he was advised to lay aside
					all concern for his friends, whom he had been so eager to quit.

He therefore continued at Rhodes much
					against his will, obtaining, with difficulty, thrqugh his mother, the title of
					Augustus's lieutenant, to cover his disgrace. He thenceforth lived, however, not
					only as a private person, but as one suspected and under apprehension, retiring
					into the interior of the country, and avoiding the visits of those who sailed
					that way, which were very frequent; for no one passed to take command of an
					army, or the government of a province, without touching at Rhodes . But there were fresh reasons for
					increased anxiety. For crossing over to Samos , on a visit to his step-son Caius, who had been appointed
					governor of the East, ihe found him prepossessed against him, by the
					insinuations of Marcus Lollius, his companion and director. He likewise fell
					under suspicion of sending by some centurions who had been promoted by himself,
					upon their return to the camp after a furlough, mysterious messages to several
					persons there, intended, apparently, to tamper with them for a revolt. This
					jealousy respecting his designs being intimated to him by Augustus, he begged
					repeatedly that some person of any of the three Orders might be placed as a spy
					upon him in every thing he either said or did.

He laid aside likewise his usual exercises of riding and arms; and quitting the
					Roman habit, made use of the Pallium and Crepida. In this
					condition he continued almost two years, becoming daily an object of increasing
					contempt and odium; insomuch that the people of Nismes pulled down all the images and statues of him in their
					town; and upon mention being made of him at table, one of the company said to
					Caius, "I will sail over to Rhodes 
					immediately, if you desire me, and bring you the head of the exile;" for that
					was the appellation now given him. Thus alarmed not only by apprehensions, but
					real danger, he renewed his solicitations for leave to return; and, seconded by
					the most urgent supplications of his mother, he at last obtained his request; to
					which an accident somewhat contributed. Augustus had resolved to determine
					nothing in the affair, but with the consent of his eldest son. The latter was at
					that time out of humour with Marcus Lollius, and -therefore easily disposed to
					be favourable to his father-in-law. Caius thus acquiescing, he was recalled, but
					upon condition that he should take no concern whatever in the administration of
					affairs.

He returned to Rome after an absence of
					nearly eight years, with great and
					confident hopes of his future elevation, which he had entertained from his,
					youth, in consequence of various prodigies and predictions. For Livia, when
					pregnant with him, being anxious to discover, by different modes of divination,
					whether her offspring would be a son, amongst others, took an egg from a hen
					that was sitting, and kept it warm with her own hands, and those of her maids,
					by turns, until a fine cock-chicken, with a large comb, was hatched. Scribonius,
					the astrologer, predicted great things of him when he was a mere child. " He
					will come in time," said the prophet, "to be even a king, but without the usual
					badge of royal dignity;" the rule of the Caesars being as yet unknown. When he
					was making his first expedition, and leading his army through Macedonia into Syria , the altars which had been formerly consecrated at
						 Philippi by the victorious
					legions, blazed suddenly with spontaneous fires. Soon after, as he was marching
					to Illyricum , he stopped to consult the
					oracle of Geryon, near Padua ; and
					having drawn a lot by which he was desired to throw golden tali into the
					fountain of Aponus, for an
					answer to his inquiries, he did so, and the highest numbers came up. And those
					very tali are still to be seen at the bottom of the fountain. A few days before
					his leaving Rhodes , an eagle, a bird
					never before seen in that island, perched on the top of his house. And the day
					before he received the intelligence of the permission granted him to return, as
					he was changing his dress, his tunic appeared to be all on fire. He then
					likewise had a remarkable proof of the skill of Thrasyllus, the astrologer,
					whom, for his proficiency in philosophical researches, he had taken into his
					family. For, upon sight of the ship which brought the intelligence, he said good
					news was coming: whereas every thing going wrong before, and quite contrary to
					his predictions, Tiberius had intended that very moment, when they were walking
					together, to throw him into the sea, as an impostor, and one to whom he had too
					hastily entrusted his secrets.

Upon his return to Rome , having
					introduced his son Drusus into the forum, he immediately removed from Pompey's
					house, in the Carinae, to the gardens of Maecenas, on the Esquiline , and resigned himself entirely to his ease, performing only the common
					offices of civility in private life, without any preferment in the government.
					But Caius and Lucius being both carried off in the space of three years, he was
					adopted by Augustus, along with their brother Agrippa; being obliged in the
					first place to adopt Germanicus, his brother's son. After his adoption, he never
					more acted as master of a family, nor exercised, in the smallest degree, the
					rights which he had lost by it. For he neither disposed of anything in the way
					of gift, nor manumitted a slave; nor so much as received any estate left him by
					will, nor any legacy, without reckoning it as a part of his peculium or property
					held under his father. From that day forward, nothing was omitted that might
					contribute to the advancement of his grandeur, and much more, when, upon Agrippa
					being discarded and banished, it was evident that the hope of succession rested
					upon him alone.

The tribunitian authority was again conferred upon him for five years, and a commission given him to settle the
					affairs of Germany . The ambassadors of
					the Parthians, after having had an audience of Augustus, were ordered to apply
					to him likewise in his province. But on receiving intelligence of an
					insurrection in Illyricum , he went over to superintend the management
					of that new war, which proved the most serious of all the foreign wars since the
					Carthaginian. This he conducted during three years, with fifteen legions and an
					equal number of auxiliary forces, under great difficulties, and an extreme
					scarcity of corn. And though he was several times recalled, he nevertheless
					persisted; fearing lest an enemy so powerful, and so near, should fall upon the
					army in their retreat. This resolution was attended with good success; for he at
					last reduced to complete subjection all Illyricum , lying between Italy and the kingdom of Noricum, Thrace , Macedonia , the
					river Danube , and the Adriatic
					gulf.

The glory he acquired by these successes received an increase from the
					conjuncture in which they happened. For almost about that very time Quintilius Varus was cut off with three
					legions in Germany ; and it was
					generally believed that the victorious Germans would have joined the Pannonians,
					had not the war of Illyricum been
					previously concluded. A triumph, therefore, besides many other great honours,
					was decreed him. Some proposed that the surname of "Pannonicus," others that of
					"Invincible," and others, of "Pius," should be conferred on him; but Augustus
					interposed, engaging for him that he would be satisfied with that to which he
					would succeed at his death. He postponed his triumph, because the state was at
					that time under great affliction for the disaster of Varus and his army.
					Nevertheless, he entered the city in a triumphal robe, crowned with laurel, and
					mounting a tribunal in the Septa, sat with Augustus between the two consuls,
					whilst the senate gave their attendance standing; whence, after he had saluted
					the people, he was attended by them in procession to the several temples.

Next year he went again to Germany ,
					where finding that the defeat of Varus was occasioned by the rashness and
					negligence of the commander, he thought proper to be guided in everything by the
					advice of a council of war; whereas, at other times, he used to follow the
					dictates of his own judgment, and considered himself alone as sufficiently
					qualified for the direction of affairs. He likewise used more cautions than
					usual. Having to pass the Rhine , he
					restricted the whole convoy within certain limits, and stationing himself on the
					bank of the river, would not suffer the waggons to cross the river, until he had
					searched them at the water-side, to see that they carried nothing but what was
					allowed or necessary. Beyond the Rhine ,
					such was his way of living, that he took his meals sitting on the bare
						ground, and often passed the night without a
					tent; and his regular orders for the day, as well as those upon sudden
					emergencies, he gave in writing, with this injunction, that in case of any doubt
					as to the meaning of them, they should apply to him for satisfaction, even at
					any hour of the night.

He maintained the strictest discipline amongst the troops; reviving many old
					customs relative to punishing and degrading offenders; setting a mark of
					disgrace even upon the commander of a legion, for sending a few soldiers with
					one of his freedmen across the river for the purpose of hunting. Though it was
					his desire to leave as little as possible in the power of fortune or accident,
					yet he always engaged the enemy with more confidence when, in his night-watches,
					the lamp failed and went out of itself; trusting, as he said, in an omen which
					had never failed him and his ancestors in all their commands. But, in the midst
					of victory, he was very near being assassinated by some Bructerian, who mixing
					with those about him, and being discovered by his trepidation, was put to the
					torture, and confessed his intended crime.

After two years he returned from Germany 
					to the city, and celebrated the triumph which he had deferred, attended by his
					lieutenants, for whom he had procured the honour of triumphal ornaments. Before he turned to ascend the capitol,
					he alighted from his chariot, and knelt before his father, who sat by, to
					superintend the solemnity. Bato, the Pannonian chief, he sent to Ravenna , loaded with rich presents, in
					gratitude for his having suffered him and his army to retire from a position in
					which he had so enclosed them, that they were entirely at his mercy. He
					afterwards gave the people a dinner at a thousand tables, besides thirty
					sesterces to each man. He likewise dedicated the temple of Concord, and that of Castor and
					Pollux, which had been erected out of the spoils of the war, in his own and his
					brother's name.

A law having been not long after carried by the consuls for his being appointed a colleague with Augustus in the
					administration of the provinces, and in taking the census, when that was
					finished he went into Illyricum . But being hastily recalled during his
					journey, he found Augustus alive indeed, but past all hopes of recovery, and was
					with him in private a whole day. I know, it is generally believed, that upon
						 Tiberius 's quitting the room, after
					their private conference, those who were in waiting overheard Augustus say, "Ah!
					unhappy Roman people, to be ground by the jaws of such a slow devourer!" Nor am
					I ignorant of its being reported by some, that Augustus so openly and
					undisguisedly condemned the sourness of his temper, that sometimes, upon his
					coming in, he would break off any jocular conversation in which he was engaged;
					and that he was only prevailed upon by the importunity of his wife to adopt him;
					or actuated by the ambitious view of recommending his own memory from a
					comparison with such a successor. Yet I must hold to this opinion, that a prince
					so extremely circumspect and prudent as he was, did nothing rashly, especially
					in an affair of so great importance; but that, upon weighing the vices and
					virtues of Tiberius with each other, he
					judged the latter to preponderate; and this the rather since he swore publicly,
					in an assembly of the people, that "he adopted him for the public good."
					Besides, in several of his letters, he extols him as a consummate general, and
					the only security of the Roman people. Of such declarations I subjoin the
					following instances: "Farewell, my dear Tiberius , and may success attend you, whilst you are warring
					for me and the Muses. Farewell, my most dear, and (as I
					hope to prosper) most gallant man, and accomplished general." Again. "The
					disposition of your summer quarters? In truth, my dear Tiberius, I do not think,
					that amidst so many difficulties, and with an army so little disposed for
					action, any one could have behaved more prudently than you have done. All those
					likewise who were with you, acknowledge that this verse is applicable to you:"
						 Unus homo nobis vigilando restituit
								rem. 
					 One man by vigilance restored the state. 
					"Whenever," he says, "any thing happens that requires more than ordinary
					consideration, or I am out of humour upon any occasion, I still, by Hercules ! long for my dear Tiberius ; and those lines of Homer frequently
					occur to my thoughts:" 
						 τούτου γ' ἑσπομένοιο καὶ ἐκ πυρὸς 
							 ἄμφω νοστήσαιμεν, ἐπεὶ περίοιδε νοῆσαι. 
						 Il. 10.246-247 
						 
					 
					 Bold from his prudence, I could ev'n aspire 
						 To dare with him the burning rage of fire. "When I hear and
					read that you are much impaired by the continued fatigues you undergo, may the
					gods confound me if my whole frame does not tremble! So I beg you to spare
					yourself, lest, if we should hear of your being ill, the news prove fatal both
					to me and your mother, and the Roman people should be in peril for the safety of
					the empire. It matters nothing whether I be well or no, if you be not well. I
					pray heaven preserve you for us, and bless you with health both now and ever, if
					the gods have any regard for the Roman people."

He did not make the death of Augustus public, until he had taken off young
					Agrippa. He was slain by a tribune who commanded his guard, upon reading a
					written order for that purpose: respecting which order, it was then a doubt,
					whether Augustus left it in his last moments, to prevent any occasion of public
					disturbance after his decease, or Livia 
					issued it, in the name of Augustus; and whether with the knowledge of Tiberius or not. When the tribune came to
					inform him that he had executed his command, he replied, "I commanded you no
					such thing, and you must answer for it to the senate;" avoiding, as it seems,
					the odium of the act for that time. And the affair was soon buried in
					silence.

Having summoned the senate to meet by virtue of his tribunitian authority, and
					begun a mournful speech, he drew a deep sigh, as if unable to support himself
					under his affliction; and wishing that not his voice only, but his very breath
					of life, might fail him, gave his speech to his son Drusus to read. Augustus's
					will was then brought in, and read by a freedman; none of the witnesses to it
					being admitted, but such as were of the senatorian order, the rest owning their
					hand-writing without doors. The will began thus: " Since my ill-fortune has
					deprived me of my two sons, Caius and Lucius , let Tiberius 
					Caesar be heir to two-thirds of my estate." These words countenanced the
					suspicion of those who were of opinion, that Tiberius was appointed successor
					more out of necessity than choice, since Augustus could not refrain from
					prefacing his will in that manner.

Though he made no scruple to assume and exercise immediately the imperial
					authority, by giving orders that he should be attended by the guards, who were
					the security and badge of the supreme power; yet he affected, by a most impudent
					piece of acting, to refuse it for a long time; one while sharply reprehending
					his friends who entreated him to accept it, as little knowing what a monster the
					government was; another while keeping in suspense the senate, when they implored
					him and threw themselves at his feet, by ambiguous answers, and a crafty kind of
					dissimulation; insomuch that some were out of patience, and one cried out,
					during the confusion, "Either let him accept it, or decline it at once;" and a
					second told him to his face, "Others are slow to perform what they promise, but
					you are slow to promise what you actually perform." At last, as if forced to it,
					and complaining of the miserable and burdensome service imposed upon him, he
					accepted the government; not, however, without giving hopes of his resigning it
					some time or other. The exact words he used were these: "Until the time shall
					come, when ye may think it reasonable to give some rest to my old age."

The cause of his long demur was fear of the dangers which threatened him on all
					hands; insomuch that he said, "I have got a wolf by the ears." For a slave of
					Agrippa's, Clemens by name, had drawn
					together a considerable force to revenge his master's death; Lucius Scribonius
					Libo, a senator of the first distinction, was secretly fomenting a rebellion;
					and the troops both in Illyricum and
						 Germany were mutinous. Both armies
					insisted upon high demands, particularly that their pay should be made equal to
					that of the pretorian guards. The army in Germany absolutely refused to acknowledge a prince who was not
					their own choice; and urged, with all possible importunity, Germanicus, who
					commanded them, to take the government on himself, though he obstinately refused
					it. It was Tiberius's apprehension from this quarter, which made him request the
					senate to assign him some part only in the administration, such as they should
					judge proper, since no man could be sufficient for the whole, without one or
					more to assist him. He pretended likewise to be in a bad state of health, that
					Germanicus might the more patiently wait in hopes of speedily succeeding him, or
					at least of being admitted to be a colleague of the government. When the
					mutinies in the armies were suppressed, he got Clemens into his hands by
					stratagem. That he might not begin his reign by an act of severity, he did not
					call Libo to an account before the senate until his second year, being content,
					in the mean time, with taking proper precautions for his own security. For upon
					Libo's attending a sacrifice amongst the high-priests, instead of the usual
					knife, he ordered one of lead to be given him; and when he desired a private
					conference with him, he would not grant his request, but on condition that his
					son Drusus should be present; and as they walked together, he held him fast by
					the right hand, under the pretence of leaning upon him, until the conversation
					was over.

When he was delivered from his apprehensions, his behaviour at first was
					unassuming, and he did not carry himself much above the level of a private
					person; and of the many and great honours offered him, he accepted but few, and
					such as were very moderate. His birth-day, which happened to fall at the time of
					the Plebeian Circensian games, he with difficulty suffered to be honoured with
					the addition of only a single chariot, drawn by two horses. He forbad temples,
					flamens, or priests to be appointed for him, as likewise the erection of any
					statues or effigies for him, without his permission; and this he granted only on
					condition that they should not be placed amongst the images of the gods, but
					only amongst the ornaments of houses. He also interposed to prevent the senate
					from swearing to maintain his acts; and the month of September from being called
					Tiberius, and October being named after Livia . The praenomen likewise of EMPEROR, with the cognomen of
					FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY, and a civic crown in the vestibule of his house, he would
					not accept. He never used the name of AUGUSTUS, although he inherited it, in any
					of his letters, excepting those addressed to kings and princes. Nor had he more
					than three consulships; one for a few days, another for three months, and the
					third, during his absence from the city, until the ides [fifteenth] of May.

He had such an aversion to flattery, that he would never suffer any senator to
					approach his litter, as he passed the streets in it, either to pay him a
					civility, or upon business. And when a man of consular rank, in begging his
					pardon for some offence he had given him, attempted to fall at his feet, he
					started from him in such haste, that he stumbled and fell. If any compliment was
					paid him, either in conversation or a set speech, he would not scruple to
					interrupt and reprimand the party, and alter what he had said. Being once called
						"lord," by some person, he desired that he might no more be
					affronted in that manner. When another, to excite veneration, called his
					occupations "sacred," and a third had expressed himself thus: " By your
					authority I have waited upon the senate," he obliged them to change their
					phrases; in one of them adopting persuasion, instead of "authority," and in the
					other, laborious, instead of "sacred."

He remained unmoved at all the aspersions, scandalous reports, and lampoons,
					which were spread against him or his relations; declaring, "In a free state,
					both the tongue and the mind ought to be free." Upon the senate's desiring that
					some notice might be taken of those offences, and the persons charged with them,
					he replied, "We have not so much time upon our hands, that we ought to involve
					ourselves in more business. If you once make an opening for
					such proceedings, you will soon have nothing else to do. All private quarrels
					will be brought before you under that pretence." There is also on record another
					sentence used by him in the senate, which is far from assuming: "If he speaks
					otherwise of me, I shall take care to behave in such a manner, as to be able to
					give a good account both of my words and actions; and if he persists, I shall
					hate him in my turn."

These things were so much the more remarkable in him, because, in the respect he
					paid to individuals, or the whole body of the senate, he went beyond all bounds.
					Upon his differing with Quintus Haterius in the senate-house, "Pardon me, sir,"
					he said, "I beseech you, if I shall, as a senator, speak my mind very freely in
					opposition to you." Afterwards, addressing the senate in general, he said:
					"Conscript Fathers, I have often said it both now and at other times, that a
					good and useful prince, whom you have invested with so great and absolute power,
					ought to be a slave to the senate, to the whole body of the people, and often to
					individuals likewise: nor am I sorry that I have said it. I have always found
					you good, kind, and indulgent masters, and still find you so."

He likewise introduced a certain show of liberty, by preserving to the senate and
					magistrates their former majesty and power. All affairs, whether of great or
					small importance, public or private, were laid before the senate. Taxes and
					monopolies, the erecting or repairing edifices, levying and disbanding soldiers,
					the disposal of the legions and auxiliary forces in the provinces, the
					appointment of generals for the management of extraordinary wars, and the
					answers to letters from foreign princes, were all submitted to the senate. He
					compelled the commander of a troop of horse, who was accused of robbery attended
					with violence, to plead his cause before the senate. He never entered the
					senate-house but unattended; and being once brought thither in a litter, because
					he was indisposed, he dismissed his attendants at the door.

When some decrees were made contrary to his opinion, he did not even make any
					complaint. And though he thought that no magistrates after their nomination
					should be allowed to absent themselves from the city, but reside in it
					constantly, to receive their honours in person, a praetor-elect obtained liberty
					to depart under the honorary title of a legate at large. Again, when he proposed
					to the senate, that the Trebians might have leave granted them to divert some
					money which had been left them by will for the purpose of building a new
					theatre, to that of making a road, he could not prevail to have the will of the
					testator set aside. And when, upon a division of the house, he went over to the
					minority, nobody followed him. All other things of a public nature were likewise
					transacted by the magistrates, and in the usual forms; the authority of the
					consuls remaining so great, that some ambassadors from Africa applied to them, and complained, that
					they could not have their business dispatched by Caesar, to whom they had been
					sent. And no wonder; since it was observed that he used to rise up as the
					consuls approached, and give them the way.

He reprimanded some persons of consular rank in command of armies, for not
					writing to the senate an account of their proceedings, anc for consulting him
					about the distribution of military rewards; as if they themselves had not a
					right to bestow them as they judged proper. He commended a praetor, who, on
					entering office, revived an old custom of celebrating the memory of his
					ancestors, in a speech to the people. He attended the corpses of some persons of
					distinction to the funeral pile. He displayed the same moderation with regard to
					persons and things of inferior consideration. The magistrates of Rhodes , having dispatched to him a letter on
					public business, which was not subscribed, he sent for them, and without giving
					them so much as one harsh word, desired them to subscribe it, and so dismissed
					them. Diogenes, the grammarian, who used to hold public disquisitions at
						 Rhodes every sabbath-day, once
					refused him admittance upon his coming to hear him out of course, and sent him a
					message by a servant, postponing his admission to the nexth seventh-day.
					Diogenes afterwards coming to Rome , and
					waiting at his door to be allowed to pay his respects to him, he sent him word
					to come again at the end of seven years. To some governors, who advised him to
					load the provinces with taxes, he answered, "It is the part of a good shepherd
					to shear, not flay, his sheep."

He assumed the sovereignty by slow degrees, and exercised it for a long time
					with great variety of conduct, though generally with a due regard to the public
					good. At first he only interposed to prevent ill management. Accordingly, he
					rescinded some decrees of the senate; and when the magistrates sat for the
					administration of justice, he frequently offered his service as assessor, either
					taking his place promiscuously amongst them, or seating himself in a corner of
					the tribunal. If a rumour prevailed, that any person under prosecution was
					likely to be acquitted by his interest, he would suddenly make his appearance,
					and from the floor of the court, or the praetor's bench, remind the judges of
					the laws, and of their oaths, and the nature of the charge brought before them.
					He likewise took upon himself the correction of public morals, where they tended
					to decay, either through neglect, or evil custom.

He reduced the expense of the plays and public spectacles, by diminishing the
					allowances to actors, and curtailing the number of gladiators. He made grievous
					complaints to the senate, that the price of Corinthian vessels was become
					enormous, and that three mullets had been sold for thirty thousand sesterces:
					upon which he proposed that a new sumptuary law should be enacted; that the
					butchers and other dealers in viands should be subject to an assize, fixed by
					the senate yearly; and the aediles commissioned to restrain eating-houses and
					taverns, so far as not even to permit the sale of any kind of pastry. And to
					encourage frugality in the public by his own example, he would often, at his
					solemn feasts, have at his tables victuals which had been served up the day
					before, and were partly eaten, and half a boar, affirming, It has all the same
					good bits that the whole had." He published an edict against the practice of
					people's kissing each other when they met; and would not allow new year's gifts
						 to be presented after
					the calends [the first] of January was passed. He had been in the habit of
					returning these offerings four-fold, and making them with his own hand; but
					being annoyed by the continual interruption to which he was exposed during the
					whole month, by those who had not the opportunity of attending him on the
					festival, he returned none after that day.

Married women guilty of adultery, though not prosecuted publicly, he authorised
					the nearest relations to punish by agreement among themselves, according to
					ancient custom. He discharged a Roman knight from the obligation of an oath he
					had taken, never to turn away his wife; and allowed him to divorce her, upon her
					being caught in criminal intercourse with her son-in-law. Women of ill-fame,
					divesting themselves of the rights and dignity of matrons, had now begun a
					practice of professing themselves prostitutes, to avoid the punishment of the
					laws; and the most profligate young men of the senatorian and equestrian orders,
					to secure themselves agairist a decree of the senate, which prohibited their
					performing on the stage, or in the amphitheatre, voluntarily subjected
					themselves to an infamous sentence, by which they were degraded. All those he
					banished, that none for the future might evade by such artifices the intention
					and efficacy of the law. He stripped a senator of the broad stripes on his robe,
					upon information of his having removed to his gardens before the calends [the
					first] of July, in order that he might afterwards hire a house cheaper in the
					city. He likewise dismissed another from the office of quaestor, for
					repudiating, the day after he had been lucky in drawing his lot, a wife whom he
					had married only the day before.

He suppressed all foreign religions, and the Egyptian and Jewish rites, obliging those who practised
					that kind of superstition, to burn their vestments, and all their sacred
					utensils. He distributed the Jewish youths, under the pretence of military
					service, among the provinces noted for an unhealthy climate; and dismissed from
					the city all the rest of that nation as well as those who were proselytes to
					that religion, 
					under pain of slavery for life, unless they complied. He also expelled the
					astrologers; but upon their suing for pardon, and promising to renounce their
					profession, he revoked his decree.

But, above all things, he was careful to keep the public peace against robbers,
					burglars, and those who were disaffected to the government. He therefore
					increased the number of military stations throughout Italy ; and formed a camp at Rome for the praetorian cohorts, which, till
					then, had been quartered in the city. He suppressed with great severity all
					tumults of the people on their first breaking out; and took every precaution to
					prevent them. Some persons having been killed in a quarrel which happened in the
					theatre, he banished the leaders of the parties, and the players about whom the
					disturbance had arisen; nor could all the entreaties of the people afterwards
					prevail upon him to recall them. The people of
						 Pollentia having refused to
					permit the removal of the corpse of a centurion of the first rank from the
					forum, until they had extorted from his heirs a sum of money for a public
					exhibition of gladiators, he detached a cohort from the city, and another from
					the kingdom of Cottius; who concealing the cause of their march,
					entered the town by different gates, with their arms suddenly displayed, and
					trumpets sounding; and having seized the greatest part of the people, and the
					magistrates, they were imprisoned for life. He abolished everywhere the
					privileges of all places of refuge. The Cyzicenians having committed an outrage
					upon some Romans, he deprived them of the liberty they had obtained from their
					good services in the Mithridatic war. Disturbances from foreign enemies he
					quelled by his lieutenants, without ever going against them in person; nor would
					he even employ his lieutenants, but with much reluctance, and when it was
					absolutely necessary. Princes who were ill-affected towards him, he kept in
					subjection, more by menaces and remonstrances, than by force of arms. Some whom
					he induced to come to him by fair words and promises, he never would permit to
					return home; as Maraboduus the German, Thrascypolis the Thracian, and Archelaus
					the Cappadocian, whose kingdom he even reduced into the form of a province.

He never set foot outside the gates of Rome , for two years together, from the time he assumed the
					supreme power; and after that period, went no farther from the city than to some
					of the neighbouring towns; his farthest excursion being to Antium , and that but very seldom, and for a few days; though
					he often gave out that he would visit the provinces and armies, and made
					preparations for it almost every year, by taking up carriages, and ordering
					provisions for his retinue in the municipia and colonies. At last he suffered
					vows to be put up for his'good journey and safe return, insomuch that he was
					called jocosely by the name of Callipides, who is famous in a Greek proverb, for
					being in a great hurry to go forward, but without ever advancing a cubit.

But after the loss of his two sons, of whom Germanicus died in Syria , and Drusus at Rome , he withdrew into Campania ; at which time opinion and conversation were almost general, that
					he never would return, and would die soon. And both nearly turned out to be
					true. For indeed he never more came to Rome ; and a few days after leaving it, when he was at a villa
					of his called the Cave, near Terracina , during supper a great many huge
					stones fell from above, which killed several of the guests and attendants; but
					he almost hopelessly escaped.

After he had gone round Campania , and
					dedicated the capitol at Capua , and a
					temple to Augustus at Nola , which he made
					the pretext of his journey, he retired to Capri ; being greatly delighted with the island, because it was
					accessible only by a narrow beach, being on all sides surrounded with rugged
					cliffs, of a stupendous height, and by a deep sea. But immediately, the people
					of Rome being extremely clamorous for
					his return, on account of a disaster at Fidenae, 
					Where upwards of twenty thousand persons had been killed by the fall of the
					amphitheatre, during a public spectacle of gladiators, he crossed over again to
					the continent, and gave all people free access to him; so much the more,
					because, at his departure from the city, he had caused it to be proclaimed that
					no one should address him, and had declined admitting any persons to his
					presence, on the journey.

Returning to the island, he so far abandoned all care of the government, that he
					never filled up the decuriae of the knights, never changed any military tribunes
					or prefects, or governors of provinces, and kept Spain and Syria for
					several years without any consular lieutenants. He likewise suffered Armenia to be seized by the Parthians, Mcesia
					by the Dacians and Sarmatians, and Gaul 
					to be ravaged by the Germans: to the great disgrace, and no less danger, of the
					empire.

But, having now the advantage of privacy, and being remote from the observation
					of the people of Rome , he abandoned
					himself to all the vicious propensities which he had long but imperfectly
					concealed, and of which I shall here give a particular account from the
					beginning. While a young soldier in the camp, he was so remarkable for his
					excessive inclination to wine, that, for Tiberius, they called him Biberius; for
					Claudius, Cal-, dius; and for Nero, Mero . And after he succeeded to the empire, and was invested
					with the office of reforming the morality of the people, he spent a whole night
					and two days together in feasting and drinking with Pomponius Flaccus and Lucius
					Piso; to one of whom he immediately gave the province of Syria , and to the other the prefecture of the
					city; declaring them, in his letterspatent, to be ' very pleasant companions,
					and friends fit for all occasions." He made an appointment to sup with Sestius
					Gallus, a lewd and prodigal old fellow, who had been disgraced by Augustus, and
					reprimanded by himself but a few days before in the senate-house; upon condition
					that he should not recede in the least from his usual method of entertainment,
					and that they should be attended at table by naked girls. He preferred a very
					obscure candidate for the quaestorship, before the most noble competitors, only
					for taking off, in pledging him at table, an amphora of wine at a draught. He presented Asellius
					Sabinus with two hundred thousand sesterces, for writing a dialogue, in the way
					of dispute, betwixt the truffle and the fig-pecker, the oyster and the thrush.
					He likewise instituted a new office to administer to his voluptuousness, to
					which he appointed Titus Caesonius Priscus, a Roman knight.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

His cruel and sullen temper appeared when he was still a boy; which Theodorus of
					Gadara, his master in
					rhetoric, first discovered, and expressed by a very opposite simile, calling him
					sometimes, when he chid him, "Mud mixed with blood." But his disposition shewed
					itself still more clearly on his attaining the imperial power, and even in the
					beginning of his administration, when he was endeavouring to gain the popular
					favour, by affecting moderation. Upon a funeral passing by, a wag called out to
					the dead man, "Tell Augustus, that the legacies he bequeathed to the people are
					not yet paid." The man being brought before him, he ordered that he should
					receive what was due to him, and then be led to execution, that he might deliver
					the message to his father himself. Not long afterwards, when one Pompey, a Roman
					knight, persisted in his opposition to something he proposed in the senate, he
					threatened to put him in prison, and told him, "Of a Pompey I shall make a
					Pompeian of you;" by a bitter kind of pun playing upon the man's name, and the
					ill-fortune of his party.

About the same time, when the praetor consulted him, whether it was his pleasure
					that the tribunals should take cognizance of accusations of treason, he replied,
					"The laws ought to be put in execution;" and he did put them in execution most
					severely. Some person had taken off the head of Augustus from one of his
					statues, and replaced it by another. The matter was brought
					before the senate, and because the case was not clear, the witnesses were put to
					the torture. The party accused being found guilty, and condemned, this kind of
					proceeding was carried so far, that it became capital for a man to beat his
					slave, or change his clothes, near the statue of Augustus; to carry his head
					stamped upon the coin, or cut in the stone of a ring, into a necessary house, or
					the stews; or to reflect upon anything that had been either said or done by him.
					In fine, a person was condemned to death, for suffering some honours to be
					decreed to him in the colony where he lived, upon the same day on which they had
					formerly been decreed to Augustus.

He was besides guilty of many barbarous actions, under the pretence of strictness
					and reformation of manners, but more to gratify his own savage disposition. Some
					verses were published, which displayed the present calamities of his reign, and
					anticipated the future. 
					 Asper et immitis, breviter vis omnia dicam? 
						 Dispeream si te mater amare potest. 
						 Non es eques, quare? non sunt tibi millia centum? 
						 Omnia si quaras, et Rhodos exsilium est. 
						 Aurea mutasti Saturni saecula, Caesar: 
						 Incolumi nam te, ferrea semper erunt. 
						 Fastidit vinum, quia jam sitit iste cruorem: 
						 Tam bibit hunc avide, quam bibit ante merum. 
						 Adspice felicem sibi, non tibi, Romule, Sullam: 
						 Et Marium, si vis, adspice, sed reducem. 
						 Nec non Antoni civilia bella moventis 
						 Nec semel infectas adspice cada manus, 
						 Et dic, Roma perit: regnabit sanguine multo, 
						 Ad regnum quisquis venit ab exsilio. 
					 Obdurate wretch! too fierce, too fell to move 
						 The least kind yearnings of a mother's love! 
						 No knight thou art, as having no estate; 
						 Long suffered'st thou in Rhodes 
							an exile's fate, 
						 No more the happy Golden Age we see; 
						 The Iron's come, and sure to last with thee. 
						 Instead of wine he thirsted for before, 
						 He wallows now in floods of human gore. 
						 Reflect, ye Romans, on the dreadful times, 
						 Made such by Marius, and by Sylla's crimes. 
						 Reflect how Antony's ambitious rage 
						 Twice scar'd with horror a distracted age. 
						 And say, Alas! Rome 's blood in
							streams will flow, 
						 When banish'd miscreants rule this world below. At first he
					would have it understood, that these satirical verses were drawn forth by the
					resentment of those who were impatient under the discipline of reformation,
					rather than that they spoke,their real sentiments; and he would frequently say,
					"Let them hate me, so long as they do but approve my conduct." At length, however, his behaviour showed that he was
					sensible they were too well founded.

A few days after his arrival at Capri , a
					fisherman coming up to him unexpectedly, when he was desirous of privacy, and
					presenting him with a large mullet, he ordered the man's face to be scrubbed
					with the fish; being terrified with the thought of his having been able to creep
					upon him from the back of the island, over such rugged and steep rocks. The man,
					while undergoing the punishment, expressing his joy that he had not likewise
					offered him a large crab which he had also taken, he ordered his face to be
					farther lacerated with its claws. He put to death one of the pretorian guards,
					for having stolen a peacock out of his orchard. In one of his journeys, his
					litter being obstructed by some bushes, he ordered the officer whose duty it was
					to ride on and examine the road, a centurion of the first cohorts, to be laid on
					his face upon the ground, and scourged almost to death.

Soon afterwards, he abandoned himself to every species of cruelty, never wanting
					occasions of one kind or another, to serve as a pretext. He first fell upon the
					friends and acquaintances of his mother, then those of his grandsons, and his
					daughter-in-law, and lastly those of Sejanus; after whose death he became cruel
					in the extreme. From this it appeared, that he had not been so much instigated
					by Sejanus, as supplied with occasions of gratifying his savage temper, when he
					wanted them. Though in a short memoir which he composed of his own life, he had
					the effrontery to write, "I have punished Sejanus, because I found him bent upon
					the destruction of the children of my son Germanicus," one of these he put to
					death, when he began to suspect Sejanus; and another, after he was taken off. It
					would be tedious to relate all the numerous instances of his cruelty: suffice it
					to give a few examples, in their different kinds. Not a day passed without the
					punishment of some person or other, not excepting holidays, or those
					appropriated to the worship of the gods. Some were tried even on NewYear's-Day.
					Of many who were condemned, their wives and children shared the same fate; and
					for those who Were sentenced to death, the relations were forbid to put on
					mourning. Considerable rewards were voted for the prosecutors, and sometimes for
					the witnesses also. The information of any person, without exception, was taken;
					and all offences were capital, even speaking a few words, though without any ill
					intention. A poet was charged with abusing Agamemnon; and a historian, for
					calling Brutus and Cassius " the last of the Romans." The two authors were
					immediately called to account, and their writings suppressed; though they had
					been well received some years before, and read in the hearing of Augustus. Some,
					who were thrown into prison, were not only denied the solace of study, but
					debarred from all company and conversation. Many persons, when summoned to
					trial, stabbed themselves at home, to avoid the distress and ignominy of a
					public condemnation, which they were certain would ensue. Others took poison in
					the senate-house. The wounds were bound up, and all who had not expired, were
					carried, half-dead, and panting for life, to prison. Those who were put to
					death, were thrown down the Gemonian stairs, and then dragged into the
						 Tiber . In one day, twenty were
					treated in this manner; and amongst them women and boys. Because, according to
					an ancient custom, it was not lawful to strangle virgins, the young girls were
					first deflowered by the executioner, and afterwards strangled. Those who were
					desirous to die, were forced to live. For he thought death so slight a
					punishment, that upon hearing that Carnulius, one of the accused, who was under
					prosecution, had killed himself," he exclaimed, "Carnulius has escaped me." In
					calling over his prisoners, when one of them requested the favour of a speedy
					death, he replied, " You are not yet restored to favour." A man of consular rank
					writes in his annals, that at table, where he himself was present with a large
					company, he was suddenly asked aloud by a dwarf who stood by amongst the
					buffoons, why Paconius, who was under prosecution for treason, lived so long.
					Tiberius immediately reprimanded him for his pertness; but wrote to the senate a
					few days after, to proceed without delay to the punishment of Paconius.

Exasperated by information he received respect ing the death of his son Drusus,
					he carried his cruelty still farther. He imagined that he had died of a disease
					occasioned by his intemperance; but finding that he had been poisoned by the
					contrivance of his wife Livilla, and Sejanus, he spared no one from torture and
					death. He was so entirely occupied with the examination of this affair, for
					whole days together, that, upon being informed that the person in whose house he
					had lodged at Rhodes , and whom he had
					by a friendly letter invited to Rome ,
					was arrived, he ordered him immediately to be put to the torture, as a party
					concerned in the enquiry. Upon finding his mistake, he commanded him to be put
					to death, that he might not publish the injury done him. The place of execution
					is still shown at Capri , where he
					ordered those who were condemned to die, after long and exquisite tortures, to
					be thrown, before his eyes, from a precipice into the sea. There a party of
					soldiers belonging to the fleet waited for them, and broke their bones with
					poles and oars, lest they should have any life left in them. Had not death prevented him, and Thrasyllus, designedly, as some
					say, prevailed with him to defer some of his cruelties, in hopes of longer life,
					it is believed that he would have destroyed many more; and not have spared even
					the rest of his grand-children: for he was jealous of Caius, and hated Tiberius
					as having been conceived in adultery. This conjecture is indeed highly probable;
					for he used often to say, "Happy Priam, who survived all his children!"

Amidst these enormities, in how much fear and apprehension, as well as odium and
					detestation, he lived, is evident from many indications. He forbade the
					soothsayers to be consulted in private, and without some witnesses being
					present. He attempted to suppress the oracles in the neighbourhood of the city;
					but being terrified by the divine authority of the Praenestine Lots, he abandoned the design. For though they were sealed
					up in a box, and carried to Rome , yet
					they were not to be found in it until it was returned to the temple. More than
					one person of consular rank, appointed governors of provinces, he never ventured
					to dismiss to their respective destinations, but kept them until several years
					after, when he nominated their successors, while they still remained present
					with him. In the meantime they bore the title of their office; and he frequently
					gave them orders, which they took care to have executed by their deputies and
					assistants.

He never removed his daughter-in-law or grandsons, after their condemnation, to any
					place, but in fetters and in a covered litter, with a guard to hinder all who
					met them on the road, and travellers, from stopping to gaze at them.

After Sejanus had plotted against him, though he saw that his birth-day was
					solemnly kept by the public, and divine honours paid to golden images of him in
					every quarter, yet it was with difficulty at last, and more by artifice than his
					imperial power, that he accomplished his death. In the first place, to remove
					him from about his person, under the pretext of doing him honour, he made him
					his colleague in his fifth consulship; which, although then absent from the
					city, he took upon him for that purpose, long after his preceding consulship.
					Then, having flattered him with the hope of an alliance by marriage with one of
					his own kindred, and the prospect of the tribunitian authority, he suddenly,
					while Sejanus little expected it, charged him with treason, in an abject and
					pitiful address to the senate; in which, among other things, he begged them "to
					send one of the consuls, to conduct himself, a poor solitary old man, with a
					guard of soldiers, into their presence." Still distrustful, however, and
					apprehensive of an insurrection, he ordered his grandson, Drusus, whom he still
					kept in confinement at Rome , to be set
					at liberty, and if occasion required, to head the troops. He had likewise ships
					in readiness to transport him to any of the legions to which he might consider
					it expedient to make his escape. Meanwhile, he was upon the watch, from the
					summit of a lofty cliff, for the signals which he had ordered to be made if any
					thing occurred, lest the messengers should be tardy. Even when he had quite
					foiled the conspiracy of Sejanus, he was still haunted as much as ever with
					fears and apprehensions, insomuch that he never once stirred out of the Villa
					Jovis for nine months after.

To the extreme anxiety of mind which he now experienced, he had the mortification
					to find superadded the most poignant reproaches from all quarters. Those who
					were condemned to die, heaped upon him the most opprobrious language in his
					presence, or by hand-bills scattered in the senators' seats in the theatre.
					These produced different effects: sometimes he wished, out of shame, to have all
					smothered and concealed; at other times he would disregard what was said, and
					publish it himself. To this accumulation of scandal and open sarcasm, there is
					to be subjoined a letter from Artabanus, king of the Parthians, in which he
					upbraids him with his parricides, murders, cowardice, and lewdness, and advises
					him to satisfy the furious rage of his own people, which he had so justly
					excited, by putting an end to his life without delay.

At last, being quite weary with himself, he acknowledged his extreme misery, in a
					letter to the senate, which begun thus: "What to write to you, Conscript
					Fathers, or how to write, or what not to write at this time, may all the gods
					and goddesses pour upon my head a more terrible vengeance than that under which
					I feel myself daily sinking, if I can tell." Some are of opinion that he had a
					foreknowledge of those things, from his skill in the science of divination, and
					perceived long before what misery and infamy would at last come upon him; and
					that for this reason, at the beginning of his reign, he had absolutely refused
					the title of the " Father of his Country," and the proposal of the senate to
					swear to his acts; lest he should afterwards, to his greater shame, be found
					unequal to such extraordinary honours. This, indeed, may be justly inferred from
					the speeches which he made upon both those occasions; as when he says, " I shall
					ever be the same, and shall never change my conduct, so long as I retain my
					senses; but to avoid giving a bad precedent to posterity, the senate ought to
					beware of binding themselves to the acts of any person whatever, who might by
					some accident or other be induced to alter them." And again: " If ye should at
					any time entertain a jealousy of my conduct, and my entire affection for you,
					which heaven prevent by putting a period to my days, rather than I should live
					to see such an alteration in your opinion of me, the title of Father will add no
					honour to me, but be a reproach to you, for your rashness in conferring it upon
					me, or inconsistency in altering your opinion of me."

In person he was large and robust; of a stature somewhat above the common size;
					broad in the shoulders and chest, and proportionable in the rest of his frame.
					He used his left hand more readily and with more force than his right; and his
					joints were so strong, that he could bore a fresh, sound apple through with his
					finger, and wound the head of a boy, or even a young man, with a fillip. He was
					of a fair complexion, and wore his hair so long behind, that it covered his
					neck, which was observed to be a mark of distinction affected by the family. He
					had a handsome face, but it was often full of pimples. His eyes, which were
					large, had a wonderful faculty of seeing in the night-time, and in the dark, for
					a short time only, and immediately after awaking from sleep; but they soon grew
					dim again. He walked with his neck stiff and upright; generally with a frowning
					countenance, being for the most part silent: when he spoke to those about him,
					it was very slowly, and usually accompanied with a slight gesticulation of his
					fingers. All which, being repulsive habits and signs of arrogance, were remarked
					by Augustus, who often endeavoured to excuse them to the senate and people,
					declaring that "they were natural defects, which proceeded from no viciousness
					of mind." He enjoyed a good state of health, without interruption, almost during
					the whole period of his rule; though, from the thirtieth year of his age, he
					treated himself according to his own discretion, without any medical
					assistance.

In regard to the gods, and matters of religion, he discovered much indifference;
					being greatly addicted to astrology, and fully persuaded that all things were
					governed by fate. Yet he was extremely afraid of lightning, and when the sky was
					in a disturbed state, always wore a laurel crown on his head; because it is
					supposed that the leaf of that tree is never touched by the lightning.

He applied himself with great diligence to the liberal arts, both Greek and
					Latin. In his Latin style, he affected to imitate the Messala Corvinus, a venerable man, to whom he
					had paid much respect in his own early years. But he rendered his style obscure
					by excessive affectation and abstruseness, so that he was thought to speak
					better extempore, than in a premeditated discourse. He composed likewise a lyric
					ode, under the title of " A Lamentation upon the Death of Lucius Caesar; " and
					also some Greek poems, in imitation of Euphorion, Rhianus, and Parthenius. These poets he greatly
					admired, and placed their works and statues in the public libraries, amongst the
					eminent authors of antiquity. On this account, most of the learned men of the
					time vied with each other in publishing observations upon them, which they
					addressed to him. His principal study, however, was the history of the fabulous
					ages, inquiring even into its trifling details in a ridiculous manner; for he
					used to try the grammarians, a class of men which, as I have already observed,
					he much affected, with such questions as these: "Who was Hecuba's mother? What
					name did Achilles assume among the virgins? What was it that the Sirens used to
					sing?" And the first day that he entered the senate-house, after the death of
					Augustus, as if he intended to pay respect at once to his father's memory and to
					the gods, he made an offering of frankincense and wine, but without any music,
					in imitation of Minos, upon the death of his son.

Though he was ready and conversant with the Greek tongue, yet he did not use it
					everywhere; but chiefly he avoided it in the senate-house, insomuch that having
					occasion to employ the word monopolium (monopoly), he first begged pardon for
					being obliged to adopt a foreign word. And when, in a decree of the senate, the
					word ἔμβλημα (emblem) was read, he
					proposed to have it changed, and that a Latin word should be substituted in its
					room; or, if no proper one could be found, to express the thing by
					circumlocution. A soldier who was examined as a witness upon a trial, in
						Greek, he would not allow to reply, except in
					Latin.

During the whole time of his seclusion at Capri , twice only he made an effort to visit Rome . Once he came in a galley as far as the
					gardens near the Naumachia, but placed guards along the banks of the Tiber , to keep off all who should offer to
					come to meet him. The second time he travelled on the Appian way, as far as the seventh
					mile-stone from the city, but he immediately returned, without entering it,
					having only taken a view of the walls at a distance. For what reason he did not
					disembark in his first excursion, is uncertain; but in the last, he was deterred
					from entering the city by a prodigy. He was in the habit of diverting himself
					with a snake, and upon going to feed it with his own hand, according to custom,
					he found it devoured by ants: from which he was advised to beware of the fury of
					the mob. On this account, returning in all haste to Campania , he fell ill at Astura ; but recovering a
					little, went on to Circeii . And to
					obviate any suspicion of his being in a bad state of health, he was not only
					present at the sports in the camp, but encountered, with javelins, a wild boar,
					which was let loose in the arena. Being immediately seized with a pain in the
					side, and catching cold upon his overheating himself in the exercise, he
					relapsed into a worse condition than he was before. He held out, however, for
					some time; and sailing as far as Misenum , omitted no thing in his usual mode of life, not
					even in his entertainments, and other gratifications, partly from an
					ungovernable appetite, and partly to conceal his condition. For Charicles, a
					physician, having obtained leave of absence, on his rising from table, took his
					hand to kiss it; upon which Tiberius, supposing he did it to feel his pulse,
					desired him to stay and resume his place, and continued the entertainment longer
					than usual. Nor did he omit his usual custom of taking his station in the centre
					of the apartment, a lictor standing by him, while he took leave of each of the
					party by name.

Meanwhile, finding, upon looking over the acts of the senate, "that some person
					under prosecution had been discharged, without being brought to a hearing," for
					he had only written cursorily that they had been denounced by an informer; he
					complained in a great rage that he was treated with contempt, and resolved at
					all hazards to return to Capri ; not
					daring to attempt any thing until he found himself in a place of security. But
					being detained by storms, and the increasing violence of his disorder, he died
					shortly afterwards, at a villa formerly belonging to Lucullus, in the
					seventy-eighth year of his age, and the twenty-third of his reign, upon the seventeenth of the calends
					of April [i6th March], in the consulship of Cneius Acerronius Proculus and Caius
					Pontius Niger. Some think that a slow-consuming poison was given him by Caius.
						 
					Others say that during the interval of the intermittent fever with which he
					happened to be seized, upon asking for food, it was denied him. Others report,
					that he was stifled by a pillow thrown upon him, 
					when, on his recovering from a swoon, he called for his ring, which had been
					taken from him in the fit. Seneca 
					writes, "That finding himself dying, he took his signet ring off his finger, and
					held it a while, as if he would deliver it to somebody; but put it again upon
					his finger, and lay for some time, with his left hand clenched, and without
					stirring; when suddenly summoning his attendants, and no one answering the call,
					he rose; but his strength failing him, he fell down at a short distance from his
					bed."

Upon his last birth-day, he had brought a full-sized statue of the Timenian
					Apollo from Syracuse , a work of
					exquisite art, intending to place it in the library of the new temple; but he dreamt that the god appeared to him in the night, and assured him
					"that his statue could not be erected by him." A few days before he died, the
					Pharos at Capri was thrown down by an
					earthquake. And at Misenum , some embers
					and live coals, which were brought in to warm his apartment, went out, and after
					being quite cold, burst out into a flame again towards evening, and continued
					burning very brightly for several hours.

The people were so much elated at his death, that when they first heard the news,
					they ran up and down the city, some, crying out "Away with Tiberius to the
						 Tiber ;" others exclaiming, "May the
					earth, the common mother of mankind, and the infernal gods, allow him no abode
					in death, but amongst the wicked." Others threatened his body with the hook and
					the Gemonian stairs, their indignation at his former cruelty being increased by
					a recent atrocity. It had been provided by an act of the senate, that the
					execution of condemned criminals should always be deferred until the tenth day
					after the sentence. Now this fell on the very day when the news of Tiberius's
					death arrived, and in consequence of which the unhappy men implored a reprieve,
					for mercy's sake; but. as Caius had not yet arrived, and there was no one else
					to whom application could be made on their behalf, their guards, apprehensive of
					violating the law, strangled them, and threw them down the Gemonian stairs. This
					roused the people to a still greater abhorrence of the tyrant's memory, since
					his cruelty continued in use even after he was dead. As soon as his corpse was
					begun to be moved from Misenum ,
					many cried out for its being carried to Atella , and being half burnt there in the amphitheatre. It
					was, however, brought to Rome , and
					burnt with the usual ceremony.

He had made, about two years before, duplicates of his will, one written by his
					own hand, and the other by that of one of his freedmen; and both were witnessed
					by some persons of very mean rank. He appointed his two grandsons, Caius by
					Germanicus, and Tiberius by Drusus, joint heirs to his estate; and upon the
					death of one of them, the other was to inherit the whole. He gave likewise many
					legacies; amongst which were bequests to the Vestal Virgins, to all the
					soldiers, and each one of the people of Rome , and to the magistrates of the several quarters of the
					city.

Remarks on Tiberius 
				 At the death of Augustus, there had elapsed so long a period from the overthrow
					of the republic by Julius Caesar, that few were now living who had been born
					under the ancient constitution of the Romans; and the mild and prosperous
					administration of Augustus, during forty-four years, had by this time reconciled
					the minds of the people to a despotic government. Tiberius , the adopted son of the former sovereign, was of
					mature age; and though he had hitherto lived, for the most part, abstracted from
					any concern with public affairs, yet, having been brought up in the family of
					Augustus, he was acquainted with his method of government, which, there was
					reason to expect, he would render the model of his own. Livia , too, his mother, and the relict of the
					late emperor, was still living, a woman venerable by years, who had long been
					familiar with the councils of Augustus, and from her high rank, as well as
					uncommon affability, possessed an extensive influence amongst all classes of the
					people. 
				 Such were the circumstances in favour of Tiberius 's succession at the demise of Augustus; but there were
					others of a tendency disadvantageous to his views. His temper was haughty and
					reserved: Augustus had often apologised for the ungraciousness of his manners.
					He was disobedient to his mother; and though he had not openly discovered any
					propensity to vice, he enjoyed none of those qualities which usually conciliate
					popularity. To these considerations it is to be added, that Postumus Agrippa,
					the grandson of Augustus by Julia , was
					living; and if consanguinity was to be the rule of succession, his right was
					indisputably preferable to that of an adopted son. Augustus had sent this youth
					into exile a few years before; but, towards the close of his life, had expressed
					a design of recalling him, with the view, as was supposed, of appointing him his
					successor. The father of young Agrippa had been greatly beloved by the Romans;
					and the fate of his mother, Julia ,
					though she was notorious for her profligacy, had ever been regarded by them with
					peculiar sympathy and tenderness. Many, therefore, attached to the son the
					partiality entertained for his parents; which was increased not only by a strong
					suspicion, but a general surmise, that his elder brothers, Caius and Lucius , had been violently taken off, to make
					way for the succession of Tiberius .
					That an obstruction was apprehended to Tiberius 's succession from this quarter, is put beyond all
					doubt, when we find that the death of Augustus was industriously kept secret,
					until young Agrippa should be removed; who, it is generally agreed, was
					dispatched by an order from Livia and
						 Tiberius conjointly, or at least
					from the former. Though, by this act, there reilained no rival to Tiberius , yet the consciousness of his own
					want of pretensions to the Roman throne, seems to have still rendered him
					distrustful of the succession; and that he should have quietly obtained it,
					without the voice of the people, the real inclination of the senate, or the
					support of the army, can be imputed only to the influence of his mother, and his
					own dissimulation. Ardently solicitous to attain the object, yet affecting a
					total indifference; artfully prompting the senate to give him the charge of the
					government, at the time that he intimated an invincible reluctance to accept it;
					his absolutely declining it in perpetuity, but fixing no time for an abdication;
					his deceitful insinuation of bodily infirmities, with hints likewise of
					approaching old age, that he might allay in the senate all apprehensions of any
					great duration of nis power, and repress in his adopted son, Germanicus, the
					emotions of ambition to displace him; form altogether a scene of the most
					insidious policy, inconsistency, and dissimulation. 
				 In this period died, in the eighty-sixth year of her age, Livia Drusilla, mother
					of the emperor, and the relict of Augustus, whom she survived fifteen years. She
					was the daughter of I Drusus Calidianus and married Tiberius Claudius Nero, by whom she had two sons, Tiberius and
					Drusus. The conduct of this lady seems to justify the remark of Caligula, that "
					she was an Ulysses in a woman's dress."
					Octavius first saw her as she fled from the danger which threatened her husband,
					who had espoused the cause of Antony; and though she was then pregnant, he
					resolved to marry her; whether with her own inclination or not, is left by
					Tacitus undetermined. To pave the way for this union, he divorced his wife
					Scribonia, and with the approbation of the Augurs, which he could have no
					difficulty in obtaining, celebrated his nuptials with Livia . There ensued from this marriage no
					issue, though much desired by both parties; but Livia retained, without interruption, an unbounded ascendancy
					over the emperor, whose confidence she abused, while the uxorious husband little
					suspected that he was cherishing in his bosom a viper who was to prove the
					destruction of his house. She appears to have entertained a predominant ambition
					of giving an heir to the Roman empire; and since it could not be done by any
					fruit of her marriage with Augustus, she resolved on accomplishing that end in
					the person of Tiberius , the eldest son
					by her former husband. The plan which she devised for this purpose, was to
					exterminate all the male offspring of Augustus by his daughter Julia, who was
					married to Agrippa; a stratagem which, when executed,.would procure for
						 Tiberius , through the means of
					adoption, the eventual succession to the empire. The cool yet sanguinary policy,
					and the patient perseverance of resolution, with which she prosecuted her
					design, have seldom been equalled. While the sons of Julia were yet young, and while there was
					still a possibility that she herself might have issue by Augustus, she suspended
					her project, in the hope, perhaps, that accident or disease might operate in its
					favour; but when the natural term of her constitution had put a period to her
					hopes of progeny, and when the grandsons of the emperor were risen to the years
					of manhood, and had been adopted by him, she began to carry into execution what
					she long had meditated. The first object devoted to destruction was C. Caesar
					Agrippa, the eldest of Augustus's grandsons. This promising youth was sent to
						 Armenia , upon an expedition against
					the Persians; and Lollius, who had been his governor, either accompanied him
					thither from Rome , or met him in the
					East, where he had obtained some appointment. From the hand of this traitor,
					perhaps under the pretext of exercising the authority of a preceptor, but in
					reality instigated by Livia , the young
					prince received a fatal blow, of which he died some time after. 
				 The manner of Caius's death seems to have been carefully kept from the knowledge
					of Augustus, who promoted Lollius to the consulship, and made him governor of a
					province; but, by his rapacity in this station, he afterwards incurred the
					emperor's displeasure. The true character of this person had escaped the keen
					discernment of Horace , as well as the
					sagacity of the emperor; for in two epistles addressed to Lollius, he mentions
					him as great and accomplished in the superlative degree; maxime Lolli, liberrime Lolli ; so imposing had been the manners
					and address of this deceitfnl courtier. 
				 Lucius , the second son of Julia , was banished into Campania , for using, as it is said, seditious
					language against his grandfather. In the seventh year of his exile, Augustus
					proposed to recall him; but Livia and
						 Tiberius , dreading the consequences
					of his being restored to the emperor's favour, put in practice the expedient of
					having him immediately assassinated. Postumus Agrippa, the third son, incurred
					the displeasure of his grandfather in the same way as Lucius , and was confined at Surrentum , where he remained a prisoner until
					he was put to death by the order either of Livia alone, or in conjunction with Tiberius , as was before observed. 
				 Such was the catastrophe, through the means of Livia , of all the grandsons of Augustus; and reason justifies
					the inference, that she who scrupled not to lay violent hands upon those young
					men, had formerly practised every artifice that could operate towards rendering
					them obnoxious to the emperor. We may even ascribe to her dark intrigues the
					dissolute conduct of Julia : for the
					woman who could secretly act as procuress to her own husband, would feel little
					restraint upon her mind against corrupting his daughter, when such an effect
					might contribute to answer the purpose which she had in view. But in the
					ingratitude of Tiberius , however
					undutiful and reprehensible in a son towards a parent, she at last experienced a
					just retribution for the crimes in which she had trained him to procure the
					succession to the empire. To the disgrace of her sex, she introduced amongst the
					Romans the horrible practice of domestic murder, little known before the times
					when the thirst or intoxication of unlimited power had vitiated the social
					affections; and she transmitted to succeeding ages a pernicious example, by
					which immoderate ambition might be gratified, at the expense of every moral
					obligation, as well as of humanity. 
				 One of the first victims in the sanguinary reign of the present emperor, was
					Germanicus, the son of Drusus, Tiberius 's own brother, and who had been adopted by his uncle
					himself. Under any sovereign, of a temper different from that of Tiberius , this amiable and meritorious prince
					would have been held in the highest esteem. At the death of his grandfather
					Augustus, he was employed in a war in Germany , where he greatly distinguished himself by his military
					achievements; and as soon as intelligence of that event arrived, the soldiers,
					by whom he was extremely beloved, unanimously saluted him emperor. Refusing,
					however, to accept this mark of their partiality, he persevered in allegiance to
					the government of his uncle, and prosecuted the war with success. Upon the
					conclusion of this expedition, he was sent, with the title of emperor in the
					East, to repress the seditions of the Armenians, in which he was equally
					successful. But the fame which he acquired, served only to render him an object
					of jealousy to Tiberius , by whose order
					he was secretly poisoned at Daphne ,
					near Antioch , in the thirtyfourth year
					of his age. The news of Germanicus's death was received at Rome with universal lamentation; and all ranks
					of the people entertained an opinion, that, had he survived Tiberius , he would have restored the freedom
					of the republic. The love and grditude of the Romans decreed many honours to his
					memory. It was ordered, that his name should be sung in a solemn procession of
					the Salii; that crowns of oak, in allusion to his victories, should be placed
					upon curule chairs in the hall pertaining to the priests of Augustus; and that
					an effigy of him in ivory should be drawn upon a chariot, preceding the
					ceremonies of the Circensian games. Triumphal arches were erected, one at
						 Rome , another on the banks of the
						 Rhine , and a third upon Mount
					Amanus in Syria , with inscriptions of
					his achievements, and that he died for his services to the republic. 
				 His obsequies were celebrated, not with the display of images and funeral pomp,
					but with the recital of his praises and the virtues which rendered him
					illustrious. From a resemblance in his personal accomplishments, his age, the
					manner of his death, and the vicinity of Daphne to Babylon ,
					many compared his fate to that of Alexander the Great. He was celebrated for
					humanity and benevolence, as well as military talents, and amidst the toils of
					war, found leisure to cultivate the arts of literary genius. He composed two
					comedies in Greek, some epigrams, and a translation of Aratus into Latin verse.
					He married Agrippina, the daughter of M. Agrippa, by whom he had nine children.
					This lady, who had accompanied her husband into the east, carried his ashes to
						 Italy , and accused his murderer,
					Piso; who, unable to bear up against the public odium incurred by that
					transaction, laid violent hands upon himself. Agrippina was now nearly in the
					same predicament with regard to Tiberius, that Ovid had formerly been in respect
					of Augustus. He was sensible, that when she accused Piso, she was not ignorant
					of the person by whom the perpetrator of the murder had been instigated; and her
					presence, therefore, seeming continually to reproach him with his guilt, he
					resolved to rid himself of a person become so obnoxious to his sight, and
					banished her to the island of Pandataria, where she died some time afterwards
					with famine. 
				 But it was not sufficient to gratify this sanguinary tyrant, that he had, without
					any cause, cut off both Germanicus and his wife Agrippina: the distinguished
					merits and popularity of that prince were yet to be revenged upon his children;
					and accordingly he set himself to invent a pretext for their destruction. After
					endeavouring in vain, by various artifices, to provoke the resentment of
						 Nero and Drusus against him, he had
					recourse to false accusation, and not only charged them with seditious designs,
					to which their tender years were ill adapted, but with vices of a nature the
					most scandalous. By a sentence of the senate, which manifested the extreme
					servility of that assembly, he procured them both to be declared open enemies to
					their country. Nero he banished to the
					island'of Pontia, where, like his unfortunate mother, he miserably perished by
					famine; and Drusus was doomed to the same fate, in the lower part of the
					Palatium, after suffering for nine days the violence of hunger, and having, as
					is related, devoured part of his bed. The remaining son, Caius, on account of
					his vicious disposition, he resolved to appoint his successor on the throne,
					that, after his own death, a comparison might be made in favour of his own
					memory, when the Romans should be governed by a sovereign yet more vicious and
					more tyrannical, if possible, than himself. 
				 Sejanus, the minister in the present reign, imitated with success, for some time,
					the hypocrisy of his master; and, had his ambitious temper, impatient of
					attaining its object, allowed him to wear the mask for a longer period, he might
					have gained the imperial diadem; in the pursuit of which he was overtaken by
					that fate which he merited still more by his cruelties than his perfidy to
					Tiberms. This man was a native of Volsinium in Tuscany , and the son of a Roman knight. He had first insinuated
					himself into the favour of Caius Caesar, the grandson of Augustus, after whose
					death he courted the friendship of Tiberius, and obtained m a short time his
					entire confidence, which he improved to the best advantage. The object which he
					next pursued, was to gain the attachment of the senate, and the officers of the
					army; besides whom, with a new kind of policy, he endeavoured to secure in his
					interest every lady of distinguished connections, by giving secretly to each of
					them a promise of marriage, as soon as he should arrive at the sovereignty. The
					chief obstacles in his way were the sons and grandsons of Tiberius; and these he
					soon sacrificed to his ambition, under various pretences. Drusus, the eldest of
					this progeny, having in a fit of passion struck the favourite, was destined by
					him to destruction. For this purpose, he had the presumption to seduce Livia,
					the wife of Drusus, to whom she had borne several children; and she consented to
					marry her adulterer upon the death of her husband, who was soon after poisoned,
					through the means of an eunuch named Lygdus, by order of her and Sejanus. Drusus
					was the son of Tiberius by Vipsania, one of Agrippa's daughters. He displayed
					great intrepidity during the war m the provinces of Illyricum and Pannonia , but appears to have been dissolute in his morals.
						 Horace is said to have written the
					Ode in praise of Drusus at the desire of Augustus; and while the poet celebrates
					the military courage of the prince, he insinuates indirectly a salutary
					admonition to the cultivation of the civil virtues: 
						 Doctrina sed vim promovet insitam, 
							 Rectique cultus pectora roborant: 
							 Utcumque defecere mores, 
							 Dedecorant bene nata culpae. 
						 Ode iv. 4. 
					 
					 
						 Yet sage instructions to refine the soul 
							 And raise the genius, wondrous aid impart, 
							 Conveying inward, as they purely roll, 
							 Strength to the mind and vigour to the heart: 
							 When mortals fail, the stains of vice disgrace 
							 The fairest honours of the noblest race. 
						 Francis. 
					 
				 Upon the death of Drusus, Sejanus openly avowed a desire of marrying the widowed
					princess; but Tiberius opposing this measure, and at the same time recommending
					Germanicus to the senate as his successor in the empire, the mind of Sejanus was
					more than ever inflamed by the united, and now furious, passions of love and
					ambition. He therefore urged his demand with increased importunity; but the
					emperor still refusing his consent, and things being not yet ripe for an
					immediate revolt, Sejanus thought nothing so favourable for the prosecution of
					his designs as the absence of Tiberius from the capital. With this view, under
					the pretence of relieving his master from the cares of government, he persuaded
					him to retire to a distance from Rome .
					The emperor, indolent and luxurious, approved of the proposal, and retired into
						 Campania , leaving to his ambitious
					minister the whole direction of the empire. Had Sejanus now been governed by
					common prudence and moderation, he might have attained to the accomplishment of
					all his wishes; but a natural impetuosity of temper, and the intoxication of
					power, precipitated him into measures which soon effected his destruction. As if
					entirely emancipated from the control of a master, he publicly declared himself
					sovereign of the Roman empire, and that Tiberius, who had by this time retired
					to Capri , was only the dependent prince
					of that tributary island. He even went so far in degrading the emperor, as to
					have him introduced in a ridiculous light upon the stage. Advice of Sejanus's
					proceedings was soon carried to the emperor at Capri ; his indignation was immediately excited; and with a
					confidence founded upon an authority exercised for several years, he sent orders
					for accusing Sejanus before the senate. This mandate no sooner arrived, than the
					audacious minister was deserted by his adherents; he was in a short time after
					seized without resistance, and strangled in prison the same day. 
				 Human nature recoils with horror at the cruelties of this execrable tyrant, who,
					having first imbrued his hands in the blood of his own relations, proceeded to
					exercise them upon the public with indiscriminate fury. Neither age nor sex
					afforded any exemption from his insatiable thirst for blood. Innocent children
					were condemned to death, and butchered in the presence of their parents;
					virgins, without any imputed guilt, were sacrificed to a similar destiny; but
					there being an ancient custom of not strangling females in that situation, they
					were first deflowered by the executioner, and afterwards strangled, as if an
					atrocious addition to cruelty could sanction the exercise of it. Fathers were
					constrained by violence to witness the death of their own children; and even the
					tears of a mother, at the execution of her child, were punished as a capital
					offence. Some extraordinary calamities, occasioned by accident, added to the
					horrors of the reign. A great number of houses on Mount Ccelius were destroyed
					by fire; and by the fall of a temporary building at Fidenae, erected for the
					purpose of exhibiting public shows, about twenty thousand persons were either
					greatly hurt, or crushed to death in the ruins. 
				 By another fire which afterwards broke out, a part of the Circus was destroyed,
					with the numerous buildings on Mgunt Aventine. The only act of munificence
					displayed by Tiberius during his reign, was upon the occasion of those fires,
					when, to qualify the severity of his government, he indemnified the most
					considerable sufferers for the loss they had sustained. 
				 Through the whole of his life, Tiberius seems to have conducted himself with a
					uniform repugnance to nature. Affable on a few occasions, but in general averse
					to society, he indulged, from his earliest years, a moroseness of disposition,
					which counterfeited the appearance of austere virtue; and in the decline of
					life, wRien it is common to reform from juvenile indiscretions, he launched
					forth into excesses, of a kind the most.unnatural and most detestable.
					Considering the vicious passions which had ever brooded in his heart, it may
					seem surprising that he restrained himself within the bounds of decency during
					so many years after his accession; but though utterly destitute of reverence or
					affection for his mother, he still felt, during her life, a filial awe upon his
					mind: and after her death, ie was actuated by a slavish fear of Sejanus, until
					at last political necessity absolved him likewise from this restraint. These
					checks being both removed, he rioted without any control, either from sentiment
					or authority. 
				 Pliny relates, that the art of making
					glass malleable was actually discovered under the reign of Tiberius , and that the shop and tools of the
					artist were destroyed, lest, by the establishment of this invention, gold and
					silver should lose their value. Dion adds, that the author of the discovery was
					put to death. 
				 The gloom which darkened the Roman capital during this melancholy period, shed a
					baleful influence on the progress of science throughout the empire, and
					literature languished during the present reign, in the same proportion as it:had
					flourished in the preceding. It is doubtful' whether such a change might not
					have happened in some degree, even had the government of Tiberius been equally
					mild with that of his predecessor. The prodigious fame of the writers of the
					Augustan age, by repressing emulation, tended to a general diminution of the
					efforts of genius for some time; while the banishment of Ovid , it is probable, and the capital
					punishment of a subsequent poet, for censuring the character of Agamemnon,
					operated towards the farther discouragement of poetical exertions. There now
					existed no circumstance to counterbalance these disadvantages. Genius no longer
					found a patron either in the emperor or his minister; and the gates of the
					palace were shut against all who cultivated the elegant pursuits of the Muses.
					Panders, catamites, assassins, wretches stained with every crime, were the
					constant attendants, as the only fit companions, of the tyrant who now occupied
					the throne. We are informed, however, that even this emperor had a taste for the
					liberal arts, and that he composed a lyric poem upon the death of Lucius Caesar,
					with some Greek poems in imitation of Euphorion, Rhianus, and Parthenius. But
					none of these has been transmitted to posterity: and if we should form an
					opinion of them upon the principle of Catullus, that to be a good poet one ought
					to be a good man, there is little reason to regret that they have perished.