2. Tacitus, Annals, 1.4.2 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Galba • Galba, Emperor
Found in books: Kazantzidis and Spatharas (2018) 226; Poulsen and Jönsson (2021) 80
| 1.4.2. \xa0It was thus an altered world, and of the old, unspoilt Roman character not a trace lingered. Equality was an outworn creed, and all eyes looked to the mandate of the sovereign â\x80\x94 with no immediate misgivings, so long as Augustus in the full vigour of his prime upheld himself, his house, and peace. But when the wearing effects of bodily sickness added themselves to advancing years, and the end was coming and new hopes dawning, a\xa0few voices began idly to discuss the blessings of freedom; more were apprehensive of war; others desired it; the great majority merely exchanged gossip derogatory to their future masters:â\x80\x94 "Agrippa, fierce-tempered, and hot from his humiliation, was unfitted by age and experience for so heavy a burden. Tiberius Nero was mature in years and tried in war, but had the old, inbred arrogance of the Claudian family, and hints of cruelty, strive as he would to repress them, kept breaking out. He had been reared from the cradle in a regt house; consulates and triumphs had been heaped on his youthful head: even during the years when he lived at Rhodes in ostensible retirement and actual exile, he had studied nothing save anger, hypocrisy, and secret lasciviousness. Add to the tale his mother with her feminine caprice: they must be slaves, it appeared, to the distaff, and to a pair of striplings as well, who in the interval would oppress the state and in the upshot rend it asunder!" <''. None |
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3. Tacitus, Histories, 1.1, 1.1.1, 1.4.2, 1.5, 1.7, 1.15-1.16, 1.40, 1.48, 3.55, 3.85, 4.2-4.4 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Galba • Galba, Emperor • Piso, adoption by Galba • Servius Galba • imperial adoption of Piso by Galba
Found in books: Augoustakis (2014) 160; Baumann and Liotsakis (2022) 116, 180, 185, 187, 188, 190; Jenkyns (2013) 37, 138; Kazantzidis and Spatharas (2018) 219, 220, 221, 223, 229; Peppard (2011) 81, 82, 84; Poulsen and Jönsson (2021) 48, 79; Shannon-Henderson (2019) 107; Tuori (2016) 175; Verhagen (2022) 160
| 3.55. \xa0Vitellius was like a man wakened from a deep sleep. He ordered Julius Priscus and Alfenus Avarus to block the passes of the Apennines with fourteen praetorian cohorts and all the cavalry. A\xa0legion of marines followed them later. These thousands of armed forces, consisting too of picked men and horses, were equal to taking the offensive if they had had another leader. The rest of the cohorts Vitellius gave to his brother Lucius for the defence of Rome, while he, abating in no degree his usual life of pleasure and urged on by his lack of confidence in the future, held the comitia before the usual time, and designated the consuls for many years to come. He granted special treaties to allies and bestowed Latin rights on foreigners with a generous hand; he reduced the tribute for some provincials, he relieved others from all obligations â\x80\x94 in short, with no regard for the future he crippled the empire. But the mob attended in delight on the great indulgences that he bestowed; the most foolish citizens bought them, while the wise regarded as worthless privileges which could neither be granted nor accepted if the state was to stand. Finally Vitellius listened to the demands of his army which had stopped at Mevania, and left Rome, accompanied by a long line of senators, many of whom were drawn in his train by their desire to secure his favour, most however by fear. So he came to camp with no clear purpose in mind, an easy prey to treacherous advice.
3.85. \xa0Vitellius was forced at the point of the sword now to lift his face and offer it to his captors\' insults, now to see his own statues falling, and to look again and again on the rostra or the place where Galba had been killed. Finally, the soldiers drove him to the Gemonian stairs where the body of Flavius Sabinus had recently been lying. His only utterance marked his spirit as not ignoble, for when the tribune insulted him, he replied, "Yet I\xa0was your Emperor." Then he fell under a shower of blows; and the people attacked his body after he was dead with the same base spirit with which they had fawned on him while he lived.' "
4.2. \xa0Domitian had accepted the name of Caesar and the imperial residence, with no care as yet for his duties; but with debauchery and adulteries he played the part of an emperor's son. The prefecture of the Praetorian watch was held by Arrius Varus, but the supreme authority was exercised by Antonius Primus. He appropriated money and slaves from the emperor's palace as if it were the booty of Cremona; all the other leaders, whom modesty or humble lineage had made obscure in war, had accordingly no share of the rewards. The citizens were in a state of terror and quite ready for slavery; they demanded that Lucius Vitellius, who was on his way back from Tarracina with his cohorts, should be arrested and that the last embers of war should be extinguished: the cavalry was sent forward to Aricia; the infantry rested this side of Bovillae. Vitellius did not hesitate to surrender himself and his legions at the discretion of the victor; his troops threw away their unsuccessful arms no less in anger than in fear. A\xa0long line of prisoners, hedged in by armed soldiers, advanced through the city; no man had a suppliant look, but all were gloomy and grim; they faced the cheers, the riot, and the mockery of the crowd unmoved. The few who dared to break out of line were killed by their guards; all the rest were put in ward. No one uttered a word unworthy of him, and even in the midst of misfortune, all maintained their reputation for bravery. Next Lucius Vitellius was put to death. His brother's equal in viciousness, he was more vigilant while that brother was emperor; yet he was not so much associated in his brother's success as dragged to ruin by his adversity." '4.3. \xa0During these same days Lucilius Bassus was sent with a force of light armed cavalry to restore order in Campania, where the people of the towns were rather at variance with one another than rebellious toward the emperor. The sight of the soldiers restored order, and the smaller towns escaped punishment. Capua, however, had the Third legion quartered on it for the winter, and its nobler houses were ruined; while the people of Tarracina, on the other hand, received no assistance: so much easier is it to repay injury than to reward kindness, for gratitude is regarded as a burden, revenge as gain. The Tarracines, however, found comfort in the fact that the slave of Verginius Capito, who had betrayed them, was crucified wearing the very rings that he had received from Vitellius. But at Rome the senators voted to Vespasian all the honours and privileges usually given the emperors. They were filled with joy and confident hope, for it seemed to them that civil warfare, which, breaking out in the Gallic and Spanish provinces, had moved to arms first the Germanies, then Illyricum, and which had traversed Egypt, Judea, Syria, and all provinces and armies, was now at an end, as if the expiation of the whole world had been completed: their zeal was increased by a letter from Vespasian, written as if war were still going on. That at least was the impression that it made at first; but in reality Vespasian spoke as an emperor, with humility of himself, magnificently of the state. Nor did the senate fail in homage: it elected Vespasian consul with his son Titus, and bestowed a praetorship with consular power on Domitian. 4.4. \xa0Mucianus also had sent a letter to the senate that gave occasion for comment. "If," they said, "he were a private citizen, why this official language? He might have said the same things a\xa0few days later, speaking in the senate." Even his attack on Vitellius came too late and showed no independence. But they thought it a haughty thing toward the state and an act of insolence toward the emperor for him to boast that he had had the empire in his own hand and had presented it to Vespasian. Yet their discontent was concealed; their flattery was open: in magnificent terms the senators gave Mucianus the insignia of a triumph, in reality for civil war, although his expedition against the Sarmatae was made the pretext. They also voted Antonius Primus the insignia of consular rank, Cornelius Fuscus and Arrius Varus of praetorian. Then they took thought for the gods: they voted to restore the Capitol. All these measures were proposed by Valerius Asiaticus, consul elect; the rest of the senators showed their approval by their looks and hands; a\xa0few of conspicuous dignity or whose nature was well trained in flattery expressed themselves in formal speeches. When the turn came to Helvidius Priscus, praetor elect, he spoke in terms which, while honourable to a good emperor, .\xa0.\xa0. There was no false flattery in his speech, which was received with enthusiasm by the senate. This was the day that stood out in his career as marking the beginning of great disfavour and of great glory.' '. None |
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