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The Historians' History of the World 06 [The Early Roman Empire]
- Автор: Gutenberg
- Год: 1905
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: История
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Perhaps a partial explanation lies in the fact that we demand always a certain theatrical quality in a man of genius. It has been suggested by an eminent historian (Professor Sloane) that a great man has usually a capacity for inordinate wickedness, as well as for consummate greatness. Alexander loses control of himself on occasion, and in his frenzy kills his friend. Hannibal spends his whole life under the spell of a sworn hatred. Cæsar stops at nothing to attain his selfish ends. In modern times your Frederick, your Napoleon, is not called great because of any moral quality. Public taste seems to demand a rounded character in its favoured heroes: it likes the piquant flavour of immorality. In every direction your hero must be measured by other standards than ordinary mortals.
But the life of Augustus is keyed to the tone of a passionless moderation. He is all judgment, no emotion. Between the courses at dinner he listlessly plays games that he may not be annoyed by the persiflage of the jesters who are there to amuse his guests. And he plays the game of life in the same fashion. One cannot imagine him excited, enthusiastic, angry even. He might, indeed, commit a crime, but it would be a carefully measured crime, dictated by policy: not a crime of passion. Even in his liaisons, it was said of him that his chief ambition was to learn the real sentiment of those about him through their wives, rather than merely to gratify a personal appetite.
But it must not be forgotten that Augustus, had he not been such a man as this, could not have accomplished the work he did. Had he been full of enthusiasms he would have antagonised too many people; would have made too many powerful enemies; would have invited the fate that befell the man of genius whose nephew he was, and by whose good example he profited. Yet, after all, the measure of capacity is success, and it seems a grudging estimate which withholds the title of “great” from the man who changed the entire complexion of the civilised world and put his stamp indelibly upon the centuries.
But whether genius or not in the ordinary acceptance of that loosely applied and somewhat ambiguous word, there is one regard in which Augustus need fear comparison with no leader of any age: in practical statecraft, judged by its result, he has no superior. In a pre-eminent degree he was able to isolate himself from his environment; to visualise the political situation; to see his fellow-men through the clear medium of expediency, undistorted by any aberration of passion or of prejudice. To the theatrical quality of personal vanity, from which Cæsar was by no means free, Augustus was an entire stranger. Because he was master of his own ambition, he came to be master of the world. If because of his placid logicality, posterity has been disposed to speak slightingly of his genius, the same quality won him at least an unchallenged position as the most consummate master of practical politics.a
FOOTNOTES
[5] The Romans, at their feasts, during the intervals of drinking, often played at dice, of which there were two kinds, the tesseræ and tali. The former had six sides, like the modern dice; the latter, four oblong sides, for the two ends were not regarded. In playing, they used three tesseræ and four tali, which were all put into a box wider below than above, and being shaken, were thrown out upon the gaming board or table.
[6] Municipia were foreign towns which obtained the right of Roman citizens, and were of different kinds. The municipia used their own laws and customs; nor were they obliged to receive the Roman laws unless they chose them.
[7] [Modern historians have much to say of the “disguised monarchy” of Augustus. But probably the Romans were not so blind as to the character of the Augustan constitution as are now the historians. The government was in reality a compromise between republic and monarchy—a compromise made easy to the Romans by their habit of investing magistrates, especially extraordinary magistrates, with vast powers. The republic was for Rome and Italy, the monarchy for the provinces. This form of government Mommsen aptly terms a dyarchy.]
CHAPTER XXXIII. THE IMMEDIATE SUCCESSORS OF AUGUSTUS: TIBERIUS, CALIGULA, AND CLAUDIUS
Tiberius (Tiberius Claudius Nero Cæsar), 14-37 A.D.
Tiberius came of that ambitious Claudian family which had enjoyed twenty-eight consulates, five dictatorships, seven censorships, and as many triumphs. The marriage of his mother Livia with Octavius, and his adoption by Cæsar, had given him entrance into the house of Cæsar. All commissions with which he was charged by his adoptive father were carried out with activity and intelligence, and, at the time of the war with Marbod, he saved the empire in a dangerous crisis. Since the death of Agrippa, no general had been able to command such brilliant service. He had fought in Spain and in the Alps, governed Gaul, given a king to Armenia, subdued the Pannonians, conquered the Germans, transported forty-six thousand barbarians into Belgium and resettled the empire after the defeat of Varus. Such was the man to whom the death of Augustus gave the throne.[8]
Respect for Augustus had kept ambitions silent, but Tiberius found himself surrounded by republicans and more than this by candidates for the throne.
Moreover the soldiers had already understood that on them rested the security both of emperor and empire, and, as there were no more civil wars to enrich them, successions to the throne must take their place. Three Pannonian legions revolted, demanding one denarius per day, discharge after sixteen years, and a fixed sum to be paid in camp on the day they became veterans.
Tiberius sent Drusus, his son, and Sejanus, his prætorian prefect, to them at the head of some of the forces remaining in Italy. An eclipse of the moon helped to make the mutineers return to their duty.
On the Rhine there was a dangerous revolt. There were there seven legions, divided into two camps, making the same demands. Four legions killed their centurions. Germanicus, nephew of Tiberius, hastened to them.[9] The rebels offered him the empire, but he refused. In his vexation he had drawn his sword as if to kill himself. “Strike, then,” cried the angry men; his friends snatched the sword from him. To appease this dangerous sedition, he, acting on an imaginary letter from Tiberius, granted everything, and doubled the legacy of Augustus. Gallic tribute, all the general’s money, and that of his friends had to be put together to pay all this.
EXPEDITIONS OF GERMANICUS; VICTORY OF IDISTAVISUS
[14-19 A.D.]
It became necessary to give these restless spirits something to do, so their general led them against the enemy. In the country of the Marsi a space of fifty miles was put to fire and sword. In the following spring Germanicus passed the Rhine again, hoping to profit by the quarrels of Arminius and Segestes—the one belonging to the national, the other to the Roman party. He was only able to deliver Segestes, who was besieged by his rival. The wife of the conqueror of Varus was taken captive.
The last Roman ravages and the complaints of Arminius exasperated the Cherusci and a new league was formed. Germanicus went as far as the Teutoburg forest to fight them. Whitening bones marked the spot where the three legions had perished, and the soldiers buried the mutilated remains which had waited six years for this last honour. However, the Germans were nowhere to be found. Tired of pursuing an enemy who was not to be caught, Germanicus stopped. He regained Ems and embarked on the fleet which had brought him, whilst Cæcina regained the Rhine by the route of the “long bridges.” Arminius had preceded him there, and the disaster of Varus was on the point of being renewed, had not Cæcina happily been an experienced captain. He gained a strong position where the Romans were encamped and managed to reopen the Rhine route. Germanicus, surprised by equinoctial gales, had himself been in danger, and a number of his vessels had perished.