The Reign of Tiberius by Tacitus

Author:Tacitus
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jovian Press

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BOOK III. — A.D. 20-22.

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AGRIPPINA, NOTWITHSTANDING THE ROUGHNESS OF winter, pursuing without intermission her boisterous voyage, put in at the Island Corcyra, situate over against the coasts of Calabria. Here to settle her spirit, she spent a few days, violent in her grief, and a stranger to patience. Her arrival being the while divulged, all the particular friends to her family, mostly men of the sword, many who had served under Germanicus, and even many strangers from the neighbouring towns, some in officiousness towards the Emperor, more for company, crowded to the city of Brundusium, the readiest port in her way and the safest landing. As soon as the fleet appeared in the deep, instantly were filled, not the port alone and adjacent shores, but the walls and roofs, and as far as the eye could go; filled with the sorrowing multitude. They were consulting one from one, how they should receive her landing, “whether with universal silence, or with some note of acclamation.” Nor was it manifest which they would do, when the fleet stood slowly in, not as usual with joyful sailors and cheerful oars, but all things impressed with the face of sadness. After she descended from the ship, accompanied with her two infants, carrying in her bosom the melancholy urn, with her eyes cast steadily down; equal and universal were the groans of the beholders: nor could you distinguish relations from strangers, nor the wailings of men from those of women, unless that the new-comers, who were recent in their sallies of grief, exceeded Agrippina’s attendants, wearied out with long lamentations.

Tiberius had despatched two Praetorian cohorts, with directions, that the magistrates of Calabria, Apulia and Campania, should pay their last offices to the memory of his son: upon the shoulders therefore of the Tribunes and Centurions his ashes were borne; before went the ensigns rough and unadorned, with the fasces reversed. As they passed through the colonies, the populace were in black, the knights in purple; and each place, according to its wealth, burnt precious raiment, perfumes and whatever else is used in funeral solemnities: even they whose cities lay remote attended: to the Gods of the dead they slew victims, they erected altars, and with tears and united lamentations, testified their common sorrow. Drusus came as far as Terracina, with Claudius the brother of Germanicus, and those of his children who had been left at Rome. The Consuls Marcus Valerius and Marcus Aurelius (just then entered upon their office), the Senate, and great part of the people, filled the road; a scattered procession, each walking and weeping his own way: in this mourning, flattery had no share; for all knew how real was the joy, how hollow the grief, of Tiberius for the death of Germanicus.

Tiberius and Livia avoided appearing abroad: public lamentation they thought below their grandeur; or perhaps they apprehended that their countenances, examined by all eyes, might show deceitful hearts. That Antonia, mother to the deceased, bore any part in

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