Tiberius by Allan Massie

Author:Allan Massie
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Historical Novel
ISBN: 9780340487884
Publisher: London : Hodder and Stoughton, 1990.
Published: 1992-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

"I didn't expect him to be here to greet me," I said. "This is not a triumphant return after all."

"No," she said, "and whose fault is that, I would like to know? It was not by my wish or my advice that you have wasted so many years of your life. If you have been an exile, it was of your own choice. Nevertheless, my son, it is a return from which triumph may spring."

"I doubt it, mother . . ."

The sun was sinking behind the Alban hills as we mounted the steps of the Capitol to allow me to give thanks to Jupiter for my safe return. The marble shone pink, and Livia cried out that she seemed to see a golden halo over my head. But this was nonsense, and I felt a weariness of spirit as I gazed down on the teeming throng below. I felt more solitary than I had ever been on my island retreat. Within a few days, I retired to a house on the Esquiline Hill, built in gardens which had once belonged to Maecenas. I attended to my duties as head of the Claudian gens. I examined my son Drusus, and was pleased to discover that his education was proceeding in a satisfactory fashion. Otherwise I saw only old friends, among them Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso and his brother Lucius, and Cossus Cornelius Lentulus. All three had achieved much; none found satisfaction. All agreed with me about public affairs, and performed their duties without indulging in any illusions concerning either their nature or purpose. Many nights we allowed Bacchus to console us for the death of liberty in Rome, and sought in wine what we could not find in either public or private affairs: a species of joy and some reason for prolonging life, a guard against disappointment and a means of ephemeral freedom from disillusion . . .

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