Tacitus

1. That which, after the death of Romulus, when the empire of the city of Rome was still new, the pontiffs — in whose power lay the writing of history — set down in their records, so that one marvels at an interregnum, while after a good prince another good one is sought, this came to pass after Aurelian, in a contest held between the senate and the Roman army, not an envious nor a sorrowful one but a grateful and reverent one, lasting six whole months. Yet in many ways this case differs from that affair. For, first of all, when the interregnum was entered upon after Romulus, interreges were nonetheless appointed, and that whole year was assigned, in periods of five or four days, or three, to a hundred senators, so that those who were in office should each be interrex singly only; whereby it came about that the interregnum was entered upon for more than a year, lest anyone, under an equal dignity, should remain without a share of the Roman government. To this is added that even under consuls and military tribunes endowed with consular power, if at any time an interregnum was entered upon, there were interreges; nor was the Roman commonwealth ever so empty of this name that no interrex was created for at least two or three days. I see that it can be objected against me that the curule magistracies did not exist in the commonwealth among our ancestors for a period of four years; but there were tribunes of the plebs with the tribunician power, which is the greatest part of the royal authority. Yet it has not been recorded that there were no interreges at that time; nay rather, it is declared by the more reliable historians that consuls were afterwards created by the interreges, who should hold the elections of the remaining magistrates.

2. Therefore — a thing that was rare and difficult — the senate and people of Rome endured that the commonwealth should be without an emperor for six months, while a good one was sought. What concord there was among the soldiers! How great a quiet for the people! How weighty was the authority of the senate! No tyrant anywhere emerged; under the judgment of the senate and of the soldiers and the people of Rome the whole world was governed. They did not, in order that they might act rightly, dread any prince, nor the tribunician power, but — which is the best thing in life — they feared themselves.

The cause, however, of so happy a delay must be told, and inserted especially in the public monuments, and that same astounding self-restraint of the human race handed down to posterity, that those who covet kingdoms may learn not to go to snatch empires but to deserve them. When Aurelian had been killed by treachery, as was written in the previous book, through the cunning of a most worthless slave, by the error of the soldiery (men among whom any fabrications whatever prevail mightily, since they listen when angry, often when drunk, and are certainly almost always devoid of counsel), and when all had returned to a sound mind and had been gravely rebuked by the army, it began to be asked who out of all ought to be made prince. Then, out of hatred of the present circumstances, the army, which was wont to create an emperor in haste, sent a letter to the senate — of which mention has already been made in the previous book — asking that they should choose a prince from their own order. But the senate, knowing that princes chosen by itself did not please the soldiers, referred the matter back to the soldiers; and while this was done more than once, the sixth month was completed.

3. It is of interest, however, that it should be known in what manner Tacitus was created emperor. On the seventh day before the Kalends of October, when the most august order had taken its seat in the Pompilian Senate-house, Velius Cornificius Gordianus the consul said: "We shall lay before you, Conscript Fathers, what we have often laid before you: an emperor must be chosen, since the army cannot rightly stand any longer without a prince, and at the same time because necessity compels. For the Germans are said to have broken through the frontier beyond the Rhine and to have occupied cities that are strong, noble, rich, and powerful. Now, even if nothing is reported about the disturbances in Persia, consider that the minds of the Syrians are so fickle that they desire even women to reign over them rather than endure our discipline. What of Africa? What of Illyricum? What of Egypt and the armies of all those regions? How long do we believe they can hold together without a prince? Wherefore come, Conscript Fathers, and name a prince. For either the army will accept the one you choose, or, if it rejects him, it will make another."

4. After this, when Tacitus, who held the first place among the consulars in giving an opinion, was about to deliver his opinion — it is uncertain what he wished to say — the whole senate acclaimed: "Tacitus Augustus, may God preserve you; we choose you, we make you prince; to you we entrust the care of the commonwealth and of the world. Take up the empire by the authority of the senate; it belongs to your rank, your life, your mind — it is what you deserve. The chief of the senate is rightly created Augustus; the man of first opinion is rightly created emperor. Who rules better than a man of weight? Who rules better than a man of letters? May it be good, auspicious, and salutary! Long have you been a private man; you know how you ought to rule, you who have endured other princes. You know how you ought to rule, you who have passed judgment on other princes."

But he said: "I marvel, Conscript Fathers, that in the place of Aurelian, a most brave emperor, you wish to make an old man your prince. Behold these limbs, that are fit to hurl the javelin, to whirl the spear-shaft, to make the shields ring, to ride often by way of teaching the soldier by example! Scarcely do we fulfil the duties of the senate, scarcely do we deliver the opinions to which our place constrains us. Consider more carefully what an age you are sending from the bedchamber and the shade into the frosts and the heats. And do you believe the soldiers will approve an old man as emperor? Take heed lest you both give the commonwealth a prince other than the one you wish, and this alone begin to work against me — that you have chosen me with one accord."

5. After this the acclamations of the senate were these: "Trajan too came to the empire an old man," they said ten times. "Hadrian too came to the empire an old man," they said ten times. "Antoninus too came to the empire an old man," they said ten times. "You have read too: 'And the grey chin of the Roman king,'" they said ten times. "Who rules better than an old man?" they said ten times. "We make you emperor, not a soldier," they said twenty times. "Do you command, let the soldiers fight," they said thirty times. "You have prudence and a good brother," they said ten times. "Severus said that the head rules, not the feet," they said thirty times. "We choose your mind, not your body," they said twenty times. "Tacitus Augustus, may the gods preserve you!"

Then, when all had been questioned, besides, the consular senator who sat next after Tacitus, Maecius Faltonius Nicomachus, discoursed in these words:

6. "Always indeed, Conscript Fathers, has this magnificent order taken counsel for the commonwealth rightly and prudently, nor has more solid wisdom ever been expected from any people of the earth. Yet never was a weightier or more prudent opinion spoken in this sanctuary. We have made an elder our prince, a man who will take counsel for all as a father. Nothing immature, nothing over-hasty, nothing harsh is to be feared from him. All things serious, all weighty, and as though the commonwealth itself commanded, are to be looked for. For he knows what kind of prince he himself always wished for, and he cannot show us any other than what he himself desired and willed. Indeed, if you will recall those old prodigies — the Neros, I mean, and the Heliogabaluses and the Commoduses, or rather the perpetual Incommoduses — certainly those vices were no more those of the men than of their ages. May the gods avert boy-princes, and fathers of the country called such while still beardless, and men whose hands the schoolmaster must hold for them to subscribe, whom sweets and toy-hoops and every childish pleasure invite to the granting of consulships. What reason is there — the mischief! — to have an emperor who knows not how to care for his reputation, who knows not what the commonwealth is, who fears his tutor, who looks back to his nurse, who lies subject to the blows and the terror of his master's rod, who makes those men consuls, generals, judges whose life, deserts, ages, families, and deeds he does not know? But why am I drawn out too long, Conscript Fathers? Let us rather give thanks that we have an old man as prince than repeat those things which were more than lamentable to those who endured them. I give and render thanks, therefore, to the immortal gods, and that on behalf of the whole commonwealth; and I appeal to you, Tacitus Augustus, asking, beseeching, and freely demanding, on behalf of our common country and its laws, that you do not, if the fates should forestall you too soon, make your little sons heirs of the Roman empire; that you do not so leave the commonwealth and the Conscript Fathers and the Roman people as your little farm, as your tenant-farmers, as your slaves. Wherefore look about you, imitate the Nervas, the Trajans, the Hadrians. Great is the glory of a dying prince to love the commonwealth more than his sons."

7. By this speech both Tacitus himself was vehemently moved, and the whole senatorial order was shaken; and straightway it was acclaimed: "All of us, all of us!"

Thence they went to the Campus Martius, where he ascended the electoral tribunal. There the prefect of the city, Aelius Cesettianus, spoke thus: "You, most holy soldiers, and you, most sacred Quirites, have a prince whom the senate has chosen by the opinion of all the armies — Tacitus, I mean, a most august man, that he who hitherto has aided the commonwealth by his opinions may now aid it by his commands and decrees." It was acclaimed by the people: "Most happily, Tacitus Augustus, may the gods preserve you," and the rest that is wont to be said.

At this point it must not be passed over in silence that most have recorded in writing that Tacitus was named prince in his absence, when he was in Campania. It is true, and I cannot conceal it; for when the rumour had arisen that he was to be made emperor, he withdrew and was in the region of Baiae for two months. But, brought back from there, he was present at this decree of the senate, like a man truly private and one who truly refused the empire.

8. And lest anyone think that I have rashly believed some Greek or Latin writer, there is in the Ulpian Library, in the sixth cupboard, an ivory book in which this decree of the senate is written out, to which Tacitus himself subscribed with his own hand. For long these decrees of the senate which pertained to the princes were written in ivory books.

Thence, having set out to the armies, there too, as soon as he ascended the tribunal, Moesius Gallicanus the praetorian prefect discoursed in these words: "The senate, most holy fellow-soldiers, has given you the prince you asked for; that most noble order has obeyed the orders and the will of the camp. More it is not permitted me to say before you, the emperor being now present. Hear him, then, with due respect, as he speaks — him who ought to protect us." After this Tacitus Augustus said: "Trajan too came to the empire an old man; but he was chosen by one, whereas me, most holy fellow-soldiers, first you, who know how to approve princes, and then the most august senate judged worthy of this name. I shall take care, I shall strive, I shall bring it about that there be wanting to you, if not brave deeds, at least counsels worthy of you and of an emperor."

9. After this he promised pay and a donative according to custom, and delivered his first oration to the senate as follows: "So may it be granted me, Conscript Fathers, so to govern the empire as it is established that I was chosen by you — that I have resolved to do everything according to your opinion and authority. It is yours, therefore, to order and sanction those things which seem worthy of you, worthy of a modest army, worthy of the Roman people." In the same oration he decreed that a golden statue should be set up to Aurelian on the Capitol, likewise a silver statue in the Senate-house, likewise in the Temple of the Sun, likewise in the Forum of the deified Trajan. But the golden one was not set up; the silver ones alone were dedicated. In the same oration he provided that if anyone should mix bronze with silver, publicly or privately, if anyone silver with gold, if anyone lead with bronze, it should be a capital offence, with the proscription of his goods. In the same oration he provided that slaves should not be examined against the lives of their masters, not even in a case of treason. He added that all should have a picture of Aurelian; he ordered a temple of the deified to be made, in which there should be statues of the good princes, so that on their own birthdays and at the Parilia and on the Kalends of January and at the Vows libations should be set before them. In the same oration he sought a consulship for his brother Florian and did not obtain it, for the reason that the senate had already closed all the markets of suffect consuls; and the senate is said to have rejoiced much in its own freedom, because the consulship was denied to him which he had sought for his brother. In short, he is reported to have said: "The senate knows what prince it has made."

10. He made his patrimony public property, which he had in revenues — two hundred and eighty million sesterces. The money which he had gathered at home he turned into pay for the soldiers. He used the same togas and tunics as he had as a private man. He forbade lodging-houses to stand within the city — which indeed for a long time he could not by any means accomplish. He ordered all the baths to be closed before lamp-lighting, lest any sedition should arise during the night. Cornelius Tacitus, the writer of the Augustan history, because he declared the same man to be his ancestor, he ordered to be placed in all the libraries; and, lest it should perish through neglect of the buildings, he ordered the book to be copied ten times each year at public expense in the . . . and to be placed in the libraries. He forbade garments of pure silk to all men. He ordered his own house to be pulled down and on that spot public baths to be made at his private expense. He gave to the people of Ostia, from his own property, a hundred Numidian columns of twenty-three feet. The estates which he had in Mauretania he assigned to the upkeep of the Capitol. The table-silver which he had had as a private man he dedicated to the services of the banquets held in the temples. He set free all his city slaves of either sex — within a hundred, however, lest he should seem to transgress the Caninian law.

11. He himself was of a most frugal life, so that he never drank a sextarius of wine in a whole day, often less than a half-pint. His meal, indeed, was of a single fowl, with the addition of a half-head and eggs. Before all the vegetables abundantly served, he indulged impatiently in lettuces, for he said that by that lavishness of expense he was buying sleep. He sought the more bitter foods. He used the baths rarely, and so was the more vigorous in old age. He was greatly delighted by the variety and the workmanship of glassware. He never ate bread except dry, and that seasoned with salt and other things. He was most skilled in building, eager for marbles, of senatorial refinement, devoted to hunting. In short, he never enriched his own table except with country fare. The pheasant he set out only on his own and his family's birthdays and on the most festive days. His own victims he always recalled to his house and bade his household feed on them. He did not allow his wife to use gems; he forbade the same garments studded with gold. For he himself too is reported to have been the author of Aurelian's removing gold from garments and ceilings and skins. Many sayings of his are reported, but it would be long to commit them to writing. But if anyone desires to know everything about this man, let him read Suetonius Optatianus, who wrote his life at length. As an old man indeed he read the tiniest writing, to the point of amazement, and never let a night pass in which he did not either write or read something — except the day after the Kalends.

12. Nor must it be passed over in silence, and must be frequently impressed, that so great was the joy of the senate, because the care of choosing a prince had returned to the most august order, that both days of thanksgiving were decreed and a hecatomb promised; in short, the individual senators wrote to their own people, and not only to their own but even to foreigners; and besides, letters were sent to the provinces, that all the allies and all the nations might know that the commonwealth had returned to its ancient state, and that the senate chose the princes — nay, that the senate itself had been made prince, that laws were to be sought from the senate, that barbarian kings would supplicate the senate, that peace and wars were to be handled with the senate as author. In short, that nothing might be wanting to your knowledge, I have placed very many letters of this kind at the end of the book, to be read through, as I judge, both with desire and without distaste.

13. And his first care, indeed, when made emperor, was this: to put to death all who had killed Aurelian, good or bad, since he was now avenged. And since many barbarians had burst forth from the Maeotis, these same men he checked by counsel and valour. But the Maeotians themselves were gathering as though they had assembled at the summons of Aurelian for the Persian war, to give aid to our men if necessity should require. Marcus Tullius says that it is more magnificent to tell how a man conducted his consulship than how he obtained it; but in this man it was magnificent that he obtained the empire with such great glory; he accomplished, however, on account of the shortness of his time, nothing great. For he was killed by a plot of the soldiers, as some say, in the sixth month; as others say, he died of disease. Yet it is established that, oppressed by factions, he failed in mind and spirit. This same man ordered the month of September to be called Tacitus, for the reason that in that month he was both born and made emperor. His brother Florian succeeded him in the empire, of whom a few things must be set down.

14. He was the full brother of Tacitus, who after his brother seized the empire, not by the authority of the senate but by his own impulse, as though the empire were hereditary — although he knew that an oath had been sworn in the senate to Tacitus, that, when he should begin to die, he should make not his own children but some excellent man prince. In short, he held the empire scarcely two months and was killed at Tarsus by the soldiers, who had heard that Probus was reigning, whom the whole army had chosen. So great was Probus in military matters that the senate longed for him, the soldier chose him, and the Roman people itself asked for him with acclamations. Florian too was an imitator of his brother's character, yet not in every respect; for his brother, a frugal man, used to rebuke the extravagance in him; and this very desire of ruling showed that he was of other character than his brother.

Two princes, therefore, arose from one house, of whom the one reigned six months, the other scarcely two, like certain interreges between Aurelian and Probus, named princes after an interregnum.

15. Their statues were at Interamna, two of marble, thirty feet high, because their cenotaphs were established there on their own ground; but, thrown down by lightning, they were so shattered that they lie scattered limb by limb. At which time it was answered by the soothsayers that at some time, from their family, there would be a Roman emperor, whether through a woman or through a man, who would give judges to the Parthians and Persians, who would hold the Franks and Alamanni under Roman laws, who would leave no barbarian throughout all Africa, who would set a governor over the Taprobani, who would send a proconsul to the island of Iuverna, who would give judgment to all the Sarmatians, who would make all the land, which is encircled by the Ocean, his own, all the nations being captured, but who would afterwards restore the empire to the senate and live by the ancient laws — himself destined to live a hundred and twenty years and to die without an heir. They said, moreover, that he would come a thousand years after the day on which they were thrown down by lightning and the statues were broken. This was no great wit on the part of the soothsayers, who said that such a prince would come after a thousand years, promising it when such a history can scarcely survive — because, if they had foretold it for a hundred years hence, perhaps their falsehoods could have been detected. I, however, believed these things ought to be inserted into the volume, lest anyone reading me should not believe that I had read them.

16. Tacitus scarcely gave a largesse to the Roman people within six months. His portrait was placed in the house of the Quintilii, fivefold on a single panel, in which he was once shown in a toga, once in a cloak, once in arms, once in a Greek mantle, once in hunting dress — at which an epigrammatist made play, so as to say: "I do not recognize the old man in arms, nor in a cloak" — among other things — "but I recognize him in a toga." And there arose many children of Florian and of Tacitus, whose descendants there are, I believe, awaiting the thousandth year — against whom many epigrams have been written, in which the soothsayers were mocked for promising them the empire. These are the things which I remember having found worthy of record concerning the life of Tacitus and Florian.

Now we must approach Probus, a man conspicuous at home and abroad, a man to be preferred to Aurelian, Trajan, Hadrian, the Antonines, Alexander, and Claudius, because in them various excellences, in him all the chief ones, were joined; who after Tacitus was made emperor by the judgment of all good men, and governed the whole world in deepest peace, the barbarian peoples being destroyed, and destroyed too very many of the usurpers who arose in his times; of whom it has been said that he was worthy to be called Probus (the upright), even had he not been Probus by name. Him indeed many declare to have been promised even in the Sibylline Books, who, had he lived longer, would have left the world without barbarians. These things concerning Probus I have judged should be foretasted in the life of others, lest a day, an hour, a moment should claim something for itself against me by fatal necessity, and I should perish with Probus unrecorded. Now, since for the present I have satisfied my own zeal, I shall close this volume, judging that I have satisfied my own zeal and desire.

17. The omens of empire for Tacitus were these: a certain inspired man in the temple of Silvanus, with limbs stretched out, cried, "Silent purple, silent purple" (tacita purpura), and that for the seventh time — which afterwards was reckoned an omen. The wine with which Tacitus was about to make a libation in the temple of Hercules Fundanus suddenly turned purple. A vine which bore white Aminnian grapes, in the year in which he obtained the empire, bore purple ones. Very many things turned purple. The omens of his death were these: the tomb of his father opened of itself, its doors burst apart; the shade of his mother presented herself by day, both to Tacitus and to Florian, as though living — for they were said to have been born of different fathers; in the household shrine all the gods fell, whether by an earthquake or by some chance. The image of Apollo, which was worshipped by them, was found set on a couch from the highest gable, without any human hand. But how far do we go on? There are those by whom these things may be told. Let us reserve ourselves for Probus and for the distinguished deeds of Probus.

18. And since I promised that I would set down some letters which should show the joys of the senate at the creation of Tacitus as prince, when these are added I shall make an end of writing. The public letters: "The most august senate to the council of Carthage, greeting. Inasmuch as it is good, auspicious, happy, and salutary for the commonwealth and the Roman world, the right of bestowing the empire, of naming a prince, of proclaiming an Augustus has returned to us. To us, therefore, refer those matters which are great. Every appeal will belong to the prefect of the city — that, however, which shall have arisen from the proconsuls and the ordinary judges. In which indeed we believe that your dignity too has returned to its ancient state, since this order is the first, which, by recovering its own power, preserves its right for the rest."

Another letter: "The most august senate to the council of the Treviri. As you are free and ever have been, we believe that you rejoice. The judgment of creating a prince has returned to the senate, and at the same time the entire appeal of the city prefecture has been decreed."

In the same manner it was written to the people of Antioch, of Aquileia, of Mediolanum, of Alexandria, of Thessalonica, of Corinth, and of Athens.

19. The private letters, moreover, were these: "To Autronius Justus his father, Autronius Tiberianus, greeting. Now, holy father, it befitted you to be present in the most august senate, now to deliver an opinion, since the authority of the most august order has so grown that, the commonwealth having returned to its ancient state, we give the princes, we make the emperors, we, in short, proclaim the Augusti. See, then, that you grow strong, to be present at the ancient Senate-house. We have recovered the proconsular right; to the prefect of the city have returned the appeals of all the powers and of all the dignity."

Likewise another: "Claudius Sapilianus to Cereius Maecianus his uncle, greeting. We have obtained, holy father, what we always wished for; the senate has returned to its ancient state. We make the princes; the powers belong to our order. Thanks to the Roman army, and truly Roman; it has restored to us the power which we always had. Cast off the retreats of Baiae and Puteoli, give yourself to the city, give yourself to the Senate-house. Rome flourishes, the whole commonwealth flourishes; we give emperors, we make princes; we can also forbid those whom we have begun to make. A word to the wise is enough."

It would be a long task to string together all the letters which I have found, which I have read. This only I say: that all the senators were so elated with joy that in their houses they all slew white victims, frequently opened the portraits of their ancestors, sat clothed in white, gave more sumptuous banquets, and believed that antiquity had been restored to them.