The Reign of Tiberius, Out of the First Six Annals of Tacitus; - With His Account of Germany, and Life of Agricola by Caius Cornelius Tacitus
page 38 of 310 (12%)
page 38 of 310 (12%)
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and the Centurion must appear before the Senate, and for it be answerable
to them." This alarmed Sallustius Crispus, who shared in all his secret counsels, and had sent the Centurion the warrant: he dreaded that he should be arraigned for the assassination, and knew it equally perilous either to confess the truth, and charge the Emperor; or falsely to clear the Emperor, and accuse himself. Hence he had recourse to Livia, and warned her, "never to divulge the secrets of the palace, never to expose to public examination the ministers who advised, nor the soldiers who executed: Tiberius should beware of relaxing the authority of the Prince, by referring all things to that of the Senate; since it was the indispensable prerogative of sovereignty for all men to be accountable only to one." Now at Rome, Consuls, Senators, and Roman Knights, were all rushing with emulation into bondage, and the higher the quality of each the more false and forward the men; all careful so to frame their faces, as to reconcile false joy for the accession of Tiberius, with feigned sadness for the loss of Augustus: hence they intermingled fears with gladness, wailings with gratulations, and all with servile flattery. Sextus Pompeius and Sextus Apuleius, at that time Consuls, took first the oath of fidelity to Tiberius; then administered it to Seius Strabo and Caius Turranius; the former Captain of the Praetorian Guards, the other Intendant of the Public Stores. The oath was next given to the Senate, to the people, and to the soldiery: all by the same Consuls; for Tiberius affected to derive all public transactions from the legal ministry of the Consuls, as if the ancient Republic still subsisted, and he were yet unresolved about embracing the sovereign rule: he even owned in his edict for summoning the Senate, that he issued it by virtue of the Tribunitial power, granted him under Augustus. The edict, too, was short and unexceptionably modest. It imported that, "they were to consider of the funeral honours proper to be |
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