their demands; in the meantime he had sent them his son, on purpose to
make them forthwith all the concessions, which could instantly be made
them: the rest were to be reserved for the Senate, the proper distributers
of rewards and punishments by a right altogether unalienable."

The assembly answered, that to Julius Clemens they had intrusted what to
speak in their name: he began with their demands, "to be discharged after
sixteen years' service, to have the reward which, for past services upon
that discharge, they claimed; their pay to be increased to a Roman
denarius; the veterans to be no longer detained under their ensigns." When
Drusus urged, that wholly in the judgment of the Senate and his father,
these matters rested he was interrupted by their clamours: "To what
purpose came he; since he could neither augment their pay, nor alleviate
their grievances? and while upon them every officer was allowed to inflict
blows and death, the son of their Emperor wanted power to relieve them by
one beneficent action. The policy this of the late reign, when Tiberius
frustrated every request of the soldiers, by referring all to Augustus;
now Drusus was come with the same artifices to delude them: were they
never to have a higher visit than from the children of their Prince? It
was, indeed, unaccountable, that to the Senate the Emperor should leave no
part in the direction of the army, only the rewarding of the soldiery:
ought not the same Senate to be consulted as often as a battle was to be
fought, or a private man to be punished? or, were their recompenses to be
adjudged by many masters, but their punishments to remain without any
restraint or moderator whatsoever?"

At last they abandoned the tribunal, and with menaces and insults fell
upon all they met belonging to Drusus, either as guards or friends;
meditating thus to provoke a quarrel, and an introduction to blood.
Chiefly enraged they were against Cneius Lentulus, as one for years and