the remainder of the reign of tiberius does not properly concern us, but a very brief account of it will serve at once to confirm our estimate of the influence of livia, and to prepare us for the almost incredibly degraded scenes that were witnessed under his successor. we saw that two persons were intriguing for the purple mantle which must soon fall from the shoulders of the aged and unhealthy emperor. one was a woman of great ability and masculine courage, who sought the succession for one of her sons. the other was a strong soldier and an astute minister, a man of the most unscrupulous and hypocritical character. the change in the form of government had already betrayed its evil. the fate of the vast empire seemed but a ball tossed from player to player. but the issue was even worse than the most sober observer anticipated. before tiberius died both the strong man and the strong woman were to be destroyed, and the imperial power was to pass to one who was grossly unfit to exercise it.
agrippina the elder
bust in the museum chiaramonti
less than a year after the ashes of livia had been laid in the marble tower by the tiber, the senate received a letter from the court impeaching agrippina and her two elder sons. according to tacitus, it was “commonly believed” that this letter had been written some time before, and had been withheld through the influence of livia. the only reasonable interpretation that we can put on this rumour is that people were so convinced of47 the humanity of livia that they did not think the letter would have been written or sent if she were still alive. however that may be, agrippina and her sons were put on trial and condemned to exile, in spite of the angry crowds that gathered about the court-house. agrippina passed with dramatic suddenness from her dream of ruling the world to a dreary exile in herculaneum, and, after a time, to the far more terrible prison of pandateria, where her mother had spent four years of agony. there, with all the strength of her proud and ambitious nature, she awaited the death of tiberius. but the only messages which came over the sea to her gradually broke her spirit. her sons, drusus and nero, had been convicted of unnatural vice, as well as conspiracy; and although we may entertain some doubt about the conspiracy, the other charge is only too credible when we know the habits of the class to which the youths belonged. nero was imprisoned on one of the islands of the ponza group, and it was not long before his mother, on the neighbouring island, heard that he had starved himself, or been starved, to death. after some time she learned that drusus had followed his example, and the despairing woman refused food in her turn, and went into the kindlier exile of death. the last of julia’s children did not escape the tragic fate which hung over the family. we have yet to see how the curse falls on the third generation.
sejanus, whose action we may confidently see in the ruin of agrippina, now stood near the steps of the throne, waiting impatiently for the passing of the despised emperor. he was betrothed to livilla, the widow of tiberius’s only son drusus, whom he had poisoned, with livilla’s assistance. with a consort of c?sarean blood he felt that he could easily fill the place of tiberius. and in the height of his corrupt power and criminal hope the vengeance of the fates fell on him like a stroke of lightning. it is said that the wife he proposed to divorce disclosed to tiberius that sejanus was the murderer of his only son. within48 a few hours he was impeached, condemned, and put to death. all who had gathered about him in the hope of his coming power were scattered or destroyed by the frantic anger of tiberius. livilla was urged by her mother to bury her shame in the grave. she refused, and was banished. we shall meet her again in the chronicle of vice and violence.
after this terrible ordeal tiberius withdrew to capre?, where he had built a palace. wandering, some years ago, among the ruins of what is believed to have been the palace of tiberius, i found that the echoes still lingered there of the dark stories which men told in rome of his later years. men said that he had shut himself in that sea-girt palace only to indulge, unseen, in the grossest perversions of a sensual nature, and that a new profession of ministers to lust, of which a description may be found in tacitus, had grown out of his weariness even of unnatural vice. one does not readily admit such orgies in a man between his seventy-second and seventy-eighth year, and it seems to me that one may offer an explanation of the myth, which will also serve to introduce the third emperor of rome and his wives.
suetonius describes tiberius as surrounded by learned men and absorbed in obscure problems of astrology, mythology, and letters. the most resolute adherent of the more romantic story must have some difficulty in reconciling this band of prosy pedants with the sensual orgies which popular rumour located in the lonely palace. when, however, we learn that two young princes of the least intellectual and most immoral character formed part of the household, we see that there may have been two entirely distinct lives sheltered by the palace at capre?. if we suppose that these young men and their sycophantic attendants freely indulged in the vices which were then common to roman youths, while their elders were intent on the glorious planets of a neapolitan sky, we have a satisfactory explanation of the legend. the horror of rome at the emperor’s bloody avenging of the murder49 of his son would not dispose people to discriminate conscientiously.
one of these princes was herod agrippa, son of the king of jud?a, whom octavian had brought to rome for security. the other, a year younger, was “caligula,” as the soldiers had nicknamed the surviving son of agrippina and germanicus. caius c?sar—to give him his real name—was in his nineteenth year when his mother was banished. tiberius a few years later took him to capre?, where he would prove an apt pupil to herod in oriental ways. the vein of moral perversity, if not insanity, which we trace in all the descendants of julia, is most clearly exhibited in caligula, and the tragedy of the c?sars deepens when, in the year 37, tiberius dies, and caligula is called to the throne.8
he had been married in 33 to junia claudilla, daughter of junius silanus, a proconsul of eminent services and distinguished family. she was happily spared the fate of sharing the throne with caligula by dying in childbirth. what her life in capre? must have been is not obscurely suggested by her early death. no prospect in europe is more pleasant than that which unfolds its superb and far-lying beauty to the spectator on the green summits of capri, from which the eye may wander over the broad blue bay, with its silver fringe of surf, or round the crescent of evergreen land that begins with sorrento, and sweeps majestically, past the foot of vesuvius, to the distant haze in which bai? once lived. yet to a refined and sensitive young woman this splendid palace must have been a deathly jail. repelled alike by the purblind scholars and the licentious princes, the heavy monotony of learning and vice unrelieved by visits to rome, she sank under her burden in three years—just missing by one year the title of second empress of rome. her father, a grave and illustrious senator, endeavoured to check caligula’s extravagance in the first year of his reign. the50 brutal emperor bade him “take his greeting to the spirit of the dead.” with a last sad glance at the future of his country, junius silanus obeyed.
we are credibly told that caligula then made love to ennia, wife of the prefect of the guard. sejanus had persuaded tiberius to form a corps of “pr?torian guards,” an imperial body-guard which was destined to have a disastrous influence on the future of rome. the actual prefect or commander of this regiment, macro, was the most powerful person in the suite of tiberius. with or without his connivance, his wife yielded to caligula, on the condition that he should marry her when he became emperor. macro and ennia accompanied caligula when he bore the will and the ashes of tiberius to rome. a gloom had settled over italy during the later years of tiberius’s reign, and men hailed the young caligula as the sun and the blue sky are hailed after days of dark tempest at sea. standing by their flower-girt altars, coming out with torches at night, people greeted him with frantic epithets of affection. he was their “star,” their “chicken,” their “dear child,” as he had been to the soldiers in germany years before. not that he was a handsome youth. his frame was thin and lanky, and his movements awkward. he was prematurely bald, and his sunken eyes looked out with a scowl from his pallid face. but he was the son of germanicus, the grandson of julia. all the follies which the family had perpetrated were forgotten.
for a month or two he fulfilled the hope of his people. the reign of terror was ended at once. he recalled his sisters from exile, and brought to rome, with great respect, the ashes of his mother and brothers. the circus and the amphitheatre rang once more with the cheers of the populace. the golden age of octavian had been restored, men said. but the emasculated system and feeble mind of caligula were unequal to the nervous strain. early in his reign ennia reminded him of his written promise to marry her, and macro had an air of patronage51 in advising him. in a sudden blaze of ferocity he ordered ennia and her children to be executed, and graciously permitted macro to end his own life. he had found a wife—his sister drusilla.
his incestuous relation with drusilla was soon the topic of rome. it had probably begun before she was banished, and when he recalled her to his palace, a young and beautiful girl of about twenty summers, he conceived a violent passion for her, divorced her from her husband, and announced that he intended to marry her. the emperor was above all laws, he said. rome laughed the laughter of fools. he was providing it with stupendous entertainment. the games of the circus ran for twelve hours, day after day, and the night was turned into fresh day with illuminations, banquets, and such pleasures as they could get with the money he freely distributed. in the midst of it all he fell ill; not improbably he was paying with epilepsy the price of his wild excesses. there was such sorrow in rome as had rarely been felt at the illness of its greatest citizens. men vowed their lives for the life of the beloved emperor; and caligula, when he recovered, saw that they kept their vows. he was ill for many weeks, and, when his strength returned, he had lost the little sanity and sobriety that nature had ever put in his ill-compacted frame. the rest of his reign was a nightmare.
drusilla died during his illness, or soon after his recovery. some writers suggest that her malady was a feeling of deep shame, but the description which dio gives of her does not support this view, nor does the single virtue of remorse seem to be known among the descendants of julia. the grief of caligula was no less insane than his passion had been. no illustrious roman was ever honoured with such pomp of funeral as this woman, whose incestuous life he cried over the world. a senator saw her soul mount to heaven from the burning pile, and was rewarded with a million sesterces. the degraded senate declared her a goddess, and it was decreed that52 henceforward women should swear by the divinity of drusilla. earth and heaven resounded with his demented moans; and even before drusilla was put among the gods he had married again.
livia orestilla, the second empress of rome, is one of those ladies who are known to us only in the familiar phrase, that she was a young woman of great beauty and illustrious family. in her case we need no ampler portrait, as she was empress only for a few days. before the end of the first year of his reign (37), and in the midst of his lamentation over drusilla, caligula was invited to the wedding of calpurnius piso, a noble of rank and wealth. caligula fancied the bride, and at once made her his empress. with equal license he divorced her a few days afterwards, and she learned what it was to fall from the height of a throne. he forbade her to have any commerce with the husband of whom he had robbed her, and then, alleging that his order had been disregarded, banished both of them to remote and distinct parts of the empire.
the next lady on whom his unbridled imagination rested was lollia paulina. caligula was probably more attracted by her wealth than by the remarkable beauty, the high character, and the distinguished ancestry which the chronicles ascribe to her. the rich spoils of conquered provinces had accumulated in her family, and her husband, the governor of macedonia and achaia, was industriously adding to their wealth. people told at rome that she once went to a marriage-supper in pearls and emeralds that were valued at fifty million sesterces. her high virtue seems to have been consistent with a display that made her a topic of table-talk, and that brought upon her a lamentable fate. caligula, piqued by the stories of her wealth and beauty, ordered her husband to bring her to rome, and she was soon afterwards established in his palace as the third empress of rome. within a year caligula divorced her on the ground that she gave no promise of perpetuating his line.
53 it is often said that caligula had only married her for the purpose of seizing her fortune, as his prodigal expenditure was rapidly emptying the treasury. this seems to be an error, as we shall find her in the next chapter incurring a miserable fate on account of her immense wealth. the truth was that caligula had in the meantime discovered a lady whose temper wholly suited his own, and of whose fertility he was actually assured.
in the spring or early summer of the year 39 we find him perpetrating one of his stupendous acts of folly at bai?. he was accustomed, in the warmer weather, to cruise about the coast of campania with his wife and suite. he had two great liburnian galleys built, each with ten banks of oars, their prows blazing with gold and jewels, their decks adorned with vines, colonnades, and divers freaks of irresponsible wealth. as they cruised by the bay, some one reminded him of an old proverb which spoke of riding from bai? to puteoli, across an arm of the bay, as one of the most certain impossibilities. at once he ordered a bridge to be built across the water and elaborately decorated. in what was supposed to be the armour of alexander the great, over which was thrown a mantle of purple silk, the conqueror of impossibilities rode from bai? to puteoli. on the following day he drove his chariot across; and far into the night, the hills around being lit up with immense fires, he carried the debauch which celebrated his glorious feat. in their intoxication numbers reeled from the bridge into the scented waters.
eager for fresh victories, he transferred his delirious court to gaul, and declared that he was proceeding against the fierce germans. the tribes were not in revolt, and the whole expedition was a comedy; some of the roman writers say that a few tame captives were conveyed across the river and hunted, so that the emperor might truthfully inform the senate that he had gained a victory and merited a triumph. suetonius even adds that, when he did eventually return to rome and celebrate his triumph, a few slaves were forced to learn a little german and dye54 their hair, to pose as conquered tribesmen before his chariot. in the meantime, events which concern us more closely were happening at lyons.
the extravagance of caligula was rapidly emptying the treasury. in twelve months he spent 2,700 million sesterces. his baths were of the most precious ointments; his banquets were especially designed to waste money—one alone cost ￡80,000, in modern coinage—and, when the flow was not fast enough, he drank pearls dissolved in vinegar, and had gold fashioned in the shape of food and served to his guests. he disdainfully swept the palaces of octavian and tiberius, with other mansions, from the palatine, and erected a palace of extraordinary proportions and barbaric splendour. such habits drew about him a crowd of ignoble parasites, and one can well believe that he had discovered a conspiracy against him at lyons. he had prostituted the honour of rome in a manner so childish and base that few could be unmoved. observing the wealth of the gauls—for lugdunum (lyons) was then the centre of a prosperous and cultivated region—he began to sell to them the possessions of the imperial house. he was present at the auction, and the proceeds were so satisfactory that he sent to rome for wagon-loads of furniture, heirlooms, and curios from the imperial palaces, and, as they were offered for sale, pointed out himself the historical value of each object.
in his suite was the first husband of his sister drusilla. this distinguished noble, lepidus, may have exchanged views on the insanity of the emperor with the disgusted gauls. at all events, caligula sent word to the senate that he had discovered a plot against his life, and added that his sisters, livilla and agrippina, had been convicted of adultery with lepidus. he put lepidus to death, and compelled agrippina, a proud and spirited young princess, to carry on foot to rome the urn containing the ashes of her alleged lover. we shall see how, on his return to rome, caligula made atonement to vice for this drastic punishment of adultery. in fact, he already had a mistress55 in the court at lyons, and this lady now displaces lollia paulina, and becomes the fourth empress of rome.
milonia c?sonia is one of the oddest figures in the very varied gallery through which our story conducts us. julia and messalina are imperial in their vices. c?sonia, whose vices are so little discussed, stands entirely apart from the other empresses—at least of the first century. wholly destitute of character or culture, already worn with the bearing of three children, she seems to have won and retained the fancy—one cannot call it affection or regard—of caligula by a handsome figure, a robust masculinity, and an entire lack of refinement. he often exhibited her nude to his friends, and encouraged her to dress as an amazon and ride her horse before the army. his disordered mind puzzled at times over the charm by which she held him. he would stroke her strong white throat, and murmur pleasantly that at one word from him the knife of the executioner would sink into it; and he would sometimes, with the same brutal humour, threaten to have her tortured, in order to discover what philtre she secretly administered to him. she had much tact and no scruples. their daughter drusilla was born on the day of their marriage, according to suetonius, or thirty days afterwards, according to more credible authorities. as the child grew, it showed the temper of a wild cat. caligula watched its frenzies with delight, as it screamed and bit its nurse; there was, he said, no room for doubt about the paternity.
with such a spouse, and with his favourite courtesan pyrallis, whom also he had established in his new palace, caligula indulged his insane impulses without the least restraint. within a few months of inflicting so terrible a punishment on his sister, he was giving imperial lessons in incest and adultery. so low had much of the roman nobility fallen that no sword was drawn on the emperor, or employed on its possessor, when he concluded his banquets with a command of promiscuous intercourse to the men and women of patrician rank whom he entertained. nor were his excesses confined within the walls of his56 palace, and known only by uncertain rumour. he developed a passion for driving chariots, and frequented the company of grooms and gladiators. rome genially applauded, since it implied more and longer shows in the circus and amphitheatre. the struggles of the different factions in the races—of whom caligula supported the greens—more than ever enlivened the dull days of an idle populace. caligula forced nobles to exercise the base and dangerous profession of the gladiator, and to drive chariots before the mob in the circus.
but the amusement of rome reached its height when caligula, in the year 39, discovered his divinity. other emperors were content to leave it to the flattery of their people to detect a divinity in them after their very human careers were over. “i am turning into a god,” said one of them ironically, as he died. caligula believed that his splendour was already divine. vitellius, a contemptible courtier, father of the later emperor, shrewdly borrowed the idea from oriental monarchs, and suggested it to caligula. then were witnessed scenes in rome which even the wildest extravagances of nero cannot rival. its citizens had, at the peril of their lives, to restrain their laughter, and bend in respectful worship, when the slim, ungraceful youth—he was yet only in his twenty-seventh year—with the weariness of dissipation on his pale face, trod their streets in the garments of jove, with a beard of gold thread, or marched past them with the bow and quiver and golden halo of apollo, or dressed to the more congenial part of venus. a machine was made by which he could, in a puerile way, imitate the thunder of the rival god; and he ordered the heads to be struck off the statues of the greek deities and replaced by copies of his own. a deity must have a cult. caligula appointed himself and his horse, for which he provided a marble palace and an ivory manger, the high priests of his cult. c?sonia was associated in the priesthood, and the position of ordinary priest of the cult was sold to various nobles at the price of eight million sesterces each. poor men57 were forced to ruin themselves and put an end to their lives; wealthier men meekly posed as the ministers of a divinity who gorged himself with food and wine at each meal, and resorted to the vomit that he might return to the table.
how long nature would have suffered this madness to debase the fallen city one cannot tell, but the exhaustion of the treasury now led caligula to do things which roused a few romans from their lethargy. he repeated in rome the auctions he had held at lyons, and many stories are told of his brutal irresponsibility. the truth of these stories is always doubtful, but one may be quoted as an illustration of the popular feeling. it is said that a senator fell asleep during one of the sales. caligula malignantly called the auctioneer’s attention to the fact that the sleeping man was nodding at every bid, and the senator awoke to find that he had bought thirteen gladiators and other property at fabulous prices. caligula even stood at his palace door to receive gifts, pleading that the addition to his family had impoverished him.
he then discovered a new source of funds in the execution of the wealthier nobles. brutal and sanguinary from the first, his growing madness and his delight in gladiatorial shows fostered his cruelty. he had an actor burned alive in the forum for venturing even to hint, in an ambiguous phrase, that the imperial behaviour was reprehensible. others he had tortured and executed in his presence, in order that he might enjoy the sensation of seeing them suffer. but it was mainly in quest of money to maintain his terrible expenditure that he stooped to the lowest excesses. no man of wealth in rome was safe. informers were eager for the fourth part of a victim’s property, to which they were entitled after a successful impeachment; caligula hungered for the remaining three-fourths. every ten days he would “clear his accounts,” as he put it, or doom to death any wealthy senators whom he had chosen to put on his list of suspects. he would return from the court boasting to c?sonia of the heavy58 work he had done while she slept. a great terror brooded over the city, and men talked of the emperor in whispers. omens and signs multiplied. the statue of jupiter olympus had been brought to rome, and one day the workmen rushed in alarm from the temple in which it was placed, crying that the marble god had burst into a fit of laughter.
on january 24th, in the year 41, this appalling gloom came to an end, and the third emperor and fourth empress of rome were justly removed. the long hesitation of the romans must not too readily be ascribed to cowardice. the pr?torian guards were now encamped at the edge of the city, and were richly paid for personal loyalty to the emperor; so that there was very faint hope of a successful rising of the citizens. for the greater part these formidable soldiers were mercenaries, caring nothing for the honour of rome, faithful as dogs to the liberal master. it was not until an officer of this regiment headed a conspiracy that any action could be taken with a prospect of success. this officer was a favourite of caligula, but the imperial friendship was expressed in such coarse and stinging epithets that he was driven to rebel. he and his associates determined to assassinate caligula when he attended the palatine games in the later part of january. a large wooden theatre had been erected for the occasion, and caligula presided with delight at the repulsive spectacles. such was the popular enthusiasm that the conspirators surrounded caligula day after day without daring to touch him. his german guard, insensible to the grievances of the romans, would at once and blindly oppose a rising, and the people seemed to have forgotten his tyranny in the blood-reeking show he had provided for them.
they came to the fifth and final day of the games. caligula was unwell, and wished to remain in the palace, but he was persuaded to make an effort to attend the final performance. before a vast audience the actors represented the crucifixion of a band of robbers, and the stage was washed with blood. the chief actor of the time had a trick59 of pouring blood from his mouth, and the other actors clumsily imitated him. when it was over, caligula, elated with the wild applause of the citizens, entered the narrow passage which led from the theatre to his house on the palatine. the conspirators seized their last chance, and fell upon the emperor with their swords. within a few hours rome so far changed that it was the turn of the partisans of caligula to tremble. his body was removed and stealthily buried by herod agrippa.
c?sonia seems to have remained in, or preceded caligula to, the palace, with her little daughter. there the cries of the guard and the noisy confusion in the palace would soon announce the disaster to her. she had no time to escape, or devise any policy. a centurion rushed to her room and stabbed her to death. her infant was roughly seized by a soldier, and its brain was shattered on the walls of the palace, where the brief infamies of its father and mother had degraded the civilization of rome.
