Commentary Upon Acts, Part 4 – Title page 7
The Roman Story againe.
Sect. I. Tiberius neere his end.
TWice onelyonly did Tiberius proffer to retrne to the Citie after his departure from it, but returned never. The later time was not very long before his end: For being come within the sight of the Citie upon the Appian rode, this prodigy (as hee took it) affrighted him back. Hee had a tame Serpent, which comming to feed as hee used to doe with his owne hand, hee found him eaten up by Pismires: upon which ominous accident being advised not to trust himselfe among the multitude, hee suddenly retired back to Campany, and at Astura hee fell sick. From thence hee removed to Circeii, and thence to Misenum, carrying out his infirmity so well, that hee abated not a whit of his former sports, banquets and voluptuousnesse: whether for dissimulation, or for habituall intemperance, or upon Thrasyllus his prediction, let who will determine. Hee used to mock at Physick, and to scoffe at those, that being thirtie yeers of age, yet would aske other mens counsell, what was good or hurtfull for their own bodies.
Sect. II. His choise of a successor.
But weaknesse at the last gave him warning of his end, & put him in mind to think of his successor: and when hee did so, perplexitie met with such a thought. For whom should hee choose▪ The sonne of Drusus was too young, the sonne of Germanicus was too well beloved, and Claudius was too soft; should hee choose the first or the last, it might helpe to disgrace his judgement, should hee choose the middle, hee might chance to disgrace his owne memory among the people, and for him to looke elsewhere was to disgrace the family of the Caesars. Thus did hee pretend a great deale of care & seriousnesse for the good of the common wealth, whereas his maine ayme and respect was, at his owne credit and his families honour. Well: something hee must pretend to give countenance and credit to his care of the common good. In sine his great deliberation concluded in this easie issue, namely in a prayer to the Gods to designe his successor, and in an auspicium of his owne hatching, that hee should bee his successor that should come first in to him upon the next morning, which proved to bee Caius. It shewed no great reality nor earnestnesse for the common good in him at all, when so small a thing as this must sway his judgement, & such a trifle be the casting voyce in a matter of so great a moment. His affection was more to young Tiberius, his nephew, but his policy reflected more upon Caius: hee had rather Tiberius might have had the rule alone, and yet hee was unwilling that Caius should go without it, seeming to divide his affections betwixt the two, whereas his chiefe thoughts and respects were to his owne selfe. But Caius whom the Gods had cast upon it (as his foolish auspicium perswaded him) must bee the man, though hee read in his nature the very bane of the Empire: and yet for affections sake too must young Tiberius bee joynt heire with him, though hee foresaw and foretold that Caius should murder him. A monstrous policy: to lay his owne grandchild for a baite, for those jawes that hee knew would devoure him: and this was that by that present cruelty of Caius his owne cruelties that were past might bee forgotten, and the talke of that might not give roome to talke of old Tiberius. This was that pretended care that hee had of the Commonwealth, to bee sure to leave one behind him that should bee worse then himself, that by his greater wickednesse his owne might bee lessened, and that himself might seeme to bee lesse vitious, by the others vitiousnesse above him. Yet giveth he counsaile to Caius inciting him to goodnes which he himself could never follow, & exhorting him to tendernesse towards young Tiberius, which in his heart he was reasonable indifferent whether he followed or no.
Sect. III. His death.
Charicles the Doctor gave notice of his death approaching, to Caius and Macro, though hee stole this judgment and conjecture but by a sleight. For sitting with the Emperour at a Banquet, and taking on him some earnest and speedy occasion to bee gone to some other place, hee rose from the Table, and pretending to take the Emperours hand to kisse, hee closely and stealingly tryed his Pulse, which Tiberius perceiving, but not expressing so much, caused him to take his place againe, and the Banquet to bee renewed, and him to sit out the meale. But when the Doctor was got loose from the Table, and was come to Caius and Macro, and the rest of the adorers of that imperiall Sunne that was now waiting when hee should rise, hee resolved them that his end drew on apace, and was not many daies off: And then was all preparation for the new Emperour when the last gaspe should remove the old. But hee that had used so much dissimulation all his life dissembled even in his dying. For fainting and swooning so very sore, that all conceived hee was departed, and Caius and all his favorites were gone forth to take possession of his new Empire: suddenly the tune is turned, and newes comes forth that Tiberius is revived and calleth for meat: Macro that had often been his instrument of cruelty upon others, … the facultie now upon himselfe, and in stead of meate stopt his mouth with a pillow, or with heaping cloaths upon his face and so hee died. There are indeed diversities of opinion about the manner of his death, some saying it was thus as is mentioned, others that it was by poyson, others that it was by being denied meat in the intermission of his fits, others that hee rose out of his bed and fell on the floore, nobody being neere him: all which are mentioned by Suetonius. It is not much materiall what his end was, that that is first named is most intertained, and certainly it suiteth very well with his deservings, and it is some wonder that he came to such an end no sooner. Hee died the seventeenth of the Calends of Aprill or the sixteenth of March, or if Dion may have his will the seventh, and so the rest of that yeer is accounted the first of Caius.
SECT. IIII. CAIUS.
AN evill Emperour is gone, but a worse is to succeed him. Caius the sonne of Germanicus, a bad child of a good father, inheriting the love and favour of the people for his fathers sake, till hee forfeited it, by his reserving the qualities of Tiberius. Hee was surnamed Caligula, from a garbe that hee wore in the Campe, in which hee was bred and educated: from whence hee had the love of the Souldiers, till his barbarous nature lost it. It may seeme incredible, that a worse disposition should ever bee found then that of Tiberius, but the old Politician saw that this was so much beyond it, that it would doe him credit: some impute the fault to his bloody Nurse one Pressilla a Campanian, the custome of which country it was, that the women when they were to give their children suck, they first anointed the Nipple with the blood of an Hedg-hog, to the end their children might bee the more fierce and cruell. This woman was as savage above the rest of the nation, as they were above other women, for her brests were all hairy over, like the beards of men, and her activitie and strength in martiall exercises inferiour to few of the infantry of Rome. One day as shee was giving Caligula the Pap, being angry at a young child that stood by her, shee tooke it and tore it in peeces, and with the blood thereof anointed her breasts & so set her nursling Caius to suck both blood and milke. But had not his infancy been educated▪ in such a butchery, the schoole of his youth had beene enough to have habituated him to mischief. For being brought up in the sight, and at the elbow of Tiberius, it would have served to have corrupted the best nature that could bee; but this of his was either never good, or at least was spoiled long before. Yet had he reasonably well learned his Tutors art of dissimulation, so that he hid those Serpentine conditions, not onelyonly before Tiberius his death, but also a while after hee had obtained the Empire. OnelyOnly he that had taught him to weave this mantle of dissembling could spie through it, insomuch that he would professe, That Caius lived for the destruction of him and all others. And that hee hatched up a snake for the Roman Empire, and a Phaeton for all the world. And it proved so both to him and them. For when Tiberius lay a gasping stifled with a pillow prest upon him, he also throtled him with his hand, and crucified one of his servants that cryed out upon the hideousnesse of the fact. And as for his demeanor toward the State, a little time will give too lamentable witnesse.
Sect. V. Tiberius in a manner cruell being dead.
How welcome news, the tydings of Tiberius death were at Rome, may bee easily conjectured, by any that hath observed his cruelties before. Some cryed out, Tiberius into Tiber, some to the hurdle and Tyburne, some to one thing, some to another, using the more liberty of their tongues against the tyrant now, by how much they had been tyed up the straiter whilst he lived. Nor did the remembrance of his former cruelties onelyonly cause them to rejoice for his death, but a present cruelty, (as if he were bloudy being dead) made him the more odious to them, then alive. For certain men that were but lately condemned, & their execution day falling upon the very day when tydings of his death came to the City (for the Senate did ever allow ten dayes for the condemned persons after their sentence, before their end) the poore men emplored the aide and comfort of every one they met, because Caius to whom they should have sued was not in the City, but they were haled away by the Executioners and strangled.
Sect. VI. Agrippa in a perplexity, and inlarged.
Agrippa was partaker of the common joy, but withall of some mixture of misery, for such variety of fortune had hee tasted ever, and now must hee have a farewell to such vicissitudes. Marsy… his freeman hearing the rumour in the City, runneth with all speed to certifie his master; and finding him with some company in the wayes toward the Bath, he beckeneth to him with this speech in the Hebrew tongue, The Lion is dead. With which tydings Agrippa was so transported with joy, that the Centurion his Keeper perceived it, and enquiring the reason, and being told it by Agrippa, hee rejoyced with him for the newes, and loseth him from his Bonds. But as they were at Supper, there commeth a contrary report that Tiberius was alive, and would ere long bee in the City. What now thinke you is become of the heart and mettle of Agrippa and his Centurion? Both had done enough by this their present joy, to procure their endlesse sorrow, and his Keeper the worse of the two; but Agrippa must smart for all for the present. Hee therefore casts him into irons againe, and committeth him to a surer Guard then before: And thus, as his too much eagernesse of Tiberius his death had imprisoned him before, even so doth it now: but the next morning puts him into life again, for the rumour of the old Emperours death, is confirmed by Letters from the ne…; and a speciall Warrant commeth from him for the inlarging of Agrippa out of Prison, to the house where hee had used to live before.
Sect. VII. Caius commeth to Rome.
The Corpse of the dead Tyrant is carryed by the Souldiers into the City, Caius himselfe in mourning apparell following the Hearse; and there he maketh his Funeral Oration, & performeth his Obsequies with great pomp & solemnity. And on the very day of his comming to town he had enlarged Agrippa, but that the advice of Antonia perswaded him to hold a while, lest the people should suspect that hee was glad of the death of Tiberius, if hee should so sodainly set free one that hee had committed for an enemy. But within a few dayes hee is inlarged, and sent for home unto him. And there is hee trimmed, his garments changed, and hee crowned King of the Tetrarchies of Philip and Lysanias, and his chain of iron, and of his bondage, changed for a chaine of Gold of the same weight. This is that King Agrippa that slew Iames, and imprisoned Peter, and is called Herod, Acts 2.
Sect. VIII. Caius his dissembling.
Caius his beginnings were plausible and popular, dissembling his cursed dispositions under such crafty colours, that the people were transported with so happy a change (as they supposed) and 160000 Sacrifices were slaine for gratulation in his three first moneths. His teares for Tiberius, his piety to his dead mother and brother, his respect to his living Sisters, his faire words to the Senate, and as faire carriage to the people, his paying of Legacies, his inlarging of Prisoners, his remitting of offences, his reviving of good Lawes, &c. made the people to forget either in what schoole of dissimulation he had been brought up, or how soone so great advancement corrupteth men of little education,; and it made them vainely to hope that they had a Germanicus, because they had his sonne; and that a good Prince could be bequeathed to them by Tiberius.
Yet could hee not hide the ilnesse of his disposition under all these cloakes and coverts of dissembling; for presently upon his comming to the City, hee disanulled the will of Tiberius that hee might nullifie the authority of his partner of the same name in the rule and Empire: And yet did hee pay all the Legacies of old Tiberius with bountifull additions of his owne, which shewed tha… hee disliked the will, onelyonly because of partnership of Tiberius the younger. Having thus the whole sway and dominion devolved upon himselfe, by the outing of his poore Cousin (for the Senate was made and packed by Macro for such a purpose) hee was received with as much joy and applause, as was possible to expresse, upon the old memory of his father, and the present expectation of himselfe. Nor was this jocundnesse confined in the narrow bonds of Rome and Italy, but dilated it selfe through all the Empire, in every corner where the hoped benefit, and happy fruit of so great an expectation would have come, had it proved right. Every Country, City and Town was poured forth into exultation and festivity, with a common joy in this common hope. Now could you have seen nothing but Altars, Offerings, Sacrifices, Feasts, Revels, Bankets, Playes, Dancings, merry Faces, crowned Heads, singing Tongues and joyfull Hearts, that the World seemed to bee ravished besides it selfe, & all misery to bee banished out of it, and all the thoughts of a changing fortune utterly forgot. Had Tiberius but spyed this worke out of his Coffin, how would hee have laughed for company, to behold this deludednesse of the people, and dissimulation of the Prince? And thus lasted this musicke and masking for his first seven moneths, in which the new Emperour behaved himselfe with that moderation and bravery, as if vertue it selfe had been come among them.
In the eighth monethmonth a grievous sicknesse seized upon him, and then was all this mirth and melody turned to mourning and lamentation: each man sorrowfull, and women bemoaning, as if all the world had been sicke as well as hee. Now were their songs turned into teares, their revelling into prayers, and their festivalls to Vows for his recovery. Nay, so far did some straine the expression of their affections, that they vowed their heads and lives for his restoring. Nor could the people bee so much blamed for this their sorrow, as pityed for being thus deceived, nor could it so much bee wondred at that they were deceived, as it was wonderfull that hee could so deceive. For who could have chose but have erred their errour, that had seen what they beheld; and w…o could have brought them into such an error, but such a one as hee, who was both a Caius and a scholar of Tiberius? When hee paid the Legacies of Tiberius,) hee also discharged those of Iulia which Tiberius had stopped, and added a considerable summe of his own bounty: Hee gathered the ashes of his mother and brother, and committed them to their Urne with his owne hands, choosing a tempestuous season purposely when hee travailed about that businesse, that his piety might bee blowne about the more; and hee instituted annuall festivalls for them. Nor must his father Germanicus be forgotten, nor indeed could he, nor did hee deserve it, for his memory therefore would hee have the monethmonth September to bee called by his name, placing him in the Calendar next Augustus. His Grandmother Antonia hee also dignified and deified equally with Livia; and that by the consent and decree of the Senate. His Uncle Claudius hee honoured with partnership with him in the Consulship; and his brother and partner Tiberius, with adoption to put him in future hopes now hee had lost his present ones; and hee titled him The Prince of the Youth, to stop his mouth belike, when hee had put him beside his being the Prince of Men. But as for his Sisters, the sequel shewed that it was more doting and lust then pure brotherly affection, that caused him to shew these expressions: that in all oaths that were administred to any, this must bee one clause to which they must sweare, That they neither accounted themselves nor their children, dearer then Caius and his Sisters: and this in all the Records of the Consuls, Which bee for the happinesse of Caius and his Sisters, &c. The like popularity used hee likewise to the people, releasing the condemned, and recalling the banished; condemning on the contrary all enormities in Judicature, and banishing all incentives to evill manners. Forgiving his own private grievances, and satisfying for injuries done by his Predecessors; that it was no marvaile if the whole State were sick in the sicknesse of such a Prince.
Sect. IX. Caius beginning to shew himselfe in his own colours.
Not to insist longer upon the vizor of this dissembler, but to take him as he was, and not as hee seemed, his nature began more evidently to shew it self after his recovery of his sicknesse mentioned, and then the State began by degrees to bee sick indeed. His beginnings were in lightnesse, sports, and lavishing of money; but his proceedings were in bestiality, cruelty and effusion of bloud. His Banquets, Plays, Swordfights, Fightings of Beasts (as 400 Beares, and as many other African wild Beasts at one time) his Musick, Shews, strictnesse that none should bee absent from them, and expensivenesse in all (insomuch that he spent above twenty millions in such vanities in lesse then three yeares) may bee thought as vertues in him, in comparison of that that followed, and of the mischiefes that hee mingled between.
Sect. X. Caius cruell.
The recovery of the Emperour Caius, from that disease under which wee left him ere while, proved the sicknesse of the whole State, and the death of divers. For now hee began to shew himselfe in his owne colours, and to lay open the inside of his barbarous nature, which hitherto hee had hid under strange dissimulation. P. Afranius Petitus a Plebeian, and Atanius Secundus a Knight, had bound themselves by oath, in the Emperours sicknesse, partly in flattery, partly in hope of reward, the one that hee would die on condition the Prince might recover; and the other that he would venture his life in combate on the same condition. Caius understanding of this obligation, and pretending that hee would have neither of them perjured, seeing hee was now well again, constrained them both to performe their vowes, and brought them to repent their flattery with repentance too late and vaine, and to a reward cleane contrary to their expectation. Nor was his cruelty any whit lesse, though for very shame it must be better dissembled, to his Father in Law the noble Silanus. A man hated of him for the two maine things that in humane society are the eyes of love, vertue, and alliance, and so indignly used him, that hee found no way to regain his love, nor any better to avoid his hate then to murder himselfe with his own hands. Claudia the daughter of Silanus was his wife, but hee divorced her from him, and took Cornelia Orestilla, from her husband Calpurnius Piso, on their very wedding day, where hee was present at the solemnization, and hee kept her not two months, but sent her to her Piso again.
Sect. XI. Young Tiberius brought to a miserable end.
These entries being made for the fleshing as it were the Tyrant in bloodinesse and cruelty, he is now made ready and fit to execute a more horrible designe upon his poor brother, partner and son by adoption, the young and innocent Tiberius. He poore Prince having been thrust by him out of his right and patrimony, by the nullifying of old Tiberius his will, must now also bee deprived of life. This was it that the old Testator did presage, and yet would leave him for a prey to his inhumanity. The pretences against this young Prince were, that either hee had been a meanes to cause his sicknesse, or at least had rejoyced in it, and desired his death. A sleighty accusation to bring such a Person to death; yet might hee onelyonly have dyed, it might have seemed more tolerable, but the manner of it made the cruelty double. Hee is commanded to die by his own hand, though Tribunes, Centurions, and men of warre fitter farre to have done such an execution stood by and would have done it. He desired but this mercy, that hee might have been slain by some of them, but that was denyed him upon a point of Honor and Justice forsooth, because it was not fit that such a Prince should dye by inferiour hands. The poor Prince offered his neck to every one that stood neare, but they durst not strike for feare of their own: The onelyonly favour that hee could obtaine was this, that they might teach him where to wound himselfe for his soonest dispatch, and so hee did. And thus is the Tyrant delivered as he thinketh from all feare and danger of compartnership and corrivality in the Empire: next will he take a course with those that any way may crosse him in, or advise him against his headlong humors, and of them wee shall heare in their course. The last six months of this year he had taken the Consulship upon himself, and had chosen his Uncle Claudius for his colleague, but wee have reserved the names of the old till now, to avoid confusion.
THE ROMAN, and JEWISH STORY, FOR The Yeare of Christ 39. And of Caius Caligula 2. Being the Yeare of the World 3966. And of the City of Rome, 791. Consuls
M. Aquila Iulianus.
P. Nonius Asprenas.
London, Printed by R. C. for Andrew Crooke, 1645.