Sejanus

“ Then she whispered: “Send Lygdus to me. Complete thy plans. I will share everything with thee, bear everything with thee.”
“Of a truth, thou canst not desire to live longer with the man who abuses thee worse than his slaves,” said Sejanus. “Gamblers, drunkards, unscrupulous and dissolute men and women, are his friends. He loves the mute statues on these walls more than he loves thee. He would not sacrifice a cup of wine to make thee happy.”
Sejanus again placed his arms around her, and with his lips near hers he continued: “I love [35] thee, O my Livilla, with all the strength of my nature. ”

“ Cæsar!
TIBERIUS.
To leave our journey off, were sin
’Gainst our decreed delights; and would appear
Doubt; or, what less becomes a prince, low fear.
Yet doubt hath law, and fears have their excuse.
Where princes’ states plead necessary use;
As ours doth now: more in Sejanus’ pride,
Than all fell Agrippina’s hates beside.
Those are the dreadful enemies we raise
With favours, and make dangerous with praise;
The injured by us may have will alike,
But ’tis the favourite hath the power to strike;
And fury ever boils more high and strong,
Heat with ambition, than revenge of wrong. ”

“ If Livia will be now corrupted, then
Thou hast the way, Sejanus, to work out
His secrets, who, thou know’st, endures thee not,
Her husband, Drusus: and to work against them.
Prosper it, Pallas, thou that better’st wit;
For Venus hath the smallest share in it.
Enter Tiberius and Drusus, attended.
TIBERIUS.
[to Haterius, who kneels to him.]
We not endure these flatteries; let him stand;
Our empire, ensigns, axes, rods and state
Take not away our human nature from us:
Look up on us, and fall before the gods.
SEJANUS.
How like a god speaks Cæsar!
ARRUNTIUS.
There, observe! ”

“ In everything the emperor, now advanced in years, weary of public business, and conscious that he was detested by a majority of the Roman citizens, gave way to Sejanus. The weak bent to the strong will—the man who could rise no higher to the man who was still climbing up ambition's ladder. So ostentatious was his favor, perhaps, for a while, so sincere his friendship, that, in his speeches and letters to the senate, Tiberius frequently made honorable mention of Sejanus. He was his guide, his other self, in the government of the empire. ”

“ Thou art not safe, Sejanus, if thou prove it.
Canst thou believe, that Livia, first the wife
To Caius Cæsar, then my Drusus, now
Will be contented to grow old with thee,
Born but a private gentleman of Rome,
And raise thee with her loss, if not her shame?
Or say that I should wish it, canst thou think
The senate, or the people (who have seen
Her brother, father, and our ancestors,
In highest place of empire) will endure it!
The state thou hold’st already, is in talk;
Men murmur at thy greatness; and the noble! ”

“ That man was Sejanus. He sees a man respected by the emperor, advanced to almost equal honors, acclaimed by the Roman Senate and people. That man was Sejanus. He looks into the future. He sees a man sitting on a curule chair, receiving petitions and imperiously granting requests. That man is Sejanus. He [293] finally sees, ruling the world, one man who has reached the highest possible place for mortal man. That man is the Emperor Sejanus!
On the path of his advancement he has left the corpses of some trivial common people, the dead bodies of the heir Drusus and the Prince Nero. ”

“ HATERIUS.
Most worthy!
SANQUINIUS.
Rome did never boast the virtue
That could give envy bounds, but his: Sejanus—
FIRST SENATOR.
Honour’d and noble!
SECOND SENATOR.
Good and great Sejanus!
ARRUNTIUS.
O, most tame slavery, and fierce flattery!
PRÆCONES.
Silence!
TIBERIUS CÆSAR to the Senate, greeting.
If you, conscript fathers, with your children, be in health, it is abundantly well: we with our friends here are so. The care of the commonwealth, howsoever we are removed in person, cannot be absent to our thought ”

“ The frown of Cæsar, proud Sejanus’ hatred,
Base Varro’s spleen, and Afer’s bloodying tongue,
The senate’s servile flattery, and these
Muster’d to kill, I’m fortified against;
And can look down upon: they are beneath me.
It is not life whereof I stand enamour’d;
Nor shall my end make me accuse my fate.
The coward and the valiant man must fall,
Only the cause and manner how, discerns them:
Which then are gladdest, when they cost us dearest.
Romans, if any here be in this senate,
Would know to mock Tiberius’ tyranny,
Look upon Silius, and so learn to die. ”

“ Had Sejanus now been governed by common prudence and moderation, he might have attained to the accomplishment of all his wishes; but a natural impetuosity of temper, and the intoxication of power, precipitated him into measures which soon effected his destruction. As if entirely emancipated from the control of a master, he publicly declared himself sovereign of the Roman empire, and that Tiberius, who had by this time retired to Capri, was only the dependent prince of that tributary island. ”

“ The courts were filled with trials for treason. The city [99] became a festering mass of sneaking spies, unscrupulous informers, and infamous liars.
Sejanus had already greeted the emperor in the room adjoining the council chamber. With an air of satisfaction Tiberius had replied that the minister was gladly welcome.
“Why has the audience been dismissed so hastily, O Tiberius?” asked Sejanus.
“Sit thou down. I will tell thee,” drawled the emperor, as he slowly paced up and down the room. He added: “Life at Rome is unbearable. I long to leave the city and live where I can be free.” ”

“ Observe how, in "Sejanus," assassination is plotted and carried out with marvellous coolness. Livia discusses with Sejanus the methods of poisoning her husband, in a clear style, without circumlocution, as if the subject were how to gain a lawsuit or to serve up a dinner. There are no equivocations, no hesitation, no remorse in the Rome of Tiberius. Glory and virtue consist in power; scruples are for base minds; the mark of a lofty heart is to desire all and to dare all. ”

“ Yet sage instructions to refine the soul And raise the genius, wondrous aid impart, Conveying inward, as they purely roll, Strength to the mind and vigour to the heart: When morals fail, the stains of vice disgrace The fairest honours of the noblest race.—Francis.
Upon the death of Drusus, Sejanus openly avowed a desire of marrying the widowed princess; but Tiberius opposing this measure, and at the same time recommending Germanicus to the senate as his successor in the empire, the mind of Sejanus was more than ever inflamed by the united, and now furious, passions of love and ambition. ”

“ Left alone in his office, Tiberius began to reason with himself. “Antonia is right,” he said, “Macro is right, and the young man Gyges, whose honesty in the Circus is unquestioned, also seems to speak the truth. Ah, Sejanus, thy cunning, then, has deceived me! Full well do I now understand thy lying statements! Ye gods! I admire thy villany! ‘Take not the first cup!’ were his words of warning. Ah! Drusus has been wronged! Now do I comprehend why his hand did not tremble when he drank of that cup! Now do I understand why thou, Sejanus, didst wish to marry Livilla! ”

“ This state of things is too dangerous; it must be altered, my Titus.’
‘It would be wise to bring the lady’s visit to a sudden and hasty close,’ rejoined Afer.
‘By Hercules! it must be done,’ muttered Sejanus, knitting his brows. ‘Only think, if my lady Livia were to hear! Come, let us go back to my house. I was intending to depart straight to the villa of Neptune; but not now. One thing is sure; I must see this bold damsel, as soon as there is sufficient darkness to cover one’s movements. Come, let us march! May all the powers in heaven give her prudence and keep her in-doors till night. ”

“ One man would avoid meeting him; another after returning his salutation would instantly turn away; many after beginning a conversation would instantly break it off, while Sejanus's friends would stand their ground and laugh at him. Tiberius indeed wore an angry frown or a treacherous smile. Whether the young prince spoke or held his tongue, silence and speech were alike criminal. ”

“ But as Sejanus had the credit of contriving every sort of wickedness, the fact that he was the emperor's special favourite, and that both were hated by the rest of the world, procured belief for any monstrous fiction, and rumour too always has a dreadful side in regard to the deaths of men in power. Besides, the whole process of the crime was betrayed by Apicata, Sejanus's wife, and fully divulged, under torture, by Eudemus and Lygdus. No writer has been found sufficiently malignant to fix the guilt on Tiberius, though every circumstance was scrutinized and exaggerated. ”

“ He was therefore entirely in the hands of the man who was preparing to sacrifice him to the tenacious hatred of the people and the senatorial aristocracy. Young, energetic, and the favorite of fortune, Sejanus had with him a formidable party in the senate, he was the commander of the pretorian guard,—that is, of the only military force stationed in Italy,—and he had terrified with his implacable persecutions all those whom he had failed to win over through his promises or his favors. ”

“ Come with my wish! What news from Agrippina’s?
POSTHUMUS.
Faith, none. They all lock up themselves a’ late,
Or talk in character; I have not seen
A company so changed. Except they had
Intelligence by augury of our practice.—
SEJANUS.
When were you there?
POSTHUMUS.
Last night.
SEJANUS.
And what guests found you?
POSTHUMUS.
Sabinus, Silius, the old list, Arruntius, Furmus, and Gallus.
SEJANUS.
Would not these talk?
POSTHUMUS.
Little:
And yet we offer’d choice of argument. Satrius was with me.
SEJANUS.
Well: ’tis guilt enough
Their often meeting. ”

“ SEJANUS, LUCIUS AELIUS, favourite and minister of the Emperor Tiberius. He was the son of Seïus Strabo, prefect of the praetorians, and was adopted into the Aeolian gens. After his father's departure from Rome to take up the governorship of Egypt, Sejanus was made into prefect in his stead. He gained the confidence of Tiberius, and, supported by the praetorians, whom he concentrated in a camp on the Viminal Hill, became virtually ruler of Rome. ”

“ Tiberius hath not seen him yet:
He needs would thrust himself to go with me,
Against my wish or will; but I have quitted
His forward trouble, with as tardy note
As my neglect or silence could afford him.
Your lordship cannot now command me aught,
Because I take no knowledge that I saw you;
But I shall boast to live to serve your lordship:
And so take leave.
SEJANUS.
Honest and worthy Macro;
Your love and friendship.
[Exit Macro.]
—Who’s there? Satrius,
Attend my honourable friend forth.—O!
How vain and vile a passion is this fear,
What base uncomely things it makes men do! ”

“ By this time Sejanus was so imposing both in his haughtiness of mind and in his immensity of power that, to make a long matter short, he seemed to be the emperor and Tiberius a kind of island potentate because the latter spent all his days in the island called Capreæ. Then there was rivalry and jostling about the great man's doors from the fear not merely that a person might fail to be observed by his patron but that he might appear among the last: for all the words and gestures, particularly of those in front, were carefully watched. ”

“ At the loud, harsh tones of Drusus the guests became even more constrained. With a deeper frown on his forehead and a sneer on his lips, Tiberius said: “Thou knowest not the man thou abusest. No one in Rome sacrifices personal pleasures for public duties more than he does. Affairs of state occupy all his time. His unselfish nature is one that all should imitate. Vilify the sluggard who revels continually. Revile not the just. Sejanus is my friend, and nothing shall be spoken before me that tends to dishonor him.” ”

“ His English kinsman, Sir Epicure Mammon, for all his wealth of sensual imagination and voluptuous eloquence, for all his living play of humour and glowing force of faith, is essentially but a poor creature when set beside the great Venetian. Had the study of Tiberius been informed and vivified by something of the same fervour, the tragedy of Sejanus might have had in it some heat of more than merely literary life. But this lesser excellence, the merit of vigorous and vigilant devotion or application to a high and serious object of literary labour, is apparent in every scene of the tragedy. ”

“ But after the death of Sejanus a change took place in the Emperor’s conduct, though not in his character. He left Capreæ for a time, and took up his abode in the Vatican, close to the very walls of Rome. He now gave vent to his savage disposition, and displayed the temper of the water-snake in the fable. His natural cruelty was equalled by his activity. “His sharp tooth seized his unresisting victims one after the other: in vain they fly from death; fear prevents them from uttering a word in defence or expostulation.” ”

“ Sejanus practiseth with, together with her physician called Eudemus, and one Lygdus an eunuch, to poison Drusus. This their inhuman act having successful and unsuspected passage, it emboldeneth Sejanus to further and more insolent projects, even the ambition of the empire; where finding the lets he must encounter to be many and hard, in respect of the issue of Germanicus, who were next in hope for the succession, he deviseth to make Tiberius’ self his means, and instils into his ears many doubts and suspicions, both against the princes, and their mother Agrippina ”