tiberius caesar augustus - kouroo · the last of this line, the emperor nero claudius caesar...

TIBERIUS CAESAR AUGUSTUS

“NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY

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TIBERIUS TIBERIUS CAESAR AUGUSTUS

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November 16: Tiberius was born at Rome.

NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT

42 BCE

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TIBERIUS CAESAR AUGUSTUS TIBERIUS

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The “Julio-Claudian” series of emperors:

Reigned 41 years, from 27 BCE to 14 CE: Octavian (Imperator Caesar Divi Filius Augustus) was born at Rome on September 23, 63 BCE (C. Octavianus); died at Nola in Campania on August 19, 14 CE at age 77 from an illness.

Reigned 23 years, from 14 to 37 CE: Tiberius Caesar Augustus was born at Rome on November 16, 42 BCE; died at Misenum on March 16, 37 CE at age 77 from being smothered with a pillow while on his death bed from a terminal illness.

Reigned 4 years, from 37 to 41 CE: Caligula (Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus) was born at Antium (Anzio) on August 31, 12 CE; died at Rome on January 24, 41 CE at age 19 from assassination.

Reigned 13 years, from 41 to 54 CE: Claudius (Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus) was born at Lugdunum on August 1, 10 BCE; died at Rome on October 13, 54 CE at age 64 from eating deliberately poisoned mushrooms given to him by his wife Agrippina (Nero’s mother).

The last of this line, the emperor Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, reigned 14 years, from 54 to 68 CE. He was born at Antium (Anzio) on December 15, 37 CE; died at Rome on June 9, 68 CE at age 31 from suicide.

The next emperor would be Galba (Servius Galba Imperator Caesar Augustus), one of the military leaders who had revolted against the emperor Nero, who had been born near Tarracina on December 24, 3 BCE and would be assassinated at Rome on January 15, 69 CE at the age of 72 during a rebellion among his rivals (reigned, that is, for less than a year, from 68 into 69 CE).

DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD.

27 BCE








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Agrippa died. Augustus Caesar forced his stepson Tiberius to divorce his wife Vipsania, daughter of Marcus Vispanius Agrippa and Marcella, in order to marry Augustus’s daughter Julia, the widow of Marcus Vispanius Agrippa.

THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

12 BCE








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Tiberius married Julia.

(At the opening of the 2d episode of the TV series “I, Claudius” Marcus Vispanius Agrippa has been poisoned by Livia, and Tiberius has been forced to divorce Vipsania and marry Julia.)

9 BCE





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Tiberius was in Rhodes.

6 BCE





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In Rome, Emperor Augustus Caesar banished his daughter Julia, the wife of Tiberius, to a barren island because of her adultery, which had been undercutting his attempts at moral reform (he would need to banish his granddaughter Julia for that same offense).

(In the 3d episode of the TV series “I, Claudius,” Augustus lines up Julia’s lovers and goes down the line asking them one by one if they “slept” with his daughter. They admit it, though some commit comedy. He sends them away, promising to punish them later, but clearly, there are far to many for them to be punished. He must banish Julia for life. Julia is outside his chamber pleading with him while inside, the father covers his ears.)

The Emperor Augustus Caesar recalled Tiberius to Rome.

THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT

2 BCE








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The lectio Senatus.

The Emperor Augustus Caesar’s grandson and adopted son Gaius having died, he formally adopted Tiberius and then sent him to Boiohaemum to conquer the west German tribal state of the Marcomanni.

Tiberius adopted an 18-year-old nephew, Germanicus Caesar.

4 CE





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Revolts against the Roman Empire broke out in Pannonia, Illyricum. Tiberius was sent to help suppress the revolts and restore the Pax Romana.

6 CE





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Yet another battle involving our favorite pushy people, the Romans: at Teutoburger Wald (Teutoburg Forest) the Cherusci German hordes under Hermann Arminius defeated the legions of P. Quinctilius Varus, forcing them out of the German woodlands and thus disrupting the Pax Romana.

In consequence, Tiberius was sent to fight in Germany.

(At the beginning of the 4th episode of the TV series “I, Claudius,” a soldier of the 19th legion, bringing the news from Germany of this defeat, breaks in upon a dinner party of the imperial family.)

9 CE





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“Brilliant generalship in itself is a frightening thing— the very idea that the thought processes of a singlebrain of a Hannibal or a Scipio can play themselves outin the destruction of thousands of young men in anafternoon.”

— Victor Davis Hanson, CARNAGE AND CULTURE:LANDMARK BATTLES IN THE RISE OF WESTERN POWER(NY: Doubleday, 2001)





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To a truly illustrious Frenchman, whose reverses as a ministercan never obscure his achievements in the world of letters, weare indebted for the most profound and most eloquent estimatethat we possess of the importance of the Germanic element inEuropean civilization, and of the extent to which the human raceis indebted to those brave warriors, who long were theunconquered antagonists, and finally became the conquerors, ofImperial Rome.Twenty-three eventful years have passed away since M. Guizotdelivered from the chair of modern history at Paris his courseof lectures on the History of Civilization in Europe. Duringthose years the spirit of earnest inquiry into the germs andearly developments of existing institutions has become more andmore active and universal; and the merited celebrity of M.Guizot’s work has proportionally increased. Its admirableanalysis of the complex political and social organizations, ofwhich the modern civilized world is made up, must have ledthousands to trace with keener interest the great crises oftimes past, by which the characteristics of the present weredetermined. The narrative of one of these great crises, of theepoch AD. 9, when Germany took up arms for her independenceagainst Roman invasion, has for us this special attraction—thatit forms part of our own national history. Had Arminius beensupine or unsuccessful, our Germanic ancestors would have beenenslaved or exterminated in their original seats along the Eyderand the Elbe. This island would never have borne the name ofEngland, and “we, this great English nation, whose race andlanguage are now overrunning the earth, from one end of it tothe other,” would have been utterly cut off from existence.Arnold may, indeed, go too far in holding that we are whollyunconnected in race with the Romans and Britons, who inhabitedthis country before the coming-over of the Saxons; that,“nationally speaking, the history of Caesar’s invasion has nomore to do with us than the natural history of the animals whichthen inhabited our forests.” There seems ample evidence to provethat the Romanized Celts, whom our Teutonic forefathers foundhere, influenced materially the character of our nation. But themain stream of our people was and is Germanic. Our language alonedecisively proves this. Arminius is far more truly one of ournational heroes than Caractacus: and it was our own primevalfatherland that the brave German rescued, when he slaughteredthe Roman legions eighteen centuries ago, in the marshy glensbetween the Lippe and the Ems.Dark and disheartening, even to heroic spirits, must have seemedthe prospects of Germany, when Arminius planned the generalrising of his countrymen against Rome. Half the land wasoccupied by Roman garrisons; and what was worse, many of theGermans seemed patiently acquiescent in their state of bondage.The braver portion, whose patriotism could be relied on, wasill-armed and undisciplined; while the enemy’s troops consistedof veterans in the highest state of equipment and training,





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familiarized with victory, and commanded by officers of provedskill and velour. The resources of Rome seemed boundless; hertenacity of purpose was believed to be invincible. There was nohope of foreign sympathy or aid; for “the self-governing powers,that had filled the old world, had bent one after another beforethe rising power of Rome, and had vanished. The earth seemedleft void of independent nations.”The German chieftain knew well the gigantic power of theoppressor. Arminius was no rude savage, fighting out of mereanimal instinct, or in ignorance of the might of his adversary.He was familiar with the Roman language and civilization; he hadserved in the Roman armies; he had been admitted to the Romancitizenship, and raised to the dignity of the equestrian order.It was part of the subtle policy of Rome to confer rank andprivileges on the youth of the lending families in the nationswhich she wished to enslave. Among other young Germanchieftains, Arminius and his brother, who were the heads of thenoblest house in the tribe of the Cherusci, had been selectedas fit objects for the exercise of this insidious system. Romanrefinements and dignities succeeded in denationalizing thebrother, who assumed the Roman name of Flavius, and adhered toRome throughout all her wars against his country. Arminiusremained unbought by honors or wealth, uncorrupted by refinementor luxury. He aspired to and obtained from Roman enmity a highertitle, than ever could have been given him by Roman favor. Itis in the page of Rome’s greatest historian, that his name hascome down to us with the proud addition of “LiberatorGermaniae.”Often must the young chieftain, while meditating the exploitwhich has thus immortalized him, have anxiously revolved in hismind the fate of the many great men, who had been crushed in theattempt which he was shout to renew,-the attempt to stay thechariot wheels of triumphant Rome. Could he hope to succeedwhere Hannibal and Mithridates had perished? What had been thedoom of Viriathus? and what warning against vain velour waswritten on the desolate site where Numantia once had flourished?Nor was a caution wanting in scenes nearer home and in morerecent times. The Gauls had fruitlessly struggled for eightyears against Caesar; and the gallant Vercingetorix, who in thelast year of the war had roused all his countrymen toinsurrection, who had cut off Roman detachments, and broughtCaesar himself to the extreme of peril at Alesia—he, too, hadfinally succumbed, had been led captive in Caesar’s triumph, andhad then been butchered in cold blood in a Roman dungeon.It was true that Rome was no longer the great military republic,which for so many ages had shattered the kingdoms of the world.Her system of government was changed; and after a century ofrevolution and civil war, she had placed herself under thedespotism of a single ruler. But the discipline of her troopswas yet unimpaired, and her warlike spirit seemed unabated. Thefirst years of the empire had been signalized by conquests asvaluable as any gained by the republic in a corresponding





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period. It is a great fallacy, though apparently sanctioned bygreat authorities, to suppose that the foreign policy pursuedby Augustus was pacific He certainly recommended such a policyto his successors, either from timidity, or from jealousy oftheir fame outshining his own; but he himself, until Arminiusbroke his spirit, had followed a very different course. Besideshis Spanish wars, his generals, in a series of principallyaggressive campaigns, had extended the Roman frontier from theAlps to the Danube; and had reduced into subjection the largeand important countries, that now form the territories of allAustria south of that river, and of East Switzerland, LowerWirtemberg, Bavaria, the Valteline, and the Tyrol. While theprogress of the Roman arms thus pressed the Germans from thesouth, still more formidable inroads had been made by theImperial legions in the west. Roman armies, moving from theprovince of Gaul, established a chain of fortresses along theright as well as the left bank of the: Rhine, and, in a seriesof victorious campaigns, advanced their eagles as far as theElbe; which now seemed added to the list of vassal rivers, tothe Nile, the Rhine, the Rhone, the Danube, the Tagus, the Seine,and many more, that acknowledged the supremacy of the Tiber.Roman fleets also, sailing from the harbors of. Gaul along theGerman coasts, and up the estuaries, cooperated with the land-forces of the empire; and seemed to display, even moredecisively than her armies, her overwhelming superiority overthe rude Germanic tribes. Throughout the territory thus invaded,the Romans had, with their usual military skill, establishedchains of fortified posts; and a powerful army of occupation waskept on foot, ready to move instantly on any spot where a popularoutbreak might be attempted.Vast, however, and admirably organized as the fabric of Romanpower appeared on the frontiers and in the provinces, there wasrottenness at the core. In Rome’s unceasing hostilities withforeign foes, and still more, in her long series of desolatingcivil wars, the free middle classes of Italy had almost whollydisappeared. Above the position which they had occupied, anoligarchy of wealth had reared itself: beneath that position adegraded mass of poverty and misery was fermenting. Slaves, thechance sweepings of every conquered country, shoals of Africans,Sardinians, Asiatics, Illyrians, and others. made up the bulkof the population of the Italian Peninsula. The foulestprofligacy of manners was general in all ranks. In universalweariness of revolution and civil war, and in consciousness ofbeing too debased for self-government, the nation had submitteditself to the absolute authority of Augustus. Adulation was nowthe chief function of the senate: and the gifts of genius andaccomplishments of art were devoted to the elaboration ofeloquently false panegyrics upon the prince and his favoritecourtiers. With bitter indignation must the German chieftainhave beheld all this, and contrasted with it the rough worth ofhis own countrymen:—their bravery, their fidelity to their word,their manly independence of spirit, their love of their national





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free institutions, and their loathing of every pollution andmeanness. Above all he must have thought of the domestic virtuesthat hallowed a German home; of the respect there shown to thefemale character, and of the pure affection by which thatrespect was repaid. His soul must have burned within him at thecontemplation of such a race yielding to these debased Italians.Still, to persuade the Germans to combine, in spite of theirfrequent feuds among themselves, in one sudden outbreak againstRome; to keep the scheme concealed from the Romans until thehour for action arrived; and then, without possessing a singlewalled town, without military stores, without training, to teachhis insurgent countrymen to defeat veteran armies, and stormfortifications, seemed so perilous an enterprise, that probablyArminius would have receded from it, had not a stronger feelingeven than patriotism urged him on. Among the Germans of highrank, who had most readily submitted to the invaders and becomezealous partisans of Roman authority was a chieftain namedSegestes. His daughter, Thusnelda, was pre-eminent among thenoble maidens of Germany. Arminius had sought her hand inmarriage; but Segestes, who probably discerned the young chief’sdisaffection to Rome, forbade his suit, and strove to precludeall communication between him and his daughter. Thusnelda,however, sympathized far more with the heroic spirit of herlover, than with the time serving policy of her father. Anelopement baffled the precautions of Segestes; who, disappointedin his hope of preventing the marriage, accused Arminius, beforethe Roman governor, of having carried off his daughter, and ofplanning treason against Rome. Thus assailed, and dreading tosee his bride torn from him by the officials of the foreignoppressor, Arminius delayed no longer, but bent all his energiesto organize and execute a general insurrection of the great massof his countrymen, who hitherto had submitted in sulleninertness to the Roman dominion.A change of governors had recently taken place, which, while itmaterially favored the ultimate success: of the insurgents,served, by the immediate aggravation of the Roman oppressionswhich it produced, to make the native population moreuniversally eager to take arms. Tiberius, who was afterwardsemperor, had lately been recalled from the command in Germany,and sent into Pannonia to put down a dangerous revolt which-hadbroken out against the Romans in that province. The Germanpatriots were thus delivered from the stern supervision of oneof the most suspicious of mankind, and were also relieved fromhaving to contend against the high military talents of a veterancommander, who thoroughly understood their national character,and the nature of the country, which he himself had principallysubdued. In the room of Tiberius, Augustus sent into GermanyQuintilius Varus, who had lately returned from the proconsulateof Syria. Varus was a true representative of the higher classesof the Romans; among whom a general taste for literature, a keensusceptibility to all intellectual gratification’s, a minuteacquaintance with the principles and practice of their own





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national jurisprudence, a careful training in the schools of therhetoricians, and a fondness for either partaking in or watchingthe intellectual strife of forensic oratory, had becomegenerally diffused; without, however, having humanized the oldRoman spirit of cruel indifference for human feelings and humansufferings, and without acting as the least check onunprincipled avarice and ambition, or on habitual and grossprofligacy. Accustomed to govern the depraved and debasednatives of Syria, a country where courage in man, and virtue inwomen, had for centuries been unknown, Varus thought that hemight gratify- his licentious and rapacious passions with equalimpunity among the high-minded sons and pure-spirited daughtersof Germany. When the general of an army sets the example ofoutrages of this description, he is soon faithfully imitated byhis officers and surpassed by his still more brutal soldiery.The Romans now habitually indulged in those violations of thesanctity of the domestic shrine, and those insults upon honorand modesty, by which far less gallant spirits than those of ourTeutonic ancestors have often been maddened into insurrection.’I cannot forbear quoting Macaulay’s beautiful lines, where hedescribes how similar outrages in the early times of Rome goadedthe plebeians to rise against the patricians.

“Heap heavier still the fetters; bar closer still the grate; Patient as sheep we yield us up unto your cruel hate. But by the shades beneath us, and by the gods above, Add not unto your cruel hate your still more cruel love.Then leave the poor plebeian his single tie to life—The sweet, sweet love of daughter, of sister, and of wife,The gentle speech, the balm for all. that his vext soul endures,The kiss in which he half forgets even such a yoke as yoursStill let the maiden’s beauty swell the father’s breast with pride;Still let the bridegroom’s arms enfold an unpolluted brideSpare us the inexpiable wrong, the unutterable shame.That turns the coward’s heart to steel, the sluggard’s blood to flame;Lest when our latest hope is fled ye taste of our despairAnd learn by proof, in some wild hour, how much the wretched dare”

Arminius found among the other German chiefs many whosympathized with him in his indignation at their country’sdebasement, and many whom private wrongs had stung yet moredeeply. There was little difficulty in collecting bold leadersfor an attack on the oppressors, and little fear of thepopulation not rising readily at those leaders’ call. But todeclare open war against Rome, and to encounter Virus’s army ina pitched battle, would have been merely rushing upon certaindestruction. Varus had three legions under him, a force which,after allowing for detachments, cannot be estimated at less thanfourteen thousand Roman infantry. He had also eight or ninehundred Roman cavalry, and at least an equal number of horse andfoot sent from the allied states, or raised among thoseprovincials who had not received the Roman franchise.It was not merely the number, but the quality of this force thatmade it formidable; and however contemptible Varus might be asa general, Arminius well knew how admirably the Roman armies





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were organized and officered, and how perfectly the legionariesunderstood every maneuver and every duty which the varyingemergencies of a stricken field might require. Stratagem was,therefore, indispensable; and it was necessary to blind Varusto his schemes until a favorable opportunity should arrive forstriking a decisive blow.For this purpose, the German confederates frequented the head-quarters of Varus, which seem to have been near the center ofthe modern country of Westphalia, where the Roman generalconducted himself with all the arrogant security of the governorof a perfectly submissive province. There Varus gratified atonce his vanity, his rhetorical taste, and his avarice, byholding courts, to which he summoned the Germans for thesettlement of all their disputes, while a bar of Roman advocatesattended to argue the cases before the tribunal of the Pro-consul; who did not omit the opportunity of exacting court-feesand accepting bribes. Varus trusted implicitly to the respectwhich the Germans pretended to pay to his abilities as a judge,and to the interest which they affected to take in the forensiceloquence of their conquerors. Meanwhile a succession of heavyrains rendered the country more difficult for the operations ofregular troops; and Arminius, seeing that the infatuation ofVarus was complete, secretly directed the tribes, near the Weserand the Ems, to take up arms in open revolt against the Romans.This was represented to Varus as an occasion which required hisprompt attendance at the spot; but he was kept in studiedignorance of its being part of a concerted national rising; andhe still looked on Arminius as his submissive vassal, whose aidhe might rely on in Facilitating the march of his troops againstthe rebels, and in extinguishing the local disturbance. Hetherefore set his army in motion, and marched eastward in a lineparallel to the course of the Lippe. For some distance his routelay along a level plain; but on arriving at the tract betweenthe curve of the upper part of that stream and the sources ofthe Ems, the country assumes a very different character; andhere, in the territory of the modern little principality ofLippe, it was that Arminius had fixed the scene of hisenterprise.A woody and hilly region intervenes between the heads of the tworivers, and forms the water-shed of their streams. This regionstill retains the name (Teutoberger wald-Teutobergiensissaltus) which it bore in the days of Arminius. The nature of theground has probably also remained unaltered. The eastern partof it, round Detmoldt, the present capital of the principalityof Lippe, is described by a modem German scholar, Dr. Plate, asbeing “a table-land intersected by numerous deep and narrowvalleys, which in some places form small plains, surrounded bysteep mountains and rocks, and only accessible by narrowdefiles. All the valleys are traversed by rapid streams, shallowin the dry season, but subject to sudden swellings in autumn,and winter. The vast forests which cover the summits and slopesof the hills consist chiefly of oak; there is little underwood,





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and both men and horse would move with ease in the forests ifthe ground were not broken by gullies, or rendered impracticableby fallen trees.” This is the district to which Varus is supposedto have marched; and Dr. Plate adds, that “the names of severallocalities on and near that spot seem to indicate that a greatbattle had once been fought there. We find the names ‘dasWinnefeld’ (the field of victory), ‘die Knochenbahn’ (the bone-lane), ‘die Knochenleke’ (the bone-brook), ‘der Mordkessel’ (thekettle of slaughter), and others.” [I am indebted for muchvaluable information on this subject to my friend Mr. HenryPearson.]Contrary to the usual strict principles of Roman discipline,Varus had suffered his army to be accompanied and impeded by animmense train of baggage wagons, and by a rabble of campfollowers; as if his troops had been merely changing theirquarters in a friendly country. When the long array quitted thefirm level ground, and began to wind its way among the woods,the marshes, and the ravines, the difficulties of the march,even without the intervention of an armed foe, became fearfullyapparent. In many places the soil, sodden with rain, wasimpracticable for cavalry find even for infantry, until treeshad been felled, and a rude causeway formed through the morass.The duties of the engineer were familiar to all who served inthe Roman armies. But the crowd and confusion of the columnsembarrassed the working parties of the soldiery, and in themidst of their toil and disorder the word was suddenly passedthrough their ranks that the rear-guard was attacked by thebarbarians. Varus resolved on pressing forward; but a heavydischarge of missiles from the woods on either flank, taught himhow serious was the peril, and he saw his best men falling roundhim without the opportunity of retaliation; for his light-armedauxiliaries, who were principally of Germanic race, now rapidlydeserted, and it was impossible to deploy the legionaries onsuch broken ground for a charge against the enemy. Choosing oneof the most open and firm spots which they could force their wayto, the Romans halted for the night; and, faithful to theirnational discipline and tactics, formed their camp amid theharassing attacks of the rapidly thronging foes, with theelaborate toil and systematic skill, the traces of which areimpressed permanently on the soil of so many European countries,attesting the presence in the olden time of the imperial eagles.On the morrow the Romans renewed their march; the veteranofficers, who served under Varus, now probably directing theoperations, and hoping to find the Germans drawn up to meet them;in which case they relied on their own superior discipline andtactics for such a victory as should reassure: the supremacy ofRome. But Arminius was far too sage a commander to lend on hisfollowers with their unwieldy broadswords and inefficientdefensive armor, against the Roman legionaries, fully armed withhelmet, cuirass, greaves, and shield; who were skilled tocommence the conflict with a murderous volley of heavy javelins,hurled upon the foe when a few yards distant, and then, with





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their short cut-and-thrust swords, to hew their way through allopposition; preserving the utmost steadiness and coolness, andobeying each word of command in the midst of strife andslaughter, with the same precision and alertness as if uponparade. [see Gibbons description (vol. I chapter 1) of the Romanlegions in the time of Augustus; and see the description inTacitus, “Ann” lib. i, of the subsequent battles between Caecinaand Arminius.] Arminius suffered the Romans to march out fromtheir camp, to form first in line for action, and then in columnfor marching, without the show of opposition. For some distanceVarus was allowed to move on, only harassed by slightskirmishes, but struggling with difficulty through the brokenground; the toil and distress of his men being aggravated byheavy torrents of rain, which burst upon the devoted legions,as if the angry gods of Germany were pouring out the vials oftheir wrath upon the invaders. After some little time their vanapproached a ridge of high woody ground, which is one of theoffshoots of the great Hercynian forest, and is situate betweenthe modern villages of Driburg and Bielefeld. Arminius hadcaused barricades of hewn trees to be formed here, so as to addto the natural difficulties of the passage. Fatigue anddiscouragement now began to betray themselves in the Romanranks. Their line became less steady; baggage wagons wereabandoned from the impossibility of forcing them along; and, asthis happened, many soldiers left their ranks and crowded roundthe wagons to secure the most valuable portions of theirproperty; each was busy about his own affairs, and purposelyslow in hearing the word of command from his officers. Arminiusnow gave the signal for a general attack. The fierce shouts ofthe Germans pealed through the gloom of the forests, and inthronging multitudes they assailed the flanks of the invaders,pouring in clouds of darts on the encumbered legionaries, asthey struggled up the glens or floundered in the morasses, andwatching every opportunity of charging through the intervals ofthe disjointed column, and so cutting off the communicationbetween its several brigades. Arminius, with a chosen band ofpersonal retainers round him, cheered on his countrymen by voiceand example. He and his men aimed their weapons particularly atthe horses of the Roman cavalry. The wounded animals, slippingabout ill the mire and their own blood, threw their riders, andplunged among the ranks of the legions, disordering all roundthem. Varus now ordered the troops to be countermarched, in thehope of reaching the nearest Roman garrison on the Lippe. Butretreat now was as impracticable as advance; and the fallingback of the Romans only augmented the courage of theirassailants, and caused fiercer and more frequent charges on theflanks of the disheartened army.The Roman officer who commanded the cavalry, Numonius Vala, rodeoff with his squadrons, in the vain hope of escaping by thusabandoning his comrades. Unable to keep together, or force theirway across the woods and swamps, the horsemen were overpoweredin detail and slaughtered to the last man. The Roman infantry





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still held together and resisted, but more through the instinctof discipline and bravery than from any hope of success orescape. Varus, after being severely wounded in a charge of theGermans against his part of the column, committed suicide toavoid falling into the hands of those whom he had exasperatedby his oppressions. One of the lieutenant-generals of the armyfell fighting; the other surrendered to the enemy. But mercy toa fallen foe had never been a Roman virtue, and those among herlegions who now laid down their arms in hope of quarter, drankdeep or the cup of suffering, which Rome had held to the lipsof many a brave but unfortunate enemy. The infuriated! Germansslaughtered their oppressors with deliberate ferocity; and thoseprisoners who were not hewn to pieces on the spot, were onlypreserved to perish by a more cruel death in cold blood.The bulk of the Roman army fought steadily and stubbornly,frequently repelling the masses of the assailants, but graduallylosing the compactness of their array, and becoming weaker andweaker beneath the incessant shower of darts and the reiteratedassaults or the vigorous and unencumbered Germans. At last, ina series of desperate attacks the column was pierced through andthrough, two of the eagles captured, and the Roman host, whichon the yester morning had marched forth in such pride and might,now broken up into confused fragments, either fell fightingbeneath the over powering numbers of the enemy, or perished inthe swamps and woods in unavailing efforts at flight. Few, veryfew, ever saw again the left bank of the Rhine. One body of braveveterans, arraying themselves in a ring on a little mound, beatoff every charge of the Germans, and prolonged their honorableresistance to the close of that dreadful day. The traces of afeeble attempt at forming a ditch and mound attested in afteryears the spot where the last of the Romans passed their nightof suffering and despair. But on the morrow, this remnant also,worn out with hunger, wounds, and toil, was charged by thevictorious Germans, and either massacred on the spot, or offeredup in fearful rites at the altars of the deities of the oldmythology of the North.A gorge in the mountain ridge; through which runs the modernroad between Paderborn and Pyrmont, lends from the spot wherethe heat of the battle raged, to the Extersteine, a cluster ofbold and grotesque rocks of sandstone; near which is a smallsheet of water, over shadowed by a grove of aged trees. Accordingto local tradition, this was one of the sacred groves of theancient Germans, and it was here that the Roman captives wereslain in sacrifice by the victorious warriors of Arminius.Never was victory more decisive, never was the liberation of anoppressed people more instantaneous and complete. ThroughoutGermany the Roman garrisons were assailed and cut off; and,within a few weeks after Varus had fallen, the German soil wasfreed from the foot of an invader.At Rome, the tidings of the battle were received with an agonyof terror, the descriptions of which we should deem exaggerated,did they not come from Roman historians themselves. These





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passages in the Roman writers not only tell emphatically howgreat was the awe which the Romans felt of the prowess of theGermans, if their various tribes could be brought to re-unitefor a common purpose, [It is clear that the Romans followed thepolicy of fomenting dissension’s and wars of the Germans amongthemselves. See the thirty-third section of the “Germania” ofTacitus, where he mentions the destruction of the Bructeri bythe neighboring tribes] but also they reveal how weakened anddebased the population of Italy had become. Dion Cassius says,“Then Augustus, when he heard the calamity of Varus, rent hisgarments, and was in great affliction for the troops he had lost,and for terror respecting the Germans and the Gauls. And hischief alarm was, that he expected them to push on against Italyand Rome: and there remained no Roman youth fit for militaryduty, that were worth speaking of, and the allied populationsthat were at all serviceable, had been wasted away. Yet heprepared for the emergency as well as his means allowed; andwhen none of the citizens of military age were willing to enlist,he made them cast lots, and punished by confiscation of goodsand disfranchisement every fifth man among those under thirty-five, and every tenth man of those above that age. At last, whenhe found that not even thus could he make many come forward, heput some of them to death. So he made a conscription ofdischarged veterans and emancipated slaves, and collecting aslarge a force as he could, sent it, under Tiberius, with allspeed into Germany.”Dion mentions, also, a number of terrific portents that werebelieved to have occurred at the time; and the narration of whichis not immaterial, as it shows the state of the public mind,when such things were so believed in, and so interpreted. Thesummits of the Alps were said to have fallen, and three columnsof fire to have blared up front them. In the Campus Martius, thetemple of the War-God, from whom the founder of Rome had sprung,was struck by a thunderbolt. The nightly heavens glowed severaltimes, as if on fire.Many comets blazed forth together; andfiery meteors, shaped like spears, had shot from the northernquarter of the sky, down into the Roman camps. It was said, too,that a statue of Victory, which had stood at a place on thefrontier, pointing the way towards Germany, had, of its ownaccord, turned round, and now pointed to Italy. These and otherprodigies were believed by the multitude to accompany theslaughter of Varus’s legions, and to manifest the anger of thegods against Rome. Augustus himself was not free fromsuperstition; but on this occasion no supernatural terrors wereneeded to increase the alarm and grief that he felt; and whichmade him, even for months after the news of the battle hadarrived, often beat his head against the wall, and exclaim,“Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!” We learn this fromhis biographer, Suetonius; and, indeed, every ancient writer whoalludes to the overthrow of Varus, attests the importance of theblow against the Roman power, and the bitterness with which itwas felt.





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The Germans did not pursue their victory beyond their ownterritory. But that victory secured at once and for ever theindependence of the Teutonic race. Rome sent, indeed, herlegions again into Germany, to parade a temporary superiority;but all hopes of permanent conquest were abandoned by Augustusand his successors.The blow which Arminius had struck never was forgotten. Romanfear disguised itself under the specious title of moderation;and the Rhine became the acknowledged boundary of the twonations, until the fifth century of our era, when the Germansbecame the assailants, and carved with their conquering swordsthe provinces of Imperial Rome into the kingdoms of modernEurope.

ARMINIUS.I have said above that the great Cheruscan is more truly one ofour national heroes than Caractacus is, It may be added that anEnglishman is entitled to claim a closer degree of relationshipwith Armnius than can be claimed by any German of modern Germany.The proof of this depends on the proof of four facts: first,that the Cherusci were Old Saxons, or Saxons of the interior ofGermany; secondly, that the Angle-Saxons, or Saxons of the coastof Germany, were more closely akin than other German tribes wereto the Cheruscan Saxons; thirdly, that the Old Saxons werealmost exterminated by Charlemagne; fourthly, that the Anglo-Saxons are our immediate ancestors. The last of these may beassumed as an axiom in English history. The proofs of the otherthree are partly philological, and partly historical. I have notspace to go into them here, but they will be found in the earlychapters of the great work of Dr. Robert Gordon Latham on the“English Language;” and in the notes to his edition of the“Germania of Tacitus.” It may be, however, here remarked thatthe present Saxons of Germany are of the High Germanic divisionof the German race, whereas both the Anglo-Saxon and Old Saxonwere of the Low Germanic.Being thus the nearest heirs of the glory of Arminius, we mayfairly devote more attention to his career, than, in such a workas the present, could be allowed to any individual leader. Andit is interesting to trace how far his fame survived during themiddle ages, both among the Germans of the Continent and amongourselves.It seems probable that the jealousy with which Maraboduus, theking of the Suevi and Marcomanni, regarded Arminius, and whichultimately broke out into open hostilities between those Germantribes and the Cherusci, prevented Arminius from leading theconfederate Germans to attack Italy after his first victory.Perhaps he may have had the rare moderation of being contentwith the liberation of his country, without seeking to retaliateon her former oppressors. When Tiberius marched into Germany inthe year 10, Arminius was too cautious to attack him on groundfavorable to the legions, and Tiberius was too skillful toentangle his troops in the difficult parts of the country. Hismarch and counter-march were as unresisted as they were





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unproductive. A few years later, when a dangerous revolt of theRoman legions near the frontier caused their generals to findthem active employment by leading them into the interior ofGermany, we find Arminius again energetic in his country’sdefense. The old quarrel between him and his father-in-law,Segestes, had broken out afresh. Segestes now called in the aidof the Roman general, Germanicus, to whom he surrenderedhimself; and by his contrivance, his daughter Thusnelda, thewife of Arminius, also came into the hands of the Romans, beingfar advanced in pregnancy. She showed, as Tacitus relates, moreof the spirit of her husband than of her father, a spirit thatcould not be subdued into tears or supplications. She was sentto Raven, and there gave birth to a son, whose life we find,from all allusion in Tacitus, to have been eventful and unhappy;but the part of the great historian’s work which narrated hisfate has perished, and we only know from another quarter thatthe son of Arminius was, at the age of four years, led captivein a triumphal pageant along the streets of Rome. The high spiritof Arminius was goaded almost into frenzy by these bereavements.The fate of his wife, thus torn from him, and of his babe doomedto bondage even before its birth, inflamed the eloquentinvectives with which he roused his countrymen against the hometraitors, and against their invaders, who thus made war uponwomen and children. Germanicus had marched his army to the placewhere Varus had perished, and had there paid funeral honors tothe ghastly relies of his predecessor’s legions that he foundheaped around him. [In the Museum of Rhenish Antiquities atBonn, there is a Roman sepulchral monument, the inscription onwhich records that it was erected to. the memory of M. Coelius,who fell “Bello Variano.”] Arminius lured him to advance alittle further into the country, and then assailed him, andfought a battle, which, by the Roman accounts, was a drawn one.The effect of it was to make Germanicus resolve on retreatingto the Rhine. He himself, with part of his troops, embarked insome vessels on the Ems, and returned by that river, and thenby sea; but part of his forces were entrusted to a Roman general,named Caecina, to lead them back by land to the Rhine. Arminiusfollowed this division on its march, and fought several battleswith it, in which he inflicted heavy loss on the Romans, capturedthe greater part of their baggage, and would have destroyed themcompletely, had not his skillful system of operations beenfinally thwarted by the haste of Inguiomerus, a confederateGerman chief, who insisted on assaulting the Romans in theircamp, instead of waiting till they were entangled in thedifficulties of the country, and assailing their columns on themarch.In the following year the Romans were inactive; but in the yearafterwards, Germanicus led a fresh invasion. He placed his armyon ship-board, and sailed to the mouth of the Ems, where hedisembarked, and marched to the Weser, where he encamped,probably in the neighborhood of Minden. Arminius had collectedhis army on the other side of the river; and a scene occurred,





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which is powerfully told by Tacitus, and which is the subjectof a beautiful poem by Praed. It has been already mentioned thatthe brother of Arminius, like himself, had been trained up,while young, to serve in the Roman armies; but, unlike Arminius,he not only refused to quit the Roman service for that of hiscountry, but fought against his country with the legions ofGermanicus. He had assumed the Roman name of Flavius, and hadgained considerable distinction in the Roman service, in whichhe had lost an eye from a wound in battle. When the Romanoutposts approached the river Weser, Arminius called out to themfrom the opposite bank, and expressed a wish to see his brother.Flavius stepped forward, and Arminius ordered his own followersto retire, and requested that the archers should be removed fromthe Roman bank of the river. This was done: and the brothers,who apparently had not seen each other for some years, began aconversation from the opposite sides of the stream, in whichArminius questioned his brother respecting the loss of his eye,and what battle it had been lost in, and what reward he hadreceived for his wound. Flavius told him how the eye wasdestroyed, and mentioned the increased pay that he had onaccount of its loss, and showed the collar and other militarydecorations that had been given him. Arminius mocked at theseas badges of slavery; and then each began to try to win the otherover; Flavius, boasting the power of Rome, and her generosityto the submissive; Arminius appealing to him in the name of theircountry’s gods, of the mother that had borne them, and by theholy names of fatherland and freedom, not to prefer being thebetrayer to being the champion of his country. They soonproceeded to mutual taunts and menaces, and Flavius called aloudfor his horse and his arms, that he might dash across the riverand attack his brother; nor would he have been checked from doingso, had not the Roman general, Stertinius, run up to him, andforcibly detained him. Arminius stood on the other bank,threatening the renegade, and defying him to battle.I shall not be thought to need apology for quoting here thestanzas in which Praed has described this scene, — a scene amongthe most affecting, as well as the most striking, that historysupplies. It makes us reflect on the desolate position ofArminius, with his wife and child captives in the enemy’s hands,and with his brother a renegade in arms against him. The greatliberator of our German race stood there, with every source ofhuman happiness denied him, except the consciousness of doinghis duty to his country.

Back, back! he fears not foaming floodWho fears not steel-clad line:-No warrior thou of German blood,No brother thou of mine.Go, earn Rome’s chain to load thy neck,Her gems to deck thy hilt;And blazon honor’s hapless wreck With all the gauds of guilt.But, wouldst thou have me share the preyBy all that I have done,The Varian bones that day by day





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Lie whitening in the sun,The legion’s trampled panoply,The eagle’s shattered wing,-I would not be for earth or say So scorn’d and mean a thing.Ho, call me here the wizard, boy,Of dark and subtle skill,To agonize but not destroy,To curse, but not to kill.When swords are out, and shriek and shoutLeave little room for prayer,No fetter on man’s arm or heartHangs half so heavy there.I curse him by the gifts, the landHath won from him and Rome, The riving ax, the wasting brand,Rent forest, blazing home.I curse him by our country’s gods,The terrible, the dark,The breakers of the Roman rods, The smiters of the bark.Oh, misery that such a banOn such a brow should be! Why comes he not in battle’s vanHis country’s chief to be?To stand a comrade by my side,The sharer of my fame, And worthy of a brother’s pride And of a brother’s name?But it is past!—where heroes press;And cowards bend the knee, Arminius is not brotherless,His brethren are the free.They come around:—one hour, and lightWill fade from turf and tide,Then onward, onward to the fight With darkness for our guide.To-night, tonight, when we shall meetIn combat face to face,Then only would Arminius greet The renegade’s embrace.The canker of Rome’s guilt shall beUpon his dying name;End as he lived in slavery, So shall he fall in shame.

On the day after the Romans had reached the Weser, Germanicusled his army across that river, and a partial encounter tookplace, in which Arminius was successful. But on the succeedingday a general action was fought, in which Arminius was severelywounded, and the German infantry routed with heavy loss. Thehorsemen of the two armies encountered without either partygaining the advantage. But the Roman army remained master of theground, and claimed a complete victory. Germanicus erected atrophy in the field, with a vaunting inscription, that thenations between the Rhine and the Elbe had been thoroughlyconquered by his army. But that army speedily made a finalretreat to the left bank of the Rhine; nor was the effect oftheir campaign more durable than their trophy. The sarcasm withwhich Tacitus speaks of certain other triumphs of Roman generals





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over Germans, may apply to the pageant which Germanicuscelebrated on his return to Romefrom his command of the Roman army of the Rhine. The Germanswere “triumphati potius quan victi.”After the Romans had abandoned their attempts on Germany, wefind Arminius engaged in hostilities with Maroboduus, the kingof the Suevi and Marcomanni, who was endeavoring to bring theother German tribes into a state of dependency on him. Arminiuswas at the head of the Germans who took up arms against thishome invader of their liberties. After some minor engagements,a pitched battle was fought between the two confederacies, AD.16, in which the loss on each side was equal; but Maroboduusconfessed the ascendancy of his antagonist by avoiding a renewalof the engagement, and by imploring the intervention of theRomans in his defense. The younger Drusus then commanded theRoman legions in the province of Illyricum, and by his mediationa peace was concluded between Arminius and Maroboduus, by theterms of which it is evident that the latter must have renouncedhis ambitious schemes against the freedom of the other Germantribes.Arminius did not long survive this second war of independence,which he successfully waged for his country. He was assassinatedin the thirty-seventh year of his age, by some of his ownkinsmen, who conspired against him. Tacitus says that thishappened while he was engaged in a civil war, which had beencaused by his attempts to make himself king over his countrymen.It is far more probable (as one of the best biographers [Dr.Plate, in “Biographical Dictionary,” commenced by the Societyfor; the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.] of Arminius hasobserved), that Tacitus misunderstood: an attempt of Arminiusto extend his influence as elective war-chieftain of theCherusci, and other tribes, for an attempt to obtain the royaldignity. When we remember that his father-in-law and his brotherwere renegades, we can well understand that a party among hiskinsmen may have been bitterly hostile to him, and have opposedhis authority with the tribe by open violence, and when thatseemed ineffectual, by secret assassination.Arminius left a name, which the historians of the nation againstwhich he combated so long and so gloriously have delighted tohonor. It is from the most indisputable source, from the lipsof enemies, that we know his exploits. His countrymen madehistory, but did not write it. But his memory lived among themin the lays of their bards, who recorded-

“The deeds he did, the fields he won, The freedom he restored.”

Tacitus, many years after the death of Arminius, says of him,“Canitur adhuc barbaras apud gentes.” As time passed on, thegratitude of ancient Germany to her great deliverer grew intoadoration, and divine honors were paid for centuries to Arminiusby every tribe of the Low Germanic division of the Tectonicraces. The Irmin-sul, or the column of Herman, near Eresburg,





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the modern Stadtberg, was the chosen object of worship to thedescendants of the Cherusci, the old Saxons, and in defense ofwhich they fought most desperately against Charlemagne and hischristianized Franks. “Irmin, in the cloudy Olympus of Teutonicbelief, appears as a king and a warrior; and the pillar, the‘Irmin-sul,’ bearing the statue, and considered as the symbolof the deity, was the Palladium of the Saxon nation, until thetemple of Eresburg was destroyed by Charlemagne, and the columnitself transferred to the monastery of Corbey, where, perhaps,a portion of the rude rock idol yet remains, covered by theornaments of the Gothic era.”Traces of the worship of Arminius are to be found among ourAnglo-Saxon ancestors, after their settlement in this Island.One of the four great highways was held to be under theprotection of the deity, and was called the “Irmin-street.” Thename Arminius is, of course, the mere Latinised form of“Herman,” the name by which the hero and the deity were knownby every man of Low German blood, on either side of the Germansea. It means, etymologically, the “War-man,” the “man ofhosts.” No other explanation of the worship of the “Irminsul,”and of the name of the “Irmin-Street,” is so satisfactory asthat which connects them with the deified Arminius. We know forcertain of the existence of other columns of an analogouscharacter. Thus, there was the Roland-seule in North Germany;there was a Thor-seule in Sweden, and (what is mole important)there was an Athelstan-seule in Saxon England.’There is at the present moment a song respecting the Irminsul,current in the bishopric of Minden, one version of which mightseem only to refer to Charlemagne having pulled down theIrminsul. But there is another version, which probably is theoldest, and which clearly refers to the great Arminius.About ten centuries and a half after the demolition of theIrminsul, and nearly eighteen after the death of Arminius, themodern Germans conceived the idea of rendering tardy homage totheir great hero; and, accordingly, some eight or ten years agoa general subscription was organized in Germany, for the purposeof erecting, on the Osning—a conical mountain, which forms thehighest summit of the Teutoberger Wald, and is eighteen hundredfeet above the level of the sea a colossal bronze statue ofArminius. The statue was designed by Bandel. The hero was tostand uplifting a sword in his right hand, and looking towardsthe Rhine. The height of the statue was to be eighty feet fromthe base to the point of the sword, and was to stand on acircular Gothic temple, ninety feet high, and supported by oaktrees as columns. The mountain, where it was to be erected, iswild and stern, and overlooks the scene of the battle. It. wascalculated that the statue would be clearly visible at adistance of sixty miles. The temple is nearly finished, and thestatue itself has been cast at the copper works at Lemgo. Butthere, through want of funds to set it up, it has lain for someyears, in disjointed fragments, exposed to the mutilating homageof relic-seeking travelers. The idea of honoring a hero, who





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belongs to all Germany, is not one which the present rulers ofthat divided country have any wish to encourage; and the statuemay long continue to lie there, and present too true a type ofthe condition of Germany herself.Surely this is an occasion in which Englishmen might well prove,by acts as well as words, that we also rank Arminius among ourheroes.I have quoted the noble stanzas of one of our modern Englishpoets on Arminius, and I will conclude this memoir with one ofthe odes of the great poet of modern Germany, Klopstock, on thevictory to which we owe our freedom, and Arminius mainly oweshis fame. Klopstock calls it the “Battle of Winfield. “Theepithet of “Sister of Cannae” shows that Klopstock followed somechronologers, according to whom, Varus was defeated on theanniversary of the day on which Paalus and Var. were defeatedby Hannibal.

Song of Triumph after the Victory of Herman, the Deliverer of Germany from the Romans.

From Klopstock’s “Herman Und Die Fursten”Supposed to be sung by a chorus of Bards.A Chorus.

Sister of Cannae Winfield’s fight!We saw thee with thy streaming bloody hair, With fiery eye, bright with the world’s despair, Sweep by Valhalla’s bards from out our sight. Herman outspake— “Now Victory or Death!” The Romans... Victory”And onward rushed their eagles with the cry-So ended the first day.“Victory or Death!” beganThen. first, the Roman chief-, and Herman spake Not, but home-struck:—the eagles fluttered—brake —So sped the second day.

Two Choruses.

And the third came... the cry was “Flight or Death” Flight left they not for them who’d make them slavesMen who stab children!—fight for them!... no! graves—’Twas their last day.

Two Bards.

Yet spared they messengers:—two came to Rome-How drooped the plume—the lance was left to trail Down in the dust behind—their cheek was pale-So came the messengers to Rome.High in his hall the Imperator sate-Octavianus Caesar Augustus sate.They filled up wine-cups, wine-cups filled they up For him the highest, Jove of all their state.The flutes of Lydia hushed before their voice, Before the messengers—the “Highest” sprung-The god against the marble pillars, wrung By the dread words, striking his brow, and thrice Cried he aloud in anguish— “Varus! Varus! Give back my legions, Varus!”And now the world-wide conquerors shrunk and feared





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For fatherland and homeThe lance to raise; and ’mongst those false to Rome The death-lot rolled,’ and still they shrunk and feared:“For she her face hath turned,The victor goddess,” cried these cowards-(for aye Be it!)— “from Rome and Romans, and her day Is done,”—and still he mourned,And cried aloud in anguish— “Varus! Varus! Give back my legions, Varus!”

WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MINDYOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF








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Germanicus Caesar was given command of eight Roman legions. Tiberius was given imperium maius equal with that of the Emperor Augustus Caesar. His mother Livia Drusilla, the most powerful woman in the Roman Empire, would change her name to Julia Augusta as part of an unsuccessful attempt to take control of the government.

13 CE





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August 19: After Tiberius had started out for Illyricum, he was recalled because Augustus Caesar was ill. On this day the Emperor died at Nola in Campania, having deposited his last will and testament, and an account of accomplishments, with the Vestal Virgins. This Res Gestae Divi Augusti is carved on bronze pillars in front of his mausoleum, in Rome. Tiberius became Emperor (to 37 CE). Germanicus Caesar would quell a mutiny among the legions.

This coin of Livia Drusilla, the most powerful woman in the Roman Empire, was struck during or after this year. After her son Tiberius succeeded Augustus Caesar as emperor she changed her name to Julia Augusta, and attempted unsuccessfully to take control of the government.

14 CE




Tiberius Caesar ruled from 14 CE to 37 CE.


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The Emperor Tiberius ordered Germanicus Caesar to return to Rome.

An earthquake exposed some fossils in Asia Minor, including a tooth that was more than a foot in length. It was dispatched to the Emperor Tiberius, who presumed it to be a relic of an age of giants — giants whose bones it would be better to leave undisturbed.

17 CE






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Germanicus Caesar died of an illness, or of a poisoning. Piso was put on trial. (Life would become a lot more difficult for his wife, Agrippina the Elder, due to the distrust of Tiberius.)

Tiberius expelled LXX (SEPTUAGINT) missionaries from Rome — but they would soon return.

19 CE






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The Emperor Tiberius semi-retired, to the Campania.

John the Baptist was wandering and preaching. Jesus began his public ministry. John baptized Jesus in the River Jordan.

Pontius Pilate was sent from Rome to be their governor of Judaea.

CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT

26 CE








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It would be quite a while yet, before the masonry Colosseum would be erected in the center of Rome. In this period, in the collapse of the immense wooden amphitheater that had been erected by Titus Statilius in 29 CE, some 20,000-50,000 spectators were crushed.

At about this point the Emperor Tiberius moved from the Campagnia to the island of Capri in the Bay of Naples, leaving Rome under the control of Lucius Aelius Sejanus.

27 CE

TIMELINE OF ACCIDENTS





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Agrippina the Elder and her two teenage sons were accused of a plot to overthrow Tiberius. One son would commit suicide soon afterward, and then the other would starve during imprisonment. The mother was exiled to the island of Pandateria where she would starve in 33 CE.

29 CE





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The Roman Emperor Tiberius exiled Agrippina the Elder to the island of Pandateria, where she would starve in 33 CE.

30 CE





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March 16: At Misenum, the Emperor Tiberius (77 years of age) was smothered with a pillow while on his death bed from a terminal illness. Tiberius Claudius Drusus (later to become the emperor Claudius) became consul for his nephew, the new Roman Emperor Gaius Caligula, born 12CE. If not insane at this time he was at the very least a megalomaniac, and would soon become totally unpredictable. He considered himself a god and desired an absolute monarchy. He he would murder, among countless others, his own brother.

37 CE




Caligula ruled from 37 CE to 41 CE.


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April 1, Tuesday: Aaron D. Stevens visited a recruiting depot in New-York where he met Major Charles May, who had been a dashing Dragoon hero in the war on Mexico.

circa April 1: “It is only the squalid savages and degraded boschmen of creation that have their feebleteeth & tiny stings steeped in venom, and so made formidable.” ants –centipedes, and mosquitos –spiders,wasps, and scorpions– Hugh Miller. To obtain to a true relation to one human creature is enough to make a year memorable. The man for whom law exists –the man of forms, the conservative, is a tame man.

A recent English writer (De Quincey) endeavoring to account for the atrocities of Caligula and Nero –theirmonstrous & anomalous cruelties –and the general servility & corruption which they imply– Observes that it isdifficult to believe that “the descendents of a people so severe in their habits” as the Romans, “could thusrapidly” have degenerated –that “in reality the citizens of Rome were at this time a new race brought togetherfrom every quarter of the world, but especially from Asia”A vast “proportion of the ancient citizens had been cut off by the sword and such multitudes of emancipatedslaves from Asia had been invested with the rights of citizens, “that, in a single generation, Rome becamealmost transmuted into a baser metal.” As Juvenal complained– “the Orontes had mingled its impure waterswith those of the Tiber.” & “Probably, in the time of Nero, not one man in six was of pure Roman descent.”Instead of such says another “came Syrians, Cappadocians, Phyrgians, and other enfranchised slaves” — “thesein half a century had sunk so low, that Tiberius pronounced her (Rome’s) very senators to be homines adservitutem natos, men born to be slaves.”So one would say, in the absence of particular genealogical evidence, that the vast majority of the inhabitantsof the City of Boston –even –those of senatorial dignity –the Curtises– Lunts –Woodbury’s and others –men notdescendents of the men of the revolution the Hancocks –Adamses –Otises –but some “syrians Cappadocians &Phyrgians,” merely, homines ad servitutem natos men born to be slavesThere is such an office if not such a man as the Governor of Massachusetts– What has he been about the lastfortnight? He has probably had as much as he could do to keep on the fence during this moral earthquake. Itseems to me that no such keen satire, no such cutting insult could be offered to that man, as the absence of allinquiry after him in this crisis. It appears to have been forgotten that there was such a man or such an office. Yetno doubt he has been filling the gubernatorial chair all the while– One Mr Boutwell –so named perchancebecause he goes about well to suit the prevailing wind

1

In ’75 2 or 300s of the inhabitants of Concord assembled at one of the bridges with arms in their hands to assertthe right of 3 millions to tax themselves, & have a voice in governing themselves– About a week ago theauthorities of Boston, having the sympathy of many of the inhabitants of Concord assembled in the grey of thedawn, assisted by a still larger armed force –to send back a perfectly innocent man –and one whom they knewto be innocent into a slavery as complete as the world ever knew Of course it makes not the least difference Iwish you to consider this who the man was –whether he was Jesus christ or another– for in as much as ye didit unto the least of these his brethen ye did it unto him Do you think he would have stayed here in liberty andlet the black man go into slavery in his stead? They sent him back I say to live in slavery with other 3 millionsmark that –whom the same slave power or slavish power north & south –holds in that condition. 3 millions whodo not, like the first mentioned, assert the right to govern themselvs but simply to run away & stay away fromtheir prison-house.Just a week afterward those inhabitants of this town who especially sympathize with the authorities of Bostonin this their deed caused the bells to be rung & the cannons to be fired to celebrate the courage & the love ofliberty of those men who assembled at the bridge. As if those 3 millions had fought for the right to be freethemselves –but to hold in slavery 3 million othersWhy gentlemen even consistency though it is much abused is sometimes a virtue.Every humane & intelligent inhabitant of Concord when he or she heard those bells & those cannon thought notso much of the events of the 19th of April 1775 as of the events of the 12 of April 1851

1851

1. Since this governor’s full name was George Sewall Boutwell, we need to ask whether Henry Thoreau knew this, and whether he was any relation –or whether Thoreau thought he was any relation– to Ellen Devereux Sewall to whom Thoreau had proposed marriage.




Whenever and wherever you see this little pencil icon in the pages of this Kouroo Contexture, it is marking an extract from the journal of Henry David Thoreau. OK?


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I wish my townsmen to consider that whatever the human law may be neither an individual nor a nation canever deliberately commit the least act of injustice without having to pay the penalty for it A government whichdeliberately enacts injustice –& persists in it! –it will become the laughing stock of the world. Much as has been said about American slavery, I think that commonly we do not yet realize what slavery is–If I were seriously to propose to congress to make mankind into sausages, I have no doubt that most would smileat my proposition and if any believed me to be in earnest they would think that I proposed something muchworse than Congress had ever done. But gentlemen if any of you will tell me that to make a man into a sausagewould be much worse (would be any worse), than to make him into a slave –than it was then to enact thefugitive-slave law –I shall here accuse him of foolishness –of intellectual incapacity –of making a distinctionwithout a difference. The one is just as sensible a proposition as the other. When I read the account of the carrying back of the fugitive into slavery, which was read last sunday evening–and read also what was not read here that the man who made the prayer on the wharf was Daniel Foster ofConcord I could not help feeling a slight degree of pride because of all the towns in the Commonwealth Concordwas the only one distinctly named as being represented in that tea-party –and as she had a place in the first sowould have a place in this the last & perhaps next most important chapter of the Hist of Mass. But my secondfeeling– when I reflected how short a time that gentleman has resided in this town –was one of doubt & shame–because the men of Concord in recent times have done nothing to entitle them to the honor of having their townnamed in such a connexion. I hear a good deal said about trampling this law under foot– Why one need not go out of his way to do that–This law lies not at the level of the head or the reason– Its natural habitat is in the dirt. It was bred & has its lifeonly in the dust & mire –on a level with the feet & he who walks with freedom unless with a sort of quibbling& Hindoo mercy he avoids treading on every venomous reptile –will inevitably tread on it & so trample it underfoot. It has come to this that the friends of liberty the friends of the slave have shuddered when they have understood,that his fate has been left to the legal tribunals so called of the country to be decided. The people have no faiththat justice will be awarded in such a case –the judge may decide this way or that, it is a kind of accident at best–It is evident that he is not a competent authority in so important a case. I would not trust the life of my friend tothe judges of all the supreme Courts in the world put together –to be sacrificed or saved by precedent– I wouldmuch rather trust to the sentiment of the people, which would itself be a precedent to posterity– In their voteyou would get something worth having at any rate, but in the other case only the trammelled judgment of anindividual –of no significance be it which way it will. I think that recent events will be valuable as a criticism on the administration of justice in our midst –or ratheras revealing what are the true sources of justice in any community. It is to some extent fatal to the Courts whenthe people are compelled to go behind the courts They learn that The courts are made for fair-weather & forvery civil cases–{One leaf missing}let us entertain opinions of our own –let us be a town & not a suburb –as far from Boston in this sense as wewere by the old Road which lead through Lexington –a place where tyranny may ever be met with firmness &driven back with defeat to its ships. Concord has several more bridges left of the same sort which she is taxed to maintain – Can she not raise mento defend them? As for measures to be adopted among others I would advise abolitionists to make as earnest and vigorous andpersevering an assault on the Press, as they have already made and with effect too –on the Church– The Churchhas decidedly improved within a year or two.– aye even within a fortnight –but the press is almost withoutexception corrupt. I believe that in this country the press exerts a greater and a more pernicious influence thanthe Church We are not a religious people but we are a nation of politicians we do not much care for –we do notread the Bible –but we do care for & we do read the newspaper– It is a bible which we read every morning &every afternoon standing & sitting –riding & walking– It is a bible which lies on every table & counter whichevery man carries in his pocket which the mail & thousands of missionaries are continually dispersing– It is theonly book which America has printed and is Capable of exerting an almost inconceivable influence for good orfor bad. The editor is preacher whom you voluntarily support your tax is commonly one cent –& it costs nothingfor pew-hire. But how many of these preachers preach the truth– I repeat the testimony of many an intelligenttraveller as well as my own convictions when I say that probably no country was ever ruled by so mean a classof tyrants as are the editors of the periodical press in this country. Almost without exception the tone of the press is mercenary & servile– The Commonwealth & the Liberatorare the only papers as far as I know which make themselves heard in condemnation of the cowardice &





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meanness of the authorities of Boston as lately exhibited. The other journals almost without exception –as theAdvertiser the Transcript –the Journal –the Times –Bee –Herald –&c by their manner of referring to & speakingof the Fugitive-slave law or the carrying back of the slave– insult the common sense of the country And theydo this for the most part because they think so to secure the approbation of their patrons & also one would thinkbecause they are not aware that a sounder sentiment prevails to any extent. But thank fortune this preacher can be more easily reached by the weapons of the Reformer than could therecreant Priest– the free men of New England have only to –refrain from purchasing & reading these sheets haveonly to withhold their cents to kill a score of them at once.Mahomet made his celestial journey in so short a time that “on his return he was able to prevent the completeoverturn of a vase of water, which the angel Gabriel had struck with his wing on his departure.”When he took refuge in a cave near Mecca being on his flight (Hegira) to Medina. “By the time that theKoreishites [who were close behind] reached the mouth of the cavern, an acacia tree had sprung up before it, inthe spreading branches of which a pigeon had made its nest, and laid its eggs, and over the whole a spider hadwoven its web.”He said of himself. “I am no king, but the son of a Koreishite woman, who ate flesh dried in the sun.”He exacted –“a tithe of the productions of the earth, where it was fertilized by brooks & rain; and a twentiethpart where its fertility was the result of irrigation.”2

“MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING, HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY

2. The poet W.H. Auden has in 1962 brought forward a snippet from this day’s entry as:

THE VIKING BOOK OF APHORISMS, A PERSONAL SELECTION BY W.H. AUDEN...

Pg Topic Aphorism Selected by Auden out of Thoreau

309Politics and Power

Whatever the human law may be, neither an individual nor a nation canever deliberately commit the least act of injustice without having to paythe penalty for it.





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COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others,such as extensive quotations and reproductions ofimages, this “read-only” computer file contains a greatdeal of special work product of Austin Meredith,copyright 2014. Access to these interim materials willeventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup someof the costs of preparation. My hypercontext buttoninvention which, instead of creating a hypertext leapthrough hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems—allows for an utter alteration of the context withinwhich one is experiencing a specific content alreadybeing viewed, is claimed as proprietary to AustinMeredith — and therefore freely available for use byall. Limited permission to copy such files, or anymaterial from such files, must be obtained in advancein writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo”Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Pleasecontact the project at <[email protected]>.

Prepared: March 8, 2014

“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over untiltomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.”

– Remark by character “Garin Stevens”in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST




mailto:[email protected]

Well, tomorrow is such and such a date and so it began on that date in like 8000BC? Why 8000BC, because it was the beginning of the current interglacial -- or what?

Bearing in mind that this is America, "where everything belongs," the primary intent of such a notice is to prevent some person or corporate entity from misappropriating the materials and sequestering them as property for censorship or for profit.


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ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT

GENERATION HOTLINE

This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by ahuman. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested thatwe pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of theshoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What thesechronological lists are: they are research reports compiled byARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term theKouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such arequest for information we merely push a button.





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Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obviousdeficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored inthe contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then weneed to punch that button again and recompile the chronology —but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary“writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of thisoriginating contexture improve, and as the programming improves,and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whateverhas been needed in the creation of this facility, the entireoperation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminishedneed to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expectto achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring roboticresearch librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.

First come first serve. There is no charge.Place requests with <[email protected]>. Arrgh.




mailto:[email protected]


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tiberius caesar augustus - kouroo · the last of this line, the emperor nero claudius caesar...

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