he
was one of the few persons at Rome who were capable in that trying and
troubled time of passing judgment and of reasoning with calm.

IV

TIBERIUS AND AGRIPPINA

The blackest and most tragic period in the life of Tiberius begins with
the death of Germanicus and the terrible scandal of the suit against
Piso. It was to pass into history as the worst period of the "Tiberian
tyranny"; for it was at this time that the famous _Lex de majestate_
[1] (on high treason), which had not been applied under Augustus, came
to be frequently invoked, and through its operation atrocious
accusations, scandalous trials, and frightful condemnations were
multiplied in Rome, to the terror of all. Many committed suicide in
despair, and illustrious families were given over to ruin and infamy.

[Illustration: Tiberius.]

Posterity still holds Tiberius to account for these tragedies; his
cruel and suspicious tyranny is made responsible for these accusations,
for the suits which followed, and for the cruel condemnations in which
they ended. It is said that every free mind which still remembered
ancient Roman liberty gave him umbrage and caused him distress, and
that he could suffer to have about him only slaves and hired assassins.
But how far this is from the truth! How poorly the superficial
judgment of posterity has understood the terrible tragedy of the reign,
of Tiberius! We always forget that Tiberius was the next Roman emperor
after Augustus; the first, that is, who had to bear the weight of the
immense charge created by its founder, but without the immense prestige
and respect which Augustus had derived from the extraordinary good
fortune of his life, from the critical moment in which he had taken
over the government, from the general opinion that he had ended the
civil wars, brought peace back to an empire in travail, and saved Rome
from the imminent ruin with which Egypt and Cleopatra had threatened
it. For these reasons, while Augustus lived, the envy, jealousy,
rivalry, and hatred of the new authority were held in check in his
presence; but they were ever smoldering in the Roman aristocracy, which
considered itself robbed of a part of its privileges, and always felt
itself humiliated by this same authority, even when it was necessary to
submit to it in cases of supreme political necessity. But all this
envy, all these jealousies, all these rivalries,--I have said it
before, but it is well to repeat it, since the p