第34章 A.D.16-19(13)

Thence he directed his course to Euboea and crossed to Lesbos, where Agrippina for the last time was confined and gave birth to Julia.He then penetrated to the remoter parts of the province of Asia, visited the Thracian cities, Perinthus and Byzantium; next, the narrow strait of the Propontis and the entrance of the Pontus, from an anxious wish to become acquainted with those ancient and celebrated localities.He gave relief, as he went, to provinces which had been exhausted by internal feuds or by the oppressions of governors.In his return he attempted to see the sacred mysteries of the Samothracians, but north winds which he encountered drove him aside from his course.And so after visiting Ilium and surveying a scene venerable from the vicissitudes of fortune and as the birth-place of our people, he coasted back along Asia, and touched at Colophon, to consult the oracle of the Clarian Apollo.There, it is not a woman, as at Delphi, but a priest chosen from certain families, generally from Miletus, who ascertains simply the number and the names of the applicants.Then descending into a cave and drinking a draught from a secret spring, the man, who is commonly ignorant of letters and of poetry, utters a response in verse answering to the thoughts conceived in the mind of any inquirer.It was said that he prophesied to Germanicus, in dark hints, as oracles usually do, an early doom.

Cneius Piso meanwhile, that he might the sooner enter on his design, terrified the citizens of Athens by his tumultuous approach, and then reviled them in a bitter speech, with indirect reflections on Germanicus, who, he said, had derogated from the honour of the Roman name in having treated with excessive courtesy, not the people of Athens, who indeed had been exterminated by repeated disasters, but a miserable medley of tribes.As for the men before him, they had been Mithridates's allies against Sulla, allies of Antonius against the Divine Augustus.He taunted them too with the past, with their ill-success against the Macedonians, their violence to their own countrymen, for he had his own special grudge against this city, because they would not spare at his intercession one Theophilus whom the Areopagus had condemned for forgery.Then, by sailing rapidly and by the shortest route through the Cyclades, he overtook Germanicus at the island of Rhodes.The prince was not ignorant of the slanders with which he had been assailed, but his good nature was such that when a storm arose and drove Piso on rocks, and his enemy's destruction could have been referred to chance, he sent some triremes, by the help of which he might be rescued from danger.But this did not soften Piso's heart.Scarcely allowing a day's interval, he left Germanicus and hastened on in advance.When he reached Syria and the legions, he began, by bribery and favouritism, to encourage the lowest of the common soldiers, removing the old centurions and the strict tribunes and assigning their places to creatures of his own or to the vilest of the men, while he allowed idleness in the camp, licentiousness in the towns, and the soldiers to roam through the country and take their pleasure.He went such lengths in demoralizing them, that he was spoken of in their vulgar talk as the father of the legions.

Plancina too, instead of keeping herself within the proper limits of a woman, would be present at the evolutions of the cavalry and the manoeuvres of the cohorts, and would fling insulting remarks at Agrippina and Germanicus.Some even of the good soldiers were inclined to a corrupt compliance, as a whispered rumour gained ground that the emperor was not averse to these proceedings.Of all this Germanicus was aware, but his most pressing anxiety was to be first in reaching Armenia.

This had been of old an unsettled country from the character of its people and from its geographical position, bordering, as it does, to a great extent on our provinces and stretching far away to Media.It lies between two most mighty empires, and is very often at strife with them, hating Rome and jealous of Parthia.It had at this time no king, Vonones having been expelled, but the nation's likings inclined towards Zeno, son of Polemon, king of Pontus, who from his earliest infancy had imitated Armenian manners and customs, loving the chase, the banquet, and all the popular pastimes of barbarians, and who had thus bound to himself chiefs and people alike.Germanicus accordingly, in the city of Artaxata, with the approval of the nobility, in the presence of a vast multitude, placed the royal diadem on his head.All paid him homage and saluted him as King Artaxias, which name they gave him from the city.

Cappadocia meanwhile, which had been reduced to the form of a province, received as its governor Quintus Veranius.Some of the royal tributes were diminished, to inspire hope of a gentler rule under Rome.Quintus Servaeus was appointed to Commagene, then first put under a praetor's jurisdiction.

Successful as was this settlement of all the interests of our allies, it gave Germanicus little joy because of the arrogance of Piso.Though he had been ordered to march part of the legions into Armenia under his own or his son's command, he had neglected to do either.At length the two met at Cyrrhus, the winterquarters of the tenth legion, each controlling his looks, Piso concealing his fears, Germanicus shunning the semblance of menace.He was indeed, as Ihave said, a kind-hearted man.But friends who knew well how to inflame a quarrel, exaggerated what was true and added lies, alleging various charges against Piso, Plancina, and their sons.

At last, in the presence of a few intimate associates, Germanicus addressed him in language such as suppressed resentment suggests, to which Piso replied with haughty apologies.They parted in open enmity.