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Page 15
To this hard and false situation Tiberius, fuming with rage, had to
adjust himself. He lived in a separate apartment, keeping up with
Julia only the relations necessary to save appearances, but he could
not divorce her, much less publish her guilt. The situation grew still
worse when political discontent began to use for its own ends the
discord between Julia and Tiberius. Tiberius had many enemies among
the nobility, especially among the young men of his own age; partly
because his rapid, brilliant career had aroused much jealousy, partly
because his conservative, traditionalist tendencies toward authority
and militarism disturbed many of them. More and more among the
nobility there was increasing the desire for a mild and easy-going
government which should allow them to enjoy their privileges without
hardship and which should not be too severe in imposing its duties upon
them.
On the other hand, Julia was most ambitious. Since, after the
disagreements with Tiberius had broken out, she could no longer hope to
be the powerful wife of the first person of the empire after Augustus,
she sought compensation. Thus there formed about Julia a party which
sought in every way to ruin the lofty position which Tiberius occupied
in the state, by setting up against him Caius Caesar, the son of Julia
by Agrippa, whom Augustus had adopted and of whom he was very fond. In
6 B.C., Caius Caesar was only fourteen years old, but at that period an
agitation was set on foot whereby, through a special privilege conceded
to him by the senate, he was to be named consul for the year of Rome
754, when Caius should have reached twenty. This was a manoeuver of
the Julian party to attract popular attention to the youth, to prepare
a rival for Tiberius in his quality as principal collaborator of
Augustus, and to gain a hold upon the future head of the state.
The move was altogether very bold; for this nomination of a child
consul contradicted all the fundamental principles of the Roman
constitution, and it would probably have been fatal to the party which
evolved it, had not the indignant rage of Tiberius assured its triumph.
Tiberius opposed this law, which he took as an offense, and he wished
Augustus to oppose it, and at the outset Augustus did so. But then,
either because Julia was able to bend him to her desires or because in
the senate there was in truth a strong party which supported it out of
hatred for Tiberius, Augustus at last yielded, seeking to placate
Tiberius with other compensations. But Tiberius was too proud and
violent an aristocrat to accept compensations and indignantly demanded
permission to retire to Rhodes, abandoning all the public offices which
he exercised. He certainly hoped to make his loss felt, for indeed
Rome needed him. But he was mistaken. This act of Tiberius was
severely judged by public opinion as a reprisal upon the public for a
private offense. Augustus became angry with him and in his absence all
his enemies took courage and hurled themselves against him. The honors
to Caius Caesar were approved amid general enthusiasm and the Julian
party triumphed all along the line; it reached the height of power and
popularity, while Tiberius was constrained to content himself with the
idle life of a private person at Rhodes.
[Illustration: A reception at Livia's villa. The scene evidently is at
Livia's country palace at Prima Porta. Agrippa is seen descending the
steps to be received by Augustus and Livia (who are not shown in the
picture). The original of the status of Augustus, here shown, was
found in the ruins of Livia's villa close to the flight of marble steps
and its base. The remains of the steps and the base of the statue are
standing to-day at Prima Porta.]
But at Rome Livia still remained. From that moment began the mortal
duel between Livia and Julia.
III
THE DAUGHTERS OF AGRIPPA
Tiberius had now broken with Augustus, he had lost the support of
public opinion, he was hated by the majority of the senate. At Rhodes
he soon found himself, therefore, in the awkward position of one who
through a false move has played into the hands of his enemies and sees
no way of recovering his position. It had been easy to leave Rome; to
re�nter it was difficult, and in all probability his fortune would have
been forever compromised, and he would never have become emperor, had
it not been for the fact that in the midst of this general defection
two women remained faithful. They were his mother, Livia, and his
sister-in-law, Antonia, the widow of that brother Drusus who, dying in
his youth, had carried to his grave the hopes of Rome.
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