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Page 26
[Illustration: Depositing the ashes of a member of the imperial family
in a Roman columbarium.]
After the death of Drusus, therefore, a reconciliation became possible
in the family of the Caesars. The latent rivalry between the families
of Tiberius and Germanicus was extinguished. Indeed, even in the midst
of the tears shed for the early death of Drusus, a gleam of concord
seems to have shone down upon the house desolated by many tragedies,
while Sejanus, whose power depended upon the strife of the factions,
was for a moment set aside and driven back into the shadows. But it
was not to continue long; for soon the flames of discord broke out more
violently than ever. Whom shall we blame, Sejanus or Agrippina?
Tacitus says that it was the fault of Sejanus, whom he accuses of
having tried to destroy the descendants of Germanicus, in order to
usurp their place: but he himself is forced to admit in another passage
(Annals iv., 59) that virtually a little court of freedmen and
dependents gathered about Nero, the leader of the sons of Germanicus,
urging him on against Tiberius and Sejanus, and begging him to act
quickly. "This," they said, "is the will of the people, the desire of
the armies. Nor would Sejanus, who was even then making light of the
patience of the old man and of the dilatoriness of the youth, have
dared to resist him." From such speeches it is only a short step to
plans for rebellion and conspiracy. In all probability the blame for
this later and more bitter dissension must, as usually happens, be
divided between the two factions. The party of Agrippina, emboldened
by its good fortune and by the weakness of Tiberius, was, after the
death of Drusus, conscious of its own supremacy. Its members had only
a single aim; even before it was possible they wished to see Nero, the
first-born son of Germanicus, in the position of Tiberius. They
therefore took up again their struggles and intrigues against Tiberius,
and attempted to incite Nero against the emperor. But this time
Sejanus was blocking their pathway. The death of Drusus had even
further increased the trust and affection which the emperor had for his
assistant, and he was henceforth the only confidant and the only friend
of the emperor; a war without quarter between him and Agrippina, her
sons and the party of Germanicus, was inevitable. And Sejanus opened
the action by attempting to exclude from the magistracy and from office
all the friends of Agrippina and all the members of the opposing
faction. At this time it was difficult to arrive at any of the more
important offices without being recommended to the senate by the
emperor, against whose choice the senate no longer dared to rebel;
since the emperor was held responsible for the conduct of the
government, it was only just that he should be allowed to select his
more important collaborators. Sejanus was therefore able, by using his
influence over Tiberius, to lay a thousand difficulties and obstacles
in the way of even the legitimate ambitions of the most eminent men of
the opposite faction. Nor were these the only weapons employed; others
no less efficacious were called into play, and intrigues, calumnies,
accusations, and trials were set on foot without scruple and with a
ferocity the horror of which Tacitus has painted with indelible colors.
Among these intrigues two matrimonial projects must be mentioned. In
the year 25 Sejanus attempted a bold stroke; he repudiated his wife
Apicata, and asked Tiberius for the hand of Livilla (Livia), the widow
of Drusus. Sejanus had frequented the political aristocracy of the
empire, and, despite his equestrian origin, was quick to adopt not only
their ambitions and their manners, but also their ideas on marriage.
He, too, considered it as simply a political instrument, a means of
acquiring and consolidating power. He had therefore disrupted his
first family in order to contract this marriage, which would have
redoubled his power and his influence and have introduced him into the
imperial household. But his bold stroke failed, because Tiberius
refused; and he refused, Tacitus tells us, above all because he was
afraid that this marriage would still further irritate Agrippina. The
emperor is supposed to have told Sejanus that too many feminine
quarrels were already disturbing and agitating the house of the
Caesars, to the serious detriment of his nephew's sons. And what would
happen, he asked, if this marriage should still further foment existing
hatreds? _Quid si intendatur certamen tali conjugio_? The reply is
significant, because it proves to us that Tiberius, who is accused of
harboring a fierce hate against the sons of Germanicus and Agrippina,
was still seeking, two years after the death of Drusus, to appease both
factions, attempting not to irritate his adversaries and to preserve a
reasonable equanimity in the midst of these animosities and these
struggles.
[Illustration: The starving Livilla refusing food.]
In any case, Sejanus was refused, and this refusal was a slight success
for the party of Agrippina, which, a year later, in 26, attempted on
its own account an analogous move. Agrippina asked Tiberius for
permission to remarry. If we are to believe Tacitus, Agrippina made
this request on her own initiative, impelled by one of those numerous
and more or less reasonable caprices which were continually shooting
through her head. But are we to suppose that suddenly, after a long
widowhood, Agrippina put forth so strange a proposal without any
_arri�re-pens�e_ whatever? Furthermore, if this proposal had been
merely the momentary caprice of a whimsical woman, would it have been
so seriously debated in the imperial household, and would the daughter
of Agrippina have recounted the episode in her memoirs? It is more
probable that this marriage, too, had a political aim. By giving a
husband to Agrippina, they were also seeking to give a leader to the
anti-Tiberian party. The sons of Germanicus were too young, and
Agrippina was too violent and tactless, to be able alone to cope
successfully with Sejanus, supported as he was by Tiberius, by Livia,
and by Antonia. We can thus explain why Tiberius opposed and prevented
the marriage: Agrippina, unassisted, had caused him sufficient trouble;
it would have been entirely superfluous for him to sanction her taking
to herself an official counselor in the guise of a husband.
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