89 



vpitli the people in the numerous exhibitions, with which he courted 

 and gained popularity. All this was altered under his saturnine 

 successor (Tac. Ann. i. 54), who could venture not only to dare the 

 idle discontent of the capital, but the grumbling of the legions, whom 

 he paid punctually, but never condescended to bribe by donations." 



The odium thus incurred by curtailing the public amusements 

 Tiberius increased by his private economy ; he disliked pomp and 

 ceremony ; his court differed in no respect from the house of a private 

 gentleman. Extremely frugal and simple in his own mode of life, he 

 enjoined the same economy on others. Several spendthrifts, who had 

 squandered their hereditary wealth, he ignominiously expelled from the 

 senate (Tac. Ann. i. 48) ; he lavished no treasures on favourites, 

 parasites or relatives, and thus, in an age of luxury and dissipation, he 

 set a noble example of the much vaunted old Roman frugality, simplicity 

 and abstinence, an example destined unfortunately to remain entirely 

 disregarded. 



Such public and private economy supplied an ample fund for 

 meeting cases of distress, and for alleviating the sufferings of thousands. 

 According]}', we find Tiberius able, as he was always ready, to assist 

 his suffering subjects with a liberal hand, and to spend in acts of 

 kindness and charity vast sums of money, which he sternly refused 

 to squander for the amusement of an idle multitude. If we reflect 

 that charity and jDhilanthrophy are eminently virtues of our Christian 

 civilization, the noble fruit of the religion of love, almost unknown to 

 the imperfect morality of pagan antiquity, we are bound to honour 

 and admire the man, who, though outwardly hard and unfeeling, so 

 largely extended his sympathy, uncalled for and unexpected, to his 

 suffering fellow-creatures. Nor were there opportunities wanting in 

 his reign. The most fatal earthquake known in antiquity destroyed 

 in one dreadful night twelve of the most flourishing cities of Asia Minor, 

 among them Sardes and Ephesus. The former town alone received 

 from Tiberius the sum of 10,000,000 of sesterces (£80,000,) and all were 

 relieved of their public burdens for a number of years (Tac. Ann. ii. 47). 

 At a later period another earthquake visited parts of Asia Minor and 

 Greece, and similar assistance was rendered by the Emperor. Two 

 great conflagrations destroyed portions of the city of Rome ; each time 

 Tiberius made the whole loss good to the sufferers (Tac. Ann. iv. 64, 

 and vi. 45). We are informed, that on the second occasion he spent 

 100,000,000 sesterces, and this too a very short time before his death, 



" Ho paid ihem the legacy of Augustus, but only once made a present in his own name, 

 aud that wan on the memorable and critical occasion of the fall of Sejunus, when he gave a 

 donative to the Praetorian Guards aud the Legions of Syria. — (Suet Tib. 48.) 



