91 



flatterer, Velleius, can lavish no greater praise tlian by saying that "he 

 ahnost reduced Germany to the state of a tributaiy province and pene- 

 trated through the country in every direction without amj loss to the 

 army entrusted to him, the safety of which he above all other generals 

 had at heart."* It is nothing but spite and ignorance that dictates 

 the unmeaning accusation preserved by the gossip-monger Suetonius 

 (Tib. 52), "that from motives of hostility to Germanicus he 

 depreciated his great exploits as superfluous, and his glorious victories 

 as injurious to the state." We can easily understand and appreciate 

 the delicate position of Tiberius, who, though all the time seeing 

 the real state of things, was obliged to throw a veil over national 

 reverses, and to disguise disasters by bestowing honours and rewards 

 on him who had caused them. Had he at any time been doubtful of 

 the loyalty of Germanicus, and had he feared that his nephew was 

 intent ou following in the footsteps of Csesai', and on laying 

 the foundations of a throne in the conquests of a victorious army, these 

 fears would have been dispelled by the inglorious result of the German 

 campaigns. His solicitude was of a different character ; it was that of 

 a prince for the state and people, not that of a usurper for his throne 

 and life. Hence his desire that Germanicus should return, and his 

 regret that he persisted in the same fruitless and dangerous track. 



Germanicus' third campaign presents, on the whole, the same 

 featui'es as the second. The same gigantic efforts, the same laborious 

 marches, a pitched battle, which is represented as a great victory, but 

 followed by immediate retreat ; the same dangers and losses by land, 

 but a much more awful calamity by sea, which, even in the pages of 

 Tacitus, is apt to fill the reader with horror and pity. 



Now at length Germanicus could no longer resist tlie entreaties of 

 the emperor to return, and to leave the Germans to their internal dis- 

 cords. A splendid triumph, which he was allowed to celebrate in Rome 

 for his German victories, though in reality a farce intended to deceive 

 the people as to the issue of the war, was yet a proof that Tiberius was 

 not afraid of raising his nephew's popularity. That it was, on the con- 

 trary, his desire to accomplish this, he showed, by rela.\ing his usual 

 parsimony, and distributing a large donative to the people in his 

 nephew's name. 



Chapter IV. 

 The remainder of the short career of Germanicus is soon told. He 

 received the honourable commission of settling the disturbed state of 

 the East, a commission analagous to that which Agrippa, C. Caesar, and 



• Vflll. Pat. II. 97. Op. ib. II. 115. 



