92 



Tiberius himself had successively been entrusted with by Augustus. 

 For this purpose he was invested with supreme civil and military 

 authority in all the eastern provinces, and all the provincial governors 

 were subjected to his superior command. He succeeded in placing a 

 kino- on the throne of Armenia, renewed the alliance with the Parthians, 

 organised Cappadocia and Commagena as Roman provinces, and 

 pacified the discontented parts of Syria. He then visited Egypt, 

 attracted by a laudable curiosity to see this land of mysteries and won- 

 ders. HavinCT returned to Syria, he was attacked by a slow disease, and 

 died at Antioch in the 34th year of his age. 



The premature death of a hopeful young man, who, if he had chosen, 

 mi<Jht at any time have become a dangerous rival of Tibei'ius, was calcu- 

 lated to suggest the blackest suspicious of intrigues, foul play and assassi- 

 nation. Nor were these suspicions confined to the populace alone. The 

 most respectable historians of the subsequent age shared them, and 

 though their statements are confined to surmises, general suspicions, and 

 the loosest evidence, so that they cannot even substantiate the fact of a 

 yioleut death of Germauicus, yet they have left on the mind of posterity 

 a decided impression that the Emperor Tiberius was not only interested 

 in the death of his nephew, but guilty of it. If this impression were 

 justified, then indeed Tiberius would deserve to be branded as a 

 " detestable and detested monster," and all his military and adminis- 

 trative talent, his care and foresight for the welfare of Italy and 

 the provinces, his economy, his generosity, in short aU his public virtues 

 would not sufifice to redeem him from the execration of mankind. If 

 on the other hand we shall come to the conclusion that this charge is 

 futile, we shall pause and inquire before we credit all the other charges 

 that are so freely preferred against him. 



It seems almost that at Rome it was considered a most natural and 

 necessary thing, a consequence of the birth and station of Germauicus, 

 that he should be dangerous to his uncle, and that the latter must con- 

 sequently have dreaded and hated him. Nothing seemed able to weaken 

 such an hypothesis, neither the loyalty shown by Germauicus during the 

 mutiny of the Rhenish legions, nor the honours which Tiberius 

 heaped upon him so abundantly. A generation, from which all loyalty 

 and generosity had departed, could not believe in any but the worst 

 motives. 



Taking a different view of human nature and of the position of the 

 emperor Tiberius, we are compelled to ascribe different motives to most 

 of his acts, and to purge him from purely malevolent and gi'atuitous 

 aspersions. 



We have already shown that the command of the eight Rhenish legions 



