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founder of a new dynasty and governiuent can take, to look to his own 

 kinsmen for support, and to train them up to political power. For such 

 considerations as these, Napoleon I. bore the shortcomings and even the 

 antipathy of his brothers, and conferred kingdoms on his erratic brother- 

 in-law and on his devoted stepson. Tiberius knew perfectly well that 

 he himself had nothing to fear. He held the reins of government with 

 too firm a grasp. He despised his Roman aristocracy too much to 

 dread them ; but to prevent the repetition of the dreadful civil wars, 

 and to secure the continuance of a form of government which for Eome 

 had become an inevitable necessity, he wanted younger men than him- 

 self, endowed with capacity and firmness. It is very probable that he 

 thought he had found such a one in his nephew Germanicus, and his 

 temper was such, that in all probability he would have preferred him 

 as a successor to his own sou, if he had had a chance. For the latter 

 he does not seem to have had much paternal affection, partly because 

 he was not blessed with a heart to love tenderly, partly because Drusus 

 showed a coarseness of taste, a hastiness and violence of temper, 

 which were calculated to disgust Tiberius and to inspire the gravest 

 apprehensions for the future. So far, therefore, from adopting the 

 opinion that Tiberius was afraid of his nephew, and desired his death, 

 I am convinced that he felt his loss as a severe blow, and lamented it 

 sincerely. It is true he did not show his grief by those outward marks 

 of sorrow, which are generally accepted as the measure of the feelings 

 of the heart : he abstained from participating in the funeral pomp, and 

 he purposely shortened the days of public mourning. But he was 

 naturally averse to all exhibitions of feeling, and who would charge 

 him with indifference at the loss of his nephew, when he preserved the 

 same moderation in his grief at the death of his own and only son. 



Deprived of the assistance and support of a near relative of consider- 

 able abilities and great promise, and finding his own son Drusus 

 deficient in the essential qualities of a ruler, Tiberius allied himself 

 more and more with a man, whose revolting depravity, artfully concealed 

 under the deceitful exterior of moderation, virtue, zeal, and devoted 

 attachment to the imperial house, became a dire curse to that house 

 and to the whole community (Tac. Annal. IV. 1.) This was L. Aelius 

 Sejanus, a man of great ability as a politician and a soldier ; endowed 

 with boundless ambition, a courage that shrank from no danger, and a 

 body capable of enduring the greatest fatigue and hardship. Tiberius 

 found him, at his accession, in an office of high importance, as com- 

 mander of the Pra.'toriau guards, and he entrusted him with a most 

 delicate and difficult mission, in sending him as a companion and adviser 

 with his son Drusus, to quell the mutiny of the Paunonian legions. He 



