The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus Part 13

"Whom Ma.s.sa dreads, whom Carus soothes with bribes."

Carus is also mentioned with deserved infamy by Pliny and Martial. He was a mimic by profession.

[151] Of this odious instrument of tyranny, Pliny the younger thus speaks: "The conversation turned upon Catullus Messalinus, whose loss of sight added the evils of blindness to a cruel disposition. He was irreverent, unblushing, unpitying, Like a weapon, of itself blind and unconscious, he was frequently hurled by Domitian against every man of worth." (iv. 22.) Juvenal launches the thunder of invective against him in the following lines:--

Et c.u.m mortifero prudens Vejento Catullo, Qui numquam visae flagrabat amore puellae, Grande, et conspicuum nostro quoque tempore monstrum, Caecus adulator, dirusque a ponte satelles, Dignus Aricinos qui mendicaret ad axes, Blandaque devexae jactaret basia rhedae.--Sat. iv. 113.

"Cunning Vejento next, and by his side b.l.o.o.d.y Catullus leaning on his guide: Decrepit, yet a furious lover he, And deeply smit with charms he could not see.

A monster, that ev'n this worst age outvies, Conspicuous and above the common size.

A blind base flatterer; from some bridge or gate, Raised to a murd'ring minister of state.

Deserving still to beg upon the road, And bless each pa.s.sing wagon and its load."--DUKE.

[152] This was a famous villa of Domitian's, near the site of the ancient Alba, about twelve miles from Rome. The place is now called Albano, and vast ruins of its magnificent edifices still remain.

[153] Tacitus, in his History, mentions this Ma.s.sa Baebius as a person most destructive to all men of worth, and constantly engaged on the side of villains. From a letter of Pliny's to Tacitus, it appears that Herennius Senecio and himself were joined as counsel for the province of Boetica in a prosecution of Ma.s.sa Baebius; and that Ma.s.sa after his condemnation pet.i.tioned the consuls for liberty to prosecute Senecio for treason.

[154] By "our own hands," Tacitus means one of our own body, a senator. As Publicius Certus had seized upon Helvidius and led him to prison, Tacitus imputes the crime to the whole senatorian order. To the same purpose Pliny observes: "Amidst the numerous villanies of numerous persons, nothing appeared more atrocious than that in the senate-house one senator should lay hands on another, a praetorian on a consular man, a judge on a criminal."--B. ix. ep. 13.

[155] Helvidius Priscus, a friend of Pliny the younger, who did not suffer his death to remain unrevenged. See the Epistle above referred to.

[156] There is in this place some defect in the ma.n.u.scripts, which critics have endeavored to supply in different manners. Brotier seems to prefer, though he does not adopt in the text, "nos Mauric.u.m Rustic.u.mque divisimus," "we parted Mauricus and Rusticus," by the death of one and the banishment of the other. The prosecution and crime of Rusticus (Arulenus) is mentioned at the beginning of this piece, c. 2. Mauricus was his brother.

[157] Herennius Senecio. See c. 2.

[158] Thus Pliny, in his Panegyr. on Trajan, xlviii.: "Domitian was terrible even to behold; pride in his brow, anger in his eyes, a feminine paleness in the rest of his body, in his face shamelessness suffused in a glowing red." Seneca, in Epist. xi. remarks, that "some are never more to be dreaded than when they blush; as if they had effused all their modesty.

Sylla was always most furious when the blood had mounted into his cheeks."