This event seems to have roused in Tiberius a pas sion for executions. He filled the prisons with the supposed accomplices of Sejanus, and he ordered all the at.-ctmed to he put to death without examination. Out of twenty senators whom he elected as his coun cil, he put to death sixteen; and he at last seems to have inflicted tortures and even death for his own amusement. While the tyrant was thus glutting him self with Roman blood, and feasting his eyes on the torments and agonies of his victims, the provinces of his empire were left under the protection of avari cious lieutenants, who were more intent upon the ac cumulation of wealth than anxious for the safety of the state. The barbarians harassed the provinces on all sides. The Dacians and Sarmatians seized upon Meesia; the Germans desolated Gaul; and Armenia fell under the dominion of the King of Parthia. Though sunk in vice and pleasures, the monster yet seems to have been distressed at these encroachments upon his power; and it is said, that in one of these fits of distraction he was heard to wish, that heaven and earth might perish when he died. Forsaken by his appetites, insensible to the stimulants even of the worst vices, and debilitated by their too frequent ap plications, Tiberius felt that his dissolution was ap proaching; and he is said to have named Caligula his successor, in the hope that the enormity of his crimes might blot out the recollection of his own. This de testable motive, which human nature shudders in re cording, has perhaps been invented by his enemies; but, on the other hand, history has informed us, that Tiberius was heard to avow, that Caligula possessed all the vices of Sylla without his virtues; that he was a serpent that would sting the empire, and a Phxton that would set the world in flames.
Though Tiberius thus made some preparation for his departure from the world, he yet strove to conceal the symptoms of its rapid approach. He sought in a change of place to keep down the feelings which ha rassed him. Having at last settled at the promontory of Misenum, his infirmities increased, and he one day fell into a succession of fainting fits which all around him believed would prove fatal. His favourite Macro, looking for new honours, advised Caligula to secure the succession. The court congratulated Caligula, the Praetorian soldiers acknowledged him, and the multitude had added their applause, when the unex pected recovery of Tiberius struck terror and alarm into all parties. Sorrow for the dying emperor again sat on every countenance. Caligula, as if moonstruck, expected to exchange an empire for a grave; when Macro again converted his mourning into joy, by smothering the dying emperor with pillows, or, as others say, by cutting him off with poison. Thus was terminated the base career of Tiberius, in the 78th year of his age, and the 22c1 of his reign.
During the latter days of Tiberius, the vices which degraded the sovereign, extended their pollutions over all classes of the population. Pleasures which were most unnatural, were most prized. Men called Spin trim carried on the trade of inventing new kinds of pleasure and licentiousness. Gluttony had been redu
ced to a system by Apicins Cxlius who hanged him self after he had devoured his estate; and every form of vice, and every variety of folly and licentiousness, now seemed to have been swept from the superficies of the empire and concentrated in Rome.
In the 18th year of the reign of Tiberius, our Sa viour suffered crucifixion under Pontius Pilate the Roman governor of Jerusalem, who is said to have sent to Tiberius,an account of his passion, resurrection and miracles. The emperor, struck with the singu larity of the statements, reported them to the senate, and desired that Christ should be ranked among the gods of Rome. The senate, however, declined his request, and even ventured to command all Christians to leave the capital. Tiberius, however, is said to have issued another edict which threatened all who accused them with death, and thus permitted them, during the rest of his reign, to reside unmolested in the city.
Caligula succeeded to the empire under auspices of a most favourable kind. His father Germanicus had been adored by the army and the people, and he him self had been bred among soldiers, and had shared in their toils. The congratulations of the senate and of the people met him as he advanced to Rome, mourn ing over the dead body of Tiberius. Remote sove reigns courted his alliance, and the whole world seems to have given him the credit of every virtue.
The early conduct of Caligula did not belie these extravagant expectations. Having presided at the funeral rites of Tiberius, he brought to Rome the ashes of his mother and his brothers, and instituted annual solemnities to their honour. He revived the institutions of Augustus that Tiberius had ruined.— He reformed abuses; he punished the corruption of governors; he banished the Spintrire; and sent Pontius Pilate an exile into Greece; he restored the election of magistrates by popular suffrage, and he performed many acts of liberality and virtue which gave him a just claim to the gratitude and admiration of the people.
That such a character should at once change into that of a furious madman, and a cruel and capricious tyrant, without any apparent motive or any reasonable cause, is not within the limits of belief. We are dis posed, therefore, to place some confidence in the asser tion, that a disorder which took place after his acces sion to power, had destroyed his intellects and altered his nature. Acts of individual cruelty were the first symptoms of his insanity. One Politus had loyally devoted himself to death if the emperor should reco ver, and another Secundus had vowed to fight in the amphitheatre on the same account. No sooner had the emperor recovered, than he compelled them both to fulfil their vows. Geniellus who had been left by his grandfather Tiberius co-heir with Caligula, was order ed and compelled to put himself to death. Silenus, the emperor's father-in-law, was the next victim, and Gercinus, a senator of great probity, shared the same fate for refusing to give false witness against Silenus. Among the numerous victims of his suspicion and avarice, was 'Macro, to whom Caligula was indebted for his sceptre.