Tiberius

The tribunician power was given to him again for five years, the task of pacifying Germany was assigned to him, and the envoys of the Parthians, having delivered their instructions to Augustus in Rome, were ordered to visit him also in his province. But when the defection of Illyricum was reported, he transferred his attention to the care of a new war, which was the most serious of all foreign wars since the Punic wars, and which he conducted for three years with fifteen legions and an equal force of auxiliaries, amid great difficulties in all matters and an extreme scarcity of provisions. And although he was recalled rather frequently, he nevertheless persevered, fearing lest a neighboring and powerful enemy should press upon them if they retreated voluntarily. And he reaped a grand reward for his perseverance, since the whole of Illyricum—which extends between Italy, the kingdom of Noricum, Thrace, Macedonia, the Danube river, and the gulf of the Adriatic sea—was thoroughly subdued and reduced under Roman dominion.

To this glory a still larger measure of honor was added by opportunity. For around that very time Quintilius Varus perished in Germany with three legions, and no one doubted that the victorious Germans would have joined forces with the Pannonians if Illyricum had not been subdued beforehand. For these reasons a triumph was decreed to him, along with many great honors. Some proposed that he should be named “Pannonicus,” others “Invictus,” and some “Pius.” But Augustus vetoed the cognomen, promising in return that he would be content with the name he was to assume after his own death. Tiberius himself deferred his triumph, since the state was in mourning due to the Varian disaster; nevertheless, wearing the toga praetexta and crowned with laurel, he entered the city, ascended the tribunal placed in the Saepta while the senate stood by, and sat down together with Augustus, midway between the two consuls; from there, having greeted the people, he was escorted around the temples.

In the following year, having returned to Germany, when he noticed that the Varian disaster had occurred through the rashness and negligence of the commander, he did nothing except in accordance with the opinion of the council; though at all other times he was of his own judgment and content with himself alone, he then, contrary to custom, communicated with several people about the conduct of the war. He also showed more exact care than usual. When he was about to cross the Rhine, he did not allow any provisions, which were restricted to a fixed measure, to cross over before he, standing on the bank, had inspected the loads of the vehicles, lest anything should be carried across except what was permitted or necessary. Beyond the Rhine, indeed, he maintained such a rule of life that he took his food sitting on the bare turf, often spent the night without a tent, and gave all instructions for the following day, as well as any sudden duty to be imposed, in writing; he added a warning that, whatever anyone might doubt about, they should apply to him at any hour of the night, without any other intermediary.

He exacted discipline most severely, having revived types of punishments and ignominy from antiquity, and even branding a legate of a legion with ignominy because he had sent a few soldiers with his freedman to hunt across the riverbank. He entered battles, although he allowed very little to fortune and chance, with somewhat greater confidence whenever, as he was working late at night, the light suddenly fell and was extinguished without anyone shaking it; trusting, as he said, in a portent experienced by his ancestors in all their commands. But when the campaign had been successfully conducted, he was not far from being killed by a certain Bructeran, who, having been discovered among his close attendants and detected by his trembling, had a confession of his intended crime wrung from him by torture.

Returning from Germany to the city after two years, he celebrated the triumph which he had deferred, with those legates also accompanying him for whom he had obtained triumphal ornaments. And before he turned towards the Capitol, he descended from his chariot and threw himself at the knees of his father who was presiding. He transferred Bato, the Pannonian leader, to Ravenna after presenting him with huge rewards, returning gratitude because Bato had once allowed him to escape when he was shut in with his army by the disadvantage of the terrain. After this, he gave a banquet to the people at a thousand tables and a congiarium of three hundred sesterces per man. He also dedicated the temple of Concord, as well as that of Pollux and Castor, in his own name and that of his brother, from the spoils of war.