Teaching and the Decline of Liberty at Credulity and Curiosity in A ...

Tacitus'
Teaching and the Decline of Liberty at Rome 197
We have argued that Tacitus recognized the unavoidable necessity of such a
regime under the political circumstances and the moral degeneracy
of those
times. It was an inferior regime, but the Romans were no longer fit for self-
government. We have yet to see how he understood it. To do so requires that we
examine rather closely his presentation of its actual functioning. This we intend
to do, beginning with the Principate of Tiberius. It will readily be understood
that in such a government much depends upon the character of the ruler, whether
he be a royal or a tyrannical Caesar.4
This is one of the key problems of such a
government. This chapter will then consist of a close examination of episodes
from the account of Tacitus selected to exhibit his judgment of the way the First
Citizen Tiberius held power and the strengths and weaknesses of his character.
We will see the masterful behavior of Tiberius who successfully held power
under these circumstances for twenty-three years. But we are interested, above
all, in the effects of such power on the man's character. What makes the study of
Tiberius so fascinating is that he is a more than ordinarily adept politician of
rather ordinary character who somehow became master of the world (rerum
potiri, 1.5.4). This is the supreme test of any man's character. With absolute
power his nature was set free to reveal itself fully. It is almost as if he were given
the "ring
of Gyges"
Glaucon mentioned when he asked Socrates whether it is
good for you and good for its own sake to be just. For all practical purposes, it
intelligently.5
would seem, Tiberius could do what he liked as long as he acted
We are interested in seeing what he showed himself to be under those circum
stances circumstances to which, it may be argued, most ambitious men se
cretly
der'
aspire.6
4. Cf. Leo Strauss, On Tyranny, p. 191 : "If in a given situation 'the republican constitutional or
has completely broken down, and there is no reasonable prospect of its restoration within all the
foreseeable future, the establishment of permanent absolute rule cannot, as such, be justly blamed;
therefore it is fundamentally different from the establishment of tyranny. Just blame could attach only
to the manner in which that permanent absolute rule that is truly necessary is established and exer
cised; as Vogelin emphasizes, there are tyrannical as well as royal Caesars."
5. Perhaps before beginning to study Tiberius'
character and his art of rule, it would be useful to
underline what it meant to be First Citizen of Rome. No one has expressed this more forcefully than
Seneca, educator and minister of Nero, who was in a few years to hold Tiberius'
place. At the begin
ning of his treatise De dementia, Seneca held up a mirror to his royal pupil: "Have I, of all mortals,
pleased the gods and am I chosen, that I should serve on earth in the office of the gods? I am the arbi
ter of life and death to the tribes; in my hand is placed what lot and civil status each man should have;
what fortune wishes to be given to each mortal she announces through my mouth; from our response
peoples and cities receive causes for gladness; no part anywhere, except with my will and favor is
prosperous; these so many thousands of swords which my peace restrains will be drawn at my nod;
what nations are to be absolutely destroyed, which to be banished, to which liberty is to be given,
from which it is to be taken, what kings are to become slaves, whose heads the splendour of kings
should crown, what cities shall fall and which arise, is my utterance by
right."
dementia, 1.2, Moral Essays, 3 vols. Loeb Classical Library (London: Heinemann, 1928).
Lucius Seneca, De
6. Socrates hints at this grim truth in a myth near the end of the Republic. "He said that when the
spokesman had said this the man who had drawn the first lot came forward and immediately chose the
greatest tyranny, and, due to folly and gluttony, chose without having considered everything ade
quately: and it escaped his notice that eating his own children and other evils were fated to be a part of
that life. When he considered it at his leisure, he beat his breast and lamented the choice, not abiding