The Reign of Tiberius | Page 7

civilised world is indebted for that
majestic "Roman Peace," under which it lived and prospered for nearly
nineteen centuries: the Eastern Empire was maintained in
Constantinople, until 1453; and the Empire of the West continued,
though in waning splendour, until the last Caesar abdicated his throne
at the order of Napoleon. The nations of modern Europe were
developed out of the ruin of Caesar's Empire; and from that, the more
civilised among them have obtained the politer share of their laws, their
institutions, and their language: and to Caesar, we are indebted for
those inestimable treasures of antiquity, which the Roman Empire and
the Roman Church have preserved from the barbarians, and have
handed on for the delight and the instruction of modern times. There
are those, who can perceive in Caesar nothing but a demagogue, and a
tyrant; and in the regeneration of the Commonwealth, nothing but a
vulgar crime: among these, I am sorry to inscribe the name of Thomas

Gordon. The supporters of this view are generally misled, by the
specious allurements of the term "Republic." Tiberius, it may be, was
not a perfect ruler, and other sovereigns were even more ferocious; but
the excesses of the most reckless Emperor are hardly to be compared to
the wholesale massacres and spoliations, which attended the last
agonies of the expiring Commonwealth. After the Macedonian and
Asiatic wars, we find a turbulent and servile crowd, instead of the old
families and tribes of Roman citizens; instead of allies, oppressed and
plundered provinces; instead of the heroes of the young Republic, a set
of worn-out, lewd, and greedy nobles. By these, the spoils of the world
were appropriated, and its government abused: Caesar gave the helpless
peoples a legal sovereign, and preserved them from the lawless tyranny
of a thousand masters. He narrates himself, that "he found the Romans
enslaved by a faction, and he restored their liberty:" "Caesar interpellat;
ut Populum Romanum, paucorum factione oppressum, in libertatem
vindicat." The march of Caesar into Italy was a triumphal progress; and
there can be no doubt, that the common people received him gladly.
Again he says, "Nihil esse Rempublicam; appellationem modo, sine
corpore et specie;" "The Republic is nothing but an empty name, a
phantom and a shadow." That Caesar should have seen this, is the
highest evidence of his genius: that Cicero did not see it, is to himself,
and to his country, the great misfortune of his career; and to his
admirers, one of the most melancholy events in Roman history. The
opinions of Tacitus were not far removed from the opinions of Cicero,
but they were modified by what he saw of Nerva and of Trajan: he tells
us, how Agricola looked forward to the blessings of a virtuous Prince;
and his own thoughts and writings would have been other, than they are,
had he witnessed the blameless monarchy of Hadrian and the
Antonines. The victims of a bad Emperor were taken usually from
among the nobles; many of them were little better, than their destroyer;
and his murders were confined, almost invariably, within the walls of
Rome: but the benefits of the Imperial system were extended into all
the provinces; and the judgment-seat of Caesar was the protection of
innumerable citizens. Many were the mistakes, many the misfortunes,
deplorable the mischiefs, of the Imperial administration; I wish neither
to deny, nor to conceal them: but here I must content myself with
speaking broadly, with presenting a superficial view of things; and,

upon the whole, the system of the Emperors was less bad than the
decayed and inadequate government, out of which it was developed.
For the change from the Republic to the Empire was hardly a
revolution; and the venerable names and forms of the old organisation
were religiously preserved. Still, the Consuls were elected, the Senate
met and legislated, Praetors and Legates went forth into the provinces,
the Legions watched upon the frontiers, the lesser Magistrates
performed their office; but above them was Caesar, directing all things,
controlling all things; the Imperator and Universal Tribune, in whose
name all was done; the "Praesens Divus," on whom the whole
depended; at once the master of the Imperial Commonwealth, and the
minister of the Roman People.
"The Annals," and the history of Tiberius, have detained us, for the
most part, within the capital: "The Agricola" brings us into a province
of the Empire; and "The Account of Germany" will take us among the
savages beyond the frontier. I need scarcely mention, that our country
was brought within the Roman influence by Julius Caesar; but that
Caesar's enterprise was not continued by Augustus, nor by Tiberius;
though Caligula celebrated a fictitious triumph over the unconquered
Britons: that a war of about forty years was undertaken by Claudius,
maintained by Nero, and