[5.1]  Rubellio et Fufio consulibus, quorum utrique «Geminus» cognomentum erat, Julia Augusta mortem obiit, ætate extrema, nobilitatis per Claudiam familiam et adoptione Liviorum Juliorumque clarissimæ.  Primum ei matrimonium et liberi fuere cum Tiberio Nerone qui, bello Perusino profugus, pace inter Sex. Pompejum ac triumviros pacta, in Urbem rediit.  Exim Cæsar cupidine formæ aufert marito, incertum an invitam, adeo properus ut ne spatio quidem ad enitendum dato penatibus suis gravidam induxerit.  Nullam posthac subolem edidit sed sanguini Augusti per conjunctionem Agrippinæ et Germanici annexa communes pronepotes habuit.  Sanctitate domus priscum ad morem, comis ultra quam antiquis feminis probatum, mater impotens, uxor facilis et cum artibus mariti, simulatione filii bene composita.  Funus ejus modicum, testamentum diu irritum fuit.  Laudata est pro rostris a G. Cæsare pronepote qui mox rerum potitus est.

[5.1]  In the consulship of Rubellius and Fufius {a.D. 29}, both of whom had the surname Geminus, Julia Augusta met her death in extreme old age, a woman of he most brilliant nobility through her Claudian family and by adoption into the Livii and Julii.  Her first marriage, by which she had children, was with Tiberius {Claudius} Nero, who, an exile during the Perusine war, returned to Rome when peace had been concluded between Sextus Pompejus and the triumvirs.  After this Cæsar {Augustus}, enamoured of her beauty, took her away from her husband (her unwillingness being uncertain) — and so swiftly that he allowed not even an interval for childbirth, installing here at his own hearth while she was still heavily pregnant.  She had no subsequent progeny, but allied as she was through the marriage of Agrippina and Germanicus to the blood of Augustus, her great-grandchildren were also his.  In the purity of her home life she was of the ancient type, but was affable beyond what females of antiquity approved;  an overbearing mother, a complaisant wife, and a good match for the qualities of her husband and the hypocrisy of her son {Tiberius}.  Her funeral was modest, and her will long remained unratified.  Her panegyric was pronounced from the Rostra by her great-grandson, Gajus {Caligula} Cæsar, who later succeeded to power.

[5.2]  At Tiberius, quod supremis in matrem officiis defuisset, nihil mutata amœnitate vitæ, magnitudinem negotiorum per litteras excusavit, honoresque memoriæ ejus ab Senatu large decretos quasi per modestiam imminuit, paucis admodum receptis, et addito ne cælestis religio decerneretur :  sic ipsam maluisse.  Quin et parte ejusdem epistulæ increpuit amicitias muliebres, Fufium consulem oblique perstringens.  Is gratia Augustæ floruerat, aptus alliciendis feminarum animis, dicax idem et Tiberium acerbis facetiis irridere solitus, quarum apud præpotentes in longum memoria est.

[5.2]  Tiberius however, because he had been absent at the final duties to his mother, gave by letter the excuse of the enormous amount of business (though without changing his hedonistic lifestyle), and as if through modesty reduced the honors decreed so lavishly to her memory by the Senate, retaining just a few and adding that no heavenly cult be decreed for her:  such had been her own preference.  And furthermore in part of he same missive he berated her womanly friendships, a glancing blow at the consul Fufius.  (The latter had flourished by Augusta’s favor, adept as he was at attracting female sympathy, while being at the same time glib and accustomed to deride Tiberious in acerbic witticisms, for which the powerful have a long memory.)

[5.3]  Ceterum ex eo prærupta jam et urgens dominatio.  Nam incolumi Augusta erat adhuc perfugium, quia Tiberio inveteratum erga matrem obsequium, neque Sejanus audebat auctoritati parentis antire ;  tunc velut frenis exsoluti proruperunt, missæque in Agrippinam ac Neronem litteræ quas pridem allatas et cohibitas ab Augusta credidit vulgus ;  haud enim multum post mortem ejus recitatæ sunt.  Verba inerant quæsita asperitate, sed non arma, non rerum novarum studium, amores juvenum et impudicitiam nepoti objectabat.  In nurum ne id quidem confingere ausus, arrogantiam oris et contumacem animum incusavit, magno Senatus pavore ac silentio, donec pauci quis nulla ex honesto spes (et publica mala singulis in occasionem gratiæ trahuntur) ut referretur postulavere, promptissimo Cotta Messalino, cum atroci sententia.  Sed aliis a primoribus, maximeque a magistratibus, trepidabatur :  quippe Tiberius, etsi infense invectus, cetera ambigua reliquerat.

[5.3]  This at all events was the beginning of an unmitigated and grinding despotism.  As long indeed as Augusta lived, there yet remained a refuge, for with Tiberius obedience to his mother was the habit of a life, and Sejanus did not dare to supersede a parent’s authority.  Now, as if freed from the reins, they let loose their fury.  A letter was sent, directed against Agrippina and Nero, which was popularly believed to have been long before forwarded and to have been kept back by Augusta, as it was publicly read soon after her death.  It contained expressions of studied harshness, yet it was not armed rebellion or a longing for revolution, but sex with young men and immorality which the emperor imputed to his grandson.  Against his daughter-in-law he did not dare to invent this much;  he merely censured her insolent tongue and defiant spirit, amid the panic-stricken silence of the Senate, till a few who had nothing to hope for from honorableness (and public misfortunes are interpreted by individuals as an opportunity for seeking favor) demanded that a motion be put, Cotta Messalinus being the readiest with a savage proposal.  Still, the other principal senators, and especially the magistrates, were in trepidation, for Tiberius, notwithstanding the ferocity of his invective, had left everything else ambiguous.

[5.4]  Fuit in Senatu Junius Rusticus, componendis patrum actis delectus a Cæsare, eoque meditationes ejus introspicere creditus.  Is fatali quodam motu (neque enim ante specimen constantiæ dederat) seu prava sollertia, dum imminentium oblitus incerta pavet, inserere se dubitantibus ac monere consules ne relationem inciperent ;  disserebatque brevibus momentis summa verti :  posse quandoque domus Germanici fatum pænitentiæ esse seni.  Simul populus effigies Agrippinæ ac Neronis gerens circumsistit curiam, faustisque in Cæsarem ominibus, falsas litteras et principe invito exitium domui ejus intendi clamitat.

Ita nihil triste illo die patratum.  Ferebantur etiam sub nominibus consularium fictæ in Sejanum sententiæ — exercentibus plerisque per occultum atque eo procacius libidinem ingeniorum.  Unde illi ira violentior et materies criminandi :  spretum dolorem principis ab Senatu, descivisse populum ;  audiri jam et legi novas contiones, nova patrum consulta :  ¿ quid reliquum nisi ut caperent ferrum et, quorum imagines pro vexillis secuti forent, duces imperatoresque deligerent ?

[5.4]  There was in the Senate one Junius Rusticus who, having been appointed by the emperor for registering the Senators’ proceedings, was therefore believed to have insight into his thinking.  This man, whether through some lethal emotion (he had indeed never before given any evidence of courage) or by a misguided shrewdness (inasmuch as he was panicked by the uncertainty but forgot the inevitable), aligned himself with the hesitant and warned the consuls not to instigate a motion.  He argued that the most important matters were decided by minor movements, and that the fall of the house of Germanicus might one day be a source of regret to the old man.  At the same moment the people, bearing the images of Agrippina and Nero, thronged round the Senate building and, with propitious prophecies for Cæsar, kept shouting that the letter was a forgery and that the emperor did not wish extermination to be aimed at his family.

And so no grim deed was done that day.  Fictitious speeches too against Sejanus were published under the names of ex-consuls, as many people — anonymously and thus all the more provocatively — gave vent to their innate passion.  Hence his more violent anger, and material for his allegations that the emperor’s pain had been spurned by the Senate, and that the people had defected:  strange new public meetings already had audiences, strange new Senators’ decisions had readers:  What remained but to take up the sword and chose for their generals and emperors those whose images they had followed as standards?

[5.5]  Igitur Cæsar, repetitis adversum nepotem et nurum probris, increpitaque per edictum plebe, questus apud patres quod fraude unius Senatoris imperatoria majestas elusa publice foret, integra tamen sibi cuncta postulavit.  Nec ultra deliberatum quominus non quidem extrema decernerent (id enim vetitum), sed paratos ad ultionem vi principis impediri testarentur .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

[5.5]  Upon this the emperor, after repeating his invectives against his grandson and his daughter-in-law and reprimanding the populace in an edict, complained to the Senate that by the duplicity of one senator his imperial sovereignty had been publicly flouted, and he nevertheless demanded that everything be left undecided for himself.  There was no further debate — not that they decreed the extreme penalty (that was forbidden), but they testified that, though prepared for vegeance, they were being hampered by the authority of the emperor .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .