|
Sunday, July 18, 2010 - 8:20 PM
The crowd replied that they had delivered their instructions to
Clemens, one of the centurions, which he was to convey
to Rome. He began
to speak of the soldiers' discharge after sixteen
years, of the rewards
of completed service, of the daily pay being a
denarius, and of the veterans
not being detained under a standard. When Drusus
pleaded in answer reference
to the Senate and to his father, he was interrupted by
a tumultuous shout.
"Why had he come, neither to increase the soldiers'
pay, nor to alleviate
their hardships, in a word, with no power to better
their lot? Yet heaven
knew that all were allowed to scourge and to execute.
Tiberius used formerly
in the name of Augustus to frustrate the wishes of the
legions, and the
same tricks were now revived by Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire. Was it only
sons who were to visit
them? Certainly, it was a new thing for the emperor to
refer to the Senate
merely what concerned the soldier's interests. Was
then the same Senate
to be consulted whenever notice was given of an
execution or of a battle?
Were their rewards to be at the discretion of absolute
rulers, their punishments
to be without appeal?"
At last they deserted the general's tribunal,
and to any praetorian
soldier or friend of Caesar's who met them, they used
those threatening
gestures which are the cause of strife and the
beginning of a conflict,
with special rage against Cneius Lentulus, because
they thought that he
above all others, by his age and warlike renown,
encouraged Drusus, and
was the first to scorn such blots on military
discipline. Soon after, as
he was leaving with Drusus to betake himself in
foresight of his danger
to the winter can they surrounded him, and asked him
again and again whither
he was going; was it to the emperor or to the Senate,
there also to oppose
the interests of the legions. At the same moment they
menaced him savagely
and flung stones. And now, bleeding from a blow, and
feeling destruction
certain, he was rescued by the hurried arrival of the
throng which had
accompanied Drusus.
|
|
| << Navigate to Sunday, July 18, 2010 |
Add New Comment |