Cneius Piso meanwhile, that he
might the sooner enter on his design, terrified the citizens of
Athens by his tumultuous approach, and then reviled them
in a bitter speech, with indirect reflections on Germanicus, who, he said,
had derogated from the honour of the Roman name in having treated with
excessive courtesy, not the people of
Athens, who
indeed had been exterminated by repeated disasters, but a miserable medley
of tribes. As for the men before him, they had been Mithridates's allies
against Sulla, allies of Antonius against the Divine Augustus. He taunted
them too with the past, with their ill-success against the Macedonians,
their violence to their own countrymen, for he had his own special grudge
against this city, because they would not spare at his intercession one
Theophilus whom the Areopagus had condemned for forgery. Then, by sailing
rapidly and by the shortest route through the
Cyclades, he overtook Germanicus at the island of
Rhodes. The prince was not ignorant of the slanders with
which he had been assailed, but his good nature was such that when a storm
arose and drove Piso on rocks, and his enemy's destruction could have
been
GERMANICUS IN THE EAST; PISO'S
HOSTILITY |
referred to chance, he sent some triremes, by the help of
which he might be rescued from danger. But this did not soften Piso's heart.
Scarcely allowing a day's interval, he left Germanicus and hastened on in
advance. When he reached
Syria and the legions, he
began, by bribery and favouritism, to encourage the lowest of the common
soldiers, removing the old centurions and the strict tribunes and assigning
their places to creatures of his own or to the vilest of the men, while he
allowed idleness in the camp, licentiousness in the towns, and the soldiers
to roam through the country and take their pleasure. He went such lengths in
demoralizing them, that he was spoken of in their vulgar talk as the father
of the legions.
Plancina too, instead of keeping herself within the
proper limits of a woman, would be present at the evolutions of the cavalry
and the manœuvres of the cohorts, and would fling insulting remarks at
Agrippina and Germanicus. Some even of the good soldiers were inclined to a
corrupt compliance, as a whispered rumour gained ground that the emperor was
not averse to these proceedings. Of all this Germanicus was aware, but his
most pressing anxiety was to be first in reaching
Armenia.