I believe they argued that way;—­and very wisely; for Tiberius still carries the odium of the murder of Agrippa Postumus.

Why did he allow himself to be dissuaded from the public investigation?  Was it weakness?  His perturbation when he heard of the murder, and his orders for the investigation, were natural enough.  One can perhaps understand Livia, shaken with the grief of her great bereavement, fearing the unknown, fearing scandal, fearing to take issue with the faction whose strength and bitterness she knew, pleading with her son to let the matter be.  Was it weakness on his part, that he concurred?  This much must be allowed:  Tiberius was always weak at self-defense.  Had he taken prompt steps against his personal enemies, it might have been much better for him, in a way.  But then and always his eyes were upon the performance of his duty; which he understood to be the care of the empire, not the defense of himself.  We called Augustus the bridge; Tiberius was the shield.  He understood the business of a shield to be, to take shafts, and make no noise about it.  Proud he was; with that sublime pride that argues itself capable of standing all things, so that the thing it cares for—­which is not its own reputation—­is unhurt.  You shall see.  We might call it unwisdom, if his work had suffered by it; but it was only his peace, his own name—­and eventually his enemies—­ that suffered.  He brought the world through.

Detail by detail, Mr. Baring-Gould takes the incidents of his reign, and show how the plot was worked up against him, and every happening, all his deeds and motives, colorless or finely colored, given a coat of pitch.  We can only glance at one or two points here:  his relations with Germanicus, and with Agrippina; the rise and fall of Sejanus.

Germanicus, his nephew, was fighting on the Rhine when Tiberius came to the throne.  There was a mutiny; which Germanicus quelled with much loss of dignity and then with much bloodshed.  To cover the loss of dignity, he embarked on gay adventures against the Germans; and played the fool a little, losing some few battles.  Tiberius, who understood German affairs better than any man living, wanted peace in that quarter; and recalled Germanicus; then, lest there should be any flavor of disgrace in the recall, sent him on a mission to the East.  Your textbooks will tell you he recalled him through jealousy of his brilliant exploits.  Germanicus being something flighty of disposition, the emperor sent with him on his new mission a rough old fellow by the name of Calpurnius Piso to keep a weather eye open on him, and neutralize, as far as might be, extravagant actions.  The choice, it must be said, was a bad one; for the two fought like cat and dog the better part of the time.  Then Germanicus died, supposing that Piso had poisoned him; and Agrippina his wife came home, an Ate shrieking for revenge.  She had exposed her husband’s naked body in the