« Dio 57.6 | Dio 57.7 | Dio 57.8 | About This Work »
7Now when no further news of any rebellious moves came and the whole Roman world had acquiesced securely in his leadership, Tiberius accepted the rule without further dissimulation, and exercised it, so long as Germanicus lived, in the way I am about to describe. 2He did little or nothing on his own responsibility, but brought all matters, even the slightest, before the senate and communicated them to that body. In the Forum a tribunal had been erected on which he sat in public to dispense justice, and he always associated with himself advisers, after the manner of Augustus; nor did he take any step of consequence without making it known to the rest. 3After setting forth his own opinion he not only granted everyone full liberty to speak against it, but even when, as sometimes happened, others voted in opposition to him, he submitted; for he often would cast a vote himself. Drusus used to act just like the rest, now speaking first, and again after some of the others. 4As for Tiberius, he would sometimes remain silent and sometimes give his opinion first, or after a few others, or even last; in some cases he would speak his mind directly, but generally, in order to avoid appearing to take away their freedom of speech, he would say: “If I had been giving my views, I should have proposed this or that.” 5This method was just as effective as the other and yet the rest were not thereby prevented from stating their views. On the contrary, he would frequently express one opinion and those who followed would prefer something different, and sometimes they actually prevailed; yet for all that he harboured anger against no one. 6He held court himself, as I have stated, but he also attended the courts presided over by the magistrates, not alone when invited by them, but also when not invited. He would allow them to sit in their regular places, while he himself took his seat on the bench facing them and as an assessor made any remarks that seemed good to him.
« Dio 57.6 | Dio 57.7 | Dio 57.8 | About This Work »