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35

(1887) [MARC] Author: Viktor Rydberg Translator: Alfred Corning Clark With: Hans Anton Westesson Lindehn
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THE ROMAN EMPERORS I.V MARBLE. 35
quietly put into practice in the exploits, too, of Tiberius.
They sprang from the same roots as his crimes. His
leading virtue as commander, was prudence sharpened by
mistrust; but before the enemy the inclination to mis-
trust is very nearly the same as the power to foresee.
Tiberius, who theorized upon all menacing possibilities
on the enemy’s side and suspected all possibilities of
negligence and weakness in his own subordinates, took
his precautions on both sides, and conquered by silent,
perseverant fighting, without making much sensation
and without awakening enthusiasm. Besides Augustus,
Vellejus Paterculus, his sub-commander was perhaps the
only one who fully appreciated his greatness as leader of
an army. His whole life became afterwards a campaign
in secret. Whether he were in Rome or on Capri, the
primeval woods of Germany, with barricades, ambushes
and lurking spearsmen, stood constantly before his sight
;
but the woods were now colonnades, and the German cloak
of skins had given way to the toga, the ambush to flattery.
A dash of contempt for humanity is common in petty
souls—is the unconscious reflection of themselves—but
to be thorough, contempt for mankind presupposes a
deep nature. It is like the parasite that flourishes on a
tree full of sap. He who has wnthin him no room for a
human ideal to compare with his " sensually rational"
self, and with the others who move round him, and who
is not deeply agitated by the result of the comparison,
neither sinks into a despiser of men, nor rises to be a
saint. Tiberius had affluent gifts not alone in the mat-
ters of intellect and strength of will. His sense of justice
was from the beginning strong, his zeal to defend the
helpless, ardent. Often he came into the judgment halh
sat down in a corner of the room, not to force the praetor

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