eneral ability and devotion to the interests of the empire are
undoubted. How few monarchs have been free from the stains of occasional
excesses, and that arbitrary and tyrannical character which unlimited
powers develop! Even the crimes of monsters, whom we execrate, are to be
traced to madness and intoxication, more than to natural fierceness and
wickedness. But when monarchs _do_ reign in justice, and conquer the
temptations incident to their station, like the Antonines, then our
reverence becomes profound. "Heavy is the head that wears a crown." Kings
are objects of our sympathy, as well as of our envy. Their burdens are as
heavy as their temptations are great; and frivolous or wicked princes are
almost certain to yield, like Nero or Caligula, to the evils with which
they are peculiarly surrounded.

But to return to our narrative of the leading events connected with the
reign of Tiberius, one of the ablest of all the emperors, so far as
administrative talents are concerned. After the death of Germanicus, which
was probably natural, the vengeance of the people and the court was
directed to his supposed murderer, Piso. He was arraigned and tried by the
Senate, not only for the crime of which he was accused by the family of
Germanicus, who thought himself poisoned, but for exceeding his powers as
governor of Syria, which province he continued unwisely to claim. Tiberius
abstained from all interference with the great tribunal which sat in
judgment. He even checked the flow of popular feeling. Cold and hard, he
allowed the trial to take its course, without betraying sympathy or
aversion, and acted with great impartiality. Piso found no favor from the
Senate or the emperor, and killed himself when his condemnation was
certain.

(M1062) Relieved by the death of Germanicus and Piso, Tiberius began to
reign more despotically, and incurred the hatred of the people, to which
he was apparently insensible. He was greatly influenced by his mother,
Livia, an artful and ambitious princess, and by Sejanus, his favorite, a
man of rare energy and ability, who was prefect of the praetorian guards.
This office, unknown to the republic, became the most important and
influential under the emperors. The prefect was virtually the vizier, or
prime minister, since it was his care to watch over the personal safety of
a monarch whose power rested on the military. The instruments of his
government, however, were the Senate, which he controlled e