tus could not help him; and
he went off, apparently quite out of favor, to seven years
of voluntary exile in Rhodes, there to don the robe of a
philosopher, and study philosophy and "astrology," as they say.
Let us put it, the Esoteric Wisdom; I think we may.

The truth about Julia could not be kept from Augustus forever.
It came to his ears at last; when his work was by so much nearer
completion, and when Tiberius was by so much nearer his
illumination. The Princeps did his duty, thought it made an old
man of him: he banished Julia according to his own law. Then it
was the wronged husband who stepped in and interceded; who wrote
pleading letters to his stepfatehr, imploring him to have mercy
on the erring woman: to lighten her punishment; to let her
mother, at least, be with her in her exile. He knew well what
tales Julia had been telling her father about him; and how
Augustus had seemed to believe them; but "a courageous endurance
of personal injustice" is demanded of the disciple; and very
surely it was found in him. Rome heard of his intercession,
and sneered at him for his weak-spiritedness; as kindly
letter-writers failed not to let him know.

"Look for the flower to bloom in the silence that follows
the storm, not till then."

The flower bloomed in this case during those seven years at
Rhodes; then Tiberius was fit to return. Outer events shaped
themseves to fit inner needs and qualifications: here now at
last was the Man who was to succeed Augustus, duly and truly
prepared, worthy and well-qualified: initiated, and ready to be
named before the world Heir to the Principate. Within a few
months of each other Caius and Lucius, the hitherto supposed
successors designate, died; their brother Agrippa Postumus was
already showing signs of incipient madness. True, there
were many of the Julian line still alive and available, were
Augustus (as had been thought) bent on making Julian blood the
qualification necessary: there was Germanicus, married to
Agrippina; he the son of Drusus and Antonia, Octavia's
daughter; she the daughter of Julia, and so grand-daughter of
Augustus himself: there were these two with their several
children. But all else might wait upon the fact that Tiberius,
the real man, was now ready. The Princeps adopted him, and no
one was left to doubt who was to be the successor. The happiest
years in Tiberius's life began: he had at last the full,
unreserved, and undisguised fr