pirit him away to the Rhine, and have him
there proclaimed as against Tiberius by the legions. One Clemens
was deputed to do this; but when Clemens reached Planasia, he
found Agrippa murdered. Says Suetonius:

"It remained doubtful whether Augustus left the order (for the
murder) in his last moments, to prevent any public disturbance
after his death; or whether Livia issued it in the name of
Augustus, or whether it was issued with or without the knowledge
of Tiberius."--Tacitus in the right,--though truly this Agrippa
Postumus was a peculiarly violent offensive idiot, and Augustus
knew well what the anti-Claudian faction was capable of. Nor can
one credit that gracious lady Livia with it; though it was she
who persuaded Tiberius to hush the thing up, and rescind his
order for a public senatorial investigation. For an order to
that effect he issued; and Tacitus, _more suo,_ puts it down to
his hypocrisy. Tacitus' method with Tiberius is this: all his
acts of mercy are to be attributed to weak-spiritedness; all his
acts of justice, to blood-tyranny; everything else to hypocrisy
and dissimulation.

Neither Augustus, nor yet Livia, then, had Agrippa killed; must
we credit it to Tiberius? Less probably, I think, it was he than
either of the others: I can just imagine Augustus taking the
responsibility for the sake of Rome, but not Tiberius criminal
for his own sake. Here is an explanation which incriminates
neither: it may seem far-fetched; but then many true things do.
We know how the children of darkness hate the Messengers of
Light. Tiberius stood for private and public morality; the
Julian-republican clique for the opposite. He stood for the
nations welded into one, the centuries to be, and the high
purposes of the Law. They stood for anarchy, civil war, and the
old spoils system.--Down him then! said they. And how?--Fish up
mad Postumus, and let's have a row with the Legions of the
Rhine.--Yes; that sounds pretty--for you who are not in the deep
know of the thing. But how far do you think the Legions of the
Rhine are going to support this young revolting-habited madman
against the first general of the age? You are green; you are
crude, my friends;--but go to it; your plot shall do well. But
we, the cream and innermost of the party,--we have another. Let
the madman be murdered,--and who shall be called the murderer?

I believe they argued that way;--and very wisely; for Tiberius
still carries the o