Mr. Matthew Arnold thus describes
him:
_Cruel, but composed and bland,
Dumb, inscrutable and grand;
So Tiberius might have sat,
Had Tiberius been a cat._
And these verses express the popular belief, with great felicity: I must
leave my readers, to make their own final judgment for themselves. Whether
Tacitus will have helped them to a decision, I cannot guess: he seems to
me, to deepen the mystery of Tiberius. At a first reading, and upon the
surface, he is hostile to the Emperor; there is no doubt, that he himself
remained hostile, and that he wished his readers to take away a very bad
impression: but, as we become familiar with his pages, as we ponder his
words and compare his utterances, we begin to suspect our previous
judgment; another impression steals upon us, and a second, and a third,
until there grows imperceptibly within us a vision of something different.
Out of these dim and floating visions, a clearer image is gradually
formed, with lineaments and features; and, at length, a new Tiberius is
created within our minds: just as we may have seen a portrait emerge under
the artist's hand, from the intricate and scattered lines upon an easel.
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