This was
the issue of the affair: by it, Piso lost no renown; and it signally
increased the credit of Tiberius. The power, however, of Urgulania was so
exorbitant to the State, that she disdained to appear a witness in a
certain cause before the Senate: and, when it had been always usual even
for the Vestal Virgins to attend the Forum and Courts of Justice, as oft
as their evidence was required; a Praetor was sent to examine Urgulania at
her own house.
The procrastination which happened this year in the public affairs, I
should not mention, but that the different opinions of Cneius Piso and
Asinius Gallus about it, are worth knowing. Their dispute was occasioned
by a declaration of Tiberius; "that he was about to be absent," and it was
the motion of Piso, "that for that very reason, the prosecution of public
business was the rather to be continued; since, as in the Prince's
absence, the Senate and equestrian order might administer their several
parts, the same would redound to the honour of the Commonwealth." This was
a declaration for liberty, and in it Piso had prevented Gallus, who now in
opposition said, "that nothing sufficiently illustrious, nor suiting the
dignity of the Roman People, could be transacted but under the immediate
eye of the Emperor, and therefore the conflux of suitors and affairs from
Italy and the provinces must by all means be reserved for his presence.
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