For my sons I implore her protection and yours: my son Cneius
had no share in my late management whatever it were, since, all the while,
he abode at Rome: and my son Marcus dissuaded me from returning to Syria.
Oh that, old as I am, I had yielded to him, rather than he, young as he
is, to me! Hence more passionately I pray that innocent as he is, he
suffer not in the punishment of my guilt: by a series of services for
five-and-forty years, I entreat you; by our former fellowship in the
consulship; by the memory of the deified Augustus, your father; by his
friendship to me; by mine to you, I entreat you for the life and fortune
of my unhappy son. It is the last request I shall ever make you." Of
Plancina he said nothing.
Tiberius, upon this, cleared the young man of any crime as to the civil
war: he alleged "the orders of his father, which a son could not disobey."
He likewise bewailed "that noble house, and even the grievous lot of Piso
himself, however deserved," For Plancina he pleaded with shame and guilt,
alleging the importunity of his mother; against whom more particularly the
secret murmurs of the best people waxed bitter and poignant.
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