A very great change which took place at the first beginning of Tiberius’ reign, was the abolition of the popular elections, and the transferring of them to the senate,—a change which after all was so completely a form, and a farce, that Tacitus hardly bestows a word upon it: it had no longer any reality; if it had, it would have been useful. The so-called people which in the days of Augustus held the _comitia_ on the Campus Martius, was the smallest and worst part of the nation; whereas the senate was the choice of it from all countries, particularly from all Italy.—Of much importance was the drawing up of a list, according to which the governments were to be given. Tiberius’ reign of twenty-three years is anything but rich in events: in the very first years only, Germanicus’ wars in Germany give it some interest. For these, however, I must altogether refer you to Tacitus. The wars were carried on as far as the Weser, with a very large military force: one cannot understand how such masses should have been used against tribes which had no fortified towns whatever, and therefore were utterly unable to offer any resistance; nor yet that they should have produced no effect. The Germans could not stand their ground in the open field; and so they fled into the woods and impassable parts of the country. It is moreover strange that the Romans make here the same mistake over and over again: they try to overawe the enemy by striking a great blow in the interior, and thus they hope to subdue them; then they build some military roads with bridges over the marshes in Overyssel, in Lower Münster, and on the Lippe. The only means would have been slowly to advance; but this perhaps did not seem to them worth the trouble, and they might thus have only got the country as a waste. We (Germans) may, however, thank Heaven that Tiberius from jealousy called back Germanicus after his last brilliant achievements. He seems not to have had much desire to conquer Germany: shrinking from great undertakings, he merely tried to maintain the frontiers. The tactics of the Germans show that it is most absurd to look upon them as having been few in number and uncivilized; for they encountered the Romans in quite regular battles, and carried on the war with much ability. But Tiberius did all for peace, as he could not bear that generals under him should distinguish themselves; he even put up with humiliations: thus, for instance, he shut his eyes to the slight which he had had to suffer in Armenia and Parthia, even the expulsion of the king whom he had himself given to the Parthians. The historical interest of his reign is therefore entirely confined to what happened in his own family, and to affairs at home.