[13.1]  Prima novo principatu mors Junii Silani proconsulis Asiæ ignaro Nerone per dolum Agrippinæ paratur, non quia ingenii violentia exitium irritaverat — segnis et dominationibus aliis fastiditus, adeo ut C. Cæsar “pecudem auream” eum appellare solitus sit —, verum Agrippina, fratri ejus L. Silano necem molita, ultorem metuebat, crebra vulgi fama, anteponendum esse vixdum pueritiam egresso Neroni, et imperium per scelus adepto, virum ætate composita, insontem, nobilem et, quod tunc spectaretur, e Cæsarum posteris (quippe et Silanus divi Augusti abnepos erat).  Hæc causa necis.  Ministri fuere P. Celerius, eques Romanus, et Helius libertus, rei familiari principis in Asia impositi.  Ab his proconsuli venenum inter epulas datum est, apertius quam ut fallerent.  Nec minus properato Narcissus, Claudii libertus (de cujus jurgiis adversus Agrippinam rettuli), aspera custodia et necessitate extrema ad mortem agitur, invito principe, cujus abditis adhuc vitiis per avaritiam ac prodigentiam mire congruebat.

[13.1]  The first death under the new emperor {(a.D. 54)}, that of Junius Silanus, proconsul of Asia, was engineered by the treachery of Agrippina without Nero’s knowledge.  Not that Silanus had provoked destruction by any violence of temper, apathetic as he was, and so utterly despised under the other despotisms, that Gajus Cæsar {Caligula} used to call him the “golden sheep.”  The truth was that Agrippina, having contrived the murder of his brother Lucius Silanus, feared his vengeance, given the ongoing popular talk that he ought to be preferred over Nero, who was scarcely out of his boyhood and had gained the empire by crime, to a man of mature age {(40)}, innocent, of noble birth, and, as a point then much regarded, of the line of the Cæsars.  (Silanus in fact was a great-great-grandson of the deified Augustus.)  This was the reason for his murder.  The perpetrators were Publius Celerius, a Roman knight, and Helius, a freedman, men in charge of the emperor’s private purse in Asia.  They gave the proconsul poison at a banquet, too openly to escape discovery.  With no less a hurry Narcissus, Claudius’ freedman (whose quarrels with Agrippina I have mentioned), was driven to suicide by his harsh imprisonment and the ultimate in compulsion, even against the wishes of Nero, with whose yet concealed vices he was marvelously in accord through his avarice and extravagance.

[13.2]  Ibaturque in cædes, nisi Afranius Burrus et Annæus Seneca obviam issent.  Hi rectores imperatoriæ juventæ et — rarum in societate potentiæ — concordes, diversa arte ex æquo pollebant, Burrus militaribus curis et severitate morum, Seneca præceptis eloquentiæ et comitate honesta, juvantes invicem, quo facilius lubricam principis ætatem, si virtutem aspernaretur, voluptatibus concessis retinerent.  Certamen utrique unum erat contra ferociam Agrippinæ quæ, cunctis malæ dominationis cupidinibus flagrans, habebat in partibus Pallantem, quo auctore Claudius nuptiis incestis et adoptione exitiosa semet perverterat.

Sed neque Neroni infra servos ingenium, et Pallas, tristi arrogantia modum liberti egressus, tædium sui moverat.  Propalam tamen omnes in eam honores cumulabantur, signumque, more militiæ petenti tribuno, dedit “Optimæ matris.”  Decreti et a Senatu duo lictores, flamonium Claudiale, simul Claudio censorium funus et mox consecratio.

[13.2]  And the situation would have degenerated into a slaughterhouse had not Afranius Burrus and Annæus Seneca blocked it.  These mentors of the emperor’s youth and — rare in shared power — cooperators were by different approaches equally effective.  Burrus, with his military concerns and strict comportment, Seneca, with his teaching of oratory and his dignified affability, each helped the other to confine the slippery paths of the emperor’s age to permissible pleasures if he spurned virtue.  The one struggle for both was that against the wildness of Agrippina who, afire with all the urges of an evil dictatorship, had Pallas on her side, at whose suggestion Claudius had caused his own destruction through his incestuous marriage and his lethal adoption of a son.

But Nero’s character was not one to submit to {(former)} slaves either, and Pallas, exceeding a freedman’s bounds with his surly arrogance, had made himself disliked.  Publicly, however, every honor was heaped on Agrippina;  and to a tribune who, following military practice, asked for the watchword, Nero gave “Best Mother.”  The Senate also decreed her the priesthood for Claudius, plus two lictors, along with a censor’s funeral for the late emperor, and later his deification.

[13.3]  Die funeris laudationem ejus princeps exorsus est, dum antiquitatem generis, consulatus ac triumphos majorem enumerabat, intentus ipse et ceteri ;  liberalium quoque artium commemoratio et nihil, regente eo, triste Rei Publicæ ab externis accidisse, pronis animis audita :  postquam ad providentiam sapientiamque flexit, nemo risui temperare, quanquam oratio a Seneca composita multum cultus præferret, ut fuit illi viro ingenium amœnum et temporis ejus auribus accommodatum.

Annotabant seniores, quibus otiosum est vetera et præsentia contendere, primum ex eis qui rerum potiti essent, Neronem alienæ facundiæ eguisse.  Nam dictator Cæsar summis oratoribus æmulus ;  et Augusto prompta ac profluens quæ deceret principem eloquentia fuit.  Tiberius artem quoque callebat, qua verba expendĕret, tum validus sensibus aut consulto ambiguus.  Etiam C. Cæsaris turbata mens vim dicendi non corrupit ;  nec in Claudio, quotiens meditata dissereret, elegantiam requireres.  Nero puerilibus statim annis vividum animum in alia detorsit :  cælare, pingere, cantus aut regimen equorum exercere ;  et aliquando carminibus pangendis inesse sibi elementa doctrinæ ostendebat.

[13.3]  On the day of the funeral the emperor proceeded with Claudius’ eulogy, and as long as he listed the antiquity of his family and the consulships and triumphs of his ancestors, he and everyone else remained earnest.  The recollection of his cultural studies and the fact that during his reign no disaster had befallen Rome at the hands of foreigners were heard with favor.  But when the speaker turned to his foresight and wisdom, no one refrained from laughter, even though the speech, composed by Seneca, exhibited considerable refinement, given that the latter had an attractive talent well suited to the ears of that time.

Elderly men, who spend their retirement comparing the past and the present, observed that Nero was the first emperor to have needed somebody else’s oratorical talent.  For Cæsar the dictator rivalled the greatest orators, and Augustus had the ready and fluent elocution that became a sovereign.  Tiberius too was particularly able in the art of weighing his words, on such occasions forcefully clear in his expressions or intentionally obscure.  Even Gajus Cæsar’s {(Caligula’s)} deranged mind did not interfere with his faculty of speech.  Nor even with Claudius, when he was delivering prepared speeches, would you have wanted for elegance.  Nero right from early boyhood turned his lively mind to other pursuits:  engraving, painting, practicing songs or controlling horses;  and occasionally in his composition of verses he showed that he had the rudiments of learning.

[13.4]  Ceterum, peractis tristitiæ imitamentis, Curiam ingressus et de auctoritate patrum et consensu militum præfatus, consilia sibi et exempla capessendi egregie imperii memoravit ;  neque juventam armis civilibus aut domesticis discordiis imbutam ;  nulla odia, nullas injurias nec cupidinem ultionis afferre.

Tum formam futuri principis præscripsit, ea maxime declinans, quorum recens flagrabat invidia.  « Non enim se negotiorum omnium judicem fore ut, clausis unam intra domum accusatoribus et reis, paucorum potentia grassaretur ;  nihil in penatibus suis venale aut ambitioni pervium ;  discretam domum et Rem Publicam.  Teneret antiqua munia Senatus, consulum tribunalibus Italia et publicæ provinciæ assisterent :  illi patrum aditum præberent, se mandatis exercitibus consulturum. »

[13.4]  When the charade of sorrow was over, he entered the Senate-House and, having first referred to the authority of the senators and the concurrence of the soldiery, he went over the counsels {(i.e., of Burrus & Seneca)} and examples {(i.e., Augustus)} which he had to guide him in best governing the empire.  “His boyhood,” he said, “had not had the taint of civil wars or domestic feuds, and he brought with him no hatreds, no rancor, no desire of vengeance.”

He then outlined the plan of his coming emperorship, carefully avoiding anything which had kindled recent resentment.  “He would not,” he said, “be judge in all cases, or, by confining the accuser and the accused within a single house, let the power of a few favorites grow dangerously formidable.  In his house there should be nothing venal, nothing open to influence-peddling;  his palace and the State were separate.  The Senate should retain its ancient powers {(i.e., legislation, filling the old republican offices and jurisdiction over the criminal courts)};  Italy and the public {(i.e., Senatorial)} provinces should appear before the tribunals of the consuls, who would give them access to the senators.  He himself would take charge of the armies {(i.e., “imperial” provinces)}, as specially entrusted to him.”

[13.5]  Nec defuit fides, multaque arbitrio Senatus constituta sunt :  ne quis ad causam orandam mercede aut donis emeretur, ne designatis quidem quæstoribus edendi gladiatores necessitas esset.  Quod quidem adversante Agrippina, tanquam acta Claudii subverterentur, obtinuere patres (qui in Palatium ob id vocabantur ut astaret — additis a tergo foribus, velo discreta, quod visum arceret, auditum non adimeret).  Quin et, legatis Armeniorum causam gentis apud Neronem orantibus, escendere suggestum imperatoris et præsidere simul parabat nisi, ceteris pavore defixis, Seneca admonuisset venienti matri occurrere.  Ita specie pietatis obviam itum dedecori.

[13.5]  He was true to his word, and many things were settled on the Senate’s authority.  No one was to receive a fee or gift for pleading a cause;  the quæstors-elect were also not to be under the necessity of exhibiting gladiatorial shows.  This was opposed by Agrippina, allegedly as a reversal of the legislation of Claudius, but it was carried by the senators (who kept being summoned to the palace for the express purpose of letting her attend — at a doorway added in the back, separated by a curtain which blocked sight but did not stop her hearing).  Once when envoys from Armenia were pleading their nation’s cause before Nero, she was actually getting ready and would have mounted the emperor’s dais to preside with him had not Seneca — when every one else was paralysed with fear — warned him to go and meet his mother.  Thus, by an apparently dutiful act, a scandalous scene was prevented.

[13.6]  Fine anni turbidis rumoribus prorupisse rursum Parthos et rapi Armeniam allatum est, pulso Radamisto qui, sæpe regni ejus potitus, dein profugus, tum quoque bellum deseruerat.  Igitur in Urbe sermonum avida, quemadmodum princeps, vix septendecim annos egressus, suscipere eam molem aut propulsare posset, quod subsidium in eo qui a femina regeretur — num prœlia quoque et oppugnationes urbium et cetera belli per magistros administrari possent —, anquirebant.  Contra alii melius evenisse disserunt, quam si invalidus senecta et ignavia Claudius militiæ ad labores vocaretur, servilibus jussis obtemperaturus.  Burrum tamen et Senecam multa rerum experientia cognitos ;  et ¿ imperatori quantum ad robur deesse, quum octavo decimo ætatis anno Cn. Pompejus, nono decimo Cæsar Octavianus civilia bella sustinuerint ?  Pleraque in summa fortuna auspiciis et consiliis quam telis et manibus geri.  Daturum plane documentum, honestis an secus amicis uteretur, si ducem amota invidia egregium quam si pecuniosum et gratia subnixum per ambitum deligeret.

[13.6]  With the close of the year came disquieting rumors that the Parthians had again invaded and were ravaging Armenia, from which they had driven Rhadamistus, who, having often possessed himself of the kingdom and as often been thrust out of it, had now given up hostilities.  Thus in a gossip-hungry City, they began to ask how a prince scarcely past seventeen was to withstand or repel this massive force, what stamina there could be in one who was ruled by a woman;  or whether battles and sieges and the other operations of war could be directed by tutors.  “Some, on the contrary, argued that this was better than it would have been had Claudius, feeble with age and cowardly, been called to the struggles of war, and would be obeying the commands of slaves.  Still, Burrus and Seneca were known to be men of very varied experience and, as for the emperor himself, how much strength could he be lacking, when Cnæus Pompejus at eighteen, and Cæsar Octavianus at nineteen, had sustained the burden of civil wars?  At the highest level, more was achieved by divine favor and by strategic planning than by weapons and hands.  He would give plain proof of whether he was availing himself of honorable friends or otherwise if, dropping any resentments, he were to choose an eminent leader than one who was moneyed and supported by favor gained through influence-peddling.”

[13.7]  Hæc atque talia vulgantibus, Nero et juventutem proximas per provincias quæsitam supplendis Orientis legionibus admovere legionesque ipsas propius Armeniam collocari jubet, duosque veteres reges, Agrippam et Antiochum, expedire copias quis Parthorum fines ultro intrarent, simul pontes per amnem Euphraten jungi ;  et Minorem Armeniam Aristobulo, regionem Sophenen Sohæmo cum insignibus regiis mandat.  Exortusque in tempore æmulus Vologæso — filius Vardanes ;  et abscessere Armenia Parthi, tanquam differrent bellum.

[13.7]  Amidst this and like popular talk, Nero ordered the young recruits levied in the adjacent provinces to be moved forward to bring the legions of the East up to strength, and the legions themselves to be stationed closer to Armenia, and two veteran kings, Agrippa and Antiochus, to prepare a force for entering Parthian territories, while, simultaneously, bridges were to be built across the Euphrates river;  and, together with royal insignia, he entrusted Lesser Armenia to Aristobulus, the Sophene region to Sohæmus.  Just in time a rival to Vologæses arose — his own son, Vardanes ;  and the Parthians left Armenia, apparently intending to defer hostilities.

[13.8]  Sed apud Senatum omnia in majus celebrata sunt, sententiis eorum qui supplicationes et diebus supplicationum vestem principi triumphalem, utque ovans Urbem iniret, effigiemque ejus — pari magnitudine ac Martis Ultoris — eodem in templo censuere, præter suetam adulationem læti, quod Domitium Corbulonem retinendæ Armeniæ præposuerat, videbaturque locus virtutibus patefactus.

Copiæ Orientis ita dividuntur, ut pars auxiliarium cum duabus legionibus apud provinciam Syriam et legatum ejus, Quadratum Ummidium, remaneret, par civium sociorumque numerus Corbuloni esset, additis cohortibus alisque quæ in Cappadocia hiemabant.  Socii reges, prout bello conduceret, parere jussi ;  sed studia eorum in Corbulonem promptiora erant.  Qui, ut famæ instaret (quæ in novis cœptis validissima est), itinere propere confecto, apud Ægeas, civitatem Ciliciæ, obvium Quadratum habuit — illuc progressum ne, si ad accipiendas copias Syriam intravisset Corbulo, omnium ora in se verteret, corpore ingens, verbis magnificis et super experientiam sapientiamque etiam specie inanium validus.

[13.8]  All this, however, was celebrated exaggeratedly in the Senate in the speeches of those members who proposed a public thanksgiving and that on the days of the thanksgiving the emperor should wear a triumphal robe and enter Rome in ovation, and that he should have a statue of the same size as that of Mars the Avenger — and in the same temple.  Besides their customary sycophancy they were happy that he had appointed Domitius Corbulo to secure Armenia, and it seemed that an opening had been made for merit.

The forces of the East were divided so that half the auxiliaries with two legions were to remain in the province of Syria under its governor, Quadratus Ummidius, while Corbulo was to have an equal number of citizen and allied troops, plus the cohorts and cavalry wings wintering in Cappadocia.  The allied kings were instructed to obey orders according as the war might require.  But their enthusiasm was greater for Corbulo.  That general, in order to take advantage of his reputation (which is extremely important in new enterprises), arriving after a rapid march at Ægeæ, a city of Cilicia, was confronted by Quadratus who had advanced there fearing that, if Corbulo entered Syria to take command of his forces, he would attract everyone’s attention with his large physique, his imposing eloquence and — above and beyond his experience and intelligence — the fact that he was impressive even in unimportant details.

[13.9]  Ceterum uterque ad Vologæsen regem nuntiis monebant, pacem quam bellum mallet, datisque obsidibus solitam prioribus reverentiam in populum Romanum continuaret.  Et Vologæses, quo bellum ex commodo pararet, an ut æmulationis suspectos per nomen “obsidum” amoveret, tradit nobilissimos ex familia Arsacidarum.  Accepitque eos centurio Instejus, ab Ummidio missus forte prior, ea de causa adito rege.  Quod postquam Corbuloni cognitum est, ire præfectum cohortis Arrium Varum et reciperare obsides jubet.  Hinc ortum inter præfectum et centurionem jurgium ne diutius externis spectaculo esset, arbitrium rei obsidibus legatisque qui eos ducebant permissum.  Atque illi recentem gloria — et inclinatione quadam etiam hostium — Corbulonem prætulere.  Unde discordia inter duces, querente Ummidio prærepta quæ suis consiliis patravisset, testante contra Corbulone non prius conversum regem ad offerendos obsides, quam ipse dux bello delectus spes ejus ad metum mutaret.  Nero quo componeret diversos, sic evulgari jussit :  « ob res a Quadrato et Corbulone prospere gestas laurum fascibus imperatoris addi. »  (Quæ in alios consules egressa conjunxi.)

[13.9]  In what followed, both sent messages to king Vologæses, warning him to choose peace rather than war and by surrendering hostages to maintain the traditional deference of his ancestors towards the people of Rome.  Vologæses, in order to prepare for war at his own convenience, or to rid himself of suspected rivals under the name of hostages, handed over some of the noblest of the Arsacids.  A centurion, Instejus, who had by chance been sent earler by Ummidius, having approached the king on this matter, accepted them.  On learning this, Corbulo ordered Arrius Varus, prefect of a cohort, to go and recover the hostages.  Out of this a quarrel arose between the prefect and the centurion, and to avoid letting it become a prolonged scene before foreigners, the decision of the matter was left to the hostages and the legates conducting them.  As it turned out, they preferred Corbulo, both for his recent renown and from a certain liking which even enemies felt for him.  The result was that discord developed between the two generals, with Ummidius complaining that he had been robbed of what his policies had achieved, while Corbulo on the other hand appealed to the fact that Vologæses had not switched to offering hostages until his own appointment to the conduct of the war turned the king’s hopes into fears.  Nero, to soothe their differences, directed the issue of a proclamation that, because of the successful achievements of Quadratus and Corbulo, laurel was to be added to the imperial fasces.  (I have here combined events extending into other consulships.)

[13.10]  Eodem anno Cæsar effigiem Cn. Domitio patri et consularia insignia Asconio Labeoni, quo tutore usus erat, petivit a Senatu ;  sibique statuas argento vel auro solidas adversus offerentes prohibuit.  Et quanquam censuissent patres, ut principium anni mense Decembri, quo ortus erat Nero, veterem religionem kalendarum Januariarum inchoando anno retinuit.  Neque recepti sunt inter reos Carrinas Celer senator, servo accusante, aut Julius Densus equester Romanus, cui favor in Britannicum crimini dabatur.

[13.10]  In the same year {(a.D. 54)} the emperor asked the Senate for a statue to his father Domitius, and also that the consular insignia might be conferred on Asconius Labeo, who had been his guardian.  Statues to himself of solid gold and silver he forbade, despite their being offered to him.  And although the Senate passed a vote that the year should begin with December, the month of Nero’s birth, he retained the old religious custom of the first of January for the beginning of the year.  And neither was the senator Carrinas Celer, accused by a slave, entered among those arraigned, nor Julius Densus, a knight, whose partiality for Britannicus was construed into a crime.

[13.11]  Claudio Nerone L. Antistio consulibus, quum in acta principum jurarent magistratus, in sua acta collegam Antistium jurare prohibuit — magnis patrum laudibus ut juvenilis animus, levium quoque rerum gloria sublatus, majores continuaret.  Secutaque lenitas in Plautium Lateranum, quem ob adulterium Messalinæ ordine demotum reddidit Senatui, clementiam suam obstringens crebris orationibus quas Seneca, testificando quam honesta præciperet, vel jactandi ingenii, voce principis vulgabat.

[13.11]  In the year of the consulship of Claudius Nero with Lucius Antistius {(a.D. 55)}, when the magistrates were swearing obedience to imperial enactments, he forbade his colleague to extend the oath to his own enactments, for which he was warmly lauded by the senators in the hope that his youthful mind, uplifted by praise just from minor things, would go on to greater ones.  And there followed an act of leniency to Plautius Lateranus who had been degraded from the Senate for adultery with Messalina, and whom he now restored to it — pledging his clemency in frequent speeches which Seneca, to demonstrate how dignified what he was teaching was, or to show off his talent, published to the world through the emperor’s mouth.

[13.12]  Ceterum infracta paulatim potentia matris, delapso Nerone in amorem libertæ cui vocabulum Acte fuit, simul assumptis in conscientiam M. Othone et Claudio Senecione, adulescentulis decoris, quorum Otho familia consulari, Senecio liberto Cæsaris patre genitus.  Ignara matre, dein frustra obnitente, penitus irrepserat per luxum et ambigua secreta, ne senioribus quidem principis amicis adversantibus — muliercula nulla cujusquam injuria cupidines principis explente — quando uxore ab Octavia, nobili quidem et probitatis spectatæ, fato quodam an quia prævalent illicita, abhorrebat ;  metuebaturque ne in stupra feminarum illustrium prorumperet si illa libidine prohiberetur.

[13.13]  Sed Agrippina “libertam æmulam,” “nurum ancillam,” aliaque eundem in modum muliebriter fremere, neque pænitentiam filii aut satietatem opperiri ;  quantoque fœdiora exprobrabat, acrius accendere, donec, vi amoris subactus, exueret obsequium in matrem, seque Senecæ permitteret, ex cujus familiaribus Annæus Serenus simulatione amoris adversus eandem libertam primas adulescentis cupidines velaverat, præbueratque nomen ut, quæ princeps furtim mulierculæ tribuebat, ille palam largiretur.  Tum Agrippina, versis artibus, per blandimenta juvenem aggredi, suum potius cubiculum ac sinum offerre — contegendis quæ prima ætas et summa fortuna expeterent.  Quin et fatebatur intempestivam severitatem, et suarum opum (quæ haud procul imperatoriis aberant) copias tradebat — ut nimia nuper coërcendo filio, ita rursum intemperanter demissa.  Quæ mutatio neque Neronem fefellit ;  et proximi amicorum metuebant orabantque cavere insidias mulieris semper atrocis, tum et falsæ.

Forte illis diebus Cæsar, inspecto ornatu quo principium conjuges ac parentes effulserant, deligit vestem et gemmas misitque donum matri — nulla parsimonia, quum præcipua, et cupita aliis, prior deferret.  Sed Agrippina non his instrui cultus suos, sed ceteris arceri proclamat, et dividere filium quæ cuncta ex ipsa haberet.

[13.13]  But Agrippina, just like a woman, kept yelling about having “a freedwoman for a rival,” “a serving maid for a daughter-in-law,” and like expressions.  Nor would she wait till her son repented or got satiated.  The more foully she reproached him, the more she inflamed him until, completely overcome by the strength of his passion, he threw off all deference to his mother and entrusted himself to Seneca, one of whose friends, Annæus Serenus, had veiled the young prince’s early lusts by pretending to be in love with the same freedwoman, and had lent his name so that what the emperor was secretly giving to the wench, he would bestow publicly.  Then Agrippina, changing her tactics, approached the youth with blandishments, offering instead her own bedroom and embraces for concealing what his young age and high fortune had to have.  She went further:  she pleaded guilty to an ill-timed strictness, and handed over to him the abundance of her wealth, which nearly approached the imperial treasures, so that, as excessive as she had recently been in restraining her son, so now she was exaggeratedly submissive to him.  The change did not deceive Nero;  his most intimate friends feared it and begged him to beware of the arts of a woman who was always on the attack and now false.

It happened during those days that the emperor, after inspecting the apparel in which the wives and mothers of the imperial house had shone, selected a bejewelled robe and sent it as a gift to his mother, sparing no expense, as, prior to being asked, he was bestowing on her the finest of presents and such as are coveted by others.  Agrippina, however, publicly declared that, so far from her wardrobe being fitted out by these gifts, she was really being barred from the remainder, and that her son was just dividing up all the things that he had from her.

[13.14]  Nec defuere qui in deterius referrent.  Et Nero infensus eis quibus superbia muliebris innitebatur, demovet Pallantem cura rerum, quis a Claudio impositus velut arbitrium regni agebat ;  ferebaturque, degrediente eo magna prosequentium multitudine, non absurde dixisse « ire Pallantem ut ejuraret ».  (Sane pepigerat Pallas, ne cujus facti in præteritum interrogaretur, paresque rationes cum Re Publica haberet.)

Præceps posthac Agrippina ruere ad terrorem et minas, neque principis auribus abstinere quominus testaretur « adultum jam esse Britannicum, veram dignamque stirpem suscipiendo patris imperio, quod insitus et adoptivus per injurias matris exerceret.  Non abnuere se, quin cuncta infelicis domus mala patefierent :  suæ imprimis nuptiæ, suum veneficium ;  id solum diis et sibi provisum, quod viveret privignus.  Ituram cum illo in castra ;  audiretur hinc Germanici filia, inde debilis Burrus et exul Seneca, trunca scilicet manu et professoria lingua generis humani regimen expostulantes. »  Simul intendere manus, aggerere probra, consecratum Claudium, infernos Silanorum manes invocare et tot irrita facinora.

[13.14]  Nor was there any lack of people who gave this a sinister turn in relating it.  And Nero, angry with those on whom this womanly arrogance was based, relieved Pallas of the responsibilty vested in him by Claudius, and in which he acted, so to say, as the ruler of the realm.  The story went that as he was departing with a large crowd of attendants, the emperor not unwittily remarked that Pallas was going to swear his resignation oath {(in Republican times :  “se nihil contra leges fecisse”)}.  (Pallas had in fact negotiated an agreement that he not be subject to an inquiry for anything he had done in the past, and that his accounts with the State be considered as balanced.)

Following this, Agrippina rushed headlong into frightening intimidation and threats, nor did she spare the emperor’s ears from her affirmation that “Britannicus was now of full age, the true and worthy heir of his father’s power, which an intruder and adoptee was wielding through his mother’s crimes.  She had no objection to an exposé of all the evils of that ill-starred house — her own marriage first of all, and her use of poison.  It was only by the providence of the gods and herself that her stepson was still alive;  she would go with him to the camp, where on one side the daughter of Germanicus would be heard, on the other, the crippled Burrus and the exile Seneca — with cut-off hand, to be sure, and a pedagogue’s tongue — laying claim to the governance of the human race!”  As she spoke, she raised her hand menacingly and heaped invective on him as she appealed to the deified Claudius, to the shades of the Silani below, and to all her unavailing crimes.

[13.15]  Turbatus his Nero, et propinquo die, quo quartum decimum ætatis annum Britannicus explebat, volutare secum modo matris violentiam, modo ipsius indolem levi quidem experimento nuper cognitam, quo tamen favorem late quæsivisset.  Festis Saturno diebus, inter alia æqualium ludicra, “regnum” lusu sortientium evenerat ea sors Neroni.  Igitur ceteris diversa, nec ruborem allatura :  ubi Britannico jussit exsurgeret, progressusque in medium cantum aliquem inciperet (irrisum ex eo sperans pueri sobrios quoque convictus — nedum temulentos — ignorantis), ille constanter exorsus est carmen quo evolutum eum sede patria rebusque summis significabatur.  Unde orta miseratio, manifestior quia dissimulationem nox et lascivia exemerat.  Nero intellecta invidia odium intendit ;  urgentibusque Agrippinæ minis, quia nullum crimen neque jubere cædem fratris palam audebat, occulta molitur pararique venenum jubet, ministro Pollione Julio, Prætoriæ cohortis tribuno, cujus cura attinebatur damnata veneficii nomine “Locusta,” multa scelerum fama.  Nam ut proximus quisque Britannico neque fas neque fidem pensi haberet, olim provisum erat.  Primum venenum ab ipsis educatoribus accepit, tramisitque exsoluta alvo — parum validum sive temperamentum inerat ne statim sæviret.  Sed Nero lenti sceleris impatiens minitari tribuno, jubere supplicium veneficæ quod, dum rumorem respiciunt, dum parant defensiones, securitatem morarentur.  Promittentibus dein tam præcipitem necem, quam si ferro urgeretur, cubiculum Cæsaris juxta decoquitur virus cognitis antea venenis rapidum.

[13.15]  Nero was disturbed at this, and as the day was near on which Britannicus would complete his fourteenth year, he reflected, now on his mother’s impetuosity, and now again on the young prince’s character, which had been recently revealed by a trifling dmonstration — one sufficient, however, to gain for him widespread goodwill.  During the feast of Saturn {(Dec. 17-23)}, amid other pastimes of his companions, among those drawing lots at the game “kingship,” the lot fell to Nero.  He then gave all the others different orders, but not ones that would cause them to blush;  but when he told Britannicus to rise, go to the center and begin a song (hoping for ridicule at the expense of a boy ignorant of sober — much less of intoxicated — parties), the lad with perfect coolness commenced some verses which hinted at his expulsion from his father’s house and from supreme power.  From this pity was aroused, all the more obvious as night and relaxation had done away with all disguise.  Nero, realizing the ill-will, intensified his hate.  Pressed by Agrippina’s threats, but with no charge and not daring to order his murder openly, he worked out a secret arrangement and ordered poison to be prepared through the agency of Pollio Julius, a tribune of a Prætorian cohort, who had in his custody a woman under sentence for poisoning, Locusta {(“Locust”)} by name, with a vast reputation for crime.  It had long ago been arranged for all those close to Britannicus to be people who held neither right nor trust to be of any value.  He actually received his first dose of poison from his tutors, but in a bowel movement excreted it, it being either somewhat weak or there being an admixture in it preventing it from immediately having lethal effect.  But Nero, impatient at such slow progress in crime, threatened the tribune and ordered the execution of the poisoner for delaying his security while they were focussed on popular opinion and planning their own defense.  They then promised that death would be as sudden as if thrust home by a sword, and a fast-acting toxin of previously proven poison was brewed adjacent to Cæsar’s bedchamber.

[13.16]  Mos habebatur principum liberos cum ceteris idem ætatis nobilibus sedentes vesci in aspectu propinquorum, propria et parciore mensa.  Illic epulante Britannico, quia cibos potusque ejus delectus ex ministris gustu explorabat, ne omitteretur institutum aut utriusque morte proderetur scelus, talis dolus repertus est.  Innoxia adhuc ac præcalida et libata gustu potio traditur Britannico ;  dein, postquam fervore aspernabatur, frigida in aqua affunditur venenum quod ita cunctos ejus artus pervasit, ut vox pariter et spiritus ejus raperentur.  Trepidatur a circumsedentibus, diffugiunt imprudentes :  at quibus altior intellectus, resistunt defixi et Neronem intuentes.  Ille ut erat reclinis et nescio similis, solitum ita ait per comitialem morbum, quo prima ab infantia afflictaretur Britannicus, et redituros paulatim visus sensusque.  At Agrippinæ is pavor, ea consternatio mentis — quamvis vultu premeretur — emicuit, ut perinde ignaram fuisse atque Octaviam, sororem Britannici, constiterit :  quippe sibi supremum auxilium ereptum et parricidii exemplum intellegebat.  Octavia quoque, quamvis rudibus annis, dolorem, caritatem — omnes affectus — abscondere didicerat.  Ita post breve silentium repetita convivii lætitia.

[13.16]  It was customary for the imperial princes to sit during their meals with other nobles of the same age, in the sight of their relatives, at a table of their own, furnished somewhat more sparingly.  There Britannicus was dining, and as what he ate and drank was always tested by the taste of a select attendant, the following strategem was contrived, that the protocol might not be omitted or the crime betrayed by the death of both.  A cup as yet harmless, but extremely hot and already tasted, was handed to Britannicus;  then, on his refusing it because of its heat, poison was poured in with some cold water, and this so pervaded his entire frame that he lost both voice and breath.  Fear gripped those seated around him;  the unwitting ones scattered, while those of deeper understanding remained transfixed, gazing at Nero who, still reclining and seemingly unaware, said that this was a common occurrence due to the epilepsy with which Britannicus had been afflicted from his earliest infancy, and that his sight and senses would gradually return.  As for Agrippina, her terror and shock, no matter how much it was suppressed in her face, flashed out so visibly that it was clear she was just as unaware as was Octavia, Britannicus’s own sister.  She was starting to recognize the fact that she had in fact been robbed of her only remaining resource, and that there was now a precedent for parricide.  Even Octavia {(12 years old)}, notwithstanding her youthful inexperience, had learnt to hide her grief, her affection, and indeed every emotion.  And so, after a brief pause, the revelry of the banquet recommenced.

[13.17]  Nox eadem necem Britannici et rogum conjunxit, proviso ante funebri paratu, qui modicus fuit.  In campo tamen Martis sepultus est, adeo turbidis imbribus, ut vulgus iram deum portendi crediderit — adversus facinus cui plerique etiam hominum ignoscebant, antiquas fratrum discordias et insociabile regnum æstimantes.  Tradunt plerique eorum temporum scriptores crebris ante exitium diebus illusum isse pueritiæ Britannici Neronem, ut jam non præmatura neque sæva mors videri queat, quamvis inter sacra mensæ, ne tempore quidem ad complexum sororum dato, ante oculos inimici properata sit in illum supremum Claudiorum sanguinem, stupro priusquam veneno pollutum.  Festinationem exsequiarum edicto Cæsar defendit, id a majoribus institutum referens, « subtrahere oculis acerba funera neque laudationibus aut pompa detinere.  Ceterum et sibi, amisso fratris auxilio, reliquas spes in Re Publica sitas, et tanto magis fovendum patribus populoque principem qui unus superesset e familia summum ad fastigium genita. »

[13.17]  One and the same night combined Britannicus’s murder and funeral, since preparations had been already made for his obsequies, which were modest.  He was, however, buried in the Campus Martius — amid storms so violent that in the popular mind they portended the wrath of heaven against a crime that even many men were inclined to forgive when they remembered the immemorial feuds of brothers and the indivisibility of power.  It is related by several writers of the period that for many days before the murder, Nero had committed sodomy against the boyhood of Britannicus, so that his death might no longer seem premature or tragic, even though — at a sacrosanct banquet without even the time to embrace his sisters, and before the eyes of his enemy — it was hastily brought about against the sole surviving blood of the Claudii, polluted first by pedophilia, then by poison.  Cæsar defended the haste of the funeral with an edict declaring that it was the practice of the ancestors to withdraw childhood funerals from view and not to prolong them with panegyrics or processions.  For himself, he said, that, having lost a brother’s help, his remaining hopes centered on the State, and the Senate and the people ought all the more to support an emperor who was the only survivor of a family born to supreme power.

[13.18]  Exim largitione potissimos amicorum auxit.  Nec defuere qui arguerent viros gravitatem asseverantes, quod domos, villas id temporis quasi prædam divisissent.  Alii necessitatem adhibitam credebant a principe sceleris sibi conscio et veniam sperante, si largitionibus validissimum quemque obstrinxisset.

At matris ira nulla munificentia leniri, sed amplecti Octaviam, crebra cum amicis secreta habere ;  super ingenitam avaritiam undique pecunias quasi in subsidium corripiens, tribunos et centuriones comiter excipere, nomina et virtutes nobilium qui etiam tum supererant, in honore habere, quasi quæreret ducem et partes.  Cognitum id Neroni, excubiasque militares, quæ ut conjugi imperatoris olim, tum ut matri servabantur, et Germanos per eundem honorem custodes additos digredi jubet.  Ac ne cœtu salutantium frequentaretur, separat domum, matremque transfert in eam quæ Antoniæ fuerat, quotiens ipse illuc ventitaret, sæptus turba centurionum et post breve osculum digrediens.

[13.18]  He then lavished liberal presents on his most powerful friends.  Nor was there any want of people criticizing those who stressed their austerity while at that same time dividing up mansions and estates like booty.  Others thought that pressure was being applied by an emperor who was conscious of his own crime and who, by using bribery to put all of the most important men {(e.g., Burrus and Seneca)} under obligation to him, hoped for their indulgence.

But his mother’s rage could not be allayed by any lavishness.  Instead she would clasp Octavia to her arms and had many a secret meeting with her friends;  quite apart from her innate rapacity, she snatched money from everywhere, seemingly for a reserve, amiably receiving tribunes and centurions and honoring the names and virtues of the nobles who still survived at that time, apparently seeking a party and a leader.  Informed of this, Nero ordered the military posts originally maintained for her as the wife, then the mother, of an emperor, and the German guards added for the same honor, to leave.  And, so that she would no longer be visited by a throng of well-wishers, he gave her a separate mansion and transferred her to what had been Antonia’s {(her grandmother’s)} house;  and whenever going there himself he would be surrounded by a group of centurions and leave after a hurried kiss.

[13.19]  Nihil rerum mortalium tam instabile ac fluxum est quam fama potentiæ non sua vi nixæ.  Statim relictum Agrippinæ limen :  nemo solari, nemo adire præter paucas feminas, amore an odio incertas.  Ex quibus erat Junia Silana (quam matrimonio C. Silii a Messalina depulsam supra rettuli), insignis genere, forma, lascivia, et Agrippinæ diu percara, mox occultis inter eas offensionibus, quia Sextium Africanum nobilem juvenem a nuptiis Silanæ deterruerat Agrippina, impudicam et vergentem annis dictitans — non ut Africanum sibi seponeret, sed ne opibus et orbitate Silanæ maritus poteretur.  Illa, spe ultionis oblata, parat accusatores ex clientibus suis Iturium et Calvisium, non vetera et sæpius jam audita deferens, quod Britannici mortem lugeret aut Octaviæ injurias evulgaret, sed destinavisse eam Rubellium Plautum — per maternam originem pari ac Nero gradu a divo Augusto — ad res novas extollere, conjugioque ejus et imperio, Rem Publicam rursus invadere.  Hæc Iturius et Calvisius Atimeto, Domitiæ Neronis amitæ liberto, aperiunt.  Qui, lætus oblatis (quippe, inter Agrippinam et Domitiam infensa æmulatio exercebatur), Paridem histrionem — libertum et ipsum Domitiæ — impulit ire propere crimenque atrociter deferre.

[13.19]  Of all things human, nothing is as precarious and fluctuating as a reputation for power unsupported by its own force.  Instantly Agrippina’s doors were deserted;  there was no one to comfort or to go near her except a few ladies, whether out of love or malice was unsure.  One of these was Junia Silana, whom Messalina had driven from her husband, Gajus Silius, as I have already related.  Conspicuous for her birth, beauty and wantonness, she had long been a special favorite of Agrippina, followed later by secret mutual dislikes, because Sextius Africanus, a noble youth, had been deterred from marrying Silana by Agrippina, who repeatedly spoke of her as a lewd woman in the decline of life — not to secure Africanus for herself, but to keep him as a husband from taking advantage of the wealth and childlessness of Silana.  Now, given the opportunity of revenge, she procured as accusers two of her clients, Iturius and Calvisius, not with the old and oft-repeated charges about Agrippina’s mourning the death of Britannicus or publishing the wrongs done to Octavia, but that she was planning to incite Rubellius Plautus (who on his mother’s side was as closely connected as Nero with the Divine Augustus) to revolution;  and then, through marriage and power with him, again seize the control of the State.  Iturius and Calvisius divulged all this to Atimetus, a freedman of Domitia, Nero’s aunt.  Exulting in the opportunity (for a bitter rivalry raged between Agrippina and Domitia), Atimetus urged Paris, an actor (himself also a freedman of Domitia), to go at once and make a vicious denunciation.

[13.20]  Provecta nox erat et Neroni per vinolentiam trahebatur, quum ingreditur Paris, solitus alioquin id temporis luxus principis intendere, sed tunc compositus ad mæstitiam, expositoque indicii ordine ita audientem exterret, ut non tantum matrem Plautumque interficere, sed Burrum etiam demovere præfectura destinaret, tanquam Agrippinæ gratia provectum et vicem reddentem.

(Fabius Rusticus auctor est scriptos esse ad Cæcinam Tuscum codicillos, mandata ei Prætoriarum cohortium cura, sed ope Senecæ dignationem Burro retentam.  Plinius et Cluvius nihil dubitatum de fide præfecti referunt.  Sane Fabius inclinat ad laudes Senecæ, cujus amicitia floruit.  Nos consensum auctorum secuturi ;  quæ diversa prodiderint sub nominibus ipsorum trademus.)

Nero trepidus et interficiendæ matris avidus non prius differri potuit quam Burrus necem ejus promitteret, si facinoris coargueretur ;  « sed cuicumque, nedum parenti, defensionem tribuendam ;  nec accusatores adesse, sed vocem unius et ex inimica domo afferri :  reputaret tenebras et vigilatam convivio noctem omniaque temeritati et inscitiæ propiora. »

[13.20]  Night was far advanced and Nero was dragging it out in drink when Paris entered, who at such times usually further enlivened the emperor’s enjoyments but now wore an expression of gloom.  Listing the charges in detail, he so frightened his listener as to make him resolve not only to kill his mother and Plautus, but also to remove Burrus from the command of the guards as a man who had been promoted by Agrippina’s interest and was now returning the favor.

(We have it on the authority of Fabius Rusticus that a note to Cæcina Tuscus was written up entrusting to him the charge of the Prætorian cohorts, but that through Seneca’s influence that dignity was retained for Burrus.  Plinius and Cluvius report nothing questionable about the prefect’s loyalty.  Fabius, of course, tends to praise Seneca, through whose friendship he rose to honor.  I shall follow the consensus of the authors where they agree;  where they differ I will transmit their accounts under their own names.)

Nero, panic-stricken and eager to kill his mother, could not be convinced to hold off until Burrus promised her death if she were convicted of the crime:  “but any one,” he said, “to say nothing of a parent, must be allowed a defense.  And there were no accusers here, only the voice of a single person {(i.e., Atimetus)} — and one from the house of an enemy;  he should remember that the darkness and a night spent in partying and all were conducive to rash and uninformed decisions .”

[13.21]  Sic lenito principis metu et luce orta itur ad Agrippinam, ut nosceret objecta, dissolveretque vel pœnas lueret.  Burrus eis mandatis Seneca coram fungebatur ;  aderant et ex libertis arbitri sermonis.  Deinde a Burro, postquam crimina et auctores exposuit, minaciter actum.  Et Agrippina ferociæ memor, “Non miror,” inquit, “Silanam nunquam edito partu matrum affectus ignotos habere ;  neque enim proinde a parentibus liberi quam ab impudica adulteri mutantur.  Nec, si Iturius et Calvisius, adesis omnibus fortunis, novissimam suscipiendæ accusationis operam anui rependunt, ideo aut mihi infamia parricidii, aut Cæsari conscientia, subeunda est.  Nam Domitiæ inimicitiis gratias agerem, si benevolentia mecum in Neronem meum certaret :  nunc per concubinum Atimetum et histrionem Paridem quasi scænæ fabulas componit.  (Bajarum suarum piscinas excolebat, quum meis consiliis adoptio et proconsulare jus et designatio consulatus et cetera apiscendo imperio præpararentur.)  Aut exsistat qui cohortes in Urbe temptatas, qui provinciarum fidem labefactatam, denique servos vel libertos ad scelus corruptos arguat.

¿ Vivere ego Britannico potiente rerum poteram ?  Ac si Plautus aut quis alius Rem Publicam judicaturus obtinuerit, desunt scilicet mihi accusatores, qui non verba impatientia caritatis aliquando incauta, sed ea crimina objiciant, quibus nisi a filio absolvi non possim.”

Commotis qui aderant, ultroque spiritus ejus mitigantibus, colloquium filii exposcit, ubi nihil pro innocentia — quasi diffideret, nec beneficiis, quasi exprobraret — disseruit, sed ultionem in delatores et præmia amicis obtinuit.

[13.21]  Having thus allayed the prince’s fears, they went at daybreak to Agrippina, that she might know the charges against her, and either rebut them or suffer the penalty.  Burrus executed these instructions in Seneca’s presence, and some of the freedmen were present to witness the interview.  Then Burrus, when he had fully explained the charges with the authors’ names, assumed an air of menace.  Instantly Agrippina, defiant as ever, exclaimed, “I am not surprised that Silana, never having given birth, knows nothing of a mother’s feelings.  Parents do not change their children the way a slut does her adulterers.  And if Iturius and Calvisius, after having wasted their whole fortunes, are now repaying the old hag with the final service of undertaking this denunciation, it does not follow that I must incur the infamy of parricide, or Cæsar the guilt thereof.  For I would be thankful for Domitia’s hostility were she to vie with me in goodwill towards my Nero.  Now, through her fornicator, Atimetus, and the actor, Paris, she is, as it were, concocting a drama for the stage.  (She was developing swimming pools on her Bajæ estates when my planning was preparing him for his adoption and his proconsular authority and his designation to the consulship and the other aspects of acquiring command.)  Alternatively, let the man come forward who can charge me with having tampered with the Prætorian cohorts in the City, with having undermined the loyalty of the provinces or, in a word, with having bribed the slaves and freedmen to commit crime.

Could I have remained alive with Britannicus in the possession of power?  And if Plautus or anyone else were to become the supreme judge of the State, there would, I suppose, be a lack of accusers to charge me not merely with a few incautious remarks prompted by the impulsiveness of affection, but with guilt from which a son alone could absolve me.”

Those present were stunned, and they even tried to soothe her agitation, but she demanded an interview with her son.  There she said nothing about her innocence (as if she were unsure) or about her services (as if she were reproaching him), but she obtained vengeance on her accusers and rewards for her friends.

[13.22]  Præfectura annonæ Fænio Rufo, cura ludorum qui a Cæsare parabantur Arruntio Stellæ, Ægyptus Claudio Balbillo permittuntur.  Syria P. Antejo destinata ;  sed variis mox artibus elusus, ad postremum in Urbe retentus est.  At Silana in exilium acta ;  Calvisius quoque et Iturius relegantur ;  de Atimeto supplicium sumptum, validiore apud libidines principis Paride, quam ut pœna afficeretur.  Plautus ad præsens silentio transmissus est.

[13.22]  The superintendence of the grain supply was given to Fænius Rufus, the direction of the games being prepared by Cæsar, to Arruntius Stella, and the province of Egypt to Gajus Balbillus.  Syria was to be assigned to Publius Antejus, but after later being tricked by various artifices, he was finally kept in the City.  Silana was banished;  Calvisius and Iturius were punished with the minor exile;  Atimetus was executed, while Paris was too important to the emperor’s lusts to have to suffer any penalty.  Plautus for the present was passed over in silence.

[13.23]  Deferuntur dehinc consensisse Pallas ac Burrus, ut Cornelius Sulla, claritudine generis et affinitate Claudii (cui per nuptias Antoniæ gener erat), ad imperium vocaretur.  Ejus accusationis auctor exstitit Pætus quidam, exercendis apud Ærarium sectionibus famosus — et tum vanitatis manifestus.  Nec tam grata Pallantis innocentia quam gravis superbia fuit :  quippe, nominatis libertis ejus quos conscios haberet, respondit « nihil unquam se domi nisi nutu aut manu significasse vel, si plura demonstranda essent, scripto usum, ne vocem consociaret. »  Burrus quamvis reus inter judices sententiam dixit.  Exiliumque accusatori irrogatum, et tabulæ exustæ sunt quibus oblitterata Ærarii nomina retrahebat.

[13.23]  Next Pallas and Burrus were accused of having conspired to have Cornelius Sulla called to the throne, because of his noble birth and connection with Claudius (whose son-in-law he was by his marriage with Antonia).  The originator of the prosecution was one Pætus, notorious through his purchasing of confiscated treasury property — and on this occasion convicted of falsification.  But the innocence of Pallas was not as pleasing as his arrogance was displeasing.  When his freedmen, alleged to be his accomplices, were named, he replied that at home he had signified his wishes only by a nod or a hand gesture or, if further explanation were required, he used writing in order to avoid sharing any oral conversation with them.  Burrus, though accused, gave his verdict as one of the judges.  The accuser was sentenced to exile, and the ledgers he was using to reinstate canceled treasury debts were burnt.

[13.24]  Fine anni statio cohortis assidere ludis solita demovetur, quo major species libertatis esset, utque miles theatrali licentiæ non permixtus incorruptior ageret, et plebes daret experimentum an amotis custodibus modestiam retineret.  Urbem princeps lustravit ex responso haruspicum, quod Jovis ac Minervæ ædes de cælo tactæ erant.

[13.24]  At the end of the year {(a.D. 55)} the cohort normally stationed to police the games was withdrawn so that there would be a greater appearance of freedom, the soldiery too might be more incorrupt when no longer in contact with the license of the theater, and so that the masses might show whether they could retain their self-control in the absence of a guard.  The emperor, on the advice of the soothsayers, performed a ritual purification of the City because the temples of Jupiter and Minerva had been struck by lightning.

[13.25]  Q. Volusio P. Scipione consulibus, otium foris, fœda domi lascivia, qua Nero itinera Urbis et lupanaria et deverticula veste servili in dissimulationem sui compositus pererrabat, comitantibus qui raperent venditioni exposita et obviis vulnera inferrent, adversus ignaros adeo ut ipse quoque exciperet ictus et ore præferret.  Deinde ubi Cæsarem esse qui grassaretur pernotuit, augebanturque injuriæ adversus viros feminasque insignes et quidam, permissa semel licentia sub nomine Neronis inulti, propriis cum globis eadem exercebant, in modum captivitatis nox agebatur ;  Juliusque Montanus senatorii ordinis, sed qui nondum honorem capessisset, congressus forte per tenebras cum principe, quia vim temptantem acriter reppulerat, deinde agnitum oraverat quasi exprobrasset, mori adactus est.  Nero jam metuentior in posterum milites sibi et plerosque gladiatores circumdedit, qui rixarum initia modica et quasi privata sinerent ;  si a læsis validius ageretur, arma inferebant.  Ludicram quoque licentiam et fautores histrionum velut in prœlia convertit impunitate et præmiis, atque ipse occultus, et plerumque coram, prospectans — donec discordi populo et gravioris motus terrore non aliud remedium repertum est quam ut histriones Italia pellerentur milesque theatro rursum assideret.

[13.25]  In the consulship of Quintus Volusius and Publius Scipio {(a.D. 56)}, there was peace abroad, but a disgusting lawlesssness at home in which Nero, in a slave’s disguise so as to be unrecognized, would wander through the streets of the City, to whorehouses and taverns, with comrades who would seize goods exposed for sale and inflict wounds on any whom they encountered, some of these last knowing him so little that he even received blows himself and showed the bruises in his face.  When it became clear that Cæsar was prowling around, and crimes against men and women of distinction were multiplied, some others too, on the strength of a license now granted under Nero’s name, engaged in the same practices with impunity, with gangs of their own, until night was passed in a kind of captivity.  Julius Montanus, a senator, but one who had not yet held any office, happened to encounter the emperor in the darkness, and because he fiercely repulsed his attack and then, on recognizing him begged for mercy — as if he had reproached him — was forced to commit suicide.  Nero, now more afraid, thereafter surrounded himself with soldiers and numerous gladiators who, when a fray began on a small scale and seemed a private affair, were to let it alone, but, if the injured persons reacted with greater effectiveness, they brought in their weapons.  He also turned the license of the games and the fans of the actors into something like battles through the impunity and the rewards he gave, and by looking on himself, concealed, but quite often openly until, with the people at strife and the fear of more serious upheaval, no other remedy could be devised than expelling actors from Italy and having the soldiery again be present in the theater.

[13.26]  Per idem tempus actum in Senatu de fraudibus libertorum, efflagitatumque ut adversus male meritos revocandæ libertatis jus patronis daretur.  Nec deerant qui censerent ;  sed consules, relationem incipere non ausi ignaro principe — perscripsere tamen consensum Senatus.  Ille an auctor constitutionis fieret < dubitabat >, ut inter paucos et sententiæ diversos — quibusdam coalitam libertate irreverentiam eo prorupisse frementibus, « ut vine an æquo cum patronis jure agerent, sententiam eorum insultarent ac verberibus manus ultro intenderent, impudenter vel pœnam suam ipsi suadentes.  ¿ Quid enim aliud læso patrono concessum, quam ut centesimum ultra lapidem in oram Campaniæ libertum releget ?  Ceteras actiones promiscas et pares esse ;  tribuendum aliquod telum quod sperni nequeat.  Nec grave manumissis per idem obsequium retinendi libertatem, per quod assecuti sint :  at criminum manifestos merito ad servitutem retrahi, ut metu coërceantur quos beneficia non mutavissent. »

[13.26]  During the same period there was discussion in the Senate concerning the iniquities of freedmen, and it was demanded that in ill-deserving cases patrons should be given the right of revoking their freedom.  There was no lack of those to vote in favor, but the consuls, though not daring to instigate a motion without the princep’s knowledge, nevertheless wrote down the consensus of the Senate.  He for his part hesitated whether to initiate a resolution, given that he was in the company of only a few men of different opinions, with some of them muttering that disrespect, consolidated by freedom, had erupted to such a degree that freedmen, as if whether to deal violently or in court on an equal level with their patrons, ridiculed their opinions, and actually brandished their fists to issue beatings, impudently even urging on them the punishment due to themselves.  “What else was allowed to an injured patron except to send his freedman on minor exile beyond the hundredth milestone to the shore of Campania?  All other lawsuits were indiscriminate, offering parity to both parties ;  some weapon should be granted to a patron which could not be spurned.  It was no burden for the manumitted to retain their freedom by the same subordination by which they had acquired it.  But those clearly caught in crime would deservedly be dragged back to slavery, so that fear might restrain those whom kindness had not changed.”

[13.27]  Disserebatur contra :  « paucorum culpam ipsis exitiosam esse debere, nihil universorum juri derogandum ;  quippe late fusum id corpus.  Hinc plerumque tribus, decurias, ministeria magistratibus et sacerdotibus, cohortes etiam in Urbe conscriptas ;  et plurimis equitum, plerisque senatoribus non aliunde originem trahi :  si separarentur libertini, manifestam fore penuriam ingenuorum.  Non frustra majores, quum dignitatem ordinum dividerent, libertatem in communi posuisse.  Quin et manumittendi duas species institutas, ut relinqueretur pænitentiæ aut novo beneficio locus.  Quos vindictā patronus non liberaverit, velut vinclo servitutis attineri.  Dispiceret quisque merita, tardeque concederet quod, datum, non adimeretur. »  Hæc sententia valuit, scripsitque Cæsar Senatui, privatim expenderent causam libertorum quotiens a patronis arguerentur ;  in commune nihil derogarent.  Nec multo post ereptus amitæ libertus Paris quasi jure civili — non sine infamia principis, cujus jussu perpetratum ingenuitatis judicium erat.

[13.27]  It was argued in reply that, though the guilt of a few ought to be ruinous for themselves, there should be no detriment to the rights of the entire class.  “For it was,” they contended, “a widely diffused body;  from it, for the most part, came the tribes, the guild unions, the staffs of the magistrates and priests, plus the cohorts of the city-firemen;  a great many of the knights as well, and several of the senators derived their origin from no other source.  If freedmen were segregated, the paucity of freeborn natives would be obvious.  Not without good reason had our ancestors, in differentiating the ranking of the different classes, made freedom common to all.  Furthermore, two kinds of manumission had been instituted so as to leave room for a change of heart or for a new gift.  Those whom the patron had not emancipated with the freedom-giving rod were still held, as it were, by the bonds of slavery.  Everyone should carefully consider the merits of each case and be slow in granting what, once given, could not be taken away.”  This view prevailed, and the emperor wrote to the Senate that they should weigh individually the cases of freedmen whenever they were accused by their patrons, but they were not to curtail rights in general.  And not long afterwards, his aunt Domitia was robbed of her freedman Paris seemingly in accordance with the civil law — not without embarrassment to the emperor, through whose order the verdict of his free birth had been obtained.

[13.28]  Manebat nihilominus quædam imago Rei Publicæ.  Nam inter Vibullium prætorem et plebei tribunum Antistium ortum certamen, quod immodestos fautores histrionum et a prætore in vincla ductos, tribunus omitti jussisset.  Comprobavere patres, incusata Antistii licentia.  Simul prohibiti tribuni jus prætorum et consulum præripere aut vocare ex Italia, cum quibus lege agi posset.  Addidit L. Piso designatus consul ne quid intra domum pro potestate adverterent, neve multam ab eis dictam quæstores Ærarii in publicas tabulas ante quattuor menses referrent ;  medio temporis contra dicere liceret, deque eo consules statuerent.  Cohibita artius et ædilium potestas :  statutumque quantum curules, quantum plebeji pignoris caperent vel pœnæ irrogarent.  Et Helvidius Priscus, tribunus plebis, adversus Obultronium Sabinum, Ærarii quæstorem, contentiones proprias exercuit, tanquam jus hastæ adversus inopes inclementer ageret.  Dein princeps curam tabularum publicarum a quæstoribus ad præfectos transtulit.

[13.28]  Nonetheless, some shadow of a free state still remained.  A contest arose between Vibullius, the prætor, and Antistius, a tribune of the people;  for the tribune had ordered the release of some disorderly fans of actors imprisoned by the prætor.  The Senate approved the imprisonment, and criticized the tribune’s presumption.  Tribunes were also forbidden to preempt the authority of prætors and consuls, or to summon from any part of Italy {(outside of Rome)} persons liable to legal proceedings.  Lucius Piso, consul-elect, added a bill forbidding them to use tribunician power within their own households or to have any fine imposed by them entered into the public records by the Treasury officials before four months had expired, and that in the meantime appeals were to be allowed which the consuls were to decide.  Restrictions were also put on the powers of the ædiles:  a limit was put on how much bail the curules could seize or how much of a penalty the plebeians could impose.  And Helvidius Priscus, a tribune of the people, conducted a personal quarrel he had with Obultronius Sabinus, one of the Treasury officials, by alleging that he was mercilessly stretching his powers of confiscation against the indigent.  The emperor then transferred the management of the public accounts from the Treasury officials to the commissioners.

[13.29]  (Varie habita ac sæpe mutata ejus rei forma.  Nam Augustus Senatui permisit deligere præfectos ;  deinde ambitu suffragiorum suspecto, sorte ducebantur ex numero prætorum qui præessent.  Neque id diu mansit, quia sors deerrabat ad parum idoneos.  Tum Claudius quæstores rursum imposuit, eisque, ne metu offensionum segnius consulerent, extra ordinem honores promisit :  sed deerat robur ætatis eum primum magistratum capessentibus.  Igitur Nero prætura perfunctos et experientia probatos delegit.)

[13.29]  (The arrangement of this business had been variously and frequently altered.  Augustus allowed the Senate to appoint commissioners {(28 B.C.)};  then, when bribery was suspected in the voting, men were chosen by lot for the office out of the whole number of prætors {(23 B.C.)}.  This did not last long, as the lot tended to meander to the incompetent.  Claudius then again appointed quæstors {(a.D. 44)}, and to avoid their being too hesitant in their job for fear of offending, he promised them promotion out of the usual sequence.  But the strength of maturity was lacking in those taking this up as their first office, and so Nero appointed experience-proven ex-prætors {(a.D. 56)}.)

[13.30]  Damnatus eisdem consulibus Vipsanius Lænas ob Sardiniam provinciam avare habitam ;  absolutus Cestius Proculus repetundarum, Cretensibus accusantibus.  Clodius Quirinalis, quod præfectus remigum qui Ravennæ haberentur, velut infimam nationum, Italiam luxuria sævitiaque afflictavisset, veneno damnationem anteiit.  Caninius Rebilus, ex primoribus peritia legum et pecuniæ magnitudine, cruciatus ægræ senectæ, misso per venas sanguine, effugit, haud creditus sufficere ad constantiam sumendæ mortis, ob libidines muliebriter infamis.  At L. Volusius egregia fama concessit, cui tres et nonaginta anni spatium vivendi præcipuæque opes bonis artibus paratæ, inoffensa tot imperatorum amicitia fuit.

[13.30]  During the same consulship, Vipsanius Lænas was condemned for rapacity in his administration of the province of Sardinia.  Cestius Proculus was acquitted of extortion, his accusers being the people of Crete.  Clodius Quirinalis, having afflicted Italy with his profligacy and cruelty as if it were the lowest of nations when he commanded the crews at Ravenna, forestalled his condemnation by poison.  Caninius Rebilus, one of the foremost in legal knowledge and in his vast wealth, escaped the torments of an old age of broken health by letting the blood flow from his veins, though it would never have been believed that he had sufficient courage to commit suicide, given his infamous homosexual lusts.  Lucius Volusius, on the other hand, departed with a glorious name.  He had had a long life of ninety-three years, outstanding wealth procured by good practice, and untroubled friendship with so many emperors.

[13.31]  Nerone iterum L. Pisone consulibus, pauca memoria digna evenere — nisi cui libeat laudandis fundamentis et trabibus, quis molem amphitheatri apud campum Martis Cæsar exstruxerat, volumina implere —, quum ex dignitate populi Romani repertum sit res illustres annalibus, talia diurnis Urbis actis mandare.

Ceterum coloniæ Capua atque Nuceria additis veteranis firmatæ sunt, plebeique congiarium quadrigeni nummi {(H$400)} viritim dati, et sestertium quadringenties {(H$40,000,000)} Ærario illatum est ad retinendam populi fidem.  Vectigal quoque quintæ et vicesimæ {([partes ex centum] = 1/25 = 4%)} venalium mancipiorum remissum, specie magis quam vi quia, quum venditor pendere juberetur, in partem pretii emptoribus accrescebat.  Et edixit Cæsar, ne quis magistratus aut procurator in provincia quam obtineret spectaculum gladiatorum aut ferarum aut quod aliud ludicrum ederet.  Nam ante non minus tali largitione quam corripiendis pecuniis subjectos affligebant, dum quæ libidine deliquerant ambitu propugnant.

[13.31]  During Nero’s second consulship with Lucius Piso {(a.D. 57)} as his colleague, little occurred deserving mention unless one were to take pleasure in filling volumes with the praise of the foundations and beams with which the emperor had constructed the massive amphitheater in the Field of Mars, since it has been found appropriate to the dignity of the Roman people to commit important events to yearbooks and those kinds of things to the City’s daily register.

In any case, the colonies of Nuceria and Capua were reinforced by the addition of veterans;  plus, four hundred sesterces {(H$400)} apiece were given as a bonus to the masses, and forty million sesterces {(H$40,000,000)} shifted to the public Treasury to maintain the people’s credit.  Also, a tax of {(25 [parts out of a hundred] = 1/25 = 4%)} four per cent on the sale of slaves was remitted — more an illusion than a real effect because, since the seller was ordered to pay it, it was added as part of the price for purchasers.  In an edict the emperor forbade any magistrate or procurator in the government of a province to exhibit a show of gladiators or of wild beasts, or indeed any other public entertainment;  for hitherto they were oppressing our subjects as much by such gift-giving as by extortion, as they sought to justify their capricious wrongdoing by bribing the populace.

[13.32]  Factum et Senatus consultum ultioni juxta et securitati, ut si quis a suis servis interfectus esset, ii quoque, qui testamento manumissi sub eodem tecto mansissent, inter servos supplicia penderent.  Redditur ordini Lurius Varus consularis, avaritiæ criminibus olim perculsus.  Et Pomponia Græcina insignis femina, Plautio (quem ovasse de Britannis rettuli) nupta ac superstitionis externæ rea, mariti judicio permissa.  Isque, prisco instituto, propinquis coram de capite famaque conjugis cognovit et insontem nuntiavit.  (Longa huic Pomponiæ ætas et continua tristitia fuit.  Nam post Juliam Drusi filiam dolo Messalinæ interfectam per quadraginta annos non cultu nisi lugubri, non animo nisi mæsto egit ;  idque illi imperitante Claudio impune, mox ad gloriam vertit.)

[13.32]  The Senate next passed a decree providing both for punishment and safety.  If a master were murdered by his slaves, all those who were given their freedom by his will, but remained under the same roof, were to suffer execution with his other slaves.  Lucius Varius, an ex-consul, who in the past had been hit with charges of extortion, was restored to his rank as a senator.  Pomponia Græcina, a distinguished lady, the wife of Plautius (whom I have reported as having celebrated an ovation for conquering the Britons), was accused of a foreign superstition and handed over to her husband’s judicial decision.  Following ancient precedent, he heard his wife’s case in the presence of relatives, involving, as it did, her citizenship rights and reputation, and pronounced her innocent.  (This Pomponia lived a long life of unbroken melancholy.  For forty years after the murder of Julia, Drusus’s daughter, through Messalina’s treachery, she wore only the attire of a mourner, her mood only depressed.  She went unpunished for this during Claudius’s reign, and it later redounded to her glory.)

[13.33]  Idem annus plures reos habuit.  Quorum P. Celerium, accusante Asia, quia absolvere nequibat Cæsar, traxit, senecta donec mortem obiret ;  nam Celerius, interfecto (ut memoravi) Silano pro consule, magnitudine sceleris cetera flagitia obtegebat.  Cossutianum Capitonem Cilices detulerant, maculosum fœdumque et idem jus audaciæ in provincia ratum quod in Urbe exercuerat ;  sed pervicaci accusatione conflictatus postremo defensionem omisit, ac lege repetundarum damnatus est.  Pro Eprio Marcello, a quo Lycii res repetebant, eo usque ambitus prævaluit, ut quidam accusatorum ejus exilio multarentur, tanquam insonti periculum fecissent.

[13.33]  That same year {(a.D. 57)} saw more impeached.  One of these was Publius Celerius, accused by the province of Asia, but because Cæsar could not acquit him, he dragged it out until the man met his death of old age.  For Celerius, having murdered the pro-consul Silanus (as I have related), used the enormity of this crime to cover up his other infamies.  The people of Cilicia accused Cossutianus Capito, a blemished and disgusting individual who thought he had the same right of audacity in a province that he had exercised in the City.  But pressured by a determined prosecution, he finally abandoned his defense and was condemned for extortion.  For Eprius Marcellus, from whom the Lycians were demanding restitution, influence-peddling was so powerful that some of his accusers were punished with exile, on the pretense that they had put an innocent man in danger.

[13.34]  Nerone tertium consule simul iniit consulatum Valerius Messala, cujus proavum, oratorem Corvinum, divo Augusto, abavo Neronis, collegam in eodem magistratu fuisse pauci jam senum meminerant.  Sed nobili familiæ honor auctus est, oblatis in singulos annos quingenis sestertiis {(500 * H$1,000 = H$500,000)}, quibus Messala paupertatem innoxiam sustentaret.  Aurelio quoque Cottæ et Haterio Antonino annuam pecuniam statuit princeps, quamvis per luxum avitas opes dissipassent.

Ejus anni principio mollibus adhuc initiis prolatatum inter Parthos Romanosque de obtinenda Armenia bellum acriter sumitur, quia nec Vologæses sinebat fratrem Tiridaten dati a se regni expertem esse aut alienæ id potentiæ donum habere, et Corbulo dignum magnitudine populi Romani rebatur parta olim a Lucullo Pompejoque recipere.  Ad hoc Armenii ambigua fide utraque arma invitabant, situ terrarum, similitudine morum Parthis propiores, conubiisque permixti ac libertate ignota illuc magis ad servitium inclinantes.

[13.34]  Nero entered on his third consulship with Valerius Messala {(a.D. 58)}, whose great-grandfather, the orator Corvinus, was still remembered by a few old men as having been the colleague of the Divine Augustus, Nero’s great-great-grandfather, in the same office.  But the honor of the noble house was further increased by an annual grant of five hundred thousand sesterces {(500 * H$1,000 = H$500,000)} with which Messala might support a safe poverty.  Aurelius Cotta, too, and Haterius Antonius had yearly stipends assigned them by the emperor, though they had squandered their ancestral wealth in profligacy.

In the beginning of that year a war between Parthia and Rome over the possession of Armenia which, still in its mild beginnings, had been postponed, was vigorously resumed.  For Vologæses would not allow his brother Tiridates to be deprived of a kingdom which he had himself given him, or to hold it as a gift from a foreign power, and Corbulo thought it worthy of the grandeur of the Roman people that he should recover what Lucullus and Pompey had formerly won.  On top of this, the Armenians, with their fluctuating allegiances, were inviting the armies of both sides, though by their country’s location and the similarity of their customs they were closer to the Parthians and intermixed with them through marriage — plus, being unfamiliar with freedom, they rather inclined to the slavery there.

[13.35]  Sed Corbuloni plus molis adversus ignaviam militum quam contra perfidiam hostium erat :  quippe Syria transmotæ legiones, pace longa segnes, munia castrorum Romanorum ægerrime tolerabant.  Satis constitit fuisse in eo exercitu veteranos qui non stationem, non vigilias inissent, vallum fossamque quasi nova et mira viserent, sine galeis, sine loricis, nitidi et quæstuosi, militia per oppida expleta.  Igitur, dimissis quibus senectus aut valitudo adversa erat, supplementum petivit.  Et habiti per Galatiam Cappadociamque dilectus, adjectaque ex Germania legio cum equitibus alariis et peditatu cohortium.  Retentusque omnis exercitus sub pellibus, quamvis hieme sæva, adeo ut obducta glacie nisi effossa humus tentoriis locum non præberet.  Ambusti multorum artus vi frigoris, et quidam inter excubias exanimati sunt.  Annotatusque miles qui fascem lignorum gestabat, ita præriguisse manus ut, oneri adhærentes, truncis bracchiis, deciderent.  Ipse cultu levi, capite intecto, in agmine, in laboribus frequens adesse, laudem strenuis, solacium invalidis, exemplum omnibus ostendere.  Dehinc, quia duritia cæli militiæque multi abnuebant deserebantque, remedium severitate quæsitum est.  Nec enim, ut in aliis exercitibus, primum alterumque delictum venia prosequebatur ;  sed, qui signa reliquerat, statim capite pœnas luebat.  Idque usu salubre et misericordia melius apparuit :  quippe pauciores illa castra deseruere quam ea in quibus ignoscebatur.

[13.35]  Corbulo however had more to struggle against in the laziness of his soldiers than in the treachery of the enemy.  For his legions, transferred as they had been from Syria and lethargic due to a long peace, had little tolerance for the duties of a Roman camp.  It was well known that in that army there were veterans who had never done sentry duty or night guard, to whom the palisade and the ditch were new and strange sights, men without helmets or breastplates, elegant and business-savvy, having served all their time in towns.  So, having discharged all who were old or in ill-health, he asked for replacements;  and levies were held in Galatia and Cappadocia, and to these was added a legion from Germany with its auxiliary cavalry and light infantry.  The entire army was kept in winter tents, though the winter was so severe that the ground, covered as it was with ice, would not allow a place for the tents without being dug up.  Many of the men had their limbs frostbitten through the intensity of the cold, and some perished on guard.  There was a case noted of a soldier whose hands had frozen so much as he was carrying a bundle of wood, that they stuck to their burden and dropped off from his arms, leaving mere stumps.  The general himself, lightly clad, with head uncovered, was regularly with his men on the march and in their labors;  he had praise for the energetic, comfort for the weak, and showed a good example to all.  And then, as many shrank from the rigor of the climate and of the military, and deserted, he sought a remedy in severity.  Not, as in other armies, was a first or second offense condoned, but the soldier who had left the standards paid the penalty with his life instantly.  This was shown by the results to be a beneficial measure, better than mercy;  for there were fewer desertions in that camp than in those in which there was leniency.

[13.36]  Interim Corbulo, legionibus intra castra habitis donec ver adolesceret, dispositisque per idoneos locos cohortibus auxiliariis, ne pugnam priores auderent prædicit.  Curam præsidiorum Paccio Orfito primipili {(= a major)} honore perfuncto mandat.  Is, quanquam incautos barbaros et bene gerendæ rei casum offerri scripserat, tenere se munimentis et majores copias opperiri jubetur.  Sed rupto imperio, postquam paucæ e proximis castellis turmæ advenerant, pugnamque imperitia poscebant, congressus cum hoste funditur.  Et damno ejus exterriti qui subsidium ferre debuerant, sua quisque in castra trepida fuga rediere.  Quod graviter Corbulo accepit, increpitumque Paccium et præfectos militesque tendere extra vallum jussit ;  inque ea contumelia detenti nec nisi precibus universi exercitus exsoluti sunt.

[13.36]  Meanwhile Corbulo kept his legions within the camp till spring had advanced, and having stationed his auxiliary infantry at suitable points, he ordered them not to initiate an engagement.  The charge of these defensive positions he entrusted to Paccius Orfitus, a first-rank centurion.  This officer, though reporting in writing that the barbarians were careless and that the chance for a successful operation was presenting itself, was instructed to keep within his fortifications and wait for a stronger force.  But he broke the order and, after a few cavalry squadrons had arrived from the nearest forts and in their inexperience were insisting on fighting, he engaged the enemy and was routed.  Terrified by his disaster, those who ought to have brought support returned in panic-stricken flight to their respective encampments.  Corbulo was enraged on learning of this;  he sharply reprimanded Paccius, the officers and soldiers, and ordered them to pitch their tents outside the rampart.  They were kept in that insulting state and released from it only on the pleas of the whole army.

[13.37]  At Tiridates, super proprias clientelas, ope Vologæsi fratris adjutus, non furtim jam, sed palam bello infensare Armeniam, quosque fidos nobis rebatur depopulari et, si copiæ contra ducerentur, eludere, hucque et illuc volitans plura fama quam pugna exterrere.  Igitur Corbulo, quæsito diu prœlio frustra habitus et exemplo hostium circumferre bellum coactus, dispertit vires, ut legati præfectique diversos locos pariter invaderent.  Simul regem Antiochum monet proximas sibi præfecturas petere.  Nam Pharasmanes — interfecto filio Radamisto quasi proditore — quo fidem in nos testaretur vetus adversus Armenios odium promptius exercebat.  Tuncque primum illecti Moschi, gens ante alias socia Romanis, avia Armeniæ incursavit.

Ita consilia Tiridati in contrarium vertebant, mittebatque oratores, qui suo Parthorumque nomine expostularent, « cur, datis nuper obsidibus redintegrataque amicitia quæ novis quoque beneficiis locum aperiret, vetere Armeniæ possessione depelleretur.  Ideo nondum ipsum Volgæsen commotum, quia causa quam vi agere mallent ;  sin perstaretur in bello, non defore Arsacidis virtutem, fortunamque sæpius jam clade Romana expertam. »  Ad ea Corbulo, satis comperto Volgæsen defectione Hyrcaniæ attineri, suadet Tiridati precibus Cæsarem aggredi :  « posse illi regnum stabile et res incruentas contingere si, omissa spe longinqua et sera, præsentem potioremque sequeretur. »

[13.37]  Tiridates meantime who, besides his own vassals, had the powerful aid of his brother Vologæses, ravaged Armenia, not in stealthy raids as before, but in open war, plundering all whom he thought loyal to Rome, while he eluded an action with any force which was brought against him, and thus flying hither and thither, he spread panic more widely by rumor than by arms.  So Corbulo, frustrated in his prolonged efforts to bring on an engagement and compelled, like the enemy, to spread the war around, split up his forces so that his generals and officers might attack several points simultaneously.  At the same time, king Antiochus was given instructions to go after the satrapies closest to him, for Pharasmanes, after having slain his son Rhadamistus allegedly as a traitor, was venting more unrestrainedly than ever his old hatred of the Armenians to prove his loyalty to us.  Then for the first time the Moschi were lured to our side, a tribe ahead of all others in its alliance with Rome, that overran the trackless wilds of Armenia.

Thus Tiridates’ plans turned around, and he sent envoys to ask on behalf of himself and the Parthians why, when hostages had lately been given and a friendship renewed which might have opened a way to further acts of good will, he was being driven from Armenia, long his possession.  “As yet,” he said, “Vologæses had not been stirred to action, simply because both preferred to deal with the issues rather than violence.  Should, however, war be persisted in, the Arsacids would not lack the courage and good fortune which had already been proved more than once by disaster to Rome.”  Corbulo, reliably informed that Vologæses was being held up by the defection of Hyrcania, in reply urged Tiridates to address himself in supplication to Cæsar, assuring him that he might reign securely and without bloodshed by relinquishing a far-off, much later prospect for the sake of one more solid here and now.

[13.38]  Placitum dehinc, quia commeantibus invicem nuntiis nihil in summam pacis proficiebatur, colloquio ipsorum tempus locumque destinari.  Mille equitum præsidium Tiridates affore sibi dicebat ;  « quantum Corbuloni cujusque generis militum assisteret, non statuere, dum, positis loricis et galeis, in faciem pacis veniretur. »  Cuicunque mortalium, nedum veteri et provido duci, barbaræ astutiæ patuissent :  ideo artum inde numerum finiri, et hinc majorem offerri, ut dolus pararetur.  Nam equiti sagittarum usu exercito si detecta corpora objicerentur, nihil profuturam multitudinem.  Dissimulato tamen intellectu, rectius de eis quæ in publicum consulerentur, totis exercitibus coram dissertaturos respondit.  Locumque delegit cujus pars altera colles erant clementer assurgentes accipiendis peditum ordinibus, pars in planitiem porrigebatur ad explicandas equitum turmas.

Dieque pacto prior Corbulo socias cohortes et auxilia regum pro cornibus, medio Sextam Legionem constituit, cui accita per noctem aliis ex castris tria milia Tertianorum permiscuerat — una cum aquila, quasi eadem legio spectaretur.  Tiridates vergente jam die procul astitit, unde videri magis quam audiri posset.  Ita sine congressu dux Romanus abscedere militem sua quemque in castra jubet.

[13.38]  As no progress was made towards a final settlement of peace by the exchange of messages, it was at last decided to fix a time and a place for a conference between the leaders.  “A thousand cavalrymen,” Tiridates said, “would be his escort;  what number of every kind of soldier was to be with Corbulo, he did not specify, provided they came with the appearance of peace, without breastplates and helmets.”  To any human being, to say nothing of an old and wary general, the barbarian deception would have been obvious:  the reason for setting a restricted number on his side and offering a larger one on ours was to set up a trap;  for if unarmored bodies were exposed to a cavalry with expertise in archery, large numbers would be unavailing.  Corbulo however, pretending not to understand this, replied that discussions of common interests would be more correctly dealt with in the presence of their entire armies, and he selected a place partly consisting of gently sloping hills, accommodating ranks of infantry, partly spreading into a plain where squadrons of cavalry could be deployed.

Arriving first on the appointed day, Corbulo posted his allied infantry with the kings’ auxiliaries on the wings, the Sixth Legion in the center, with which he had united three thousand men of the Third, summoned in the night from another camp, with a single eagle so as to look like the same legion.  Towards evening Tiridates showed up far off from where he could be seen rather than heard.  And so the Roman general, without meeting, ordered his troops to retire to their respective camps.

[13.39]  Rex sive fraudem suspectans, quia plura simul in loca ibatur, sive ut commeatus nostros Pontico mari et Trapezunte oppido adventantes interciperet, propere discedit.  Sed neque commeatibus vim facere potuit, quia per montes ducebantur præsidiis nostris insessos, et Corbulo, ne irritum bellum traheretur, utque Armenios ad sua defendenda cogeret, exscindere parat castella, sibique quod validissimum in ea præfectura, cognomento “Volandum,” sumit ;  minora Cornelio Flacco legato et Instejo Capitoni, castrorum præfecto, mandat.  Tum, circumspectis munimentis et quæ expugnationi idonea provisis, hortatur milites ut hostem vagum neque paci aut prœlio paratum sed perfidiam et ignaviam fuga confitentem exuerent sedibus, gloriæque pariter et prædæ consulerent.  Tum quadripertito exercitu hos in testudinem conglobatos subruendo vallo inducit, alios scalas mœnibus admovere, multos tormentis faces et hastas incutere jubet.  Libritoribus funditoribusque attributus locus, unde eminus glandes torquerent, ne qua pars subsidium laborantibus ferret, pari undique metu.  Tantus inde ardor certantis exercitus fuit, ut intra tertiam diei partem nudati propugnatoribus muri, obices portarum subversi, capta escensu munimenta, omnesque puberes trucidati sint, nullo milite amisso, paucis admodum vulneratis.  Et imbelle vulgus sub corona venundatum, reliqua præda victoribus cessit.

Pari fortuna legatus ac præfectus usi sunt ;  tribusque una die castellis expugnatis, cetera terrore et alia sponte incolarum in deditionem veniebant.  Unde orta fiducia caput gentis Artaxata aggrediendi.  Nec tamen proximo itinere ductæ legiones quæ, si amnem Araxen (qui mœnia alluit) ponte transgrederentur, sub ictum dabantur :  procul et latioribus vadis transiere.

[13.39]  The king, either suspecting a trick from these simultaneous movements in different directions, or intending to cut off our supplies coming via the sea of Pontus and the town of Trapezus, withdrew hastily.  He could not, however, attack the supplies, because they were brought over mountains occupied by our garrisons.  Corbulo, to keep the war from being uselessly protracted, and also to compel the Armenians to defend their own, undertook to destroy their fortresses, himself taking on the strongest of all in that satrapy, a fort named “Volandum.”  The smaller ones he assigned to Cornelius Flaccus, his lieutenant, and to Instejus Capito, his camp-prefect.  Having then reconnoitered the defenses and provided everything suitable for storming them, he exhorted his soldiers to divest of his home this wandering foe who was prepared neither for peace nor for war, but who confessed his perfidy and cowardice by fleeing, and so to concentrate on both glory and spoil.  Then, splitting his army into four sections, he led the first one in the dense array of the “tortoise” up to the rampart, to undermine it, ordered others to move scaling ladders up to the walls, and many more to discharge firebrands and javelins from launchers.  The artillerymen and slingers were given a position from which to hurl their lead bullets from a distance so that, with anxiety everywhere the same, no support would be given from any point to those under stress.  The ferocity of the attacking army was so great that within a third of the day the walls were swept of their defenders, the barriers of the gates demolished, the ramparts taken by scaling, and all the adults slaughtered, with no soldier lost and but very few wounded.  The nonmilitary population was sold by auction;  the rest of the booty fell to the victors.

The lieutenant and camp-prefect had equal success;  after three forts had been stormed in one day, the remainder — some out of terror, others by the consent of the occupants — capitulated.  Out of this came the confidence to attack the tribal capital, Artaxata.  The legions, however, were not marched there by the nearest route, for, if they were to cross the river Araxes (which flows along the city’s walls) by the bridge, they would be within missile-range.  They passed over it at a distance, through a wide ford.

[13.40]  At Tiridates, pudore et metu ne, si concessisset obsidioni, nihil opis in ipso videretur, si prohiberet, impeditis locis seque et equestres copias illigaret, statuit postremo ostendere aciem et dato die prœlium incipere vel simulatione fugæ locum fraudi parare.  Igitur repente agmen Romanum circumfundit, non ignaro duce nostro qui viæ pariter et pugnæ composuerat exercitum.  Latere dextro Tertia Legio, sinistro Sexta incedebat, mediis Decimanorum delectis ;  recepta inter ordines impedimenta, et tergum mille equites tuebantur quibus jusserat ut instantibus comminus resisterent, refugos non sequerentur.  In cornibus pedes sagittarius et cetera manus equitum ibat — productiore cornu sinistro per ima collium ut, si hostis intravisset, fronte simul et sinu exciperetur.  Assultare ex diverso Tiridates, non usque ad ictum teli, sed tum minitans, tum specie trepidantis, si laxare ordines et diversos consectari posset.  Ubi nihil temeritate solutum, nec amplius quam decurio equitum, audentius progressus et sagittis confixus, ceteros ad obsequium exemplo firmaverat, propinquis jam tenebris abscessit.

[13.40]  Meantime Tiridates, in both shame and fear over the fact that, if he allowed the siege, he would seem to be impotent, and if he blocked it, he would get himself and his cavalry troops enmeshed in impassible terrain, finally decided to show his forces and either give battle on a suitable day or, by a pretended flight, set up a trick.  Thus he suddenly surrounded the Roman columns, without however surprising our general, who had arranged the army for fighting as well as for marching.  On the right and left flanks marched the Third and Sixth Legions, with the elite of the Tenth in the center;  the baggage was kept within the lines, and the rear was guarded by a thousand cavalry whom he had ordered to resist any harassment by the enemy at close quarters, but not to pursue his retreat.  On the sides were the infantry archers and the remaining unit of cavalry — with the left edge more extended along the base of some hills, so that, should the enemy get in, he would be caught simultaneously both on his front and his sides.  Tiridates launched feints from separate directions, but not going so far as to within missile-range, now threatening attack, now with the appearance of being afraid, to see if he could loosen up our ranks and hunt down isolated groups.  Finding that there was no breaking of our ranks through rash reaction — other than that one cavalry sergeant, by advancing too boldly and being shot through with arrows, confirmed the rest in obedience by the warning —, he left as darkness was already coming on.

[13.41]  Et Corbulo, castra in loco metatus, an expeditis legionibus nocte Artaxata pergeret obsidioque circumdaret agitavit, concessisse illuc Tiridaten ratus.  Dein postquam exploratores attulere longinquum regis iter, et Medi an Albani peterentur incertum, lucem opperitur, præmissaque levis armatura quæ muros interim ambiret oppugnationemque eminus inciperet.  Sed oppidani portis sponte patefactis se suaque Romanis permisere.  Quod salutem ipsis tulit ;  Artaxatis ignis immissus deletaque et solo æquata sunt, quia nec quiverunt teneri sine valido præsidio ob magnitudinem mœnium, nec id nobis virium erat, quod firmando præsidio et capessendo bello divideretur, vel, si integra et incustodita relinquerentur, nulla in eo utilitas, aut gloria quod capta essent.  (Adjicitur miraculum velut numine oblatum :  nam cuncta extra, tectis tenus, sole illustria fuere ;  quod mœnibus cingebatur, ita repente atra nube coopertum, fulgoribusque distinctum est, ut quasi infensantibus deis exitio tradi crederetur.)

Ob hæc consalutatus “imperator” Nero, et Senatus consulto supplicationes habitæ, statuæque et arcus et continui consulatus principi, utque inter festos referretur dies, quo patrata victoria, quo nuntiata, quo relatum de ea esset, aliaque in eandem formam decernuntur, adeo modum egressa, ut C. Cassius de ceteris honoribus assensus, « si pro benignitate fortunæ dis grates agerentur, ne totum quidem annum supplicationibus sufficere » disseruerit, « eoque oportere dividi sacros et negotiosos dies, quis divina colerent et humana non impedirent. »

[13.41]  Corbulo then encamped on the spot and mulled over whether he should push on his legions without their baggage to Artaxata and blockade the city, thinking that Tiridates had retreated there.  When his scouts reported that the king had undertaken a long march, and that it was uncertain whether the Medes or the Albanians were headed for, he waited for daylight, and then sent ahead his light-armed troops, which were meanwhile to surround the walls and begin the attack from a distance.  The inhabitants however opened the gates of their own accord, and surrendered themselves and their property to the Romans.  This saved their lives;  Artaxata was set afire, demolished and levelled to the ground, as it could not be held without a strong garrison because of the extent of the walls, and we did not have sufficient forces for them to be divided between firming up a garrison and carrying on the war.  If, on the other hand, the place were left intact and unguarded, no advantage or glory would accrue from its capture.  (There was the addition of a marvel, as if offered by supernatural will:  everything outside was in bright sunshine up to the buildings;  but suddenly the area enclosed by the walls was so completely covered by dark cloud and streaked by lightning that, as though the gods were conducting an assault, it was believed that it was being handed over for annihilation.)

For all this Nero was unanimously hailed as “emperor,” and by the Senate’s decree a thanksgiving was held;  statues also, arches and repeated consulships were voted to him, and among the holy days were to be included the day on which the victory had been won, that on which it had been announced, and that on which the issue had been brought to the floor of the Senate.  Other proposals too of a like kind were carried, on a scale so extravagant that Gajus Cassius, after having assented to the rest of the honors, argued that if the gods were to be thanked in proportion to the bountiful favors of fortune, even a whole year would not suffice for thanksgivings, and therefore there ought to be a division between sacred and business days, so that they might worship the gods and yet not interfere with human affairs.

[13.42]  Variis deinde casibus jactatus et multorum odia meritus reus — haud tamen sine invidia Senecæ — damnatur.  Is fuit Publius Suillius, imperitante Claudio terribilis ac venalis et mutatione temporum — non quantum inimici cuperent — demissus, quique se nocentem videri quam supplicem mallet.  Ejus opprimendi gratia repetitum credebatur Senatus consultum pœnaque Cinciæ legis adversum eos qui pretio causas oravissent.  Nec Suillius questu aut exprobratione abstinebat, præter ferociam animi extrema senecta liber et Senecam increpans infensum amicis Claudii, sub quo justissimum exilium pertulisset.  « Simul, studiis inertibus et juvenum imperitiæ suetum livere eis qui vividam et incorruptam eloquentiam tuendis civibus exercerent.  Se quæstorem Germanici, illum domus ejus adulterum fuisse.  ¿ An gravius æstimandum, sponte litigatoris præmium honestæ operæ assequi, quam corrumpere cubicula principum feminarum ?  ¿ Qua sapientia, quibus philosophorum præceptis, intra quadriennium regiæ amicitiæ, ter milies sestertium {(3,000 * H$1,000 = H$300,000,000)} paravisset ?  Romæ testamenta et orbos velut indagine ejus capi, Italiam et provincias immenso fenore hauriri :  at sibi labore quæsitam et modicam pecuniam esse.  Crimen, periculum, omnia potius toleraturum quam veterem ac modeste partam dignationem subitæ felicitati summitteret. »

[13.42]  A man who had been tossed about by various events and had earned the hate of many, was then impeached and condemned — though not without resentment towards Seneca.  This was Publius Suillius.  He had been fearsome and venal during the reign of Claudius, and with the changing times he had been humbled, though not as much as his enemies wished, and was one who would prefer to be seen as a guilty party than a suppliant.  It was in order to crush him, it was believed, that a decree of the Senate was revived, along with the penalty of the Cincian law against individuals who had taken on cases for pay.  But Suillius spared neither complaint or reproach;  freespoken because of his advanced age, besides having a fierce temper, he reproached Seneca with being hostile to the friends of Claudius, under whose reign Seneca had endured a highly justified exile.  “The man,” he said, “familiar as he was only with profitless studies, and with boyhood ignorance, envied those who employed a lively and genuine eloquence in the defense of their fellow-citizens.  He himself had been Germanicus’s quæstor, while Seneca had been an adulterer in his house.  Or was gaining a reward, volunteered by a litigant for an honorable service, to be thought worse than desecrating the bedchambers of the imperial ladies?  By what wisdom, by what maxims of philosophers had Seneca, in four years of a tyrant’s favor, amassed three hundred million sesterces {(3,000 * H$1,000 = H$300,000,000)}?  At Rome the wills of the childless were, so to say, caught in his net while Italy and the provinces were being drained by his boundless usury.  His own money, on the other hand, had been acquired by toil and was moderate.  He himself would endure accusation, danger, indeed anything rather than subordinate his old and modestly gained reputation to such sudden prosperity.”

[13.43]  Nec deerant qui hæc eisdem verbis, aut versa in deterius, Senecæ deferrent.  Repertique accusatores direptos socios quum Suillius provinciam Asiam regeret, ac publicæ pecuniæ peculatum detulerunt.  Mox, quia inquisitionem annuam impetraverant, brevius visum urbana crimina incipi quorum obvii testes erant.  Ii acerbitate accusationis Q. Pomponium ad necessitatem belli civilis detrusum, Juliam Drusi filiam Sabinamque Poppæam ad mortem actas et Valerium Asiaticum, Lusium Saturninum, Cornelium Lupum circumventos, jam equitum Romanorum agmina damnata omnemque Claudii sævitiam Suillio objectabant.  Ille nihil ex his sponte susceptum, sed principi paruisse defendebat, donec eam orationem Cæsar cohibuit, compertum sibi referens ex commentariis patris sui nullam cujusquam accusationem ab eo coactam.  Tum jussa Messalinæ prætendi, et labare defensio :  « ¿ Cur enim neminem alium delectum qui sævienti impudicæ vocem præberet ?  Puniendos rerum atrocium ministros, ubi pretia scelerum adepti scelera ipsa aliis delegent. »

Igitur, adempta bonorum parte (nam filio et nepti pars concedebatur, eximebanturque etiam quæ testamento matris aut aviæ acceperant), in insulas Baleares pellitur, non in ipso discrimine, non post damnationem fractus animo ;  ferebaturque copiosa et molli vita secretum illud toleravisse.  Filium ejus Nerullinum aggressis accusatoribus per invidiam patris et crimina repetundarum, intercessit princeps tanquam satis expleta ultione.

[13.43]  There was no lack of people to report all this to Seneca in the exact same words, or with a worse turn put on it.  Accusers were also found who alleged that our allies had been plundered when Suillius governed the province of Asia, and that there had been embezzlement of public monies.  Then, as they had obtained a yearlong period for investigation, it seemed quicker to begin with his crimes at Rome, the witnesses of which were on the spot.  These men charged Suillius, through the savagery of his prosecution, with having driven Quintus Pomponius into the extreme of civil war, with having forced Julia, Drusus’s daughter, and Sabina Poppæa to suicide, with having treacherously ruined Valerius Asiaticus, Lusius Saturninus and Cornelius Lupus, in fact, with the conviction of regiments of Roman knights, and with all the cruelty of Claudius.  His defense was that, of all this, he had done nothing on his own responsibility but had simply obeyed the emperor, till Cæsar cut his speech short by stating that he had discovered from his father’s diaries that the latter had never compelled the prosecution of anyone.  Suillius then gave Messalina’s orders as his pretext, and his defense began to collapse.  “Why,” it was asked, “was no one else chosen to put his tongue at the service of that savage whore?  The perpetrators of atrocious acts must be punished when, after having gained the rewards of crimes, they impute the crimes themselves to others.”

And so, with the loss of half his property (his son and granddaughter being allowed to retain the other half, and what they had inherited under their mother’s or grandmother’s will being also exempted from confiscation), Suillius was banished to the Balearic isles.  Neither in the crisis itself nor after his condemnation was his spirit broken.  Rumor had it that he supported his seclusion by a life of ease and plenty.  When the accusers attacked his son Nerullinus, relying on resentment towards his father and on charges of extortion, the emperor intervened, as if implying that vengeance had been fully satisfied.

[13.44]  Per idem tempus Octavius Sagitta plebei tribunus, Pontiæ, mulieris nuptæ, amore vecors, ingentibus donis adulterium et, mox, ut omitteret maritum, emercatur, suum matrimonium promittens ac nuptias ejus pactus.  Sed ubi mulier vacua fuit, nectere moras, adversam patris voluntatem causari, repertaque spe ditioris conjugis, promissa exuere.  Octavius contra modo conqueri, modo minitari, famam perditam, pecuniam exhaustam obtestans, denique salutem, quæ sola reliqua esset, arbitrio ejus permittens.  Ac postquam spernebatur, noctem unam ad solacium poscit, qua delenitus modum in posterum adhiberet.  Statuitur nox, et Pontia consciæ ancillæ custodiam cubiculi mandat.  Ille uno cum liberto ferrum veste occultum infert.  Tum, ut assolet in amore et ira, jurgia, preces, exprobratio, satisfactio, et pars tenebrarum libidini seposita ;  ea quasi incensus nihil metuentem ferro transverberat et accurrentem ancillam vulnere absterret, cubiculoque prorumpit.  Postera die manifesta cædes, haud ambiguus percussor ;  quippe mansitasse una convincebatur.  Sed libertus suum illud facinus profiteri, se patroni injurias ultum esse.  Commoveratque quosdam magnitudine exempli, donec ancilla ex vulnere refecta verum aperuit.  Postulatusque apud consules a patre interfectæ, postquam tribunatu abierat sententia patrum et lege de sicariis condemnatur.

[13.44]  About the same time Octavius Sagitta, a tribune of the people, who was enamored to frenzy of Pontia, a married woman, bribed her by enormous presents into adultery and then into abandoning her husband, promising her marriage and making an agreement with her on a wedding.  But as soon as she was free, she devised delay after delay, alleging that her father’s wishes were against it and, having found the prospect of a richer husband, she reneged on her promises.  Octavius, on the other hand, now complained vigorously, now threatened;  his good name, he protested, was lost, his means exhausted;  finally he surrendered his life, which was all that was left to him, to her adjudication.  But after she rejected him repeatedly, he asked the solace of a single night so that, soothed by it, he could restrain himself in the future.  A night was fixed, and Pontia gave a maidservant who was complicit with her the task of watching over the bedchamber.  Octavius, attended by a single freedman, brought in a sword concealed under his clothing.  Then, as usual in lovers’ quarrels, there were wrangles, entreaties, reproaches, apologies, and some period of the darkness was given up to passion;  as though enflamed by it, he ran her through with the steel when she was fearing nothing and, wounding and thereby scaring off the maidservant who was rushing to her, he burst out of the chamber.  The next day the murder became widely known, and there was no question as to the murderer, for it was proved that he had passed some time with her.  The freedman, however, avowed the deed was his, that he had avenged wrongs done to his patron.  He had made some impression on some people by the nobleness of his example until the maidservant recovered and revealed the truth.  Arraigned before the consuls by the father of the murdered woman, after having left the tribunate he was convicted through the verdict of the Senators under “the law concerning assassins.”

[13.45]  Non minus insignis eo anno impudicitia magnorum Rei Publicæ malorum initium fecit.  Erat in civitate Sabina Poppæa, T. Ollio patre genita, sed nomen avi materni sumpserat, illustri memoria Poppæi Sabini consularis et triumphali decore præfulgentis ;  nam Ollium honoribus nondum functum amicitia Sejani pervertit.  Huic mulieri cuncta alia fuere præter honestum animum.  Quippe mater ejus, ætatis suæ feminas pulchritudine supergressa, gloriam pariter et formam dederat ;  opes claritudine generis sufficiebant.  Sermo comis nec absurdum ingenium.  Modestiam præferre et lascivia uti ;  rarus in publicum egressus, idque velata parte oris, ne satiaret aspectum vel quia sic decebat.  Famæ nunquam pepercit, maritos et adulteros non distinguens.  Neque affectui suo aut alieno obnoxia :  unde utilitas ostenderetur, illuc libidinem transferebat.  Igitur agentem eam in matrimonio Rufri Crispini equitis Romani, ex quo filium genuerat, Otho pellexit juventa ac luxu et quia flagrantissimus in amicitia Neronis habebatur.  Nec mora quin adulterio matrimonium jungeretur.

[13.45]  A no less scandalous case of immorality in that same year {(i.e., a.D. 58)} proved the beginning of great evils to the State.  There was in the City one Sabina Poppæa;  her father was Titus Ollius, but she had assumed the name of her maternal grandfather, Poppæus Sabinus, a man of illustrious memory and preëminently distinguished by the honors of a consulship and a triumph.  As for Ollius, before he attained promotion, the friendship of Sejanus was his ruin.  This Poppæa had everything but an honorable character.  Her mother, who surpassed all the women of her day in beauty, had bequeathed to her fame and beauty alike.  Her wealth was commensurate with the nobility of her lineage.  Her speech was charming, nor was her intelligence uncouth.  She professed modesty, while she practiced lasciviousness.  She seldom went out in public, and it was always with her face partly veiled, either so as not to satisfy the stares or because it was seemly.  She never spared her reputation, making no distinction between husbands and lovers, while she was never under the control of her own or anyone else’s emotions.  She switched her lust to wherever there was a prospect of advantage.  And so while she was living married to Rufius Crispinus, a Roman knight by whom she had a son, Otho seduced her with his youth and extravagance, and by the fact that he was reputed to have Nero’s most ardent friendship.  Without delay marriage followed the adultery.

[13.46]  Otho, sive amore incautus, laudare formam elegantiamque uxoris apud principem, sive ut accenderet ac, si eadem femina potirentur, id quoque vinculum potentiam ei adjiceret.  Sæpe auditus est consurgens e convivio Cæsaris « se esse qui iret ad illam, sibi concessam dictitans nobilitatem, pulchritudinem — vota omnium et gaudia felicium ».  His atque talibus irritamentis non longa cunctatio interponitur sed, accepto aditu, Poppæa primum per blandimenta et artes valescere, imparem cupidini et forma Neronis captam simulans ;  mox acri jam principis amore ad superbiam vertens, si ultra unam alteramque noctem attineretur, nuptam esse se dictitans, nec posse matrimonium omittere, devinctam Othoni per genus vitæ quod nemo adæquaret :  « illum animo et cultu magnificum ;  ibi se summa fortuna digna visere.  At Neronem, pælici ancillæ assuetudine devinctum, nihil e contubernio servili nisi abjectum et sordidum traxisse ».

Dejicitur familiaritate sueta, post, congressu et comitatu Otho et, ad postremum, ne in Urbe æmulatus ageret, provinciæ Lusitaniæ præficitur ;  ubi usque ad civilia arma non ex priore infamia, sed integre sancteque egit, procax otii et potestatis temperantior.

[13.46]  Otho now began to praise his wife’s beauty and accomplishments in the emperor’s presence, either from a lover’s thoughtlessness or to inflame Nero’s passion in the hope of adding to his own influence by the bond resulting if they both possessed the same woman.  Often, rising from a dinner party of Cæsar’s, he was heard saying that he was the one going to her, to him had been granted nobility and beauty — things which were the wish of everyone and the joy of the fortunate.  With these and other such incitements, it did not take long:  having once gained admission, Poppæa grew in influence through blandishments and wiles, pretending that she could not control her passion and that she was captivated by Nero’s body.  Soon, as the emperor’s love grew ardent, she changed to aloofness and, if she were detained more than one or two nights, would say repeatedly that she was a married woman and could not give up her husband, attached as she was to Otho by a lifestyle which no one could equal:  he was a man of magnificent spirit and refinement, she said;  in him she saw things deserving of the highest fortune;  whereas Nero, bound by habit to a maidservant concubine {(i.e., Acte)}, had derived nothing from his servile cohabitation but what was debased and sordid.

Otho was now cut off from Nero’s usual intimacy, and after that from court gatherings and from the imperial retinue and, finally, to prevent his living as a rival in the City, he was appointed governor of the province of Lusitania.  There he lived up to the time of the civil wars, not in the fashion of his disgraceful past, but uprightly and virtuously, licentious in leisure and restrained in his exercise of power.

[13.47]  Hactenus Nero flagitiis et sceleribus velamenta quæsivit.  Suspectabat maxime Cornelium Sullam, socors ingenium ejus in contrarium trahens callidumque et simulatorem interpretando.  Quem metum Graptus ex libertis Cæsaris, usu et senecta Tiberio abusque domum principum edoctus, tali mendacio intendit :

pons Mulvius in eo tempore celebris nocturnis illecebris erat ;  ventitabatque illuc Nero, quo solutius Urbem extra lasciviret.  Igitur regredienti per viam Flaminiam compositas insidias fatoque evitatas, quoniam diverso itinere Sallustianos in hortos remeaverit, auctoremque ejus doli Sullam ementitur — quia forte redeuntibus ministris principis quidam per juvenilem licentiam (quæ tunc passim exercebatur) inanem metum fecerant.  Neque servorum quisquam neque clientium Sullæ agnitus, maximeque despecta et nullius ausi capax natura ejus a crimine abhorrebat :  proinde tamen, quasi convictus esset, cedere patria et Massiliensium mœnibus coërceri jubetur.

[13.47]  Hitherto Nero had sought a veil for his abominations and wickedness.  He was particularly suspicious of Cornelius Sulla, whose slow-wittedness he interpreted as really the reverse, inferring that he was, in fact, an artful dissembler.  One of the emperor’s freedmen, Graptus, due to his experience and old age well versed in the household of emperors ever since Tiberius, intensified these apprehensions by a lie as follows:

in those days the Mulvian bridge was a famous haunt of nocturnal temptations, and Nero used to go there to indulge his lechery more freely outside the city.  So Graptus fabricated the story that a trap had been set for him when returning along the Flaminian Way;  that Nero had had a fortuitous escape because he came back by a different route, through the Gardens of Sallust;  and that the man responsible for the plot was Sulla.  (Graptus hit upon this story because it so happend that the uproarious behavior of some young people — a widespread phenomenon at the time — had earlier struck groundless panic into some of the emperor’s servants on their way home.)  Not one, however, of Sulla’s slaves or clients had been recognised, and his character, despicable as it was and incapable of any daring act, was utterly at variance with the charge.  Still, just as if he had been found guilty, he was ordered to leave his country and be confined within the walls of Marseille.

[13.48]  Eisdem consulibus, auditæ Puteolanorum legationes, quas diversas ordo plebs ad Senatum miserant, illi vim multitudinis, hi magistratuum et primi cujusque avaritiam increpantes.  Eaque seditio ad saxa et minas ignium progressa ne cædem et arma proliceret, C. Cassius adhibendo remedio delectus.  Quia severitatem ejus non tolerabant, precante ipso ad Scribonios fratres ea cura transfertur, data cohorte Prætoria, cujus terrore et paucorum supplicio rediit oppidanis concordia.

[13.48]  During the same consulship {(a.D. 58)} a hearing was given to two conflicting deputations from Puteoli, sent to the Senate by the town council and by the populace.  The first spoke bitterly of the violence of the multitude;  the second, of the rapacity of the magistrates and of all the chief citizens.  In order that the disturbance, which had gone as far as stonings and threats of arson, might not lead on to bloodshed and armed fighting, Gajus Cassius was appointed to apply some remedy.  As they would not endure his severity, the charge of the affair was at his own request transferred to the brothers Scribonii, who were provided with a Prætorian cohort, the terror of which, coupled with the execution of a few individuals, restored peace to the townspeople.

[13.49]  Non referrem vulgarissimum Senatus consultum quo civitati Syracusanorum egredi numerum edendis gladiatoribus finitum permittebatur, nisi Pætus Thrasea contra dixisset præbuissetque materiem obtrectatoribus arguendæ sententiæ.  « ¿ Cur enim, si Rem Publicam egere libertate senatoria crederet, tam levia consectaretur ?  ¿ Quin de bello aut pace, de vectigalibus et legibus, quibusque aliis res Romana contineretur, suaderet dissuaderetve ?  Licere patribus, quotiens jus dicendæ sententiæ accepissent, quæ vellent expromere relationemque in ea postulare.  ¿ An solum emendatione dignum, ne Syracusis spectacula largius ederentur :  cetera per omnes imperii partes perinde egregia, quam si non Nero, sed Thrasea regimen eorum teneret ?  Quod si summa dissimulatione transmitterentur, ¡ quanto magis inanibus abstinendum ! »

Thrasea contra, rationem poscentibus amicis, « non præsentium ignarum, » respondebat, « ejusmodi consulta corrigere, sed patrum honori dare, ut manifestum fieret magnarum rerum curam non dissimulaturos qui animum etiam levissimis adverterent. »

[13.49]  I would not mention a quite commonplace decree of the Senate which allowed the city of Syracuse to exceed the prescribed number of its gladiatorial shows, had not Pætus Thrasea spoken against it and furnished his detractors with an opportunity for criticizing his opinion.  “Why,” it was asked, “if he thought that the state needed the independence of the Senate, was he pursuing such trifling matters?  Why should he not speak for or against peace and war, or on the taxes and laws and other matters sustaining the Roman state?  The senators, whenever they received the privilege of stating their opinion, were at liberty to say what they pleased and to require a motion in respect of it.  Was the only topic worthy of an amendment preventing shows from being given more abundantly in Syracuse?  Were all other matters in every part of the empire as well run as if Thrasea and not Nero had control of them?  But if the most important matters were passed over under false pretenses, how much more ought things wholly insignificant to be left alone.”

Thrasea in reply, when his friends asked him for an explanation, said “that it was not in ignorance of Rome’s current situation that he sought to correct such decrees, but that he was showing respect to the senators by making it evident that those who paid attention to even the merest trifles would not employ false pretenses in important affairs.”

[13.50]  Eodem anno crebris populi flagitationibus immodestiam publicanorum arguentis, dubitavit Nero an cuncta vectigalia omitti juberet idque pulcherrimum donum generi mortalium daret.  Sed impetum ejus, multum prius laudata magnitudine animi, attinuere seniores, dissolutionem imperii docendo, « si fructus quibus Res Publica sustineretur deminuerentur :  quippe, sublatis portoriis, sequens ut tributorum abolitio expostularetur.  Plerasque vectigalium societates a consulibus et tribunis plebis constitutas acri etiam tum populi Romani libertate ;  reliqua mox ita provisa, ut ratio quæstuum et necessitas erogationum inter se congruerent.  Temperandas plane publicanorum cupidines, ne per tot annos sine querela tolerata novis acerbitatibus ad invidiam verterent. »

[13.50]  That same year {(a.D. 58)}, because of repeated demands on the part of the people, who were denouncing the excessive greed of the tax collectors, Nero considered ordering the repeal of all indirect taxes, and so confer a most splendid boon on the human race.  But his initiative was checked by his senior advisers who, having first heartily praised the grandeur of his thinking, pointed out “that the dissolution of the empire must ensue if the revenues which supported the State were to be diminished;  for as soon as the customs taxes were done away with, there would follow a demand for the abolition of the direct taxes.  Many companies for the collection of the indirect taxes had been established by consuls and tribunes when the freedom of the Roman people still had its vitality, and the rest were subsequently imposed to ensure that the income accounts would match the necessary expenditures.  Certainly some restraint, they admitted, must be put on the cupidity of the tax collectors, that they might not by new embitterments bring into odium what for so many years had been endured without a complaint.”

[13.51]  Ergo edixit princeps ut leges cujusque publici, occultæ ad id tempus, proscriberentur ;  omissas petitiones non ultra annum resumerent ;  Romæ prætor, per provincias qui pro-prætore aut -consule essent, jura adversus publicanos extra ordinem redderent ;  militibus immunitas servaretur, nisi in eis quæ veno exercerent ;  aliaque admodum æqua quæ brevi servata, dein frustra habita sunt.  Manet tamen abolitio quadragesimæ {(centesimæ [= 1/40] = 2½%)} quinquagesimæque {(centesimæ [= 1/50] = 2%)} et quæ alia exactionibus illicitis nomina publicani invenerant.  Temperata apud transmarinas provincias frumenti subvectio, et ne censibus negotiatorum naves ascriberentur tributumque pro illis pendĕrent, constitutum.

[13.51]  Accordingly the emperor issued an edict that the regulations of every taxing authority, which had hitherto been kept secret, should be published;  that claims which had been dropped should not be revived after the lapse of a year;  that the prætor at Rome, the proprætor or proconsul in the provinces, should give priority out of turn to lawsuits against the collectors;  that the soldiers should retain their tax immunities except for things they were selling, and other very fair arrangements which were maintained for a short time and subsequently disregarded.  However, the abolition of the 2½% and 2% taxes remains in force, as well as that of others bearing names invented by the collectors to cover their illegal exactions.  In the overseas provinces the cost of grain transport was moderated, and it was decided that the ships of traders would not be counted in their assessments, and that they would not be taxed on them.

[13.52]  Reos ex provincia Africa qui proconsulare imperium illic habuerant, Sulpicium Camerinum et Pompejum Silvanum, absolvit Cæsar — Camerinum adversus privatos et paucos, sævitiæ magis quam captarum pecuniarum crimina objicientes.  Silvanum magna vis accusatorum circumsteterat poscebatque tempus evocandorum testium ;  reus ilico defendi postulabat.  Valuitque pecuniosa orbitate et senecta — quam ultra vitam eorum produxit quorum ambitu evaserat.

[13.52]  Two men under prosecution from Africa, in which province they had held proconsular authority, Sulpicius Camerinus and Pomponius Silvanus, were acquitted by the emperor.  Camerinus had against him a few private persons who charged him with cruelty rather than with embezzlement.  Silvanus was beset by a host of accusers who demanded time for summoning their witnesses, while the defendant insisted on mounting his defense at once.  And he prevailed through his wealthy childlessness and his old age — which he prolonged beyond the life of those by whose bribe-taking he had escaped.

[13.53]  Quietæ ad id tempus res in Germania fuerant, ingenio ducum qui, pervulgatis triumphi insignibus, majus ex eo decus sperabant si pacem continuavissent.  Paulinus Pompejus et L. Vetus ea tempestate exercitui præerant.  Ne tamen segnem militem attinerent, ille incohatum ante tres et sexaginta annos a Druso aggerem coërcendo Rheno absolvit, Vetus Mosellam atque Ararim, facta inter utrumque fossa, connectere parabat, ut copiæ per mare, dein Rhodano et Arare subvectæ per eam fossam, mox fluvio Mosella in Rhenum, exim Oceanum decurrerent, sublatisque itineris difficultatibus, navigabilia inter se Occidentis Septentrionisque litora fierent.  Invidit operi Ælius Gracilis, Belgicæ legatus, deterrendo Veterem ne legiones alienæ provinciæ inferret studiaque Galliarum affectaret, formidolosum id imperatori dictitans — quo plerumque prohibentur conatus honesti.

[13.53]  Up to this time {(ca. a.D. 55)} everything had been quiet in Germany, due to the skill of the generals who, now that triumphal decorations had become commonplace, hoped for greater glory by the maintenance of peace.  Paulinus Pompeius and Lucius Vetus were then in command of the army.  Still, to avoid keeping the soldiers inactive, the former completed the dike begun sixty-three years before by Drusus to contain the waters of the Rhine, while Vetus prepared to connect the Moselle and the Arar {(Saône)} by a canal, so that troops crossing the sea and then drawn up the Rhône and Arar {(Saône)} and through the canal might sail by the Moselle into the Rhine, and thence to the ocean.  Thus, with the difficulties of the route removed, the shores of the west {(i.e., of the south of Gaul, west of Italy)} and north might be navigable between each other.  Ælius Gracilis, the governor of Belgica, looking on this project invidiously, deterred Vetus from bringing his legions into someone else’s province and so drawing to himself the popularity of Gaul.  This result, he repeatedly said, would excite the fears of the emperor, an assertion by which meritorious undertakings are often hindered.

[13.54]  Ceterum, continuo exercituum otio, fama incessit ereptum jus legatis ducendi in hostem.  Eoque Frisii juventutem saltibus aut paludibus, imbellem ætatem per lacus admovere ripæ, agrosque vacuos et militum usui sepositos insedere, auctore Verrito et Malorige, qui nationem eam regebant — in quantum Germani regnantur.  Jamque fixerant domos, semina arvis intulerant utque patrium solum exercebant, quum Dubius Avitus, accepta a Paulino provincia, minitando vim Romanam, nisi abscederent Frisii veteres in locos aut novam sedem a Cæsare impetrarent, perpulit Verritum et Malorigem preces suscipere.

Profectique Romam, dum aliis curis intentum Neronem opperiuntur, inter ea quæ barbaris ostentantur, intravere Pompeji theatrum, quo magnitudinem populi viserent.  Illic per otium (neque enim ludicris ignari oblectabantur) dum consessum caveæ, discrimina ordinum, quis eques, ubi Senatus, percontantur, advertere quosdam cultu externo in sedibus senatorum :  et quinam forent rogitantes, postquam audiverant earum gentium legatis id honoris datum, quæ virtute et amicitia Romana præcellerent, nullos mortalium armis aut fide ante Germanos esse exclamant, degrediunturque et inter patres considunt.  Quod comiter a visentibus exceptum, quasi impetus antiqui et bona æmulatione.  Nero civitate Romana ambos donavit, Frisios decedere agris jussit.  Atque illis aspernantibus auxiliaris eques repente immissus necessitatem attulit, captis cæsisve qui pervicacius restiterant.

[13.54]  Meantime {(a.D. 59)}, from the continued inaction of our armies, a rumor arose that the commanders had been deprived of the right of leading them against the enemy.  Thereupon the Frisians moved their youth up into the forests and swamps, and their non-combatant age cohorts over the lakes {(i.e., the Zuidersee, the modern Ijsselmeer)} to the riverbank {(i.e., of the Rhine)}, and established themselves in unoccupied lands reserved for the use of our soldiers, under the leadership of Verritus and Malorix, who rule that tribe — insofar as Germans are ruled at all.  Already they had built houses, sown the arable land, and were working the soil as if it had been their ancestors’, when Dubius Avitus, who had succeeded Paulinus in the province, by threatening them with a Roman attack if they did not retire into their old country or obtain a new territory from the emperor, forced Verritus and Malorix to undertake a petition.

They departed for Rome and, while waiting for Nero who was intent on other engagements, among the sights shown to the barbarians they were admitted into Pompey’s theater to see the size of the population.  While idling around there (for in the entertainment, ignorant as they were, they found no amusement) they asked questions about the crowd on the benches, about the differences among the classes, who were the knights, where the Senate, till they observed some individuals in foreign dress in the seats of the senators.  Having asked who they were, when they were told that this honor was granted to envoys from those nations which were distinguished for their bravery and their friendship to Rome, they exclaimed that no men on earth surpassed the Germans in arms or in loyalty.  Then they went down and took their seat among the senators.  The spectators took the act goodnaturedly, as due to primitive impulsiveness and to a well-meant rivalry.  Nero bestowed Roman citizenship on both of them and ordered the Frisians to withdraw from the territory in question.  When they disdained obedience, auxiliary cavalry was suddenly sent in and applied compulsion, capturing or slaughtering those who obstinately resisted.

[13.55]  Eosdem agros Ampsivarii occupavere, validior gens non modo sua copia, sed adjacentium populorum miseratione, quia pulsi a Chaucis et sedis inopes tutum exilium orabant.  Aderatque eis clarus per illas gentes et nobis quoque fidus, nomine Bojocalus, vinctum se rebellione Cherusca jussu Arminii referens, mox Tiberio et Germanico ducibus stipendia meruisse, et quinquaginta annorum obsequio id quoque adjungere quod gentem suam dicioni nostræ subjiceret.  « ¡ Quotam partem campi jacēre, in quam pecora et armenta militum aliquando transmitterentur !  Servarent sane receptus gregibus ;  inter hominum famem, modo ne vastitatem et solitudinem mallent quam amicos populos.  Chamavorum quondam ea arva, mox Tubantum et post Usiporum fuisse.  Sicuti cælum deis, ita terras generi mortalium datas ;  quæque vacuæ, eas publicas esse. »  Solem inde suspiciens et cetera sidera vocans quasi coram interrogabat, « vellentne contueri inane solum :  potius mare superfunderent adversus terrarum ereptores. »

[13.55]  This same territory was now taken over by the Ampsivarii, a tribe more powerful not only because of their numbers, but due to the sympathy of the neighboring peoples, as they had been expelled by the Chauci and were begging, as homeless outcasts, for a safe exile.  Their cause was pleaded by a man, famous among those nations and loyal to Rome, Bojocalus by name, who reminded us that during the Cheruscan revolt he had been imprisoned by the order of Arminius, that afterwards he had done military service under the leadership of Tiberius and Germanicus, and that to his fifty years’ of obedience he was now also adding the subordination of his people to our authority.  “What a small fraction of fallow prairie it is,” he would say, “into which the soldiers’ cattle and smaller livestock are occasionally sent!  Let them by all means maintain reservations for their herds ;  only, while men are starving, let them not prefer a wasteland and a desert to friendly nations.  These fields once belonged to the Chamavi;  then to the Tubantes;  after them to the Usipii.  As heaven is for the gods, so the earth has been given to mankind, and lands that are uninhabited are common to all.”  Then looking up to the sun and invoking the other heavenly bodies, he asked them, as though face-to-face with them, “whether they wished to look on empty soil;  rather, let them submerge it beneath the sea against those land robbers.”

[13.56]  Nec commotus his Avitus :  « patienda meliorum imperia ;  id dis quos implorarent placitum, ut arbitrium penes Romanos maneret, quid darent, quid adimerent, neque alios judices quam se ipsos paterentur. »

Hæc in publicum Ampsivariis respondit, ipsi Bojocalo ob memoriam amicitiæ daturum agros.  Quod ille ut proditionis pretium aspernatus addidit, “Deesse nobis terra in vitam ;  in qua moriamur, non potest.”  Atque ita infensis utrimque animis discessum.

Illi Bructeros, Tencteros, ulteriores etiam nationes socias bello vocabant ;  Avitus scripto ad Curtilium Manciam, Superioris exercitum legatum, ut Rhenum transgressus arma a tergo ostenderet, ipse legiones in agrum Tencterum induxit, excidium minitans ni causam suam dissociarent.  Igitur absistentibus his, pari metu exterriti Bructeri ;  et ceteris quoque aliena pericula deserentibus sola Ampsivariorum gens retro ad Usipos et Tubantes concessit.  Quorum terris exacti, quum Chattos, dein Cheruscos petissent, errore longo hospites, egeni, hostes in alieno quod juventutis erat cæduntur, imbellis ætas in prædam divisa est.

[13.56]  Avitus was unmoved by this speech and said that they must submit to the rule of their betters — that the gods to whom they were appealing had willed that the decision as to what should be given or taken from them was to rest with the Romans, who would allow none but themselves to be judges.

This was his public answer to the Ampsivarii;  to Bojocalus personally he would give land in remembrance of their past friendship.  Bojocalus spurned the offer as the price of treason, adding, “We may lack a land to live in;  we cannot lack one to die in.”  And so they parted in mutual hostility.

The Ampsivarii now called on the Bructeri, the Tencteri, and yet more distant tribes to be their allies in war.  Avitus, having written to Curtilius Mancia, commander of the Upper army, asking him to cross the Rhine and show his troops in the enemy’s rear, himself led his legions into the territory of the Tencteri and threatened them with extermination unless they dissociated themselves from the cause.  So with the Tencteri backing off, the Bructeri were intimidated by the same terror.  And with the rest also deserting the dangers of a people other than their own, the Ampsivarian tribe, isolated, withdrew to the Usipii and Tubantes.  Driven out of their territories, they sought refuge with the Chatti and then with the Cherusci, and after long wanderings successively as guests, as indigents, as enemies in lands not their own, their entire youth were slain, and the non-combatant age cohorts were apportioned as booty.

[13.57]  Eadem æstate inter Hermunduros Chattosque certatum magno prœlio, dum flumen gignendo sale fecundum et conterminum vi trahunt — super libidinem cuncta armis agendi —, religione insita, « eos maxime locos propinquare cælo, precesque mortalium a deis nusquam propius audiri.  Inde indulgentia numinum illo in amne illisque silvis ita salem provenire, non ut alias apud gentes eluvie maris arescente, sed, unda super ardentem arborum struem fusa, ex contrariis inter se elementis — igne atque aquis — concretum. »  Sed bellum Hermunduris prosperum, Chattis exitiosius fuit, quia victores diversam aciem Marti ac Mercurio sacravere, quo voto equi, viri, cuncta occidioni dantur.  Et minæ quidem hostiles in ipsos vertebant.

Sed civitas Ubiorum, socia nobis, malo improviso afflicta est.  Nam ignes terra editi villas, arva, vicos passim corripiebant ferebanturque in ipsa conditæ nuper coloniæ mœnia.  Neque exstingui poterant, non si imbres caderent, non si fluvialibus aquis aut quo alio humore donec, inopia remedii et ira cladis, agrestes quidam eminus saxa jacĕre, dein, resistentibus flammis propius suggressi, ictu fustium aliisque verberibus ut feras absterrebant.  Postremo tegmina corpori derepta injiciunt, quanto magis profana et usu polluta, tanto magis oppressura ignes.

[13.57]  The same summer a great battle was fought between the Hermunduri and the Chatti, both forcibly claiming a river which produced salt in abundance and formed the common boundary between them, with the superstition being ingrained in them (besides their love of solving everything through armed conflict) that such localities are particularly near to heaven, and that the prayers of mortals are nowhere heard by the gods in closer proximity.  Hence it was by the beneficence of the divinties, they thought, that in that stream and those woods salt was produced in the way that it was (not, as among other races, by the evaporation of tidal overflows, but by water poured over a pile of burning trees — crystallization due to the mutually contrary elements of fire and water).  The war was a success for the Hermunduri, and the more disastrous to the Chatti because whichever side was victorious consecrated the opposing troops to Mars {= Tew, cf. Tuesday} and Mercury {= Wōōden, cf. Wednesday}, by which vow horses, men, everything indeed are given over to slaughter.  And so the threat of our enemies recoiled on themselves.

Meanwhile, a tribe in alliance with us, that of the Ubii, suffered grievously from an unexpected calamity.  Fires issuing from the earth everywhere engulfed country houses, crops and villages, and were carried inside the very walls of the newly founded colony.  They could also not be extinguished by rainfall or river-water or any other liquid, until some countryfolk, lacking any remedy and angry at the disaster, threw stones from a distance and then, as the flames came to a standstill, approached closer tried to scare them away, like wild animals, with blows by clubs and other beatings.  In the end they stripped off their clothes and threw them on the fire, and the dirtier and more soiled they were from use, the more effective they were in smothering the fires.

[13.58]  Eodem anno Ruminalem arborem in comitio, quæ octingentos et triginta ante annos Remi Romulique infantiam texerat, mortuis ramalibus et arescente trunco deminutam, prodigii loco habitum est, donec in novos fetus reviresceret.

[13.58]  That same year, the fact that the Ruminal fig-tree in the Comitium, which 840 years before had sheltered the infancy of Romulus and Remus, had shrivelled, due to the death of its branches and the drying up of its trunk, was accounted a portent, until it began to put forth fresh shoots.