[14.1]  Gajo Vipstano C. Fontejo consulibus, diu meditatum scelus non ultra Nero distulit, vetustate imperii coalita audacia et flagrantior in dies amore Poppææ, quæ sibi matrimonium et discidium Octaviæ incolumi Agrippina haud sperans crebris criminationibus, aliquando per facetias incusare principem et pupillum vocare, qui jussis alienis obnoxius non modo imperii, sed libertatis etiam indigeret.  « ¿ Cur enim differri nuptias suas ?  ¿ Formam scilicet displicere et triumphales avos, an fecunditatem et verum animum ?  Timeri ne uxor saltem injurias patrum, iram populi adversus superbiam avaritiamque matris aperiat.  Quodsi nurum Agrippina non nisi filio infestam ferre posset, redderetur ipsa Othonis conjugio :  ituram quoque terrarum, ubi audiret potius contumelias imperatoris quam viseret, periculis ejus immixta. »  Hæc atque talia lacrimis et arte adulteræ penetrantia nemo prohibebat, cupientibus cunctis infringi potentiam matris et credente nullo usque ad cædem ejus duratura filii odia.

[14.1]  In the year of the consulship of Gajus Vipstanus and Gajus Fontejus {(a.D. 59)}, Nero deferred no more a long meditated crime.  Length of power had matured his daring, and his passion for Poppæa daily grew more ardent.  As the woman had no hope of marriage for herself or of Octavia’s divorce while Agrippina lived, she would reproach the emperor with incessant vituperation and sometimes call him in jest a mere ward who was under the rule of others, and was so far from having empire that he did not even have his own freedom.  “Why,” she asked, “was her marriage being deferred?  Was it, indeed, her shapeliness and her ancestors, with their triumphal honors, that failed to please — or her fecundity and her sincere heart?  No;  the fear was that, at least as a wife, she would divulge the insults done to the Senate and the anger of the people at the arrogance and avarice of his mother.  If Agrippina could bear no daughter-in-law other than one antagonistic to her son, let her be restored to her union with Otho.  She would go anywhere in the world, where she might hear of the insults heaped on the emperor, rather than witness them, and be also enmeshed in his perils.”  No one tried to limit these and similar complaints, rendered so penetrating by the tears and cunning of an adulteress, as all longed to see the mother’s power broken, while none believed that the son’s hatred would steel his heart to her murder.

[14.2]  Tradit Cluvius ardore retinendæ Agrippinam potentiæ eo usque provectam ut, medio diei, quum id temporis Nero per vinum et epulas incalesceret, offerret se sæpius temulento comptam in incesto paratam ;  jamque lasciva oscula et prænuntias flagitii blanditias annotantibus proximis, Senecam contra muliebres illecebras subsidium a femina petivisse, immissamque Acten libertam quæ, simul suo periculo et infamia Neronis anxia, deferret pervulgatum esse incestum, gloriante matre, nec toleraturos milites profani principis imperium.  Fabius Rusticus non Agrippinæ sed Neroni cupitum id memorat, ejusdemque libertæ astu disjectum.  Sed quæ Cluvius, eadem ceteri quoque auctores prodidere, et fama huc inclinat — seu concepit animo tantum immanitatis Agrippina, seu credibilior novæ libidinis meditatio in ea visa est quæ puellaribus annis stuprum cum M. Lepido spe dominationis admiserat, pari cupidine usque ad libita Pallantis provoluta et exercita ad omne flagitium patrui nuptiis.

[14.2]  Cluvius relates that Agrippina, in her burning desire to retain her influence, went so far that more than once at midday, when Nero — even at that hour — was flushed with wine and feasting, she offered herself to her intoxicated son, voluptuously attired and ready for incest, and that when the immediate entourage observed their lascivious kisses and fondling, preludes to sexual depravity, it was Seneca who sought a female’s aid against womanly seduction and sent in Acte, the freed-girl, who, worried both about her own peril and Nero’s disgrace, was to tell him that the incest was widely known, with his mother boasting of it, and that the soldiers would not tolerate the rule of a perverted sovereign.  Fabius Rusticus recounts that it was not Agrippina but Nero who lusted for the crime, and that it was by the strategems of that same freed-girl that it was frustrated.  Cluvius’s account, however, is the same as what the other authors also transmit, and popular opinion inclines to it — whether Agrippina actually did conceive such monstrosity in her heart, or whether interest in new debauchery seemed more believable in a woman who in her girlhood years had engaged in adultery with Marcus Lepidus {(her sister’s husband)} in her hope for power, who through the same passion had lowered herself to the lusts of Pallas, and who had trained herself for every debasement through her marriage with her uncle.

[14.3]  Igitur Nero vitare secretos ejus congressus :  abscedentem in hortos aut Tusculanum vel Antiatem in agrum laudare quod otium capesseret.  Postremo, ubicumque haberetur prægravem ratus, interficere constituit, hactenus consultans, veneno an ferro vel qua alia vi.  Placuitque primo venenum.  Sed inter epulas principis si daretur, referri ad casum non poterat, tali jam Britannici exitio ;  et ministros temptare arduum videbatur, mulieris usu scelerum adversus insidias intentæ;  atque ipsa præsumendo remedia munierat corpus.  Ferrum et cædes quonam modo occultaretur, nemo reperiebat ;  et ne quis illi tanto facinori delectus jussa sperneret, metuebat.

Obtulit ingenium Anicetus libertus, classi apud Misenum præfectus et pueritiæ Neronis educator ac mutuis odiis Agrippinæ invisus.  Ergo navem posse componi docet, cujus pars ipso in mari, per artem soluta, effunderet ignaram :  nihil tam capax fortuitorum quam mare ;  et si naufragio intercepta sit, ¿ quem adeo iniquum, ut sceleri assignet, quod venti et fluctus deliquerint ?  Additurum principem defunctæ templum et aras et cetera ostentandæ pietati.

[14.3]  Nero accordingly avoided secret meetings with her, and when she withdrew to her gardens or to her estates at Tusculum and Antium, he praised her for taking a rest.  At last, deciding that, wherever she might be, she was too burdensome, he resolved to kill her, mulling over only whether it should be by poison or sword or some other violent means.  Poison at first seemed best, but, were it to be administered at the imperial table, the result could not be referred to chance, given the same type of death in the case of Britannicus.  Again, to tamper with the servants of a woman who, from her experience in crime, was on her guard against treachery, appeared to be extremely difficult;  moreover, she had fortified her constitution by the use of antidotes.  How again the dagger and its work were to be kept secret, no one could suggest, and he feared that whoever might be chosen to execute such a crime would spurn the order.

An ingenious suggestion was offered by Anicetus, a freedman, commander of the fleet at Misenum, who had been tutor to Nero in boyhood and was resented by Agrippina with a hatred that was mutual.  He explained that a vessel could be constructed, of which a section might come apart by artifice when out at sea, so as to plunge her overboard unawares.  “Nothing,” he said, “was so full of risk as the sea, and should she be taken out by shipwreck, who would be so unfair as to impute to crime an offense for which the winds and waves were to blame?  The emperor would add the honor of a temple and of shrines to the deceased lady, with every other display of filial affection.”

[14.4]  Placuit sollertia, tempore etiam juta, quando Quinquatruum festos dies apud Bajas frequentabat.  Illuc matrem elicit, ferendas parentium iracundias et placandum animum dictitans, quo rumorem reconciliationis efficeret ;  acciperetque Agrippina, facili feminarum credulitate ad gaudia.  Venientem dehinc obvius in litora (nam Antio adventabat) excepit manu et complexu, ducitque Baulos.  Id villæ nomen est quæ promunturium Misenum inter et Bajanum lacum flexo mari alluitur.  Stabat inter alias navis ornatior, tanquam id quoque honori matris daretur ;  quippe sueverat triremi et classiariorum remigio vehi.  Ac tum invitata ad epulas erat, ut occultando facinori nox adhiberetur.

Satis constitit exstitisse proditorem, et Agrippinam, auditis insidiis, an crederet ambiguam, gestamine sellæ Bajas pervectam.  Ibi blandimentum sublevavit metum :  comiter excepta superque ipsum collocata.  Jam pluribus sermonibus, modo familiaritate juvenili Nero, et rursus adductus quasi seria consociaret, tracto in longum convictu, prosequitur abeuntem, artius oculis et pectori hærens, sive explenda simulatione seu perituræ matris supremus aspectus quamvis ferum animum retinebat.

[14.4]  Nero liked the cunning plan, favored as it also was by the particular time, for he was celebrating Minerva’s Fifth-Day’s festivities at Bajæ.  He enticed his mother there by repeated assurances that children ought to bear with the irritability of parents and soothe their tempers, saying this in order thereby to spread a rumor of reconciliation and so that Agrippina would accept it with the easy credulity of women regarding happy things.  As she approached, he went to the shore to meet her (she was coming from Antium), welcomed her with outstretched hand and an embrace, and conducted her to Bauli.  This was the name of a villa, washed by a bay of the sea, between the promontory of Misenum and the lagoon of Bajæ.  Here there was a vessel more ornate than the others, as though meant to do honor to his mother;  for she had been accustomed to sail in a trireme, with a crew of marines.  And then she had been invited to a banquet, so that night might serve to conceal the crime.

It was well established that there was some informer and that Agrippina, having heard of the plot and ambivalent about believing it, was conveyed to Bajæ in her litter.  There the blandishments allayed her fear;  she was graciously received and seated at table above the emperor.  Nero prolonged the banquet with varying talk, now with youthful familiarity, and again with furrowed brow as though sharing serious matters with her, and then, after protracted festivity, escorted her on her departure, fastening particularly closely upon her eyes and breast, either to crown his hypocrisy or because the last sight of a mother about to die caused hesitation even in his bestial heart.

[14.5]  Noctem sideribus illustrem et placido mari quietam quasi convincendum ad scelus dii præbuere.  Nec multum erat progressa navis, duobus e numero familiarium Agrippinam comitantibus, ex quis Creperejus Gallus haud procul gubernaculis astabat, Acerronia, super pedes cubitantis reclinis, pænitentiam filii et recuperatam matris gratiam per gaudium memorabat quum, dato signo, ruere tectum loci multo plumbo grave, pressusque Creperejus et statim exanimatus est :  Agrippina et Acerronia, eminentibus lecti parietibus ac forte validioribus quam ut oneri cederent, protectæ sunt.  Nec dissolutio navigii sequebatur, turbatis omnibus et quod plerique ignari etiam conscios impediebant.  Visum dehinc remigibus unum in latus inclinare atque ita navem summergere ;  sed neque ipsis promptus in rem subitam consensus, et alii contra nitentes dedere facultatem lenioris in mare jactus.  Verum Acerronia, imprudentia dum se Agrippinam esse utque subveniretur matri principis clamitat, contis et remis et quæ fors obtulerat navalibus telis conficitur.  Agrippina silens eoque minus agnita (unum tamen vulnus umero excepit) nando, deinde occursu lenunculorum Lucrinum in lacum vecta villæ suæ infertur.

[14.5]  The gods provided a night bright with stars and quiet with a placid sea, as though to make the charge of a crime convincing.  The vessel had not gone far (Agrippina having with her two of her intimate attendants, one of whom, Creperejus Gallus, was standing not far from the tiller, while Acerronia, leaning over the feet of Agrippina, who was lying down, was cheerfully recalling her son’s repentance and the recovery of the mother’s influence) when, on a given signal, the place’s ceiling, heavily loaded with lead, collapsed, and Creperejus was crushed and instantly killed.  Agrippina and Acerronia were protected by the projecting walls of the bed, which by chance were too strong to yield under the weight.  The disintegration of the vessel did not follow either, due to the fact that everyone was confused and most, who knew nothing, also impeded the accomplices.  It then seemed best to the oarsmen to turn the ship on its side and thereby sink it;  but there was no quick consensus about the sudden emergency even among them, and others, straining in the opposite direction, made a smoother slide into the sea possible.  Acerronia, however, thoughtlessly crying out that she was Agrippina and for help to come to the emperor’s mother, was killed with poles and oars and whatever naval implements chance offered.  Agrippina, silent and thus less recognized (still, she did receive a wound in her shoulder), swam, then met with some small boats which conveyed her to the Lucrine lagoon, and so was brought to her own villa.

[14.6]  Illic reputans ideo se fallacibus litteris accitam, et honore præcipuo habitam, quodque litus juxta, non ventis acta, non saxis impulsa navis summa sui parte veluti terrestre machinamentum concĭdisset, observans etiam Acerroniæ necem, simul suum vulnus aspiciens, solum insidiarum remedium esse sensit, si non intellegi viderentur ;  misitque libertum Agermum, qui nuntiaret filio benignitate deum et fortuna ejus evasisse gravem casum ;  orare ut, quamvis periculo matris exterritus, visendi curam differret ;  sibi ad præsens quiete opus.  Atque interim, securitate simulata, medicamina vulneri et fomenta corpori adhibet et testamentum Acerroniæ requiri bonaque obsignari jubet (id tantum non per simulationem).

[14.6]  There she reflected how for this very purpose she had been invited by a duplicitous letter and treated with extraordinary honor, how also it was near the shore, not from being driven by winds or dashed on rocks, that the vessel had collapsed from its top part like some apparatus on land;  observing too the murder of Acerronia, and at the same time looking at her own wound, she realized that her only remedy against the plot was to seem not to understand it. Then she sent her freedman Agermus to tell her son how by the favor of the gods and his good fortune she had escaped a serious accident;  that she begged him, no matter how alarmed by the danger to his mother, to put off the duty of a visit:  at the moment what she needed was rest.  Meanwhile, pretending unconcern, she applied medication to her wound and dressings to her body and ordered Acerronia’s will to be sought and her property sealed (that alone not in pretense).

[14.7]  At Neroni nuntios patrati facinoris opperienti affertur evasisse ictu levi sauciam — et hactenus adito discrimine, ne auctor dubitaretur.  Tum pavore exanimis et jam jamque affore obtestans vindictæ properam, sive servitia armaret vel militem accenderet, sive ad Senatum et populum pervaderet, naufragium et vulnus et interfectos amicos objiciendo :  ¿ Quod contra subsidium sibi ?  Nisi quid Burrus et Seneca reperirent ;  quos experiens statim acciverat, incertum an et ante gnaros.  Igitur longum utriusque silentium, ne irriti dissuaderent, an eo descensum credebant ut, nisi præveniretur Agrippina, pereundum Neroni esset.  Post Seneca hactenus promptius, ut respiceret Burrum ac sciscitaretur, an militi imperanda cædes esset.  Ille « Prætorianos toti Cæsarum domui obstrictos memoresque Germanici nihil adversus progeniem ejus atrox ausuros » respondit :  « perpetraret Anicetus promissa. »

Qui nihil cunctatus poscit summam sceleris.  Ad eam vocem Nero « illo sibi die dari imperium, auctoremque tanti muneris libertum » profitetur :  « iret propere duceretque promptissimos ad jussa. »  Ipse audito venisse missu Agrippinæ nuntium Agermum, scænam ultro criminis parat, gladiumque, dum mandata perfert, abjicit inter pedes ejus, tum quasi deprehenso vincla injici jubet, ut exitium principis molitam matrem et pudore deprehensi sceleris sponte mortem sumpsisse confingeret.

[14.7]  Nero, meantime, as he waited for tidings of the consummation of the deed, received information that she had escaped with the injury of a slight wound, having approached the danger only to the point that there could be no doubt as to its author.  Then, paralysed with terror and protesting that she would show herself the next moment eager for vengeance, either arming the slaves or stirring up the soldiery, or hastening to the Senate and the people, to charge him with the shipwreck, with her wound, and with the killing of her friends, he asked what resource he had against all this, unless something could be invented by Burrus and Seneca.  To give them a try, he had them immediately summoned (it being uncertain whether they were in the know even before this).  There was a long silence on their part;  they feared it would be useless to oppose him or believed that things had deteriorated to the point where Nero would have to perish unless Agrippina were forestalled.  Thereupon Seneca was the first to respond, inasmuch as he looked back at Burrus and asked him whether the soldiery could be commanded to kill her.  Burrus replied “that the Prætorians were sworn to the entire house of the Cæsars and, mindful of Germanicus, would not dare a savage deed against his progeny.  It was for Anicetus to accomplish his promise.”

Without hesitating, Anicetus demanded the consummation of the crime by himself.  At those words, Nero declared that that day gave him empire, and that a freedman was the author of this great gift.  “Go,” he said, “with all speed and take with you the men readiest to execute your orders.”  He himself, when he had heard of the arrival of Agrippina’s messenger, Agermus, set the stage for accusation on his own and, while the man was conveying his instructions, threw down a sword at his feet, then ordered him to be put in irons, as though caught in the act, so that he might invent a story about how his mother had plotted the emperor’s death and in shame over the discovered crime had by her own choice sought death.

[14.8]  Interim vulgato Agrippinæ periculo, quasi casu evenisset, ut quisque acceperat, decurrere ad litus.  Hi molium objectus, hi proximas scaphas scandere ;  alii, quantum corpus sinebat, vadere in mare ;  quidam manus protendere.  Questibus, votis, clamore diversa rogitantium aut incerta respondentium omnis ora compleri ;  affluere ingens multitudo cum luminibus, atque ubi incolumem esse pernotuit, ut ad gratandum sese expedire, donec aspectu armati et minitantis agminis dejecti sunt.

Anicetus villam statione circumdat, refractaque janua obvios servorum abripit, donec ad fores cubiculi veniret ;  cui pauci astabant, ceteris terrore irrumpentium exterritis.  Cubiculo modicum lumen inerat et ancillarum una, magis ac magis anxia Agrippina, quod nemo a filio ac ne Agermus quidem :  aliam fore lætæ rei faciem ;  nunc solitudinem ac repentinos strepitus et extremi mali indicia.  Abeunte dehinc ancilla, “¿ Tu quoque me deseris ?” prolocuta, respicit Anicetum, trierarcho Herculejo et Obarito centurione classiario comitatum :  ac « si ad visendum venisset, refotam nuntiaret, sin facinus patraturus, nihil se de filio credere ;  non imperatum parricidium. »  Circumsistunt lectum percussores, et prior trierarchus fusti caput ejus afflixit.  Jam in mortem centurioni ferrum destringenti protendens uterum “¡ Ventrem feri !” exclamavit, multisque vulneribus confecta est.

[14.8]  Meantime, with Agrippina’s danger having become publicly known and taken to be an accident, everybody, the moment he heard of it, hurried down to the beach.  Some climbed the breakwaters of the dikes;  some the nearest vessels ;  others, as far as their stature allowed, waded into the sea;  some stretched out their arms, while the whole shore rang with wailings, prayers and cries as different questions were asked or uncertain answers given.  A huge multitude streamed to the spot with torches, and as soon as all knew that she was safe, they at once prepared to congratulate her — till the sight of an armed and threatening force scared them away.

Anicetus then surrounded the house with a guard and, having broken down the door, dragged off the slaves who met him until he came to the door of her bedchamber where a few still stood, after the rest had fled in terror at the break-in.  A dim lamp was in the room and one handmaid with Agrippina, who was more and more anxious, since there was no messenger from her son, not even Agermus:  the aspect of a propitious situation would be different;  now there was isolation and a sudden racket and foretokens of extreme trouble.  As her handmaid started to depart, she exclaimed, “Are you deserting me too?” and looking round saw Anicetus, who had with him the captain of the trireme, Herculejus, and Obaritus, a marine centurion.  “If,” said she, “you have come on a visit, take back word that I have recovered, but if you are here to perpetrate a crime, I do not at all believe it is due to my son;  he has not ordered his mother’s murder.”  The assassins closed in round her bed, and the captain of the trireme first struck her head violently with a club.  As the centurion then drew his sword to kill her, she displayed her vulva and exclaimed, “Strike my womb,” and with many wounds she was slain.

[14.9]  Hæc consensu produntur.  Aspexeritne matrem exanimem Nero et formam corporis ejus laudaverit, sunt qui tradiderint, sunt qui abnuant.  Cremata est nocte eadem convivali lecto et exsequiis vilibus ;  neque, dum Nero rerum potiebatur, congesta est aut clausa humus.  Mox domesticorum cura levem tumulum accepit, viam Miseni propter et villam Cæsaris dictatoris, quæ subjectos sinus editissima prospectat.  Accenso rogo libertus ejus cognomento Mnester se ipse ferro transegit, incertum caritate in patronam an metu exitii.

Hunc sui finem multos ante annos crediderat Agrippina contempseratque.  Nam consulenti super Nerone responderunt Chaldæi, fore ut imperaret matremque occīderet ;  atque illa, “Occīdat” inquit, “dum imperet.”

[14.9]  So far our accounts agree.  That Nero gazed on his mother after her death and praised the shapeliness of her corpse, some have related, while others deny it.  Her body was burnt that same night on a dining couch and with a cheap funeral;  nor, as long as Nero was in power, was the earth heaped into a mound or even enclosed.  (Subsequently she received, from the solicitude of her domestics, a humble burial mound on the road to Misenum, near the villa of Cæsar the Dictator, which from its lofty elevation looks out over the bays beneath.)  When the funeral pyre was lighted, a freedman of hers, surnamed Mnester, ran himself through with a sword, it being uncertain whether from love of his patroness or from the fear of execution.

That this would be her end Agrippina had believed many years previously, and had trivialized it.  For when she consulted the Chaldean astrologers about Nero, they replied that he would be emperor and kill his mother.  “Let him kill,” she said, “provided he is emperor.”

[14.10]  Sed a Cæsare, perfecto demum scelere, magnitudo ejus intellecta est.  Reliquo noctis modo per silentium defixus, sæpius pavore exsurgens et mentis inops lucem opperiebatur tanquam exitium allaturam.  Atque eum auctore Burro prima centurionum tribunorumque adulatio ad spem firmavit, prensantium manum gratantiumque, quod discrimen improvisum et matris facinus evasisset.  Amici dehinc adire templa, et cœpto exemplo proxima Campaniæ municipia victimis et legationibus lætitiam testari :  ipse diversa simulatione mæstus et quasi incolumitati suæ infensus ac morti parentis illacrimans.  Quia tamen non, ut hominum vultus, ita locorum facies mutantur, obversabaturque maris illius et litorum gravis aspectus (et erant qui crederent sonitum tubæ collibus circum editis planctusque tumulo matris audiri), Neapolim concessit litterasque ad Senatum misit, quarum summa erat repertum cum ferro percussorem Agermum, ex intimis Agrippinæ libertis, et luisse eam pœnam conscientia, quasi scelus paravisset.

[14.10]  But it was only after the crime was finally completed that its enormity was realized by the emperor.  The rest of the night, now silent and stupified, more often starting up in terror, bereft of reason, he awaited the dawn as if it would bring with it his doom.  He was first encouraged to hope by the adulation addressed to him, at the prompting of Burrus, by the centurions and tribunes, who again and again pressed his hand and congratulated him on his having escaped an unforeseen danger and his mother’s criminal act.  Then his friends went to the temples, and, an example having once been set, the neighboring towns of Campania testified to their joy with sacrifices and deputations.  He himself, with the opposite pretense, acted sad, as if angry at his own deliverance, and shedding tears over his mother’s death.  But as the aspects of places do not change as do the looks of men, and as he had ever before his eyes the dreary sight of that sea and its shores (some too believed that the notes of a funereal trumpet were heard from the surrounding heights, and wailings from the mother’s grave mound), he withdrew to Neapolis and sent a letter to the Senate, the drift of which was that Agermus, one of Agrippina’s confidential freedmen, had been discovered with the sword of an assassin, and that in the consciousness of having engineered the crime she had paid its penalty.

[14.11]  Adjiciebat crimina longius repetita :  « quod consortium imperii, juraturasque in feminæ verba Prætorias cohortes, idemque dedecus Senatus et populi speravisset ;  ac postquam frustra habita sit, infensa militi patribusque et plebi, dissuasisset donativum et congiarium, periculaque viris illustribus struxisset.  ¡ Quanto suo labore perpetratum, ne irrumperet curiam, ne gentibus externis responsa daret ! »  Temporum quoque Claudianorum obliqua insectatione, cuncta ejus dominationis flagitia in matrem transtulit, publica fortuna exstinctam referens — namque et naufragium narrabat.

Quod fortuitum fuisse, ¿ quis adeo hebes inveniretur ut crederet ?  ¿ Aut a muliere naufraga missum cum telo unum qui cohortes et classes imperatoris perfringeret ?

Ergo non jam Nero, cujus immanitas omnium questus anteibat, sed Seneca adverso rumore erat, quod oratione tali confessionem scripsisset.

[14.11]  He revived charges from further back — how she had hoped for joint rule, and to have the Prætorian cohorts swear obedience to a woman, and for the same dishonor on the part of the Senate and people;  how, after having been frustrated, and angry with the soldiers, the Senate and the populace, she had opposed their donative and largess and devised dangers for distinguished citizens.  What efforts had it cost him to keep her from bursting into the Senate chamber and giving her answers to foreign nations!  With indirect criticism of the days of Claudius too, he ascribed all of the latter’s crimes to his mother, saying that it was through the fortune of the Republic that she had been destroyed — for he even told the story of the shipwreck.

What person could be found who was so stupid as to believe that it was accidental, or that a shipwrecked woman had sent one man with a weapon to break through an emperor’s guards and fleets?

As a result it was no longer Nero, whose barbarism outdistanced everyone’s complaints, but Seneca, who was in bad repute because with such a speech he had written his confession.

[14.12]  Miro tamen certamine procerum decernuntur supplicationes apud omnia pulvinaria, utque Quinquatrus, quibus apertæ insidiæ essent, ludis annuis celebrarentur, aureum Minervæ simulacrum in curia et juxta principis imago statuerentur, dies natalis Agrippinæ inter nefastos esset.  Thrasea Pætus, silentio vel brevi assensu priores adulationes transmittere solitus, exiit tum Senatu, ac sibi causam periculi fecit, ceteris libertatis initium non præbuit.  Prodigia quoque crebra et irrita intercessere :  anguem enixa mulier, et alia in concubitu mariti fulmine exanimata ;  jam sol repente obscuratus et tactæ de cælo quattuordecim Urbis regiones.  Quæ adeo sine cura deum eveniebant, ut multos postea annos Nero imperium et scelera continuaverit.  Ceterum quo gravaret invidiam matris eaque demota auctam lenitatem suam testificaretur, feminas illustres Juniam et Calpurniam, prætura functos Valerium Capitonem et Licinium Gabolum sedibus patriis reddidit, ab Agrippina olim pulsos.  Etiam Lolliæ Paulinæ cineres reportari sepulcrumque exstrui permisit ;  quosque ipse nuper relegaverat Iturium et Calvisium pœna exsolvit.  Nam Silana fato functa erat, longinquo ab exilio Tarentum regressa labante jam Agrippina, cujus inimicitiis conciderat, vel mitigata.

[14.12]  Still there was an amazing rivalry among the nobles in decreeing thanksgivings at all the shrines, and the celebration with annual games of Minerva’s Fifth-Day’s festival, as the day on which the plot had been discovered;  also, that a golden image of Minerva with a statue of the emperor by its side should be set up in the Senate house, and that Agrippina’s birthday should be classed among the inauspicious days.  Thrasea Pætus, who had been used to pass over previous flatteries in silence or with brief assent, then walked out of the Senate, thereby endangering himself, without offering any initiative towards freedom to the other senators.  There occurred too a thick and meaningless succession of portents.  A woman gave birth to a snake, and another was killed by a thunderbolt during intercourse with her husband.  Then the sun was suddenly darkened and the fourteen districts of the city were struck by lightning.  All of which happened without any concern on the part of the gods;  so much so, that for many subsequent years Nero prolonged his reign and his crimes.  Still, to deepen the popular hatred towards his mother and prove that since her removal his clemency had increased, he restored to their ancestral homes two distinguished ladies, Junia {Calvina} and Calpurnia, with two ex-prætors, Valerius Capito and Licinius Gabolus, whom Agrippina had formerly banished.  He also allowed the ashes of Lollia Paulina to be brought back and a tomb to be built for her.  Iturius and Calvisius, whom he had himself temporarily exiled, he now released from their penalty.  {Junia} Silana indeed had died a natural death after returning from her distant exile to Tarentum, when the power of Agrippina, through whose antagonism she had fallen, was already tottering or had mellowed.

[14.13]  Ac tamen cunctari in oppidis Campaniæ, quonam modo Urbem ingrederetur, an obsequium Senatus, an studia plebis reperiret anxius.  Contra, deterrimus quisque, quorum non alia regia fecundior exstitit, invisum Agrippinæ nomen et morte ejus accensum populi favorem disserunt :  « iret intrepidus, et venerationem sui coram experiretur » ;  simul prægredi exposcunt.

Et promptiora quam promiserant inveniunt :  obvias tribus, festo cultu Senatum ;  conjugum ac liberorum agmina per sexum et ætatem disposita ;  exstructos, qua incederet, spectaculorum gradus, quomodo triumphi visuntur.  Hinc superbus ac publici servitii victor Capitolium adiit, grates exsolvit, seque in omnes libidines effudit quas, male coërcitas, qualiscumque matris reverentia tardaverat.

[14.13]  And yet he tarried in the towns of Campania, worried about to the precise manner in which he should go into the City, and whether he would discover compliance from the Senate or enthusiasm from the masses.  Conversely all the basest people, of whom no other court has been more fertile, said that Agrippina’s name was resented and the people’s goodwill fired by her death.  “He might go without a fear,” they said, “and experience for himself all the veneration for him.”  They insisted at the same time on preceding him.

They found greater enthusiasm than they had promised:  the tribes coming forth to meet him, the Senate in holiday attire, streams of wives and children arranged according to sex and age;  set up on the way he would be taking were bleachers for the spectacle, in the same way that a triumph is watched.  Thus arrogant and exulting over his people’s slavery, he proceeded to the Capitol, performed the thanksgiving, and then plunged into all the excesses, which, though ill-restrained, some sort of respect for his mother had retarded.

[14.14]  Vetus illi cupido erat curriculo quadrigarum insistere, nec minus fœdum studium cithara ludicrum in modum canere.  Concertare equis regium et antiquis ducibus factitatum memorabat, idque vatum laudibus celebre et deorum honori datum.  Enimvero cantus Apollini sacros ;  talique ornatu astare non modo Græcis in urbibus, sed Romana apud templa numen præcipuum et præscium.

Nec jam sisti poterat, quum Senecæ ac Burro visum, ne utraque pervinceret, alterum concedere.  Clausumque valle Vaticana spatium in quo equos regeret, haud promisco spectaculo.  Mox ultro vocari populus Romanus, laudibusque extollere (ut est vulgus cupiens voluptatum et, si eodem princeps trahat, lætum).  Ceterum, evulgatus pudor non satietatum, ut rebantur, sed incitamentum attulit.  Ratusque dedecus molliri si plures fœdasset, nobilium familiarum posteros, egestate venales, in scænam deduxit ;  quos fato perfunctos ne nominatim tradam, majoribus eorum tribuendum puto.  Nam et ejus flagitium est qui pecuniam ob delicta potius dedit quam ne delinquerent.  Notos quoque equites Romanos operas arenæ promittere subegit donis ingentibus — nisi quod merces ab eo qui jubere potest vim necessitatis affert.

[14.14]  He had long had a fancy for driving a four-horse chariot and a no less degrading taste for singing to the zither in theatrical fashion.  Horse racing, he would remind everyone, was a royal pursuit and frequently participated in by the leaders of old;  it was also celebrated in the praises of poets and given in honor of the gods.  Indeed, songs, he said, were sacred to Apollo, and it was in that kind of dress that that great and prophetic deity was seen not only in Greek cities but in Roman temples as well.

He could no longer be restrained, when Seneca and Burrus thought it best to concede one point so he would not be the winner in both.  A space was enclosed in the Vatican valley where he might manage his horses without the spectacle being public.  Soon the people of Rome were invited in by him himself, and they extolled him in their praises (given the way the rabble seeks entertainment and rejoices if an emperor tends the same way).  However, the public exposure of his shame did not induce a state of satiety as they thought, but incitement.  Thinking to mitigate his disgrace by degrading many others, he brought onto the stage descendants of noble families whom poverty had made venal.  As they are now dead, I think it due to their ancestors not to transmit their names.  For indeed, shame accrues to the one who gave money to reward their degradation rather than keeping them from degrading themselves.  He also compelled some well-known Roman knights, by immense presents, to offer their services in the arena — except that funding from someone who is able to command carries with it the force of compulsion.

[14.15]  Ne tamen adhuc publico theatro dehonestaretur, instituit ludos Juvenalium vocabulo in quos passim nomina data.  Non nobilitas cuiquam, non ætas aut acti honores impedimento quominus Græci Latinive histrionis artem exercerent usque ad gestus modosque haud viriles.  Quin et feminæ illustres deformia meditari ;  exstructaque apud nemus quod navali stagno circumposuit Augustus, conventicula et cauponæ et posita veno irritamenta luxui.  Dabantur stipes, quas boni necessitate, intemperantes gloria consumerent.  Inde gliscere flagitia et infamia, nec ulla moribus olim corruptis plus libidinum circumdedit quam illa colluvies.  Vix artibus honestis pudor retinetur, nedum inter certamina vitiorum pudicitia aut modestia aut quicquam probi moris reservaretur.

Postremus ipse scænam incedit, multa cura temptans citharam et præmeditans assistentibus phonascis.  Accesserat cohors militum, centuriones tribunique et mærens Burrus ac laudans.  Tuncque primum conscripti sunt equites Romani cognomento Augustianorum, ætate ac robore conspicui, et pars ingenio procaces, alii in spem potentiæ.  Ii dies ac noctes plausibus personare, formam principis vocemque deūm vocabulis appellantes, quasi per virtutem clari honoratique agere.

[14.15]  Still, in order not to disgrace himself on a public stage, he instituted some games with the name of “Youth Games,” for which people everywhere registered.  Neither rank nor age nor previous office-holding hindered any one from practicing the art of a Greek or Latin actor, right down to unmanly gestures and rhythms.  Noble ladies too rehearsed indecent roles and, in the grove with which Augustus had surrounded the lake for naval battles, meeting places and taverns were built, and incitements to debauchery were put on sale.  Money was distributed which the respectable had to use up under compulsion and which the libertines gloried in squandering.  Out of this developed a mass of abominations and infamy.  Never did any people clothe more lusts with their long-corrupted morals than did that sewage.  Even with honorable activities, decency is not easily upheld, to say nothing of keeping modesty or propriety or any trace of good morals intact amid competitions in vice.

Last of all, the emperor himself comes on stage, very carefully tuning his zither and pre-rehearsing with his music teachers.  A cohort of soldiers with centurions and tribunes had also arrived, and Burrus — sad but applauding.  Then it was that Roman knights were first enrolled under the title of Augustiani, men in their prime and remarkable for their strength, some naturally brazen, others in the hope of power.  Day and night they kept up a thunder of applause, and applied to the emperor’s physique and voice the epithets of deities.  Thus they lived in fame and honor, as if through some excellence of their own.

[14.16]  Ne tamen ludicræ tantum imperatoris artes notescerent, carminum quoque studium affectavit, contractis quibus aliqua pangendi facultas, necdum insignis erat.  Hi cenati considere simul, et allatos vel ibidem repertos versus connectere atque ipsius verba, quoquo modo prolata, supplere — quod species ipsa carminum docet, non impetu et instinctu nec tenore uno fluens.  Etiam sapientiæ doctoribus tempus impertiebat, post epulas, ut qui contraria asseverantium discordia frueretur.  Nec deerant qui ore vultuque tristi inter oblectamenta regia spectari cuperent.

[14.16]  But so that not just the emperor’s theatrical talents would be known, he also affected a taste for poetry, gathering together those who had some poem-composing skill, but which was not yet generally recognised.  They would sit with him stringing together verses from elsewhere, or extemporised on the spot, supplementing them in whatever meter they were uttered — which the structure of the poems itself shows, flowing with neither drive and verve nor uniform cadence.  He would also bestow some leisure after his banquets on the teachers of philosophy, being one who enjoyed the disagreement of those arguing opposite positions;  Nor was there any lack of those who, amid the royal entertainments, desired to be noticed for their depressed expression and look.

[14.17]  Sub idem tempus levi initio atrox cædes orta inter colonos Nucerinos Pompejanosque gladiatorio spectaculo, quod Livinejus Regulus, quem motum Senatu rettuli, edebat.  Quippe oppidana lascivia invicem incessentes, probra, dein saxa, postremo ferrum sumpsere, validiore Pompejanorum plebe, apud quos spectaculum edebatur.  Ergo deportati sunt in Urbem multi e Nucerinis, trunco per vulnera corpore, ac plerique liberorum aut parentum mortes deflebant.  Cujus rei judicium princeps Senatui, Senatus consulibus permisit.  Et rursus re ad patres relata, prohibiti publice in decem annos ejusmodi cœtu Pompejani, collegiaque quæ contra leges instituerant dissoluta ;  Livinejus et qui alii seditionem conciverant exilio multati sunt.

[14.17]  About the same time a trifling beginning led to frightful bloodshed between the inhabitants of Nuceria and Pompey, at a gladiatorial show exhibited by Livinejus Regulus, who had been, as I have related, expelled from the Senate.  Jeering at one another with small-town recklessness, they took up insults, then stones and finally weapons, the advantage resting with the populace of Pompey, where the show was being exhibited.  And so many of the Nucerini were carried to the City, with their bodies mutilated by wounds, and quite a few lamented the deaths of children or of parents.  The emperor entrusted the trial of the case to the Senate, and the Senate to the consuls, and then again the matter being referred back to the Senators, the Pompeyans were forbidden to have any such public gathering for ten years, and the societies they had formed in defiance of the laws were dissolved.  Livinejus and the others who had started the riot were punished with exile.

[14.18]  Motus Senatu et Pedius Blæsus, accusantibus Cyrenensibus violatum ab eo thesaurum Æsculapii, dilectumque militarem pretio et ambitione corruptum.  Īdem Cyrenenses reum agebant Acilium Strabonem, prætoria potestate usum et missum disceptatorem a Claudio agrorum, quos regis Apionis quondam avitos et populo Romano cum regno relictos proximus quisque possessor invaserat, diutinaque licentia et injuria quasi jure et æquo nitebantur.  Igitur, abjudicatis agris, orta adversus judicem invidia ;  et Senatus ignota sibi esse mandata Claudii et consulendum principem respondit.  Nero, probata Strabonis sententia, se nihilominus subvenire sociis et usurpata concedere scripsit.

[14.18]  Pedius Blæsus was also expelled from the Senate on the accusation of the people of Cyrene, that he had violated the treasury of Æsculapius and had corrupted a military levy by bribery and graft.  This same people prosecuted Acilius Strabo who had held the office of prætor, and had been sent by Claudius to adjudicate on some lands bequeathed by king Apion, their former possessor, together with his kingdom to the Roman people, and which had since been seized by the neighboring proprietors, who trusted to a long continued licence in wrong, as if it constituted right and fairness.  Consequently, when the lands were taken from them by the verdict, animosity arose against the judge, but the Senate replied that they knew nothing of the instructions given by Claudius, and that the emperor must be consulted.  Nero, though he approved Strabo’s decision, wrote word that nevertheless he was for helping the allies, and that he was granting to them the lands they had usurped.

[14.19]  Sequuntur virorum illustrium mortes, Domitii Afri et M. Servilii, qui summis honoribus et multa eloquentia viguerant, ille orando causas, Servilius diu foro, mox tradendis rebus Romanis celebris et elegantia vitæ quam clariorem effecit — ut par ingenio, ita morum diversus.

[14.19]  Then followed the deaths of the illustrious men, Domitius Afer and Marcus Servilius who had thriven in the highest offices and by great eloquence.  The first had pled cases;  Servilius, after long practice in the forum, distinguished himself by writing a history of Rome and by the refinement of his life which he made yet more famous, being a man equal in intellect but different in character.

[14.20]  Nerone quartum Cornelio Cosso consulibus, quinquennale ludicrum Romæ institutum est ad morem Græci certaminis — varia fama, ut cunta ferme nova.  Quippe erant qui « Cn. quoque Pompejum incusatum a senioribus » ferrent, « quod mansuram theatri sedem posuisset.  Nam antea subitariis gradibus et scæna in tempus structa ludos edi solitos, vel si vetustiora repetas, stantem populum spectavisse ne, si consideret theatro, dies totos ignavia continuaret.  Spectaculorum quidem antiquitas servaretur, quotiens prætores ederent, nulla cuiquam civium necessitate certandi.  Ceterum, abolitos paulatim patrios mores funditus everti per accitam lasciviam ut, quod usquam corrumpi et corrumpere queat, in Urbe visatur, degeneretque studiis externis juventus, gymnasia et otia et turpes amores exercendo, principe et Senatu auctoribus, qui non modo licentiam vitiis permiserint, sed vim adhibeant ut proceres Romani specie orationum et carminum scæna polluantur.  ¿ Quid superesse, nisi ut corpora quoque nudent et cæstus assumant, easque pugnas pro militia et armis meditentur ?  ¿ An justitiam auctum iri et decurias equitum egregium judicandi munus melius expleturos, si fractos sonos et dulcedinem vocum perite audissent ?  Noctes quoque dedecori adjectas, ne quod tempus pudori relinquatur, sed cœtu promisco, quod perditissimus quisque per diem concupiverit, per tenebras audeat. »

[14.20]  In Nero’s fourth consulship with Cornelius Cossus for his colleague {(a.D. 60)}, a theatrical entertainment to be repeated every five years was established at Rome in imitation of the Greek festival.  Like all novelties, it had variable reviews.  There were some who declared that even Gnæus Pompejus had been criticized by his elders for having set up a fixed and permanent theater.  “Formerly,” they said, “the games were usually exhibited with temporary bleachers and a stage set up temporarily, or if you went further back, you would have seen the people standing so that, they would not, by sitting down in the theater, spend whole days in idleness.  By all means the ancient character of these shows should be retained whenever the prætors produced them, and no citizen should be under the necessity of competing.  As it was, the morality of their fathers, which had been gradually eroded, was utterly subverted by imported debauchery, so that whatever anywhere could be corrupted or could corrupt was to be seen in the City, and the youth was degenerating due to foreign tastes by devoting themselves to gymnasia, to idleness and disgusting man-boy love, with the encouragement of the emperor and Senate who not only granted license to vice, but even used compulsion so that Roman nobles would disgrace themselves on the stage under the pretense of being orators and poets.  What remained for them but to strip themselves naked, put on boxing-gloves, and practice fights instead of soldiering and weapons?  Would justice be promoted, or would they better serve on the knights’ commissions for the honorable office of a judge because they had listened expertly to falsetto sounds and sweet voices?  Night too was given up to disgrace, so that virtue would have no time left to her, but in a motley crowd every profligate might dare by dark what he desired by day.”

[14.21]  Pluribus ipsa licentia placebat, ac tamen honesta nomina prætendebant.  « Majores quoque non abhorruisse spectaculorum oblectamentis pro fortuna quæ tum erat, eoque a Tuscis accitos histriones, a Thuriis equorum certamina ;  et possessa Achaja Asiaque ludos curatius editos, nec quemquam Romæ honesto loco ortum ad theatrales artes degeneravisse, ducentis jam annis a L. Mummi triumpho, qui primus id genus spectaculi in Urbe præbuerit.  Sed et consultum parsimoniæ, quod perpetua sedes theatro locata sit, potius quam immenso sumptu singulos per annos consurgeret ac sterneretur.  Nec perinde magistratus rem familiarem exhausturos aut populo, efflagitandi Græca certamina a magistratibus causam, fore, quum eo sumptu Res Publica fungatur.  Oratorum ac vatum victorias incitamentum ingeniis allaturas ;  nec cuiquam judici grave, aures studiis honestis et voluptatibus concessis impertire.  Lætitiæ magis quam lasciviæ dari paucas totius quinquennii noctes quibus tanta luce ignium nihil illicitum occultari queat. »

Sane, nullo insigni dehonestamento id spectaculum transiit.  Ac ne modica quidem studia plebis exarsere, quid redditi quanquam scænæ pantomimi certaminibus sacris prohibebantur.  Eloquentiæ primas nemo tulit, sed victorem esse Cæsarem pronuntiatum.  (Græci amictus, quis per eos dies plerique incesserant, tum exoleverunt.)

[14.21]  The majority of people liked this very license, but they screened it under respectable names.  “Our ancestors,” they said, “were not averse to the attractions of shows on a scale suited to the wealth of their day, and so they introduced actors from the Etruscans and horse-races from Thurii.  When we had possessed ourselves of Achaia and Asia, games were exhibited with greater elaboration, and yet no one at Rome of good family had stooped to the theatrical profession during the 200 years following the triumph of Lucius Mummius, who first displayed this kind of show in the capital.  Economy had also been taken into account in that the theater was given a permanent location rather than having to arise and be leveled at inordinate cost each year.  Nor would the magistrates, as hitherto, exhaust their substance, or the populace have a reason to demand of them the Greek contests, once the State undertook the expenditure.  The victories won by orators and poets would furnish a stimulus to talent, and it would not be burdensome for any judge to bestow his attention on honorable pursuits or on legitimate recreations.  It was to mirth rather than to profligacy that a few nights were devoted every five years, and in these amid such a blaze of torchlight no lawless conduct could be concealed.”

This entertainment, it is true, passed off without any notorious scandal.  The enthusiasm too of the populace was not even slightly kindled, for the pantomimic actors, though permitted to return to the stage, were excluded from the sacred competitions.  No one gained the first prize for eloquence, but it was publicly announced that the emperor was victorious.  (Greek attire, in which most people went around during this festival, then went out of fashion.)

[14.22]  Inter quæ sidus cometes effulsit, de quo vulgi opinio est tanquam mutationem regnis portendat.  Igitur, quasi jam depulso Nerone, quisnam deligeretur anquirebant.  Et omnium ore Rubellius Plautus celebratur, cui nobilitas per matrem ex Julia familia.  Ipse placita majorum colebat, habitu severo, casta et secreta domo, quantoque metu occultior, tanto plus famæ adeptus.  Auxit rumorem pari vanitate orta interpretatio fulguris.  Nam quia discumbentis Neronis apud Simbruina stagna in villa cui “Sublaqueum” nomen est, ictæ dapes mensaque disjecta erat, idque finibus Tiburtum acciderat, unde paterna Plauto origo, hunc illum numine deum destinari credebant ;  fovebantque multi, quibus nova et ancipitia præcolere avida et plerumque fallax ambitio est.  Ergo permotus his Nero componit ad Plautum litteras, « consuleret quieti Urbis, seque prava diffamantibus subtraheret :  esse illi per Asiam avitos agros, in quibus tuta et inturbida juventa frueretur. »  Ita illuc cum conjuge Antistia et paucis familiarium concessit.

Eisdem diebus nimia luxus cupido infamiam et periculum Neroni tulit, quia fontem aquæ a Q. Marcio ad Urbem deductæ nando incesserat ;  videbaturque potus sacros, et cærimoniam loci, corpore loto polluisse.  Secutaque anceps valitudo iram deum affirmavit.

[14.22]  A comet meantime blazed in the sky, which in popular opinion seemingly portends a change for kingdoms.  So people began to ask, as if Nero had already been dethroned, who was to be elected.  In every one’s mouth was the name of Rubellius Blandus, who through his mother inherited the high nobility of the Julian family.  He himself was attached to the ideas of our ancestors;  his manners were austere, his home was one of purity and seclusion, and the more he lived in retirement from fear, the more fame he acquired.  Popular talk was reinforced by an interpretation — which sprang up from an equally groundless base — of a thunderbolt.  While Nero was reclining at dinner in his house named “Sublaqueum” on the Simbruine lake, the food was struck and the table shattered;  and as this had happened close to Tibur, whence Plautus derived his origin on his father’s side, people believed him to be the man marked out by the will of the gods;  and he was encouraged by that numerous class whose eager and usually mistaken ambition it is to prematurely cultivate some new and hazardous cause.  This alarmed Nero, and he wrote a letter to Plautus, bidding “him consider the tranquillity of the City and withdraw himself from those who were spreading evil gossip around.  He had ancestral possessions in Asia, where he might enjoy a safe and undisturbed youth.”  And so Plautus retired there with his wife Antistia and a few intimate friends.

During the same days Nero’s excessive desire for luxury brought him infamy and danger, because he had gone to swim in the source of water diverted by Quintus Marcius into the City:  by bathing his body he seemed to have polluted the sacred drinking waters and the sanctity of the place, and his subsequent ambiguous health confirmed the anger of the gods.

[14.23]  At Corbulo, post deleta Artaxata, utendum recenti terrore ratus ad occupanda Tigranocerta, quibus excisis metum hostium intenderet vel, si pepercisset, clementiæ famam adipisceretur, illuc pergit, non infenso exercitu ne spem veniæ auferret, neque tamen remissa cura, gnarus facilem mutatu gentem, ut segnem ad pericula, ita infidam ad occasiones.  Barbari, pro ingenio quisque, alii preces offerre, quidam deserere vicos in avia digredi ;  ac fuere qui se speluncis et carissima secum abderent.  Igitur dux Romanus diversis artibus, misericordia adversum supplices, celeritate adversus profugos, immitis eis qui latebras insederant, ora et exitus specuum sarmentis virgultisque completos igni exurit.

Atque illum fines suos prægredientem incursavere Mardi, latrociniis exerciti contraque irrumpentem montibus defensi ;  quos Corbulo immissis Hiberis vastavit, hostilemque audaciam externo sanguine ultus est.

[14.23]  Corbulo meanwhile, having demolished Artaxata, thought that he ought to avail himself of the recent panic by possessing himself of Tigranocerta and either, by destroying it, increase the enemy’s terror or, by sparing it, win a reputation for clemency.  He set off for it {(in late summer 58)}, with no hostility on the part of his army so as not to eliminate all hope of pardon, but still without relaxing his guard — knowing, as he did, the fickleness of the people, who are as treacherous, given the opportunity, as they are cowardly in countering danger.  The barbarians, following their individual inclinations, either came to him with entreaties or left their villages and dispersed into the roadless wilderness.  There were some who hid themselves in caverns with everything they held dearest.  The Roman general accordingly dealt variously with them;  he was merciful to suppliants, swift in pursuit of fugitives;  ruthless towards those who had crept into hiding-places, he burned them out after filling up the entrances and exits with twigs and brush.

As he was on his march along the frontier of the Mardi, he was repeatedly attacked by that tribe which is trained in brigandage and defended by mountains against an invader.  Corbulo sent in the Iberians, devastated them and punished the enemy’s effrontery at the cost of only non-Roman blood.

[14.24]  Ipse exercitusque ut nullis ex prœlio damnis, ita per inopiam et labores fatiscebant, carne pecudum propulsare famem adacti.  Ad hoc penuria aquæ, fervida ætas, longinqua itinera sola ducis patientia mitigabantur, eadem pluraque gregario milite tolerantis.  Ventum dehinc in locos cultos, demessæque segetes ;  et ex duobus castellis, in quæ confugerant Armenii, alterum impetu captum ;  qui primam vim depulerant, obsidione coguntur.  Unde in regionem Tauraunitium transgressus, improvisum periculum vitavit.  Nam haud procul tentorio ejus non ignobilis barbarus cum telo repertus ordinem insidiarum seque auctorem et socios per tormenta edidit, convictique et puniti sunt qui specie amicitiæ dolum parabant.

Nec multo post legati Tigranocertā missi patēre mœnia afferunt, intentos populares ad jussa ;  simul hospitale donum, coronam auream, tradebant.  Accepitque cum honore, ne quicquam Urbi detractum, quo promptius obsequium integri retinerent.

[14.24]  Both Corbulo and his army, though suffering no losses in battle, were becoming exhausted by short supplies and hardships, compelled to stave off hunger solely by the flesh of cattle.  Added to this was scarcity of water, a burning summer and long marches, all of which were alleviated only by the general’s patient endurance.  He bore indeed the same or even more burdens than the common soldier.  Subsequently, they reached lands under cultivation, and reaped the crops;  and of two fortresses in which the Armenians had fled for refuge, one was taken by storm, the other, which had repulsed the first attack, was reduced by siege.  Thence the general crossed into the country of the Tauraunites, where he escaped an unforeseen peril.  Near his tent, a barbarian of no mean rank was discovered with a murder weapon, who divulged under torture the details of the ambush, himself as its instigator, and his associates.  The men who under a show of friendship had been planning the treachery, were convicted and punished.

Soon afterwards, Corbulo’s envoys whom he had sent to Tigranocerta, reported that the city walls were open, and the inhabitants awaiting orders.  They also handed him a gift denoting friendship, a golden crown, which he accepted with grace.  Nothing was done to humiliate the city, that remaining uninjured it might continue to yield a more cheerful obedience.

[14.25]  At præsidium Legerda, quod ferox juventus clauserat, non sine certamine expugnatum est ;  nam et prœlium pro muris ausi erant, et pulsi intra munimenta aggeri demum et irrumpentium armis cessere.

Quæ facilius proveniebant quia Parthi Hyrcano bello distinebantur.  Miserantque Hyrcani ad principem Romanum societatem oratum, attineri a se Vologæsen pro pignore amicitiæ ostentantes.  Eos regredientes Corbulo, ne Euphraten transgressi hostium custodiis circumvenirentur, dato præsidio ad litora maris Rubri deduxit unde, vitatis Parthorum finibus, patrias in sedes remeavere.

[14.25]  The citadel, however, which its defiant youth had closed up, was not stormed without a struggle.  They even ventured on an engagement outside the walls, but were driven back within their fortifications and succumbed in the end only to our siege-ramp and to the swords of the storm troops.

The success was the easier because the Parthians were distracted by the Hyrcanian war.  The Hyrcanians had sent to the Roman emperor, imploring alliance, and pointing to the fact that they were holding up Vologæses as a pledge of their friendship.  When these envoys were on their way home, Corbulo, to save them from being trapped by the enemy’s guard troops after crossing the Euphrates, gave them an escort and conducted them to the shores of the Red Sea {(= probably the Caspian)} whence, avoiding Parthian territory, they returned to their native land.

[14.26]  Quin et Tiridaten per Medos extrema Armeniæ intrantem, præmisso cum auxiliis Verulano legato atque ipse legionibus citis, abire procul ac spem belli omittere subegit ;  quosque nobis infensos cognoverat cædibus et incendiis perpopulatus, possessionem Armeniæ usurpabat, quum advenit Tigranes a Nerone ad capessendum imperium delectus, Cappadocum e nobilitate, regis Archelai nepos, sed quod diu obses apud Urbem fuerat, usque ad servilem patientiam demissus.  Nec consensu acceptus, durante apud quosdam favore Arsacidarum :  at plerique superbiam Parthorum perosi datum a Romanis regem malebant.  Additum et præsidium — mille legionarii, tres sociorum cohortes duæque equitum alæ;  et quo facilius novum regnum tueretur, pars Armeniæ, ut cuique finitima, Pharasmani Polemonique et Aristobulo atque Antiocho parere jussæ sunt.  Corbulo in Syriam abscessit, morte Ummidii legati vacuam ac sibi permissam.

[14.26]  Furthermore, Corbulo, as Tiridates was entering the Armenian border areas through Media, sent on Verulanus {(a.D. 59)}, his lieutenant-general, with auxiliaries, while he himself followed with the legions by forced marches, and compelled him to retreat quite a distance and give up his hopes of war.  Those he found hostile to us he annihilated with slaughter and fire and was taking over control of Armenia when Tigranes arrived, whom Nero had selected to assume the sovereignty.  Though a Cappadocian noble and {(great-)}grandson of king Archelaus, yet, from having long been a hostage at Rome, he had sunk into servile submissiveness.  True, he was not unanimously welcomed, as some still cherished a liking for the Arsacids.  Most, however, in their loathing of Parthian arrogance preferred a king given them by the Romans.  He was also given military support — a thousand legionaries, three allied cohorts and two squadrons of cavalry.  And in order to secure his new kingdom the more easily, parts of Armenia, depending on their respective proximities, were ordered to obey Pharasmanes {(Hiberia)}, Polemo {(Pontus)}, Aristobulus {(Armenia Minor)}, and Antiochus {(Sophene)}.  Corbulo withdrew to Syria, which province, left vacant by the death of its governor Ummidius, had now been entrusted to him.

[14.27]  Eodem anno ex illustribus Asiæ urbibus Laodicea tremore terræ prolapsa nullo a nobis remedio propriis opibus revaluit.  At in Italia vetus oppidum Puteoli jus coloniæ et cognomentum a Nerone apiscuntur.  Veterani Tarentum et Antium ascripti non tamen infrequentiæ locorum subvenere, dilapsis pluribus in provincias in quibus stipendia expleverant ;  neque conjugiis suscipiendis neque alendis liberis sueti, orbas sine posteris domos relinquebant.  Non enim, ut olim, universæ legiones deducebantur cum tribunis et centurionibus et sui cujusque ordinis militibus, ut consensu et caritate rem publicam efficerent, sed ignoti inter se, diversis manipulis, sine rectore, sine affectibus mutuis, quasi ex alio genere mortalium repente in unum collecti, numerus magis quam colonia.

[14.27]  One of the famous cities of Asia, Laodicea, was devastated by an earthquake that same year {(a.D. 60)} but, without any help from us, recovered by its own resources.  In Italy meanwhile the old town of Puteoli obtained the prerogative and name of a colony from Nero.  A further enrollment of veterans in Tarentum and Antium did not help those thinly peopled places, for most scattered into the provinces where they had completed their military service.  Unaccustomed to tying themselves down by marriage and rearing children, they left behind them homes without offspring.  For whole legions were no longer transplanted, as in former days, with tribunes and centurions and soldiers of every grade, so as to form a “commonwealth” based on accord and affection, but strangers to one another from different companies, without a leader or mutual feelings, were suddenly gathered together as though out of different races of human beings, a mere crowd rather than a colony.

[14.28]  Comitia prætorum, arbitrio Senatus haberi solita, quod acriore ambitu exarserant, princeps composuit, tres qui supra numerum petebant legioni præficiendo.  Auxitque patrum honorem statuendo ut, qui a privatis judicibus ad Senatum provocavissent, ejusdem pecuniæ periculum facerent, cujus si qui imperatorem appellarent ;  nam antea vacuum id, solutumque pœna fuerat.  Fine anni Vibius Secundus eques Romanus, accusantibus Mauris repetundarum, damnatur atque Italia exigitur, ne graviore pœna afficeretur, Vibii Crispi fratris opibus enisus.

[14.28]  As at the elections for prætors, normally under the Senate’s control, because they had become inflamed due to more-acrimonious competition, the emperor quieted matters by placing the three extra office-seekers at the head of a legion.  He also raised the dignity of the Fathers by decreeing that all who appealed from private judges to the Senate were to incur the same pecuniary risk as those who were appealing to the emperor.  For thitherto that had been unrestricted and without penalty.  At the close of the year Vibius Secundus, a Roman knight, on the accusation of the Moors, was convicted of extortion and banished from Italy, contriving through the influence of his brother Vibius Crispus to escape heavier punishment.

[14.29]  Cæsennio Pæto et Petronio Turpiliano consulibus, graves clades in Britannia accepta ;  in qua neque A. Didius legatus, ut memoravi, nisi parta retinuerat, at successor Veranius, modicis excursibus Siluras populatus, quin ultra bellum proferret morte prohibitus est, magna, dum vixit, severitatis fama, supremis testamenti verbis ambitionis manifestus :  quippe multa in Neronem adulatione addidit subjecturum ei provinciam fuisse, si biennio proximo vixisset.  Sed tum Paulinus Suetonius obtinebat Britannos, scientia militiæ et rumore populi, qui neminem sine æmulo sinit, Corbulonis concertator receptæque Armeniæ decus æquare domitis perduellibus cupiens.  Igitur Monam insulam, incolis validam et receptaculum perfugarum, aggredi parat, navesque fabricatur plano alveo adversus breve et incertum.  Sic pedes ;  equites vado secuti aut altiores inter undas annantes equis tramisere.

[14.29]  In the consulship of Cæsonius Pætus and Petronius Turpilianus {(a.D. 61)}, a serious disaster was sustained in Britain, where Aulus Didius, the legate, had not held onto anything except what had already been won, and his successor Veranius, after having ravaged the Silures in some limited raids, was prevented by death from extending the war.  While he lived, he had a great name for austerity, though, in his will’s final words, he was convicted of self-aggrandizement;  for, with a great deal of adulation of Nero, he added that he would have conquered the province for him, had he lived for the next two years.  Now, however, Britain was in the hands of Suetonius Paulinus, who in military knowledge and in popular favor (which allows no one to be without a rival) vied with Corbulo and aspired to equal the glory of the recovery of Armenia by subjugating the insurgents.  He therefore prepared to attack the island of Mona which had a powerful population and was a refuge for fugitives.  He built flat-bottomed boats to cope with the shallow and uncertain waters.  Thus the infantry crossed, while the cavalry followed over a ford or, where the water was deeper, by swimming alongside their horses.

[14.30]  Stabat pro litore diversa acies, densa armis virisque, intercursantibus feminis quæ, in modum Furiarum veste ferali, crinibus disjectis faces præferebant ;  Druidæque circum, preces diras sublatis ad cælum manibus fundentes, novitate aspectus perculēre militem — ut quasi hærentibus membris immobile corpus vulneribus præberent.  Dein cohortationibus ducis et se ipsi stimulantes, ne muliebre et fanaticum agmen pavescerent, inferunt signa sternuntque obvios et igni suo involvunt.  Præsidium posthac impositum victis, excisique luci sævis superstitionibus sacri :  nam cruore captivo adolere aras et hominum fibris consulere deos fas habebant.  Hæc agenti Suetonio repentina defectio provinciæ nuntiatur.

[14.30]  On the shore stood the opposing army with its dense array of armed warriors, while between the ranks dashed women, in funereal clothing in the manner of Furies, with hair dishevelled, brandishing torches.  All around, the Druids, lifting up their hands to heaven and pouring forth grisly imprecations, stunned our soldiers by the strangeness of the sight — so that, as if their limbs were paralysed, they stood motionless and exposed to wounds.  Then, urged by their general’s appeals and by mutual encouragements not to quail before a troop of frenzied women, they bore the standards onwards, cut down everyone in the way, and wrapped them in their own flames.  A garrison was next set over the conquered, and their groves, devoted to inhuman superstitions, were destroyed.  For they deemed it right to burn on their altars the blood of captives and to consult their deities through human entrails.  While Suetonius was thus engaged, he received tidings of the sudden revolt of the province.

[14.31]  Rex Icenorum Prasutagus, longa opulentia clarus, Cæsarem heredem duasque filias scripserat, tali obsequio ratus regnumque et domum suam procul injuria fore.  Quod contra vertit, adeo ut regnum per centuriones, domus per servos velut capta vastarentur.  Jam primum uxor ejus Boudicca verberibus affecta et filiæ stupro violatæ sunt ;  præcipui quique Icenorum, quasi cunctam regionem muneri accepissent, avitis bonis exuuntur, et propinqui regis inter mancipia habebantur.

Qua contumelia et metu graviorum (quando in formam provinciæ cesserant), rapiunt arma, commotis ad rebellationem Trinovantibus et qui alii nondum servitio fracti resumere libertatem occultis conjurationibus pepigerant, acerrimo in veteranos odio.  Quippe in coloniam Camulodunum recens deducti pellebant domibus, exturbabant agris, captivos, servos appellando, foventibus impotentiam veteranorum militibus similitudine vitæ et spe ejusdem licentiæ.  Ad hoc templum divo Claudio constitutum quasi arx æternæ dominationis aspiciebatur, delectique sacerdotes specie religionis omnes fortunas effundebant.  Nec arduum videbatur exscindere coloniam nullis munimentis sæptam ;  quod ducibus nostris parum provisum erat, dum amœnitati priusquam usui consulitur.

[14.31]  Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, famed for his long prosperity, had designated the emperor as his heir along with his two daughters, thinking that through this submission his kingdom and his house would be out of harm’s reach.  But the reverse was the result, so much so that his kingdom was plundered by centurions, his house by slaves, as if they were captured property.  First, his wife Boudicea was flogged and his daughters raped.  All the chief men of the Iceni, as if Romans had received the whole district as a gift, were stripped of their ancestral possessions, and the king’s relatives were treated as slaves.

Roused by these insults and the dread of worse (given that they had now been officially converted into a province), they took up arms and stirred to revolt the Trinobantes and others who, not yet broken by slavery, had agreed in secret conspiracy to reclaim their freedom.  It was against the veterans that their hatred was most intense.  For these new settlers in the colony of Camulodunum had been driving people out of their houses, ejecting them from their farms, calling them captives and slaves, while the lawlessness of the veterans was being encouraged by the soldiers with their similar lifestyle and hope for the same licence.  A temple also erected to the Divine Claudius was ever before their eyes, a citadel, as it seemed, of perpetual tyranny.  Men chosen as priests were pouring away whole fortunes under the pretence of religion.  Nor did it appear too difficult to wipe out the colony, undefended as it was by fortifications, a precaution neglected by our generals, whose concern was meanwhile more about aesthetics than to practicality.

[14.32]  Inter quæ nulla palam causa delapsum Camuloduni simulacrum Victoriæ ac retro conversum, quasi cederet hostibus.  Et feminæ in furorem turbatæ adesse exitium canebant, externosque fremitus in curia eorum auditos, consonuisse ululatibus theatrum, visamque speciem in æstuario Tamesæ subversæ coloniæ;  jam Oceanus cruento aspectu, dilabente æstu humanorum corporum effigies relictæ.  Ut Britannis ad spem, ita veteranis ad metum trahebantur ;  sed qua procul Suetonius aberat, petivere a Cato Deciano procuratore auxilium.  Ille haud amplius quam ducentos sine justis armis misit ;  et inerat modica militum manus.

Tutela templi freti, et impedientibus qui occulti rebellionis conscii consilia turbabant, neque fossam aut vallum præduxerunt, neque motis senibus et feminis juventus sola restitit :  quasi media pace incauti multitudine barbarorum circumveniuntur.  Et cetera quidem impetu direpta aut incensa sunt :  templum, in quo se miles conglobaverat, biduo obsessum expugnatumque.  Et victor Britannus, Petilio Ceriali, legato Legionis Nonæ, in subsidium adventanti obvius, fudit legionem, et quod peditum interfecit :  Cerialis cum equitibus evasit in castra et munimentis defensus est.  Qua clade et odiis provinciæ, quam avaritia in bellum egerat, trepidus procurator Catus in Galliam transiit.

[14.32]  Meanwhile, without any evident cause, the statue of Victory at Camulodunum fell over and turned around, as though fleeing before an enemy.  Women excited to frenzy prophesied impending destruction;  ravings in a foreign tongue, it was said, were heard in their Senate-house;  their theater resounded with wailings, and in the estuary of the Thames a vision of the overthrown colony had been seen;  even the ocean had worn the aspect of blood and, at ebbtide, there had been left the likenesses of human forms.  As the Britons were drawn toward hope, so were the veterans toward fear;  but given that Suetonius was far off, they implored aid from the procurator, Catus Decianus.  All he did was to send no more than two hundred men, without appropriate arms, and there was in the place only a small military force.

Trusting to the protection of the temple, and hindered by secret accomplices of the revolt who sowed confusion in their plans, they had constructed neither ditch nor rampart;  nor did they remove their old men and women, leaving their youth alone to face the foe.  Surprised, as it were, in the midst of peace, they were surrounded by an immense host of the barbarians.  All else was plundered or set afire in the onslaught;  the temple where the soldiers had assembled was stormed after a two-days’ siege.  The victorious Britons met Petilius Cerialis, commander of the Ninth Legion, as he was coming to the rescue, routed his troops, and destroyed all his infantry.  Cerialis escaped with the cavalry into the camp, and was saved by its fortifications.  Alarmed by this disaster and by the rage of the province which he had goaded into war by his rapacity, the procurator Catus crossed over into Gaul.

[14.33]  At Suetonius mira constantia medios inter hostes Londinium perrexit, cognomento quidem “coloniæ” non insigne, sed copia negotiatorum et commeatuum maxime celebre.  Ibi, ambiguus an illam sedem bello deligeret, circumspecta infrequentia militis, satisque magnis documentis temeritatem Petilii coërcitam, unius oppidi damno servare universa statuit.  Neque fletu et lacrimis auxilium ejus orantium flexus est quin daret profectionis signum et comitantes in partem agminis acciperet ;  si quos imbellis sexus aut fessa ætas vel loci dulcedo attinuerat, ab hoste oppressi sunt.

Eadem clades municipio Verulamio fuit, quia barbari omissis castellis præsidiisque militare horreum, quod uberrimum spolianti et defendentibus intutum, læti præda et laborum segnes petebant.  Ad septuaginta milia civium et sociorum eis quæ memoravi locis cecidisse constitit.  Neque enim capere aut venundare aliudve quod belli commercium, sed cædes, patibula, ignes, cruces, tanquam reddituri supplicium, at prærepta interim ultione, festinabant.

[14.33]  Suetonius, however, with remarkable steadfastness, marched through the midst of the enemy to Londinium, which, though undistinguished by the name of “colony,” was quite famous for the quantity of its merchants and its commerce.  Uncertain whether he should choose it as his war headquarters, after looking round on his scanty force of soldiers, and given the sufficiently strong lessons of the way Petilius’s rashness had been punished, he resolved to save the province at the loss of a single town.  Nor did the tears and weeping of the people, as they implored his aid, deter him from giving the signal for departure and accepting those who would go with him into part of his column.  Those whom the weakness of their sex, the infirmity of age, or the attractions of the place kept from leaving were destroyed by the enemy.

The same disaster befell the municipality of Verulamium, because the barbarians, who delighted in plunder and were lazy when it came to hard labor, bypassed the fortresses and garrisons and attacked the military granary, which was rich for the plunderer and unguarded by defenders.  About seventy thousand citizens and allies, it is established, fell in the places I have mentioned.  For there was no capturing or selling or other such commerce of war, but rather they accelerated their slaughtering, the gallows, fire and cross, like men soon to pay the death penalty, but meanwhile taking revenge for it ahead of time.

[14.34]  Jam Suetonio Quarta Decima Legio cum vexillariis Vicesimanis et e proximis auxiliares — decem ferme milia armatorum — erant, quum omittere cunctationem et congredi acie parat.  Deligitque locum artis faucibus et a tergo silva clausum, satis cognito nihil hostium nisi in fronte et apertam planitiem esse, sine metu insidiarum.  Igitur legionarius frequens ordinibus, levis circum armatura, conglobatus pro cornibus eques astitit.  At Britannorum copiæ passim per catervas et turmas exsultabant, quanta non alias multitudo, et animo adeo feroci, ut conjuges quoque testes victoriæ secum traherent plaustrisque imponerent quæ super extremum ambitum campi posuerant.

[14.34]  Suetonius already had the Fourteenth Legion with a detachment from the Twentieth, and auxiliaries from the vicinity — about ten thousand armed men — when he prepared to break off delay and fight a battle.  He chose a position with a narrow gorge and closed in at the rear by a forest, having first ascertained that there was no enemy except in his front, where an open plain extended without any danger of ambush.  His legions were in close array;  around them, the light-armed troops, and the cavalry clustered on the wings.  On the other side, the army of the Britons was prancing around everywhere by company and squadron, a vaster host than anywhere else, and so fierce in spirit that they actually brought with them, to witness the victory, their wives riding in wagons which they had placed beyond the outermost perimeter of the plain.

[14.35]  Boudicca curru filias præ se vehens, ut quamque nationem accesserat, « solitum quidem Britannis feminarum ductu bellare, » testabatur, « sed tunc non ut tantis majoribus ortam regnum et opes, verum ut unam e vulgo libertatem amissam, confectum verberibus corpus, contrectatam filiarum pudicitiam ulcisci.  Eo provectas Romanorum cupidines, ut non corpora, ne senectam quidem aut virginitatem impollutam relinquant.  Adesse tamen deos justæ vindictæ;  cecidisse legionem quæ prœlium ausa sit ;  ceteros castris occultari aut fugam circumspicere.  Ne strepitum quidem et clamorem tot milium, nedum impetus et manus perlaturos.  Si copias armatorum, si causas belli secum expenderent, vincendum illa acie vel cadendum esse.  Id mulieri destinatum :  viverent viri et servirent. »

[14.35]  Boudicca, with her daughters before her in a chariot, went up to tribe after tribe, protesting that it was indeed usual for Britons to fight under the leadership of women.  “But now,” she said, “it is not as a woman descended from noble ancestry, but as one of the people that I am avenging lost freedom, my scourged body, the outraged chastity of my daughters.  Roman lust has gone so far that neither our very persons, nor even age or virginity, are left unpolluted.  But the gods are on the side of a righteous vengeance;  a legion which dared to fight has perished;  the rest have been hidden in their camp, or are looking around for flight.  They will not sustain even the din and the shout of so many thousands, much less our charge and our blows.  If you weigh well the strength of the armies, and the causes of the war, you will see that in this battle you must conquer or die.  This is a woman’s decision;  as for men, they may live and be slaves.”

[14.36]  Ne Suetonius quidem in tanto discrimine silebat.  Quamquam confideret virtuti, tamen exhortationes et preces miscebat, ut « spernerent sonores barbarorum et inanes minas :  plus illic feminarum quam juventutis aspici.  Imbelles inermes cessuros statim, ubi ferrum virtutemque vincentium totiens fusi agnovissent.  Etiam in multis legionibus paucos qui prœlia profligarent ;  gloriaque eorum accessurum, quod modica manus universi exercitus famam adipiscerentur.  Conferti tantum et pilis emissis, post umbonibus et gladiis stragem cædemque continuarent, prædæ immemores :  parta victoria cuncta ipsis cessura. »

Is ardor verba ducis sequebatur, ita se ad intorquenda pila expedierat vetus miles et multa prœliorum experientia ut, certus eventūs, Suetonius daret pugnæ signum.

[14.36]  Nor was Suetonius silent at such a crisis.  Though he had confidence in the valor of his men, he nevertheless mingled encouragements and pleas for them to disdain the clamours and empty threats of the barbarians.  “There,” he said, “you see more women than warriors.  Unwarlike, unarmed, they will give way the moment that, having been routed so many times, they have recognised the sword and courage of their conquerors.  Even in the case of many legions, it is a few who really decide the battle, and it will be to your greater glory that a small force should earn the renown of an entire army.  Only close up the ranks, and having discharged your javelins, then with shields and swords follow up with the work of bloodshed and destruction, without a thought of plunder.  With victory gained, everything will be in your power.”

Such was the enthusiasm which followed the general’s address, and so promptly did the veteran soldiery, with their long experience of battles, prepare for hurling their javelins, that Suetonius, certain of the outcome, gave the signal for battle.

[14.37]  Ac primum legio gradu immota et angustias loci pro munimento retinens, postquam in propius suggressos hostes certo jactu tela exhauserat, velut cuneo erupit.  Idem auxiliarium impetus ;  et eques protentis hastis perfringit quod obvium et validum erat.  Ceteri terga præbuere, difficili effugio, quia circumjecta vehicula sæpserant abitus.  Et miles ne mulierum quidem neci temperabat, confixaque telis etiam jumenta corporum cumulum auxerant.  Clara et antiquis victoriis par ea die laus parta :  quippe sunt qui paulo minus quam octoginta milia Britannorum cecidisse tradant, militum quadringentis ferme interfectis nec multo amplius vulneratis.  Boudicca vitam veneno finivit.  Et Pœnius Postumus, præfectus castrorum Secundæ Legionis, cognitis Quartadecimanorum Vicesimanorumque prosperis rebus, quia pari gloria legionem suam fraudaverat abnueratque contra ritum militiæ jussa ducis, se ipse gladio transegit.

[14.37]  At first, the legion was motionless in its stance, keeping the narrowness of the location as a defense;  when they had exhausted their missiles with unerring aim against the closer approach of the foe, they rushed out in a wedge-like column.  Similar was the onset of the auxiliaries, while the cavalry with lances levelled broke through everything in the way offering a strong resistance.  The rest turned their backs in flight, which proved difficult because the surrounding wagons had cordoned off the escape routes.  Our soldiers did not hold back from the slaughter even of women, while the pack-animals, run through by the missiles, swelled the piles of bodies.  Great glory, equal to that of the victories of old, was won on that day.  Indeed, some say that a little less than eighty thousand Britons fell, with about four hundred of our soldiers lost and not many more wounded.  Boudicca ended her life with poison.  And Pœnius Postumus, camp-prefect of the Second Legion, on learning of the success of the men of the Fourteenth and Twentieth, because he had cheated his legion out of like glory and had refused his leader’s orders contrary to military procedures, ran himself through with his sword.

[14.38]  Contractus deinde omnis exercitus sub pellibus, habitus est ad reliqua belli perpetranda.  Auxitque copias Cæsar, missis ex Germania duobus legionariorum milibus, octo auxiliarium cohortibus ac mille equitibus quorum adventu Nonani legionario milite suppleti sunt.  Cohortes alæque novis hibernaculis locatæ, quodque nationum ambiguum aut adversum fuerat, igni atque ferro vastatum.  Sed nihil æque quam fames affligebat serendis frugibus incuriosos, et omni ætate ad bellum versa dum nostros commeatus sibi destinant.  Gentesque præferoces tardius ad pacem inclinabant, quia Julius Classicianus, successor Cato missus et Suetonio discors, bonum publicum privatis simultatibus impediebat, disperseratque novum legatum opperiendum esse, sine hostili ira et superbia victoris clementer deditis consulturum.  Simul in Urbem mandabat nullum prœliorum finem exspectarent nisi succederetur Suetonio, cujus adversa pravitati ipsius, prospera ad fortunam referebat.

[14.38]  The whole army was then brought together and kept under pelt tents to finish the remainder of the war.  The emperor strengthened the forces by sending from Germany two thousand legionaries, eight cohorts of auxiliaries, and a thousand cavalry.  On their arrival the men of the Ninth had their number made up with legionary soldiers.  The cohorts and cavalry were placed in new winter quarters, and whatever tribes had been vacillating or resisting were ravaged with fire and sword.  Nothing, however, distressed them as much as famine, negligent as they were about sowing crops, with people of every age having been diverted to the war while counting on making our supplies their own.  And the most defiant tribes were more reluctantly inclined to peace because Julius Classicanus, who had been sent as successor to Catus and was at loggerheads with Suetonius, let his private animosities interfere with the public interest and had broadcast the idea that a new legate should be awaited who, with neither the anger of an enemy nor the pride of a conqueror, would deal mercifully with those who had surrendered.  At the same time he was sending dispatches to the City that they should expect no end to the fighting until there was a replacement for Suetonius — whose setbacks he attributed to the latter’s perverseness and successes to good luck.

[14.39]  Igitur ad spectandum Britanniæ statum missus est e libertis Polyclitus, magna Neronis spe posse auctoritate ejus non modo inter legatum procuratoremque concordiam gigni, sed et rebelles barbarorum animos pace componi.  Nec defuit Polyclitus quominus, ingenti agmine Italiæ Galliæque gravis, postquam Oceanum transmiserat, militibus quoque nostris terribilis incederet.  Sed hostibus irrisui fuit apud quos, flagrante etiam tum libertate, nondum cognita libertinorum potentia erat ;  mirabanturque quod dux et exercitus tanti belli confector servitiis obœdirent.  Cuncta tamen ad imperatorem in mollius relata.  Detentusque rebus gerundis Suetonius, quod paucas naves in litore remigiumque in eis amiserat, tanquam durante bello, tradere exercitum Petronio Turpiliano, qui jam consulatu abierat, jubetur.  Is, non irritato hoste neque lacessitus, honestum “pacis” nomen segni otio imposuit.

[14.39]  Accordingly one of the imperial freedmen, Polyclitus, was sent to survey the state of Britain, Nero having great hopes that his influence would be able not only to establish concord between the legate and the procurator, but also to pacify the rebellious spirit of the barbarians.  And Polyclitus, who with his enormous cortege had been a burden to Italy and Gaul, did not fail, as soon as he had crossed the ocean, to advance in such a way that he was terrifying even to our soldiers.  But to the enemy he was a laughingstock, for they still retained some of the fire of liberty, knowing nothing yet of the power of freedmen, and so they marvelled to see a general and an army who had ended such a war obeying slaves.  Everything, however, was reported to the emperor in softer tones.  Suetonius, kept in charge of operations, because he had lost a few vessels and their crews on the reefs, was ordered, on the excuse that the war was still in progress, to hand over his army to Petronius Turpilianus, who had just resigned his consulship.  Petronius neither challenged the enemy nor was himself molested, and veiled his listless inaction under the honorable name of “peace.”

[14.40]  Eodem anno Romæ insignia scelera, alterum senatoris, servili alterum audacia, admissa sunt.  Domitius Balbus erat Prætorius, simul longa senecta, simul orbitate et pecunia insidiis obnoxius.  Ei propinquus Valerius Fabianus, capessendis honoribus destinatus, subdidit testamentum, ascitis Vinicio Rufino et Terentio Lentino equitibus Romanis.  Illi Antonium Primum et Asinium Marcellum sociaverant.  Antonius audacia promptus, Marcellus Asinio Pollione proavo clarus, neque morum spernendus habebatur, nisi quod paupertatem præcipuum malorum credebat.  Igitur Fabianus tabulas, adhibitis eis quos memoravi et aliis minus illustribus, obsignat.  Quod apud patres convictum, et Fabianus Antoniusque cum Rufino et Terentio lege Cornelia damnantur.  Marcellum memoria majorum et preces Cæsaris pœnæ magis quam infamiæ exemere.

[14.40]  That same year {(a.D. 61)} two notorious crimes were committed at Rome, one by the audacity of a senator, the other of a slave.  Domitius Balbus, an ex-prætor, vulnerable to intrigue due to his prolonged old age, his childlessness and his wealth.  His kinsman, Valerius Fabianus, who had been marked out for a career as a state official, forged a will in his name with Vinicius Rufinus and Terentius Lentinus, Roman knights, for his accomplices.  These men in turn had taken on board Antonius Primus and Asinius Marcellus.  Antonius was a man of ready daring;  Marcellus was distinguished because of his great-grandfather, Asinius Pollio, and was held not to be morally disrespectable, other than that he believed poverty to be the greatest of all evils.  So Fabianus, in the presence of those whom I have named and some others less distinguished, signed and sealed the will.  This was proved against them before the Senate, and Fabianus and Antonius with Rufinus and Terentius were condemned under the Cornelian law {(on falsifications)}.  Marcellus was saved from punishment rather than from disgrace by the memory of his ancestors and the intercessions of the emperor.

[14.41]  Perculit is dies Pompejum quoque Ælianum, juvenem quæstorium, tanquam flagitiorum Fabiani gnarum, eique Italia et Hispania, in qua ortus erat, interdictum est.

Pari ignominia Valerius Ponticus afficitur, quod reos, ne apud præfectum Urbis arguerentur, ad prætorem detulisset — interim specie legum, mox prævaricando, ultionem elusurus.  Additur Senatus consulto :  qui talem operam emptitasset vendidissetve, perinde pœna teneretur ac publico judicio calumniæ condemnatus.

[14.41]  That same day also ruined Pompeius Ælianus, a young ex-quæstor, on a charge of being privy to the crimes of Fabianus.  He was outlawed from Italy as well as from Spain, where he was born.

Valerius Pontius suffered the same degradation for having indicted defendants before the prætor to save them from being prosecuted in the court of the city-prefect, intending to defeat justice with some legal pretext in the meantime and through collusion later on.  A clause was added to the Senate’s decree that whoever bought or sold such a service was to be just as liable to punishment as someone publicly convicted of false accusation.

[14.42]  Haud multo post præfectum Urbis Pedanium Secundum servus ipsius interfecit, seu negata libertate cui pretium pepigerat, sive amore exoleti incensus et dominum æmulum non tolerans.  Ceterum quum vetere ex more familiam omnem quæ sub eodem tecto mansitaverat ad supplicium agi oporteret, concursu plebis, quæ tot innoxios protegebat, usque ad seditionem ventum est, Senatusque obsessus, in quo ipso erant studia nimiam severitatem aspernantium, pluribus nihil mutandum censentibus.  Ex quis C. Cassius sententiæ loco in hunc modum disseruit :

[14.42]  Soon afterwards one of his own slaves murdered the city-præfect, Pedanius Secundus, either because he had been refused his freedom for which he had made a contract, or inflamed with the love of a homosexual and unable to tolerate his master’s rivalry.  In any case, since according to an old custom the whole slave-establishment remaining under the same roof had to be executed, when a sudden gathering of the populace, which was for saving so many innocents, brought matters to actual insurrection, and the Senate was besieged.  Even in the Senate there was a strong feeling on the part of those who rejected the extreme rigor, though the majority voted for changing nothing.  Of these, Gajus Cassius, in giving his vote, argued to the following effect : -

[14.43]  “Sæpenumero, patres conscripti, in hoc ordine interfui, quum contra instituta et leges majorum nova Senatus decreta postularentur ;  neque sum adversatus, non quia dubitarem super omnibus negotiis melius atque rectius olim provisum, et quæ converterentur in deterius mutari, sed ne nimio amore antiqui moris studium meum extollere viderer.  Simul quicquid hoc in nobis auctoritatis est, crebris contradictionibus destruendum non existimabam, ut maneret integrum si quando Res Publica consiliis eguisset.

“Quod hodie venit :  consulari viro domi suæ interfecto per insidias serviles quas nemo prohibuit aut prodidit — quamvis nondum concusso Senatus consulto quod supplicium toti familiæ minitabatur.

“Decernite hercule impunitatem.  ¿ At quem dignitas sua defendet quum præfecto Urbis non profuerit ?  ¿ Quem numerus servorum tuebitur, quum Pedanium Secundum quadringenti non protexerint ?  ¿ Cui familia opem feret quæ ne in metu quidem pericula nostra advertit ?  ¿ An, ut quidam fingere non erubescunt, injurias suas ultus est interfector, quia de paterna pecunia transegerat aut avitum mancipium detrahebatur ?  Pronuntiemus ultro dominum jure cæsum videri.”

[14.43]  “I have often been present, Senators, in this assembly when new decrees were demanded from us contrary to the customs and laws of our ancestors;  and I have refrained from opposition, not because I had some doubts that in all matters the arrangements of the past were better and fairer and that modifying them would be changing them for the worse, but so that I might not seem to be promoting my own professional interests out of an excessive partiality for ancient precedent.  At the same time I did not think that whatever influence I possess should be destroyed by constant protests, so that it might remain unimpaired should the State ever need my counsels.

“Today that situation has arrived, with an ex-consul having been murdered in his house by a slave’s treachery, which no one hindered or divulged — though the Senate’s decree, which threatens the entire slave-establishment with execution, remains unshaken.

“Vote impunity, in heaven’s name.  But then, who will be protected by his rank, when it was of no avail to the City prefect?  Who will be kept safe by the number of his slaves when four hundred of them did not protect Pedanius Secundus?  Which of us will be rescued by his domestics who, even in fear, are not on the lookout for the dangers to us?  Was the murderer, as some do not blush to fabricate, avenging his wrongs because he had engaged in a deal using his father’s money, or because a family slave was taken from him?  Let us be forthright and say that the master was justly slain.

[14.44]  “¿ Libet argumenta conquirere in eo quod sapientioribus deliberatum est ?  Sed et si nunc primum statuendum haberemus, ¿ creditisne servum interficiendi domini animum sumpsisse ut non vox minax excĭderet, nihil per temeritatem proloqueretur ?  Sane consilium occultavit, telum inter ignaros paravit :  ¿ Num excubias transire, cubiculi fores recludere, lumen inferre, cædem patrare poterat, omnibus nesciis ?  Multa sceleri indicia præveniunt :  servi si prodant, possumus singuli inter plures, tuti inter anxios, postremo, si pereundum sit, non inulti inter nocentes agere.

Suspecta majoribus nostris fuerunt ingenia servorum, etiam quum in agris aut domibus eisdem nascerentur, caritatemque dominorum statim acciperent.  Postquam vero nationes in familiis habemus quibus diversi ritus, externa sacra aut nulla sunt, colluviem istam non nisi metu coërcuerīs.  « At quidam insontes peribunt. »  Nam et ex fuso exercitu, quum decimus quisque fusti feritur, etiam strenui sortiuntur.  Habet aliquid ex iniquo omne magnum exemplum — quod contra singulos utilitate publica rependitur.”

[14.44]  “Is it a good idea to search for arguments in a matter already deliberated upon by men wiser than ourselves?  Even if we were now deciding this for the first time, do you believe that a slave took up the resolve to murder his master in such a way that no threatening word fell from his lips, or that he spilled nothing unguardedly?  Granted, he concealed his purpose, he procured his weapon without the knowledge of the others.  Could he pass the night-guard, could he open the doors of the chamber, carry in a light, accomplish the murder, with no one knowing it?  Many indications precede a crime;  if slaves betray them, we can live singly amid many, safe among a trembling throng;  lastly, if we must perish, it will be not unavenged among the guilty.

Our ancestors were suspicious of the mentality of their slaves, even when they were born on the same estates or in the same houses with themselves and thus from the start inherited an affection for their masters.  But now that we have in our households nations with customs different from our own, with foreign cults or none at all, it is only by intimidation that you might confine such a cesspool.  ‘But,’ it will be said, ‘the innocent will perish.’  Well, even in a routed army, when every tenth man is felled by cudgel, the lot also falls on the brave.  There is some unfairness in every great precedent which, though injurious to individuals, has its compensation in the public advantage.”

[14.45]  Sententiæ Cassii, ut nemo unus contra ire ausus est, ita dissonæ voces respondebant numerum aut ætatem aut sexum ac plurimorum indubiam innocentiam miserantium.  Prævaluit tamen pars quæ supplicium decernebat.  Sed obtemperari non poterat, conglobata multitudine et saxa ac faces minitante.  Tum Cæsar populum edicto increpuit atque omne iter quo damnati ad pœnam ducebantur militaribus præsidiis sæpsit.  Censuerat Cingonius Varro, ut liberti quoque, qui sub eodem tecto fuissent, Italia deportarentur.  Id a principe prohibitum est, ne mos antiquus, quem misericordia non minuerat, per sævitiam intenderetur.

[14.45]  No single man, indeed, dared to oppose the opinion of Cassius, but a confused shouting rose in reply from all who pitied the number, age, or sex, as well as the undoubted innocence of the great majority.  Still, the party which voted for their execution prevailed.  But the sentence could not be obeyed in the face of a dense and threatening mob, with stones and firebrands.  Then the emperor reprimanded the people by edict, and lined with a force of soldiers the entire route along which the condemned had to be dragged to execution.  Cingonius Varro had proposed that even all the freedmen under the same roof should be deported from Italy.  This the emperor forbade, as he did not wish an ancient custom which mercy had not relaxed to be made harsher with cruelty.

[14.46]  Damnatus eisdem consulibus Tarquitius Priscus repetundarum Bithynis interrogantibus, magno patrum gaudio, quia accusatum ab eo Statilium Taurum pro consule ipsius meminerant.

Census per Gallias a Q. Volusio et Sextio Africano, Trebellioque Maximo acti sunt, æmulis inter se per nobilitatem Volusio atque Africano :  Trebellium dum uterque dedignatur, supra tulere.

[14.46]  During the same consulship {(a.D. 61)}, Tarquitius Priscus was convicted of extortion on the prosecution of the Bithynians, to the great joy of the senators, who remembered that he had impeached Statilius, his own pro-consul.

A census of Gaul was held by Quintus Volusius, Sextius Africanus and Trebellius Maximus, with Volusius and Africanus each trying to prove who was the greater than the other in nobility.  As a result, while both disdained Trebellius, they raised him above themselves.

[14.47]  Eo anno mortem obiit Memmius Regulus, auctoritate, constantia, fama (inquantum præumbrante imperatoris fastigio datur) clarus — adeo ut Nero, æger valetudine, et adulantibus circum qui finem imperio adesse dicebant, si quid fato pateretur, responderit habere subsidium Rem Publicam ;  rogantibus dehinc in quo potissimum, addiderat « in Memmio Regulo ».

Vixit tamen posthæc Regulus, quiete defensus et quia nova generis claritudine neque invidiosis opibus erat.

Gymnasium eo anno dedicatum a Nerone, præbitumque oleum equiti ac Senatui Græca facilitate.

[14.47]  In that year Memmius Regulus died, whose authority, steadfastness and reputation made him (insofar as was possible under the emperor’s overshadowing eminence) renowned — so much so, in fact, that Nero, deathly sick, with flatterers round him who said that if he were to suffer death it would be the end of the empire, replied that the State had a resource, and on their asking where it was specially to be found, he added, “in Memmius Regulus.”

Nevertheless, Regulus lived on after this, protected by his quietude and by the fact that he was of only recent family renown and of unresentable wealth.

Nero, the same year, established a gymnasium, where oil was furnished to knights and senators after the lax fashion of the Greeks.

[14.48]  P. Mario L. Afinio consulibus, Antistius prætor, quem in tribunatu plebis licenter egisse memoravi, probrosa adversus principem carmina factitavit vulgavitque celebri convivio dum apud Ostorium Scapulam epulatur.  Exim a Cossutiano Capitone, qui nuper senatorium ordinem precibus Tigellini soceri sui receperat, majestatis delatus est.  (Tum primum revocata ea lex ;  credebaturque haud perinde exitium Antistio quam imperatori gloriam quæri, ut condemnatum a Senatu intercessione tribunicia morti eximeret.)  Et quum Ostorius nihil audivisse pro testimonio dixisset, adversis testibus creditum ;  censuitque Junius Marullus consul designatus adimendam reo præturam necandumque more majorum.

Ceteris inde assentientibus, Pætus Thrasea, multo cum honore Cæsaris et acerrime increpito Antistio, « non, quicquid nocens reus pati mereretur, id, egregio sub principe et nulla necessitate obstricto, Senatui statuendum, » disseruit :  « carnificem et laqueum pridem abolita ;  et esse pœnas legibus constitutas quibus — sine judicum sævitia et temporum infamia — supplicia decernerentur.  Quin in insula, publicatis bonis, quo longius sontem vitam traxisset, eo privatim miseriorem et publicæ clementiæ maximum exemplum futurum. »

[14.48]  In the consulship of Publius Marius and Lucius Asinius {(a.D. 62)}, Antistius, the prætor, whose wanton behavior as tribune of the people I have mentioned, composed some libellous verses on the emperor, which he openly recited at a large gathering, while dining at the house of Ostorius Scapula.  Thereupon he was impeached of high treason by Cossutianus Capito, who had recently been restored to his senator’s rank on the intercession of his father-in-law, Tigellinus.  (This was the first occasion on which that law was revived, and it was thought that it was not so much the ruin of Antistius which was aimed at, as the glory of the emperor, whose veto as tribune might save from death one whom the Senate had condemned.)  Though Ostorius had stated that he had heard nothing as evidence, the opposing witnesses were believed, and Junius Marullus, consul-elect, proposed that the accused should be deprived of his prætorship and put to death in the ancient manner.

While the rest assented, Pætus Thrasea, after much eulogy of Cæsar and the most bitter censure of Antistius, argued that, under an outstanding emperor and compelled by no necessity, the Senate should not decree just whatever a guilty defendant deserves.  “The executioner and the noose,” he said, “were abolished long ago;  and there are punishments ordained by the laws which prescribe penalties — without judicial cruelty and disgrace to our age.  Rather send him to some island after confiscating his property;  there, the longer he drags on his guilty life, the more wretched will he be personally, and the more conspicuous as an example of public clemency.”

[14.49]  Libertas Thrasea servitium aliorum rupit, et postquam discessionem consul permiserat, pedibus in sententiam ejus iere, paucis exceptis, in quibus adulatione promptissimus fuit A. Vitellius, optimum quemque jurgio lacessens et respondenti reticens, ut pavida ingenia solent.  At consules, perficere decretum Senatus non ausi, de consensu scripsere Cæsari.  Ille inter pudorem et iram cunctatus, postremo rescripsit :  « nulla injuria provocatum Antistium gravissimas in principem contumelias dixisse ;  earum ultionem a patribus postulatam, et pro magnitudine delicti pœnam statui par fuisse.  Ceterum, se, qui severitatem decernentium impediturus fuerit, moderationem non prohibere :  statuerent ut vellent ;  datam et absolvendi licentiam. »

His atque talibus recitatis et offensione manifesta, non ideo aut consules mutavere relationem aut Thrasea decessit sententia, ceterive quæ probaverant deseruere — pars, ne principem objecisse invidiæ viderentur, plures numero tuti, Thrasea sueta firmitudine animi, et ne gloria intercĭderet.

[14.49]  Thrasea’s freespokenness broke through the servility of the other senators.  As soon as the consul allowed a vote by partition, they went over to his side, with few exceptions.  Among these the most eager in his adulation was Aulus Vitellius, attacking all the most upright men with abuse and falling silent when they replied — as is usual with cowardly types.  The consuls, however, not daring to ratify the vote of the Senate, simply sent a letter about its consensus to the emperor.  Hesitating for a while between shame and rage, he finally wrote to them in reply “that Antistius, without having been provoked by any wrong, had uttered outrageous insults against the sovereign;  that a demand for their punishment had been submitted to the Senate, and that it would have been appropriate for a penalty to be decreed befitting the magnitude of the offence;  As far as the rest of it was concerned, he himself, who would have blocked any excessive severity on the part of those decreeing it, would not prohibit leniency.  They might determine as they pleased, and he was even giving them permission to acquit.”

This and more to the same effect having been read out clearly showing his displeasure, the consuls did not for that reason alter the motion, nor did Thrasea withdraw his proposal or the others reject what they had once approved.  Some were afraid of seeming to expose the emperor to disrepute;  the majority felt safe in numbers, while with Thrasea it was because of his usual firmness of spirit, and a determination not to let his fame be lost.

[14.50]  Haud dispari crimine Fabricius Vejento conflictatus est, quod multa et probrosa in patres et sacerdotes composuisset eis libris, quibus nomen “Codicillorum” dederat.  Adjiciebat Tullius Geminus accusator venditata ab eo munera principis et adipiscendorum honorum jus.  Quæ causa Neroni fuit suscipiendi judicii ;  convictumque Vejentonem Italia depulit et libros exuri jussit — conquisitos lectitatosque donec cum periculo parabantur :  mox licentia habendi oblivionem attulit.

[14.50]  A not dissimilar accusation caused the downfall of Fabricius Vejento.  He had composed many slanders against senators and pontiffs in a work to which he gave the title of “Wills.”  Talius Geminus, the prosecutor, further stated that he had engaged in selling the emperor’s favors and the right to gain political offices.  This caused Nero himself to take up the trial, and having convicted Vejento, he banished him from Italy and ordered the burning of his books which, as long as it was dangerous to procure them, were anxiously sought and much read.  Later, the permission to own them consigned them to oblivion.

[14.51]  Sed gravescentibus in dies publicis malis subsidia minuebantur, concessitque vita Burrus — incertum valetudine an veneno.  Valetudo ex eo conjectabatur, quod in se tumescentibus paulatim faucibus et impedito meatu spiritum finiebat.  Plures jussu Neronis, quasi remedium adhiberetur, illitum palatum ejus noxio medicamine asseverabant, et Burrum, intellecto scelere, quum ad visendum eum princeps venisset, aspectum ejus aversatum sciscitanti hactenus respondisse, “Ego me bene habeo.”  Civitati grande desiderium ejus mansit per memoriam virtutis — et successorum alterius segnem innocentiam, alterius flagrantissima flagitia.

Quippe Cæsar duos Prætoriis cohortibus imposuerat :  Fænium Rufum ex vulgi favore, quia rem frumentariam sine quæstu tractabat ;  Ofonium Tigellinum, veterem impudicitiam atque infamiam in eo secutus.  Atque illi pro cognitis moribus fuere, validior Tigellinus in animo principis et intimis libidinibus assumptus, prospera populi et militum fama Rufus, quod apud Neronem adversum experiebatur.

[14.51]  But while the public maladies were growing worse by the day, the supports were diminishing.  Burrus died, it being uncertain whether from illness or poison.  It was conjectured to be illness from the fact that his breathing was stopped by the gradual inward swelling of his throat and the closing up of its passageway.  More people asserted that by Nero’s order his throat was smeared with some poisonous drug under the pretence of the application of a remedy, and that Burrus, who saw through the crime, when the emperor paid him a visit, turning away from his gaze, replied to his question only, “I am well.”  The City missed him sorely because it remembered his probity, and also because of the lethargic harmlessness of one of his successors and the extremely flagrant shamefulnesses of the other.

For the emperor had appointed two men to the command of the Prætorian cohorts:  Fænius Rufus, in response to the public’s goodwill for having unprofiteeringly administered the grain supply ;  and Sofonius Tigellinus, whose long-standing sexual immorality and infamy he was attracted to.  And in accordance with their known morals, Tigellinus had the greater influence with the prince and was made a partner in his most secret debaucheries, while Rufus enjoyed the favor of the people and the soldiers, which he experienced to his own detriment with Nero.

[14.52]  Mors Burri infregit Senecæ potentiam, quia nec bonis artibus idem virium erat, altero velut duce amoto, et Nero ad deteriores inclinabat.  Hi variis criminationibus Senecam adoriuntur, tanquam ingentes, et privatum modum evectas, opes adhuc augeret, quodque studia civium in se verteret, hortorum quoque amœnitate et villarum magnificentia quasi principem supergrederetur.  Objiciebant etiam eloquentiæ laudem uni sibi asciscere et carmina crebrius factitare, postquam Neroni amor eorum venisset.  « Nam, oblectamentis principis palam iniquum, detrectare vim ejus equos regentis, illudere vocem quotiens caneret.  ¿ Quem ad finem nihil in Re Publica clarum fore quod non ab illo reperiri credatur ?  Certe finitam Neronis pueritiam et robur juventæ adesse :  exueret magistrum, satis amplis doctoribus instructus — majoribus suis. »

[14.52]  The death of Burrus broke Seneca’s power, for virtue did not have the same strength when one of its leaders, so to speak, was removed, and Nero was inclining toward baser characters.  These assailed Seneca with various charges — supposedly he was still increasing a wealth already exceeding the measure of a private citizen and was drawing to himself the popularity of the citizens, while in the picturesqueness of his gardens and the magnificence of his country houses he was practically surpassing the emperor.  They further alleged against him that he was monopolizing all recognition given for eloquence, and was churning out poetry more frequently after Nero had shown a love of it.  “Openly averse to the prince’s amusements, he disparaged his ability in driving horses and ridiculed his voice whenever he sang.  When was there to be an end of nothing being publicly admired but what Seneca was thought to have invented?  Unquestionably, Nero’s boyhood was over, and he was in the prime of youth.  He ought to divest himself of his tutor, furnished as he was with sufficiently noble instructors in his own ancestors.”

[14.53]  At Seneca criminantium non ignarus, prodentibus eis quibus aliqua honesti cura, et familiaritatem ejus magis aspernante Cæsare, tempus sermoni orat et, accepto, ita incipit :  “Quartus decimus annus est, Cæsar, ex quo Spei Tuæ admotus sum, octavus, ut imperium obtines :  medio temporis tantum honorum atque opum in me cumulasti, ut nihil felicitati meæ desit nisi moderatio ejus.  Utar magnis exemplis, nec meæ fortunæ, sed tuæ.  Abavus tuus Augustus Marco Agrippæ Mytilenense secretum, C. Mæcenati Urbe in ipsa velut peregrinum otium permisit ;  quorum alter bellorum socius, alter Romæ pluribus laboribus jactatus ampla quidem, sed pro ingentibus meritis, præmia acceperant.  Ego, ¿ quid aliud munificentiæ tuæ adhibere potui quam studia (ut sic dixerim) in umbra educata — et quibus claritudo venit quod juventæ tuæ rudimentis affuisse videor, grande hujus rei pretium ?

At tu gratiam immensam innumeram pecuniam circumdedisti, adeo ut plerumque intra me ipse volvam :  « ¿ Egone, equestri et provinciali loco ortus, proceribus civitatis annumeror ?  ¿ Inter nobiles et longa decŏra præferentes novitas mea enituit ?  ¿ Ubi est animus ille modicis contentus ?  ¿ Tales hortos exstruit, et per hæc suburbana incedit, et tantis agrorum spatiis, tam lato fenore exuberat ? »  Una defensio occurrit :  quod muneribus tuis obniti non debui.

[14.53]  Seneca, meanwhile, aware of the accusers, who were revealed to him by those who had some respect for honor, coupled with the fact that the emperor increasingly shunned his intimacy, begged time for an interview and, receiving it, spoke as follows: — “It has been fourteen years, Cæsar, since I was first associated with Your Hopefulness, and eight years that you have been emperor.  In that interval of time, you have heaped on me such honors and riches that my happiness lacks nothing but moderation in using it.  I will refer to great examples taken not from my situation but from yours.  Your great-great-grandfather Augustus granted retirement in Mitylene to Marcus Agrippa, to Gajus Mæcenas what was nearly equivalent to a foreign retreat in the City itself.  One of these men was his companion in the wars;  the other was battered about by numerous travails at Rome;  both received awards which were indeed splendid, but only proportionate to their great merits.  For myself, what other recompense could I give for your munificence than my studies, nurtured (if I may put it thus) in the shade — and which confer renown only because I am seen to have been involved in the early education of your youth, a great reward for all this?

“You, on the other hand, have surrounded me with vast influence and boundless wealth, so that I often think within myself, ‘Am I, born of an equestrian and provincial family, really numbered among the chief men of Rome?  Among nobles boasting a long succession of eminences have I, a newcomer, become famous?  Where is the mind once content with a humble lot?  Is it the same one building gardens, that promenades grandly through these suburban estates and abounds in the affluence of such extensive farmlands and investments spread so far and wide?’  Only one defense occurs to me:  that it would not have been right for me to have obstructed your bounty.

[14.54]  “Sed uterque mensuram implevimus — et tu, quantum princeps tribuere amico posset, et ego, quantum amicus a principe accipere :  cetera invidiam augent.  Quæ quidem, ut omnia mortalia, infra tuam magnitudinem jacet, sed mihi incumbit, mihi subveniendum est.  Quomodo in militia aut via fessus adminiculum orarem, ita in hoc itinere vitæ senex et levissimis quoque curis impar, quum opes meas ultra sustinere non possim, præsidium peto.  Jube rem per procuratores tuos administrari, in tuam fortunam recipi.  Nec me in paupertatem ipse detrudam sed, traditis quorum fulgore præstringor, quod temporis hortorum aut villarum curæ seponitur in animum revocabo.  Superest tibi robur et tot per annos visum summi fastigii regimen :  possumus seniores amici quietem reposcere.  Hoc quoque in tuam gloriam cedet, eos ad summa vexisse qui et modica tolerarent.”

[14.54]  “And yet we have both filled up our respective measures, you in giving as much as a prince can bestow on a friend, and I in receiving as much as a friend can receive from a prince.  All else only fosters envy, which, like all things human, sinks powerless beneath your greatness, though on me it weighs heavily.  I need help.  Just as I would implore support if exhausted by warfare or travel, so in this journey of life, old as I am and unequal even to the lightest cares, since I cannot any longer bear the burden of my wealth, I seek assistance.  Order my property to be managed by your agents and to be included in your estate.  I myself will not sink into poverty but, having surrendered the things whose brilliance dazzles me, will henceforth again devote to my mind all the time and attention now reserved for my gardens and country houses.  You still have before you a vigorous prime and the highest power thoroughly learned over so many years.  We, your older friends, can ask for quietude.  This too will redound to your glory that you have raised to the highest places men who could bear moderate fortune as well.”

[14.55]  Ad quæ Nero sic ferme respondit :  “Quod meditatæ orationi tuæ statim occurram, id primum tui muneris habeo qui me non tantum prævisa, sed subita, expedire docuisti.  Abavus meus Augustus Agrippæ et Mæcenati usurpare otium post labores concessit, sed in ea ipse ætate cujus auctoritas tueretur quicquid illud et qualecunque tribuisset ;  ac tamen neutrum datis a se præmiis exuit.  Bello et periculis meruerant ;  in eis enim juventa Augusti versata est.

Nec mihi tela et manus tuæ defuissent in armis agenti ;  sed quod præsens condicio poscebat, ratione, consilio, præceptis pueritiam, dein juventam meam fovisti.  Et tua quidem erga me munera, dum vita suppetet, æterna erunt :  quæ a me habes — horti et fenus et villæ — casibus obnoxia sunt.  Ac licet multa videantur, plerique haudquaquam artibus tuis pares plura tenuerunt.  Pudet referre libertinos, qui ditiores spectantur :  unde etiam rubori mihi est, quod, præcipuus caritate, nondum omnes fortuna antecellis.

[14.55]  To this Nero replied essentially as follows: — “The fact that I am able to respond to your well-prepared speech immediately is the first of services I owe to you who taught me how to expound not only on premeditated topics but extemporaneous ones.  My great-great-grandfather Augustus allowed Agrippa and Mæcenas to enjoy retirement after their labors, but was himself at an age when his authority protected whatever he granted and of whatever kind.  And yet neither of them did he divest of the rewards he had given.  They had earned them through war and its perils;  for it was in these that Augustus’s youth was spent.

Nor would your weaponry and strength have been lacking to me, had I been at war.  But, as current conditions required, you nourished my boyhood, then my youth, with logic, counsel, and advice.  And indeed the gifts I have from you will last as long as I live, while those which you have from me — parks, investments, country houses — are subject to the caprices of fate.  Even though there may seem to be many of them, a great many men in no way equal to you in merit have possessed more.  I am ashamed to cite the cases of freedmen whose greater opulence is on display.  Hence I also blush to think that you, the first in my affections, still do not surpass all in fortune.

[14.56]  Verum et tibi valida ætas rebusque et fructui rerum sufficiens, et nos prima imperii spatia ingredimur.  ¿ Nisi forte aut te Vitellio ter consuli aut me Claudio postponis ?  ¿ Et quantum Volusio longa parsimonia quæsivit, tantum in te mea liberalitas explere non potest ?  ¿ Quin, si qua in parte lubricum adulescentiæ nostræ declinat, revocas, ornatumque robur subsidio impensius regis ?  Non tua moderatio, si reddideris pecuniam, nec quies, si reliqueris principem, sed mea avaritia, meæ crudelitatis metus in ore omnium versabitur.  Quod si maxime continentia tua laudetur, non tamen sapienti viro decorum fuerit, unde amico infamiam paret, inde gloriam sibi recipere.”

His adjicit complexum et oscula, factus natura, et consuetudine exercitus, velare odium fallacibus blanditiis.  Seneca — qui finis omnium cum dominante sermonum — grates agit ;  sed instituta prioris potentiæ commutat, prohibet cœtus salutantium, vitat comitantes, rarus per Urbem, quasi valetudine infensa aut sapientiæ studiis domi attineretur.

[14.56]  “Moreover, yours is a still vigorous manhood, quite equal to the labors of business and to the fruit of those labors;  and, as for myself, I am entering the first stages of empire.  Unless, perhaps, you consider either yourself lower than thrice-consul Vitellius, or me than Claudius?  And my generosity toward you cannot match the kind of wealth that lifelong saving obtained for Volusius. ?  Why not rather, if my youthful unsteadiness goes awry at some point, call me back and with your support yet more energetically guide the youthful strength educated by you?  If you give your wealth back to me, it will not be your moderation, nor your love of quiet if you forsake your emperor, but my avarice, the fear of my cruelty, that will be in all men’s mouths.  Even if your self-control were praised to the utmost, still it would not be seemly for a wise man to get glory for himself by bringing disgrace on his friend.”

To these words the emperor added embraces and kisses;  for he was constituted by nature and trained by habit to veil his hatred with treacherous blandishments.  Seneca thanked him — that being the end of all audiences with a despot.  But he entirely altered the routines of his former position of power;  he stopped the crowds of well-wishers, avoided companions, seldom went around the City, as though detained at home by bad health or philosophical studies.

[14.57]  Perculso Seneca promptum fuit Rufum Fænium imminuere, Agrippinæ amicitiam in eo criminantibus.  Validiorque in dies Tigellinus et malas artes (quibus solis pollebat) gratiores ratus, si principem societate scelerum obstringeret, metus ejus rimatur ;  compertoque Plautum et Sullam maxime timeri, Plautum in Asiam, Sullam in Galliam Narbonensem nuper amotos, nobilitatem eorum et propinquos huic Orientis, illi Germaniæ exercitus commemorat.  « Non se, ut Burrum, diversas spes, sed solam incolumitatem Neronis spectare ;  cui caveri utcunque ab urbanis insidiis præsenti opera — ¿ longinquos motus, quonam modo comprimi posse ?  Erectas Gallias ad nomen dictatorium, nec minus suspensos Asiæ populos claritudine avi Drusi.  Sullam inopem, unde præcipuam audaciam, et simulatione segnitiæ dum temeritati locum reperiret.  Plautum, magnis opibus, ne fingere quidem cupidinem otii, sed veterum Romanorum imitamenta præferre, assumpta etiam Stoicorum arrogantia sectaque, quæ turbidos et negotiorum appetentes faciat. »

Nec ultra mora.  Sulla sexto die pervectis Massiliam percussoribus ante metum et rumorem interficitur, quum epulandi causa discumberet.  Relatum caput ejus illusit Nero tanquam præmatura canitie deforme.

[14.57]  With Seneca downed, it was easy to undermine Fænius Rufus by charging him with friendship with Agrippina.  Tigellinus, who was becoming more powerful by the day, and who thought that his sinister skills (which were his only strength) would be better liked if he could enmesh the emperor with complicity in his crimes, delved into Nero’s fears and, discovering that Plautus and Sulla were the men he feared most (Plautus having been recently sent off to Asia, Sulla to Gallia Narbonensis), he began commenting on their noble ancestry and their respective proximity to the armies of the East and of Germany.  “I do not have,” he said, “like Burrus, contradictory aims in view, but only Nero’s safety, which is in all events secured against urban treachery by my work on site.  As for distant insurrections, how can they be quelled?  Gaul is roused at the name of the dictator {(Sulla, 138-78 B.C.)}, and the peoples of Asia are in no less suspense due to the renown of the grandfather Drusus {(13 B.C. - A.D. 23)}.  Sulla is poor, hence his striking audacity;  behind a pretense of lethargy he is looking for an outlet for his temerity.  Plautus, with his great wealth, does not even pretend to desire repose ;  instead, he affects an imitation of the ancient Romans and has adopted the arrogance and sect of the Stoics which makes men mutinous and interested in machinations.”

There was not a moment’s delay.  Six days afterwards, before there could be any fear and rumor, Sulla was murdered while reclining at the dinner table by assassins brought over to Massilia.  His head was brought back, and Nero made fun of it, alleging its premature greyness was ugly.

[14.58]  Plauto parari necem non perinde occultum fuit, quia pluribus salus ejus curabatur, et spatium itineris ac maris tempusque interjectum moverat famam.  Vulgoque fingebant petitum ab eo Corbulonem magnis tum exercitibus præsidentem et, clari atque insontes si interficerentur, præcipuum ad pericula.  Quin et Asiam favore juvenis arma cepisse, nec milites ad scelus missos aut numero validos aut animo promptos, postquam jussa efficere nequiverint, ad spes novas transisse.  Vana hæc, more famæ, credentium otio augebantur ;  ceterum libertus Plauti celeritate ventorum prævenit centurionem et mandata L. Antistii soceri attulit :  « effugeret segnem mortem, nec in otio suffugium, et magni nominis miseratione reperturum bonos, consociaturum audaces ;  nullum interim subsidium aspernandum.  Si sexaginta milites (tot enim adveniebant) propulisset, dum refertur nuntius Neroni, dum manus alia permeat, multa secutura, quæ adusque bellum evalescerent.  Denique aut salutem tali consilio quæri, aut nihil gravius audenti quam ignavo patiendum esse. »

[14.58]  It was less of a secret that there was a design to murder Plautus, as his life was of concern to many.  Also, the distance by land and sea and the interval of time had generated rumors, and popularly it was rumored that he had sought out Corbulo, who was then at the head of great armies and would be a prime target for danger if illustrious and innocent men were being killed.  Again Asia, it was said, out of good will toward the young man, had taken up arms, and the soldiers sent to do the crime, not being sufficient in number or resolved in purpose and, finding themselves unable to execute their orders, had gone over to the new cause.  This empty talk, in the habit of rumor, was exaggerated by the laziness of the credulous;  but in reality a freedman of Plautus, given the speed of the winds, forestalled the centurion and brought instructions from his father-in-law, Lucius Antistius:  “He should shun a sluggish death, nor was there any refuge in inactivity and, with the sympathy for his great name, he would discover allies in good and daring men;  no support should be spurned in the meanime;  if he repelled the sixty soldiers (such was the number arriving), then, during the time it took for a message to be sent back to Nero and another unit to make its way through, there could be many developments which might even evolve into war.  In short, either safety could be found by such a plan as this or he would suffer nothing worse for being daring than cowardly.”

[14.59]  Sed Plautum ea non movere, sive nullam opem providebat inermis et exul, seu tædio ambiguæ spei, an amore conjugis et liberorum quibus placabiliorem fore principem rebatur, nulla sollicitudine turbatum.  Sunt qui alios a socero nuntios venisse ferant, tanquam nihil atrox immineret ;  doctoresque sapientiæ, Cœranum Græci, Musonium Tusci generis, constantiam opperiendæ mortis pro incerta et trepida vita suassisse.  Repertus est certe per medium diei nudus, exercitando corpori.  Talem eum centurio trucidavit coram Pelagone spadone, quem Nero centurioni et manipulo, quasi satellitibus ministrum regium, præposuerat.  Caput interfecti relatum ;  cujus aspectu (ipsa principis verba referam) “Cur,” inquit, “Nero, …

[14.59]  But all this had no effect on Plautus.  Either he foresaw no assistance as an unarmed exile, or he was weary of ambiguous hopes, or was swayed by his love of his wife and of his children to whom he thought the emperor, undisturbed by any worry, would be more lenient.  Some say that another message came to him from his father-in-law, to the effect that nothing ominous hung over him, and that two teachers of philosophy, Cœranus from Greece and Musonius from Etruria, had urged steadfastness in waiting for death in preference to a precarious and anxious life.  At all events, he was found naked at midday doing physical exercises.  In that state the centurion butchered him in the presence of Pelago, an eunuch, whom Nero had set over the centurion and his company, like a despot’s minister over his bodyguards.  The murdered man’s head was brought back, and at the sight of it the emperor exclaimed (I will give his exact words), “Why, Nero, …

[14.60]  Igitur accepto patrum consulto, postquam cuncta scelerum suorum pro egregiis accipi videt, exturbat Octaviam, sterilem dictitans ;  exim Poppææ conjungitur.  Ea diu pælex et adulteri Neronis, mox mariti potens, quendam ex ministris Octaviæ impulit servilem ei amorem objicere.  Destinaturque reus cognomento Eucærus, natione Alexandrinus, canere per tibias doctus.  Actæ ob id de ancillis quæstiones, et vi tormentorum victis quibusdam ut falsa annuerent, plures perstitere sanctitatem dominæ tueri ;  ex quibus una instanti Tigellino castiora esse muliebria Octaviæ respondit quam os ejus.  Movetur tamen primo, civilis discidii specie, domumque Burri, prædia Plauti — infausta dona — accipit ;  mox in Campaniam pulsa est, addita militari custodia.  Inde crebri questus nec occulti per vulgum, cui minor sapientia et ex mediocritate fortunæ pauciora pericula sunt.  His <perturbationibus falsa percrebruit fama Octaviam rediisse Romam,> tanquam Nero, pænitentia flagitii, conjugem revocarit Octaviam.

[14.60]  Nero, on receiving this decree of the Senate and seeing that all of his crimes were regarded as a deeds of merit, drove Octavia from him, alleging that she was barren;  he then married Poppæa.  She, long Nero’s concubine and controlling him first as her adulterer, then as her husband, got one of Octavia’s servants to accuse her of an affair with a slave.  The man accused as the guilty lover was one by name Eucærus, an Alexandrine by birth, skilled in playing the flute.  As a consequence, her slave-girls were examined under torture, and though some were forced by the intensity of agony into agreeing to falsehoods, most of them persisted in upholding the virtue of their mistress.  One of them said, in answer to Tigellinus’ hounding, that Octavia’s private parts were more chaste than his mouth.  In spite of this, Octavia was at first removed under the pretext of a civil divorce and received possession of the house of Burrus and the estates of Plautus — ominous gifts;  soon afterwards she was banished to Campania under military surveillance.  This led to incessant and outspoken protests among the masses who have less prudence and are exposed to fewer dangers than others because of their meager fortunes.  Amidst these <upheavals a false rumor spread that Octavia had returned to Rome,> as though Nero, in remorse at his shameful deed, were restoring to Octavia her position as wife.

[14.61]  Exim læti Capitolium scandunt deosque tandem venerantur.  Effigies Poppææ proruunt, Octaviæ imagines gestant umeris, spargunt floribus, foroque ac templis statuunt.  Itur etiam in principis laudes.  Jamque et Palatium multitudine et clamoribus complebant, quum emissi militum globi verberibus et intento ferro turbatos disjecere.  Mutataque quæ per seditionem verterant, et Poppææ honos repositus est.

Quæ semper odio, tum et metu atrox ne aut vulgi acrior vis ingrueret aut Nero inclinatione populi mutaretur, provoluta genibus ejus :  « non eo loci res suas agi ut de matrimonio certet — quanquam id sibi vita potius —, sed vitam ipsam in extremum adductam a clientelis et servitiis Octaviæ quæ “plebis” sibi nomen indiderint — ea in pace ausi quæ vix bello evenirent.  Arma illa adversus principem sumpta ;  ducem tantum defuisse qui motis rebus facile reperiretur — omitteret modo Campaniam et in Urbem ipsa pergeret, ad cujus nutum absentis tumultus cierentur.  ¿ Quod alioquin suum delictum ?  ¿ Quam cujusquam offensionem ?  ¿ An quia veram progeniem penatibus Cæsarum datura sit ?  ¿ Malle populum Romanum tibicinis Ægyptii subolem imperatorio fastigio induci ?  Denique, si id rebus conducat, libens quam coactus acciret dominam vel consuleret securitati.  Justa ultione et modicis remediis primos motus consedisse ;  at si desperent uxorem Neronis fore Octaviam, illi maritum daturos. »

[14.61]  Thereupon the people in their joy went up to the Capitol and at last gave thanks to the gods.  They toppled Poppæa’s statues ;  they bore on their shoulders the images of Octavia, covering them with flowers and setting them up in the forum and in the temples.  It even got to the point of praise for the emperor.  And they were already pouring into the Palace with their numbers and their shouting when companies of soldiers were sent out who dispersed the rioters with beatings and drawn swords.  The changes they had brought about through the tumult were reversed, and Poppæa’s honors restored.

She herself, constantly ferocious out of hatred, and now out of fear that either the violence of the mob might burst out more fiercely or that Nero would be swayed by the popular bias, flung herself at his knees and exclaimed that her situation was not at the point where she was fighting for her marriage — although that was more important to her than life —, but that her life itself was endangered in the extreme by Octavia’s dependants and slaves, who had assumed the name of “the people” and dared in peace what could scarcely happen in war.  “Those arms,” she said, “have been taken up against the emperor;  all that was needed was a leader, and he will easily be found in a rebellion — just let that woman at whose nod, even in her absence, rioting has broken out, leave Campania and proceed to the City in person.  Besides, what wrong have I done?  What offense have I caused any one?  Is it that I am about to give authentic progeny to the house of the Cæsars?  Do the people of Rome prefer that the offspring of an Egyptian fluteplayer be placed on the imperial throne?  In a word, if it is best for the State, Nero should either — of his own choice rather than on compulsion — send for the woman whose slave he was, or else take precautions for his own safety.  The first insurrection was quelled by fair punishment and moderate correctives;  but if they lose their hope of Octavia being Nero’s wife, they will soon give her another husband.”

[14.62]  Varius sermo et ad metum atque iram accommodatus terruit simul audientem at accendit.  Sed parum valebat suspicio in servo, et quæstionibus ancillarum elusa erat.  Ergo confessionem alicujus quæri placet, cui rerum quoque novarum crimen affingeretur.  Et visus idoneus maternæ necis patrator Anicetus, classi apud Misenum, ut memoravi, præfectus, levi post admissum scelus gratia, dein graviore odio, quia malorum facinorum ministri quasi exprobrantes aspiciuntur.

Igitur accitum eum Cæsar operæ prioris admonet :  « solum incolumitati principis adversus insidiantem matrem subvenisse ;  locum haud minoris gratiæ instare, si conjugem infensam depelleret.  Nec manu aut telo opus :  fateretur Octaviæ adulterium. »  Occulta quidem ad præsens, sed magna ei præmia et secessus amœnos promittit, vel, si negavisset, necem intentat.  Ille, insita vecordia et facilitate priorum flagitiorum, plura etiam quam jussum erat fingit, fateturque apud amicos quos velut consilio adhibuerat princeps.  Tum in Sardiniam pellitur, ubi non inops exilium toleravit et fato obiit.

[14.62]  This varied argument, calculated both to frighten and to enrage, at once alarmed and incensed her listener.  But the suspicion about the slave was too weak and had been vitiated by the torture of the slave-girls.  Consequently it was decided to get a confession from some one to whom a charge of insurrection could also be attributed.  And it seemed that the ideal person was the perpetrator of the mother’s murder, Anicetus, the commander (as I have mentioned) of the fleet at Misenum, who got but scant thanks after committing that crime and was subsequently more intensely detested due to the fact that the assistants of evil acts are viewed as a sort of standing reproach.

So having summoned Anicetus, Cæsar reminded him of his former service.  “He alone,” he said, “had come to the rescue of the emperor’s life against an insidious mother.  Now came a chance of no less gratitude by eliminating a hostile wife.  There was no need for violence or weapons;  only let him confess to adultery with Octavia.”  Nero then promised him a reward, secret for the moment but ample, and a delightful retreat — or, if he were to refuse, he threatened him with death.  Anicetus, with his innate perversity and the naturalness due to his previous atrocities, invented even more than had been ordered and confessed before friends whom the prince had called in as a sort of cabinet.  He was then banished to Sardinia, where he endured an unimpoverished exile and died a natural death.

[14.63]  At Nero præfectum in spem sociandæ classis corruptum et — incusatæ paulo ante sterilitatis oblitus — abactos partus conscientiā libidinum, eaque sibi comperta edicto memorat, insulaque Pandateria Octaviam claudit.

Non alia exul visentium oculos majore misericordia affecit.  Meminerant adhuc quidam Agrippinæ a Tiberio, recentior Juliæ memoria obversabatur a Claudio pulsæ;  sed illis robur ætatis affuerat ;  læta aliqua viderant et præsentem sævitiam melioris olim fortunæ recordatione allevabant :  huic primum nuptiarum dies loco funeris fuit, deductæ in domum in qua nihil nisi luctuosum haberet, erepto per venenum patre et statim fratre ;  tum ancilla domina validior et Poppæa non nisi in perniciem uxoris nupta ;  postremo crimen omni exitio gravius.

[14.63]  Nero meanwhile stated with an edict that the prefect had been seduced in the hope of having the fleet join her and — forgetting his late charge of barrenness against Octavia — that, conscious of her lusts, she had aborted a fetus, a fact he had himself ascertained.  He then confined her on the island of Pandateria.

No other exile ever filled the eyes of witnesses with tears of greater compassion.  Some still remembered Agrippina, banished by Tiberius;  and the yet fresher memory of Julia whom Claudius exiled, was present to men’s thoughts.  But they had experienced the prime of life;  they had seen some happiness, and the brutality of the present was alleviated by remembrance of a better lot in the past.  For Octavia, from the first, her marriage-day was a kind of funeral, brought, as she was, into a house where she had nothing but sorrow, her father and, immediately afterwards, her brother having been snatched from her by poison;  then a slave-girl {(i.e., Acte)} more influential than her mistress;  Poppæa wedded only for the destruction of a wife and, to end all, an accusation more horrible than any death.

[14.64]  Ac puella vicesimo ætatis anno inter centuriones et milites, præsagio malorum jam vitæ exempta, nondum tamen morte acquiescebat.  Paucis dehinc interjectis diebus, mori jubetur, quum jam viduam se et tantum sororem testaretur, communesque Germanicos et postremo Agrippinæ nomen cieret, qua incolumi, infelix quidem matrimonium, sed sine exitio pertulisset.  Restringitur vinclis venæque ejus per omnes artus exsolvuntur ;  et quia pressus pavore sanguis tardius labebatur, præfervidi balnei vapore enecatur.  Additurque atrocior sævitia, quod caput amputatum latumque in Urbem Poppæa vidit.

Dona ob hæc templis decreta — ¿ quæ, quem ad finem memorabimus ?  Quicunque casus temporum illorum nobis vel aliis auctoribus noscent, præsumptum habeant, quotiens fugas et cædes jussit princeps, totiens grates deis actas, quæque rerum secundarum olim, tum publicæ cladis insignia fuisse.  Neque tamen silebimus, si quod Senatus consultum adulatione novum aut patientia postremum fuit.

[14.64]  And now the girl, in her twentieth year, with centurions and soldiers around her, already removed from among the living by the omens of doom, still could not acquiesce in the repose of death.  After an interval of a few days, she was ordered to die, although she was protesting that she was now a widow and only a sister, and appealed to their common ancestors, the Germanici, and finally to the name of Agrippina during whose life she had endured a marriage, which was miserable enough indeed, but not fatal.  She was tightly bound with cords, and the veins in all her limbs were opened;  but as her blood, staunched by fear, flowed too slowly, she was killed outright by the steam of an intensely hot bath.  To this was added the yet more appalling horror of Poppæa beholding the severed head which was conveyed to the City.

Gifts were decreed to the temples for this — how long shall I be recalling them?  Whoever becomes acquainted with the misfortunes of those times, either through me or through other authors, may presume that, whenever the emperor ordered exile and slaughter, gratitude was expressed to the gods, and that what were once signs of good fortune were now those of public disaster.  Still, I shall not be silent if any Senate’s decision was novel in its sycophancy or extreme in its submissiveness.

[14.65]  Eodem anno libertorum potissimos veneno interfecisse creditus, Doryphorum quasi adversatum nuptiis Poppææ, Pallantem, quod immensam pecuniam longā senectā detineret.

Romanus secretis criminationibus incusaverat Senecam ut C. Pisonis socium, sed validius a Seneca eodem crimine perculsus est.  Unde Pisoni timor, et orta insidiarum in Neronem magna moles — et improspera.

[14.65]  That same year {(a.D. 62)} Nero was believed to have destroyed by poison the most powerful of his freedmen :  Doryphorus, on the pretext of his having opposed the marriage with Poppæa ;  Pallas, for still keeping his boundless wealth by a prolonged old age.

Romanus had accused Seneca in secret charges of having been an accomplice of Gajus Piso, but he was himself struck down more effectively by Seneca on the same charge.  This alarmed Piso and gave rise to a huge but unsuccessful mass of conspiracies against Nero.