[16.1]  Illusit dehinc Neroni fortuna per vanitatem ipsius et promissa Cæselli Bassi qui, origine Pœnus, mente turbida, nocturnæ quietis imaginem ad spem haud dubiæ rei traxit, vectusque Romam, principis aditum emercatus, expromit repertum in agro suo specum altitudine immensa, quo magna vis auri contineretur, non in formam pecuniæ sed rudi et antiquo pondere.  Lateres quippe prægraves jacēre, astantibus parte alia columnis ;  quæ, per tantum ævi occulta, augendis præsentibus bonis.  Ceterum, ut conjecturā demonstrat, Dido Phœnissam Tyro profugam condita Carthagine illas opes abdidisse, ne novus populus nimia pecunia lasciviret aut reges Numidarum, et alias infensi, cupidine auri ad bellum accenderentur.

[16.1]  Soon afterwards {(a.D. 65)} Fortune played a joke on Nero through his own gullibility and the promises of Cæsellius Bassus, a Carthaginian by birth and a man of disturbed mind, who construed a vision in his nighttime sleep to be a prospect of an unquestionable reality.  He sailed to Rome and, having purchased admission to the emperor, explained how he had discovered on his land a cavern of immense depth which contained a huge amount of gold — not in the form of coinage, but as unwrought and ancient weights.  Indeed, he said, there were extremely heavy ingots lying there, with bars standing nearby on the other side;  hidden for such a long time, they were meant to augment the wealth of the present.  Moreover, as he pointed out with his conjecture, the Phœnician Dido, after fleeing from Tyre and founding Carthage, had hidden these riches in the fear that a new people might lose their self-control with too much money, or that the Numidian kings, already hostile for other reasons, might be incited to war by their lust for gold.

Ac forte Quinquennale Ludicrum secundo lustro celebrabatur, ac vatibus oratoribusque præcipua materia in laudem principis assumpta est.  Non enim solitas tantum fruges nec confusum in metallis aurum gigni, sed nova ubertate provenire terram et obvias opes deferre deos, quæque alia summā facundiā nec minore adulatione servilia fingebant, securi de facilitate credentis.

[16.2]  So Nero, without sufficiently examining the credibility either of the author or of the business itself, or sending men to ascertain whether the report were true, himself actually encouraged the claim and dispatched men to bring the spoil, as if it had been already prepared.  They were given triremes and crews specially selected for helping to speed things up.  Nothing else at the time was the subject of the credulous gossip of the people, or of the completely different conversation of thinking people.

It happened, too, that the Quinquennial Games were being celebrated for the second time, and it was taken by bards and orators as their main source for their praises of the emperor.  “Not only,” they said, “were the usual harvests and the alloyed gold in the mines being produced, but the earth was now coming up with new abundance, and the gods were placing wealth right in front of them.”  And with consummate eloquence and no less sycophancy they invented other servile flatteries, confident in his ready credulity.

[16.3]  Gliscebat interim luxuria, spe inani, consumebanturque veteres opes, quasi oblatis quas multos per annos prodigeret.  Quin et inde jam largiebatur ;  et divitiarum expectatio inter causas paupertatis publicæ erat.

Nam Bassus, effosso agro suo latisque circum arvis, dum hunc vel illum locum promissi specus asseverat, sequunturque non modo milites sed populus agrestium efficiendo operi assumptus, tandem posita vecordia, non falsa antea somnia sua seque tunc primum elusum admirans, pudorem et metum morte voluntaria effugit.  Quidam vinctum ac mox dimissum tradidere, ademptis bonis in locum regiæ gazæ.

[16.3]  Meanwhile his prodigality exploded due to the vain hope;  and — as though there were resources available to squander for many years — he engaged in spending all the old wealth.  Indeed, he made lavish expenditures from it, and the expectation of riches was among the causes of the impoverishment of the State.

For Bassus — having dug up his own field and the extensive fields surrounding it while affirming that here or there was the place of the promised cavern and being followed not only by our soldiers but by the rural populace hired to do the work —, finally overcame his insanity:  he expressed amazement that his dreams, which had never been wrong before, had now for the first time deluded him.  He fled his shame and fear by committing suicide.  Some reported that he was imprisoned and subsequently released after his property had been confiscated in compensation for the royal treasure.

[16.4]  Interea Senatus, propinquo jam lustrali certamine, ut dedecus averteret, offert imperatori victoriam cantus adjicitque facundiæ coronam qua ludicra deformitas velaretur.  Sed Nero nihil ambitu nec potestate Senatus opus esse dictitans, se æquum adversum æmulos et religione judicum meritam laudem assecuturum, primo carmen in scæna recitat ;  mox flagitante vulgo ut « omnia studia sua publicaret » (hæc enim verba dixere) ingreditur theatrum, cunctis citharæ legibus obtemperans, ne fessus resideret, ne sudorem nisi ea quam indutui gerebat veste detergeret, ut nulla oris aut narium excrementa viserentur.  Postremo, flexus genu et cœtum illum manu veneratus, sententias judicum opperiebatur, ficto pavore.  Et plebs quidem Urbis, histrionum quoque gestus juvare solita, personabat certis modis plausuque composito.  Crederes lætari, ac fortasse lætabantur per incuriam publici flagitii.

[16.4]  Meanwhile the Senate, as they were now on the eve of the Quinquennial contest, wishing to avert a disgrace, offered the emperor the “victory in song,” and added the “crown of eloquence,” in order to cover up the degradation on the stage.  Nero, however, repeatedly declared that neither favoritism nor the Senate’s influence was needed, as he was a match for his rivals and, through the conscientious opinion of the judges, would win the honor by merit.  First, he recited a poem on the stage;  then, at the importunate request of the rabble that he “should show all his accomplishments publicly” (these were their words), he entered the theater and conformed to all the laws of harp-playing — not sitting down when tired, nor wiping off the perspiration with anything but the garment he wore, so that no emissions from mouth or nose would be seen.  Last of all, on bended knee he paid homage to the audience with a wave of the hand, then awaited the verdict of the judges with pretended anxiety.  In response, the city-populace, accustomed to encouraging every gesture even of actors, gave a roaring acclamation with rhythmic stomping and synchronized applause.  One would have thought they were rejoicing, and perhaps they did rejoice, in their indifference to the public disgrace.

[16.5]  Sed qui remotis e municipiis, severamque adhuc et antiqui moris retinentes Italiam, quique per longinquas provincias lascivia inexperti, officio legationum aut privata utilitate advenerant, neque aspectum illum tolerare neque labori inhonesto sufficere, quum manibus nesciis fatiscerent, turbarent gnaros ac sæpe a militibus verberarentur, qui per cuneos stabant ne quod temporis momentum impari clamore aut silentio segni præteriret.  Constitit plerosque equitum, dum per angustias aditus et ingruentem multitudinem enituntur, obtritos, et alios, dum diem noctemque sedilibus continuant, morbo exitiabili correptos.  Quippe gravior inerat metus, si spectaculo defuissent, multis palam et pluribus occultis ut nomina ac vultus, alacritatem tristitiamque coëuntium scrutarentur.  Unde tenuioribus statim irrogata supplicia, adversum illustres dissimulatum ad præsens et mox redditum odium.  Ferebantque Vespasianum, tanquam somno coniveret, a Phœbo liberto increpitum ægreque meliorum precibus obtectum, mox imminentem perniciem majore fato effugisse.

[16.5]  All, however, who attended from remote towns, and still retained the Italy of strict morals and primitive ways, as well as those who had come on embassies or on private business from distant provinces where they had been unused to immoral displays, were unable to endure the spectacle or keep up the degrading effort, given that their unpracticed hands would become tired, while they interrupted experienced attendees and were often beaten by soldiers standing in the aisles to see that not a moment of time passed with nonconforming acclamations or in lethargic silence.  It was a known fact that quite a few knights, struggling to get out through the narrow approaches and the inrushing crowd, were trampled to death, and that others, staying in their seats day and night, succumbed to some deadly disease.  For the greater fear was of being absent from the spectacle, with many openly (and more in secret) there to scrutinize the names and faces, plus the delight or dissatisfaction, of the attendees.  Consequently the death penalty was imposed on low-born people immediately, while in the case of nobles the hatred was temporarily hidden and vented not long thereafter.  They say that Vespasian {later emperor}, was berated by the freedman Phoebus for closing his eyes as though sleeping and protected only with difficulty by the pleas of better parties;  he subsequently escaped his looming execution only because Fate had something greater in store for him.

[16.6]  Post finem ludicri Poppæa mortem obiit, fortuita mariti iracundia a quo gravida ictu calcis afflicta est.  Neque enim venenum crediderim, quamvis quidam scriptores tradant, odio magis quam ex fide :  quippe liberorum cupiens et amori uxoris obnoxius erat.  Corpus non igni abolitum ut Romanus mos sed, regum externorum consuetudine differtum odoribus, conditur tumuloque Juliorum infertur.  Ductæ tamen publicæ exsequiæ, laudavitque ipse apud rostra formam ejus et quod divinæ infantis parens fuisset aliaque fortunæ munera pro virtutibus.

[16.6]  After the conclusion of the games Poppæa died due to an unpremeditated outburst of her husband by whom she was kicked while pregnant.  I cannot believe in poison, even though some writers report it out of hatred rather than conviction, for the emperor wanted children and was totally given to the love of his wife.  Her body was not cremated by fire in the Roman way but, filled with aromatic spices following the custom of foreign kings, was embalmed and borne to the sepulcher of the Julii.  There was, however, a public funeral, and from the rostra Nero himself eulogized her beauty and the fact that she had been the mother of a deified child, plus her other gifts of fortune — in place of virtues.

[16.7]  Mortem Poppææ ut palam tristem, ita recordantibus lætam ob impudicitiam ejus sævitiamque, nova insuper invidia Nero complevit, prohibendo C. Cassium officio exsequiarum — quod primum indicium mali.  Neque in longum dilatum est, sed Silanus additur, nullo crimine nisi quod Cassius opibus vetustis et gravitate morum, Silanus claritudine generis et modesta juventa præcellebant.  Igitur missa ad Senatum oratione removendos a Re Publica utrosque disseruit, objectavitque Cassio quod inter imagines majorum etiam C. Cassii effigiem coluisset, ita inscriptam “Duci Partium” :  quippe, semina belli civilis et defectionem a domo Cæsarum quæsitam ;  ac ne memoria tantum infensi nominis ad discordias uteretur, assumpsisse L. Silanum, juvenem genere nobilem, animo præruptum, quem novis rebus ostentaret.

[16.7]  To the death of Poppæa, which, though a public grief, was a delight to those who recalling remembered her shamelessness and cruelty, Nero added a fresh source of hatred by forbidding Gajus Cassius to attend the funeral — which was the first indication of trouble.  The trouble was not postponed for long, and then Silanus was added, there being no charge other than that Cassius was eminent for his ancestral wealth and dignity of character, Silanus for the nobility of his birth and youthful modesty.  The emperor accordingly sent the Senate a speech in which he argued that both ought to be removed from the State, and attacked Cassius with the reproach that among his ancestors’ images he had also revered the bust of Gajus Cassius which was inscribed “To the Leader of the Party”:  in other words, the seeds of civil war and revolt from the House of the Cæsars were the aim;  and in order not to avail himself only of the memory of a hated name to stir up strife, he had recruited Lucius Silanus, a youth of noble birth and headstrong spirit to use as an advertizement for his coup.

[16.8]  Ipsum dehinc Silanum increpuit eisdem quibus patruum ejus Torquatum, tanquam disponeret jam imperii curas, præficeretque rationibus et libellis et epistulis libertos, inania simul et falsa :  nam Silanus intentior metu et exitio patrui ad præcavendum exterritus erat.

Inducti posthac vocabulo “indicum” qui in Lepidam (Cassii uxorem, Silani amitam) incestum cum fratris filio et diros sacrorum ritus confingerent.  Trahebantur ut conscii Volcacius Tullinus ac Marcellus Cornelius senatores et Calpurnius Fabatus eques Romanus ;  qui appellato principe instantem damnationem frustrati, mox Neronem circa summa scelera distentum quasi minores evasere.

[16.8]  Nero next denounced Silanus himself in the same terms as he had his uncle Torquatus, implying that he was already arranging the details of imperial business, and setting freedmen to manage his accounts, papers, and correspondence, imputations both groundless and false.  For Silanus was intensely apprehensive and had been frightened into caution by his uncle’s destruction.

Next, under the designation of “informers,” men who invented charges of incest with her brother’s son against Lepida (the wife of Cassius and aunt of Silanus) and of abominable religious rites.  Volcacius Tullinus, and Marcellus Cornelius, senators, and Calpurnius Fabatus, a Roman knight, were dragged in as accomplices.  These men nullified their immediate condemnation by an appeal to the emperor and, subsequently, as being too unimportant, escaped from Nero, who was preoccupied with major crimes.

[16.9]  Tunc consulto Senatūs Cassio et Silano exilia decernuntur :  de Lepida Cæsar statueret deportatusque in insulam Sardiniam Cassius, et senectus ejus expectabatur.  Silanus, tanquam Naxum deveheretur, Ostiam amotus, post, municipio Apuliæ, cui nomen Barium est, clauditur.  Illic indignissimum casum sapienter tolerans a centurione ad cædem misso corripitur ;  suadentique venas abrumpere, animum quidem morti destinatum ait, sed non remittere percussori gloriam ministerii.  At centurio, quamvis inermem, prævalidum tamen et iræ quam timori propiorem cernens, premi a militibus jubet.  Nec omisit Silanus obniti et intendere ictus, quantum manibus nudis valebat, donec a centurione vulneribus adversis tanquam in pugna caderet.

[16.9]  By a decision of the Senate, exile was decreed for Cassius and Silanus.  As to Lepida, the emperor was to decide.  Cassius was deported to the island of Sardinia, expecting his old age to do the rest.  Silanus after having been transferred to Ostia as though being shipped to Naxos, was subsequently confined in a municipality in Apulia named Barium.  There, while philosophically enduring his utterly undeserved lot, he was apprehended by a centurion sent to murder him.  When the man advised him to sever his veins, he replied that, though he had made up his mind to die, he would not deprive a murderer of the glory of his assignment.  At this the centurion, realizing that Silanus, though unarmed, was nonetheless very strong and more enraged than fearful, ordered him to be overpowered by his soldiers.  But Silanus did not stop resisting and striking back as much as he could with his bare hands until he was felled by the centurion with frontal wounds, as though in battle.

[16.10]  Haud minus prompte L. Vetus socrusque ejus Sextia et Pollitta filia necem subiere, invisi principi tanquam vivendo exprobrarent interfectum esse Rubellium Plautum, generum Luci Veteris.  Sed initium detegendæ sævitiæ præbuit interversis patroni rebus ad accusandum transgrediens Fortunatus libertus, ascito Claudio Demiano, quem ob flagitia vinctum a Vetere, Asiæ pro-consule, exsolvit Nero in præmium accusationis.  Quod ubi cognitum reo, seque et libertum pari sorte componi, Formianos in agros digreditur.

Illic eum milites occulta custodia circumdant.  Aderat filia, super ingruens periculum longo dolore atrox ex quo percussores Plauti mariti sui viderat ;  cruentamque cervicem ejus amplexa, servabat sanguinem et vestes respersas — vidua victa luctu continuo, nec ullis alimentis nisi quæ mortem arcerent.  Tum hortante patre Neapolim pergit ;  et quia aditu Neronis prohibebatur, egressūs obsidens, audiret insontem, neve consulatus sui quondam collegam dederet liberto, modo muliebri ejulatu, aliquando sexum egressa, voce infensa clamitabat, donec princeps immobilem se precibus et invidiæ juxta ostendit.

[16.10]  With equal courage Lucius Vetus, his mother-in-law Sextia, and his daughter Pollutia underwent death.  They were hated by the emperor because they seemed a living reproach to him for the murder of Rubellius Plautus, the son-in-law of Lucius Vetus.  But the first opportunity for unmasking his savagery was provided by Fortunatus, a freedman who, after having embezzled his patron’s property, switched to accusing him.  He enlisted as his accomplice Claudius Demianus, whom Vetus, when proconsul of Asia, had imprisoned for his criminality, but whom Nero now released as a recompense for the accusation.  When the accused discovered this, and that he and his freedman had been put together as opponents on the same level, he retired to his estate at Formiæ.

There soldiers surrounded him in secret surveillance.  Present with him was his daughter who, over and above the impending danger, was embittered through her long agony ever since having witnessed the murderers of her husband Plautus.  She had embraced his bleeding neck and still kept his blood and the clothing bespattered with it — a widow overcome by constant grief, taking no food other than what would fend off death.  Then at her father’s urging she went to Neapolis.  And because she was forbidden access to Nero, she besieged his excursions;  she would cry out for him to hear an innocent man and not to surrender a former colleague in his own consulate to a freedman — now with womanly wailing, sometimes, in a way foreign to her sex, with a menacing tone, until the emperor showed he could be moved neither by pleas nor reproach.

[16.11]  Ergo nuntiat patri abjicere spem et uti necessitate :  simul affertur parari cognitionem Senatus et trucem sententiam.  Nec defuere qui monerent magna ex parte heredem Cæsarem nuncupare atque ita nepotibus de reliquo consulere.  Quod aspernatus, ne vitam proxime libertatem actam novissimo servitio fœdaret, largitur in servos quantum aderat pecuniæ;  et si qua asportari possent, sibi quemque deducere, tres modo lectulos ad suprema retineri jubet.

Tunc eodem in cubiculo, eodem ferro abscindunt venas, properique et singulis vestibus ad verecundiam velati balneis inferuntur, pater filiam, avia neptem, illa utrosque intuens, et certatim precantes labenti animæ celerem exitum, ut relinquerent suos superstites et morituros.  Servavitque ordinem fortuna, ac senior prius, tum cui proxima ætas, exstinguuntur.

Accusati post sepulturam, decretumque ut more majorum punirentur.  Et Nero intercessit, mortem sine arbitro permittens :  ea cædibus peractis ludibria adjiciebantur.

[16.11]  She therefore reported to her father that he should cast hope aside and make the best of the inevitable.  At the same time news came that a senatorial inquest and grim verdict were in the offing.  Nor did anyone fail to advise him to name Cæsar as his main heir and thereby look after his grandchildren with the remaining inheritance.  But he spurned the notion and, in order not, by a final act of servility, to disgrace a life lived with as much freedom as possible, he bestowed all his available money on his slaves and told them to each take whatever they could carry, leaving only three cots for the finale.

Then in the same bedroom, using the same knife, they cut their arteries;  they were then quickly carried to the baths, each covered by a single vestment for the sake of modesty, the father looking at his daughter, the grandmother at her grandchild and she looking at the both of them.  They competed in praying for a quick end to their ebbing lives so they could leave their loved ones still surviving yet just about to die.  Fortune preserved the priority:  the oldest died first, then each next in seniority.

They were charged after their burial, and it was decreed that that “They should be punished in ancient fashion.”  Nero interposed his veto, allowing them to die without supervision.  That was the kind of derision added to murders already perpetrated.

[16.12]  Publius Gallus eques Romanus, quod Fænio Rufo intimus et Veteri non alienus fuerat, aqua atque igni prohibitus est.  Liberto et accusatori præmium operæ locus in theatro inter viatores tribunicios datur.

Et menses, qui Aprilem eundemque Neroneum sequebantur, Majus Claudii, Junius Germanici vocabulis mutantur, testificante Cornelio Orfito qui id censuerat, ideo Junium mensem transmissum, quia duo jam Torquati ob scelera interfecti infaustum nomen Junium fecissent.

[16.12]  Publius Gallus, a Roman knight, was banned for having been an intimate of Fænius Rufus and being no stranger to Vetus.  His freedman, who was also his accuser, was given a seat in the theater among the tribune’s couriers as a reward for his service.

In addition, the months following April (also called “Neroneus”) were renamed from May to Claudius, and from June to Germanicus;  Cornelius Orfitus, the proposer of the motion, asserted that the month of June had been retitled was because there had now been two Torquati {(Junii)} executed for their crimes, thereby rendering the name “June” inauspicious.

[16.13]  Tot facinoribus fœdum annum etiam dii tempestatibus et morbis insignivere.  Vastata Campania turbine ventorum qui villas, arbusta, fruges passim disjecit, pertulitque violentiam ad vicina Urbi in qua omne mortalium genus vis pestilentiæ depopulabatur, nulla cæli intemperie quæ occurreret oculis.  Sed domus corporibus exanimis, itinera funeribus complebantur ;  non sexus, non ætas periculo vacua ;  servitia perinde et ingenua plebes raptim exstingui, inter conjugum et liberorum lamenta qui dum assident, dum deflent, sæpe eodem rogo cremabantur.  Equitum senatorumque interitus quamvis promisci minus flebiles erant, tanquam communi mortalitate sævitiam principis prævenirent.

Eodem anno dilectūs per Galliam Narbonensem Africamque et Asiam habiti sunt supplendis Illyrici legionibus ex quibus ætate aut valetudine fessi sacramento solvebantur.  Cladem Lugdunensem quadragies sestertio {(40 * H$100,000 = H$4,000,000)} solatus est princeps, ut amissa urbi reponerent ;  quam pecuniam Lugdunenses ante obtulerant Urbis casibus.

[16.13]  That year {(a.D. 65)}, befouled by so many evil deeds, the gods also marked by storms and epidemics.  Campania was desolated by a cyclone which destroyed farms, plantations and crops everywhere, and carried its fury to the neighborhood of Rome where a terrible plague was devastating every class of human beings without any weather disturbances to be seen.  Yet the houses were filled with dead bodies and the streets with funerals.  Neither sex nor age was exempt from the danger.  Slaves and the free-born populace alike were suddenly struck down amidst the wailings of wives and children who, after just sitting at their besides, just mourning them, were often cremated on the very same funeral pyre.  The deaths of knights and senators, although indiscriminate, were less deplored since they were as though forestalling the emperor’s barbarism through ordinary deaths.

That same year troop levies were held in Narbonese Gaul, Africa and Asia, to fill up the legions of Illyricum from which men worn out by age or health were being discharged.  The emperor sent relief for the disaster at Lugdunum in the sum of four million sesterces {(40 * H$100,000 = H$4,000,000)} to restore to the city its losses.  Its people had previously offered this same amount for the misfortunes of the City.

[16.14]  C. Suetonio Luccio Telesino consulibus, Antistius Sosianus, factitatis in Neronem carminibus probrosis, exilio, ut dixi, multatus, postquam id honoris indicibus, tamque promptum ad cædes principem accepit, inquies animo et occasionum haud segnis, Pammenem — ejusdem loci exulem et Chaldæorum arte famosum eoque multorum amicitiis innexum — similitudine fortunæ sibi conciliat, ventitare ad eum nuntios et consultationes non frustra ratus ;  simul annuam pecuniam a P. Antejo ministrari cognoscit.  Neque nescium habebat, Antejum caritate Agrippinæ invisum Neroni, opesque ejus præcipuas ad eliciendam cupidinem, eamque causam multis exitii esse.

Igitur, interceptis Anteji litteris, furatus etiam libellos quibus dies genitalis ejus, et eventura, secretis Pammenis occultabantur, simul repertis quæ de ortu vitaque Ostorii Scapulæ composita erant, scribit ad principem magna se et quæ incolumitati ejus conducerent allaturum, si brevem exilii veniam impetravisset :  quippe Antejum et Ostorium imminere rebus, et sua Cæsarisque fata scrutari.

Exim missæ liburnicæ advehiturque propere Sosianus.  Ac vulgato ejus indicio, inter damnatos magis quam inter reos Antejus Ostoriusque habebantur, adeo ut testamentum Anteji nemo obsignaret, nisi Tigellinus auctor exstitisset, monito prius Antejo ne supremas tabulas moraretur.  Atque ille, hausto veneno, tarditatem ejus perosus intercisis venis mortem approperavit.

[16.14]  In the consulship of Gajus Suetonius and Lucius Telesinus {(a.D. 66)}, Antistius Sosianus, who as I have stated, had been punished with exile for repeatedly writing abusive poems about Nero, having heard how much honor there was for informers and how ready the emperor was to kill, as a man of restless character and not slow to seize opportunities, made a friend of a man, Pammenes — an exile in the same place famous for his astrological skill and thus connected in friendships with many people —, through the similarity of their fortune, assuming that the many messengers and consultations were not always coming to him for no reason at all.  At the same time he learned that an annual payment was being given him by Publius Anteius.  Nor was he ignorant of the fact that Antejus, on account of his affection for Agrippina, was hated by Nero, and that his opulence was ideal for inciting the greed which was the cause of the destruction of many.

Accordingly, having intercepted a letter from Anteius and also stolen documents in which the day of his birth and his future were encrypted in Pammenes’ secret code, and having further discovered some remarks on the birth and life of Ostorius Scapula, he wrote to the emperor that he would bring important news and information that would conduce to his safety, if he could but obtain a brief reprieve of his exile.  Indeed, Anteius and Ostorius were threatening the State and prying into the their own destinies and those of the emperor.

Swift galleys were then dispatched and Sosianus arrived speedily.  When his accusation became known, Anteius and Ostorius were classed as being condemned rather than accused men — so completely that no one would attest Anteius’ will until Tigellinus showed up to authorize it, first warning Anteius not to delay this final document.  Then the latter drank poison but, irritated with its slowness, hastened his death by severing his veins.

[16.15]  Ostorius longinquis in agris apud finem Ligurum id temporis erat :  eo missus centurio qui cædem ejus maturaret.  Causa festinandi ex eo oriebatur quod Ostorius multa militari fama et civicam coronam apud Britanniam meritus, ingenti corpore armorumque scientia metum Neroni fecerat ne invaderet pavidum semper et, reperta nuper conjuratione, magis exterritum.  Igitur centurio, ubi effugia villæ clausit, jussa imperatoris Ostorio aperit.  Is fortitudinem sæpe adversum hostes spectatam in se vertit ;  et quia venæ quanquam interruptæ parum sanguinis effundebant, hactenus manu servi usus ut immotum pugionem extolleret, appressit dextram ejus, juguloque occurrit.

[16.15]  Ostorius was living at that time on a remote estate on the Ligurian border.  A centurion was sent there to kill him quickly.  The reason for the hurry arose from the fact that Ostorius was of great military fame, had won the civic crown in Britain and, with a huge body and skill in weaponry, inspired the fear of being attacked in Nero who, always panicky, was, given the recent discovery of a conspiracy, all the more terrified.  So the centurion, having closed off every exit from the house, revealed the emperor’s orders to Ostorius.  The latter turned against himself the bravery so often proven against the enemy.  And because his arteries, though severed, bled too little, he availed himself of the hand of a slave — but only so far as to have him hold a dagger still while he drew his right hand to himself and met it with his throat.

[16.16]  Etiam si bella externa et obitas pro Re Publica mortes tanta casuum similitudine memorarem, meque ipsum satias cepisset, aliorumque tædium expectarem, quamvis honestos civium exitus, tristes tamen et continuos, aspernantium :  at nunc patientia servilis tantumque sanguinis domi perditum fatigant animum et mæstitiā restringunt.

Neque aliam defensionem ab eis quibus ista noscentur exegerim, quam ne oderim tam segniter pereuntes.  Ira illa numinum in res Romanas fuit quam non — ut in cladibus exercituum aut captivitate urbium — semel edito transire licet.  Detur hoc illustrium virorum posteritati ut, quomodo exsequiis a promiscua sepultura separantur, ita in traditione supremorum accipiant habeantque propriam memoriam.

[16.16]  Even if it were foreign wars and deaths met in the service of the State that I were relating with such a monotony of doom, the overload would have overcome even me, and I would expect the revulsion of others repudiating those deaths, however honorable, yet nonetheless sad and incessant, of our citizens;  but in the above cases a servile passivity and so much domestic bloodshed fatigue the mind and paralyze it with sorrow.

I would ask no other indulgence of those to whom those things become known than that I not be thought to hate the men who perished so spiritlessly.  The wrath of the supernatural powers against the Roman State was such that it would be wrong to pass over it — as in the defeats of armies or the capture of cities — with a single refernce.  Let it be granted to the posterity of illustrious men that, just as in their funerals they were differentiated from common burial, so in the records of their final moments they may receive and retain their own memorials.

[16.17]  Paucos quippe intra dies eodem agmine Annæus Mela, Cerialis Anicius, Rufrius Crispinus, ac T. Petronius cecidere — Mela et Crispinus equites Romani, dignitate senatoria.  Nam hic quondam præfectus Prætorii et consularibus insignibus donatus ac nuper crimine conjurationis in Sardiniam exactus, accepto jussæ mortis nuntio, semet interfecit.  Mela, quibus Gallio et Seneca parentibus natus, petitione honorum abstinuerat per ambitionem præposteram ut eques Romanus consularibus potentiā æquaretur ;  simul acquirendæ pecuniæ brevius iter credebat per procurationes administrandis principis negotiis.  Idem Annæum Lucanum genuerat, grande adjumentum claritudinis.  Quo interfecto dum rem familiarem ejus acriter requirit, accusatorem concivit Fabium Romanum, ex intimis Lucani amicis.  Mixta inter patrem filiumque conjurationis scientia fingitur, assimilatis Lucani litteris :  quas inspectas Nero ferri ad eum jussit, opibus ejus inhians.  At Mela, quæ tum promptissima mortis via, exsolvit venas — scriptis codicillis quibus grandem pecuniam in Tigellinum generumque ejus Cossutianum Capitonem erogabat quo cetera manerent.

Additur codicillis (tanquam de iniquitate exitii querens ita scripsisse) se quidem mori nullis supplicii causis, Rufrium autem Crispinum et Anicium Cerialem vita frui infensos principi.  Quæ composita credebantur :  de Crispino, quia interfectus erat ;  de Ceriale, ut interficeretur.  Neque enim multo post vim sibi attulit, minore quam ceteri miseratione, quia proditam C. Cæsari conjurationem ab eo meminerant.

[16.17]  Within a few days, in quick succession, Annæus Mela, Cerialis Anicius, Rufrius Crispinus and T. Petronius fell, Mela and Crispinus being Roman knights with senatorial rank.  The latter, once prefect of the Prætorians and awarded the consular insignia, had been recently banished to Sardinia on a charge of conspiracy and, on receiving news of his death sentence, killed himself.  Mela, son of the same parents as Gallio and Seneca, had refrained from seeking political offices out of a perverse ambition to become equal, as a Roman knight, to ex-consuls in power.  At the same time he believed that a shorter way of acquiring money was through procuratorships for administering the emperor’s business.  He had also fathered Annæus Lucanus, a major aid in his eminence.  After Lucanus had been killed, he aggressively called in the debts due to his estate, thereby provoking one of Lucanus’s intimate friends, Fabius Romanus, into becoming an accuser.  A charge was fabricated that father and son had shared knowledge of the conspiracy and a forged letter of Lucanus was produced.  After examining it, Nero ordered it conveyed to Mela, whose wealth he was drooling for.  In response Mela, in what was then the most common way, opened his veins — after adding a codicil to his will bequeathing a large amount to Tigellinus and his son-in-law, Cossutianus Capito, so the remainder would remain intact.

Appended to the codicil (as though having written thus to complain about the injustice of his death) were the statements that he was dying without any reason for his punishment, while Rufius Crispinus and Anicius Cerialis were still enjoying life, though hostile to the emperor.  These were thought to be forgeries:  about Crispinus, because he had already been killed;  and about Cerialis, so that he would be killed.  And not long afterwards Cerialis did violence to himself, receiving less pity than the others because people remembered that he had betrayed a conspiracy to Gajus Cæsar {(= Caligula)}.

[16.18]  De Petronio pauca supra repetenda sunt.  Nam illi dies per somnum, nox officiis et oblectamentis vitæ transigebatur ;  utque alios industria, ita hunc ignavia ad famam protulerat, habebaturque non ganeo et profligator, ut plerique sua haurientium, sed erudito luxu.  Ac dicta factaque ejus, quanto solutiora et quandam sui neglegentiam præferentia, tanto gratius in speciem simplicitatis accipiebantur.  Proconsul tamen Bithyniæ et mox consul, vigentem se ac parem negotiis ostendit.  Dein revolutus ad vitia, seu vitiorum imitatione, inter paucos familiarium Neroni assumptus est, elegantiæ arbiter, dum nihil amœnum et molle affluentiā putat, nisi quod ei Petronius approbavisset.

Unde invidia Tigellini quasi adversus æmulum et scientia voluptatum potiorem.  Ergo crudelitatem principis, cui ceteræ libidines cedebant, aggreditur, amicitiam Scævini Petronio objectans, corrupto ad indicium servo ademptaque defensione et majore parte familiæ in vincla rapta.

[16.18]  With regard to Petronius, a few things of his earlier career need to be mentioned.  With him the days were passed in sleep, the nights in business and the pleasures of life.  And where hard work promotes others to fame, with him it was indolence, though he was not considered a debauchee and wastrel as are most of those who exhaust their own resources, but a man of educated luxury.  Indeed, the more uninhibited and seemingly nonchalant his words and deeds were, the more readily they were taken as evidence of his natural openness.  Nonetheless, as proconsul of Bithynia and subsequently as consul, he showed himself to be a man of vigor and equal to his duties.  Then returning to his vices (or employing a façade of vice), he was adopted as one of Nero’s inner circle — his “arbiter of good taste,” inasmuch as the emperor considered nothing pleasant or comfortable in the area of luxury unless Petronius had recommended it to him.

From this arose Tigellinus’s jealousy against his assumed rival and superior in the science of pleasure.  And so he began exploiting the emperor’s cruelty, to which all his other passions were subordinate, accusing Petronius of friendship with Scævinus — after bribing a slave to become an informant, taking away Petronius’s means of defence and throwing most of his domestics into prison.

[16.19]  Forte illis diebus Campaniam petiverat Cæsar et, Cumas usque progressus, Petronius illic attinebatur ;  nec tulit ultra timoris aut spei moras.  Neque tamen præceps vitam expulit, sed incisas venas, ut libitum, obligatas aperire rursum et alloqui amicos, non per seria aut quibus gloriam constantiæ peteret.  Audiebatque referentes nihil de immortalitate animæ et sapientium placitis, sed levia carmina et faciles versus.  Servorum alios largitione, quosdam verberibus affecit.  Iniit epulas, somno indulsit ut, quanquam coacta, mors fortuitæ similis esset.

Ne codicillis quidem, quod plerique pereuntium, Neronem aut Tigellinum aut quem alium potentium adulatus est, sed flagitia principis, sub nominibus exoletorum feminarumque, et novitatem cujusque stupri perscripsit atque obsignata misit Neroni.  Fregitque anulum ne mox usui esset ad facienda pericula.

[16.19]  It happened at the time that the emperor was on his way to Campania and that Petronius, after going as far as Cumæ, was arrested there.  He no longer put up with the delays of fear or hope.  Yet he did not end his life precipitately but, having cut his arteries and, as he felt like it, bound them, then opened them again, speaking with friends — but not about serious things or topics by which to win glory for resoluteness.  And he listened to them as they recited, not anything on the immortality of the soul or on the theories of philosophers, but amusing poetry and superficial verses.  To some of his slaves he gave liberal presents, a flogging to others.  He began dining and indulged in sleep so that his death, even though forced, might seem a matter of accident.

Even in his codicils he did not, as did many in their last moments, flatter Nero or Tigellinus or any other of the men in power.  On the contrary, he described in detail the emperor’s shameful excesses, under the names of his male and female prostitutes, and their novelties in each sexual perversion, and sent the account under seal to Nero.  Then he broke his signet-ring, that it might not be subsequently available for imperilling others.

[16.20]  Ambigenti Neroni quonam modo noctium suarum ingenia notescerent, offertur Silia, matrimonio senatoris haud ignota et ipsi ad omnem libidinem ascita ac Petronio perquam familiaris.  Agitur in exilium — tanquam non siluisset quæ viderat pertuleratque, proprio odio.

At Minucium Thermum prætura functum Tigellini simultatibus dedit, quia libertus Thermi quædam de Tigellino criminose detulerat, quæ cruciatibus tormentorum ipse, patronus ejus nece immerita luere.

[16.20]  As Nero was debating as to how his nights’ imaginative doings were becoming known, Silia occurred to him, the by no means unknown wife of a senator, a woman he had involved in all his sexual cravings and who was very familiar with Petronius.  She was driven into exile — on the excuse that she had not kept quiet about what she had seen and submitted to, but in reality out of his personal resentment.

He gave Minucius Thermus, an ex-praetor, over to the animosity of Tigellinus, because a freedman of Thermus had brought criminal charges against Tigellinus, for which the man himself paid by undergoing torture on the rack, and his patron with an undeserved death.

[16.21]  Trucidatis tot insignibus viris, ad postremum Nero virtutem ipsam exscindere concupivit, interfecto Thrasea Pæto et Barea Sorano, olim utrisque infensus, et accedentibus causis in Thraseam quod Senatu egressus est quum de Agrippina referretur, ut memoravi, quodque Juvenalium Ludicro parum spectabilem operam præbuerat ;  eaque offensio altius penetrabat, quia idem Thrasea Patavi, unde ortus erat, ludis asticis a Trojano Antenore institutis habitu tragico cecinerat.  Die quoque, quo prætor Antistius ob probra in Neronem composita ad mortem damnabatur, mitiora censuit obtinuitque ;  et quum deum honores Poppææ decernuntur sponte absens, funeri non interfuerat.

Quæ oblitterari non sinebat Capito Cossutianus, præter animum ad flagitia præcipitem, iniquus Thraseæ quod auctoritate ejus concĭdisset — juvantis Cilicum legatos dum Capitonem repetundarum interrogant.

[16.21]  After having butchered so many illustrious men, Nero finally aspired to extirpate virtue itself by murdering Thrasea Pætus and Barea Soranus.  He had long hated both men, Thrasea on the additional grounds that he had walked out of the Senate when Agrippina’s case was under discussion, as I have already related, and because he had put too little effort into the Juvenile Games.  Nero’s displeasure at this was all the deeper because this same Thrasea had sung in tragedian costume at Patavium, his birthplace, in the metropolitan games instituted by the Trojan Antenor.  Also, on the day on which the prætor Antistius was being sentenced to death for libels against Nero, Thrasea proposed and obtained a milder verdict.  Also, when divine honors were decreed to Poppæa, he was purposely absent and did not attend her funeral.

All this Capito Cossutianus would not allow to be forgotten.  Besides his natural proclivity to crimes of filth, he was antagonistic to Thrasea for having used his prestige to convict him when envoys from Cilicia, aided by Thrasea, were interrogating him for extortion.

[16.22]  Quin et illa objectabat :  principio anni vitare Thraseam sollemne jus jurandum ;  nuncupationibus votorum non adesse, quamvis quindecimvirali sacerdotio præditum ;  nunquam pro salute principis aut cælesti voce immolavisse ;  assiduum olim et indefessum qui vulgaribus quoque patrum consultis semet fautorem aut adversarium ostenderet, triennio non introisse curiam ;  nuperrimeque, quum ad coërcendos Silanum et Veterem certatim concurreretur, privatis potius clientium negotiis vacavisse.  Secessionem jam id, et partes et, si idem multi audeant, bellum esse.

“Ut quondam C. Cæsarem,” inquit, “et M. Catonem, ita nunc te, Nero, et Thraseam avida discordiarum civitas loquitur.  Et habet sectatores — vel potius satellites — qui nondum contumaciam sententiarum, sed habitum vultumque ejus sectantur, rigidi et tristes, quo tibi lasciviam exprobrent.  Huic uni incolumitas tua sine precatione, artes sine honore.  Prospera principis respuit :  ¿ etiamne luctibus et doloribus non satiatur ?  Ejusdem animi est Poppæam divam non credere, cujus in acta divi Augusti et divi Juli non jurare.  Spernit religiones, abrogat leges.  Diurna populi Romani per provincias, per exercitus curatius leguntur ut noscatur quid Thrasea non fecerit.

Aut transeamus ad illa instituta, si potiora sunt, aut nova cupientibus auferatur dux et auctor.  Ista secta Tuberones et Favonios, veteri quoque Rei Publicæ ingrata nomina, genuit.  Ut imperium evertant, libertatem præferunt :  si perverterint, libertatem ipsam aggredientur.  Frustra Cassium amovisti, si gliscere et vigere Brutorum æmulos passurus es.  Denique nihil ipse de Thrasea scripseris :  disceptatorem Senatum nobis relinque.”

Extollit irā promptum Cossutiani animum Nero, adjicitque Marcellum Eprium acri eloquentia.

[16.22]  He hurled against him the following charges as well:  “Thrasea,” he said, “at the beginning of the year always avoids the usual oath of allegiance;  he was not present at the public pronouncing of the vows, even though ordained to the priesthood of the Fifteen;  he had never offered sacrifice for the well-being of the emperor or for his heavenly voice.  Though formerly he had been assiduous and tireless in showing himself a supporter or an opponent even of quite ordinary senatorial decisions, he had not entered the Senate-house for three years;  and quite recently, when there was a competitive rush to put down Silanus and Vetus, he had preferred to devote his time to the private business of his clients.  This was already secession and factionalism and, if many dared to do the same thing, actual war.”

Capito further added, “Just as once a revolution-eager citizenry was talking about Gaius Cæsar and Marcus Cato, it is now talking about you, Nero, and Thrasea.  Thrasea has his followers — or rather his partisans — who imitate, not yet the stubbornness of his sentiments, but his bearing and looks, stiff and morose, in order to reproach your sportiveness.  He is the only man by whom your preservation is not prayed for, your arts not honored.  He is contemptuous of his emperor’s successes.  Is he not satisfied even with your sorrows and pain?  Not believing in Poppæa’s divinity is the same mentality as his not swearing an oath to the enactments of the Divine Augustus and the Divine Julius.  He despises religious rites;  he annuls laws.  In the provinces and the armies the Daily News of the Roman people is read very carefully to find out what Thrasea has not done.

“Either let us switch to his philosophy, if it is so much better, or let those who desire revolution have their leader and instigator removed.  That sect of his {(i.e., Stoicism)} gave birth to the Tuberones and Favonii, names disliked even by the old Republic.  They make a show of freedom in order to overthrow the Empire;  should they succeed in overthrowing it, they will attack freedom itself.  You banished Cassius in vain if you are going to allow rivals of the Bruti to multiply and flourish.  Finally, write nothing yourself about Thrasea;  just let the Senate be the judge between us.”

Nero praised Cossutianus, fraught with anger as he was, and added Marcellus Eprius with his trenchant eloquence.

[16.23]  At Baream Soranum jam sibi Ostorius Sabinus eques Romanus poposcerat reum ex proconsulatu Asiæ, in quo offensiones principis auxit justitiā atque industriā, et quia portui Ephesiorum aperiendo curam insumpserat, vimque civitatis Pergamenæ, prohibentis Acratum, Cæsaris libertum, statuas et picturas evehere, inultam omiserat.  Sed crimini dabatur amicitia Plauti et ambitio conciliandæ provinciæ ad spes novas.

Tempus damnationi delectum, quo Tiridates accipiendo Armeniæ regno adventabat, ut ad externa rumoribus intestinum scelus obscuraretur — an ut magnitudinem imperatoriam cæde insignium virorum quasi regio facinore ostentaret.

[16.23]  In contrast, Ostorius Sabinus, a Roman knight, had already claimed for himself the impeachment of Barea Soranus based on the latter’s proconsulate of Asia, where he increased the emperor’s animosity by his fairness and diligence, as well as by undertaking the dredging of the port of Ephesus and by failing to take vengeance for the force used by the city of Pergamos in stopping Acratus, one of the emperor’s freedmen, from carrying off statues and pictures.  But the actual charge given was friendship with Plautus and the intention to win over the province to hopes of revolution.

The time chosen for his condemnation was that at which Tiridates was arriving to receive the kingdom of Armenia, so that the domestic crime would be obscured by the talk about foreign affairs — or so that Nero could show off his imperial power by murdering illustrious men, as though that were the crime of a king.

[16.24]  Igitur omni civitate ad excipiendum principem spectandumque regem effusa, Thrasea occursu prohibitus non demisit animum, sed codicillos ad Neronem composuit, requirens objecta et expurgaturum asseverans, si notitiam criminum et copiam diluendi habuisset.  Eos codicillos Nero properanter accepit spe, exterritum Thraseam scripsisse per quæ claritudinem principis extolleret suamque famam dehonestaret.  Quod ubi non invenit, vultumque et spiritus et libertatem insontis ultro extimuit, vocari patres jubet.

[16.24]  So after the entire citizenry had poured out to welcome the emperor and and see the king, Thrasea, being denied access to the reception, did not become depressed but wrote a note to Nero asking for the allegations and assuring him that he would clear himself if he were given knowledge of the charges and the opportunity of refuting them.  Nero quickly took that note with the hope that Thrasea had written something to extol the emperor’s glory ad detract from his own fame.  Not finding it, he in his turn became afraid of the face, courage and independence of the guiltless man, and ordered the Senate to be summoned.

[16.25]  Tum Thrasea inter proximos consultavit, temptaretne defensionem an sperneret.  Diversa consilia afferebantur.  Quibus intrari curiam placebat, securos esse de constantia ejus disserunt ;  « nihil dicturum nisi quo gloriam augeret.  Segnes et pavidos supremis suis secretum circumdare :  aspiceret populus virum morti obvium, audiret Senatus voces quasi ex aliquo numine supra humanas :  posse ipso miraculo etiam Neronem permoveri :  sin crudelitati insisteret, distingui certe apud posteros memoriam honesti exitus ab ignavia per silentium pereuntium. »

[16.25]  Thrasea then consulted his most intimate friends whether he should attempt or spurn defence.  Conflicting advice was offered.  Those who thought it best for him to enter the Senate-house said that they were sure of his courage and that he would say nothing but what would heighten his renown.  “It was for the lethargic and timid to surround their last moments with seclusion.  Let the people behold a true man confronting death.  Let the Senate hear words as it were from a heavenly being — superhuman.  It was possible that even Nero would be moved by the wonder of it.  But should he persist in his cruelty, among posterity the memory of Thrasea’s honorable death would clearly be distinguished from the cowardice of those who perished in silence.”

[16.26]  Contra qui opperiendum domi censebant, de ipso Thrasea eadem, sed ludibria et contumelias imminere :  « subtraheret aures conviciis et probris.  Non solum Cossutianum aut Eprium ad scelus promptos :  superesse qui forsitan manus ictusque per immanitatem ausuri sint ;  etiam bonos metu sequi.  Detraheret potius Senatui, quem perornavisset, infamiam tanti flagitii, et relinqueret incertum quid, viso Thrasea reo, decreturi patres fuerint.  Ut Neronem flagitiorum pudor caperet, irrita spe agitari ;  multoque magis timendum ne in conjugem, in filiam, in cetera pignora ejus sæviret.  Proinde intemeratus, impollutus :  quorum vestigiis et studiis vitam duxerit, eorum gloriā peteret finem. »

Aderat consilio Rusticus Arulenus, flagrans juvenis, et cupidine laudis offerebat se intercessurum Senatus consulto :  nam plebi tribunus erat.  Cohibuit spiritus ejus Thrasea ne vana et reo non profutura, intercessori exitiosa inciperet.  « Sibi actam ætatem, et tot per annos continuum vitæ ordinem non deserendum :  illi initium magistratuum et integra quæ supersint.  Multum ante secum expenderet quod tali in tempore capessendæ Rei Publicæ iter ingrederetur. »

Ceterum ipse, an venire in Senatum deceret, meditationi suæ reliquit.

[16.26]  Those, on the other hand, who thought that he ought to wait at home said the same things about Thrasea himself, but that mockeries and insults were in store for him.  “Spare your ears” they said, “the disparagement and abuse.  It is not only Cossutianus and Eprius who are eager for crime;  there are also those who in their cruelty will likely have the effrontery to use fists and blows.  Out of fear even good men will follow them.  Rather, deprive the Senate — which you have adorned — of the infamy of such an outrage, and leave it up in the air what the senators would have decided had they seen you on trial.  It would be to agitate oneself with a vain hope to think that shame of his abominations would change Nero, and we have far more cause to fear that he will vent his fury on your wife, your daughter, on all others close to you.  So while still undefiled and undisgraced, seek to end life with the glory of those in whose footsteps and pursuits you have passed it.”

Present at this deliberation was Rusticus Arulenus, a fiery youth, who, in his ardor for glory, offered to intervene against the sentence of the Senate (since he was a tribune of the people).  Thrasea restrained his passion to keep him from initiating futile measures of no help to the defendant and fatal to the intercessor.  “My life,” he said, “is over, and I am not now about to abandon a rule of life followed consistently for so many years.  You are at the beginning of your public career, and what lies ahead is still undecided.  Think carefully beforehand, at such a time as this, about the path of political service you are entering.”

He then reserved for his own consideration the question of whether it was best for him to enter the Senate.

[16.27]  At postera luce duæ Prætoriæ cohortes armatæ templum Genetricis Veneris insedere ;  aditum Senatus globus togatorum obsederat non occultis gladiis, dispersique per fora ac basilicas cunei militares.  Inter quorum aspectus et minas ingressi curiam senatores, et oratio principis per quæstorem ejus audita est :  nemine nominatim compellato patres arguebat quod publica munia desererent, eorumque exemplo equites Romani ad segnitiam verterentur :  « etenim quid mirum e longinquis provinciis haud veniri quum plerique, adepti consulatum et sacerdotia, hortorum potius amœnitati inservirent. »  Quod velut telum corripuere accusatores.

[16.27]  The next dawn, however, two Prætorian cohorts under arms occupied the temple of Venus Genetrix.  A body of men in toga with unconcealed swords had blockaded the entrance to the Senate.  Throughout the squares and basilicas were scattered squads of soldiers, amid whose stares and menaces the senators entered the Senate-house.  A speech from the emperor was heard from his quæstor.  Without addressing any one by name, he made the charge that the senators were neglecting their public duties, and through their example the Roman knights were becoming negligent.  “Is it surprising,” he asked, “that no one comes from remote provinces when most of those who have gained the consulate and priesthoods devote themselves to the charms of their gardens?”  The accusers snatched this up as a weapon.

[16.28]  Et initium faciente Cossutiano, majore vi Marcellus summam Rem Publicam agi clamitabat ;  « contumaciā inferiorum lenitatem imperitantis deminui.  Nimium mites ad eam diem patres qui Thraseam desciscentem, qui generum ejus Helvidium Priscum in eisdem furoribus, simul Paconium Agrippinum, paterni in principes odii heredem, et Curtium Montanum detestanda carmina factitantem eludere impune sinerent.  Requirere se in Senatu consularem, in votis sacerdotem, in jure jurando civem — nisi, contra instituta et cærimonias majorum, proditorem palam et hostem Thrasea induisset.  Denique ageret senatorem et, principis obtrectatores protegere solitus, veniret, censeret quid corrigi aut mutari vellet :  facilius perlaturos singula increpantem quam nunc silentium perferrent omnia damnantis.  ¿ Pacem illi per orbem terræ, an victorias sine damno exercituum displicere ?  Ne hominem bonis publicis mæstum, et qui fora, theatra, templa pro solitudine haberet, qui minitaretur exilium suum, ambitionis pravæ compotem facerent.  Non illi consulta hæc, non magistratus aut Romanam Urbem videri.  Abrumperet vitam ab ea civitate cujus caritatem olim, nunc et aspectum exuisset. »

[16.28]  Cossutianus made a beginning, and then Marcellus with greater vehemence exclaimed that the whole commonwealth was at stake.  “The clemency of our leader,” he said, “is being eroded by the obstinacy of inferiors.  We have hitherto been too lenient in allowing him to be mocked with impunity by the defector Thrasea, by his son-in-law Helvidius Priscus affected with the same idiocy, by Paconius Agrippinus, the inheritor of his father’s hatred towards emperors, and by Curtius Montanus and his constantly composing execrable poems.  We need an ex-consul in the Senate, a priest when offering vows, a citizen when swearing the annual oaths of allegiance — unless, that is, in defiance of the institutions and rites of our ancestors, Thrasea has openly assumed the role of a traitor and an enemy.  In a word, let him act the senator and, accustomed as he is to protecting the emperor’s disparagers, come among us and propose what he would like to have corrected or changed.  We will more easily put up with his criticism of individual items than, as now, with the silence of a man condemning everything en masse.  Is it the peace throughout the world or the victories won without loss to our armies which displease him?  We should not grant the fulfillment of the perverse ambition of a man who is sad over the country’s prosperity, who considers our public places, theaters and temples as deserts, and who is ever threatening us with his own exile.  To him the decrees of this house, the offices of State or the city of Rome do not seem to exist.  Let him sever his life from a country the sight of which, like his former affection for it, he has now cast aside.”

[16.29]  Quum per hæc atque talia Marcellus — ut erat torvus ac minax — voce, vultu, oculis ardesceret, non illa nota et celebritate periculorum sueta jam Senatus mæstitia, sed novus et altior pavor manus et tela militum cernentibus.  Simul ipsius Thraseæ venerabilis species obversabatur ;  et erant qui Helvidium quoque miserarentur, innoxiæ affinitatis pœnas daturum.  Quid Agrippino objectum nisi tristem patris fortunam, quando et ille perinde innocens Tiberii sævitia concidisset.  Enimvero Montanum probæ juventæ neque famosi carminis, quia protulerit ingenium, extorrem agi.

[16.29]  As Marcellus, a man of savage and menacing nature, belched fire in voice, countenance, and eyes through these and similar words, it was not that now familiar sorrowfulness typical due to the frequency of the trials, but a new and more profound fear in those seeing the grips and weapons of the soldiers.  At the same time the venerable image of Thrasea hovered before their mind’s eye, and there were some who pitied Helvidius as well, doomed as he was to pay the penalty for a blameless relationship.  “What again,” they asked, “was the charge against Agrippinus except his father’s sad fate, since he too, equally innocent, had fallen victim to the cruelty of Tiberius?  As for Montanus, a youth without a blemish, author of no libellous poem, he was being exiled just because he had displayed his talent.”

[16.30]  Atque interim Ostorius Sabinus, Sorani accusator, ingreditur orditurque de amicitia Rubelli Plauti, quodque proconsulatum Asiæ Soranus pro claritate sibi potius accommodatum quam ex utilitate communi egisset, alendo seditiones civitatium.  Vetera hæc :  sed recens et quo discrimini patris filiam connectebat, quod pecuniam magīs dilargita esset.  Acciderat sane pietate Serviliæ (id enim nomen puellæ fuit), quæ caritate erga parentem, simul imprudentia ætatis, non tamen aliud consultaverat quam de incolumitate domus, et an placabilis Nero, an cognitio Senatus nihil atrox afferret.

Igitur accita est in Senatum, steteruntque diversi ante tribunal consulum grandis ævo parens, contra filia intra vicesimum ætatis annum, nuper marito Annio Pollione in exilium pulso viduata desolataque, ac ne patrem quidem intuens cujus onerasse pericula videbatur.

[16.30]  And meanwhile Ostorius Sabinus, the accuser of Soranus, entered, and began by speaking of the latter’s friendship with Rubellius Plautus and saying that Soranus had conducted his proconsulate accommodated to his own importance rather than for the common benefit by fostering sedition in the cities.  These were old charges, but there was a recent one, and one with which he involved the daughter in her father’s plight:  that she had given donations to fortune-tellers.  (This had indeed really occurred due to the filial affection of Servilia — that was the girl’s name — who, out of love for her father and the thoughtlessness of youth, had nonetheless not consulted them on anything but the safety of her family, and whether Nero could be appeased, and whether the trial before the Senate would have no terrible outcome.)

She was accordingly summoned before the Senate, and there they stood facing one another before the consuls’ tribunal — the aged parent, and opposite him the daughter, nineteen years old, widowed and forlorn, her husband Annius Pollio having lately been driven into banishment, and not even looking at her father whose danger she seemed to have have aggravated.

[16.31]  Tum interrogante accusatore an cultus dotalis, an detractum cervici monile venum dedisset, quo pecuniam faciendis magicis sacris contraheret, primum strata humi longoque fletu et silentio, post altaria et aram complexa “Nullos,” inquit, “impios deos, nullas devotiones, nec aliud infelicibus precibus invocavi quam ut hunc optimum patrem tu, Cæsar, vos, patres, servaretis incolumem.  Sic gemmas et vestes et dignitatis insignia dedi, quo modo, si sanguinem et vitam poposcissent.  Viderint isti, antehac mihi ignoti, quo nomine usi sint, quas artes exerceant :  nulla mihi principis mentio nisi inter numina fuit.  Nescit tamen miserrimus pater et, si crimen est, sola deliqui.”

[16.31]  Then on the accuser asking her whether she had sold her bridal trousseau or the necklace taken from her neck to raise money for the performance of magical rites, she at first flung herself on the ground and wept long in silence.  After a while, clasping the burnt-offerings altar, she exclaimed, “I called upon no evil gods, no curses or anything else with my ill-fated prayers, other than that you, Cæsar, and you, senators, would continue to preserve this best of fathers.  My jewels, my apparel, the insignia of my rank I gave up, in the same way as if they had demanded my life-blood.  It is up to those men — unknown to me before this — to tell you what name they used, what arts they employ.  I myself made no mention of the emperor except as one of the gods.  But my most pitable father knows nothing, and, if there is a crime, I alone have committed it.”

[16.32]  Loquentis adhuc verba excipit Soranus, proclamatque « non illam in provinciam secum profectam, non Plauto per ætatem nosci potuisse, non criminibus mariti conexam :  nimiæ tantum pietatis ream separarent, atque ipse quamcunque sortem subiret. »  Simul in amplexus occurrentis filiæ ruebat, nisi interjecti lictores utrisque obstitissent.

Mox datus testibus locus ;  et quantum misericordiæ sævitia accusationis permoverat, tantum iræ P. Egnatius testis concivit.  Cliens hic Sorani, et tunc emptus ad opprimendum amicum, auctoritatem Stoicæ sectæ præferebat, habitu et ore ad exprimendam imaginem honesti exercitŭs, ceterum animo perfidiosus, subdolus, avaritiam ac libidinem occultans ;  quæ postquam pecuniā reclusa sunt, dedit exemplum præcavendi, quomodo fraudibus involutos aut flagitiis commaculatos, sic specie bonarum artium falsos et amicitiæ fallaces.

[16.32]  While she was still speaking, Soranus interrupted her words and exclaimed that she had not gone with him to the province, that because of her youth she could not have been known to Plautus, and that she was not connected with the charges against her husband.  “Treat separately,” he said, “a person guilty only of too much filial affection, and as for myself, let me undergo a fate of any kind.”  He was simultaneously rushing into the embraces of his daughter who was hurrying towards him, but the lictors got between them both and stopped them.

Place was then given to the witnesses, and all the pity the savagery of the accusation had aroused was matched by the anger evoked by Publius Egnatius.  A client of Soranus, and now bribed to destroy his friend, he boasted of the authority of the Stoic school, being well practiced in putting on a façade of integrity in bearing and expression, but in his heart treacherous and cunning, concealing his greed and lechery.  After these facts had been revealed by the money, he provided an object lesson in being on one’s guard not only against those swathed in fraud or thoroughly stained by iniquity but also against those who, under the guise of virtue, are false and deceitful in friendship.

[16.33]  Idem tamen dies et honestum exemplum tulit Cassii Asclepiodoti qui, magnitudine opum præcipuus inter Bithynos, quo obsequio florentem Soranum celebraverat, labantem non deseruit, exutusque omnibus fortunis et in exilium actus, æquitate deum erga bona malaque.  Thraseæ Soranoque et Serviliæ datur mortis arbitrium ;  Helvidius et Paconius Italia depelluntur ;  Montanus patri concessus est, prædicto ne in Re Publica haberetur.  Accusatoribus Eprio et Cossutiano quinquagies sestertium {(50 * H$100,000 = H$5,000,000)} singulis, Ostorio duodecies {(12 * H$100,000 = H$1,200,000)} et quæstoria insignia tribuuntur.

[16.33]  That same day also brought with it the honorable example of Cassius Asclepiodotus, a very prominent man in Bithynia due to his great wealth.  With the same devotion with which he had honored Soranus when he flourished, he did not desert him in his decline, and was then divested of all his property and driven into exile — such being the indifference of the gods toward good and evil.  Thrasea, Soranus and Servilia were given their choice of death.  Helvidius and Paconius were banished from Italy.  Montanus was spared to his father’s intercessions on the understanding that he not be kept in politics.  The accusers, Eprius and Cossutianus, each received five million sesterces {(50 * H$100,000 = H$5,000,000)}, Ostorius twelve hundred thousand {(12 * H$100,000 = H$1,200,000)}, with the insignia of the quæstorship.

[16.34]  Tum ad Thraseam in hortis agentem quæstor consulis missus, vesperascente jam die.  Illustrium virorum feminarumque cœtūs frequentes egerat, maxime intentus Demetrio, Cynicæ institutionis doctori, cum quo — ut conjectare erat intentione vultūs et auditis, si qua clarius proloquebantur — de natura animæ et dissociatione spiritus corporisque inquirebat, donec advenit Domitius Cæcilianus ex intimis amicis et ei quid Senatus censuisset exposuit.  Igitur flentes queritantesque qui aderant facessere propere Thrasea, neu pericula sua miscere cum sorte damnati, hortatur, Arriamque, temptantem mariti suprema et exemplum Arriæ matris sequi, monet retinere vitam, filiæque communi subsidium unicum non adimere.

[16.34]  Then, as evening approached, the consul’s quæstor was sent to Thrasea, who was passing his time in his garden.  He had gathered a numerous crowd of distinguished men and women and was especially attentive to Demetrius, a teacher of Cynic philosophy.  With him — as was conjectured from the earnestness of his face and from what was heard when they spoke more loudly — he was inquiring into the nature of the soul and the separation of the spirit from the body, until Domitius Cæcilianus, one of his closest friends, arrived and reported to him what the Senate had decided.  When all who were present wept and complained bitterly, Thrasea urged them to leave quickly and not entangle their own perils with the fate of a doomed man.  He also counselled Arria, who intended to follow her husband’s end and the example of her mother Arria, to preserve her life and not deprive their mutual daughter of her one and only support.

[16.35]  Tum progressus in porticum, illic a quæstore reperitur, lætitiæ propior, quia Helvidium generum suum Italia tantum arceri cognoverat.

Accepto dehinc Senatus consulto, Helvidium et Demetrium in cubiculum inducit ;  porrectisque utriusque brachii venis, postquam cruorem effudit, humum super spargens, propius vocato quæstore, “Libamus,” inquit, “Jovi Liberatori.  Specta, juvenis ;  et omen quidem dii prohibeant, ceterum in ea tempora natus es quibus firmare animum expediat constantibus exemplis.”  Post, lentitudine exitus graves cruciatus afferente, obversis in Demetrium … * * *

[16.35]  Then he went out into the colonnade where the quæstor found him, joyful rather than otherwise, as he had learnt that Helvidius, his son-in-law, was merely being excluded from Italy.

On hearing the Senate’s decision, he led Helvidius and Demetrius into a chamber and, having exposed the arteries of both arms, after letting the blood flow freely, sprinkling it on the ground, he called the quæstor to his side and said, “We are making a libation to Jupiter the Liberator.  Look, young man!  And may the gods avert the omen, of course, but you have been born into times in which it is best to steel your spirit with examples of fortitude.”  Then, as the slowness of his end brought with it agonizing pains, turning his eyes to Demetrius … * * *