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10588

Tacitus, Annals, 14.17

Sub idem tempus levi initio atrox caedes orta inter colonos Nucerinos Pompeianosque gladiatorio spectaculo quod Livineius Regulus, quem motum senatu rettuli, edebat. quippe oppidana lascivia in vicem incessentes probra, dein saxa, postremo ferrum sumpsere, validiore Pompeianorum plebe, apud quos spectaculum edebatur. ergo deportati sunt in urbem multi e Nucerinis trunco per vulnera corpore, ac plerique liberorum aut parentum mortis deflebant. cuius rei iudicium princeps senatui, senatus consulibus permisit. et rursus re ad patres relata, prohibiti publice in decem annos eius modi coetu Pompeiani collegiaque quae contra leges instituerant dissoluta; Livineius et qui alii seditionem conciverant exilio multati sunt. About the same date, a trivial incident led to a serious affray between the inhabitants of the colonies of Nuceria and Pompeii, at a gladiatorial show presented by Livineius Regulus, whose removal from the senate has been noticed. During an exchange of raillery, typical of the petulance of country towns, they resorted to abuse, then to stones, and finally to steel; the superiority lying with the populace of Pompeii, where the show was being exhibited. As a result, many of the Nucerians were carried maimed and wounded to the capital, while a very large number mourned the deaths of children or of parents. The trial of the affair was delegated by the emperor to the senate; by the senate to the consuls. On the case being again laid before the members, the Pompeians as a community were debarred from holding any similar assembly for ten years, and the associations which they had formed illegally were dissolved. Livineius and the other fomenters of the outbreak were punished with exile. <

Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

15 results
1. Juvenal, Satires, 3.9 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
2. Martial, Epigrams, 3.50, 11.52 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
3. Martial, Epigrams, 3.50, 11.52 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
4. Petronius Arbiter, Satyricon, 55 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
5. Petronius Arbiter, Satyricon, 55 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
6. Seneca The Younger, Natural Questions, 6.1.1 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
7. Suetonius, Augustus, 76-77, 74 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
8. Tacitus, Annals, 14.14-14.16, 14.18, 14.20, 15.22 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) 14.14.  It was an old desire of his to drive a chariot and team of four, and an equally repulsive ambition to sing to the lyre in the stage manner. "Racing with horses," he used to observe, "was a royal accomplishment, and had been practised by the commanders of antiquity: the sport had been celebrated in the praises of poets and devoted to the worship of Heaven. As to song, it was sacred to Apollo; and it was in the garb appropriate to it that, both in Greek cities and in Roman temples, that great and prescient deity was seen standing." He could no longer be checked, when Seneca and Burrus decided to concede one of his points rather than allow him to carry both; and an enclosure was made in the Vatican valley, where he could manoeuvre his horses without the spectacle being public. Before long, the Roman people received an invitation in form, and began to hymn his praises, as is the way of the crowd, hungry for amusements, and delighted if the sovereign draws in the same direction. However, the publication of his shame brought with it, not the satiety expected, but a stimulus; and, in the belief that he was attenuating his disgrace by polluting others, he brought on the stage those scions of the great houses whom poverty had rendered venal. They have passed away, and I regard it as a debt due to their ancestors not to record them by name. For the disgrace, in part, is his who gave money for the reward of infamy and not for its prevention. Even well-known Roman knights he induced to promise their services in the arena by what might be called enormous bounties, were it not that gratuities from him who is able to command carry with them the compelling quality of necessity. 14.15.  Reluctant, however, as yet to expose his dishonour on a public stage, he instituted the so‑called Juvenile Games, for which a crowd of volunteers enrolled themselves. Neither rank, nor age, nor an official career debarred a man from practising the art of a Greek or a Latin mummer, down to attitudes and melodies never meant for the male sex. Even women of distinction studied indecent parts; and in the grove with which Augustus fringed his Naval Lagoon, little trysting-places and drinking-dens sprang up, and every incentive to voluptuousness was exposed for sale. Distributions of coin, too, were made, for the respectable man to expend under compulsion and the prodigal from vainglory. Hence debauchery and scandal throve; nor to our morals, corrupted long before, has anything contributed more of uncleanness than that herd of reprobates. Even in the decent walks of life, purity is hard to keep: far less could chastity or modesty or any vestige of integrity survive in that competition of the vices. — Last of all to tread the stage was the sovereign himself, scrupulously testing his lyre and striking a few preliminary notes to the trainers at his side. A cohort of the guards had been added to the audience — centurions and tribunes; Burrus, also, with his sigh and his word of praise. Now, too, for the first time was enrolled the company of Roman knights known as the Augustiani; conspicuously youthful and robust; wanton in some cases by nature; in others, through dreams of power. Days and nights they thundered applause, bestowed the epithets reserved for deity upon the imperial form and voice, and lived in a repute and honour, which might have been earned by virtue. 14.16.  And yet, lest it should be only the histrionic skill of the emperor which won publicity, he affected also a zeal for poetry and gathered a group of associates with some faculty for versification but not such as to have yet attracted remark. These, after dining, sat with him, devising a connection for the lines they had brought from home or invented on the spot, and eking out the phrases suggested, for better or worse, by their master; the method being obvious even from the general cast of the poems, which run without energy or inspiration and lack unity of style. Even to the teachers of philosophy he accorded a little time — but after dinner, and in order to amuse himself by the wrangling which attended the exposition of their conflicting dogmas. Nor was there any dearth of gloomy-browed and sad-eyed sages eager to figure among the diversions of majesty. 14.18.  Pedius Blaesus also was removed from the senate: he was charged by the Cyrenaeans with profaning the treasury of Aesculapius and falsifying the military levy by venality and favouritism. An indictment was brought, again by Cyrene, against Acilius Strabo, who had held praetorian office and been sent by Claudius to adjudicate on the estates, once the patrimony of King Apion, which he had bequeathed along with his kingdom to the Roman nation. They had been annexed by the neighbouring proprietors, who relied on their long-licensed usurpation as a legal and fair title. Hence, when the adjudication went against them, there was an outbreak of ill-will against the adjudicator; and the senate could only answer that it was ignorant of Claudius' instructions and the emperor would have to be consulted. Nero, while upholding Strabo's verdict, wrote that none the less he supported the provincials and made over to them the property occupied. 14.20.  In the consulate of Nero — his fourth term — and of Cornelius Cossus, a quinquennial competition on the stage, in the style of a Greek contest, was introduced at Rome. Like almost all innovations it was variously canvassed. Some insisted that "even Pompey had been censured by his elders for establishing the theatre in a permanent home. Before, the games had usually been exhibited with the help of improvised tiers of benches and a stage thrown up for the occasion; or, to go further into the past, the people stood to watch: seats in the theatre, it was feared, might tempt them to pass whole days in indolence. By all means let the spectacles be retained in their old form, whenever the praetor presided, and so long as no citizen lay under any obligation to compete. But the national morality, which had gradually fallen into oblivion, was being overthrown from the foundations by this imported licentiousness; the aim of which was that every production of every land, capable of either undergoing or engendering corruption, should be on view in the capital, and that our youth, under the influence of foreign tastes, should degenerate into votaries of the gymnasia, of indolence, and of dishonourable amours, — and this at the instigation of the emperor and senate, who, not content with conferring immunity upon vice, were applying compulsion, in order that Roman nobles should pollute themselves on the stage under pretext of delivering an oration or a poem. What remained but to strip to the skin as well, put on the gloves, and practise that mode of conflict instead of the profession of arms? Would justice be promoted, would the equestrian decuries better fulfil their great judicial functions, if they had lent an expert ear to emasculated music and dulcet voices? Even night had been re­quisitioned for scandal, so that virtue should not be left with a breathing-space, but that amid a promiscuous crowd every vilest profligate might venture in the dark the act for which he had lusted in the light. 15.22.  The proposal was greeted with loud assent: it proved impossible, however, to complete a decree, as the consuls declined to admit that there was a motion on the subject. Later, at the suggestion of the emperor, a rule was passed that no person should at a provincial diet propose the presentation in the senate of an address of thanks to a Caesarian or senatorial governor, and that no one should undertake the duties of such a deputation. In the same consulate, the Gymnasium was struck by lightning and burned to the ground, a statue of Nero, which it contained, being melted into a shapeless piece of bronze. An earthquake also demolished to a large extent the populous Campanian town of Pompeii; and the debt of nature was paid by the Vestal Virgin Laelia, whose place was filled by the appointment of Cornelia, from the family of the Cossi.
9. Gellius, Attic Nights, 19.9 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
10. Pliny The Younger, Letters, 1.15.2, 9.17.3 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
11. Pliny The Younger, Letters, 1.15.2, 9.17.3 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
12. Epigraphy, Cil, 4.3884, 10.1647, 14.168, 14.2112, 14.4572-14.4573
13. Epigraphy, Ekm 1. Beroia, 117
14. Epigraphy, Ils, 335
15. Velleius Paterculus, Roman History, 2.16.2

Subjects of this text:

subject	book bibliographic info
amphitheatre	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 301, 302, 303, 304
annals	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 301, 302, 303, 304
aphrodisias	Talbert (1984), The Senate of Imperial Rome, 415
augustus,and reading	Johnson and Parker (2009), ?Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome, 205
beroia,macedonia	Bruun and Edmondson (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, 546
campania	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 301
catilinarian	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 301
cicero,on poetry as part of conversation	Johnson and Parker (2009), ?Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome, 205
cities	Talbert (1984), The Senate of Imperial Rome, 415
collegium	Talbert (1984), The Senate of Imperial Rome, 415
cyzicus	Talbert (1984), The Senate of Imperial Rome, 415
dipinti,,painted inscriptions	Bruun and Edmondson (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, 546
drama,performances of for entertainment	Johnson and Parker (2009), ?Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome, 205
earthquake	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 302
emperor,princeps	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 301
entertainment,and dramatic performances	Johnson and Parker (2009), ?Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome, 205
entertainment,and musical performances	Johnson and Parker (2009), ?Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome, 205
entertainment,and recitations	Johnson and Parker (2009), ?Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome, 205
ephesus	Talbert (1984), The Senate of Imperial Rome, 415
gladiators	Bruun and Edmondson (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, 546
graffiti	Bruun and Edmondson (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, 546
house of caecilius iucundus	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 304
imagery	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 302
imperial cult	Bruun and Edmondson (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, 546
l. cornelius sulla felix	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 301
l. livineius regulus	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 303, 304
l. sergius catilina	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 301
lanuvium	Talbert (1984), The Senate of Imperial Rome, 415
letter	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 302
ligurinus,and recitations	Johnson and Parker (2009), ?Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome, 205
livy	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 301
m. tullius cicero	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 301
m. velleius paterculus	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 301
mithridates of pontus	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 301
monopoly	Talbert (1984), The Senate of Imperial Rome, 415
munera gladiatorum	Bruun and Edmondson (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, 546
municipal	Bruun and Edmondson (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, 546
nero,emperor	Bruun and Edmondson (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, 546
nero	Johnson and Parker (2009), ?Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome, 205
noricum	Talbert (1984), The Senate of Imperial Rome, 415
oral performance,of poetry	Johnson and Parker (2009), ?Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome, 205
p. cornelius sulla	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 301
plebs,plebeians	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 303, 304
pliny the younger	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 302
plutarch	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 301
pompeii	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 301, 302, 303, 304
popilius pytho,q.,high-priest	Bruun and Edmondson (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, 546
princeps	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 303, 304
recitation,and ligurinus	Johnson and Parker (2009), ?Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome, 205
recitation,for entertainment	Johnson and Parker (2009), ?Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome, 205
rhodes	Talbert (1984), The Senate of Imperial Rome, 415
riot	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 301, 302, 303, 304
senate,in latin and greek,,receives envoys	Talbert (1984), The Senate of Imperial Rome, 415
senate,senators	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 301, 303, 304
seneca the younger	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 302
soldiers	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 301
spurinna	Johnson and Parker (2009), ?Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome, 205
tacitus,p. cornelius	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 301, 302, 303, 304
tacitus	Johnson and Parker (2009), ?Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome, 205
theatrical performance'	Johnson and Parker (2009), ?Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome, 205
vesuvius,mount	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 301