The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Index Database

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Full texts for Hebrew Bible and rabbinic texts is kindly supplied by Sefaria; for Greek and Latin texts, by Perseus Scaife, for the Quran, by Tanzil.net

For a list of book indices included, see here.

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All subjects (including unvalidated):

subject	book bibliographic info
nero	Agri (2022), Reading Fear in Flavian Epic: Emotion, Power, and Stoicism, 3, 13, 17, 21, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 50, 51, 52, 169, 191, 192 Allen and Dunne (2022), Ancient Readers and their Scriptures: Engaging the Hebrew Bible in Early Judaism and Christianity, 11, 58 Ando (2013), Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire, 33, 169, 170, 172, 201, 223, 292 Ando and Ruepke (2006), Religion and Law in Classical and Christian Rome, 58, 61 Arampapaslis, Augoustakis, Froedge, Schroer (2023), Dynamics Of Marginality: Liminal Characters and Marginal Groups in Neronian and Flavian Literature. 134 Arthur-Montagne, DiGiulio and Kuin (2022), Documentality: New Approaches to Written Documents in Imperial Life and Literature, 11, 264 Athanassaki and Titchener (2022), Plutarch's Cities, 41, 48, 49, 52, 53, 54, 70 Augoustakis (2014), Flavian Poetry and its Greek Past, 160, 263, 310, 333, 334 Baumann and Liotsakis (2022), Reading History in the Roman Empire, 149, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 163, 164, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 179 Benefiel and Keegan (2016), Inscriptions in the Private Sphere in the Greco-Roman World, 103, 114, 120, 150 Bexley (2022), Seneca's Characters: Fictional Identities and Implied Human Selves, 68, 173, 337 Binder (2012), Tertullian, on Idolatry and Mishnah Avodah Zarah: Questioning the Parting of the Ways Between Christians and Jews, 214 Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 190, 282, 283 Borg (2008), Paideia: the World of the Second Sophistic: The World of the Second Sophistic, 107, 159, 301, 362, 387 Boustan Janssen and Roetzel (2010), Violence, Scripture, and Textual Practices in Early Judaism and Christianity, 74, 208, 215, 216 Bremmer (2008), Greek Religion and Culture, the Bible, and the Ancient Near East, 70 Brodd and Reed (2011), Rome and Religion: A Cross-Disciplinary Dialogue on the Imperial Cult, 77, 93, 121, 143 Chrysanthou (2022), Reconfiguring the Imperial Past: Narrative Patterns and Historical Interpretation in Herodian’s History of the Empire. 23, 24, 33, 64, 65, 66, 112, 145, 164, 199, 209, 210, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 231, 233, 234, 235, 238, 239, 243, 244, 270, 272, 285, 298, 308 Collins (2016), The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature, 157, 291, 292, 293, 299 Cosgrove (2022), Music at Social Meals in Greek and Roman Antiquity: From the Archaic Period to the Age of Augustine, 177, 178, 179, 183, 212, 237 Czajkowski et al. (2020), Vitruvian Man: Rome under Construction, 210, 218, 252, 291, 323 Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 147, 148, 157, 175 Demoen and Praet (2009), Theios Sophistes: Essays on Flavius Philostratus' Vita Apollonii, 17, 145, 337 Dignas (2002), Economy of the Sacred in Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor, 178 Dignas Parker and Stroumsa (2013), Priests and Prophets Among Pagans, Jews and Christians, 80 Dijkstra and Raschle (2020), Religious Violence in the Ancient World: From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity, 104, 112, 118, 119, 120, 121, 123, 124, 125, 126, 129, 130 Dunderberg (2008), Beyond Gnosticism: Myth, Lifestyle, and Society in the School of Valentinus. 121 Edmonds (2019), Drawing Down the Moon: Magic in the Ancient Greco-Roman World, 392, 393, 411 Eidinow and Driediger-Murphy (2019), Esther Eidinow, Ancient Divination and Experience, 135, 140, 143, 145, 146, 147, 166, 167 Ekroth (2013), The Sacrificial Rituals of Greek Hero-Cults in the Archaic to the Early Hellenistic Period, 107, 108 Faßbeck and Killebrew (2016), Viewing Ancient Jewish Art and Archaeology: VeHinnei Rachel - Essays in honor of Rachel Hachlili, 279, 425, 440 Fertik (2019), The Ruler's House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome, 53, 54, 68, 88, 184 Giusti (2018), Disclosure and Discretion in Roman Astrology: Manilius and his Augustan Contemporaries, 184 Goodman (2006), Judaism in the Roman World: Collected Essays, 53 Gorain (2019), Language in the Confessions of Augustine, 72, 208 Griffiths (1975), The Isis-Book (Metamorphoses, Book XI), 190, 283 Grzesik (2022), Honorific Culture at Delphi in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods. 32, 102, 150, 156, 158 Gunderson (2022), The Social Worlds of Ancient Jews and Christians: Essays in Honor of L. Michael White, 134, 162, 163, 187, 225, 226, 231, 238, 242, 244, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250 Horkey (2019), Cosmos in the Ancient World, 241, 242 Hubbard (2014), A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities, 452, 453 Isaac (2004), The invention of racism in classical antiquity, 459, 485 Johnson and Parker (2009), ?Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome, 75, 202, 205, 206 Jouanna (2012), Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen, 174 Katzoff(2005), Law in the Documents of the Judaean Desert, 48, 49, 91, 216 Keddie (2019), Class and Power in Roman Palestine: The Socioeconomic Setting of Judaism and Christian Origins, 242 Ker and Wessels (2020), The Values of Nighttime in Classical Antiquity: Between Dusk and Dawn, 1, 303 Kingsley Monti and Rood (2022), The Authoritative Historian: Tradition and Innovation in Ancient Historiography, 248, 357, 360, 361, 362, 363, 364, 365, 366, 368, 369, 370, 371, 372, 387 Kirichenko (2022), Greek Literature and the Ideal: The Pragmatics of Space from the Archaic to the Hellenistic Age, 240 Konig and Wiater (2022), Late Hellenistic Greek Literature in Dialogue, 24, 79 Kowalzig (2007), Singing for the Gods: Performances of Myth and Ritual in Archaic and Classical Greece, 358 König and Wiater (2022), Late Hellenistic Greek Literature in Dialogue, 24, 79 Lampe (2003), Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus, 10, 13, 16, 47, 49, 62, 82, 83, 84, 89, 146, 165, 188, 201, 211, 227, 242 Lester (2018), Prophetic Rivalry, Gender, and Economics: A Study in Revelation and Sibylline Oracles 4-5. 53, 101, 104, 108, 112, 114, 121, 122, 125, 126, 127, 133, 134, 140, 172, 194 Levine Allison and Crossan (2006), The Historical Jesus in Context, 23, 36, 75, 341 Luck (2006), Arcana mundi: magic and the occult in the Greek and Roman worlds: a collection of ancient texts, 66, 67, 142, 197, 212, 244, 391 Mackil and Papazarkadas (2020), Greek Epigraphy and Religion: Papers in Memory of Sara B, 149, 150, 151, 155 Malherbe et al. (2014), Light from the Gentiles: Hellenistic Philosophy and Early Christianity: Collected Essays of Abraham J, 197, 199, 381, 658, 758, 908 Mathews (2013), Riches, Poverty, and the Faithful: Perspectives on Wealth in the Second Temple Period and the Apocalypse of John, 17 McGowan (1999), Ascetic Eucharists: Food and Drink in Early Christian Ritual Meals, 85 Miller and Clay (2019), Tracking Hermes, Pursuing Mercury, 253 Mitchell and Pilhofer (2019), Early Christianity in Asia Minor and Cyprus: From the Margins to the Mainstream, 15, 51 Moss (2012), Ancient Christian Martyrdom: Diverse Practices, Theologies, and Traditions, 37, 77, 97, 194 Naiden (2013), Smoke Signals for the Gods: Ancient Greek Sacrifice from the Archaic through Roman Periods, 144, 162, 339 Nasrallah (2019), Archaeology and the Letters of Paul, 125, 147, 148, 246, 248 Neusner Green and Avery-Peck (2022), Judaism from Moses to Muhammad: An Interpretation: Turning Points and Focal Points, 151 Niccolai (2023), Christianity, Philosophy, and Roman Power: Constantine, Julian, and the Bishops on Exegesis and Empire. 47 Nuno et al. (2021), SENSORIVM: The Senses in Roman Polytheism, 162, 217 Panoussi(2019), Brides, Mourners, Bacchae: Women's Rituals in Roman Literature, 76, 77, 78 Pinheiro et al. (2012a), Narrating Desire: Eros, Sex, and Gender in the Ancient Novel, 232, 233 Pinheiro et al. (2018), Cultural Crossroads in the Ancient Novel, 13, 42, 43, 65, 76, 80, 81, 82, 83, 85, 86, 87, 88, 170, 173 Price, Finkelberg and Shahar (2021), Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity, 20, 21, 32, 95, 152, 191, 193, 195, 241, 292 Rohland (2022), Carpe Diem: The Poetics of Presence in Greek and Latin Literature, 157, 158, 159, 160, 207, 208 Roumpou (2023), Ritual and the Poetics of Closure in Flavian Literature. 111, 113, 127, 129, 130, 131, 132, 188 Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 48, 82, 153, 154, 188, 209, 213, 215, 294, 304 Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 259 Schwartz (2008), 2 Maccabees, 54, 258 Spielman (2020), Jews and Entertainment in the Ancient World. 27, 77, 81, 152, 153, 175, 176, 239 Stanton (2021), Unity and Disunity in Greek and Christian Thought under the Roman Peace, 71, 76, 90 Tabbernee (2007), Fake Prophecy and Polluted Sacraments: Ecclesiastical and Imperial Reactions to Montanism, 168, 169 Tacoma (2020), Cicero and Roman Education: The Reception of the Speeches and Ancient Scholarship, 27, 29, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 42, 59, 114, 128, 137, 145, 155 Tanaseanu-Döbler and von Alvensleben (2020), Athens II: Athens in Late Antiquity, 60, 65, 67, 77 Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 59, 118 Taylor and Hay (2020), Philo of Alexandria: On the Contemplative Life: Introduction, Translation and Commentary, 243 Tomson (2019), Studies on Jews and Christians in the First and Second Centuries. 544, 546, 548, 550, 552, 554, 584, 626, 627, 628, 631, 657 Trapp et al. (2016), In Praise of Asclepius: Selected Prose Hymns, 122 Tuori (2016), The Emperor of Law: The Emergence of Roman Imperial Adjudication<, 130, 131, 132, 134, 135, 137, 147, 148, 155, 157, 158, 159, 160, 167, 173, 175, 179, 183, 184, 186, 187, 202, 227, 228 Van Nuffelen (2012), Orosius and the Rhetoric of History, 165, 183 Verhagen (2022), Security and Credit in Roman Law: The Historical Evolution of Pignus and Hypotheca, 160, 263, 310, 333, 334 Viglietti and Gildenhard (2020), Divination, Prediction and the End of the Roman Republic, 82, 304, 354 Williams (2012), The Cosmic Viewpoint: A Study of Seneca's 'Natural Questions', 50, 73, 140, 235, 236, 259, 260 van Maaren (2022), The Boundaries of Jewishness in the Southern Levant 200 BCE–132 CE, 170
nero's, deification, of claudia augusta daughter	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 180
nero, acte, claudia acte, freedwoman, mistress of	Perry (2014), Gender, Manumission, and the Roman Freedwoman, 142, 232
nero, adopted	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 196
nero, adoption by claudius	Peppard (2011), The Son of God in the Roman World: Divine Sonship in its Social and Political Context, 74, 78, 79, 80
nero, afranius burrus, praetorian prefect under	Marek (2019), In the Land of a Thousand Gods: A History of Asia Minor in the Ancient World, 333
nero, agrippa ii, cities given to, by	Udoh (2006), To Caesar What Is Caesar's: Tribute, Taxes, and Imperial Administration in Early Roman Palestine 63 B.C.E to 70 B.C.E, 201
nero, agrippina the younger, and	Fertik (2019), The Ruler's House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome, 51, 55, 56, 57, 58
nero, agrippina, and octavia praetexta, anonymous roman drama about seneca	Pinheiro et al. (2018), Cultural Crossroads in the Ancient Novel, 81
nero, agrippina, mother of	Pinheiro et al. (2018), Cultural Crossroads in the Ancient Novel, 80, 81, 83, 85, 86
nero, alleged infertility of octavia, claudia octavia, wife of	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 133, 134, 205, 206, 207, 208
nero, and agrippina the younger	Fertik (2019), The Ruler's House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome, 51, 55, 56, 57, 58
nero, and aristocracy	Fertik (2019), The Ruler's House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome, 51, 73
nero, and armenia	Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 35, 204
nero, and collecting	Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 71, 149
nero, and phaethon	Williams (2012), The Cosmic Viewpoint: A Study of Seneca's 'Natural Questions', 230
nero, and piso’s conspiracy	Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 135
nero, and signs	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 132, 157, 161, 162, 163, 168, 174, 176, 199, 200, 205, 215, 220
nero, and the domus aurea	Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 73
nero, and, germanicus	Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 7, 246, 277
nero, and, giton	Pinheiro et al. (2012a), Narrating Desire: Eros, Sex, and Gender in the Ancient Novel, 232, 233
nero, ap., claudius	Konrad (2022), The Challenge to the Auspices: Studies on Magisterial Power in the Middle Roman Republic, 35, 36, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125
nero, aristocracy, and	Fertik (2019), The Ruler's House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome, 51, 73
nero, armenia/armenians, war under	Marek (2019), In the Land of a Thousand Gods: A History of Asia Minor in the Ancient World, 332, 333, 334, 336, 338
nero, artistic aspirations	Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 84
nero, as heracles	Malherbe et al. (2014), Light from the Gentiles: Hellenistic Philosophy and Early Christianity: Collected Essays of Abraham J, 657
nero, as xerxes	Giusti (2018), Disclosure and Discretion in Roman Astrology: Manilius and his Augustan Contemporaries, 43
nero, bad emperor	Sider (2001), Christian and Pagan in the Roman Empire: The Witness of Tertullian, 17
nero, bad emperor, deceptive, vanus	Sider (2001), Christian and Pagan in the Roman Empire: The Witness of Tertullian, 18
nero, britannicus, stepbrother of	Cosgrove (2022), Music at Social Meals in Greek and Roman Antiquity: From the Archaic Period to the Age of Augustine, 177, 178
nero, builds amphiteatre of wood	Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 214
nero, by claudius, imperial adoption of	Peppard (2011), The Son of God in the Roman World: Divine Sonship in its Social and Political Context, 74, 78, 79, 80
nero, c., claudius	Konrad (2022), The Challenge to the Auspices: Studies on Magisterial Power in the Middle Roman Republic, 117, 119, 120, 124, 125, 126
nero, caesar	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 186, 194
nero, caesar, julius, and	Fertik (2019), The Ruler's House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome, 38
nero, caesar, son of germanicus	Galinsky (2016), Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity, 58
nero, calpurnius piso, c., conspires against	Bruun and Edmondson (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, 354
nero, cappadocia/cappadocians, parthian war under	Marek (2019), In the Land of a Thousand Gods: A History of Asia Minor in the Ancient World, 332, 333, 334, 336, 338
nero, chaeremon, egyptian priest and tutor, to	Manolaraki (2012), Noscendi Nilum Cupido: Imagining Egypt from Lucan to Philostratus, 41, 107, 108, 109
nero, cimber, slave of	Benefiel and Keegan (2016), Inscriptions in the Private Sphere in the Greco-Roman World, 103
nero, claudius c., triumph or ovation doubtful	Konrad (2022), The Challenge to the Auspices: Studies on Magisterial Power in the Middle Roman Republic, 119
nero, claudius caesar	Brenk and Lanzillotta (2023), Plutarch on Literature, Graeco-Roman Religion, Jews and Christians, 13, 124, 302, 303, 305
nero, claudius caesar augustus germanicus	Romana Berno (2023), Roman Luxuria: A Literary and Cultural History, 16, 72, 77, 78, 79, 80, 88, 90, 103, 108, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 118, 119, 125, 126, 129, 130, 132, 140, 141, 143, 152, 155, 156, 159, 168, 169, 170, 172, 175, 181, 192, 198, 200, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 214, 215, 217, 218, 234
nero, claudius drusus drusus	Erker (2023), Ambiguity and Religion in Ovid’s Fasti: Religious Innovation and the Imperial Family, 40, 67, 73, 75, 79, 112, 217, 220, 225
nero, claudius drusus drusus germanicus	Blum and Biggs (2019), The Epic Journey in Greek and Roman Literature, 195, 198, 199, 200, 203, 205, 206, 208, 209
nero, claudius drusus drusus the elder, d. claudius drusus, later germanicus	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 90, 196
nero, claudius drusus, later drusus iulius drusus the younger caesar, birth date of	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 109
nero, claudius drusus, later drusus iulius drusus the younger caesar, death of	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 199, 204
nero, claudius drusus, later drusus iulius drusus the younger caesar, debate with caecina severus	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 94
nero, claudius drusus, later drusus iulius drusus the younger caesar, dynastic succession and	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 196, 197, 209
nero, claudius drusus, later drusus iulius drusus the younger caesar, twin sons of	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 196, 197, 213
nero, claudius, germanicus	Pausch and Pieper (2023), The Scholia on Cicero’s Speeches: Contexts and Perspectives, 148
nero, colossus of	Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 217, 218, 298, 299
nero, community, and	Fertik (2019), The Ruler's House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome, 74
nero, conflict with britannicus	Peppard (2011), The Son of God in the Roman World: Divine Sonship in its Social and Political Context, 74, 78, 79, 80
nero, conspiracy under	Clark (2007), Divine Qualities: Cult and Community in Republican Rome, 268, 269
nero, cucuta, slave of	Benefiel and Keegan (2016), Inscriptions in the Private Sphere in the Greco-Roman World, 103, 120
nero, domus augusta, imperial family, and	Fertik (2019), The Ruler's House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome, 51, 55, 56, 57, 58
nero, domus aurea of	Augoustakis (2014), Flavian Poetry and its Greek Past, 334 Verhagen (2022), Security and Credit in Roman Law: The Historical Evolution of Pignus and Hypotheca, 334
nero, dynastic succession and, octavia, claudia octavia, wife of	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 207
nero, emperor	Bay (2022), Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity: The Historiography, Exemplarity, and Anti-Judaism of Pseudo-Hegesippus, 37, 86, 172, 173, 174, 256, 288 Bruun and Edmondson (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, 183, 188, 283, 284, 354, 546, 618, 662, 689 Cadwallader (2016), Stones, Bones and the Sacred: Essays on Material Culture and Religion in Honor of Dennis E, 36, 48, 250 Clark (2007), Divine Qualities: Cult and Community in Republican Rome, 267, 270 Csapo et al. (2022), Theatre and Autocracy in the Ancient World, 3, 28, 98, 99, 100, 107, 108, 109, 114, 116, 119, 131, 135, 164, 165, 166, 171, 172, 223, 224 Edelmann-Singer et al. (2020), Sceptic and Believer in Ancient Mediterranean Religions, 98, 100, 140 Ferrándiz (2022), Shipwrecks, Legal Landscapes and Mediterranean Paradigms: Gone Under Sea, 110, 117, 139 Galinsky (2016), Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity, 27, 50, 53, 54, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164 Gardner (2015), The Origins of Organized Charity in Rabbinic Judaism, 155 Huttner (2013), Early Christianity in the Lycus Valley, 101, 207, 331, 332 Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 8, 36, 37, 47, 50, 84, 85, 104, 154, 159, 317, 343 Marek (2019), In the Land of a Thousand Gods: A History of Asia Minor in the Ancient World, 313, 332, 334, 336, 338, 343, 344, 366, 381, 389, 418, 422, 536 McGinn (2004), The Economy of Prostitution in the Roman world: A study of Social History & The Brothel. 91, 130 Mcclellan (2019), Paulinus Noster: Self and Symbols in the Letters of Paulinus of Nola, 6, 81, 99, 110, 169, 194, 214, 215, 236, 237, 238, 268 Pausch and Pieper (2023), The Scholia on Cicero’s Speeches: Contexts and Perspectives, 47, 48 Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 9, 15, 46, 47, 74, 77, 78, 81, 84, 169, 170, 171, 174, 179, 182, 183, 185, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 229, 234, 243, 305, 311 Rüpke (2011), The Roman Calendar from Numa to Constantine Time, History and the Fasti 133, 142, 144, 152 Schliesser et al. (2021), Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World. 251, 362, 525 Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 4, 26, 48, 70, 176, 225, 229, 245, 246, 247, 250, 264, 267, 353 de Ste. Croix et al. (2006), Christian Persecution, Martyrdom, and Orthodoxy, 108, 109, 111, 119
nero, emperor, adoption of	Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 266, 353
nero, emperor, and pantomime	Csapo et al. (2022), Theatre and Autocracy in the Ancient World, 109
nero, emperor, and seneca	Manolaraki (2012), Noscendi Nilum Cupido: Imagining Egypt from Lucan to Philostratus, 41, 81, 104, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 178, 245, 269, 285
nero, emperor, as citharoedus	Csapo et al. (2022), Theatre and Autocracy in the Ancient World, 99, 107
nero, emperor, character in the pseudo-senecan tragedy octauia	Manolaraki (2012), Noscendi Nilum Cupido: Imagining Egypt from Lucan to Philostratus, 77, 78
nero, emperor, death	Galinsky (2016), Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity, 145, 154, 223
nero, emperor, enemy of philosophy in philostratus	Manolaraki (2012), Noscendi Nilum Cupido: Imagining Egypt from Lucan to Philostratus, 263, 264
nero, emperor, failed student	Manolaraki (2012), Noscendi Nilum Cupido: Imagining Egypt from Lucan to Philostratus, 108, 109
nero, emperor, interested in aegyptiaca	Manolaraki (2012), Noscendi Nilum Cupido: Imagining Egypt from Lucan to Philostratus, 40, 41, 42, 104, 107, 108, 110
nero, emperor, marriages of	Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 295
nero, emperor, murders committed by	Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 220, 230, 276, 280, 286, 291, 295, 296, 297, 298, 299, 300, 353
nero, emperor, performance and	Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 5, 304, 315, 316, 317, 334, 342
nero, emperor, performing greek tragedy	Csapo et al. (2022), Theatre and Autocracy in the Ancient World, 165, 166
nero, emperor, poetic rivalry with lucan	Manolaraki (2012), Noscendi Nilum Cupido: Imagining Egypt from Lucan to Philostratus, 104, 110, 111, 114
nero, emperor, posthumous impersonations	Galinsky (2016), Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity, 145, 156, 157
nero, emperor, prodigies and	Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 7, 12, 276, 288, 295, 298, 302, 305, 306, 307, 308, 311, 319, 324, 325, 326, 331, 334, 336, 337, 338
nero, emperor, psychology of	Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 318, 319
nero, emperor, public responses to death	Galinsky (2016), Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity, 154, 155, 156, 158, 160, 161
nero, emperor, purification performed by	Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 289, 290
nero, emperor, relationship with agrippina the younger	Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 5, 286, 293, 294, 297
nero, emperor, relationship with army	Galinsky (2016), Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity, 158, 160, 161
nero, emperor, renovated ludus at capua	Kalinowski (2021), Memory, Family, and Community in Roman Ephesos, 229
nero, emperor, searches for the nile sources	Manolaraki (2012), Noscendi Nilum Cupido: Imagining Egypt from Lucan to Philostratus, 41, 81, 110, 285, 290
nero, emperor, statues of	Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 311
nero, emperor, temple of	Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 330, 331
nero, emperor, un, observed life	Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 15, 26, 78, 79, 80, 172, 173
nero, emperor, worshipful treatment of	Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 305, 309, 344, 345, 360
nero, emperors	Belayche and Massa (2021), Mystery Cults in Visual Representation in Graeco-Roman Antiquity, 64, 78 Goldman (2013), Color-Terms in Social and Cultural Context in Ancient Rome, 22, 39, 51, 72, 79, 85, 86, 87, 90, 91, 104, 105, 106, 119, 156
nero, emperors and egypt	Manolaraki (2012), Noscendi Nilum Cupido: Imagining Egypt from Lucan to Philostratus, 40, 41, 42
nero, euripides, tragic poet, and	Csapo et al. (2022), Theatre and Autocracy in the Ancient World, 165
nero, executes l. junius silanus	Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 293
nero, fondness for corinthian bronze	Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 70
nero, gaius claudius	Mcclellan (2019), Paulinus Noster: Self and Symbols in the Letters of Paulinus of Nola, 110
nero, gaius claudius, roman consul	Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 5
nero, gemellus, ti., ti. iulius caesar	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 70, 196, 197, 199, 213
nero, giant portrait of	Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 217
nero, golden house of	Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 41, 68, 79, 80, 282, 283, 300, 315, 340, 341, 343, 353
nero, grants statue of ofonius tigellinus, c.	Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 135
nero, great revolt/war, under ~	Tomson (2019), Studies on Jews and Christians in the First and Second Centuries. 42, 101, 104, 151, 160, 162, 164, 166, 180, 208, 210, 216, 289, 291, 295, 377, 378, 379, 425, 428, 458, 474, 475, 483, 534, 541, 542, 543, 544, 556, 559, 560, 561, 562, 563, 564, 565, 566, 571, 572, 574, 575, 576, 578, 592, 605, 606, 609, 613, 614, 615, 618, 641, 648
nero, his hellenism	Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 283
nero, honoured	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 184, 198, 201, 203
nero, in de clementia, seneca, and	Williams and Vol (2022), Philosophy in Ovid, Ovid as Philosopher, 281, 282
nero, in gaul, census, of	Udoh (2006), To Caesar What Is Caesar's: Tribute, Taxes, and Imperial Administration in Early Roman Palestine 63 B.C.E to 70 B.C.E, 208, 209
nero, in the octavia, octavia, claudia octavia, wife of	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 202, 206, 207, 211
nero, iulius caesar, son of germanicus	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 97, 196, 203
nero, l. domitius ahenobarbus, and dynastic succession	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 207
nero, l. domitius ahenobarbus, congiaria coins of	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 157
nero, l. domitius ahenobarbus, divorce of octavia	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 133, 134, 205, 206, 207, 208, 211
nero, l. domitius ahenobarbus, fecunditas, temple to	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 222
nero, l. domitius ahenobarbus, in the octavia	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 206, 207, 211
nero, l. domitius ahenobarbus, on coins of claudius	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 213
nero, l. domitius ahenobarbus, ‘marriage’ to sporus	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 16
nero, later ti. caesar tiberius, ti. claudius augustus, adoption by augustus	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 153, 209
nero, later ti. caesar tiberius, ti. claudius augustus, adoption of germanicus	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 209
nero, later ti. caesar tiberius, ti. claudius augustus, and agrippina the elder	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 199, 200, 201
nero, later ti. caesar tiberius, ti. claudius augustus, and dynastic succession	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 196, 197, 199, 200, 201
nero, later ti. caesar tiberius, ti. claudius augustus, coinage of	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 196, 212, 213, 216
nero, later ti. caesar tiberius, ti. claudius augustus, divorce from vipsania	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 108, 109
nero, later ti. caesar tiberius, ti. claudius augustus, m. hortalus and	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 23, 24, 25
nero, later ti. caesar tiberius, ti. claudius augustus, rejection of honorific titles	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 197
nero, loots, greece	Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 52, 55, 272
nero, loots, olympia	Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 52
nero, lucian, writer, , and the	Csapo et al. (2022), Theatre and Autocracy in the Ancient World, 166
nero, lyres/lyrody/citharas/citharists	Cosgrove (2022), Music at Social Meals in Greek and Roman Antiquity: From the Archaic Period to the Age of Augustine, 178
nero, murders family	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 198, 201
nero, murders his mother	Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 135, 305
nero, murders, agrippina the younger	Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 25, 34, 135, 166
nero, negative example	Potter Suh and Holladay (2021), Hellenistic Jewish Literature and the New Testament: Collected Essays, 297
nero, new dionysus, antony as	Brodd and Reed (2011), Rome and Religion: A Cross-Disciplinary Dialogue on the Imperial Cult, 88, 91
nero, octavia, wife of	Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 220, 257, 295, 308, 312, 339, 360
nero, offends gods	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 156, 157, 159, 160, 200, 201, 206, 277
nero, on coinage, octavia, claudia octavia, wife of	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 213
nero, pantomimes, and	Csapo et al. (2022), Theatre and Autocracy in the Ancient World, 109
nero, performance, and	Rohland (2022), Carpe Diem: The Poetics of Presence in Greek and Latin Literature, 158
nero, persecution	Maier and Waldner (2022), Desiring Martyrs: Locating Martyrs in Space and Time, 41, 44, 45, 47, 188
nero, persecution of christians	Peppard (2011), The Son of God in the Roman World: Divine Sonship in its Social and Political Context, 88, 89, 90
nero, poppaea, mistress and wife of	Pinheiro et al. (2018), Cultural Crossroads in the Ancient Novel, 85, 87
nero, portrait	Borg (2008), Paideia: the World of the Second Sophistic: The World of the Second Sophistic, 159, 387
nero, private sphere/privacy, and	Fertik (2019), The Ruler's House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome, 68, 74
nero, prodigies, under	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 199, 200
nero, public eye, and	Fertik (2019), The Ruler's House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome, 62, 68, 74, 75, 77, 81, 82, 83, 84
nero, reign of nenia	Joseph (2022), Thunder and Lament: Lucan on the Beginnings and Ends of Epic, 8, 9, 268, 269
nero, reign predicted	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 166, 277
nero, roman emperor	Bianchetti et al. (2015), Brill’s Companion to Ancient Geography: The Inhabited World in Greek and Roman Tradition, 223 Edmondson (2008), Roman Dress and the Fabrics of Roman Culture, 32, 36, 49, 83, 109, 211 Maier and Waldner (2022), Desiring Martyrs: Locating Martyrs in Space and Time, 41, 44, 45, 46, 47, 188 Rizzi (2010), Hadrian and the Christians, 41, 103, 104, 119, 120, 129
nero, rome, people of and augustus as pater patriae, and	Fertik (2019), The Ruler's House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome, 38, 73, 74
nero, sagitta, slave of	Benefiel and Keegan (2016), Inscriptions in the Private Sphere in the Greco-Roman World, 103
nero, seneca the younger, and	Manolaraki (2012), Noscendi Nilum Cupido: Imagining Egypt from Lucan to Philostratus, 41, 104, 107, 108, 109, 110, 114, 268
nero, seneca, and	Fertik (2019), The Ruler's House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome, 11, 51, 81, 82, 83, 84, 155, 190
nero, seneca, philosoper, writer, and advisor to	Marek (2019), In the Land of a Thousand Gods: A History of Asia Minor in the Ancient World, 333
nero, son of germanicus	Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 175, 176, 177, 182, 183, 184
nero, statius, on	Agri (2022), Reading Fear in Flavian Epic: Emotion, Power, and Stoicism, 31
nero, suetonius, on	Fertik (2019), The Ruler's House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome, 11, 68
nero, tacitus, on	Fertik (2019), The Ruler's House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome, 38, 51, 57, 72, 73, 165, 166
nero, tacitus, p. cornelius, accounts of false	Galinsky (2016), Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity, 145, 154, 156, 157, 158, 160, 161, 162
nero, thrasea paetus, outwits	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 147
nero, thrasea paetus, restrains	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 198
nero, ti., claudius	Eidinow and Driediger-Murphy (2019), Esther Eidinow, Ancient Divination and Experience, 143
nero, tiberius	Fertik (2019), The Ruler's House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome, 11, 68, 69, 70, 183, 185
nero, tours and pillages greece	Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 52, 73, 134
nero, triumphs, of salinator and	Konrad (2022), The Challenge to the Auspices: Studies on Magisterial Power in the Middle Roman Republic, 119, 120
nero, undermines religion	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201
nero, vespasian, and	Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 273, 274, 275, 281, 283
nero, vitellius, sacrifices to	Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 181
nero, wives, and	Fertik (2019), The Ruler's House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome, 11, 51
nero, xerxes, as	Giusti (2018), Disclosure and Discretion in Roman Astrology: Manilius and his Augustan Contemporaries, 43
nero, περιπέτεια in the rule of	Pinheiro et al. (2018), Cultural Crossroads in the Ancient Novel, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88
neros, marriages to pythagoras, same-sex relationships, doryphorus, and sporus	Panoussi(2019), Brides, Mourners, Bacchae: Women's Rituals in Roman Literature, 76, 77
neros, octavia wife	Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 47
neros, purported celer architect	Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 343
neros, purported severus architect	Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 343
nero’s, attempted looting of pergamum	Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 52, 130, 275
nero’s, divorce of octavia, tacitus, p. [?] cornelius tacitus, on	Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 205, 206, 207, 208
nero’s, freedman, epaphroditus	Bruun and Edmondson (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, 618
nero’s, golden house	Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 174, 179, 183, 185
nero’s, greek plunder, vespasian, inventories	Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 55, 56, 301
nero’s, greek plunder, vespasian, reuses	Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 73, 153
nero’s, mistress, claudia aug.l. acte	Bruun and Edmondson (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, 589, 617
nero’s, statue in rome, temple of mars ultor	Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 25, 294
otho/nero, poppaea, wife of	Galinsky (2016), Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity, 53, 54

List of validated texts:

83 validated results for "nero"

1. None, None, nan (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
Tagged with subjects: • Munatius Sulla Cerialis, M., Nero (Roman emperor) • Nero, new Dionysus, Antony as • Revolt/War, under Nero (Great ~)

Found in books: Brodd and Reed (2011), Rome and Religion: A Cross-Disciplinary Dialogue on the Imperial Cult, 91; Scott (2023), An Age of Iron and Rust: Cassius Dio and the History of His Time. 12; Tomson (2019), Studies on Jews and Christians in the First and Second Centuries. 561, 562

2. None, None, nan (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero • Nero, Emperor, death • Vespasian, reuses Nero’s Greek plunder

Found in books: Galinsky (2016), Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity, 223; Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 153

3. None, None, nan (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero • Nero (Emperor) • Nero (emperor) • Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus • Nero, artistic aspirations • Vespasian, reuses Nero’s Greek plunder

Found in books: Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 50; McGinn (2004), The Economy of Prostitution in the Roman world: A study of Social History & The Brothel. 91; Romana Berno (2023), Roman Luxuria: A Literary and Cultural History, 170; Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 84, 153

4. None, None, nan (2nd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero • Nero, Roman Emperor

Found in books: Bianchetti et al. (2015), Brill’s Companion to Ancient Geography: The Inhabited World in Greek and Roman Tradition, 223; Stanton (2021), Unity and Disunity in Greek and Christian Thought under the Roman Peace, 71

5. Anon., Sibylline Oracles, 3.1-3.92, 4.145, 5.28-5.34, 5.47-5.48, 5.137-5.154, 5.159, 5.173, 5.179-5.180, 5.185-5.199 (1st cent. BCE - 5th cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero • Nero, Roman Emperor • portrait, Nero

Found in books: Borg (2008), Paideia: the World of the Second Sophistic: The World of the Second Sophistic, 387; Boustan Janssen and Roetzel (2010), Violence, Scripture, and Textual Practices in Early Judaism and Christianity, 216; Collins (2016), The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature, 157, 291, 292, 299; Lester (2018), Prophetic Rivalry, Gender, and Economics: A Study in Revelation and Sibylline Oracles 4-5. 172, 194; Rizzi (2010), Hadrian and the Christians, 104

sup>
3.1 O THOU high-thundering blessed heavenly One, ^3.2 Who hast set in their place the cherubim, ^3.3 I, who have uttered what is all too true, ^3.4 Entreat thee, let me have a little rest; ^3.5 5 For my heart has grown weary from within. ^3.6 But why again leaps my heart, and my soul ^3.7 With a whip smitten from within constrained ^3.8 To utter forth its message unto all? ^3.9 But yet again will I proclaim all thing ^3.10 10 Which God commands me to proclaim to men. ^3.11 O men, that in your image have a form ^3.12 Fashioned of God, why do ye vainly stray ^3.13 And walk not in the straight way, always mindful ^3.14 of the immortal Maker? God is one, ^3.15 15 Sovereign, ineffable, dwelling in heaven, ^3.16 The self-existent and invisible, ^3.17 Himself alone beholding everything;' "^3.18 Him sculptor's hand made not, nor is his form" "^3.19 Shown by man's art from gold or ivory;" '^3.20 20 But he, eternal Lord, proclaims himself ^3.21 As one who is and was erst and shall be ^3.22 Again hereafter. For who being mortal ^3.23 Can see God with his eyes? Or who shall bear' "^3.24 To hear the only name of heaven's great God," '^3.25 25 The ruler of the world? He by his word ^3.26 Created all things, even heaven and sea, ^3.27 And tireless sun, and full moon and bright stars, ^3.28 28 of the Chaldeans, nor astronomize; ^3.28 And mighty mother Tethys, springs and rivers, ^3.29 Imperishable fire, and days and nights. ^3.29 O For these are all deceptive, in so far ^3.30 30 This is the God who formed four-lettered Adam, ^3.30 As foolish men go seeking day by day ^3.31 The first one formed, and filling with his name ^3.31 Training their souls unto no useful work; ^3.32 And then did they teach miserable men ^3.32 East, west, and south, and north. The same is he ^3.33 Deceptions, whence to mortals on the earth ^3.33 Who fixed the pattern of the human form, ^3.34 And made wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls. ^3.35 35 Ye do not worship neither fear ye God, ^3.36 But vainly go astray and bow the knee ^3.37 To serpents, and make offering to cats, ^3.38 And idols, and stone images of men, ^3.39 And sit before the doors of godless temples; ^3.40 40 Ye guard him who is God, who keeps all things, ^3.41 And merry with the wickedness of stone ^3.42 Forget the judgment of the immortal Saviour ^3.43 Who made the heaven and earth. Alas! a race ^3.44 That has delight in blood, deceitful, vile, ^3.45 45 Ungodly, of false, double-tongued, immoral men, ^3.46 Adulterous, idolous, designing fraud, ^3.47 An evil madness raving in their hearts, ^3.48 For themselves plundering, having shameless soul; ^3.49 For no one who has riches will impart ^3.50 50 To another, but dire wickedness shall be ^3.51 Among all mortals, and for sake of gain ^3.52 Will many widows not at all keep faith, ^3.53 But secretly love others, and the bond ^3.54 of life those who have husbands do not keep.' "^3.55 55 But when Rome shall o'er Egypt also rule" '^3.56 Governing always, then shall there appear ^3.57 The greatest kingdom of the immortal King ^3.58 Over men. And a holy Lord shall come ^3.59 To hold the scepter over every land ^3.60 60 Unto all ages of fast-hastening time. ^3.61 And then shall come inexorable wrath ^3.62 On Latin men; three shall by piteous fate ^3.63 Endamage Rome. And perish shall all men, ^3.64 With their own houses, when from heaven shall flow ^3.65 65 A fiery cataract. Ah, wretched me! ^3.66 When shall that day and when shall judgment come ^3.67 of the immortal God, the mighty King? ^3.68 But just now, O ye cities, ye are built ^3.69 And all adorned with temples and race-grounds, ^3.70 70 Markets, and images of wood, of gold, ^3.71 of silver and of stone, that ye may come ^3.72 Unto the bitter day. For it shall come, ^3.73 When there shall pass among all men a stench ^3.74 of brimstone. Yet each thing will I declare, ^3.75 75 In all the cities where men suffer ills. ^3.76 From the Sebastenes Beliar shall come ^3.77 Hereafter, and the height of hills shall he ^3.78 Establish, and shall make the sea stand still ^3.79 And the great fiery sun and the bright moon ^3.80 80 And he shall raise the dead, and many sign ^3.81 Work before men: but nothing shall be brought ^3.82 By him unto completion but deceit, ^3.83 And many mortals shall be lead astray ^3.84 Hebrews both true and choice, and lawless men' "^3.85 85 Besides who never gave ear to God's word." '^3.86 But when the threatenings of the mighty God ^3.87 Shall draw near, and a flaming power shall come ^3.88 By billow to the earth, it shall consume ^3.89 Both Beliar and all the haughty men ^3.90 90 Who put their trust in him. And thereupon ^3.91 Shall the whole world be governed by the hand ^3.92 of a woman and obedient everywhere. ^5.28 But after a long time shall he transmit ^5.29 His power unto another, who shall have ^5.30 30 Three hundred for his first initial sign, ^5.31 And of a river the beloved name, ^5.32 And the Persians he shall rule and Babylon; ^5.33 And then shall he smite Medians with his spear. ^5.34 Then shall one rule who has the initial sign ^5.47 Shall also vanish the destructive man; ^5.48 Then, making himself equal unto God, ^5.137 And killing every man destroy all life, ^5.138 So that there shall remain for wretched mortal ^5.139 A third part. But with nimble leap shall he ^5.140 140 Himself speed from the West, and all the land ^5.141 Besiege and waste. But when he shall posse ^5.142 The height of power and odious reverence, ^5.143 He shall come, wishing to destroy the city ^5.144 Even of the blessed. And a certain king ^5.145 145 Sent forth from God against him shall destroy ^5.146 All mighty kings and bravest men. And thu ^5.147 Shall judgement by the Immortal come to men. ^5.148 Alas, alas for thee, unhappy heart! ^5.149 Why dost thou move me to declare these things, ^5.150 150 The painful rule of Egypt over many? ^5.151 Go to the East, to races of the Persian ^5.152 Who lack in understanding, and show them ^5.153 That which is now and that which is to be. ^5.154 The river of Euphrates shall bring on ^5.159 Shall to the isles beam brightly. Pergamos, ^5.173 Upon the painful land! And it shall dash ^5.179 The sea shall overthrow the Centaur race ^5.185 185 (Pretending once to bear the forms, of beasts). ^5.186 Hellas thrice wretched shall the poets weep, ^5.187 When one from Italy shall smite the neck ^5.188 of the isthmus, mighty king of mighty Rome, ^5.189 A man made equal to God, whom, they say, ^5.190 190 And barbarous nation, and beneath the earth ^5.190 190 Zeus himself and the august Hera bore ^5.191 He, courting by his voice all-musical ^5.191 Shall tear away the Lapithæan land. ^5.192 Applause for his sweet Songs, shall put to death ^5.192 The river of deep eddies and deep flow, ^5.193 Peneus, shall destroy Thessalian land, ^5.193 With his own wretched mother many men. ^5.194 From Babylon shall flee the fearful lord ^5.194 Snatching men from the earth. Eridanu ^5.195 195 And shameless whom all mortals and best men ^5.196 Abhor; for he slew many and laid hand ^5.197 Upon the womb; against his wives he sinned ^5.198 And of men stained with blood had he been formed. ^5.199 And he shall come to monarchs of the Mede' ' None

6. Philo of Alexandria, Against Flaccus, 1, 28, 30, 33-42, 49, 56, 65, 81 (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Emperors and Egypt, Nero • Nero • Nero (Emperor) • Nero, emperor • Nero, emperor, interested in Aegyptiaca

Found in books: Ando (2013), Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire, 33, 170; Csapo et al. (2022), Theatre and Autocracy in the Ancient World, 3; Manolaraki (2012), Noscendi Nilum Cupido: Imagining Egypt from Lucan to Philostratus, 40; Schliesser et al. (2021), Alexandria: Hub of the Hellenistic World. 251

sup>
1 Flaccus Avillius succeeded Sejanus in his hatred of and hostile designs against the Jewish nation. He was not, indeed, able to injure the whole people by open and direct means as he had been, inasmuch as he had less power for such a purpose, but he inflicted the most intolerable evils on all who came within his reach. Moreover, though in appearance he only attacked a portion of the nation, in point of fact he directed his aims against all whom he could find anywhere, proceeding more by art than by force; for those men who, though of tyrannical natures and dispositions, have not strength enough to accomplish their designs openly, seek to compass them by manoeuvres. ²⁸ With so much modesty then did this man arrive, wishing if it were possible to enter without being perceived by any one in the city. For he had not come to see Alexandria, since he had sojourned in it before, when he was preparing to take his voyage to Rome to see Tiberius, but he desired at this time to take the quickest road, so as to arrive at his destination with the smallest possible delay. ³⁰ And then again his friends and companions came and stirred up the miserable Flaccus, inviting, and exciting, and stimulating him to feel the same envy with themselves; saying, "The arrival of this man to take upon him his government is equivalent to a deposition of yourself. He is invested with a greater dignity of honour and glory than you. He attracts all eyes towards himself when they see the array of sentinels and bodyguards around him adorned with silvered and gilded arms. ³³ for he encouraged the idle and lazy mob of the city (and the mob of Alexandria is one accustomed to great license of speech, and one which delights above measure in calumny and evil-speaking), to abuse the king, either beginning to revile him in his own person, or else exhorting and exciting others to do so by the agency of persons who were accustomed to serve him in business of this kind. ³⁴ And they, having had the cue given them, spent all their days reviling the king in the public schools, and stringing together all sorts of gibes to turn him into ridicule. And at times they employed poets who compose farces, and managers of puppet shows, displaying their natural aptitude for every kind of disgraceful employment, though they were very slow at learning anything that was creditable, but very acute, and quick, and ready at learning anything of an opposite nature. ³⁵ For why did he not show his indignation, why did he not commit them to prison, why did he not chastise them for their insolent and disloyal evil speaking? And even if he had not been a king but only one of the household of Caesar, ought he not to have had some privileges and especial honours? The fact is that all these circumstances are an undeniable evidence that Flaccus was a participator in all this abuse; for he who might have punished it with the most extreme severity, and entirely checked it, and who yet took no steps to restrain it, was clearly convicted of having permitted and encouraged it; but whenever an ungoverned multitude begins a course of evil doing it never desists, but proceeds from one wickedness to another, continually doing some monstrous thing. VI. ³⁶ There was a certain madman named Carabbas, afflicted not with a wild, savage, and dangerous madness (for that comes on in fits without being expected either by the patient or by bystanders), but with an intermittent and more gentle kind; this man spent all this days and nights naked in the roads, minding neither cold nor heat, the sport of idle children and wanton youths; ³⁷ and they, driving the poor wretch as far as the public gymnasium, and setting him up there on high that he might be seen by everybody, flattened out a leaf of papyrus and put it on his head instead of a diadem, and clothed the rest of his body with a common door mat instead of a cloak and instead of a sceptre they put in his hand a small stick of the native papyrus which they found lying by the way side and gave to him; ³⁸ and when, like actors in theatrical spectacles, he had received all the insignia of royal authority, and had been dressed and adorned like a king, the young men bearing sticks on their shoulders stood on each side of him instead of spear-bearers, in imitation of the bodyguards of the king, and then others came up, some as if to salute him, and others making as though they wished to plead their causes before him, and others pretending to wish to consult with him about the affairs of the state. ³⁹ Then from the multitude of those who were standing around there arose a wonderful shout of men calling out Maris; and this is the name by which it is said that they call the kings among the Syrians; for they knew that Agrippa was by birth a Syrian, and also that he was possessed of a great district of Syria of which he was the sovereign; ⁴⁰ when Flaccus heard, or rather when he saw this, he would have done right if he had apprehended the maniac and put him in prison, that he might not give to those who reviled him any opportunity or excuse for insulting their superiors, and if he had chastised those who dressed him up for having dared both openly and disguisedly, both with words and actions, to insult a king and a friend of Caesar, and one who had been honoured by the Roman senate with imperial authority; but he not only did not punish them, but he did not think fit even to check them, but gave complete license and impunity to all those who designed ill, and who were disposed to show their enmity and spite to the king, pretending not to see what he did see, and not to hear what he did hear. ^4
1 And when the multitude perceived this, I do not mean the ordinary and well-regulated population of the city, but the mob which, out of its restlessness and love of an unquiet and disorderly life, was always filling every place with tumult and confusion, and who, because of their habitual idleness and laziness, were full of treachery and revolutionary plans, they, flocking to the theatre the first thing in the morning, having already purchased Flaccus for a miserable price, which he with his mad desire for glory and with his slavish disposition, condescended to take to the injury not only of himself, but also of the safety of the commonwealth, all cried out, as if at a signal given, to erect images in the synagogues, ⁴² proposing a most novel and unprecedented violation of the law. And though they knew this (for they are very shrewd in their wickedness), they adopted a deep design, putting forth the name of Caesar as a screen, to whom it would be impiety to attribute the deeds of the guilty; ⁴⁹ You, without being aware of it, are taking away honour from your lords instead of conferring any on them. Our houses of prayer are manifestly incitements to all the Jews in every part of the habitable world to display their piety and loyalty towards the house of Augustus; and if they are destroyed from among us, what other place, or what other manner of showing that honour, will be left to us? ⁵⁶ and by reason of their numbers they were dispersed over the sea-shore, and desert places, and among the tombs, being deprived of all their property; while the populace, overrunning their desolate houses, turned to plunder, and divided the booty among themselves as if they had obtained it in war. And as no one hindered them, they broke open even the workshops of the Jews, which were all shut up because of their mourning for Drusilla, and carried off all that they found there, and bore it openly through the middle of the market-place as if they had only been making use of their own property. ⁶⁵ And then, being immediately seized by those who had excited the seditious multitude against them, they were treacherously put to death, and then were dragged along and trampled under foot by the whole city, and completely destroyed, without the least portion of them being left which could possibly receive burial; ^8
1 I omit to mention, that even if they had committed the most countless iniquities, nevertheless the governor ought, out of respect for the season, to have delayed their punishment; for with all rulers, who govern any state on constitutional principles, and who do not seek to acquire a character for audacity, but who do really honour their benefactors, it is the custom to punish no one, even of those who have been lawfully condemned, until the famous festival and assembly, in honour of the birth-day of the illustrious emperor, has passed. ' None

7. None, None, nan (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero

Found in books: Price, Finkelberg and Shahar (2021), Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity, 193; Roumpou (2023), Ritual and the Poetics of Closure in Flavian Literature. 188

8. None, None, nan (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero

Found in books: Baumann and Liotsakis (2022), Reading History in the Roman Empire, 159; Chrysanthou (2022), Reconfiguring the Imperial Past: Narrative Patterns and Historical Interpretation in Herodian’s History of the Empire. 23

9. None, None, nan (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero • Nero (emperor) • Nero, Domus Aurea of • Nero, as Heracles

Found in books: Augoustakis (2014), Flavian Poetry and its Greek Past, 263, 334; Malherbe et al. (2014), Light from the Gentiles: Hellenistic Philosophy and Early Christianity: Collected Essays of Abraham J, 657; Mcclellan (2019), Paulinus Noster: Self and Symbols in the Letters of Paulinus of Nola, 238; Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 82; Verhagen (2022), Security and Credit in Roman Law: The Historical Evolution of Pignus and Hypotheca, 263, 334

10. None, None, nan (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Agrippina the Younger, Nero murders • Nero • Nero (Emperor) • Nero (emperor), purification performed by • Nero Iulius Caesar (son of Germanicus) • Nero, Emperor • Nero, emperor, and Seneca

Found in books: Augoustakis (2014), Flavian Poetry and its Greek Past, 310; Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 97; Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 37; Manolaraki (2012), Noscendi Nilum Cupido: Imagining Egypt from Lucan to Philostratus, 245; Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 201; Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 34; Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 290; Spielman (2020), Jews and Entertainment in the Ancient World. 152; Verhagen (2022), Security and Credit in Roman Law: The Historical Evolution of Pignus and Hypotheca, 310

11. None, None, nan (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Emperors, Nero • Nero • Octavia, wife of Nero

Found in books: Augoustakis et al. (2021), Fides in Flavian Literature, 228; Goldman (2013), Color-Terms in Social and Cultural Context in Ancient Rome, 119

12. Clement of Rome, 1 Clement, 5-6 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero

Found in books: Lampe (2003), Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus, 211; Tomson (2019), Studies on Jews and Christians in the First and Second Centuries. 552, 584

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5 But not to dwell upon ancient examples, let us come to the most recent spiritual heroes. Let us take the noble examples furnished in our own generation. Through envy and jealousy the greatest and most righteous pillars of the church have been persecuted and put to death. Let us set before our eyes the illustrious apostles. Peter, through unrighteous envy, endured not one or two, but numerous labours; and when he had at length suffered martyrdom, departed to the place of glory due to him. Owing to envy, Paul also obtained the reward of patient endurance, after being seven times thrown into captivity, compelled to flee, and stoned. After preaching both in the east and west, he gained the illustrious reputation due to his faith, having taught righteousness to the whole world, and come to the extreme limit of the west, and suffered martyrdom under the prefects. Thus was he removed from the world, and went into the holy place, having proved himself a striking example of patience. '⁶ To these men who spent their lives in the practice of holiness, there is to be added a great multitude of the elect, who, having through envy endured many indignities and tortures, furnished us with a most excellent example. Through envy, those women, the Danaids and Dirc, being persecuted, after they had suffered terrible and unspeakable torments, finished the course of their faith with steadfastness, and though weak in body, received a noble reward. Envy has alienated wives from their husbands, and changed that saying of our father Adam, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. Genesis 2:23 Envy and strife have overthrown great cities, and rooted up mighty nations. ' None

13. Josephus Flavius, Jewish Antiquities, 14.266, 18.1, 18.27, 18.228, 18.237, 19.350, 20.136, 20.138, 20.142-20.144, 20.159, 20.162, 20.173-20.185, 20.197, 20.211, 20.215 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Agrippa II, cities given to, by Nero • Chaeremon, Egyptian priest and tutor, to Nero • Nero • Nero, and collecting • Nero, emperor, and Seneca • Nero, emperor, interested in Aegyptiaca • Revolt/War, under Nero (Great ~) • Seneca the Younger, and Nero

Found in books: Dijkstra and Raschle (2020), Religious Violence in the Ancient World: From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity, 119, 120, 121, 123, 124; Faßbeck and Killebrew (2016), Viewing Ancient Jewish Art and Archaeology: VeHinnei Rachel - Essays in honor of Rachel Hachlili, 279; Gunderson (2022), The Social Worlds of Ancient Jews and Christians: Essays in Honor of L. Michael White, 244; Manolaraki (2012), Noscendi Nilum Cupido: Imagining Egypt from Lucan to Philostratus, 107; Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 71; Tomson (2019), Studies on Jews and Christians in the First and Second Centuries. 160, 216, 377, 543, 544, 546, 565, 628; Udoh (2006), To Caesar What Is Caesar's: Tribute, Taxes, and Imperial Administration in Early Roman Palestine 63 B.C.E to 70 B.C.E, 201; van Maaren (2022), The Boundaries of Jewishness in the Southern Levant 200 BCE–132 CE, 170

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14.266 ἐπεὶ γὰρ ἐναργῆ καὶ βλεπόμενα τεκμήρια παρεχόμεθα τῆς πρὸς ̔Ρωμαίους ἡμῖν φιλίας γενομένης ἐπιδεικνύντες αὐτὰ χαλκαῖς στήλαις καὶ δέλτοις ἐν τῷ Καπετωλίῳ μέχρι νῦν διαμένοντα καὶ διαμενοῦντα, τὴν μὲν πάντων παράθεσιν ὡς περιττήν τε ἅμα καὶ ἀτερπῆ παρῃτησάμην, ^18.1 Κυρίνιος δὲ τῶν εἰς τὴν βουλὴν συναγομένων ἀνὴρ τάς τε ἄλλας ἀρχὰς ἐπιτετελεκὼς καὶ διὰ πασῶν ὁδεύσας ὕπατος γενέσθαι τά τε ἄλλα ἀξιώματι μέγας σὺν ὀλίγοις ἐπὶ Συρίας παρῆν, ὑπὸ Καίσαρος δικαιοδότης τοῦ ἔθνους ἀπεσταλμένος καὶ τιμητὴς τῶν οὐσιῶν γενησόμενος,' "^18.1 καὶ νομίζων καὶ ὁπόσον αὐτῷ καθαρῶς συνειστήκει καὶ τόδε ἤτοι ἐφθαρμένον ἐπὶ δόλῳ τὴν εὔνοιαν προσποιεῖσθαι ἢ πείρας αὐτῷ γενομένης μετατάξεσθαι πρὸς τοὺς προαφεστηκότας, εἴς τι τῶν ἄνω σατραπειῶν ἔσωζεν αὑτόν. καὶ πολλὴν μετὰ ταῦτα στρατιὰν ἀθροίσας Δαῶν τε καὶ Σακῶν καὶ πολεμήσας τοὺς ἀνθεστηκότας κατέσχε τὴν ἀρχήν. ^18.1 περὶ ἧς ὀλίγα βούλομαι διελθεῖν, ἄλλως τε ἐπεὶ καὶ τῷ κατ' αὐτῶν σπουδασθέντι τοῖς νεωτέροις ὁ φθόρος τοῖς πράγμασι συνέτυχε." ^18.27 ̔Ηρώδης δὲ καὶ Φίλιππος τετραρχίαν ἑκάτερος τὴν ἑαυτοῦ παρειληφότες καθίσταντο. καὶ ̔Ηρώδης Σέπφωριν τειχίσας πρόσχημα τοῦ Γαλιλαίου παντὸς ἠγόρευεν αὐτὴν Αὐτοκρατορίδα: Βηθαραμφθᾶ δέ, πόλις καὶ αὐτὴ τυγχάνει, τείχει περιλαβὼν ̓Ιουλιάδα ἀπὸ τοῦ αὐτοκράτορος προσαγορεύει τῆς γυναικός. ^18.27 καὶ ̓Ιουδαῖοι μέγαν ἡγούμενοι τὸν ἐκ τοῦ πρὸς ̔Ρωμαίους πολέμου κίνδυνον, πολὺ μείζονα δὲ κρίνοντες τὸν ἐκ τοῦ παρανομεῖν, αὖθις πολλαὶ μυριάδες ὑπηντίαζον Πετρώνιον εἰς τὴν Τιβεριάδα γενόμενον, ^18.237 διελθουσῶν μέντοι οὐ πολλῶν ἡμερῶν μεταπεμψάμενος αὐτὸν εἰς τὸν οἶκον ἀποκείρει τε αὐτὸν καὶ μεταμφιέννυσιν, εἶτα δὲ τὸ διάδημα περιτίθησιν τῇ κεφαλῇ καὶ βασιλέα καθίστησιν αὐτὸν τῆς Φιλίππου τετραρχίας δωρησάμενος αὐτῷ καὶ τὴν Λυσανίου τετραρχίαν, ἀλλάττει τε σιδηρᾷ ἁλύσει χρυσῆν ἰσόσταθμον. ἱππάρχην δὲ ἐπὶ τῆς ̓Ιουδαίας ἐκπέμπει Μάρυλλον. ^20.136 καὶ Κλαύδιος τῇ δεήσει ταύτῃ προευτρεπισθεὶς καὶ διακούσας, ὡς εὗρε τῶν κακῶν ἀρχηγοὺς τοὺς Σαμαρείτας γενομένους, τοὺς μὲν ἀναβάντας πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐκέλευσεν ἀναιρεθῆναι, τῷ Κουμανῷ δὲ φυγὴν ἐπέβαλεν, Κέλερα δὲ τὸν χιλίαρχον ἐκέλευσεν ἀγαγόντας εἰς τὰ ̔Ιεροσόλυμα πάντων ὁρώντων ἐπὶ τὴν πόλιν πᾶσαν σύραντας οὕτως ἀποκτεῖναι.' "^20.142 καθ' ὃν χρόνον τῆς ̓Ιουδαίας ἐπετρόπευε Φῆλιξ θεασάμενος ταύτην, καὶ γὰρ ἦν κάλλει πασῶν διαφέρουσα, λαμβάνει τῆς γυναικὸς ἐπιθυμίαν, καὶ ̓́Ατομον ὀνόματι τῶν ἑαυτοῦ φίλων ̓Ιουδαῖον, Κύπριον δὲ τὸ γένος, μάγον εἶναι σκηπτόμενον πέμπων πρὸς αὐτὴν ἔπειθεν τὸν ἄνδρα καταλιποῦσαν αὐτῷ γήμασθαι, μακαρίαν ποιήσειν ἐπαγγελλόμενος μὴ ὑπερηφανήσασαν αὐτόν." "^20.143 ἡ δὲ κακῶς πράττουσα καὶ φυγεῖν τὸν ἐκ τῆς ἀδελφῆς Βερενίκης βουλομένη φθόνον αὑτῇ διὰ τὸ κάλλος παρεκάλει παρ' ἐκείνης οἰόμενος οὐκ ἐν ὀλίγοις ἔβλαπτεν, παραβῆναί τε τὰ πάτρια νόμιμα πείθεται καὶ τῷ Φήλικι γήμασθαι." "^20.144 τεκοῦσα δ' ἐξ αὐτοῦ παῖδα προσηγόρευσεν ̓Αγρίππαν. ἀλλ' ὃν μὲν τρόπον ὁ νεανίας οὗτος σὺν τῇ γυναικὶ κατὰ τὴν ἐκπύρωσιν τοῦ Βεσβίου ὄρους ἐπὶ τῶν Τίτου Καίσαρος χρόνων ἠφανίσθη, μετὰ ταῦτα δηλώσω." ^20.159 καὶ τὸν ̓Αγρίππαν δὲ δωρεῖται μοίρᾳ τινὶ τῆς Γαλιλαίας ὁ Καῖσαρ Τιβεριάδα καὶ Ταριχέας ὑπακούειν αὐτῷ κελεύσας, δίδωσι δὲ καὶ ̓Ιουλιάδα πόλιν τῆς Περαίας καὶ κώμας τὰς περὶ αὐτὴν δεκατέσσαρας. ^20.173 Γίνεται δὲ καὶ τῶν Καισάρειαν οἰκούντων ̓Ιουδαίων στάσις πρὸς τοὺς ἐν αὐτῇ Σύρους περὶ ἰσοπολιτείας: οἱ μὲν γὰρ ̓Ιουδαῖοι πρωτεύειν ἠξίουν διὰ τὸ τὸν κτίστην τῆς Καισαρείας ̔Ηρώδην αὐτῶν βασιλέα γεγονέναι τὸ γένος ̓Ιουδαῖον, Σύροι δὲ τὰ μὲν περὶ τὸν ̔Ηρώδην ὡμολόγουν, ἔφασκον δὲ τὴν Καισάρειαν Στράτωνος πύργον τὸ πρότερον καλεῖσθαι καὶ τότε μηδένα γεγονέναι τῆς πόλεως αὐτῶν ̓Ιουδαῖον οἰκήτορα. ^20.174 ταῦτα ἀκούσαντες οἱ τῆς χώρας ἔπαρχοι λαβόντες ἀμφοτέρωθεν τοὺς αἰτίους τῆς στάσεως πληγαῖς ᾐκίσαντο καὶ τὴν ταραχὴν οὕτω κατέστειλαν πρὸς ὀλίγον. ^20.175 πάλιν γὰρ οἱ κατὰ τὴν πόλιν ̓Ιουδαῖοι τῷ πλούτῳ θαρροῦντες καὶ διὰ τοῦτο καταφρονοῦντες τῶν Σύρων ἐβλασφήμουν εἰς αὐτοὺς ἐρεθίσειν προσδοκῶντες.' "^20.176 οἱ δὲ χρήμασιν μὲν ἡττώμενοι, μέγα δὲ φρονοῦντες ἐπὶ τῷ τοὺς πλείστους τῶν ὑπὸ ̔Ρωμαίοις ἐκεῖ στρατευομένων Καισαρεῖς εἶναι καὶ Σεβαστηνοὺς μέχρι μέν τινος καὶ αὐτοὶ τοὺς ̓Ιουδαίους λόγῳ ὕβριζον, εἶτα λίθοις ἀλλήλους ἔβαλλον, ἕως πολλοὺς παρ' ἀμφότερα τρωθῆναί τε καὶ πεσεῖν συνέβη: νικῶσί γε μὴν ̓Ιουδαῖοι." "^20.177 Φῆλιξ δ' ὡς ἐθεάσατο φιλονεικίαν ἐν πολέμου τρόπῳ γενομένην προπηδήσας παύεσθαι τοὺς ̓Ιουδαίους παρεκάλει, μὴ πειθομένοις δὲ τοὺς στρατιώτας ὁπλίσας ἐπαφίησι καὶ πολλοὺς μὲν αὐτῶν ἀνεῖλεν, πλείους δὲ ζῶντας ἔλαβεν, οἰκίας δέ τινας τῶν ἐν τῇ πόλει πολλῶν πάνυ χρημάτων γεμούσας διαρπάζειν ἐφῆκεν." '^20.178 οἱ δὲ τῶν ̓Ιουδαίων ἐπιεικέστεροι καὶ προύχοντες κατὰ τὴν ἀξίωσιν δείσαντες περὶ ἑαυτῶν παρεκάλουν τὸν Φήλικα τοὺς στρατιώτας ἀνακαλέσασθαι τῇ σάλπιγγι καὶ φείσασθαι τὸ λοιπὸν αὐτῶν δοῦναί τε μετάνοιαν ἐπὶ τοῖς πεπραγμένοις. καὶ Φῆλιξ ἐπείσθη. ^20.179 Κατὰ τοῦτον τὸν καιρὸν ὁ βασιλεὺς ̓Αγρίππας δίδωσιν τὴν ἀρχιερωσύνην ̓Ισμαήλῳ: Φαβεῖ παῖς οὗτος ἦν.' "^20.181 τοσαύτη δὲ τοὺς ἀρχιερεῖς κατέλαβεν ἀναίδεια καὶ τόλμα, ὥστε καὶ πέμπειν δούλους ἐτόλμων ἐπὶ τὰς ἅλωνας τοὺς ληψομένους τὰς τοῖς ἱερεῦσιν ὀφειλομένας δεκάτας, καὶ συνέβαινεν τοὺς ἀπορουμένους τῶν ἱερέων ὑπ' ἐνδείας τελευτᾶν. οὕτως ἐκράτει τοῦ δικαίου παντὸς ἡ τῶν στασιαζόντων βία." '^20.182 Πορκίου δὲ Φήστου διαδόχου Φήλικι πεμφθέντος ὑπὸ Νέρωνος οἱ πρωτεύοντες τῶν τὴν Καισάρειαν κατοικούντων ̓Ιουδαίων εἰς τὴν ̔Ρώμην ἀναβαίνουσιν Φήλικος κατηγοροῦντες, καὶ πάντως ἂν ἐδεδώκει τιμωρίαν τῶν εἰς ̓Ιουδαίους ἀδικημάτων, εἰ μὴ πολλὰ αὐτὸν ὁ Νέρων τἀδελφῷ Πάλλαντι παρακαλέσαντι συνεχώρησεν μάλιστα δὴ τότε διὰ τιμῆς ἄγων ἐκεῖνον.' "^20.183 καὶ τῶν ἐν Καισαρείᾳ δὲ οἱ πρῶτοι Σύρων Βήρυλλον, παιδαγωγὸς δ' ἦν οὗτος τοῦ Νέρωνος τάξιν τὴν ἐπὶ τῶν ̔Ελληνικῶν ἐπιστολῶν πεπιστευμένος, πείθουσι πολλοῖς χρήμασιν αἰτήσασθαι παρὰ τοῦ Νέρωνος αὐτοῖς ἐπιστολὴν ἀκυροῦσαν τὴν ̓Ιουδαίων πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἰσοπολιτείαν." '^20.184 καὶ Βήρυλλος τὸν αὐτοκράτορα παρακαλέσας ἐπέτυχε γραφῆναι τὴν ἐπιστολήν. αὕτη τῷ ἔθνει ἡμῶν τῶν μετὰ ταῦτα κακῶν τὰς αἰτίας παρέσχεν: πυθόμενοι γὰρ οἱ κατὰ τὴν Καισάρειαν ̓Ιουδαῖοι τὰ γραφέντα τῆς πρὸς τοὺς Σύρους στάσεως μᾶλλον εἴχοντο μέχρι δὴ τὸν πόλεμον ἐξῆψαν. ^20.185 ̓Αφικομένου δὲ εἰς τὴν ̓Ιουδαίαν Φήστου συνέβαινεν τὴν ̓Ιουδαίαν ὑπὸ τῶν λῃστῶν κακοῦσθαι τῶν κωμῶν ἁπασῶν ἐμπιπραμένων τε καὶ διαρπαζομένων. ^20.197 Πέμπει δὲ Καῖσαρ ̓Αλβῖνον εἰς τὴν ̓Ιουδαίαν ἔπαρχον Φήστου τὴν τελευτὴν πυθόμενος. ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς ἀφείλετο μὲν τὸν ̓Ιώσηπον τὴν ἱερωσύνην, τῷ δὲ ̓Ανάνου παιδὶ καὶ αὐτῷ ̓Ανάνῳ λεγομένῳ τὴν διαδοχὴν τῆς ἀρχῆς ἔδωκεν.' "^20.215 ̔Ως δ' ἤκουσεν ̓Αλβῖνος διάδοχον αὐτῷ Γέσσιον Φλῶρον ἀφικνεῖσθαι, βουλόμενος δοκεῖν τι τοῖς ̔Ιεροσολυμίταις παρεσχῆσθαι προαγαγὼν τοὺς δεσμώτας, ὅσοι ἦσαν αὐτῶν προδήλως θανεῖν ἄξιοι, τούτους προσέταξεν ἀναιρεθῆναι, τοὺς δ' ἐκ μικρᾶς καὶ τῆς τυχούσης αἰτίας εἰς τὴν εἱρκτὴν κατατεθέντας χρήματα λαμβάνων αὐτὸς ἀπέλυεν. καὶ οὕτως ἡ μὲν φυλακὴ τῶν δεσμωτῶν ἐκαθάρθη, ἡ χώρα δὲ λῃστῶν ἐπληρώθη." ' None

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14.266 for since we have produced evident marks that may still be seen of the friendship we have had with the Romans, and demonstrated that those marks are engraven upon columns and tables of brass in the capitol, that axe still in being, and preserved to this day, we have omitted to set them all down, as needless and disagreeable; ^18.1 1. Now Cyrenius, a Roman senator, and one who had gone through other magistracies, and had passed through them till he had been consul, and one who, on other accounts, was of great dignity, came at this time into Syria, with a few others, being sent by Caesar to be a judge of that nation, and to take an account of their substance. ^18.1 concerning which I will discourse a little, and this the rather because the infection which spread thence among the younger sort, who were zealous for it, brought the public to destruction. ^18.1 when he had estimated the number of those that were truly faithful to him, as also of those who were already corrupted, but were deceitful in the kindness they professed to him, and were likely, upon trial, to go over to his enemies, he made his escape to the upper provinces, where he afterwards raised a great army out of the Dahae and Sacae, and fought with his enemies, and retained his principality. ^18.27 and many ten thousands of the Jews met Petronius again, when he was come to Tiberias. These thought they must run a mighty hazard if they should have a war with the Romans, but judged that the transgression of the law was of much greater consequence, ^18.27 while Herod and Philip had each of them received their own tetrarchy, and settled the affairs thereof. Herod also built a wall about Sepphoris, (which is the security of all Galilee,) and made it the metropolis of the country. He also built a wall round Betharamphtha, which was itself a city also, and called it Julias, from the name of the emperor’s wife. ^18.237 However, there did not many days pass ere he sent for him to his house, and had him shaved, and made him change his raiment; after which he put a diadem upon his head, and appointed him to be king of the tetrarchy of Philip. He also gave him the tetrarchy of Lysanias, and changed his iron chain for a golden one of equal weight. He also sent Marullus to be procurator of Judea. ^20.136 whereupon Claudius was so well disposed beforehand, that when he had heard the cause, and found that the Samaritans had been the ringleaders in those mischievous doings, he gave order that those who came up to him should be slain, and that Cureanus should be banished. He also gave order that Celer the tribune should be carried back to Jerusalem, and should be drawn through the city in the sight of all the people, and then should be slain. ^20.142 While Felix was procurator of Judea, he saw this Drusilla, and fell in love with her; for she did indeed exceed all other women in beauty; and he sent to her a person whose name was Simon one of his friends; a Jew he was, and by birth a Cypriot, and one who pretended to be a magician, and endeavored to persuade her to forsake her present husband, and marry him; and promised, that if she would not refuse him, he would make her a happy woman. ^20.143 Accordingly she acted ill, and because she was desirous to avoid her sister Bernice’s envy, for she was very ill treated by her on account of her beauty, was prevailed upon to transgress the laws of her forefathers, and to marry Felix; and when he had had a son by her, he named him Agrippa. ^20.144 But after what manner that young man, with his wife, perished at the conflagration of the mountain Vesuvius, in the days of Titus Caesar, shall be related hereafter. ^20.159 Caesar also bestowed on Agrippa a certain part of Galilee, Tiberias, and Tarichae, and ordered them to submit to his jurisdiction. He gave him also Julias, a city of Perea, with fourteen villages that lay about it. ^20.173 7. And now it was that a great sedition arose between the Jews that inhabited Caesarea, and the Syrians who dwelt there also, concerning their equal right to the privileges belonging to citizens; for the Jews claimed the pre-eminence, because Herod their king was the builder of Caesarea, and because he was by birth a Jew. Now the Syrians did not deny what was alleged about Herod; but they said that Caesarea was formerly called Strato’s Tower, and that then there was not one Jewish inhabitant. ^20.174 When the presidents of that country heard of these disorders, they caught the authors of them on both sides, and tormented them with stripes, and by that means put a stop to the disturbance for a time. ^20.175 But the Jewish citizens depending on their wealth, and on that account despising the Syrians, reproached them again, and hoped to provoke them by such reproaches. ^20.176 However, the Syrians, though they were inferior in wealth, yet valuing themselves highly on this account, that the greatest part of the Roman soldiers that were there were either of Caesarea or Sebaste, they also for some time used reproachful language to the Jews also; and thus it was, till at length they came to throwing stones at one another, and several were wounded, and fell on both sides, though still the Jews were the conquerors. ^20.177 But when Felix saw that this quarrel was become a kind of war, he came upon them on the sudden, and desired the Jews to desist; and when they refused so to do, he armed his soldiers, and sent them out upon them, and slew many of them, and took more of them alive, and permitted his soldiers to plunder some of the houses of the citizens, which were full of riches. ^20.178 Now those Jews that were more moderate, and of principal dignity among them, were afraid of themselves, and desired of Felix that he would sound a retreat to his soldiers, and spare them for the future, and afford them room for repentance for what they had done; and Felix was prevailed upon to do so. ^20.179 8. About this time king Agrippa gave the high priesthood to Ismael, who was the son of Fabi. ^20.181 And such was the impudence and boldness that had seized on the high priests, that they had the hardiness to send their servants into the threshing-floors, to take away those tithes that were due to the priests, insomuch that it so fell out that the poorest sort of the priests died for want. To this degree did the violence of the seditious prevail over all right and justice. ^20.182 9. Now when Porcius Festus was sent as successor to Felix by Nero, the principal of the Jewish inhabitants of Caesarea went up to Rome to accuse Felix; and he had certainly been brought to punishment, unless Nero had yielded to the importunate solicitations of his brother Pallas, who was at that time had in the greatest honor by him. ^20.183 Two of the principal Syrians in Caesarea persuaded Burrhus, who was Nero’s tutor, and secretary for his Greek epistles, by giving him a great sum of money, to disannul that equality of the Jewish privileges of citizens which they hitherto enjoyed. ^20.184 So Burrhus, by his solicitations, obtained leave of the emperor that an epistle should be written to that purpose. This epistle became the occasion of the following miseries that befell our nation; for when the Jews of Caesarea were informed of the contents of this epistle to the Syrians, they were more disorderly than before, till a war was kindled. ^20.185 10. Upon Festus’s coming into Judea, it happened that Judea was afflicted by the robbers, while all the villages were set on fire, and plundered by them. ^20.197 1. And now Caesar, upon hearing the death of Festus, sent Albinus into Judea, as procurator. But the king deprived Joseph of the high priesthood, and bestowed the succession to that dignity on the son of Aus, who was also himself called Aus. ^20.215 5. But when Albinus heard that Gessius Florus was coming to succeed him, he was desirous to appear to do somewhat that might be grateful to the people of Jerusalem; so he brought out all those prisoners who seemed to him to be the most plainly worthy of death, and ordered them to be put to death accordingly. But as to those who had been put into prison on some trifling occasions, he took money of them, and dismissed them; by which means the prisons were indeed emptied, but the country was filled with robbers.' ' None

14. Josephus Flavius, Jewish War, 1.1, 1.18-1.19, 2.56, 2.97, 2.117, 2.215, 2.235, 2.239-2.241, 2.247, 2.250, 2.252-2.257, 2.260, 2.263, 2.270-2.273, 2.276-2.278, 2.280, 2.283-2.284, 2.291-2.296, 2.308, 2.311, 2.337, 2.341, 2.344-2.348, 2.406, 2.413, 2.433, 2.493, 2.576-2.577, 3.1-3.5, 3.79-3.83, 3.522-3.531, 7.121-7.123, 7.128, 7.131-7.139, 7.141-7.149, 7.151-7.162, 7.253 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Agrippa II, cities given to, by Nero • Claudius Nero, C. • Greece, Nero loots • Nero • Nero, Emperor • Nero, Emperor, • Nero, false Neros • Revolt/War, under Nero (Great ~)

Found in books: Augoustakis et al. (2021), Fides in Flavian Literature, 47, 48, 50, 53; Bay (2022), Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity: The Historiography, Exemplarity, and Anti-Judaism of Pseudo-Hegesippus, 37; Brodd and Reed (2011), Rome and Religion: A Cross-Disciplinary Dialogue on the Imperial Cult, 121; Dijkstra and Raschle (2020), Religious Violence in the Ancient World: From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity, 112, 118, 119, 121, 123, 124, 125, 126, 129; Faßbeck and Killebrew (2016), Viewing Ancient Jewish Art and Archaeology: VeHinnei Rachel - Essays in honor of Rachel Hachlili, 279; Goodman (2006), Judaism in the Roman World: Collected Essays, 53; Konrad (2022), The Challenge to the Auspices: Studies on Magisterial Power in the Middle Roman Republic, 117; Lampe (2003), Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus, 83, 188; Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 198; Price, Finkelberg and Shahar (2021), Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity, 193; Roumpou (2023), Ritual and the Poetics of Closure in Flavian Literature. 131; Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 272; Schwartz (2008), 2 Maccabees, 54; Spielman (2020), Jews and Entertainment in the Ancient World. 77; Tomson (2019), Studies on Jews and Christians in the First and Second Centuries. 216, 289, 377, 474, 483, 543, 544, 561, 562, 563, 564, 565, 571, 572, 606; Udoh (2006), To Caesar What Is Caesar's: Tribute, Taxes, and Imperial Administration in Early Roman Palestine 63 B.C.E to 70 B.C.E, 201; van Maaren (2022), The Boundaries of Jewishness in the Southern Levant 200 BCE–132 CE, 170

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1.1 ̓Επειδὴ τὸν ̓Ιουδαίων πρὸς ̔Ρωμαίους πόλεμον συστάντα μέγιστον οὐ μόνον τῶν καθ' ἡμᾶς, σχεδὸν δὲ καὶ ὧν ἀκοῇ παρειλήφαμεν ἢ πόλεων πρὸς πόλεις ἢ ἐθνῶν ἔθνεσι συρραγέντων, οἱ μὲν οὐ παρατυχόντες τοῖς πράγμασιν, ἀλλ' ἀκοῇ συλλέγοντες εἰκαῖα καὶ ἀσύμφωνα διηγήματα σοφιστικῶς ἀναγράφουσιν," ^1.1 ὅτι γὰρ αὐτὴν στάσις οἰκεία καθεῖλεν, καὶ τὰς ̔Ρωμαίων χεῖρας ἀκούσας καὶ τὸ πῦρ ἐπὶ τὸν ναὸν εἵλκυσαν οἱ ̓Ιουδαίων τύραννοι, μάρτυς αὐτὸς ὁ πορθήσας Καῖσαρ Τίτος, ἐν παντὶ τῷ πολέμῳ τὸν μὲν δῆμον ἐλεήσας ὑπὸ τῶν στασιαστῶν φρουρούμενον, πολλάκις δὲ ἑκὼν τὴν ἅλωσιν τῆς πόλεως ὑπερτιθέμενος καὶ διδοὺς τῇ πολιορκίᾳ χρόνον εἰς μετάνοιαν τῶν αἰτίων. ^1.1 οὐ μὴν εἶρξαί γε τὸν ̓Αντίοχον ἴσχυσεν: ἐμπρήσας γὰρ τοὺς πύργους καὶ τὴν τάφρον χώσας διήλαυνε μετὰ τῆς δυνάμεως. θέμενος δὲ ἐν δευτέρῳ τὴν πρὸς τὸν κωλύσαντα ἄμυναν εὐθὺς ἐπὶ τοὺς ̓́Αραβας ᾔει.' "^1.18 Πάρθους δὲ μετὰ τὸν Κράσσον ἐπιδιαβαίνειν εἰς Συρίαν ὡρμημένους ἀνέκοπτεν Κάσσιος εἰς τὴν ἐπαρχίαν διαφυγών. περιποιησάμενος δὲ αὐτὴν ἐπὶ ̓Ιουδαίους ἠπείγετο, καὶ Ταριχέας μὲν ἑλὼν εἰς τρεῖς μυριάδας ̓Ιουδαίων ἀνδραποδίζεται, κτείνει δὲ καὶ Πειθόλαον τοὺς ̓Αριστοβούλου στασιαστὰς ἐπισυνιστάντα: τοῦ φόνου δὲ ἦν σύμβουλος ̓Αντίπατρος.' "^1.18 ὅπου δ' οἵ τε τούτων συγγραφεῖς ἐπαύσαντο καὶ οἱ ἡμέτεροι προφῆται, τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐκεῖθεν ποιήσομαι τῆς συντάξεως: τούτων δὲ τὰ μὲν τοῦ κατ' ἐμαυτὸν πολέμου διεξοδικώτερον καὶ μεθ' ὅσης ἂν ἐξεργασίας δύνωμαι δίειμι, τὰ δὲ προγενέστερα τῆς ἐμῆς ἡλικίας ἐπιδραμῶ συντόμως," ^1.19 Καὶ τὸ Πηλούσιον μὲν ἑάλω, πρόσω δ' αὐτὸν ἰόντα εἶργον αὖθις οἱ τὴν ̓Ονίου προσαγορευομένην χώραν κατέχοντες: ἦσαν δὲ ̓Ιουδαῖοι Αἰγύπτιοι. τούτους ̓Αντίπατρος οὐ μόνον μὴ κωλύειν ἔπεισεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ ἐπιτήδεια τῇ δυνάμει παρασχεῖν: ὅθεν οὐδὲ οἱ κατὰ Μέμφιν ἔτι εἰς χεῖρας ἦλθον, ἑκούσιοι δὲ προσέθεντο Μιθριδάτῃ." "^1.19 ὡς ̓Αντίοχος ὁ κληθεὶς ̓Επιφανὴς ἑλὼν κατὰ κράτος ̔Ιεροσόλυμα καὶ κατασχὼν ἔτεσι τρισὶ καὶ μησὶν ἓξ ὑπὸ τῶν ̓Ασαμωναίου παίδων ἐκβάλλεται τῆς χώρας, ἔπειθ' ὡς οἱ τούτων ἔγγονοι περὶ τῆς βασιλείας διαστασιάσαντες εἵλκυσαν εἰς τὰ πράγματα ̔Ρωμαίους καὶ Πομπήιον. καὶ ὡς ̔Ηρώδης ὁ ̓Αντιπάτρου κατέλυσε τὴν δυναστείαν αὐτῶν ἐπαγαγὼν Σόσσιον," "^2.56 ἐν δὲ Σεπφώρει τῆς Γαλιλαίας ̓Ιούδας υἱὸς ̓Εζεκία τοῦ κατατρέχοντός ποτε τὴν χώραν ἀρχιλῃστοῦ καὶ χειρωθέντος ὑφ' ̔Ηρώδου βασιλέως συστήσας πλῆθος οὐκ ὀλίγον ἀναρρήγνυσιν τὰς βασιλικὰς ὁπλοθήκας καὶ τοὺς περὶ αὐτὸν ὁπλίσας τοῖς τὴν δυναστείαν ζηλοῦσιν ἐπεχείρει." ^2.56 καὶ καθὸ μὲν εἶχον αὐτοὺς ἐν τῷ γυμνασίῳ συνηθροισμένους πάλαι διὰ τὰς ὑποψίας τοῦτο πραγματευσάμενοι, ῥᾴστην τὴν ἐπιχείρησιν ἐδόκουν: ἐδεδοίκεισαν δὲ τὰς ἑαυτῶν γυναῖκας ἁπάσας πλὴν ὀλίγων ὑπηγμένας τῇ ̓Ιουδαϊκῇ θρησκείᾳ:' "^2.97 πόλεις δ' ὑπηκόους παρέλαβεν Στράτωνος πύργον καὶ Σεβαστὴν καὶ ̓Ιόππην καὶ ̔Ιεροσόλυμα: τὰς γὰρ ̔Ελληνίδας Γάζαν καὶ Γάδαρα καὶ ̔́Ιππον ἀποτεμόμενος τῆς βασιλείας προσέθηκεν Συρίᾳ. πρόσοδος ἦν τῆς ̓Αρχελάῳ δοθείσης χώρας τετρακοσίων ταλάντων." ^2.117 Τῆς δὲ ̓Αρχελάου χώρας εἰς ἐπαρχίαν περιγραφείσης ἐπίτροπος τῆς ἱππικῆς παρὰ ̔Ρωμαίοις τάξεως Κωπώνιος πέμπεται μέχρι τοῦ κτείνειν λαβὼν παρὰ Καίσαρος ἐξουσίαν.' "^2.215 καὶ τὸν ̓Αγρίππαν εὐθέως ἐδωρεῖτο τῇ πατρῴᾳ βασιλείᾳ πάσῃ προστιθεὶς ἔξωθεν καὶ τὰς ὑπ' Αὐγούστου δοθείσας ̔Ηρώδῃ Τραχωνῖτιν καὶ Αὐρανῖτιν, χωρὶς δὲ τούτων ἑτέραν βασιλείαν τὴν Λυσανίου καλουμένην." "^2.235 τοῦ λῃστρικοῦ δ' αὐτῶν καὶ στασιώδους Δειναίου τις υἱὸς ̓Ελεάζαρος καὶ ̓Αλέξανδρος ἐξῆρχον, οἳ τοῖς ὁμόροις τῆς ̓Ακραβατηνῆς τοπαρχίας προσπεσόντες αὐτούς τε ἀνῄρουν μηδεμιᾶς ἡλικίας φειδὼ ποιούμενοι καὶ τὰς κώμας ἐνεπίμπρασαν." ^2.239 καὶ τῶν Σαμαρέων οἱ δυνατοὶ πρὸς Οὐμμίδιον Κουαδρᾶτον, ὃς ἦν ἡγεμὼν τῆς Συρίας, εἰς Τύρον παραγενόμενοι δίκην τινὰ παρὰ τῶν πορθησάντων τὴν χώραν ἠξίουν λαβεῖν. ^2.241 Κουαδρᾶτος δὲ τότε μὲν ἑκατέρους ὑπερτίθεται φήσας, ἐπειδὰν εἰς τοὺς τόπους παραγένηται, διερευνήσειν ἕκαστα, αὖθις δὲ παρελθὼν εἰς Καισάρειαν τοὺς ὑπὸ Κουμανοῦ ζωγρηθέντας ἀνεσταύρωσεν πάντας.' "^2.252 Τὴν μὲν οὖν μικρὰν ̓Αρμενίαν δίδωσιν βασιλεύειν ̓Αριστοβούλῳ τῷ ̔Ηρώδου, τῇ δ' ̓Αγρίππα βασιλείᾳ τέσσαρας πόλεις προστίθησιν σὺν ταῖς τοπαρχίαις, ̓́Αβελα μὲν καὶ ̓Ιουλιάδα κατὰ τὴν Περαίαν, Ταριχέας δὲ καὶ Τιβεριάδα τῆς Γαλιλαίας, εἰς δὲ τὴν λοιπὴν ̓Ιουδαίαν Φήλικα κατέστησεν ἐπίτροπον." "^2.254 Καθαρθείσης δὲ τῆς χώρας ἕτερον εἶδος λῃστῶν ἐν ̔Ιεροσολύμοις ἐπεφύετο, οἱ καλούμενοι σικάριοι, μεθ' ἡμέραν καὶ ἐν μέσῃ τῇ πόλει φονεύοντες ἀνθρώπους," '^2.255 μάλιστα δὲ ἐν ταῖς ἑορταῖς μισγόμενοι τῷ πλήθει καὶ ταῖς ἐσθῆσιν ὑποκρύπτοντες μικρὰ ξιφίδια, τούτοις ἔνυττον τοὺς διαφόρους, ἔπειτα πεσόντων μέρος ἐγίνοντο τῶν ἐπαγανακτούντων οἱ πεφονευκότες, διὸ καὶ παντάπασιν ὑπὸ ἀξιοπιστίας ἦσαν ἀνεύρετοι.' "^2.256 πρῶτος μὲν οὖν ὑπ' αὐτῶν ̓Ιωνάθης ὁ ἀρχιερεὺς ἀποσφάττεται, μετὰ δ' αὐτὸν καθ' ἡμέραν ἀνῃροῦντο πολλοί: καὶ τῶν συμφορῶν ὁ φόβος ἦν χαλεπώτερος, ἑκάστου καθάπερ ἐν πολέμῳ καθ' ὥραν τὸν θάνατον προσδεχομένου." '^2.257 προεσκοποῦντο δὲ πόρρωθεν τοὺς διαφόρους, καὶ οὐδὲ τοῖς φίλοις προσιοῦσιν πίστις ἦν, ἐν μέσαις δὲ ταῖς ὑπονοίαις καὶ ταῖς φυλακαῖς ἀνῃροῦντο: τοσοῦτον τῶν ἐπιβουλευόντων τὸ τάχος ἦν καὶ τοῦ λαθεῖν ἡ τέχνη.' "^2.263 φθάνει δ' αὐτοῦ τὴν ὁρμὴν Φῆλιξ ὑπαντήσας μετὰ τῶν ̔Ρωμαϊκῶν ὁπλιτῶν, καὶ πᾶς ὁ δῆμος συνεφήψατο τῆς ἀμύνης, ὥστε συμβολῆς γενομένης τὸν μὲν Αἰγύπτιον φυγεῖν μετ' ὀλίγων, διαφθαρῆναι δὲ καὶ ζωγρηθῆναι πλείστους τῶν σὺν αὐτῷ, τὸ δὲ λοιπὸν πλῆθος σκεδασθὲν ἐπὶ τὴν ἑαυτῶν ἕκαστον διαλαθεῖν." "^2.272 ἀλλ' οὐχ ὁ μετὰ Φῆστον ̓Αλβῖνος τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον ἐξηγήσατο τῶν πραγμάτων, οὐκ ἔστιν δὲ ἥντινα κακουργίας ἰδέαν παρέλειπεν." "^2.273 οὐ μόνον γοῦν ἐν τοῖς πολιτικοῖς πράγμασιν ἔκλεπτεν καὶ διήρπαζεν τὰς ἑκάστων οὐσίας, οὐδὲ τὸ πᾶν ἔθνος ἐβάρει ταῖς εἰσφοραῖς, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς ἐπὶ λῃστείᾳ δεδεμένους ὑπὸ τῆς παρ' ἑκάστοις βουλῆς ἢ τῶν προτέρων ἐπιτρόπων ἀπελύτρου τοῖς συγγενέσιν, καὶ μόνος ὁ μὴ δοὺς τοῖς δεσμωτηρίοις ὡς πονηρὸς ἐγκατελείπετο." "^2.276 συνέβαινεν δὲ τοὺς μὲν ἀφῃρημένους ὑπὲρ ὧν ἀγανακτεῖν ἐχρῆν σιωπᾶν, τοὺς ἄπληγας δὲ δέει τοῦ μὴ τὰ αὐτὰ παθεῖν καὶ κολακεύειν τὸν ἄξιον κολάσεως. καθόλου δὲ ἡ μὲν παρρησία πάντων περικέκοπτο, τυραννὶς δ' ἦν διὰ πλειόνων, καὶ τὰ σπέρματα τῆς μελλούσης ἁλώσεως ἔκτοτε τῇ πόλει κατεβάλλετο." "^2.277 Τοιοῦτον δ' ὄντα τὸν ̓Αλβῖνον ἀπέδειξεν ὁ μετ' αὐτὸν ἐλθὼν Γέσσιος Φλῶρος ἀγαθώτατον κατὰ σύγκρισιν. ὁ μέν γε λάθρα τὰ πολλὰ καὶ μεθ' ὑποστολῆς ἐκακούργησεν, Γέσσιος δὲ τὰς εἰς τὸ ἔθνος παρανομίας ἐπόμπευσεν καὶ ὥσπερ ἐπὶ τιμωρίᾳ κατακρίτων πεμφθεὶς δήμιος οὔτε ἁρπαγῆς τινα τρόπον οὔτε αἰκίας παρέλιπεν." '^2.284 ̓Εν δὲ τούτῳ καὶ οἱ Καισαρέων ̔́Ελληνες νικήσαντες παρὰ Νέρωνι τῆς πόλεως ἄρχειν τὰ τῆς κρίσεως ἐκόμισαν γράμματα, καὶ προσελάμβανεν τὴν ἀρχὴν ὁ πόλεμος δωδεκάτῳ μὲν ἔτει τῆς Νέρωνος ἡγεμονίας, ἑπτακαιδεκάτῳ δὲ τῆς ̓Αγρίππα βασιλείας, ̓Αρτεμισίου μηνός.' "^2.291 προσελθὼν δὲ ̓Ιούκουνδος ὁ διακωλύειν τεταγμένος ἱππάρχης τήν τε γάστραν αἴρει καὶ καταπαύειν ἐπειρᾶτο τὴν στάσιν. ἡττωμένου δ' αὐτοῦ τῆς τῶν Καισαρέων βίας ̓Ιουδαῖοι τοὺς νόμους ἁρπάσαντες ἀνεχώρησαν εἰς Νάρβατα: χώρα τις αὐτῶν οὕτω καλεῖται σταδίους ἑξήκοντα διέχουσα τῆς Καισαρείας:" '^2.292 οἱ δὲ περὶ τὸν ̓Ιωάννην δυνατοὶ δώδεκα πρὸς Φλῶρον ἐλθόντες εἰς Σεβαστὴν ἀπωδύροντο περὶ τῶν πεπραγμένων καὶ βοηθεῖν ἱκέτευον, αἰδημόνως ὑπομιμνήσκοντες τῶν ὀκτὼ ταλάντων. ὁ δὲ καὶ συλλαβὼν ἔδησεν τοὺς ἄνδρας αἰτιώμενος ὑπὲρ τοῦ τοὺς νόμους ἐξενεγκεῖν τῆς Καισαρείας. ^2.293 Πρὸς τοῦτο τῶν ἐν ̔Ιεροσολύμοις ἀγανάκτησις ἦν, ἔτι μέντοι τοὺς θυμοὺς κατεῖχον. ὁ δὲ Φλῶρος ὥσπερ ἠργολαβηκὼς ἐκριπίζειν τὸν πόλεμον, πέμψας εἰς τὸν ἱερὸν θησαυρὸν ἐξαιρεῖ δεκαεπτὰ τάλαντα σκηψάμενος εἰς τὰς Καίσαρος χρείας.' "^2.294 σύγχυσις δ' εὐθέως εἶχεν τὸν δῆμον, καὶ συνδραμόντες εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν βοαῖς διαπρυσίοις τὸ Καίσαρος ἀνεκάλουν ὄνομα καὶ τῆς Φλώρου τυραννίδος ἐλευθεροῦν σφᾶς ἱκέτευον." "^2.295 ἔνιοι δὲ τῶν στασιαστῶν λοιδορίας αἰσχίστους εἰς τὸν Φλῶρον ἐκεκράγεσαν καὶ κανοῦν περιφέροντες ἀπῄτουν αὐτῷ κέρματα καθάπερ ἀκλήρῳ καὶ ταλαιπώρῳ. τούτοις οὐκ ἀνετράπη τὴν φιλαργυρίαν, ἀλλ' ἐπὶ τὸ μᾶλλον χρηματίσασθαι παρωργίσθη." "^2.296 δέον γοῦν εἰς Καισάρειαν ἐλθόντα σβέσαι τὸ τοῦ πολέμου πῦρ ἐκεῖθεν ἀρχόμενον καὶ τῆς ταραχῆς ἀνελεῖν τὰς αἰτίας, ἐφ' ᾧ καὶ μισθὸν ἔλαβεν, ὁ δὲ μετὰ στρατιᾶς ἱππικῆς τε καὶ πεζικῆς ἐπὶ ̔Ιεροσολύμων ὥρμησεν, ἵνα τοῖς ̔Ρωμαίων ὅπλοις * ἐργάσηται καὶ τῷ δέει καὶ ταῖς ἀπειλαῖς περιδύσῃ τὴν πόλιν." ^2.308 βαρυτέραν τε ἐποίει τὴν συμφορὰν τὸ καινὸν τῆς ̔Ρωμαίων ὠμότητος: ὃ γὰρ μηδεὶς πρότερον τότε Φλῶρος ἐτόλμησεν, ἄνδρας ἱππικοῦ τάγματος μαστιγῶσαί τε πρὸ τοῦ βήματος καὶ σταυρῷ προσηλῶσαι, ὧν εἰ καὶ τὸ γένος ̓Ιουδαίων ἀλλὰ γοῦν τὸ ἀξίωμα ̔Ρωμαϊκὸν ἦν.' "^2.311 καὶ ὁ μὲν οὔτε εἰς τὸ πλῆθος τῶν ἀναιρουμένων οὔτε εἰς τὴν εὐγένειαν τῆς παρακαλούσης, ἀλλ' εἰς μόνον τὸ λυσιτελὲς τὸ ἐκ τῶν ἁρπαγῶν ἀποβλέπων παρήκουσεν." ^2.341 ἔνθα συγκαλέσας τὸ πλῆθος, καὶ πολλὰ μὲν εἰς πίστιν αὐτοὺς τὴν πρὸς ̔Ρωμαίους ἐπαινέσας, πολλὰ δὲ εἰς τὸ τηρεῖν τὴν εἰρήνην προτρεψάμενος καὶ τοῦ θεοῦ προσκυνήσας ὅθεν ἐξῆν τὰ ἅγια πρὸς Κέστιον ἐπανῄει.' "^2.345 “Εἰ μὲν ἑώρων πάντας ὑμᾶς πολεμεῖν ̔Ρωμαίοις ὡρμημένους καὶ μὴ τοῦ δήμου τὸ καθαρώτατον καὶ εἰλικρινέστατον εἰρήνην ἄγειν προῃρημένους, οὔτ' ἂν παρῆλθον εἰς ὑμᾶς οὔτε συμβουλεύειν ἐθάρρησα: περισσὸς γὰρ ὑπὲρ τοῦ τὰ δέοντα ποιεῖν πᾶς λόγος, ὅταν ᾖ τῶν ἀκουόντων πάντων ἡ πρὸς τὸ χεῖρον ὁμόνοια." '^2.346 ἐπεὶ δὲ τινὰς μὲν ἡλικία τῶν ἐν πολέμῳ κακῶν ἄπειρος, τινὰς δὲ ἐλπὶς ἀλόγιστος ἐλευθερίας, ἐνίους δὲ πλεονεξία τις παροξύνει καὶ τὸ παρὰ τῶν ἀσθενεστέρων, ἐὰν τὰ πράγματα συγχυθῇ, κέρδος, ὅπως αὐτοί τε σωφρονισθέντες μεταβάλωνται καὶ μὴ τῆς ἐνίων κακοβουλίας οἱ ἀγαθοὶ παραπολαύσωσιν, ᾠήθην δεῖν ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ πάντας ὑμᾶς συναγαγὼν εἰπεῖν ἃ νομίζω συμφέρειν. ^2.347 θορυβήσῃ δέ μοι μηδείς, ἐὰν μὴ τὰ πρὸς ἡδονὴν ἀκούῃ: τοῖς μὲν γὰρ ἀνηκέστως ἐπὶ τὴν ἀπόστασιν ὡρμημένοις ἔνεστι καὶ μετὰ τὴν ἐμὴν παραίνεσιν ταῦτα φρονεῖν, ἐμοὶ δὲ διαπίπτει καὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἀκούειν ἐθέλοντας ὁ λόγος, ἐὰν μὴ παρὰ πάντων ἡσυχία γένηται. ^2.348 οἶδα μὲν οὖν ὅτι πολλοὶ τὰς ἐκ τῶν ἐπιτρόπων ὕβρεις καὶ τὰ τῆς ἐλευθερίας ἐγκώμια τραγῳδοῦσιν, ἐγὼ δὲ πρὶν ἐξετάζειν τίνες ὄντες καὶ τίσιν ἐπιχειρεῖτε πολεμεῖν, πρῶτον διαζεύξω τὴν συμπλοκὴν τῶν προφάσεων. ^2.413 καὶ οὐ μόνον οὐ διακεκωλυκέναι θυσίας τινῶν, τοῦτο μὲν γὰρ ἀσεβέστατον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ βλεπόμενα καὶ τὰ παραμένοντα τοσοῦτον χρόνον ἀναθήματα περὶ τῷ ἱερῷ καθιδρυκέναι. ^2.433 Κἀν τούτῳ Μανάημός τις, υἱὸς ̓Ιούδα τοῦ καλουμένου Γαλιλαίου, σοφιστὴς δεινότατος, ὁ καὶ ἐπὶ Κυρινίου ποτὲ ̓Ιουδαίους ὀνειδίσας ὅτι ̔Ρωμαίοις ὑπετάσσοντο μετὰ τὸν θεόν, ἀναλαβὼν τοὺς γνωρίμους ἀνεχώρησεν εἰς Μασάδαν,' "^2.493 οὐ μὴν οὗτός γε ἀπὸ τῶν ὅπλων ἤρξατο σωφρονίζειν, ἀλλ' ὑποπέμψας τοὺς γνωρίμους αὐτοῖς παύσασθαι παρεκάλει καὶ μὴ καθ' ἑαυτῶν ἐρεθίζειν τὸ ̔Ρωμαίων στράτευμα. καταχλευάζοντες δὲ τῆς παρακλήσεως οἱ στασιώδεις ἐβλασφήμουν τὸν Τιβέριον." ^2.576 κατέλεξεν δὲ καὶ δύναμιν ἐκ τῆς Γαλιλαίας ὑπὲρ δέκα μυριάδας νέων ἀνδρῶν, οὓς πάντας ἔκ τε τῶν συλλεγομένων παλαιῶν ὅπλων ἐγκατασκευαζόμενος ὥπλιζεν.' "^3.1 Νέρωνι δ' ὡς ἠγγέλη τὰ κατὰ τὴν ̓Ιουδαίαν πταίσματα, λεληθυῖα μὲν ὡς εἰκὸς ἔκπληξις ἐμπίπτει καὶ δέος, φανερῶς δὲ ὑπερηφάνει καὶ προσωργίζετο," ^3.1 ἡγοῦνταί τε τῶν ἀπὸ τύχης ἐπιτευγμάτων ἀμείνους τὰς ἐπὶ τοῖς προβουλευθεῖσιν διαμαρτίας, ὡς τοῦ μὲν αὐτομάτου καλοῦ δελεάζοντος εἰς ἀπρομήθειαν, τῆς σκέψεως δέ, κἂν ἀτυχήσῃ ποτέ, πρὸς τὸ μὴ αὖθις καλὴν ἐχούσης μελέτην:' "^3.1 πόλις ἐστὶν ἀρχαία τῶν ̔Ιεροσολύμων εἴκοσι πρὸς τοῖς πεντακοσίοις ἀπέχουσα σταδίους ἀεὶ διὰ μίσους ̓Ιουδαίοις γεγενημένη, διὸ καὶ τότε ταῖς πρώταις ὁρμαῖς ἐγγίων ἔδοξεν. ^3.2 οἱ λοιποὶ δὲ τραυματίαι τὸ πλέον σὺν τῷ περιλειπομένῳ τῶν ἡγεμόνων Νίγερι τῆς ̓Ιδουμαίας εἰς πολίχνην τινά, Χάαλλις καλεῖται, συνέφυγον.' "^3.2 οὐχ ὁρᾶν δέ, τί παρακαθεζόμενος αὐτοῖς χρήσιμος εἴη νῦν, πλὴν εἰ μὴ ̔Ρωμαίους παροξύνων μᾶλλον ἐπὶ τὴν πολιορκίαν, οὓς περὶ πλείστου ποιεῖσθαι λαβεῖν αὐτόν: εἰ δ' ἐκδράντα πύθοιντο, πολὺ τῆς ἐπὶ τὴν πόλιν ὁρμῆς ἀνήσειν." "^3.2 στρατηγῶν μὲν ῥᾳστώνῃ μᾶλλον ἢ ταῖς τῶν πολεμίων ἀρεταῖς γεγονέναι τὰ συμβάντα λέγων, πρέπειν δ' ἡγούμενος ἑαυτῷ διὰ τὸν ὄγκον τῆς ἡγεμονίας κατασοβαρεύεσθαι τῶν σκυθρωπῶν καὶ δοκεῖν δεινοῦ παντὸς ἐπάνω τὴν ψυχὴν ἔχειν." '^3.3 διηλέγχετό γε μὴν ὁ τῆς ψυχῆς θόρυβος ὑπὸ τῶν φροντίδων σκεπτομένου τίνι πιστεύσει κινουμένην τὴν ἀνατολήν, ὃς τιμωρήσεται μὲν τὴν τῶν ̓Ιουδαίων ἐπανάστασιν, προκαταλήψεται δ' αὐτοῖς ἤδη καὶ τὰ πέριξ ἔθνη συννοσοῦντα." '^3.3 καὶ κατὰ ταύτην ὑπαντῶσιν αὐτῷ τὴν πόλιν οἱ τῆς Γαλιλαίας Σέπφωριν νεμόμενοι πόλιν, μόνοι τῶν τῇδε εἰρηνικὰ φρονοῦντες: ^3.3 ὁ δὲ πρὸς τὴν πόλιν ἐλθὼν διὰ τάχους καὶ διατάξας τὴν στρατιὰν ἐπὶ μὲν τοῦ λαιοῦ κέρως τὸν Τραϊανὸν ἵστησιν, αὐτὸς δὲ τὸ δεξιὸν ἔχων ἐξηγεῖτο πρὸς τὴν πολιορκίαν. ^3.4 ἔφη, Οὐεσπασιανέ, νομίζεις αἰχμάλωτον αὐτὸ μόνον εἰληφέναι ̓Ιώσηπον, ἐγὼ δὲ ἄγγελος ἥκω σοι μειζόνων. μὴ γὰρ ὑπὸ θεοῦ προπεμπόμενος ᾔδειν τὸν ̓Ιουδαίων νόμον, καὶ πῶς στρατηγοῖς ἀποθνήσκειν πρέπει. ^3.4 μηκύνεται δὲ μέχρι Μηρὼθ ἀπὸ Θελλᾶ κώμης ̓Ιορδάνου γείτονος. ^3.4 μόνον εὑρίσκει Οὐεσπασιανὸν ταῖς χρείαις ἀναλογοῦντα καὶ τηλικούτου πολέμου μέγεθος ἀναδέξασθαι δυνάμενον, ἄνδρα ταῖς ἀπὸ νεότητος στρατείαις ἐγγεγηρακότα καὶ προειρηνεύσαντα μὲν πάλαι ̔Ρωμαίοις τὴν ἑσπέραν ὑπὸ Γερμανῶν ταρασσομένην, προσκτησάμενον δὲ τοῖς ὅπλοις Βρεττανίαν τέως λανθάνουσαν, ^3.5 γλυκὺ δὲ νᾶμα πᾶν διαφόρως ἐν αὐταῖς, καὶ διὰ πλῆθος πόας ἀγαθῆς τὰ κτήνη πλέον ἢ παρ' ἄλλοις γαλακτοφόρα. μέγιστόν γε μὴν τεκμήριον ἀρετῆς καὶ εὐθηνίας τὸ πληθύειν ἀνδρῶν ἑκατέραν." '^3.5 ὅθεν αὐτοῦ καὶ τῷ πατρὶ Κλαυδίῳ παρέσχε χωρὶς ἱδρῶτος ἰδίου θρίαμβον καταγαγεῖν.' "^3.5 τῶν μὲν ἐπηλύδων ὅσοι μὴ διαφυγεῖν ἔφθασαν ἀντιτασσομένων, ἀμαχητὶ δὲ τῶν ἐπιχωρίων: κατὰ γὰρ ἐλπίδα δεξιᾶς καὶ τὸ συνειδὸς τοῦ μὴ βεβουλεῦσθαι πολεμεῖν μάχης ἀπετρέποντο,' "^3.79 Καὶ τὸ μὲν ἔνδον εἰς σκηνὰς διαλαμβάνουσιν, ἔξωθεν δ' ὁ κύκλος τείχους ὄψιν ἐπίχει πύργοις ἐξ ἴσου διαστήματος κεκοσμημένος." "^3.81 πύλαι δὲ ἐνοικοδομοῦνται τέσσαρες καθ' ἕκαστον τοῦ περιβόλου κλίμα, πρός τε εἰσόδους τῶν ὑποζυγίων εὐμαρεῖς καὶ πρὸς τὰς ἐκδρομὰς αὐτῶν, εἰ κατεπείγοι, πλατεῖαι." "^3.82 ῥυμοτομοῦσι δ' εὐδιαθέτως εἴσω τὸ στρατόπεδον, καὶ μέσας μὲν τὰς τῶν ἡγεμόνων σκηνὰς τίθενται, μεσαίτατον δὲ τούτων τὸ στρατήγιον ναῷ παραπλήσιον:" '^3.83 ὥσπερ δὲ ἐν σχεδίῳ πόλις καὶ ἀγορά τις ἀποδείκνυται καὶ χειροτέχναις χωρίον θῶκοί τε λοχαγοῖς καὶ ταξιάρχοις, ὅπῃ δικάζοιεν, εἴ τινες διαφέροιντο.' "^3.522 Οὐεσπασιανὸς δέ, ἐπεὶ παρεσκευάσθησαν αἱ σχεδίαι, τῆς δυνάμεως ἐπιβήσας ὅσον ᾤετο τοῖς κατὰ τὴν λίμνην ἀνταρκέσειν ἐπανήγετο. τοῖς δὲ συνελαυνομένοις οὔτ' ἐπὶ γῆν διαφεύγειν ἦν ἐκπεπολεμωμένων πάντων οὔτ' ἐξ ἴσου διαναυμαχεῖν:" "^3.523 τά τε γὰρ σκάφη μικρὰ ὄντα καὶ λῃστρικὰ πρὸς τὰς σχεδίας ἦν ἀσθενῆ, καὶ καθ' ἕκαστον ἐμπλέοντες ὀλίγοι πρὸς ἀθρόους ἐφεστῶτας τοὺς ̔Ρωμαίους ἐγγίζειν ἐδεδοίκεισαν." "^3.524 ὅμως δ' οὖν ἐκπεριπλέοντες τὰς σχεδίας, ἔστιν δ' ὅπου καὶ πλησιάζοντες, πόρρωθεν τοὺς ̔Ρωμαίους ἔβαλλον λίθοις καὶ παραξύοντες ἐγγύθεν ἔπαιον." "^3.525 ἐκακοῦντο δ' αὐτοὶ πλέον κατ' ἀμφότερα: ταῖς τε γὰρ χερμάσιν οὐδὲν δρῶντες ὅτι μὴ κτύπον ἐπάλληλον, εἰς γὰρ πεφραγμένους ἔβαλλον, ἐφικτοὶ τοῖς ̔Ρωμαίων ἐγίνοντο βέλεσιν, καὶ πλησιάζειν τολμῶντες πρὶν δρᾶσαί τι παθεῖν ἔφθανον καὶ σὺν αὐτοῖς ἐβαπτίζοντο τοῖς σκάφεσιν." '^3.526 τῶν δὲ διεκπαίειν πειρωμένων πολλοὺς μὲν ἐφικνούμενοι κοντοῖς διέπειρον, οὓς δὲ ξιφήρεις ἐπιπηδῶντες εἰς τὰ σκάφη, τινὰς δὲ συντρεχούσαις ταῖς σχεδίαις ἐναποληφθέντας μέσους εἷλον ἅμα ταῖς ἁλιάσιν.' "^3.527 τῶν δὲ βαπτισθέντων τοὺς ἀνανεύοντας ἢ βέλος ἔφθανεν ἢ σχεδία κατελάμβανεν, καὶ προσβαίνειν ὑπ' ἀμηχανίας εἰς τοὺς ἐχθροὺς πειρωμένων ἢ κεφαλὰς ἢ χεῖρας ἀπέκοπτον οἱ ̔Ρωμαῖοι." '^3.528 πολλή τε ἦν αὐτῶν καὶ ποικίλη φθορὰ πανταχοῦ, μέχρι τραπέντες εἰς γῆν ἐξεώσθησαν οἱ λοιποὶ κεκυκλωμένων αὐτοῖς τῶν ἁλιάδων.' "^3.529 ἐκχεόμενοι δὲ πολλοὶ μὲν ἐν αὐτῇ κατηκοντίζοντο τῇ λίμνῃ, πολλοὺς δ' ἐκπηδήσαντας οἱ ̔Ρωμαῖοι διέφθειραν ἐπὶ γῆς. ἦν δ' ἰδεῖν κεκερασμένην μὲν αἵματι, πεπληρωμένην δὲ νεκρῶν τὴν λίμνην ἅπασαν: διεσώθη γὰρ οὐδείς." '^3.531 τοῦτο μὲν ἐκείνης τῆς ναυμαχίας τὸ τέλος, ἀπέθανον δὲ σὺν τοῖς ἐπὶ τῆς πόλεως πρότερον πεσοῦσιν ἑξακισχίλιοι ἑπτακόσιοι. ^7.121 οὐ πολλῶν δὲ ἡμερῶν διελθουσῶν ἕνα καὶ κοινὸν ἔγνωσαν τὸν ἐπὶ τοῖς κατωρθωμένοις ποιήσασθαι θρίαμβον, καίπερ ἑκατέρῳ τῆς βουλῆς ἴδιον ψηφισαμένης. ^7.123 Τοῦ δὲ στρατιωτικοῦ παντὸς ἔτι νύκτωρ κατὰ λόχους καὶ τάξεις ὑπὸ τοῖς ἡγεμόσι διεξωδευκότος καὶ περὶ θύρας ὄντος οὐ τῶν ἄνω βασιλείων ἀλλὰ πλησίον τοῦ τῆς ̓́Ισιδος ἱεροῦ, ἐκεῖ γὰρ ἀνεπαύοντο τῆς νυκτὸς ἐκείνης οἱ αὐτοκράτορες, ^7.128 καὶ πολλῆς ἐκ πάντων ἡσυχίας γενομένης ἀναστὰς καὶ τῷ περιβλήματι τὸ πλέον τῆς κεφαλῆς μέρος ἐπικαλυψάμενος εὐχὰς ἐποιήσατο τὰς νενομισμένας: ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ Τίτος ηὔξατο. ^7.131 ἐνταῦθα τροφῆς τε προαπογεύονται καὶ τὰς θριαμβικὰς ἐσθῆτας ἀμφιασάμενοι τοῖς τε παριδρυμένοις τῇ πύλῃ θύσαντες θεοῖς ἔπεμπον τὸν θρίαμβον διὰ τῶν θεάτρων διεξελαύνοντες, ὅπως εἴη τοῖς πλήθεσιν ἡ θέα ῥᾴων. ^7.132 ̓Αμήχανον δὲ κατὰ τὴν ἀξίαν εἰπεῖν τῶν θεαμάτων ἐκείνων τὸ πλῆθος καὶ τὴν μεγαλοπρέπειαν ἐν ἅπασιν οἷς ἄν τις ἐπινοήσειεν ἢ τεχνῶν ἔργοις ἢ πλούτου μέρεσιν ἢ φύσεως σπανιότησιν:' "^7.133 σχεδὸν γὰρ ὅσα τοῖς πώποτε ἀνθρώποις εὐδαιμονήσασιν ἐκτήθη κατὰ μέρος ἄλλα παρ' ἄλλοις θαυμαστὰ καὶ πολυτελῆ, ταῦτα ἐπὶ τῆς ἡμέρας ἐκείνης ἀθρόα τῆς ̔Ρωμαίων ἡγεμονίας ἔδειξε τὸ μέγεθος." "^7.134 ἀργύρου γὰρ καὶ χρυσοῦ καὶ ἐλέφαντος ἐν παντοίαις ἰδέαις κατασκευασμάτων ἦν ὁρᾶν οὐχ ὥσπερ ἐν πομπῇ κομιζόμενον πλῆθος, ἀλλ' ὡς ἂν εἴποι τις ῥέοντα ποταμόν, καὶ τὰ μὲν ἐκ πορφύρας ὑφάσματα τῆς σπανιωτάτης φερόμενα, τὰ δ' εἰς ἀκριβῆ ζωγραφίαν πεποικιλμένα τῇ Βαβυλωνίων τέχνῃ:" "^7.135 λίθοι τε διαφανεῖς, οἱ μὲν χρυσοῖς ἐμπεπλεγμένοι στεφάνοις, οἱ δὲ κατ' ἄλλας ποιήσεις, τοσοῦτοι παρηνέχθησαν, ὥστε μαθεῖν ὅτι μάτην εἶναί τι τούτων σπάνιον ὑπειλήφαμεν." "^7.136 ἐφέρετο δὲ καὶ θεῶν ἀγάλματα τῶν παρ' αὐτοῖς μεγέθεσι θαυμαστὰ καὶ κατὰ τὴν τέχνην οὐ παρέργως πεποιημένα, καὶ τούτων οὐδέν, ὅ τι μὴ τῆς ὕλης τῆς πολυτελοῦς, ζῴων τε πολλαὶ φύσεις παρήγοντο κόσμον οἰκεῖον ἁπάντων περικειμένων." "^7.137 ἦν δὲ καὶ τὸ κομίζον ἕκαστα τούτων πλῆθος ἀνθρώπων ἁλουργαῖς ἐσθῆσι καὶ διαχρύσοις κεκοσμημένον, οἵ τ' εἰς αὐτὸ τὸ πομπεύειν διακριθέντες ἐξαίρετον εἶχον καὶ καταπληκτικὴν περὶ αὐτοὺς τοῦ κόσμου τὴν πολυτέλειαν." "^7.138 ἐπὶ τούτοις οὐδὲ τὸν αἰχμάλωτον ἦν ἰδεῖν ὄχλον ἀκόσμητον, ἀλλ' ἡ τῶν ἐσθήτων ποικιλία καὶ τὸ κάλλος αὐτοῖς τὴν ἀπὸ τῆς κακώσεως τῶν σωμάτων ἀηδίαν ἔκλεπτε τῆς ὄψεως." "^7.139 θαῦμα δ' ἐν τοῖς μάλιστα παρεῖχεν ἡ τῶν φερομένων πηγμάτων κατασκευή: καὶ γὰρ διὰ μέγεθος ἦν δεῖσαι τῷ βεβαίῳ τῆς φορᾶς ἀπιστήσαντα," ^7.141 καὶ γὰρ ὑφάσματα πολλοῖς διάχρυσα περιβέβλητο, καὶ χρυσὸς καὶ ἐλέφας οὐκ ἀποίητος πᾶσι περιεπεπήγει. ^7.142 διὰ πολλῶν δὲ μιμημάτων ὁ πόλεμος ἄλλος εἰς ἄλλα μεμερισμένος ἐναργεστάτην ὄψιν αὑτοῦ παρεῖχεν:' "^7.143 ἦν γὰρ ὁρᾶν χώραν μὲν εὐδαίμονα δῃουμένην, ὅλας δὲ φάλαγγας κτεινομένας πολεμίων, καὶ τοὺς μὲν φεύγοντας τοὺς δ' εἰς αἰχμαλωσίαν ἀγομένους, τείχη δ' ὑπερβάλλοντα μεγέθει μηχαναῖς ἐρειπόμενα καὶ φρουρίων ἁλισκομένας ὀχυρότητας καὶ πόλεων πολυανθρώπους περιβόλους κατ' ἄκρας ἐχομένους," '^7.144 καὶ στρατιὰν ἔνδον τειχῶν εἰσχεομένην, καὶ πάντα φόνου πλήθοντα τόπον, καὶ τῶν ἀδυνάτων χεῖρας ἀνταίρειν ἱκεσίας, πῦρ τε ἐνιέμενον ἱεροῖς καὶ κατασκαφὰς οἴκων ἐπὶ τοῖς δεσπόταις, ^7.145 καὶ μετὰ πολλὴν ἐρημίαν καὶ κατήφειαν ποταμοὺς ῥέοντας οὐκ ἐπὶ γῆν γεωργουμένην, οὐδὲ ποτὸν ἀνθρώποις ἢ βοσκήμασιν, ἀλλὰ διὰ τῆς ἐπιπανταχόθεν φλεγομένης: ταῦτα γὰρ ̓Ιουδαῖοι πεισομένους αὑτοὺς τῷ πολέμῳ παρέδοσαν.' "^7.146 ἡ τέχνη δὲ καὶ τῶν κατασκευασμάτων ἡ μεγαλουργία τοῖς οὐκ ἰδοῦσι γινόμενα τότ' ἐδείκνυεν ὡς παροῦσι." "^7.147 τέτακτο δ' ἐφ' ἑκάστῳ τῶν πηγμάτων ὁ τῆς ἁλισκομένης πόλεως στρατηγὸς ὃν τρόπον ἐλήφθη." "^7.148 πολλαὶ δὲ καὶ νῆες εἵποντο. λάφυρα δὲ τὰ μὲν ἄλλα χύδην ἐφέρετο, διέπρεπε δὲ πάντων τὰ ἐγκαταληφθέντα τῷ ἐν ̔Ιεροσολύμοις ἱερῷ, χρυσῆ τε τράπεζα τὴν ὁλκὴν πολυτάλαντος καὶ λυχνία χρυσῆ μὲν ὁμοίως πεποιημένη, τὸ δ' ἔργον ἐξήλλακτο τῆς κατὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν χρῆσιν συνηθείας." "^7.149 ὁ μὲν γὰρ μέσος ἦν κίων ἐκ τῆς βάσεως πεπηγώς, λεπτοὶ δ' ἀπ' αὐτοῦ μεμήκυντο καυλίσκοι τριαίνης σχήματι παραπλησίαν τὴν θέσιν ἔχοντες, λύχνον ἕκαστος αὐτῶν ἐπ' ἄκρον κεχαλκευμένος: ἑπτὰ δ' ἦσαν οὗτοι τῆς παρὰ τοῖς ̓Ιουδαίοις ἑβδομάδος τὴν τιμὴν ἐμφανίζοντες." "^7.151 ἐπὶ τούτοις παρῄεσαν πολλοὶ Νίκης ἀγάλματα κομίζοντες: ἐξ ἐλέφαντος δ' ἦν πάντων καὶ χρυσοῦ ἡ κατασκευή." "^7.152 μεθ' ἃ Οὐεσπασιανὸς ἤλαυνε πρῶτος καὶ Τίτος εἵπετο, Δομετιανὸς δὲ παρίππευεν, αὐτός τε διαπρεπῶς κεκοσμημένος καὶ τὸν ἵππον παρέχων θέας ἄξιον." "^7.153 ̓͂Ην δὲ τῆς πομπῆς τὸ τέλος ἐπὶ τὸν νεὼ τοῦ Καπετωλίου Διός, ἐφ' ὃν ἐλθόντες ἔστησαν: ἦν γὰρ παλαιὸν πάτριον περιμένειν, μέχρις ἂν τὸν τοῦ στρατηγοῦ τῶν πολεμίων θάνατον ἀπαγγείλῃ τις." "^7.154 Σίμων οὗτος ἦν ὁ Γιώρα, τότε πεπομπευκὼς ἐν τοῖς αἰχμαλώτοις, βρόχῳ δὲ περιβληθεὶς εἰς τὸν ἐπὶ τῆς ἀγορᾶς ἐσύρετο τόπον αἰκιζομένων αὐτὸν ἅμα τῶν ἀγόντων: νόμος δ' ἐστὶ ̔Ρωμαίοις ἐκεῖ κτείνειν τοὺς ἐπὶ κακουργίᾳ θάνατον κατεγνωσμένους." "^7.155 ἐπεὶ δ' ἀπηγγέλθη τέλος ἔχων καὶ πάντες εὐφήμησαν, ἤρχοντο τῶν θυσιῶν, ἃς ἐπὶ ταῖς νομιζομέναις καλλιερήσαντες εὐχαῖς ἀπῄεσαν εἰς τὸ βασίλειον." "^7.156 καὶ τοὺς μὲν αὐτοὶ πρὸς εὐωχίαν ὑπεδέχοντο, τοῖς δ' ἄλλοις ἅπασιν εὐτρεπεῖς κατὰ τὸ οἰκεῖον αἱ τῆς ἑστιάσεως ἦσαν παρασκευαί." '^7.157 ταύτην γὰρ τὴν ἡμέραν ἡ ̔Ρωμαίων πόλις ἑώρταζεν ἐπινίκιον μὲν τῆς κατὰ τῶν πολεμίων στρατείας, πέρας δὲ τῶν ἐμφυλίων κακῶν, ἀρχὴν δὲ τῶν ὑπὲρ τῆς εὐδαιμονίας ἐλπίδων. ^7.158 Μετὰ δὲ τοὺς θριάμβους καὶ τὴν βεβαιοτάτην τῆς ̔Ρωμαίων ἡγεμονίας κατάστασιν Οὐεσπασιανὸς ἔγνω τέμενος Εἰρήνης κατασκευάσαι: ταχὺ δὲ δὴ μάλα καὶ πάσης ἀνθρωπίνης κρεῖττον ἐπινοίας ἐτετελείωτο. ^7.159 τῇ γὰρ ἐκ τοῦ πλούτου χορηγίᾳ δαιμονίῳ χρησάμενος ἔτι καὶ τοῖς ἔκπαλαι κατωρθωμένοις γραφῆς τε καὶ πλαστικῆς ἔργοις αὐτὸ κατεκόσμησεν:' "^7.161 ἀνέθηκε δὲ ἐνταῦθα καὶ τὰ ἐκ τοῦ ἱεροῦ τῶν ̓Ιουδαίων χρυσᾶ κατασκευάσματα σεμνυνόμενος ἐπ' αὐτοῖς." '^7.162 τὸν δὲ νόμον αὐτῶν καὶ τὰ πορφυρᾶ τοῦ σηκοῦ καταπετάσματα προσέταξεν ἐν τοῖς βασιλείοις ἀποθεμένους φυλάττειν. ^7.253 προειστήκει δὲ τῶν κατειληφότων αὐτὸ σικαρίων δυνατὸς ἀνὴρ ̓Ελεάζαρος, ἀπόγονος ̓Ιούδα τοῦ πείσαντος ̓Ιουδαίους οὐκ ὀλίγους, ὡς πρότερον δεδηλώκαμεν, μὴ ποιεῖσθαι τὰς ἀπογραφάς, ὅτε Κυρίνιος τιμητὴς εἰς τὴν ̓Ιουδαίαν ἐπέμφθη.' " None

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1.1 1. Whereas the war which the Jews made with the Romans hath been the greatest of all those, not only that have been in our times, but, in a manner, of those that ever were heard of; both of those wherein cities have fought against cities, or nations against nations; while some men who were not concerned in the affairs themselves have gotten together vain and contradictory stories by hearsay, and have written them down after a sophistical manner; ^1.1 But still he was not able to exclude Antiochus, for he burnt the towers, and filled up the trenches, and marched on with his army. And as he looked upon taking his revenge on Alexander, for endeavoring to stop him, as a thing of less consequence, he marched directly against the Arabians, ^1.1 For that it was a seditious temper of our own that destroyed it; and that they were the tyrants among the Jews who brought the Roman power upon us, who unwillingly attacked us, and occasioned the burning of our holy temple; Titus Caesar, who destroyed it, is himself a witness, who, during the entire war, pitied the people who were kept under by the seditious, and did often voluntarily delay the taking of the city, and allowed time to the siege, in order to let the authors have opportunity for repentance. ^1.18 9. But now Cassius, after Crassus, put a stop to the Parthians, who were marching in order to enter Syria. Cassius had fled into that province, and when he had taken possession of the same, he made a hasty march into Judea; and, upon his taking Taricheae, he carried thirty thousand Jews into slavery. He also slew Pitholaus, who had supported the seditious followers of Aristobulus; and it was Antipater who advised him so to do. ^1.18 But then, where the writers of these affairs and our prophets leave off, thence shall I take my rise and begin my history. Now, as to what concerns that war which happened in my own time, I will go over it very largely, and with all the diligence I am able; but for what preceded mine own age, that I shall run over briefly. ^1.19 4. Thus was Pelusium taken. But still, as they were marching on, those Egyptian Jews that inhabited the country called the country of Onias stopped them. Then did Antipater not only persuade them not to stop them, but to afford provisions for their army; on which account even the people about Memphis would not fight against them, but of their own accord joined Mithridates. ^1.19 7. For example, I shall relate how Antiochus, who was named Epiphanes, took Jerusalem by force, and held it three years and three months, and was then ejected out of the country by the sons of Asamoneus: after that, how their posterity quarreled about the government, and brought upon their settlement the Romans and Pompey; how Herod also, the son of Antipater, dissolved their government, and brought Socius upon them; ^2.56 In Sepphoris also, a city of Galilee, there was one Judas (the son of that arch-robber Hezekias, who formerly overran the country, and had been subdued by king Herod); this man got no small multitude together, and broke open the place where the royal armor was laid up, and armed those about him, and attacked those that were so earnest to gain the dominion. ^2.56 and as they had them already cooped up together in the place of public exercises, which they had done out of the suspicion they had of them, they thought they should meet with no difficulty in the attempt; yet did they distrust their own wives, which were almost all of them addicted to the Jewish religion; ^2.97 He also made subject to him the following cities, viz. Strato’s Tower, and Sebaste, and Joppa, and Jerusalem; but as to the Grecian cities, Gaza, and Gadara, and Hippos, he cut them off from the kingdom, and added them to Syria. Now the revenue of the country that was given to Archelaus was four hundred talents. ^2.117 1. And now Archelaus’s part of Judea was reduced into a province, and Coponius, one of the equestrian order among the Romans, was sent as a procurator, having the power of life and death put into his hands by Caesar. ^2.215 Moreover, he bestowed on Agrippa his whole paternal kingdom immediately, and added to it, besides those countries that had been given by Augustus to Herod, Trachonitis and Auranitis, and still, besides these, that kingdom which was called the kingdom of Lysanias. ^2.235 but they were managed by one Eleazar, the son of Dineus, and by Alexander, in these their thievish and seditious attempts. These men fell upon those that were in the neighborhood of the Acrabatene toparchy, and slew them, without sparing any age, and set the villages on fire. ^2.239 And the men of power among the Samaritans came to Tyre, to Ummidius Quadratus, the president of Syria, and desired that they that had laid waste the country might be punished: ^2.241 6. But Quadratus put both parties off for that time, and told them, that when he should come to those places, he would make a diligent inquiry after every circumstance. After which he went to Caesarea, and crucified all those whom Cumanus had taken alive; ^2.252 2. Nero therefore bestowed the kingdom of the Lesser Armenia upon Aristobulus, Herod’s son, and he added to Agrippa’s kingdom four cities, with the toparchies to them belonging; I mean Abila, and that Julias which is in Perea, Taricheae also, and Tiberias of Galilee; but over the rest of Judea he made Felix procurator. ^2.254 3. When the country was purged of these, there sprang up another sort of robbers in Jerusalem, which were called Sicarii, who slew men in the daytime, and in the midst of the city; ^2.255 this they did chiefly at the festivals, when they mingled themselves among the multitude, and concealed daggers under their garments, with which they stabbed those that were their enemies; and when any fell down dead, the murderers became a part of those that had indignation against them; by which means they appeared persons of such reputation, that they could by no means be discovered. ^2.256 The first man who was slain by them was Jonathan the high priest, after whose death many were slain every day, while the fear men were in of being so served was more afflicting than the calamity itself; ^2.257 and while everybody expected death every hour, as men do in war, so men were obliged to look before them, and to take notice of their enemies at a great distance; nor, if their friends were coming to them, durst they trust them any longer; but, in the midst of their suspicions and guarding of themselves, they were slain. Such was the celerity of the plotters against them, and so cunning was their contrivance. ^2.263 But Felix prevented his attempt, and met him with his Roman soldiers, while all the people assisted him in his attack upon them, insomuch that when it came to a battle, the Egyptian ran away, with a few others, while the greatest part of those that were with him were either destroyed or taken alive; but the rest of the multitude were dispersed every one to their own homes, and there concealed themselves. ^2.272 But then Albinus, who succeeded Festus, did not execute his office as the other had done; nor was there any sort of wickedness that could be named but he had a hand in it. ^2.273 Accordingly, he did not only, in his political capacity, steal and plunder every one’s substance, nor did he only burden the whole nation with taxes, but he permitted the relations of such as were in prison for robbery, and had been laid there, either by the senate of every city, or by the former procurators, to redeem them for money; and nobody remained in the prisons as a malefactor but he who gave him nothing. ^2.276 The effect of which was this, that those who lost their goods were forced to hold their peace, when they had reason to show great indignation at what they had suffered; but those who had escaped were forced to flatter him that deserved to be punished, out of the fear they were in of suffering equally with the others. Upon the whole, nobody durst speak their minds, but tyranny was generally tolerated; and at this time were those seeds sown which brought the city to destruction. ^2.277 2. And although such was the character of Albinus, yet did Gessius Florus who succeeded him, demonstrate him to have been a most excellent person, upon the comparison; for the former did the greatest part of his rogueries in private, and with a sort of dissimulation; but Gessius did his unjust actions to the harm of the nation after a pompous manner; and as though he had been sent as an executioner to punish condemned malefactors, he omitted no sort of rapine, or of vexation; ^2.284 4. Now at this time it happened that the Grecians at Caesarea had been too hard for the Jews, and had obtained of Nero the government of the city, and had brought the judicial determination: at the same time began the war, in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero, and the seventeenth of the reign of Agrippa, in the month of Artemisius Jyar. ^2.291 Hereupon Jucundus, the master of the horse, who was ordered to prevent the fight, came thither, and took away the earthen vessel, and endeavored to put a stop to the sedition; but when he was overcome by the violence of the people of Caesarea, the Jews caught up their books of the law, and retired to Narbata, which was a place to them belonging, distant from Caesarea sixty furlongs. ^2.292 But John, and twelve of the principal men with him, went to Florus, to Sebaste, and made a lamentable complaint of their case, and besought him to help them; and with all possible decency, put him in mind of the eight talents they had given him; but he had the men seized upon and put in prison, and accused them for carrying the books of the law out of Caesarea. ^2.293 6. Moreover, as to the citizens of Jerusalem, although they took this matter very ill, yet did they restrain their passion; but Florus acted herein as if he had been hired, and blew up the war into a flame, and sent some to take seventeen talents out of the sacred treasure, and pretended that Caesar wanted them. ^2.294 At this the people were in confusion immediately, and ran together to the temple, with prodigious clamors, and called upon Caesar by name, and besought him to free them from the tyranny of Florus. ^2.295 Some also of the seditious cried out upon Florus, and cast the greatest reproaches upon him, and carried a basket about, and begged some spills of money for him, as for one that was destitute of possessions, and in a miserable condition. Yet was not he made ashamed hereby of his love of money, but was more enraged, and provoked to get still more; ^2.296 and instead of coming to Caesarea, as he ought to have done, and quenching the flame of war, which was beginning thence, and so taking away the occasion of any disturbances, on which account it was that he had received a reward of eight talents, he marched hastily with an army of horsemen and footmen against Jerusalem, that he might gain his will by the arms of the Romans, and might, by his terror, and by his threatenings, bring the city into subjection. ^2.308 And what made this calamity the heavier was this new method of Roman barbarity; for Florus ventured then to do what no one had done before, that is, to have men of the equestrian order whipped and nailed to the cross before his tribunal; who, although they were by birth Jews, yet were they of Roman dignity notwithstanding. ^2.311 but he would not comply with her request, nor have any regard either to the multitude of those already slain, or to the nobility of her that interceded, but only to the advantage he should make by this plundering; ^2.341 where he called the multitude together, and highly commended them for their fidelity to the Romans, and earnestly exhorted them to keep the peace; and having performed such parts of Divine worship at the temple as he was allowed to do, he returned to Cestius. ^2.345 4. “Had I perceived that you were all zealously disposed to go to war with the Romans, and that the purer and more sincere part of the people did not propose to live in peace, I had not come out to you, nor been so bold as to give you counsel; for all discourses that tend to persuade men to do what they ought to do are superfluous, when the hearers are agreed to do the contrary. ^2.346 But because some are earnest to go to war because they are young, and without experience of the miseries it brings, and because some are for it out of an unreasonable expectation of regaining their liberty, and because others hope to get by it, and are therefore earnestly bent upon it, that in the confusion of your affairs they may gain what belongs to those that are too weak to resist them, I have thought it proper to get you all together, and to say to you what I think to be for your advantage; that so the former may grow wiser, and change their minds, and that the best men may come to no harm by the ill conduct of some others. ^2.347 And let not anyone be tumultuous against me, in case what they hear me say does not please them; for as to those that admit of no cure, but are resolved upon a revolt, it will still be in their power to retain the same sentiments after my exhortation is over; but still my discourse will fall to the ground, even with a relation to those that have a mind to hear me, unless you will all keep silence. ^2.348 I am well aware that many make a tragical exclamation concerning the injuries that have been offered you by your procurators, and concerning the glorious advantages of liberty; but before I begin the inquiry, who you are that must go to war, and who they are against whom you must fight,—I shall first separate those pretenses that are by some connected together; ^2.413 and that they had been so far from rejecting any person’s sacrifice (which would be the highest instance of impiety), that they had themselves placed those donations about the temple which were still visible, and had remained there so long a time; ^2.433 8. In the meantime, one Manahem, the son of Judas, that was called the Galilean (who was a very cunning sophister, and had formerly reproached the Jews under Cyrenius, that after God they were subject to the Romans) took some of the men of note with him, and retired to Masada, ^2.493 However, this man did not begin to teach them wisdom by arms, but sent among them privately some of the principal men, and thereby entreated them to be quiet, and not provoke the Roman army against them; but the seditious made a jest of the entreaties of Tiberius, and reproached him for so doing. ^2.576 He also got together an army out of Galilee, of more than a hundred thousand young men, all of which he armed with the old weapons which he had collected together and prepared for them. ^3.1 1. When Nero was informed of the Romans’ ill success in Judea, a concealed consternation and terror, as is usual in such cases, fell upon him; although he openly looked very big, and was very angry, ^3.1 They also esteem any errors they commit upon taking counsel beforehand to be better than such rash success as is owing to fortune only; because such a fortuitous advantage tempts them to be inconsiderate, while consultation, though it may sometimes fail of success, hath this good in it, that it makes men more careful hereafter; ^3.1 This is an ancient city that is distant from Jerusalem five hundred and twenty furlongs, and was always an enemy to the Jews; on which account they determined to make their first effort against it, and to make their approaches to it as near as possible. ^3.2 That he did not see what advantage he could bring to them now, by staying among them, but only provoke the Romans to besiege them more closely, as esteeming it a most valuable thing to take him; but that if they were once informed that he was fled out of the city, they would greatly remit of their eagerness against it. ^3.2 and said that what had happened was rather owing to the negligence of the commander, than to any valor of the enemy: and as he thought it fit for him, who bare the burden of the whole empire, to despise such misfortunes, he now pretended so to do, and to have a soul superior to all such sad accidents whatsoever. Yet did the disturbance that was in his soul plainly appear by the solicitude he was in how to recover his affairs again. ^3.2 and the greater part of the remainder were wounded, with Niger, their remaining general, who fled away together to a small city of Idumea, called Sallis. ^3.3 2. And as he was deliberating to whom he should commit the care of the East, now it was in so great a commotion, and who might be best able to punish the Jews for their rebellion, and might prevent the same distemper from seizing upon the neighboring nations also,— ^3.3 At this city also the inhabitants of Sepphoris of Galilee met him, who were for peace with the Romans. ^3.3 So he came quickly to the city, and put his army in order, and set Trajan over the left wing, while he had the right himself, and led them to the siege: ^3.4 he found no one but Vespasian equal to the task, and able to undergo the great burden of so mighty a war, seeing he was growing an old man already in the camp, and from his youth had been exercised in warlike exploits: he was also a man that had long ago pacified the west, and made it subject to the Romans, when it had been put into disorder by the Germans; he had also recovered to them Britain by his arms, ^3.4 its length is also from Meloth to Thella, a village near to Jordan. ^3.4 “Thou, O Vespasian, thinkest no more than that thou hast taken Josephus himself captive; but I come to thee as a messenger of greater tidings; for had not I been sent by God to thee, I knew what was the law of the Jews in this case? and how it becomes generals to die. ^3.5 There was also a great slaughter made in the city, while those foreigners that had not fled away already made opposition; but the natural inhabitants were killed without fighting: for in hopes of Titus’s giving them his right hand for their security, and out of a consciousness that they had not given any consent to the war, they avoided fighting, ^3.5 and for those rivers which they have, all their waters are exceedingly sweet: by reason also of the excellent grass they have, their cattle yield more milk than do those in other places; and, what is the greatest sign of excellency and of abundance, they each of them are very full of people. ^3.5 which had been little known before whereby he procured to his father Claudius to have a triumph bestowed on him without any sweat or labor of his own. ^3.79 2. As for what is within the camp, it is set apart for tents, but the outward circumference hath the resemblance to a wall, and is adorned with towers at equal distances, ^3.81 They also erect four gates, one at every side of the circumference, and those large enough for the entrance of the beasts, and wide enough for making excursions, if occasion should require. ^3.82 They divide the camp within into streets, very conveniently, and place the tents of the commanders in the middle; but in the very midst of all is the general’s own tent, in the nature of a temple, ^3.83 insomuch, that it appears to be a city built on the sudden, with its marketplace, and place for handicraft trades, and with seats for the officers superior and inferior, where, if any differences arise, their causes are heard and determined. ^3.522 9. But now, when the vessels were gotten ready, Vespasian put upon shipboard as many of his forces as he thought sufficient to be too hard for those that were upon the lake, and set sail after them. Now these which were driven into the lake could neither fly to the land, where all was in their enemies’ hand, and in war against them; nor could they fight upon the level by sea, ^3.523 for their ships were small and fitted only for piracy; they were too weak to fight with Vespasian’s vessels, and the mariners that were in them were so few, that they were afraid to come near the Romans, who attacked them in great numbers. ^3.524 However, as they sailed round about the vessels, and sometimes as they came near them, they threw stones at the Romans when they were a good way off, or came closer and fought them; ^3.525 yet did they receive the greatest harm themselves in both cases. As for the stones they threw at the Romans, they only made a sound one after another, for they threw them against such as were in their armor, while the Roman darts could reach the Jews themselves; and when they ventured to come near the Romans, they became sufferers themselves before they could do any harm to the other, and were drowned, they and their ships together. ^3.526 As for those that endeavored to come to an actual fight, the Romans ran many of them through with their long poles. Sometimes the Romans leaped into their ships, with swords in their hands, and slew them; but when some of them met the vessels, the Romans caught them by the middle, and destroyed at once their ships and themselves who were taken in them. ^3.527 And for such as were drowning in the sea, if they lifted their heads up above the water, they were either killed by darts, or caught by the vessels; but if, in the desperate case they were in, they attempted to swim to their enemies, the Romans cut off either their heads or their hands; ^3.528 and indeed they were destroyed after various manners everywhere, till the rest being put to flight, were forced to get upon the land, while the vessels encompassed them about on the sea: ^3.529 but as many of these were repulsed when they were getting ashore, they were killed by the darts upon the lake; and the Romans leaped out of their vessels, and destroyed a great many more upon the land: one might then see the lake all bloody, and full of dead bodies, for not one of them escaped. ^3.531 This was the upshot of the sea-fight. The number of the slain, including those that were killed in the city before, was six thousand and five hundred. ^7.121 nor were many days overpast when they determined to have but one triumph, that should be common to both of them, on account of the glorious exploits they had performed, although the senate had decreed each of them a separate triumph by himself. ^7.123 4. Now all the soldiery marched out beforehand by companies, and in their several ranks, under their several commanders, in the nighttime, and were about the gates, not of the upper palaces, but those near the temple of Isis; for there it was that the emperors had rested the foregoing night. ^7.128 And when everybody entirely held their peace, he stood up, and covering the greatest part of his head with his cloak, he put up the accustomed solemn prayers; the like prayers did Titus put up also; ^7.131 there it was that they tasted some food, and when they had put on their triumphal garments, and had offered sacrifices to the gods that were placed at the gate, they sent the triumph forward, and marched through the theatres, that they might be the more easily seen by the multitudes. ^7.132 5. Now it is impossible to describe the multitude of the shows as they deserve, and the magnificence of them all; such indeed as a man could not easily think of as performed, either by the labor of workmen, or the variety of riches, or the rarities of nature; ^7.133 for almost all such curiosities as the most happy men ever get by piecemeal were here one heaped on another, and those both admirable and costly in their nature; and all brought together on that day demonstrated the vastness of the dominions of the Romans; ^7.134 for there was here to be seen a mighty quantity of silver, and gold, and ivory, contrived into all sorts of things, and did not appear as carried along in pompous show only, but, as a man may say, running along like a river. Some parts were composed of the rarest purple hangings, and so carried along; and others accurately represented to the life what was embroidered by the arts of the Babylonians. ^7.135 There were also precious stones that were transparent, some set in crowns of gold, and some in other ouches, as the workmen pleased; and of these such a vast number were brought, that we could not but thence learn how vainly we imagined any of them to be rarities. ^7.136 The images of the gods were also carried, being as well wonderful for their largeness, as made very artificially, and with great skill of the workmen; nor were any of these images of any other than very costly materials; and many species of animals were brought, every one in their own natural ornaments. ^7.137 The men also who brought every one of these shows were great multitudes, and adorned with purple garments, all over interwoven with gold; those that were chosen for carrying these pompous shows having also about them such magnificent ornaments as were both extraordinary and surprising. ^7.138 Besides these, one might see that even the great number of the captives was not unadorned, while the variety that was in their garments, and their fine texture, concealed from the sight the deformity of their bodies. ^7.139 But what afforded the greatest surprise of all was the structure of the pageants that were borne along; for indeed he that met them could not but be afraid that the bearers would not be able firmly enough to support them, such was their magnitude; ^7.141 for upon many of them were laid carpets of gold. There was also wrought gold and ivory fastened about them all; ^7.142 and many resemblances of the war, and those in several ways, and variety of contrivances, affording a most lively portraiture of itself. ^7.143 For there was to be seen a happy country laid waste, and entire squadrons of enemies slain; while some of them ran away, and some were carried into captivity; with walls of great altitude and magnitude overthrown and ruined by machines; with the strongest fortifications taken, and the walls of most populous cities upon the tops of hills seized on, ^7.144 and an army pouring itself within the walls; as also every place full of slaughter, and supplications of the enemies, when they were no longer able to lift up their hands in way of opposition. Fire also sent upon temples was here represented, and houses overthrown, and falling upon their owners: ^7.145 rivers also, after they came out of a large and melancholy desert, ran down, not into a land cultivated, nor as drink for men, or for cattle, but through a land still on fire upon every side; for the Jews related that such a thing they had undergone during this war. ^7.146 Now the workmanship of these representations was so magnificent and lively in the construction of the things, that it exhibited what had been done to such as did not see it, as if they had been there really present. ^7.147 On the top of every one of these pageants was placed the commander of the city that was taken, and the manner wherein he was taken. Moreover, there followed those pageants a great number of ships; ^7.148 and for the other spoils, they were carried in great plenty. But for those that were taken in the temple of Jerusalem, they made the greatest figure of them all; that is, the golden table, of the weight of many talents; the candlestick also, that was made of gold, though its construction were now changed from that which we made use of; ^7.149 for its middle shaft was fixed upon a basis, and the small branches were produced out of it to a great length, having the likeness of a trident in their position, and had every one a socket made of brass for a lamp at the tops of them. These lamps were in number seven, and represented the dignity of the number seven among the Jews; ^7.151 After these spoils passed by a great many men, carrying the images of Victory, whose structure was entirely either of ivory or of gold. ^7.152 After which Vespasian marched in the first place, and Titus followed him; Domitian also rode along with them, and made a glorious appearance, and rode on a horse that was worthy of admiration. ^7.153 6. Now the last part of this pompous show was at the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, whither when they were come, they stood still; for it was the Romans’ ancient custom to stay till somebody brought the news that the general of the enemy was slain. ^7.154 This general was Simon, the son of Gioras, who had then been led in this triumph among the captives; a rope had also been put upon his head, and he had been drawn into a proper place in the forum, and had withal been tormented by those that drew him along; and the law of the Romans required that malefactors condemned to die should be slain there. ^7.155 Accordingly, when it was related that there was an end of him, and all the people had sent up a shout for joy, they then began to offer those sacrifices which they had consecrated, in the prayers used in such solemnities; which when they had finished, they went away to the palace. ^7.156 And as for some of the spectators, the emperors entertained them at their own feast; and for all the rest there were noble preparations made for their feasting at home; ^7.157 for this was a festival day to the city of Rome, as celebrated for the victory obtained by their army over their enemies, for the end that was now put to their civil miseries, and for the commencement of their hopes of future prosperity and happiness. ^7.158 7. After these triumphs were over, and after the affairs of the Romans were settled on the surest foundations, Vespasian resolved to build a temple to Peace, which was finished in so short a time, and in so glorious a manner, as was beyond all human expectation and opinion: ^7.159 for he having now by Providence a vast quantity of wealth, besides what he had formerly gained in his other exploits, he had this temple adorned with pictures and statues; ^7.161 he also laid up therein, as ensigns of his glory, those golden vessels and instruments that were taken out of the Jewish temple. ^7.162 But still he gave order that they should lay up their Law, and the purple veils of the holy place, in the royal palace itself, and keep them there. ^7.253 It was one Eleazar, a potent man, and the commander of these Sicarii, that had seized upon it. He was a descendant from that Judas who had persuaded abundance of the Jews, as we have formerly related, not to submit to the taxation when Cyrenius was sent into Judea to make one;' ' None

15. Lucan, Pharsalia, 1.2-1.4, 1.33-1.66, 1.72-1.80, 4.478-4.479, 4.512-4.515, 4.519-4.520, 7.445-7.459, 7.696, 9.964-9.999, 10.14-10.52, 10.301-10.302 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Bolton, Edmund, Nero Caesar, or Monarchie Depraved • Gwinne, Matthew, Nero, Tragoedia Nova • Lucan,and Nero’s ban • Lucan,in Matthew Gwinne’s Nero, Tragoedia Nova • Lucan,in The Tragedy of Nero • Nero • Nero (Roman emperor) • Nero (emperor) • Nero, as Heracles • Nero, as character in Matthew Gwinne’s Nero, Tragoedia Nova • Nero, as character in The Tragedy of Nero • Nero, emperor, and Seneca • Nero, emperor, poetic rivalry with Lucan • Nero, emperor, searches for the Nile sources • Seneca the Younger, and Nero • The Tragedy of Nero • nenia, Nero, reign of

Found in books: Agri (2022), Reading Fear in Flavian Epic: Emotion, Power, and Stoicism, 3, 30, 38, 39; Augoustakis (2014), Flavian Poetry and its Greek Past, 310; Chrysanthou (2022), Reconfiguring the Imperial Past: Narrative Patterns and Historical Interpretation in Herodian’s History of the Empire. 233; Edmondson (2008), Roman Dress and the Fabrics of Roman Culture, 211; Fabre-Serris et al. (2021), Identities, Ethnicities and Gender in Antiquity, 138; Goldschmidt (2019), Biofiction and the Reception of Latin Poetry, 99, 100, 102; Joseph (2022), Thunder and Lament: Lucan on the Beginnings and Ends of Epic, 8, 9, 268, 269; Kirichenko (2022), Greek Literature and the Ideal: The Pragmatics of Space from the Archaic to the Hellenistic Age, 240; König and Whitton (2018), Roman Literature under Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian: Literary Interactions, AD 96–138 351, 352, 353, 354, 355, 356, 357, 358, 359, 360; Lester (2018), Prophetic Rivalry, Gender, and Economics: A Study in Revelation and Sibylline Oracles 4-5. 127; Malherbe et al. (2014), Light from the Gentiles: Hellenistic Philosophy and Early Christianity: Collected Essays of Abraham J, 657; Manolaraki (2012), Noscendi Nilum Cupido: Imagining Egypt from Lucan to Philostratus, 81, 114; Mcclellan (2019), Paulinus Noster: Self and Symbols in the Letters of Paulinus of Nola, 169; Price, Finkelberg and Shahar (2021), Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity, 21; Roumpou (2023), Ritual and the Poetics of Closure in Flavian Literature. 188; Verhagen (2022), Security and Credit in Roman Law: The Historical Evolution of Pignus and Hypotheca, 310; Volk and Williams (2006), Seeing Seneca Whole: Perspectives on Philosophy, Poetry and Politics, 196

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1.2 Wars worse than civil on Emathian plains, And crime let loose we sing; how Rome's high race Plunged in her vitals her victorious sword; Armies akin embattled, with the force of all the shaken earth bent on the fray; And burst asunder, to the common guilt, A kingdom's compact; eagle with eagle met, Standard to standard, spear opposed to spear. Whence, citizens, this rage, this boundless lust " "^1.33 No guard is found, and in the ancient streets so Scarce seen the passer by. The fields in vain, Rugged with brambles and unploughed for years, Ask for the hand of man; for man is not. Nor savage Pyrrhus nor the Punic horde E'er caused such havoc: to no foe was given To strike thus deep; but civil strife alone Dealt the fell wound and left the death behind. Yet if the fates could find no other way For Nero coming, nor the gods with ease " "^1.40 Gain thrones in heaven; and if the Thunderer Prevailed not till the giant's war was done, Complaint is silent. For this boon supreme Welcome, ye gods, be wickedness and crime; Thronged with our dead be dire Pharsalia's fields, Be Punic ghosts avenged by Roman blood; Add to these ills the toils of Mutina; Perusia's dearth; on Munda's final field The shock of battle joined; let Leucas' Cape Shatter the routed navies; servile hands " "^1.50 Unsheath the sword on fiery Etna's slopes: Still Rome is gainer by the civil war. Thou, Caesar, art her prize. When thou shalt choose, Thy watch relieved, to seek divine abodes, All heaven rejoicing; and shalt hold a throne, Or else elect to govern Phoebus' car And light a subject world that shall not dread To owe her brightness to a different Sun; All shall concede thy right: do what thou wilt, Select thy Godhead, and the central clime " "^1.59 Unsheath the sword on fiery Etna's slopes: Still Rome is gainer by the civil war. Thou, Caesar, art her prize. When thou shalt choose, Thy watch relieved, to seek divine abodes, All heaven rejoicing; and shalt hold a throne, Or else elect to govern Phoebus' car And light a subject world that shall not dread To owe her brightness to a different Sun; All shall concede thy right: do what thou wilt, Select thy Godhead, and the central clime " '^1.60 Whence thou shalt rule the world with power divine. And yet the Northern or the Southern Pole We pray thee, choose not; but in rays direct Vouchsafe thy radiance to thy city Rome. Press thou on either side, the universe Should lose its equipoise: take thou the midst, And weight the scales, and let that part of heaven Where Caesar sits, be evermore serene And smile upon us with unclouded blue. Then may all men lay down their arms, and peace ^1.66 Whence thou shalt rule the world with power divine. And yet the Northern or the Southern Pole We pray thee, choose not; but in rays direct Vouchsafe thy radiance to thy city Rome. Press thou on either side, the universe Should lose its equipoise: take thou the midst, And weight the scales, and let that part of heaven Where Caesar sits, be evermore serene And smile upon us with unclouded blue. Then may all men lay down their arms, and peace ' "^1.72 Through all the nations reign, and shut the gates That close the temple of the God of War. Be thou my help, to me e'en now divine! Let Delphi's steep her own Apollo guard, And Nysa keep her Bacchus, uninvoked. Rome is my subject and my muse art thou! First of such deeds I purpose to unfold The causes — task immense — what drove to arms A maddened nation, and from all the world Struck peace away. By envious fate's decrees " "^1.80 Abide not long the mightiest lords of earth; Beneath too heavy a burden great the fall. Thus Rome o'ergrew her strength. So when that hour, The last in all the centuries, shall sound The world's disruption, all things shall revert To that primaeval chaos, stars on stars Shall crash; and fiery meteors from the sky Plunge in the ocean. Earth shall then no more Front with her bulwark the encroaching sea: The moon, indigt at her path oblique, " ^4.478 They lay, nor build the ship, but shapeless rafts of timbers knit together, strong to bear All ponderous weight; on empty casks beneath By tightened chains made firm, in double rows Supported; nor upon the deck were placed The oarsmen, to the hostile dart exposed, But in a hidden space, by beams concealed. And thus the eye amazed beheld the mass Move silent on its path across the sea, By neither sail nor stalwart arm propelled. ^4.479 They lay, nor build the ship, but shapeless rafts of timbers knit together, strong to bear All ponderous weight; on empty casks beneath By tightened chains made firm, in double rows Supported; nor upon the deck were placed The oarsmen, to the hostile dart exposed, But in a hidden space, by beams concealed. And thus the eye amazed beheld the mass Move silent on its path across the sea, By neither sail nor stalwart arm propelled. ' "^4.512 Below o'ershadowing rocks. These hollowed out In ponderous masses overhung the main, And nodding seemed to fall: shadowed by trees Dark lay the waves beneath. Hither the tide Brings wreck and corpse, and, burying with the flow, Restores them with the ebb: and when the caves Belch forth the ocean, swirling billows fall In boisterous surges back, as boils the tide In that famed whirlpool on Sicilian shores. Here, with Venetian settlers for its load, " "^4.520 Stood motionless the raft. Octavius' ships Gathered around, while foemen on the land Filled all the shore. But well the captain knew, Volteius, how the secret fraud was planned, And tried in vain with sword and steel to burst The bands that held them; without hope he fights, Uncertain where to avoid or front the foe. Caught in this strait they strove as brave men should Against opposing hosts; nor long the fight, For fallen darkness brought a truce to arms. " "^7.445 Think that the Senate hoar, too old for arms, With snowy locks outspread; and Rome herself, The world's high mistress, fearing now, alas! A despot — all exhort you to the fight. Think that the people that is and that shall be Joins in the prayer — in freedom to be born, In freedom die, their wish. If 'mid these vows Be still found place for mine, with wife and child, So far as Imperator may, I bend Before you suppliant — unless this fight " "^7.449 Think that the Senate hoar, too old for arms, With snowy locks outspread; and Rome herself, The world's high mistress, fearing now, alas! A despot — all exhort you to the fight. Think that the people that is and that shall be Joins in the prayer — in freedom to be born, In freedom die, their wish. If 'mid these vows Be still found place for mine, with wife and child, So far as Imperator may, I bend Before you suppliant — unless this fight " '^7.450 Be won, behold me exile, your disgrace, My kinsman\'s scorn. From this, \'tis yours to save. Then save! Nor in the latest stage of life, Let Magnus be a slave." Then burned their souls At these his words, indigt at the thought, And Rome rose up within them, and to die Was welcome. Thus alike with hearts aflame Moved either host to battle, one in fear And one in hope of empire. These hands shall do Such work as not the rolling centuries ^7.459 Be won, behold me exile, your disgrace, My kinsman\'s scorn. From this, \'tis yours to save. Then save! Nor in the latest stage of life, Let Magnus be a slave." Then burned their souls At these his words, indigt at the thought, And Rome rose up within them, and to die Was welcome. Thus alike with hearts aflame Moved either host to battle, one in fear And one in hope of empire. These hands shall do Such work as not the rolling centuries ' "^7.696 Thy fated victim! There upon the field Lay all the honour of Rome; no common stream Mixed with the purple tide. And yet of all Who noble fell, one only now I sing, Thee, brave Domitius. Whenever the day Was adverse to the fortunes of thy chief Thine was the arm which vainly stayed the fight. Vanquished so oft by Caesar, now 'twas thine Yet free to perish. By a thousand wounds Came welcome death, nor had thy conqueror power " "^9.964 No draught in poisonous cups from ripened plants of direst growth Sabaean wizards brew. Lo! Upon branchless trunk a serpent, named By Libyans Jaculus, rose in coils to dart His venom from afar. Through Paullus' brain It rushed, nor stayed; for in the wound itself Was death. Then did they know how slowly flies, Flung from a sling, the stone; how gently speed Through air the shafts of Scythia. What availed, Murrus, the lance by which thou didst transfix " "^9.970 A Basilisk? Swift through the weapon ran The poison to his hand: he draws his sword And severs arm and shoulder at a blow: Then gazed secure upon his severed hand Which perished as he looked. So had'st thou died, And such had been thy fate! Whoe'er had thought A scorpion had strength o'er death or fate? Yet with his threatening coils and barb erect He won the glory of Orion slain; So bear the stars their witness. And who would fear " "^9.979 A Basilisk? Swift through the weapon ran The poison to his hand: he draws his sword And severs arm and shoulder at a blow: Then gazed secure upon his severed hand Which perished as he looked. So had'st thou died, And such had been thy fate! Whoe'er had thought A scorpion had strength o'er death or fate? Yet with his threatening coils and barb erect He won the glory of Orion slain; So bear the stars their witness. And who would fear " '^9.980 Thy haunts, Salpuga? Yet the Stygian Maids Have given thee power to snap the fatal threads. Thus nor the day with brightness, nor the night With darkness gave them peace. The very earth On which they lay they feared; nor leaves nor straw They piled for couches, but upon the ground Unshielded from the fates they laid their limbs, Cherished beneath whose warmth in chill of night The frozen pests found shelter; in whose jaws Harmless the while, the lurking venom slept. ^9.990 Nor did they know the measure of their march Accomplished, nor their path; the stars in heaven Their only guide. "Return, ye gods," they cried, In frequent wail, "the arms from which we fled. Give back Thessalia. Sworn to meet the sword Why, lingering, fall we thus? In Caesar\'s place The thirsty Dipsas and the horned snakeNow wage the warfare. Rather let us seek That region by the horses of the sun Scorched, and the zone most torrid: let us fall ^9.999 Nor did they know the measure of their march Accomplished, nor their path; the stars in heaven Their only guide. "Return, ye gods," they cried, In frequent wail, "the arms from which we fled. Give back Thessalia. Sworn to meet the sword Why, lingering, fall we thus? In Caesar\'s place The thirsty Dipsas and the horned snakeNow wage the warfare. Rather let us seek That region by the horses of the sun Scorched, and the zone most torrid: let us fall ' "^10.15 But when the people, jealous of their laws, Murmured against the fasces, Caesar knew Their minds were adverse, and that not for him Was Magnus' murder wrought. And yet with brow Dissembling fear, intrepid, through the shrines of Egypt's gods he strode, and round the fane of ancient Isis; bearing witness all To Macedon's vigour in the days of old. Yet did nor gold nor ornament restrain His hasting steps, nor worship of the gods, " "^10.20 Nor city ramparts: but in greed of gain He sought the cave dug out amid the tombs. The madman offspring there of Philip lies The famed Pellaean robber, fortune's friend, Snatched off by fate, avenging so the world. In sacred sepulchre the hero's limbs, Which should be scattered o'er the earth, repose, Still spared by Fortune to these tyrant days: For in a world to freedom once recalled, All men had mocked the dust of him who set " "^10.29 Nor city ramparts: but in greed of gain He sought the cave dug out amid the tombs. The madman offspring there of Philip lies The famed Pellaean robber, fortune's friend, Snatched off by fate, avenging so the world. In sacred sepulchre the hero's limbs, Which should be scattered o'er the earth, repose, Still spared by Fortune to these tyrant days: For in a world to freedom once recalled, All men had mocked the dust of him who set " '^10.30 The baneful lesson that so many lands Can serve one master. Macedon he left His home obscure; Athena he despised The conquest of his sire, and spurred by fate Through Asia rushed with havoc of mankind, Plunging his sword through peoples; streams unknown Ran red with Persian and with Indian blood. Curse of all earth and thunderbolt of ill To every nation! On the outer sea He launched his fleet to sail the ocean wave: ^10.39 The baneful lesson that so many lands Can serve one master. Macedon he left His home obscure; Athena he despised The conquest of his sire, and spurred by fate Through Asia rushed with havoc of mankind, Plunging his sword through peoples; streams unknown Ran red with Persian and with Indian blood. Curse of all earth and thunderbolt of ill To every nation! On the outer sea He launched his fleet to sail the ocean wave: ' "^10.40 Nor flame nor flood nor sterile Libyan sands Stayed back his course, nor Hammon's pathless shoals; Far to the west, where downward slopes the world He would have led his armies, and the poles Had compassed, and had drunk the fount of Nile: But came his latest day; such end alone Could nature place upon the madman king, Who jealous in death as when he won the world His empire with him took, nor left an heir. Thus every city to the spoiler's hand " "^10.49 Nor flame nor flood nor sterile Libyan sands Stayed back his course, nor Hammon's pathless shoals; Far to the west, where downward slopes the world He would have led his armies, and the poles Had compassed, and had drunk the fount of Nile: But came his latest day; such end alone Could nature place upon the madman king, Who jealous in death as when he won the world His empire with him took, nor left an heir. Thus every city to the spoiler's hand " '^10.50 Was victim made: Yet in his fall was his Babylon; and Parthia feared him. Shame on us That eastern nations dreaded more the lance of Macedon than now the Roman spear. True that we rule beyond where takes its rise The burning southern breeze, beyond the homes of western winds, and to the northern star; But towards the rising of the sun, we yield To him who kept the Arsacids in awe; And puny Pella held as province sure ^10.52 Was victim made: Yet in his fall was his Babylon; and Parthia feared him. Shame on us That eastern nations dreaded more the lance of Macedon than now the Roman spear. True that we rule beyond where takes its rise The burning southern breeze, beyond the homes of western winds, and to the northern star; But towards the rising of the sun, we yield To him who kept the Arsacids in awe; And puny Pella held as province sure ' "^10.301 Deep in the earth, within whose mighty jaws Waters in noiseless current underneath From northern cold to southern climes are drawn: And when hot Meroe pants beneath the sun, Then, say they, Ganges through the silent depths And Padus pass: and from a single fount The Nile arising not in single streams Pours all the rivers forth. And rumour says That when the sea which girdles in the world O'erflows, thence rushes Nile, by lengthy course, " "^10.302 Deep in the earth, within whose mighty jaws Waters in noiseless current underneath From northern cold to southern climes are drawn: And when hot Meroe pants beneath the sun, Then, say they, Ganges through the silent depths And Padus pass: and from a single fount The Nile arising not in single streams Pours all the rivers forth. And rumour says That when the sea which girdles in the world O'erflows, thence rushes Nile, by lengthy course, " " None

16. New Testament, 1 Peter, 4.16 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero (Roman emperor) • Revolt/War, under Nero (Great ~)

Found in books: Maier and Waldner (2022), Desiring Martyrs: Locating Martyrs in Space and Time, 46; Tomson (2019), Studies on Jews and Christians in the First and Second Centuries. 641

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4.16 εἰ δὲ ὡς Χριστιανός, μὴ αἰσχυνέσθω, δοξαζέτω δὲ τὸν θεὸν ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι τούτῳ.'' None

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4.16 But if one of you suffers for being a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God in this matter. '' None

17. New Testament, Acts, 12.12, 13.5, 13.48-13.50, 15.1, 15.37, 16.14, 16.16, 16.20, 17.6-17.8, 18.2, 18.12, 19.23-19.40, 20.9-20.12, 22.3, 24.24-24.27, 25.22 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero • Nero persecution of Christians • Nero, Claudius Caesar • Nero, and the Great Fire of Rome • Nero, emperor • Revolt/War, under Nero (Great ~)

Found in books: Brenk and Lanzillotta (2023), Plutarch on Literature, Graeco-Roman Religion, Jews and Christians, 302; Cadwallader (2016), Stones, Bones and the Sacred: Essays on Material Culture and Religion in Honor of Dennis E, 250; Czajkowski et al. (2020), Vitruvian Man: Rome under Construction, 218; Dijkstra and Raschle (2020), Religious Violence in the Ancient World: From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity, 123; Esler (2000), The Early Christian World, 874; Gunderson (2022), The Social Worlds of Ancient Jews and Christians: Essays in Honor of L. Michael White, 248; Lampe (2003), Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus, 13, 201; Lester (2018), Prophetic Rivalry, Gender, and Economics: A Study in Revelation and Sibylline Oracles 4-5. 134; Levine Allison and Crossan (2006), The Historical Jesus in Context, 36; Malherbe et al. (2014), Light from the Gentiles: Hellenistic Philosophy and Early Christianity: Collected Essays of Abraham J, 197, 381, 758; Mathews (2013), Riches, Poverty, and the Faithful: Perspectives on Wealth in the Second Temple Period and the Apocalypse of John, 17; Moss (2012), Ancient Christian Martyrdom: Diverse Practices, Theologies, and Traditions, 97; Peppard (2011), The Son of God in the Roman World: Divine Sonship in its Social and Political Context, 89; Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 118; Tomson (2019), Studies on Jews and Christians in the First and Second Centuries. 180, 216, 295, 483, 542, 543, 550, 572, 575, 584, 618, 627, 631; Tuori (2016), The Emperor of Law: The Emergence of Roman Imperial Adjudication<, 157

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12.12 συνιδών τε ἦλθεν ἐπὶ τὴν οἰκίαν τῆς Μαρίας τῆς μητρὸς Ἰωάνου τοῦ ἐπικαλουμένου Μάρκου, οὗ ἦσαν ἱκανοὶ συνηθροισμένοι καὶ προσευχόμενοι. ^13.5 καὶ γενόμενοι ἐν Σαλαμῖνι κατήγγελλον τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν ταῖς συναγωγαῖς τῶν Ἰουδαίων· εἶχον δὲ καὶ Ἰωάννην ὑπηρέτην. ^13.48 ἀκούοντα δὲ τὰ ἔθνη ἔχαιρον καὶ ἐδόξαζον τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ ἐπίστευσαν ὅσοι ἦσαν τεταγμένοι εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον· ^13.49 διεφέρετο δὲ ὁ λόγος τοῦ κυρίου διʼ ὅλης τῆς χώρας. ^13.50 οἱ δὲ Ἰουδαῖοι παρώτρυναν τὰς σεβομένας γυναῖκας τὰς εὐσχήμονας καὶ τοὺς πρώτους τῆς πόλεως καὶ ἐπήγειραν διωγμὸν ἐπὶ τὸν Παῦλον καὶ Βαρνάβαν, καὶ ἐξέβαλον αὐτοὺς ἀπὸ τῶν ὁρίων αὐτῶν. ^15.1 ΚΑΙ ΤΙΝΕΣ ΚΑΤΕΛΘΟΝΤΕΣ ἀπὸ τῆς Ἰουδαίας ἐδίδασκον τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς ὅτι Ἐὰν μὴ lt*gtιτμηθῆτε τῷ ἔθει τῷ Μωυσέως, οὐ δύνασθε σωθῆναι. ^15.37 Βαρνάβας δὲ ἐβούλετο συνπαραλαβεῖν καὶ τὸν Ἰωάνην τὸν καλούμενον Μάρκον· ^16.14 καί τις γυνὴ ὀνόματι Λυδία, πορφυρόπωλις πόλεως Θυατείρων σεβομένη τὸν θεόν, ἤκουεν, ἧς ὁ κύριος διήνοιξεν τὴν καρδίαν προσέχειν τοῖς λαλουμένοις ὑπὸ Παύλου. ^16.16 Ἐγένετο δὲ πορευομένων ἡμῶν εἰς τὴν προσευχὴν παιδίσκην τινὰ ἔχουσαν πνεῦμα πύθωνα ὑπαντῆσαι ἡμῖν, ἥτις ἐργασίαν πολλὴν παρεῖχεν τοῖς κυρίοις ^16.20 καὶ προσαγαγόντες αὐτοὺς τοῖς στρατηγοῖς εἶπαν Οὗτοι οἱ ἄνθρωποι ἐκταράσσουσιν ἡμῶν τὴν πόλιν Ἰουδαῖοι ὑπάρχοντες, ^17.6 μὴ εὑρόντες δὲ αὐτοὺς ἔσυρον Ἰάσονα καί τινας ἀδελφοὺς ἐπὶ τοὺς πολιτάρχας, βοῶντες ὅτι Οἱ τὴν οἰκουμένην ἀναστατώσαντες οὗτοι καὶ ἐνθάδε πάρεισιν, ^17.7 οὓς ὑποδέδεκται Ἰάσων· καὶ οὗτοι πάντες ἀπέναντι τῶν δογμάτων Καίσαρος πράσσουσι, βασιλέα ἕτερον λέγοντες εἶναι Ἰησοῦν. ^17.8 ἐτάραξαν δὲ τὸν ὄχλον καὶ τοὺς πολιτάρχας ἀκούοντας ταῦτα, ^18.2 καὶ εὑρών τινα Ἰουδαῖον ὀνόματι Ἀκύλαν, Ποντικὸν τῷ γένει, προσφάτως ἐληλυθότα ἀπὸ τῆς Ἰταλίας καὶ Πρίσκιλλαν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ διὰ τὸ διατεταχέναι Κλαύδιον χωρίζεσθαι πάντας τοὺς Ἰουδαίους ἀπὸ τῆς Ῥώμης, προσῆλθεν αὐτοῖς, ^18.12 Γαλλίωνος δὲ ἀνθυπάτου ὄντος τῆς Ἀχαίας κατεπέστησαν οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι ὁμοθυμαδὸν τῷ Παύλῳ καὶ ἤγαγον αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τὸ βῆμα, ^19.23 Ἐγένετο δὲ κατὰ τὸν καιρὸν ἐκεῖνον τάραχος οὐκ ὀλίγος περὶ τῆς ὁδοῦ. ^19.24 Δημήτριος γάρ τις ὀνόματι, ἀργυροκόπος, ποιῶν ναοὺς ἀργυροῦς Ἀρτέμιδος παρείχετο τοῖς τεχνίταις οὐκ ὀλίγην ἐργασίαν, ^19.25 οὓς συναθροίσας καὶ τοὺς περὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα ἐργάτας εἶπεν Ἄνδρες, ἐπίστασθε ὅτι ἐκ ταύτης τῆς ἐργασίας ἡ εὐπορία ἡμῖν ἐστίν, ^19.26 καὶ θεωρεῖτε καὶ ἀκούετε ὅτι οὐ μόνον Ἐφέσου ἀλλὰ σχεδὸν πάσης τῆς Ἀσίας ὁ Παῦλος οὗτος πείσας μετέστησεν ἱκανὸν ὄχλον, λέγων ὅτι οὐκ εἰσὶν θεοὶ οἱ διὰ χειρῶν γινόμενοι. ^19.27 οὐ μόνον δὲ τοῦτο κινδυνεύει ἡμῖν τὸ μέρος εἰς ἀπελεγμὸν ἐλθεῖν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ τῆς μεγάλης θεᾶς Ἀρτέμιδος ἱερὸν εἰς οὐθὲν λογισθῆναι, μέλλειν τε καὶ καθαιρεῖσθαι τῆς μεγαλειότητος αὐτῆς, ἣν ὅλη ἡ Ἀσία καὶ ἡ οἰκουμένη σέβεται. ^19.28 ἀκούσαντες δὲ καὶ γενόμενοι πλήρεις θυμοῦ ἔκραζον λέγοντες Μεγάλη ἡ Ἄρτεμις Ἐφεσίων. ^19.29 καὶ ἐπλήσθη ἡ πόλις τῆς συγχύσεως, ὥρμησάν τε ὁμοθυμαδὸν εἰς τὸ θέατρον συναρπάσαντες Γαῖον καὶ Ἀρίσταρχον Μακεδόνας, συνεκδήμους Παύλου. ^19.30 Παύλου δὲ βουλομένου εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὸν δῆμον οὐκ εἴων αὐτὸν οἱ μαθηταί· ^19.31 τινὲς δὲ καὶ τῶν Ἀσιαρχῶν, ὄντες αὐτῷ φίλοι, πέμψαντες πρὸς αὐτὸν παρεκάλουν μὴ δοῦναι ἑαυτὸν εἰς τὸ θέατρον. ^19.32 ἄλλοι μὲν οὖν ἄλλο τι ἔκραζον, ἦν γὰρ ἡ ἐκκλησία συνκεχυμένη, καὶ οἱ πλείους οὐκ ᾔδεισαν τίνος ἕνεκα συνεληλύθεισαν. ^19.33 ἐκ δὲ τοῦ ὄχλου συνεβίβασαν Ἀλέξανδρον προβαλόντων αὐτὸν τῶν Ἰουδαίων, ὁ δὲ Ἀλέξανδρος κατασείσας τὴν χεῖρα ἤθελεν ἀπολογεῖσθαι τῷ δήμῳ. ^19.34 ἐπιγνόντες δὲ ὅτι Ἰουδαῖός ἐστιν φωνὴ ἐγένετο μία ἐκ πάντων ὡσεὶ ἐπὶ ὥρας δύο κραζόντων Μεγάλη ἡ Ἄρτεμις Ἐφεσίων . ^19.35 καταστείλας δὲ τὸν ὄχλον ὁ γραμματεύς φησιν Ἄνδρες Ἐφέσιοι, τίς γάρ ἐστιν ἀνθρώπων ὃς οὐ γινώσκει τὴν Ἐφεσίων πόλιν νεωκόρον οὖσαν τῆς μεγάλης Ἀρτέμιδος καὶ τοῦ διοπετοῦς; ^19.36 ἀναντιρήτων οὖν ὄντων τούτων δέον ἐστὶν ὑμᾶς κατεσταλμένους ὑπάρχειν καὶ μηδὲν προπετὲς πράσσειν. ^19.37 ἠγάγετε γὰρ τοὺς ἄνδρας τούτους οὔτε ἱεροσύλους οὔτε βλασφημοῦντας τὴν θεὸν ἡμῶν. ^19.38 εἰ μὲν οὖν Δημήτριος καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ τεχνῖται ἔχουσιν πρός τινα λόγον, ἀγοραῖοι ἄγονται καὶ ἀνθύπατοί εἰσιν, ἐγκαλείτωσαν ἀλλήλοις. ^19.39 εἰ δέ τι περαιτέρω ἐπιζητεῖτε, ἐν τῇ ἐννόμῳ ἐκκλησίᾳ ἐπιλυθήσεται. ^19.40 καὶ γὰρ κινδυνεύομεν ἐγκαλεῖσθαι στάσεως περὶ τῆς σήμερον μηδενὸς αἰτίου ὑπάρχοντος, περὶ οὗ οὐ δυνησόμεθα ἀποδοῦναι λόγον περὶ τῆς συστροφῆς ταύτης. ^20.9 καθεζόμενος δέ τις νεανίας ὀνόματι Εὔτυχος ἐπὶ τῆς θυρίδος, καταφερόμενος ὕπνῳ βαθεῖ διαλεγομένου τοῦ Παύλου ἐπὶ πλεῖον, κατενεχθεὶς ἀπὸ τοῦ ὕπνου ἔπεσεν ἀπὸ τοῦ τριστέγου κάτω καὶ ἤρθη νεκρός. ^20.10 καταβὰς δὲ ὁ Παῦλος ἐπέπεσεν αὐτῷ καὶ συνπεριλαβὼν εἶπεν Μὴ θορυβεῖσθε, ἡ γὰρ ψυχὴ αὐτοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ ἐστίν. ^20.11 ἀναβὰς δὲ καὶ κλάσας τὸν ἄρτον καὶ γευσάμενος ἐφʼ ἱκανόν τε ὁμιλήσας ἄχρι αὐγῆς οὕτως ἐξῆλθεν. ^20.12 ἤγαγον δὲ τὸν παῖδα ζῶντα, καὶ παρεκλήθησαν οὐ μετρίως. ^22.3 Ἐγώ εἰμι ἀνὴρ Ἰουδαῖος, γεγεννημένος ἐν Ταρσῷ τῆς Κιλικίας, ἀνατεθραμμένος δὲ ἐν τῇ πόλει ταύτῃ παρὰ τοὺς πόδας Γαμαλιήλ, πεπαιδευμένος κατὰ ἀκρίβειαν τοῦ πατρῴου νόμου, ζηλωτὴς ὑπάρχων τοῦ θεοῦ καθὼς πάντες ὑμεῖς ἐστὲ σήμερον, ^24.24 Μετὰ δὲ ἡμέρας τινὰς παραγενόμενος ὁ Φῆλιξ σὺν Δρουσίλλῃ τῇ ἰδίᾳ γυναικὶ οὔσῃ Ἰουδαίᾳ μετεπέμψατο τὸν Παῦλον καὶ ἤκουσεν αὐτοῦ περὶ τῆς εἰς Χριστὸν Ἰησοῦν πίστεως. ^24.25 διαλεγομένου δὲ αὐτοῦ περὶ δικαιοσύνης καὶ ἐγκρατείας καὶ τοῦ κρίματος τοῦ μέλλοντος ἔμφοβος γενόμενος ὁ Φῆλιξ ἀπεκρίθη Τὸ νῦν ἔχον πορεύου, καιρὸν δὲ μεταλαβὼν μετακαλέσομαί σε· ^24.26 ἅμα καὶ ἐλπίζων ὅτι χρήματα δοθήσεται αὐτῷ ὑπὸ τοῦ Παύλου· διὸ καὶ πυκνότερον αὐτὸν μεταπεμπόμενος ὡμίλει αὐτῷ. ^24.27 Διετίας δὲ πληρωθείσης ἔλαβεν διάδοχον ὁ Φῆλιξ Πόρκιον Φῆστον· θέλων τε χάριτα καταθέσθαι τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις ὁ Φῆλιξ κατέλιπε τὸν Παῦλον δεδεμένον. ^25.22 Ἀγρίππας δὲ πρὸς τὸν Φῆστον Ἐβουλόμην καὶ αὐτὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἀκοῦσαι. Αὔριον, φησίν, ἀκούσῃ αὐτοῦ.' ' None

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12.12 Thinking about that, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. ^13.5 When they were at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They had also John as their attendant. ^13.48 As the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of God. As many as were appointed to eternal life believed. ' "^13.49 The Lord's word was spread abroad throughout all the region. " ^13.50 But the Jews urged on the devout women of honorable estate, and the chief men of the city, and stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and threw them out of their borders. ^15.1 Some men came down from Judea and taught the brothers, "Unless you are circumcised after the custom of Moses, you can\'t be saved." ^15.37 Barnabas planned to take John with them also, who was called Mark. ^16.14 A certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, one who worshiped God, heard us; whose heart the Lord opened to listen to the things which were spoken by Paul. ^16.16 It happened, as we were going to prayer, that a certain girl having a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much gain by fortune telling. ^16.20 When they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, "These men, being Jews, are agitating our city, ^17.6 When they didn\'t find them, they dragged Jason and certain brothers before the rulers of the city, crying, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here also, ^17.7 whom Jason has received. These all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus!" ^17.8 The multitude and the rulers of the city were troubled when they heard these things. ^18.2 He found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race, who had recently come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. He came to them, ^18.12 But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat, ^19.23 About that time there arose no small stir concerning the Way. ^19.24 For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen, ^19.25 whom he gathered together, with the workmen of like occupation, and said, "Sirs, you know that by this business we have our wealth. ^19.26 You see and hear, that not at Ephesus alone, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are no gods, that are made with hands. ^19.27 Not only is there danger that this our trade come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be counted as nothing, and her majesty destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worships." ^19.28 When they heard this they were filled with anger, and cried out, saying, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"' "^19.29 The whole city was filled with confusion, and they rushed with one accord into the theater, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel. " "^19.30 When Paul wanted to enter in to the people, the disciples didn't allow him. " '^19.31 Certain also of the Asiarchs, being his friends, sent to him and begged him not to venture into the theater. ' "^19.32 Some therefore cried one thing, and some another, for the assembly was in confusion. Most of them didn't know why they had come together. " '^19.33 They brought Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. Alexander beckoned with his hand, and would have made a defense to the people. ^19.34 But when they perceived that he was a Jew, all with one voice for a time of about two hours cried out, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" ^19.35 When the town clerk had quieted the multitude, he said, "You men of Ephesus, what man is there who doesn\'t know that the city of the Ephesians is temple-keeper of the great goddess Artemis, and of the image which fell down from Zeus? ' "^19.36 Seeing then that these things can't be denied, you ought to be quiet, and to do nothing rash. " '^19.37 For you have brought these men here, who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of your goddess. ^19.38 If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a matter against anyone, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls. Let them press charges against one another. ^19.39 But if you seek anything about other matters, it will be settled in the regular assembly. ^19.40 For indeed we are in danger of being accused concerning this day\'s riot, there being no cause. Concerning it, we wouldn\'t be able to give an account of this commotion." ^20.9 A certain young man named Eutychus sat in the window, weighed down with deep sleep. As Paul spoke still longer, being weighed down by his sleep, he fell down from the third story, and was taken up dead. ^20.10 Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, "Don\'t be troubled, for his life is in him." ^20.11 When he had gone up, and had broken bread, and eaten, and had talked with them a long while, even until break of day, he departed. ^20.12 They brought the boy alive, and were not a little comforted. ^22.3 "I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, even as you all are this day. ^24.24 But after some days, Felix came with Drusilla, his wife, who was a Jewess, and sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ Jesus. ^24.25 As he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was terrified, and answered, "Go your way for this time, and when it is convenient for me, I will summon you." ^24.26 He hoped that way that money would be given to him by Paul, that he might release him. Therefore also he sent for him more often, and talked with him. ^24.27 But when two years were fulfilled, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, and desiring to gain favor with the Jews, Felix left Paul in bonds. ^25.22 Agrippa said to Festus, "I also would like to hear the man myself.""Tomorrow," he said, "you will hear him."' ' None

18. New Testament, Apocalypse, 13.12, 13.14, 13.16, 22.16 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero • Nero (Roman emperor) • Persecution, Nero

Found in books: Boustan Janssen and Roetzel (2010), Violence, Scripture, and Textual Practices in Early Judaism and Christianity, 216; Brodd and Reed (2011), Rome and Religion: A Cross-Disciplinary Dialogue on the Imperial Cult, 143; Collins (2016), The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature, 292, 293; Gunderson (2022), The Social Worlds of Ancient Jews and Christians: Essays in Honor of L. Michael White, 249; Lester (2018), Prophetic Rivalry, Gender, and Economics: A Study in Revelation and Sibylline Oracles 4-5. 101, 104, 108, 114, 121, 140; Maier and Waldner (2022), Desiring Martyrs: Locating Martyrs in Space and Time, 41

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13.12 καὶ τὴν ἐξουσίαν τοῦ πρώτου θηρίου πᾶσαν ποιεῖ ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ. καὶ ποιεῖ τὴν γῆν καὶ τοὺς ἐν αὐτῇ κατοικοῦντας ἵνα προσκυνήσουσιν τὸ θηρίον τὸ πρῶτον, οὗ ἐθεραπεύθη ἡ πληγὴ τοῦ θανάτου αὐτοῦ. ^13.14 καὶ πλανᾷ τοὺς κατοικοῦντας ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς διὰ τὰ σημεῖα ἃ ἐδόθη αὐτῷ ποιῆσαι ἐνώπιον τοῦ θηρίου, λέγων τοῖς κατοικοῦσιν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ποιῆσαι εἰκόνα τῷ θηρίῳ ὃς ἔχει τὴν πληγὴν τῆς μαχαίρης καὶ ἔζησεν. ^13.16 καὶ ποιεῖ πάντας, τοὺς μικροὺς καὶ τοὺς μεγάλους, καὶ τοὺς πλουσίους καὶ τοὺς πτω χούς, καὶ τοὺς ἐλευθέρους καὶ τοὺς δούλους, ἵνα δῶσιν αὐτοῖς χάραγμα ἐπὶ τῆς χειρὸς αὐτῶν τῆς δεξιᾶς ἢ ἐπὶ τὸ μέτωπον αὐτῶν, ^22.16 Ἐγὼ Ἰησοῦς ἔπεμψα τὸν ἄγγελόν μου μαρτυρῆσαι ὑμῖν ταῦτα ἐπὶ ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις. ἐγώ εἰμιἡ ῥίζακαὶ τὸ γένος Δαυείδ, ὁ ἀστὴρ ὁ λαμπρός, ὁ πρωινός.' ' None

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13.12 He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. He makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. ^13.14 He deceives my own people who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given to him to do in front of the beast; saying to those who dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast who had the sword wound and lived. ^13.16 He causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slave, so that they should give them marks on their right hand, or on their forehead; ^22.16 I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify these things to you for the assemblies. I am the root and the offspring of David; the Bright and Morning Star."' ' None

19. New Testament, Romans, 16.3-16.5, 16.13 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero • Nero persecution of Christians

Found in books: Lampe (2003), Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus, 16; Malherbe et al. (2014), Light from the Gentiles: Hellenistic Philosophy and Early Christianity: Collected Essays of Abraham J, 381; Peppard (2011), The Son of God in the Roman World: Divine Sonship in its Social and Political Context, 88

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16.3 Ἀσπάσασθε Πρίσκαν καὶ Ἀκύλαν τοὺς συνεργούς μου ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, ^16.4 οἵτινες ὑπὲρ τῆς ψυχῆς μου τὸν ἑαυτῶν τράχηλον ὑπέθηκαν, οἷς οὐκ ἐγὼ μόνος εὐχαριστῶ ἀλλὰ καὶ πᾶσαι αἱ ἐκκλησίαι τῶν ἐθνῶν, ^16.5 καὶ τὴν κατʼ οἶκον αὐτῶν ἐκκλησίαν. ἀσπάσασθε Ἐπαίνετον τὸν ἀγαπητόν μου, ὅς ἐστιν ἀπαρχὴ τῆς Ἀσίας εἰς Χριστόν. ^16.13 ἀσπάσασθε Ῥοῦφον τὸν ἐκλεκτὸν ἐν κυρίῳ καὶ τὴν μητέρα αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐμοῦ.'' None

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16.3 Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, ^16.4 who for my life, laid down their own necks; to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the assemblies of the Gentiles. ^16.5 Greet the assembly that is in their house. Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the first fruits of Achaia to Christ. ^16.13 Greet Rufus, the chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine. '' None

20. New Testament, John, 11.50, 15.21 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero • Revolt/War, under Nero (Great ~)

Found in books: Levine Allison and Crossan (2006), The Historical Jesus in Context, 36; Moss (2012), Ancient Christian Martyrdom: Diverse Practices, Theologies, and Traditions, 37; Tomson (2019), Studies on Jews and Christians in the First and Second Centuries. 641

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11.50 οὐδὲ λογίζεσθε ὅτι συμφέρει ὑμῖν ἵνα εἷς ἄνθρωπος ἀποθάνῃ ὑπὲρ τοῦ λαοῦ καὶ μὴ ὅλον τὸ ἔθνος ἀπόληται. ^15.21 ἀλλὰ ταῦτα πάντα ποιήσουσιν εἰς ὑμᾶς διὰ τὸ ὄνομά μου, ὅτι οὐκ οἴδασιν τὸν πέμψαντά με.'' None

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11.50 nor do you consider that it is advantageous for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish."' "^15.21 But all these things will they do to you for my name's sake, because they don't know him who sent me. "' None

21. New Testament, Luke, 16.16, 20.20-20.26 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero • Revolt/War, under Nero (Great ~)

Found in books: Lampe (2003), Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus, 146, 227; Lester (2018), Prophetic Rivalry, Gender, and Economics: A Study in Revelation and Sibylline Oracles 4-5. 134; Malherbe et al. (2014), Light from the Gentiles: Hellenistic Philosophy and Early Christianity: Collected Essays of Abraham J, 758; Ruzer (2020), Early Jewish Messianism in the New Testament: Reflections in the Dim Mirror, 92; Tomson (2019), Studies on Jews and Christians in the First and Second Centuries. 574, 575

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16.16 Ὁ νόμος καὶ οἱ προφῆται μέχρι Ἰωάνου· ἀπὸ τότε ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ εὐαγγελίζεται καὶ πᾶς εἰς αὐτὴν βιάζεται. ^20.20 Καὶ παρατηρήσαντες ἀπέστειλαν ἐνκαθέτους ὑποκρινομένους ἑαυτοὺς δικαίους εἶναι, ἵνα ἐπιλάβωνται αὐτοῦ λόγου, ὥστε παραδοῦναι αὐτὸν τῇ ἀρχῇ καὶ τῇ ἐξουσίᾳ τοῦ ἡγεμόνος. ^20.21 καὶ ἐπηρώτησαν αὐτὸν λέγοντες Διδάσκαλε, οἴδαμεν ὅτι ὀρθῶς λέγεις καὶ διδάσκεις καὶ οὐ λαμβάνεις πρόσωπον, ἀλλʼ ἐπʼ ἀληθείας τὴν ὁδὸν τοῦ θεοῦ διδάσκεις· ^20.22 ἔξεστιν ἡμᾶς Καίσαρι φόρον δοῦναι ἢ οὔ; ^20.23 κατανοήσας δὲ αὐτῶν τὴν πανουργίαν εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτούς ^20.24 Δείξατέ μοι δηνάριον· τίνος ἔχει εἰκόνα καὶ ἐπιγραφήν; οἱ δὲ εἶπαν Καίσαρος. ^20.25 ὁ δὲ εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτούς Τοίνυν ἀπόδοτε τὰ Καίσαρος Καίσαρι καὶ τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ τῷ θεῷ. ^20.26 καὶ οὐκ ἴσχυσαν ἐπιλαβέσθαι τοῦ ῥήματος ἐναντίον τοῦ λαοῦ, καὶ θαυμάσαντες ἐπὶ τῇ ἀποκρίσει αὐτοῦ ἐσίγησαν.' ' None

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16.16 The law and the prophets were until John. From that time the gospel of the Kingdom of God is preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. ^20.20 They watched him, and sent out spies, who pretended to be righteous, that they might trap him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the power and authority of the governor. ^20.21 They asked him, "Teacher, we know that you say and teach what is right, and aren\'t partial to anyone, but truly teach the way of God. ^20.22 Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?" ^20.23 But he perceived their craftiness, and said to them, "Why do you test me? ^20.24 Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?"They answered, "Caesar\'s." ^20.25 He said to them, "Then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar\'s, and to God the things that are God\'s."' "^20.26 They weren't able to trap him in his words before the people. They marveled at his answer, and were silent. " ' None

22. New Testament, Mark, 13.21 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero • Nero persecution of Christians • Revolt/War, under Nero (Great ~)

Found in books: Levine Allison and Crossan (2006), The Historical Jesus in Context, 36; Peppard (2011), The Son of God in the Roman World: Divine Sonship in its Social and Political Context, 88, 89; Taylor (2012), The Essenes, the Scrolls, and the Dead Sea, 118; Tomson (2019), Studies on Jews and Christians in the First and Second Centuries. 574

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13.21 Καὶ τότε ἐάν τις ὑμῖν εἴπῃ Ἴδε ὧδε ὁ χριστός Ἴδε ἐκεῖ, μὴ πιστεύετε·' ' None

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13.21 Then if anyone tells you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'Look, there!' don't believe it. " " None

23. Quintilian, Institutes of Oratory, 4.2.64, 8.3.68 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero

Found in books: Baumann and Liotsakis (2022), Reading History in the Roman Empire, 158; Chrysanthou (2022), Reconfiguring the Imperial Past: Narrative Patterns and Historical Interpretation in Herodian’s History of the Empire. 23; Kingsley Monti and Rood (2022), The Authoritative Historian: Tradition and Innovation in Ancient Historiography, 368

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4.2.64 \xa0And I\xa0will not conceal the fact that Cicero himself holds that more qualities are required. For in addition to demanding that it should be plain, brief and credible, he would have it clear, characteristic and worthy of the occasion. But everything in a speech should be characteristic and worthy of the occasion as far as possible. Palpability, as far as I\xa0understand the term, is no doubt a great virtue, when a truth requires not merely to be told, but to some extent obtruded, still it may be included under lucidity. Some, however, regard this quality as actually being injurious at times, on the ground that in certain cases it is desirable to obscure truth. ^8.3.68 \xa0But if we expand all that the one word "stormed" includes, we shall see the flames pouring from house and temple, and hear the crash of falling roofs and one confused clamour blent of many cries: we shall behold some in doubt whither to fly, others clinging to their nearest and dearest in one last embrace, while the wailing of women and children and the laments of old men that the cruelty of fate should have spared them to see that day will strike upon our ears.'' None

24. Seneca The Younger, Letters, 11.8, 43.3, 55.3, 91.17, 94.62-94.63, 115.12 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero • Nero (Emperor), (un)observed life • Seneca, and Nero • Tiberius, Nero • public eye, and Nero

Found in books: Agri (2022), Reading Fear in Flavian Epic: Emotion, Power, and Stoicism, 21; Augoustakis (2014), Flavian Poetry and its Greek Past, 310; Fertik (2019), The Ruler's House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome, 70, 83; Gunderson (2022), The Social Worlds of Ancient Jews and Christians: Essays in Honor of L. Michael White, 246; Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 15, 26; Keane (2015), Juvenal and the Satiric Emotions, 131; Malherbe et al. (2014), Light from the Gentiles: Hellenistic Philosophy and Early Christianity: Collected Essays of Abraham J, 199; Verhagen (2022), Security and Credit in Roman Law: The Historical Evolution of Pignus and Hypotheca, 310

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11.8 But my letter calls for its closing sentence. Hear and take to heart this useful and wholesome motto:1 "Cherish some man of high character, and keep him ever before your eyes, living as if he were watching you, and ordering all your actions as if he beheld them." ' "^43.3 So you in your province2 are really of importance, though you scorn yourself. Men are asking what you do, how you dine, and how you sleep, and they find out, too; hence there is all the more reason for your living circumspectly. Do not, however, deem yourself truly happy until you find that you can live before men's eyes, until your walls protect but do not hide you; although we are apt to believe that these walls surround us, not to enable us to live more safely, but that we may sin more secretly. " ^55.3 As my habit is, I began to look about for something there that might be of service to me, when my eyes fell upon the villa which had once belonged to Vatia. So this was the place where that famous praetorian millionaire passed his old age! He was famed for nothing else than his life of leisure, and he was regarded as lucky only for that reason. For whenever men were ruined by their friendship with Asinius Gallus2 whenever others were ruined by their hatred of Sejanus, and later3 by their intimacy with him, – for it was no more dangerous to have offended him than to have loved him, – people used to cry out: "O Vatia, you alone know how to live!" ' "^94.62 Alexander was hounded into misfortune and dispatched to unknown countries by a mad desire to lay waste other men's territory. Do you believe that the man was in his senses who could begin by devastating Greece, the land where he received his education? One who snatched away the dearest guerdon of each nation, bidding Spartans be slaves, and Athenians hold their tongues? Not content with the ruin of all the states which Philip had either conquered or bribed into bondage,31 he overthrew various commonwealths in various places and carried his weapons all over the world; his cruelty was tired, but it never ceased – like a wild beast that tears to pieces more than its hunger demands. " ^94.62 That which leads to a general agreement, and likewise to a perfect one,27 is an assured belief in certain facts; but if, lacking this assurance, all things are adrift in our minds, then doctrines are indispensable; for they give to our minds the means of unswerving decision. ^94.63 Already he has joined many kingdoms into one kingdom; already Greeks and Persians fear the same lord; already nations Darius had left free submit to the yoke:32 yet he passes beyond the Ocean and the Sun, deeming it shame that he should shift his course of victory from the paths which Hercules and Bacchus had trod;33 he threatens violence to Nature herself. He does not wish to go; but he cannot stay; he is like a weight that falls headlong, its course ending only when it lies motionless. ^94.63 Furthermore, when we advise a man to regard his friends as highly as himself, to reflect that an enemy may become a friend,28 to stimulate love in the friend, and to check hatred in the enemy, we add: "This is just and honourable." Now the just and honourable element in our doctrines is embraced by reason; hence reason is necessary; for without it the doctrines cannot exist, either. ' ' None

25. Suetonius, Caligula, 6.1, 18.3, 24.3, 30.1 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Agrippina the Younger, Nero murders • Emperors, Nero • Nero • Nero (Emperor) • Nero (Roman emperor) • Nero, Emperor • Nero, and Piso’s conspiracy • Nero, emperor, and Seneca • Nero, murders his mother • ofonius Tigellinus, C., Nero grants statue of • Tiberius, Nero

Found in books: Agri (2022), Reading Fear in Flavian Epic: Emotion, Power, and Stoicism, 50, 192; Chrysanthou (2022), Reconfiguring the Imperial Past: Narrative Patterns and Historical Interpretation in Herodian’s History of the Empire. 225, 233; Edmondson (2008), Roman Dress and the Fabrics of Roman Culture, 36; Fertik (2019), The Ruler's House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome, 183; Galinsky (2016), Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity, 163; Goldman (2013), Color-Terms in Social and Cultural Context in Ancient Rome, 87; Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 159; Manolaraki (2012), Noscendi Nilum Cupido: Imagining Egypt from Lucan to Philostratus, 245; Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 206, 217; Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 135; Tuori (2016), The Emperor of Law: The Emergence of Roman Imperial Adjudication<, 137

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6.1 At Rome when the community, in grief and consternation at the first report of his illness, was awaiting further news, and suddenly after nightfall a report at last spread abroad, on doubtful authority, that he had recovered, a general rush was made from every side to the Capitol with torches and victims, and the temple gates were all but torn off, that nothing might hinder them in their eagerness to pay their vows. Tiberius was roused from sleep by the cries of the rejoicing throng, who all united in singing:â\x80\x94 "Safe is Rome, safe too our country, for Germanicus is safe." ^18.3 He also gave many games in the Circus, lasting from early morning until evening, introducing between the races now a baiting of panthers and now the manoeuvres of the game called Troy; some, too, of special splendour, in which the Circus was strewn with red and green, while the charioteers were all men of senatorial rank. He also started some games off-hand, when a\xa0few people called for them from the neighbouring balconies, as he was inspecting the outfit of the Circus from the --> Gelotian house -->. ^24.3 The rest of his sisters he did not love with so great affection, nor honour so highly, but often prostituted them to his favourites; so that he was the readier at the trial of Aemilius Lepidus to condemn them, as adulteresses and privy to the conspiracies against him; and he not only made public letters in the handwriting of all of them, procured by fraud and seduction, but also dedicated to Mars the Avenger, with an explanatory inscription, three swords designed to take his life. ^30.1 He seldom had anyone put to death except by numerous slight wounds, his constant order, which soon became well-known, being: "Strike so that he may feel that he is dying." When a different man than he had intended had been killed, through a mistake in the names, he said that the victim too had deserved the same fate. He often uttered the familiar line of the tragic poet: "Let them hate me, so they but fear me."' ' None

26. Suetonius, Claudius, 11.1-11.2, 25.4 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Emperors, Nero • Nero • Nero (Emperor) • Nero adoption by Claudius • Nero conflict with Britannicus • Nero, emperor (A.D • imperial adoption of Nero by Claudius

Found in books: Bowersock (1997), Fiction as History: Nero to Julian, 119; Csapo et al. (2022), Theatre and Autocracy in the Ancient World, 98; Goldman (2013), Color-Terms in Social and Cultural Context in Ancient Rome, 104; Isaac (2004), The invention of racism in classical antiquity, 485; Peppard (2011), The Son of God in the Roman World: Divine Sonship in its Social and Political Context, 74; Tacoma (2020), Cicero and Roman Education: The Reception of the Speeches and Ancient Scholarship, 34, 35; Tuori (2016), The Emperor of Law: The Emergence of Roman Imperial Adjudication<, 137, 155, 227; Viglietti and Gildenhard (2020), Divination, Prediction and the End of the Roman Republic, 82

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11.1 \xa0 As soon as his power was firmly established, he considered it of foremost importance to obliterate the memory of the two days when men had thought of changing the form of government. Accordingly he made a decree that all that had been done and said during that period should be pardoned and forever forgotten; he kept his word too, save only that a\xa0few of the tribunes and centurions who had conspired against Gaius were put to death, both to make an example of them and because he knew that they had also demanded his own death. ^11.2 \xa0Then turning to the duties of family loyalty, he adopted as his most sacred and frequent oath "By Augustus." He had divine honours voted his grandmother Livia and a chariot drawn by elephants in the procession at the Circus, like that of Augustus; also public offerings to the shades of his parents and in addition annual games in the Circus on his father\'s birthday and for his mother a carriage to bear her image through the Circus and the surname of Augusta, which she had declined during her lifetime. In memory of his brother, whom he took every opportunity of honouring, he brought out a Greek comedy in the contest at Naples and awarded it the crown in accordance with the decision of the judges. ^25.4 \xa0Since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he expelled them from Rome. He allowed the envoys of the Germans to sit in the orchestra, led by their naÃ¯ve self-confidence; for when they had been taken to the seats occupied by the common people and saw the Parthian and Armenian envoys sitting with the senate, they moved of their own accord to the same part of the theatre, protesting that their merits and rank were no whit inferior.' ' None

27. Suetonius, Domitianus, 13.2 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero • Nero (Emperor) • Nero (Emperor), as citharoedus • Nero (Roman emperor) • Nero, his Hellenism • Vespasian, and Nero

Found in books: Agri (2022), Reading Fear in Flavian Epic: Emotion, Power, and Stoicism, 28, 29; Chrysanthou (2022), Reconfiguring the Imperial Past: Narrative Patterns and Historical Interpretation in Herodian’s History of the Empire. 228; Csapo et al. (2022), Theatre and Autocracy in the Ancient World, 107; Edmondson (2008), Roman Dress and the Fabrics of Roman Culture, 109; Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 283; Spielman (2020), Jews and Entertainment in the Ancient World. 239; Tuori (2016), The Emperor of Law: The Emergence of Roman Imperial Adjudication<, 227

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13.2 \xa0With no less arrogance he began as follows in issuing a circular letter in the name of his procurators, "Our Master and our God bids that this be done." And so the custom arose of henceforth addressing him in no other way even in writing or in conversation. He suffered no statues to be set up in his honour in the Capitol, except of gold and silver and of a fixed weight. He erected so many and such huge vaulted passage-ways and arches in the various regions of the city, adorned with chariots and triumphal emblems, that on one of them someone wrote in Greek: "It is enough."' ' None

28. Suetonius, Nero, 16.2, 20.3, 21.3, 22.1, 25.1, 26.1, 30.1, 31.1-31.2, 32.3-32.4, 33.1-33.2, 34.2-34.4, 35.2, 38.2, 39.3, 47.2-47.3, 49.2-49.4 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Acte (Claudia Acte, freedwoman, mistress of Nero) • Armenia/Armenians, war under Nero • Britannicus (stepbrother of Nero) • Cappadocia/Cappadocians, Parthian War under Nero • Chaeremon, Egyptian priest and tutor, to Nero • Emperors and Egypt, Nero • Emperors, Nero • Euripides (tragic poet), and Nero • Giton, Nero and • Golden House of Nero • Greece, Nero loots • Nero • Nero (Emperor) • Nero (Emperor), (un)observed life • Nero (Emperor), and pantomime • Nero (Emperor), as citharoedus • Nero (Emperor), performing Greek tragedy • Nero (Roman emperor) • Nero (emperor) • Nero (emperor), murders committed by • Nero (emperor), prodigies and • Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus • Nero adoption by Claudius • Nero conflict with Britannicus • Nero, Claudius Caesar • Nero, Domus Aurea of • Nero, Emperor • Nero, Emperor, • Nero, and the Great Fire of Rome • Nero, artistic aspirations • Nero, as character in La Harpe’s ‘Aux mânes de Lucain’ • Nero, emperor • Nero, emperor, and Seneca • Nero, emperor, failed student • Nero, emperor, interested in Aegyptiaca • Nero, emperor, searches for the Nile sources • Nero, false Neros • Nero, fondness for Corinthian bronze • Nero, murders his mother • Nero, tours and pillages Greece • Nero,, and senators gifts • Nero,, in shows • Octavia, wife of Nero • Seneca the Younger, and Nero • Suetonius, Life of Nero • Suetonius, on Nero • Tiberius, Nero • Vespasian, inventories Nero’s Greek plunder • imperial adoption of Nero by Claudius • lyres/lyrody/citharas/citharists, Nero • pantomimes, and Nero • portrait, Nero • private sphere/privacy, and Nero • public eye, and Nero • same-sex relationships, Neros marriages to Pythagoras, Doryphorus, and Sporus

Found in books: Agri (2022), Reading Fear in Flavian Epic: Emotion, Power, and Stoicism, 50, 192; Ando (2013), Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire, 201, 223; Augoustakis (2014), Flavian Poetry and its Greek Past, 334; Augoustakis et al. (2021), Fides in Flavian Literature, 229, 244; Bay (2022), Biblical Heroes and Classical Culture in Christian Late Antiquity: The Historiography, Exemplarity, and Anti-Judaism of Pseudo-Hegesippus, 256; Bexley (2022), Seneca's Characters: Fictional Identities and Implied Human Selves, 68; Borg (2008), Paideia: the World of the Second Sophistic: The World of the Second Sophistic, 159, 301; Brenk and Lanzillotta (2023), Plutarch on Literature, Graeco-Roman Religion, Jews and Christians, 303; Chrysanthou (2022), Reconfiguring the Imperial Past: Narrative Patterns and Historical Interpretation in Herodian’s History of the Empire. 164, 210, 226, 243, 270, 298; Collins (2016), The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature, 292; Cosgrove (2022), Music at Social Meals in Greek and Roman Antiquity: From the Archaic Period to the Age of Augustine, 178; Csapo et al. (2022), Theatre and Autocracy in the Ancient World, 3, 99, 109, 165; Czajkowski et al. (2020), Vitruvian Man: Rome under Construction, 218; Edmondson (2008), Roman Dress and the Fabrics of Roman Culture, 32, 36, 109; Esler (2000), The Early Christian World, 874; Faßbeck and Killebrew (2016), Viewing Ancient Jewish Art and Archaeology: VeHinnei Rachel - Essays in honor of Rachel Hachlili, 440; Fertik (2019), The Ruler's House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome, 68, 69, 70, 183, 185; Galinsky (2016), Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity, 164; Goldman (2013), Color-Terms in Social and Cultural Context in Ancient Rome, 39, 51, 91, 104; Goldschmidt (2019), Biofiction and the Reception of Latin Poetry, 120, 121; Horkey (2019), Cosmos in the Ancient World, 242; Hubbard (2014), A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities, 452; Isaac (2004), The invention of racism in classical antiquity, 485; Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 41, 50, 78, 84, 85, 104, 340, 353; Kazantzidis and Spatharas (2018), Hope in Ancient Literature, History, and Art, 17; Kingsley Monti and Rood (2022), The Authoritative Historian: Tradition and Innovation in Ancient Historiography, 364, 369, 370; Manolaraki (2012), Noscendi Nilum Cupido: Imagining Egypt from Lucan to Philostratus, 41, 42, 107, 109; Marek (2019), In the Land of a Thousand Gods: A History of Asia Minor in the Ancient World, 338; McGinn (2004), The Economy of Prostitution in the Roman world: A study of Social History & The Brothel. 91; Mcclellan (2019), Paulinus Noster: Self and Symbols in the Letters of Paulinus of Nola, 6; Mitchell and Pilhofer (2019), Early Christianity in Asia Minor and Cyprus: From the Margins to the Mainstream, 51; Panoussi(2019), Brides, Mourners, Bacchae: Women's Rituals in Roman Literature, 76, 77; Peppard (2011), The Son of God in the Roman World: Divine Sonship in its Social and Political Context, 79, 80; Perry (2014), Gender, Manumission, and the Roman Freedwoman, 232; Pinheiro et al. (2012a), Narrating Desire: Eros, Sex, and Gender in the Ancient Novel, 232; Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 197, 198, 202, 204, 205, 209, 210, 214; Romana Berno (2023), Roman Luxuria: A Literary and Cultural History, 152, 169, 181, 207, 208, 209; Roumpou (2023), Ritual and the Poetics of Closure in Flavian Literature. 130, 131, 132; Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 55, 70, 84, 134, 305; Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 300, 324; Spielman (2020), Jews and Entertainment in the Ancient World. 239; Tacoma (2020), Cicero and Roman Education: The Reception of the Speeches and Ancient Scholarship, 36, 37; Talbert (1984), The Senate of Imperial Rome, 151, 496; Tomson (2019), Studies on Jews and Christians in the First and Second Centuries. 628; Tuori (2016), The Emperor of Law: The Emergence of Roman Imperial Adjudication<, 158; Verhagen (2022), Security and Credit in Roman Law: The Historical Evolution of Pignus and Hypotheca, 334; Viglietti and Gildenhard (2020), Divination, Prediction and the End of the Roman Republic, 82; de Ste. Croix et al. (2006), Christian Persecution, Martyrdom, and Orthodoxy, 108

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16.2 During his reign many abuses were severely punished and put down, and no fewer new laws were made: a\xa0limit was set to expenditures; the public banquets were confined to a distribution of food; the sale of any kind of cooked viands in the taverns was forbidden, with the exception of pulse and vegetables, whereas before every sort of dainty was exposed for sale. Punishment was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition. He put an end to the diversions of the chariot drivers, who from immunity of long standing claimed the right of ranging at large and amusing themselves by cheating and robbing the people. The pantomimic actors and their partisans were banished from the city. ^20.3 He was greatly taken too with the rhythmic applause of some Alexandrians, who had flocked to Naples from a fleet that had lately arrived, and summoned more men from Alexandria. Not content with that, he selected some young men of the order of knights and more than five thousand sturdy young commoners, to be divided into groups and learn the Alexandrian styles of applause (they called them "the bees," "the roof-tiles," and "the bricks"), and to ply them vigorously whenever he sang. These men were noticeable for their thick hair and fine apparel; their left hands were bare and without rings, and the leaders were paid four hundred thousand sesterces each. ^21.3 He also put on the mask and sang tragedies representing gods and heroes and even heroines and goddesses, having the masks fashioned in the likeness of his own features or those of the women of whom he chanced to be enamoured. Among other themes he sang "Canace in Labor," "Orestes the Matricide," "The Blinding of Oedipus" and the "Frenzy of Hercules." At the last named performance they say that a young recruit, seeing the emperor in mean attire and bound with chains, as the subject required, rushed forward to lend him aid. ^22.1 From his earliest years he had a special passion for horses and talked constantly about the games in the Circus, though he was forbidden to do so. Once when he was lamenting with his fellow pupils the fate of a charioteer of the "Greens," who was dragged by his horses, and his preceptor scolded him, he told a lie and pretended that he was talking of Hector. At the beginning of his reign he used to play every day with ivory chariots on a board, and he came from the country to all the games, even the most insignificant, at first secretly, and then so openly that no one doubted that he would be in Rome on that particular day. ^25.1 Returning from Greece, since it was at Naples that he had made his first appearance, he entered that city with white horses through a part of the wall which had been thrown down, as is customary with victors in the sacred games. In like manner he entered Antium, then Albanum, and finally Rome; but at Rome he rode in the chariot which Augustus had used in his triumphs in days gone by, and wore a purple robe and a Greek cloak adorned with stars of gold, bearing on his head the Olympic crown and in his right hand the Pythian, while the rest were carried before him with inscriptions telling where he had won them and against what competitors, and giving the titles of the songs or of the subject of the plays. His car was followed by his claque as by the escort of a triumphal procession, who shouted that they were the attendants of Augustus and the soldiers of his triumph. ^31.1 There was nothing however in which he was more ruinously prodigal than in building. He made a palace extending all the way from the Palatine to the Esquiline, which at first he called the House of Passage, but when it was burned shortly after its completion and rebuilt, the Golden House. Its size and splendour will be sufficiently indicated by the following details. Its vestibule was large enough to contain a colossal statue of the emperor a\xa0hundred and twenty feet high; and it was so extensive that it had a triple colonnade a\xa0mile long. There was a pond too, like a sea, surrounded with buildings to represent cities, besides tracts of country, varied by tilled fields, vineyards, pastures and woods, with great numbers of wild and domestic animals. ^31.2 In the rest of the house all parts were overlaid with gold and adorned with gems and mother-ofâ\x80\x91pearl. There were dining-rooms with fretted ceils of ivory, whose panels could turn and shower down flowers and were fitted with pipes for sprinkling the guests with perfumes. The main banquet hall was circular and constantly revolved day and night, like the heavens. He had baths supplied with sea water and sulphur water. When the edifice was finished in this style and he dedicated it, he deigned to say nothing more in the way of approval than that he was at last beginning to be housed like a human being. ^32.3 He demanded the return of the rewards which he had given in recognition of the prizes conferred on him by any city in competition. Having forbidden the use of amethystine or Tyrian purple dyes, he secretly sent a man to sell a\xa0few ounces on a market day and then closed the shops of all the dealers. It is even said that when he saw a matron in the audience at one of his recitals clad in the forbidden colour he pointed her out to his agents, who dragged her out and stripped her on the spot, not only of her garment, but also of her property. ^32.4 He never appointed anyone to an office without adding: "You know what my needs are," and "Let us see to it that no one possess anything." At last he stripped many temples of their gifts and melted down the images of gold and silver, including those of the Penates, which however Galba soon afterwards restored. ^33.1 He began his career of parricide and murder with Claudius, for even if he was not the instigator of the emperor\'s death, he was at least privy to it, as he openly admitted; for he used afterwards to laud mushrooms, the vehicle in which the poison was administered to Claudius, as "the food of the gods," as the Greek proverb has it. At any rate, after Claudius\'s death he vented on him every kind of insult, in act and word, charging him now with folly and now with cruelty; for it was a favourite joke of his to say that Claudius had ceased "to play the fool" among mortals, lengthening the first syllable of the word morari, and he disregarded many of his decrees and acts as the work of a madman and a dotard. Finally, he neglected to enclose the place where his body was burned except with a low and mean wall. ^33.2 He attempted the life of Britannicus by poison, not less from jealousy of his voice (for it was more agreeable than his own) than from fear that he might sometime win a higher place than himself in the people\'s regard because of the memory of his father. He procured the potion from an archpoisoner, one Locusta, and when the effect was slower than he anticipated, merely physicing Britannicus, he called the woman to him and flogged her with his own hand, charging that she had administered a medicine instead of a poison; and when she said in excuse that she had given a smaller dose to shield him from the odium of the crime, he replied: "It\'s likely that I\xa0am afraid of the Julian law;" and he forced her to mix as swift and instant a potion as she knew how in his own room before his very eyes.' "^34.4 Trustworthy authorities add still more gruesome details: that he hurried off to view the corpse, handled her limbs, criticising some and commending others, and that becoming thirsty meanwhile, he took a drink. Yet he could not either then or ever afterwards endure the stings of conscience, though soldiers, senate and people tried to hearten him with their congratulations; for he often owned that he was hounded by his mother's ghost and by the whips and blazing torches of the Furies. He even had rites performed by the Magi, in the effort to summon her shade and entreat it for forgiveness. Moreover, in his journey through Greece he did not venture to take part in the Eleusinian mysteries, since at the beginning the godless and wicked are warned by the herald's proclamation to go hence." ^35.2 Presently after several vain attempts to strangle her, he divorced her on the ground of barrenness, and when the people took it ill and openly reproached him, he banished her besides; and finally he had her put to death on a charge of adultery that was so shameless and unfounded, that when all who were put to the torture maintained her innocence, he bribed his former preceptor Anicetus to make a pretended confession that he had violated her chastity by a stratagem. ^38.2 For six days and seven nights destruction raged, while the people were driven for shelter to monuments and tombs. At that time, besides an immense number of dwellings, the houses of leaders of old were burned, still adorned with trophies of victory, and the temples of the gods vowed and dedicated by the kings and later in the Punic and Gallic wars, and whatever else interesting and noteworthy had survived from antiquity. Viewing the conflagration from the tower of Maecenas and exulting, as he said, in "the beauty of the flames," he sang the whole of the "Sack of Ilium," in his regular stage costume. ^47.2 But when some gave evasive answers and some openly refused, one even cried: "Is it so dreadful a thing then to die?" Whereupon he turned over various plans in his mind, whether to go as a suppliant to the Parthians or Galba, or to appear to the people on the rostra, dressed in black, and beg as pathetically as he could for pardon for his past offences; and if he could not soften their hearts, to entreat them at least to allow him the prefecture of Egypt. Afterwards a speech composed for this purpose was found in his writing desk; but it is thought that he did not dare to deliver it for fear of being torn to pieces before he could reach the Forum. ^49.2 While he hesitated, a letter was brought to Phaon by one of his couriers. Nero snatching it from his hand read that he had been pronounced a public enemy by the senate, and that they were seeking him to punish in the ancient fashion; and he asked what manner of punishment that was. When he learned that the criminal was stripped, fastened by the neck in a fork and then beaten to death with rods, in mortal terror he seized two daggers which he had brought with him, and then, after trying the point of each, put them up again, pleading that the fatal hour had not yet come. ^49.3 Now he would beg Sporus to begin to lament and wail, and now entreat someone to help him take his life by setting him the example; anon he reproached himself for his cowardice in such words as these: "To live is a scandal and a shame â\x80\x94 this does not become Nero, does not become him â\x80\x94 one should be resolute at such times â\x80\x94 come, rouse thyself!" And now the horsemen were at hand who had orders to take him off alive. When he heard them, he quavered: "Hark, now strikes on my ear the trampling of swift-footed coursers!" and drove a dagger into his throat, aided by Epaphroditus, his private secretary. ^49.4 He was all but dead when a centurion rushed in, and as he placed a cloak to the wound, pretending that he had come to aid him, Nero merely gasped: "Too late!" and "This is fidelity!" With these words he was gone, with eyes so set and starting from their sockets that all who saw him shuddered with horror. First and beyond all else he had forced from his companions a promise to let no one have his head, but to contrive in some way that he be buried unmutilated. And this was granted by Icelus, Galba\'s freedman, who had shortly before been released from the bondage to which he was consigned at the beginning of the revolt.' ' None

29. Suetonius, Otho, 7.1 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero • Nero (Emperor) • Nero, and aristocracy • Octavia (Neros wife) • Rome, people of and Augustus as pater patriae, and Nero • Tacitus, on Nero • aristocracy, and Nero

Found in books: Augoustakis (2014), Flavian Poetry and its Greek Past, 160; Fertik (2019), The Ruler's House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome, 73; Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 47; Verhagen (2022), Security and Credit in Roman Law: The Historical Evolution of Pignus and Hypotheca, 160

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7.1 \xa0Next, as the day was drawing to its close, he entered the senate and after giving a brief account of himself, alleging that he had been carried off in the streets and forced to undertake the rule, which he would exercise in accordance with the general will, he went to the Palace. When in the midst of the other adulations of those who congratulated and flattered him, he was hailed by the common herd as Nero, he made no sign of dissent; on the contrary, according to some writers, he even made use of that surname in his commissions and his first letters to some of the governors of the provinces. Certain it is that he suffered Nero's busts and statues to be set up again, and reinstated his procurators and freedmen in their former posts, while the first grant that he signed as emperor was one of fifty million sesterces for finishing the Golden House." " None

30. Suetonius, Vespasianus, 16.1 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero • Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus • Nero, colossus of • Nero, false Neros • Nero,, and senators gifts

Found in books: Augoustakis et al. (2021), Fides in Flavian Literature, 50; Hubbard (2014), A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities, 453; Nuno et al. (2021), SENSORIVM: The Senses in Roman Polytheism, 162; Price, Finkelberg and Shahar (2021), Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity, 191, 195; Romana Berno (2023), Roman Luxuria: A Literary and Cultural History, 206; Roumpou (2023), Ritual and the Poetics of Closure in Flavian Literature. 131; Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 299; Talbert (1984), The Senate of Imperial Rome, 496

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16.1 \xa0The only thing for which he can fairly be censured was his love of money. For not content with reviving the imposts which had been repealed under Galba, he added new and heavy burdens, increasing the amount of tribute paid by the provinces, in some cases actually doubling it, and quite openly carrying on traffic which would be shameful even for a man in private life; for he would buy up certain commodities merely in order to distribute them at a profit.' ' None

31. Tacitus, Annals, 1.2, 1.5-1.6, 1.6.1, 1.9.1, 1.11, 1.13, 1.33, 1.74, 1.76, 2.14.1, 2.26.4, 2.27, 2.27.1, 2.32, 2.32.3, 2.37-2.38, 2.44.1, 2.55.6, 2.73.2, 2.78.1, 2.82-2.83, 2.85.4, 3.18.2, 3.33-3.34, 3.33.3, 3.55, 3.55.5, 3.60, 3.68-3.69, 4.1.1, 4.8.5, 4.14.3, 4.15.3, 4.16.4, 4.21, 4.32, 4.34-4.35, 4.37.1, 4.58.2, 4.64.1, 4.70.2-4.70.4, 4.74, 5.2-5.4, 6.6, 6.20.2, 6.21, 6.25.3, 11.4.1, 11.11.1, 11.11.3, 11.15, 11.27, 11.35, 12.5, 12.5.3, 12.8.1, 12.25, 12.26.2, 12.27.1, 12.42-12.43, 12.43.1, 12.52, 12.64, 12.64.1, 12.66, 12.68-12.69, 12.69.2, 13.1-13.5, 13.1.1, 13.2.2, 13.3.2, 13.10-13.11, 13.10.1, 13.12.1-13.12.2, 13.14.2, 13.15, 13.15.2-13.15.3, 13.17-13.21, 13.17.2, 13.24.1-13.24.2, 13.32.2, 13.41.4-13.41.5, 13.50, 13.58, 14.1-14.18, 14.1.1, 14.3.1, 14.3.3, 14.4.1, 14.4.3, 14.6.1, 14.9.3, 14.10.1-14.10.3, 14.12.1-14.12.2, 14.14.1, 14.15.1, 14.15.5, 14.20-14.21, 14.22.1-14.22.4, 14.41, 14.48-14.49, 14.49.1, 14.51-14.57, 14.51.2, 14.59-14.64, 14.64.3, 15.4, 15.7.2, 15.17, 15.22-15.24, 15.22.2, 15.34, 15.34.1, 15.36-15.42, 15.36.1, 15.37.1, 15.39.3, 15.40.2, 15.42.1, 15.43.1, 15.44, 15.44.1-15.44.5, 15.45.1-15.45.2, 15.47.1-15.47.2, 15.48, 15.49.3, 15.50-15.51, 15.53-15.54, 15.57, 15.60-15.74, 15.71.1, 15.74.2-15.74.3, 16.1.1, 16.6.1-16.6.2, 16.7-16.11, 16.7.1, 16.12.2, 16.13.1-16.13.2, 16.16.1-16.16.2, 16.21-16.35, 16.21.1-16.21.2, 16.22.1-16.22.3, 16.30.2 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Agrippina the Younger, Nero murders • Agrippina the Younger, and Nero • Armenia/Armenians, war under Nero • Bolton, Edmund, Nero Caesar, or Monarchie Depraved • Britannicus (stepbrother of Nero) • Caesar, Julius, and Nero • Calpurnius Piso, C., conspires against Nero • Cappadocia/Cappadocians, Parthian War under Nero • Celer (Neros purported architect) • Chaeremon, Egyptian priest and tutor, to Nero • Claudia Aug.l. Acte, Nero’s mistress • Clodius Thrasea Paetus, P., in senate absence,, Nero's role • Drusus (Nero Claudius Drusus Germanicus) • Drusus the Younger (Nero Claudius Drusus, later Drusus Iulius Caesar), debate with Caecina Severus • Emperors and Egypt, Nero • Emperors, Nero • Germanicus, Nero and • Giton, Nero and • Golden House of Nero • Golden House, Nero’s • Greece, Nero loots • Iunius Silanus, M. (consul under Claudius or Nero) • Lucan,in The Tragedy of Nero • Munatius Sulla Cerialis, M., Nero (Roman emperor) • Nero • Nero (Emperor) • Nero (Emperor), (un)observed life • Nero (Emperor), and pantomime • Nero (Emperor), as citharoedus • Nero (L. Domitius Ahenobarbus), Fecunditas, temple to • Nero (L. Domitius Ahenobarbus), and dynastic succession • Nero (L. Domitius Ahenobarbus), divorce of Octavia • Nero (L. Domitius Ahenobarbus), in the Octavia • Nero (L. Domitius Ahenobarbus), ‘marriage’ to Sporus • Nero (emperor) • Nero (emperor), adoption of • Nero (emperor), marriages of • Nero (emperor), murders committed by • Nero (emperor), performance and • Nero (emperor), prodigies and • Nero (emperor), psychology of • Nero (emperor), purification performed by • Nero (emperor), relationship with Agrippina the Younger • Nero (emperor), statues of • Nero (emperor), temple of • Nero (emperor), worshipful treatment of • Nero (son of Germanicus) • Nero Caesar • Nero Caesar (son of Germanicus) • Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus • Nero adoption by Claudius • Nero conflict with Britannicus • Nero, Claudius Caesar • Nero, Emperor • Nero, Emperor, death • Nero, Emperor, posthumous impersonations • Nero, adopted • Nero, and Agrippina the Younger • Nero, and Piso’s conspiracy • Nero, and aristocracy • Nero, and signs • Nero, and the Domus Aurea • Nero, and the Great Fire of Rome • Nero, as character in The Tragedy of Nero • Nero, colossus of • Nero, emperor • Nero, emperor (A.D • Nero, emperor, and Seneca • Nero, emperor, failed student • Nero, emperor, interested in Aegyptiaca • Nero, emperor, poetic rivalry with Lucan • Nero, emperor, searches for the Nile sources • Nero, executes L. Junius Silanus • Nero, fondness for Corinthian bronze • Nero, giant portrait of • Nero, honoured • Nero, murders family • Nero, murders his mother • Nero, offends gods • Nero, reign predicted • Nero, tours and pillages Greece • Nero, undermines religion • Nero,, denounces Agrippina • Nero,, honors • Nero,, in shows • Nero,, jurisdiction • Nero,, legislation under • Nero,, opposed • Nero,, puts proposals • Nero,, relationship • Nero,, speaks • Nero,, speeches read • Nero,, summons • Nero,, uses veto • Octavia (Claudia Octavia, wife of Nero), alleged infertility of • Octavia (Claudia Octavia, wife of Nero), dynastic succession and • Octavia (Claudia Octavia, wife of Nero), in the Octavia • Octavia (Neros wife) • Octavia, wife of Nero • ofonius Tigellinus, C., Nero grants statue of • Olympia, Nero loots • Pergamum, Nero’s attempted looting of • Revolt/War, under Nero (Great ~) • Rome, Temple of Mars Ultor, Nero’s statue in • Rome, people of and Augustus as pater patriae, and Nero • Seneca the Younger, and Nero • Seneca, and Nero • Severus (Neros purported architect) • Statius, on Nero • Suetonius, on Nero • Tacitus (P. [?] Cornelius Tacitus), on Nero’s divorce of Octavia • Tacitus, P. Cornelius, accounts of false Nero • Tacitus, on Nero • The Tragedy of Nero • Thrasea Paetus, restrains Nero • Tiberius (Ti. Claudius Nero, later Ti. Caesar Augustus), M. Hortalus and • Tiberius, Nero • Triumph, Nero’s • Vespasian, inventories Nero’s Greek plunder • Vespasian, reuses Nero’s Greek plunder • Vitellius, sacrifices to Nero • aristocracy, and Nero • census, of Nero in Gaul • conspiracy under Nero) • deification, of Claudia Augusta (Nero's daughter) • domus Augusta (imperial family), and Nero • imperial adoption of Nero by Claudius • lyres/lyrody/citharas/citharists, Nero • pantomimes, and Nero • prodigies, under Nero • public eye, and Nero • same-sex relationships, Neros marriages to Pythagoras, Doryphorus, and Sporus • wives, and Nero

Found in books: Agri (2022), Reading Fear in Flavian Epic: Emotion, Power, and Stoicism, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33; Ando (2013), Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire, 201; Ando and Ruepke (2006), Religion and Law in Classical and Christian Rome, 61; Augoustakis et al. (2021), Fides in Flavian Literature, 229, 240, 243, 251, 252; Baumann and Liotsakis (2022), Reading History in the Roman Empire, 153, 155, 156, 157, 170; Belayche and Massa (2021), Mystery Cults in Visual Representation in Graeco-Roman Antiquity, 64; Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 282, 283; Blum and Biggs (2019), The Epic Journey in Greek and Roman Literature, 195, 198, 205, 206, 209; Boustan Janssen and Roetzel (2010), Violence, Scripture, and Textual Practices in Early Judaism and Christianity, 74; Bowen and Rochberg (2020), Hellenistic Astronomy: The Science in its contexts, 305; Bowersock (1997), Fiction as History: Nero to Julian, 119; Brenk and Lanzillotta (2023), Plutarch on Literature, Graeco-Roman Religion, Jews and Christians, 302, 303; Bruun and Edmondson (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, 354, 546, 589; Chrysanthou (2022), Reconfiguring the Imperial Past: Narrative Patterns and Historical Interpretation in Herodian’s History of the Empire. 64, 65, 66, 112, 199, 209, 235, 243; Clark (2007), Divine Qualities: Cult and Community in Republican Rome, 267, 268, 269; Cosgrove (2022), Music at Social Meals in Greek and Roman Antiquity: From the Archaic Period to the Age of Augustine, 177, 178; Csapo et al. (2022), Theatre and Autocracy in the Ancient World, 3, 98, 99, 109; Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 156, 157, 160, 161, 162, 163, 166, 168, 174, 175, 180, 181, 184, 186, 194, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 205, 215; Dijkstra and Raschle (2020), Religious Violence in the Ancient World: From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity, 104, 120; Edelmann-Singer et al. (2020), Sceptic and Believer in Ancient Mediterranean Religions, 100; Eidinow and Driediger-Murphy (2019), Esther Eidinow, Ancient Divination and Experience, 166, 167; Esler (2000), The Early Christian World, 874; Fertik (2019), The Ruler's House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome, 11, 38, 51, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 69, 70, 72, 73, 77, 155, 165, 166, 183, 185; Galinsky (2016), Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity, 50, 58, 145, 163; Goldschmidt (2019), Biofiction and the Reception of Latin Poetry, 100; Gunderson (2022), The Social Worlds of Ancient Jews and Christians: Essays in Honor of L. Michael White, 134, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250; Horkey (2019), Cosmos in the Ancient World, 242; Hug (2023), Fertility, Ideology, and the Cultural Politics of Reproduction at Rome, 16, 23, 24, 25, 94, 207, 222; Isaac (2004), The invention of racism in classical antiquity, 459, 485; Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 36, 47, 50, 79, 80, 84, 85, 159, 343; Johnson and Parker (2009), ?Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Greece and Rome, 205, 206; Keane (2015), Juvenal and the Satiric Emotions, 130; Ker and Wessels (2020), The Values of Nighttime in Classical Antiquity: Between Dusk and Dawn, 1; Kingsley Monti and Rood (2022), The Authoritative Historian: Tradition and Innovation in Ancient Historiography, 357, 360, 361, 362, 368, 369, 370, 371; Lampe (2003), Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus, 13, 47, 62, 82; Manolaraki (2012), Noscendi Nilum Cupido: Imagining Egypt from Lucan to Philostratus, 41, 42, 107, 109, 110, 245, 268; Marek (2019), In the Land of a Thousand Gods: A History of Asia Minor in the Ancient World, 336, 389, 422; Mathews (2013), Riches, Poverty, and the Faithful: Perspectives on Wealth in the Second Temple Period and the Apocalypse of John, 17; Mcclellan (2019), Paulinus Noster: Self and Symbols in the Letters of Paulinus of Nola, 194; Moss (2012), Ancient Christian Martyrdom: Diverse Practices, Theologies, and Traditions, 77; Panoussi(2019), Brides, Mourners, Bacchae: Women's Rituals in Roman Literature, 76, 77; Peppard (2011), The Son of God in the Roman World: Divine Sonship in its Social and Political Context, 78, 79, 80; Pinheiro et al. (2012a), Narrating Desire: Eros, Sex, and Gender in the Ancient Novel, 232, 233; Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 9, 15, 81, 84, 169, 170, 171, 174, 179, 182, 183, 185, 197, 198, 201, 203, 204, 205, 206, 209, 210, 213, 214, 215, 216, 229, 234, 243, 305; Price, Finkelberg and Shahar (2021), Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity, 152; Romana Berno (2023), Roman Luxuria: A Literary and Cultural History, 132, 169, 211, 215, 217, 218; Roumpou (2023), Ritual and the Poetics of Closure in Flavian Literature. 129, 130; Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 25, 34, 52, 70, 73, 135, 154, 166, 213, 217, 293, 294, 301; Rüpke (2011), The Roman Calendar from Numa to Constantine Time, History and the Fasti 133, 142, 152; Scott (2023), An Age of Iron and Rust: Cassius Dio and the History of His Time. 45, 47; Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 26, 70, 175, 176, 177, 182, 183, 184, 220, 225, 229, 230, 245, 247, 250, 257, 264, 266, 267, 276, 277, 286, 288, 289, 290, 291, 295, 296, 297, 299, 300, 302, 304, 305, 306, 307, 308, 309, 311, 312, 315, 316, 317, 318, 319, 324, 325, 326, 330, 331, 334, 336, 337, 338, 339, 342, 344, 345, 353, 360; Spielman (2020), Jews and Entertainment in the Ancient World. 152, 176; Stanton (2021), Unity and Disunity in Greek and Christian Thought under the Roman Peace, 76; Tacoma (2020), Cicero and Roman Education: The Reception of the Speeches and Ancient Scholarship, 27, 34, 36, 37, 42, 59; Talbert (1984), The Senate of Imperial Rome, 47, 83, 118, 135, 161, 170, 172, 177, 178, 201, 214, 231, 261, 330, 383, 388, 389, 393, 401, 442, 443, 475; Tomson (2019), Studies on Jews and Christians in the First and Second Centuries. 289, 552, 626, 627, 628; Tuori (2016), The Emperor of Law: The Emergence of Roman Imperial Adjudication<, 130, 155, 157, 158, 167, 183; Udoh (2006), To Caesar What Is Caesar's: Tribute, Taxes, and Imperial Administration in Early Roman Palestine 63 B.C.E to 70 B.C.E, 208; Zanker (1996), The Mask of Socrates: The Image of the Intellectual in Antiquity, 258; de Ste. Croix et al. (2006), Christian Persecution, Martyrdom, and Orthodoxy, 108, 109

4.14 Is quoque annus legationes Graecarum civitatium habuit, Samiis Iunonis, Cois Aesculapii delubro vetustum asyli ius ut firmaretur petentibus. Samii decreto Amphictyonum nitebantur, quis praecipuum fuit rerum omnium iudicium, qua tempestate Graeci conditis per Asiam urbibus ora maris potiebantur. neque dispar apud Coos antiquitas, et accedebat meritum ex loco: nam civis Romanos templo Aesculapii induxerant, cum iussu regis Mithridatis apud cunctas Asiae insulas et urbes trucidarentur. variis dehinc et saepius inritis praetorum questibus, postremo Caesar de immodestia histrionum rettulit: multa ab iis in publicum seditiose, foeda per domos temptari; Oscum quondam ludicrum, levissimae apud vulgum oblectationis, eo flagitiorum et virium venisse ut auctoritate patrum coercendum sit. pulsi tum histriones Italia. 13.32 Factum et senatus consultum ultioni iuxta et securitati, ut si quis a suis servis interfectus esset, ii quoque qui testamento manu missi sub eodem tecto mansissent inter servos supplicia penderent. redditur ordini Lurius Varus consularis, avaritiae criminibus olim perculsus. et Pomponia Graecina insignis femina, A. Plautio, quem ovasse de Britannis rettuli, nupta ac superstitionis externae rea, mariti iudicio permissa; isque prisco instituto propinquis coram de capite famaque coniugis cognovit et insontem nuntiavit. longa huic Pomponiae aetas et continua tristitia fuit: nam post Iuliam Drusi filiam dolo Messalinae interfectam per quadraginta annos non cultu nisi lugubri, non animo nisi maesto egit; idque illi imperitante Claudio impune, mox ad gloriam vertit. 15.37 Ipse quo fidem adquireret nihil usquam perinde laetum sibi, publicis locis struere convivia totaque urbe quasi domo uti. et celeberrimae luxu famaque epulae fuere quas a Tigellino paratas ut exemplum referam, ne saepius eadem prodigentia narranda sit. igitur in stagno Agrippae fabricatus est ratem cui superpositum convivium navium aliarum tractu moveretur. naves auro et ebore distinctae, remiges- que exoleti per aetates et scientiam libidinum componebantur. volucris et feras diversis e terris et animalia maris Oceano abusque petiverat. crepidinibus stagni lupanaria adstabant inlustribus feminis completa et contra scorta visebantur nudis corporibus. iam gestus motusque obsceni; et postquam tenebrae incedebant, quantum iuxta nemoris et circumiecta tecta consonare cantu et luminibus clarescere. ipse per licita atque inlicita foedatus nihil flagitii reliquerat quo corruptior ageret, nisi paucos post dies uni ex illo contaminatorum grege (nomen Pythagorae fuit) in modum sollemnium coniugiorum denupsisset. inditum imperatori flammeum, missi auspices, dos et genialis torus et faces nuptiales, cuncta denique spectata quae etiam in femina nox operit.^1.2 Interea manipuli ante coeptam seditionem Nauportum missi ob itinera et pontes et alios usus, postquam turbatum in castris accepere, vexilla convellunt direptisque proximis vicis ipsoque Nauporto, quod municipii instar erat, retinentis centuriones inrisu et contumeliis, postremo verberibus insectantur, praecipua in Aufidienum Rufum praefectum castrorum ira, quem dereptum vehiculo sarcinis gravant aguntque primo in agmine per ludibrium rogitantes an tam immensa onera, tam longa itinera libenter ferret. quippe Rufus diu manipularis, dein centurio, mox castris praefectus, antiquam duramque militiam revocabat, vetus operis ac laboris et eo inmitior quia toleraverat. ^1.2 Postquam Bruto et Cassio caesis nulla iam publica arma, Pompeius apud Siciliam oppressus exutoque Lepido, interfecto Antonio ne Iulianis quidem partibus nisi Caesar dux reliquus, posito triumviri nomine consulem se ferens et ad tuendam plebem tribunicio iure contentum, ubi militem donis, populum annona, cunctos dulcedine otii pellexit, insurgere paulatim, munia senatus magistratuum legum in se trahere, nullo adversante, cum ferocissimi per acies aut proscriptione cecidissent, ceteri nobilium, quanto quis servitio promptior, opibus et honoribus extollerentur ac novis ex rebus aucti tuta et praesentia quam vetera et periculosa mallent. neque provinciae illum rerum statum abnuebant, suspecto senatus populique imperio ob certamina potentium et avaritiam magistratuum, invalido legum auxilio quae vi ambitu postremo pecunia turbabantur. ^1.5 Haec atque talia agitantibus gravescere valetudo Augusti, et quidam scelus uxoris suspectabant. quippe rumor incesserat paucos ante mensis Augustum, electis consciis et comite uno Fabio Maximo, Planasiam vectum ad visendum Agrippam; multas illic utrimque lacrimas et signa caritatis spemque ex eo fore ut iuvenis penatibus avi redderetur: quod Maximum uxori Marciae aperuisse, illam Liviae. gnarum id Caesari; neque multo post extincto Maximo, dubium an quaesita morte, auditos in funere eius Marciae gemitus semet incusantis quod causa exitii marito fuisset. utcumque se ea res habuit, vixdum ingressus Illyricum Tiberius properis matris litteris accitur; neque satis conpertum est spirantem adhuc Augustum apud urbem Nolam an exanimem reppererit. acribus namque custodiis domum et vias saepserat Livia, laetique interdum nuntii vulgabantur, donec provisis quae tempus monebat simul excessisse Augustum et rerum potiri Neronem fama eadem tulit. ^1.5 Laeti neque procul Germani agitabant, dum iustitio ob amissum Augustum, post discordiis attinemur. at Romanus agmine propero silvam Caesiam limitemque a Tiberio coeptum scindit, castra in limite locat, frontem ac tergum vallo, latera concaedibus munitus. inde saltus obscuros permeat consultatque ex duobus itineribus breve et solitum sequatur an inpeditius et intemptatum eoque hostibus incautum. delecta longiore via cetera adcelerantur: etenim attulerant exploratores festam eam Germanis noctem ac sollemnibus epulis ludicram. Caecina cum expeditis cohortibus praeire et obstantia silvarum amoliri iubetur: legiones modico intervallo sequuntur. iuvit nox sideribus inlustris, ventumque ad vicos Marsorum et circumdatae stationes stratis etiam tum per cubilia propterque mensas, nullo metu, non antepositis vigiliis: adeo cuncta incuria disiecta erant neque belli timor, ac ne pax quidem nisi languida et soluta inter temulentos. ^1.6 Conciti per haec non modo Cherusci, sed conterminae gentes, tractusque in partis Inguiomerus Arminii patruus, vetere apud Romanos auctoritate; unde maior Caesari metus. et ne bellum mole una ingrueret Caecinam cum quadraginta cohortibus Romanis distrahendo hosti per Bructeros ad flumen Amisiam mittit, equitem Pedo praefectus finibus Frisiorum ducit. ipse inpositas navibus quattuor legiones per lacus vexit; simulque pedes eques classis apud praedictum amnem convenere. Chauci cum auxilia pollicerentur, in commilitium adsciti sunt. Bructeros sua urentis expedita cum manu L. Stertinius missu Germanici fudit; interque caedem et praedam repperit undevicesimae legionis aquilam cum Varo amissam. ductum inde agmen ad ultimos Bructerorum, quantumque Amisiam et Lupiam amnis inter vastatum, haud procul Teutoburgiensi saltu in quo reliquiae Vari legionumque insepultae dicebantur.' '^1.6 Primum facinus novi principatus fuit Postumi Agrippae caedes, quem ignarum inermumque quamvis firmatus animo centurio aegre confecit. nihil de ea re Tiberius apud senatum disseruit: patris iussa simulabat, quibus praescripsisset tribuno custodiae adposito ne cunctaretur Agrippam morte adficere quandoque ipse supremum diem explevisset. multa sine dubio saevaque Augustus de moribus adulescentis questus, ut exilium eius senatus consulto sanciretur perfecerat: ceterum in nullius umquam suorum necem duravit, neque mortem nepoti pro securitate privigni inlatam credibile erat. propius vero Tiberium ac Liviam, illum metu, hanc novercalibus odiis, suspecti et invisi iuvenis caedem festinavisse. nuntianti centurioni, ut mos militiae, factum esse quod imperasset, neque imperasse sese et rationem facti reddendam apud senatum respondit. quod postquam Sallustius Crispus particeps secretorum (is ad tribunum miserat codicillos) comperit, metuens ne reus subderetur, iuxta periculoso ficta seu vera promeret monuit Liviam ne arcana domus, ne consilia amicorum, ministeria militum vulgarentur, neve Tiberius vim principatus resolveret cuncta ad senatum vocando: eam condicionem esse imperandi ut non aliter ratio constet quam si uni reddatur. ^1.11 Versae inde ad Tiberium preces. et ille varie disserebat de magnitudine imperii sua modestia. solam divi Augusti mentem tantae molis capacem: se in partem curarum ab illo vocatum experiendo didicisse quam arduum, quam subiectum fortunae regendi cuncta onus. proinde in civitate tot inlustribus viris subnixa non ad unum omnia deferrent: plures facilius munia rei publicae sociatis laboribus exsecuturos. plus in oratione tali dignitatis quam fidei erat; Tiberioque etiam in rebus quas non occuleret, seu natura sive adsuetudine, suspensa semper et obscura verba: tunc vero nitenti ut sensus suos penitus abderet, in incertum et ambiguum magis implicabantur. at patres, quibus unus metus si intellegere viderentur, in questus lacrimas vota effundi; ad deos, ad effigiem Augusti, ad genua ipsius manus tendere, cum proferri libellum recitarique iussit. opes publicae continebantur, quantum civium sociorumque in armis, quot classes, regna, provinciae, tributa aut vectigalia, et necessitates ac largitiones. quae cuncta sua manu perscripserat Augustus addideratque consilium coercendi intra terminos imperii, incertum metu an per invidiam.' "^1.13 Post quae L. Arruntius haud multum discrepans a Galli oratione perinde offendit, quamquam Tiberio nulla vetus in Arruntium ira: sed divitem, promptum, artibus egregiis et pari fama publice, suspectabat. quippe Augustus supremis sermonibus cum tractaret quinam adipisci principem locum suffecturi abnuerent aut inpares vellent vel idem possent cuperentque, M'. Lepidum dixerat capacem sed aspertem, Gallum Asinium avidum et minorem, L. Arruntium non indignum et si casus daretur ausurum. de prioribus consentitur, pro Arruntio quidam Cn. Pisonem tradidere; omnesque praeter Lepidum variis mox criminibus struente Tiberio circumventi sunt. etiam Q. Haterius et Mamercus Scaurus suspicacem animum perstrinxere, Haterius cum dixisset 'quo usque patieris, Caesar, non adesse caput rei publicae?' Scaurus quia dixerat spem esse ex eo non inritas fore senatus preces quod relationi consulum iure tribuniciae potestatis non intercessisset. in Haterium statim invectus est; Scaurum, cui inplacabilius irascebatur, silentio tramisit. fessusque clamore omnium, expostulatione singulorum flexit paulatim, non ut fateretur suscipi a se imperium, sed ut negare et rogari desineret. constat Haterium, cum deprecandi causa Palatium introisset ambulantisque Tiberii genua advolveretur, prope a militibus interfectum quia Tiberius casu an manibus eius inpeditus prociderat. neque tamen periculo talis viri mitigatus est, donec Haterius Augustam oraret eiusque curatissimis precibus protegeretur." ^1.33 Interea Germanico per Gallias, ut diximus, census accipienti excessisse Augustum adfertur. neptem eius Agrippinam in matrimonio pluresque ex ea liberos habebat, ipse Druso fratre Tiberii genitus, Augustae nepos, set anxius occultis in se patrui aviaeque odiis quorum causae acriores quia iniquae. quippe Drusi magna apud populum Romanum memoria, credebaturque, si rerum potitus foret, libertatem redditurus; unde in Germanicum favor et spes eadem. nam iuveni civile ingenium, mira comitas et diversa ab Tiberii sermone vultu, adrogantibus et obscuris. accedebant muliebres offensiones novercalibus Liviae in Agrippinam stimulis, atque ipsa Agrippina paulo commotior, nisi quod castitate et mariti amore quamvis indomitum animum in bonum vertebat.' "^1.74 Nec multo post Granium Marcellum praetorem Bithyniae quaestor ipsius Caepio Crispinus maiestatis postulavit, subscribente Romano Hispone: qui formam vitae iniit, quam postea celebrem miseriae temporum et audaciae hominum fecerunt. nam egens, ignotus, inquies, dum occultis libellis saevitiae principis adrepit, mox clarissimo cuique periculum facessit, potentiam apud unum, odium apud omnis adeptus dedit exemplum, quod secuti ex pauperibus divites, ex contemptis metuendi perniciem aliis ac postremum sibi invenere. sed Marcellum insimulabat sinistros de Tiberio sermones habuisse, inevitabile crimen, cum ex moribus principis foedissima quaeque deligeret accusator obiectaretque reo. nam quia vera erant, etiam dicta credebantur. addidit Hispo statuam Marcelli altius quam Caesarum sitam, et alia in statua amputato capite Augusti effigiem Tiberii inditam. ad quod exarsit adeo, ut rupta taciturnitate proclamaret se quoque in ea causa laturum sententiam palam et iuratum, quo ceteris eadem necessitas fieret. manebant etiam tum vestigia morientis libertatis. igitur Cn. Piso 'quo' inquit 'loco censebis, Caesar? si primus, habebo quod sequar: si post omnis, vereor ne inprudens dissentiam.' permotus his, quantoque incautius efferverat, paenitentia patiens tulit absolvi reum criminibus maiestatis: de pecuniis repetundis ad reciperatores itum est." ^1.76 Eodem anno continuis imbribus auctus Tiberis plana urbis stagnaverat; relabentem secuta est aedificiorum et hominum strages. igitur censuit Asinius Gallus ut libri Sibyllini adirentur. renuit Tiberius, perinde divina humanaque obtegens; sed remedium coercendi fluminis Ateio Capitoni et L. Arruntio mandatum. Achaiam ac Macedoniam onera deprecantis levari in praesens proconsulari imperio tradique Caesari placuit. edendis gladiatoribus, quos Germanici fratris ac suo nomine obtulerat, Drusus praesedit, quamquam vili sanguine nimis gaudens; quod in vulgus formidolosum et pater arguisse dicebatur. cur abstinuerit spectaculo ipse, varie trahebant; alii taedio coetus, quidam tristitia ingenii et metu conparationis, quia Augustus comiter interfuisset. non crediderim ad ostentandam saevitiam movendasque populi offensiones concessam filio materiem, quamquam id quoque dictum est. ^2.27 Sub idem tempus e familia Scriboniorum Libo Drusus defertur moliri res novas. eius negotii initium, ordinem, finem curatius disseram, quia tum primum reperta sunt quae per tot annos rem publicam exedere. Firmius Catus senator, ex intima Libonis amicitia, iuvenem inprovi- dum et facilem iibus ad Chaldaeorum promissa, magorum sacra, somniorum etiam interpretes impulit, dum proavum Pompeium, amitam Scriboniam, quae quondam Augusti coniunx fuerat, consobrinos Caesares, plenam imaginibus domum ostentat, hortaturque ad luxum et aes alienum, socius libidinum et necessitatum, quo pluribus indiciis inligaret. ^2.32 Bona inter accusatores dividuntur, et praeturae extra ordinem datae iis qui senatorii ordinis erant. tunc Cotta Messalinus, ne imago Libonis exequias posterorum comitaretur, censuit, Cn. Lentulus, ne quis Scribonius cognomentum Drusi adsumeret. supplicationum dies Pomponii Flacci sententia constituti, dona Iovi, Marti, Concordiae, utque iduum Septembrium dies, quo se Libo interfecerat, dies festus haberetur, L. Piso et Gallus Asinius et Papius Mutilus et L. Apronius decrevere; quorum auctoritates adulationesque rettuli ut sciretur vetus id in re publica malum. facta et de mathematicis magisque Italia pellendis senatus consulta; quorum e numero L. Pituanius saxo deiectus est, in P. Marcium consules extra portam Esquilinam, cum classicum canere iussissent, more prisco advertere.' "^2.37 Censusque quorundam senatorum iuvit. quo magis mirum fuit quod preces Marci Hortali, nobilis iuvenis, in paupertate manifesta superbius accepisset. nepos erat oratoris Hortensii, inlectus a divo Augusto liberalitate decies sestertii ducere uxorem, suscipere liberos, ne clarissima familia extingueretur. igitur quattuor filiis ante limen curiae adstantibus, loco sententiae, cum in Palatio senatus haberetur, modo Hortensii inter oratores sitam imaginem modo Augusti intuens, ad hunc modum coepit: 'patres conscripti, hos, quorum numerum et pueritiam videtis, non sponte sustuli sed quia princeps monebat; simul maiores mei meruerant ut posteros haberent. nam ego, qui non pecuniam, non studia populi neque eloquentiam, gentile domus nostrae bonum, varietate temporum accipere vel parare potuissem, satis habebam, si tenues res meae nec mihi pudori nec cuiquam oneri forent. iussus ab imperatore uxorem duxi. en stirps et progenies tot consulum, tot dictatorum. nec ad invidiam ista sed conciliandae misericordiae refero. adsequentur florente te, Caesar, quos dederis honores: interim Q. Hortensii pronepotes, divi Augusti alumnos ab inopia defende.'" "^2.38 Inclinatio senatus incitamentum Tiberio fuit quo promptius adversaretur, his ferme verbis usus: 'si quantum pauperum est venire huc et liberis suis petere pecunias coeperint, singuli numquam exsatiabuntur, res publica deficiet. nec sane ideo a maioribus concessum est egredi aliquando relationem et quod in commune conducat loco sententiae proferre, ut privata negotia et res familiaris nostras hic augeamus, cum invidia senatus et principum, sive indulserint largitionem sive abnuerint. non enim preces sunt istud, sed efflagitatio, intempestiva quidem et inprovisa, cum aliis de rebus convenerint patres, consurgere et numero atque aetate liberum suorum urgere modestiam senatus, eandem vim in me transmittere ac velut perfringere aerarium, quod si ambitione exhauserimus, per scelera supplendum erit. dedit tibi, Hortale, divus Augustus pecuniam, sed non conpellatus nec ea lege ut semper daretur. languescet alioqui industria, intendetur socordia, si nullus ex se metus aut spes, et securi omnes aliena subsidia expectabunt, sibi ignavi, nobis graves.' haec atque talia, quamquam cum adsensu audita ab iis quibus omnia principum, honesta atque inhonesta, laudare mos est, plures per silentium aut occultum murmur excepere. sensitque Tiberius; et cum paulum reticuisset, Hortalo se respondisse ait: ceterum si patribus videretur, daturum liberis eius ducena sestertia singulis, qui sexus virilis essent. egere alii grates: siluit Hortalus, pavore an avitae nobilitatis etiam inter angustias fortunae retinens. neque miseratus est posthac Tiberius, quamvis domus Hortensii pudendam ad inopiam delaberetur." ^2.82 At Romae, postquam Germanici valetudo percrebuit cunctaque ut ex longinquo aucta in deterius adferebantur, dolor ira, et erumpebant questus. ideo nimirum in extremas terras relegatum, ideo Pisoni permissam provinciam; hoc egisse secretos Augustae cum Plancina sermones. vera prorsus de Druso seniores locutos: displicere regtibus civilia filiorum ingenia, neque ob aliud interceptos quam quia populum Romanum aequo iure complecti reddita libertate agitaverint. hos vulgi sermones audita mors adeo incendit ut ante edictum magistratuum, ante senatus consultum sumpto iustitio desererentur fora, clauderentur domus. passim silentia et gemitus, nihil compositum in ostentationem; et quamquam neque insignibus lugentium abstinerent, altius animis maerebant. forte negotiatores vivente adhuc Germanico Syria egressi laetiora de valetudine eius attulere. statim credita, statim vulgata sunt: ut quisque obvius, quamvis leviter audita in alios atque illi in plures cumulata gaudio transferunt. cursant per urbem, moliuntur templorum foris; iuvat credulitatem nox et promptior inter tenebras adfirmatio. nec obstitit falsis Tiberius donec tempore ac spatio vanescerent: et populus quasi rursum ereptum acrius doluit. ^2.83 Honores ut quis amore in Germanicum aut ingenio validus reperti decretique: ut nomen eius Saliari carmine caneretur; sedes curules sacerdotum Augustalium locis superque eas querceae coronae statuerentur; ludos circensis eburna effigies praeiret neve quis flamen aut augur in locum Germanici nisi gentis Iuliae crearetur. arcus additi Romae et apud ripam Rheni et in monte Syriae Amano cum inscriptione rerum gestarum ac mortem ob rem publicam obisse. sepulchrum Antiochiae ubi crematus, tribunal Epidaphnae quo in loco vitam finierat. statuarum locorumve in quis coleretur haud facile quis numerum inierit. cum censeretur clipeus auro et magni- tudine insignis inter auctores eloquentiae, adseveravit Tiberius solitum paremque ceteris dicaturum: neque enim eloquentiam fortuna discerni et satis inlustre si veteres inter scriptores haberetur. equester ordo cuneum Germanici appellavit qui iuniorum dicebatur, instituitque uti turmae idibus Iuliis imaginem eius sequerentur. pleraque manent: quaedam statim omissa sunt aut vetustas oblitteravit. ^3.33 Inter quae Severus Caecina censuit ne quem magistratum cui provincia obvenisset uxor comitaretur, multum ante repetito concordem sibi coniugem et sex partus enixam, seque quae in publicum statueret domi servavisse, cohibita intra Italiam, quamquam ipse pluris per provincias quadraginta stipendia explevisset. haud enim frustra placitum olim ne feminae in socios aut gentis externas traherentur: inesse mulierum comitatui quae pacem luxu, bellum formidine morentur et Romanum agmen ad similitudinem barbari incessus convertant. non imbecillum tantum et imparem laboribus sexum sed, si licentia adsit, saevum, ambitiosum, potestatis avidum; incedere inter milites, habere ad manum centuriones; praesedisse nuper feminam exercitio cohortium, decursu legionum. cogitarent ipsi quotiens repetundarum aliqui arguerentur plura uxoribus obiectari: his statim adhaerescere deterrimum quemque provincialium, ab his negotia suscipi, transigi; duorum egressus coli, duo esse praetoria, pervicacibus magis et impotentibus mulierum iussis quae Oppiis quondam aliisque legibus constrictae nunc vinclis exolutis domos, fora, iam et exercitus regerent. ^3.34 Paucorum haec adsensu audita: plures obturbabant neque relatum de negotio neque Caecinam dignum tantae rei censorem. mox Valerius Messalinus, cui parens Mes- sala ineratque imago paternae facundiae, respondit multa duritiae veterum in melius et laetius mutata; neque enim, ut olim, obsideri urbem bellis aut provincias hostilis esse. et pauca feminarum necessitatibus concedi quae ne coniugum quidem penatis, adeo socios non onerent; cetera promisca cum marito nec ullum in eo pacis impedimentum. bella plane accinctis obeunda: sed revertentibus post laborem quod honestius quam uxorium levamentum? at quasdam in ambitionem aut avaritiam prolapsas. quid? ipsorum magistratuum nonne plerosque variis libidinibus obnoxios? non tamen ideo neminem in provinciam mitti. corruptos saepe pravitatibus uxorum maritos: num ergo omnis caelibes integros? placuisse quondam Oppias leges, sic temporibus rei publicae postulantibus: remissum aliquid postea et mitigatum, quia expedierit. frustra nostram ignaviam alia ad vocabula transferri: nam viri in eo culpam si femina modum excedat. porro ob unius aut alterius imbecillum animum male eripi maritis consortia rerum secundarum adversarumque. simul sexum natura invalidum deseri et exponi suo luxu, cupidinibus alienis. vix praesenti custodia manere inlaesa coniugia: quid fore si per pluris annos in modum discidii oblitterentur? sic obviam irent iis quae alibi peccarentur ut flagitiorum urbis meminissent. addidit pauca Drusus de matrimonio suo; nam principibus adeunda saepius longinqua imperii. quoties divum Augustum in Occidentem atque Orientem meavisse comite Livia! se quoque in Illyricum profectum et, si ita conducat, alias ad gentis iturum, haud semper aequo animo si ab uxore carissima et tot communium liberorum parente divelleretur. sic Caecinae sententia elusa. ^3.55 Auditis Caesaris litteris remissa aedilibus talis cura; luxusque mensae a fine Actiaci belli ad ea arma quis Servius Galba rerum adeptus est per annos centum pro- fusis sumptibus exerciti paulatim exolevere. causas eius mutationis quaerere libet. dites olim familiae nobilium aut claritudine insignes studio magnificentiae prolabebantur. nam etiam tum plebem socios regna colere et coli licitum; ut quisque opibus domo paratu speciosus per nomen et clientelas inlustrior habebatur. postquam caedibus saevitum et magnitudo famae exitio erat, ceteri ad sapientiora convertere. simul novi homines e municipiis et coloniis atque etiam provinciis in senatum crebro adsumpti domesticam parsimoniam intulerunt, et quamquam fortuna vel industria plerique pecuniosam ad senectam pervenirent, mansit tamen prior animus. sed praecipuus adstricti moris auctor Vespasianus fuit, antiquo ipse cultu victuque. obsequium inde in principem et aemulandi amor validior quam poena ex legibus et metus. nisi forte rebus cunctis inest quidam velut orbis, ut quem ad modum temporum vices ita morum vertantur; nec omnia apud priores meliora, sed nostra quoque aetas multa laudis et artium imitanda posteris tulit. verum haec nobis in maiores certamina ex honesto maneant. ^3.68 Tiberius quae in Silanum parabat quo excusatius sub exemplo acciperentur, libellos divi Augusti de Voleso Messala eiusdem Asiae pro consule factumque in eum senatus consultum recitari iubet. tum L. Pisonem sententiam rogat. ille multum de clementia principis praefatus aqua atque igni Silano interdicendum censuit ipsumque in insulam Gyarum relegandum. eadem ceteri, nisi quod Cn. Lentulus separanda Silani materna bona, quippe Atia parente geniti, reddendaque filio dixit, adnuente Tiberio. ^3.69 At Cornelius Dolabella dum adulationem longius sequitur increpitis C. Silani moribus addidit ne quis vita probrosus et opertus infamia provinciam sortiretur, idque princeps diiudicaret. nam a legibus delicta puniri: quanto fore mitius in ipsos, melius in socios, provideri ne peccaretur? adversum quae disseruit Caesar: non quidem sibi ignara quae de Silano vulgabantur, sed non ex rumore statuendum. multos in provinciis contra quam spes aut metus de illis fuerit egisse: excitari quosdam ad meliora magnitudine rerum, hebescere alios. neque posse principem sua scientia cuncta complecti neque expedire ut ambitione aliena trahatur. ideo leges in facta constitui quia futura in incerto sint. sic a maioribus institutum ut, si antissent delicta, poenae sequerentur. ne verterent sapienter reperta et semper placita: satis onerum principibus, satis etiam potentiae. minui iura quotiens gliscat potestas, nec utendum imperio ubi legibus agi possit. quanto rarior apud Tiberium popularitas tanto laetioribus animis accepta. atque ille prudens moderandi, si propria ira non impelleretur, addidit insulam Gyarum immitem et sine cultu hominum esse: darent Iuniae familiae et viro quondam ordinis eiusdem ut Cythnum potius concederet. id sororem quoque Silani Torquatam, priscae sanctimoniae virginem, expetere. in hanc sententiam facta discessio. ^4.21 Actum dehinc de Calpurnio Pisone, nobili ac feroci viro. is namque, ut rettuli, cessurum se urbe ob factiones accusatorum in senatu clamitaverat et spreta potentia Augustae trahere in ius Vrgulaniam domoque principis excire ausus erat. quae in praesens Tiberius civiliter habuit: sed in animo revolvente iras, etiam si impetus offensionis languerat, memoria valebat. Pisonem Q. Granius secreti sermonis incusavit adversum maiestatem habiti, adiecitque in domo eius venenum esse eumque gladio accinctum introire curiam. quod ut atrocius vero tramissum; ceterorum, quae multa cumulabantur, receptus est reus neque peractus ob mortem opportunam. relatum et de Cassio Severo exule, qui sordidae originis, maleficae vitae, sed orandi validus, per immodicas inimicitias ut iudicio iurati senatus Cretam amoveretur effecerat; atque illic eadem actitando recentia veteraque odia advertit, bonisque exutus, interdicto igni atque aqua, saxo Seripho consenuit. ^4.32 Pleraque eorum quae rettuli quaeque referam parva forsitan et levia memoratu videri non nescius sum: sed nemo annalis nostros cum scriptura eorum contenderit qui veteres populi Romani res composuere. ingentia illi bella, expugnationes urbium, fusos captosque reges, aut si quando ad interna praeverterent, discordias consulum adversum tribunos, agrarias frumentariasque leges, plebis et optimatium certamina libero egressu memorabant: nobis in arto et inglorius labor; immota quippe aut modice lacessita pax, maestae urbis res et princeps proferendi imperi incuriosus erat. non tamen sine usu fuerit introspicere illa primo aspectu levia ex quis magnarum saepe rerum motus oriuntur.' "^4.34 Cornelio Cosso Asinio Agrippa consulibus Cremutius Cordus postulatur novo ac tunc primum audito crimine, quod editis annalibus laudatoque M. Bruto C. Cassium Romanorum ultimum dixisset. accusabant Satrius Secundus et Pinarius Natta, Seiani clientes. id perniciabile reo et Caesar truci vultu defensionem accipiens, quam Cremutius relinquendae vitae certus in hunc modum exorsus est: 'verba mea, patres conscripti, arguuntur: adeo factorum innocens sum. sed neque haec in principem aut principis parentem, quos lex maiestatis amplectitur: Brutum et Cassium laudavisse dicor, quorum res gestas cum plurimi composuerint, nemo sine honore memoravit. Titus Livius, eloquentiae ac fidei praeclarus in primis, Cn. Pompeium tantis laudibus tulit ut Pompeianum eum Augustus appellaret; neque id amicitiae eorum offecit. Scipionem, Afranium, hunc ipsum Cassium, hunc Brutum nusquam latrones et parricidas, quae nunc vocabula imponuntur, saepe ut insignis viros nominat. Asinii Pollionis scripta egregiam eorundem memoriam tradunt; Messala Corvinus imperatorem suum Cassium praedicabat: et uterque opibusque atque honoribus perviguere. Marci Ciceronis libro quo Catonem caelo aequavit, quid aliud dictator Caesar quam rescripta oratione velut apud iudices respondit? Antonii epistulae Bruti contiones falsa quidem in Augustum probra set multa cum acerbitate habent; carmina Bibaculi et Catulli referta contumeliis Caesarum leguntur: sed ipse divus Iulius, ipse divus Augustus et tulere ista et reliquere, haud facile dixerim, moderatione magis an sapientia. namque spreta exolescunt: si irascare, adgnita videntur." "^4.35 Non attingo Graecos, quorum non modo libertas, etiam libido impunita; aut si quis advertit, dictis dicta ultus est. sed maxime solutum et sine obtrectatore fuit prodere de iis quos mors odio aut gratiae exemisset. num enim armatis Cassio et Bruto ac Philippensis campos optinentibus belli civilis causa populum per contiones incendo? an illi quidem septuagesimum ante annum perempti, quo modo imaginibus suis noscuntur, quas ne victor quidem abolevit, sic partem memoriae apud scriptores retinent? suum cuique decus posteritas rependit; nec deerunt, si damnatio ingruit, qui non modo Cassii et Bruti set etiam mei meminerint.' egressus dein senatu vitam abstinentia finivit. libros per aedilis cremandos censuere patres: set manserunt, occultati et editi. quo magis socordiam eorum inridere libet qui praesenti potentia credunt extingui posse etiam sequentis aevi memoriam. nam contra punitis ingeniis gliscit auctoritas, neque aliud externi reges aut qui eadem saevitia usi sunt nisi dedecus sibi atque illis gloriam peperere." ^4.74 Clarum inde inter Germanos Frisium nomen, dissimulante Tiberio damna ne cui bellum permitteret. neque senatus in eo cura an imperii extrema dehonestarentur: pavor internus occupaverat animos cui remedium adulatione quaerebatur. ita quamquam diversis super rebus consulerentur, aram clementiae, aram amicitiae effigiesque circum Caesaris ac Seiani censuere crebrisque precibus efflagitabant visendi sui copiam facerent. non illi tamen in urbem aut propinqua urbi degressi sunt: satis visum omittere insulam et in proximo Campaniae aspici. eo venire patres, eques, magna pars plebis, anxii erga Seianum cuius durior congressus atque eo per ambitum et societate consiliorum parabatur. satis constabat auctam ei adrogantiam foedum illud in propatulo servitium spectanti; quippe Romae sueti discursus et magnitudine urbis incertum quod quisque ad negotium pergat: ibi campo aut litore iacentes nullo discrimine noctem ac diem iuxta gratiam aut fastus ianitorum perpetiebantur donec id quoque vetitum: et revenere in urbem trepidi quos non sermone, non visu dignatus erat, quidam male alacres quibus infaustae amicitiae gravis exitus imminebat. ^5.2 At Tiberius, quod supremis in matrem officiis defuisset, nihil mutata amoenitate vitae, magnitudinem negotiorum per litteras excusavit honoresque memoriae eius ab senatu large decretos quasi per modestiam imminuit, paucis admodum receptis et addito ne caelestis religio decerneretur: sic ipsam maluisse. quin et parte eiusdem epistulae increpuit amicitias muliebris, Fufium consulem oblique perstringens. is gratia Augustae floruerat, aptus adliciendis feminarum animis, dicax idem et Tiberium acerbis facetiis inridere solitus quarum apud praepotentis in longum memoria est. ^5.4 Fuit in senatu Iunius Rusticus, componendis patrum actis delectus a Caesare eoque meditationes eius introspicere creditus. is fatali quodam motu (neque enim ante specimen constantiae dederat) seu prava sollertia, dum imminentium oblitus incerta pavet, inserere se dubitantibus ac monere consules ne relationem inciperent; disserebatque brevibus momentis summa verti: posse quandoque domus Germanici exitium paenitentiae esse seni. simul populus effigies Agrippinae ac Neronis gerens circumsistit curiam faustisque in Caesarem ominibus falsas litteras et principe invito exitium domui eius intendi clamitat. ita nihil triste illo die patratum. ferebantur etiam sub nominibus consularium fictae in Seianum sententiae, exercentibus plerisque per occultum atque eo procacius libidinem ingeniorum. unde illi ira violentior et materies crimidi: spretum dolorem principis ab senatu, descivisse populum; audiri iam et legi novas contiones, nova patrum consulta: quid reliquum nisi ut caperent ferrum et, quorum imagines pro vexillis secuti forent, duces imperatoresque deligerent?' "^6.6 Insigne visum est earum Caesaris litterarum initium; nam his verbis exorsus est: 'quid scribam vobis, patres conscripti, aut quo modo scribam aut quid omnino non scribam hoc tempore, di me deaeque peius perdant quam perire me cotidie sentio, si scio.' adeo facinora atque flagitia sua ipsi quoque in supplicium verterant. neque frustra praestantissimus sapientiae firmare solitus est, si recludantur tyrannorum mentes, posse aspici laniatus et ictus, quando ut corpora verberibus, ita saevitia, libidine, malis consultis animus dilaceretur. quippe Tiberium non fortuna, non solitudines protegebant quin tormenta pectoris suasque ipse poenas fateretur." ^6.21 Quoties super tali negotio consultaret, edita domus parte ac liberti unius conscientia utebatur. is litterarum ignarus, corpore valido, per avia ac derupta (nam saxis domus imminet) praeibat eum cuius artem experiri Tiberius statuisset et regredientem, si vanitatis aut fraudum suspicio incesserat, in subiectum mare praecipitabat ne index arcani existeret. igitur Thrasullus isdem rupibus inductus postquam percontantem commoverat, imperium ipsi et futura sollerter patefaciens, interrogatur an suam quoque genitalem horam comperisset, quem tum annum, qualem diem haberet. ille positus siderum ac spatia dimensus haerere primo, dein pavescere, et quantum introspiceret magis ac magis trepidus admirationis et metus, postremo exclamat ambiguum sibi ac prope ultimum discrimen instare. tum complexus eum Tiberius praescium periculorum et incolumem fore gratatur, quaeque dixerat oracli vice accipiens inter intimos amicorum tenet. ^1
1.27 Haud sum ignarus fabulosum visum iri tantum ullis mortalium securitatis fuisse in civitate omnium gnara et nihil reticente, nedum consulem designatum cum uxore principis, praedicta die, adhibitis qui obsignarent, velut suscipiendorum liberorum causa convenisse, atque illam audisse auspicum verba, subisse, sacrificasse apud deos; discubitum inter convivas, oscula complexus, noctem denique actam licentia coniugali. sed nihil compositum miraculi causa, verum audita scriptaque senioribus tradam. ^11.35 Mirum inter haec silentium Claudi, Vitellius ignaro propior: omnia liberto oboediebant. patefieri domum adulteri atque illuc deduci imperatorem iubet. ac primum in vestibulo effigiem patris Silii consulto senatus abolitam demonstrat, tum quidquid avitum Neronibus et Drusis in pretium probri cessisse. incensumque et ad minas erumpentem castris infert, parata contione militum; apud quos praemonente Narcisso pauca verba fecit: nam etsi iustum dolorem pudor impediebat. continuus dehinc cohortium clamor nomina reorum et poenas flagitantium; admotusque Silius tribunali non defensionem, non moras temptavit, precatus ut mors acceleraretur. eadem constantia et inlustres equites Romani cupido maturae necis fuit. et Titium Proculum, custodem a Silio Messalinae datum et indicium offerentem, Vettium Valentem confessum et Pompeium Vrbicum ac Saufeium Trogum ex consciis tradi ad supplicium iubet. Decrius quoque Calpurnianus vigilum praefectus, Sulpicius Rufus ludi procurator, Iuncus Vergilianus senator eadem poena adfecti. ^12.5 C. Pompeio Q. Veranio consulibus pactum inter Claudium et Agrippinam matrimonium iam fama, iam amore inlicito firmabatur; necdum celebrare sollemnia nuptiarum audebant, nullo exemplo deductae in domum patrui fratris filiae: quin et incestum ac, si sperneretur, ne in malum publicum erumperet metuebatur. nec ante omissa cunctatio quam Vitellius suis artibus id perpetrandum sumpsit. percontatusque Caesarem an iussis populi, an auctoritati senatus cederet, ubi ille unum se civium et consensui imparem respondit, opperiri intra palatium iubet. ipse curiam ingreditur, summamque rem publicam agi obtestans veniam dicendi ante alios exposcit orditurque: gravissimos principis labores, quis orbem terrae capessat, egere adminiculis ut domestica cura vacuus in commune consulat. quod porro honestius censoriae mentis levamentum quam adsumere coniugem, prosperis dubiisque sociam, cui cogitationes intimas, cui parvos liberos tradat, non luxui aut voluptatibus adsuefactus, sed qui prima ab iuventa legibus obtemperavisset. ^12.5 Nam Vologeses casum invadendae Armeniae obvenisse ratus, quam a maioribus suis possessam externus rex flagitio obtineret, contrahit copias fratremque Tiridaten deducere in regnum parat, ne qua pars domus sine imperio ageret. incessu Parthorum sine acie pulsi Hiberi, urbesque Armeniorum Artaxata et Tigranocerta iugum accepere. deinde atrox hiems et parum provisi commeatus et orta ex utroque tabes perpellunt Vologesen omittere praesentia. vacuamque rursus Armeniam Radamistus invasit, truculentior quam antea, tamquam adversus defectores et in tempore rebellaturos. atque illi quamvis servitio sueti patientiam abrumpunt armisque regiam circumveniunt. ^12.25 C. Antistio M. Suillio consulibus adoptio in Domitium auctoritate Pallantis festinatur, qui obstrictus Agrippinae ut conciliator nuptiarum et mox stupro eius inligatus, stimulabat Claudium consuleret rei publicae, Britannici pueritiam robore circumdaret: sic apud divum Augustum, quamquam nepotibus subnixum, viguisse privignos; a Tiberio super propriam stirpem Germanicum adsumptum: se quoque accingeret iuvene partem curarum capessituro. his evictus triennio maiorem natu Domitium filio anteponit, habita apud senatum oratione eundem in quem a liberto acceperat modum. adnotabant periti nullam antehac adoptionem inter patricios Claudios reperiri, eosque ab Atto Clauso continuos duravisse. ^12.43 Multa eo anno prodigia evenere. insessum diris avibus Capitolium, crebris terrae motibus prorutae domus, ac dum latius metuitur, trepidatione vulgi invalidus quisque obtriti; frugum quoque egestas et orta ex eo fames in prodigium accipiebatur. nec occulti tantum questus, sed iura reddentem Claudium circumvasere clamoribus turbidis, pulsumque in extremam fori partem vi urgebant, donec militum globo infensos perrupit. quindecim dierum alimenta urbi, non amplius superfuisse constitit, magnaque deum benignitate et modestia hiemis rebus extremis subventum. at hercule olim Italia legionibus longinquas in provincias commeatus portabat, nec nunc infecunditate laboratur, sed Africam potius et Aegyptum exercemus, navibusque et casibus vita populi Romani permissa est. ^12.52 Fausto Sulla Salvio Othone consulibus Furius Scribonianus in exilium agitur, quasi finem principis per Chaldaeos scrutaretur. adnectebatur crimini Vibia mater eius, ut casus prioris (nam relegata erat) impatiens. pater Scriboniani Camillus arma per Dalmatiam moverat; idque ad clementiam trahebat Caesar, quod stirpem hostilem iterum conservaret. neque tamen exuli longa posthac vita fuit: morte fortuita an per venenum extinctus esset, ut quisque credidit, vulgavere. de mathematicis Italia pellendis factum senatus consultum atrox et inritum. laudati dehinc oratione principis qui ob angustias familiaris ordine senatorio sponte cederent, motique qui remanendo impudentiam paupertati adicerent.' "^12.64 M. Asinio M'. Acilio consulibus mutationem rerum in deterius portendi cognitum est crebris prodigiis. signa ac tentoria militum igne caelesti arsere; fastigio Capitolii examen apium insedit; biformis hominum partus et suis fetum editum cui accipitrum ungues inessent. numerabatur inter ostenta deminutus omnium magistratuum numerus, quaestore, aedili, tribuno ac praetore et consule paucos intra mensis defunctis. sed in praecipuo pavore Agrippina, vocem Claudii, quam temulentus iecerat, fatale sibi ut coniugum flagitia ferret, dein puniret, metuens, agere et celerare statuit, perdita prius Domitia Lepida muliebribus causis, quia Lepida minore Antonia genita, avunculo Augusto, Agrippinae sobrina prior ac Gnaei mariti eius soror, parem sibi claritudinem credebat. nec forma aetas opes multum distabant; et utraque impudica, infamis, violenta, haud minus vitiis aemulabantur quam si qua ex fortuna prospera acceperant. enimvero certamen acerrimum, amita potius an mater apud Neronem praevaleret: nam Lepida blandimentis ac largitionibus iuvenilem animum devinciebat, truci contra ac minaci Agrippina, quae filio dare imperium, tolerare imperitantem nequibat." ^12.66 In tanta mole curarum valetudine adversa corripitur, refovendisque viribus mollitia caeli et salubritate aquarum Sinuessam pergit. tum Agrippina, sceleris olim certa et oblatae occasionis propera nec ministrorum egens, de genere veneni consultavit, ne repentino et praecipiti facinus proderetur; si lentum et tabidum delegisset, ne admotus supremis Claudius et dolo intellecto ad amorem filii rediret. exquisitum aliquid placebat, quod turbaret mentem et mortem differret. deligitur artifex talium vocabulo Locusta, nuper veneficii damnata et diu inter instrumenta regni habita. eius mulieris ingenio paratum virus, cuius minister e spadonibus fuit Halotus, inferre epulas et explorare gustu solitus. ^12.68 Vocabatur interim senatus votaque pro incolumitate principis consules et sacerdotes nuncupabant, cum iam exanimis vestibus et fomentis obtegeretur, dum quae res forent firmando Neronis imperio componuntur. iam primum Agrippina, velut dolore victa et solacia conquirens, tenere amplexu Britannicum, veram paterni oris effigiem appellare ac variis artibus demorari ne cubiculo egrederetur. Antoniam quoque et Octaviam sorores eius attinuit, et cunctos aditus custodiis clauserat, crebroque vulgabat ire in melius valetudinem principis, quo miles bona in spe ageret tempusque prosperum ex monitis Chaldaeorum adventaret. ^12.69 Tunc medio diei tertium ante Idus Octobris, foribus palatii repente diductis, comitante Burro Nero egreditur ad cohortem, quae more militiae excubiis adest. ibi monente praefecto faustis vocibus exceptus inditur lecticae. dubitavisse quosdam ferunt, respectantis rogitantisque ubi Britannicus esset: mox nullo in diversum auctore quae offerebantur secuti sunt. inlatusque castris Nero et congruentia tempori praefatus, promisso donativo ad exemplum paternae largitionis, imperator consalutatur. sententiam militum secuta patrum consulta, nec dubitatum est apud provincias. caelestesque honores Claudio decernuntur et funeris sollemne perinde ac divo Augusto celebratur, aemulante Agrippina proaviae Liviae magnificentiam. testamentum tamen haud recitatum, ne antepositus filio privignus iniuria et invidia animos vulgi turbaret. ^13.1 Eodem anno Caesar effigiem Cn. Domitio patri et consularia insignia Asconio Labeoni, quo tutore usus erat, petivit a senatu; sibique statuas argento vel auro solidas adversus offerentis prohibuit. et quamquam censuissent patres ut principium anni inciperet mense Decembri, quo ortus erat Nero, veterem religionem kalendarum Ianuariarum inchoando anno retinuit. neque recepti sunt inter reos Carrinas Celer senator servo accusante aut Iulius Densus equester, cui favor in Britannicum crimini dabatur. ^13.1 Prima novo principatu mors Iunii Silani proconsulis Asiae ignaro Nerone per dolum Agrippinae paratur, non quia ingenii violentia exitium inritaverat, segnis et dominationibus aliis fastiditus, adeo ut G. Caesar pecudem auream eum appellare solitus sit: verum Agrippina fratri eius L. Silano necem molita ultorem metuebat, crebra vulgi fama anteponendum esse vixdum pueritiam egresso Neroni et imperium per scelus adepto virum aetate composita, insontem, nobilem et, quod tunc spectaretur, e Caesarum posteris: quippe et Silanus divi Augusti abnepos erat. haec causa necis. ministri fuere P. Celer eques Romanus et Helius libertus, rei familiari principis in Asia impositi. ab his proconsuli venenum inter epulas datum est apertius quam ut fallerent. nec minus properato Narcissus Claudii libertus, de cuius iurgiis adversus Agrippinam rettuli, aspera custodia et necessitate extrema ad mortem agitur, invito principe, cuius abditis adhuc vitiis per avaritiam ac prodi gentiam mire congruebat. ^13.2 Ibaturque in caedes, nisi Afranius Burrus et Annaeus Seneca obviam issent. hi rectores imperatoriae iuventae et (rarum in societate potentiae) concordes, diversa arte ex aequo pollebant, Burrus militaribus curis et severitate morum, Seneca praeceptis eloquentiae et comitate honesta, iuvantes in vicem, quo facilius lubricam principis aetatem, si virtutem aspernaretur, voluptatibus concessis retinerent. certamen utrique unum erat contra ferociam Agrippinae, quae cunctis malae dominationis cupidinibus flagrans habebat in partibus Pallantem, quo auctore Claudius nuptiis incestis et adoptione exitiosa semet perverterat. sed neque Neroni infra servos ingenium, et Pallas tristi adrogantia modum liberti egressus taedium sui moverat. propalam tamen omnes in eam honores cumulabantur, signumque more militiae petenti tribuno dedit Optimae matris. decreti et a senatu duo lictores, flamonium Claudiale, simul Claudio censorium funus et mox consecratio. ^13.2 Provecta nox erat et Neroni per vinolentiam trahebatur, cum ingreditur Paris, solitus alioquin id temporis luxus principis intendere, sed tunc compositus ad maestitiam, expositoque indicii ordine ita audientem exterret ut non tantum matrem Plautumque interficere, sed Burrum etiam demovere praefectura destinaret tamquam Agrippinae gratia provectum et vicem reddentem. Fabius Rusticus auctor est scriptos esse ad Caecinam Tuscum codicillos, mandata ei praetoriarum cohortium cura, sed ope Senecae dignationem Burro retentam: Plinius et Cluvius nihil dubitatum de fide praefecti referunt; sane Fabius inclinat ad laudes Senecae, cuius amicitia floruit. nos consensum auctorum secuturi, quae diversa prodiderint sub nominibus ipsorum trademus. Nero trepidus et interficiendae matris avidus non prius differri potuit quam Burrus necem eius promitteret, si facinoris coargueretur: sed cuicumque, nedum parenti defensionem tribuendam; nec accusatores adesse, sed vocem unius ex inimica domo adferri: reputaret tenebras et vigilatam convivio noctem omniaque temeritati et inscitiae propiora. ^13.3 Damnatus isdem consulibus Vipsanius Laenas ob Sardiniam provinciam avare habitam. absolutus Cestius Proculus repetundarum, Cretensibus accusantibus. Clodius Quirinalis, quod praefectus remigum, qui Ravennae haberentur, velut infimam nationum Italiam luxuria saevitiaque adflictavisset, veneno damnationem anteiit. Caninius Rebilus, ex primoribus peritia legum et pecuniae magnitudine, cruciatus aegrae senectae misso per venas sanguine effugit, haud creditus sufficere ad constantiam sumendae mortis ob libidines muliebriter infamis. at L. Volusius egregia fama concessit, cui tres et nonaginta anni spatium vivendi praecipuaeque opes bonis artibus, inoffensa tot imperatorum amicitia fuit. ^13.3 Die funeris laudationem eius princeps exorsus est, dum antiquitatem generis, consulatus ac triumphos maiorum enumerabat, intentus ipse et ceteri; liberalium quoque artium commemoratio et nihil regente eo triste rei publicae ab externis accidisse pronis animis audita: postquam ad providentiam sapientiamque flexit, nemo risui temperare, quamquam oratio a Seneca composita multum cultus praeferret, ut fuit illi viro ingenium amoenum et temporis eius auribus accommodatum. adnotabant seniores, quibus otiosum est vetera et praesentia contendere, primum ex iis qui rerum potiti essent Neronem alienae facundiae eguisse. nam dictator Caesar summis oratoribus aemulus; et Augusto prompta ac profluens, quae deceret principem, eloquentia fuit. Tiberius artem quoque callebat qua verba expenderet, tum validus sensibus aut consulto ambiguus. etiam G. Caesaris turbata mens vim dicendi non corrupit. nec in Claudio, quoties meditata dissereret, elegantiam requireres. Nero puerilibus statim annis vividum animum in alia detorsit: caelare, pingere, cantus aut regimen equorum exercere; et aliquando carminibus pangendis inesse sibi elementa doctrinae ostendebat. ^13.4 At Tiridates pudore et metu, ne, si concessisset obsidioni, nihil opis in ipso videretur, si prohiberet, impeditis locis seque et equestris copias inligaret, statuit postremo ostendere aciem et dato die proelium incipere vel simulatione fugae locum fraudi parare. igitur repente agmen Romanum circumfundit, non ignaro duce nostro, qui viae pariter et pugnae composuerat exercitum. latere dextro tertia legio, sinistro sexta incedebat, mediis decimanorum delectis; recepta inter ordines impedimenta, et tergum mille equites tuebantur, quibus iusserat ut instantibus comminus resisterent, refugos non sequerentur. in cornibus pedes sagittarius et cetera manus equitum ibat, productiore cornu sinistro per ima collium, ut, si hostis intravisset, fronte simul et sinu exciperetur. adsultare ex diverso Tiridates, non usque ad ictum teli, sed tum minitans, tum specie trepidantis, si laxare ordines et diversos consectari posset. ubi nihil temeritate solutum, nec amplius quam decurio equitum audentius progressus et sagittis confixus ceteros ad obsequium exemplo firmaverat, propinquis iam tenebris abscessit. ^13.4 Ceterum peractis tristitiae imitamentis curiam ingressus et de auctoritate patrum et consensu militum praefatus, consilia sibi et exempla capessendi egregie imperii memora- vit, neque iuventam armis civilibus aut domesticis discordiis imbutam; nulla odia, nullas iniurias nec cupidinem ultionis adferre. tum formam futuri principatus praescripsit, ea maxime declis quorum recens flagrabat invidia. non enim se negotiorum omnium iudicem fore, ut clausis unam intra domum accusatoribus et reis paucorum potentia grassaretur; nihil in penatibus suis venale aut ambitioni pervium; discretam domum et rem publicam. teneret antiqua munia senatus, consulum tribunalibus Italia et publicae provinciae adsisterent: illi patrum aditum praeberent, se mandatis exercitibus consulturum. ^13.5 Eodem anno crebris populi flagitationibus immodestiam publicanorum arguentis dubitavit Nero an cuncta vectigalia omitti iuberet idque pulcherrimum donum generi mortalium daret. sed impetum eius, multum prius laudata magnitudine animi, attinuere senatores, dissolutionem imperii docendo, si fructus quibus res publica sustineretur deminuerentur: quippe sublatis portoriis sequens ut tributorum abolitio expostularetur. plerasque vectigalium societates a consulibus et tribunis plebei constitutas acri etiam tum populi Romani libertate; reliqua mox ita provisa ut ratio quaestuum et necessitas erogationum inter se congrueret. temperandas plane publicanorum cupidines, ne per tot annos sine querela tolerata novis acerbitatibus ad invidiam verterent. ^13.5 Nec defuit fides, multaque arbitrio senatus constituta sunt: ne quis ad causam orandam mercede aut donis emeretur, ne designatis quaestoribus edendi gladiatores necessitas esset. quod quidem adversante Agrippina, tamquam acta Claudii subverterentur, obtinuere patres, qui in Palatium ob id vocabantur ut adstaret additis a tergo foribus velo discreta, quod visum arceret, auditus non adimeret. quin et legatis Armeniorum causam gentis apud Neronem orantibus escendere suggestum imperatoris et praesidere simul parabat, nisi ceteris pavore defixis Seneca admonuisset venienti matri occurreret. ita specie pietatis obviam itum dedecori. ^13.11 Claudio Nerone L. Antistio consulibus cum in acta principum iurarent magistratus, in sua acta collegam Antistium iurare prohibuit, magnis patrum laudibus, ut iuvenilis animus levium quoque rerum gloria sublatus maiores continuaret. secutaque lenitas in Plautium Lateranum quem ob adulterium Messalinae ordine demotum reddidit senatui, clementiam suam obstringens crebris orationibus quas Seneca, testificando quam honesta praeciperet vel iactandi ingenii, voce principis vulgabat. ^13.17 Nox eadem necem Britannici et rogum coniunxit, proviso ante funebri paratu, qui modicus fuit. in campo tamen Martis sepultus est adeo turbidis imbribus, ut vulgus iram deum portendi crediderit adversus facinus cui plerique etiam hominum ignoscebant, antiquas fratrum discordias et insociabile regnum aestimantes. tradunt plerique eorum temporum scriptores crebris ante exitium diebus illusum isse pueritiae Britannici Neronem, ut iam non praematura neque saeva mors videri queat, quamvis inter sacra mensae, ne tempore quidem ad complexum sororum dato, ante oculos inimici properata sit in illum supremum Claudiorum sanguinem, stupro prius quam veneno pollutum. festinationem exequiarum edicto Caesar defendit, ita maioribus institutum referens, subtrahere oculis acerba funera neque laudationibus aut pompa detinere. ceterum et sibi amisso fratris auxilio reliquas spes in re publica sitas, et tanto magis fovendum patribus populoque principem qui unus superesset e familia summum ad fastigium genita. ^13.19 Nihil rerum mortalium tam instabile ac fluxum est quam fama potentiae non sua vi nixae. statim relictum Agrippinae limen: nemo solari, nemo adire praeter paucas feminas, amore an odio incertas. ex quibus erat Iunia Silana, quam matrimonio C. Sili a Messalina depulsam supra rettuli, insignis genere forma lascivia, et Agrippinae diu percara, mox occultis inter eas offensionibus, quia Sextium Africanum nobilem iuvenem a nuptiis Silanae deterruerat Agrippina, impudicam et vergentem annis dictitans, non ut Africanum sibi seponeret, sed ne opibus et orbitate Silanae maritus poteretur. illa spe ultionis oblata parat accusatores ex clientibus suis, Iturium et Calvisium, non vetera et saepius iam audita deferens, quod Britannici mortem lugeret aut Octaviae iniurias evulgaret, sed destinavisse eam Rubellium Plautum, per maternam originem pari ac Nero gradu a divo Augusto, ad res novas extollere coniugioque eius et imperio rem publicam rursus invadere. haec Iturius et Calvisius Atimeto, Domitiae Neronis amitae liberto, aperiunt—qui laetus oblatis (quippe inter Agrippinam et Domitiam infensa aemulatio exercebatur) Paridem histrionem, libertum et ipsum Domitiae, impulit ire propere crimenque atrociter deferre.' "^13.21 Sic lenito principis metu et luce orta itur ad Agrippinam ut nosceret obiecta dissolveretque vel poenas lueret. Burrus iis mandatis Seneca coram fungebatur; aderant et ex libertis arbitri sermonis. deinde a Burro, postquam crimina et auctores exposuit, minaciter actum. et Agrippina ferociae memor 'non miror' inquit 'Silanam, num- quam edito partu, matrum adfectus ignotos habere; neque enim proinde a parentibus liberi quam ab impudica adulteri mutantur. nec si Iturius et Calvisius adesis omnibus fortunis novissimam suscipiendae accusationis operam anui rependunt, ideo aut mihi infamia parricidii aut Caesari conscientia subeunda est. nam Domitiae inimicitiis gratias agerem, si benevolentia mecum in Neronem meum certaret: nunc per concubinum Atimetum et histrionem Paridem quasi scaenae fabulas componit. Baiarum suarum piscinas extollebat, cum meis consiliis adoptio et proconsulare ius et designatio consulatus et cetera apiscendo imperio praepararentur. aut existat qui cohortis in urbe temptatas, qui provinciarum fidem labefactatam, denique servos vel libertos ad scelus corruptos arguat. vivere ego Britannico potiente rerum poteram? ac si Plautus aut quis alius rem publicam iudicaturus obtinuerit, desunt scilicet mihi accusatores qui non verba impatientia caritatis aliquando incauta, sed ea crimina obiciant quibus nisi a filio absolvi non possim.' commotis qui aderant ultroque spiritus eius mitigantibus, conloquium filii exposcit, ubi nihil pro innocentia, quasi diffideret, nec de beneficiis, quasi exprobraret, disseruit, sed ultionem in delatores et praemia amicis obtinuit." ^13.58 Eodem anno Ruminalem arborem in comitio, quae octingentos et triginta ante annos Remi Romulique infantiam texerat, mortuis ramalibus et arescente trunco deminutam prodigii loco habitum est, donec in novos fetus revivesceret. ^14.2 Nerone quartum Cornelio Cosso consulibus quinquennale ludicrum Romae institutum est ad morem Graeci certaminis, varia fama, ut cuncta ferme nova. quippe erant qui Gn. quoque Pompeium incusatum a senioribus ferrent quod mansuram theatri sedem posuisset. nam antea subitariis gradibus et scaena 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, quoties praetores 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 iuventus, gymnasia et otia et turpis amores exercendo, principe et senatu auctoribus, qui non modo licentiam vitiis permiserint, sed vim adhibeant ut proceres Romani specie orationum et carminum scaena polluantur. quid superesse nisi ut corpora quoque nudent et caestus adsumant easque pugnas pro militia et armis meditentur? an iustitiam auctum iri et decurias equitum egregium iudicandi munus expleturos, si fractos sonos et dulcedinem vocum perite audissent? noctes quoque dedecori adiectas ne quod tempus pudori relinquatur, sed coetu promisco, quod perditissimus quisque per diem concupiverit, per tenebras audeat. ^14.2 Tradit Cluvius ardore retinendae Agrippinam potentiae eo usque provectam ut medio diei, cum id temporis Nero per vinum et epulas incalesceret, offerret se saepius temulento comptam et incesto paratam; iamque lasciva oscula et praenuntias flagitii blanditias adnotantibus proximis, Senecam contra muliebris inlecebras subsidium a femina petivisse, immissamque Acten libertam quae simul suo periculo et infamia Neronis anxia deferret pervulgatum esse incestum gloriante matre, nec toleraturos milites profani principis imperium. Fabius Rusticus non Agrippinae sed Neroni cupitum id memorat eiusdemque libertae astu disiectum. sed quae Cluvius eadem ceteri quoque auctores prodidere, et fama huc inclinat, seu concepit animo tantum immanitatis Agrippina, seu credibilior novae libidinis meditatio in ea visa est quae puellaribus annis stuprum cum Lepido spe dominationis admiserat, pari cupidine usque ad libita Pallantis provoluta et exercita ad omne flagitium patrui nuptiis. ^14.3 Igitur Nero vitare secretos eius congressus, abscedentem in hortos aut Tusculanum vel Antiatem in agrum laudare quod otium capesseret. postremo, ubicumque haberetur, praegravem 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 iam Britannici exitio; et ministros temptare arduum videbatur mulieris usu scelerum adversus insidias intentae; atque ipsa praesumendo remedia munierat corpus. ferrum et caedes quonam modo occultaretur nemo reperiebat; et ne quis illi tanto facinori delectus iussa sperneret metuebat. obtulit ingenium Anicetus libertus, classi apud Misenum praefectus et pueritiae Neronis educator ac mutuis odiis Agrippinae invisus. ergo navem posse componi docet cuius 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 adsignet quod venti et fluctus deliquerint? additurum principem defunctae templum et aras et cetera ostentandae pietati. ^14.3 Stabat pro litore diversa acies, densa armis virisque, intercursantibus feminis; in modum Furiarum veste ferali, crinibus deiectis faces praeferebant; Druidaeque circum, preces diras sublatis ad caelum manibus fundentes, novitate aspectus perculere militem ut quasi haerentibus membris immobile corpus vulneribus praeberent. dein cohortationibus ducis et se ipsi stimulantes ne muliebre et fanaticum agmen pavescerent, inferunt signa sternuntque obvios et igni suo involvunt. praesidium posthac impositum victis excisique luci saevis superstitionibus sacri: nam cruore captivo adolere aras et hominum fibris consulere deos fas habebant. haec agenti Suetonio repentina defectio provinciae nuntiatur. ^14.4 Eodem anno Romae insignia scelera, alterum senatoris, servili alterum audacia, admissa sunt. Domitius Balbus erat praetorius, simul longa senecta, simul orbitate et pecunia insidiis obnoxius. ei propinquus Valerius Fabianus, capessendis honoribus destinatus, subdidit testamentum adscitis 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 praecipuum malorum credebat. igitur Fabianus tabulas sociis quos memoravi et aliis minus inlustribus obsignat. quod apud patres convictum et Fabianus Antoniusque cum Rufino et Terentio lege Cornelia damtur. Marcellum memoria maiorum et preces Caesaris poenae magis quam infamiae exemere. ^14.4 Placuit sollertia, tempore etiam iuta, quando Quinquatruum festos dies apud Baias 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 villae nomen est quae promunturium Misenum inter et Baianum lacum flexo mari adluitur. stabat inter alias navis ornatior, tamquam 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 extitisse proditorem et Agrippinam auditis insidiis, an crederet ambiguam, gestamine sellae Baias pervectam. ibi blandimentum sublevavit metum: comiter excepta superque ipsum conlocata. iam pluribus sermonibus modo familiaritate iuvenili Nero et rursus adductus, quasi seria consociaret, tracto in longum convictu, prosequitur abeuntem, artius oculis et pectori haerens, sive explenda simulatione, seu periturae matris supremus aspectus quamvis ferum animum retinebat. ^14.5 Haud dispari crimine Fabricius Veiento conflictatus est, quod multa et probrosa in patres et sacerdotes compo- suisset iis libris quibus nomen codicillorum dederat. adiciebat Tullius Geminus accusator venditata ab eo munera principis et adipiscendorum honorum ius. quae causa Neroni fuit suscipiendi iudicii, convictumque Veientonem Italia depulit et libros exuri iussit, conquisitos lectitatosque donec cum periculo parabantur: mox licentia habendi oblivionem attulit. ^14.5 Noctem sideribus inlustrem et placido mari quietam quasi convincendum ad scelus dii praebuere. nec multum erat progressa navis, duobus e numero familiarium Agrippinam comitantibus, ex quis Crepereius Gallus haud procul gubernaculis adstabat, Acerronia super pedes cubitantis reclinis paenitentiam filii et reciperatam matris gratiam per gaudium memorabat, cum dato signo ruere tectum loci multo plumbo grave, pressusque Crepereius et statim exanimatus est: Agrippina et Acerronia eminentibus lecti parietibus ac forte validioribus quam ut oneri cederent protectae sunt. nec dissolutio navigii sequebatur, turbatis omnibus et quod plerique ignari etiam conscios impediebant. visum dehinc remigibus unum in latus inclinare atque ita navem submergere: sed neque ipsis promptus in rem subitam consensus, et alii contra nitentes dedere facultatem lenioris in mare iactus. verum Acerronia, imprudentia dum se Agrippinam esse utque subveniretur matri principis clamitat, contis et remis et quae fors obtulerat navalibus telis conficitur: Agrippina silens eoque minus adgnita (unum tamen vulnus umero excepit) do, deinde occursu lenunculorum Lucrinum in lacum vecta villae suae infertur. ^14.6 Igitur accepto patrum consulto, postquam cuncta scelerum suorum pro egregiis accipi videt, exturbat Octaviam, sterilem dictitans; exim Poppaeae coniungitur. ea diu paelex et adulteri Neronis, mox mariti potens, quendam ex ministris Octaviae impulit servilem ei amorem obicere. destinaturque reus cognomento Eucaerus, natione Alexandrinus, canere tibiis doctus. actae ob id de ancillis quaestiones et vi tormentorum victis quibusdam ut falsa adnuerent, plures perstitere sanctitatem dominae tueri; ex quibus una instanti Tigellino castiora esse muliebria Octaviae respondit quam os eius. movetur tamen primo civilis discidii specie domumque Burri, praedia 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 fortunae pauciora pericula sunt. his tamquam Nero paenitentia flagitii coniugem revocarit Octaviam. ^14.6 Illic reputans ideo se fallacibus litteris accitam et honore praecipuo habitam, quodque litus iuxta non ventis acta, non saxis impulsa navis summa sui parte veluti terrestre machinamentum concidisset; observans etiam Acerroniae necem, simul suum vulnus aspiciens, solum insidiarum remedium esse, si non intellegerentur; misitque libertum Agerinum qui nuntiaret filio benignitate deum et fortuna eius evasisse gravem casum; orare ut quamvis periculo matris exterritus visendi curam differret; sibi ad praesens quiete opus. atque interim securitate simulata medicamina vulneri et fomenta corpori adhibet; testamentum Acerroniae requiri bonaque obsignari iubet, id tantum non per simulationem. ^14.7 At Neroni nuntios patrati facinoris opperienti adfertur evasisse ictu levi sauciam et hactenus adito discrimine ne auctor dubitaretur. tum pavore exanimis et iam iamque adfore obtestans vindictae properam, sive servitia armaret vel militem accenderet, sive ad senatum et populum pervaderet, naufragium et vulnus et interfectos amicos obiciendo: quod contra subsidium sibi? nisi quid Burrus et Seneca; quos expergens statim acciverat, incertum an et ante gnaros. igitur longum utriusque silentium, ne inriti dissuaderent, an eo descensum credebant ut, nisi praeveniretur Agrippina, pereundum Neroni esset. post Seneca hactenus promptius ut respiceret Burrum ac sciscitaretur an militi imperanda caedes esset. ille praetorianos toti Caesarum domui obstrictos memoresque Germanici nihil adversus progeniem eius 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 iussa. ipse audito venisse missu Agrippinae nuntium Agerinum, scaenam ultro criminis parat gladiumque, dum mandata perfert, abicit inter pedes eius, tum quasi deprehenso vincla inici iubet, ut exitium principis molitam matrem et pudore deprehensi sceleris sponte mortem sumpsisse confingeret.' "^14.8 Interim vulgato Agrippinae periculo, quasi casu evenisset, ut quisque acceperat, decurrere ad litus. hi molium obiectus, 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; adfluere ingens multitudo cum luminibus, atque ubi incolumem esse pernotuit, ut ad gratandum sese expedire, donec aspectu armati et minitantis agminis disiecti sunt. Anicetus villam statione circumdat refractaque ianua obvios servorum abripit, donec ad foris cubiculi veniret; cui pauci adstabant, ceteris terrore inrumpentium exterritis. cubiculo modicum lumen inerat et ancillarum una, magis ac magis anxia Agrippina quod nemo a filio ac ne Agerinus quidem: aliam fore laetae rei faciem; nunc solitudinem ac repentinos strepitus et extremi mali indicia. abeunte dehinc ancilla 'tu quoque me deseris' prolocuta respicit Anicetum trierarcho Herculeio 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 eius adflixit. iam in mortem centurioni ferrum destringenti protendens uterum 'ventrem feri' exclamavit multisque vulneribus confecta est." "^14.9 Haec consensu produntur. aspexeritne matrem exanimem Nero et formam corporis eius laudaverit, sunt qui tradiderint, sunt qui abnuant. cremata est nocte eadem convivali lecto et exequiis vilibus; neque, dum Nero rerum potiebatur, congesta aut clausa humus. mox domesticorum cura levem tumulum accepit, viam Miseni propter et villam Caesaris dictatoris quae subiectos sinus editissima prospectat. accenso rogo libertus eius 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 Chaldaei fore ut imperaret matremque occideret; atque illa 'occidat' inquit, 'dum imperet.'" ^14.11 Adiciebat crimina longius repetita, quod consortium imperii iuraturasque in feminae verba praetorias cohortis idemque dedecus senatus et populi speravisset, ac postquam frustra habita sit, infensa militi patribusque et plebi dissuasisset donativum et congiarium periculaque viris inlustribus struxisset. quanto suo labore perpetratum ne inrumperet curiam, ne gentibus externis responsa daret. temporum quoque Claudianorum obliqua insectatione cuncta eius dominationis flagitia in matrem transtulit, publica fortuna extinctam referens. namque et naufragium narrabat: quod fortuitum fuisse quis adeo hebes inveniretur ut crederet? aut a muliere naufraga missum cum telo unum qui cohortis et classis imperatoris perfringeret? ergo non iam Nero, cuius immanitas omnium questus antibat, sed Seneca adverso rumore erat quod oratione tali confessionem scripsisset. ^14.12 Miro tamen certamine procerum decernuntur supplicationes apud omnia pulvinaria, utque Quinquatrus quibus apertae insidiae essent ludis annuis celebrarentur; aureum Minervae simulacrum in curia et iuxta principis imago statuerentur; dies natalis Agrippinae inter nefastos esset. Thrasea Paetus silentio vel brevi adsensu priores adulationes transmittere solitus exiit tum senatu ac sibi causam periculi fecit, ceteris libertatis initium non praebuit. prodigia quoque crebra et inrita intercessere: anguem enixa mulier et alia in concubitu mariti fulmine exanimata; iam sol repente obscu- ratus et tactae de caelo quattuordecim urbis regiones. quae adeo sine cura deum eveniebant ut multos post annos Nero imperium et scelera continuaverit. ceterum quo gravaret invidiam matris eaque demota auctam lenitatem suam testificaretur, feminas inlustris Iuniam et Calpurniam, praetura functos Valerium Capitonem et Licinium Gabolum sedibus patriis reddidit, ab Agrippina olim pulsos. etiam Lolliae Paulinae cineres reportari sepulcrumque extrui permisit; quosque ipse nuper relegaverat, Iturium et Calvisium poena exolvit. nam Silana fato functa erat, longinquo ab exilio Tarentum regressa labante iam Agrippina, cuius inimicitiis conciderat, vel mitigata. ^14.13 Tamen cunctari in oppidis Campaniae, quonam modo urbem ingrederetur, an obsequium senatus, an studia plebis reperiret anxius: contra deterrimus quisque, quorum non alia regia fecundior extitit, invisum Agrippinae nomen et morte eius accensum populi favorem disserunt: iret intrepidus et venerationem sui coram experiretur; simul praegredi exposcunt. et promptiora quam promiserant inveniunt, obvias tribus, festo cultu senatum, coniugum ac liberorum agmina per sexum et aetatem disposita, extructos, qua incederet, spectaculorum gradus, quo modo triumphi visuntur. hinc superbus ac publici servitii victor Capitolium adiit, grates exolvit seque in omnis libidines effudit quas male coercitas qualiscumque matris reverentia tardaverat. ^14.14 Vetus illi cupido erat curriculo quadrigarum insistere nec minus foedum 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 adstare non modo Graecis in urbibus sed Romana apud templa numen praecipuum et praescium. nec iam sisti poterat, cum Senecae 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, laetum. ceterum evulgatus pudor non satietatem, ut rebantur, sed incitamentum attulit. ratusque dedecus molliri, si pluris foedasset, nobilium familiarum posteros egestate venalis in scaenam deduxit; quos fato perfunctos ne nominatim tradam, maioribus eorum tribuendum puto. nam et eius flagitium est qui pecuniam ob delicta potius dedit quam ne delinquerent. notos quoque equites Romanos operas arenae promittere subegit donis ingentibus, nisi quod merces ab eo qui iubere potest vim necessitatis adfert. ^14.15 Ne tamen adhuc publico theatro dehonestaretur, instituit ludos Iuvenalium vocabulo, in quos passim nomina data. non nobilitas cuiquam, non aetas aut acti honores impedimento, quo minus Graeci Latinive histrionis artem exercerent usque ad gestus modosque haud virilis. quin et feminae inlustres deformia meditari; extructaque apud nemus, quod navali stagno circumposuit Augustus, conventicula et cauponae et posita veno inritamenta luxui. dabanturque stipes quas boni necessitate, intemperantes gloria consumerent. inde gliscere flagitia et infamia, nec ulla moribus olim corruptis plus libidinum circumdedit quam illa conluvies. vix artibus honestis pudor retinetur, nedum inter certamina vitiorum pudicitia aut modestia aut quicquam probi moris reservaretur. postremus ipse scaenam incedit, multa cura temptans citharam et praemeditans adsistentibus phonascis. accesserat cohors militum, centuriones tribunique et maerens Burrus ac laudans. tuncque primum conscripti sunt equites Romani cognomento Augustianorum, aetate ac robore conspicui et pars ingenio procaces, alii in spem potentiae. ii dies ac noctes plausibus personare, formam principis vocemque deum vocabulis appellantes; quasi per virtutem clari honoratique agere. ^14.16 Ne tamen ludicrae tantum imperatoris artes notescerent, carminum quoque studium adfectavit, contractis quibus aliqua pangendi facultas necdum insignis erat. hi cenati considere simul et adlatos vel ibidem repertos versus conectere atque ipsius verba quoquo modo prolata supplere, quod species ipsa carminum docet, non impetu et instinctu nec ore uno fluens. etiam sapientiae doctoribus tempus impertiebat post epulas, utque contraria adseverantium discordia frueretur. nec deerant qui ore vultuque tristi inter oblectamenta regia spectari cuperent. ^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. ^14.18 Motus senatu et Pedius Blaesus, accusantibus Cyrenensibus violatum ab eo thesaurum Aesculapii dilectumque militarem pretio et ambitione corruptum. idem Cyrenenses reum agebant Acilium Strabonem, praetoria potestate usum et missum disceptatorem a Claudio agrorum, quos regis Apionis quondam avitos et populo Romano cum regno relictos proximus quisque possessor invaserant, diutinaque licentia et iniuria quasi iure et aequo nitebantur. igitur abiudicatis agris orta adversus iudicem invidia; et senatus ignota sibi esse mandata Claudii et consulendum principem respondit. Nero probata Strabonis sententia se nihilo minus subvenire sociis et usurpata concedere scripsit. ^14.41 Perculit is dies Pompeium quoque Aelianum, iuvenem quaestorium, tamquam flagitiorum Fabiani gnarum, eique Italia et Hispania in qua ortus erat interdictum est. pari ignominia Valerius Ponticus adficitur quod reos ne apud praefectum urbis arguerentur ad praetorem detulisset, interim specie legum, mox praevaricando ultionem elusurus. additur senatus consulto, qui talem operam emptitasset vendidissetve perinde poena teneretur ac publico iudicio calumniae condemnatus. ^14.48 P. Mario L. Afinio consulibus Antistius praetor, 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, maiestatis delatus est. tum primum revocata ea lex; credebaturque haud perinde exitium Antistio quam imperatori gloriam quaeri, ut condemnatum a senatu intercessione tribunicia morti eximeret. et cum Ostorius nihil audivisse pro testimonio dixisset, adversis testibus creditum; censuitque Iunius Marullus consul designatus adimendam reo praeturam necandumque more maiorum. ceteris inde adsentientibus Paetus Thrasea, multo cum honore Caesaris et acerrime increpito Antistio, non quidquid nocens reus pati mereretur, id egregio sub principe et nulla necessitate obstricto senatui statuendum disseruit: carnificem et laqueum pridem abolita et esse poenas legibus constitutas quibus sine iudicum saevitia et temporum infamia supplicia decernerentur. quin in insula publicatis bonis quo longius sontem vitam traxisset, eo privatim miseriorem et publicae clementiae maximum exemplum futurum. ^14.49 Libertas Thraseae servitium aliorum rupit et postquam discessionem consul permiserat, pedibus in sententiam eius iere, paucis exceptis, in quibus adulatione promptissimus fuit A. Vitellius, optimum quemque iurgio lacessens et respondenti reticens, ut pavida ingenia solent. at consules perficere decretum senatus non ausi de consensu scripsere Caesari. ille inter pudorem et iram cunctatus, postremo rescripsit nulla iniuria provocatum Antistium gravissimas in principem contumelias dixisse; earum ultionem a patribus postulatam et pro magnitudine delicti poenam 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 quae probaverant deseruere, pars, ne principem obiecisse invidiae viderentur, plures numero tuti, Thrasea sueta firmitudine animi et ne gloria intercideret.' "^14.53 At Seneca crimitium non ignarus, prodentibus iis quibus aliqua honesti cura et familiaritatem eius magis asperte Caesare, tempus sermoni orat et accepto ita incipit: 'quartus decimus annus est, Caesar, ex quo spei tuae admotus sum, octavus ut imperium obtines: medio temporis tantum honorum atque opum in me cumulasti ut nihil felicitati meae desit nisi moderatio eius. utar magnis exemplis nec meae fortunae sed tuae. abavus tuus Augustus Marco Agrippae Mytilenense secretum, C. Maecenati urbe in ipsa velut peregrinum otium permisit; quorum alter bellorum socius, alter Romae pluribus laboribus iactatus ampla quidem sed pro ingentibus meritis praemia acceperant. ego quid aliud munificentiae tuae adhibere potui quam studia, ut sic dixerim, in umbra educata, et quibus claritudo venit, quod iuventae tuae rudimentis adfuisse videor, grande huius rei pretium. at tu gratiam immensam, innumeram pecuniam circumdedisti adeo ut plerumque intra me ipse volvam: egone equestri et provinciali loco ortus proceribus civitatis adnumeror? inter nobilis et longa decora praeferentis novitas mea enituit? ubi est animus ille modicis contentus? talis hortos extruit et per haec suburbana incedit et tantis agrorum spatiis, tam lato faenore exuberat? una defensio occurrit quod muneribus tuis obniti non debui." "^14.55 Ad quae Nero sic ferme respondit: 'quod meditatae orationi tuae statim occurram id primum tui muneris habeo, qui me non tantum praevisa sed subita expedire docuisti. abavus meus Augustus Agrippae et Maecenati usurpare otium post labores concessit, sed in ea ipse aetate cuius auctoritas tueretur quidquid illud et qualecumque tribuisset; ac tamen neutrum datis a se praemiis exuit. bello et periculis meruerant; in iis enim iuventa Augusti versata est: nec mihi tela et manus tuae defuissent in armis agenti; sed quod praesens condicio poscebat, ratione consilio praeceptis pueritiam, dein iuventam meam fovisti. et tua quidem erga me munera, dum vita suppetet, aeterna erunt: quae a me habes, horti et faenus et villae, casibus obnoxia sunt. ac licet multa videantur, plerique haudquaquam artibus tuis pares plura tenuerunt. pudet referre libertinos qui ditiores spectantur: unde etiam mihi rubori est quod praecipuus caritate nondum omnis fortuna antecellis." "^14.56 Verum et tibi valida aetas 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 quaesivit, tantum in te mea liberalitas explere non potest. quin, si qua in parte lubricum adulescentiae nostrae declinat, revocas ornatumque robur subsidio impensius regis? non tua moderatio, si reddideris pecuniam, nec quies, si reliqueris principem, sed mea avaritia, meae 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 adicit complexum et oscula, factus natura et consuetudine exercitus velare odium fallacibus blanditiis. Seneca, qui finis omnium cum domite sermonum, grates agit: sed instituta prioris potentiae commutat, prohibet coetus salutantium, vitat comitantis, rarus per urbem, quasi valetudine infensa aut sapientiae studiis domi attineretur." '^14.57 Perculso Seneca promptum fuit Rufum Faenium imminuere Agrippinae amicitiam in eo crimitibus. validiorque in dies Tigellinus et malas artes, quibus solis pollebat, gratiores ratus si principem societate scelerum obstringeret, metus eius rimatur; compertoque Plautum et Sullam maxime timeri, Plautum in Asiam, Sullam in Galliam Narbonensem nuper amotos, nobilitatem eorum et propinquos huic Orientis, illi Germaniae exercitus commemorat. non se, ut Burrum, diversas spes sed solam incolumitatem Neronis spectare; cui caveri utcumque ab urbanis insidiis praesenti opera: longinquos motus quonam modo comprimi posse? erectas Gallias ad nomen dictatorium nec minus suspensos Asiae populos claritudine avi Drusi. Sullam inopem, unde praecipuam audaciam, et simulatorem segnitiae dum temeritati locum reperiret. Plautum magnis opibus ne fingere quidem cupidinem otii sed veterum Romanorum imitamenta praeferre, adsumpta etiam Stoicorum adrogantia sectaque quae turbidos et negotiorum adpetentis faciat. nec ultra mora. Sulla sexto die pervectis Massiliam percussoribus ante metum et rumorem interficitur cum epulandi causa discumberet. relatum caput eius inlusit Nero tamquam praematura canitie deforme.' "^14.59 Sed Plautum ea non movere, sive nullam opem providebat inermis atque exul, seu taedio ambiguae spei, an amore coniugis et liberorum, quibus placabiliorem fore principem rebatur nulla sollicitudine turbatum. sunt qui alios a socero nuntios venisse ferant, tamquam nihil atrox immineret; doctoresque sapientiae, Coeranum Graeci, Musonium Tusci generis, constantiam opperiendae mortis pro incerta et trepida vita suasisse. 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, praeposuerat. caput interfecti relatum; cuius aspectu (ipsa principis verba referam) 'cur', inquit, 'Nero' et posito metu nuptias Poppaeae ob eius modi terrores dilatas maturare parat Octaviamque coniugem amoliri, quamvis modeste ageret, nomine patris et studiis populi gravem. sed ad senatum litteras misit de caede Sullae Plautique haud confessus, verum utriusque turbidum ingenium esse et sibi incolumitatem rei publicae magna cura haberi. decretae eo nomine supplicationes utque Sulla et Plautus senatu moverentur, gravioribus iam ludibriis quam malis." '^14.61 Exim laeti Capitolium scandunt deosque tandem venerantur. effigies Poppaeae proruunt, Octaviae imagines gestant umeris, spargunt floribus foroque ac templis statuunt. †itur etiam in principis laudes repetitum venerantium†. iamque et Palatium multitudine et clamoribus complebant, cum emissi militum globi verberibus et intento ferro turbatos disiecere. mutataque quae per seditionem verterant et Poppaeae honos repositus est. quae semper odio, tum et metu atrox ne aut vulgi acrior vis ingrueret aut Nero inclinatione populi mutaretur, provoluta genibus eius, non eo loci res suas agi ut de matrimonio certet, quamquam id sibi vita potius, sed vitam ipsam in extremum adductam a clientelis et servitiis Octaviae quae plebis sibi nomen indiderint, ea in pace ausi quae 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 cuius nutum absentis tumultus cierentur. quod alioquin suum delictum? quam cuiusquam offensionem? an quia veram progeniem penatibus Caesarum datura sit? malle populum Romanum tibicinis Aegyptii subolem imperatorio fastigio induci? denique, si id rebus conducat, libens quam coactus acciret dominam, vel consuleret securitati. iusta ultione et modicis remediis primos motus consedisse: at si desperent uxorem Neronis fore Octaviam, illi maritum daturos. ^14.62 Varius sermo et ad metum atque iram accommodatus terruit simul audientem et accendit. sed parum valebat suspicio in servo et quaestionibus ancillarum elusa erat. ergo confessionem alicuius quaeri placet cui rerum quoque novarum crimen adfingeretur. et visus idoneus maternae necis patrator Anicetus, classi apud Misenum, ut memoravi, praefectus, levi post admissum scelus gratia, dein graviore odio, quia malorum facinorum ministri quasi exprobrantes aspiciuntur. igitur accitum eum Caesar operae prioris admonet: solum incolumitati principis adversus insidiantem matrem subvenisse; locum haud minoris gratiae instare si coniugem infensam depelleret. nec manu aut telo opus: fateretur Octaviae adulterium. occulta quidem ad praesens sed magna ei praemia et secessus amoenos promittit, vel, si negavisset, necem intentat. ille insita vaecordia et facilitate priorum flagitiorum plura etiam quam iussum erat fingit fateturque apud amicos quos velut consilio adhibuerat princeps. tum in Sardiniam pellitur ubi non inops exilium toleravit et fato obiit. ^14.63 At Nero praefectum in spem sociandae classis corruptum et incusatae paulo ante sterilitatis oblitus, abactos partus conscientia libidinum, eaque sibi comperta edicto memorat insulaque Pandateria Octaviam claudit. non alia exul visentium oculos maiore misericordia adfecit. meminerant adhuc quidam Agrippinae a Tiberio, recentior Iuliae memoria obversabatur a Claudio pulsae: sed illis robur aetatis adfuerat; laeta aliqua viderant et praesentem saevitiam melioris olim fortunae recordatione adlevabant. huic primum nuptiarum dies loco funeris fuit, deductae in domum in qua nihil nisi luctuosum haberet, erepto per venenum patre et statim fratre; tum ancilla domina validior et Poppaea non nisi in perniciem uxoris nupta, postremo crimen omni exitio gravius. ^14.64 Ac puella vicesimo aetatis anno inter centuriones et milites, praesagio malorum iam vitae exempta, nondum tamen morte adquiescebat. paucis dehinc interiectis diebus mori iubetur, cum iam viduam se et tantum sororem testaretur communisque Germanicos et postremo Agrippinae nomen cieret, qua incolumi infelix quidem matrimonium sed sine exitio pertulisset. restringitur vinclis venaeque eius per omnis artus exolvuntur; et quia pressus pavore sanguis tardius labebatur, praefervidi balnei vapore enecatur. additurque atrocior saevitia quod caput amputatum latumque in urbem Poppaea vidit. dona ob haec templis decreta quem ad finem memorabimus? quicumque casus temporum illorum nobis vel aliis auctoribus noscent, praesumptum habeant, quoties fugas et caedes iussit princeps, toties grates deis actas, quaeque rerum secundarum olim, tum publicae cladis insignia fuisse. neque tamen silebimus si quod senatus consultum adulatione novum aut patientia postremum fuit. ^1
5.22 Magno adsensu celebrata sententia. non tamen senatus consultum perfici potuit, abnuentibus consulibus ea de re relatum. mox auctore principe sanxere ne quis ad concilium sociorum referret agendas apud senatum pro praetoribus prove consulibus grates, neu quis ea legatione fungeretur. Isdem consulibus gymnasium ictu fulminis conflagravit effigiesque in eo Neronis ad informe aes liquefacta. et motu terrae celebre Campaniae oppidum Pompei magna ex parte proruit; defunctaque virgo Vestalis Laelia, in cuius locum Cornelia ex familia Cossorum capta est. ^1
5.23 Memmio Regulo et Verginio Rufo consulibus natam sibi ex Poppaea filiam Nero ultra mortale gaudium accepit appellavitque Augustam dato et Poppaeae eodem cognomento. locus puerperio colonia Antium fuit, ubi ipse generatus erat. iam senatus uterum Poppaeae commendaverat dis votaque publice susceperat, quae multiplicata exolutaque. et additae supplicationes templumque fecunditatis et certamen ad exemplar Actiacae religionis decretum, utque Fortunarum effigies aureae in solio Capitolini Iovis locarentur, ludicrum circense, ut Iuliae genti apud Bovillas, ita Claudiae Domitiaeque apud Antium ederetur. quae fluxa fuere, quartum intra mensem defuncta infante. rursusque exortae adulationes censentium honorem divae et pulvinar aedemque et sacerdotem. atque ipse ut laetitiae, ita maeroris immodicus egit. adnotatum est, omni senatu Antium sub recentem partum effuso, Thraseam prohibitum immoto animo praenuntiam imminentis caedis contumeliam excepisse. secutam dehinc vocem Caesaris ferunt qua reconciliatum se Thraseae apud Senecam iactaverit ac Senecam Caesari gratulatum: unde gloria egregiis viris et pericula gliscebant. ^15.34 Illic, plerique ut arbitrabantur, triste, ut ipse, providum potius et secundis numinibus evenit: nam egresso qui adfuerat populo vacuum et sine ullius noxa theatrum conlapsum est. ergo per compositos cantus grates dis atque ipsam recentis casus fortunam celebrans petiturusque maris Hadriae traiectus apud Beneventum interim consedit, ubi gladiatorium munus a Vatinio celebre edebatur. Vatinius inter foedissima eius aulae ostenta fuit, sutrinae tabernae alumnus, corpore detorto, facetiis scurrilibus; primo in contumelias adsumptus, dehinc optimi cuiusque criminatione eo usque valuit ut gratia pecunia vi nocendi etiam malos praemineret. ^15.36 Nec multo post omissa in praesens Achaia (causae in incerto fuere) urbem revisit, provincias Orientis, maxime Aegyptum, secretis imaginationibus agitans. dehinc edicto testificatus non longam sui absentiam et cuncta in re publica perinde immota ac prospera fore, super ea profectione adiit Capitolium. illic veneratus deos, cum Vestae quoque templum inisset, repente cunctos per artus tremens, seu numine exterrente, seu facinorum recordatione numquam timore vacuus, deseruit inceptum, cunctas sibi curas amore patriae leviores dictitans. vidisse maestos civium vultus, audire secretas querimonias, quod tantum itineris aditurus esset, cuius ne modicos quidem egressus tolerarent, sueti adversum fortuita aspectu principis refoveri. ergo ut in privatis necessitudinibus proxima pignora praevalerent, ita populum Romanum vim plurimam habere parendumque retinenti. haec atque talia plebi volentia fuere, voluptatum cupidine et, quae praecipua cura est, rei frumentariae angustias, si abesset, metuenti. senatus et primores in incerto erant procul an coram atrocior haberetur: dehinc, quae natura magnis timoribus, deterius credebant quod evenerat. ^15.37 Ipse quo fidem adquireret nihil usquam perinde laetum sibi, publicis locis struere convivia totaque urbe quasi domo uti. et celeberrimae luxu famaque epulae fuere quas a Tigellino paratas ut exemplum referam, ne saepius eadem prodigentia narranda sit. igitur in stagno Agrippae fabricatus est ratem cui superpositum convivium navium aliarum tractu moveretur. naves auro et ebore distinctae, remiges- que exoleti per aetates et scientiam libidinum componebantur. volucris et feras diversis e terris et animalia maris Oceano abusque petiverat. crepidinibus stagni lupanaria adstabant inlustribus feminis completa et contra scorta visebantur nudis corporibus. iam gestus motusque obsceni; et postquam tenebrae incedebant, quantum iuxta nemoris et circumiecta tecta consonare cantu et luminibus clarescere. ipse per licita atque inlicita foedatus nihil flagitii reliquerat quo corruptior ageret, nisi paucos post dies uni ex illo contaminatorum grege (nomen Pythagorae fuit) in modum sollemnium coniugiorum denupsisset. inditum imperatori flammeum, missi auspices, dos et genialis torus et faces nuptiales, cuncta denique spectata quae etiam in femina nox operit. ^15.38 Sequitur clades, forte an dolo principis incertum (nam utrumque auctores prodidere), sed omnibus quae huic urbi per violentiam ignium acciderunt gravior atque atrocior. initium in ea parte circi ortum quae Palatino Caelioque montibus contigua est, ubi per tabernas, quibus id mercimonium inerat quo flamma alitur, simul coeptus ignis et statim validus ac vento citus longitudinem circi corripuit. neque enim domus munimentis saeptae vel templa muris cincta aut quid aliud morae interiacebat. impetu pervagatum incendium plana primum, deinde in edita adsurgens et rursus inferiora populando, antiit remedia velocitate mali et obnoxia urbe artis itineribus hucque et illuc flexis atque enormibus vicis, qualis vetus Roma fuit. ad hoc lamenta paventium feminarum, fessa aetate aut rudis pueritiae aetas, quique sibi quique aliis consulebant, dum trahunt invalidos aut opperiuntur, pars mora, pars festis, cuncta impediebant. et saepe dum in tergum respectant lateribus aut fronte circumveniebantur, vel si in proxima evaserant, illis quoque igni correptis, etiam quae longinqua crediderant in eodem casu reperiebant. postremo, quid vitarent quid peterent ambigui, complere vias, sterni per agros; quidam amissis omnibus fortunis, diurni quoque victus, alii caritate suorum, quos eripere nequiverant, quamvis patente effugio interiere. nec quisquam defendere audebat, crebris multorum minis restinguere prohibentium, et quia alii palam faces iaciebant atque esse sibi auctorem vociferabantur, sive ut raptus licentius exercerent seu iussu. ^15.39 Eo in tempore Nero Antii agens non ante in urbem regressus est quam domui eius, qua Palatium et Maecenatis hortos continuaverat, ignis propinquaret. neque tamen sisti potuit quin et Palatium et domus et cuncta circum haurirentur. sed solacium populo exturbato ac profugo campum Martis ac monumenta Agrippae, hortos quin etiam suos patefecit et subitaria aedificia extruxit quae multitudinem inopem acciperent; subvectaque utensilia ab Ostia et propinquis municipiis pretiumque frumenti minutum usque ad ternos nummos. quae quamquam popularia in inritum cadebant, quia pervaserat rumor ipso tempore flagrantis urbis inisse eum domesticam scaenam et cecinisse Troianum excidium, praesentia mala vetustis cladibus adsimulantem. ^15.41 Domuum et insularum et templorum quae amissa sunt numerum inire haud promptum fuerit: sed vetustissima religione, quod Servius Tullius Lunae et magna ara fanumque quae praesenti Herculi Arcas Evander sacraverat, aedesque Statoris Iovis vota Romulo Numaeque regia et delubrum Vestae cum Penatibus populi Romani exusta; iam opes tot victoriis quaesitae et Graecarum artium decora, exim monumenta ingeniorum antiqua et incorrupta, ut quamvis in tanta resurgentis urbis pulchritudine multa seniores meminerint quae reparari nequibant. fuere qui adnotarent xiiii Kal. Sextilis principium incendii huius ortum, et quo Senones captam urbem inflammaverint. alii eo usque cura progressi sunt ut totidem annos mensisque et dies inter utraque incendia numerent. ^15.42 Ceterum Nero usus est patriae ruinis extruxitque domum in qua haud proinde gemmae et aurum miraculo essent, solita pridem et luxu vulgata, quam arva et stagna et in modum solitudinum hinc silvae inde aperta spatia et prospectus, magistris et machinatoribus Severo et Celere, quibus ingenium et audacia erat etiam quae natura denegavisset per artem temptare et viribus principis inludere. namque ab lacu Averno navigabilem fossam usque ad ostia Tiberina depressuros promiserant squalenti litore aut per montis adversos. neque enim aliud umidum gignendis aquis occurrit quam Pomptinae paludes: cetera abrupta aut arentia ac, si perrumpi possent, intolerandus labor nec satis causae. Nero tamen, ut erat incredibilium cupitor, effodere proxima Averno iuga conisus est; manentque vestigia inritae spei. ^15.44 Et haec quidem humanis consiliis providebantur. mox petita dis piacula aditique Sibyllae libri, ex quibus supplicatum Vulcano et Cereri Proserpinaeque ac propitiata Iuno per matronas, primum in Capitolio, deinde apud proximum mare, unde hausta aqua templum et simulacrum deae perspersum est; et sellisternia ac pervigilia celebravere feminae quibus mariti erant. sed non ope humana, non largitionibus principis aut deum placamentis decedebat infamia quin iussum incendium crederetur. ergo abolendo rumori Nero subdidit reos et quaesitissimis poenis adfecit quos per flagitia invisos vulgus Christianos appellabat. auctor nominis eius Christus Tiberio imperitante per procuratorem Pontium Pilatum supplicio adfectus erat; repressaque in praesens exitiabilis superstitio rursum erumpebat, non modo per Iudaeam, originem eius mali, sed per urbem etiam quo cuncta undique atrocia aut pudenda confluunt celebranturque. igitur primum correpti qui fatebantur, deinde indicio eorum multitudo ingens haud proinde in crimine incendii quam odio humani generis convicti sunt. et pereuntibus addita ludibria, ut ferarum tergis contecti laniatu canum interirent, aut crucibus adfixi aut flammandi, atque ubi defecisset dies in usum nocturni luminis urerentur. hortos suos ei spectaculo Nero obtulerat et circense ludicrum edebat, habitu aurigae permixtus plebi vel curriculo insistens. unde quamquam adversus sontis et novissima exempla meritos miseratio oriebatur, tamquam non utilitate publica sed in saevitiam unius absumerentur. ^15.48 Ineunt deinde consulatum Silius Nerva et Atticus Vestinus, coepta simul et aucta coniuratione in quam certatim nomina dederant senatores eques miles, feminae etiam, cum odio Neronis tum favore in C. Pisonem. is Calpurnio genere ortus ac multas insignisque familias paterna nobilitate complexus, claro apud vulgum rumore erat per virtutem aut species virtutibus similis. namque facundiam tuendis civibus exercebat, largitionem adversum amicos, et ignotis quoque comi sermone et congressu; aderant etiam fortuita, corpus procerum, decora facies: sed procul gravitas morum aut voluptatum parsimonia; levitati ac magnificentiae et aliquando luxu indulgebat, idque pluribus probabatur qui in tanta vitiorum dulcedine summum imperium non restrictum nec perseverum volunt. ^15.51 Interim cunctantibus prolatantibusque spem ac metum Epicharis quaedam, incertum quonam modo sciscitata (neque illi ante ulla rerum honestarum cura fuerat), accendere et arguere coniuratos, ac postremum lentitudinis eorum pertaesa et in Campania agens primores classiariorum Misenensium labefacere et conscientia inligare conisa est tali initio. erat nauarchus in ea classe Volusius Proculus, occidendae matris Neroni inter ministros, non ex magnitudine sceleris provectus, ut rebatur. is mulieri olim cognitus, seu recens orta amicitia, dum merita erga Neronem sua et quam in inritum cecidissent aperit adicitque questus et destinationem vindictae, si facultas oreretur, spem dedit posse impelli et pluris conciliare: nec leve auxilium in classe, crebras occasiones, quia Nero multo apud Puteolos et Misenum maris usu laetabatur. ergo Epicharis plura; et omnia scelera principis orditur, neque senatui quidquam manere. sed provisum quonam modo poenas eversae rei publicae daret: accingeretur modo navare operam et militum acerrimos ducere in partis, ac digna pretia expectaret; nomina tamen coniuratorum reticuit. unde Proculi indicium inritum fuit, quamvis ea quae audierat ad Neronem detulisset. accita quippe Epicharis et cum indice composita nullis testibus innisum facile confutavit. sed ipsa in custodia retenta est, suspectante Nerone haud falsa esse etiam quae vera non probabantur. ^15.53 Tandem statuere circensium ludorum die, qui Cereri celebratur, exequi destinata, quia Caesar rarus egressu domoque aut hortis clausus ad ludicra circi ventitabat promptioresque aditus erant laetitia spectaculi. ordinem insidiis composuerant, ut Lateranus, quasi subsidium rei familiari oraret, deprecabundus et genibus principis accidens prosterneret incautum premeretque, animi validus et corpore ingens; tum iacentem et impeditum tribuni et centuriones et ceterorum, ut quisque audentiae habuisset, adcurrerent trucidarentque, primas sibi partis expostulante Scaevino, qui pugionem templo Salutis in Etruria sive, ut alii tradidere, Fortunae Ferentino in oppido detraxerat gestabatque velut magno operi sacrum. interim Piso apud aedem Cereris opperiretur, unde eum praefectus Faenius et ceteri accitum ferrent in castra, comitante Antonia, Claudii Caesaris filia, ad eliciendum vulgi favorem, quod C. Plinius memorat. nobis quoquo modo traditum non occultare in animo fuit, quamvis absurdum videretur aut iem ad spem Antoniam nomen et periculum commodavisse aut Pisonem notum amore uxoris alii matrimonio se obstrinxisse, nisi si cupido domidi cunctis adfectibus flagrantior est. ^15.54 Sed mirum quam inter diversi generis ordinis, aetatis sexus, ditis pauperes taciturnitate omnia cohibita sint, donec proditio coepit e domo Scaevini; qui pridie insidiarum multo sermone cum Antonio Natale, dein regressus domum testamentum obsignavit, promptum vagina pugionem, de quo supra rettuli, vetustate obtusum increpans asperari saxo et in mucronem ardescere iussit eamque curam liberto Milicho mandavit. simul adfluentius solito convivium initum, servorum carissimi libertate et alii pecunia donati; atque ipse maestus et magnae cogitationis manifestus erat, quamvis laetitiam vagis sermonibus simularet. postremo vulneribus ligamenta quibusque sistitur sanguis parare eundem Milichum monet, sive gnarum coniurationis et illuc usque fidum, seu nescium et tunc primum arreptis suspicionibus, ut plerique tradidere de consequentibus. nam cum secum servilis animus praemia perfidiae reputavit simulque immensa pecunia et potentia obversabantur, cessit fas et salus patroni et acceptae libertatis memoria. etenim uxoris quoque consilium adsumpserat muliebre ac deterius: quippe ultro metum intentabat, multosque adstitisse libertos ac servos qui eadem viderint: nihil profuturum unius silentium, at praemia penes unum fore qui indicio praevenisset. ^15.61 Seneca missum ad se Natalem conquestumque no- mine Pisonis quod a visendo eo prohiberetur, seque rationem valetudinis et amorem quietis excusavisse respondit. cur salutem privati hominis incolumitati suae anteferret causam non habuisse; nec sibi promptum in adulationes ingenium. idque nulli magis gnarum quam Neroni, qui saepius libertatem Senecae quam servitium expertus esset. ubi haec a tribuno relata sunt Poppaea et Tigellino coram, quod erat saevienti principi intimum consiliorum, interrogat an Seneca voluntariam mortem pararet. tum tribunus nulla pavoris signa, nihil triste in verbis eius aut vultu deprensum confirmavit. ergo regredi et indicere mortem iubetur. tradit Fabius Rusticus non eo quo venerat itinere reditum sed flexisse ad Faenium praefectum, et expositis Caesaris iussis an obtemperaret interrogavisse, monitumque ab eo ut exequeretur, fatali omnium ignavia. nam et Silvanus inter coniuratos erat augebatque scelera in quorum ultionem consenserat. voci tamen et aspectui pepercit intromisitque ad Senecam unum ex centurionibus qui necessitatem ultimam denuntiaret. ^15.62 Ille interritus poscit testamenti tabulas; ac denegante centurione conversus ad amicos, quando meritis eorum referre gratiam prohiberetur, quod unum iam et tamen pulcherrimum habeat, imaginem vitae suae relinquere testatur, cuius si memores essent, bonarum artium famam fructum constantis amicitiae laturos. simul lacrimas eorum modo sermone, modo intentior in modum coercentis ad firmitudinem revocat, rogitans ubi praecepta sapientiae, ubi tot per annos meditata ratio adversum imminentia? cui enim ignaram fuisse saevitiam Neronis? neque aliud superesse post matrem fratremque interfectos quam ut educatoris praeceptorisque necem adiceret.' "^15.63 Vbi haec atque talia velut in commune disseruit, complectitur uxorem et paululum adversus praesentem fortitudinem mollitus rogat oratque temperaret dolori neu aeternum susciperet, sed in contemplatione vitae per virtutem actae desiderium mariti solaciis honestis toleraret. illa contra sibi quoque destinatam mortem adseverat manumque percussoris exposcit. tum Seneca gloriae eius non adversus, simul amore, ne sibi unice dilectam ad iniurias relinqueret, 'vitae' inquit 'delenimenta monstraveram tibi, tu mortis decus mavis: non invidebo exemplo. sit huius tam fortis exitus constantia penes utrosque par, claritudinis plus in tuo fine.' post quae eodem ictu brachia ferro exolvunt. Seneca, quoniam senile corpus et parco victu tenuatum lenta effugia sanguini praebebat, crurum quoque et poplitum venas abrumpit; saevisque cruciatibus defessus, ne dolore suo animum uxoris infringeret atque ipse visendo eius tormenta ad impatientiam delaberetur, suadet in aliud cubiculum abscedere. et novissimo quoque momento suppeditante eloquentia advocatis scriptoribus pleraque tradidit, quae in vulgus edita eius verbis invertere supersedeo." '^15.64 At Nero nullo in Paulinam proprio odio, ac ne glisceret invidia crudelitatis, iubet inhiberi mortem. hortantibus militibus servi libertique obligant brachia, premunt sanguinem, incertum an ignarae. nam ut est vulgus ad deteriora promptum, non defuere qui crederent, donec implacabilem Neronem timuerit, famam sociatae cum marito mortis petivisse, deinde oblata mitiore spe blandimentis vitae evictam; cui addidit paucos postea annos, laudabili in maritum memoria et ore ac membris in eum pallorem albentibus ut ostentui esset multum vitalis spiritus egestum. Seneca interim, durante tractu et lentitudine mortis, Statium Annaeum, diu sibi amicitiae fide et arte medicinae probatum, orat provisum pridem venenum quo damnati publico Atheniensium iudicio extinguerentur promeret; adlatumque hausit frustra, frigidus iam artus et cluso corpore adversum vim veneni. postremo stagnum calidae aquae introiit, respergens proximos servorum addita voce libare se liquorem illum Iovi liberatori. exim balneo inlatus et vapore eius exanimatus sine ullo funeris sollemni crematur. ita codicillis praescripserat, cum etiam tum praedives et praepotens supremis suis consuleret. ^15.65 Fama fuit Subrium Flavum cum centurionibus occulto consilio neque tamen ignorante Seneca destinavisse ut post occisum opera Pisonis Neronem Piso quoque interficeretur tradereturque imperium Senecae, quasi insontibus claritudine virtutum ad summum fastigium delecto. quin et verba Flavi vulgabantur, non referre dedecori si citharoedus demoveretur et tragoedus succederet, quia ut Nero cithara, ita Piso tragico ornatu canebat. ^15.66 Ceterum militaris quoque conspiratio non ultra fefellit, accensis indicibus ad prodendum Faenium Rufum, quem eundem conscium et inquisitorem non tolerabant. ergo instanti minitantique renidens Scaevinus neminem ait plura scire quam ipsum, hortaturque ultro redderet tam bono principi vicem. non vox adversum ea Faenio, non silentium, sed verba sua praepediens et pavoris manifestus, ceterisque ac maxime Cervario Proculo equite Romano ad convincendum eum conisis, iussu imperatoris a Cassio milite, qui ob insigne corporis robur adstabat, corripitur vinciturque.' "^15.67 Mox eorundem indicio Subrius Flavus tribunus pervertitur, primo dissimilitudinem morum ad defensionem trahens, neque se armatum cum inermibus et effeminatis tantum facinus consociaturum; dein, postquam urgebatur, confessionis gloriam amplexus. interrogatusque a Nerone quibus causis ad oblivionem sacramenti processisset, 'oderam te' inquit, 'nec quisquam tibi fidelior militum fuit, dum amari meruisti. odisse coepi, postquam parricida matris et uxoris, auriga et histrio et incendiarius extitisti.' ipsa rettuli verba, quia non, ut Senecae, vulgata erant, nec minus nosci decebat militaris viri sensus incomptos et validos. nihil in illa coniuratione gravius auribus Neronis accidisse constitit, qui ut faciendis sceleribus promptus, ita audiendi quae faceret insolens erat. poena Flavi Veianio Nigro tribuno mandatur. is proximo in agro scrobem effodi iussit, quam Flavus ut humilem et angustam increpans, circumstantibus militibus, 'ne hoc quidem' inquit 'ex disciplina.' admonitusque fortiter protendere cervicem, 'utinam' ait 'tu tam fortiter ferias!' et ille multum tremens, cum vix duobus ictibus caput amputavisset, saevitiam apud Neronem iactavit, sesquiplaga interfectum a se dicendo." '^15.68 Proximum constantiae exemplum Sulpicius Asper centurio praebuit, percontanti Neroni cur in caedem suam conspiravisset breviter respondens non aliter tot flagitiis eius subveniri potuisse: tum iussam poenam subiit. nec ceteri centuriones in perpetiendis suppliciis degeneravere: at non Faenio Rufo par animus, sed lamentationes suas etiam in testamentum contulit. Opperiebatur Nero ut Vestinus quoque consul in crimen traheretur, violentum et infensum ratus: sed ex coniuratis consilia cum Vestino non miscuerant, quidam vetustis in eum simultatibus, plures quia praecipitem et insociabilem credebant. ceterum Neroni odium adversus Vestinum ex intima sodalitate coeperat, dum hic ignaviam principis penitus cognitam despicit, ille ferociam amici metuit, saepe asperis facetiis inlusus, quae ubi multum ex vero traxere, acrem sui memoriam relinquunt. accesserat repens causa quod Vestinus Statiliam Messalinam matrimonio sibi iunxerat, haud nescius inter adulteros eius et Caesarem esse. ^15.69 Igitur non crimine, non accusatore existente, quia speciem iudicis induere non poterat, ad vim dominationis conversus Gerellanum tribunum cum cohorte militum immittit iubetque praevenire conatus consulis, occupare velut arcem eius, opprimere delectam iuventutem, quia Vestinus imminentis foro aedis decoraque servitia et pari aetate habebat. cuncta eo die munia consulis impleverat conviviumque celebrabat, nihil metuens an dissimulando metu, cum ingressi milites vocari eum a tribuno dixere. ille nihil demoratus exsurgit et omnia simul properantur: clauditur cubiculo, praesto est medicus, abscinduntur venae, vigens adhuc balneo infertur, calida aqua mersatur, nulla edita voce qua semet miseraretur. circumdati interim custodia qui simul discubuerant, nec nisi provecta nocte omissi sunt, postquam pavorem eorum, ex mensa exitium opperientium, et imaginatus et inridens Nero satis supplicii luisse ait pro epulis consularibus. ^15.71 Sed compleri interim urbs funeribus, Capitolium victimis; alius filio, fratre alius aut propinquo aut amico interfectis, agere grates deis, ornare lauru domum, genua ipsius advolvi et dextram osculis fatigare. atque ille gaudium id credens Antonii Natalis et Cervarii Proculi festinata indicia impunitate remuneratur. Milichus praemiis ditatus conservatoris sibi nomen, Graeco eius rei vocabulo, adsumpsit. e tribunis Gavius Silvanus quamvis absolutus sua manu cecidit; Statius Proxumus veniam quam ab imperatore acceperat vanitate exitus corrupit. exuti dehinc tribunatuPompeius, Cornelius Martialis, Flavius Nepos Statius Domitius, quasi principem non quidem odissent sed tamen existimarentur. Novio Prisco per amicitiam Senecae et Glitio Gallo atque Annio Pollioni infamatis magis quam convictis data exilia. Priscum Artoria Flaccilla coniunx comitata est, Gallum Egnatia Maximilla, magnis primum et integris opibus, post ademptis; quae utraque gloriam eius auxere. pellitur et Rufrius Crispinus occasione coniurationis, sed Neroni invisus quod Poppaeam quondam matrimonio tenuerat. Verginium Flavum et Musonium Rufum claritudo nominis expulit: nam Verginius studia iuvenum eloquentia, Musonius praeceptis sapientiae fovebat. Cluvidieno Quieto, Iulio Agrippae, Blitio Catulino, Petronio Prisco, Iulio Altino velut in agmen et numerum, Aegaei maris insulae permittuntur. at Caedicia uxor Scaevini et Caesennius Maximus Italia prohibentur, reos fuisse se tantum poena experti. Acilia mater Annaei Lucani sine absolutione, sine supplicio dissimulata. ^15.73 Sed Nero vocato senatu, oratione inter patres habita, edictum apud populum et conlata in libros indicia confessionesque damnatorum adiunxit. etenim crebro vulgi rumore lacerabatur, tamquam viros claros et insontis ob invidiam aut metum extinxisset. ceterum coeptam adultamque et revictam coniurationem neque tunc dubitavere quibus verum noscendi cura erat, et fatentur qui post interitum Neronis in urbem regressi sunt. at in senatu cunctis, ut cuique plurimum maeroris, in adulationem demissis, Iunium Gallionem, Senecae fratris morte pavidum et pro sua incolumitate supplicem, increpuit Salienus Clemens, hostem et parricidam vocans, donec consensu patrum deterritus est, ne publicis malis abuti ad occasionem privati odii videretur, neu composita aut oblitterata mansuetudine principis novam ad saevitiam retraheret. ^15.74 Tum decreta dona et grates deis decernuntur, propriusque honos Soli, cui est vetus aedes apud circum in quo facinus parabatur, qui occulta coniurationis numine retexisset; utque circensium Cerealium ludicrum pluribus equorum cursibus celebraretur mensisque Aprilis Neronis cognomentum acciperet; templum Saluti extrueretur eo loci *ex quo Scaevinus ferrum prompserat. ipse eum pugionem apud Capitolium sacravit inscripsitque Iovi Vindici: in praesens haud animadversum; post arma Iulii Vindicis ad auspicium et praesagium futurae ultionis trahebatur. reperio in commentariis senatus Cerialem Anicium consulem designatum pro sententia dixisse ut templum divo Neroni quam maturrime publica pecunia poneretur. quod quidem ille decernebat tamquam mortale fastigium egresso et venerationem hominum merito, sed ipse prohibuit, ne interpretatione quorundam ad omen malum sui exitus verteretur: nam deum honor principi non ante habetur quam agere inter homines desierit.' "^16.7 Mortem Poppaeae ut palam tristem, ita recordantibus laetam ob impudicitiam eius saevitiamque, nova insuper invidia Nero complevit prohibendo C. Cassium officio exequiarum, 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 iuventa praecellebant. igitur missa ad senatum oratione removendos a re publica utrosque disseruit, obiectavitque Cassio quod inter imagines maiorum etiam C. Cassi effigiem coluisset, ita inscriptam 'duci partium': quippe semina belli civilis et defectionem a domo Caesarum quaesitam; ac ne memoria tantum infensi nominis ad discordias uteretur, adsumpsisse L. Silanum, iuvenem genere nobilem, animo praeruptum, quem novis rebus ostentaret." '^16.8 Ipsum dehinc Silanum increpuit isdem quibus patruum eius Torquatum, tamquam disponeret iam imperii curas praeficeretque rationibus et libellis et epistulis libertos, iia simul et falsa: nam Silanus intentior metu et exitio patrui ad praecavendum 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 Vulcacius 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. ^16.9 Tunc consulto senatus Cassio et Silano exilia decernuntur: de Lepida Caesar statueret. deportatusque in insulam Sardiniam Cassius, et senectus eius expectabatur. Silanus tamquam Naxum deveheretur Ostiam amotus, post municipio Apuliae, cui nomen Barium est, clauditur. illic indignissimum casum sapienter tolerans a centurione ad caedem misso corripitur; suadentique venas abrumpere animum quidem morti destinatum ait, sed non remittere percussori gloriam ministerii. at centurio quamvis inermem, praevalidum tamen et irae quam timori propiorem cernens premi a militibus iubet. nec omisit Silanus obniti et intendere ictus, quantum manibus nudis valebat, donec a centurione vulneribus adversis tamquam in pugna caderet. ^16.11 Ergo nuntiat patri abicere spem et uti necessitate: simul adfertur parari cognitionem senatus et trucem sententiam. nec defuere qui monerent magna ex parte heredem Caesarem nuncupare atque ita nepotibus de reliquo consu- lere. quod aspernatus, ne vitam proxime libertatem actam novissimo servitio foedaret, largitur in servos quantum aderat pecuniae; et si qua asportari possent, sibi quemque deducere, tres modo lectulos ad suprema retineri iubet. tunc eodem in cubiculo, eodem ferro abscindunt venas, properique et singulis vestibus ad verecundiam velati balineis inferuntur, pater filiam, avia neptem, illa utrosque intuens, et certatim precantes labenti animae celerem exitum, ut relinquerent suos superstites et morituros. servavitque ordinem fortuna, ac seniores prius, tum cui prima aetas extinguuntur. accusati post sepulturam decretumque ut more maiorum punirentur, et Nero intercessit, mortem sine arbitro permittens: ea caedibus peractis ludibria adiciebantur. ^1
6.21 Trucidatis tot insignibus viris ad postremum Nero virtutem ipsam excindere concupivit interfecto Thrasea Paeto et Barea Sorano, olim utrisque infensus et accedentibus causis in Thraseam, quod senatu egressus est cum de Agrippina referretur, ut memoravi, quodque Iuvenalium ludicro parum spectabilem operam praebuerat; eaque offensio altius penetrabat, quia idem Thrasea Patavi, unde ortus erat, ludis †cetastis† a Troiano Antenore institutis habitu tragico cecinerat. die quoque quo praetor Antistius ob probra in Neronem composita ad mortem damnabatur, mitiora censuit obtinuitque; et cum deum honores Poppaeae decernuntur sponte absens, funeri non interfuerat. quae oblitterari non sinebat Capito Cossutianus, praeter animum ad flagitia praecipitem iniquus Thraseae quod auctoritate eius concidisset, iuvantis Cilicum legatos dum Capitonem repetundarum interrogant.' "^16.22 Quin et illa obiectabat, principio anni vitare Thraseam sollemne ius iurandum; nuncupationibus votorum non adesse, quamvis quindecimvirali sacerdotio praeditum; numquam pro salute principis aut caelesti voce immolavisse; adsiduum olim et indefessum, qui vulgaribus quoque patrum consultis semet fautorem aut adversarium ostenderet, triennio non introisse curiam; nuperrimeque, cum ad coercendos Silanum et Veterem certatim concurreretur, privatis potius clientium negotiis vacavisse. secessionem iam id et partis et, si idem multi audeant, bellum esse. 'ut quondam C. Caesarem' 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 eius sectantur, rigidi et tristes, quo tibi lasciviam exprobrent. huic uni incolumitas tua sine cura, artes sine honore. prospera principis respuit: etiamne luctibus et doloribus non satiatur? eiusdem animi est Poppaeam divam non credere, cuius in acta divi Augusti et divi Iuli non iurare. 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 publicae ingrata nomina, genuit. ut imperium evertant libertatem praeferunt: si perverterint, libertatem ipsam adgredientur. frustra Cassium amovisti, si gliscere et vigere Brutorum aemulos passurus es. denique nihil ipse de Thrasea scripseris: disceptatorem senatum nobis relinque.' extollit ira promptum Cossutiani animum Nero adicitque Marcellum Eprium acri eloquentia." '^16.23 At Baream Soranum iam sibi Ostorius Sabinus eques Romanus poposcerat reum ex proconsulatu Asiae, in quo offensiones principis auxit iustitia atque industria, et quia portui Ephesiorum aperiendo curam insumpserat vimque civitatis Pergamenae prohibentis Acratum, Caesaris libertum, statuas et picturas evehere inultam omiserat. sed crimini dabatur amicitia Plauti et ambitio conciliandae provinciae ad spes novas. tempus damnationi delectum, quo Tiridates accipiendo Armeniae regno adventabat, ut ad externa rumoribus intestinum scelus obscuraretur, an ut magnitudinem imperatoriam caede insignium virorum quasi regio facinore ostentaret. ^16.24 Igitur omni civitate ad excipiendum principem spectandumque regem effusa, Thrasea occursu prohibitus non demisit animum, sed codicillos ad Neronem composuit, requirens obiecta et expurgaturum adseverans, si notitiam criminum et copiam diluendi habuisset. eos codicillos Nero properanter accepit, spe exterritum Thraseam scripsisse, per quae claritudinem principis extolleret suamque famam dehonestaret. quod ubi non evenit vultumque et spiritus et libertatem insontis ultro extimuit, vocari patres iubet. ^16.25 Tum Thrasea inter proximos consultavit, temptaretne defensionem an sperneret. diversa consilia adferebantur. quibus intrari curiam placebat, securos esse de constantia eius disserunt; nihil dicturum nisi quo gloriam augeret. segnis 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. ^16.26 Contra qui opperiendum domi censebant, de ipso Thrasea eadem, sed ludibria et contumelias imminere: subtraheret auris 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 inrita spe agitari; multoque magis timendum ne in coniugem, in filiam, in cetera pignora eius saeviret. proinde intemeratus, impollutus, quorum vestigiis et studiis vitam duxerit, eorum gloria peteret finem. aderat consilio Rusticus Arulenus, flagrans iuvenis, et cupidine laudis offerebat se intercessurum senatus consulto: nam plebei tribunus erat. cohibuit spiritus eius Thrasea ne vana et reo non profutura, intercessori exitiosa inciperet. sibi actam aetatem, et tot per annos continuum vitae ordinem non deserendum: illi initium magistratuum et integra quae supersint. multum ante secum expenderet quod tali in tempore capessendae rei publicae iter ingrederetur. ceterum ipse an venire in senatum deceret meditationi suae reliquit. ^16.27 At postera luce duae praetoriae cohortes armatae 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 quaestorem eius 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, cum plerique adepti consulatum et sacerdotia hortorum potius amoenitati inservirent. quod velut telum corripuere accusatores. ^16.28 Et initium faciente Cossutiano, maiore vi Marcellus summam rem publicam agi clamitabat; contumacia inferiorum lenitatem imperitantis deminui. nimium mitis ad eam diem patres, qui Thraseam desciscentem, qui generum eius Helvidium Priscum in isdem 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 iure iurando civem, nisi contra instituta et caerimonias maiorum proditorem palam et hostem Thrasea induisset. denique agere senatorem et principis obtrectatores protegere solitus veniret, censeret quid corrigi aut mutari vellet: facilius perlaturos singula increpantem quam nunc silentium perferrent omnia damtis. pacem illi per orbem terrae, an victorias sine damno exercituum displicere? ne hominem bonis publicis maestum, et qui fora theatra templa pro solitudine haberet, qui minitaretur exilium suum, ambitionis pravae compotem facerent. non illi consulta haec, non magistratus aut Romanam urbem videri. abrumperet vitam ab ea civitate cuius caritatem olim, nunc et aspectum exuisset. ^16.29 Cum per haec atque talia Marcellus, ut erat torvus ac minax, voce vultu oculis ardesceret, non illa nota et celebritate periculorum sueta iam senatus maestitia, sed novus et altior pavor manus et tela militum cernentibus. simul ipsius Thraseae venerabilis species obversabatur; et erant qui Helvidium quoque miserarentur, innoxiae adfinitatis poenas daturum. quid Agrippino obiectum nisi tristem patris fortunam, quando et ille perinde innocens Tiberii saevitia concidisset. enimvero Montanum probae iuventae neque famosi carminis, quia protulerit ingenium, extorrem agi.' "^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, Caesar, vos, patres, servaretis incolumem. sic gemmas et vestis et dignitatis insignia dedi, quo modo si sanguinem et vitam poposcissent. viderint isti, antehac mihi ignoti, quo nomine sint, quas artes exerceant: nulla mihi principis mentio nisi inter numina fuit. nescit tamen miserrimus pater et, si crimen est, sola deliqui.'" '^16.32 Loquentis adhuc verba excipit Soranus proclamatque non illam in provinciam secum profectam, non Plauto per aetatem nosci potuisse, non criminibus mariti conexam: nimiae tantum pietatis ream separarent, atque ipse quamcumque sortem subiret. simul in amplexus occurrentis filiae ruebat, nisi interiecti lictores utrisque obstitissent. mox datus testibus locus; et quantum misericordiae saevitia accusationis permoverat, tantum irae P. Egnatius testis concivit. cliens hic Sorani et tunc emptus ad opprimendum amicum auctoritatem Stoicae sectae praeferebat, habitu et ore ad exprimendam imaginem honesti exercitus, ceterum animo perfidiosus, subdolus, avaritiam ac libidinem occultans; quae postquam pecunia reclusa sunt, dedit exemplum praecavendi, quo modo fraudibus involutos aut flagitiis commaculatos, sic specie bonarum artium falsos et amicitiae fallacis. ^16.33 Idem tamen dies et honestum exemplum tulit Cassii Asclepiodoti, qui magnitudine opum praecipuus inter Bithynos, quo obsequio florentem Soranum celebraverat, labantem non deseruit, exutusque omnibus fortunis et in exilium actus, aequitate deum erga bona malaque documenta. Thraseae Soranoque et Serviliae datur mortis arbitrium; Helvidius et Paconius Italia depelluntur; Montanus patri concessus est, praedicto ne in re publica haberetur. accusatoribus Eprio et Cossutiano quinquagies sestertium singulis, Ostorio duodecies et quaestoria insignia tribuuntur. ^16.34 Tum ad Thraseam in hortis agentem quaestor consulis missus vesperascente iam die. inlustrium virorum feminarumque coetus frequentis egerat, maxime intentus Demetrio Cynicae institutionis doctori, cum quo, ut coniectare erat intentione vultus et auditis, si qua clarius proloquebantur, de natura animae et dissociatione spiritus corporisque inquirebat, donec advenit Domitius Caecilianus ex intimis amicis et ei quid senatus censuisset exposuit. igitur flentis queritantisque qui aderant facessere propere Thrasea neu pericula sua miscere cum sorte damnati hortatur, Arriamque temptantem mariti suprema et exemplum Arriae matris sequi monet retinere vitam filiaeque communi subsidium unicum non adimere.' "^16.35 Tum progressus in porticum illic a quaestore reperitur, laetitiae 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 quaestore 'libamus' inquit 'Iovi liberatori. specta, iuvenis; et omen quidem dii prohibeant, ceterum in ea tempora natus es quibus firmare animum expediat constantibus exemplis.' post lentitudine exitus gravis cruciatus adferente, obversis in Demetrium" '' None

4.14 \xa0This year also brought delegations from two Greek communities, the Samians and Coans desiring the confirmation of an old right of asylum to the temples of Juno and Aesculapius respectively. The Samians appealed to a decree of the Amphictyonic Council, the principal tribunal for all questions in the period when the Greeks had already founded their city-states in Asia and were domit upon the sea-coast. The Coans had equal antiquity on their side, and, in addition, a claim associated with the place itself: for they had sheltered Roman citizens in the temple of Aesculapius at a time when, by order of King Mithridates, they were being butchered in every island and town of Asia. Next, after various and generally ineffective complaints from the praetors, the Caesar at last brought up the question of the effrontery of the players:â\x80\x94 "They were frequently the fomenters of sedition against the state and of debauchery in private houses; the old Oscan farce, the trivial delight of the crowd, had come to such a pitch of indecency and power that it needed the authority of the senate to check it." The players were then expelled from Italy. < 13.32 \xa0There was passed, also, a senatorial decree, punitive at once and precautionary, that, if a master had been assassinated by his own slaves, even those manumitted under his will, but remaining under the same roof, should suffer the penalty among the rest. The consular Lucius Varus, sentenced long before under charges of extortion, was restored to his rank. Pomponia Graecina, a woman of high family, married to Aulus Plautius â\x80\x94 whose ovation after the British campaign I\xa0recorded earlier â\x80\x94 and now arraigned for alien superstition, was left to the jurisdiction of her husband. Following the ancient custom, he held the inquiry, which was to determine the fate and fame of his wife, before a family council, and announced her innocent. Pomponia was a woman destined to long life and to continuous grief: for after Julia, the daughter of Drusus, had been done to death by the treachery of Messalina, she survived for forty years, dressed in perpetual mourning and lost in perpetual sorrow; and a constancy unpunished under the empire of Claudius became later a title to glory. < 15.37 \xa0He himself, to create the impression that no place gave him equal pleasure with Rome, began to serve banquets in the public places and to treat the entire city as his palace. In point of extravagance and notoriety, the most celebrated of the feasts was that arranged by Tigellinus; which I\xa0shall describe as a type, instead of narrating time and again the monotonous tale of prodigality. He constructed, then, a raft on the Pool of Agrippa, and superimposed a banquet, to be set in motion by other craft acting as tugs. The vessels were gay with gold and ivory, and the oarsmen were catamites marshalled according to their ages and their libidinous attainments. He had collected birds and wild beasts from the ends of the earth, and marine animals from the ocean itself. On the quays of the lake stood brothels, filled with women of high rank; and, opposite, naked harlots met the view. First came obscene gestures and dances; then, as darkness advanced, the whole of the neighbouring grove, together with the dwelling-houses around, began to echo with song and to glitter with lights. Nero himself, defiled by every natural and unnatural lust had left no abomination in reserve with which to crown his vicious existence; except that, a\xa0few days later, he became, with the full rites of legitimate marriage, the wife of one of that herd of degenerates, who bore the name of Pythagoras. The veil was drawn over the imperial head, witnesses were despatched to the scene; the dowry, the couch of wedded love, the nuptial torches, were there: everything, in fine, which night enshrouds even if a woman is the bride, was left open to the view. <^1.2 \xa0When the killing of Brutus and Cassius had disarmed the Republic; when Pompey had been crushed in Sicily, and, with Lepidus thrown aside and Antony slain, even the Julian party was leaderless but for the Caesar; after laying down his triumviral title and proclaiming himself a simple consul content with tribunician authority to safeguard the commons, he first conciliated the army by gratuities, the populace by cheapened corn, the world by the amenities of peace, then step by step began to make his ascent and to unite in his own person the functions of the senate, the magistracy, and the legislature. Opposition there was none: the boldest spirits had succumbed on stricken fields or by proscription-lists; while the rest of the nobility found a cheerful acceptance of slavery the smoothest road to wealth and office, and, as they had thriven on revolution, stood now for the new order and safety in preference to the old order and adventure. Nor was the state of affairs unpopular in the provinces, where administration by the Senate and People had been discredited by the feuds of the magnates and the greed of the officials, against which there was but frail protection in a legal system for ever deranged by force, by favouritism, or (in the last resort) by gold. < ^1.5 \xa0While these topics and the like were under discussion, the malady of Augustus began to take a graver turn; and some suspected foul play on the part of his wife. For a rumour had gone the round that, a\xa0few months earlier, the emperor, confiding in a chosen few, and attended only by Fabius Maximus, had sailed for Planasia on a visit to Agrippa. "There tears and signs of affection on both sides had been plentiful enough to raise a hope that the youth might yet be restored to the house of his grandfather. Maximus had disclosed the incident to his wife Marcia; Marcia, to Livia. It had come to the Caesar\'s knowledge; and after the death of Maximus, which followed shortly, possibly by his own hand, Marcia had been heard at the funeral, sobbing and reproaching herself as the cause of her husband\'s destruction." Whatever the truth of the affair, Tiberius had hardly set foot in Illyricum, when he was recalled by an urgent letter from his mother; and it is not certainly known whether on reaching the town of Nola, he found Augustus still breathing or lifeless. For house and street were jealously guarded by Livia\'s ring of pickets, while sanguine notices were issued at intervals, until the measures dictated by the crisis had been taken: then one report announced simultaneously that Augustus had passed away and that Nero was master of the empire. < ^1.6.1 \xa0The opening crime of the new principate was the murder of Agrippa Postumus; who, though off his guard and without weapons, was with difficulty dispatched by a resolute centurion. In the senate Tiberius made no reference to the subject: his pretence was an order from his father, instructing the tribune in charge to lose no time in making away with his prisoner, once he himself should have looked his last on the world. It was beyond question that by his frequent and bitter strictures on the youth\'s character Augustus had procured the senatorial decree for his exile: on the other hand, at no time did he harden his heart to the killing of a relative, and it remained incredible that he should have sacrificed the life of a grandchild in order to diminish the anxieties of a stepson. More probably, Tiberius and Livia, actuated in the one case by fear, and in the other by stepmotherly dislike, hurriedly procured the murder of a youth whom they suspected and detested. To the centurion who brought the usual military report, the emperor rejoined that he had given no instructions and the deed would have to be accounted for in the senate. The remark came to the ears of Sallustius Crispus. A\xa0partner in the imperial secrets â\x80\x94 it was he who had forwarded the note to the tribune â\x80\x94 he feared the charge might be fastened on himself, with the risks equally great whether he spoke the truth or lied. He therefore advised Livia not to publish the mysteries of the palace, the counsels of her friends, the services of the soldiery; and also to watch that Tiberius did not weaken the powers of the throne by referring everything and all things to the senate:â\x80\x94 "It was a condition of sovereignty that the account balanced only if rendered to a single auditor." ^1.6 \xa0The opening crime of the new principate was the murder of Agrippa Postumus; who, though off his guard and without weapons, was with difficulty dispatched by a resolute centurion. In the senate Tiberius made no reference to the subject: his pretence was an order from his father, instructing the tribune in charge to lose no time in making away with his prisoner, once he himself should have looked his last on the world. It was beyond question that by his frequent and bitter strictures on the youth\'s character Augustus had procured the senatorial decree for his exile: on the other hand, at no time did he harden his heart to the killing of a relative, and it remained incredible that he should have sacrificed the life of a grandchild in order to diminish the anxieties of a stepson. More probably, Tiberius and Livia, actuated in the one case by fear, and in the other by stepmotherly dislike, hurriedly procured the murder of a youth whom they suspected and detested. To the centurion who brought the usual military report, the emperor rejoined that he had given no instructions and the deed would have to be accounted for in the senate. The remark came to the ears of Sallustius Crispus. A\xa0partner in the imperial secrets â\x80\x94 it was he who had forwarded the note to the tribune â\x80\x94 he feared the charge might be fastened on himself, with the risks equally great whether he spoke the truth or lied. He therefore advised Livia not to publish the mysteries of the palace, the counsels of her friends, the services of the soldiery; and also to watch that Tiberius did not weaken the powers of the throne by referring everything and all things to the senate:â\x80\x94 "It was a condition of sovereignty that the account balanced only if rendered to a single auditor." < ^1.9.1 \xa0Then tongues became busy with Augustus himself. Most men were struck by trivial points â\x80\x94 that one day should have been the first of his sovereignty and the last of his life â\x80\x94 that he should have ended his days at Nola in the same house and room as his father Octavius. Much, too, was said of the number of his consulates (in which he had equalled the combined totals of Valerius Corvus and Caius Marius), his tribunician power unbroken for thirty-seven years, his title of Imperator twenty-one times earned, and his other honours, multiplied or new. Among men of intelligence, however, his career was praised or arraigned from varying points of view. According to some, "filial duty and the needs of a country, which at the time had no room for law, had driven him to the weapons of civil strife â\x80\x94 weapons which could not be either forged or wielded with clean hands. He had overlooked much in Antony, much in Lepidus, for the sake of bringing to book the assassins of his father. When Lepidus grew old and indolent, and Antony succumbed to his vices, the sole remedy for his distracted country was government by one man. Yet he organized the state, not by instituting a monarchy or a dictatorship, but by creating the title of First Citizen. The empire had been fenced by the ocean or distant rivers. The legions, the provinces, the fleets, the whole administration, had been centralized. There had been law for the Roman citizen, respect for the allied communities; and the capital itself had been embellished with remarkable splendour. Very few situations had been treated by force, and then only in the interests of general tranquillity." ^1.11 \xa0Then all prayers were directed towards Tiberius; who delivered a variety of reflections on the greatness of the empire and his own diffidence:â\x80\x94 "Only the mind of the deified Augustus was equal to such a burden: he himself had found, when called by the sovereign to share his anxieties, how arduous, how dependent upon fortune, was the task of ruling a world! He thought, then, that, in a state which had the support of so many eminent men, they ought not to devolve the entire duties on any one person; the business of government would be more easily carried out by the joint efforts of a\xa0number." A\xa0speech in this tenor was more dignified than convincing. Besides, the diction of Tiberius, by habit or by nature, was always indirect and obscure, even when he had no wish to conceal his thought; and now, in the effort to bury every trace of his sentiments, it became more intricate, uncertain, and equivocal than ever. But the Fathers, whose one dread was that they might seem to comprehend him, melted in plaints, tears, and prayers. They were stretching their hands to heaven, to the effigy of Augustus, to his own knees, when he gave orders for a document to be produced and read. It contained a statement of the national resources â\x80\x94 the strength of the burghers and allies under arms; the number of the fleets, protectorates, and provinces; the taxes direct and indirect; the needful disbursements and customary bounties catalogued by Augustus in his own hand, with a final clause (due to fear or jealousy?) advising the restriction of the empire within its present frontiers. < ^1.13 \xa0Lucius Arruntius, who followed in a vein not much unlike that of Gallus, gave equal offence, although Tiberius had no standing animosity against him: he was, however, rich, enterprising, greatly gifted, correspondingly popular, and so suspect. For Augustus, in his last conversations, when discussing possible holders of the principate â\x80\x94 those who were competent and disinclined, who were inadequate and willing, or who were at once able and desirous â\x80\x94\xa0had described Manius Lepidus as capable but disdainful, Asinius Gallus as eager and unfit, Lucius Arruntius as not undeserving and bold enough to venture, should the opportunity arise. The first two names are not disputed; in some versions Arruntius is replaced by Gnaeus Piso: all concerned, apart from Lepidus, were soon entrapped on one charge or another, promoted by Tiberius. Quintus Haterius and Mamercus Scaurus also jarred that suspicious breast â\x80\x94 Haterius, by the sentence, "How long, Caesar, will you permit the state to lack a head?" and Scaurus, by remarking that, as he had not used his tribunician power to veto the motion of the consuls, there was room for hope that the prayers of the senate would not be in vain. Haterius he favoured with an immediate invective: against Scaurus his anger was less placable, and he passed him over in silence. Wearied at last by the universal outcry and by individual appeals, he gradually gave ground, up to the point, not of acknowledging that he assumed the sovereignty, but of ceasing to refuse and to be entreated. Haterius, it is well known, on entering the palace to make his excuses, found Tiberius walking, threw himself down at his knees, and was all but dispatched by the guards, because the prince, either from accident or through being hampered by the suppliant\'s hands, had fallen flat on his face. The danger of a great citizen failed, however, to soften him, until Haterius appealed to Augusta, and was saved by the urgency of her prayers. <' "^1.33 \xa0In the meantime, Germanicus, as we have stated, was traversing the Gallic provinces and assessing their tribute, when the message came that Augustus was no more. Married to the late emperor's granddaughter Agrippina, who had borne him several children, and himself a grandchild of the dowager (he was the son of Tiberius' brother Drusus), he was tormented none the less by the secret hatred of his uncle and grandmother â\x80\x94 hatred springing from motives the more potent because iniquitous. For Drusus was still a living memory to the nation, and it was believed that, had he succeeded, he would have restored the age of liberty; whence the same affection and hopes centred on the young Germanicus with his unassuming disposition and his exceptional courtesy, so far removed from the inscrutable arrogance of word and look which characterized Tiberius. Feminine animosities increased the tension as Livia had a stepmother's irritable dislike of Agrippina, whose own temper was not without a hint of fire, though purity of mind and wifely devotion kept her rebellious spirit on the side of righteousness. <" ^1.74 \xa0Before long, Granius Marcellus, praetor of Bithynia, found himself accused of treason by his own quaestor, Caepio Crispinus, with Hispo Romanus to back the charge. Caepio was the pioneer in a walk of life which the miseries of the age and effronteries of men soon rendered popular. Indigent, unknown, unresting, first creeping, with his private reports, into the confidence of his pitiless sovereign, then a terror to the noblest, he acquired the favour of one man, the hatred of all, and set an example, the followers of which passed from beggary to wealth, from being despised to being feared, and crowned at last the ruin of others by their own. He alleged that Marcellus had retailed sinister anecdotes about Tiberius: a\xa0damning indictment, when the accuser selected the foulest qualities of the imperial character, and attributed their mention to the accused. For, as the facts were true, they were also believed to have been related! Hispo added that Marcellus\' own statue was placed on higher ground than those of the Caesars, while in another the head of Augustus had been struck off to make room for the portrait of Tiberius. This incensed the emperor to such a degree that, breaking through his taciturnity, he exclaimed that, in this case, he too would vote, openly and under oath, â\x80\x94 the object being to impose a similar obligation on the rest. There remained even yet some traces of dying liberty. Accordingly Gnaeus Piso inquired: "In what order will you register your opinion, Caesar? If first, I\xa0shall have something to follow: if last of all, I\xa0fear I\xa0may inadvertently find myself on the other side." The words went home; and with a meekness that showed how profoundly he rued his unwary outburst, he voted for the acquittal of the defendant on the counts of treason. The charge of peculation went before the appropriate commission. <' "^1.76 \xa0In the same year, the Tiber, rising under the incessant rains, had flooded the lower levels of the city, and its subsidence was attended by much destruction of buildings and life. Accordingly, Asinius Gallus moved for a reference to the Sibylline Books. Tiberius objected, preferring secrecy as in earth so in heaven: still, the task of coercing the stream was entrusted to Ateius Capito and Lucius Arruntius. Since Achaia and Macedonia protested against the heavy taxation, it was decided to relieve them of their proconsular government for the time being and transfer them to the emperor. A\xa0show of gladiators, given in the name of his brother Germanicus, was presided over by Drusus, who took an extravagant pleasure in the shedding of blood however vile â\x80\x94 a\xa0trait so alarming to the populace that it was said to have been censured by his father. Tiberius' own absence from the exhibition was variously explained. Some ascribed it to his impatience of a crowd; others, to his native morosity and his dread of comparisons; for Augustus had been a good-humoured spectator. I\xa0should be slow to believe that he deliberately furnished his son with an occasion for exposing his brutality and arousing the disgust of the nation; yet even this was suggested. <" '^2.
14.1 \xa0The same night brought Germanicus a reassuring vision: for he dreamed that he was offering sacrifice, and that â\x80\x94\xa0as his vestment was bespattered with the blood of the victim â\x80\x94 he had received another, more beautiful, from the hand of his grandmother, Augusta. Elated by the omen, and finding the auspices favourable, he summoned a meeting of the troops and laid before them the measures his knowledge had suggested and the points likely to be of service in the coming struggle:â\x80\x94 "A\xa0plain was not the only battle-field favourable to a Roman soldier: if he used judgment, woods and glades were equally suitable. The barbarians\' huge shields, their enormous spears, could not be so manageable among tree-trunks and springing brushwood as the pilum, the short sword, and close-fitting body-armour. Their policy was to strike thick and fast, and to direct the point to the face. The Germans carried neither corselet nor headpiece â\x80\x94 not even shields with a toughening of metal or hide, but targes of wickerwork or thin, painted board. Their first line alone carried spears of a fashion: the remainder had only darts, fire-pointed or too short. Their bodies, again, while grim enough to the eye and powerful enough for a short-lived onset, lacked the stamina to support a wound. They were men who could turn and run without a thought for their leaders, faint-hearted in adversary, in success regardless of divine and human law. â\x80\x94 If they were weary of road and sea, and desired the end, this battle could procure it. Already the Elbe was nearer than the Rhine, and there would be no fighting further, if once, treading as he was in the footsteps of his father and his uncle, they established him victorious in the same region!" ^2.26.4 \xa0The army was then marched back to winter quarters, elated at having balanced the maritime disaster by this fortunate expedition. Moreover, there was the liberality of the Caesar, who compensated every claimant in full for the loss he professed to have sustained. Nor was any doubt felt that the enemy was wavering and discussing an application for peace; and that with another effort in the coming summer, the war might see its close. But frequent letters from Tiberius counselled the prince "to return for the triumph decreed him: there had been already enough successes, and enough mischances. He had fought auspicious and great fields: he should also remember the losses inflicted by wind and wave â\x80\x94 losses not in any way due to his leadership, yet grave and deplorable. He himself had been sent nine times into Germany by the deified Augustus; and he had effected more by policy than by force. Policy had procured the Sugambrian surrender; policy had bound the Suebi and King Maroboduus to keep the peace. The Cherusci and the other rebel tribes, now that enough has been done for Roman vengeance, might similarly be left to their intestine strife." When Germanicus asked for one year more in which to finish his work, he delivered a still shrewder attack on his modesty, and offered him a second consulate, the duties of which he would assume in person. A\xa0hint was appended that "if the war must be continued, he might leave his brother, Drusus, the material for a reputation; since at present there was no other national enemy, and nowhere but in the Germanies could he acquire the style of Imperator\xa0and a title to the triumphal bays." â\x80\x94 Germanicus hesitated no longer, though he was aware that these civilities were a fiction, and that jealousy was the motive which withdrew him from a glory already within his grasp.' "^2.27.1 \xa0Nearly at the same time, a charge of revolutionary activities was laid against Libo Drusus, a member of the Scribonian family. I\xa0shall describe in some detail the origin, the progress, and the end of this affair, as it marked the discovery of the system destined for so many years to prey upon the vitals of the commonwealth. Firmius Catus, a senator, and one of Libo's closest friends, had urged that short-sighted youth, who had a foible for absurdities, to resort to the forecasts of astrologers, the ritual of magicians, and the society of interpreters of dreams; pointing to his great-grandfather Pompey, to his great-aunt Scribonia (at one time the consort of Augustus), to his cousinship with the Caesars, and to his mansion crowded with ancestral portraits; encouraging him in his luxuries and loans; and, to bind him in a yet stronger chain of evidence, sharing his debaucheries and his embarrassments." "^2.27 \xa0Nearly at the same time, a charge of revolutionary activities was laid against Libo Drusus, a member of the Scribonian family. I\xa0shall describe in some detail the origin, the progress, and the end of this affair, as it marked the discovery of the system destined for so many years to prey upon the vitals of the commonwealth. Firmius Catus, a senator, and one of Libo's closest friends, had urged that short-sighted youth, who had a foible for absurdities, to resort to the forecasts of astrologers, the ritual of magicians, and the society of interpreters of dreams; pointing to his great-grandfather Pompey, to his great-aunt Scribonia (at one time the consort of Augustus), to his cousinship with the Caesars, and to his mansion crowded with ancestral portraits; encouraging him in his luxuries and loans; and, to bind him in a yet stronger chain of evidence, sharing his debaucheries and his embarrassments. <" "^2.32.3 \xa0His estate was parcelled out among the accusers, and extraordinary praetorships were conferred on those of senatorial status. Cotta Messalinus then moved that the effigy of Libo should not accompany the funeral processions of his descendants; Gnaeus Lentulus, that no member of the Scribonian house should adopt the surname of Drusus. Days of public thanksgiving were fixed at the instance of Pomponius Flaccus. Lucius Piso, Asinius Gallus, Papius Mutilus, and Lucius Apronius procured a decree that votive offerings should be made to Jupiter, Mars, and Concord; and that the thirteenth of September, the anniversary of Libo's suicide, should rank as a festival. This union of sounding names and sycophancy I\xa0have recorded as showing how long that evil has been rooted in the State.\xa0â\x80\x94 Other resolutions of the senate ordered the expulsion of the astrologers and magic-mongers from Italy. One of their number, Lucius Pituanius, was flung from the Rock; another â\x80\x94 Publius Marcius â\x80\x94 was executed by the consuls outside the Esquiline Gate according to ancient usage and at sound of trumpet. <" ^2.32 \xa0His estate was parcelled out among the accusers, and extraordinary praetorships were conferred on those of senatorial status. Cotta Messalinus then moved that the effigy of Libo should not accompany the funeral processions of his descendants; Gnaeus Lentulus, that no member of the Scribonian house should adopt the surname of Drusus. Days of public thanksgiving were fixed at the instance of Pomponius Flaccus. Lucius Piso, Asinius Gallus, Papius Mutilus, and Lucius Apronius procured a decree that votive offerings should be made to Jupiter, Mars, and Concord; and that the thirteenth of September, the anniversary of Libo's suicide, should rank as a festival. This union of sounding names and sycophancy I\xa0have recorded as showing how long that evil has been rooted in the State.\xa0â\x80\x94 Other resolutions of the senate ordered the expulsion of the astrologers and magic-mongers from Italy. One of their number, Lucius Pituanius, was flung from the Rock; another â\x80\x94 Publius Marcius â\x80\x94 was executed by the consuls outside the Esquiline Gate according to ancient usage and at sound of trumpet. <" "^2.37 \xa0In addition, he gave monetary help to several senators; so that it was the more surprising when he treated the application of the young noble, Marcus Hortalus, with a superciliousness uncalled for in view of his clearly straitened circumstances. He was a grandson of the orator Hortensius; and the late Augustus, by the grant of a\xa0million sesterces, had induced him to marry and raise a family, in order to save his famous house from extinction. With his four sons, then, standing before the threshold of the Curia, he awaited his turn to speak; then, directing his gaze now to the portrait of Hortensius among the orators (the senate was meeting in the Palace), now to that of Augustus, he opened in the following manner:â\x80\x94 "Conscript Fathers, these children whose number and tender age you see for yourselves, became mine not from any wish of my own, but because the emperor so advised, and because, at the same time, my ancestors had earned the right to a posterity. For to me, who in this changed world had been able to inherit nothing and acquire nothing, â\x80\x94 not money, nor popularity, nor eloquence, that general birthright of our house, â\x80\x94 to me it seemed enough if my slender means were neither a disgrace to myself nor a burden to my neighbour. At the command of the sovereign, I\xa0took a wife; and here you behold the stock of so many consuls, the offspring of so many dictators! I\xa0say it, not to awaken odium, but to woo compassion. Some day, Caesar, under your happy sway, they will wear whatever honours you have chosen to bestow: in the meantime, rescue from beggary the great-grandsons of Quintus Hortensius, the fosterlings of the deified Augustus!" < ^2.38 \xa0The senate\'s inclination to agree incited Tiberius to a more instant opposition. His speech in effect ran thus:â\x80\x94 "If all the poor of the earth begin coming here and soliciting money for their children, we shall never satisfy individuals, but we shall exhaust the state. And certainly, if our predecessors ruled that a member, in his turn to speak, might occasionally go beyond the terms of the motion and bring forward a point in the public interest, it was not in order that we should sit here to promote our private concerns and personal fortunes, while rendering the position of the senate and its head equally invidious whether they bestow or withhold their bounty. For this is no petition, but a demand â\x80\x94 an unseasonable and unexpected demand, when a member rises in a session convened for other purposes, puts pressure on the kindly feeling of the senate by a catalogue of the ages and number of his children, brings the same compulsion to bear indirectly upon myself, and, so to say, carries the Treasury by storm though, if we drain it by favouritism, we shall have to refill it by crime. The deified Augustus gave you money, Hortalus; but not under pressure, nor with a proviso that it should be given always. Otherwise, if a man is to have nothing to hope or fear from himself, industry will languish, indolence thrive, and we shall have the whole population waiting, without a care in the world, for outside relief, incompetent to help itself, and an incubus to us." These sentences and the like, though heard with approval by the habitual eulogists of all imperial actions honourable or dishonourable, were by most received with silence or a suppressed murmur. Tiberius felt the chill, and, after a short pause, observed that Hortalus had had his answer; but, if the senate thought it proper, he would present each of his male children with two hundred thousand sesterces. Others expressed their thanks; Hortalus held his peace: either his nerve failed him, or even in these straits of fortune he clung to the traditions of his race. Nor in the future did Tiberius repeat his charity, though the Hortensian house kept sinking deeper into ignominious poverty. < ^2.55.6 \xa0Meanwhile Gnaeus Piso, in haste to embark upon his schemes, first alarmed the community of Athens by a tempestuous entry, then assailed them in a virulent speech, which included an indirect attack on Germanicus for "compromising the dignity of the Roman name by his exaggerated civilities, not to the Athenians (whose repeated disasters had extinguished the breed) but to the present cosmopolitan rabble. For these were the men who had leagued themselves with Mithridates against Sulla, with Antony against the deified Augustus!" He upbraided them even with their ancient history; their ill-starred outbreaks against Macedon and their violence towards their own countrymen. Private resentment, also, embittered him against the town, as the authorities refused to give up at his request a certain Theophilus, whom the verdict of the Areopagus had declared guilty of forgery. After this, quick sailing by a short route through the Cyclades brought him up with Germanicus at Rhodes. The prince was aware of the invectives with which he had been assailed; yet he behaved with such mildness that, when a rising storm swept Piso toward the rock-bound coast, and the destruction of his foe could have been referred to misadventure, he sent warships to help in extricating him from his predicament. Even so, Piso was not mollified; and, after reluctantly submitting to the loss of a single day, he left Germanicus and completed the journey first. Then, the moment he reached Syria and the legions, by bounties and by bribery, by attentions to the humblest private, by dismissals of the veteran centurions and the stricter commanding officers, whom he replaced by dependants of his own or by men of the worst character, by permitting indolence in the camp, licence in the towns, and in the country a vagrant and riotous soldiery, he carried corruption to such a pitch that in the language of the rabble he was known as the Father of the Legions. Nor could Plancina contain herself within the limits of female decorum: she attended cavalry exercises and infantry manoeuvres; she flung her gibes at Agrippina or Germanicus; some even of the loyal troops being ready to yield her a disloyal obedience; for a whispered rumour was gaining ground that these doings were not unacceptable to the emperor. The state of affairs was known to Germanicus, but his more immediate anxiety was to reach Armenia first. < ^2.73.2 \xa0His funeral, devoid of ancestral effigies or procession, was distinguished by eulogies and recollections of his virtues. There were those who, considering his personal appearance, his early age, and the circumstances of his death, â\x80\x94 to which they added the proximity of the region where he perished, â\x80\x94 compared his decease with that of Alexander the Great: â\x80\x94 "Each eminently handsome, of famous lineage, and in years not much exceeding thirty, had fallen among alien races by the treason of their countrymen. But the Roman had borne himself as one gentle to his friends, moderate in his pleasures, content with a single wife and the children of lawful wedlock. Nor was he less a man of the sword; though he lacked the other\'s temerity, and, when his numerous victories had beaten down the Germanies, was prohibited from making fast their bondage. But had he been the sole arbiter of affairs, of kingly authority and title, he would have overtaken the Greek in military fame with an ease proportioned to his superiority in clemency, self-command, and all other good qualities." The body, before cremation, was exposed in the forum of Antioch, the place destined for the final rites. Whether it bore marks of poisoning was disputable: for the indications were variously read, as pity and preconceived suspicion swayed the spectator to the side of Germanicus, or his predilections to that of Piso. < ^2.82 \xa0But at Rome, when the failure of Germanicus\' health became current knowledge, and every circumstance was reported with the aggravations usual in news that has travelled far, all was grief and indignation. A\xa0storm of complaints burst out:â\x80\x94 "So for this he had been relegated to the ends of earth; for this Piso had received a province; and this had been the drift of Augusta\'s colloquies with Plancina! It was the mere truth, as the elder men said of Drusus, that sons with democratic tempers were not pleasing to fathers on a throne; and both had been cut off for no other reason than because they designed to restore the age of freedom and take the Roman people into a partnership of equal rights." The announcement of his death inflamed this popular gossip to such a degree that before any edict of the magistrates, before any resolution of the senate, civic life was suspended, the courts deserted, houses closed. It was a town of sighs and silences, with none of the studied advertisements of sorrow; and, while there was no abstention from the ordinary tokens of bereavement, the deeper mourning was carried at the heart. Accidentally, a party of merchants, who had left Syria while Germanicus was yet alive, brought a more cheerful account of his condition. It was instantly believed and instantly disseminated. No man met another without proclaiming his unauthenticated news; and by him it was passed to more, with supplements dictated by joy. Crowds were running in the streets and forcing temple-doors. Credulity throve â\x80\x94 it was night, and affirmation is boldest in the dark. Nor did Tiberius check the fictions, but left them to die out with the passage of time; and the people added bitterness for what seemed a second bereavement. < ^2.83 \xa0Affection and ingenuity vied in discovering and decreeing honours to Germanicus: his name was to be chanted in the Saliar Hymn; curule chairs surmounted by oaken crowns were to be set for him wherever the Augustal priests had right of place; his effigy in ivory was to lead the procession at the Circus Games, and no flamen or augur, unless of the Julian house, was to be created in his room. Arches were added, at Rome, on the Rhine bank, and on the Syrian mountain of Amanus, with an inscription recording his achievements and the fact that he had died for his country. There was to be a sepulchre in Antioch, where he had been cremated; a\xa0funeral monument in Epidaphne, the suburb in which he had breathed his last. His statues, and the localities in which his cult was to be practised, it would be difficult to enumerate. When it was proposed to give him a gold medallion, as remarkable for the size as for the material, among the portraits of the classic orators, Tiberius declared that he would dedicate one himself "of the customary type, and in keeping with the rest: for eloquence was not measured by fortune, and its distinction enough if he ranked with the old masters." The equestrian order renamed the soâ\x80\x91called "junior section" in their part of the theatre after Germanicus, and ruled that on the fifteenth of July the cavalcade should ride behind his portrait. Many of these compliments remain: others were discontinued immediately, or have lapsed with the years. < ^2.85.4 \xa0In the same year, bounds were set to female profligacy by stringent resolutions of the senate; and it was laid down that no woman should trade in her body, if her father, grandfather, or husband had been a Roman knight. For Vistilia, the daughter of a praetorian family, had advertised her venality on the aediles\' list â\x80\x94 the normal procedure among our ancestors, who imagined the unchaste to be sufficiently punished by the avowal of their infamy. Her husband, Titidius Labeo, was also required to explain why, in view of his wife\'s manifest guilt, he had not invoked the penalty of the law. As he pleaded that sixty days, not yet elapsed, were allowed for deliberation, it was thought enough to pass sentence on Vistilia, who was removed to the island of Seriphos. â\x80\x94 Another debate dealt with the proscription of the Egyptian and Jewish rites, and a senatorial edict directed that four thousand descendants of enfranchised slaves, tainted with that superstition and suitable in point of age, were to be shipped to Sardinia and there employed in suppressing brigandage: "if they succumbed to the pestilential climate, it was a cheap loss." The rest had orders to leave Italy, unless they had renounced their impious ceremonial by a given date. <' "^3.18.2 \xa0Much in these suggestions was mitigated by the emperor. He would not have Piso's name cancelled from the records, when the names of Mark Antony, who had levied war on his fatherland, and of Iullus Antonius, who had dishonoured the hearth of Augustus, still remained. He exempted Marcus Piso from official degradation, and granted him his patrimony: for, as I\xa0have often said, he was firm enough against pecuniary temptations, and in the present case his shame at the acquittal of Plancina made him exceptionally lenient. So, again, when Valerius Messalinus proposed to erect a golden statue in the temple of Mars the Avenger, and Caecina Severus an altar of Vengeance, he vetoed the scheme, remarking that these memorials were consecrated after victories abroad; domestic calamities called for sorrow and concealment. Messalinus had added that Tiberius, Augusta, Antonia, Agrippina, and Drusus ought to be officially thanked for their services in avenging Germanicus: Claudius he had neglected to mention. Indeed, it was only when Lucius Asprenas demanded point-blank in the senate if the omission was deliberate that the name was appended. For myself, the more I\xa0reflect on events recent or remote, the more am\xa0I haunted by the sense of a mockery in human affairs. For by repute, by expectancy, and by veneration, all men were sooner marked out for sovereignty than that future emperor whom destiny was holding in the background. <" ^3.33 \xa0In the course of the debate, Caecina Severus moved that no magistrate, who had been allotted a province, should be accompanied by his wife. He explained beforehand at some length that "he had a consort after his own heart, who had borne him six children: yet he had conformed in private to the rule he was proposing for the public; and, although he had served his forty campaigns in one province or other, she had always been kept within the boundaries of Italy. There was point in the old regulation which prohibited the dragging of women to the provinces or foreign countries: in a retinue of ladies there were elements apt, by luxury or timidity, to retard the business of peace or war and to transmute a Roman march into something resembling an Eastern procession. Weakness and a lack of endurance were not the only failings of the sex: give them scope, and they turned hard, intriguing, ambitious. They paraded among the soldiers; they had the centurions at beck and call. Recently a woman had presided at the exercises of the cohorts and the manoeuvres of the legions. Let his audience reflect that, whenever a magistrate was on trial for malversation, the majority of the charges were levelled against his wife. It was to the wife that the basest of the provincials at once attached themselves; it was the wife who took in hand and transacted business. There were two potentates to salute in the streets; two government-houses; and the more headstrong and autocratic orders came from the women, who, once held in curb by the Oppian and other laws, had now cast their chains and ruled supreme in the home, the courts, and by now the army itself." < ^3.34 \xa0A\xa0few members listened to the speech with approval: most interrupted with protests that neither was there a motion on the subject nor was Caecina a competent censor in a question of such importance. He was presently answered by Valerius Messalinus, a son of Messala, in whom there resided some echo of his father\'s eloquence:â\x80\x94 "Much of the old-world harshness had been improved and softened; for Rome was no longer environed with wars, nor were the provinces hostile. A\xa0few allowances were now made to the needs of women; but not such as to embarrass even the establishment of their consorts, far less our allies: everything else the wife shared with her husband, and in peace the arrangement created no difficulties. Certainly, he who set about a war must gird up his loins; but, when he returned after his labour, what consolations more legitimate than those of his helpmeet? â\x80\x94 But a\xa0few women had lapsed into intrigue or avarice. â\x80\x94 Well, were not too many of the magistrates themselves vulnerable to temptation in more shapes than one? Yet governors still went out to governorships! â\x80\x94 Husbands had often been corrupted by the depravity of their wives. â\x80\x94 And was every single man, then, incorruptible? The Oppian laws in an earlier day were sanctioned because the circumstances of the commonwealth so demanded: later remissions and mitigations were due to expediency. It was vain to label our own inertness with another title: if the woman broke bounds, the fault lay with the husband. Moreover, it was unjust that, through the weakness of one or two, married men in general should be torn from their partners in weal and woe, while at the same time a sex frail by nature was left alone, exposed to its own voluptuousness and the appetites of others. Hardly by surveillance on the spot could the marriage-tie be kept undamaged: what would be the case if, for a term of years, it were dissolved as completely as by divorce? While they were taking steps to meet abuses elsewhere, it would be well to remember the scandals of the capital! Drusus added a\xa0few sentences upon his own married life:â\x80\x94 "Princes not infrequently had to visit the remote parts of the empire. How often had the deified Augustus travelled to west and east with Livia for his companion! He had himself made an excursion to Illyricum; and, if there was a purpose to serve, he was prepared to go to other countries â\x80\x94 but not always without a pang, if he were severed from the well-beloved wife who was the mother of their many common children." Caecina\'s motion was thus evaded. <' "^3.55.5 \xa0When the Caesar's epistle had been read, the aediles were exempted from such a task; and spendthrift epicureanism, after being practised with extravagant prodigality throughout the century between the close of the Actian War and the struggle which placed Servius Galba on the throne, went gradually out of vogue. The causes of that change may well be investigated. Formerly aristocratic families of wealth or outstanding distinction were apt to be led to their downfall by a passion for magnificence. For it was still legitimate to court or be courted by the populace, by the provincials, by dependent princes; and the more handsome the fortune, the palace, the establishment of a man, the more imposing his reputation and his clientÃ¨le. After the merciless executions, when greatness of fame was death, the survivors turned to wiser paths. At the same time, the self-made men, repeatedly drafted into the senate from the municipalities and the colonies, and even from the provinces, introduced the plain-living habits of their own hearths; and although by good fortune or industry very many arrived at an old age of affluence, yet their prepossessions persisted to the end. But the main promoter of the stricter code was Vespasian, himself of the old school in his person and table. Thenceforward, deference to the sovereign and the love of emulating him proved more powerful than legal sanctions and deterrents. Or should we rather say there is a kind of cycle in all things â\x80\x94 moral as well as seasonal revolutions? Nor, indeed, were all things better in the old time before us; but our own age too has produced much in the sphere of true nobility and much in that of art which posterity well may imitate. In any case, may the honourable competition of our present with our past long remain!" ^3.55 \xa0When the Caesar's epistle had been read, the aediles were exempted from such a task; and spendthrift epicureanism, after being practised with extravagant prodigality throughout the century between the close of the Actian War and the struggle which placed Servius Galba on the throne, went gradually out of vogue. The causes of that change may well be investigated. Formerly aristocratic families of wealth or outstanding distinction were apt to be led to their downfall by a passion for magnificence. For it was still legitimate to court or be courted by the populace, by the provincials, by dependent princes; and the more handsome the fortune, the palace, the establishment of a man, the more imposing his reputation and his clientÃ¨le. After the merciless executions, when greatness of fame was death, the survivors turned to wiser paths. At the same time, the self-made men, repeatedly drafted into the senate from the municipalities and the colonies, and even from the provinces, introduced the plain-living habits of their own hearths; and although by good fortune or industry very many arrived at an old age of affluence, yet their prepossessions persisted to the end. But the main promoter of the stricter code was Vespasian, himself of the old school in his person and table. Thenceforward, deference to the sovereign and the love of emulating him proved more powerful than legal sanctions and deterrents. Or should we rather say there is a kind of cycle in all things â\x80\x94 moral as well as seasonal revolutions? Nor, indeed, were all things better in the old time before us; but our own age too has produced much in the sphere of true nobility and much in that of art which posterity well may imitate. In any case, may the honourable competition of our present with our past long remain!" "^3.60 \xa0Tiberius, however, while tightening his grasp on the solid power of the principate, vouchsafed to the senate a shadow of the past by submitting the claims of the provinces to the discussion of its members. For throughout the Greek cities there was a growing laxity, and impunity, in the creation of rights of asylum. The temples were filled with the dregs of the slave population; the same shelter was extended to the debtor against his creditor and to the man suspected of a capital offence; nor was any authority powerful enough to quell the factions of a race which protected human felony equally with divine worship. It was resolved, therefore, that the communities in question should send their charters and deputies to Rome. A\xa0few abandoned without a struggle the claims they had asserted without a title: many relied on hoary superstitions or on their services to the Roman nation. It was an impressive spectacle which that day afforded, when the senate scrutinized the benefactions of its predecessors, the constitutions of the provinces, even the decrees of kings whose power antedated the arms of Rome, and the rites of the deities themselves, with full liberty as of old to confirm or change. <' "^3.68 \xa0Tiberius, in order that the measures he was preparing against Silanus might come with the better grace through being supported by a precedent, ordered the bill in which the deified Augustus had indicted Volesus Messala, another proconsul of Asia, to be read aloud, together with the decree registered against him by the senate. He then asked Lucius Piso for his opinion. After a long preface devoted to the sovereign's clemency, he declared for the outlawry of Silanus from fire and water and his relegation to the isle of Gyarus. So, too, the others; with the exception of Gnaeus Lentulus, who moved that, so far as the property of Silanus had been derived from his mother, it should, as she came of the Atian house, be treated as distinct from the rest and restored to his son. <" '^3.69 \xa0Tiberius approved; but Cornelius Dolabella, to pursue the sycophancy further, proposed, after an attack on Silanus\' character, that no man of scandalous life and bankrupt reputation should be eligible for a province, the decision in such cases to rest with the emperor. "For delinquencies were punished by the law; but how much more merciful to the delinquent, how much better for the provincial, to provide against all irregularities beforehand!" The Caesar spoke in opposition:â\x80\x94 "True, the reports with regard to Silanus were not unknown to him; but judgments could not be based on rumour. Many a man by his conduct in his province had reversed the hopes or fears entertained concerning him: some natures were roused to better things by great position, others became sluggish. It was neither possible for a prince to comprehend everything within his own knowledge, nor desirable that he should be influenced by the intrigues of others. The reason why laws were made retrospective towards the thing done was that things to be were indeterminable. It was on this principle their forefathers had ruled that, if an offence had preceded, punishment should follow; and they must not now overturn a system wisely invented and always observed. Princes had enough of burdens â\x80\x94 enough, even, of power: the rights of the subject shrank as autocracy grew; and, where it was possible to proceed by form of law, it was a mistake to employ the fiat of the sovereign." This democratic doctrines were hailed with a pleasure answering to their rarity on the lips of Tiberius. He himself, tactful and moderate when not swayed by personal anger, added that "Gyarus was a bleak and uninhabited island. Out of consideration for the Junian house and for a man once their peer, they might allow him to retire to Cythnus instead. This was also the desire of Silanus\' sister Torquata, a Vestal of old-world saintliness." The proposal was adopted without discussion. < ^4.1.1 \xa0The consulate of Gaius Asinius and Gaius Antistius was to Tiberius the ninth year of public order and of domestic felicity (for he counted the death of Germanicus among his blessings), when suddenly fortune disturbed the peace and he became either a tyrant himself or the source of power to the tyrannous. The starting-point and the cause were to be found in Aelius Sejanus, prefect of the praetorian cohorts. of his influence I\xa0spoke above: now I\xa0shall unfold his origin, his character, and the crime by which he strove to seize on empire. Born at Vulsinii to the Roman knight Seius Strabo, he became in early youth a follower of Gaius Caesar, grandson of the deified Augustus; not without a rumour that he had disposed of his virtue at a price to Apicius, a rich man and a prodigal. Before long, by his multifarious arts, he bound Tiberius fast: so much so that a man inscrutable to others became to Sejanus alone unguarded and unreserved; and the less by subtlety (in fact, he was beaten in the end by the selfsame arts) than by the anger of Heaven against that Roman realm for whose equal damnation he flourished and fell. He was a man hardy by constitution, fearless by temperament; skilled to conceal himself and to incriminate his neighbour; cringing at once and insolent; orderly and modest to outward view, at heart possessed by a towering ambition, which impelled him at whiles to lavishness and luxury, but oftener to industry and vigilance â\x80\x94 qualities not less noxious when assumed for the winning of a throne. ^4.15.3 \xa0The same year brought still another bereavement to the emperor, by removing one of the twin children of Drusus, and an equal affliction in the death of a friend. This was Lucilius Longus, his comrade in evil days and good, and the one member of the senate to share his isolation at Rhodes. Hence, in spite of his modest antecedents, a censorian funeral and a statue erected in the Forum of Augustus at the public expense were decreed to him by the Fathers, before whom, at that time, all questions were still dealt with; so much so, that Lucilius Capito, the procurator of Asia, was obliged, at the indictment of the province, to plead his cause before them, the emperor asserting forcibly that "any powers he had given to him extended merely to the slaves and revenues of the imperial domains; if he had usurped the governor\'s authority and used military force, it was a flouting of his orders: the provincials must be heard." The case was accordingly tried and the defendant condemned. In return for this act of retribution, as well as for the punishment meted out to Gaius Silanus the year before, the Asiatic cities decreed a temple to Tiberius, his mother, and the senate. Leave to build was granted, and Nero returned thanks on that score to the senate and his grandfather â\x80\x94 a\xa0pleasing sensation to his listeners, whose memory of Germanicus was fresh enough to permit the fancy that his were the features they saw and the accents to which they listened. The youth had, in fact, a modesty and beauty worthy of a prince: endowments the more attractive from the peril of their owner, since the hatred of Sejanus for him was notorious. < ^4.16.4 \xa0Nearly at the same date, the Caesar spoke on the need of choosing a flamen of Jupiter, to replace the late Servius Maluginensis, and of also passing new legislation. "Three patricians," he pointed out, "children of parents wedded \'by cake and spelt,\' were nominated simultaneously; and on one of them the selection fell. The system was old-fashioned, nor was there now as formerly the requisite supply of candidates, since the habit of marrying by the ancient ritual had been dropped, or was retained in few families." â\x80\x94 Here he offered several explanations of the fact, the principal one being the indifference of both sexes, though there was also a deliberate avoidance of the difficulties of the ceremony itself. â\x80\x94 ".\xa0.\xa0.\xa0and since both the man obtaining this priesthood and the woman passing into the marital control of a flamen were automatically withdrawn from paternal jurisdiction. Consequently, a remedy must be applied either by a senatorial resolution or by special law, precisely as Augustus had modified several relics of the rough old world to suit the needs of the present." It was decided, then, after a discussion of the religious points, that no change should be made in the constitution of the flamenship; but a law was carried, that the flamen\'s wife, though under her husband\'s tutelage in respect of her sacred duties, should otherwise stand upon the same legal footing as any ordinary woman. Maluginensis\' son was elected in the room of his father; and to enhance the dignity of the priests and increase their readiness to perform the ritual of the various cults, two million sesterces were voted to the Virgin Cornelia, who was being appointed to succeed Scantia; while Augusta, whenever she entered the theatre, was to take her place among the seats reserved for the Vestals. < ^4.21 \xa0Next there was treated the case of Calpurnius Piso, a man of birth and courage: it was he who, as I\xa0have stated already, had exclaimed to the senate that he would retire from the capital as a protest against the cabals of the informers, and, contemptuous of the influence of Augusta, had dared to bring Urgulania before a court and to summon her from under the imperial roof. For the moment, Tiberius took the incidents in good part; but in his heart, brooding over its grounds for wrath, though the first transport of resentment might have died down, memory lived. It was Quintus Granius, who charged Piso with holding private conversations derogatory to majesty; and added that he kept poison at his house and wore a sword when entering the curia. The last count was allowed to drop as too atrocious to be true; on the others, which were freely accumulated, he was entered for trial, and was only saved from undergoing it by a well-timed death. The case, also, of the exiled Cassius Severus was brought up in the senate. of sordid origin and mischievous life, but a powerful orator, he had made enemies on such a scale that by a verdict of the senate under oath he was relegated to Crete. There, by continuing his methods, he drew upon himself so many animosities, new or old, that he was now stripped of his estate, interdicted from fire and water, and sent to linger out his days on the rock of Seriphos. < ^4.32 \xa0I\xa0am not unaware that very many of the events I\xa0have described, and shall describe, may perhaps seem little things, trifles too slight for record; but no parallel can be drawn between these chronicles of mine and the work of the men who composed the ancient history of the Roman people. Gigantic wars, cities stormed, routed and captive kings, or, when they turned by choice to domestic affairs, the feuds of consul and tribune, land-laws and corn-laws, the duel of nobles and commons â\x80\x94 such were the themes on which they dwelt, or digressed, at will. Mine is an inglorious labour in a narrow field: for this was an age of peace unbroken or half-heartedly challenged, of tragedy in the capital, of a prince careless to extend the empire. Yet it may be not unprofitable to look beneath the surface of those incidents, trivial at the first inspection, which so often set in motion the great events of history. < ^4.34 \xa0The consulate of Cornelius Cossus and Asinius Agrippa opened with the prosecution of Cremutius Cordus upon the novel and till then unheard-of charge of publishing a history, eulogizing Brutus, and styling Cassius the last of the Romans. The accusers were Satrius Secundus and Pinarius Natta, clients of Sejanus. That circumstance sealed the defendant\'s fate â\x80\x94 that and the lowering brows of the Caesar, as he bent his attention to the defence; which Cremutius, resolved to take his leave of life, began as follows:â\x80\x94 "Conscript Fathers, my words are brought to judgement â\x80\x94 so guiltless am\xa0I of deeds! Nor are they even words against the sole persons embraced by the law of treason, the sovereign or the parent of the sovereign: I\xa0am said to have praised Brutus and Cassius, whose acts so many pens have recorded, whom not one has mentioned save with honour. Livy, with a fame for eloquence and candour second to none, lavished such eulogies on Pompey that Augustus styled him \'the Pompeian\': yet it was without prejudice to their friendship. Scipio, Afranius, this very Cassius, this Brutus â\x80\x94 not once does he describe them by the now fashionable titles of brigand and parricide, but time and again in such terms as he might apply to any distinguished patriots. The works of Asinius Pollio transmit their character in noble colours; Messalla Corvinus gloried to have served under Cassius: and Pollio and Corvinus lived and died in the fulness of wealth and honour! When Cicero\'s book praised Cato to the skies, what did it elicit from the dictator Caesar but a written oration as though at the bar of public opinion? The letters of Antony, the speeches of Brutus, contain invectives against Augustus, false undoubtedly yet bitter in the extreme; the poems â\x80\x94 still read â\x80\x94 of Bibaculus and Catullus are packed with scurrilities upon the Caesars: yet even the deified Julius, the divine Augustus himself, tolerated them and left them in peace; and I\xa0hesitate whether to ascribe their action to forbearance or to wisdom. For things contemned are soon things forgotten: anger is read as recognition. < ^4.35 \xa0"I\xa0leave untouched the Greeks; with them not liberty only but licence itself went unchastised, or, if a man retaliated, he avenged words by words. But what above all else was absolutely free and immune from censure was the expression of an opinion on those whom death had removed beyond the range of rancour or of partiality. Are Brutus and Cassius under arms on the plains of Philippi, and\xa0I upon the platform, firing the nation to civil war? Or is it the case that, seventy years since their taking-off, as they are known by their effigies which the conqueror himself did not abolish, so a portion of their memory is enshrined likewise in history? â\x80\x94 To every man posterity renders his wage of honour; nor will there lack, if my condemnation is at hand, those who shall remember, not Brutus and Cassius alone, but me also!" He then left the senate, and closed his life by self-starvation. The Fathers ordered his books to be burned by the aediles; but copies remained, hidden and afterwards published: a fact which moves us the more to deride the folly of those who believe that by an act of despotism in the present there can be extinguished also the memory of a succeeding age. On the contrary, genius chastised grows in authority; nor have alien kings or the imitators of their cruelty effected more than to crown themselves with ignominy and their victims with renown. < ^4.37.1 \xa0About the same time, Further Spain sent a deputation to the senate, asking leave to follow the example of Asia by erecting a shrine to Tiberius and his mother. On this occasion, the Caesar, sturdily disdainful of compliments at any time, and now convinced that an answer was due to the gossip charging him with a declension into vanity, began his speech in the following vein:â\x80\x94 "I\xa0know, Conscript Fathers, that many deplored by want of consistency because, when a little while ago the cities of Asia made this identical request, I\xa0offered no opposition. I\xa0shall therefore state both the case for my previous silence and the rule I\xa0have settled upon for the future. Since the deified Augustus had not forbidden the construction of a temple at Pergamum to himself and the City of Rome, observing as I\xa0do his every action and word as law, I\xa0followed the precedent already sealed by his approval, with all the more readiness that with worship of myself was associated veneration of the senate. But, though once to have accepted may be pardonable, yet to be consecrated in the image of deity through all the provinces would be vanity and arrogance, and the honour paid to Augustus will soon be a mockery, if it is vulgarized by promiscuous experiments in flattery. ^4.58.2 \xa0His exit was made with a slender retinue: one senator who had held a consulship (the jurist Cocceius Nerva) and â\x80\x94 in addition to Sejanus â\x80\x94 one Roman knight of the higher rank, Curtius Atticus; the rest being men of letters, principally Greeks, in whose conversation he was to find amusement. The astrologers declared that he had left Rome under a conjunction of planets excluding the possibility of return: a\xa0fatal assertion to the many who concluded that the end was at hand and gave publicity to their views. For they failed to foresee the incredible event, that through eleven years he would persist self-exiled from his fatherland. It was soon to be revealed how close are the confines of science and imposture, how dark the veil that covers truth. That he would never return to Rome was not said at venture: of all else, the seers were ignorant; for in the adjacent country, on neighbouring beaches, often hard under the city-walls, he reached the utmost limit of old age. < ^4.64.1 \xa0The disaster had not yet faded from memory, when a fierce outbreak of fire affected the city to an unusual degree by burning down the Caelian Hill. "It was a fatal year, and the sovereign\'s decision to absent himself had been adopted under an evil star" â\x80\x94 so men began to remark, converting, as is the habit of the crowd, the fortuitous into the culpable, when the Caesar checked the critics by a distribution of money in proportion to loss sustained. Thanks were returned to him; in the senate, by the noble; in the streets, by the voice of the people: for without respect of persons, and without the intercession of relatives, he had aided with his liberality even unknown sufferers whom he had himself encouraged to apply. Proposals were added that the Caelian Hill should for the future be known as the Augustan, since, with all around on fire, the one thing to remain unscathed had been a bust of Tiberius in the house of the senator Junius. "The same," it was said, "had happened formerly to Claudia Quinta; whose statue, twice escaped from the fury of the flames, our ancestors had dedicated in the temple of the Mother of the Gods. The Claudian race was sacrosanct and acceptable to Heaven, and additional solemnity should be given to the ground on which the gods had shown so notable an honour to the sovereign." ^4.70.2 \xa0However, in a letter read on the first of January, the Caesar, after the orthodox prayers for the new year, turned to Sabinus, charging him with the corruption of several of his freedmen, and with designs against himself; and demanded vengeance in terms impossible to misread. Vengeance was decreed without loss of time; and the doomed man was dragged to his death, crying with all the vigour allowed by the cloak muffling his head and the noose around his neck, that "these were the ceremonies that inaugurated the year, these the victims that bled to propitiate Sejanus!" In whatever direction he turned his eyes, wherever his words reached an ear, the result was flight and desolation, an exodus from street and forum. Here and there a man retraced his steps and showed himself again, pale at the very thought that he had manifested alarm. "For what day would find the killers idle, when amid sacrifices and prayers, at a season when custom prohibited so much as an ominous word, chains and the halter come upon the scene? Not from want of thought had odium such as this been incurred by Tiberius: it was a premeditated and deliberate act, that none might think that the new magistrates were precluded from inaugurating the dungeon as they did the temples and the altars." â\x80\x94 A\xa0supplementary letter followed: the sovereign was grateful that they had punished a mann who was a danger to his country. He added that his own life was full of alarms, and that he suspected treachery from his enemies. He mentioned none by name; but no doubt was felt that the words were levelled at Agrippina and Nero. < ^4.74 \xa0Thus the Frisian name won celebrity in Germany; while Tiberius, rather than entrust anyone with the conduct of the war, suppressed our losses. The senate, too, had other anxieties than a question of national dishonour on the confines of the empire: an internal panic had preoccupied all minds, and the antidote was being sought in sycophancy. Thus, although their opinion was being taken on totally unrelated subjects, they voted an altar of Mercy and an altar of Friendship with statues of the Caesar and Sejanus on either hand, and with reiterated petitions conjured the pair to vouchsafe themselves to sight. Neither of them, however, came down so far as Rome or the neighbourhood of Rome: it was deemed enough to emerge from their isle and present themselves to view on the nearest shore of Campania. To Campania went senators and knights, with a large part of the populace, their anxieties centred round Sejanus; access to whom had grown harder, and had therefore to be procured by interest and by a partnership in his designs. It was evident enough that his arrogance was increased by the sight of this repulsive servility so openly exhibited. At Rome, movement is the rule, and the extent of the city leaves it uncertain upon what errand the passer-by is bent: there, littering without distinction the plain or the beach, they suffered day and night alike the patronage or the insolence of his janitors, until that privilege, too, was vetoed, and they retraced their steps to the capital\xa0â\x80\x94 those whom he had honoured neither by word nor by look, in fear and trembling; a\xa0few, over whom hung the fatal issue of that infelicitous friendship, with misplaced cheerfulness of heart. < ^5.2 \xa0Tiberius, however, without altering the amenities of his life, excused himself by letter, on the score of important affairs, for neglecting to pay the last respects to his mother, and, with a semblance of modesty, curtailed the lavish tributes decreed to her memory by the senate. Extremely few passed muster, and he added a stipulation that divine honours were not to be voted: such, he observed, had been her own wish. More than this, in a part of the same missive he attacked "feminine friendships": an indirect stricture upon the consul Fufius, who had risen by the favour of Augusta, and, besides his aptitude for attracting the fancy of the sex, had a turn for wit and a habit of ridiculing Tiberius with those bitter pleasantries which linger long in the memory of potentates. < ^5.4 \xa0There was in the senate a certain Julius Rusticus, chosen by the Caesar to compile the official journal of its proceedings, and therefore credited with some insight into his thoughts. Under some fatal impulse â\x80\x94 for he had never before given an indication of courage â\x80\x94 or possibly through a misapplied acuteness which made him blind to dangers imminent and terrified of dangers uncertain, Rusticus insinuated himself among the doubters and warned the consuls not to introduce the question â\x80\x94 "A\xa0touch," he insisted, "could turn the scale in the gravest of matters: it was possible that some day the extinction of the house of Germanicus might move the old man\'s penitence." At the same time, the people, carrying effigies of Agrippina and Nero, surrounded the curia, and, cheering for the Caesar, clamoured that the letter was spurious and that it was contrary to the Emperor\'s wish that destruction was plotted against his house. On that day, therefore, no tragedy was perpetrated. There were circulated, also, under consular names, fictitious attacks upon Sejanus: for authors in plenty exercised their capricious imagination with all the petulance of anonymity. The result was to fan his anger and to supply him with the material for fresh charges:â\x80\x94 "The senate had spurned the sorrow of its emperor, the people had forsworn its allegiance. Already disloyal harangues, disloyal decrees of the Fathers, were listened to and perused: what remained but to take the sword and in the persons whose effigies they had followed as their ensigns to choose their generals and their princes?" < ^6.6 \xa0The beginning of this letter from the Caesar was considered notable; for he opened with the following words:â\x80\x94 If\xa0I\xa0know what to write to you, Conscript Fathers, or how to write it, or what not to write at all at this time, may gods and goddesses destroy me more wretchedly than I\xa0feel myself to be perishing every day! So surely had his crimes and his infamies turned to the torment even of himself; nor was it in vain that the first of sages was accustomed to affirm that, could the souls of tyrants be laid open, lacerations and wounds would meet the view; since, as the body is torn by the lash, so is the spirit of man by cruelty and lust and evil purposes. For not his station nor his solitudes could save Tiberius from himself confessing the rack within his breast and his own punishments. < ^6.20.2 \xa0About the same time, Gaius Caesar, who had accompanied his grandfather on the departure to Capreae, received in marriage Claudia, the daughter of Marcus Silanus. His monstrous character was masked by a hypocritical modesty: not a word escaped him at the sentencing of his mother or the destruction of his brethren; whatever the mood assumed for the day by Tiberius, the attitude of his grandson was the same, and his words not greatly different. Hence, a little later, the epigram of the orator Passienus â\x80\x94 that the world never knew a better slave, nor a worse master. I\xa0cannot omit the prophecy of Tiberius with regard to Servius Galba, then consul. He sent for him, sounded him in conversations on a variety of subjects, and finally addressed him in a Greek sentence, the purport of which was, "Thou, too, Galba, shalt one day have thy taste of empire": a hint of belated and short-lived power, based on knowledge of the Chaldean art, the acquirement of which he owed to the leisure of Rhodes and the instructions of Thrasyllus. His tutor\'s capacity he had tested as follows. < ^6.21 \xa0For all consultations on such business he used the highest part of his villa and the confidential services of one freedman. Along the pathless and broken heights (for the house overlooks a cliff) this illiterate and robust guide led the way in front of the astrologer whose art Tiberius had resolved to investigate, and on his return, had any suspicion arisen of incompetence or of fraud, hurled him into the sea below, lest he should turn betrayer of the secret. Thrasyllus, then, introduced by the same rocky path, after he had impressed his questioner by adroit revelations of his empire to be and of the course of the future, was asked if he had ascertained his own horoscope â\x80\x94 what was the character of that year â\x80\x94 what the complexion of that day. A\xa0diagram which he drew up of the positions and distances of the stars at first gave him pause; then he showed signs of fear: the more careful his scrutiny, the greater his trepidation between surprise and alarm; and at last he exclaimed that a doubtful, almost a final, crisis was hard upon him. He was promptly embraced by Tiberius, who, congratulating him on the fact that he had divined, and was about to escape, his perils, accepted as oracular truth, the predictions he had made, and retained him among his closest friends. < ^6.25.3 \xa0This tragedy had not yet faded from memory, when news came of Agrippina; who, after the death of Sejanus, had continued, I\xa0take it, to live, because sustained by hope, and then, as there was no abatement of cruelty, had perished by her own will; unless food was withheld, so that her death should present features which might be taken for those of suicide. The point certain is that Tiberius broke out in abominable calumnies, accusing her of unchastity and adultery with Asinius Gallus, by whose death she had been driven to tire of life. Yet Agrippina, impatient of equality and athirst for power, had sunk female frailty in masculine ambition. She had died, the Caesar pursued, on the very day on which, two years earlier, Sejanus had expiated his crimes, a fact which ought to be transmitted to memory; and he mentioned with pride that she had not been strangled or thrown on to the Gemonian Stairs. Thanks were returned for the mercy, and it was decreed that on the eighteenth of October, the day of both the killings, an offering should be consecrated to Jupiter for all years to come. < ^11.4.1 \xa0The Fathers were then convened; and Suillius proceeded to add to the list of accused two Roman knights of the highest rank, surnamed Petra. The cause of death lay in the allegation that they had lent their house as a trysting-place for Mnester and Poppaea. It was, however, for a vision during his night\'s sleep that one of them was indicted, the charge being that he had seen Claudius crowned with a wheaten diadem, the ears inverted, and on the strength of his vision had predicted a shortage in the corn-supply. It has been stated by some that the thing seen was a vine-wreath with whitening leaves; which he read as an indication of the emperor\'s decease at the wane of autumn. The point not disputed was that it was a dream, whatever its character, which brought ruin to himself and to his brother. A\xa0million and a\xa0half sesterces, with the decorations of the praetorship, were voted to Crispinus. Vitellius proposed a\xa0million more for Sosibius, for assisting Britannicus by his instructions and Claudius by his counsels. Scipio, who was also asked for his view, replied: "As I\xa0think what all think of Poppaea\'s offences, take me as saying what all say!" â\x80\x94 an elegant compromise between conjugal love and senatorial obligation.' "^1
1.11.1 \xa0Under the same consulate, eight hundred years from the foundation of Rome, sixty-four from their presentation by Augustus, came a performance of the Secular Games. The calculations employed by the two princes I\xa0omit, as they have been sufficiently explained in the books which I\xa0have devoted to the reign of Domitian. For he too exhibited Secular Games, and, as the holder of a quindecimviral priesthood and as praetor at the time, I\xa0followed them with more than usual care: a\xa0fact which I\xa0recall not in vanity, but because from of old this responsibility has rested with the Fifteen, and because it was to magistrates in especial that the task fell of discharging the duties connected with the religious ceremonies. During the presence of Claudius at the Circensian Games, when a cavalcade of boys from the great families opened the mimic battle of Troy, among them being the emperor's son, Britannicus, and Lucius Domitius, â\x80\x94 soon to be adopted as heir to the throne and to the designation of Nero, â\x80\x94 the livelier applause given by the populace to Domitius was accepted as prophetic. Also there was a common tale that serpents had watched over his infancy like warders: a\xa0fable retouched to resemble foreign miracles, since Nero â\x80\x94 certainly not given to self-depreciation â\x80\x94 used to say that only a single snake had been noticed in his bedroom." "^1
1.27 \xa0It will seem, I\xa0am aware, fabulous that, in a city cognizant of all things and reticent of none, any human beings could have felt so much security; far more so, that on a specified day, with witnesses to seal the contract, a consul designate and the emperor's wife should have met for the avowed purposes of legitimate marriage; that the woman should have listened to the words of the auspices, have assumed the veil, have sacrificed in the face of Heaven; that both should have dined with the guests, have kissed and embraced, and finally have spent the night in the licence of wedlock. But I\xa0have added no touch of the marvellous: all that I\xa0record shall be the oral or written evidence of my seniors. <" ^11.35 \xa0Throughout the proceedings Claudius maintained a strange silence, Vitellius wore an air of unconsciousness: all things moved at the will of the freedman. He ordered the adulterer\'s mansion to be thrown open and the emperor to be conducted to it. First he pointed out in the vestibule an effigy â\x80\x94 banned by senatorial decree â\x80\x94 of the elder Silius; then he demonstrated how the heirlooms of the Neros and the Drusi had been requisitioned as the price of infamy. As the emperor grew hot and broke into threats, he led him to the camp, where a mass-meeting of the troops had been prearranged. After a preliminary address by Narcissus, he spoke a\xa0few words: for, just as his resentment was, shame denied it utterance. There followed one long cry from the cohorts demanding the names and punishment of the criminals. Set before the tribunal, Silius attempted neither defence nor delay, and asked for an acceleration of death. His firmness was imitated by a\xa0number of Roman knights of the higher rank. Titius Proculus, appointed by Silius as "custodian" of Messalina, and now proffering evidence, was ordered for execution, together with Vettius Valens, who confessed, and their accomplices Pompeius Urbicus and Saufeius Trogus. The same penalty was inflicted also on Decrius Calpurnianus, prefect of the city-watch; on Sulpicius Rufus, procurator of the school of gladiators; and on the senator Juncus Vergilianus. < ^12.5 \xa0In the consulate of Gaius Pompeius and Quintus Veranius, the union plighted between Claudius and Agrippina was already being rendered doubly sure by rumour and by illicit love. As yet, however, they lacked courage to celebrate the bridal solemnities, no precedent existing for the introduction of a brother\'s child into the house of her uncle. Moreover, the relationship was incest; and, if that fact were disregarded, it was feared that the upshot would be a national calamity. Hesitation was dropped only when Vitellius undertook to bring about the desired result by his own methods. He began by asking the Caesar if he would yield to the mandate of the people? â\x80\x94 to the authority of the senate? On receiving the answer that he was a citizen among citizens, and incompetent to resist their united will, he ordered him to wait inside the palace. He himself entered the curia. Asseverating that a vital interest of the country was in question, he demanded leave to speak first, and began by stating that "the extremely onerous labours of the sovereign, which embraced the management of a world, stood in need of support, so that he might pursue his deliberations for the public good, undisturbed by domestic anxiety. And what more decent solace to that truly censorian spirit than to take a wife, his partner in weal and woe, to whose charge might be committed his inmost thoughts and the little children of a prince unused to dissipation or to pleasure, but to submission to the law from his early youth?" < ^12.8.1 \xa0On the wedding-day Silanus committed suicide; whether he had preserved his hope of life till then, or whether the date was deliberately chosen to increase the odium of his death. His sister Calvina was expelled from Italy. Claudius, in addition, prescribed sacrifices in accordance with the legislation of King Tullus, and expiatory ceremonies to be carried out by the pontiffs in the grove of Diana; universal derision being excited by this choice of a period in which to unearth the penalties and purifications of incest. Agrippina, on the other hand, not to owe her reputation entirely to crime, procured a remission of banishment for Annaeus Seneca, along with a praetorship: his literary fame, she conceived, would make the act popular with the nation; while she was anxious to gain so distinguished a tutor for Domitius in his transit from boyhood to adolescence, and to profit by his advice in their designs upon the throne. For the belief was that Seneca was attached to Agrippina by the memory of her kindness and embittered against Claudius by resentment of his injury. ^12.25 \xa0In the consulate of Gaius Antistius and Marcus Suillius, the adoption of Domitius was hurried forward by the influence of Pallas, who, pledged to Agrippina as the agent in her marriage, then bound to her by lawless love, kept goading Claudius to consult the welfare of the country and to supply the boyish years of Britannicus with a stable protection:â\x80\x94 "So, in the family of the divine Augustus, though he had grandsons to rely upon, yet his step-children rose to power; Tiberius had issue of his own, but he adopted Germanicus; let Claudius also gird to himself a young partner, who would undertake a share of his responsibilities!" The emperor yielded to the pressure, and gave Domitius, with his three years\' seniority, precedence over his son, reproducing in his speech to the senate the arguments furnished by his freedman. It was noted by the expert that, prior to this, there was no trace of an adoption in the patrician branch of the Claudian house, which had lasted without interruption from Attus Clausus downward. < ^12.26.2 \xa0Thanks, however, were returned to the sovereign; a\xa0more refined flattery was bestowed on Domitius; and the law was carried providing for his adoption into the Claudian family and the designation of Nero. Agrippina herself was dignified by the title of Augusta. When the transaction was over, no one was so devoid of pity as not to feel compunction for the lot of Britannicus. Stripped little by little of the services of the very slaves, the boy turned into derision the officious importunities of his stepmother, whose hypocrisy he understood. For report credits him with no lack of intelligence, possibly with truth, or possibly through the sympathy inspired by his dangers he has retained a reputation which was never put to the proof. <' "^1

2.27.1 \xa0Agrippina, on the other hand, in order to advertise her strength to the provinces also, arranged for the plantation of a colony of veterans in the Ubian town where she was born. The settlement received its title from her name; and, as chance would have it, it had been her grandfather Agrippa who extended Roman protection to the tribe on its migration across the Rhine. At the same period, a panic was caused in Upper Germany by an incursion of Chattan marauders. Thereupon, the legate Publius Pomponius sent the auxiliary Vangiones and Nemetes, supported by allied cavalry, with instructions to head off the raiders, or, if they scattered, to envelop and surprise them. The general's plan was seconded by the activity of the troops. They separated into two columns; one of which, marching to the left, entrapped a newly-returned detachment of pillagers, who, after employing their booty in a debauch, were sleeping off the effects. The exultation of the men was heightened by the fact that, after forty years, they had redeemed from slavery a\xa0few survivors of the Varian disaster." ^12.43.1 \xa0Many prodigies occurred during the year. Ominous birds took their seat on the Capitol; houses were overturned by repeated shocks of earthquake, and, as the panic spread, the weak were trampled underfoot in the trepidation of the crowd. A\xa0shortage of corn, again, and the famine which resulted, were construed as a supernatural warning. Nor were the complaints always whispered. Claudius, sitting in judgement, was surrounded by a wildly clamorous mob, and, driven into the farthest corner of the Forum, was there subjected to violent pressure, until, with the help of a body of troops, he forced a way through the hostile throng. It was established that the capital had provisions for fifteen days, no more; and the crisis was relieved only by the especial grace of the gods and the mildness of the winter. And yet, Heaven knows, in the past, Italy exported supplies for the legions into remote provinces; nor is sterility the trouble now, but we cultivate Africa and Egypt by preference, and the life of the Roman nation has been staked upon cargo-boats and accidents. ^12.43 \xa0Many prodigies occurred during the year. Ominous birds took their seat on the Capitol; houses were overturned by repeated shocks of earthquake, and, as the panic spread, the weak were trampled underfoot in the trepidation of the crowd. A\xa0shortage of corn, again, and the famine which resulted, were construed as a supernatural warning. Nor were the complaints always whispered. Claudius, sitting in judgement, was surrounded by a wildly clamorous mob, and, driven into the farthest corner of the Forum, was there subjected to violent pressure, until, with the help of a body of troops, he forced a way through the hostile throng. It was established that the capital had provisions for fifteen days, no more; and the crisis was relieved only by the especial grace of the gods and the mildness of the winter. And yet, Heaven knows, in the past, Italy exported supplies for the legions into remote provinces; nor is sterility the trouble now, but we cultivate Africa and Egypt by preference, and the life of the Roman nation has been staked upon cargo-boats and accidents. < ^12.52 \xa0In the consulate of Faustus Sulla and Salvius Otho, Furius Scribonianus was driven into exile, on a charge of inquiring into the end of the sovereign by the agency of astrologers: his mother Vibidia was included in the arraignment, on the ground that she had not acquiesced in her former misadventure â\x80\x94 she had been sentenced to relegation. Camillus, the father of Scribonianus, had taken arms in Dalmatia: a\xa0point placed by the emperor to the credit of his clemency, since he was sparing this hostile stock for a second time. The exile, however, did not long survive: the question whether he died by a natural death or from poison was answered by the gossips according to their various beliefs. The expulsion of the astrologers from Italy was ordered by a drastic and impotent decree of the senate. Then followed a speech by the emperor, commending all who voluntarily renounced senatorial rank owing to straitened circumstances: those who, by remaining, added impudence to poverty were removed. < ^12.64.1 \xa0In the consulate of Marcus Asinius and Manius Acilius, it was made apparent by a sequence of prodigies that a change of conditions for the worse was foreshadowed. Fire from heaven played round the standards and tents of the soldiers; a\xa0swarm of bees settled on the pediment of the Capitol; it was stated that hermaphrodites had been born, and that a pig had been produced with the talons of a hawk. It was counted among the portents that each of the magistracies found its numbers diminished, since a quaestor, an aedile, and a tribune, together with a praetor and a consul, had died within a\xa0few months. But especial terror was felt by Agrippina. Disquieted by a remark let fall by Claudius in his cups, that it was his destiny first to suffer and finally to punish the infamy of his wives, she determined to act â\x80\x94 and speedily. First, however, she destroyed Domitia Lepida on a feminine quarrel. For, as the daughter of the younger Antonia, the grand-niece of Augustus, the first cousin once removed of Agrippina, and also the sister of her former husband Gnaeus Domitius, Lepida regarded her family distinctions as equal to those of the princess. In looks, age, and fortune there was little between the pair; and since each was as unchaste, as disreputable, and as violent as the other, their competition in the vices was not less keen than in such advantages as they had received from the kindness of fortune. But the fiercest struggle was on the question whether the domit influence with Nero was to be his aunt or his mother: for Lepida was endeavouring to captivate his youthful mind by a smooth tongue and an open hand, while on the other side Agrippina stood grim and menacing, capable of presenting her son with an empire but not of tolerating him as emperor. ^12.64 \xa0In the consulate of Marcus Asinius and Manius Acilius, it was made apparent by a sequence of prodigies that a change of conditions for the worse was foreshadowed. Fire from heaven played round the standards and tents of the soldiers; a\xa0swarm of bees settled on the pediment of the Capitol; it was stated that hermaphrodites had been born, and that a pig had been produced with the talons of a hawk. It was counted among the portents that each of the magistracies found its numbers diminished, since a quaestor, an aedile, and a tribune, together with a praetor and a consul, had died within a\xa0few months. But especial terror was felt by Agrippina. Disquieted by a remark let fall by Claudius in his cups, that it was his destiny first to suffer and finally to punish the infamy of his wives, she determined to act â\x80\x94 and speedily. First, however, she destroyed Domitia Lepida on a feminine quarrel. For, as the daughter of the younger Antonia, the grand-niece of Augustus, the first cousin once removed of Agrippina, and also the sister of her former husband Gnaeus Domitius, Lepida regarded her family distinctions as equal to those of the princess. In looks, age, and fortune there was little between the pair; and since each was as unchaste, as disreputable, and as violent as the other, their competition in the vices was not less keen than in such advantages as they had received from the kindness of fortune. But the fiercest struggle was on the question whether the domit influence with Nero was to be his aunt or his mother: for Lepida was endeavouring to captivate his youthful mind by a smooth tongue and an open hand, while on the other side Agrippina stood grim and menacing, capable of presenting her son with an empire but not of tolerating him as emperor. < ^12.66 \xa0Under the weight of anxiety, his health broke down, and he left for Sinuessa, to renovate his strength by the gentle climate and the medicinal springs. At once, Agrippina â\x80\x94 long resolved on murder, eager to seize the proffered occasion, and at no lack for assistants â\x80\x94 sought advice upon the type of poison. With a rapid and drastic drug, the crime, she feared, would be obvious: if she decided for a slow and wasting preparation, Claudius, face to face with his end and aware of her treachery, might experience a return of affection for his son. What commended itself was something recondite, which would derange his faculties while postponing his dissolution. An artist in this domain was selected â\x80\x94 a\xa0woman by the name of Locusta, lately sentenced on a poisoning charge, and long retained as part of the stock-in-trade of absolutism. Her ingenuity supplied a potion, administered by the eunuch Halotus, whose regular duty was to bring in and taste the dishes. <' "^12.68 \xa0Meanwhile, the senate was convened, and consuls and priests formulated their vows for the imperial safety, at a moment when the now lifeless body was being swathed in blankets and warming bandages, while the requisite measures were arranged for securing the accession of Nero. In the first place, Agrippina, heart-broken apparently and seeking to be comforted, held Britannicus to her breast, styled him the authentic portrait of his father, and, by this or the other device, precluded him from leaving his room. His sisters, Antonia and Octavia, she similarly detained. She had barred all avenues of approach with pickets, and ever and anon she issued notices that the emperor's indisposition was turning favourably: all to keep the troops in good hope, and to allow time for the advent of the auspicious moment insisted upon by the astrologers. <" '^12.69 \xa0At last, at midday, on the thirteenth of October, the palace gates swung suddenly open, and Nero, with Burrus in attendance, passed out to the cohort, always on guard in conformity with the rules of the service. There, at a hint from the prefect, he was greeted with cheers and placed in a litter. Some of the men are said to have hesitated, looking back and inquiring:â\x80\x94 "Where was Britannicus?" Then, as no lead to the contrary was forthcoming, they acquiesced in the choice presented to them: Nero was carried into the camp; and, after a\xa0few introductory words suited to the time, promised a donative on the same generous scale as that of his father, and was saluted as Imperator. The verdict of the troops was followed by the senatorial decrees; nor was any hesitation evinced in the provinces. Divine honours were voted to Claudius, and his funeral solemnities were celebrated precisely as those of the deified Augustus, Agrippina emulating the magnificence of her great-grandmother Livia. His will, however, was not read, lest the preference of the stepson to the son should leave a disquieting impression of injustice and invidiousness upon the mind of the common people. ^13.1.1 \xa0The first death under the new principate, that of Junius Silanus, proconsul of Asia, was brought to pass, without Nero\'s cognizance, by treachery on the part of Agrippina. It was not that he had provoked his doom by violence of temper, lethargic as he was, and so completely disdained by former despotisms that Gaius Caesar usually styled him "the golden sheep"; but Agrippina, who had procured the death of his brother Lucius Silanus, feared him as a possible avenger, since it was a generally expressed opinion of the multitude that Nero, barely emerged from boyhood and holding the empire in consequence of a crime, should take second place to a man of settled years, innocent character, and noble family, who â\x80\x94 a\xa0point to be regarded in those days â\x80\x94 was counted among the posterity of the Caesars: for Silanus, like Nero, was the son of a great-grandchild of Augustus. Such was the cause of death: the instruments were the Roman knight, Publius Celer, and the freedman Helius, who were in charge of the imperial revenues in Asia. By these poison was administered to the proconsul at a dinner, too openly to avoid detection. With no less speed, Claudius\' freedman Narcissus, whose altercations with Agrippina I\xa0have already noticed, was forced to suicide by a rigorous confinement and by the last necessity, much against the will of the emperor, with whose still hidden vices his greed and prodigality were in admirable harmony. ^13.1 \xa0The first death under the new principate, that of Junius Silanus, proconsul of Asia, was brought to pass, without Nero\'s cognizance, by treachery on the part of Agrippina. It was not that he had provoked his doom by violence of temper, lethargic as he was, and so completely disdained by former despotisms that Gaius Caesar usually styled him "the golden sheep"; but Agrippina, who had procured the death of his brother Lucius Silanus, feared him as a possible avenger, since it was a generally expressed opinion of the multitude that Nero, barely emerged from boyhood and holding the empire in consequence of a crime, should take second place to a man of settled years, innocent character, and noble family, who â\x80\x94 a\xa0point to be regarded in those days â\x80\x94 was counted among the posterity of the Caesars: for Silanus, like Nero, was the son of a great-grandchild of Augustus. Such was the cause of death: the instruments were the Roman knight, Publius Celer, and the freedman Helius, who were in charge of the imperial revenues in Asia. By these poison was administered to the proconsul at a dinner, too openly to avoid detection. With no less speed, Claudius\' freedman Narcissus, whose altercations with Agrippina I\xa0have already noticed, was forced to suicide by a rigorous confinement and by the last necessity, much against the will of the emperor, with whose still hidden vices his greed and prodigality were in admirable harmony. < ^13.2.2 \xa0The tendency, in fact, was towards murder, had not Afranius Burrus and Seneca intervened. Both guardians of the imperial youth, and â\x80\x94 a\xa0rare occurrence where power is held in partnership â\x80\x94 both in agreement, they exercised equal influence by contrasted methods; and Burrus, with his soldierly interests and austerity, and Seneca, with his lessons in eloquence and his self-respecting courtliness, aided each other to ensure that the sovereign\'s years of temptation should, if he were scornful of virtue, be restrained within the bounds of permissible indulgence. Each had to face the same conflict with the overbearing pride of Agrippina; who, burning with all the passions of illicit power, had the adherence of Pallas, at whose instigation Claudius had destroyed himself by an incestuous marriage and a fatal adoption. But neither was Nero\'s a disposition that bends to slaves, nor had Pallas, who with his sullen arrogance transcended the limits of a freedman, failed to waken his disgust. Still, in public, every compliment was heaped upon the princess; and when the tribune, following the military routine, applied for the password, her son gave: "The best of mothers." The senate, too, accorded her a pair of lictors and the office of priestess to Claudius, to whom was voted, in the same session, a public funeral, followed presently by deification. <' "^13.2 \xa0The tendency, in fact, was towards murder, had not Afranius Burrus and Seneca intervened. Both guardians of the imperial youth, and â\x80\x94 a\xa0rare occurrence where power is held in partnership â\x80\x94 both in agreement, they exercised equal influence by contrasted methods; and Burrus, with his soldierly interests and austerity, and Seneca, with his lessons in eloquence and his self-respecting courtliness, aided each other to ensure that the sovereign\'s years of temptation should, if he were scornful of virtue, be restrained within the bounds of permissible indulgence. Each had to face the same conflict with the overbearing pride of Agrippina; who, burning with all the passions of illicit power, had the adherence of Pallas, at whose instigation Claudius had destroyed himself by an incestuous marriage and a fatal adoption. But neither was Nero\'s a disposition that bends to slaves, nor had Pallas, who with his sullen arrogance transcended the limits of a freedman, failed to waken his disgust. Still, in public, every compliment was heaped upon the princess; and when the tribune, following the military routine, applied for the password, her son gave: "The best of mothers." The senate, too, accorded her a pair of lictors and the office of priestess to Claudius, to whom was voted, in the same session, a public funeral, followed presently by deification. < ^13.3.2 \xa0On the day of the obsequies, the prince opened his panegyric of Claudius. So long as he rehearsed the antiquity of his family, the consulates and the triumphs of his ancestors, he was taken seriously by himself and by others. Allusions, also, to his literary attainments and to the freedom of his reign from reverses abroad had a favourable hearing. But when the orator addressed himself to his foresight and sagacity, no one could repress a smile; though the speech, as the composition of Seneca, exhibited the degree of polish to be expected from that famous man, whose pleasing talent was so well suited to a contemporary audience. The elderly observers, who make a pastime of comparing old days and new, remarked that Nero was the first master of the empire to stand in need of borrowed eloquence. For the dictator Caesar had rivalled the greatest orators; and Augustus had the ready and fluent diction appropriate to a monarch. Tiberius was, in addition, a master of the art of weighing words â\x80\x94 powerful, moreover, in the expression of his views, or, if ambiguous, ambiguous by design. Even Caligula's troubled brain did not affect his power of speech; and, when Claudius had prepared his harangues, elegance was not the quality that was missed. But Nero, even in his childish years, turned his vivacious mind to other interests: he carved, painted, practised singing or driving, and occasionally in a set of verses showed that he had in him the rudiments of culture. <" '^13.3 \xa0On the day of the obsequies, the prince opened his panegyric of Claudius. So long as he rehearsed the antiquity of his family, the consulates and the triumphs of his ancestors, he was taken seriously by himself and by others. Allusions, also, to his literary attainments and to the freedom of his reign from reverses abroad had a favourable hearing. But when the orator addressed himself to his foresight and sagacity, no one could repress a smile; though the speech, as the composition of Seneca, exhibited the degree of polish to be expected from that famous man, whose pleasing talent was so well suited to a contemporary audience. The elderly observers, who make a pastime of comparing old days and new, remarked that Nero was the first master of the empire to stand in need of borrowed eloquence. For the dictator Caesar had rivalled the greatest orators; and Augustus had the ready and fluent diction appropriate to a monarch. Tiberius was, in addition, a master of the art of weighing words â\x80\x94 powerful, moreover, in the expression of his views, or, if ambiguous, ambiguous by design. Even Caligula's troubled brain did not affect his power of speech; and, when Claudius had prepared his harangues, elegance was not the quality that was missed. But Nero, even in his childish years, turned his vivacious mind to other interests: he carved, painted, practised singing or driving, and occasionally in a set of verses showed that he had in him the rudiments of culture. <" "^13.4 \xa0However, when the mockeries of sorrow had been carried to their close, he entered the curia; and, after an opening reference to the authority of the Fathers and the uimity of the army, stated that "he had before him advice and examples pointing him to an admirable system of government. Nor had his youth been poisoned by civil war or family strife: he brought to his task no hatreds, no wrongs, no desire for vengeance. He then outlined the character of the coming principate, the points which had provoked recent and intense dissatisfaction being specially discounteced:â\x80\x94 "He would not constitute himself a judge of all cases, secluding accusers and defendants within the same four walls and allowing the influence of a\xa0few individuals to run riot. Under his roof would be no venality, no loophole for intrigue: the palace and the state would be things separate. Let the senate retain its old prerogatives! Let Italy and the public provinces take their stand before the judgement-seats of the consuls, and let the consuls grant them access to the Fathers: for the armies delegated to his charge he would himself be responsible." <' "^13.5 \xa0Nor was the pledge dishonoured, and many regulations were framed by the free decision of the senate. No advocate was to sell his services as a pleader for either fee or bounty; quaestors designate were to be under no obligation to produce a gladiatorial spectacle. The latter point, though opposed by Agrippina as a subversion of the acts of Claudius, was carried by the Fathers, whose meetings were specially convened in the Palatium, so that she could station herself at a newly-added door in their rear, shut off by a curtain thick enough to conceal her from view but not to debar her from hearing. In fact, when an Armenian deputation was pleading the national cause before Nero, she was preparing to ascend the emperor's tribunal and to share his presidency, had not Seneca, while others stood aghast, admonished the sovereign to step down and meet his mother: an assumption of filial piety which averted a scandal. <" ^13.10.1 \xa0In the same year, Nero applied to the senate for a statue to his father Gnaeus Domitius, and for consular decorations for Asconius Labeo, who had acted as his guardian. At the same time he vetoed an offer of effigies in solid gold or silver to himself; and, although a resolution had been passed by the Fathers that the new year should begin in December, the month which had given Nero to the world, he retained as the opening day of the calendar the first of January with its old religious associations. Nor were prosecutions allowed in the cases of the senator Carrinas Celer, who was accused by a slave, and of Julius Densus of the equestrian order, whose partiality for Britannicus was being turned into a criminal charge. ^13.10 \xa0In the same year, Nero applied to the senate for a statue to his father Gnaeus Domitius, and for consular decorations for Asconius Labeo, who had acted as his guardian. At the same time he vetoed an offer of effigies in solid gold or silver to himself; and, although a resolution had been passed by the Fathers that the new year should begin in December, the month which had given Nero to the world, he retained as the opening day of the calendar the first of January with its old religious associations. Nor were prosecutions allowed in the cases of the senator Carrinas Celer, who was accused by a slave, and of Julius Densus of the equestrian order, whose partiality for Britannicus was being turned into a criminal charge. < ^13.11 \xa0In the consulate of Claudius Nero and Lucius Antistius, while the magistrates were swearing allegiance to the imperial enactments, the prince withheld his colleague Antistius from swearing to his own: a\xa0measure which the senate applauded warmly, in the hope that his youthful mind, elated by the fame attaching even to small things, would proceed forthwith to greater. There followed, in fact, a display of leniency towards Plautius Lateranus, degraded from his rank for adultery with Messalina, but now restored to the senate by the emperor, who pledged himself to clemency in a series of speeches, which Seneca, either to attest the exalted qualities of his teaching or to advertise his ingenuity, kept presenting to the public by the lips of the sovereign. <' "^13.12.1 \xa0For the rest, maternal authority had weakened little by little. For Nero had slipped into a love affair with a freedwoman by the name of Acte, and at the same time had taken into his confidence Marcus Otho and Claudius Senecio, two handsome youths; the former of consular family, the latter a son of one of the imperial freedmen. At first, without the knowledge of his mother, then in defiance of her opposition, they had crept securely into the prince's favour as the partners of his dissipation and of his questionable secrets; while even his older friends showed no reluctance that a girl of that standing should gratify, without injury to anyone, the cravings of the emperor: for, whether from some whim of fate or because the illicit is stronger than the licit, he abhorred his wife Octavia, in spite of her high descent and proved honour; and there was always the risk that, if he were checked in this passion, his instincts would break out at the expense of women of rank." ^13.14.2 \xa0Persons were not lacking to report her words with a more sinister turn; and Nero, exasperated against the supporters of this female arrogance, removed Pallas from the charge to which he had been appointed by Claudius, and in which he exercised virtual control over the monarchy. The tale went that, as he left the palace with an army of attendants, the prince remarked not unhappily that Pallas was on the way to swear himself out of office. He had, in fact, stipulated that there should be no retrospective inquiry into any of his actions, and that his accounts with the state should be taken as balanced. At once, Agrippina rushed headlong into a policy of terror and of threats, and the imperial ears were not spared the solemn reminder that "Britannicus was now of age â\x80\x94 Britannicus, the genuine and deserving stock to succeed to his father\'s power, which an interloping heir by adoption now exercised in virtue of the iniquities of his mother. She had no objection to the whole dark history of that unhappy house being published to the world, her own marriage first of all, and her own resort to poison: one sole act of foresight lay to the credit of Heaven and herself â\x80\x94 her stepson lived. She would go with him to the camp. There, let the daughter of Germanicus be heard on the one side; on the other, the cripple Burrus and the exile Seneca, claiming, forsooth, by right of a maimed hand and a professorial tongue the regency of the human race!" As she spoke, she raised a threatening arm, and, heaping him with reproaches, invoked the deified Claudius, the shades of the dead Silani, and all the crimes committed to no effect. <' "^13.1
5.2 \xa0Perturbed by her attitude, and faced with the approach of the day on which Britannicus completed his fourteenth year, Nero began to revolve, now his mother's proclivity to violence, now the character of his rival, â\x80\x94 lately revealed by a test which, trivial as it was, had gained him wide sympathy. During the festivities of the Saturnalia, while his peers in age were varying their diversions by throwing dice for a king, the lot had fallen upon Nero. On the others he imposed various orders, not likely to put them to the blush: but, when he commanded Britannicus to rise, advance into the centre, and strike up a song â\x80\x94 this, in the hope of turning into derision a boy who knew little of sober, much less of drunken, society â\x80\x94 his victim firmly began a poem hinting at his expulsion from his father's house and throne. His bearing awoke a pity the more obvious that night and revelry had banished dissimulation. Nero, once aware of the feeling aroused, redoubled his hatred; and with Agrippina's threats becoming instant, as he had no grounds for a criminal charge against his brother and dared not openly order his execution, he tried secrecy and gave orders for poison to be prepared, his agent being Julius Pollio, tribune of a praetorian cohort, and responsible for the detention of the condemned poisoner Locusta, whose fame as a criminal stood high. For that no one about the person of Britannicus should regard either right or loyalty was a point long since provided for. The first dose the boy received from his own tutors, but his bowels were opened, and he passed the drug, which either lacked potency or contained a dilution to prevent immediate action. Nero, however, impatient of so much leisure in crime, threatened the tribune and ordered the execution of the poisoner, on the ground that, with their apprehensions of scandal and their preparations for defence, they were delaying his release from anxiety. They now promised that death should be as abrupt as if it were the summary work of steel; and a potion â\x80\x94 its rapidity guaranteed by a private test of the ingredients â\x80\x94 was concocted hard by the Caesar's bedroom. <" "^13.15.3 \xa0Perturbed by her attitude, and faced with the approach of the day on which Britannicus completed his fourteenth year, Nero began to revolve, now his mother's proclivity to violence, now the character of his rival, â\x80\x94 lately revealed by a test which, trivial as it was, had gained him wide sympathy. During the festivities of the Saturnalia, while his peers in age were varying their diversions by throwing dice for a king, the lot had fallen upon Nero. On the others he imposed various orders, not likely to put them to the blush: but, when he commanded Britannicus to rise, advance into the centre, and strike up a song â\x80\x94 this, in the hope of turning into derision a boy who knew little of sober, much less of drunken, society â\x80\x94 his victim firmly began a poem hinting at his expulsion from his father's house and throne. His bearing awoke a pity the more obvious that night and revelry had banished dissimulation. Nero, once aware of the feeling aroused, redoubled his hatred; and with Agrippina's threats becoming instant, as he had no grounds for a criminal charge against his brother and dared not openly order his execution, he tried secrecy and gave orders for poison to be prepared, his agent being Julius Pollio, tribune of a praetorian cohort, and responsible for the detention of the condemned poisoner Locusta, whose fame as a criminal stood high. For that no one about the person of Britannicus should regard either right or loyalty was a point long since provided for. The first dose the boy received from his own tutors, but his bowels were opened, and he passed the drug, which either lacked potency or contained a dilution to prevent immediate action. Nero, however, impatient of so much leisure in crime, threatened the tribune and ordered the execution of the poisoner, on the ground that, with their apprehensions of scandal and their preparations for defence, they were delaying his release from anxiety. They now promised that death should be as abrupt as if it were the summary work of steel; and a potion â\x80\x94 its rapidity guaranteed by a private test of the ingredients â\x80\x94 was concocted hard by the Caesar's bedroom. <" ^13.17.2 \xa0The same night saw the murder of Britannicus and his pyre, the funeral apparatus â\x80\x94 modest enough â\x80\x94 having been provided in advance. Still, his ashes were buried in the Field of Mars, under such a tempest of rain that the crowd believed it to foreshadow the anger of the gods against a crime which, even among men, was condoned by the many who took into account the ancient instances of brotherly hatred and the fact that autocracy knows no partnership. The assertion is made by many contemporary authors that, for days before the murder, the worst of all outrages had been offered by Nero to the boyish years of Britannicus: in which case, it ceases to be possible to regard his death as either premature or cruel, though it was amid the sanctities of the table, without even a respite allowed in which to embrace his sister, and under the eyes of his enemy, that the hurried doom fell on this last scion of the Claudian house, upon whom lust had done its unclean work before the poison. The hastiness of the funeral was vindicated in an edict of the Caesar, who called to mind that "it was a national tradition to withdraw these untimely obsequies from the public gaze and not to detain it by panegyrics and processions. However, now that he had lost the aid of his brother, not only were his remaining hopes centred in the state, but the senate and people themselves must so much the more cherish their prince as the one survivor of a family born to the heights of power." <' "^13.17 \xa0The same night saw the murder of Britannicus and his pyre, the funeral apparatus â\x80\x94 modest enough â\x80\x94 having been provided in advance. Still, his ashes were buried in the Field of Mars, under such a tempest of rain that the crowd believed it to foreshadow the anger of the gods against a crime which, even among men, was condoned by the many who took into account the ancient instances of brotherly hatred and the fact that autocracy knows no partnership. The assertion is made by many contemporary authors that, for days before the murder, the worst of all outrages had been offered by Nero to the boyish years of Britannicus: in which case, it ceases to be possible to regard his death as either premature or cruel, though it was amid the sanctities of the table, without even a respite allowed in which to embrace his sister, and under the eyes of his enemy, that the hurried doom fell on this last scion of the Claudian house, upon whom lust had done its unclean work before the poison. The hastiness of the funeral was vindicated in an edict of the Caesar, who called to mind that "it was a national tradition to withdraw these untimely obsequies from the public gaze and not to detain it by panegyrics and processions. However, now that he had lost the aid of his brother, not only were his remaining hopes centred in the state, but the senate and people themselves must so much the more cherish their prince as the one survivor of a family born to the heights of power." < ^13.19 \xa0Nothing in the list of mortal things is so unstable and so fleeting as the fame attached to a power not based on its own strength. Immediately Agrippina's threshold was forsaken: condolences there were none; visits there were none, except from a\xa0few women, whether out of love or hatred is uncertain. Among them was Junia Silana, driven by Messalina from her husband Silanus, as I\xa0related above. Eminent equally in blood, beauty, and voluptuousness, she was long the bosom friend of Agrippina. Then came a private quarrel between the pair: for Agrippina had deterred the young noble Sextius Africanus from marriage with Silana by describing her as a woman of no morals and uncertain age; not with the intention of reserving Africanus for herself, but to keep a wealthy and childless widow from passing into the possession of a husband. With the prospect of revenge presenting itself, Silana now suborned two of her clients, Iturius and Calvisius, to undertake the accusation; her charge being not the old, oft-heard tale that Agrippina was mourning the death of Britannicus or publishing the wrongs of Octavia, but that she had determined to encourage Rubellius Plautus into revolution â\x80\x94 on the maternal side he was a descendant of the deified Augustus in the same degree as Nero â\x80\x94 and as the partner of his couch and then of his throne to make her way once more into the conduct of affairs. The charges were communicated by Iturius and Calvisius to Atimetus, a freedman of Nero's aunt Domitia. Overjoyed at this windfall â\x80\x94 for competition was bitter between Agrippina and Domitia â\x80\x94 Atimetus incited the actor Paris, also a freedman of Domitia, to go on the instant and present the charge in the darkest colours. <" '^13.21 \xa0When the emperor\'s fears had been thus calmed, at break of day a visit was paid to Agrippina; who was to listen to the charges, and rebut them or pay the penalty. The commission was carried out by Burrus under the eye of Seneca: a\xa0number of freedmen also were present as witnesses to the conversation. Then, after recapitulating the charges and their authors, Burrus adopted a threatening attitude. Agrippina summoned up her pride:â\x80\x94 "I\xa0am not astonished," she said, "that Silana, who has never known maternity, should have no knowledge of a mother\'s heart: for parents do not change their children as a wanton changes her adulterers. Nor, if Iturius and Calvisius, after consuming the last morsel of their estates, pay their aged mistress the last abject service of undertaking a delation, is that a reason why my own fair fame should be darkened by the blood of my son or the emperor\'s conscience by that of his mother? For as to Domitia â\x80\x94 I\xa0should thank her for her enmity, if she were competing with me in benevolence to my Nero, instead of staging this comedy with the help of her bedfellow Atimetus and her mummer Paris. In the days when my counsels were preparing his adoption, his proconsular power, his consulate in prospect, and the other steps to his sovereignty, she was embellishing the fish-ponds of her beloved Baiae. â\x80\x94 Or let a man stand forth to convict me of tampering with the guards in the capital â\x80\x94 of shaking the allegiance of the provinces â\x80\x94 or, finally, of seducing either slave or freedman into crime! Could\xa0I have lived with Britannicus on the throne? And if Plautus or another shall acquire the empire and sit in judgement, am\xa0I to assume there is a dearth of accusers prepared to indict me, no longer for the occasional hasty utterances of an ill-regulated love, but for guilt from which only a son can absolve?" The listeners were moved, but she demanded an interview with her son. There she neither spoke in support of her innocence, as though she could entertain misgivings, nor on the theme of her services, as though she would cast them in his teeth, but procured vengeance upon her accusers and recognition for her friends. < ^13.24.1 \xa0At the end of the year, the cohort usually present on guard at the Games was withdrawn; the objects being to give a greater appearance of liberty, to prevent the troops from being corrupted by too close contact with the licence of the theatre, and to test whether the populace would continue its orderly behaviour when its custodians were removed. A\xa0lustration of the city was carried out by the emperor at the recommendation of the soothsayers, since the temples of Jupiter and Minerva had been struck by lightning. ^13.24.2 \xa0At the end of the year, the cohort usually present on guard at the Games was withdrawn; the objects being to give a greater appearance of liberty, to prevent the troops from being corrupted by too close contact with the licence of the theatre, and to test whether the populace would continue its orderly behaviour when its custodians were removed. A\xa0lustration of the city was carried out by the emperor at the recommendation of the soothsayers, since the temples of Jupiter and Minerva had been struck by lightning. <' "^13.41.4 \xa0Pitching his camp on the spot, Corbulo resolved the problem whether he should leave the baggage, move straight upon Artaxata with the legions under cover of night, and invest the city, on which he presumed Tiridates to have retired. Later, when scouts came in with the news that the king's journey was a lengthy one, and that it was difficult to say whether his destination was Media or Albania, he waited for the dawn, but sent the light-armed troops in advance to draw a cordon round the walls in the interval and begin the attack from a distance. The townsmen, however, opened the gates voluntarily, and surrendered themselves and their property to the Romans. This promptitude ensured their personal safety; Artaxata itself was fired, demolished and razed to the ground; for in view of the extent of the walls it was impossible to hold it without a powerful garrison, and our numbers were not such that they could be divided between keeping a strong retaining force and conducting a campaign; while, if the place was to remain unscathed and unguarded, there was neither utility nor glory in the bare fact of its capture. In addition, there was a marvel, sent apparently by Heaven: up to Artaxata, the landscape glittered in the sunlight, yet suddenly the area encircled by the fortifications was so completely enveloped in a cloud of darkness and parted from the outside world by lightning flashes that the belief prevailed that it was being consigned to its doom by the hostile action of the gods. â\x80\x94 for all this, Nero was hailed as Imperator, and in obedience to a senatorial decree, thanksgivings were held; statues and arches, and successive consulates were voted to the sovereign; and the days on which the victory was achieved, on which it was announced, on which the resolution concerning it was put, were to be included among the national festivals. There were more proposals in the same strain, so utterly extravagant that Gaius Cassius, who had agreed to the other honours, pointed out that, if gratitude, commensurate with the generosity of fortune, had to be shown to the gods, the whole year was too short for their thanksgivings, and for that reason a distinction ought to be made between holy days proper and working days on which men might worship Heaven without suspending the business of earth. <" "^13.4
1.5 \xa0Pitching his camp on the spot, Corbulo resolved the problem whether he should leave the baggage, move straight upon Artaxata with the legions under cover of night, and invest the city, on which he presumed Tiridates to have retired. Later, when scouts came in with the news that the king's journey was a lengthy one, and that it was difficult to say whether his destination was Media or Albania, he waited for the dawn, but sent the light-armed troops in advance to draw a cordon round the walls in the interval and begin the attack from a distance. The townsmen, however, opened the gates voluntarily, and surrendered themselves and their property to the Romans. This promptitude ensured their personal safety; Artaxata itself was fired, demolished and razed to the ground; for in view of the extent of the walls it was impossible to hold it without a powerful garrison, and our numbers were not such that they could be divided between keeping a strong retaining force and conducting a campaign; while, if the place was to remain unscathed and unguarded, there was neither utility nor glory in the bare fact of its capture. In addition, there was a marvel, sent apparently by Heaven: up to Artaxata, the landscape glittered in the sunlight, yet suddenly the area encircled by the fortifications was so completely enveloped in a cloud of darkness and parted from the outside world by lightning flashes that the belief prevailed that it was being consigned to its doom by the hostile action of the gods. â\x80\x94 for all this, Nero was hailed as Imperator, and in obedience to a senatorial decree, thanksgivings were held; statues and arches, and successive consulates were voted to the sovereign; and the days on which the victory was achieved, on which it was announced, on which the resolution concerning it was put, were to be included among the national festivals. There were more proposals in the same strain, so utterly extravagant that Gaius Cassius, who had agreed to the other honours, pointed out that, if gratitude, commensurate with the generosity of fortune, had to be shown to the gods, the whole year was too short for their thanksgivings, and for that reason a distinction ought to be made between holy days proper and working days on which men might worship Heaven without suspending the business of earth. <" ^13.50 \xa0In the same year, as a consequence of repeated demands from the public, which complained of the exactions of the revenue-farmers, Nero hesitated whether he ought not to decree the abolition of all indirect taxation and present the reform as the noblest of gifts to the human race. His impulse, however, after much preliminary praise of his magimity, was checked by his older advisers, who pointed out that the dissolution of the empire was certain if the revenues on which the state subsisted were to be curtailed:â\x80\x94 "For, the moment the duties on imports were removed, the logical sequel would be a demand for the abrogation of the direct taxes. To a large extent, the collecting companies had been set up by consuls and plebeian tribunes while the liberty of the Roman nation was still in all its vigour: later modifications had only been introduced in order that the amount of income and the necessary expenditure should tally. At the same time, a check ought certainly to be placed on the cupidity of the collectors; otherwise a system which had been endured for years without a complaint might be brought into ill odour by new-fashioned harshnesses." < ^13.58 \xa0In the same year, the tree in the Comitium, known as the Ruminalis, which eight hundred and thirty years earlier had sheltered the infancy of Remus and Romulus, through the death of its boughs and the withering of its stem, reached a stage of decrepitude which was regarded as a portent, until it renewed its verdure in fresh shoots. ^1
4.1.1 \xa0In the consular year of Gaius Vipstanius and Gaius Fonteius, Nero postponed no further the long-contemplated crime: for a protracted term of empire had consolidated his boldness, and day by day he burned more hotly with love for Poppaea; who, hopeless of wedlock for herself and divorce for Octavia so long as Agrippina lived, plied the sovereign with frequent reproaches and occasional raillery, styling him "the ward, dependent on alien orders, who was neither the empire\'s master nor his own. For why was her wedding deferred? Her face, presumably, and her grandsires with their triumphs, did not give satisfaction â\x80\x94 or was the trouble her fecundity and truth of heart? No, it was feared that, as a wife at all events, she might disclose the wrongs of the Fathers, the anger of the nation against the pride and greed of his mother! But, if Agrippina could tolerate no daughter-inâ\x80\x91law but one inimical to her son, then let her be restored to her married life with Otho: she would go to any corner of earth where she could hear the emperor\'s ignominy rather than view it and be entangled in his perils." To these and similar attacks, pressed home by tears and adulterous art, no opposition was offered: all men yearned for the breaking of the mother\'s power; none credited that the hatred of the son would go the full way to murder.' "^14.2 \xa0It is stated by Cluvius that Agrippina's ardour to keep her influence was carried so far that at midday, an hour at which Nero was beginning to experience the warmth of wine and good cheer, she presented herself on several occasions to her half-tipsy son, coquettishly dressed and prepared for incest. Already lascivious kisses, and endearments that were the harbingers of guilt, had been observed by their intimates, when Seneca sought in a woman the antidote to female blandishments, and brought in the freedwoman Acte, who, alarmed as she was both at her own danger and at Nero's infamy, was to report that the incest was common knowledge, since his mother boasted of it, and that the troops would not submit to the supremacy of a sacrilegious emperor. According to Fabius Rusticus, not Agrippina, but Nero, desired the union, the scheme being wrecked by the astuteness of the same freedwoman. The other authorities, however, give the same version as Cluvius, and to their side tradition leans; whether the enormity was actually conceived in the brain of Agrippina, or whether the contemplation of such a refinement in lust was merely taken as comparatively credible in a woman who, for the prospect of power, had in her girlish years yielded to the embraces of Marcus Lepidus; who, for a similar ambition had prostituted herself to the desires of Pallas; and who had been inured to every turpitude by her marriage with her uncle. <" ^14.3.1 \xa0Nero, therefore, began to avoid private meetings with her; when she left for her gardens or the estates at Tusculum and Antium, he commended her intention of resting; finally, convinced that, wherever she might be kept, she was still an incubus, he decided to kill her, debating only whether by poison, the dagger, or some other form of violence. The first choice fell on poison. But, if it was to be given at the imperial table, then the death could not be referred to chance, since Britannicus had already met a similar fate. At the same time, it seemed an arduous task to tamper with the domestics of a woman whose experience of crime had made her vigilant for foul play; and, besides, she had herself fortified her system by taking antidotes in advance. Cold steel and bloodshed no one could devise a method of concealing: moreover, there was the risk that the agent chosen for such an atrocity might spurn his orders. Mother wit came to the rescue in the person of Anicetus the freedman, preceptor of Nero\'s boyish years, and detested by Agrippina with a vigour which was reciprocated. Accordingly, he pointed out that it was possible to construct a ship, part of which could be artificially detached, well out at sea, and throw the unsuspecting passenger overboard:â\x80\x94 "Nowhere had accident such scope as on salt water; and, if the lady should be cut off by shipwreck, who so captious as to read murder into the delinquency of wind and wave? The sovereign, naturally, would assign the deceased a temple and the other displays of filial piety." ^14.3 \xa0Nero, therefore, began to avoid private meetings with her; when she left for her gardens or the estates at Tusculum and Antium, he commended her intention of resting; finally, convinced that, wherever she might be kept, she was still an incubus, he decided to kill her, debating only whether by poison, the dagger, or some other form of violence. The first choice fell on poison. But, if it was to be given at the imperial table, then the death could not be referred to chance, since Britannicus had already met a similar fate. At the same time, it seemed an arduous task to tamper with the domestics of a woman whose experience of crime had made her vigilant for foul play; and, besides, she had herself fortified her system by taking antidotes in advance. Cold steel and bloodshed no one could devise a method of concealing: moreover, there was the risk that the agent chosen for such an atrocity might spurn his orders. Mother wit came to the rescue in the person of Anicetus the freedman, preceptor of Nero\'s boyish years, and detested by Agrippina with a vigour which was reciprocated. Accordingly, he pointed out that it was possible to construct a ship, part of which could be artificially detached, well out at sea, and throw the unsuspecting passenger overboard:â\x80\x94 "Nowhere had accident such scope as on salt water; and, if the lady should be cut off by shipwreck, who so captious as to read murder into the delinquency of wind and wave? The sovereign, naturally, would assign the deceased a temple and the other displays of filial piety." < ^14.4.1 \xa0This ingenuity commended itself: the date, too, was in its favour, as Nero was in the habit of celebrating the festival of Minerva at Baiae. Thither he proceeded to lure his mother, observing from time to time that outbreaks of parental anger had to be tolerated, and that he must show a forgiving spirit; his aim being to create a rumour of reconciliation, which Agrippina, with the easy faith of her sex in the agreeable, would probably accept. â\x80\x94 In due course, she came. He went down to the beach to meet her (she was arriving from Antium), took her hand, embraced her, and escorted her to Bauli, the name of a villa washed by the waters of a cove between the promontory of Misenum and the lake of Baiae. Here, among others, stood a more handsomely appointed vessel; apparently one attention the more to his mother, as she had been accustomed to use a trireme with a crew of marines. Also, she had been invited to dinner for the occasion, so that night should be available for the concealment of the crime. It is well established that someone had played the informer, and that Agrippina, warned of the plot, hesitated whether to believe or not, but made the journey to Baiae in a litter. There her fears were relieved by the blandishments of a cordial welcome and a seat above the prince himself. At last, conversing freely, â\x80\x94 one moment boyishly familiar, the next grave-browed as though making some serious communication, â\x80\x94 Nero, after the banquet had been long protracted, escorted her on her way, clinging more closely than usual to her breast and kissing her eyes; possibly as a final touch of hypocrisy, or possibly the last look upon his doomed mother gave pause even to that brutal spirit. ^14.4.3 \xa0This ingenuity commended itself: the date, too, was in its favour, as Nero was in the habit of celebrating the festival of Minerva at Baiae. Thither he proceeded to lure his mother, observing from time to time that outbreaks of parental anger had to be tolerated, and that he must show a forgiving spirit; his aim being to create a rumour of reconciliation, which Agrippina, with the easy faith of her sex in the agreeable, would probably accept. â\x80\x94 In due course, she came. He went down to the beach to meet her (she was arriving from Antium), took her hand, embraced her, and escorted her to Bauli, the name of a villa washed by the waters of a cove between the promontory of Misenum and the lake of Baiae. Here, among others, stood a more handsomely appointed vessel; apparently one attention the more to his mother, as she had been accustomed to use a trireme with a crew of marines. Also, she had been invited to dinner for the occasion, so that night should be available for the concealment of the crime. It is well established that someone had played the informer, and that Agrippina, warned of the plot, hesitated whether to believe or not, but made the journey to Baiae in a litter. There her fears were relieved by the blandishments of a cordial welcome and a seat above the prince himself. At last, conversing freely, â\x80\x94 one moment boyishly familiar, the next grave-browed as though making some serious communication, â\x80\x94 Nero, after the banquet had been long protracted, escorted her on her way, clinging more closely than usual to her breast and kissing her eyes; possibly as a final touch of hypocrisy, or possibly the last look upon his doomed mother gave pause even to that brutal spirit. <' "^14.4 \xa0This ingenuity commended itself: the date, too, was in its favour, as Nero was in the habit of celebrating the festival of Minerva at Baiae. Thither he proceeded to lure his mother, observing from time to time that outbreaks of parental anger had to be tolerated, and that he must show a forgiving spirit; his aim being to create a rumour of reconciliation, which Agrippina, with the easy faith of her sex in the agreeable, would probably accept. â\x80\x94 In due course, she came. He went down to the beach to meet her (she was arriving from Antium), took her hand, embraced her, and escorted her to Bauli, the name of a villa washed by the waters of a cove between the promontory of Misenum and the lake of Baiae. Here, among others, stood a more handsomely appointed vessel; apparently one attention the more to his mother, as she had been accustomed to use a trireme with a crew of marines. Also, she had been invited to dinner for the occasion, so that night should be available for the concealment of the crime. It is well established that someone had played the informer, and that Agrippina, warned of the plot, hesitated whether to believe or not, but made the journey to Baiae in a litter. There her fears were relieved by the blandishments of a cordial welcome and a seat above the prince himself. At last, conversing freely, â\x80\x94 one moment boyishly familiar, the next grave-browed as though making some serious communication, â\x80\x94 Nero, after the banquet had been long protracted, escorted her on her way, clinging more closely than usual to her breast and kissing her eyes; possibly as a final touch of hypocrisy, or possibly the last look upon his doomed mother gave pause even to that brutal spirit. < ^14.5 \xa0A\xa0starlit night and the calm of an unruffled sea appeared to have been sent by Heaven to afford proof of guilt. The ship had made no great way, and two of Agrippina's household were in attendance, Crepereius Gallus standing not far from the tiller, while Acerronia, bending over the feet of the recumbent princess, recalled exultantly the penitence of the son and the re-entry of the mother into favour. Suddenly the signal was given: the canopy above them, which had been heavily weighted with lead, dropped, and Crepereius was crushed and killed on the spot. Agrippina and Acerronia were saved by the height of the couch-sides, which, as it happened, were too solid to give way under the impact. Nor did the break-up of the vessel follow: for confusion was universal, and even the men accessory to the plot were impeded by the large numbers of the ignorant. The crew then decided to throw their weight on one side and so capsize the ship; but, even on their own part, agreement came too slowly for a sudden emergency, and a counter-effort by others allowed the victims a gentler fall into the waves. Acerronia, however, incautious enough to raise the cry that she was Agrippina, and to demand aid for the emperor's mother, was despatched with poles, oars, and every nautical weapon that came to hand. Agrippina, silent and so not generally recognised, though she received one wound in the shoulder, swam until she was met by a\xa0few fishing-smacks, and so reached the Lucrine lake, whence she was carried into her own villa. <" "^14.6.1 \xa0There she reflected on the evident purpose of the treacherous letter of invitation and the exceptional honour with which she had been treated, and on the fact that, hard by the shore, a vessel, driven by no gale and striking no reef, had collapsed at the top like an artificial structure on land. She reviewed as well the killing of Acerronia, glanced simultaneously at her own wound, and realized that the one defence against treachery was to leave it undetected. Accordingly she sent the freedman Agermus to carry word to her son that, thanks to divine kindness and to his fortunate star, she had survived a grave accident; but that, however great his alarm at his mother's danger, she begged him to defer the attention of a visit: for the moment, what she needed was rest. Meanwhile, with affected unconcern, she applied remedies to her wound and fomentations to her body: Acerronia's will, she gave instructions was to be sought, and her effects sealed up, â\x80\x94 the sole measure not referable to dissimulation." '^14.6 \xa0There she reflected on the evident purpose of the treacherous letter of invitation and the exceptional honour with which she had been treated, and on the fact that, hard by the shore, a vessel, driven by no gale and striking no reef, had collapsed at the top like an artificial structure on land. She reviewed as well the killing of Acerronia, glanced simultaneously at her own wound, and realized that the one defence against treachery was to leave it undetected. Accordingly she sent the freedman Agermus to carry word to her son that, thanks to divine kindness and to his fortunate star, she had survived a grave accident; but that, however great his alarm at his mother's danger, she begged him to defer the attention of a visit: for the moment, what she needed was rest. Meanwhile, with affected unconcern, she applied remedies to her wound and fomentations to her body: Acerronia's will, she gave instructions was to be sought, and her effects sealed up, â\x80\x94 the sole measure not referable to dissimulation. <" "^14.7 \xa0Meanwhile, as Nero was waiting for the messengers who should announce the doing of the deed, there came the news that she had escaped with a wound from a light blow, after running just sufficient risk to leave no doubt as to its author. Half-dead with terror, he protested that any moment she would be here, hot for vengeance. And whether she armed her slaves or inflamed the troops, or made her way to the senate and the people, and charged him with the wreck, her wound, and the slaying of her friends, what counter-resource was at his own disposal? Unless there was hope in Seneca and Burrus! He had summoned them immediately: whether to test their feeling, or as cognizant already of the secret, is questionable. â\x80\x94 There followed, then, a long silence on the part of both: either they were reluctant to dissuade in vain, or they believed matters to have reached a point at which Agrippina must be forestalled or Nero perish. After a time, Seneca so far took the lead as to glance at Burrus and inquire if the fatal order should be given to the military. His answer was that the guards, pledged as they were to the Caesarian house as a whole, and attached to the memory of Germanicus, would flinch from drastic measures against his issue: Anicetus must redeem his promise. He, without any hesitation, asked to be given full charge of the crime. The words brought from Nero a declaration that that day presented him with an empire, and that he had a freedman to thank for so great a boon: Anicetus must go with speed and take an escort of men distinguished for implicit obedience to orders. He himself, on hearing that Agermus had come with a message from Agrippina, anticipated it by setting the stage for a charge of treason, threw a sword at his feet while he was doing his errand, then ordered his arrest as an assassin caught in the act; his intention being to concoct a tale that his mother had practised against the imperial life and taken refuge in suicide from the shame of detection. < ^14.8 \xa0In the interval, Agrippina\'s jeopardy, which was attributed to accident, had become generally known; and there was a rush to the beach, as man after man learned the news. Some swarmed up the sea-wall, some into the nearest fishing-boats: others were wading middle-deep into the surf, a\xa0few standing with outstretched arms. The whole shore rang with lamentations and vows and the din of conflicting questions and vague replies. A\xa0huge multitude streamed up with lights, and, when the knowledge of her safety spread, set out to offer congratulations; until, at the sight of an armed and threatening column, they were forced to scatter. Anicetus drew a cordon around the villa, and, breaking down the entrance, dragged off the slaves as they appeared, until he reached the bedroom-door. A\xa0few servants were standing by: the rest had fled in terror at the inrush of men. In the chamber was a dim light and a single waiting-maid; and Agrippina\'s anxiety deepened every instant. Why no one from her son â\x80\x94 nor even Agermus? Had matters prospered, they would have worn another aspect. Now, nothing but solitude, hoarse alarms, and the symptoms of irremediable ill! Then the maid rose to go. "Dost thou too forsake me?" she began, and saw Anicetus behind her, accompanied by Herculeius, the trierarch, and Obaritus, a centurion of marines. "If he had come to visit the sick, he might take back word that she felt refreshed. If to do murder, she would believe nothing of her son: matricide was no article of their instructions." The executioners surrounded the couch, and the trierarch began by striking her on the head with a club. The centurion was drawing his sword to make an end, when she proffered her womb to the blow. "Strike here," she exclaimed, and was despatched with repeated wounds. < ^14.9.3 \xa0So far the accounts concur. Whether Nero inspected the corpse of his mother and expressed approval of her figure is a statement which some affirm and some deny. She was cremated the same night, on a dinner-couch, and with the humblest rites; nor, so long as Nero reigned, was the earth piled over the grave or enclosed. Later, by the care of her servants, she received a modest tomb, hard by the road to Misenum and that villa of the dictator Caesar which looks from its dizzy height to the bay outspread beneath. As the pyre was kindled, one of her freedmen, by the name of Mnester, ran a sword through his body, whether from love of his mistress or from fear of his own destruction remains unknown. This was that ending to which, years before, Agrippina had given her credence, and her contempt. For to her inquiries as to the destiny of Nero the astrologers answered that he should reign, and slay his mother; and "Let him slay," she had said, "so that he reign." <' "^14.9 \xa0So far the accounts concur. Whether Nero inspected the corpse of his mother and expressed approval of her figure is a statement which some affirm and some deny. She was cremated the same night, on a dinner-couch, and with the humblest rites; nor, so long as Nero reigned, was the earth piled over the grave or enclosed. Later, by the care of her servants, she received a modest tomb, hard by the road to Misenum and that villa of the dictator Caesar which looks from its dizzy height to the bay outspread beneath. As the pyre was kindled, one of her freedmen, by the name of Mnester, ran a sword through his body, whether from love of his mistress or from fear of his own destruction remains unknown. This was that ending to which, years before, Agrippina had given her credence, and her contempt. For to her inquiries as to the destiny of Nero the astrologers answered that he should reign, and slay his mother; and "Let him slay," she had said, "so that he reign." < ^14.10.1 \xa0But only with the completion of the crime was its magnitude realized by the Caesar. For the rest of the night, sometimes dumb and motionless, but not rarely starting in terror to his feet with a sort of delirium, he waited for the daylight which he believed would bring his end. Indeed, his first encouragement to hope came from the adulation of the centurions and tribunes, as, at the suggestion of Burrus, they grasped his hand and wished him joy of escaping his unexpected danger and the criminal enterprise of his mother. His friends in turn visited the temples; and, once the example had been given, the Campanian towns in the neighbourhood attested their joy by victims and deputations. By a contrast in hypocrisy, he himself was mournful, repining apparently at his own preservation and full of tears for the death of a parent. But because the features of a landscape change less obligingly than the looks of men, and because there was always obtruded upon his gaze the grim prospect of that sea and those shores, â\x80\x94 and there were some who believed that he could hear a trumpet, calling in the hills that rose around, and lamentations at his mother's grave, â\x80\x94 he withdrew to Naples and forwarded to the senate a letter, the sum of which was that an assassin with his weapon upon him had been discovered in Agermus, one of the confidential freedmen of Agrippina, and that his mistress, conscious of her guilt, had paid the penalty of meditated murder." "^14.10.3 \xa0But only with the completion of the crime was its magnitude realized by the Caesar. For the rest of the night, sometimes dumb and motionless, but not rarely starting in terror to his feet with a sort of delirium, he waited for the daylight which he believed would bring his end. Indeed, his first encouragement to hope came from the adulation of the centurions and tribunes, as, at the suggestion of Burrus, they grasped his hand and wished him joy of escaping his unexpected danger and the criminal enterprise of his mother. His friends in turn visited the temples; and, once the example had been given, the Campanian towns in the neighbourhood attested their joy by victims and deputations. By a contrast in hypocrisy, he himself was mournful, repining apparently at his own preservation and full of tears for the death of a parent. But because the features of a landscape change less obligingly than the looks of men, and because there was always obtruded upon his gaze the grim prospect of that sea and those shores, â\x80\x94 and there were some who believed that he could hear a trumpet, calling in the hills that rose around, and lamentations at his mother's grave, â\x80\x94 he withdrew to Naples and forwarded to the senate a letter, the sum of which was that an assassin with his weapon upon him had been discovered in Agermus, one of the confidential freedmen of Agrippina, and that his mistress, conscious of her guilt, had paid the penalty of meditated murder. <" ^14.10 \xa0But only with the completion of the crime was its magnitude realized by the Caesar. For the rest of the night, sometimes dumb and motionless, but not rarely starting in terror to his feet with a sort of delirium, he waited for the daylight which he believed would bring his end. Indeed, his first encouragement to hope came from the adulation of the centurions and tribunes, as, at the suggestion of Burrus, they grasped his hand and wished him joy of escaping his unexpected danger and the criminal enterprise of his mother. His friends in turn visited the temples; and, once the example had been given, the Campanian towns in the neighbourhood attested their joy by victims and deputations. By a contrast in hypocrisy, he himself was mournful, repining apparently at his own preservation and full of tears for the death of a parent. But because the features of a landscape change less obligingly than the looks of men, and because there was always obtruded upon his gaze the grim prospect of that sea and those shores, â\x80\x94 and there were some who believed that he could hear a trumpet, calling in the hills that rose around, and lamentations at his mother's grave, â\x80\x94 he withdrew to Naples and forwarded to the senate a letter, the sum of which was that an assassin with his weapon upon him had been discovered in Agermus, one of the confidential freedmen of Agrippina, and that his mistress, conscious of her guilt, had paid the penalty of meditated murder. <" "^14.11 \xa0He appended a list of charges drawn from the remoter past:â\x80\x94 "She had hoped for a partnership in the empire; for the praetorian cohorts to swear allegiance to a woman; for the senate and people to submit to a like ignominy. Then, her ambition foiled, she had turned against the soldiers, the Fathers and the commons; had opposed the donative and the largess, and had worked for the ruin of eminent citizens. At what cost of labour had he succeeded in preventing her from forcing the door of the senate and delivering her answers to foreign nations!" He made an indirect attack on the Claudian period also, transferring every scandal of the reign to the account of his mother, whose removal he ascribed to the fortunate star of the nation. For even the wreck was narrated: though where was the folly which could believe it accidental, or that a ship-wrecked woman had despatched a solitary man with a weapon to cut his way through the guards and navies of the emperor? The object, therefore, of popular censure was no longer Nero â\x80\x94 whose barbarity transcended all protest â\x80\x94 but Seneca, who in composing such a plea had penned a confession. <' "^14.12.1 \xa0However, with a notable spirit of emulation among the magnates, decrees were drawn up: thanksgivings were to be held at all appropriate shrines; the festival of Minerva, on which the conspiracy had been brought to light, was to be celebrated with annual games; a\xa0golden statue of the goddess, with an effigy of the emperor by her side, was to be erected in the curia, and Agrippina's birthday included among the inauspicious dates. Earlier sycophancies Thrasea Paetus had usually allowed to pass, either in silence or with a curt assent: this time he walked out of the senate, creating a source of danger for himself, but implanting no germ of independence in his colleagues. Portents, also, frequent and futile made their appearance: a\xa0woman gave birth to a serpent, another was killed by a thunderbolt in the embraces of her husband; the sun, again, was suddenly obscured, and the fourteen regions of the capital were struck by lightning â\x80\x94 events which so little marked the concern of the gods that Nero continued for years to come his empire and his crimes. However, to aggravate the feeling against his mother, and to furnish evidence that his own mildness had increased with her removal, he restored to their native soil two women of high rank, Junia and Calpurnia, along with the ex-praetors Valerius Capito and Licinius Gabolus â\x80\x94 all of them formerly banished by Agrippina. He sanctioned the return, even, of the ashes of Lollia Paulina, and the erection of a tomb: Iturius and Calvisius, whom he had himself relegated some little while before, he now released from the penalty. As to Silana, she had died a natural death at Tarentum, to which she had retraced her way, when Agrippina, by whose enmity she had fallen, was beginning to totter or to relent." "^14.12.2 \xa0However, with a notable spirit of emulation among the magnates, decrees were drawn up: thanksgivings were to be held at all appropriate shrines; the festival of Minerva, on which the conspiracy had been brought to light, was to be celebrated with annual games; a\xa0golden statue of the goddess, with an effigy of the emperor by her side, was to be erected in the curia, and Agrippina's birthday included among the inauspicious dates. Earlier sycophancies Thrasea Paetus had usually allowed to pass, either in silence or with a curt assent: this time he walked out of the senate, creating a source of danger for himself, but implanting no germ of independence in his colleagues. Portents, also, frequent and futile made their appearance: a\xa0woman gave birth to a serpent, another was killed by a thunderbolt in the embraces of her husband; the sun, again, was suddenly obscured, and the fourteen regions of the capital were struck by lightning â\x80\x94 events which so little marked the concern of the gods that Nero continued for years to come his empire and his crimes. However, to aggravate the feeling against his mother, and to furnish evidence that his own mildness had increased with her removal, he restored to their native soil two women of high rank, Junia and Calpurnia, along with the ex-praetors Valerius Capito and Licinius Gabolus â\x80\x94 all of them formerly banished by Agrippina. He sanctioned the return, even, of the ashes of Lollia Paulina, and the erection of a tomb: Iturius and Calvisius, whom he had himself relegated some little while before, he now released from the penalty. As to Silana, she had died a natural death at Tarentum, to which she had retraced her way, when Agrippina, by whose enmity she had fallen, was beginning to totter or to relent. <" ^14.12 \xa0However, with a notable spirit of emulation among the magnates, decrees were drawn up: thanksgivings were to be held at all appropriate shrines; the festival of Minerva, on which the conspiracy had been brought to light, was to be celebrated with annual games; a\xa0golden statue of the goddess, with an effigy of the emperor by her side, was to be erected in the curia, and Agrippina's birthday included among the inauspicious dates. Earlier sycophancies Thrasea Paetus had usually allowed to pass, either in silence or with a curt assent: this time he walked out of the senate, creating a source of danger for himself, but implanting no germ of independence in his colleagues. Portents, also, frequent and futile made their appearance: a\xa0woman gave birth to a serpent, another was killed by a thunderbolt in the embraces of her husband; the sun, again, was suddenly obscured, and the fourteen regions of the capital were struck by lightning â\x80\x94 events which so little marked the concern of the gods that Nero continued for years to come his empire and his crimes. However, to aggravate the feeling against his mother, and to furnish evidence that his own mildness had increased with her removal, he restored to their native soil two women of high rank, Junia and Calpurnia, along with the ex-praetors Valerius Capito and Licinius Gabolus â\x80\x94 all of them formerly banished by Agrippina. He sanctioned the return, even, of the ashes of Lollia Paulina, and the erection of a tomb: Iturius and Calvisius, whom he had himself relegated some little while before, he now released from the penalty. As to Silana, she had died a natural death at Tarentum, to which she had retraced her way, when Agrippina, by whose enmity she had fallen, was beginning to totter or to relent. <" "^14.13 \xa0And yet he dallied in the towns of Campania, anxious and doubtful how to make his entry into Rome. Would he find obedience in the senate? enthusiasm in the crowd? Against his timidity it was urged by every reprobate â\x80\x94 and a court more prolific of reprobates the world has not seen â\x80\x94 that the name of Agrippina was abhorred and that her death had won him the applause of the nation. Let him go without a qualm and experience on the spot the veneration felt for his position! At the same time, they demanded leave to precede him. They found, indeed, an alacrity which surpassed their promises: the tribes on the way to meet him; the senate in festal dress; troops of wives and of children disposed according to their sex and years, while along his route rose tiers of seats of the type used for viewing a triumph. Then, flushed with pride, victor over the national servility, he made his way to the Capitol, paid his grateful vows, and abandoned himself to all the vices, till now retarded, though scarcely repressed, by some sort of deference to his mother. < ^14.14.1 \xa0It 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\xa0regard 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. ^14.14 \xa0It 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\xa0regard 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. < ^14.15.1 \xa0Reluctant, however, as yet to expose his dishonour on a public stage, he instituted the soâ\x80\x91called 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. â\x80\x94 Last of all to tread the stage was the sovereign himself, scrupulously testing his lyre and striking a\xa0few preliminary notes to the trainers at his side. A\xa0cohort of the guards had been added to the audience â\x80\x94 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. ^14.15 \xa0Reluctant, however, as yet to expose his dishonour on a public stage, he instituted the soâ\x80\x91called 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. â\x80\x94 Last of all to tread the stage was the sovereign himself, scrupulously testing his lyre and striking a\xa0few preliminary notes to the trainers at his side. A\xa0cohort of the guards had been added to the audience â\x80\x94 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 \xa0And 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 â\x80\x94 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. < ^14.17 \xa0About 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. <' "^14.18 \xa0Pedius 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 \xa0In the consulate of Nero â\x80\x94 his fourth term â\x80\x94 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, â\x80\x94 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." < ^14.22.1 \xa0Meanwhile, a comet blazed into view â\x80\x94 in the opinion of the crowd, an apparition boding change to monarchies. Hence, as though Nero were already dethroned, men began to inquire on whom the next choice should fall; and the name in all mouths was that of Rubellius Plautus, who, on the mother\'s side, drew his nobility from the Julian house. Personally, he cherished the views of an older generation: his bearing was austere, his domestic life being pure and secluded; and the retirement which his fears led him to seek had only brought him an accession of fame. The rumours gained strength from the interpretation â\x80\x94 suggested by equal credulity â\x80\x94 which was placed upon a flash of light. Because, while Nero dined by the Simbruine lakes in the villa known as the Sublaqueum, the banquet had been struck and the table shivered; and because the accident had occurred on the confines of Tibur, the town from which Plautus derived his origin on the father\'s side, a belief spread that he was the candidate marked out by the will of deity; and he found numerous supporters in the class of men who nurse the eager and generally delusive ambition to be the earliest parasites of a new and precarious power. Nero, therefore, perturbed by the reports, drew up a letter to Plautus, advising him "to consult the peace of the capital and extricate himself from the scandal-mongers: he had family estates in Asia, where he could enjoy his youth in safety and quiet." To Asia, accordingly, he retired with his wife Antistia and a\xa0few of his intimate friends. About the same date, Nero\'s passion for extravagance brought him some disrepute and danger: he had entered and swum in the sources of the stream which Quintus Marcius conveyed to Rome; and it was considered that by bathing there he had profaned the sacred waters and the holiness of the site. The divine anger was confirmed by a grave illness which followed. ^14.22.2 \xa0Meanwhile, a comet blazed into view â\x80\x94 in the opinion of the crowd, an apparition boding change to monarchies. Hence, as though Nero were already dethroned, men began to inquire on whom the next choice should fall; and the name in all mouths was that of Rubellius Plautus, who, on the mother\'s side, drew his nobility from the Julian house. Personally, he cherished the views of an older generation: his bearing was austere, his domestic life being pure and secluded; and the retirement which his fears led him to seek had only brought him an accession of fame. The rumours gained strength from the interpretation â\x80\x94 suggested by equal credulity â\x80\x94 which was placed upon a flash of light. Because, while Nero dined by the Simbruine lakes in the villa known as the Sublaqueum, the banquet had been struck and the table shivered; and because the accident had occurred on the confines of Tibur, the town from which Plautus derived his origin on the father\'s side, a belief spread that he was the candidate marked out by the will of deity; and he found numerous supporters in the class of men who nurse the eager and generally delusive ambition to be the earliest parasites of a new and precarious power. Nero, therefore, perturbed by the reports, drew up a letter to Plautus, advising him "to consult the peace of the capital and extricate himself from the scandal-mongers: he had family estates in Asia, where he could enjoy his youth in safety and quiet." To Asia, accordingly, he retired with his wife Antistia and a\xa0few of his intimate friends. About the same date, Nero\'s passion for extravagance brought him some disrepute and danger: he had entered and swum in the sources of the stream which Quintus Marcius conveyed to Rome; and it was considered that by bathing there he had profaned the sacred waters and the holiness of the site. The divine anger was confirmed by a grave illness which followed. < ^14.41 \xa0The same day brought also the fall of a youthful ex-quaestor, Pompeius Aelianus, charged with complicity in the villainies of Fabianus: he was outlawed from Italy and also from Spain, the country of his origin. The same humiliation was inflicted on Valerius Ponticus, because, to save the accused from prosecution before the city prefect, with the intention of defeating for the moment by a legal subterfuge, and in the long run by collusion. A\xa0clause was added to the senatorial decree, providing that any person buying or selling this form of connivance was to be liable to the same penalty as if convicted of calumny in a criminal trial. < ^14.48 \xa0In the consulate of Publius Marius and Lucius Afinius, the praetor Antistius, whose licence of conduct in his plebeian tribuneship I\xa0have already mentioned, composed a\xa0number of scandalous verses on the sovereign, and gave them to the public at the crowded table of Ostorius Scapula, with whom he was dining. He was thereupon accused of treason by Cossutianus Capito, who, by the intercession of his father-inâ\x80\x91law Tigellinus, had lately recovered his senatorial rank. This was the first revival of the statute; and it was believed that the object sought was not so much the destruction of Antistius as the glorification of the emperor, whose tribunician veto was to snatch him from death when already condemned by the senate. Although Ostorius had stated in evidence that he had heard nothing, the witnesses on the other side were credited; and the consul designate, Junius Marullus, moved for the accused to be stripped of his praetorship and executed in the primitive manner. The other members were expressing assent, when Thrasea Paetus, after a large encomium upon the Caesar and a most vigorous attack on Antistius, took up the argument:â\x80\x94 "It did not follow that the full penalty which a guilty prisoner deserved to undergo was the one that ought to be decided upon, under an excellent emperor and by a senate not fettered by any sort of compulsion. The executioner and the noose were forgotten things; and there were punishments established by various laws under which it was possible to inflict a sentence branding neither the judges with brutality nor the age with infamy. In fact, on an island, with his property confiscated, the longer he dragged out his criminal existence, the deeper would be his personal misery, and he would also furnish a\xa0number example of public clemency." < ^14.49.1 \xa0The independence of Thrasea broke through the servility of others, and, on the consul authorizing a division, he was followed in the voting by all but a\xa0few dissentients â\x80\x94 the most active sycophant in their number being Aulus Vitellius, who levelled his abuse at all men of decency, and, as is the wont of cowardly natures, lapsed into silence when the reply came. The consuls, however, not venturing to complete the senatorial decree in form, wrote to the emperor and stated the opinion of the meeting. He, after some vacillation between shame and anger, finally wrote back that "Antistius, unprovoked by any injury, had given utterance to the most intolerable insults upon the sovereign. For those insults retribution had been demanded from the Fathers; and it would have been reasonable to fix a penalty proportioned to the gravity of the offence. Still, as he had proposed to check undue severity in their sentence, he would not interfere with their moderation; they must decide as they pleased â\x80\x94 they had been given liberty even to acquit." These observations, and the like, were read aloud, and the imperial displeasure was evident. The consuls, however, did not change the motion on that account; Thrasea did not waive his proposal; nor did the remaining members desert the cause they had approved; one section, lest it should seem to have placed the emperor in an invidious position; a\xa0majority, because there was safety in their numbers; Thrasea, through his usual firmness of temper, and a desire not to let slip the credit he had earned. ^14.49 \xa0The independence of Thrasea broke through the servility of others, and, on the consul authorizing a division, he was followed in the voting by all but a\xa0few dissentients â\x80\x94 the most active sycophant in their number being Aulus Vitellius, who levelled his abuse at all men of decency, and, as is the wont of cowardly natures, lapsed into silence when the reply came. The consuls, however, not venturing to complete the senatorial decree in form, wrote to the emperor and stated the opinion of the meeting. He, after some vacillation between shame and anger, finally wrote back that "Antistius, unprovoked by any injury, had given utterance to the most intolerable insults upon the sovereign. For those insults retribution had been demanded from the Fathers; and it would have been reasonable to fix a penalty proportioned to the gravity of the offence. Still, as he had proposed to check undue severity in their sentence, he would not interfere with their moderation; they must decide as they pleased â\x80\x94 they had been given liberty even to acquit." These observations, and the like, were read aloud, and the imperial displeasure was evident. The consuls, however, did not change the motion on that account; Thrasea did not waive his proposal; nor did the remaining members desert the cause they had approved; one section, lest it should seem to have placed the emperor in an invidious position; a\xa0majority, because there was safety in their numbers; Thrasea, through his usual firmness of temper, and a desire not to let slip the credit he had earned. < ^14.5
1.2 \xa0But, while the evils of the state were growing daily more serious, the resources of the state were dwindling, and Burrus took his leave of life; whether by sickness or by poison may be doubted. Sickness was conjectured from the fact that he ceased to breathe as the result of a gradual swelling of the interior of the throat, and the consequent obstruction of the windpipe. It was more generally asserted that, by Nero\'s instructions, his palate was smeared with a poisonous drug, ostensibly as a remedial measure, and that Burrus, who had penetrated the crime, on receiving a visit from the emperor, averted his eyes from him, and answered his inquiries with the bare words: "I\xa0am well." He was regretted deeply and permanently by a country mindful of his virtue, and of his successors â\x80\x94 one of them tamely innocent, the other flagrantly criminal. For the Caesar had appointed two commanders to the praetorian cohorts: Faenius Rufus, commended by the favour of the crowd, as he superintended the provisioning of the capital without profit to himself; and Sofonius Tigellinus, in whose case the attractions were the licentiousness of his past and his infamy. Neither belied his known habits: Tigellinus took the firmer hold over the mind of the prince and was made free of his most intimate debauches; Rufus enjoyed an excellent character with the people and the troops, and laboured under that disadvantage in his relations with Nero. < ^14.53 \xa0Seneca was aware of his maligners: they were revealed from the quarters where there was some little regard for honour, and the Caesar\'s avoidance of his intimacy was becoming marked. He therefore asked to have a time fixed for an interview; it was granted, and he began as follows:â\x80\x94 "It is the fourteenth year, Caesar, since I\xa0was associated with your hopeful youth, the eighth that you have held the empire: in the time between, you have heaped upon me so much of honour and of wealth that all that is lacking to complete my happiness is discretion in its use. I\xa0shall appeal to great precedents, and I\xa0shall draw them not from my rank but from yours. Augustus, the grandfather of your grandfather, conceded to Marcus Agrippa the privacy of Mytilene, and to Gaius Maecenas, within the capital itself, something tantamount to retirement abroad. One had been the partner of his wars, the other had been harassed by more numerous labours at Rome, and each had received his reward â\x80\x94 a\xa0magnificent reward, it is true, but proportioned to immense deserts. For myself, what incentive to your generosity have\xa0I been able to apply except some bookish acquirements, cultivated, I\xa0might say, in the shadows of the cloister? Acquirements to which fame has come because I\xa0am thought to have lent a helping hand in your own first youthful efforts â\x80\x94 a\xa0wage that overpays the service! But you have invested me with measureless influence, with countless riches; so that often I\xa0put the question to myself:â\x80\x94 \'Is it\xa0I, born in the station of a simple knight and a provincial, who am numbered with the magnates of the realm? Among these nobles, wearing their long-descended glories, has my novel name swum into ken? Where is that spirit which found contentment in mediocrity? Building these terraced gardens? â\x80\x94 Pacing these suburban mansions? â\x80\x94 Luxuriating in these broad acres, these world-wide investments?\' â\x80\x94 A\xa0single defence suggests itself â\x80\x94 that I\xa0had not the right to obstruct your bounty. < ^14.55 \xa0Nero\'s reply, in effect, was this:â\x80\x94 "If I\xa0am able to meet your studied eloquence with an immediate answer, that is the first part of my debt to you, who have taught me how to express my thought not merely after premeditation but on the spur of the moment. Augustus, the grandfather of my grandfather, allowed Agrippa and Maecenas to rest after their labours, but had himself reached an age, the authority of which could justify whatever boon, and of whatever character, he had bestowed upon them. And even so he stripped neither of the rewards conferred by himself. It was in battle and jeopardy they had earned them, for such were the scenes in which the youth of Augustus moved; and, had my own days been spent in arms, your weapons and your hand would not have failed me; but you did what the actual case demanded, and fostered first my boyhood, then my youth, with reason, advice, and precept. And your gifts to me will be imperishable, so long as life may last; but mine to you â\x80\x94 gardens, capital, and villas â\x80\x94 are vulnerable to accident. They may appear many; but numbers of men, not comparable to you in character have held more. Shame forbids me to mention the freedmen who flaunt a wealth greater than yours! And hence I\xa0even blush that you, who have the first place in my love, do not as yet excel all in fortune. Or is it, by chance, the case that you deem either Seneca lower than Vitellius, who held his three consulates, or Nero lower than Claudius, and that the wealth which years of parsimony won for Volusius is incapable of being attained by my own generosity to you? < ^14.56 \xa0"On the contrary, not only is yours a vigorous age, adequate to affairs and to their rewards, but I\xa0myself am but entering the first stages of my sovereignty. Why not recall the uncertain steps of my youth, if here and there they slip, and even more zealously guide and support the manhood which owes its pride to you. Not your moderation, if you give back your riches; not your retirement, if you abandon your prince; by my avarice, and the terrors of my cruelty, will be upon all men\'s lips. And, however much your abnegation may be praised, it will still be unworthy of a sage to derive credit from an act which sullies the fair fame of a friend." He followed his words with an embrace and kisses â\x80\x94 nature had fashioned him and use had trained him to veil his hatred under insidious caresses. Seneca â\x80\x94 such is the end of all dialogues with an autocrat â\x80\x94 expressed his gratitude: but he changed the established routine of his former power, banished the crowds from his antechambers, shunned his attendants, and appeared in the city with a rareness ascribed to his detention at home by adverse health or philosophic studies. < ^14.57 \xa0With Seneca brought low, it was a simple matter to undermine Faenius Rufus, the charge in his case being friendship with Agrippina. Tigellinus, too, growing stronger with every day, and convinced that the mischievous arts, which were his one source of power, would be all the more acceptable, could he bind the emperor to himself by a partnership in crime, probed his fears, and, discovering the main objects of his alarm to be Plautus and Sulla â\x80\x94 both lately removed, the former to Asia, the latter to Narbonese Gaul â\x80\x94 began to draw attention to their distinguished lineage and their nearness, respectively, to the armies of the East and of Germany. "Unlike Burrus," he said, "he had not in view two irreconcilable hopes, but purely the safety of Nero. In the capital, where he could work on the spot, the imperial security was more or less provided for; but how were outbreaks at a distance to be stifled? Gaul was alert at the sound of the Dictator\'s name; and equally the peoples of Asia were unbalanced by the glory of such a grandsire as Drusus. Sulla was indigent, therefore greatly daring, and wore the mask of lethargy only till he could find an occasion for temerity. Plautus, with his great fortune, did not even affect a desire for peace, but, not content to parade his mimicries of the ancient Romans, had taken upon himself the Stoic arrogance and the mantle of a sect which inculcated sedition and an appetite for politics." There was no further delay. On the sixth day following, the slayers had made the crossing to Massilia, and Sulla, who had taken his place at the dinner-table, was despatched before a whisper of alarm had reached him. The head was carried back to Rome, where the premature grey hairs disfiguring it provoked the merriment of Nero. < ^14.59 \xa0All this, however, left Plautus unmoved. Either, exiled and unarmed, he foresaw no help; or he had wearied of hope and its incertitudes; or possibly the cause was affection for his wife and children, to whom he supposed the emperor would prove more placable if no alarms had disturbed his equanimity. There are those who state that fresh couriers had arrived from his father-inâ\x80\x91law with news that no drastic measures were pending, while his teachers of philosophy â\x80\x94 Coeranus and Musonius, Greek and Tuscan respectively by origin â\x80\x94 had advised him to have the courage to await death, in preference to an uncertain and harassed life. At all events, he was found in the early afternoon, stripped for bodily exercise. In that condition he was cut down by the centurion, under the eyes of the eunuch Pelago, placed by Nero in charge of the centurion and his detachment like a king\'s minion over his satellites. The head of the victim was carried back to Rome; and at sight of it the prince exclaimed (I\xa0shall give the imperial words exactly):â\x80\x94 "Nero, &^14.60 \xa0On the reception, therefore, of the senatorial decree, since it was evident that his crimes each and all passed muster as eminent virtues, he ejected Octavia on the pretext of sterility, then consummated his union with Poppaea. Long the paramour of Nero, and dominating him first as an adulterer, then as a husband, she incited one of the domestics of Octavia to accuse her of a love affair with a slave: the part of defendant was assigned to a person named Eucaerus; a\xa0native of Alexandria, and an expert performer on the flute. Her waiting-maids, in pursuance of the scheme, were examined under torture; and, although a\xa0few were forced by their agony into making groundless admissions, the greater number steadfastly maintained the honour of their mistress, one of them retorting under pressure from Tigellinus that Octavia's body was chaster than his own mouth. She was removed, however, first under colour of a civil divorce, and received â\x80\x94 two ominous gifts â\x80\x94 the mansion of Burrus and the estates of Plautus. A\xa0little later, she was banished to Campania and put under military supervision. The measure led to general and undisguised protests from the common people, endowed with less discretion than their superiors, and â\x80\x94 thanks to their humble station â\x80\x94 faced by fewer perils. Then came a rumour that Nero had repented of his outrage and recalled Octavia to his side. <" '^14.61 \xa0At once exulting crowds scaled the Capitol, and Heaven at last found itself blessed. They hurled down the effigies of Poppaea, they carried the statues of Octavia shoulder-high, strewed them with flowers, upraised them in the forum and the temples. Even the emperor\'s praises were essayed with vociferous loyalty. Already they were filling the Palace itself with their numbers and their cheers, when bands of soldiers emerged and scattered them in disorder with whipcuts and levelled weapons. All the changes effected by the outbreak were rectified, and the honours of Poppaea were reinstated. She herself, always cruel in her hatreds, and now rendered more so by her fear that either the violence of the multitude might break out in a fiercer storm or Nero follow the trend of popular feeling, threw herself at his knees:â\x80\x94 "Her affairs," she said, "were not in a position in which she could fight for her marriage, though it was dearer to her than life: that life itself had been brought to the verge of destruction by those retainers and slaves of Octavia who had conferred on themselves the name of the people and dared in peace what would scarcely happen in war. Those arms had been lifted against the sovereign; only a leader had been lacking, and, once the movement had begun, a leader was easily come by, â\x80\x94 the one thing necessary was an excursion from Campania, a personal visit to the capital by her whose distant nod evoked the storm! And apart from this, what was Poppaea\'s transgression? in what had she offended anyone? Or was the reason that she was on the point of giving an authentic heir to the hearth of the Caesars? Did the Roman nation prefer the progeny of an Egyptian flute-player to be introduced to the imperial throne? â\x80\x94 In brief, if policy so demanded, then as an act of grace, but not of compulsion, let him send for the lady who owned him â\x80\x94 or else take thought for his security! A\xa0deserved castigation and lenient remedies had allayed the first commotion; but let the mob once lose hope of seeing Octavia Nero\'s wife and they would soon provide her with a husband!" < ^14.62 \xa0Her varied arguments, with their calculated appeal to fear and to anger, at once terrified and incensed the listener. But suspicion resting on a slave had little force; and it had been nullified by the examinations of the waiting-women. It was therefore decided to procure a confession from some person to whom there could also be imputed a false charge of contemplated revolution. Anicetus, perpetrator of the matricide, was thought suitable. Prefect, as I\xa0have mentioned, of the squadron at Misenum, he had, after the commission of his murder, experienced some trivial favour, afterwards replaced by a more serious dislike, since the instruments of crime are counted a visible reproach. He was summoned accordingly, and the Caesar reminded him of his earlier service:â\x80\x94 "Singly he had ensured the emperor\'s safety in opposition to a treacherous mother. The opportunity for a not less grateful action was at hand, if he could remove a maligt wife. Not even force or cold steel was necessary: he had simply to commit adultery with Octavia." He promised him a reward, secret, it might be, at the outset, but large; also, a pleasant place of retirement: should he refuse he held out the threat of death. Anicetus, with inbred perversity and an ease communicated by former crimes, invented and confessed more than had been ordered, in the presence of friends convened by the emperor to play the part of a privy council. He was then banished to Sardinia, where he supported a not impecunious exile, and died by a natural death. <' "^14.63 \xa0Nero, for his part, announced by edict that Octavia had seduced the prefect in the hope of gaining the co-operation of his squadron; that, conscious of her infidelities, she had procured abortion, â\x80\x94 he failed to remember his recent charge of sterility! â\x80\x94 and that these were facts ascertained by himself. He then confined her in the island of Pandateria. No woman in exile ever presented a more pitiful spectacle to the eye of the beholder. There were yet some who recollected the banishment of Agrippina by Tiberius; the more recent memory of Julia's expulsion by Claudius still dwelt in the minds of men. But to these the maturity of life had come; they had seen some little happiness, and could soften the cruelty of the present by recalling the brighter fortunes of the past. To Octavia, first of all, her day of marriage had been tantamount to a\xa0day of burial, entering as she did a house where mourning alone awaited her â\x80\x94 where her father was snatched away by poison, to be followed at once by her brother. Then had come the maid, more potent than her mistress, and Poppaea turning bride only to destroy a wife; last of all, an accusation more bitter than any doom. <" '^14.64 \xa0And so this girl, in the twentieth year of her age, surrounded by centurions and soldiers, cut off already from life by foreknowledge of her fate, still lacked the peace of death. There followed an interval of a\xa0few days; then she was ordered to die â\x80\x94 though she protested she was husbandless now, a sister and nothing more, evoking the Germanici whose blood they shared, and, in the last resort, the name of Agrippina, in whose lifetime she had supported a wifehood, unhappy enough but still not fatal. She was tied fast with cords, and the veins were opened in each limb: then, as the blood, arrested by terror, ebbed too slowly, she was suffocated in the bath heated to an extreme temperature. As a further and more hideous cruelty, the head was amputated and carried to Rome, where it was viewed by Poppaea. For all these things offerings were decreed to the temples â\x80\x94 how often must those words be said? Let all who make their acquaintance with the history of that period in my narrative or that of others take so much for granted: as often as the emperor ordered an exile or a murder, so often was a thanksgiving addressed to Heaven; and what formerly betokened prosperity was now a symbol of public calamity. Nevertheless, where a senatorial decree achieved a novelty in adulation or a last word in self-abasement, I\xa0shall not pass it by in silence. < ^15.7.2 \xa0Almost at the same time, the deputies of Vologeses, whose mission to the emperor I\xa0have already noticed, returned without result, and Parthia embarked upon undisguised war. Paetus did not evade the challenge, but with two legions â\x80\x94 the fourth, at that time commanded by Funisulanus Vettonianus, and the twelfth, under Calavius Sabinus â\x80\x94 entered Armenia under sinister auspices. For at the passage of the Euphrates, which the troops were crossing by a bridge, the horse carrying the consular insignia took fright for no obvious reason and escaped to the rear. A\xa0victim standing by in the winter camp, while it was being fortified, broke away, dashed through the half-completed works, and made its way of the entrenchments. Fire, too, played on the javelins of the troops â\x80\x94 a\xa0prodigy the more striking that the Parthian is an enemy whose battles are decided by missiles. < ^1
5.22 \xa0The 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. < ^1
5.23 \xa0In the consulate of Memmius Regulus and Verginius Rufus, Nero greeted a daughter, presented to him by Poppaea, with more than human joy, named the child Augusta, and bestowed the same title on Poppaea. The scene of her delivery was the colony of Antium, where the sovereign himself had seen the light. The senate had already commended the travail of Poppaea to the care of Heaven and formulated vows in the name of the state: they were now multiplied and paid. Public thanksgivings were added, and a Temple of Fertility was decreed, together with a contest on the model of the Actian festival; while golden effigies of the Two Fortunes were to be placed on the throne of Capitoline Jove, and, as the Julian race had its Circus Games at Bovillae, so at Antium should the Claudian and Domitian houses. But all was transitory, as the infant died in less than four months. Then fresh forms of adulation made their appearance, and she was voted the honour of deification, a place in the pulvinar, a temple, and a priest. The emperor, too, showed himself as incontinent in sorrow as in joy. It was noted that when the entire senate streamed towards Antium shortly after the birth, Thrasea, who was forbidden to attend, received the affront, prophetic of his impending slaughter, without emotion. Shortly afterwards, they say, came a remark of the Caesar, in which he boasted to Seneca that he was reconciled to Thrasea; and Seneca congratulated the Caesar: an incident which increased the fame, and the dangers, of those eminent men. <' "^15.34.1 \xa0There an incident took place, sinister in the eyes of many, providential and a mark of divine favour in those of the sovereign; for, after the audience had left, the theatre, now empty, collapsed without injury to anyone. Therefore, celebrating in a set of verses his gratitude to Heaven, Nero â\x80\x94 now bent on crossing the Adriatic â\x80\x94 came to rest for the moment at Beneventum; where a largely attended gladiatorial spectacle was being exhibited by Vatinius. Vatinius ranked among the foulest prodigies of that court; the product of a shoemaker's shop, endowed with a misshapen body and a scurrile wit, he had been adopted at the outset as a target for buffoonery; then, by calumniating every man of decency, he acquired a power which made him in influence, in wealth, and in capacity for harm, pre-eminent even among villains." ^15.34 \xa0There an incident took place, sinister in the eyes of many, providential and a mark of divine favour in those of the sovereign; for, after the audience had left, the theatre, now empty, collapsed without injury to anyone. Therefore, celebrating in a set of verses his gratitude to Heaven, Nero â\x80\x94 now bent on crossing the Adriatic â\x80\x94 came to rest for the moment at Beneventum; where a largely attended gladiatorial spectacle was being exhibited by Vatinius. Vatinius ranked among the foulest prodigies of that court; the product of a shoemaker's shop, endowed with a misshapen body and a scurrile wit, he had been adopted at the outset as a target for buffoonery; then, by calumniating every man of decency, he acquired a power which made him in influence, in wealth, and in capacity for harm, pre-eminent even among villains. <" "^15.36.1 \xa0Before long, giving up for the moment the idea of Greece (his reasons were a matter of doubt), he revisited the capital, his secret imaginations being now occupied with the eastern provinces, Egypt in particular. Then after asseverating by edict that his absence would not be for long, and that all departments of the state would remain as stable and prosperous as ever, he repaired to the Capitol in connection with his departure. There he performed his devotions; but, when he entered the temple of Vesta also, he began to quake in every limb, possibly from terror inspired by the deity, or possibly because the memory of his crimes never left him devoid of fear. He abandoned his project, therefore, with the excuse that all his interests weighed lighter with him than the love of his fatherland:â\x80\x94 "He had seen the dejected looks of his countrymen: he could hear their whispered complaints against the long journey soon to be undertaken by one whose most limited excursions were insupportable to a people in the habit of drawing comfort under misfortune from the sight of their emperor. Consequently, as in private relationships the nearest pledges of affection were the dearest, so in public affairs the Roman people had the first call, and he must yield if it wished him to stay." These and similar professions were much to the taste of the populace with its passion for amusements and its dread of a shortage of corn (always the chief preoccupation) in the event of his absence. The senate and high aristocracy were in doubt whether his cruelty was more formidable at a distance or at close quarters: in the upshot, as is inevitable in all great terrors, they believed the worse possibility to be the one which had become a fact. ^15.36 \xa0Before long, giving up for the moment the idea of Greece (his reasons were a matter of doubt), he revisited the capital, his secret imaginations being now occupied with the eastern provinces, Egypt in particular. Then after asseverating by edict that his absence would not be for long, and that all departments of the state would remain as stable and prosperous as ever, he repaired to the Capitol in connection with his departure. There he performed his devotions; but, when he entered the temple of Vesta also, he began to quake in every limb, possibly from terror inspired by the deity, or possibly because the memory of his crimes never left him devoid of fear. He abandoned his project, therefore, with the excuse that all his interests weighed lighter with him than the love of his fatherland:â\x80\x94 "He had seen the dejected looks of his countrymen: he could hear their whispered complaints against the long journey soon to be undertaken by one whose most limited excursions were insupportable to a people in the habit of drawing comfort under misfortune from the sight of their emperor. Consequently, as in private relationships the nearest pledges of affection were the dearest, so in public affairs the Roman people had the first call, and he must yield if it wished him to stay." These and similar professions were much to the taste of the populace with its passion for amusements and its dread of a shortage of corn (always the chief preoccupation) in the event of his absence. The senate and high aristocracy were in doubt whether his cruelty was more formidable at a distance or at close quarters: in the upshot, as is inevitable in all great terrors, they believed the worse possibility to be the one which had become a fact. < ^15.37 \xa0He himself, to create the impression that no place gave him equal pleasure with Rome, began to serve banquets in the public places and to treat the entire city as his palace. In point of extravagance and notoriety, the most celebrated of the feasts was that arranged by Tigellinus; which I\xa0shall describe as a type, instead of narrating time and again the monotonous tale of prodigality. He constructed, then, a raft on the Pool of Agrippa, and superimposed a banquet, to be set in motion by other craft acting as tugs. The vessels were gay with gold and ivory, and the oarsmen were catamites marshalled according to their ages and their libidinous attainments. He had collected birds and wild beasts from the ends of the earth, and marine animals from the ocean itself. On the quays of the lake stood brothels, filled with women of high rank; and, opposite, naked harlots met the view. First came obscene gestures and dances; then, as darkness advanced, the whole of the neighbouring grove, together with the dwelling-houses around, began to echo with song and to glitter with lights. Nero himself, defiled by every natural and unnatural lust had left no abomination in reserve with which to crown his vicious existence; except that, a\xa0few days later, he became, with the full rites of legitimate marriage, the wife of one of that herd of degenerates, who bore the name of Pythagoras. The veil was drawn over the imperial head, witnesses were despatched to the scene; the dowry, the couch of wedded love, the nuptial torches, were there: everything, in fine, which night enshrouds even if a woman is the bride, was left open to the view. < ^15.38 \xa0There followed a disaster, whether due to chance or to the malice of the sovereign is uncertain â\x80\x94 for each version has its sponsors â\x80\x94 but graver and more terrible than any other which has befallen this city by the ravages of fire. It took its rise in the part of the Circus touching the Palatine and Caelian Hills; where, among the shops packed with inflammable goods, the conflagration broke out, gathered strength in the same moment, and, impelled by the wind, swept the full length of the Circus: for there were neither mansions screened by boundary walls, nor temples surrounded by stone enclosures, nor obstructions of any description, to bar its progress. The flames, which in full career overran the level districts first, then shot up to the heights, and sank again to harry the lower parts, kept ahead of all remedial measures, the mischief travelling fast, and the town being an easy prey owing to the narrow, twisting lanes and formless streets typical of old Rome. In addition, shrieking and terrified women; fugitives stricken or immature in years; men consulting their own safety or the safety of others, as they dragged the infirm along or paused to wait for them, combined by their dilatoriness or their haste to impede everything. often, while they glanced back to the rear, they were attacked on the flanks or in front; or, if they had made their escape into a neighbouring quarter, that also was involved in the flames, and even districts which they had believed remote from danger were found to be in the same plight. At last, irresolute what to avoid or what to seek, they crowded into the roads or threw themselves down in the fields: some who had lost the whole of their means â\x80\x94 their daily bread included â\x80\x94 chose to die, though the way of escape was open, and were followed by others, through love for the relatives whom they had proved unable to rescue. None ventured to combat the fire, as there were reiterated threats from a large number of persons who forbade extinction, and others were openly throwing firebrands and shouting that "they had their authority" â\x80\x94 possibly in order to have a freer hand in looting, possibly from orders received. < ^15.39 \xa0Nero, who at the time was staying in Antium, did not return to the capital until the fire was nearing the house by which he had connected the Palatine with the Gardens of Maecenas. It proved impossible, however, to stop it from engulfing both the Palatine and the house and all their surroundings. Still, as a relief to the homeless and fugitive populace, he opened the Campus Martius, the buildings of Agrippa, even his own Gardens, and threw up a\xa0number of extemporized shelters to accommodate the helpless multitude. The necessities of life were brought up from Ostia and the neighbouring municipalities, and the price of grain was lowered to three sesterces. Yet his measures, popular as their character might be, failed of their effect; for the report had spread that, at the very moment when Rome was aflame, he had mounted his private stage, and typifying the ills of the present by the calamities of the past, had sung the destruction of Troy. < ^15.40 \xa0Only on the sixth day, was the conflagration brought to an end at the foot of the Esquiline, by demolishing the buildings over a vast area and opposing to the unabated fury of the flames a clear tract of ground and an open horizon. But fear had not yet been laid aside, nor had hope yet returned to the people, when the fire resumed its ravages; in the less congested parts of the city, however; so that, while the toll of human life was not so great, the destruction of temples and of porticoes dedicated to pleasure was on a wider scale. The second fire produced the greater scandal of the two, as it had broken out on Aemilian property of Tigellinus and appearances suggested that Nero was seeking the glory of founding a new capital and endowing it with his own name. Rome, in fact, is divided into fourteen regions, of which four remained intact, while three were laid level with the ground: in the other seven nothing survived but a\xa0few dilapidated and half-burned relics of houses. < ^15.41 \xa0It would not be easy to attempt an estimate of the private dwellings, tenement-blocks, and temples, which were lost; but the flames consumed, in their old-world sanctity, the temple dedicated to Luna by Servius Tullius, the great altar and chapel of the Arcadian Evander to the Present Hercules, the shrine of Jupiter Stator vowed by Romulus, the Palace of Numa, and the holy place of Vesta with the Penates of the Roman people. To these must be added the precious trophies won upon so many fields, the glories of Greek art, and yet again the primitive and uncorrupted memorials of literary genius; so that, despite the striking beauty of the rearisen city, the older generation recollects much that it proved impossible to replace. There were those who noted that the first outbreak of the fire took place on the nineteenth of July, the anniversary of the capture and burning of Rome by the Senones: others have pushed their researches so far as to resolve the interval between the two fires into equal numbers of years, of months, and of days. < ^15.42.1 \xa0However, Nero turned to account the ruins of his fatherland by building a palace, the marvels of which were to consist not so much in gems and gold, materials long familiar and vulgarized by luxury, as in fields and lakes and the air of solitude given by wooded ground alternating with clear tracts and open landscapes. The architects and engineers were Severus and Celer, who had the ingenuity and the courage to try the force of art even against the veto of nature and to fritter away the resources of a Caesar. They had undertaken to sink a navigable canal running from Lake Avernus to the mouths of the Tiber along a desolate shore or through intervening hills; for the one district along the route moist enough to yield a supply of water is the Pomptine Marsh; the rest being cliff and sand, which could be cut through, if at all, only by intolerable exertions for which no sufficient motive existed. None the less, Nero, with his passion for the incredible, made an effort to tunnel the height nearest the Avernus, and some evidences of that futile ambition survive. ^15.42 \xa0However, Nero turned to account the ruins of his fatherland by building a palace, the marvels of which were to consist not so much in gems and gold, materials long familiar and vulgarized by luxury, as in fields and lakes and the air of solitude given by wooded ground alternating with clear tracts and open landscapes. The architects and engineers were Severus and Celer, who had the ingenuity and the courage to try the force of art even against the veto of nature and to fritter away the resources of a Caesar. They had undertaken to sink a navigable canal running from Lake Avernus to the mouths of the Tiber along a desolate shore or through intervening hills; for the one district along the route moist enough to yield a supply of water is the Pomptine Marsh; the rest being cliff and sand, which could be cut through, if at all, only by intolerable exertions for which no sufficient motive existed. None the less, Nero, with his passion for the incredible, made an effort to tunnel the height nearest the Avernus, and some evidences of that futile ambition survive. < ^15.43.1 \xa0In the capital, however, the districts spared by the palace were rebuilt, not, as after the Gallic fire, indiscriminately and piecemeal, but in measured lines of streets, with broad thoroughfares, buildings of restricted height, and open spaces, while colonnades were added as a protection to the front of the tenement-blocks. These colonnades Nero offered to erect at his own expense, and also to hand over the building-sites, clear of rubbish, to the owners. He made a further offer of rewards, proportioned to the rank and resources of the various claimants, and fixed a term within which houses or blocks of tenement must be completed, if the bounty was to be secured. As the receptacle of the refuse he settled upon the Ostian Marshes, and gave orders that vessels which had carried grain up the Tiber must run down-stream laden with dÃ©bris. The buildings themselves, to an extent definitely specified, were to be solid, untimbered structures of Gabine or Alban stone, that particular stone being proof against fire. Again, there was to be a guard to ensure that the water-supply â\x80\x94 intercepted by private lawlessness â\x80\x94 should be available for public purposes in greater quantities and at more points; appliances for checking fire were to be kept by everyone in the open; there were to be no joint partitions between buildings, but each was to be surrounded by its own walls. These reforms, welcomed for their utility, were also beneficial to the appearance of the new capital. Still, there were those who held that the old form had been the more salubrious, as the narrow streets and high-built houses were not so easily penetrated by the rays of the sun; while now the broad expanses, with no protecting shadows, glowed under a more oppressive heat.' "^15.44.1 \xa0So far, the precautions taken were suggested by human prudence: now means were sought for appeasing deity, and application was made to the Sibylline books; at the injunction of which public prayers were offered to Vulcan, Ceres, and Proserpine, while Juno was propitiated by the matrons, first in the Capitol, then at the nearest point of the sea-shore, where water was drawn for sprinkling the temple and image of the goddess. Ritual banquets and all-night vigils were celebrated by women in the married state. But neither human help, nor imperial munificence, nor all the modes of placating Heaven, could stifle scandal or dispel the belief that the fire had taken place by order. Therefore, to scotch the rumour, Nero substituted as culprits, and punished with the utmost refinements of cruelty, a class of men, loathed for their vices, whom the crowd styled Christians. Christus, the founder of the name, had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius, by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilatus, and the pernicious superstition was checked for a moment, only to break out once more, not merely in Judaea, the home of the disease, but in the capital itself, where all things horrible or shameful in the world collect and find a vogue. First, then, the confessed members of the sect were arrested; next, on their disclosures, vast numbers were convicted, not so much on the count of arson as for hatred of the human race. And derision accompanied their end: they were covered with wild beasts' skins and torn to death by dogs; or they were fastened on crosses, and, when daylight failed were burned to serve as lamps by night. Nero had offered his Gardens for the spectacle, and gave an exhibition in his Circus, mixing with the crowd in the habit of a charioteer, or mounted on his car. Hence, in spite of a guilt which had earned the most exemplary punishment, there arose a sentiment of pity, due to the impression that they were being sacrificed not for the welfare of the state but to the ferocity of a single man." "^15.44 \xa0So far, the precautions taken were suggested by human prudence: now means were sought for appeasing deity, and application was made to the Sibylline books; at the injunction of which public prayers were offered to Vulcan, Ceres, and Proserpine, while Juno was propitiated by the matrons, first in the Capitol, then at the nearest point of the sea-shore, where water was drawn for sprinkling the temple and image of the goddess. Ritual banquets and all-night vigils were celebrated by women in the married state. But neither human help, nor imperial munificence, nor all the modes of placating Heaven, could stifle scandal or dispel the belief that the fire had taken place by order. Therefore, to scotch the rumour, Nero substituted as culprits, and punished with the utmost refinements of cruelty, a class of men, loathed for their vices, whom the crowd styled Christians. Christus, the founder of the name, had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius, by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilatus, and the pernicious superstition was checked for a moment, only to break out once more, not merely in Judaea, the home of the disease, but in the capital itself, where all things horrible or shameful in the world collect and find a vogue. First, then, the confessed members of the sect were arrested; next, on their disclosures, vast numbers were convicted, not so much on the count of arson as for hatred of the human race. And derision accompanied their end: they were covered with wild beasts' skins and torn to death by dogs; or they were fastened on crosses, and, when daylight failed were burned to serve as lamps by night. Nero had offered his Gardens for the spectacle, and gave an exhibition in his Circus, mixing with the crowd in the habit of a charioteer, or mounted on his car. Hence, in spite of a guilt which had earned the most exemplary punishment, there arose a sentiment of pity, due to the impression that they were being sacrificed not for the welfare of the state but to the ferocity of a single man. <" "^15.45.1 \xa0Meanwhile, Italy had been laid waste for contributions of money; the provinces, the federate communities, and the soâ\x80\x91called free states, were ruined. The gods themselves formed part of the plunder, as the ravaged temples of the capital were drained of the gold dedicated in the triumphs or the vows, the prosperity or the fears, of the Roman nation at every epoch. But in Asia and Achaia, not offerings alone but the images of deity were being swept away, since Acratus and Carrinas Secundus had been despatched into the two provinces. The former was a freedman prepared for any enormity; the latter, as far as words went, was a master of Greek philosophy, but his character remained untinctured by the virtues. Seneca, it was rumoured, to divert the odium of sacrilege from himself, had asked leave to retire to a distant estate in the country, and, when it was not accorded, had feigned illness â\x80\x94 a\xa0neuralgic affection, he said â\x80\x94 and declined to leave his bedroom. Some have put it on record that, by the orders of Nero, poison had been prepared for him by one of his freedmen, Cleonicus by name; and that, owing either to the man's revelations or to his own alarms, it was avoided by Seneca, who supported life upon an extremely simple diet of field fruits and, if thirst was insistent, spring water." "^15.4
5.2 \xa0Meanwhile, Italy had been laid waste for contributions of money; the provinces, the federate communities, and the soâ\x80\x91called free states, were ruined. The gods themselves formed part of the plunder, as the ravaged temples of the capital were drained of the gold dedicated in the triumphs or the vows, the prosperity or the fears, of the Roman nation at every epoch. But in Asia and Achaia, not offerings alone but the images of deity were being swept away, since Acratus and Carrinas Secundus had been despatched into the two provinces. The former was a freedman prepared for any enormity; the latter, as far as words went, was a master of Greek philosophy, but his character remained untinctured by the virtues. Seneca, it was rumoured, to divert the odium of sacrilege from himself, had asked leave to retire to a distant estate in the country, and, when it was not accorded, had feigned illness â\x80\x94 a\xa0neuralgic affection, he said â\x80\x94 and declined to leave his bedroom. Some have put it on record that, by the orders of Nero, poison had been prepared for him by one of his freedmen, Cleonicus by name; and that, owing either to the man's revelations or to his own alarms, it was avoided by Seneca, who supported life upon an extremely simple diet of field fruits and, if thirst was insistent, spring water. <" ^15.47.1 \xa0At the close of the year, report was busy with portents heralding disaster to come â\x80\x94 lightning-flashes in numbers never exceeded, a comet (a\xa0phenomenon to which Nero always made atonement in noble blood); two-headed embryos, human or of the other animals, thrown out in public or discovered in the sacrifices where it is the rule to kill pregt victims. Again, in the territory of Placentia, a calf was born close to the road with the head grown to a leg; and there followed an interpretation of the soothsayers, stating that another head was being prepared for the world; but it would be neither strong nor secret, as it had been repressed in the womb, and had been brought forth at the wayside. ^15.47.2 \xa0At the close of the year, report was busy with portents heralding disaster to come â\x80\x94 lightning-flashes in numbers never exceeded, a comet (a\xa0phenomenon to which Nero always made atonement in noble blood); two-headed embryos, human or of the other animals, thrown out in public or discovered in the sacrifices where it is the rule to kill pregt victims. Again, in the territory of Placentia, a calf was born close to the road with the head grown to a leg; and there followed an interpretation of the soothsayers, stating that another head was being prepared for the world; but it would be neither strong nor secret, as it had been repressed in the womb, and had been brought forth at the wayside.' "^15.48 \xa0Silius Nerva and Vestinus Atticus then entered upon their consulate â\x80\x94 the year of a conspiracy, no sooner hatched than full-grown, for which senators, knights, soldiers, and women themselves had vied in giving their names, not simply through hatred of Nero, but also through partiality for Gaius Piso. Piso, sprung from the Calpurnian house, and, by his father's high descent, uniting in his own person many families of distinction, enjoyed with the multitude a shining reputation for virtue, or for spectacular qualities resembling virtues. For he exercised his eloquence in the defence of his fellow-citizens, his liberality in the service of his friends; and even with strangers his conversation and intercourse were marked by courtesy. He was favoured also with those gifts of chance, a tall figure and handsome features. But weight of character and continence in pleasure were absent: he gave full scope to frivolity, to ostentation, and at times to debauchery â\x80\x94 a\xa0trait which was approved by that majority of men, who, in view of the manifold allurements of vice, desire no strictness or marked audacity in the head of the state. <" "^15.50 \xa0Scattering allusions, therefore, among themselves or their friends to the crimes of the sovereign, the approaching dissolution of the empire, the need of choosing the saviour of an outworn society, they gathered to their number Claudius Senecio, Cervarius Proculus, Vulcacius Araricus, Julius Augurinus, Munatius Gratus, Antonius Natalis, and Marcius Festus, all Roman knights. of these, Senecio, one of Nero's chief familiars, maintained even then a semblance of friendship, and was exposed in consequence to a larger variety of dangers: Natalis was the partner of Piso in all his secret counsels; the rest were seeking hope from revolution. In addition to Subrius and Sulpicius, who have been noticed already, Gavius Silanus and Statius Proxumus, tribunes of the praetorian cohorts, together with the centurions Maximus Scaurus and Venetus Paulus, were called in as men of the sword. Their main strength, however, was considered to lie in Faenius Rufus, the prefect, whose estimable life and character were, in the prince's favour, outweighed by the ferocity and lust of Tigellinus; who persecuted him with calumnies and had repeatedly awakened his alarm by describing him as the paramour of Agrippina, still mourning her, and determined upon vengeance. Hence, when his own reiterated statements had convinced the plotters that the commander of the Praetorian Guard had himself entered the lists, they began to show more alacrity in debating the time and place of the assassination. It was asserted that Subrius Flavus had conceived an impulse to attack Nero while he was singing on the stage, or while, during the burning of the palace, he was rushing unguarded from place to place in the night. In one case, there were the opportunities of solitude: in the other, the very presence of a crowd, to be the fairest witness of such an exploit, had fired his imagination; only the desire of escape, that eternal enemy of high emprises, gave him pause. <" '^15.51 \xa0In the meantime, while they were still hesitating, reluctant to abridge the period of hope and fear, a certain Epicharis, who had gained her information by means unknown â\x80\x94 she had never previously shown interest in anything honourable â\x80\x94 began to animate and upbraid the conspirators. Finally, wearied of their slowness and happening to be in Campania, she made an effort to undermine the loyalty of the fleet officers at Misenum and to implicate them in the plot. The beginning of the intrigue was this. In the squadron was a ship-captain, Volusius Proculus, one of Nero\'s agents in the assassination of his mother, but not (he considered) promoted as the importance of the crime deserved. This person, as a former acquaintance of the woman (or possibly the friendship may have been of recent growth), disclosed what his services to Nero had been, and how thankless they had proved, then proceeded to complaints and to a declared intention of settling the account, should occasion offer. He thus gave hope that he might be influenced and win fresh adherents. The help of the fleet, it was reflected, was no slight matter; and opportunities must be plentiful, as Nero delighted in frequent excursions by sea in the neighbourhood of Puteoli and Misenum. Epicharis therefore went further, and entered upon a catalogue of the emperor\'s crimes:â\x80\x94 "Nothing was left either for the senate &^15.53 \xa0At last they resolved to execute their purpose on the day of the Circensian Games when the celebration is in honour of Ceres; as the emperor who rarely left home and secluded himself in his palace or gardens, went regularly to the exhibitions in the Circus and could be approached with comparative ease owing to the gaiety of the spectacle. They had arranged a set programme for the plot. Lateranus, as though asking ficial help, would fall in an attitude of entreaty at the emperor's feet, overturn him while off his guard, and hold him down, being as he was a man of intrepid character and a giant physically. Then, as the victim lay prostrate and pinned, the tribunes, the centurions, and any of the rest who had daring enough, were to run up and do him to death; the part of protagonist being claimed by Scaevinus, who had taken down a dagger from the temple of Safety â\x80\x94 of Fortune, according to other accounts â\x80\x94 in the town of Ferentinum, and wore it regularly as the instrument sanctified to a great work. In the interval, Piso was to wait in the temple of Ceres; from which he would be summoned by the prefect Faenius and the others and carried to the camp: he would be accompanied by Claudius' daughter Antonia, with a view to eliciting the approval of the crowd. This is the statement of Pliny. For my own part, whatever his assertion may be worth, I\xa0was not inclined to suppress it, absurd as it may seem that either Antonia should have staked her name and safety on an empty expectation, or Piso, notoriously devoted to his wife, should have pledged himself to another marriage â\x80\x94\xa0unless, indeed, the lust of power burns more fiercely than all emotions combined. <" '^15.54 \xa0It is surprising, none the less, how in this mixture of ranks and classes, ages and sexes, rich and poor, the whole affair was kept in secrecy, till the betrayal came from the house of Scaevinus. On the day before the attempt, he had a long conversation with Antonius Natalis, after which he returned home, sealed his will, and taking the dagger, mentioned above, from the sheath, complained that it was to be rubbed on a whetstone till the edge glittered: this task he entrusted to his freedman Milichus. At the same time, he began a more elaborate dinner than usual, and presented his favourite slaves with their liberty, or, in some cases, with money. He himself was moody, and obviously deep in thought, though he kept up a disconnected conversation which affected cheerfulness. At last, he gave the word that bandages for wounds and appliances for stopping haemorrhage were to be made ready. The instructions were again addressed to Milichus: possibly he was aware of the conspiracy, and had so far kept faith; possibly, as the general account goes, he knew nothing, and caught his first suspicions at that moment. About the sequel there is uimity. For when his slavish brain considered the wages of treason, and unbounded wealth and power floated in the same instant before his eyes, conscience, the safety of his patron, the memory of the liberty he had received, withdrew into the background. For he had also taken his wife\'s counsel. It was feminine and baser; for she held before him the further motive of fear, and pointed out that numbers of freedmen and slaves had been standing by, who had witnessed the same incidents as himself:â\x80\x94 "One man\'s silence would profit nothing; but one man would handle the rewards â\x80\x94 he who won the race to give information." < ^15.60 \xa0The next killing, that of the consul designate Plautius Lateranus, was added by Nero to the list with such speed that he allowed him neither to embrace his children nor the usual moment\'s respite in which to choose his death. Dragged to the place reserved for the execution of slaves, he was slaughtered by the hand of the tribune Statius, resolutely silent and disdaining to reproach the tribune with his complicity in the same affair. There followed the murder of Annaeus Seneca, a joyful event to the sovereign: not that he had established his connection with the plot, but, as poison had not worked, he was anxious to proceed by the sword. Only Natalis, in fact, mentioned Seneca; nor did his statement go further than that he had been sent to visit him when sick and to make a complaint:â\x80\x94 "Why did he close his door on Piso? It would be better if they cultivated their friendship by meeting on intimate terms." Seneca\'s answer had been that "spoken exchanges and frequent interviews were to the advantage of neither; still, his own existence depended on the safety of Piso." Gavius Silvanus, tribune of a praetorian cohort, was instructed to take this report and ask Seneca if he admitted Natalis\' words and his own reply. By accident or design, Seneca that day had returned from Campania and broke his journey at one of his country-houses four miles out of Rome. Evening was near when the tribune arrived and surrounded the villa with pickets of soldiers: then he delivered the imperial message to the owner, who was dining with his wife Pompeia Paulina and two friends. < ^15.61 \xa0Seneca rejoined that "Natalis had been sent to him, and had remonstrated in Piso\'s name against his refusal to receive his visits. By way of excuse, he had pleaded considerations of health and love of quiet. He had had no reason for ranking the security of a private person higher than his own safety, and his temper was not one which was quick to flattery: no one was better aware of that than Nero, who had more often experienced the frankness of Seneca than his servility." When the tribune made his report in the presence of Poppaea and Tigellinus â\x80\x94 the emperor\'s privy council in his ferocious moods â\x80\x94 Nero demanded if Seneca was preparing for a voluntary death. The officer then assured him that there were no evidences of alarm, and that he had not detected any sadness in his words or looks. He was therefore directed to go back and pronounce the death-sentence. Fabius Rusticus states that, instead of returning by the road he had come, the tribune went out of his way to the prefect Faenius, and, after recapitulating the Caesar\'s orders, asked if he should obey them; only to be advised by Faenius to carry them out. Fate had made cowards of them all. For Silvanus, too, was numbered with the plotters; and now he was engaged in adding to the crimes he had conspired to avenge. However, he was so far considerate of his voice and his eyes as to send one of his centurions in to Seneca, to announce the last necessity. < ^15.62 \xa0Seneca, nothing daunted, asked for the tablets containing his will. The centurion refusing, he turned to his friends, and called them to witness that "as he was prevented from showing his gratitude for their services, he left them his sole but fairest possession â\x80\x94 the image of his life. If they bore it in mind, they would reap the reward of their loyal friendship in the credit accorded to virtuous accomplishments." At the same time, he recalled them from tears to fortitude, sometimes conversationally, sometimes in sterner, almost coercive tones. "Where," he asked, "were the maxims of your philosophy? Where that reasoned attitude towards impending evils which they had studied through so many years? For to whom had Nero\'s cruelty been unknown? Nor was anything left him, after the killing of his mother and his brother, but to add the murder of his guardian and preceptor." < ^15.63 \xa0After these and some similar remarks, which might have been meant for a wider audience, he embraced his wife, and, softening momentarily in view of the terrors at present threatening her, begged her, conjured her, to moderate her grief â\x80\x94 not to take it upon her for ever, but in contemplating the life he had spent in virtue to find legitimate solace for the loss of her husband. Paulina replied by assuring him that she too had made death her choice, and she demanded her part in the executioner\'s stroke. Seneca, not wishing to stand in the way of her glory, and influenced also by his affection, that he might not leave the woman who enjoyed his whole-hearted love exposed to outrage, now said: "I\xa0had shown you the mitigations of life, you prefer the distinction of death: I\xa0shall not grudge your setting that example. May the courage of this brave ending be divided equally between us both, but may more of fame attend your own departure!" Aforesaid, they made the incision in their arms with a single cut. Seneca, since his aged body, emaciated further by frugal living, gave slow escape to the blood, severed as well the arteries in the leg and behind the knee. Exhausted by the racking pains, and anxious lest his sufferings might break down the spirit of his wife, and he himself lapse into weakness at the sight of her agony, he persuaded her to withdraw into another bedroom. And since, even at the last moment his eloquence remained at command, he called his secretaries, and dictated a long discourse, which has been given to the public in his own words, and which I\xa0therefore refrain from modifying. <' "^15.64 \xa0Nero, however, who had no private animosity against Paulina, and did not wish to increase the odium of his cruelty, ordered her suicide to be arrested. Under instructions from the military, her slaves and freedmen bandaged her arms and checked the bleeding â\x80\x94 whether without her knowledge is uncertain. For, with the usual readiness of the multitude to think the worst, there were those who believed that, so long as she feared an implacable Nero, she had sought the credit of sharing her husband's fate, and then, when a milder prospect offered itself, had succumbed to the blandishments of life. To that life she added a\xa0few more years â\x80\x94 laudably faithful to her husband's memory and blanched in face and limb to a pallor which showed how great had been the drain upon her vital powers. Seneca, in the meantime, as death continued to be protracted and slow, asked Statius Annaeus, who had long held his confidence as a loyal friend and a skilful doctor, to produce the poison â\x80\x94 it had been provided much earlier â\x80\x94 which was used for despatching prisoners condemned by the public tribunal of Athens. It was brought, and he swallowed it, but to no purpose; his limbs were already cold, and his system closed to the action of the drug. In the last resort, he entered a vessel of heated water, sprinkling some on the slaves nearest, with the remark that he offered the liquid as a drink-offering to Jove the Liberator. He was then lifted into a bath, suffocated by the vapour, and cremated without ceremony. It was the order he had given in his will, at a time when, still at the zenith of his wealth and power, he was already taking thought for his latter end. <" '^15.65 \xa0It was rumoured that Subrius Flavus and the centurions had decided in private conference, though not without Seneca\'s knowledge, that, once Nero had been struck down by the agency of Piso, Piso should be disposed of in his turn, and the empire made over to Seneca; who would thus appear to have been chosen for the supreme power by innocent men, as a consequence of his distinguished virtues. More than this, there was a saying of Flavus in circulation, that "so far as disgrace went, it was immaterial if a harper was removed, and a tragic actor took his place"; for Nero singing to his instrument was matched by Piso singing in his stage costume. <' "^15.66 \xa0But the military conspiracy itself no longer evaded detection; for the informers were stung into denouncing Faenius Rufus, whom they could not tolerate in the double part of accomplice and inquisitor. Accordingly, in the midst of Faenius' browbeating and threats, Scaevinus observed with a civil sneer that no one knew more than himself, and presented him with the advice to show his gratitude to so kindly a prince. Faenius was unable to retort either by speech or by silence. Tripping over his words, and patently terrified, while the rest â\x80\x94\xa0and notably the Roman knight Cervarius Proculus â\x80\x94 strained every nerve for his conviction, he was seized and bound, at the emperor's order, by the private soldier Cassius, who was standing near in consideration of his remarkable bodily strength. <" '^15.67 \xa0Before long, the evidence of the same group destroyed the tribune Subrius Flavus. At first he sought to make unlikeness of character a ground of defence: a\xa0man of the sword, like himself, would never have shared so desperate an enterprise with unarmed effeminates. Then, as he was pressed more closely, he embraced the glory of confession. Questioned by Nero as to the motives which had led him so far as to forget his military oath:â\x80\x94 "I\xa0hated you," he answered, "and yet there was not a man in the army truer to you, as long as you deserved to be loved. I\xa0began to hate you when you turned into the murderer of your mother and wife â\x80\x94 a\xa0chariot-driver, an actor, a fire-raiser." I\xa0have reported his exact words; for, unlike those of Seneca, they were given no publicity; and the plain, strong sentiments of the soldier were not the less worth knowing. It was notorious that nothing in this conspiracy fell more harshly on the ears of Nero, who was equally ready to commit crimes and unaccustomed to be informed of what he was committing. The execution of Flavus was entrusted to the tribune Veianius Niger. Niger gave orders for a grave to be dug in a neighbouring field; where it was criticized by Flavus as neither deep nor broad enough:â\x80\x94 "Faulty discipline even here," he observed to the soldiers around. When admonished to hold his neck out firmly:â\x80\x94 "I\xa0only hope," he said, "that you will strike as firmly!" Shaking violently, the tribune severed the head with some difficulty at two blows, and boasted of his brutality to Nero by saying that he had killed with a stroke and a\xa0half. <' "^15.68 \xa0The next example of intrepidity was furnished by Sulpicius Asper; who to Nero's question, why he had conspired to murder him, rejoined curtly that it was the only service that could be rendered to his many infamies. He then underwent the ordained penalty. The other centurions, as well, met their fate without declining from their traditions; but such resolution was not for Faenius Rufus, who imported his lamentations even into his will. Nero was waiting for the consul Vestinus to be also incriminated, regarding him as a violent character and an enemy. But the conspirators had not shared their plans with Vestinus â\x80\x94 some through old animosities, the majority because they considered him headstrong and impossible as a partner. Nero's hatred of him had grown out of intimate companionship â\x80\x94 Vestinus understanding perfectly, and despising, the pusillanimity of the sovereign; the sovereign afraid of the masterful friend who so often mocked him with that rough humour which, if it draws too largely on truth, leaves pungent memories behind. An additional, and recent, motive was that Vestinus had contracted a marriage with Statilia Messalina, though well aware that the Caesar also was among her paramours. <" '^15.69 \xa0Accordingly, with neither a charge nor an accuser forthcoming, Nero, precluded from assuming the character of judge, turned to plain despotic force, and sent out the tribune Gerellanus with a cohort of soldiers, under orders to "forestall the attempts of the consul, seize what might be termed his citadel, and suppress his chosen corps of youths": Vestinus maintained a house overlooking the forum, and a retinue of handsome slaves of uniform age. On that day, he had fulfilled the whole of his consular functions, and was holding a dinner-party, either apprehending nothing or anxious to dissemble whatever he apprehended, when soldiers entered and said the tribune was asking for him. He rose without delay, and all was hurried through in a moment. He shut himself in his bedroom, the doctor was at hand, the arteries were cut: still vigorous, he was carried into the bath and plunged in hot water, without letting fall a word of self-pity. In the meantime, the guests who had been at table with him were surrounded by guards; nor were they released till a late hour of the night, when Nero, laughing at the dismay, which he had been picturing in his mind\'s eye, of the diners who were awaiting destruction after the feast, observed that they had paid dearly enough for their consular banquet. < ^15.70 \xa0He next ordained the despatch of Lucan. When his blood was flowing, and he felt his feet and hands chilling and the life receding little by little from the extremities, though the heart retained warmth and sentience, Lucan recalled a passage in his own poem, where he had described a wounded soldier dying a similar form of death, and he recited the very verses. Those were his last words. Then Senecio and Quintianus and Scaevinus, belying their old effeminacy of life, and then the rest of the conspirators, met their end, doing and saying nothing that calls for remembrance. <' "^15.71 \xa0Meanwhile, however, the city was filled with funerals, and the Capitol with burnt offerings. Here, for the killing of a son; there, for that of a brother, a kinsman, or a friend; men were addressing their thanks to Heaven, bedecking their mansions with bays, falling at the knees of the sovereign, and persecuting his hand with kisses. And he, imagining that this was joy, recompensed the hurried informations of Antonius Navalis and Cervarius Proculus by a grant of immunity. Milichus, grown rich on rewards, assumed in its Greek form the title of Saviour. of the tribunes, Gavius Silanus, though acquitted, fell by his own hand; Statius Proxumus stultified the pardon he had received from the emperor by the folly of his end. Then .\xa0.\xa0. Pompeius, Cornelius Martialis, Flavius Nepos, and Statius Domitius, were deprived of their rank, on the ground that, without hating the Caesar, they had yet the reputation of doing so. Novius Priscus, as a friend of Seneca, Glitius Gallus and Annius Pollio as discredited if hardly convicted, were favoured with sentences of exile. Priscus was accompanied by his wife Artoria Flaccilla, Gallus by Egnatia Maximilla, the mistress of a great fortune, at first left intact but afterwards confiscated â\x80\x94 two circumstances which redounded equally to her fame. Rufrius Crispinus was also banished: the conspiracy supplied the occasion, but he was detested by Nero as a former husband of Poppaea. To Verginius Flavus and Musonius Rufus expulsion was brought by the lustre of their names; for Verginius fostered the studies of youth by his eloquence, Musonius by the precepts of philosophy. As though to complete the troop and a round number, Cluvidienus Quietus, Julius Agrippa, Blitius Catulinus, Petronius Priscus, and Julius Altinus were allowed the Aegean islands. But Scaevinus' wife Caedicia and Caesennius Maximus were debarred from Italy, and by their punishment â\x80\x94 and that alone â\x80\x94 discovered that they had been on trial. Lucan's mother Acilia was ignored, without acquittal and without penalty. Now that all was over, Nero held a meeting of the troops, and made a distribution of two thousand sesterces a man, remitting in addition the price of the grain ration previously supplied to them at the current market rate. Then, as if to recount the achievements of a war, he convoked the senate and bestowed triumphal distinctions on the consular Petronius Turpilianus, the praetor designate Cocceius Nerva, and the praetorian prefect Tigellinus: Nerva and Tigellinus he exalted so far that, not content with triumphal statues in the Forum, he placed their effigies in the palace itself. Consular insignia were decreed to Nymphidius &^15.73 \xa0However, after he had spoken in the senate, Nero followed by publishing an edict to the people and a collection, in writing, of the informations laid and the avowals of the condemned; for in the gossip of the multitude he was being commonly attacked for procuring the destruction of great and guiltless citizens from motives of jealousy or of fear. Still, that a conspiracy was initiated, matured, brought home to its authors, was neither doubted at the period by those who were at pains to ascertain the facts, nor is denied by the exiles who have returned to the capital since the death of Nero. But in the senate, whilst all members, especially those with most to mourn, were stooping to sycophancy, Junius Gallio, dismayed by the death of his brother Seneca, and petitioning for his own existence, was attacked by Salienus Clemens, who styled him the enemy and parricide of his country; until he was deterred by the uimous request of the Fathers that he would avoid the appearance of abusing a national sorrow for the purposes of a private hatred, and would not reawaken cruelty by recurring to matters either settled or cancelled by the clemency of the sovereign. < ^15.74 \xa0offerings and thanks were then voted to Heaven, the Sun, who had an old temple in the Circus, where the crime was to be staged, receiving special honour for revealing by his divine power the secrets of the conspiracy. The Circensian Games of Ceres were to be celebrated with an increased number of horse-races; the month of April was to take the name of Nero; a temple of Safety was to be erected on the site\xa0.\xa0.\xa0. from which Scaevinus had taken his dagger. That weapon the emperor himself consecrated in the Capitol, and inscribed it:â\x80\x94 To\xa0Jove the Avenger. At the time, the incident passed unnoticed: after the armed rising of the other"avenger," Julius Vindex, it was read as a token and a presage of coming retribution. I\xa0find in the records of the senate that Anicius Cerialis, consul designate, gave it as his opinion that a temple should be built to Nero the Divine, as early as possible and out of public funds. His motion, it is true, merely implied that the prince had transcended mortal eminence and earned the worship of mankind; but it was vetoed by that prince, because by other interpreters it might be wrested into an omen of, and aspiration for, his decease; for the honour of divine is not paid to the emperor until he has ceased to live and move among men. ^16.1.1 \xa0Nero now became the sport of fortune as a result of his own credulity and the promises of Caesellius Bassus. Punic by origin and mentally deranged, Bassus treated the vision he had seen in a dream by night as a ground of confident expectation, took ship to Rome, and, buying an interview with the emperor, explained that he had found on his estate an immensely deep cavern, which contained a great quantity of gold, not transformed into coin but in unwrought and ancient bullion. For there were ponderous ingots on the floor; while, in another part, the metal was piled in columns â\x80\x94 a\xa0treasure which had lain hidden through the centuries in order to increase the prosperity of the present era. The Phoenician Dido, so his argument ran, after her flight from Tyre and her foundation at Carthage, had concealed the hoard, for fear that too much wealth might tempt her young nation to excess, or that the Numidian princes, hostile on other grounds as well, might be fired to arms by the lust of gold. ^1
6.6.1 \xa0After the close of the festival, Poppaea met her end through a chance outburst of anger on the part of her husband, who felled her with a kick during pregcy. That poison played its part I\xa0am unable to believe, though the assertion is made by some writers less from conviction than from hatred; for Nero was desirous of children, and love for his wife was a ruling passion. The body was not cremated in the Roman style, but, in conformity with the practice of foreign courts, was embalmed by stuffing with spices, then laid to rest in the mausoleum of the Julian race. Still, a public funeral was held; and the emperor at the Rostra eulogized her beauty, the fact that she had been the mother of an infant daughter now divine, and other favours of fortune which did duty for virtues. ^1
6.6.2 \xa0After the close of the festival, Poppaea met her end through a chance outburst of anger on the part of her husband, who felled her with a kick during pregcy. That poison played its part I\xa0am unable to believe, though the assertion is made by some writers less from conviction than from hatred; for Nero was desirous of children, and love for his wife was a ruling passion. The body was not cremated in the Roman style, but, in conformity with the practice of foreign courts, was embalmed by stuffing with spices, then laid to rest in the mausoleum of the Julian race. Still, a public funeral was held; and the emperor at the Rostra eulogized her beauty, the fact that she had been the mother of an infant daughter now divine, and other favours of fortune which did duty for virtues. < ^16.7.1 \xa0To the death of Poppaea, outwardly regretted, but welcome to all who remembered her profligacy and cruelty, Nero added a fresh measure of odium by prohibiting Gaius Cassius from attendance at the funeral. It was the first hint of mischief. Nor was the mischief long delayed. Silanus was associated with him; their only crime being that Cassius was eminent for a great hereditary fortune and an austere character, Silanus for a noble lineage and a temperate youth. Accordingly, the emperor sent a speech to the senate, arguing that both should be removed from public life, and objecting to the former that, among his other ancestral effigies, he had honoured a bust of Gaius Cassius, inscribed:â\x80\x94 "To the leader of the cause." The seeds of civil war, and revolt from the house of the Caesars, â\x80\x94 such were the objects he had pursued. And, not to rely merely on the memory of a hated name as an incentive to faction, he had taken to himself a partner in Lucius Silanus, a youth of noble family and headstrong temper, who was to be his figure-head for a revolution. ^16.7 \xa0To the death of Poppaea, outwardly regretted, but welcome to all who remembered her profligacy and cruelty, Nero added a fresh measure of odium by prohibiting Gaius Cassius from attendance at the funeral. It was the first hint of mischief. Nor was the mischief long delayed. Silanus was associated with him; their only crime being that Cassius was eminent for a great hereditary fortune and an austere character, Silanus for a noble lineage and a temperate youth. Accordingly, the emperor sent a speech to the senate, arguing that both should be removed from public life, and objecting to the former that, among his other ancestral effigies, he had honoured a bust of Gaius Cassius, inscribed:â\x80\x94 "To the leader of the cause." The seeds of civil war, and revolt from the house of the Caesars, â\x80\x94 such were the objects he had pursued. And, not to rely merely on the memory of a hated name as an incentive to faction, he had taken to himself a partner in Lucius Silanus, a youth of noble family and headstrong temper, who was to be his figure-head for a revolution. < ^16.8 \xa0He then attacked Silanus himself in the same strain as his uncle Torquatus, alleging that he was already apportioning the responsibilities of empire, and appointing freedmen to the charge of "accounts, documents, and correspondence": an indictment at once frivolous and false; for the prevalent alarms had made Silanus vigilant, and his uncle\'s doom has terrified him into especial caution. Next, soâ\x80\x91called informers were introduced to forge against Lepida â\x80\x94 wife of Cassius, aunt of Silanus â\x80\x94 a\xa0tale of incest, committed with her brother\'s son, and of magical ceremonies. The senators Vulcacius Tullinus and Cornelius Marcellus were brought in as accomplices, with the Roman knight Calpurnius Fabatus. Their imminent condemnation they cheated by appealing to the emperor, and later, as being of minor importance, made good their escape from Nero, now fully occupied by crimes of the first magnitude. < ^16.9 \xa0Then, by decree of the senate, sentences of exile were registered against Cassius and Silanus: on the case of Lepida the Caesar was to pronounce. Cassius was deported to the island of Sardinia, and old age left to do its work. Silanus, ostensibly bound for Naxos, was removed to Ostia, and afterwards confined in an Apulian town by the name of Barium. There, while supporting with philosophy his most unworthy fate, he was seized by a centurion sent for the slaughter. To the suggestion that he should cut an artery, he replied that he had, in fact, made up his mind to die, but could not excuse the assassin his glorious duty. The centurion, however, noticing that, if unarmed, he was very strongly built and betrayed more anger than timidity, ordered his men to overpower him. Silanus did not fail to struggle, and to strike with what vigour his bare fists permitted, until he dropped under the sword of the centurion, as upon a field of battle, his wounds in front. <' "^16.10 \xa0With not less courage Lucius Vetus, his mother-inâ\x80\x91law Sextia, and his daughter Pollitta, met their doom: they were loathed by the emperor, who took their life to be a standing protest against the slaying of Rubellius Plautus, the son-inâ\x80\x91law of Vetus. But the opportunity for laying bare his ferocity was supplied by the freedman Fortunatus; who, after embezzling his patron's property, now deserted him to turn accuser, and called to his aid Claudius Demianus, imprisoned for heinous offences by Vetus in his proconsulate of Asia, but now freed by Nero as the recompense of delation. Apprized of this, and gathering that he and his freedman were to meet in the struggle as equals, the accused left for his estate at Formiae. There he was placed under a tacit surveillance by the military. He had with him his daughter, who apart from the impending danger, was embittered by a grief which had lasted since the day when she watched the assassins of her husband Plautus â\x80\x94 she had clasped the bleeding neck, and still treasured her blood-flecked robe, widowed, unkempt, unconsoled, and fasting except for a little sustece to keep death at bay. Now, at the prompting of her father, she went to Naples; and, debarred from access to Nero, besieged his doors, crying to him to give ear to the guiltless and not surrender to a freedman the one-time partner of his consulate; sometimes with female lamentations, and again in threatening accents which went beyond her sex, until the sovereign showed himself inflexible alike to prayer and to reproach. <" '^16.11 \xa0Accordingly, she carried word to her father to abandon hope and accept the inevitable. At the same time, news came that arrangements were being made for a trial in the senate and a merciless verdict. Nor were there wanting those who advised him to name the Caesar as a principal heir, and thus safeguard the residue for his grandchildren. Rejecting the proposal, however, so as not to sully a life, passed in a near approach to freedom, by an act of servility at the close, he distributed among his slaves what money was available: all portable articles he ordered them to remove for their own uses, reserving only three couches for the final scene. Then, in the same chamber, with the same piece of steel, they severed their veins; and hurriedly, wrapped in the single garment which decency prescribed, they were carried to the baths, the father gazing on his daughter, the grandmother on her grandchild and she on both; all praying with rival earnestness for a quick end to the failing breath, so that they might leave their kith and kin still surviving, and assured of death. Fate observed the proper order; and the two eldest passed away the first, then Pollitta in her early youth. They were indicted after burial; the verdict was that they should be punished in the fashion of our ancestors; and Nero, interposing, allowed them to die unsupervised. Such were the comedies that followed, when the deed of blood was done. < ^16.12.2 \xa0Publius Gallus, a Roman knight, for being intimate with Faenius Rufus and not unacquainted with Vetus, was interdicted from fire and water: the freedman, and accuser, was rewarded for his service by a seat in the theatre among the tribunician runners. The months following April â\x80\x94 otherwise known as "Neroneus" â\x80\x94 were renamed, May taking the style of "Claudius," June that of "Germanicus." According to the testimony of Cornelius Orfitus, the author of the proposal, the alteration in the case of June was due to the fact that already the execution of two Torquati for their crimes had made "Junius" a sinister name. <' "^16.
13.1 \xa0Upon this year, disgraced by so many deeds of shame, Heaven also set its mark by tempest and disease. Campania was wasted by a whirlwind, which far and wide wrecked the farms, the fruit trees, and the crops, and carried its fury to the neighbourhood of the capital, where all classes of men were being decimated by a deadly epidemic. No outward sign of a distempered air was visible. Yet the houses were filled with lifeless bodies, the streets with funerals. Neither sex nor age gave immunity from danger; slaves and the free-born populace alike were summarily cut down, amid the laments of their wives and children, who, themselves infected while tending or mourning the victims, were often burnt upon the same pyre. Knights and senators, though they perished on all hands, were less deplored â\x80\x94 as if, by undergoing the common lot, they were cheating the ferocity of the emperor. In the same year, levies were held in Narbonese Gaul, Africa, and Asia, to recruit the legions of Illyricum, in which all men incapacitated by age or sickness were being discharged from the service. The emperor alleviated the disaster at Lugdunum by a grant of four million sesterces to repair the town's losses: the same amount which Lugdunum had previously offered in aid of the misfortunes of the capital." "^16.13.2 \xa0Upon this year, disgraced by so many deeds of shame, Heaven also set its mark by tempest and disease. Campania was wasted by a whirlwind, which far and wide wrecked the farms, the fruit trees, and the crops, and carried its fury to the neighbourhood of the capital, where all classes of men were being decimated by a deadly epidemic. No outward sign of a distempered air was visible. Yet the houses were filled with lifeless bodies, the streets with funerals. Neither sex nor age gave immunity from danger; slaves and the free-born populace alike were summarily cut down, amid the laments of their wives and children, who, themselves infected while tending or mourning the victims, were often burnt upon the same pyre. Knights and senators, though they perished on all hands, were less deplored â\x80\x94 as if, by undergoing the common lot, they were cheating the ferocity of the emperor. In the same year, levies were held in Narbonese Gaul, Africa, and Asia, to recruit the legions of Illyricum, in which all men incapacitated by age or sickness were being discharged from the service. The emperor alleviated the disaster at Lugdunum by a grant of four million sesterces to repair the town's losses: the same amount which Lugdunum had previously offered in aid of the misfortunes of the capital. <" ^16.16.1 \xa0Even had\xa0I been narrating campaigns abroad and lives laid down for the commonwealth, and narrating them with the same uniformity of incident, I\xa0should myself have lost appetite for the task, and I\xa0should expect the tedium of others, repelled by the tale of Roman deaths, honourable perhaps, but tragic and continuous. As it is, this slave-like patience and the profusion of blood wasted at home weary the mind and oppress it with melancholy. The one concession I\xa0would ask from those who shall study these records is that they would permit me not to hate the men who died with so little spirit! It was the anger of Heaven against the Roman realm â\x80\x94 an anger which you cannot, as in the case of beaten armies or captured towns, mention once and for all and proceed upon your way. Let us make this concession to the memory of the nobly born: that, as in the last rites they are distinguished from the vulgar dead, so, when history records their end, each shall receive and keep his special mention. ^16.16.2 \xa0Even had\xa0I been narrating campaigns abroad and lives laid down for the commonwealth, and narrating them with the same uniformity of incident, I\xa0should myself have lost appetite for the task, and I\xa0should expect the tedium of others, repelled by the tale of Roman deaths, honourable perhaps, but tragic and continuous. As it is, this slave-like patience and the profusion of blood wasted at home weary the mind and oppress it with melancholy. The one concession I\xa0would ask from those who shall study these records is that they would permit me not to hate the men who died with so little spirit! It was the anger of Heaven against the Roman realm â\x80\x94 an anger which you cannot, as in the case of beaten armies or captured towns, mention once and for all and proceed upon your way. Let us make this concession to the memory of the nobly born: that, as in the last rites they are distinguished from the vulgar dead, so, when history records their end, each shall receive and keep his special mention. < ^1
6.21.1 \xa0After the slaughter of so many of the noble, Nero in the end conceived the ambition to extirpate virtue herself by killing Thrasea Paetus and Barea Soranus. To both he was hostile from of old, and against Thrasea there were additional motives; for he had walked out of the senate, as I\xa0have mentioned, during the discussion on Agrippina, and at the festival of the Juvenalia his services had not been conspicuous â\x80\x94 a\xa0grievance which went the deeper that in Patavium, his native place, the same Thrasea had sung in tragic costume at the .\xa0.\xa0. Games instituted by the Trojan Antenor. Again, on the day when sentence of death was all but passed on the praetor Antistius for his lampoons on Nero, he proposed, and carried, a milder penalty; and, after deliberately absenting himself from the vote of divine honours to Poppaea, he had not assisted at her funeral. These memories were kept from fading by Cossutianus Capito. For, apart from his character with its sharp trend to crime, he was embittered against Thrasea, whose influence, exerted in support of the Cilician envoys prosecuting Capito for extortion, had cost him the verdict. ^1
6.21 \xa0After the slaughter of so many of the noble, Nero in the end conceived the ambition to extirpate virtue herself by killing Thrasea Paetus and Barea Soranus. To both he was hostile from of old, and against Thrasea there were additional motives; for he had walked out of the senate, as I\xa0have mentioned, during the discussion on Agrippina, and at the festival of the Juvenalia his services had not been conspicuous â\x80\x94 a\xa0grievance which went the deeper that in Patavium, his native place, the same Thrasea had sung in tragic costume at the .\xa0.\xa0. Games instituted by the Trojan Antenor. Again, on the day when sentence of death was all but passed on the praetor Antistius for his lampoons on Nero, he proposed, and carried, a milder penalty; and, after deliberately absenting himself from the vote of divine honours to Poppaea, he had not assisted at her funeral. These memories were kept from fading by Cossutianus Capito. For, apart from his character with its sharp trend to crime, he was embittered against Thrasea, whose influence, exerted in support of the Cilician envoys prosecuting Capito for extortion, had cost him the verdict. < ^16.22.1 \xa0He preferred other charges as well:â\x80\x94 "At the beginning of the year, Thrasea evaded the customary oath; though the holder of a quindecimviral priesthood, he took no part in the national vows; he had never offered a sacrifice for the welfare of the emperor or for his celestial voice. Once a constant and indefatigable member, who showed himself the advocate or the adversary of the most commonplace resolutions of the Fathers, for three years he had not set foot within the curia; and but yesterday, when his colleagues were gathering with emulous haste to crush Silanus and Vetus, he had preferred to devote his leisure to the private cases of his clients. Matters were come already to a schism and to factions: if many made the same venture, it was war! \'As once,\' he said, \'this discord-loving state prated of Caesar and Cato, so now, Nero, it prates of yourself and Thrasea. And he has his followers â\x80\x94\xa0his satellites, rather â\x80\x94 who affect, not as yet the contumacity of his opinions, but his bearing and his looks, and whose stiffness and austerity are designed for an impeachment of your wantonness. To him alone your safety is a thing uncared for, your talents a thing unhonoured. The imperial happiness he cannot brook: can he not even be satisfied with the imperial bereavements and sorrows? Not to believe Poppaea deity bespeaks the same temper that will not swear to the acts of the deified Augustus and the deified Julius. He contemns religion, he abrogates law. The journal of the Roman people is scanned throughout the provinces and armies with double care for news of what Thrasea has not done! Either let us pass over to his creed, if it is the better, or let these seekers after a new world lose their chief and their instigator. It is the sect that produced the Tuberones and the Favonii â\x80\x94 names unloved even in the old republic. In order to subvert the empire, they make a parade of liberty: the empire overthrown, they will lay hands on liberty itself. You have removed Cassius to little purpose, if you intend to allow these rivals of the Bruti to multiply and flourish! A\xa0word in conclusion: write nothing yourself about Thrasea â\x80\x94 leave the senate to decide between us!\'\xa0" Nero fanned still more the eager fury of Cossutianus, and reinforced him with the mordant eloquence of Eprius Marcellus. ^16.22.3 \xa0He preferred other charges as well:â\x80\x94 "At the beginning of the year, Thrasea evaded the customary oath; though the holder of a quindecimviral priesthood, he took no part in the national vows; he had never offered a sacrifice for the welfare of the emperor or for his celestial voice. Once a constant and indefatigable member, who showed himself the advocate or the adversary of the most commonplace resolutions of the Fathers, for three years he had not set foot within the curia; and but yesterday, when his colleagues were gathering with emulous haste to crush Silanus and Vetus, he had preferred to devote his leisure to the private cases of his clients. Matters were come already to a schism and to factions: if many made the same venture, it was war! \'As once,\' he said, \'this discord-loving state prated of Caesar and Cato, so now, Nero, it prates of yourself and Thrasea. And he has his followers â\x80\x94\xa0his satellites, rather â\x80\x94 who affect, not as yet the contumacity of his opinions, but his bearing and his looks, and whose stiffness and austerity are designed for an impeachment of your wantonness. To him alone your safety is a thing uncared for, your talents a thing unhonoured. The imperial happiness he cannot brook: can he not even be satisfied with the imperial bereavements and sorrows? Not to believe Poppaea deity bespeaks the same temper that will not swear to the acts of the deified Augustus and the deified Julius. He contemns religion, he abrogates law. The journal of the Roman people is scanned throughout the provinces and armies with double care for news of what Thrasea has not done! Either let us pass over to his creed, if it is the better, or let these seekers after a new world lose their chief and their instigator. It is the sect that produced the Tuberones and the Favonii â\x80\x94 names unloved even in the old republic. In order to subvert the empire, they make a parade of liberty: the empire overthrown, they will lay hands on liberty itself. You have removed Cassius to little purpose, if you intend to allow these rivals of the Bruti to multiply and flourish! A\xa0word in conclusion: write nothing yourself about Thrasea â\x80\x94 leave the senate to decide between us!\'\xa0" Nero fanned still more the eager fury of Cossutianus, and reinforced him with the mordant eloquence of Eprius Marcellus. <' "^16.22 \xa0He preferred other charges as well:â\x80\x94 "At the beginning of the year, Thrasea evaded the customary oath; though the holder of a quindecimviral priesthood, he took no part in the national vows; he had never offered a sacrifice for the welfare of the emperor or for his celestial voice. Once a constant and indefatigable member, who showed himself the advocate or the adversary of the most commonplace resolutions of the Fathers, for three years he had not set foot within the curia; and but yesterday, when his colleagues were gathering with emulous haste to crush Silanus and Vetus, he had preferred to devote his leisure to the private cases of his clients. Matters were come already to a schism and to factions: if many made the same venture, it was war! \'As once,\' he said, \'this discord-loving state prated of Caesar and Cato, so now, Nero, it prates of yourself and Thrasea. And he has his followers â\x80\x94\xa0his satellites, rather â\x80\x94 who affect, not as yet the contumacity of his opinions, but his bearing and his looks, and whose stiffness and austerity are designed for an impeachment of your wantonness. To him alone your safety is a thing uncared for, your talents a thing unhonoured. The imperial happiness he cannot brook: can he not even be satisfied with the imperial bereavements and sorrows? Not to believe Poppaea deity bespeaks the same temper that will not swear to the acts of the deified Augustus and the deified Julius. He contemns religion, he abrogates law. The journal of the Roman people is scanned throughout the provinces and armies with double care for news of what Thrasea has not done! Either let us pass over to his creed, if it is the better, or let these seekers after a new world lose their chief and their instigator. It is the sect that produced the Tuberones and the Favonii â\x80\x94 names unloved even in the old republic. In order to subvert the empire, they make a parade of liberty: the empire overthrown, they will lay hands on liberty itself. You have removed Cassius to little purpose, if you intend to allow these rivals of the Bruti to multiply and flourish! A\xa0word in conclusion: write nothing yourself about Thrasea â\x80\x94 leave the senate to decide between us!\'\xa0" Nero fanned still more the eager fury of Cossutianus, and reinforced him with the mordant eloquence of Eprius Marcellus. < ^16.23 \xa0As to Barea Soranus, the Roman knight, Ostorius Sabinus, had already claimed him for his own, in a case arising from Soranus' proconsulate of Asia; during which he increased the emperor's malignity by his fairness and his energy, by the care he had spent upon clearing the harbour of Ephesus, and by his failure to punish the city of Pergamum for employing force to prevent the loot of its statues and paintings by the Caesarian freedman, Acratus. But the charges preferred were friendship with Plautus and popularity-hunting in his province with a view of the winning it for the cause of revolution. The time chosen for the condemnation was the moment when Tiridates was on the point of arriving to be invested with the crown of Armenia; the object being that, with public curiosity diverted to foreign affairs, domestic crime might be thrown into shadow, or, possibly, that the imperial greatness might be advertised by the royal feat of slaughtering illustrious men. <" '^16.24 \xa0The whole city, then, streamed out to welcome the emperor and inspect the king, but Thrasea was ordered to avoid the reception. He showed no dejection, but drew up a note to Nero, asking for the allegations against him and stating that he would rebut them, if he was allowed cognizance of the charges and faculties for reply. Nero took the note eagerly, in hopes that Thrasea, in a moment of panic, had written something which might enhance the glory of the emperor and sully his own reputation. As this proved not to be the case, and he himself took alarm at the looks and spirit and frankness of an innocent man, he ordered the senate to be convened. < ^16.25 \xa0Thrasea now consulted with his closest friends whether to attempt or to scorn defence. The advice offered was conflicting. Those who favoured his entering the senate-house argued that they were certain of his firmness:â\x80\x94 "He would say nothing but what increased his glory. It was for the spiritless and the timid to draw a veil over their latter end: let the nation see a man who could face his death; let the senate listen to words inspired, it might be thought, by some deity, and superior to human utterance. Even Nero might be moved by the sheer miracle; but, if he persisted in his cruelty, the after-world at least must discriminate between the record of an honourable death and the cowardice of those who perished in silence." < ^16.26 \xa0Those, on the other hand, who held that he ought to wait at home, expressed the same opinion of Thrasea himself, but urged that he was threatened with mockery and humiliation: it would be better not to lend his ear to invectives and to insults. "Cossutianus and Eprius were not the only men ready and eager for villainy: there were others besides who, in their brutality, might perhaps venture upon physical violence; and even the respectable might follow through fear. Let him rather spare the senate, of which he had been so great an ornament, the ignominy of such a crime, and leave it uncertain what would have been the decision of the Fathers when they saw Thrasea upon his trial! To touch Nero with shame for his infamies was an idle dream, and it was much more to be feared that he would exercise his cruelty on Thrasea\'s wife, his daughter, and the other objects of his affection. Therefore, let him seek, unstained and unpolluted, an end as glorious as theirs by whose walk and pursuits he had guided his life!" Arulenus Rusticus, young and ardent, was present at the conclave, and, in his thirst for fame, offered to veto the resolution of the senate; for he was a plebeian tribune. Thrasea checked his enthusiasm, dissuading him from an attempt, futile in itself and profitless to the accused, but fatal to its maker. "His own time," he said, "was over, and he must not abandon the method of life which he had observed without a break for so many years. But Rusticus was at the beginning of his official career, and his future was uncompromised he must weigh well beforehand in his own mind what course of public life he would embark upon in such an age." The question, whether it was proper for him to enter the senate, he reserved for his private consideration. <' "^16.27 \xa0On the following morning, however, two praetorian cohorts in full equipment occupied the temple of Venus Genetrix; a body of men wearing the toga, but with swords unconcealed, had beset the approach to the senate; and companies of soldiers were scattered through the fora and basilicae. Under their eyes and their menaces the senators entered their meeting-place, and listened to the emperor's speech, as read by his quaestor. Without mentioning any person by name, he taxed the Fathers with deserting the public service and setting the example of indolence to Roman knights. For what wonder that members failed to appear from distant provinces, when many who had attained the consulate and priesthoods preferred to spend their energies upon the embellishment of their pleasure-grounds? â\x80\x94 It was a weapon for the accusers, and they grasped it. <" '^16.28 \xa0The attack was opened by Cossutianus; then Marcellus declaimed with greater violence:â\x80\x94 "Supreme interests of state were at issue: the contumacity of his inferiors was wearing down the lenience of the sovereign. Hitherto the Fathers had been over-indulgent, permitting themselves, as they did, to be mocked with impunity by Thrasea, who was meditating revolt; by his son-inâ\x80\x91law, Helvidius Priscus, who affected the same insanity; by Paconius Agrippinus, again, heir of his father\'s hatred for emperors; and by that scribbler of abominable verses, Curtius Montanus. In the senate he missed an ex-consul; in the national vows, a priest; at the oath of allegiance, a citizen â\x80\x94\xa0unless, defiant of the institutions and rites of their ancestors, Thrasea had openly assumed the part of traitor and public enemy. To be brief, let him come â\x80\x94 this person who was accustomed to enact the complete senator and to protect the slanderers of the prince â\x80\x94 let him come and state in a motion what he would have amended or altered: they would bear more easily with his censures of this or that than they now bore with his all-condemning silence! Was it the world-wide peace, or victories gained without loss of the armies, that met with his displeasure? A\xa0man who mourned over the nation\'s happiness, who treated forum and theatre and temple as a desert, who held out his own exile as a threat, must not have his perverse ambition gratified! In Thrasea\'s eyes, these were no senatorial resolutions; there were no magistracies, no Rome. Let him break with life, and with a country which he had long ceased to love and now to look upon!" < ^16.29 \xa0While Marcellus spoke to this and the like effect, grim and menacing as always, there reigned in the senate, not that familiar sadness, grown habitual now through the rapid succession of perils, but a new and deeper terror, as they saw the hands of the soldiers on their weapons. At the same time, the venerable form of Thrasea himself rose before the mind; and there were those who pitied Helvidius also, soon to pay the penalty of an innocent connection. What had been alleged against Agrippinus, except the tragic fate of his father; since he, too, though equally guiltless, had fallen by the cruelty of Tiberius? As to Montanus, a youth without vice, a poet without venom, he was being driven from the country, purely because he had given evidence of his talent. < ^16.30 \xa0In the meantime, Ostorius Sabinus, the accuser of Soranus, entered and began his speech, dwelling upon the friendship of the defendant with Rubellius Plautus, and upon his governorship of Asia, "which he had treated rather as a position conveniently adapted to his own distinction than with a view to the public interest; as he had shown by fostering the seditious tendencies of the cities." This was an old story: what was new, and used for implicating the daughter of Soranus in her father\'s danger, was a charge that she had distributed money to magicians. That had, in fact, happened, owing to the filial piety of Servilia (for so the girl was called), who, influenced by love for her father and at the same time by the imprudence of her years, had consulted them, though on no other point than the safety of her family and the chances that Nero would prove placable and the trial by the senate produce no tragic result. She was, therefore, summoned before the senate and at opposite ends of the consular tribunal stood an aged parent and, facing him, his daughter, who had not yet reached her twentieth year; condemned to widowhood and loneliness by the recent exile of her husband Annius Pollio, and not even lifting her eyes to her father, whose dangers she seemed to have aggravated. < ^16.31 \xa0When the accuser then demanded if she had sold her bridal ornaments, if she had stripped the necklace from her neck, in order to gather money for the performance of magic rites, she at first threw herself to the ground, in a long and silent fit of weeping; then, embracing the altar steps, and the altar, exclaimed: "I\xa0have resorted to no impious gods, to no spells; nor in my unblest prayers have\xa0I asked for anything but that you, Caesar, and that you, sirs, should preserve in safety this best of fathers. My jewels and robes and the emblems of my rank I\xa0gave as I\xa0should have given my blood and life, had they demanded them. It is for those men, strangers to me before, to see to it what repute they bear, what arts they practise: the emperor I\xa0never mentioned except as deity. But my most unhappy father knows nothing; and, if there is crime, I\xa0have sinned alone." < ^16.32 \xa0She was still speaking, when Soranus caught up her words and cried that "she had not gone with him to his province; from her age, she could not have been known to Plautus; and she was not implicated in the charges against her husband. They should take her case separately (she was guilty only of an overstrained sense of duty); and, as for himself, let him undergo any and every fate!" At the same moment, he rushed to the arms of his daughter, who ran to meet him; but the lictors threw themselves between, and prevented both. Next, the evidence was called; and the pity awakened by the barbarity of the prosecution found its equal in the anger caused by Publius Egnatius in the part of witness. A\xa0client of Soranus, now bought to procure the destruction of his friend, he affected the grave pose of the Stoic school, trained as he was to catch by manner and by look the very features of integrity, while at heart treacherous, wily, a dissembler of cupidity and lust. Those qualities gold laid bare, and he became an example pointing men to caution, not more against the villain clothed in dishonesty or stained by crime, than against those who seek in honourable attainments a cloak for falsehood and for treason in friendship. <' "^16.33 \xa0The same day, however, produced also an example of honour. It was furnished by Cassius Asclepiodotus, by his great wealth the first citizen of Bithynia; who, with the same devotion as he had accorded to Soranus in his heyday, refused to desert him when near his fall, was stripped of his entire fortune, and was driven into exile, as a proof of heaven's impartiality towards good and evil. Thrasea, Soranus, and Servilia were accorded free choice of death; Helvidius and Paconius were expelled from Italy; Montanus was spared out of consideration for his father, with the proviso that his official career should not be continued. of the accusers, Eprius and Cossutianus received a grant of five million sesterces each; Ostorius, one of twelve hundred thousand with the quaestorian decorations. <" "^16.34 \xa0The consul's quaestor was then sent to Thrasea: he was spending the time in his gardens, and the day was already closing in for evening. He had brought together a large party of distinguished men and women, his chief attention been given to Demetrius, a master of the Cynic creed; with whom â\x80\x94 to judge from his serious looks and the few words which caught the ear, when they chanced to raise their voices â\x80\x94 he was debating the nature of the soul and the divorce of spirit and body. At last, Domitius Caecilianus, an intimate friend, arrived, and informed him of the decision reached by the senate. Accordingly, among the tears and expostulations of the company, Thrasea urged them to leave quickly, without linking their own hazardous lot to the fate of a condemned man. Arria, who aspired to follow her husband's ending and the precedent set by her mother and namesake, he advised to keep her life and not deprive the child of their union of her one support. <" '^16.35 \xa0He now walked on to the colonnade; where the quaestor found him nearer to joy than to sorrow, because he had ascertained that Helvidius, his son-inâ\x80\x91law, was merely debarred from Italy. Then, taking the decree of the senate, he led Helvidius and Demetrius into his bedroom, offered the arteries of both arms to the knife, and, when the blood had begun to flow, sprinkled it upon the ground, and called the quaestor nearer: "We are making a libation," he said, "to Jove the Liberator. Look, young man, and â\x80\x94 may Heaven, indeed, avert the omen, but you have been born into times now it is expedient to steel the mind with instances of firmness." Soon, as the slowness of his end brought excruciating pain, turning his gaze upon Demetrius\xa0.\xa0.\xa0.' '' None

32. Tacitus, Histories, 1.1-1.4, 1.1.4, 1.3.2, 1.16.2, 1.22.1-1.22.2, 1.78.2, 1.86, 1.86.1, 1.86.3, 2.5.1, 2.8, 2.50.2, 2.71.1, 2.76, 2.78.1, 2.91, 2.91.1-2.91.2, 2.95.2, 3.55, 3.74.1, 3.84.4, 4.8, 4.36, 4.81, 4.84, 5.5.1, 5.9-5.10 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Golden House, Nero’s • Munatius Sulla Cerialis, M., Nero (Roman emperor) • Nero • Nero (emperor) • Nero (emperor), murders committed by • Nero (emperor), prodigies and • Nero (emperor), worshipful treatment of • Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus • Nero, Emperor • Nero, Emperor, death • Nero, Emperor, public responses to death • Nero, Emperor, relationship with army • Nero, Roman Emperor • Nero, and signs • Nero, emperor, and Seneca • Nero, false Neros • Nero, honoured • Nero, offends gods • Nero, reign predicted • Octavia, wife of Nero • Poppaea (wife of Otho/Nero) • Revolt/War, under Nero (Great ~) • Tacitus, P. Cornelius, accounts of false Nero • Thrasea Paetus, outwits Nero • Tiberius, Nero • Vespasian, and Nero • Vitellius, sacrifices to Nero

Found in books: Augoustakis (2014), Flavian Poetry and its Greek Past, 160; Baumann and Liotsakis (2022), Reading History in the Roman Empire, 179; Bloch (2022), Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism, 283; Bowen and Rochberg (2020), Hellenistic Astronomy: The Science in its contexts, 305, 306; Chrysanthou (2022), Reconfiguring the Imperial Past: Narrative Patterns and Historical Interpretation in Herodian’s History of the Empire. 199, 270, 272; Collins (2016), The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature, 292; Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 147, 148, 156, 157, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 166, 175, 176, 181, 203, 205, 215; Dijkstra and Raschle (2020), Religious Violence in the Ancient World: From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity, 123; Eidinow and Driediger-Murphy (2019), Esther Eidinow, Ancient Divination and Experience, 167; Fertik (2019), The Ruler's House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome, 185; Galinsky (2016), Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity, 50, 53, 54, 154, 160, 161, 162; Isaac (2004), The invention of racism in classical antiquity, 459; Kazantzidis and Spatharas (2018), Hope in Ancient Literature, History, and Art, 15, 217, 218; Kingsley Monti and Rood (2022), The Authoritative Historian: Tradition and Innovation in Ancient Historiography, 387; Kirichenko (2022), Greek Literature and the Ideal: The Pragmatics of Space from the Archaic to the Hellenistic Age, 240; König and Whitton (2018), Roman Literature under Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian: Literary Interactions, AD 96–138 152; Lampe (2003), Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus, 84; Manolaraki (2012), Noscendi Nilum Cupido: Imagining Egypt from Lucan to Philostratus, 245; Mcclellan (2019), Paulinus Noster: Self and Symbols in the Letters of Paulinus of Nola, 268; Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 77, 170, 179, 201, 215; Price, Finkelberg and Shahar (2021), Rome: An Empire of Many Nations: New Perspectives on Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Identity, 21, 191, 193; Rizzi (2010), Hadrian and the Christians, 120; Romana Berno (2023), Roman Luxuria: A Literary and Cultural History, 210, 211, 212, 214; Roumpou (2023), Ritual and the Poetics of Closure in Flavian Literature. 113, 131; Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 281; Scott (2023), An Age of Iron and Rust: Cassius Dio and the History of His Time. 45; Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 230, 250, 291, 337, 360; Spielman (2020), Jews and Entertainment in the Ancient World. 176; Tomson (2019), Studies on Jews and Christians in the First and Second Centuries. 289, 571, 628; Verhagen (2022), Security and Credit in Roman Law: The Historical Evolution of Pignus and Hypotheca, 160

1.78 \xa0With the same generosity Otho tried to win over the support of communities and provinces. To the colonies of Hispalis and Emerita he sent additional families. To the whole people of the Lingones he gave Roman citizenship and presented the province Baetica with towns in Mauritania. New constitutions were given Cappadocia and Africa, more for display than to the lasting advantage of the provinces. Even while engaged in these acts, which found their excuse in the necessity of the situation and the anxieties that were forced upon him, he did not forget his loves and had the statues of Poppaea replaced by a vote of the senate. It was believed that he also brought up the question of celebrating Nero's memory with the hope of winning over the Roman people; and in fact some set up statues of Nero; moreover on certain days the people and soldiers, as if adding thereby to Otho's nobility and distinction, acclaimed him as Nero Otho; he himself remained undecided, from fear to forbid or shame to acknowledge the title." "2.5 \xa0Vespasian was energetic in war. He used to march at the head of his troops, select a place for camp, oppose the enemy night and day with wise strategy and, if occasion demanded, with his own hands. His food was whatever chance offered; in his dress and bearing he hardly differed from the common soldier. He would have been quite equal to the generals of old if he had not been avaricious. Mucianus, on the other hand, was eminent for his magnificence and wealth and by the complete superiority of his scale of life to that of a private citizen. He was the readier speaker, experienced in civil administration and in statesmanship. It would have been a rare combination for an emperor if the faults of the two could have been done away with and their virtues only combined in one man. But Mucianus was governor of Syria, Vespasian of Judea. They had quarrelled through jealousy because they governed neighbouring provinces. Finally at Nero's death they had laid aside their hostilities and consulted together, at first through friends as go-betweens; and then Titus, the chief bond of their concord, had ended their dangerous feud by pointing out their common interests; both by his nature and skill he was well calculated to win over even a person of the character of Mucianus. Tribunes, centurions, and the common soldiers were secured for the cause by industry or by licence, by virtues or by pleasures, according to the individual's character." '3.84 \xa0The greatest difficulty was met in taking the Praetorian Camp, which the bravest soldiers defended as their last hope. The resistance made the victors only the more eager, the old praetorian cohorts being especially determined. They employed at the same time every device that had ever been invented for the destruction of the strongest cities â\x80\x94 the "tortoise," artillery, earthworks, and firebrands â\x80\x94 shouting that all the labour and danger that they had suffered in all their battles would be crowned by this achievement. "We have given back the city to the senate and the Roman people," they cried; "we have restored the temples to the gods. The soldier\'s glory is in his camp: that is his native city, that his penates. If the camp is not at once recovered, we must spend the night under arms." On their side the Vitellians, unequal though they were in numbers and in fortune, by striving to spoil the victory, to delay peace, and to defile the houses and altars of the city with blood, embraced the last solace left to the conquered. Many, mortally wounded, breathed their last on the towers and battlements; when the gates were broken down, the survivors in a solid mass opposed the victors and to a man fell giving blow for blow, dying with faces to the foe; so anxious were they, even at the moment of death, to secure a glorious end. On the capture of the city Vitellius was carried on a chair through the rear of the palace to his wife\'s house on the Aventine, so that, in case he succeeded in remaining undiscovered during the day, he might escape to his brother and the cohorts at Tarracina. But his fickle mind and the very nature of terror, which makes the present situation always seem the worst to one who is fearful of everything, drew him back to the palace. This he found empty and deserted, for even the meanest of his slaves had slipped away or else avoided meeting him. The solitude and the silent spaces filled him with fright: he tried the rooms that were closed and shuddered to find them empty. Exhausted by wandering forlornly about, he concealed himself in an unseemly hiding-place; but Julius Placidus, tribune of a cohort, dragged him to the light. With his arms bound behind his back, his garments torn, he presented a grievous sight as he was led away. Many cried out against him, not one shed a tear; the ugliness of the last scene had banished pity. One of the soldiers from Germany met him and struck at him in rage, or else his purpose was to remove him the quicker from insult, or he may have been aiming at the tribune â\x80\x94 no one could tell. He cut off the tribune\'s ear and was at once run through.^1.86 \xa0Prodigies which were reported on various authorities also contributed to the general terror. It was said that in the vestibule of the Capitol the reins of the chariot in which Victory stood had fallen from the goddess's hands, that a superhuman form had rushed out of Juno's chapel, that a statue of the deified Julius on the island of the Tiber had turned from west to east on a bright calm day, that an ox had spoken in Etruria, that animals had given birth to strange young, and that many other things had happened which in barbarous ages used to be noticed even during peace, but which now are only heard of in seasons of terror. Yet the chief anxiety which was connected with both present disaster and future danger was caused by a sudden overflow of the Tiber which, swollen to a great height, broke down the wooden bridge and then was thrown back by the ruins of the bridge which dammed the stream, and overflowed not only the low-lying level parts of the city, but also parts which are normally free from such disasters. Many were swept away in the public streets, a larger number cut off in shops and in their beds. The common people were reduced to famine by lack of employment and failure of supplies. Apartment houses had their foundations undermined by the standing water and then collapsed when the flood withdrew. The moment people's minds were relieved of this danger, the very fact that when Otho was planning a military expedition, the Campus Martius and the Flaminian Way, over which he was to advance, were blocked against him was interpreted as a prodigy and an omen of impending disaster rather than as the result of chance or natural causes." "^2.8 \xa0About this time Achaia and Asia were terrified by a false rumour of Nero's arrival. The reports with regard to his death had been varied, and therefore many people imagined and believed that he was alive. The forces and attempts of other pretenders we shall tell as we proceed; but at this time, a slave from Pontus or, as others have reported, a freedman from Italy, who was skilled in playing on the cithara and in singing, gained the readier belief in his deceit through these accomplishments and his resemblance to Nero. He recruited some deserters, poor tramps whom he had bribed by great promises, and put to sea. A\xa0violent storm drove him to the island of Cythnus, where he called to his standard some soldiers who were returning from the East on leave, or ordered them to be killed if they refused. Then he robbed the merchants, and armed all the ablest-bodied of their slaves. A\xa0centurion, Sisenna, who was carrying clasped right hands, the symbol of friendship, to the praetorians in the name of the army in Syria, the pretender approached with various artifices, until Sisenna in alarm and fearing violence secretly left the island and made his escape. Then the alarm spread far and wide. Many came eagerly forward at the famous name, prompted by their desire for a change and their hatred of the present situation. The fame of the pretender was increasing from day to day when a chance shattered it." "^2.50.2 \xa0Otho was born in the municipal town of Ferentum; â\x80¢ his father had held the consulship, his grandfather had been praetor. His mother's family was not the equal of his father's, but still it was respectable. His boyhood and youth were such as we have already described. By two bold deeds, the one most outrageous, the other glorious, he gained with posterity as much fame as evil reputation. While I\xa0must hold it inconsistent with the dignity of the work I\xa0have undertaken to collect fabulous tales and to delight my readers with fictitious stories, I\xa0cannot, however, dare to deny the truth of common tradition. On the day of the battle at Bedriacum, according to the account given by the people of that district, a bird of unusual appearance settled in a much-frequented grove near Regium Lepidum, neither the concourse of people nor the other birds which flew about it frightened it or drove it away, until Otho had committed suicide; then it disappeared from view. And they add that when people reckoned up the time, they found that the beginning and end of this marvel coincided with Otho's death." ^2.78.1 \xa0After Mucianus had spoken, the rest became bolder; they gathered about Vespasian, encouraged him, and recalled the prophecies of seers and the movements of the stars. Nor indeed was he wholly free from such superstitious belief, as was evident later when he had obtained supreme power, for he openly kept at court an astrologer named Seleucus, whom he regarded as his guide and oracle. Old omens came back to his mind: once on his country estate a cypress of conspicuous height suddenly fell, but the next day it rose again on the selfsame spot fresh, tall, and with wider expanse than before. This occurrence was a favourable omen of great significance, as the haruspices all agreed, and promised the highest distinctions for Vespasian, who was then still a young man. At first, however, the insignia of a triumph, his consulship, and his victory over Judea appeared to have fulfilled the promise given by the omen; yet after he had gained these honours, he began to think that it was the imperial throne that was foretold. Between Judea and Syria lies Carmel: this is the name given to both the mountain and the divinity. The god has no image or temple â\x80\x94 such is the rule handed down by the fathers; there is only an altar and the worship of the god. When Vespasian was sacrificing there and thinking over his secret hopes in his heart, the priest Basilides, after repeated inspection of the victim\'s vitals, said to him: "Whatever you are planning, Vespasian, whether to build a house, or to enlarge your holdings, or to increase the number of your slaves, the god grants you a mighty home, limitless bounds, and a multitude of men." This obscure oracle rumour had caught up at the time, and now was trying to interpret; nothing indeed was more often on men\'s lips. It was discussed even more in Vespasian\'s presence â\x80\x94 for men have more to say to those who are filled with hope. The two leaders now separated with clear purposes before them, Mucianus going to Antioch, Vespasian to Caesarea. Antioch is the capital of Syria, Caesarea of Judea. ^2.91 \xa0A\xa0city which found a meaning in everything naturally regarded as an evil omen the fact that on becoming pontifex maximus Vitellius issued a proclamation concerning public religious ceremonies on the eighteenth of July, a\xa0day which for centuries had been held to be a\xa0day of ill-omen because of the disasters suffered at the Cremera and Allia: thus, wholly ignorant of law both divine and human, his freedmen and courtiers as stupid as himself, he lived as if among a set of drunkards. Yet at the time of the consular elections he canvassed with his candidates like an ordinary citizen; he eagerly caught at every murmur of the lowest orders in the theatre where he merely looked on, but in the circus he openly favoured his colours. All this no doubt gave pleasure and would have won him popularity, if it had been prompted by virtue; but as it was, the memory of his former life made men regard these acts as unbecoming and base. He frequently came to the senate, even when the senators were discussing trivial matters. Once it happened that Helvidius Priscus, being then praetor-elect, expressed a view which was opposed to his wishes. Vitellius was at first excited, but he did nothing more than call the tribunes of the people to support his authority that had been slighted. Later, when his friends, fearing that his anger might be deep-seated, tried to calm him, he replied that it was nothing strange for two senators to hold different views in the state; indeed he had usually opposed even Thrasea. Many regarded this impudent comparison as absurd; others were pleased with the very fact that he had selected, not one of the most influential, but Thrasea, to serve as a model of true glory. ^3.55 \xa0Vitellius was like a man wakened from a deep sleep. He ordered Julius Priscus and Alfenus Avarus to block the passes of the Apennines with fourteen praetorian cohorts and all the cavalry. A\xa0legion of marines followed them later. These thousands of armed forces, consisting too of picked men and horses, were equal to taking the offensive if they had had another leader. The rest of the cohorts Vitellius gave to his brother Lucius for the defence of Rome, while he, abating in no degree his usual life of pleasure and urged on by his lack of confidence in the future, held the comitia before the usual time, and designated the consuls for many years to come. He granted special treaties to allies and bestowed Latin rights on foreigners with a generous hand; he reduced the tribute for some provincials, he relieved others from all obligations â\x80\x94 in short, with no regard for the future he crippled the empire. But the mob attended in delight on the great indulgences that he bestowed; the most foolish citizens bought them, while the wise regarded as worthless privileges which could neither be granted nor accepted if the state was to stand. Finally Vitellius listened to the demands of his army which had stopped at Mevania, and left Rome, accompanied by a long line of senators, many of whom were drawn in his train by their desire to secure his favour, most however by fear. So he came to camp with no clear purpose in mind, an easy prey to treacherous advice.' "^3.74.1 \xa0Domitian was concealed in the lodging of a temple attendant when the assailants broke into the citadel; then through the cleverness of a freedman he was dressed in a linen robe and so was able to join a crowd of devotees without being recognized and to escape to the house of Cornelius Primus, one of his father's clients, near the Velabrum, where he remained in concealment. When his father came to power, Domitian tore down the lodging of the temple attendant and built a small chapel to Jupiter the Preserver with an altar on which his escape was represented in a marble relief. Later, when he had himself gained the imperial throne, he dedicated a great temple of Jupiter the Guardian, with his own effigy in the lap of the god. Sabinus and Atticus were loaded with chains and taken before Vitellius, who received them with no angry word or look, although the crowd cried out in rage, asking for the right to kill them and demanding rewards for accomplishing this task. Those who stood nearest were the first to raise these cries, and then the lowest plebeians with mingled flattery and threats began to demand the punishment of Sabinus. Vitellius stood on the steps of the palace and was about to appeal to them, when they forced him to withdraw. Then they ran Sabinus through, mutilated him, and cut off his head, after which they dragged his headless body to the Gemonian stairs." "^4.8 \xa0Marcellus replied that it was not his proposal, but that of the consul designate that was attacked; and it was a proposal that conformed to the ancient precedents, which prescribed that delegates should be chosen by lot, that there might be no room for self-seeking or for hate. Nothing had occurred to give reason for abandoning long-established customs or for turning the honour due an emperor into an insult to any man: they could all pay homage. What they must try to avoid was allowing the wilfulness of certain individuals to irritate the mind of the emperor, who was as yet unbiassed, being newly come to power and watchful of every look and every word. For his own part he remembered the time in which he was born, the form of government that their fathers and grandfathers had established; he admired the earlier period, but adapted himself to the present; he prayed for good emperors, but endured any sort. It was not by his speech any more than by the judgment of the senate that Thrasea had been brought to ruin; Nero's cruel nature found its delight in such shows of justice, and such a friendship caused him no less anxiety than exile in others. In short, let them set Helvidius on an equality with Cato and Brutus in firmness and courage: for himself, he was only one of a senate which accepted a common servitude. He would also advise Priscus not to exalt himself above an emperor, not to try to check by his precepts a man of ripe age as Vespasian was, a man who had gained the insignia of a triumph, and who had sons grown to man's estate. Just as the worst emperors wish for absolute tyrannical power, even the best desire some limit to the freedom of their subjects. These arguments, which were hurled back and forth with great vehemence, were received with different feelings. The party prevailed that favoured the selection of the envoys by lot, for even the ordinary senators were eager to preserve precedent, and all the most prominent also inclined to the same course, fearing to excite envy if they should be selected themselves." "^4.36 \xa0Meanwhile Civilis besieged Vetera: Vocula withdrew to Gelduba and then to Novaesium. Later he was successful in an engagement with the cavalry not far from Novaesium. But success and failure alike fired the soldiers with a wish to murder their leaders; and when the legionaries had been reinforced by the arrival of the men from the Fifth and Fifteenth, they began to demand the donative, for they had learned that Vitellius had sent the money. Hordeonius did not long delay, but gave them the gift in Vespasian's name, and this act more than anything else fostered the mutiny. The soldiers, abandoning themselves to debauchery, feasts, and meetings by night, revived their old hatred for Hordeonius, and without a legate or tribune daring to oppose them, they actually dragged him from his bed and killed him. They were preparing to treat Vocula in the same way, but he disguised himself in a slave's clothes and escaped in the darkness." "^4.81 \xa0During the months while Vespasian was waiting at Alexandria for the regular season of the summer winds and a settled sea, many marvels continued to mark the favour of heaven and a certain partiality of the gods toward him. One of the common people of Alexandria, well known for his loss of sight, threw himself before Vespasian's knees, praying him with groans to cure his blindness, being so directed by the god Serapis, whom this most superstitious of nations worships before all others; and he besought the emperor to deign to moisten his cheeks and eyes with his spittle. Another, whose hand was useless, prompted by the same god, begged Caesar to step and trample on it. Vespasian at first ridiculed these appeals and treated them with scorn; then, when the men persisted, he began at one moment to fear the discredit of failure, at another to be inspired with hopes of success by the appeals of the suppliants and the flattery of his courtiers: finally, he directed the physicians to give their opinion as to whether such blindness and infirmity could be overcome by human aid. Their reply treated the two cases differently: they said that in the first the power of sight had not been completely eaten away and it would return if the obstacles were removed; in the other, the joints had slipped and become displaced, but they could be restored if a healing pressure were applied to them. Such perhaps was the wish of the gods, and it might be that the emperor had been chosen for this divine service; in any case, if a cure were obtained, the glory would be Caesar's, but in the event of failure, ridicule would fall only on the poor suppliants. So Vespasian, believing that his good fortune was capable of anything and that nothing was any longer incredible, with a smiling countece, and amid intense excitement on the part of the bystanders, did as he was asked to do. The hand was instantly restored to use, and the day again shone for the blind man. Both facts are told by eye-witnesses even now when falsehood brings no reward." "^4.84 \xa0When the ambassadors reached Sinope, they delivered the gifts, requests, and messages of their king to Scydrothemis. He was all uncertainty, now fearing the god and again being terrified by the threats and opposition of his people; often he was tempted by the gifts and promises of the ambassadors. In the meantime three years passed during which Ptolemy did not lessen his zeal or his appeals; he increased the dignity of his ambassadors, the number of his ships, and the quantity of gold offered. Then a terrifying vision appeared to Scydrothemis, warning him not to hinder longer the purposes of the god: as he still hesitated, various disasters, diseases, and the evident anger of the gods, growing heavier from day to day, beset the king. He called an assembly of his people and made known to them the god's orders, the visions that had appeared to him and to Ptolemy, and the misfortunes that were multiplying upon them: the people opposed their king; they were jealous of Egypt, afraid for themselves, and so gathered about the temple of the god. At this point the tale becomes stranger, for tradition says that the god himself, voluntarily embarking on the fleet that was lying on the shore, miraculously crossed the wide stretch of sea and reached Alexandria in two days. A\xa0temple, befitting the size of the city, was erected in the quarter called Rhacotis; there had previously been on that spot an ancient shrine dedicated to Serapis and Isis. Such is the most popular account of the origin and arrival of the god. Yet I\xa0am not unaware that there are some who maintain that the god was brought from Seleucia in Syria in the reign of Ptolemy\xa0III; still others claim that the same Ptolemy introduced the god, but that the place from which he came was Memphis, once a famous city and the bulwark of ancient Egypt. Many regard the god himself as identical with Aesculapius, because he cures the sick; some as Osiris, the oldest god among these peoples; still more identify him with Jupiter as the supreme lord of all things; the majority, however, arguing from the attributes of the god that are seen on his statue or from their own conjectures, hold him to be Father Dis." "^5.5.1 \xa0Whatever their origin, these rites are maintained by their antiquity: the other customs of the Jews are base and abominable, and owe their persistence to their depravity. For the worst rascals among other peoples, renouncing their ancestral religions, always kept sending tribute and contributions to Jerusalem, thereby increasing the wealth of the Jews; again, the Jews are extremely loyal toward one another, and always ready to show compassion, but toward every other people they feel only hate and enmity. They sit apart at meals, and they sleep apart, and although as a race, they are prone to lust, they abstain from intercourse with foreign women; yet among themselves nothing is unlawful. They adopted circumcision to distinguish themselves from other peoples by this difference. Those who are converted to their ways follow the same practice, and the earliest lesson they receive is to despise the gods, to disown their country, and to regard their parents, children, and brothers as of little account. However, they take thought to increase their numbers; for they regard it as a crime to kill any late-born child, and they believe that the souls of those who are killed in battle or by the executioner are immortal: hence comes their passion for begetting children, and their scorn of death. They bury the body rather than burn it, thus following the Egyptians' custom; they likewise bestow the same care on the dead, and hold the same belief about the world below; but their ideas of heavenly things are quite the opposite. The Egyptians worship many animals and monstrous images; the Jews conceive of one god only, and that with the mind alone: they regard as impious those who make from perishable materials representations of gods in man's image; that supreme and eternal being is to them incapable of representation and without end. Therefore they set up no statues in their cities, still less in their temples; this flattery is not paid their kings, nor this honour given to the Caesars. But since their priests used to chant to the accompaniment of pipes and cymbals and to wear garlands of ivy, and because a golden vine was found in their temple, some have thought that they were devotees of Father Liber, the conqueror of the East, in spite of the incongruity of their customs. For Liber established festive rites of a joyous nature, while the ways of the Jews are preposterous and mean." "^5.9 \xa0The first Roman to subdue the Jews and set foot in their temple by right of conquest was Gnaeus Pompey; thereafter it was a matter of common knowledge that there were no representations of the gods within, but that the place was empty and the secret shrine contained nothing. The walls of Jerusalem were razed, but the temple remained standing. Later, in the time of our civil wars, when these eastern provinces had fallen into the hands of Mark Antony, the Parthian prince, Pacorus, seized Judea, but he was slain by Publius Ventidius, and the Parthians were thrown back across the Euphrates: the Jews were subdued by Gaius Sosius. Antony gave the throne to Herod, and Augustus, after his victory, increased his power. After Herod's death, a certain Simon assumed the name of king without waiting for Caesar's decision. He, however, was put to death by Quintilius Varus, governor of Syria; the Jews were repressed; and the kingdom was divided into three parts and given to Herod's sons. Under Tiberius all was quiet. Then, when Caligula ordered the Jews to set up his statue in their temple, they chose rather to resort to arms, but the emperor's death put an end to their uprising. The princes now being dead or reduced to insignificance, Claudius made Judea a province and entrusted it to Roman knights or to freedmen; one of the latter, Antonius Felix, practised every kind of cruelty and lust, wielding the power of king with all the instincts of a slave; he had married Drusilla, the grand-daughter of Cleopatra and Antony, and so was Antony's grandson-inâ\x80\x91law, while Claudius was Antony's grandson." "^5.10 \xa0Still the Jews' patience lasted until Gessius Florus became procurator: in his time war began. When Cestius Gallus, governor of Syria, tried to stop it, he suffered varied fortunes and met defeat more often than he gained victory. On his death, whether in the course of nature or from vexation, Nero sent out Vespasian, who, aided by his good fortune and reputation as well as by his excellent subordinates, within two summers occupied with his victorious army the whole of the level country and all the cities except Jerusalem. The next year was taken up with civil war, and thus was passed in inactivity so far as the Jews were concerned. When peace had been secured throughout Italy, foreign troubles began again; and the fact that the Jews alone had failed to surrender increased our resentment; at the same time, having regard to all the possibilities and hazards of a new reign, it seemed expedient for Titus to remain with the army." "" None

33. None, None, nan (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero • Nero (emperor), performance and • Nero,, speeches read • Seneca, and Nero • public eye, and Nero

Found in books: Fertik (2019), The Ruler's House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome, 84; Pinheiro et al. (2018), Cultural Crossroads in the Ancient Novel, 170, 173; Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 342; Tacoma (2020), Cicero and Roman Education: The Reception of the Speeches and Ancient Scholarship, 29, 34; Talbert (1984), The Senate of Imperial Rome, 318; Tuori (2016), The Emperor of Law: The Emergence of Roman Imperial Adjudication<, 137, 155

34. None, None, nan (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero

Found in books: Augoustakis (2014), Flavian Poetry and its Greek Past, 310; Verhagen (2022), Security and Credit in Roman Law: The Historical Evolution of Pignus and Hypotheca, 310

35. None, None, nan (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero • Nero (Emperor), (un)observed life • Nero (emperor), performance and • Nero, Emperor • Nero, emperor, character in the pseudo-Senecan tragedy Octauia • Octavia, wife of Nero • Seneca, and Nero • Seneca, and Nero in De clementia • Suetonius, on Nero • Tiberius, Nero • public eye, and Nero • wives, and Nero

Found in books: Agri (2022), Reading Fear in Flavian Epic: Emotion, Power, and Stoicism, 26, 27, 28, 29, 50; Augoustakis et al. (2021), Fides in Flavian Literature, 236, 237, 242; Bexley (2022), Seneca's Characters: Fictional Identities and Implied Human Selves, 173, 337; Fertik (2019), The Ruler's House: Contesting Power and Privacy in Julio-Claudian Rome, 11, 81, 82, 88; Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 15, 26, 173; Manolaraki (2012), Noscendi Nilum Cupido: Imagining Egypt from Lucan to Philostratus, 77; Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 206; Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 342; Tacoma (2020), Cicero and Roman Education: The Reception of the Speeches and Ancient Scholarship, 34; Tuori (2016), The Emperor of Law: The Emergence of Roman Imperial Adjudication<, 131, 132, 134, 137, 173; Williams and Vol (2022), Philosophy in Ovid, Ovid as Philosopher, 281

36. None, None, nan (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero

Found in books: Agri (2022), Reading Fear in Flavian Epic: Emotion, Power, and Stoicism, 50; Tuori (2016), The Emperor of Law: The Emergence of Roman Imperial Adjudication<, 137

37. None, None, nan (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus • Nero, emperor, and Seneca

Found in books: Manolaraki (2012), Noscendi Nilum Cupido: Imagining Egypt from Lucan to Philostratus, 245; Romana Berno (2023), Roman Luxuria: A Literary and Cultural History, 192

38. None, None, nan (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero • Octavia, wife of Nero

Found in books: Agri (2022), Reading Fear in Flavian Epic: Emotion, Power, and Stoicism, 39, 40; Augoustakis et al. (2021), Fides in Flavian Literature, 229, 235

39. None, None, nan (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Hercules, and Nero • Nero • Nero, as Heracles

Found in books: Arampapaslis, Augoustakis, Froedge, Schroer (2023), Dynamics of Marginality: Liminal Characters and Marginal Groups in Neronian and Flavian Literature. 135; Augoustakis (2014), Flavian Poetry and its Greek Past, 263; Malherbe et al. (2014), Light from the Gentiles: Hellenistic Philosophy and Early Christianity: Collected Essays of Abraham J, 657; Roumpou (2023), Ritual and the Poetics of Closure in Flavian Literature. 127; Verhagen (2022), Security and Credit in Roman Law: The Historical Evolution of Pignus and Hypotheca, 263

40. None, None, nan (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero

Found in books: Augoustakis (2014), Flavian Poetry and its Greek Past, 263; Borg (2008), Paideia: the World of the Second Sophistic: The World of the Second Sophistic, 107; Gunderson (2022), The Social Worlds of Ancient Jews and Christians: Essays in Honor of L. Michael White, 134; Keane (2015), Juvenal and the Satiric Emotions, 131; König and Whitton (2018), Roman Literature under Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian: Literary Interactions, AD 96–138 349; Verhagen (2022), Security and Credit in Roman Law: The Historical Evolution of Pignus and Hypotheca, 263

41. None, None, nan (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero • Nero (emperor)

Found in books: Agri (2022), Reading Fear in Flavian Epic: Emotion, Power, and Stoicism, 13; Augoustakis (2014), Flavian Poetry and its Greek Past, 263; Mcclellan (2019), Paulinus Noster: Self and Symbols in the Letters of Paulinus of Nola, 81; Verhagen (2022), Security and Credit in Roman Law: The Historical Evolution of Pignus and Hypotheca, 263

42. None, None, nan (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero • Nero (Emperor)

Found in books: Jenkyns (2013), God, Space, and City in the Roman Imagination, 50; Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 259

43. None, None, nan (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero

Found in books: Eidinow and Driediger-Murphy (2019), Esther Eidinow, Ancient Divination and Experience, 140; Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 259

44. None, None, nan (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero • Nero, fondness for Corinthian bronze • Nero, murders his mother

Found in books: Ando (2013), Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire, 201; Hubbard (2014), A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities, 452; Lampe (2003), Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus, 242; Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 70, 305

45. None, None, nan (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero • Nero, Emperor • Nero, fondness for Corinthian bronze • Nero,, jurisdiction

Found in books: Chrysanthou (2022), Reconfiguring the Imperial Past: Narrative Patterns and Historical Interpretation in Herodian’s History of the Empire. 112, 209; Dijkstra and Raschle (2020), Religious Violence in the Ancient World: From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity, 104; Galinsky (2016), Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity, 164; Lampe (2003), Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus, 84; Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 234; Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 70, 213; Talbert (1984), The Senate of Imperial Rome, 479; Tuori (2016), The Emperor of Law: The Emergence of Roman Imperial Adjudication<, 148

46. None, None, nan (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus • Revolt/War, under Nero (Great ~)

Found in books: Romana Berno (2023), Roman Luxuria: A Literary and Cultural History, 206; Tomson (2019), Studies on Jews and Christians in the First and Second Centuries. 543

47. None, None, nan (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Agrippina the Younger, Nero murders • Nero • Nero, Emperor • Nero, and Piso’s conspiracy • Nero, murders his mother • ofonius Tigellinus, C., Nero grants statue of

Found in books: Augoustakis (2014), Flavian Poetry and its Greek Past, 160; Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 217; Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 135; Verhagen (2022), Security and Credit in Roman Law: The Historical Evolution of Pignus and Hypotheca, 160

48. None, None, nan (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Golden House, Nero’s • Greece, Nero loots • Nero • Nero (emperor), prodigies and • Nero, Emperor • Nero, emperor, and Seneca • Nero, false Neros • Tacitus, P. Cornelius, accounts of false Nero • Vespasian, inventories Nero’s Greek plunder

Found in books: Athanassaki and Titchener (2022), Plutarch's Cities, 70; Chrysanthou (2022), Reconfiguring the Imperial Past: Narrative Patterns and Historical Interpretation in Herodian’s History of the Empire. 243; Galinsky (2016), Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity, 162; König and Whitton (2018), Roman Literature under Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian: Literary Interactions, AD 96–138 96; Manolaraki (2012), Noscendi Nilum Cupido: Imagining Egypt from Lucan to Philostratus, 245; Poulsen (2021), Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography, 170, 183; Roumpou (2023), Ritual and the Poetics of Closure in Flavian Literature. 131; Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 55, 82, 301; Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 324

49. None, None, nan (1st cent. CE - missingth cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Nero • Nero (Emperor)

Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database