1. Cicero, On The Nature of The Gods, 1.117, 2.72 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •prodigies, as wrath of gods Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 83 | 1.117. On the other hand what reason is there for adoring the gods on the ground of our admiration for the divine nature, if we cannot see that that nature possesses any special excellence? "As for freedom from superstition, which is the favourite boast of your school, that is easy to attain when you have deprived the gods of all power; unless perchance you think that it was possible for Diagoras or Theodorus to be superstitious, who denied the existence of the gods altogether. For my part, I don't see how it was possible even for Protagoras, who was not certain either that the gods exist or that they do not. For the doctrines of all these thinkers abolish not only superstition, which implies a groundless fear of the gods, but also religion, which consists in piously worshipping them. 2.72. Persons who spent whole days in prayer and sacrifice to ensure that their children should outlive them were termed 'superstitious' (from superstes, a survivor), and the word later acquired a wider application. Those on the other hand who carefully reviewed and so to speak retraced all the lore of ritual were called 'religious' from relegere (to retrace or re‑read), like 'elegant' from eligere (to select), 'diligent' from diligere (to care for), 'intelligent' fromintellegere (to understand); for all these words contain the same sense of 'picking out' (legere) that is present in 'religious.' Hence 'superstitious' and 'religious' came to be terms of censure and approval respectively. I think that I have said enough to prove the existence of the gods and their nature. |
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2. Ovid, Metamorphoses, 4.574, 8.724 (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •prodigies, as wrath of gods Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 159| 4.574. Quem si cura deum tam certa vindicat ira, 8.724. “cura deum di sint, et qui coluere colantur.”” | |
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3. Ovid, Ars Amatoria, 3.405 (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •prodigies, as wrath of gods Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 159| 3.405. Cura deum fuerant olim regumque poetae: | |
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4. Livy, History, 1.31.6, 1.31.8, 4.20.5-4.20.11, 4.30.9, 5.15.1, 6.5.6, 6.18.9, 7.2.3, 7.3.2, 7.27.1, 8.18.11, 10.19.17-10.19.18, 10.23.1, 21.46.2, 21.62.1, 21.62.6, 22.1.16, 22.36.7, 22.57.2-22.57.7, 24.8.10, 24.9.6, 24.10.6, 24.10.11, 24.44.8-24.44.9, 27.4.11, 27.23.1-27.23.4, 27.25.9, 27.26.13-27.26.14, 27.33.6, 27.33.11, 27.37.2, 27.37.4, 27.38.1, 28.11.1, 29.14.2, 29.14.5-29.14.14, 30.38.10, 35.9.3, 35.21.6, 36.37.4, 38.28.4, 39.16.6, 39.16.10-39.16.11, 40.19.1, 40.37.1, 40.52.2-40.52.6, 40.58.3-40.58.7, 40.59.8, 43.13.1-43.13.2 (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •prodigies, as wrath of gods Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 28, 42, 44, 45, 46, 48, 60, 68, 83, 84, 159, 160| 43.13.1. non sum nescius ab eadem neclegentia, quia nihil deos portendere vulgo nunc credant, neque nuntiari admodum ulla prodigia in publicum neque in annales referri. 43.13.2. ceterum et mihi vetustas res scribenti nescio quo pacto anticus fit animus, et quaedam religio tenet, quae illi prudentissimi viri publice suscipienda censuerint, ea pro indignis habere, quae in meos annales referam. | |
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| 5. Silius Italicus, Punica, 7.75 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •prodigies, as wrath of gods Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 159 |
| 6. Pliny The Elder, Natural History, 7.178 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •prodigies, as wrath of gods Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 29 |
| 7. Martial, Epigrams, 1.111 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •prodigies, as wrath of gods Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 159 |
| 8. Martial, Epigrams, 1.111 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •prodigies, as wrath of gods Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 159 |
| 9. Lucan, Pharsalia, 5.34 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •prodigies, as wrath of gods Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 159 |
10. Plutarch, Marcellus, 28.3 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •prodigies, as wrath of gods Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 44| 28.3. τοῦτο καὶ νύκτωρ ὄνειρον ἦν αὐτῷ καὶ μετὰ φίλων καὶ συναρχόντων ἓν βούλευμα καὶ μία πρὸς θεοὺς φωνή, παραταττόμενον Ἀννίβαν λαβεῖν, ἥδιστα δʼ ἄν μοι δοκεῖ τείχους ἑνὸς ἤ τινος χάρακος ἀμφοτέροις τοῖς στρατεύμασι περιτεθέντος διαγωνίσασθαι, καὶ εἰ μὴ πολλῆς μὲν ἤδη μεστὸς ὑπῆρχε δόξης, πολλὴν δὲ πεῖραν παρεσχήκει τοῦ παρʼ ὁντινοῦν τῶν στρατηγῶν ἐμβριθὴς γεγονέναι καὶ φρόνιμος, εἶπον ἂν ὅτι μειρακιῶδες αὐτῷ προσπεπτώκει καὶ φιλοτιμότερον πάθος ἢ κατὰ πρεσβύτην τοσοῦτον· ὑπὲρ γὰρ ἑξήκοντα γεγονὼς ἔτη τὸ πέμπτον ὑπάτευεν. | 28.3. This was his dream at night, his one subject for deliberation with friends and colleagues, his one appeal to the gods, namely, that he might find Hannibal drawn up to meet him. And I think he would have been most pleased to have the struggle decided with both armies enclosed by a single wall or rampart; and if he had not been full already of abundant honour, and if he had not given abundant proof that he could be compared with any general whomsoever in solidity of judgement, I should have said that he had fallen a victim to a youthful ambition that ill became such a great age as his. For he had passed his sixtieth year when he entered upon his fifth consulship. In 208 B.C. |
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11. Tacitus, Histories, 1.3.2, 1.79.1, 1.86, 1.86.1, 2.50.2, 2.78.1, 2.91.1, 3.58.3, 3.74.1-3.74.2, 4.26.2, 5.7, 5.13.1 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •prodigies, as wrath of gods Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 155, 156, 158, 159, 160, 161, 163, 204 | 1.86. Prodigies 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. 5.7. Not far from this lake is a plain which, according to report, was once fertile and the site of great cities, but which was later devastated by lightning; and it is said that traces of this disaster still exist there, and that the very ground looks burnt and has lost its fertility. In fact, all the plants there, whether wild or cultivated, turn black, become sterile, and seem to wither into dust, either in leaf or in flower or after they have reached their usual mature form. Now for my part, although I should grant that famous cities were once destroyed by fire from heaven, I still think that it is the exhalations from the lake that infect the ground and poison the atmosphere about this district, and that this is the reason that crops and fruits decay, since both soil and climate are deleterious. The river Belus also empties into the Jewish Sea; around its mouth a kind of sand is gathered, which when mixed with soda is fused into glass. The beach is of moderate size, but it furnishes an inexhaustible supply. |
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| 12. Tacitus, Germania (De Origine Et Situ Germanorum), 12 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •prodigies, as wrath of gods Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 155 |
13. Tacitus, Annals, 1.3.4, 1.9.1, 1.29.1, 1.31, 1.31.4, 1.76.2, 2.14.3, 2.47.1-2.47.3, 2.84.3, 3.26.3, 4.27.1, 4.64.1, 6.3.2, 11.4.1-11.4.5, 11.5.6, 11.8.1, 11.26.1-11.26.4, 12.5, 12.8.2, 12.43, 12.43.1, 12.64.1, 13.2.3, 13.17.2, 14.12.2-14.12.3, 14.15.1, 14.22, 14.22.1-14.22.4, 14.22.6, 14.31-14.32, 14.49.1, 14.64, 14.64.6, 15.7.2, 15.8.1, 15.22.3, 15.23.4-15.23.5, 15.34, 15.34.1-15.34.2, 15.36.3, 15.44.1-15.44.2, 15.45.5, 15.47.1-15.47.3, 15.71.1, 15.74.2, 16.22.2-16.22.22, 16.33.1 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •prodigies, as wrath of gods Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 47, 155, 156, 159, 160, 161, 163, 197, 199, 200| 1.31. Isdem ferme diebus isdem causis Germanicae legiones turbatae, quanto plures tanto violentius, et magna spe fore ut Germanicus Caesar imperium alterius pati nequiret daretque se legionibus vi sua cuncta tracturis. duo apud ripam Rheni exercitus erant: cui nomen superiori sub C. Silio legato, inferiorem A. Caecina curabat. regimen summae rei penes Germanicum agendo Galliarum censui tum intentum. sed quibus Silius moderabatur, mente ambigua fortunam seditionis alienae speculabantur: inferioris exercitus miles in rabiem prolapsus est, orto ab unetvicesimanis quintanisque initio, et tractis prima quoque ac vicesima legionibus: nam isdem aestivis in finibus Vbiorum habebantur per otium aut levia munia. igitur audito fine Augusti vernacula multitudo, nuper acto in urbe dilectu, lasciviae sueta, laborum intolerans, implere ceterorum rudes animos: venisse tempus quo veterani maturam missionem, iuvenes largiora stipendia, cuncti modum miseriarum exposcerent saevitiamque centurionum ulciscerentur. non unus haec, ut Pannonicas inter legiones Percennius, nec apud trepidas militum auris, alios validiores exercitus respicientium, sed multa seditionis ora vocesque: sua in manu sitam rem Romanam, suis victoriis augeri rem publicam, in suum cognomentum adscisci imperatores. 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. 12.43. 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. 14.22. Inter quae sidus cometes effulsit; de quo vulgi opinio est tamquam mutationem regis portendat. igitur quasi iam depulso Nerone, quisnam deligeretur anquirebant; et omnium ore Rubellius Plautus celebratur, cui nobilitas per matrem ex Iulia familia. ipse placita maiorum colebat, habitu severo, casta et secreta domo, quantoque metu occultior, tanto plus famae adeptus. auxit rumorem pari vanitate orta interpretatio fulguris. nam quia discumbentis Neronis apud Simbruina stagna in villa cui Sublaqueum nomen est ictae dapes mensaque disiecta erat idque finibus Tiburtum acciderat, unde paterna Plauto origo, hunc illum numine deum destinari credebant, fovebantque multi quibus nova et ancipitia praecolere avida et plerumque fallax ambitio est. ergo permotus his Nero componit ad Plautum litteras, consuleret quieti urbis seque prava diffamantibus subtraheret: esse illi per Asiam avitos agros in quibus tuta et inturbida iuventa frueretur. ita illuc cum coniuge Antistia et paucis familiarium concessit. Isdem diebus nimia luxus cupido infamiam et periculum Neroni tulit, quia fontem aquae Marciae ad urbem deductae do incesserat; videbaturque potus sacros et caerimoniam loci corpore loto polluisse. secutaque anceps valetudo iram deum adfirmavit. 14.31. Rex Icenorum Prasutagus, longa opulentia clarus, Caesarem heredem duasque filias scripserat, tali obsequio ratus regnumque et domum suam procul iniuria fore. quod contra vertit, adeo ut regnum per centuriones, domus per servos velut capta vastarentur. iam primum uxor eius Boudicca verberibus adfecta et filiae stupro violatae sunt: praecipui quique Icenorum, quasi cunctam regionem muneri accepissent, avitis bonis exuuntur, et propinqui regis inter mancipia habebantur. qua contumelia et metu graviorum, quando in formam provinciae cesserant, rapiunt arma, commotis ad rebellationem Trinobantibus et qui alii nondum servitio fracti resumere libertatem occultis coniurationibus pepigerant, acerrimo in veteranos odio. quippe in coloniam Camulodunum recens deducti pellebant domibus, exturbabant agris, captivos, servos appellando, foventibus impotentiam veteranorum militibus similitudine vitae et spe eiusdem licentiae. ad hoc templum divo Claudio constitutum quasi arx aeternae dominationis aspiciebatur, delectique sacerdotes specie religionis omnis fortunas effundebant. nec arduum videbatur excindere coloniam nullis munimentis saeptam; quod ducibus nostris parum provisum erat, dum amoenitati prius quam usui consulitur. 14.32. Inter quae nulla palam causa delapsum Camuloduni simulacrum Victoriae ac retro conversum quasi cederet hostibus. et feminae in furorem turbatae adesse exitium canebant, externosque fremitus in curia eorum auditos; consonuisse ululatibus theatrum visamque speciem in aestuario Tamesae subversae coloniae: iam Oceanus cruento aspectu, dilabente aestu humanorum corporum effigies relictae, ut Britannis ad spem, ita veteranis ad metum trahebantur. sed quia procul Suetonius aberat, petivere a Cato Deciano procuratore auxilium. ille haud amplius quam ducentos sine iustis armis misit; et inerat modica militum manus. tutela templi freti et impedientibus qui occulti rebellionis conscii consilia turbabant, neque fossam aut vallum praeduxerunt, neque motis senibus et feminis iuventus sola restitit: quasi media pace incauti multitudine barbarorum circumveniuntur. et cetera quidem impetu direpta aut incensa sunt: templum in quo se miles conglobaverat biduo obsessum expugnatumque. et victor Britannus Petilio Ceriali, legato legionis nonae, in subsidium adventanti obvius fudit legionem et quod peditum interfecit: Cerialis cum equitibus evasit in castra et munimentis defensus est. qua clade et odiis provinciae quam avaritia eius in bellum egerat trepidus procurator Catus in Galliam transiit. 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. 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. | 1.31. During the same days almost, and from the same causes, the legions of Germany mutinied, in larger numbers and with proportionate fury; while their hopes ran high that Germanicus Caesar, unable to brook the sovereignty of another, would throw himself into the arms of his legions, whose force could sweep the world. There were two armies on the Rhine bank: the Upper, under the command of Gaius Silius; the Lower, in charge of Aulus Caecina. The supreme command rested with Germanicus, then engaged in assessing the tribute of the Gaulish provinces. But while the forces under Silius merely watched with doubtful sympathy the fortunes of a rising which was none of theirs, the lower army plunged into delirium. The beginning came from the twenty-first and fifth legions: then, as they were all stationed, idle or on the lightest of duty, in one summer camp on the Ubian frontier, the first and twentieth as well were drawn into the current. Hence, on the report of Augustus' death, the swarm of city-bred recruits swept from the capital by the recent levy, familiar with licence and chafing at hardship, began to influence the simple minds of the rest:â "The time had come when the veteran should seek his overdue discharge, and the younger man a less niggardly pay; when all should claim relief from their miseries and take vengeance on the cruelty of their centurions." These were not the utterances of a solitary Percennius declaiming to the Pannonian legions; nor were they addressed to the uneasy ears of soldiers who had other and more powerful armies to bear in view: it was a sedition of many tongues and voices:â "Theirs were the hands that held the destinies of Rome; theirs the victories by which the empire grew; theirs the name which Caesars assumed!" 12.5. In 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 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?" 12.43. Many 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 shortage 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. 14.22. Meanwhile, a comet blazed into view â 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 suggested by equal credulity â 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 few 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. 14.31. The Icenian king Prasutagus, celebrated for his long prosperity, had named the emperor his heir, together with his two daughters; an act of deference which he thought would place his kingdom and household beyond the risk of injury. The result was contrary â so much so that his kingdom was pillaged by centurions, his household by slaves; as though they had been prizes of war. As a beginning, his wife Boudicca was subjected to the lash and his daughters violated: all the chief men of the Icenians were stripped of their family estates, and the relatives of the king were treated as slaves. Impelled by this outrage and the dread of worse to come â for they had now been reduced to the status of a province â they flew to arms, and incited to rebellion the Trinobantes and others, who, not yet broken by servitude, had entered into a secret and treasonable compact to resume their independence. The bitterest animosity was felt against the veterans; who, fresh from their settlement in the colony of Camulodunum, were acting as though they had received a free gift of the entire country, driving the natives from their homes, ejecting them from their lands, â they styled them "captives" and "slaves," â and abetted in their fury by the troops, with their similar mode of life and their hopes of equal indulgence. More than this, the temple raised to the deified Claudius continually met the view, like the citadel of an eternal tyranny; while the priests, chosen for its service, were bound under the pretext of religion to pour out their fortunes like water. Nor did there seem any great difficulty in the demolition of a colony unprotected by fortifications â a point too little regarded by our commanders, whose thoughts had run more on the agreeable than on the useful. 14.32. Meanwhile, for no apparent reason, the statue of Victory at Camulodunum fell, with its back turned as if in retreat from the enemy. Women, converted into maniacs by excitement, cried that destruction was at hand and that alien cries had been heard in the invaders' senate-house: the theatre had rung with shrieks, and in the estuary of the Thames had been seen a vision of the ruined colony. Again, that the Ocean had appeared blood-red and that the ebbing tide had left behind it what looked to be human corpses, were indications read by the Britons with hope and by the veterans with corresponding alarm. However, as Suetonius was far away, they applied for help to the procurator Catus Decianus. He sent not more than two hundred men, without their proper weapons: in addition, there was a small body of troops in the town. Relying on the protection of the temple, and hampered also by covert adherents of the rebellion who interfered with their plans, they neither secured their position by fosse or rampart nor took steps, by removing the women and the aged, to leave only able-bodied men in the place. They were as carelessly guarded as if the world was at peace, when they were enveloped by a great barbarian host. All else was pillaged or fired in the first onrush: only the temple, in which the troops had massed themselves, stood a two days' siege, and was then carried by storm. Turning to meet Petilius Cerialis, commander of the ninth legion, who was arriving to the rescue, the victorious Britons routed the legion and slaughtered the infantry to a man: Cerialis with the cavalry escaped to the camp, and found shelter behind its fortifications. Unnerved by the disaster and the hatred of the province which his rapacity had goaded into war, the procurator Catus crossed to Gaul. 14.64. And 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 few days; then she was ordered to die â 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 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 shall not pass it by in silence. 15.34. There 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 now bent on crossing the Adriatic â 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. |
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| 14. Suetonius, Tiberius, 63 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •prodigies, as wrath of gods Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 163 |
| 15. Suetonius, Iulius, 32, 77 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 48 |
| 16. Plutarch, Julius Caesar, 47 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •prodigies, as wrath of gods Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 48 |
17. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 53.20.1 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •prodigies, as wrath of gods Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 48 | 53.20.1. Caesar, as I have said, received the name of Augustus, and a sign of no little moment to him occurred that very night; for the Tiber overflowed and covered all of Rome that was on low ground, so that it was navigable for boats. From this sign the soothsayers prophesied that he would rise to great heights and hold the whole city under his sway. |
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| 18. Pseudo-Quintilian, Minor Declamations, 274.12 Tagged with subjects: •prodigies, as wrath of gods Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 159 |
| 19. Quinisext Ecumenical Council [692], Can., 4.2.15, 5.456 Tagged with subjects: •prodigies, as wrath of gods Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 159 |
