67 Before 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 man 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:—”I hated 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 began to hate you when you turned into the murderer of your mother and wife — a chariot-driver, an actor, a fire-raiser.” I have 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:—”Faulty discipline even here,” he observed to the soldiers around. When admonished to hold his neck out firmly:—”I only 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 half.
[68] Proximum constantiae exemplum Sulpicius Asper centurio praebuit, percunctanti Neroni, cur in caedam 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 dognitam 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.
68 The 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 — 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 — 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.
[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 imminentes foro aedes decoraque servitia et pari aetate habebat. cuncta eo die munia consulis impleverat conviviumque celebra[ba]t, 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.
69 Accordingly, 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.
[70] Exim Annaei Lucani caedem imperat is profluente sanguine ubi frigescere pedes manusque et paulatim ab extremis cedere spiritum fervido adhuc et compote mentis pectore intellegit, recordatus carmen a se compositum, quo vulneratum militem per eius modi mortis imaginem obisse tradiderat, versus ipsos rettulit, eaque illi suprema vox fuit. Senecio posthac et Quintianus et Scaevinus non ex priore vitae mollitia, mox reliqui coniuratorum periere, nullo facto dictove memorando.
70 He 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.
[71] Sed compleri interim urbs funeribus, Capitoliam victimis; alius filio, fratre alius aut propinquo aut amico interfectis, agere grates dies, 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 conrupit. exuti dehinc tribunatu Pompeius * * * , Gaius Martialis, Flavius Nepos, Statius Domitius, quasi principem non quidem odissent, sed tamen ex[is]timarentur. Novio Prosco per amicitiam Senecae et Glitio Gallo atque Annio Pollioni infamatis magis quam convictis data exilia. Priscum Artoria Flaccilla coniux comitata est, Gallum Egnatia Maximilla, magnis primum et integris opibus, post ademptis; quae utraqe 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 Ca[e]dicia uxor Scaevini et Caesennius Maximus Italia prohibentur, reos fuisse se tantum poena experti. Acilia mater Annaei Lucani sine absolutione, sine supplicio dissimulata.
71 Meanwhile, however, the city was filled with funerals, and the Capitol with burnt offerings. Here, for the killi
ng 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 . . . 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 — 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 — and that alone — discovered that they had been on trial. Lucan’s mother Acilia was ignored, without acquittal and without penalty.
[72] Quibus perpetratis Nero et contione militum habita bina nummum milia viritim manipularibus divisit addiditque sine pretio frumentum. quo ante ex modo annonae utebantur. tum quasi gesta bello expositurus, vocat senatum et triumphale decus Petronio Turpi[li]ano consulari, Cocceio Nervae praetori designato, Tigellino praefecto praetorii tribuit, Tigellinum et Nervam ita extollens, ut super triumphales in foro imagines apud Palatium quoque effigies eorum sisteret. consularia insignia Nymphidio [Sabino decrecta, de quo] qu[i]a nunc primum oblatus est, pauca repetam: nam et ipse pars Romanarum cladium erit. igitur matre libertine ortus, quae corpus decorum inter servos libertosque principum vulgaverat, ex C. Caesare se genitum ferebat, quoniam forte quadam habitu procerus et torvo vultu erat, sive C. Caesar, scortorum quoque cupiens, etiam matri eius inlusit. * * *
72º 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
[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 insontes 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 compostia aut obliterata mansuetudine principis novam ad saevitiam retraheret.
73 However, 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 unanimous 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.
[74] Tum [decreta] dona et grates deis decernuntur, propriusque honos Soli, cum est vetus aedes apud circum, in quo facinus parabatur, qui occulta coniurationis [suo] numine retexisset; utque circensium Cerialium ludicrum pluribus equorum cursibus celebraretur mensisque Aprilis Neronis cognomentum acciperet; templum Saluti exstrueretur eius loco, ex quo Scaevinus ferrum prompserat. ipse eum pugionem apud Capitolium sacravit inscripsitque Iovi Vindici, [quod] 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 [dolum] sui exitus verteretur: nam deum honor principi non ante habetur, quam agere inter homines desierit.
74 Offerings 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 . . . from which Scaevinus had taken his dagger. That weapon the emperor himself consecrated in the Capitol, and inscribed it: — To Jove 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 find 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.
LIBER SEXTVS DECIMVS — BOOK XVI
[1] Inlusit dehinc Neroni fortuna per vanitatem ipsius et promissa Caeseili Bassi, qui origine Poenus, mente turbida, nocturnae quietis imaginem ad spem haud dubiae rei traxit, vectusque Romam, principis aditum emercatus, expromit repertum in agro suo specum altitudine immensa, quo magna vis auri contineretur, non in formam pecuniae sed rudi et antiquo pondere. lateres quippe praegravis iacere, adstantibus parte alia columnis; quae per tantum aevi occulta augendis praesentibus bonis. ceterum, ut coniectura demonstrabat, Dido Phoenissam Tyro profugam condita Carthagine illas opes
abdidisse, ne novus populus nimia pecunia lasciviret aut reges Numidarum, et alias infensi, cupidine auri ad bellum accenderentur.
1 Nero 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 — a treasure 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.
[2] Igitur Nero, non auctoris, non ipsius negotii fide satis spectata nec missis per quos nosceret an vera adferrentur, auget ultro rumorem mittitque qui velut paratam praedam adveherent. dantur triremes et delectum remigium iuvandae festinationi. nec aliud per illos dies populus credulitate, prudentes diversa fama tulere. ac forte quinquennale ludicrum secundo lustro celebrabatur, ab oratoribusque praecipua materia in laudem principis adsumpta est. non enim solitas tantum fruges nec confusum metallis aurum gigni, sed nova ubertate provenire terram et obvias opes deferre deos, quaeque alia summa facundia nec minore adulatione servilia fingebant, securi de facilitate credentis.
Complete Works of Tacitus (Delphi Classics) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 24) Page 302
