2 Accordingly, Nero, without sufficiently weighing the credibility either of his informant or of the affair in itself, and without sending to ascertain the truth of the tale, deliberately magnified the report and despatched men to bring in the spoils lying, he thought, ready to his hand. The party were given triremes, and to better their speed, picked oarsmen; and, throughout those days, this one theme was canvassed, by the populace with credulity, by the prudent with very different comments. It happened, too, that this was the second period for the celebration of the Quinquennial Games, and the incident was taken by the orators as the principal text for their panegyrics of the sovereign:—”For not the customary crops alone, or gold alloyed with other metals, were now produced: the earth gave her increase with novel fecundity, and high heaven sent wealth unsought.” And there were other servilities, which they developed with consummate eloquence and not inferior sycophancy, assured of the easy credence of their dupe!
[3] Gliscebat interim luxuria spe inani consumebanturque veteres opes quasi oblatis quas multos per annos prodigeret. quin et inde iam largiebatur; et divitiarum expectatio inter causas paupertatis publicae erat. nam Bassus effosso agro suo latisque circum arvis, dum hunc vel illum locum promissi specus adseverat, sequunturque non modo milites sed populus agrestium efficiendo operi adsumptus, tandem posita vaecordia, non falsa antea somnia sua seque tunc primum elusum admirans, pudorem et metum morte voluntaria effugit. quidam vinctum ac mox dimissum tradidere ademptis bonis in locum regiae gazae.
3 Meanwhile, on the strength of this idle hope, his extravagance grew, and treasures long accumulated were dispersed on the assumption that others had been vouchsafed which would serve his prodigality for many years. In fact, he was already drawing on this fund for his largesses; and the expectation of wealth was among the causes of national poverty. For Bassus — who had dug up his own land along with a wide stretch of the adjacent plains, always insisting that this or that was the site of the promised cave, and followed not simply by the soldiers but by a whole people of rustics enlisted to carry out the work — at last threw off his delusion, and, with an astonished protest that never before had his dreams proved fallible and that this was a first deception, avoided disgrace and danger by a voluntary death. By some the statement is made that he was imprisoned, only to be released shortly afterwards, his property being confiscated to replace the queen’s treasure.
[4] Interea senatus propinquo iam lustrali certamine, ut dedecus averteret, offert imperatori victoriam cantus adicitque facundiae coronam qua ludicra deformitas velaretur. sed Nero nihil ambitu nec potestate senatus opus esse . dictitans, se aequum adversum aemulos et religione indicum meritam laudem adsecuturum, primo carmen in scaena recitat; mox flagitante vulgo ut omnia studia sua publicaret (haec enim verba dixere) ingreditur theatrum, cunctis citharae legibus obtemperans, ne fessus resideret, ne sudorem nisi ea quam indutui gerebat veste detergeret, ut nulla oris aut narium excrementa viserentur. postremo flexus genu et coetum illum manu veneratus sententias indicum opperiebatur ficto pavore. et plebs quidem urbis, histrionum quoque gestus iuvare solita, personabat certis modis plausuque composito. crederes laetari, ac fortasse laetabantur per incuriam publici flagitii
4 In the meantime, with the Quinquennial Contest hard at hand, the senate attempted to avert a scandal by offering the emperor the victory in song, adding a “crown of eloquence,” to cover the stigma inseparable from the stage. Nero protested, however, that he needed neither private interest nor the authority of the senate — he was meeting his competitors on equal terms, and would acquire an honestly earned distinction by the conscientious award of the judges. He began by reciting a poem on the stage: then, as the crowd clamoured for him to “display all his accomplishments” (the exact phrase used), he entered the theatre, observing the full rules of the harp — not to sit down when weary, not to wipe away the sweat except with the robe he was wearing, to permit no discharge from the mouth or nostrils to be visible. Finally, on bended knee, a hand kissed in salutation to that motley gathering, he awaited the verdict of the judges in feigned trepidation. And the city rabble, at least, accustomed to encourage the posturing even of the ordinary actor, thundered approval in measured cadences and regulated plaudits. You might have supposed them to be rejoicing; and possibly rejoicing they were, without a care for the national dishonour!
[5] Sed qui remotis e municipiis severaque adhuc et antiqui moris retinente Italia, quique per longinquas provincias lascivia inexperti officio legationum aut privata utilitate advenerant, neque aspectum illum tolerare neque labori inhonesto sufficere, cum manibus nesciis fatiscerent, turbarent gnaros ac saepe a militibus verberarentur, qui per cuneos stabant ne quod temporis momentum impari clamore aut silentio segni praeteriret. constitit plerosque equitum, dum per angustias aditus et ingruentem multitudinem enituntur, obtritos, et alios, dum diem noctemque sedilibus continunnt, morbo exitiabili correptos. quippe gravior inerat metus, si spectaculo defuissent, multis palam et pluribus occultis, ut nomina ac vultus, alacritatem tristitiamque coeuntium scrutarentur. unde tenuioribus statim inrogata supplicia, adversum inlustris dissimulatum ad praesens et mox redditum odium. ferebantque Vespasianum, tamquam somno coniveret, a Phoebo liberto increpitum aegreque meliorum precibus obtectum, mox imminentem perniciem maiore fato effugisse.
5 But the spectators from remote country towns in the still austere Italy tenacious of its ancient ways — those novices in wantonness from far-off provinces, who had come on a public mission or upon private business — were neither able to tolerate the spectacle nor competent to their degrading task. They flagged with inexperienced hands; they deranged the experts; often they had to be castigated by the soldiers stationed among the blocks of seats to assure that not a moment of time should be wasted in unmodulated clamour or sluggish silence. It was known that numbers of knights were crushed to death while fighting their way up through the narrow gangway and the inrush of the descending crowd, and that others, through spending day and night on the benches, were attacked by incurable disease. For it was a graver ground of fear to be missing from the spectacle, since there was a host of spies openly present, and more in hiding, to note the names and faces, the gaiety and gloom, of the assembly. Hence, the lot of the humble was punishment, at once inflicted: in the case of the great, the debt of hatred, dissembled for a moment, was speedily repaid; and the story was told that Vespasian, reprimanded by the freedman Phoebus for closing his eyelids, and screened with difficulty by the prayers of the better party, was only saved later from the impending destruction by his predestined greatness.
[6] Post finem ludicri Poppaea mortem obiit, fortuita mariti iracundia, a quo gravida ictu calcis adflicta est neque enim venenum crediderim, quamvis quidam scriptores tradant, odio magis quam ex fide: quippe liberorum copiens et amori uxoris obnoxius erat. corpus non igni abolitum, ut Romanus mos, sed regum externorum consuetudine differtum odoribus conditur tumuloque Iuliormn infertur. ductae tamen publicae exequiae laudavitque ipse apud rostra formam eius et quod divinae infantis parens fuisset aliaque fortunae munera pro virtutibus.
6 After 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 pregnancy. That poison played its part I am 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.
[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 S
ilanus 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.
7 To 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:—”To the leader of the cause.” The seeds of civil war, and revolt from the house of the Caesars, — 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.
[8] Ipsum dehinc Silanum increpuit isdem quibus patruum eius Torquatum, tamquam disponeret iam imperii curas praeficeretque rationibus et libellis et epistulis libertos, inania 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 fiiio 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.
8 He 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, so-called informers were introduced to forge against Lepida — wife of Cassius, aunt of Silanus — a tale 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.
[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.
9 Then, 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.
[10] Haud minus prompte L. Vetus socrusque eius Sextia et Pollitta filia necem subiere, invisi principi tamquam vivendo exprobrarent interfectum esse Rubellium Plautum, generum Luci Veteris. sed initium detegendae saevitiae praebuit interversis patroni rebus ad accusandum transgrediens Fortunatus libertus, adscito Claudio Demiano, quem ob flagitia vinctum a Vetere Asiae pro consule exolvit Nero in praemium accusationis. quod ubi cognitum reo seque et libertum pari sorte componi, Formianos in agros digreditur: illic eum milites occulta custodia circumdant. aderat filia, super ingruens periculum longo dolore atrox, ex quo percussores Plauti mariti sui viderat; cruentamque cervicem eius amplexa servabat sanguinem et vestis respersas, vidua inpexa luctu continuo nec ullis alimentis nisi quae mortem arcerent. tum hortante patre Neapolim pergit; et quia aditu Neronis prohibebatur, egressus obsidens, audiret insontem neve consulatus sui quondam collegam dederet liberto, modo muliebri eiulatu, aliquando sexum egressa voce infensa clamitabat, donec princeps immobilem se precibus et invidiae iuxta ostendit.
10 With not less courage Lucius Vetus, his mother-in-law 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-in-law 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 heº 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 — she had clasped the bleeding neck, and still treasured her blood-flecked robe, widowed, unkempt, unconsoled, and fasting except for a little sustenance 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.
[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 consulere. 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 cacdibus peractis ludibria adiciebantur.
11 Accordingly, 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 t
hus 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.
[12] Publius Gallus eques Romanus, quod Faenio Rufo intimus et Veteri non alienus fuerat, aqua atque igni prohibitus est. liberto et accusatori praemium operae locus in theatro inter viatores tribunicios datur. et menses, qui Aprilem eundemque Neroneum sequebantur, Maius Claudii, Iunius Germanici vocabulis mutantur, testificante Cornelio Orfito, qui id censuerat, ideo Iunium mensem transmissum, quia duo iam Torquati ob scelera interfecti infaustum nomen Iunium fecissent.
12 Publius 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 — otherwise known as “Neroneus” — 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.
Complete Works of Tacitus (Delphi Classics) (Delphi Ancient Classics Book 24) Page 303
