Nero lingered there in Neapolis, reluctant to venture further north to Rome, even though, by all reports, the situation in Gaul was worsening. Writing to the Senate, he urged the House “to avenge himself and Rome” for Vindex’s insurrection, claiming that an infected throat prevented him from coming to the capital and addressing the Senate in person.5
An army of one hundred thousand Gauls came together behind the rebel leader. “At last,” said Plutarch, “Vindex, plainly declaring war, wrote to Galba” again. This time, knowing that Verginius Rufus planned to march into Gaul with his legions, Vindex suggested that Galba “take the government for himself ” with the support of the Gauls and overthrow Nero.6
When, shortly after, Rufus came down from the Rhine with his four legions and their twenty thousand supporting auxiliaries, the Gallic city of Vesontio, modern Besancon in central France, closed its gates to him. Rufus surrounded the city and lay siege to it. On hearing this, Vindex marched his army of Gauls to relieve Vesontio. The opposing forces camped near the city while their generals engaged in negotiations. Rufus, it turned out, was not averse to Nero’s removal. After an agreement was apparently reached between the two whereby Vindex would control Gaul and Spain and Galba would be given the remainder of the empire, Vindex marched his army up, as if to enter the city.
Rufus’ legionaries were chafing for a fight and for booty, and before Rufus could stop them, his legions attacked Vindex’s men, taking them entirely by surprise. In the battle that followed, Rufus’ forty thousand well-trained and well-equipped professional soldiers crushed the Gauls’ hundred thousand raw conscripts, killing twenty thousand of them, for minimal losses of their own. Vindex, trapped inside Vesontio, took his own life. Rufus’ men hailed their general imperator, tore the images of Nero from their standards, throwing them to the ground, and offered Rufus the throne. But he declined and led his troops back to their Rhine bases.
When Galba, in Spain, learned of Vindex’s defeat and Rufus’ withdrawal, he was “in great alarm” and wrote to Rufus, “exhorting him to join with him for the preservation of the empire and the liberty of the Romans.” Even the cavalrymen attached to the 10th Gemina Legion began talking of returning their allegiance to Nero. Taking a few friends with him, Galba hurriedly retired to the Spanish town of Clunia, “regretting his former rashness,” said Plutarch.7 For now, Galba seemingly stood alone against Nero. Suetonius wrote that news of Vindex’s death so unnerved Galba that it “almost turned him to despair and suicide.”8 Anxiously, Galba waited for events to take their course elsewhere.
By the third week of March, Nero was still at Neapolis. It was the week of the Festival of Minerva, the ninth anniversary of the murder of his mother. In the morning, word arrived that Gallus’ army had defeated Vindex’s Gauls at Vesontio and that Vindex himself had committed suicide. Nero seemed unmoved by the news and in the afternoon attended wrestling contests at the city’s gymnasium. At one point, he jumped down from his tribunal and vied with one of the athletes.
That evening, a far more serious dispatch reached Nero while he was at dinner. In this message, Helius apparently informed the emperor that Verginius Rufus’ troops had offered their general the throne. Even this seemed not to bother the emperor. He merely threatened to punish the troops involved, then returned to his meal. For eight days, “apparently trying to ignore the whole affair,” in Suetonius’ opinion, Nero issued not a single order in relation to the upheaval in the west and made no special announcements.9 At Rome, the Senate, concerned about the security of the state mint at Lugdunum, Vindex’s former capital, ordered Nero’s new legion, the 1st Italica, to march from Ravenna to Gaul to secure the city. The senator Rubrius Gallus hurried to Ravenna from Rome to take command of the unit and supporting auxiliary cavalry, and then lead them across the Alps.
By early April, Nero had moved a little closer to Rome, taking up residence at his Antium villa. Urgent dispatches kept arriving in quick succession, telling of Galba’s troops swearing loyalty to their governor and raising the threat that they would march on Rome. Nero ordered Galba’s property seized and put up for sale and had Galba’s freedmen at Rome arrested. News would also arrive that once the 1st Italica Legion reached Lugdunum and linked up with the remnants of the 18th Cohort of the City Cohorts that Vindex had left there, the people of Lugdunum, many descended from retired legion veterans, declared their loyalty to Nero. But it was the only city in Gaul to do so. Following Vindex’s defeat at Vesontio, the majority of Gauls were bitter and remained resolute in their determination to throw off Roman rule.
Meanwhile, although it was back at its bases in Upper Germany, Rufus’ army was unsettled, and there was unrest in the four legions based in the province of Lower Germany, where the locals were generally inclined toward Nero but where the governor, Fonteius Capito, was not. Urged by Helius to act decisively, Nero sent his loyal general Petronius Turpilianus at the head of a flying column of Praetorian cavalry into southern Gaul to put down the unrest and forestall any attempt by Galba’s troops to enter Italy. And, at last, the emperor agreed to return to Rome. “He hurried back to Rome in a state of terror,” said Suetonius.10
Arriving at the capital without ceremony, he did not address the Senate or the people. Distrusting everyone, he dismissed the consuls from office and appointed himself sole consul. One night, he decided to brief the foremost senators and Equestrians on what he proposed to do and summoned them to the still-uncompleted Golden House.11 He said that he would ask the Senate to conscript all able-bodied men at Rome into an army that he would lead to Gaul to end the unrest.
Nero had already ordered the raising of a new legion from loyal barefoot marines and sailors of the Tyrrhenian Fleet. 12 He had also sent urgent orders to Alexandria for legionaries and Evocati militia transferred there for the now-aborted Ethiopian expedition to urgently come to Rome by sea to join the march on Gaul. This was the extent of his strategy for maintaining his tottering regime. “After a brief discussion of the Gallic situation,” said Suetonius, “he devoted the remainder of the session to demonstrating a completely new type of water-organ.”
“I have discovered a way by which the water-organ will produce louder and more musical tones,” Nero announced. He went on to explain the mechanical complexities of several models. “I will have them installed in the theater,” he added.13
The senators and Equestrians left the meeting shaking their heads—the emperor seemed to have lost his grip on reality. Over the coming days, Nero dedicated a shrine to his late wife Poppaea Sabina and held lavish banquets, where, according to Suetonius, he entertained his guests with “comic songs about the leaders of the revolt,” which he had composed. Nero’s songs were witty and catchy. “These have since become popular favorites,” said Suetonius .14
Emerging from one banquet with his arms around the shoulders of two close friends, Nero declared, “When I reach Gaul, I’ll immediately step in front of the embattled enemy and weep and weep. That will soften their hearts and win back their loyalty. Then, the next day, I’ll stroll among my joyful troops singing victory songs—which I really ought to be composing right now.”15
When June arrived, so too did news that Nero’s loyal general Petronius Turpilianus, commanding his advance force in Gaul, “had also espoused the cause of Galba,” and Turpilianus’ cavalry had gone over to Galba. Nero was at dinner at the time. Ripping up the dispatch, he overturned the dining table in his fury. A pair of glass goblets shattered on the floor. With the defection of Turpilianus, Nero “held no more hope in arms.”16 A plethora of schemes entered his head. In one, he would don mourning black and mount the Rostra to beg the forgiveness of his people for his sins; a speech to this effect was later found on Nero’s Palatium desk. But escape to Egypt, the land of his dreams, firmed up as a better option.
Sending several of his most trusted freedmen to Ostia to prepare a flotilla of ships for flight to Alexandria, the emperor declared, “Even though we may be driven from our empire, this little talent will
support us there.”17
He was referring to his talent as an artist. Nero seemed to believe that he could live as a private citizen and singer in Egypt. As a last resort, he ordered Locusta the sorceress to make up a draft of poison for him, which he placed in a small golden casket. Feeling insecure in the vast new palace that had arisen from the ashes of the Great Fire, he slipped out of the Golden House and hurried across the Tiber to the Servilian Gardens. There he took up residence in its riverside villa as he waited for a ship to arrive from Ostia and speed him away to Egypt. Summoning those tribunes of the Praetorian Cohorts on whom he felt he could rely, he urged them to flee with him, bringing along troops to protect him. Some answered evasively; other refused outright. All turned their back on him.
“Is it so terrible a thing to die?” called one officer, repeating a line from Virgil, as he walked away.18
Matters now moved quickly to a head. While Tigellinus had been in Greece with Nero, his co-prefect Nymphidius had won the loyalty of the men of the Praetorian Cohorts at Rome. Now, Nymphidius instructed Tigellinus to lay down his sword and go quietly into retirement. Finding no support among the Praetorians, the once-powerful Tigellinus did as bidden and slunk away. The source of Nymphidius’ newfound power was financial—in Galba’s name, he had secretly promised every man of the Praetorian and German Cohorts two thousand sesterces if they would obey him alone and swear allegiance to Galba.
Late on the evening of June 8, having heard this and learning of Nero’s plan to escape to Egypt, the majority of the members of the Senate entered the Praetorian barracks and called an assembly of the troops. They then declared Nero an enemy of the State, announced their choice of Galba as emperor in his stead, and ordered the German Cohorts to cease protecting Nero. Led by Nymphidius, the Praetorians then hailed Galba emperor. The Praetorian prefect, who had been raised to his powerful position by Nero, then issued instructions for the now deposed emperor to be found, arrested, brought in laden with chains, and executed.
XXV
THE FINAL CURTAIN
Alone near-contemporaneous account of the demise of Nero has come down to us, the one written by Suetonius. This, according to Suetonius, is how the final curtain fell on Nero’s life.
At midnight, the young emperor awoke with a start. Though unaware of what had transpired at the Praetorian barracks, he sensed that something was amiss. Wearing the tunic he had been sleeping in, and barefoot, he left his bedchamber in the Servilian Gardens villa. Outside, he discovered that his bodyguards from the German Cohorts had melted away. The Germans had withdrawn to their barracks just inside the Servian Wall to the south of the gardens and murdered their prefect.
Nero sent servants to fetch friends who were staying with him at the Servilian Gardens. When only several came, he went with a few servants to the rooms of the others, only to find the doors closed and barred. Not a soul answered his knock. Returning to his room, he found that while he had been absent, the caretakers of the gardens had slipped in and stolen his bed linen and the golden box containing Locusta’s poison—the poison now being more valuable to Nero than the golden casket.
Nero shouted for Spiculus the gladiator or any other trained executioner to come and put an end to him. Messengers bustled away on the errand. But Spiculus was dead, cut down in the Forum by a mob that since the news that the Senate and Praetorians had declared for Galba, had been roaming the streets of Rome in search of anyone associated with Nero. Statues of Nero in the Forum had been knocked down and the pieces heaped over the bloodied body of the famous gladiator. No one answered the emperor’s plea for an executioner.
“What? Have I neither friends nor enemies left?” Nero despaired, before dashing from the villa to the riverbank.1
His few remaining friends and servants hurried after him and dissuaded him from throwing himself into the river.
“All I want is a secluded spot where I can hide and collect myself,” he said.2
At this, his freedman Phaon suggested his own villa, four miles northeast of the city, between the Nomentan and Salarian Ways. Nero agreed, even though the course to Phaon’s villa would take him back through the city and right by the Praetorian barracks. Five horses were found. Nero strapped on a pair of daggers and then, wearing a faded cloak and a farmer’s hat, mounted up, further disguising himself by putting a handkerchief to his mouth—he would pretend that he was unwell. Four men rode with him as he set off from the gardens: Phaon, Petitions Secretary Epaphroditus, the eunuch Sporus, and an unnamed servant.
Probably crossing the Tiber at the Pons Neronianus, a bridge named after Nero, the five riders made their way along Campus Martius streets, which were alive with people. As they rode, a mild earth tremor rocked the city, and lightning flashed in the night sky. Not long after passing through the Nomentan Gate, they heard voices on the still air of the warm summer night. From the northern wall of the Praetorian barracks on their right, Praetorians on guard were shouting about what they expected Galba would do to Nero once he laid hands on him. At this point, Praetorian search parties were on the prowl, looking for the deposed emperor, having found the Golden House deserted. The troops arrived too late at the Servilian Gardens, too: The imperial bird had flown.
Outside the city, the Nomentan Way was crowded with farmers’ carts bringing produce into Rome. “Those people are in pursuit of the emperor,” one farmer was heard to say as the five horsemen trotted by.
“What news of Nero in town?” called another to the riders.3
None of the horsemen replied. They bore on through the night. At one point they encountered a corpse at the roadside. Nero’s horse shied at the smell of death, forcing Nero to take the handkerchief from his mouth as he used both hands to steady the animal. A farmer passing at this moment happened to be a retired soldier of the Praetorian Cohorts, and he recognized the exposed face of his emperor.
“Hail, Caesar!” the former soldier called, coming stiffly to attention.4
Nero hurriedly returned the handkerchief to its place, and he and his companions rode on. Reaching a lane that led to the rear of Phaon’s villa, they dismounted and continued on foot. The lane became a track through bushes and a briar patch that skirted a reedy pond. Nero, barefoot still, had his companions spread a cloak for him to walk on as they crossed the thorny ground. He was clearly distressed, and Phaon suggested he lie low in a nearby gravel pit for a time.
“No, I refuse to go underground before I die,” Nero replied.5
They reached the villa’s rear wall, and as several of the men burrowed a hole in the wall, Nero went to the nearby pond and scooped up a little water in his cupped hands. “This is Nero’s special brew,” he quipped as he drank.6
While waiting for the opening in the wall to be completed, he sat picking thorns from his cloak. When the gap was large enough, all five of them crawled through the fence, and Phaon led them into the house. Nero sank down onto a couch, and Phaon brought him coarse bread and a cup of water. Nero declined the bread, but gratefully took the cup.
“I was still thirsty,” he said, sipping the water.7
Phaon now bade Nero farewell, saying that he would return to the city and keep his eyes and ears open for information that might help him. After Phaon’s departure, Nero sat for a long time, as if in a daze.
“Caesar, I insist that you try to escape the degrading fate that threatens you,” one of his three remaining companions, almost certainly Epaphroditus, eventually said. The other two concurred.
Tears were streaming down Nero’s cheeks as he instructed them to dig a grave in the garden for his remains and to collect wood for a funeral pyre. “Dead?” he said, half to himself, as the trio set to work. “And so great an artist!”8
Toward dawn, a runner arrived from the city, bearing a note from Phaon. Nero snatched the note from the man’s hands, impatiently broke the seal, and read the contents. Phaon warned that the Senate had declared Nero an enemy of the state and that he was to be taken alive so that he could be punished in “anci
ent style.” Nero, having left executions up to others, had to ask what “ancient style” meant.
“The executioners strip their victim naked, thrust his head into a wooden fork, and then flog him to death with rods,” the learned Epaphroditus informed him.
Terrified by the prospect, Nero drew one of his daggers, tried its point on his finger, threw it down, then repeated the act with the second dagger. “The fatal hour has not yet come,” he declared. Turning to Sporus, he begged him to weep for him and to mourn him once he had gone. Then, he implored all of his companions to set him an example by being the first to suicide. All three demurred.
He bemoaned his own cowardice and then muttered, “This certainly is no credit to Nero, no credit at all.” He paced about, saying, “Come, pull yourself together!”9
A large party of riders was now heard coming up the road to the villa’s front door. Peering out the door, one of Nero’s companions saw that they were Praetorian cavalry. Perhaps Phaon had informed the Praetorians where to find the object of their quest. Perhaps Phaon’s messenger had been followed. Perhaps the Praetorian veteran who had recognized Nero on the Nomentan Way had told someone about it once he reached the city. Perhaps the Praetorians were coming to search the villa of Nero’s freedman as a matter of course. Whatever the cause, the troops were just minutes away.
Nero grabbed up one of the daggers. “Help me, Epaphroditus,” he pleaded.
As Nero held the knife to his own throat with both hands, his secretary gripped his hands. Nero gave one last instruction: “Don’t let them take my head.” Then, on Nero’s signal, both he and Epaphroditus thrust the dagger into his throat.10
A little later, a Praetorian centurion strode into the room. Finding Nero lying on the couch with blood gushing from his throat as the others stood around him, the officer rushed to his side. Kneeling beside the dying man, he used the end of his blood-red cloak in an attempt to staunch the bleeding.
The Great Fire of Rome: The Fall of the Emperor Nero and His City Page 25
