1. Meanwhile* Vologaeses, king of Parthia, had learned of Corbulo’s exploits and discovered that Tigranes, a foreigner,* had been placed on the throne of Armenia; and at the same time he wanted to avenge the expulsion of his brother Tiridates, which was an insult to the dignity of the Arsacids. However, when he considered Roman greatness and his past respect for the treaty, which had remained unbroken,* he was drawn in two different directions at once. He was hesitant by nature, and also encumbered by the defection of a mighty people, the Hyrcanians, and the numerous campaigns arising from it.
In fact, he was still wavering when news of a further insult galvanized him into action. On emerging from Armenia, Tigranes had inflicted damage on the bordering tribe of the Adiabeni too extensively, and for too long, for his action to be simply predatory raiding, and the chiefs of the Parthian races were infuriated. They had now become so despised, they said, that it was not even from a Roman general that they were under attack, but from an overambitious hostage treated for years by the Romans as one of their slaves. Monobazus,* who was the ruler of the Adiabeni, further inflamed their anger by asking what assistance he could look for, and from whom. They had already given up on Armenia, he said, and the lands bordering it were being seized. If the Parthians did not defend them … well, serfdom to the Romans was easier for those who surrendered than for those who were captured, he declared.
Tiridates, a fugitive from his kingdom, had an even deeper effect through his silence or with his mild protests. Great empires were not held together by idleness, he said. There had to be competition in men and weapons. At the topmost levels of power might was right. And while maintaining one’s possessions befitted a private household, a king won praise by contending for those of others.
2. Impressed by these comments, Vologaeses called a council meeting,* set Tiridates next to him, and began to speak:
‘This man, born of the same father* as myself, ceded to me the supreme title in view of our ages, and I put him in possession of Armenia, which is regarded as the third-ranking kingdom in power— for Pacorus* had already taken the Medes. And breaking with the traditional hatreds and squabbles between brothers, I thought I had found an appropriate settlement of our family’s issues. The Romans are standing in our way, and are breaking a peace accord, the violation of which has never done them any good—and it will mean destruction for them. I shall not deny it: I should have preferred to preserve the gains made by our forefathers by an appeal to justice rather than by bloodshed, by negotiation rather than arms. If I have erred by vacillating, I shall make amends by courage. Your strength and prestige are, at least, undiminished, and to them is now added a reputation for moderation, which the greatest of mortals should not disdain, and which is esteemed by the gods.’
With that he bound a diadem around Tiridates’ head, and he placed a cavalry detachment, which was at the ready and which usually attended the king, under the command of the nobleman Monaeses, adding some auxiliaries of the Adiabeni, and charged him with the responsibility of driving Tigranes from Armenia. Vologaeses himself set aside his differences with the Hyrcanians, mustered his internal forces, and initiated a massive war, threatening the Roman provinces.
3. When Corbulo heard this from reliable reports, he sent two legions under Verulanus Severus* and Vettius Bolanus* to assist Tigranes, but secretly instructed them to act at all times with deliberation rather than speed. For, he explained, he wanted to be in a state of war rather than fighting one. He had also informed Nero by dispatch that Armenia needed its own commander for its defence, and Syria would be in more serious danger if Vologaeses attacked. In the meantime he deployed his remaining legions along the bank of the Euphrates, put a makeshift company of provincials under arms, and closed with armed detachments the points of entry open to the enemy. And because the region lacked water, he established forts at the springs, and some of the streams he hid from view under piles of sand.
4. While Corbulo was taking such measures for the protection of Syria, Monaeses marched swiftly in order to outstrip word of his coming, but still failed to take Tigranes by surprise or catch him off his guard. Tigranes had seized Tigranocerta, a town of some strength thanks to the number of its defenders and the extent of its fortifications. Furthermore, the River Nicephorius, which has a considerable width, flows past a section of its walls, and a huge ditch had been dug where the river could not be relied on for protection. Inside were regular troops and supplies that had been laid up in advance. (In bringing these up to the town a few of the men had been over-enthusiastic in their advance and had been cut off by the sudden appearance of the enemy, which had inspired anger rather than fear in the others.)
In fact, the Parthian completely lacks the daring in hand-to-hand fighting needed for successful siege operations; firing off the odd arrow he fails to unnerve those under siege and simply becomes frustrated. When the Adiabeni proceeded to move up ladders and siege-engines, they were easily thrown back and, presently, cut down in a sortie of our men.
5. Despite his success, Corbulo felt he should not press his luck, and he sent off a deputation to Vologaeses to deplore the violence brought against the province,* and the fact that a king who was his ally and friend was under siege, along with Roman cohorts. He would do better to raise the siege, said Corbulo, or he, too, would pitch his camp in enemy territory!
The centurion Casperius, who had been chosen for this deputation, came to the king at the town of Nisibis, thirty-seven miles from Tigranocerta, and there delivered his instructions in strongly worded terms. Vologaeses had a long-standing and firmly held principle of avoiding armed confrontation with the Romans and, in addition, things were not running well for him at the time. The siege was a failure; Tigranes was secure, thanks to his manpower and supplies; those who had undertaken the assault on the town had been routed; legions had been sent into Armenia; and others were on the Syrian border ready to launch an offensive. As for his own situation, his cavalry was weakened from lack of forage, for the sudden appearance of a swarm of locusts had left nothing in the way of grass or foliage. Vologaeses therefore concealed his unease and, assuming a more conciliatory approach, replied that he would send spokesmen to the Roman emperor about his petition for Armenia and strengthening the peace. He ordered Monaeses to quit Tigranocerta, and proceeded to pull back himself.
6. Most praised this as a magnificent achievement brought off by the king’s fear and the threats of Corbulo. Others explained it as a secret agreement whereby Tigranes would also leave Armenia after both sides abandoned hostilities and Vologaeses departed. Why else, they asked, had the Roman army been withdrawn from Tigranocerta? Why had they abandoned in peacetime what they had defended in war? Was it better to have wintered on the fringes of Cappadocia in hurriedly erected huts rather than in the capital of a kingdom they had just succeeded in holding? Armed conflict had been deliberately postponed, they said, so Vologaeses could clash with someone other than Corbulo, and so Corbulo would not further jeopardize the glory he had earned over the years. For, as I have observed, Corbulo had requested that Armenia have its own commander for its protection, and the news was that Caesennius Paetus* was close at hand.
Soon Paetus was there. The troops were then divided, with the Fourth and Twelfth legions, plus the Fifth (recently summoned from Moesia), put under Paetus’ command, along with the auxiliaries from Pontus, Galatia, and Cappadocia. The Third, Sixth, and Tenth legions, and the troops earlier serving in Syria, would remain with Corbulo. All else they would share, or divide up, according to the exigencies of the moment. But Corbulo could not stand a rival, and Paetus, for whom being second to him should have been glory enough, kept disparaging Corbulo’s achievements. There had been no ‘bloodshed or spoils’, he would say, and the ‘storming of cities’ that Corbulo often referred to applied in name only. It would be he, Paetus, who would impose on the conquered peoples tribute and laws, and, instead of a phantom king, Roman jurisdiction.
7. Vologaeses’ representatives, whom I mentioned above as having been sent to the emperor, returned at about this same time, empty-handed; and so the Parthians turned to open warfare. Paetus did not demur. He took two legions—the Fourth, which Funisulanus Vettonianus commanded at that time, and the Twelfth, which was under Calavius Sabinus*—and entered Armenia accompanied by a grim omen. For on their way over the Euphrates, which they crossed by a bridge, the horse carrying the consular insignia took fright for no apparent reason and escaped to the rear of the troops. Furthermore, a sacrificial animal that was standing beside the winter quarters, which were under construction, burst through the half-finished works in flight, and ran out from the rampart. Soldiers’ javelins also burst into flames, a prodigy of significance because, in combat, the enemy fights with projectiles.
8. Paetus, however, disregarded the omens and, although he had not yet adequately fortified his winter quarters or made any provision for his grain supply, he hurriedly marched his army over the Taurus range. His aim, he kept saying, was to retake Tigranocerta and lay waste the areas that Corbulo had left untouched. He did take a number of strongholds and acquire a measure of glory and plunder— but failed to exercise moderation in the pursuit of glory, or circumspection in the pursuit of the plunder. With forced marches he overran areas that could not be held, only to lead back his army when the provisions that had been captured had rotted and winter was coming on. Then, as though the war were over, he wrote a letter to Nero framed in grandiose terms, but devoid of substance.
9. Meanwhile Corbulo secured the bank of the Euphrates—which he had never neglected—with more closely spaced guard-posts. In addition, to ensure that enemy cavalry squadrons would not obstruct his establishing a bridge on the river—for they were already racing about on the nearby plains, an impressive sight—he drew a line of sizeable ships, connected with planking and built up with turrets, across the river. From these, using catapults and ballistas, he drove back the barbarians, whom rocks and missiles could reach at a range that arrows shot back in response could not match. Then the bridge was completed, and the hills on the far side were taken over by the allied cohorts, and subsequently by the legionary camp. Such was the speed of the Romans, and such their show of strength, that the Parthians abandoned their preparations for invading Syria and directed all their hopes towards Armenia. This was where Paetus was, ignorant of the looming threat and with the Fifth Legion stationed far off in Pontus; and the remaining legions he had weakened by indiscriminately granting leave to his men. Then word came that Vologaeses was approaching with a large army ready to attack.
10. The call went out for the Twelfth Legion, but this move, which Paetus had hoped would spread the word of an increase in his forces, only betrayed his weakness. Even so, the camp could have been held, and the Parthian could have been foiled by an extension of the war, had Paetus held consistently to his own plans or those developed by others. Instead, as soon as his confidence to face immediate crises had been bolstered by his military advisers, he would switch to other—and less effective—strategies so as not to seem dependent on other men’s ideas. And so, at that time, he left winter quarters and, proclaiming that it was not a ditch and a rampart, but men and weapons, that he had been given to face the enemy with, he led his legions forward as though for pitched battle. Then, after losing a centurion and a few soldiers whom he had sent ahead to observe the enemy troops, he fell back in panic. Vologaeses, however, put less pressure on him than he might have, and Paetus experienced another surge of misplaced confidence. He stationed three thousand elite infantry on the closest heights of the Taurus range to bar the king’s passage; and he also deployed his mounted Pannonian auxiliaries, the cream of his cavalry, on part of the plain. Paetus’ wife and son were placed in hiding in a fort called Arsamosata,* with a cohort assigned to protect them. Thus a force, which, if kept together, might more readily have stood up to the wide-ranging enemy troops, was dispersed.
They say that Paetus was only with difficulty made to acknowledge the enemy pressure to Corbulo. And there was no haste on Corbulo’s part—as the dangers mounted, credit for relieving Paetus would also grow. He did, however, give orders for a thousand men from each of the three legions, along with eight hundred auxiliary cavalry and a similar number from the cohorts, to prepare for the march.
11. Vologaeses had received word that the roads had been blockaded by Paetus at various points with infantry or cavalry, but he did not change his strategy at all. With a forceful and threatening advance he struck panic into the allied cavalry and crushed the legionaries. One centurion alone, Tarquitius Crescens, had the fortitude to defend the tower in which he was on garrison duty: he made repeated counter-attacks and cut down any barbarians who came too close, until he was overwhelmed by the firebrands the enemy hurled at him.
All the uninjured foot-soldiers made for points distant and remote, while the wounded headed back to camp, exaggerating from fear every detail of the battle—the courage of the king, and the savagery and number of the tribes involved—and finding ready belief among those sharing the same fears. Even the commander failed to cope with the disaster. He had relinquished all his military duties after once more sending an entreaty to Corbulo to come quickly and protect the standards, eagles, and whatever remained of the honour of the hapless army. In the meantime, while life remained, they would maintain their loyalty, he said.
12. Corbulo was undaunted. He left some of his troops in Syria to hold the defences erected on the Euphrates, and, taking the shortest route which would not be devoid of provisions, he headed for the region of Commagene, then Cappadocia, and from there Armenia. Accompanying the army—apart from the usual war apparatus— was a large number of camels laden with grain, so Corbulo could ward off both hunger and the enemy. The first of the defeated Romans that he came upon was the senior centurion Paccius, then a number of the rank and file. They proffered sundry excuses for their flight, but Corbulo advised them to return to their standards and throw themselves on the mercy of Paetus—he himself was pitiless to all but victors, he said.
At the same time Corbulo approached his own legions with words of encouragement. He reminded them of their past record, and pointed to fresh glory to come. Their goal was worth the effort, he said: not Armenian villages or towns, but a Roman camp with two legions in it. If the crown reserved for saving a citizen’s life were conferred on individual soldiers by the emperor’s hand, he said, then what glory—what great glory!—would be theirs when the numbers bringing deliverance and those receiving it were seen to be the same.
Inspired as a body by these and similar words—and there were some fired by the personal stimuli of having brothers or relatives in danger—they made a speedy march, day and night, without a halt.
13. Vologaeses intensified his pressure on the besieged Romans. He alternated his assaults between the rampart of the legions and the fort that sheltered those too young to fight, and approached more closely than was the Parthian norm, in the hope of enticing the enemy into combat by such temerity. The Romans, however, could hardly be drawn out of their tents, and then they did no more than defend their fortifications, some under orders from the commander, and others because of their own cowardice or because they were waiting for Corbulo. In addition, if a violent attack was impending, they had the peace-treaties of Caudium and Numantia* as precedents— and the Samnites, an Italian people, or the Spaniards were not on the same level of power as the Parthians, Rome’s rivals for dominion! Whenever fortune went against them, the strong and praiseworthy Romans of old had made provision for their own safety, they said.
The commander was crushed by his army’s despair, but he nevertheless composed an initial dispatch to Vologaeses which was not suppliant in tone but was more of a protest at the Parthian taking the offensive on behalf of the Armenians. These, he said, had always been under Roman jurisdiction, or subject to a king whom the emperor had chosen. Peace was advantageous to both sides, Paetus continued, and Vologaeses should not consider only the present—he had come with all the forces of his realm to face two legions, but the Romans could draw on the rest of the world to sustain their war effort.
14. Vologaeses’ reply did not address these points; he wrote merely that he had to wait for his brothers Pacorus and Tiridates. That was the place and time at which they had decided to make a decision about Armenia, and it was the gods who had then added— something worthy of the Arsacids—that they should simultaneously settle the question of the Roman legions. After that messengers were sent by Paetus requesting a meeting with the king, but Vologaeses ordered his cavalry commander Vasaces to go in his stead. Paetus then mentioned men like Lucullus and Pompey, and whatever the Caesars had done relating to the occupation of Armenia or allocating its throne. Vasaces, however, noted that, while we had some illusion of retaining or granting it, the real power lay with the Parthians. After much arguing back and forth, Monobazus the Adiabene was called on to appear the following day as a witness to whatever they agreed. It was decided that the legions be relieved of the blockade, that all troops quit the territory of the Armenians, and that forts and supplies be surrendered to the Parthians. Vologaeses was to be given leave to send spokesmen to Nero when this was all done.
15. Meanwhile Paetus set a bridge on the River Arsanias, which flowed past the camp. He pretended to be making a path for himself, but in fact the Parthians had ordered it built as evidence of their victory—it was to them that it was useful, as our men set off in the opposite direction. Rumour added that the legions had been sent under the yoke, and suffered other indignities appropriate to a defeat which had been copied by the Armenians. For they entered the fortifications before the Roman column left, and they stood at the roadside identifying and removing slaves or beasts of burden that had been captured earlier. Even clothing was seized and weapons withheld, the frightened soldiers yielding them so there would be no grounds for a fight.
Vologaeses piled up the arms and corpses of the slain as a testimonial to our defeat, but stopped short of watching the legions in flight; after indulging his pride to the full, he was seeking a reputation for moderation. He forded the River Arsanias on an elephant, and all members of his entourage charged over on their powerful horses, for the rumour had arisen that—because of the treachery of its builders—the bridge would give way under their weight. In the event, those who had the temerity to set foot on it found it strong and reliable.
16. It is well established, however, that those under siege had such quantities of grain at their disposal that they set fire to their granaries. On the other hand, according to Corbulo’s account, the Parthians, short of provisions and their forage exhausted, were on the point of raising the siege (and Corbulo himself was no more than three days’ march away, he says). He adds that a sworn undertaking was given by Paetus before the standards, and in the presence of men whom the king had sent to witness it, that no Roman would enter Armenia* until the arrival of Nero’s letter stating whether he agreed with the peace-treaty. While this account was intended to increase Paetus’ disrepute, the other details are not unclear: Paetus covered a distance of forty miles* in one day, leaving wounded men all along the route, and the panic-stricken retreat was no less unsightly than if the men had turned tail in battle.
Corbulo met them with his own forces on the bank of the Euphrates, but he avoided such a display of insignia and weapons as would make a humiliating contrast between them. The units were downcast and deploring the lot of their comrades, and they could not even hold back their tears; greetings could barely be exchanged because of the weeping. Gone was the will to compete in valour, gone the striving for glory, which are the inclinations of successful men; pity reigned alone, and it was stronger in the lower ranks.
17. Next came a brief conversation between the commanders. Corbulo complained that his efforts had been wasted, that the war could have been ended if the Parthians had been routed. Paetus responded that everything remained unchanged for the two of them—they should turn the eagles around and together invade Armenia, now weakened by the departure of Vologaeses. Such were not the orders he had from the emperor, said Corbulo. He had left his province from concern over the danger facing the legions, and as the Parthians’ intentions were unclear, he would head back to Syria.* Even so, he would still have to pray for the best of luck in order for his infantrymen, exhausted from the long distances covered, to overtake spirited cavalrymen who would outpace them over the easy terrain of the plains.
Paetus then wintered in Cappadocia. Messengers from Vologaeses were meanwhile dispatched to Corbulo to tell him to dismantle his forts across the Euphrates and make the river the boundary between them as before. Corbulo had a demand, too, that Armenia be cleared of its various garrisons. In the end the king acquiesced; the fortifications that Corbulo had established beyond the Euphrates were demolished, and the Armenians were left without a ruler.
18. At Rome, meanwhile, trophies* and arches were being erected in the middle of the Capitoline Hill for victory over the Parthians. Decreed by the Senate when the war was still undecided, they were not even now discontinued, attention being paid to appearances, despite knowledge of the facts. Indeed, to hide his concern over events abroad, Nero had the common people’s grain, which had rotted with age, dumped into the Tiber in order to maintain public confidence in the grain supply. There was no addition made to the price of grain, despite the fact that a violent storm had sunk some two hundred ships right in the harbour, and a chance fire had destroyed a hundred others that had sailed up the Tiber.
Nero then put three ex-consuls, Lucius Piso, Ducenius Geminus, and Pompeius Paulinus,* in charge of the public revenues,* criticizing earlier emperors for having exceeded the regular income of the state with heavy expenditures. He himself made an annual gift* of sixty million sesterces to the exchequer, he said.
19. At that time an unconscionable practice had become very common. As elections or a provincial sortition drew near, large numbers of childless men acquired sons in bogus adoptions, immediately releasing those they had adopted after they, along with genuine fathers, were allotted praetorships* or provinces. As a result, those who actually had begotten children approached the Senate in high dudgeon. They listed the rights of nature, and the hardships involved rearing children, contrasting with them the chicanery and tricks being practised in the short-term adoptions. Childless men had sufficient recompense, they argued, in that they had influence, honours, and everything else ready at their disposal without much to worry them and without any responsibilities. But what they had been promised by law, and had long awaited, was now being turned into a joke, for any man who became a parent without worry, and was made childless without grief, could instantly achieve what real fathers had been aspiring to over a long period. As a result a senatorial decree was passed to the effect that a sham adoption should not be of benefit in any sector of public service and could not even be of use in the acquisition of inheritances.
20. Next the Cretan Claudius Timarchus was prosecuted, the charges being those usually brought against powerful provincials whose excessive wealth gives them the confidence to oppress their inferiors; but also, in his case, there was one comment in which he had gone so far as to insult the Senate. It was reported that he had often stated that the giving of the vote of thanks to proconsuls who governed Crete lay in his power. Thrasea Paetus turned this opportunity to the common good. After stating as his opinion on the defendant that he should be banished from the province of Crete, he added the following:
‘Experience has shown, senators, that fine laws and honourable precedents emerge amongst decent men from the misdeeds of others. Thus it was that the liberties taken by orators gave birth to the Cincian bill, the corrupt practices of candidates to the Julian laws,* and the avarice of magistrates to the Calpurnian resolutions.* For the crime precedes its punishment, and correction follows wrongdoing. Accordingly, to combat this recent arrogance of the provincials, let us adopt a measure in keeping with the honour and steadfast commitment of Rome, one that is in no way detrimental to the protection that our allies enjoy but which also eradicates the notion that a man’s reputation can be fixed somewhere other than in the judgement of his fellow-citizens.
21. ‘At one time, in fact, private citizens, and not just a praetor or consul, would be sent to inspect the provinces and report their impressions of the loyalty of each, and nations would tremble anticipating the verdict of individual Romans. Now, by contrast, we cultivate foreigners and flatter them; and just as a vote of thanks is decreed when one of them gives the nod, so (and the more readily) is an act of impeachment.
‘Let those decrees be made, and let the provincials retain their ability to demonstrate their power in such a manner! But let insincere eulogies, squeezed out by entreaties, be curbed as much as malfeasance, or as much as cruelty. More wrongs are often done while we try to please than while we give offence. In fact, some virtues— uncompromising strictness and a mind impervious to favouritism, for example—provoke hatred. Thus our magistrates’ terms of office tend to be better at the start; it is the end that sees a decline, when we seek votes just as candidates do. If all that could be stopped, the administration of the provinces will be fairer and more consistent. For just as greed has been suppressed through fear of an extortion charge, so influence-seeking will be checked by a ban on the vote of thanks.’
22. The proposal was warmly received, but the senatorial decree could not be passed as the consuls claimed there had been no formal motion* on the matter. Shortly afterwards, at the emperor’s suggestion, they enacted a law banning any proposal at a council of the allies that votes of thanks be given in the Senate to propraetors or proconsuls, and forbidding anyone to participate in such a delegation to the Senate.
While these consuls were still in office, the gymnasium* burned down after being struck by lightning, and a statue of Nero within it melted into a shapeless mass of bronze. In addition, the populous town of Pompeii in Campania was largely destroyed by an earthquake.* The Vestal Virgin* Laelia passed away, and was replaced by Cornelia, a member of the Cossi family.
23. In the consulship of Memmius Regulus and Verginius Rufus, a daughter* was born to Nero by Poppaea, and he welcomed her with a joy transcending that of a mortal, naming her Augusta and conferring the same title on Poppaea. Her birthplace was the colony of Antium, where Nero himself had been born. The Senate had earlier commended Poppaea’s pregnancy to the protection of the gods, and had undertaken vows in the name of the state, which were now multiplied and discharged. There was also a period of thanksgiving, with decrees issued authorizing a temple to Fertility and a contest modelled on the rite of Actium.* Statues in gold of the goddesses of Fortune were also to be set on the throne of Capitoline Jupiter, and circus entertainments were to be held at Antium in honour of the Claudian and Domitian families, like those for the Julian at Bovillae.
But these were all transitory: the baby was dead within four months. And then came more sycophancy, as they voted the child divine honours, complete with couch, temple, and priest. And Nero himself was as immoderate in grief as he had been in joy.
It was observed that, when the entire Senate surged out to Antium soon after the birth, Thrasea had been forbidden to attend, and that he had accepted the affront—a harbinger of the oncoming carnage—with composure. This was followed, they say, by proud remarks from Nero, in Seneca’s presence, about his reconciliation with Thrasea, and Seneca’s offer of congratulations to Nero. From this came increasing renown, and increasing peril, for these two exceptional men.
24. Meanwhile, at the start of spring, representatives of the Parthians arrived with King Vologaeses’ instructions and a letter that ran along the same lines. The claims to sovereignty over Armenia that he had so often insisted on earlier he was now dropping, Vologaeses said. The gods, arbiters of all peoples, no matter how powerful, had delivered possession of it to the Parthians, not without some humiliation for the Romans. Recently he had blockaded Tigranes, and then released Paetus and his legions unharmed when he could have crushed them. He had given sufficient proof of his power, and also demonstrated his clemency. Tiridates would not have refused to come to Rome to accept his diadem, either, he said, had he not been held back by the religious taboos of his priesthood.* He would, however, come before the standards and statues of the emperor, there to inaugurate his reign in the presence of the legions.
25. Such was the letter of Vologaeses, and Paetus’ account, suggesting that matters were still undecided, contradicted it. A centurion who had arrived with the representatives was therefore questioned on the Armenian situation, and he replied that all the Romans had quit the country. Aware now of the mockery implicit in the barbarians asking for what they had already seized, Nero consulted the leading men* of Rome on whether they preferred a dangerous war or a dishonourable peace. It was war, without question. With his many years’ experience of the Roman troops and the enemy, Corbulo was put in charge of the campaign, so there would be no further bungling through another’s inexperience—they had had enough of Paetus.
The representatives were therefore sent back with their mission unaccomplished, but bearing gifts to raise hopes that Tiridates would not fail with the same request if he petitioned in person.
Gaius Cestius* was entrusted with the civil administration of Syria, and Corbulo with the military forces, which were reinforced by the addition of the Fifteenth Legion, under Marius Celsus,* brought in from Pannonia. Tetrarchs,* kings, prefects, procurators, and praetors in charge of neighbouring provinces were sent written instructions to take their orders from Corbulo, whose powers were increased roughly to the level of those the Roman people had granted Gnaeus Pompey* for the war on the pirates. Although Paetus feared worse on his return, Nero was satisfied merely with a facetious rebuke, the gist of which was that he was pardoning Paetus immediately in order that a man so prone to panic might not fall ill from chronic worry.
26. In Corbulo’s view the Fourth and Twelfth legions, with their best fighters lost and the rest demoralized, were not battle-ready. He transferred them to Syria, and from there took into Armenia the Sixth and Third. This was a force with a full complement of soldiers that had been hardened by regularly and successfully facing difficult tasks. He added to it the Fifth Legion (which had been spared the disaster because it was on service in Pontus), the soldiers of the Fifteenth, recently brought into the theatre, and companies of elite troops from Illyricum and Egypt. He also added all the auxiliary cavalry and infantry that he had, and the auxiliary troops of the kings that had been concentrated at Melitene (which was where he was preparing to cross the Euphrates).
Corbulo then undertook the ritual purification of the troops, and summoned them to a meeting. There he proceeded to talk in grandiose terms about his campaigns under the emperor’s auspices and his own achievements, attributing the reverses to Paetus’ incompetence. And this he did with great authority, which counted as eloquence in the military man.
27. Presently Corbulo took the road once opened up by Lucius Lucullus,* clearing such obstacles as the years had thrown up. And when spokesmen came from Tiridates and Vologaeses to discuss peace he did not rebuff them, sending back with them some centurions bearing a communiqué that was not intransigent in tone. Matters had not yet reached the point where out-and-out war was necessary, it said. Much had gone well for the Romans, and some things for the Parthians—and this served as a warning against pride. Accordingly, not only was it to Tiridates’ advantage to receive as a gift a kingdom spared the ravages of war, but Vologaeses would also serve the interests of the Parthian race more by an alliance with Rome than by resorting to mutual damage. Corbulo was aware of the amount of internal conflict in Vologaeses’ realm, the message concluded, and of the unruliness and ferocity of the tribes he ruled over, whereas Corbulo’s own ruler had undisturbed peace everywhere else, and this was his only war.
At the same time Corbulo pressed home his advice with some intimidation. He drove from their homes the Armenian grandees who had been the first to defect from us, demolished their strongholds and filled the plains and highlands, and the strong and the weak, with the same terror.
28. Even amongst the barbarians Corbulo’s name did not excite animosity or the hatred felt for an enemy, and so they thought his advice to be reliable. Consequently, Vologaeses was not inflexible on the main issue, and even requested a truce in certain prefectures.* Tiridates demanded a place and day to parley. The date chosen was close, and the place was where the legions and Paetus had recently been under siege—selected by the barbarians in remembrance of a rather successful operation there. Corbulo did not shy away from it, hoping that the contrast between the two situations would only increase his prestige. Nor did Paetus’ disgrace distress him, a fact made abundantly clear by the order he gave to Paetus’ son, a tribune, to take some units and cover over the vestiges of that unfortunate encounter.
On the appointed day, Tiberius Alexander* and Vinicianus Annius* came into Tiridates’ camp as a mark of respect for the king, and also, by this reassuring gesture, to allay any fears of a trap. (Alexander was a distinguished Roman knight who had been brought in as a military administrator, and Annius was Corbulo’s son-in-law, not yet of senatorial age, but set in command of the Fifth Legion as a legate.) Then each leader took an escort of twenty cavalrymen. Catching sight of Corbulo, the king was the first to dismount. There was no hesitation on Corbulo’s part, either, and, on foot, the two clasped each other’s right hand.
29. The Roman then praised the young man for rejecting impetuous policies in favour of a safe and secure course. After a lengthy prelude on the nobility of his family, Tiridates proceeded modestly. He would go to Rome, he said, and bring Nero a novel honour—an Arsacid as suppliant although Parthia had suffered no reverse. It was agreed that Tiridates would set his royal diadem before the emperor’s statue, and take it back only from Nero’s hand. And the meeting ended with a kiss.
Then, after a few days’ interval, there was a magnificent display on both sides. On the one, cavalry was deployed by squadrons and with tribal insignia; on the other, legions were standing in columns, with gleaming eagles, standards, and representations of the gods, as in a temple. In their midst was a tribunal which held a curule chair, and the chair held an effigy of Nero. Tiridates went forward to it. After the customary slaughter of sacrificial animals, he took the diadem from his head and set it at the feet of the image, which stirred deep emotions in all present, emotions magnified by the vision of the slaughter and blockade of Roman armies that still lingered before their eyes. Now, they reflected, the situation was reversed: Tiridates would go ahead to be on view for the world—and how little short of a captive was he!
30. Corbulo enhanced his glorious reputation by affability and by hosting a banquet. Moreover, the king would ask for explanations whenever he noticed something unfamiliar—the centurion’s announcement of the start of each watch,* for instance, the dinner-party’s end signalled by a bugle-call, and the fire on the altar before the general’s tent being lit from beneath with a torch. Corbulo embellished everything and filled him with admiration for the old Roman traditions. The next day Tiridates requested time to visit his brothers and his mother, since he had such a long journey before him. Meanwhile, he handed over his daughter as a hostage, together with a letter of entreaty to Nero.
31. Setting off, Tiridates found Pacorus in Media and Vologaeses in Ecbatana. Vologaeses was not unconcerned about his brother, for he had requested of Corbulo, through his personal messengers, that Tiridates not be subjected to any outward appearance of servitude. He asked that he not surrender his sword,* that he not be barred from embracing provincial governors, nor to be made to stand at their doors, and that, in Rome, he be shown as much respect as the consuls. Vologaeses, of course, was used to the pomp of the foreigner and had no knowledge of us, people for whom the reality of power is important but its trappings irrelevant.
32. That same year Nero conferred Latin rights* on the tribes of the Maritime Alps. He positioned the seating of the Roman knights* in the Circus in front of the places assigned to the plebs, for until that date there had been no segregated entry, since the Roscian law* applied only to the ‘fourteen rows’. The same year witnessed gladiatorial shows just as magnificent as those preceding them; but there were more women of distinction and senators degrading themselves in the arena.
33. In the consulship of Gaius Laecanius and Marcus Licinius, Nero was driven by a daily increasing desire to appear on the public stage. To that point he had confined his singing to his home or gardens during the Juvenalian Games,* but he was now becoming disdainful of these as providing too small an audience and being too limited for so great a voice. He would not risk a debut in Rome, however, and he selected Neapolis* instead, it being a Greek city. That would be his starting point, he thought. He would then cross to Achaea, acquire the famous crowns, hallowed from olden times, and, his fame thus enhanced, win the acclaim of his fellow-citizens.
He therefore assembled a crowd of townspeople, and they were joined by those whom talk of the event had brought from nearby colonies and municipalities, and those who followed the emperor out of respect or to perform various services; and, in addition, there were some military units. All these filled the theatre of Neapolis.
34. In the theatre, an incident occurred that was, most thought, a sinister omen, but one which Nero found providential and a sign of divine favour. After the audience left, the now-empty theatre collapsed, without causing injuries. Nero therefore composed songs thanking the gods and celebrating the good fortune attending the recent collapse. About to set off for his crossing point on the Adriatic, he made a stop at Beneventum, where a well-attended gladiatorial show was being staged by Vatinius. Vatinius was one of the foulest monstrosities of that court. Brought up in a shoemaker’s shop, he was physically deformed and had the wit of a buffoon. Taken on initially as the butt of ridicule, he acquired so much power by his vilification of all the most decent people that in influence, wealth, and ability to inflict harm he was in a class of his own even amongst scoundrels.
35. For Nero, while he was attending this man’s show, there was no let-up from crime, even amid his entertainments. During those very same days Torquatus Silanus* was forced into suicide because, apart from the distinction of belonging to the Junian family, he claimed the deified Augustus as a great-great-grandfather. Accusers were instructed to charge him with profligacy in distributing largesse, and with having hope now only in revolution. They were to say that Silanus even had men he styled his secretaries ‘for correspondence’, ‘for appeals’, and ‘for accounts’, titles attaching to the highest office of state and suggesting preparations for it! All his closest freedmen were then put in irons and taken away; and when condemnation was looming, Torquatus severed the veins in his arms. Nero’s usual speech followed: guilty Torquatus may have been, and justifiably lacking confidence in his defence, but he would have gone on living had he awaited the mercy of his judge.
36. Not much later Nero revisited Rome, temporarily abandoning his plans for Achaea (his reasons were unclear), his private day-dreams now focusing on the provinces of the East, and Egypt in particular. Then, proclaiming in an edict that his absence would not be long, and that everything would remain just as stable and prosperous in the state, he visited the Capitol for divine approval for his journey. There he paid homage to the gods, but when he also entered the temple of Vesta he began to tremble throughout his body, either because the goddess filled him with terror or because he was never free from fear through awareness of his crimes. He then abandoned his project, claiming that all his interests were less important than his love for his country. He had seen the crestfallen looks of his fellow-citizens, he said, and could hear their unspoken protests that he was going to undertake such a long voyage when they could not support even his brief absences—accustomed as they were to gaining from the sight of their emperor renewed confidence to face life’s vicissitudes. In personal relationships one’s nearest and dearest were the most important, he said, and just so, in the case of the state, the Roman people counted most with him, and he had to heed their appeal to stay.
These and other such comments were welcome to the plebs, who wanted entertainments, and—their overriding concern—feared a shortage in the grain-supply if he were away. The Senate and most eminent citizens could not decide whether he was more to be dreaded at a distance or close at hand. Then—as happens when fear is great—they came to believe that the worse alternative was the one that had occurred.
37. To bolster the claim that nowhere else gave him as much pleasure, Nero proceeded to provide banquets in public places, and to treat the entire city as his own house. And the banquet most celebrated for its extravagance and notoriety was that hosted by Tigellinus. I shall cite this as an illustrative case to avoid frequent descriptions of the same kind of prodigality.
Tigellinus constructed a raft on Agrippa’s lake* and on it set a feast that could then be moved about, towed along by other vessels. The vessels were trimmed with gold and ivory, and the oarsmen were male prostitutes who were grouped according to age and sexual expertise. Tigellinus had sought out birds and wild animals from distant lands, and sea creatures all the way from the ocean. On the lake’s banks stood brothels filled with women of distinction, and on the other side common prostitutes were to be seen in the nude. At first there were obscene gestures and body movements; and when darkness began to fall the whole of the nearby copse and the surrounding buildings rang with singing and became bright with lights. Nero himself, defiled by lawful and unlawful acts, had left untried no enormity that could deepen his depravity—except one. A few days later he married, in a formal wedding, a member of that gang of perverts, whose name was Pythagoras. The bridal veil was set upon the emperor, the augurs were sent in, and dowry, marriage bed, and wedding torches were all there. In short, everything was put on show that darkness usually shrouds, even when the bride is female.
38. A disaster followed, whether accidental or plotted by the emperor is unclear (for the sources have both versions); but it was worse and more calamitous than all the disasters that have befallen this city from raging fires.* It started in the part of the Circus adjacent to the Palatine and Caelian hills. There, amidst shops containing merchandise of a combustible nature, the fire immediately gained strength as soon as it broke out and, whipped up by the wind, engulfed the entire length of the Circus. For there were no dwellings with solid enclosures, no temples ringed with walls, and no other obstacle of any kind in its way. The blaze spread wildly, overrunning the flat areas first, and then climbing to the heights before once again ravaging the lower sections. It outstripped all defensive measures because of the speed of its deadly advance and the vulnerability of the city, with its narrow streets twisting this way and that, and with its irregular blocks of buildings, which was the nature of old Rome.
In addition, there was the wailing of panic-stricken women; there were people, very old and very young; there were those trying to save themselves and those trying to save others, dragging invalids along or waiting for them; and these people, some hanging back, some rushing along, hindered all relief efforts. And often, as they looked back, they found themselves under attack from the flames at their sides or in front; or if they got away to a neighbouring district, that also caught fire, and even those areas they had believed far distant they found to be in the same plight. Eventually, unsure what to avoid and what to head for, they crowded the roads or scattered over the fields. Even though escape lay open to them, some chose death because they had lost all their property, even their daily livelihood; others did so from love of family members whom they had been unable to rescue. And nobody dared fight the fire: there were repeated threats from numerous people opposing efforts to extinguish it, and others openly hurled in firebrands and yelled that they ‘had their instructions’. This was to give them more freedom to loot, or else they were in fact under orders.
39. Nero was at Antium* at the time, and he did not return to the city until the fire was approaching that building of his by which he had connected the Palatium with the gardens of Maecenas.* But stopping the fire from consuming the Palatium, Nero’s house, and everything in the vicinity proved impossible. However, to relieve the homeless and fugitive population Nero opened up the Campus Martius, the monuments of Agrippa, and even his own gardens, and he erected makeshift buildings to house the destitute crowds. Vital supplies were shipped up from Ostia and neighbouring municipalities, and the price of grain was dropped to three sesterces. These were measures with popular appeal, but they proved a dismal failure. For the rumour* had spread that, at the very time that the city was ablaze, Nero had appeared on his private stage and sung about the destruction of Troy, drawing a comparison between the sorrows of the present and the disasters of old.
40. Finally, after five days,* the blaze was brought to a halt at the foot of the Esquiline. Buildings had been demolished over a vast area so that the fire’s unremitting violence would be faced only with open ground and bare sky. But before the panic had abated, or the plebs’ hopes had revived, the fire resumed its furious onslaught, though in more open areas of the city. As a result, there were fewer human casualties, but the destruction of temples and porticoes designed as public amenities was more widespread. And that particular conflagration caused a greater scandal because it had broken out on Tigellinus’ Aemilian estates; and it looked as if Nero was seeking the glory of founding a new city, one that was to be named after him.* In fact, of the fourteen districts* into which Rome is divided, four were still intact, three had been levelled to the ground, and in the other seven a few ruined and charred vestiges of buildings were all that remained.*
41. To put a figure on the houses, tenement buildings, and temples that were lost would be no easy matter. But religious buildings of the most time-honoured sanctity were burned down: the temple that Servius Tullius had consecrated to Luna; the Ara Maxima and sanctuary that the Arcadian Evander had consecrated to Hercules Praesens; the temple of Jupiter Stator promised in a vow by Romulus; the palace of Numa; and the shrine of Vesta holding the Penates of the Roman people. Other casualties were rich spoils taken through our many victories; fine specimens of Greek art; and antique and authentic works of literary genius. As a result, though surrounded by the great beauty of the city as it grew again, older people still remember many things that could not be replaced. There were those who observed that this fire started on 19 July, which was the date on which the Senones captured and burned the city.* Others have taken their interest so far as to compute equal numbers of years, months, and days* between the two fires.
42. In fact, Nero took advantage of the homeland’s destruction to build a palace.* It was intended to inspire awe, not so much with precious stones and gold (long familiar and commonplace in the life of luxury) as with its fields, lakes, and woods that replicated the open countryside on one side, and open spaces and views on the other. The architects and engineers were Severus and Celer, who had the ingenuity and audacity to attempt to create by artifice what nature had denied, and to amuse themselves with the emperor’s resources. For they had undertaken to dig a navigable channel from Lake Avernus* all the way to the mouths of the Tiber, taking it along the desolate shoreline or through the barrier of the hills. In fact, one comes across no aquifer here to provide a water supply. There are only the Pomptine marshes, all else being cliffs or arid ground—and even if forcing a way through this were possible, it would have involved an extreme and unjustifiable effort. But Nero was ever one to seek after the incredible. He attempted to dig out the heights next to Avernus, and traces of his futile hopes remain to this day.
43. As for space that remained in the city after Nero’s house-building, it was not built up in a random and haphazard manner, as after the burning by the Gauls. Instead, there were rows of streets properly surveyed, spacious thoroughfares, buildings with height limits* and open areas. Porticoes were added, too, to protect the façade of the tenement buildings. These porticoes Nero undertook to erect from his own pocket, and he also undertook to return to their owners the building lots, cleared of debris. He added grants, prorated according to a person’s rank and domestic property, and established time limits within which houses or tenement buildings were to be completed for claimants to acquire the money.
He earmarked the Ostian marshes as the dumping ground for the debris, and ordered ships that had ferried grain up the Tiber to return downstream loaded with debris. The actual edifices were, for a specific portion of their structure, to be free of wooden beams and reinforced with rock from Gabii or Alba,* since such stone is fireproof. In addition, because individuals had had the effrontery to siphon off water, watchmen would be employed to ensure a fuller public supply, and at more points. Everyone was also to have appliances accessible for fighting fires, and houses were not to have party walls but each be enclosed by its own. These measures were welcomed for their practicality, and they also enhanced the aesthetics of the new city. There were, however, those who believed that the old configuration was more conducive to health, inasmuch as the narrowness of the streets and the height of the buildings meant they were less easily penetrated by the torrid sunlight. Now, they claimed, the broad open spaces, with no shade to protect them, were baking in a more oppressive heat.
44. Such were the precautions taken as a result of human reasoning. The next step was to find ways of appeasing the gods, and the Sibylline Books* were consulted. Under their guidance, supplicatory prayers were offered to Vulcan, Ceres, and Proserpina, and there were propitiatory ceremonies performed for Juno by married women, first on the Capitol, and then on the closest part of the shoreline. (From there, water was drawn, and the temple and statue of the goddess were sprinkled with it.) Women who had husbands also held ritual feasts* and all-night festivals.
But neither human resourcefulness nor the emperor’s largesse nor appeasement of the gods could stop belief in the nasty rumour that an order had been given for the fire. To dispel the gossip Nero therefore found culprits on whom he inflicted the most exotic punishments. These were people hated for their shameful offences* whom the common people called Christians.* The man who gave them their name, Christus, had been executed during the rule of Tiberius by the procurator Pontius Pilatus.* The pernicious superstition had been temporarily suppressed, but it was starting to break out again, not just in Judaea, the starting point of that curse, but in Rome, as well, where all that is abominable and shameful in the world flows together and gains popularity.
And so, at first, those who confessed were apprehended, and subsequently, on the disclosures they made, a huge number were found guilty—more because of their hatred of mankind than because they were arsonists.* As they died they were further subjected to insult. Covered with hides of wild beasts, they perished by being torn to pieces by dogs; or they would be fastened to crosses and, when daylight had gone, burned to provide lighting at night. Nero had offered his gardens as a venue for the show, and he would also put on circus entertainments, mixing with the plebs in his charioteer’s outfit or standing up in his chariot. As a result, guilty though these people were and deserving exemplary punishment, pity for them began to well up because it was felt that they were being exterminated not for the public good, but to gratify one man’s cruelty.
45. Meanwhile Italy had been completely devastated to raise Nero’s funds; the provinces had been ruined, and so had the allied peoples and the so-called free communities. Even the gods became part of those spoils, with temples gutted in the city and their gold removed, gold that the Roman people in every generation had consecrated through triumphs or as votive offerings, after success or in time of fear. Moreover, throughout Asia and Achaea it was not simply the temple offerings, but the statues of the gods, too, that were being plundered, Acratus and Secundus Carrinas* having been sent into those provinces. Acratus was a freedman ready for any kind of villainy; Secundus had been trained in Greek philosophy (its words only!), but had not brought any morality into his soul from it. It was rumoured that, to avert opprobrium for the sacrilege from himself, Seneca had earnestly requested a place of retirement deep in the country, and that, when this was not granted, he feigned illness from a muscular disease, and refused to leave his bedchamber. Some have recorded that, on Nero’s instructions, a poison was concocted for him by his own freedman, who was called Cleonicus, but that Seneca avoided it, either because of the freedman’s disclosure, or his own suspicions. He then kept himself alive on a very plain diet of wild fruits and, if he felt the promptings of thirst, water from a running stream.
46. About this time gladiators* in the town of Praeneste attempted a breakout. They were arrested by the military guard stationed to keep watch over them, but already the people, with the usual wish for, and fear of, revolution, were circulating gossip about Spartacus* and the troubles of old. Not long afterwards came news of a naval disaster, but not in military action, for never had there been such a stable peace.* Nero had ordered the fleet to return to Campania before a specific date, but had made no allowance for the hazards of the sea. The helmsmen accordingly set out from Formiae in the face of churning waters, and as they tried to negotiate the promontory of Misenum they were driven on to the shores of Cumae by the violent south-westerly, losing several triremes and a number of smaller vessels all along the coast.
47. At the end of the year there was much talk of prodigies that were harbingers of imminent misfortunes. Never had there been such frequent bolts of lightning, and there was a comet*—always atoned for by Nero with illustrious people’s blood. Two-headed foetuses, human and from other creatures, had been thrown out in public places or were found at those sacrifices at which it is customary to immolate pregnant animals. In the territory of Placentia, too, near a road, a calf was born with its head attached to its leg. An interpretation given by the augurs followed: another head of the world was being made ready, but it would neither gain strength nor remain concealed, because its development had been retarded in the womb and also because it had been delivered at the roadside.
48. Silius Nerva and Atticus Vestinus then entered their consulship, at a time when a conspiracy had begun and immediately escalated. Senators, knights, soldiers, and even women raced to enrol in it, from hatred of Nero and also because of the popularity of Gaius Piso.* Piso was of the Calpurnian line and was well connected with many distinguished families because of his father’s noble breeding; and he enjoyed a brilliant reputation amongst the lower orders thanks to his virtue, or qualities that looked like virtues. For he used his oratorical ability to defend his fellow-citizens, showed generosity towards his friends, and was affable in his conversation and interaction even with strangers. He also enjoyed the fortuitous advantages of a tall physique and handsome looks. But he was far from possessing depth of character or moderation in his pleasures; he immersed himself in frivolity, luxury, and, sometimes, dissipation. And this had the blessing of most people who, surrounded by such sweet vices, do not want to see austerity or great strictness in the supreme power.
49. The conspiracy did not start from ambition on Piso’s part; but I would not find it easy to say who the prime mover was, or who provided the inspiration for a coup that so many espoused. Its most fervent supporters proved to be Subrius Flavus, tribune of a praetorian cohort, and the centurion Sulpicius Asprus, as their resolve in facing death demonstrated. Annaeus Lucanus* and Plautius Lateranus brought to it impassioned hatred. Lucanus had personal motives for anger: Nero, fatuously thinking himself a rival, was trying to suppress the fame of his poems, and had forbidden him to give them public exposure. In the case of Lateranus, a consul-designate, it was no personal slight but rather patriotism that brought him into the plot. Flavius Scaevinus and Afranius Quintianus, both of senatorial rank, belied their reputations in embracing such a bold enterprise from the start. For Scaevinus’ mental powers had been weakened by his excesses, and he therefore led a life of languid indolence. Quintianus was notorious for his effeminacy, and having been insulted by Nero in a scurrilous poem he was now set on revenge for the humiliation.
50. These men were therefore dropping hints amongst themselves or their friends about the emperor’s crimes, saying that his reign was coming to an end and a man must be chosen to succour the ailing state; and they brought into their circle the Roman knights Claudius Senecio,* Cervarius Proculus, Vulcacius Araricus, Julius Augurinus, Munatius Gratus, Antonius Natalis, and Marcius Festus. Of these, Senecio had been particularly close to Nero and, since he even at that time kept up a façade of friendship, he was confronted with a multitude of dangers. Natalis was acquainted with all of Piso’s secrets. For the others, fulfilment of their aspirations was being sought from revolution.
Military assistance was also enlisted—in addition to Subrius and Sulpicius, whom I mentioned above—from Gavius Silvanus and Statius Proxumus, tribunes of the praetorian cohorts, and from the centurions Maximus Scaurus and Venetus Paulus. However, their chief strength appeared to reside in the prefect Faenius Rufus.* His lifestyle and reputation won him general approval, but Tigellinus surpassed him in the emperor’s estimation because of his barbarity and immorality. Tigellinus kept hounding the man with accusations, and had often frightened him by portraying him as a lover of Agrippina, bent on revenge for losing her.
Eventually the conspirators were convinced, by the frequent comments he himself made, that the prefect of the praetorian guard had joined their side, and they began to discuss more readily the timing and location of the assassination. It was said that Subrius Flavus felt an urge to make the attack on Nero as he sang on stage, or as he scurried here and there at night without an escort. In the one scenario it was Nero’s isolation that had stimulated his enthusiasm, in the other the very presence of a crowd—a fine witness to a great exploit. But a wish to avoid punishment, always an impediment to great endeavours, held him back.
51. Meanwhile, a certain Epicharis had gained information about the plot—how is unclear, and she had had no prior interest in honourable causes—and as the conspirators vacillated and were deferring their hopes, and their fears, she began to incite and criticize them. She finally grew tired of their inertia and, as she was spending some time in Campania, she attempted to weaken the loyalty of the officers of the fleet at Misenum, and to enlist them as co-conspirators by taking the following steps.
Volusius Proculus* was one of the captains in the fleet there. He had been one of Nero’s henchmen in his mother’s murder, but had not, to his way of thinking, received the advancement that such an important crime merited. Proculus may have been known to Epicharis for some time, or possibly it was a recently made acquaintance, but he revealed to her his services to Nero, and how these had turned out to be of no benefit to him. He added further complaints and said that he would take his revenge if the opportunity arose, thus giving Epicharis hope that he could be pushed into action and win more supporters. In the fleet, too, she thought, they would have no small help, and many opportunities, because Nero enjoyed outings on the sea in the area around Puteoli and Misenum.
So Epicharis went further, listing all the emperor’s crimes and saying that nothing remained sacred any more. But, she added, measures had been put in place whereby Nero could be punished for bringing down the state. Proculus need only prepare himself to do his part and bring to their cause his bravest men, for which he could expect appropriate rewards. The names of the conspirators, however, Epicharis withheld. Thus, although Proculus reported to Nero what he had been told, his denunciation was worthless. For when Epicharis was called in and confronted with her informer, she easily confuted him since he had no witnesses to support him. But she was herself detained in custody; for Nero suspected that what was not demonstrably true was not necessarily false.
52. Prompted by fear of betrayal, however, the conspirators decided to advance the assassination, which would now take place in Piso’s villa at Baiae—Nero was taken with its charming ambience, and often went there, enjoying baths and dinners, and dispensing with guards and the weighty trappings of his position. Piso, however, objected, putting forward as an excuse the antipathy they would face if the sanctity of the table, and the gods of hospitality, were stained with an emperor’s blood, whatever the man’s qualities. It would be better for them to carry out in the city—in that detested abode* built through the pillaging of Roman citizens, or else in a public area—the deed they had undertaken for the good of the state.
This was for general consumption, but Piso secretly harboured fears about Lucius Silanus.* Silanus had an outstanding pedigree, and had been elevated to every distinction as a result of his training under Gaius Cassius,* in whose home he had been brought up; and Piso therefore feared he might seize power. And those who had no connection with the conspiracy, and would feel sorry for Nero as the victim of a criminal assassination, would be ready to hand it to him. Several people also thought that this was Piso’s way of avoiding the problem of the highly intelligent consul Vestinus, who might rise up in the cause of liberty or who, choosing another as emperor, might make the state his own personal gift to that individual. For Vestinus had no part in the conspiracy, though it was on such a charge that Nero later sated his old hatred of an innocent man.
53. They finally decided to carry out their plan on that day of the Circus games that is consecrated to Ceres.* Nero rarely went out, and kept himself shut up in his home and gardens, but he did regularly attend the entertainments in the Circus, where access to him was easier in the merry atmosphere of the show. They had established a programme for the plot. Lateranus would fall as a suppliant before the emperor’s knees, pretending to be begging him for financial assistance. Surprising him, he would knock him over and, being a man with a strong will and large physique, keep him pinned down. At that point, with Nero helpless on the ground, the tribunes and centurions, and any others who had the courage, would run up and butcher him. (Scaevinus insisted on the leading role for himself; he had taken down a dagger in the temple of Salus—or, according to others, of Fortuna—in the town of Ferentinum,* and was carrying it about as though it were consecrated to some great exploit.) Meanwhile, Piso was to wait at the temple of Ceres. The prefect Faenius and the others would summon him from there and carry him into the camp, and Claudius Caesar’s daughter Antonia would be with them (according to the account of Gaius Plinius) in order to win over the support of the mob. I did not consider suppressing this version, whatever its value, although it does seem odd that Antonia should have lent her name to, and taken the risk for, such a forlorn hope. Odd, too, that Piso, whose love for his wife was well known, should have committed himself to another marriage*—unless ambition for power burns hotter than all other feelings.
54. What is amazing is that it was all kept veiled in secrecy amidst people of different families, class, age, and sex, and among rich and poor alike—until, that is, betrayal* proceeded from the house of Scaevinus. The day before the coup, Scaevinus had a long conversation with Antonius Natalis. After that he returned home, sealed his will, and took the dagger I mentioned above from its sheath. Complaining that it had become blunt over time, he gave orders for it to be whetted with a stone until its point was gleaming, and this task he confided to his freedman Milichus. At the same time he took a more than usually sumptuous dinner, and bestowed gifts on his slaves—freedom for his favourites, and money for others. And Scaevinus himself was downcast and clearly deep in thought, though he did make some rambling conversation to feign cheerfulness. Finally he ordered dressings for wounds and articles for arresting bleeding to be prepared, and again put this in Milichus’ charge. Either Milichus was privy to the conspiracy and remained loyal to this point, or he knew nothing and now became suspicious for the first time, which is what most sources have reported.
On what happened next there is agreement. When the man’s servile mind thought over the rewards of treachery, and at the same time the unlimited money and power danced before his eyes, then moral obligation, the safety of his patron, and the memory of the freedom he had been given all faded away. And, in fact, he had also accepted his wife’s advice—a woman’s, and quite despicable. For she worked on him with a further motive, fear, noting that numerous freedmen and slaves had been present and seen the same things as he. The silence of one man would do no good, she told him, but the rewards would come to just one man—the one who turned informer first.
55. So, at daybreak, Milichus set off for the Gardens of Servilius.* As he was being turned away from the door, he kept repeating that he brought important and dreadful news, and he was then escorted by the door-keepers to Nero’s freedman Epaphroditus,* and by Epaphroditus to Nero. He then told Nero of the imminent danger, the formidable conspirators he faced, and everything else that he had heard or surmised. He also displayed the weapon that had been made ready for Nero’s murder, and insisted that the culprit be brought in.
Arrested by some soldiers, Scaevinus opened his defence with the retort that the weapon that he took to be the basis of the charge was a venerated family heirloom. He kept it in his bedchamber, he said, and it had been removed by his treacherous freedman. He had on numerous occasions signed the tablets of his will, he added, without taking note of the dates. He had also previously made gifts of money or emancipation to his slaves, but had done so more generously at this time because, with his financial situation now weak and his creditors pressing, he had little confidence in his will. Moreover, he had always put on ample dinners while he could enjoy his agreeable lifestyle, one not meeting the approval of moralizing critics. No dressings for wounds had been prepared on his orders, he said. It was because the others were patently groundless that the freedman had added this accusation, one for which he could be both informer and witness!
Scaevinus backed up his statements with complete self-possession. He actually went on the offensive, calling the man a detestable scoundrel, and with such confidence in his voice and expression that the informer’s case began to fall apart. It would have done so, in fact, but for Milichus’ wife reminding him of Antonius Natalis’ long private conversations with Scaevinus, and the fact that both were close associates of Gnaeus Piso.
56. Natalis was therefore called in, and the two men were interrogated separately on the nature and subject of their conversation. Then, because their answers did not match, suspicion arose and they were put in irons. And at the sight and threat of torture they could hold out no longer. The first to break was Natalis, who had a fuller knowledge of the conspiracy as a whole, and more skill as a denouncer. He first confessed with regard to Piso, and then added Annaeus Seneca,* either because Seneca was actually the go-between for him and Piso, or because Natalis wanted to ingratiate himself with Nero (who, hating Seneca, was seeking any means to bring him down). Then, after learning of Natalis’ disclosure, Scaevinus also showed the same weakness—or perhaps he thought that all had now been revealed and silence would do no good—and gave away the others. Of these Lucanus, Quintianus, and Senecio long denied their guilt. Later, tempted by the promise of impunity, and as a way of gaining leniency for their slowness, they named names—Lucanus naming his own mother Acilia, and Quintianus and Senecio their best friends, Glitius Gallus* and Annius Pollio* respectively.
57. Now in the meantime Nero remembered that Epicharis was being detained on information laid by Volusius Proculus and, believing that a woman’s constitution could not cope with pain, he had her subjected to body-rending torture. But no lashing, no burning, no furious treatment from her torturers—who piled on the pressure so as not to be bested by a woman—could break her denial of the charges. Thus the first day of the inquisition was a failure. On the next she was being brought back by means of a chair (her limbs were now dislocated and she could not stand) to face the same torments when she took the band from her breast, attached it to the chair’s canopy in the form of a noose, put her neck into it and, throwing the weight of her body into the effort, choked out what little life she had left. Thus a freedwoman set all the more brilliant an example in such dire circumstances, protecting people unrelated, indeed almost strangers, to her—and that when male free persons, who were Roman knights and senators, were all betraying their nearest and dearest, without being subjected to torture.
58. For Lucanus, too, and Senecio and Quintianus did not fail to tell on their accomplices, one after the other, while Nero grew more and more frightened, despite having redoubled the guards with which he surrounded himself.
In fact, Nero virtually put the city under arrest, keeping the walls manned with military units and the sea and river under close surveillance. There were also foot- and horse-soldiers—with Germans* in their ranks, trusted by the emperor as being foreigners—tearing about the forums and private houses, and even through the countryside and closest municipalities. And so never-ending columns of manacled prisoners were being dragged out and left waiting near the gates of the gardens. Then, when they went in to plead their case, it was not simply a matter of support for the conspirators being regarded as a crime; so, too, were a casual conversation, chance meetings, and attending a dinner or a show in their company. And all the while, in addition to the ruthless interrogation by Nero and Tigellinus, Faenius Rufus was piling on violent pressure. He had not yet been named by the informers, and to make people believe that he knew nothing, he was pitiless towards his accomplices. When Subrius Flavus was standing at his side, and enquired with a gesture whether he should draw his sword and assassinate Nero during the actual investigation, the same Rufus shook his head and checked the man’s ardour as he was already bringing his hand to his sword-hilt.
59. After the conspiracy had been betrayed, at the time when Milichus was being given his audience and Scaevinus was hesitating, there were some who urged Piso to march into the camp, or mount the Rostra, and work on the feelings of the soldiery and the people. If his fellow-conspirators rallied in support of his effort, they told him, non-partisans would also follow; the coup, once started, would have great publicity, which was extremely important for revolutionary movements. Against this Nero had taken no precautions, and brave men, too, were unnerved by the unexpected—much less chance, then, of a counter-attack from this stage-performer, with Tigellinus and his concubines at his side! Many things that the timid think difficult are brought off just by the attempt! With the numbers involved, hoping for silence and loyalty was useless when all those minds and bodies could be worked on—torture or bribery can penetrate anything! Men would come to shackle him, too, and finally put him to an ignominious death, they said. How much more creditable to die embracing his state and calling for help for its liberty! Better that the soldiers not join him and that the plebs abandon him— provided that he himself, if his life must be prematurely taken, make his death a credit to his ancestors, and to his descendants.
Piso was not persuaded. He spent a short time in the streets, after which he shut himself up at home and stiffened his resolve to meet the end—until the arrival of military units (men of Nero’s choosing, newly recruited or recently enlisted—veterans were feared as being infected with sympathy for Piso). He died by severing the veins in his arms. His will, marked by disgusting obsequiousness towards Nero, he made as a concession to his wife, whom he loved. She was of low birth with only good looks to commend her, and Piso had taken her out of an earlier marriage to a friend of his. The woman’s name was Satria Galla, the former husband’s Domitius Silus. Both contributed to Piso’s bad name, the man by his acquiescence, the woman by her lack of shame.
60. The next murder that Nero registered was that of the consul-designate Plautius Lateranus, and with such speed as not to allow him to embrace his children or have that short moment to choose how to die. He was rushed to a location reserved for punishments for slaves and there butchered at the hands of the tribune Statius. Lateranus maintained all the while a resolute silence, and did not reproach the tribune with involvement in the plot.
Next came the killing of Annaeus Seneca, for the emperor the sweetest. Not that he had discovered any proof of Seneca’s involvement in the conspiracy, but after the failure of the poison he could now go to work with the sword. In fact, Natalis alone had implicated Seneca, and only to the extent of saying that he had been sent to visit him when he was ill, and to express dissatisfaction over his refusing Piso access to him. It would be better, Natalis had said to him, if the two men developed their friendship by meeting on cordial terms; and Seneca’s reply had been that conversations between the two, and frequent meetings, were of advantage to neither, but his own life depended on Piso’s safety.
Gavius Silvanus, tribune of a praetorian cohort, was instructed to report these details to Seneca and ask if he acknowledged such to be Natalis’ words and his own reply. Seneca, perhaps intentionally, had been returning from Campania that day and had made a stop at his country estate four miles from Rome. The tribune came to this spot as evening was coming on, and surrounded the villa with some military units. Then, as Seneca was dining with his wife Pompeia Paulina* and two friends, he brought him the emperor’s message.
61. Seneca replied that Natalis had been sent to him and had expressed dissatisfaction on Piso’s behalf that Piso had been kept from visiting him, and that he had then excused himself for this on the grounds of ill-health and his love of the quiet life. He had no reason to put the life of a private individual ahead of his own safety, he said, nor was he temperamentally prone to obsequiousness—and nobody knew that better than Nero, who had more often had experience of his outspokenness than his servility!
These remarks of Seneca’s were reported by the tribune to Nero while he was with Poppaea and Tigellinus—the emperor’s closest advisers in his savage periods. Nero asked Silvanus whether Seneca intended to commit suicide. The tribune then asserted that he had recognized no signs of apprehension, and no distress in his language or expression. He was therefore told to go back and deliver the death sentence. Fabius Rusticus records that the tribune did not return the way he had come but made a detour to the prefect Faenius. Having told Faenius about Nero’s orders, he asked whether he should obey them, and was advised by him—with that fatal cowardice now common to all—to carry them out. For Silvanus, too, was one of the conspirators, and was now increasing the number of the crimes he had plotted to avenge. He did, however, spare himself from saying or seeing anything, instead sending one of the centurions to Seneca with the announcement of his final obligation.
62. Undaunted, Seneca called for the tablets of his will. The centurion refused, and Seneca, turning to his friends, declared that, since he was barred from repaying them for their services, he was leaving them the one thing he still had, but the one that was also the best, the model of his life. If they kept that in mind, he said, they would gain a reputation for good character as their reward for loyal friendship. At the same time he alternated normal conversation with sterner, coercive tones to halt their tears and revive their courage. Where were their philosophical tenets, he asked, and where that rationality they had pondered on for so many years to counter impending misfortune? For who had been unaware of Nero’s ruthlessness? After killing his mother and his brother, nothing else remained but to add the murder of his guardian and tutor.
63. After these words, which had the air of a public address, Seneca embraced his wife. Then softening a little, despite his present resolve, he asked and entreated her to limit her grief, and not keep it up for ever—she should find honourable solace for the loss of her husband in reflecting on the life of virtue that he had lived. Her firm response was that she too had decided to die, and she demanded for herself the executioner’s blow.
Seneca was not opposed to her noble decision, and also his love prompted him not to leave the woman he cherished above all to be maltreated. ‘I showed you how to make life more palatable,’ he said, ‘but you prefer the glory of death, and I shall not begrudge you the fine example. For such a courageous end let us both have the same resolve, but may your leaving have the greater fame.’ After that they cut their arms with the same stroke of the blade.
Seneca’s ageing body, emaciated by his spare diet, allowed only slow escape for the blood, and so he also severed the veins in his legs and at the back of his knees. Worn down by the cruel torment, and not wishing to break his wife’s spirit with his suffering, or have himself lapse into indecision through seeing her agonies, he persuaded her to retire to another bedroom. And since his eloquence still remained even in his very last moments, he summoned his scribes and dictated a long work* to them. As this has been published in his own words, I refrain from paraphrasing it.
64. Nero, in fact, had no personal grudge against Paulina, and fearing a surge of animosity over his cruelty he ordered her suicide to be arrested. Prompted by the soldiers, her slaves and freedmen bandaged her arms and staunched the bleeding, though whether she was unconscious is unclear. (For, the public being ever ready to believe the worst, there was no shortage of people who thought that she had sought the renown of dying with her husband as long as she feared that Nero was implacable, but fell victim to life’s charms when offered a more favourable prospect.) To her life she then added only a few years, maintaining a laudable fidelity to her husband’s memory, and with face and body so pale and white as to show that much of her life force had been sapped away.
Meanwhile, Seneca’s death was long-drawn-out and slow. He begged Statius Annaeus,* who had proved himself a steadfast friend and skilful doctor over a long period, to bring out the poison that was used for executing those condemned in the public court of Athens* and which had been prepared some time before. When this was brought, Seneca drained it, but in vain—his limbs were already cold, rendering his body immune to the poison’s effects. Finally, he went into a pool of hot water, spattering the slaves closest to him, and adding the comment that with that liquid he was making a libation to Jupiter the Liberator. He was then taken into the bath, where he suffocated in the steam. He was cremated with no funeral ceremony. Such was the instruction he had left in his will when he was—even at the height of his wealth and power—thinking about his end.
65. There was a rumour that Subrius Flavus had formulated a secret plan with the centurions, of which Seneca was not unaware. The plan was that, after Nero had been assassinated through Piso’s initiative, Piso would also be killed, and the imperial command would be transferred to Seneca, an innocent man and chosen for supreme power on the basis of his renowned virtues. In fact, there was also a saying of Flavus’ in circulation that the disgrace remained the same if a lyre-player was removed and a tragic actor succeeded him (for while Nero sang with the lyre, Piso did so in tragic costume).
66. The soldiers’ part in the conspiracy no longer remained secret, either, as the informers were burning to denounce Faenius Rufus, whom they could not bear, as both conspirator and inquisitor. So, as he was pressured and threatened, Scaevinus said with a smile that no one knew more than Faenius himself, and he urged him to do such a fine emperor a favour of his own accord.* Faenius had no reply to this, nor was he silent; instead, he stumbled over his words and was clearly panic-stricken. Then, after a concerted effort by the other conspirators, particularly the Roman knight Cervarius Proculus, to have him convicted, he was, on the emperor’s orders, seized and put in irons by Cassius, a soldier who was in attendance because of his remarkable strength.
67. Presently the tribune Subrius Flavus was brought down by the same men’s denunciation. At first he tried to make difference in character his defence, arguing that a soldier such as he would not have associated with unarmed and effeminate individuals for so great a deed. Then, under pressure, he seized on the glory of confessing. Interrogated by Nero on the reasons that brought him to forget his military oath, Subrius declared: ‘I hated you, but none of your soldiers was more loyal to you while you deserved our affection. I started to hate you when you became the murderer of your mother and wife, and a charioteer, actor and arsonist.’ I have given the man’s very words because, while they were not published like Seneca’s, the powerful, rough-and-ready sentiments of a military man were no less worth recording.
It was well known that nothing in that conspiracy was more painful to Nero’s ears, for while he was ready to commit crimes he was unused to being told what he was doing. Flavus’ execution was entrusted to the tribune Veianius Niger. Niger ordered a pit to be dug in a neighbouring field, and Flavus criticized it for being shallow and narrow. ‘Not even this accords with military standard,’ he remarked to the soldiers standing around him. When he was told to be firm in stretching out his neck, he replied, ‘I just wish your blow could be as firm!’ The tribune was trembling a lot and had difficulty decapitating him with two blows. He then bragged about his callousness to Nero, saying Flavus had been killed by him with a ‘stroke and a half’.
68. The next instance of fortitude was provided by the centurion Sulpicius Asper who, when Nero asked why he had conspired to murder him, briefly replied that nothing else could be done for all his atrocities. He then suffered the prescribed penalty. The other centurions did not disgrace themselves in facing execution, either, though Faenius Rufus did not have the same resolve, and even entered lamentations in his will.
Nero was waiting for the consul Vestinus, whom he thought a violent man who detested him, to be included in the charge. However, none of the conspirators had communicated their plans to Vestinus, some because of old quarrels with him, more because they thought him a reckless and difficult person. Nero’s loathing of Vestinus had arisen from a close companionship with him. In the course of this Vestinus came to know well, and to despise, the emperor’s cowardice, while Nero came to fear his friend’s outspokenness; he had many times been the butt of his biting witticisms, which, when they have drawn largely on the truth, leave behind a bitter recollection. There was, in addition, a recent motive for his animosity: Vestinus had married Statilia Messalina,* though he was not unaware that Nero was one of her lovers.
69. Thus, with no charge and no accuser forthcoming, and as Nero was therefore unable to adopt the guise of judge, he resorted to the force of the despot, sending the tribune Gerellanus to him at the head of a cohort of soldiers. Gerellanus was under orders to take preemptive measures against the consul’s designs, seizing Vestinus’ ‘stronghold’ and overwhelming his ‘handpicked young men’ (Vestinus owned a house overlooking the Forum, and a number of handsome slaves, all of the same age).
On that day Vestinus had completed all his consular duties, and was hosting a dinner-party—fearing nothing, or else concealing his fear—when the soldiers entered and told him he was summoned by the tribune. With not a moment’s delay he got up, and everything was hurriedly carried out at once. He shut himself in his bedroom; the doctor was in attendance; the veins were cut; still strong, he was carried into the bath, and immersed in hot water, letting out no exclamation of self-pity. Meanwhile those who had been reclining at table with him were surrounded by guards, and were not released until late at night. By then Nero had pictured with amusement their fright as they awaited death following the dinner, and he remarked that they had been punished sufficiently for their consular feast.
70. Nero next ordered the murder of Annaeus Lucanus. As the blood flowed, Lucanus felt his feet and hands grow cold, and his life gradually slip away from his extremities, though his breast was still warm and his mental powers intact. At that point he remembered a poem* he had composed in which he had represented a wounded soldier dying a similar kind of death. He recited those very verses, and they were his last words. Following that, Senecio, Quintianus, and Scaevinus met their ends, in a manner at variance with their soft living of earlier days, and the remainder of the conspirators soon followed, though without any memorable deed or saying.
71. Meanwhile the city was filling up with funerals, and the Capitol with sacrificial animals. After the killing of a son, or of a brother or relative or friend, people gave thanks to the gods, decorated their homes with laurel, fell at the knees of Nero himself, and plied his right hand with kisses. And Nero, believing this to be a manifestation of joy, rewarded Antonius Natalis and Cervarius Proculus for their speedy denunciations with a grant of impunity. Milichus, who was enriched with gifts, adopted the name ‘Saviour’, but using the Greek word for it.
Of the tribunes, Gavius Silvanus died by his own hand, although acquitted; and Statius Proxumus wasted the pardon he had received from the emperor by making a vainglorious exit. Then Pompeius < … >, Cornelius Martialis, Flavius Nepos, and Statius Domitius* were relieved of the tribuneship; the grounds were not that they hated the emperor but that they were, nevertheless, thought to do so. Novius Priscus* was given exile (for his friendship with Seneca), as were Glitius Gallus and Annius Pollio (for being discredited rather than found guilty). Priscus was accompanied by his wife Artoria Flaccilla, and Gallus by Egnatia Maximilla* (who had great wealth, which was initially left untouched, but later confiscated, and both circumstances redounded to her glory).
Rufrius Crispinus* was also exiled, and though the conspiracy supplied the grounds he was actually hated by Nero for having once been married to Poppaea. In the case of Verginius Flavus* and Musonius Rufus it was the fame of their names that ensured their exile, for Verginius promoted the studies of our young people by his eloquence, Musonius by his philosophical teaching. Cluvidienus Quietus, Julius Agrippa, Blitius Catulinus, Petronius Priscus, and Julius Altinus—as though to round out the numbers and the list—were granted islands in the Aegean Sea. Scaevinus’ wife Caedicia, however, and Caesennius Maximus* were forbidden residence in Italy, and it was only from the sentence that they discovered they had been prosecuted. Annaeus Lucanus’ mother Acilia was simply ignored, with no acquittal and no punishment.
72. On finishing this business, Nero held an assembly of the troops. There he distributed two thousand sesterces to every member of the rank and file, and made them the further gift of complimentary grain-rations,* which previously had cost them market rate. Then he convened the Senate, as though he were going to discuss achievements in war, and conferred triumphal honours on the ex-consul Petronius Turpilianus,* the praetor-designate Cocceius Nerva,* and the praetorian prefect Tigellinus. Tigellinus and Nerva he honoured to the extent of placing their busts in the Palatium, in addition to their triumphal statues in the Forum. Consular insignia were decreed for Nymphidius Sabinus,* and since this is the first time he has come up I shall give a brief résumé, for he, too, will be part of the calamities that befell Rome. He had as his mother a freedwoman who had spread her fine body around the slaves and freedmen of the emperors, and he claimed to have been fathered by Gaius Caesar. For, by some chance, he was tall of stature and had a grim-looking face—or else Gaius Caesar, who lusted even after whores, did in fact have his way with Nymphidius’ mother, too < … >
73. After his speech among the senators, Nero also delivered an edict to the people, to which he added evidence that had been gathered together on writing scrolls, and confessions of those convicted. For in fact he was being lambasted regularly in talk amongst the masses for having put to death famous and innocent men out of jealousy or fear. However, that a conspiracy had begun, had come to fruition, and had been suppressed was not doubted at the time by any with a care to discover the truth, and it was also later admitted by those who returned to the city after Nero’s death. But in the Senate all were debasing themselves with flattery (and the greater their sorrow, the more they flattered). During this, Junius Gallio,* fearful after the death of his brother Seneca, and pleading for his life, was denounced by Salienus Clemens, who called him an enemy and a murderer. Finally Clemens was restrained by a unanimous appeal from the Senate that he not give the impression of profiting from public misfortunes to satisfy a private animosity, and not give rise to fresh savagery by dragging up things that, through the emperor’s clemency, had been laid to rest or forgotten.
74. Decrees were then passed for gifts and thank-offerings to the gods, with special honours for the Sun for having uncovered the secrets of the conspiracy with his power (he has an old temple in the Circus, the prospective location for the coup). The Games of Ceres in the Circus were also to be held with an increased number of horse-races, and the month of April was to receive the name ‘Nero’. A temple was to be erected to Salus in place of the one from which Scaevinus had taken his weapon. Nero himself consecrated the dagger in the Capitol, bearing the inscription ‘To Jupiter the Avenger’. (Although it was not noticed at the time, this was, after the armed insurrection of Julius Vindex,* taken to be an omen foretelling future vengeance.) I find in the records of the Senate* that the consul-designate Anicius Cerialis* proposed that a temple be erected as soon as possible to the deified Nero, at public expense. Cerialis surely made this motion on the grounds that Nero had gone beyond the limits of mortality and deserved the worship of human beings, but Nero himself vetoed it in case it be interpreted by some as an omen of his death. For divine honours are not paid to an emperor before he has ended his days amongst humans.